Chapter 157: Good Doggy
The corridor fell silent. Cold mist drifted across the frozen floor.
Nobody slowly tightened his grip around both frost-infused crowbars. His eyes remained fixed on the darkness ahead. "...Come on. I know you’re there."
A deep growl echoed through the hallway.
GRRRRRRRRR...
The sound vibrated through the steel walls.
The emergency lights flickered red.
Darkness red.
Darkness red
Then...
THUD.
THUD.
THUD.
Something enormous began walking toward him. Each step made the entire corridor tremble.
Nobody raised an eyebrow. "...That’s definitely not human."
The shadow grew and larger.
Until...
BOOOOM!!
A gigantic creature burst through the darkness. Steel fragments scattered across the corridor. Nobody immediately jumped backward.
FLASH!
He landed several meters away. "...Whoa."
Standing before him was what looked like an enormous wolf-like beast. Its body was nearly three times Nobody’s height.
Every muscle was wrapped beneath thick black armor plates that looked fused directly into its skin. Its claws scraped against the frozen floor. Its crimson eyes glowed beneath a helmet-like skull. Heavy chains hung around its neck. Every breath escaped as steaming vapor.
The monster slowly lowered its head. Then...
ROOOOOOAAAAARRRRR!!
The entire corridor shook. Pieces of ice fell from the ceiling.
Nobody blinked. "...Good doggy....Who’s a terrifying oversized puppy?"
The creature answered by slamming one armored paw into the ground.
BOOOM!!
The impact cracked the concrete.
Nobody quickly hopped backward. "...Definitely not friendly."
The System appeared.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Enemy Identified
Name:
Armoured Bobby
Classification:
Elite Guardian Beast
Difficulty:
★★★★☆
Description:
A genetically enhanced guardian bred solely to defend high-value facilities.
Its living armor possesses exceptional defensive capabilities.
Direct attacks are strongly discouraged.
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Nobody stared at the notification. "...Armoured Bobby?" He looked back at the monster. Then back at the System. "...System."
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[System Window]
Yes?
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"...There is a huge difference between Bob and Bobby." Then he looked at Bobby and said,"You are the living example."
The System remained silent.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[system window]
[...]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody nodded. "Exactly. I win."
Armoured Bobby growled again. It clearly wasn’t interested in the conversation.
Without warning...
BOOOM!!
The beast lunged forward. Its massive body crossed the hallway in an instant.
"...Fast!" Nobody activated Zigzag.
FLASH!!
The armored claws slammed into the floor where he had been standing only a split second earlier.
CRAAAAASH!!
Concrete exploded. Steel supports bent. Dust filled the hallway.
Nobody reappeared above the monster. "Catch!" He swung both frost crowbars.
CLANG!!
CLANG!!
The impacts echoed loudly. Blue frost exploded outward. Ice rapidly spread across the creature’s armor.
Nobody smiled. "Nice."
Then...
CRACK...
CRACK...
The ice shattered. Every bit of frost simply slid off the armor. The monster hadn’t even moved.
Nobody blinked. "...Seriously?"
Armoured Bobby slowly turned its head toward him. Its glowing eyes seemed almost amused.
The System displayed another notification.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Attack Analysis
No Damage Detected
Armor Integrity:
100%
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Nobody stared. "...Excuse me?" He looked down at his crowbars. "They’ve been working all night. They’re union workers. They never miss."
The System calmly answered.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Recommendation:
Find Weak Point
Current Method:
Ineffective
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Nobody sighed. "...So this isn’t one of those enemies I can solve by hitting harder."
The System paused.
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Correction.
You may still solve it by hitting harder.
Probability of Success:
Very Low
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Nobody laughed. "I appreciate your honesty."
Armoured Bobby suddenly slammed both front legs into the ground.
BOOOOOOM!!
The entire corridor shook violently. Large pipes burst overhead. Steam erupted from every direction. Emergency sprinklers activated. Water poured down. The icy floor became even more slippery.
Nobody looked around. "...This place is turning into an ice rink."
The armored beast lowered itself. Its muscles tensed. It was preparing to charge again.
Nobody rolled both crowbars around his wrists. Cold mist spiraled around his body. A grin slowly appeared beneath the crimson bunny helmet. "Alright, Bobby. If armor is your greatest strength...then I’ll just have to find what’s underneath."
The giant guardian roared. Nobody leaned forward. Both fighters exploded into motion at exactly the same time.
BOOOOOM!!
The corridor vanished beneath a storm of frost, steel, and flying debris as the next round of the battle began. Armoured Bobby lowered its massive body. Its glowing crimson eyes never left Nobody. Steam escaped from between the armored plates covering its neck.
The corridor became silent.
Nobody slowly rolled one shoulder. "...Okay. So you’re the strong, silent type." He spun both frost crowbars around his wrists.
CLANG.
CLANG.
Blue frost flowed across the metal. "...Let’s see if you’ve got any other tricks."
The monster answered first.
ROOOOOOOOAR!!
BOOOOOM!!
Its gigantic legs exploded forward. The armored beast charged like a runaway train. The concrete floor shattered beneath every step.
Nobody’s eyes widened. "...Holy molly"
FLASH!!
