Chapter 1355: City of the Decisive Battle (12)

“Then? All of a sudden, that person named Karin said she’s changing the rules, so at the end of the day, we’re just running around for nothing? How can you tolerate that, Mr. Rhode? I was about to catch that fella and give her a good beating, but she slipped away quicker than you; gone in the blink of an eye. This is infuriating, isn’t it? But come to think of it, fortunately we didn’t head the wrong direction. It is all thanks to me. If it weren’t for me thinking that I would meet you if we head this way, we wouldn’t have met. Now that I think about it, my instincts sure are accurate. Oh, but then again…”

“…”

Looking at Little Five who spoke incessantly, Rhode couldn’t help but twitch the corner of his eyes. Although the attribute of her being a chatterbox was one that he had known for some time, she had been talking endlessly since the beginning of the meeting as if she were under some kind of stimulus. This gave him a huge, incomparable headache.

Judging from this point, even though he was sure that the final victory would definitely belong to the Little Five on his side, he always felt like she seemed to talk a lot more than when she was with him and Catherine than she did before… Anyway, it wasn’t time to be concerned about such a minor issue.

“Sigh…”

Rhode sighed, pushed Catherine in front of him to bear the brunt of Little Five’s jabbering, and turned to look at the other side. At least for now, it seemed to him that the core personalities were right there.

Like Rhode’s side, the other team also had the same team of four: Little Five, Eleanor, Dona, and Catherine. Although this was the first time Rhode met them, he sensed that they were probably the closest to the core personality. Even though, by all rights, it was impossible for them to know each other as mental projections, he keenly detected a subtle harmony in their team as if four pieces of a puzzle of different sizes managing to fit together perfectly into a single drawing board. However…

I’m still missing one person on my team.

At this thought, Rhode swept a glance at Dona, who was standing in the other team, and puckered his brows. Up until now, he’d only met one Dona, and according to Karin, she was one of the less-mature personalities. So there was also no telling what was going on with the other three core Donas. But now, it was apparently not the time to discuss it.

“I suppose you’ve heard from Karin as well.

With that in mind, Rhode let out a sigh and walked up to the group of four for interactions. And upon hearing him speak, the four of them looked at each other, and soon, Dona stepped forth and nodded at him with a smile.

“That’s right, we’ve gotten information on the matter from the lady called Karin. To be honest, we thought something wasn’t quite right and now, it looks like things are getting really serious. So, you’re that human? Hmmm… Interesting. Although, according to our positions, we should be slaughtering each other right now, considering the current situation… What are your thoughts, human?”

“My opinion is the same as Karin’s; no matter what exactly is wrong between us, what we need to deal with at the moment are those… rats that sneaked out.”

After hearing Dona’s question, Rhode replied quickly, meanwhile ascertaining the reactions of the four of them. After listening to his answer, however, Dona nodded with a smile, apparently agreeing with his suggestion. Not only that, but the feeling she gave him also wasn’t too different from the original Dona; it was just that he didn’t know if it was due to him being overly concerned, but he always felt as if there was something missing from the current Dona. Perhaps because she hadn’t finished mending her personality so far?

As for Eleanor, she snorted after listening to his words. Unlike the Eleanor on his team, the feeling this young lady gave him was more like an execution frame with no emotional life to speak of, wielding the butcher’s knife to reap lives equally, regardless of whether the person was guilty or not. For that reason, there was an ice-cold and soulless atmosphere shrouding her entirety that was simply impossible for one to approach.

As for Little Five, she appeared more normal, but also held a green sword in her hand, narrowing her eyes and staring at him. Judging from her stature, she was no longer the petite young lady that he knew. It was apparent that this personality should be the form of Little Five after she grew older. Although her expression was calm, Rhode felt something bizarre in her narrowed eyes. And it didn’t feel good.

Meanwhile, this Catherine was just as silent and serious as the original. She stood at the side dutifully as if she were a guard. If it weren’t for the cowering Catherine in his team who was being drowned by Little Five’s saliva now, Rhode would think that this Catherine’s personality was completely mended.

