Cyberpunk, but urban

"Haha," Olivier laughed, and then a slightly serious expression appeared on his face. After considering his words, he said to Roland, "This matter is not easy to handle. It is related to the branch of L Company."

"Wait, the branch of L Company?" Roland also put away his smile, took a step back, and changed into a posture that would facilitate a serious conversation between the two of them.

To be honest, he couldn't help but be nervous. Ye Lan, the employee of L Company's headquarters whom he just met, had just mentioned to him and Angelica yesterday afternoon that he would use the right to live in the nest in exchange for the two of them taking care of his adopted daughter. As a result, something went wrong at the branch of L Company today!

I hope it won't affect the L nest itself...

Roland thought to himself and continued to ask Olivier for more details: "What happened?"

Olivier nodded at him and continued, "We received a commission saying that the branch of L Company in Alley 25 suddenly collapsed, and an unknown number of strange monsters escaped and have now caused a lot of damage in the back alley."

"Many monsters... so we're just short of manpower?"

After hearing the situation, Roland felt a little more relaxed. It was just a few monsters that escaped from the branch of L Company, one of the World Wings. For this city, it was just a "that's all" problem.

"Although there are reasons for this, you should not take it lightly." Olivier advised, and then said to Roland: "The first batch of the association's finishers have collected some information from the residents of the back alley. There is a high possibility that there are one or two powerful monsters with the combat power of the first-level finishers among those monsters."

"Relax, relax. There are only one or two of them. Our fighting power is enough to deal with them. If you don't have any other information, I will set off now."

Roland smiled in relief. This level of commission was not a problem for him. It seemed that Olivier only asked him for help because he was short of manpower and lacked high-level combat power.

Unfortunately, Roland and Olivier were still unaware of what had happened in L Nest. In other words, among the other companies in the World Wings, only T Company, R Company, and W Company discovered the abnormality at the first time because of the energy agreement between them and the Brain Lobe Corporation.

As for the remaining wings in the city, they all just thought that there had been some turmoil in L Nest in recent days, but the company itself had not encountered any crisis.

This situation will probably continue until Angela's library opens and the leader officially informs the entire city of the broken L wing and the collapsed L nest.

Olivier waved his hands helplessly and said to Roland, "Ha, it's really hard to ask you to be more cautious. Okay, I'll leave this matter to you."

After the two finished their conversation, they each led some of the finishing men from the Southern Three Sections of the Association to the two ends of Alley 25. They planned to search in opposite directions from both ends, try to find all the escaped monsters at once, and then defeat them all.

The execution of their plan can be said to be quite successful. The two teams quickly found some of the escaped monsters in Alley 25, which were the anomalies under the jurisdiction of the Lobotomy Corporation branch.

Although most of the abnormalities should be locked up in the branch facilities by measures set up in advance when the branch collapses, there will always be a small number of them that escape back to the ground for various reasons.

For example, in the official comic book "WonderLab", the branch of the Lobotomy Corporation, the abnormalities in it left the company facilities together under the special ability of Distorted Kate and entered the ruins of the city.

However, these things were not important to Roland and Olivier. Under their leadership, four abnormalities had already turned back into egg shapes after being unable to withstand their attacks, and the distance between their two teams was only three streets.

But this is normal, the Anomalies that their two teams encountered were just low-level Anomalies that did not exceed the Teth level at most.

These abnormalities wandering in the back alleys or standing in some dark corners are not even that dangerous. They simply walk out through the passage opened by two Waw-level abnormalities.

The two abnormalities that were fighting in front of Roland and Olivier's teams were the monsters that actually caused harm to Alley 25.

However, these two anomalies were no match for the two of them who were as skilled as color-level finishers. With the help of other guild finishers around them, it didn't take long for them to turn the two anomalies back into eggs, and they were ready to be contained.

"Thanks. Now we just need to throw these monsters back to the L Company branch and seal it off completely."

