Faced with the Chimpanzee-Man's mockery, Sudou Ken's temper ignited in an instant.
"Stop looking down on people, you animal! You're nothing but an untamed beast!"
He roared and swung his blade in a wide overhead arc — a killing blow aimed straight at the gut.
The Chimpanzee-Man known as Charlie simply shook his head.
"A swing that slow... are you trying to perform a circus act?"
"Well. I don't particularly enjoy hurting animals, but I'm not afraid of violence either."
Charlie shifted — barely.
In the exact instant Sudou's blade came down, Charlie did nothing more than step aside. The strike carved empty air.
In the same motion, Charlie hooked a foot behind Sudou's ankle, and one long arm shot out — reaching for the blade in Sudou's grip.
In that split second of flashing motion —
Zzzt——!
A low, droning hum. A triangular laser-wire net fired straight toward him.
Charlie made a snap decision — abandoned the grab — and instead seized the stumbling Sudou Ken by the collar, yanking him forward to use as a human shield.
Unfortunately, Charlie had underestimated the Black Sphere's technology.
The laser net moved like it had eyes. It bent around Sudou at a deeply unnatural angle, wove together behind Charlie in an instant, and cinched tight — binding it completely.
Thud!
With nothing to hold onto, Sudou Ken faceplanted onto the cold tiles and skidded several meters across the floor.
By the time he hauled himself upright — covered in dust, face a mess — and got a clear look at who had come up behind him, there was no relief at having survived. Just the hot, humiliating burn of wounded pride curdling into fury.
"Who asked you to help?! I had it handled!"
Further down the corridor.
Chris lowered the capture gun, the Invisibility Spray-coated Magic Glove still flickering out of sight on his hand.
...
You know what.
Sometimes the sheer stupidity of a situation pushed a person so far past the point of words that all they could do was laugh.
Honestly — were he and Ichinose, both wearing combat suits, genuinely incapable of catching up to Sudou Ken?
Obviously not.
The simple truth was that Sudou had been treating the Black Sphere exam like it was a casual stroll. The moment the group had landed and everyone else was still checking the radar map and hammering out a basic plan, Sudou had glanced once at the survivor locations — completely ignoring the second red dot sitting barely any distance from Ayanokoji's group — and bolted off alone at full speed.
Ichinose had tried to call him back. Ryuuen Kakeru had stopped her with a cold laugh.
"Let him go," Ryuuen had said. "That mad dog won't learn to heel until he gets a good beating."
At this point they were all experienced players. Everyone knew how the Black Sphere liked to operate — hiding the boss right next to the last ordinary monster, ready to spring a nasty surprise.
With the two Chimpanzee-Men positioned this close together, the implication was clear enough.
And yes — this was, of course, something Chris had arranged on purpose.
He'd wanted it to open immediately into a decisive confrontation. He'd wanted that knife's-edge, kill-or-be-killed pressure right from the first second — that was where the real tension lived.
But to maintain his cover as an ordinary student swept up in events beyond his control, he'd timed it carefully, arriving just a beat ahead to pull Sudou out of trouble.
And this was what he got in return.
Fine. Big moves. Very bold.
How many lives do you think you have, talking to a god like that? You're first on the list the moment this is over.
"The monsters the Black Sphere deploys are almost always running several tiers above normal human physical capacity," Chris said, his tone even.
He turned the Magic Glove — still invisible under the Invisibility Spray — over in his fingers.
"Fighting with a melee weapon and relying purely on your own body? The odds are not in your favor. That's the real reason I told you not to pick the tachi."
As he spoke, his gaze slipped past Sudou and into the deeper dark beyond.
Somewhere out there was Charlie's brother — the one who'd been solo-clearing the White House back in his own world.
And beyond that...
The presence that had been completely and utterly suppressed from the very first moment. Not hidden — erased.
Goto.
And honestly? The name fit.
Compared to the Chimpanzee-Men brothers — who were still blundering around getting their bearings — Goto had done something else entirely. The instant he'd confirmed the transfer to this unfamiliar environment, he had wrested control of the body away from Miki without a second's hesitation.
And then, right under the brothers' noses, he had buried every trace of hostility. Every involuntary reaction. Gone. Perfect concealment.
That kind of adaptability was something else.
Meanwhile, Sudou Ken had picked himself up off the floor. One look at the growing crowd — Ichinose Honami, Ryuuen Kakeru, the others filing in — and his expression soured further.
Determined to reclaim something, he stomped up to Charlie and raised his blade.
"Heh. Stupid monkey. You know what separates humans from animals?"
"Human intelligence. You and your whole species could evolve for another five hundred years and you still wouldn't build weapons this advanced. Now die quietly."
But before the blade came down —
"Stand down!"
Ryuuen Kakeru's voice cracked through the air like a whip.