… But come to think of it…

At this thought, Rhode couldn’t help but sweep a glance at the Little Five behind himself, who was snacking and chuckling away, as well as the panic-stricken Catherine who forced a smile at her and hugged snacks in her arms… Frankly, Rhode felt like even though the composition of his team was ridiculous, he actually preferred seeing them causing a ruckus. Perhaps because he was used to the clamors of players in the game and the lively atmosphere whenever they were about to head onto a new adventure, he was, in fact, rather resistant to teams that were too serious. Even though he had his own elite squad that was serious during battles, he was still used to them making occasional mistakes and bustling with activities. He just couldn’t react to people being overly stern.

Sigh…

This was the first time he felt like things were a bit of a shame. He didn’t know how long his team could hold on in a fight against the core personalities. Would they be able to defeat the core personalities? The possibility was definitely small, but wasn’t entirely impossible. After all, in Celia’s mental world, Rhode joined forces with the little queen and giant to launch a counterattack against the battle angel, who was the core personality, and eventually succeeded.

But he wondered if there was any possibility of him repeating something similar here. After all, this competition in Karin’s mental world wasn’t some peaceful fairytale type of thing… Not only that, but with such situations happening now, what exactly would it look like in the end?

Now that the target of the battle was determined, the next step was much simpler. With the help of the mental bracelet, the crowd quickly figured out the number of mental projections currently in the entire metropolis. The total number added up to around 50 or so, which of course, in a way, was a lot of trouble. And the trouble itself wasn’t just the amount of them. After all, they were all less-mature personalities and it was possible that they weren’t reliable in their self-perception. In terms of combat power, though, the Little Five on his team was perfectly fine to take on 10 at a time. But the problem was…

Space.

That’s right, the space created by all the Karins was so large that the 50 or so less-mature personalities were like ants running into a garden, where trying to find them all was tougher than anything else. Even though they were able to lock onto aura, there was no way to instantly move and fly toward their target, meaning they had to rely entirely on themselves. The mental world also became extremely unstable due to the intervention of abnormal existence. And if they were to forcefully bring changes to the venue, it would be like a rocking building block that would completely collapse. Thus, there was no choice but to maintain the status quo and continue with it.

But… Rhode wasn’t entirely out of ideas yet.

Vroom———!

The loud and deep revs of an engine echoed on the wide street. Shortly after, a red bolt of lightning zoomed past the road and swept up all the fallen leaves on the streets.

“Whoa! Go, go, go! Mr. Rhode, go! This is so cool, YEAH!”

Little Five, who sat in the passenger seat, waved her hands high in excitement as if she were on a roller coaster. It was apparent that she was very much interested in such a bizarre transportation tool. On the other hand, Catherine, who sat in the back, was all ashen, holding the snacks in her arms and closing her eyes as if she were about to step onto the execution ground.

“Mr. Rhode, please go… Slower…”

“Slow is no fun. Speed up, speed up! Ohhhhh, this is so much more fun than riding a horse!”

That’s right, since this city was created by Karin using Rhode’s memories, there was definitely no shortage of cars among them. The reason why Rhode hadn’t chosen this kind of transportation before was that there were still shadowy monsters at that time, and driving on the road under those circumstances was as though a death sentence to them. But now, Karin withdrew the shadowy monsters that were in the way, so he didn’t mind having some fun. Even though there was still no way to match the pace of the rest dashing at full speed, it would always be more tiring running on their legs, after all. And with driving, there was no such problem.

“How is it? Fun?”

With his hands on the steering wheel and eyes looking straight ahead, Rhode curled up his mouth slightly into a proud smile.

“I’m the best at this; I have always gotten first place whenever I drove in Need for Speed[1]! I’m not afraid to tell you that even I am afraid of myself when I drive! I still haven’t gotten my driver’s license yet, but driving in the game is about the same as driving in reality! Alright, let’s do this! MUSIC START!”

Rhode was quite proud of himself for playing the game, but as a college graduate from a middle-class family who couldn’t afford to spend the rest of his life looking for a job after graduation, it wasn’t surprising that he didn’t know how to drive and own a car. But he didn’t care about that; at least in the game, he was able to drive smoothly! And that was enough for him!

After saying those words that could leave one pale, Rhode reached out his arm and turned on the stereo. Soon after, accompanied by the deafening music, the red sports car picked up speed again, drifting away from the road in a long arc, plunging forward and scurrying past the tower wreckage that littered the ground.

“Ahhhhh! Mr. Rhode, watch out the front! We’re going to hit the front! Ahhhhhh!”