He took out a batch of soda from a soda machine on the street and distributed it to his colleagues. Olivier then threw a can of strawberry-flavored soda toward Roland.

"Well, that's no big deal." Roland opened the pull ring of the soda, letting some of the soda that surged out due to the throwing spill onto the open space next to him, and then he casually picked it up and took a sip.

Chapter 31. Damn, Violet Tears

After drinking the soda, his body suddenly felt warm, and all the fatigue from the battle was instantly swept away.

"Wait, this isn't right!"

However, it was too late. An unlucky guild leader who had received the grape-flavored soda had already drunk it and disappeared from their sight amid the sound of waves and seagulls.

"Damn, is this soda machine one of those monsters too?"

Olivier angrily threw the Welch's Le soda in his hand at the soda machine, but in the end, they had to take the loss and move the soda machine back to the Lobotomy Corporation branch.

"By the way, who is the client of this commission? Can you tell me?"

While helping the Association's finishing staff carry the Abnormality eggs, Roland asked Olivier, who was still angry,

"Ah, it can be said that the client doesn't seem to mind this. He was an employee of the headquarters of L Company. I remember his name was... Ye Lan?"

"Who?"

Roland felt a sense of uneasiness in his heart, and then a member of the First Association came running out from the entrance of Alley 25.

"Something's wrong in Alley 60. A pianist who turned into a monster has killed % of the population of Alley !"

"What?!" Upon hearing this, Roland immediately dropped the soda machine in his hand and looked at Olivier: "Olivier, I..."

"Stop talking, go!"

……

……

Let's go back in time a little bit, to the moment the pianist just distorted it.

Far away at the other end of Alley No. 9, Ye Lan and Luna stood on the top of a tall building, listening quietly to the faint but clearly audible piano sounds echoing in this alley of sound.

However, the twisted pianist who played all this music now appeared at the other end of Alley 9, almost completely opposite to where they were.

Ye Lan secretly complained: "Damn, the pianist's twisted place is so far away from here. Angelica is a dignified black finisher. Even if she is pregnant, she should not be unable to escape. How did she die at the hands of the pianist?"

The sound of the piano music seemed to become a little louder. In the gap between the buildings, Ye Lan seemed to be able to see the twisted figure and the flesh and blood notes around it.

He could see that, and so could Mrs. Angelica. She, who was pregnant, immediately left her house with her simple luggage and ran towards the exit of Ninth Lane, which was far away from the pianist.

Luna, who had been staring at the door, pulled Ye Lan's corner and said, "Brother Ye Lan, Mrs. Angelica has gone out."

"Let's go, let's follow."

After saying that, Ye Lan, who had already changed into a small beak through the ring, picked up Luna with one hand and jumped onto the roof of a house that Angelica passed by in one step.

After walking about a thousand meters with Mrs. Angelica, the piano sound surrounding their ears doubled in volume again.

Ye Lan took the time to look back. The twisted figure had grown to be as big as the tall building in the Ninth Alley. Around him were dozens of flesh-and-blood humanoid guards who were also playing the piano. At the same time, there were hundreds of blood-red notes arranged in the air to form a musical score.

However, even though the Pianist's distortion had become so horrific that it had even massacred 40% of the population of Alley , it still could not cause any harm to Angelica on the other side.

hum-

Just as Angelica turned a corner and walked into an alley, Ye Lan heard a sound that was almost imperceptible amidst the piano music.

"Something's wrong!"

He who was protecting in secret immediately jumped from the roof into the alley, and the pistol-shaped ego in his hand fired continuously in mid-air. Countless bullets like sharp fangs swept towards the purple figure approaching Angelica from the dark.

Then, he was blocked by the huge sword that the man untied from behind, which looked more like a hammer than a sword.

After landing on the ground, Ye Lan placed Luna at his feet and said to the figure, "How could a color-level finisher like Jin Zi Lei Di sneak attack a pregnant woman?"

"Heh, you are indeed a variable that can disappear from my observation."

