"No way... Was Underling this area's Boss?"

"Ugh..."

[BOSS FIGHT]

[ASIC MEMBERS : UNDERLING & GYONE]

We looked at our opponents without doing anything for several seconds, waiting for them to make a move. When neither of them did anything though, Linda started to lose patience, and went for the blow, targetting Nepgear. Uni didn't wait before targetting and shooting at Linda, who managed to narrowly dodge the shot. Nepgear then rushed Linda to slice her in two, and I took the opportunity to enter the fight by hitting her with my lance.

Of course, that didn't work, and Nepgear avoided the blow and took a couple of steps back, getting near Uni again. I took the time to get back to Linda's side, and look at our opposants again. From what little I could see, none of them looked winded at all, and meanwhile, Linda and I were already a bit tired from all the monsters we've slain this afternoon. It was clear to me that we needed to end the fight quickly, because we couldn't win on pure stamina alone.

Nepgear started rushing me this time, and Uni pointed her gun at Linda. I barely had the time to block Nepgear's downward strike (and damn does this girl hit hard, I could feel my knees buckle under the pressure), before hearing a gunfire noise, accompanied with Linda's pained voice.

Yet, I couldn't bring myself to avert my eyes from my opponent, at least if I wanted to win. As Nepgear applied more force to her sword, I tried to kick her, and to my surprise, the blow landed and broke the stalemate. It clearly wasn't enough to hurt her, but it winded her enough to allow me to be more offensive.

So, I opted for an horizontal swing, with the hope of hitting her with the handle. The blow landed, and Nepgear took several steps back, holding her stomach with one hand. But before I could press the advantage, I saw a beam coming towards me, and before I could do anything, I felt horrible pain on my leg and fell on my knees.

I must have gotten better at getting hit, though, because I didn't let go of my lance. I looked up, and I could see Uni pointing her gun at me. And suddenly, I saw her falling, holding her head- and Linda was behind her, iron pipe in one hand where Uni's head previously was, and another holding her shoulder.

I got up with some difficulties, and looked at our opponents once again. Nepgear was still a bit hurt by my blow, and Uni seemed to have troubles staying up, but clearly it was our team that was the most hurt. Linda couldn't use her right arm, and I couldn't feel my legs.

Nepgear breathed out, and took a step forward. "You have lost. Surrender now, and I'll make sure you don't get hurt more."

Linda looked around a bit, and snarled. She started running towards Nepgear, iron pipe raisen high up, without any regards towards her safety. Unfortunately, Nepgear dodged, and punched Linda, hard, sending her flying towards me. She wasn't unconscious, but she definitely was out of it a bit.

Suddenly, I remembered Cave's gift from two weeks ago. I closed the distance between Linda and I, making it looks like I was just checking if she was alive, before taking out a healing pod and setting it up so that Linda would be healed a bit. It would take time, and I'd need to get the two girls' attention towards me to make sure they don't see the healing gear, but Linda still was better at fighting than me, and so I needed her to be at her fullest.

Before I could do anything, I saw Uni shot at me, and I narrowly managed to dodge- straight into Nepgear, who took this opportunity to kick me, which sent me falling into the ground. My back shot up in pain, but I managed to get back up, even though I needed to use my lance as a walking stick. I tried to activate another healing pod behind me, and looked at Linda. She was getting up, slowly, trying to get behind Nepgear. She looked fine, if a bit weakened.

I saw Uni's eyes widen, as she shouted for Nepgear to dodge, while getting her gun ready to shot. I jumped on the action, and tried to shield Linda. At the same time, Nepgear turned around and tried to slash Linda, a hit she barely managed to dodge. As Uni started screaming "Venom Shot!", I was using my Twinkle Star.

To my shock, Uni's attack passed through my skill, and I was hit straight on my head. I couldn't do anything as I lost consciousness.

"Gyone!"

"What the..."

"Tch... Two CPU Candidates against two normal humans, that's ... That has to be cheating!"

"What are you- Hey, come back!"

"How is she so fast while carrying an unconscious body?"

There isn't a single part of me which does not hurt right now. Nevertheless, I managed to open my eyes, and slowly get up. As I took in my surroundings, I aknowledged the fact that I was back at our mainbase (which meant Linda didn't leave me at Rebeat, thanks everything), watched over closely by some of the bits hacked by Linda.