Zigzag activated. Blue particles scattered through the hallway. The gigantic claws missed him by mere centimeters.
CRAAAAASH!!
The wall behind him exploded. Chunks of concrete rained everywhere.
Nobody reappeared several meters away. "...That would’ve hurt."
Armoured Bobby immediately turned around. It charged again.
"...Again?!"
FLASH!!
Nobody disappeared once more.
BOOM!!
Another wall collapsed. Metal support beams bent from the impact. Dust filled the corridor.
Nobody landed on top of one of the broken beams. He looked around. "...This dog seriously hates architecture."
The System calmly spoke.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Combat Analysis
Enemy Intelligence:
Above Average
Current Combat Style:
Relentless Pursuit
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Nobody blinked. "...You mean it won’t stop chasing me?"
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Correct.
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"...Great. I’ve unlocked angry puppy mode."
Armoured Bobby suddenly stopped moving.
Nobody frowned. "...Why’d it stop?"
The beast slowly lowered its head. Its armor began glowing faintly. Red light flowed through countless tiny lines carved across the metal.
The System immediately reacted.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Warning
Energy Build-Up Detected
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody tilted his head. "...Uh....That doesn’t look healthy."
Suddenly.....
BOOOOOOOM!!
The armored beast slammed both paws into the ground. A massive shockwave raced across the corridor. The frozen floor cracked apart. Large pieces of ice shot upward.
Nobody crossed both crowbars.
CRASH!!
The shockwave slammed into him. "...Whoa!" He slid backward nearly fifteen meters. His boots carved long lines through the frozen floor. Only after digging both crowbars into the ice did he finally stop. "...Dang. That one had some weight."
Armoured Bobby let out another roar. It looked strangely proud.
Nobody pointed toward it. "Don’t look so smug. I only moved because the floor’s slippery."
The System displayed another notification.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Enemy Skill Identified
Ground Break
Description:
Creates localized shockwaves.
Recommended Action:
Do Not Remain Stationary
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Nobody nodded. "That...actually sounds like useful advice."
The beast attacked again. This time...It didn’t charge. Instead...Its enormous tail swung sideways.
WHOOOOOOSH!!
Nobody barely ducked. The armored tail smashed into a steel container behind him.
BOOOOOOM!!
The container flew across the corridor before crashing through another wall.
Nobody stared. "...Okay. So your tail is also a truck."
The beast roared proudly.
Nobody sighed. "Show off." He suddenly rushed forward.
FLASH!!
Blue light zigzagged across the hallway.
Nobody appeared beside the monster’s shoulder. "Try this!"
CLANG!!
One frost crowbar struck the armored shoulder.
CLANG!!
The second hit the creature’s ribs. Ice exploded across the armor. The hallway instantly became several degrees colder.
For a brief second...
Frost completely covered Bobby’s upper body.
Nobody smiled. "...Gotcha."
CRACK...
CRACK...
CRACK...
The ice shattered. Every frozen layer broke apart. The armor underneath remained flawless.
The System quietly reported.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Damage Report
No Structural Damage Detected
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Nobody stared for several seconds. "...Not even a scratch?" He scratched the side of his helmet. "...You’re kidding."
Armoured Bobby looked at him. Then... It slowly tilted its head.
Nobody blinked. "...Did....Did this dog just look disappointed?"
The beast suddenly snorted loudly. "Hmph."
Nobody gasped dramatically. "System! I think it insulted me!"
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Unable To Confirm.
User is imagining stuffs
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"I know disrespect when I see it."
The monster lunged again. Nobody vanished.
FLASH!!
Appeared behind it.
CLANG!!
Another strike.
FLASH!!
Left side.
CLANG!!
FLASH!!
Above.
CLANG!!
The hallway echoed endlessly.
CLANG!!
CLANG!!
CLANG!!
CLANG!!
Blue afterimages surrounded the giant beast. Nobody moved so quickly that dozens of copies seemed to attack at once. Every strike released freezing mist. Every impact echoed through the factory.
But...Nothing changed. The armor refused to crack. After nearly thirty consecutive attacks...Nobody landed several meters away.
He rested both crowbars across his shoulders. "...Alright. I officially admit it. You’re built differently. You’re like a Nokia version dog."
Armoured Bobby slowly turned around. Its armor gleamed beneath the emergency lights.Not a single visible mark.
Nobody sighed dramatically. "...System."
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Yes?
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"...How exactly do I beat this walking tank?"
The System remained silent for a few moments.
Then another notification appeared.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Hint:
Every Fortress
Has A Gate.
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Nobody blinked. "...That’s surprisingly philosophical." He looked toward the gigantic guardian again. His playful smile slowly disappeared. Instead...His eyes became calm and focused. He stopped thinking about hitting harder.
Instead...He began observing. Every movement, every step and every breath.
"...If every fortress has a gate...then all I have to do...is find yours."
Far behind the armored beast...
Beyond another reinforced security door...A faint voice echoed once more. "...S-Someone.....Help..."
Nobody immediately recognized it. "...Moonlissa." His grip around both crowbars tightened. His expression hardened beneath the crimson bunny helmet. "I don’t have time for a long fight. So, Bobby..."A cold wind slowly gathered around him.
"...Let’s end round one."