As the person spoke, she dodged the second round of bullets fired by Ye Lan. There was a mocking smile on her face. It was Jin Zi Lei Di.

Until then, Angelica, who was dragged down by the child, finally reacted and quickly retreated behind Ye Lan and stood with Luna. If it weren't for Ye Lan's two rounds of shooting, she would probably have been seriously injured in the first sneak attack of Violet Teardrop.

"Thank you."

Although it was unclear how Ye Lan knew that Violet Teardrop would attack her, Angelica still remembered to thank him. Without a weapon in her hand and having to take care of her unborn child, she could only pull Luna to dodge and try not to affect Ye Lan's fight with Violet Teardrop.

"If you want to stop me, you can't do it with your tattered clothes."

Iori smiled sarcastically, then she crossed Ye Lan's line of fire like a nimble snake, and rushed to the position in front of him in just a few steps.

"Sakura goes to the grave."

Ye Lan whispered the name of the abnormality, and a blooming blood-red cherry tree sprang out from the ground in front of him, blocking Iori's original attack route.

Iori had already grasped the sword at her waist, and if she took another step forward, she could easily cut through Ye Lan's armor. However, the appearance of the cherry tree forced her to change her steps, go around the side of the cherry tree, and draw out her rapier to stab Ye Lan's armpit.

The snake-like stab failed. An iron fan with a bright red background and countless cherry blossom patterns opened in front of her sword, blocking the fatal piercing.

"I'm going to say the same thing back to you."

The fan fluttered in his hands, and collided with Iori's sword to the rhythm of the music played by the pianist, making a tinkling sound.

This ego equipment, called Falling Cherry Blossoms, which has the ability to make people who look at it feel uneasy subconsciously, turned into a flowing robe on Ye Lan's body. The cherry blossoms that seemed to be there and not there fell on the plain clothes, but appeared on the ground.

"Oh, you just know how to brag."

Iori retracted her rapier, and the cherry tree had disappeared like a phantom, and there was no longer any obstacle between the two of them.

The pitch-black sword at his waist came out, and a violet moonlight shone between the two of them.

The iron fan in Ye Lan's hand closed instantly. The folded iron fan only lasted for a few seconds before it got the moonlight. Then, along with Ye Lan, who was holding both ends of it with his hands, was knocked back to Angelica and Luna.

A trace of blood appeared where the ego armor was cut. Even though Ye Lan had blocked the sword itself, the sword wind still cut his chest.

"It seems that it is too arrogant to use T-level to fight against you." Ye Lan showed a happy smile on his face and dispersed the equipment on his body.

Chapter 32. Some people don't care about their dignity anymore

The ego suit [Falling Cherry Blossoms], as its name suggests, fell on Ye Lan and disappeared into nothingness in the breeze.

After removing the Teth-level ego suit, Ye Lan had an obvious bloodstain on his chest. The scar caused by the sword wind from the Purple Teardrop Sword pierced through the black suit he was wearing and caused a cut on his chest.

Ye Lan clapped his hands and praised Jin Zi Lei Di: "As expected of Jin Zi Lei Di, it seems that the Teth-level equipment is too arrogant to use against a master like you."

Although, in Iori's opinion, this praise was no better than ridicule.

"Then, out of respect for you, let me try this set of equipment... The Sword of Tears!"

A western sword as bright as the night appeared in Ye Lan's hand. A long windbreaker with a blue gradient replaced the torn suit on his body. Under the influence of the ego suit, his short black hair continued to grow until it fell to the ground, turning into the same gradient blue with bright stars as the hem of the windbreaker.

"Your stabbing stance is very powerful, but I wonder which is more powerful, my stabbing sword or yours?" Ye Lan turned the rapier lightly in his hand, and his whole body naturally assumed an almost perfect stabbing stance.

The next second, his entire body passed through the gap between him and the Sumire Teardrop like a blue phantom. The tip of the rapier was like a bright star in the night, instantly penetrating the dim space in the alley and stabbing towards Iori's right shoulder blade.

