Surviving a Shounen Manga

The Ramirez Scramble (4)

“What’s going on?”

Jimus couldn’t understand the current situation.

In front of him stood the messy-haired little kid.

“Huh? What?”

“…”

As if nothing whatsoever was wrong.

“How could you… be standing there?”

It’d only been a scant minute since he’d taken a direct hit from one of Jimus’ ultimate spells, ‘Hell Fire’, straight on his chest; and had been blown away dozens of meters.

This was patently absurd!

But at his completely reasonable question, the little kid merely shrugged his shoulders.

“That’s what you’re confused about? Umm… it’s just a matter of strengthening your legs and keeping good balance. You aren’t doing too bad at it either.”

“…”

Jimus looked at the amount of energy left in his staff.

13%.

He’d just consumed more than half of his total energy with Hell Fire. The magic had activated flawlessly.

Moreover, it hadn’t been some glancing blow. It’d been a direct hit on the centre of the chest.

“… This is crazy.”

Of course, Jimus knew that the kid was a tough customer.

He was completely immune to lightning damage, and had an absurd resistance to heat.

Jimus had aimed at completely melting the kid down with Hell Fire, but hadn’t even managed to drill a hole in his chest. The kid hadn’t even caught fire.

Clearly the ultimate spell had fallen far short of the mark.

So yes, the kid wasn’t a good match for the fire attribute. Jimus could accept that.

But even so, he couldn’t be completely unharmed.

Jimus didn’t know how the kid was still conscious, but he was probably spending all his effort to keep standing up.

Calming himself down, Jimus slowly spoke.

“You’re trying too hard. Your legs must be shaking.”

“No? They’re fine?”

The kid immediately raised his legs, hopping on one foot and then the other.

What a childish idiot. What was this but an attempt to hype himself up?

“Either way, you bastard, you’re out of luck. I would’ve stopped if you’d just passed out. Now you’ll lose your life because you stayed standing. Look, if you’re on your last legs, just let it go and pass out. Last warning.”

“Well, I’m fine though. Aren’t you the one having a hard time right now?”

“Since your mouth’s still running, you must have some strength left. But it’s all over now.”

Jimus started casting ‘Acid Storm’.

Unlike Hell Fire, it was a magic that evoked an acidic storm.

The amount of energy required for activation was a whopping 10%.

It’d leave him with a paltry 3%.

It was an unwritten rule of magic engineers to reserve at least 5% of energy as a backup of last resort, but Jimus made a bold decision to ignore that.

This was an enemy worthwhile enough for him to do so.

“Let’s finish it here. You made me do my best. Congratulations.”

Then,

“Acid Storm!”

Whooooooshhhhh-!

A terrifying storm, a mix of acid rain and sharp winds, swept over the cheeky messy-headed kid.

…

After Jimus confirmed that he’d been engulfed by a storm, he immediately shouted at his subordinates.

“What’re you lot doing! Can’t you see my energy is spent!?”

The moment the wand’s energy ran out, a magician was no different from average people. Now was the most dangerous time.

Soon, his subordinates, who’d been surrounding the kid’s colleagues, rushed in.

“It doesn’t matter if you leave the rest alone. They don’t matter.”

“Yeah.”

“Thank you.”

“You suffered.”

“Enough. One of you, pick up the token, and the other two stick out your wands.”

Then Jimus was about to absorb the energy of his subordinates, but –

Suddenly,

“What, was that it? I tried to wait, thinking there’d be more…”

A loud voice came from somewhere.

And surprisingly, the source of the voice was the place where the storm had just passed through.

“… Wh-, what?”

It was that messy-haired bastard.

Jimus doubted his eyes. Because the kid still looked in pristine condition.

“N-, no, what is this… How could you withstand my spell…”

“What spell? That didn’t even have the slightest trace of magic power. A real witch would scoff if they heard you. You guys are just using machines to project energy extracted from manastones. Using those wand-shaped energy nuclei in your hands. Honestly, no wonder they say Northland is full of scammers.”

“… Wh-, what? H-how do you know that…?”

Jimus’ mind was blank.

‘How the hell do you know so much about us?’

No, more than that, how the hell are you still alive?

Jimus gulped.

Something was wrong here, catastrophically wrong.

“By the way, if you’re done, isn’t it my turn now?”

“…”

“My turn to exchange energy, right? If I leave you guys alone, you might bother me again.”

At that moment,

Zzzzzapppppp–.

Blue sparks erupted fiercely around the kid’s body.

And the energy level measured by Jimus’ wand was,

‘It hasn’t fallen at all… No, has it risen instead?’

It was more than when Jimus had first encountered him.

There was now only one thought in Jimus’ head.

Monster.

This fellow was a monster. Continuing the fight would be the end of him.