Catherine, at the backseat, was so frightened that even her wings had instinctively stretched out and wrapped around her body. Eleanor, who sat beside Catherine, however, wore a breezy smile, but God knew what was on her mind.

“Watch out!”

After turning the crossroad, Rhode yelled with twitched brows. Upon hearing his scream, Little Five, who sat in the passenger seat, stood up and stared at the whistling wind with eyes shining like stars, gripping the green sword in her hands. Soon after, she flashed past and a green whirlwind erupted from the red sports car. The ghostly blade ray streaked across the air and in the blink of an eye, a green blade arc hacked down from above.

The instant Little Five attacked, a green, illusory figure suddenly flew up among the wreckage right ahead as if trying to evade her. But Little Five, who had already locked onto her target, wouldn’t let her prey escape so easily. She clenched the sword in an upward-raising stance in midair.

At the next moment, she zoomed ahead nearly a hundred meters to arrive behind the green, illusory figure, puncturing her sword through the other party without mercy. In the face of her ambush, the illusory figure didn’t react in time. She shrieked and transformed into a hazy light that was sucked into Little Five’s bracelet on her right hand. And after confirming that everything had ended, Little Five made a backflip and dropped securely into her passenger seat of the red sports car that sped under her.

“Hahahaha, that was great! Mr. Rhode, this feels so much more relaxing than before! Keep going, keep going! This iron wagon is so powerful!”

I wonder how much time is left.

Listening to Little Five’s shouting next to him, Rhode pondered as he stepped hard on the accelerator. He didn’t have a mental bracelet, so naturally he couldn’t sense the presence of aura like the others. But since earlier, the Little Five and Eleanor on his team had each killed three to four of their own projections, and just as he expected, the less-mature personalities didn’t form their own projections at all.

It could even be said that a few of the less-mature personalities looked as if they were shadows of themselves without facial features or anything. Their strength was also so weak that even the weakest combatant among them, Little Five, could kill them with a single slash of the blade, not to mention Eleanor. Perhaps the only one who would be in some trouble wasCatherine, but maybe Rhode and the rest were lucky enough because they hadn’t seen Catherine’s less-mature personalities so far.

But…

Squeak———!

At that moment, a shadow suddenly flashed in front of Rhode’s eyes. However, he reacted swiftly, turned the steering wheel, and the drifting red sports car let out a sharp screech from its tyres, raising a series of smoke rose from the ground. Soon after, he changed the direction of the red sports car and a powerful burst of wind erupted from the side of the vehicle. Not only did it tear the solid ground open, but the back of the building was also struck by it, exploding in a bang as if it were hit by a missile and collapsing entirely.

“Who’s there?!”

Rhode leaped out of the stalled red sports car. He sensed that the attacker this time was different from the ones that attacked them previously, but possessed the same powerful strength. Not only that, but he also felt like there was clearly more than one of them!

The instant Rhode dodged the attack, he felt another strong gust of wind charging at him. In an instant, he flipped and raised the sword in his hand. Along with this action, the flat ground that was like sticky dough suddenly rose to form a barrier that blocked the other party’s attack.

Boom!

However, the hurriedly-erected barrier was completely destroyed in the blow. Almost at the same time, the clanging of weapons could be heard in the surroundings. After a few moments, Rhode, Eleanor, Little Five, and Catherine stood back-to-back, vigilantly wielding weapons in their hands and staring in front of them.

Who exactly are they?

Rhode gripped his sword and frowned, sensing the aura around him. He sensed more than one person lurking around his team. But yet for some reason, his senses seemed to be interfered with, and he was completely unable to figure out the number of people on the other side. Moreover, the ambush felt somewhat familiar too…

———!

At that moment, dazzling lights suddenly shone, illuminating the broken wall in front of Rhode. Immediately after, a ‘young lady’ clad in an idol miniskirt and holding a microphone jumped from the scene, waving her hand as if she were performing a concert.

“Hi———Everyone! Do you remember me? I’m the most talented and adorable star of tomorrow; a little flower blooming on the ceiling, and everyone’s favorite idol, Rhode…! Come on, let’s sing and have a wild and fun LIVE concert!!!”

“…”

Looking at that figure, Rhode was entirely speechless. And now, there was only one thought in his mind.

Goddammit… Karin, can you choose mental projections properly?

[1] A racing video game franchise published by Electronic Arts.