"Are you deaf? Did you somehow forget what I just said? These two targets go to the people who need the points — back off."
Sudou froze. He rolled his neck, jaw jutting out in defiance.
"Hey, by any measure, we're the ones who found this prey. Why should we hand it over?"
He looked to Chris, angling for backup.
"Right, Chris? This is our kill."
Chris shook his head and handed the capture gun directly to Shiranami Chihiro, who was standing at Ichinose's side.
"No. The points should go where they're needed."
"If a participant fails their objective or loses someone they were supposed to protect during a Black Sphere exam, there's a chance of negative scoring. And if your score goes negative three times..."
He looked at Sudou.
"...the Black Sphere eliminates you outright. That's a basic survival rule. It was in the handout Hirata distributed. Did you actually read it?"
Sudou blinked.
...Was it really in there?
"Ha— haha... I must have forgotten that part."
He knew he was wrong. He wasn't going to admit it out loud.
Satisfying neither his anger nor his pride, he drove a vicious kick into the prone Charlie, then sheathed his blade with exaggerated contempt.
"Tch. Lucky you. You get to keep breathing. For now."
"No."
"You're the one who gets to keep breathing."
A voice like cold gravel scraped against the inside of Sudou's ear.
"What—"
He didn't get to finish.
From the dark, a hand emerged — twice the size of any human hand. It clamped around Sudou's entire face, fingers wrapping his skull like a man palming a basketball, and drove him sideways into the wall.
BOOM.
The wall cracked. Chunks of concrete scattered.
By any reasonable metric, a hit like that should have left any ordinary person dead or in a coma, sliding peacefully into dreamless sleep.
But — offend the abbot and still expect rest? Absolutely not.
Something like a massive shot of adrenaline must have kicked in, because Sudou Ken — bleeding from the head, face twisted with pain — stayed conscious. He was barely holding himself upright, but his eyes were open.
He stared up in horror at the Chimpanzee-Man that had appeared from nowhere, his voice shaking.
"You... who the hell are you?!"
The creature didn't dignify the question with a direct answer.
The Chimpanzee-Man called Omelos glanced down at his brother, trussed up by the laser net, and let his contempt ring freely.
"I told you, Charlie."
"Against a creature like humanity — soft on the inside, bullying only what it can overpower — you don't waste breath talking about coexistence. You break them with absolute force. That's all it takes."
Omelos spread both arms wide, putting his build on display — visibly larger, more powerful than Charlie's already considerable frame.
"In the last world, I tore through half of the United States on my own. Cut down a third of its population..."
"And I can do exactly the same here."
He looked down at the netted Charlie, voice going ice cold.
"So go ahead. Drown in that naive idealism of yours. Rot here."
On the ground, Charlie shifted, tested the net — and found it cinched tighter with every struggle. He sighed.
"Be careful. Their weapons are strong. That rope—"
Omelos licked his knuckles, utterly unimpressed.
"Don't need to."
"I'll kill every last one of them before they can pull the trigger."
He dropped into a low stance, legs coiling tight —
And got exactly halfway through his power pose.
Zzzt——!
Another familiar arc of blue-white light cut through the air.
At the same moment, Sakayanagi Arisu lowered the capture gun with an expression of supreme boredom.
"Honestly... so loud."
She sighed, watching the still-posturing chimpanzee with the look of someone waiting for a slow student to catch up.
"NPCs should act like NPCs."
"Stop fantasizing about conquering the world. That kind of speech..."
"It's genuinely embarrassing to listen to."
Omelos, still mid-pose, swung one clawed arm at the incoming laser net — clearly intending to slash through it.
And then —
He was gift-wrapped. Neat, secure, and completely immobilized. Same model as his brother.
GG.
A beat of silence settled over the corridor.
But none of them relaxed — not Chris, not Katsuragi, not Ryuuen. Not one of them lowered their guard.
Only Ichinose spoke, reaching out a hand to stop Sudou Ken before his rage could override what remained of his common sense.
"Hold on. Don't move yet." Her voice was quiet, focused. "Something they said earlier — 'another world.' I want to know more about that. It might be connected to the Black Sphere's secrets."
Behind the group.
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka watched the subtle tension wired through every person around him, and turned something over quietly in his mind.
They contained two monsters this easily... and they're still this alert.
Of course.
Compared to these two Chimpanzee-Men — all bluster, no substance — the real problem hadn't moved yet.
Was the true threat finally ready to make its entrance?
——End of Chapter——
Note ①: Goto & Miki — Two parasytes cohabiting a single body. Either can take command of the host, but Miki cannot unify the four individual consciousnesses within — which is why, in the original story, Shinichi initially senses only three of the four parasytes inside Goto.
Promo: Warhammer — mixing is absolutely, under no circumstances, something that will ever happen here.
____
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