Malfunctioning Utopia

Chapter 9: The System

As the grenade arced through the air, Sun Jack quickly raised his arm and shot it out of the sky.

“F*** your mother!” Tapai shouted, imitating the local curses.

But the barrage of bullets from their attackers quickly forced them to take cover behind debris. At least ten heavily armed enemies were closing in.

Next to him, Song 6PUS grinned smugly. “How about it, bro? Not bad, huh? My prosthetic setup is top-notch—fully functional, self-marketed, and comes with auto-aim support!”

Before Sun Jack could retort, Song 6PUS glanced at his screen and continued his pitch. “For those satisfied with the performance, click the link below to purchase. Use my promo code, Song 6PUS, to get a 5% discount!”

“We’re about to die, and you’re still selling s**t?! Turn off the stream! They found us because of your damn broadcast!” Sun Jack snapped, finally understanding what Tapai meant about these people being utterly insane.

Suddenly, Sun Jack noticed something chilling. The attackers in the distance—none of them were bald. Every single one had hair.

A jolt of fear shot down his spine as he remembered the blade piercing his stomach before.

Some lessons only needed to be learned once. Without hesitation, Sun Jack dove forward, narrowly dodging the strike aimed at his back.

He spun around and fired his cannon. The shell flew straight into the storm clouds above, missing its invisible target—the bald man had cloaked himself again.

The immediate danger seemed to pass, but Sun Jack knew better. This was just the beginning. The attackers had encircled them, blocking off every escape route. Unlike before, the bald man wasn’t alone; he had brought reinforcements, and there were no other factions around to distract them.

“Damn it! Why is staying alive so f***ing hard?!” Sun Jack growled as pain flared in his wound.

“Screw it! Let’s take them on!” he roared, stepping out from cover. He pulled the trigger, sending a volley of bullets that tore through an enemy’s neck, nearly severing his head.

Before he could catch his breath, a blurred figure rushed at him with terrifying speed. Sun Jack fired a cannon shot, obliterating the attacker in an instant.

The next moment, an electric arc blade shot out from Sun Jack’s forearm, clashing with a similar blade in the air. Sparks flew as they locked in a fierce standoff.

But as they struggled, the bald man raised a finger, and a hidden bullet fired from it struck Sun Jack.

Sun Jack didn’t flinch. Instead, he raised his left hand and returned fire, unleashing a hail of bullets at point-blank range. Blood sprayed as both combatants took hits. The bald man finally decided the exchange wasn’t worth it, retreating into the rain and disappearing.

“Holy s**t, that was insane! Where’d you fight before this?” Song 6PUS exclaimed.

Sun Jack, drenched in blood, pulled the last bit of stimulant painkiller from his pocket and injected it all at once. The pain vanished, and a sudden clarity sharpened his mind.

“You okay?” Tapai asked, still firing at the encroaching enemies. A translucent sensor line extended from his fingers, rapidly stitching up Sun Jack’s wounds.

Sun Jack spat a mouthful of bloody water onto the ground, his head heavy and spinning. “He’s cloaked. Got any way to detect him?”

“My visual hardware has thermal imaging, but I need your authorization to activate it!”

“And you’re just telling me this now?!” Sun Jack barked, glaring at Tapai.

“Blame me? Blame those godd**n developers!” Tapai retorted. “First law of AI: Unless a user’s life is in immediate danger, an AI cannot request self-authorization for higher functions. Stupid rules!”

“Isn’t this life-threatening enough? I authorize you to activate thermal imaging!” Sun Jack shouted.

The edges of Tapai’s display immediately turned red. “Left, eight o’clock!”

Just as Sun Jack raised his gun to fire, he paused, an idea forming. “You can see him now, right?”

“Yes.”

A grin spread across Sun Jack’s face as he clenched his metal fist. “Good. Let’s not waste this ability by giving it away just yet. We’ll use this chance to teach that bald b*stard a lesson!” Ｒ𝙖ΝȏᛒЁȿ

Keeping their advantage under wraps, Sun Jack, Tapai, and Song 6PUS used the cover of debris to fire at the approaching attackers. Though Tapai tracked the cloaked bald man, they pretended not to notice him.

“Watch out… he’s coming,” Tapai whispered, his voice almost too faint to hear. Sun Jack’s heart raced.

When the blade once again appeared by his waist, Sun Jack spun around in an instant, firing directly at the invisible figure above the weapon.

Bullets ripped through the bald man’s synthetic skin, exposing the pitch-black metal skeleton beneath. Taken completely off guard, the bald man hesitated before attempting to retreat—only to find Tapai’s gun blocking his path.

Staring down the man who had nearly killed him, Sun Jack’s rage boiled over. “Die, you son of a b**ch!”

Caught in a deadly crossfire, the bald man’s cloaking system faltered. Large patches of synthetic skin peeled away, revealing the metal framework underneath. Cornered and desperate, his twisted face contorted into a snarl.

“You think this is all I’ve got? You idiot! Eat sh*t and try my EMP!” His pupils flared with a blue glow as a disk-shaped drone the size of a palm launched from his abdomen, hovering ten meters above.

A pulse of electromagnetic energy erupted from the drone, radiating outward in a devastating wave. Within its 50-meter radius, all electronic devices were instantly fried.

Song 6PUS and the bald man’s subordinates collapsed, their prosthetics spasming uncontrollably. Smoke poured from neural implants at the base of their skulls. Even Tapai, the ancient robot, seized up and froze in place, his body twitching before going entirely still.

The bald man grinned, surveying the aftermath. Rumors about his military-grade cloaking were nothing but a diversion. His true trump card was the EMP drone, a weapon that had caught countless enemies off guard.

In the face of an EMP, all mechanical systems—even the most advanced—were rendered useless. Prosthetics, neural networks, AI—all of it was equalized. His foes were left helpless, lambs waiting for the slaughter.

But then, with a sickening squelch, his grin froze.

Looking down, he saw a blade buried in his chest.

Krv1loi stared at Sun Jack, the one who had delivered the blow. His eyes widened in disbelief. “H-how... how is this possible? You shouldn’t be able to move! No one can withstand my EMP! Your neural system should be completely fried!”

Sun Jack yanked the blade out with a savage twist and drove it into the bald man’s ruined face. “F*** you! I don’t have a system!” he roared.