Clearing the Game at the End of the World

Pt—pshhhk!

Booooom!

“Next!”

“Hey, give me one more shot, hm? I’ll really do it right this time!”

“Shut up and give me the ammo! Hurry!”

Glaring at Vex, who only returned rejection to his desperate pleas, Hyde placed another warhead into the RPG’s muzzle.

“Tch, no fair… I didn’t come out all the way here to do something boring like this… Anyone can make a mistake, so why can’t I?”

Pt—pshhhk!

“Yeah, if it was just one mistake. Every single shot that you fired missed! It’s thanks to you that the monster got this close to us! If we had kept a safe distance in the first place, we wouldn’t have been—”

[Guuwaahh—!]

Booooom!

[Guhgah!]

“In a pinch like this! Next!”

Landing the shot exactly on the monster’s neck, Vex cut off the scream just about to leave its mouth—shooting an RPG in the back of the open trunk of a truck dashing through rough terrain. It wasn’t a task that any average person could do. It was only possible for those like Vex who had an abnormal level of balance.

Beep beep!

With the sound of the truck’s horn, the two hurrying to reload the ammunition could hear Ian’s voice from the front.

“Hyde! Crossroad upcoming!”

“Uh… to the left! Turn into the left alley and go uphill!”

Skreeee—!

“Aghhh! Jaw! Can’t you be a little gentler?!”

“What am I supposed to do when Hyde’s telling me where to go when we’re right at the corner?”

Crashhhh!

As the truck took a sharp turn, the boxes and firearms stored inside the cargo came crashing down, and Vex and Hyde, who secured their bodies with harnesses attached to the cargo bay, struggled to continue reloading the RPG-7 in the midst of the chaos.

“Ahhhh! Everything’s getting dumped out!”

“Hey! Parasite! Hurry up and give me the next shot!”

“The box fell over! The one I’m giving you right now and the one in my pocket are the last ones! I need to untie this if I want to go get more!”

“What? The RPG warheads are rolling around in the cargo right now? Hurry up and pick them up first! The destinations! How many destinations do we have left?”

“Uh….”

With a face battered with bruises, Hyde quickly dug through his memories while untying the string attaching him to the walls of the truck.

Normal RPG shots did minimal damage to Old Picture, barely managing to make it flinch, so he devised a new plan.

A plan that was possible thanks to Hyde’s unbelievable ability, separate from Professor’s quick thinking, to search up the memories of anything that he’s seen at least once.

“Two places! One’s just around the corner, past this alleyway! Vex, hold on to me!”

“Damn it! In the first place, why did he make the plan so dangerous? Hepburn, that bastard! I’m going to beat him up when he wakes up!!”

“H-He was probably in a rush! Vessel was pretty out of it too, you know, hah–hahahah…”

‘I… It’s still technically a plan that came out of Gyosu’s mind, so it counts, right? It’s definitely not a plan I could have ever thought of when I was inside!’

So as Hyde thought to himself, he leaned his body outside the truck just as it slowed down to turn the corner.

“Earghhh!”

Vex held on to the rope that attached him to the truck with one hand and tied the rope around Hyde with the other.

Almost completely depending on his weight on the rope, Hyde leaned even more out of the truck and used the crowbar held tightly in his hands to fish up the box located in the temporary camp of the Executive Department.

Because he caught the box while the truck was still moving, it felt like his arms were going to pull out of their sockets, and a few of the contents spilled out…

“I got it!”

“How many are left?”

“Two, four, six… seven of them!”

But they still managed to pull it into the car.

The master solution Hyde suggested regarding their lack of firepower.

“That’s seven more mortar rounds we have now! It’s a total of forty-two we have now!”

It was to loot the mortar bases, where the Executive Department shot the mortars, and collect all of the remaining shells. Hyde managed to dig out all of the memories of Gyosu when he scanned the streets with the shoe cluster in tow. Based on the locations of the empty bases after the Executive Department either died or ran away, they traveled to each location and collected the shells.

Beep beep!

“Heyyy! How’d it work out?!”

“We got it! We just need to stop by one more spot now!”

