System Overclocked 2 -ch-12 (Patreon)

“Uhm, I hate to be a spoil sport,” Stripe murmured and pointed back to the monitor. “I don’t think they’ll make it on their own. That’s a lot of reinforcements coming for the Lower Parts.”

Wrench whipped his head around to look at the barricade on the screen. There was a lot of Brawlers rushing toward it.

While the hired Brawlers were doing well enough, clearing the area violently, they were about to be drowned by enemy reinforcements. It wouldn’t take long for them to forcibly clear the area with these kind of numbers.

I guess I have to decide here and now. Do I let them fail, or do I join in on the defense and see what I can do.

“I think we should go fight,” Seventh offered up in a defeated tone. “But I can’t tell if that’s because I want to fight or because I think it’s the right choice.”

Unable to argue with her since either seemed likely for her, Wrench looked to Stripe. She gave him a sad smile.

“I think you should go. While this isn’t our Hab, we’re still stuck here until Goodie shows up,” she suggested. “This wouldn’t be a terrible point in time to earn a lot of gratitude.

“As self-sufficient as we are, we’ll still need supplies and things from the Admini. Given that they’ve lost half their numbers, they’re also a bit stressed out and afraid.

“I can speak from personal experience that… that… ah… that having someone stepping in and becoming your hero, definitely creates a bond.”

“Yes!” Joy said with energy, even going so far as to stomp her foot and a shake of her head. “Yes, you-yes. Go fix this. Fix it, Wrench. Don’t let them do this!”

I-of course that’s her opinion.

That’s actually rather selfish of me in a way, isn’t it.

I’m trying to think of this as not my business at all.

When she very well could have been very much the same if I hadn’t actually considered that it was Seventh and Stripe, rather than strangers.

Shameful.

Absolutely shameful of me.

“I’m going,” stated Wrench, looking away from Joy’s heated gaze. Heading out to the impromptu armory, Wrench equipped himself with armor, a sword, a club, and left. Moving at a swift jog he exited the Duct and began raising his combat abilities.

I can’t just ignore others.

Not when I can actively take part.

I spent my last life living for others, but I can’t just spend this life only living for me.

A middle ground.

Let’s-let’s find a middle ground.

Think of others like Joy who exist now and here because I made a change in their lives. I changed what should have been a horrible experience that forever altered her.

Just because I can’t separate Joy from Pain, doesn’t mean she’s not living an infinitely better life. If she had to choose between Joy and Pain, it’s not even a question what she’d pick.

And here I am worrying about it not being my problem.

Shameful.

“If it makes you feel better, I felt guilty because I just wanted to fight for my own feelings,” Seventh remarked casually as she loped along beside him. “Not to save or help anyone. Made me feel pretty shitty when I considered where she’d been when you happened upon her.”

Letting out a grunt, Wrench didn’t reply. He didn’t want to.

Realistically, it would only make him angrier at himself if he did.

He knew how he’d been feeling had been wrong, and now he just had to make up for it. It wouldn’t be that hard to do, he just had to do it.

“Straight to the window?” Seventh asked.

“Straight to the window,” confirmed Wrench.

In no time at all they crossed the Upper Field and were closing quickly on the barricade. The entire time they ran up, Wrench could see people moving in and out in a mad melee.

A press of people pushing together, apart, fighting, then back together again.

The Brawlers working for the Admini all were wearing the standard clothes of the Hab. Clean and pressed and looking fresh.

Those of the Lower Parts were all in much worse clothes though in the same style. Wrench was already having issues telling them apart.

As he ran up to the outer edge, he pushed his Systems to their extremes. Right up to the point that his body could handle it.

The world slowed down as he reached the edge of the group. Two Brawlers fighting one another with clubs.

Thankfully one of them was a Brawler he’d seen at the barricade previously. The other was unknown to him, which meant he was fair game.

Thrusting forward with his sword, Wrench felt the muscles in his arm strain as it snapped forward. The blade in his hand slipped right through their throat and came out the side.

It wasn’t a decapitation, but it had chopped through half of his neck. Bouncing off the spine as it went through.

Gasping, gurgling, the Brawler slapped a hand to their neck. As if they could somehow keep themselves from dying to bloodloss in fifteen seconds or less.

Wrench had seen injuries like this, he’d in fact given people a quick exit by severing the veins in the throat. He forgot what the names were, but knew if they were cut, death was swift. Less than a minute, in fact.

