American Isekai - Chapter 95 (Patreon)

When I woke from my slumber I was met with the cold white ceiling of a hospital room.

I sat up slowly, recognizing certain things around me that indicated this was the Maigsterium’s own hospital.

It took me a minute to wake and process everything. That’s when the memories rushed through my head.

It came in a more objective manner. It seemed that sleep served well to settle my mind, as I knew I had needed to back then. I had gotten too caught up in the extreme situation and lost myself.

Now I could look back at what happened with a clear head.

And I didn’t like it one bit.

Denied a vital boost in power and then mocked with my own trophy. It was quite sinister, not to mention how Carrion lost his mask after I confronted him. We had now shed all pretenses and were now assuredly mortal enemies.

It was almost odd how that worked. I didn’t think I could ever have a mortal enemy like that. But by now I was pretty sure both of us wanted each other dead. The only thing stopping either of us were our statuses, and Carrion's own biases.

I wasn’t worth the trouble to kill. Not yet anyway. If nothing else, he made that fact clear.

I suppose it was actually a good gauge. I at least knew that there wouldn’t be any serious attempts on my life yet. They still thought I was just an annoying bug.

And so I was denied my Crown, but that simply meant nothing changed. I would keep moving forward as I have been.

After throwing my legs over the side of the bed, I tapped my Aerial and made a call.

“Yes?”

Maxwell’s enthusiastic voice sounded in my mind.

“Yea, hi. So funny story…”

I gave him a quick rundown of what happened, causing him to go silent for a few moments.

“...Unfortunately, I can’t do anything about this. I’m not what I once was. So it’s a costly lesson, and a mistake you won’t make again in the future. You’ve just lost another layer of insurance, but at least you weren’t making any significant bets on it. In the end, this changes nothing.”

“I know. Back to training it is then.”

“Indeed. There will be opportunities again in the future. And at least now you know the things those nobles can do, even if only to be petty. You lost an opportunity for growth. He merely said a few words to those under him. The power nobles wield is far higher than your own, so for your own sake, stop provoking them.”

“I’ll do my best.”

“Pray that it’s enough.”

*Click*

He hung up with that response, making me click my tongue as I put my wrist down.

After that, I saw a few notifications from Umara. I also saw the timestamps and realized that it was well into the next day.

My rampant Aura back then really took its toll. My emotions had reached such an extreme that I almost completely detached from them, as odd as that worked. And as a result, my Aura had sharpened significantly.

Perhaps in an attempt to express my rage, my Aura had fought against Carrion’s. But it was completely stifled in its attempts, though not out of expertise.

Carrion was simply too powerful. The best metaphor for how that went would be a scalpel trying to cut through a foot of solid steel armor. There simply wasn’t anything I could do.

And it had severed as a kind of tempering. That was the first time my Aura had been so wanton like that. It was a valuable experience.

At least I hadn’t come out of that with nothing.

I sighed while dialing Umara.

“Hey John.”

“Hello, my sweet. How are you doing?”

I asked with a bright smile. It felt good to hear her voice.

She sighed.

“It’s fine. Boring, maybe a bit irritating, but fine. How about you? I tried to call you yesterday. Are you alright?”

“Of course. I was just occupied for a while.”

“Good. How about matters with the corpse? Is a Crown viable?”

She asked expectantly. I had naturally told her about my plans when I thought of them. I just never expected things to go this way.

But I didn’t want her to worry. She was dealing with things on her end so I wouldn’t burden her with yet another issue until she was free to.

“I’m not sure yet. The stuff regarding crowns is pretty complicated, and I’m still waiting to get news on what the Magisterium is doing. I’ll know later when people start coming back from vacation.”

“Alright. I’ll try and finish things over here. I want to be back sometimes within the next few days. That way we can have some quiet time to ourselves before things pick back up.”

“Sounds lovely.”

I responded in pleasant agreement.

After that we went on to talk for a while. There were no doctors to disturb me so we had a nice conversation before hanging it up for the night.

That’s when I left the hospital, checking out with a clerk before going to the hotel where I saw the Key Master.

“Hello John.”

“Hey Key Master. How’s the night?”

“Well, with the war going on in the market, I’d say rather busy. Thankfully the initial explosive confrontations are over. Now all we have to deal with is the constant skirmishes throughout the city.”

“I see. Is there a projected winner?”

“Hard to say. The Tavera Family is being attacked from every possible angle. They’re stretched as thin as they can be without breaking. But the fact that they haven’t been defeated speaks enough as to the power they’ve accumulated over the years.”

“Seems so.”

I nodded in thought. The fact that the Tavera Family could take on the combined forces of every other competitor in the market and force a stalemate meant they were well above any of their enemies individually. This was contrary to public belief in that they were at least equal to the others, forming a triad of mafias in the Founder’s Market.