“Damn it, let’s say we get the firepower! So where are we going to use all of these? If we just let it rip on the ground, the most it will do is blow up a chunk of its body! It won’t make a critical blow!”

“I know that already! I have a plan, so just go for it now! Past that hill over there!”

“Bloody hell… Gyosu must have had something in mind! I’ve never fought a losing battle following what he said!”

Vrrrrrrrmm!

The Raptor’s stolen armored truck let out a growling roar as it started to race.

“Hyde! The warheads! Now!”

“This is the last one!”

“What? Where’s the rest?!”

“I think they rolled out of the truck when we went around that corner!”

“Aghhhhh! Nothing’s working in our favor!”

“No! Everything’s working out just right! Every single thing!!!”

Vrrraam!

Skreeeeee!

With Hyde’s gleeful shouts, the truck flew up to the top of the hill and came to a burning halt.

“Hyde! Where do we go now?”

“Good job, Metal Jaw! We don’t need to run anymore now!”

“What?”

“This is the dead end!”

The top of a decently steep hill, where the entire model garden came into view. It was what the old people would have considered a nice city view, and it was part of a redevelopment district from the Old Times that was recreated just like the past. The location where Hyde directed to park the truck was at a concrete platform with metal fencing that jutted out of the hilltop, like a viewpoint.

“When Vessel was in kindergarten, the teacher of his class said this. In order to have a proper conversation!”

[Grah, ah, kragg, hahha, krgaghhh!]

Old Picture slowly crawled up the hill with his two arms. His throat tattered up to the point where he couldn’t let out any screams.

“You need to look at the other face to face!”

The massive monster’s head was now at eye level with the group.

“Hey, Metal Jaw! You like explosions, right?”

“Hm?”

Suddenly, an incredibly bad feeling crept into Ian’s mind. Even though they were at the same eye level, mortars weren’t something that they could just throw at the thing, and the monster’s head was still located about 20 meters away from the viewpoint. So there was no way for them to deliver the explosives that they had collected to their target.

D-d-d-d-d-d-d-du—

Except for just one thing.

“Step on it.”

“Hold up, Hyde. Don’t tell me….”

It was odd. He feels like he saw this same situation somewhere else before….

“Step on that axel like your life depends on it!”

Looking at Hyde get out of the cargo bay with the RPG loaded with a single shot, Ian thought back to the past, when he drove the Hummer at max speed in order to escape from the monster underground.

The underground bunker located deep beneath the surface, and the viewpoint at the top of a high hilltop.

The axel he stepped on in order to escape from the Abomination, and the axel he needs to step on to crash into Old Picture.

He obtained a new car in that basement, but he was now at risk of throwing one of them off a cliff with a mountain of gunpowder.

The situations were completely opposite, as if it were somehow planned to be this way.

And the one who planned all of this was the one with the same body and same face as Gyosu Park, but one with a completely different personality.

“Ahahahahah! This is it! The thrill! The excitement! Ahhh, the world is so, so beautiful!”

Hyde.

“Motherf—er. It’s been a while since I promised not to believe in fate and such…”

Looking at the monster crawling up the hill with its tattered body and the man who was laughing like a maniac with a RPG in his hands, Ian’s hands unconsciously tightened around the handle to the point where his knuckles turned white.

Plip. Plip. Plip—

The steady sound of a water drop falling.

Darkness that completely enveloped his surroundings.

And he was left in the middle of all of that.

“This place again?”

Gyosu turned to look at the surroundings to which he was now decently accustomed.

The space he was dragged into each time he lost consciousness. But the difference from the other times was that the blob that Hyde took form to snicker at him was absent this time.

“…..If he isn’t here, then that must mean he switched places with me.”

It was a half-success. The most ideal situation that he thought of before getting hit by Old Picture’s psychowave was to have Hyde block the wave as he did with the curses inside the video game and himself being completely fine.

‘Since the two have the commonality of being attacks directed at the mind, I thought his extra…. existence would somehow minimize the effects. But instead, I took the full hit, and Hyde’s out there completely fine.’