Not stopping, Wrench kept moving. Running past the man he’s just cut down even as he stood there.

Raising the sword up, he swung out in a casual underhand at another Brawler he didn’t recognize. Their clothes was so ragged, so torn, that there was no way they could be an Upper Parts Hume.

The sword slammed into the elbow joint of their right arm, and cut their arm off from that point down. Tearing through with the resistance being overcome through sheer brute force.

Except now Wrench had lost most of his momentum and planted his feet to ditch the rest. He was at the main battle line now and would have to be more careful.

Seventh went right past him. Her sword coming out in a graceful arc, her left arm covered in a shield. The blade hit a Brawler on the top of their knee and put them to the ground.

Her shield was raised and braced against her shoulder.

She bowled into the mass and went right on through. Her weight and frame added to her speed giving her the ability to push.

Wrench chased after her, lashing out at whatever was near and easy to identify. Though he couldn’t help but notice Seventh looked to be doing much better at it than him.

Which wasn’t surprising.

Wrench had experience in combat, he had a lot of knowledge on hand, he had a cheat-like power that gave him abilities above the norm, but he wasn’t a Brawler.

Seventh was a genetic Brawler super-Hume that was hand-made.

She was amazing.

Reaching the window Seventh slammed her shield into the head of a Brawler who was trying to clamber through. Knocking them back to the other side.

Stepping up to Seventh back, he pushed himself up against and took a defensive stance there. She could easily handle the window for them if he made sure her back was clear and protected.

He felt, more than saw, her plant her feet and take up a defensive position as well. The two of them could hold so long as the other Brawlers worked to clear the invaders.

A Brawler came close and was clearly intent on getting him and Seventh off the window. No sooner than they were in range than Wrench took the opportunity.

He pushed forward in a lunge, shifted his front foot forward, and leaned ahead.

The tip of his sword plunged into the guts of the Brawler.

Once again Wrench felt no resistance. He’d struck organs and nothing hard, like the lower ribs or spine.

Levering the blade to the side he jerked it clean. A spray of blood splattering across the ground, and someone else, as the weapon came out.

No sooner than he’d made the attack, then he returned to his position, pushing up against Seventh. She pushed back up against him as soon as he settled back into position.

People began to separate and move away from Wrench and Seventh. Neither side wanted to approach them as they held that position.

Two Brawlers, a male and a female, from the Lower Parts were closing on one from the Upper, a woman bigger than Seventh, surprisingly. They were most certainly planning on attacking her two against one.

Reaching down to the groun, Wrench picked up a broken club that was next to a dead a Brawler. Gripping it with his left hand he whipped it in an underhand throw at the nearby Lower Parts Brawler.

The woman.

It caught her just under the ribs and vanished inside of her.

Wrench had thrown it with such force that the blunt object impaled her.

More surprising than this, was that the club came out the other side of her in an explosion of guts and blood. Splattering across the Brawler next to her.

The Brawler was coated in the viscera of his companion looked wide-eyed at Wrench. After a short pause they threw down their weapon and quite literally ran away at full speed.

After a moment the burly woman looked at Wrench, hefted her weapon tighter, then went to find another fight to get into. Brawlers by and large were rather brave and it took a lot to shake their confidence.

“Oh my xxhht! What’s going on!” shrieked Greedy. “No, no, no, no! No!”

The top of the Hab was torn clear off and thrown to the side.

Several tentacles started coming down from above.

“Wrench? Where’s Wrench! He can’t-no, no, no,” Greedy cried out.

The tentacles smooshed a handful of Brawlers nearby. More than half were from the Lower Parts, but the Tongsta didn’t spare the Upper Parts Brawlers either.

Everyone ran off in every direction. No one stuck around in the area other than Wrench and Seventh.

Greedy’s tentacles hesitated over Wrench for a moment, before moving to the other side of the barricade. He heard and felt the tentacles splatter a handful of Brawlers that were on the other side.

He’d leaned over and looked through the window just in time to watch a Brawler get smashed to the Skybridge. Their body coming apart in every way with the force of it.

Wrench forcibly shoved down his awareness of the world. Breaking the slow-motion like perception of everything.

Though he kept his awareness of the percentage. Right now it was running at a full hundred-percent and he was a milisecond away from dialing it right back up to an Overclocked state so he could watch the world at a crawl.

