Chapter 142: I Have to Win
Toma instinctively grabbed Nobody’s sleeve. "You can’t fight him alone! Even if your strong fighter."
Nobody remained silent.
Then...
He gently removed her hand. "I’ve been alone from the beginning." His tone wasn’t sad. It was simply a fact. "I’ll come back."
Before Toma could answer....
Zap.
Nobody vanished. Only a streak of blue lightning remained behind.
...
Three kilometers away...
Jonathan slowly walked out from beneath a collapsed office building. Dust covered his black clothes. Blood dripped from one side of his forehead. His left shoulder hung unnaturally.
CRACK.
He grabbed it. With one violent motion....The shoulder snapped back into place. Jonathan rolled his neck. "...That throw..." He smiled. "...Actually hurt."
Pieces of broken concrete slid from his body. Despite being thrown several miles away...He remained standing. His eyes slowly scanned the city.
Then, he sensed it. The blue lightning.
Jonathan smiled wider. "There you are."
Pixel.
His body dissolved.
...
Nobody appeared on the rooftop of a nearby apartment. The city spread before him. His Mind Reader remained active.
Jonathan’s thoughts disappeared. Then returned. Then disappeared again.
"...He’s using Pixelation to confuse my tracking." Nobody quietly observed the surrounding rooftops.
Wind brushed against his hoodie. Everything became still.
Then....
A knife suddenly pierced through the air.
WHOOSH!
Nobody leaned sideways. The blade grazed his shoulder.
Jonathan materialized behind him. "You found me."
Nobody spun instantly.
CLANG!
Crowbar met knife. Sparks exploded into the night.
Jonathan pushed harder. "I’ve figured you out."
Nobody said nothing.
Jonathan continued. "You aren’t protecting the city. You aren’t fighting for justice." His grin widened. "You’re protecting... yourself and the people you love."
Nobody’s grip tightened.
Jonathan laughed. "I knew it. That reaction."
Without warning.....
Pixel.
He vanished again.
Nobody didn’t chase.
Instead....
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Skill Activated
Infinite Crowbar Swingers
Maximum Output
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Hundreds of glowing crowbars materialized across the rooftop. Not dozens. But hundreds. They floated around Nobody like a giant metallic galaxy.
Jonathan reappeared. Only to find himself completely surrounded. "...!"
Nobody pointed forward. "Go."
WHOOSH!!
Every crowbar launched at once. The sky turned black beneath the overwhelming barrage.
Jonathan’s expression changed for the first time. He pixelated repeatedly.
One.
Five.
Twenty.
Fifty times.
Each reconstruction barely avoided another crowbar. Buildings around them exploded as missed weapons punched through walls. Streetlights shattered, concrete pillars collapsed.
People below looked upward in horror. "What is happening?!"
"The buildings are exploding!"
"Run!"
Jonathan continued dodging.
But Nobody had already disappeared.
Zap.
Left.
Zap.
Right.
Zap.
Above.
Zap.
Below.
Every teleport changed direction instantly. His zig-zag movement made him impossible to predict.
Jonathan barely turned....
BOOM!!
Nobody’s fist slammed into his ribs.
CRACK!!
Jonathan was launched across the rooftop.
Before he could recover....
Zap.
Nobody appeared again.
Another punch.
BOOM!!
Jonathan crashed through the rooftop water tank. Thousands of liters of water poured down the building.
Pixel.
Jonathan escaped at the last second. He appeared fifty meters away on another rooftop, panting. "...You’re faster..."
Nobody said quietly, "No. You’ve gotten slower."
Jonathan frowned.
Nobody continued. "You’ve been regenerating by forcing your body back together. Every reconstruction consumes you."
Jonathan remained silent.
Nobody had figured it out.
Jonathan’s endless pixelation wasn’t free. Each use placed more strain on his body. Each escape consumed energy. Jonathan smiled again. "...Then I only need one attack."
Pixel.
He vanished.
Nobody closed his eyes.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Mind Reader]
"Let’s attack from behind"
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"...Behind." Nobody instantly ducked.