Patriarch Tavera was well prepared, and that Immortal Heart was the trigger to all of this. These plans were no doubt months in the making, perhaps years.

The Tavera Family would either rise to heights never before seen, or be eradicated from the market entirely.

In such a war, there was little I could do myself.

“How long do you think this war will last?”

“That depends on the Tavera Family and how fast they can concoct the Crown out of the Heart. It could be anywhere from a month to half a year. They at least have the power to repel their enemies, but not forever.”

“Right. Well, I’ll be gone for most of it. Maybe when I come back from my next trip, it’ll all be over.”

“There’s a chance. But this is also a time for opportunity for someone like you. If you would like to take a look.”

“...”

I was silent as the Key Master slid a small stack of papers over to me, going solemn in the process.

He noticed that as I stared at the sheet, smiling placatingly.

“Don’t worry. This is merely one of the bounties on the Repository. I felt it would be a fine chance for you to make some extra money while ridding the market of yet another parasite. It’ll be far easier than your last kill, because this person is a summoner, like you.”

“Hm. That’s rare.”

I took a breath while grabbing the paper, reading some details about a woman.

She was the head of some company that specialized in smuggling operations. They moved not just people but hard drugs. Her company alone was responsible for nearly 30% of the entire market’s drug throughput.

The Key Master spoke as I read.

“Killing this women won’t stop the smuggling. It’ll just stifle it for a short period of time. But what this will do is create a power vacuum that many unsavory individuals will be fighting to fill. The war with the Tavera Family is already kicking up a storm. This will make it worse, and in the process, take a small amount of pressure off of them. That’s not the reason I’m offering this to you, of course. But it is a natural consequence.”

“Chaos will put a halt to any operation. It’ll destabilize everything and present more opportunities to continue dismantling the structure.”

“Exactly. But being a woman as rich as she is, she naturally has a significant amount of protection. She’s been able to use her summoner smarts to avoid any and all calamities that would have befallen her. So it’s obvious to say that she’s cautious, perhaps paranoid. But I’m willing to bet nothing can prepare her for you.”

“And given her completely ordinary body, I don’t have to worry about sheer power. Any of my attacks can kill her. But she no doubt has protection against that, like armor or some magical stuff.”

I muttered, seeing the few pictures of her with various pieces of gear on. She really did look paranoid. She probably didn’t do anything beyond the walls of her own home if she didn’t have to, and when she did, she only went out with the best protective measures.

How was I supposed to pierce that? It was safe to say that nothing I had could pierce defenses bought with money like hers.

And the Key Master confirmed my guess.

“Indeed, she has a long list of protective items from the clothes she wears to some amulets. However, one thing has to be noted about the amulets. They are magical defensive systems that react to anything it can detect. But even the best of those aren’t invulnerable.”

“...Do they react specifically to magic?”

“Any magic that comes within a certain proximity of her is automatically defended against. And anything that would physically harm her is likewise defended against with a shield. But… nothing is instantaneous.”

“A projectile fast enough might be able to pierce the veil.”

I perked up in understanding, causing the Key Master to give me a small grin.

“Are you willing to take that bet? You must know the consequences of failure. You already have a rather massive target on your back.”

“Exactly. The target is already there. They’re gonna hate me anyway. May as well make them bleed for it. Besides, I recently got a whiff of a new toy to play with.”

I took the papers and started walking out of the hotel. Any details about her that I needed to know where on it.

The Key Master waved.

“Enjoy your hunt, John.”

“Will do.”

……

I didn’t immediately go try and find my new target. I needed to study the information I was given, and also take care of one piece of business.

I hadn’t been idle in my training while on vacation. I still cultivated my Authority every night and scouted my dimension for interesting things.

Most of the time it felt like I was sending a drone out into empty space. But recently, I had picked up on a new lead.

There were two guides that I used for searching the dimension. The first was my Psyka that I could use for brute forcing wide area searches using pulses of power. The second was a more recently discovered method, and that was using my Aura to feel around for spirits.

It was with my Aura that I was able to point myself in the direction of this new spirit.

It didn’t feel like anything powerful. It carried a signature similar to the Springfield. But it was different, which meant it was modified.

I decided to check it out before moving forward. I had a feeling it would be useful.

So I lounged in my hotel room for a while, sending out my Psyka drone over to find the new gun.

And it took a while, but after going deeper into the endless darkness, I was able to find it.

It was definitely a Springfield, but two new attachments were immediately familiar.

First was the long telescope sitting on top of it. Second was the barrel extension, one I didn’t really recognize.

I didn’t hesitate to go up to it and commune with it, and the first thing I received was an influx of memories.

,,,

“Major, what’s this?”