Linda herself didn't seem to be here. The reason why was obvious as soon as I spotted a note she left me on a desk: she had a meeting with one of her superiors, about what happened at the resort. I really hope nothing bad will happen, but then again she told me she wasn't an elite fighter so she may not be to much in trouble for not defeating two supersoldiers by herself.

Still, I was... Dissatisfied with my performance back there. I could barely hit this Nepgear, and for every blow I landed, she returned them tenfolds. The fact that I couldn't parry Uni's projectile also left a bad taste in my mouth. I already knew I was weak, but this event hammered the fact deeply.

Another of those robots passed in my line of sight. Linda called it an R-4, and that it wasn't wise to start training my skill against it.

I smirked. I also had total control over those monsters- Linda made sure of it. "Hey, you. The R-4 thing."

The robot stopped, and turned to look at me.

"Shoot me."

"You look like crap," Linda told me when she was (finally) back.

And really, I did look horrible. Comes with getting shot again and again in an effort to get better at parrying projectiles.

I looked outside, and realised that there were no lights coming through the windows. Which meant it was actually night time. I turned back to see Linda looking at me with an expression that could translate (roughly) to 'are you fucking kidding me?'

"So," I began, "I may not have noticed the time. But hey, at least the training paid off!"

Linda still didn't lose her expression.

"Umm... If it helps, I stopped at one point to eat? I also made sure to take pauses regularly, and-"

"Gyone." Oof, she stopped me right in my tracks. She's probably angry. "When I left you yesterday, you were unconscious, weak, and somehow poisoned. And now, 24 hours after getting your ass handed to you, I see you willingly getting shot by a robot I specifically told you not to face because you were to weak to handle it while you were healthy. WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING?"

"Not much?" I tried. Linda began to snarl. "Please have mercy?"

She didn't have mercy.

"So, I'm leaving to Lowee. Staff told me they know roughly where Lastation's mascot is supposed to be, and it's in another guy's territory. So, now that we lost Rebeat Resort and that we know the place doesn't hold anything of importance, they want me to search Lowee's mascot."

I nearly spat the water I was trying to drink, but managed to hold it. "What do you mean, you're leaving? You're not even trying to help that other guy find and destroy the mascot thing?"

"Heh, that's the beauty of it all. You're the one that's gonna help him," she said as she started smirking. "I'm sure you're gonna love working with him."

I sighed. "As long as I get to keep the factory. I need to finish my own job fast anyway, so maybe I'll see you at Lowee next?"

Her smirk turned into a smaller, more honest smile. "Sure. Try not to die."

"Prat."

After a day or so, Linda took her stuff and left Lastation. Before going to Lowee, she told me she would take a look at Rebeat, make sure "the broads" (as she called them) didn't do anything bad with "their newfound power".

I don't really know what she means, but she hasn't led me astray so far, so I'll just trust her.

I decided to take a stroll around the city, because I didn't have to meet Linda's colleague before another day or so. Unluckily for me, I couldn't go back to Rebeat Resort, because it was apparently dangerous now. Luckily, the mascot was in yet another resort, called Septent Resort.

Well, lucky, it's easy to say. Linda told me the place is dead as can be. Guild members didn't take care of the monsters fast enough when they first appeared, and they trashed the whole place.

Now, there's nothing but fetch quest there, because there's no point saving the place - it belongs to the monsters and it's pretty much destroyed. According, again, to Linda.

Well, that's it for Septent Resort.

The city of Lastation is full of mysteries, though.

Shops are all over the place. There's no logic behind them, people just bought the first place available and set up the shops they wanted. Well, there's still some kind of logic, due to several businesses that would be so out of place they would have no clients, but still.

Which is why, as of right now, I am looking at these three particular shops.

The one on the left is your standard, run of the mill weapon shop. The one on the right is one of these garden shops where they sell good dirt and stuff to take care of your plot of land.

The one between them is called "Anonydeath's palace of pleasure and debauchery". Neon pink, flashy, I'm sure it lights up the street at 2 AM.

So, yeah.

I woke up by myself, for the first time in maybe three weeks. I had gotten used to Linda waking up first, and waking me up at 8 AM, so this was a bit disheartening. Still, we both have jobs, and I've taken my sweet time doing mine, so maybe her leaving was a blessing in disguise. Now, I can focus on my mission.