Jonathan’s knife passed above his head.
Nobody grabbed Jonathan’s wrist. "...Caught you."
Jonathan’s eyes widened.
Nobody twisted.
CRACK!!
Jonathan’s wrist broke. The knife slipped from his fingers.
Nobody kicked it into the air. Then caught it himself.
Jonathan immediately tried to retreat.
Pixel.. ... ....
Nothing happened. His body flickered. Then stopped.
His eyes widened. "What...?"
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Enemy Ability Analysis Complete
Repeated Skill Usage Detected
Temporary Instability
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody smiled faintly. "So even your power has limits."
Jonathan looked at his trembling hand. "...No ...Not now..."
Nobody pointed Jonathan’s own knife toward him. "You wanted to hunt people. You almost killed Toma." His voice became completely emotionless. "You lose."
Jonathan suddenly laughed. Then louder. "Hahahaha...You think...This is over?"
Nobody narrowed his head.
Jonathan’s body suddenly began breaking apart. Not from Pixelation. From something else. Crimson cracks spread across his skin. Glowing cubes leaked from every wound. His entire body became unstable.
Nobody immediately stepped backward. "What are you doing?"
Jonathan looked toward the sky. "...I can hear it... The powers...It’s rejecting me." His smile slowly disappeared. "...Interesting." His body continued collapsing into pixels. "I guess...I wasn’t supposed to exist like this."
Nobody watched silently. Within seconds...
Jonathan’s body completely dissolved.
Thousands...
Millions...
Of dark shadow cubes drifted into the night sky before disappearing like stardust. The rooftop became silent once more.
Only Jonathan’s knife remained on the ground.
Nobody stared at the empty space. "...He...Didn’t die."
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Warning
Target Jonathan
Status:
Unknown
Threat Assessment:
Active
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody’s grip tightened around the knife. "So you’re still out there..."
The wind blew across the rooftops. Far below,the city was filled with flashing police lights and frightened civilians.
Nobody looked toward the shopping mall where Toma had been. "...At least she’s safe."
With a burst of blue lightning....
Zap.
Nobody reappeared in front of Toma.
Suddenly Jonathan came there too.
Rain continued to pour over Alkon City. The empty highway echoed with the sound of thunder as broken asphalt stretched for hundreds of meters.
Jonathan slowly climbed out of the massive crater Nobody had thrown him into. His clothes were torn. Dark aura leaked from his body like black smoke. "...Heh..."
A twisted grin spread across his face. "So that’s your strength..." His body suddenly flickered.
Pixel.
He vanished.
Far away...
Nobody stood silently in the middle of the deserted road. His crimson bunny helmet reflected the flashing lightning.
Behind him, Toma watched with worried eyes. "Hey Bunny guy..."
"I’m ending this tonight." Nobody said.
A blue System Window appeared.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Main Quest]
Defeat Jonathan Milow
Target Status: Active
Danger Level: SSS
Reward:
Massive EXPSkill UpgradeStory Progression
Failure:
Unknown Number of Civilian Casualties
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody clenched both fists. "System."
Another window appeared.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Skill Fusion Available
Compatible Skills Detected
Infinite Crowbars Boomerang Throw Flame Element
Fusion Success Rate:
100%
Create New Skill?
YES
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody pressed the glowing button.
The entire battlefield trembled. Golden particles surrounded him.
His two crowbars floated into the air. They slowly merged together before separating again.
This time...
Each crowbar had transformed. The metal glowed crimson. Sharp flame patterns spread across the surface. The edges rotated by themselves. Heat distorted the surrounding air.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
New Skill Acquired
Fusion Boomerang Crowbars
Rank: Legendary
Effects:
Returns Automatically Infinite Duplication Homing Capability Flame Infusion Damage Increases Every Return
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody smiled. "So this is the evolved version."
Behind him...
Jonathan appeared. Without hesitation, he stabbed forward.
Nobody didn’t even turn around. "Too slow." He disappeared in a zigzag flash.
Jonathan’s knife struck nothing but air. "What...."