“It’s something made by Maxim, or whatever the company name is. It’s called a silencer. Don’t take it off or fuck with it. There’s only 20 of these here and I barely got the letter allowing me to access them.”

“What does it do?”

I asked while equipping the rifle, racking the bolt once or twice before inspecting the silencer on the end of the barrel.

There were some ridges along the center portion of its body, but otherwise it merely looked like a long, skinny canister. It didn’t look particularly special, but I had never seen anything like it.

At the very least, the rifle already had a Winchester A5 telescope sight. I found those far better than the ladder sights for distance targets, so I wouldn’t have to do any modifications myself.

The Major issued a few more out to my buddies before speaking.

“It’s a silencer, so it silences the gun. Reports show that it reduces sound at the muzzle by a third. It does nothing to prevent the crack down range, but it almost entirely eliminates muzzle flash, so I’m fitting you guys with them. We’ll be doing plenty of night operations soon and these will hopefully be of great help.”

“Where does the bayonet go?”

“Nowhere. These can’t fit them with the silencer there. But we won’t be fixing bayonets anytime soon so get used to it.”

After tossing out all 20 rifles fitted with scopes and silencers, the major ordered us off.

After that, we were back out in the field, attempting flanking operations during the night in order to prevent our enemy from establishing another line of trenches.

At night, it was easy to be spotted by muzzle flash. When that was combined with the sound, it was almost impossible to keep your position hidden.

But with these, it almost became easy.

*Bang!*

An explosion rang across the mountains as the man 300 yards away from my barrel collapsed. All the others around him scrambled to respond. Alarms went off in the dead of night, a few lanterns glowing in the darkness.

Some of those lanterns were put out almost as soon as they came on. But one wasn’t, and it revealed a few men inside a small pit a bit farther away.

*Bang!*

*Crack!*

The supersonic whiplash of the bullet sounded right after I fired, right as it buried itself into one of the men in that pit.

I had yet to be spotted, even though the enemy started laying down suppressing fire in my general direction.

Besides, I wasn’t the only one.

*Bang!*

Another shot fired and a gunner was cut down before he could even start firing.

My partner next to me snickered.

“Come on, keep going. Can’t let them beat you.”

“Keep your trap shut and start spotting.”

*Bang!*

I fired again, taking out a runner. I hummed while finding a new target, impressed by that shot.

When that happened, a spotlight was lit and shone over our position. But from a distance, one of the other scouts shot it out.

I remained perfectly still, nothing capable of disturbing me, not even the bug crawling across my arm.

*Bang!*

Another shot, another kill. Bullets continued to rain down on the outpost as enemies scrambled to find the snipers.

But they couldn’t. There was no muzzle flash, only the cracking sounds of each barrel as it took another life.

There were too many soldiers to possibly kill all of them with our small fire team. The enemy also started sending squads up the hill we were on to hunt us down. It didn’t matter if they were cut down while ascending, they needed to find us. They couldn’t have snipers picking them off all night.

However, right as I decided it was time to leave, my spotter spoke.

“Hey, that’s a general! He’s got a star!”

“Where?”

“Right under the flag, boarding the car.”

I zoned in on the location, and sure enough, I found the general.

There was a golden badge on his right shoulder, one with two small silver stars stacked on top of each other.

I didn’t know what general rank it was, but it was a general, and that made him one of the highest ranking officers in the military.

Knowing that, I disregarded everything else and took a deep breath.

It was like my sense of hearing faded. The flag had already been marked by my spotter as being just under 500 yards away. It was a long shot, but I had hit longer.

The general boarded the passenger side of the vehicle, opposite the driver who was closest to me.

I was worried about the driver blocking my shot, but I couldn’t worry about that.

I took the shot right as the car started up.

*Bang!*

*Crack!*

I watched intently for a second until the bullet landed, tearing through the head of the driver and piercing through the general’s neck just beyond it.

One shot, two kills.

“Holy shit. Major ain’t gonna believe this.”

My spotter laughed in disbelief before jumping up.

“Now let’s get the hell out of here.”

“Yeah.”

I tore my eye away from the scope, running up the hill and away from the chaotic enemy camp.

…

“Well damn.”

My eyes opened, Springfield in hand before I realized it.

I looked down and examined the new rifle. Musket scope mounted its top while the Maxim silencer sat on the end of the barrel.

Not only had I attained this modified rifle, but now I had memories of someone taking an accurate shot at around 500 yards.

The longest shot I had taken so far wasn’t much farther than 300 yards. Any farther was luck’s territory.

But that shot wasn’t luck. That was cold hard skill demonstrated by a sharpshooter.

And now, I had those memories and experience. I smiled and thought about the possibilities while rising from my bed.

I had my target, and night was falling.

It was time to hunt.