My Scumbag System

Chapter 625: An Unfair Advantage

The man’s stance was too relaxed for someone pointing a weapon at a Hunter. That kind of confidence came from either extreme stupidity or knowing something I didn’t.

My money was on the second option.

"Let me guess," I said, shifting my weight to keep Reyna’s unconscious body behind me. "You’re not here for the monsters."

"Perceptive." He tilted his head. The weapon in his hand wasn’t standard issue. Too bulky around the barrel. Too many lights blinking along its chassis. "The Crimson Comet. Valoria’s darling. Do you have any idea how long we’ve been waiting for an opportunity like this?"

We.

So he wasn’t alone. Fantastic.

Nel’s voice slithered through my consciousness. "Hostile individual. No registered Aspect signature detected. However, the device he’s carrying is emitting a frequency consistent with experimental anti-Aspect technology. Prototype-level. Whoever he’s working for has significant resources."

Anti-Aspect technology. Because of course that was a thing that existed. Why wouldn’t it be? This world just kept getting better and better.

"Here’s the thing." I kept my voice conversational. Easy. Like we were discussing the weather and not the fact that he had a weapon aimed at the unconscious woman I’d just spent two nights sleeping with. "You’ve clearly put a lot of planning into this. Waited for the perfect moment. Watched for the Sirena Protocol deployment. Very professional."

The man’s lips curved. "You understand."

"Oh, I understand completely. What I don’t understand is why you’re still talking instead of shooting."

His smile faltered.

"Because if you were going to pull that trigger, you’d have done it already. Which means you need her alive. And that means I have time to do this."

I moved.

The bat was in my hand before he could process the shift in my body language. Thermal Vision had already mapped his position, the heat signature of his weapon, the two additional signatures lurking in the stairwell behind him.

He fired.

The blast from the device hit me square in the chest. Blue-white light. A frequency that vibrated through my bones like someone had struck a tuning fork against my skeleton.

I felt it try to grab onto something inside me. Searching. Probing. Looking for the Aspect signature it was designed to suppress.

It found nothing.

Because my power didn’t come from an Aspect. It came from a System that existed outside this world’s rules entirely.

The man’s eyes went wide as I kept coming.

"What the—"

My bat caught him across the jaw with enough force to send him spinning. The device flew from his grip and skittered across the rooftop. He hit the ground hard, rolled, tried to rise.

I was already on top of him.

"Interesting toy." I pressed my foot against his throat. Not enough to crush. Just enough to make breathing uncomfortable. "Where’d you get it?"

"Fuck you."

"Wrong answer."

I increased the pressure. His face started turning red.

The two figures from the stairwell emerged. Both in matching tactical gear. Both armed with the same bulky devices.

"Let him go," the one on the left demanded. Female. Short dark hair. Eyes that had seen violence before.

"Or what? You’ll shoot me with those again?" I gestured at my chest. "Hate to break it to you, but they don’t work on me."

They exchanged glances. Confusion. Fear.

Good.

"Here’s what’s going to happen." I kept my foot on their friend’s throat. "You’re going to tell me who sent you, what you want with Reyna, and how many more of you there are. And if I like your answers, I might let your buddy here keep breathing."

"We don’t negotiate with—"

The man beneath my foot made a choking sound. I’d increased the pressure without consciously deciding to.

The woman stopped talking.

"Let me explain something." I smiled. It wasn’t a nice smile. "Thirty seconds ago, there was a B-Rank Gate spewing monsters into a residential neighborhood. Right now, every Hunter in the area is focused on cleanup. Medical teams are three minutes out. The command center is dealing with casualty reports and damage assessments. No one is paying attention to what’s happening on this rooftop."

I let that sink in.

"Which means I could kill all three of you, dump your bodies over the edge, and by the time anyone thinks to investigate, I’ll be long gone with a convenient story about how the monsters got you." I tilted my head. "Or you could answer my questions. Your choice."

Behind me, Reyna stirred. A soft groan. The sound of someone clawing their way back to consciousness through layers of exhaustion.

The timing couldn’t have been worse.

The woman’s eyes flicked past me. Calculating. Making a decision I really hoped she was going to regret.

She fired.

Not at me. At Reyna.

I spun, putting myself between the blast and the unconscious woman. The frequency hit me again. That same probing sensation. That same search for something to grab onto.

That same failure.

But Reyna wasn’t as lucky.

The device might not have worked on me, but she was already depleted from the Sirena Protocol. Whatever reserves she had left shattered under the assault. Her body convulsed. Her back arched. A scream tore from her throat.

"REYNA!"

I moved without thinking. Grabbed the man on the ground by his tactical vest and hurled him at the woman who’d fired. They collided with a satisfying crunch. The third operative tried to bring his weapon to bear. Too slow.

Ember roared to life.

Blue-white flame, amplified by the Dragon Witch’s Ring, painted the rooftop in hellfire. The third man screamed as the blast caught him across the chest. His weapon exploded in his hands. He went down hard, rolling desperately to extinguish the flames eating through his gear.

The woman had disentangled herself from her fallen comrade. She was running for the roof’s edge. Probably had extraction planned. A rope. A rappelling line. Something.

She never made it.

Spatial Cleave sang through the air. Invisible. Silent. The attack caught her across the back of the knees. She collapsed with a shriek, legs suddenly unable to support her weight.

I was on her in three steps. My hand closed around her throat. I lifted her off the ground with strength that no C-Rank should possess.

"Who sent you?"

"Go to hell."

"Already been there. Didn’t stick." I tightened my grip. "Last chance. Who. Sent. You."