WHOOSH!
Nobody appeared behind Jonathan. He swung both flaming crowbars.
Jonathan barely blocked using his knife.
CLANG!
A shockwave exploded across the road. The knife vibrated violently. Jonathan was pushed backward dozens of meters.
....
"You’ve gotten stronger..." Jonathan laughed. "Good. I enjoy hunting strong prey." Pixel fragments surrounded him again. He vanished.
Then.....
Five Jonathans appeared.
Then ten.
Then twenty.
Every clone rushed toward Nobody.
Toma gasped. "What is he laughing for?"
"Damn it! Toma doesn’t even see his clones due to the filter." Nobody calmly closed his eyes. His Mind Reader skill activated.
Most of the clones...Had no thoughts. Only one mind radiated murderous intent.
"There." Nobody opened his eyes. "I found you." He threw one Fusion Boomerang Crowbar.
Jonathan smirked. "It missed."
But the weapon curved sharply. Then curved again. Then again. It chased Jonathan through the battlefield.
"What?!" He teleported.
The weapon instantly changed direction. He teleported again.
The crowbar followed.
Again.
Again.
Again.
No matter where Jonathan appeared...The weapon adjusted its course.
"It locks onto hostile intent...!!" Jonathan’s smile disappeared. He suddenly accelerated. His teleportation became faster than ever.
Pixel after pixel.
Blink after blink.
The battlefield became impossible to follow.
But for Toma Nobody was just chasing Jonthan with crowbars. Only flashes of crimson and black remained in the real case.
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
Every collision shook nearby buildings. Road signs snapped apart. Streetlights bent. Thunder mixed with the sound of steel.
Nobody caught the returning crowbar. "Again."
This time...He threw both. The weapons split. Two became four. Four became eight. Eight became sixteen.
Soon...
Dozens of blazing crowbars filled the sky. Each one curved through impossible angles.
Jonathan teleported repeatedly. But every return made the weapons faster. Every return increased their power. "They’re accelerating..." Jonathan muttered. His movements became increasingly desperate. "Impossible!"
He jumped onto a rooftop. The flaming weapons followed. He dropped into an alley. They followed again. He appeared above a skyscraper. They climbed after him like hunting birds. Every escape failed.
Jonathan roared. Black aura erupted from his body. The darkness condensed into countless blades. He launched them toward Nobody.
Nobody raised one crowbar. The flames expanded into a spinning barrier. Every dark blade shattered on impact. The returning crowbars circled around him before launching again.
Jonathan’s breathing grew heavier.
For the first time...He was on the defensive.
"You keep running." Nobody’s calm voice echoed through the rain. "But every path you take...leads back to the same place."
The spinning crowbars formed a fiery ring around Jonathan. There was nowhere left to flee. Jonathan attempted one final teleport. The ring anticipated his destination. He reappeared exactly where the circling weapons had converged.
A brilliant explosion of crimson light erupted, engulfing the battlefield. The shockwave rippled across the empty district, scattering rain in every direction. When the light finally faded, the black aura surrounding Jonathan had completely dissolved. His knife slipped from his hand and clattered onto the pavement.
The System chimed.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Enemy Defeated
___Jonathan Milow__
꧁⎝ 𓆩༺✧༻𓆪 ⎠꧂
Threat Level Neutralized
Mission Complete
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The rain became gentle. Nobody recalled the crowbars with a flick of his wrist. The flames faded from their edges as they returned to their normal form.
Toma slowly walked toward him. "...Is it over?"
Nobody looked at the quiet city skyline. "Yes... For tonight."
Another System Window appeared.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Mission Complete]
Experience Earned:
+250,000
Level Up!
Level Up!
Level Up!
Skill Mastery Increased
Fusion Boomerang Crowbars
Mastery: 1%
New Story Route Unlocked
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Nobody frowned. "...New story route?"
Another notification appeared.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Warning]
A higher-dimensional observer has acknowledged your actions.
Hidden Scenario Beginning...
3...
2...
1...
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"New story route? Was this guy also part of the plot?"