"The purpose of the attack is so obvious, do you want to hit me too?"

Jin Zi Lei Di didn't even raise the sword in her hand. She just turned sideways and blocked Ye Lan's attack with the blunt weapon on her back.

However, Ye Lan's thrust was only the opening move. His left foot drew a half-circle and stopped behind him. After a little accumulation of strength, he suddenly exerted force. His left hand holding the sword stabbed Iori nine times in a row at the speed of a storm as his body moved. The stabbing sword, as fast as starlight, left a trail of phantoms in the air.

"Yes, that's interesting."

It seems that the katana in Jin Zi Lei Di's hand was put back into the scabbard at her waist when she turned around to block with the blunt weapon behind her. At this time, she also confronted Ye Lan head-on with her stabbing sword.

The two swords left countless afterimages between the two men, but there was no crisp sound of weapons clashing.

In order to gain the upper hand, the distance between the two men kept shrinking, and the angle of the thrust became more and more tricky.

This waltz, with both sides' lives at stake, almost turned into a close dance during the continuous attacks that lasted for several minutes. Ye Lan and Iori's swords finally collided at this distance, and the violent waves caused by the collision of their weapons even blew all the unfixed debris around the alley to the edge of the wall, and even embedded in the walls of the surrounding houses.

"It's great that you can stop me from getting to this point."

At this extremely close distance, Jin Zi Lei Di still had a mocking smile on her face. She didn't seem to be struggling at all because of Ye Lan's attack, and she could even comment on his skills with interest.

"But, what a pity."

As she spoke, she suddenly exerted force on the rapier in her hand, sweeping Ye Lan away. Then, the sword on her waist appeared in her hand like a phantom, and she swung it from Ye Lan's lower right to his left shoulder in an instant, knocking Ye Lan, who was already unstable, away again.

If it weren't for the fact that the coat of the Sword of Tears suit on his body automatically transformed into heavy armor to block the slash, Ye Lan would probably have fallen into the debris in the alley with blood spurting out.

However, after that slash, Iori's attack was not over yet. She still switched the blunt weapon behind her without anyone noticing. The alloy weapon crossed the alley like a man-eating python and hit Ye Lan and Angelica and Luna behind her.

"Where's your face!?"

If this attack was hit by the Violet Tear Drops, Ye Lan could still rely on the Waw-level ego suit on his body to save his life, but Luna and Angelica behind him would be seriously injured by his impact, or even die on the spot.

However, Ye Lan, whose body was still in mid-air, had no way to deal with it at the moment... No, it should be said that he himself had no way to deal with it.

"Queen of Greed, help me give her a punch."

The next moment, the magical girl wearing golden boxing gloves appeared in a teleportation array. That was the name of the ego suit, and also the launch of her famous move, the Flash Gold Charge.

Countless golden ribbons with checkered patterns formed circles of magic circles in front of the magical girl, and the dark-skinned girl threw a punch that could decide the outcome.

The fists and blunt weapons collided, and golden and purple waves spread in all directions, almost instantly destroying the surrounding buildings and turning them into ruins.

At this time, Ye Lan finally fell back to the ground and regained his balance with the help of the rapier in his hand.

"Tsk, is this the specialty of your L company?"

Iori looked at the magical girl with displeasure as she turned into a point of light and disappeared. This abnormal entity that suddenly appeared and disappeared interrupted her [Illusion Dance], and she lost the opportunity to achieve her goal with this combo.

Faced with such a color-level finisher who could harm Luna and Angelica who were protected by him at any time, Ye Lan did not intend to continue using the Waw-level ego suit to fight with her.

The sword of tears turned into black tears and fell on his body, dyeing the ground at his feet into the night. Although the ego equipment was removed by him, the blessing of the sad magic girl remained on him.

Then, a brilliant blue heart lit up on his chest, and the voice of the rising star flowed in the light emitted by this fascinating blue heart. The ego equipment named Voice of the Rising Star appeared on Ye Lan.