Science Shall Prevail Over Magic

Helium, 7th Chapter | The Barefoot Battle

While he was lying unawares, the sunlight shone in from an excuse of a window.
Although he had given himself up to his slumber without a sliver of caution, he lifted his body while wondering as to how long it had been since a morning was this peaceful.
His back was still slightly fatigued. ‘Was it perhaps due to the sub-par sleeping comfort? Or was it because a futon couldn’t rehabilitate the body as well as a Capsule Machine could?’ While musing, Shin tried to check the time via the Device.

The last he checked the time was when he came out of the forest. He expected the time to be around 18 o’clock Japanese standard time.
Because it was sunset here when he came out, it roughly coincided with the timezone of this star.

From the sunlight, he guessed it to be forenoon. While standing up, he casually groped for the Device on the bedside; however, he couldn’t confirm its existence.

“……No. Yesterday, I definitely……”

While murmuring as if it were someone else’s doing, he sifted through his memories of last night.
When he retired from the futon, the alloy boots, which he put on for the purpose of using Acceleration System, were missing, too.
Flustered, he tracked the location of the Portable Terminal (Device) inside his head.

“……Theft, huh……”

It was careless of him.
He was ruing the fact that he fell asleep despite having noticed there was no key in the room.

Nevertheless, it was possible to track the thief.
The Portable Terminal (Device) was equipped with a PS Satellite, and a Data Chip was embedded inside Shin’s brain.
The Data Chip, which contained the information of various combat techniques, naturally acted as a receptor of electromagnetic waves emitted by the Device.
Amongst other things, the linguistic data could be incorporated, too; however, it wasn’t necessary for an operations unit that Shin was.
The Device could be embedded inside the body, too; however, Shin declined it and had only the Data Chip embedded.

At this moment, Shin wished that he should have had it embedded inside his body; however, he hated the variation in the movement it would bring about.

“……Do I have no choice but to go barefoot?”

With a sensation, that he hadn’t felt in a long time, transmitting through his feet and a body that was excessively light, he left the room.

◆

Oddly, there was no one inside the inn. The town wasn’t much populated either.
While feeling the sensation of grit on his bare feet, he advanced his steps toward the location he had tracked inside his head.

Before long, a grotto could be seen three meters off into the vicinity of the upper reaches of the river flowing next to the town.
At the entrance to the grotto, two men of disgusting looks were standing as if on the lookout. In the vicinity, schops, wheelbarrows and whatnot were scattered about.

The location of the Device, which he had tracked inside his head, seemed to be deeper inside; however, he first proceeded to the location of those men.

“What are you doing, fucker?”
“Sneaking away from work, eh? Lemme send you back to work!”

The man, who had a leather breastplate and western boots put on, tried to latch onto his shoulder all of a sudden. Reflexively, Shin grabbed his arm, placed the man on his back and threw his body up. While twisting his arm, he hurled the man onto the ground.

“Gubuu!”

What happened in that instant was completely dictated by his brain. It was an overreaction resulting from the combat training, which his body was imbued with back on the Earth.

“……Ah”
“F……Fucker!”

The other man, who was dumbfounded for a moment, lunged at Shin to pin him down. Shin was calmly observing his figure, though. At the instant the man’s hand was about to reach him, he sidestepped and planted a kick into the man.

“Zubuaa!”

Leaking a strange sound, the man pitched forward and fell grandly over to the ground.
Offering an apology to the collapsed men, Shin opened his mouth.

“My bad……but I’m looking for something, and it seems to be further down. Can I go in?”

Shin’s words were obviously not in line with the situation.
The two men scowled at Shin while struggling to get up.

“The fuck are you……”
“……N-Now that I think about it, I haven’t seen your face before. Hey Stan, isn’t this guy that Adventurer?”

“……Ah, the one the Deputy Head talked about yesterday! ……Then, can he be considered to have come to resist?”
“……I guess. You report it to the Deputy Head!”

When the man, who was hurled first, said so, the other glanced at Shin before running off into the grotto.

“Earlier, I was careless……I heard you were a Mana user, but you seem to be good at hand-to-hand combat, too. I won’t go easy this time. The likes of you Adventurers……are nothing but labourers!”

Shin couldn’t follow as to what he was talking about; however, he clearly understood that his opponent bore hostile intent and was about to attack.

It had been a long time since he last battled a human opponent. While recollecting his memories, he took the man’s movement in his view.

Inside Shin’s brain was every possible combat technique. From joint lock techniques, to military martial arts for the purpose of facing an armed opponent at the battlefield, to assassination techniques, which ordinary people had never heard about. He had all the data embedded.
However, the data was in the end just data. All it did was interfering with the synapse and transmitting the information of the technique itself to Shin’s brain.
If he were an ordinary human, he wouldn’t be able to make a direct use of it.
Because the body an ordinary human possessed wouldn’t be able to keep up with the information.

However, Shin wasn’t ordinary.
He was exceptionally resourceful, he had god-gifted reflexes, and he was flexible; moreover, he was trained to perfection.
Because he was a human who could make use of it, he was chosen as a combat personnel.

“Raa!”
“……Fuu”

The trajectory of the man’s brandished fist had slowed down to Shin so much so that it seemed to have paused.
Too many wasteful movements. It couldn’t be called an attack. It was merely a lame violence.
Shin dodged with just his neck, exhaled and drew power. He twisted his fist into the man’s solar plexus at the fastest distance; and in that state, he put all his power into it.

“……Ppu”

While the man was struggling not to collapse onto the same spot where he had vomited, Shin stepped into the grotto.