In an instant, a roar erupted from Jimus’s throat like a thunderbolt.

“Run damn it! Everyone run!”

I held out the sphere left by Jimus’ men to Yan.

“Uh, why are you giving this to us…?”

“I’ve got one already.”

“But still…”

Yan didn’t look relieved at my answer.

“Hey, this is just a participation certificate. Having more than one makes no difference.”

“Yeah, but won’t it reduce your competitors?”

“Huh, so you mean…”

With a smirk at the corner of my mouth, I glanced at him gently.

“You could be my competitor?”

Then,

“I-, I won’t lose!”

Yan clenched his fists and shouted proudly.

Whoo.

To think those words came out of Yan’s mouth, not Siana’s or Leo’s.

I didn’t show it on the outside, but I was feeling a surge of emotion.

Everyone in the protagonists’ party was thinking of me as a mountain they had to climb. Even that timid Yan. From a rival’s point of view, could there be a prouder moment than this?

Of course,

“Hmph, only with that level of skill?”

I didn’t outwardly react at all.

“Well, I’ll practice! Till I don’t lose to Mr. Squatjaw… No, till I don’t lose to anyone!”

“Alright. Then try building up your skills until you’re worthy of this token first. Lose, and it’ll be quickly snatched away.”

“…”

“Try hard. Talented kids.”

Then, I left in a hurry.

I heard Yan calling me from behind, but I ignored it.

Before long, once Leo and his party were out of sight, I stopped.

“Whoo…”

Anyway, I was glad I hadn’t been too late.

I’d almost missed the timing. A little later, and Yan would’ve awakened from the sense of crisis and introduced the ‘king’.

At that time, even if I came to the stage masquerading as Leo, the impact would inevitably diminish. The audience would’ve already focused on Yan.

I didn’t really care that Yan hadn’t awakened this time.

Anyway, he…

‘He’ll awaken soon.’

Since Jimus retreated and Leo was defeated, the hyenas circling around them would inevitably keep targeting Leo and the others. It was a little late, but this scramble was shaping up similar to the original.

In order to protect the token, Yan would inevitably have to introduce the ‘king’.

I summarized the situation so far.

Despite the intervention of variables, the plot development was similar to the original.

Jimus’ defeat, and Leo’s group acquiring the qualifications.

One ‘penalty veto’ was a cheap enough price to create this situation.

If I’d attempted to subdue Jimus or even taken the initiative to attack, the number wouldn’t have ended at one.

Anyway, the important point was that the operation – ‘rebrand as a goblin’ was on pause.

The readers should still be quite confused. From Jimus’s point of view, it would’ve been tough to figure out what’d really happened.

Perhaps there was a debate going on in the community right now.

Did Leo really not take any damage, or did one of the goblins take the stafe?

A very keen reader might be able to recall my existence in this situation. But most readers probably wouldn’t connect it to me at all.

But, of course, that didn’t matter. It’d all be revealed soon anyway.

And, rather than knowing everything as it went on, wouldn’t it be more impactful to have several surprises pile up and then explode all at once?

“By the way…”

I looked at the transceiver in my possession.

There hadn’t been any contact – neither from Cocoa, nor from Haka.

“Well…”

The reason was probably one of the three.

They’d found their targets, but nothing special had happened.

Or that they were still searching.

Or… that there was an urgent situation that’d made contact impossible.

Of course, the notion that something had happened so soon after they’d been dispatched was a bit paranoid. They reached their targets, and were immediately subjugated? Please.

But nevertheless, I couldn’t take this thought lightly.

The reason was simple. Because the current situation wasn’t normal.

To be more precise, it was too fast. The plot was unfolding too quickly.

It didn’t feel like the content had changed significantly, but somehow… the sense of speed had changed. As if the flow of the story was accelerating.

There was some reason why I was feeling this way. Except for the battles of the main characters, all of the other guys’ events were omitted.

Originally, the confrontation between Leo and Jimus was supposed to take place only after quite some time had passed.

After Capone’s proposal of a winner-takes-all scramble (though, of course, it wasn’t exactly the same as now), many small fish had engaged in crude battles to whittle the total headcount down, and only then the big fish had started to fight.

This might’ve been normal, even. Since there were more big fish in attendance compared to the original, the author might’ve decided to trim the fat from the middle portion.

But nevertheless, I had my doubts.

I’d taken over Capone’s role and blocked Cormier from leaving, so why the hurry?

Moreover, the ‘Ramirez Scramble’ arc had already been trimmed a lot. From my memory, the original arc had consisted of about ten chapters in total, but here we were already on the fourth.

Of course, I’d gobbled up a lot of the middle, but…

This battle in the north had taken three chapters in the original story, but things were different here. Two… no, it might even end in one.

