13th Project: Substitute Coder

Chapter 3: A New Face in Town

"What's the catch, Eru-chan?"

"Hey, Botan. Another monster was spotted and it was inside my school. That organization obviously released a new prototype of it. For now, we need to gather information and take it down. I could stall it for you if you want-"

"No. Let me cook." I cutted off Eru-chan's "NPC" before he could present himself as a decoy.

"Huh. But it's just near my loc-"

"I said let me cook."

I could hear the sigh of defeat from the other line before giving me advice, "If you say so, Botan. Be careful, okay."

Yeah, it's related to "Coder" stuff, which meant that Eru fought a monster he wasn't supposed to kill before. He wouldn't survive that if it wasn't for the help of his Coder friend.

Speaking of Coders, is Sei there to fight that monster? That means he's on the scene right now. I had to start moving.

Right, my car's in the office. It's technically not mine and I had to lease it once for a mission. Can't borrow that for a week, I guess. Good thing I had my own motorcycle. I hope I'm not late for the party.

With the press of the starter, the engine revved up and I'm good to go. My gut is telling me it's gonna be a bad idea but I had to go. The quicker I get to that location, the easier my work's gonna be.

How's Sei right now?

-

Seijuro's POV

"You're a Coder, eh?" The green-haired janitor formed a smirk on his face, visible from the yellow screens floating in front of him.

"And you're a Hacker, am I right?" Of course, I had to fire back with a mocking tone.

Y'all might be thinking. How did I know who that guy really is?

Simple. I had a quick scan around me and noticed this "janitor" having no ID in his codes. When did I have time to do that? My fingers were already typing the commands on a mini-screen behind my back when I was pressing accusations onto him.

Didn't see that coming, didn't you?

"Hacker? Oh. That's a term you Coders use for someone leaving CyNet. I prefer the term freelancer."

The fuck is a freelancer? That didn't matter to me. All I have to know was his real intention.

"You took down the Dump File here earlier, am I right?"

"So what? It's my thing to clean something you Moderators can't."

A Hacker cleaning a Dump File? That's the first time I heard about that kind of job. And what did he mean by Moderators unable to do their jobs?

"What is blud waffling?" I shrugged at him, poking fun at his useless excuse.

"How about I cook a waffle out of you?"

In a blink of an eye, the sound of the ceiling being crushed by a heavy object was heard, followed by the cracks of the ceiling above me. With my quick mental coding, I managed to step out of the falling object. It did cause tremors upon landing from its sheer weight, which almost threw me off balance. It even destroyed a portion of the school building.

Did he just try to drop a titanium block on my head inside the school hallway?

This guy's not just a nobody who got a Coder ability yesterday. He just produced a block of titanium the size of a container van from thin air in a nick of time. No way a mere Coder could just do that. It would take five seconds or so to produce something similar to it, considering its size and mass, but he did it in just half a second.

This guy's a CyNet-level threat, and he's too dangerous to be kept alive.

"You know, trying to kill me isn't enough. You need balls to do that to me!"

Despite my taunts on him, I had to be aware of his movements. I'm an Avast, yes. We were taught to fight a Hacker. But there's no definite way on how to send them to the shadow realm. All we could do was to fight them with the use of advanced mechanics as our advantage. But even with that, we're just like decorated Moderators.

I should call for help. There's no way I could beat his ass all alone. Cyan's gone hopping from one Server to another, making her hard to track. And I don't wanna disturb Keith.

Fuck it. I'm an Avast. Why would I call for help if I myself was the help this Server needed?

Besides, I had to test my skills against a real opponent. Could I ruin this guy's face or nah? Let's find out.

With my swift hands, I summoned rockets above and launched it towards his direction. However, instead of dodging it, the Hacker caught my explosive package.

Shockwave threw dust onto my face with black smoke covering the crumbling hallways.

Damn. This guy really caused damage to properties without reconsidering his actions. Is he really a janitor at this point?

Before I knew it, a sharp jolt in my cheek threw me on the school grounds. It was still raining hard and I could feel the cold breeze before dawn.

What the hell?

"Next time, don't be so confident."

With a smirk on his face, the Hacker stepped out of the shelter of the school building and onto the wet grass, letting himself get soaked under the showers of the clouds.

The taste of iron lingered on my mouth as I wiped the blood off my lips. That punch did hurt a lot. Good thing it didn't dislocate my jaw or something. But he ruined my face. No one had laid a finger on my face ever since I became the Server Moderator.

And now... This guy's gonna taste my wrath.

"You fucked up so bad. I'll make sure you'll be contained in a virtual firewall where you belong!"

"Go ahead! Fight me like a true Moderator! Dance with me!"