“It’s still a relief just from the fact that I didn’t die… wait. My consciousness is technically back now. I can think about the current situation. I can think properly. No memories were lost. But even though my consciousness is completely back… I’m still here?”

Damn it, a correction. It wasn’t half, but half of a half of success. He didn’t know exactly how much time had passed outside, but he at least thought that he would be back in control once he was awake, but Hyde was still the one outside.

‘Wait a minute. This is more serious than I thought.’

It isn’t the worst-case scenario since he isn’t dead, but it’s pretty darn close to the worst that could be happening.

The fact that Hyde is in main control even after I am completely back meant that possibly… he could continue to be in control.

“It’s not like the guy who had been begging me to lend my body over for even a day would hand it over easily either. This… looks like I’m incredibly screwed.”

Gyosu jumped up to his feet. He didn’t have any information, and the only assumption he could make was that this was probably the worst situation he could think of at the moment. Rather than waiting around for Hyde to give his body back, trying at least something was more to Gyosu’s taste. If it was stolen, he just needed to steal it back, that’s all.

Gyosu stretched his tired, or at least felt tired, body and then scanned the area to see if there was anything that he could use.

The darkness felt like it was within arm’s reach. Useless.

The steady droplet that was falling down from somewhere. Hm, it may be useful to keep track of time if he stays here for a prolonged period of time. Eugh. He didn’t even want to think about it. Useless for now.

His body. Unlike the rest of his body, which was slightly transparent like a ghost, his…. left hand glowed brightly.

“Since our places were switched, can I control this hand as I want now?”

Hm, alright. This can be useful.

Gyosu slowly concentrated on the senses of his left hand. It was in contact with something. Nothing was there, but it still felt like something was in it. A slightly warm, smooth metal, as if heated by the grasp of a human, and a relatively cold metal that hung at the tip of his index finger. A familiar form.

‘This is….. a trigger? Is Hyde holding a gun?’

Hm. It was more than possible. The guy had been nagging him every time they faced reality about how he wanted to shoot a gun. Considering his nature of wanting to do what he wants, he would have gotten his hands on one.

Once he connected with the feeling in his hand, he slowly connected with the other senses that Hyde was experiencing. It felt like he was taking it all in through a frosted window with only a vague silhouette.

‘So this is how Hyde was looking at the world.’

Hm, it was decided. Next time, when this situation was settled, he was going to let Hyde borrow his body for about a day or two. It wasn’t like he could see anything, nor would he be able to see it at all. It was irritating looking at things like this for just 10 seconds, but the guy had been sharing my senses like this ever since he was born.

That was all the time he had for sidetracking. Gyosu concentrated on the fuzzy senses he was slowly becoming accustomed to. A familiar voice was yelling… and another familiar… Ah, this must be Vex. Vex was desperately trying to say something.

“….Hurry…! The guy… crazy….!”

The more he heard it, the clearer it became. Like how eyes become accustomed to the dark, his eyes slowly started sharing the information from Hyde’s vision…

’……..Huh?’

In front of his eyes was the massive head of Old Picture.

‘What about the escape plan? Did it fail? No, everyone looks too fine for that. Hm… aside from one person. But psychowave is a wide-ranging skill. It shouldn’t be able to make just one specific person go crazy like that.’

At the corner of Hyde’s vision, he could see Ian flopping around, tied up in a thick rope used to secure large furniture on trucks. His expression right now looked like he was witnessing the end of the world and was desperately trying to stop it.

“Nein! Nein!! Was zum Teufel machst du denn? Hoer dich auf! Ich bin sicher, dass es noch bessere Wege geben! Bitte! Lass mich frei!!!!! (No. No! What are you doing right now, stop it right now! There’s gotta be a better way than this! I’m begging you, please! Let me go you f—ing bastards!!!!!!!)”

“….I don’t know what you’re saying, but sorry, Jaw! This is Gyosu’s plan!”

“Vex! That monster’s throat is almost done regenerating! We’re going to get directly hit with its shout if we waste any more time! Leave that idiot alone and step on the axel!”

