Chapter 93: One After Another

(“ If you keep running, eventually you will reach your destination ”)

Yes, and if you are able to find a damn shortcut, let me know.

(“ Gladly, there was one three floors down ”)

I don’t even know if you are lying to me, but either way, fuck you.

(“ Thank you ”)

You are welcome.

My journey through the tower was going as well as one might expect–pretty badly. With each floor being massive, traversing between them was not easy. Even if I had a car to drive up the twirling pathway, it would still take forever. After moving up a few floors, I eventually tried to see if I could access one of the elevators or trams, but all of them that I interacted with were offline from my side. I assumed whoever was in control of the tower did that to slow down intruders, which I understood the reasoning for, but oh the stars above, did it make my work harder.

Shit.

Gunfire fell from above, and I slid off the road I was climbing and jumped onto the floor I was moving past. The floor I entered was one of the entertainment floors, with large rooms filled with physical and digital games, and rooms for people to gather. Because of the massive space each floor held, there was room for some housing on the floor.

The gunfire came from along the path, but they seemed to be shooting as far as they possibly could.

The internal outer edge path up the spiralling tower was obviously curved, which meant there was a set distance one could visibly see before the curve blocked the view. 

Each floor had a large portion that allowed for entry and exit onto the curved road; about one-twentieth of the floor diameter was the road visible and accessible from. The floors themselves had a thick base and large enough space between the floors that they felt at least a little open. The open space did vary depending on the floor, but these lower floors were more community activities, so they were designed to feel more friendly. 

Being inside the tower blocked my use of [Star Mapping], which was troubling, but it was something I had to manage. 

I moved around the floor to get a better angle on who had shot at me. 

The tower was far from empty, at least tens of thousands of people were in the tower currently, and I had passed a few of them while going up the floors. Most of the people had moved into safe locations, but there were a few who were still wandering the tower.

Some of them were seemingly friendly–mostly by the fact they tried to move further when I was moving past–but the rest were in between cautious and aggressive. And for those who fell into my classification of aggressive, it was hard to tell what side of the coin they landed on. No one had the time for small talk, so everyone was making split-second decisions all the time, including myself.

The people who shot at me looked to be guards, and so I didn’t want to waste my mana killing them. These weren’t the first group of people who had been hostile, and I doubted they would be the last.

Sigh. Time to fly past them.

I moved closer to the curve where I was shot from and jumped and [Burst] onto the road. 

The armoured guards relocked onto me as they noticed me climb. Their gunfire showered in my direction. With [Quiet Step] and a few well-timed uses of [Burst], in seconds I had cleared the blockade, passed them, and accelerated so they wouldn’t catch up.

Panicked sounds of footsteps turning echoed behind me, and a light show of mana rounds lit the wall in front of me as I dodged the attacks from behind.

This is frustrating. 

I haven't found anyone clearly a pirate or Dominous Hoody in my travels, which made sense; if they were in the tower, then they were in disguise. But the fact I was not killing them was annoying when there was a number outside. I didn’t regret the decision to come inside, as there were more important objects to obtain and defend here, but I underestimated my travel time.

(“ You have another friend coming up in a moment ”)

Sigh, another blockade?

Espr didn’t answer, and instead soon I found out what they meant. There was a man in green armour wearing a monkey helmet, with a large cannon on their shoulder, walking up the road.

They were already turning around and Mana charged in the cannon.

The instant the cannon charged, a thick blast of mana fired towards me.

Shit.

Zebooom!

There was a ringing sensation as I dodged the blast and felt the bullet impact the wall. The impact of the cannon blast created a large shockwave, pushing everything away.

We shifted into a rapid-fire exchange of shooting and dodging. That cannon shot stupidly fast. Beams of lightning fired from the monkey made dodging harder; my armour had already taken a beating, so I didn’t want it to be beaten up anymore.

After another exchange of shots, I found my opportunity. 

A bullet blast aimed in front of me fired, and I [Quiet Step] jumped over it.

Zebooom!

My body flung into the air, and he began to fire again, but I already adjusted my angle.

[Burst].

My body fell towards the ground like a meteor, and my hand grabbed the monkey’s face as I slammed us both into the metal floor.

Another down. 

There were enough metal and bone cracks that I doubted they were getting up any moment soon.

I didn’t waste any time and continued my sprint up the stairs. 

However, as I was passing through the in-between layer segment of the tower, where there was a thick wall on both sides–the tower wall and the internal floor’s outer wall–I heard multiple loud slams coming from within the segment. 

Clang.

A mental door flung off the frame and smashed into the wall of the tower.

I turned to see a tall man walk down the path with a large axe on his shoulders after coming out of a side room.

“Another one, huh?” A man was wearing what appeared to be a thick, dark blue formal suit, but the burn marks and the deep crimson blood covering proved its durability. 

I couldn't help but sigh, “Right back at you.”