Chapter 43. Tetris

“The Strategist isn’t much, is he? I could’ve finished this all by myself.”

Said a muscular Asian woman while she was walking down a hotel corridor leisurely. Her qipao decorated with a red spider lily was stuck tightly to her body, and her long hair was tied into a bun secured by a hairpin.

Lin Yangsen.

She was an A-ranked killer hired by Chrono. To the underground world, she was known to have an ability close to that of someone in the brave-class. If the Ghost Forest had a battle rating of one, she would be fifty. Her unique battle style that combined her power with qigong was something that allowed her to thrive in a chaotic battlefield. Her ability to sense those around her was enough to pick out any life form within ten meters.

Taah!

Corpse dolls appeared from around the corner and shot at Lin. There weren’t that many places to hide from the bullets in the narrow corridor. In this situation, Lin simply smiled. Her hand that was raised up like flowing water began to turn red.

Ping! Pi-pi-ping!

They shot until they no longer had ammo, but the bullets were all deflected by Lin.

“Attacking first without saying anything? You’ve no etiquette, do you?”

This was now a battle of hide-and-seek. Just like how those trying to kill Chrono needed to seek him out first, those willing to stop the killers needed to find them as well, even under constant fire from the dolls. Lin ran forward to the reloading dolls with her hands spread widely to the sides. It was almost as if she was trying to clap.

The invincible hands, [Unarmed = Red Hand].

Her two hands clapped together. A doll’s head became stuck in between her hands, and flattened like paper. The headless body swam in the air for a short while, then fell. The doll next to it was taken care of with an iron mountain attack. This one attack made the doll fly up into the wall behind it.

Crack! Bang!

Before the doll even had the chance to touch the ground, a red hand broke through the wall and crushed its head.

“Mn?”

Lin felt a presence behind the wall she had just punched through. It was a room that was supposed to be filled with corpse dolls. But Lin could see that what was inside this room was clearly alive.

“Found you!”

Lin didn’t go in right away, but instead, stepped back and contacted the Strategist. Now, the other three should arrive sooner or later. She just had to block the entrance so that the wizards wouldn’t leave. Even for the wizard, fighting four people at once would be quite disadvantageous for him. Lin heard a loud bang from inside the room, and became confused. Why was such a sound…

“Ah…!”

Lin realized what was going on a little too late, and rushed into the room. The enemy was the wizard. Just like how she could blast through walls, the wizard could blast through them as well. Lin speculated that they were running to the room next door, and broke through the door. At this moment, Necro, who had been hiding his presence next to the door, attacked her.

Pow!

It was a kick aimed straight at her chin. Lin’s body soared upwards, and hit the ceiling. She lost control of her arms as her body entered a state of shock. The orifices on her body began to spill blood. This was the wizard of this world. Or rather, this was the power of Necro even without him using magic. He dropped down on the ground, and motioned the now-healed saint to quickly move.

*

As I thought, there were spectators. The hotel that had been surrounded by a barrier had turned into a strange postmodernist structure.

Did it look like this from the start…?

I couldn’t tell, since I’ve never seen it before. Perhaps they blocked the entrance to the hotel using some kind of magic. In any case, the people around the hotel are quite annoying… I snuck into an alley, and activated my ability.

[A Thousand Thunderbirds].

Chichi, chichichi!

Blue lightning soared up into the skies, and dropped all around the hotel at an extreme speed. There wasn’t even time to react. The spectators’ eyes rolled over as they fell to the ground. I set the rest of the birds to electrocute anyone who came near, and walked over to the hotel.

How should I get in…

There was no entrance. It was almost as if someone cubed up the hotel and made all the doors and windows face inwards. I probably could break the wall with boiling blood, but… It couldn’t be that simple.

I suppose I could still try doing it.