“Wenn der Schaden zu groß ist, ist es bedeutungslos, den Kampf zu siegen! (In battle, when the losses are too great, the victory becomes meaningless!) I can’t do it. That car is my family and companion, and it was with me through all of my Wasteland years! To hell with fate! I won’t let you do that to my car, you bastards!! Vex, you bastard! Do you think this is the reason why I taught you how to drive?!”

‘It wasn’t that I couldn’t hear it. It was incomprehensible from the start. Ian is pretty similar to Vex when you think about it. How they speak nonsense, or German when their emotions are elevated. Either way, you can’t understand them.’

Vrrm! Vrrrrmm!

The sound of the engine roaring to prepare its takeoff shot sharply through the air. He still couldn’t draw a complete picture of the situation, but one thing was certain: Hyde either didn’t see the memory he left him or ignored it. Instead, he created his own plan and reached the climax of it.

Skrrrrrkrkkkkkk—!

With the sound of the wheels scratching the ground, the truck started to push bravely forward.

“Parasite! Hyde! The three of us are seriously screwed if you miss this time!”

“Don’t worry about a thing, my guy! Failure gives birth to success! Although I wasn’t really born that way, I definitely got the hang of it from my two failures!”

Vrrrraaaaaammm—!

Thunk— spt!

After fully pressing on the axle up to nearly the tip of the viewpoint, Vex quickly opened the door and fled the car.

Crash!

The black armored car that crashed through the metal railing of the viewpoint then flew onward towards Old Picture’s face.

“Now, then, Metal Jaw! Say goodbye to your old friend!!!”

“I thought, Hyde, you were truly my friend!”

“When you gain one, you lose another! A snail leaves its old home to go into another, and when a person makes a new friend!”

Pt—pshhhk!

“You have to let go of your old one!”

Ian had the expression of Caesar when he was stabbed by Brutus. And so when Hyde pulled the trigger whilst sending Ian a wink, the RPG warhead left its home and shot towards the armored car that crashed square into Old Picture’s face.

The bullet struck exactly at the cargo area of the truck. And then—

BANGGGGGGGGGG—!!!!!

Explosion.

[Hey, Hyde. What… did you do?]

“Huh? Oh! Vessel! Did you sleep alright? That must have been too loud for a wake up call, my bad.”

Reading the memories of Hyde as he hid from the explosion and its aftermath, Gyosu buried his face into his hands.

‘Damn it! Who would have thought he made such a dangerous and unstable plan! Hepburn, that bastard, I’m going to beat you to a pulp when you wake up!!“

‘Sorry, Jaw! This was part of Hepburn’s plan!’

“Nein, mein LKW!! NeinNNNNNN(No, my truck! NOOOOOOOOOOO)!!!!”

….He was scared. That guy was one of the ones that went into that warzone of a bunker in Area 45 just for a single car.

[….You hold onto this body until you solve that problem.]

‘Kehe! Ohh, I’m so dizzy~ My consciousness is~ fadinggg~’

Whooosh!

With Hyde’s last statement, a ray of light shone through the darkness, and everything slowly started to brighten. What that meant was clear.

[You caused this entire mess, and you’re going back ‘in’?]

‘What, isn’t it the results that matter?’

As if a fog was fading away, his senses and vision started to clear up. After completely regaining control over his body, Gyosu turned his gaze to Ian, who was tied up and screaming out German with foam forming in his mouth, and Old Picture, who was slowly crumbling down with the place where its head had been completely blown off.

P-p-p-plop, p-p-p-p-plop!

A headless Old Picture, who the Investigation Bureau’s Exosuit troops would have dealt with.

“Ahhhhhhhh! Uuuahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!”

Ian was bawling his eyes out as if he saw his best friend explode in front of his eyes.

Results. Results, you say… They were one step closer to resolving the current situation, but this…

‘No matter what happens, I’m going to find a new body for you, Hyde.’

[Oh! Were you impressed? I gotta say, I did a pretty good job!]

No. I can’t beat you up if you’re using the same body as me.

Looking at the situation they were now deeply involved in, which would have been completely fine to leave to the others, Gyosu thought that his vision was darkening just a bit again.