First, I took every last bit of credits I had. It didn't amount to much, merely 6K and what's left of Chika's credit card, but I needed it.

Next, I went to explore Lastation, looking for a shop that could make custom weapons. I won't switch my lance, there's no point to that (and I kinda like it, not gonna lie), but I need something to deal with the defensive measures protecting the Basilicom, and more importantly the Sharicite room. If Leanbox's Sharicite room had automatic turrets protecting it, then the military watchtower that served as Lastation's basilicom was sure to have some too.

I can't fight turrets, because I still don't have a ranged weapon (nor do I want one, for the moment at least), so I need to disable them. Luckily, I have an idea. And a shop in my sights.

The little bell jingled as I walked into the weapons shop. There were impressive swords lined up on the wall, guns on a table, and a massive hammer proudly displayed behind the shopkeeper. Said shopkeeper was busy talking with a silver haired boy dressed all important busy-person like. I waited at the back, because it's obviously the proper thing to do, and took a look around me.

Aside from the large ammount of guns and swords, there were other weapons, even if their number was ridiculously low. A bow here, a battle axe there. A knife, a set of ninja stars, and less... Conventional weapons, such as a megaphone or a guitar (I assume they were used as weapons, anyway, because, you know, weapon shop).

The boy wrapped up his talk with the shopkeeper, and took a step to the left, leaving the counter open. I took that as an invitation to join them, maybe because they didn't finish talking but the shopkeeper still needed to do business.

"Hello, sir. Do you do custom orders?"

The shopkeeper shook his head. "Nah, too much work and not enough profit. I know a guy or two, so I can give 'em what you're asking, but that's all, and I can't promise anything."

"Wonderful," I smiled. "Now, I'm gonna try to kill some monsters at the... I think it was called Midcompany? Yeah, that factory dungeon. Since there's robots everywhere, I figured I needed a way to stop them if I was in mortal peril."

The important looking boy frowned, but I continued. "So, do you have a way to make EMP grenades? Or even some in stock? I'm ready to-"

"EMP grenades are strictly forbidden by the law." Damn, that boy's got a feminine voice right there. "It is common knowledge that they only work on human-made machineries, and monsters are somehow immune to EMP shockwaves. They have been deemed a threat to human establishments since before the actual CPUs were born."

"Wait, really?" Damn, here goes that plan. Stick up with the cover bullshit story! "Didn't know that, I lived in a remote location to the far east of Leanbox. We don't really know these kind of things."

The boy's glare turned sharper. "Then, how would you know that such a dangerous item existed?"

I could feel sweat starting to appear on my face. "There was an ASIC goon who tried to storm our settlement, a month or so before I left. Fried up everything, but it gave me ideas. I'm kinda sad it doesn't work on monsters, though. Well, thanks for the help anyway, goodbye!"

As I left, I knew the two guys' glare never left me.

Also, my plan is now in shambles.

After a quick stop at the Guild, to take a quest at the Septent Resort, I left Lastation, to go to said resort. I have to meet her colleague, it's apparently the same rat she made fun of while we trained to create my skill.

Still, I believe I made a rather bad mistake at this weapons shop. I should have at least searched if it was forbidden of not, but nooo, I had to be hasty!

Well, at least this shouldn't reach the Basilicom's staff. What are the odds one of those two knows anyone important, anyway?

"I want to know everything about him."

"Aren't you a little... Paranoid?"

"Maybe. But I can't leave everything to chance."

"What did he do to deserve such suspicion?"

"Do? Nothing yet. But he knows something, and that knowledge already makes him a dangerous individual."

"Wait, what does he know?"

"Forbidden Weaponry."

Author's footnote :

I couldn't write this one. I don't know why, it didn't want to come out, I guess. First chapter I finished the day I had to publish it, and first chapter that I'm really not confident about. Oh well.

First bossfight! Of course, a swift loss. Why would two humans, barely trained, win against CPU candidates? Well, if it was only Uni or Nepgear things may have been different, but there were two of them, so tough luck.

Review Time ~

Ace-of-Weeb : Thanks for the review! And yes, it probably won't be pretty. Until then, Linda's still gonna be one of his only allies.