I walked a few steps away from the wall, and shot at it with a shotgun. By the time I shot my thirtieth shot, the wall was revealed. But that was only for a second. The wall spun like a spinning door, and closed up the hole in it. This would probably repeat no matter how many times I try to punch a hole. It looked like whoever was inside was replacing the external damage with new pieces from inside the building. It might be possible to get in by breaking the wall completely with one attack, but my body wasn’t capable of that at the moment. The outer walls of a casino was designed to be sturdier than it looked.

It was unfortunate, but I’d have to spend money here.

The money I had earned earned from selling Romeo’s weapons was 116,300,000 dollars. This was the money I had after selling everything apart from Hirganrel. After paying off the interest fee from borrowing money last time, and after using the money for this mission, I had 115,800,000 dollars left. However, I couldn’t use abilities that used mana. The abilities that I could use were ones that used up my health, like boiling blood, or ones that were contractual abilities like the Thousand Thunderbirds.

What should I buy… After looking at the list for a good while, I found something that caught my interest.

[> Dematerialization: 25,000,000 dollars]

[ Disturbing Blessing: 35,000,000 dollars]

[ Phase Shift: 12,000,000,000,000 dollars]

…

Dematerialization?

I could see begin to see a way out of my predicament. When I clicked on the ability, an explanation for it appeared in a separate window.

[Dematerialization]

- Rank: C+

- An ability that turns one into a being like a ghost for thirty seconds. Uses 1% of the total health.

Hoh… I would definitely be able to go through this wall using this. And if I use it right, I should be able to dodge attacks as well.

Pretty good. I’ll use this.

When I pressed the purchase button, a blue light enveloped me for a split second. What I learned once I acquired the skill was that unlike Thousand Thunderbirds, this was an ability that could be used every three minutes. The used health point could be replenished with a health potion easily. When I activated the ability, my vision became a shade darker, and I heard a strange sound akin to diving into water.

It really does feel like I became a ghost. I could still see my hand, but it was transparent.

...Strange. I’m not sinking despite having been dematerialized?

After looking around for a bit, I raised my hands up in the hair like superman. I awkwardly began to rise from the ground. It was hard to maintain a proper posture. I guess it’s because I have no weight at all. Instead of going straight up in a standing position, I was almost spinning upwards like a water bubble. I passed through the hotel wall in this state. I cancelled the ability, and fell on the ground pathetically.

...No one saw me, right?

I dusted off my clothes as I checked my surroundings. I had thought I was on the second floor of the hotel, but strangely enough, it felt more like I was inside a jungle. It kind of resembled the lounge without all the grass covering it.

How strange.

There was a staircase where the front desk should’ve been. Why was there such a thing in the middle of the building? To my right were two destroyed corpse dolls. A product of Necro’s black magic. Seeing the color of the blood, it seemed that the dolls were disposed of just five minutes ago.

“Hey, Necro. You still alive?”

I could hear huffs on the other side. Is he running? He told me he took care of Unarmed earlier, so the enemies that were still alive numbered three. The Thief still hasn’t shown himself. Necro huffed for a good while longer, then screamed at me for help.

[Hey! Hey hey hey! Seventh floor! Come to the seventh floor! There’s two people who are in brave class here!]

“So what? Isn’t three vs. two pretty doable?”

[You son of a b…! No, just get your ass over here!]

Well, the saint was pretty useless, after all. Necro was pretty much fighting three people on his own. Two of them were at the brave class at that. I could only send my condolences towards him.

“Ahaha, stop exaggerating and get to the rooftop already. The hotel’s going to collapse soon.”

[Hey! Are you seri…!]

I tuned out Necro as I walked down the emergency stairs. I checked the wristwatch. It was almost ten.

What was to be delivered to the rooftop were giant cubes of marble weighing tens of tonnes.

I arranged it so that they would arrive one after the other, fitting together perfectly. Just like tetris. Once the weight on the rooftop exceeds a certain point, the hotel would collapse at an extreme pace. Of course, I’ve prepared methods to weaken the steel structure of the building as well. What was to be delivered to the basement were thirty time bombs. After all, guns weren’t the only weapons you could buy with Heart of Gold.

Try to stop me if you can, Thief.