Parallel (A Virtual Gamer's Story) [Vol.1 - Vol.4 Complete]

Chapter 147: Live

This was why Taiga was incomparably shocked to see Saika's corpse. As much as he hated that man, he had never thought of killing him if Henri emerged unscathed. This was because he knew that he would effectively cut off any chance of a peaceful future if he killed that man. Even if the security didn't kill the children in retaliation, they would be imprisoned and live in terrible conditions.

However, what was this?

Without consulting him, Henri and the other teenagers had effectively torn off that peaceful future with their own hands. Now there were only two outcomes left: escape or die.

"To deceive the enemy, one must deceive his friends," Henri replied with a grin. On a typical day, her grin was capable of stealing Taiga's soul. At that moment, however, the contrast between her bloodied face and her white teeth only sent shivers down Taiga's spine. "You were always too close to Saika-sensei, so we could not risk telling you in case you gave it away."

Taiga hesitated then nodded. Indeed that made sense. His performance was much better than the other teenagers, so Saika preferred to focus on him. As such, Saika was present during most of Taiga's experiments. A slip in Taiga's performance might have alerted Saika to something brewing underground.

"Ah, sorry. That makes sense." Taiga heavily exhaled and visibly relaxed. Although his instincts still warned him of danger, Henri's logic made perfect sense, so he could not help but feel he might have been overthinking things.

Taiga took a step toward Henri, but movement at his peripheral vision caught his attention. The young man's heartbeat frantically accelerated, almost blowing out of his chest with fright. Only now did he realize why the uneasy feeling had refused to go down despite Henri's explanation.

At some point during their conversation, the other teens had begun subtly shifting their position without making any large movements that would catch Taiga's eyes. However, right at the last moment, Taiga looked to his left. He spotted Ford taking a simple step, head down as if looking for something. But that small movement raised all the hairs on Taiga's body, and a sense of impending crisis crashed against his heart.

"What the hell is this!?" Taiga screamed with rage, but without waiting for a reply, he shot backward, heading straight for the exit.

Henri's features turned ugly. With an ugly snarl, she ordered, "Catch him!"

Ford, who so coincidentally seemed to place himself close to the door, suddenly burst forward, his speed greatly augmented by the combat suit. On the opposite side, Kugo dashed for the door in his massive suit.

Taiga's eyes shook with shock and despair. As he had thought, the other teenagers were indeed subtly fanning out to surround him and block his escape paths. Luckily, Taiga's animalistic instinct had warned him of the danger on time, or he would most probably have been at their mercy.

With gritted teeth, Taiga ignored the pain in his heart as he swiftly increased his pace, barely managing to squeeze through the automatic doors before Kugo and Ford smashed their way through.

Taiga's gaze hardened as he glared at the formidable suits. Although he was strong, Taiga knew he stood no chance in frontal combat. Taiga stole to the left, depending on his superior speed to traverse the complicated hallway.

Kugo and Ford doggedly gave chase, the former slightly lagging due to the suit's weight. Taiga pushed his body to the limits, managing to keep a distance of ten meters between himself and the chasing duo.

Taiga cursed beneath his breath. His breath ran ragged as sweat soaked his shirt. His heart beat so loudly it threatened to blow out his eardrums. Still, despite the evident panic in his heart, Taiga's gaze remained focused. He plotted continuous escape routes and formulated possible causes for the current situation.