Chapter 40

“See you later.” …the very next moment, blood spurted. “What?!” But not from Kaisei’s body. The other western officer, First Lieutenant Ian, was hit. The silver bullet lodged directly into the crouched man’s skull. “No way!” Rain couldn’t have missed. The bullet he’d fired flew straight at Kaisei, and it hadn’t misfired. But somehow, the silver bullet hit First Lieutenant Ian, who sat next to him. “Ha-ha-ha,” Kaisei sneered. It appeared everything had gone according to his plan. The Devil’s Bullet’s effect would activate, altering reality irreversibly. Shit, this is bad! “Good-bye, Rain Lantz.” After that final utterance echoed in Rain’s ears…the world shifted. An odd sense of vertigo dominated Rain’s mind, scrambling his brain. Ugh… The Reprogramming had taken effect. Rain no longer stood in the clock tower. Instead, he found himself amid a blazing battlefield. The moment he realized that, he tensed, expecting an enemy attack. But none came his way. On closer inspection, he realized his mistake. Trees burned before him, and he stood in the middle of a battlefield, but all the units around him were O’ltmenian. They rode down the mountain at low speed. And eventually, Rain’s vehicle’s radio spurted out a report that cleared up his doubts. “All remaining units from the third squad are to return to formation. There could still be enemies lying in ambush. Don’t let your guard down just because we won.” The report delivered rather shocking news. Reality had shifted, creating a world where the East won the Lakuta ruins region battle with little difficulty. What the hell? What had happened? Prior to the Reprogramming, the battle had swung in the West’s favor due to the Razor-Edge Model’s intervention. But in this new world, the East had easily claimed victory. First things first, we need to know what’s happening… Rain required information to plan out his next steps. Turning his gaze forward, he found that he shared an Exelia with Athly. That particular detail seemed to have changed. “Athly,” Rain called out to her. “Um, I know this sounds strange, but I’ve gotta ask you something. Where are we again?” He knew his question sounded unnatural, but he had no time to spare. If she probed him, he planned to gloss over that fact. But to his surprise, his question…went completely unanswered. Wait, what? Athly remained silent. And not because she hadn’t heard him, either. When he bent over to get a better look at her face, he realized she was cradling her head as though dizzy. What’s wrong with her? I asked a pretty simple question. “Oh, sorry, I, um…,” she said before pausing for a moment. “M-my head…hurts.” “Your head hurts? Why? Did you get injured back there?” “No, it’s, um, I banged my head a little earlier… Ha-ha, ha-ha-ha…,” Athly said and moved her head, looking around. Apparently, she didn’t know where they were, either. Sure, Rain had no right to complain, since he’d asked her the same question, but that seemed more fitting for a gunner. They often didn’t have the best grasp of their environment, so his lack of knowledge wasn’t entirely outside the realm of possibility. However, manipulators like Athly relied on their knowledge of positioning and terrain, so she had no excuse. Did she actually hurt her head? Rain worried about Athly for a moment before shifting his focus. There were more pressing matters to address, after all. Kaisei… The man who’d devised this Reprogramming still remained among the living. How much did he know? What was his true goal? Those were the questions that took over his mind, sweeping away any concerns he had about Athly.