I couldn’t figure it out. The reason why the author wanted to reduce the number of events and increase the sense of speed.

If I had to guess one reason… to limit the rewards I’d get, maybe?

But soon I shook my head.

‘No, he wouldn’t go that far.’

That was then.

Tiling–.

– The main character of the chapter has been changed.

– The main character of the current chapter is ‘Kal Zayed’.

The moment I saw it,

“Hngh…”

I reflexively groaned.

Did this make any sense?

This was insanely fast.

In the original work, Karl Zayed had been given the leading point of view long after the battle between Leo and Jimus had ended.

Again, the development had accelerated.

Just as my thoughts were beginning to turn in circles,

“Ah, wait…”

All of a sudden, I found myself running towards the south.

There was no time to hesitate.

Karl Zayed, that guy, was as fast as this new speed of plot development.

“At least give me some time to rest, damn it!”

“Tch.”

Karl Zayed clicked his tongue as he watched the piece of scrap metal that had half its body blown away.

What did it call itself again? Cyborg Gelop?

What the hell did that even mean?

“Karl Zayed… str… beep… strong.”

“It’s amazing. You’re still talking? Do I have to completely disassemble you to get rid of you?”

Already, the left half of the guy was almost gone. From the head to the torso had been blown away, and only the thigh bones still remained on that side.

It was strange that he could still move and talk.

“Combat power… measurement… was wrong. Incredible for somebody your level to be in Westland… beep… Impossible…”

“You’re one funny piece of junk. So it’s possible in Northland?”

“Beep… Average ability level… in Northland… beep… much higher…”

“Too bad, but there’s no one in the world who can beat me; here, or there.”

“Discussion… beep… off-topic…”

“You stupid scrap metal. It’s you who didn’t understand me. Anyway, let’s finish things off.”

Karl Zayed squeezed the piece of scrap metal that’d been ‘the man’s left arm’ until a while ago.

Creak–.

Under the immense pressure of his fingers, the piece metal quickly formed a sharp edge.

“Your core is divided into two parts, the head and the chest, right? I wonder if a cyborg really can survive even if its core is destroyed..”

Now the cyborg seemed to be talking in a hurry.

“Insufficient combat preparation… beep… I’ll be back. First, initiate emergency evac… beep…”

“Do you think you can run away?”

And the moment Karl Zayed was about to rush in,

Fwoosh–.

Suddenly, white smoke bloomed like an explosion around him.

It was a smoke bomb.

And immediately,

Pyong–.

He heard the sound of something firing.

“Heeh…”

The guy was a quick one.

He ran away faster than Karl Zayed could attack. Was it because he was desperate?

“… Should I let him go?”

In fact, if he really wanted to pursue, Karl Zayed still could. Because the other party was no longer in perfect condition.

But,

“Consider yourself lucky.”

He didn’t feel the need to do that. That cyborg wasn’t that big a problem for him.

Of course, it wasn’t completely without risk. In fact, the firepower that cyborg had unleashed wasn’t normal; and there’d been occasional spots of danger during the fight.

Besides, didn’t he keep saying that he wasn’t ‘ready’, over and over again?

Karl Zayed could make a guess as to what that meant.

Fighting with weapons of stronger firepower, better equipment, and spare parts on standby.

If that cyborg had been able to continue fighting by replacing his damaged parts with new ones in real time, things would’ve been harder.

But,

“Hmph, so what?”

There were moats in the world so wide that they simply couldn’t be bridged.

It was time for Karl Zayed to turn around and take the sphere, but –

“Huh?”

Something was strange.

A silhouette could be seen, albeit faintly, through the hazy smoke.

Which, to be honest –

“What… didn’t you say you were going to escape?”

– Was very familiar.

It was the cyborg.

The guy came right back. But,

“I? Did I? Nope?”

“…?”

Something had changed.

Karl Zayed stared straight ahead with his eyes wide open.

Soon after, the smoke cleared, revealing ‘him’.

“What is your identity…?”

A monster in human form with blank eyes bereft of any emotion. A machine man exuding the smell of iron from beneath his skin. A cold body with a round energy sphere embedded in the center of his chest as the only source of heat.

Cyborg Gelop, looked at him and grinned.

In the same condition as the first time, with no sign of damage.

And it was a very insidious and bizarre grin that he’d never seen from this guy before.

It was very similar to someone in his memory.

“What the hell are you…”

However, Karl Zayed couldn’t continue to question the enemy in front of him.

Because the cyborg’s left arm began to emit a blue light.

Soon,

“Are you alright? The battle begins now.”

The mouth of a high-powered energy cannon bloomed, engulfing Karl Zayed’s field of vision.

Editor’s Notes:

None for this chapter.

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