As soon as he did he sprinted away from Seventh and started waving his arms over his head. He needed to put distance between him and her lest Greedy do something stupid like crush her.

“I’m right here you bastard!” he shouted. “Right here! Knock that off you bastard!”

Not stopping he kept running. Increasing the distance in no time at all.

“There you are. I got an entire breeding Hab just for you. Let’s set you up there,” stated Greedy.

Shit.

In other words, I’m not coming back after this happens. If this Tongsta cuts ties and bails from here, it’s possible Goodie could never find me. Even if she finds Seventh and Stripe, I could end up just vanishing.

Realizing this was a turning point with Greedy, Wrench decided on hiding from her. To dive down into the sub-floor, the Ducts, and stay away from her.

There was no telling what would happen if she caught him.

Taking that route in his mind, he hiked his Nervous system and the Endocrine system upward. He tried to keep one eye on where he was going as well as the Tongsta.

Tentacles as thin as Hume arms came down for him.

Stepping to one side, ducking, then pushing forward several steps in a sprint, Wrench dodged all of the Tongsta tendrils. They snatched at the air and got nothing other than air, or the ground.

Sheathing his sword, because it wouldn’t do a damn thing to a Tongsta, Wrench pumped his arms as he kept running on. Pushing on as fast as he could straight toward a secondary entrance to the Ducts.

If he could get into that, he could get down to the sub-floor almost instantly.

“So fast,” Greedy remarked, their voice slowed down considerably given Wrench’s modification of his own brain.

Tentacles whipped out at him from behind. Wrench had been trying to watch over his shoulder given that was the most likely place Greedy would come from them.

It was coming at him now in a weird shape. The tentacles had formed together and were moving much more similar to how a net might look.

The Tongsta’s net was scraping against the ground as it came along as well. There was no way Wrench could drop down below this oncoming pursuit.

Latching into his Muscular System, as well as his Skeletal System, he blew out the strength in his legs and his leg bones. Giving himself an insane amount of strength there.

As the Tongsta made net came he jumped.

Faster than Greedy could respond, Wrench went upward. Upward and over the net as it swept under him.

Past him at a speed that’d be hard to keep up with for a normal Hume.

For Wrench it was just brisk.

Hitting the ground, Wrench didn’t shift his legs back down to a normal place. Instead he began sprinting ahead again. Running for all he was worth.

Each footfall left him feeling like his spine was going to break. Dashing ahead as if he were a projectile in flight.

In seconds he would be at the Duct door. All he had to do was grab the door and jerk it open. With any luck it’d unlock as soon as he stood in front of it from his implant.

The crux of this would all be Greedy not being able to react before the door opened and he squirmed through the door.

Surprisingly, the door looked as if it was already opening. Slowly, it moved outward.

Wrench connected what was happening to the angel on his shoulder.

Stripe had been watching him through the cameras, guessed where he was going, and got ahead of him.

“Stripe, I fucking love you,” hissed Wrench as his body screamed against him. The door was open just enough for him to go sideways and slip into the Duct.

“Wrench! Where’re you going!?” screamed Greedy.

Sprinting down the halls of the Duct Wrench went straight to the elevator he and Stripe had used not long ago. Getting into the elevator cab he slapped the button to send it to the bottom as well as close the doors.

He dialed his Nervous, Skeletal, and Muscular Systems down to more normal levels. Putting them in a place that wouldn’t make his already growing headache worse, or burn ever more calories.

As the elevator went down into the sub-floor levels, he could hear Greedy even then. The way they communicated was abnormal and his implant was translating it for him directly.

“Wrench! Where’re you? We need to go!” called Greedy. “Wreeeeench, come’re! Dangit, is he in the Ducts?”

Wrench chewed at his lip. The last thing he wanted was for Greedy to tear the Hab apart. In the same breath, he really didn’t feel like he should let her catch him.

If she caught him, he was fairly certain he wouldn’t be going back to his own Hab any time soon, if ever.

The elevator pinged and the doors slid open. Wrench jumped out and then contemplated what to do next.

He could distantly hear things thumping, grinding, and even breaking. As if Greedy was indeed tearing things out of the Hab.

Clicking his tongue, Wrench really didn’t like how this was turning out, but there weren’t any options available to him.

There was just an ugly, unshakable feeling, that if he let Greedy catch him, or he got caught, he wouldn’t see Goodie again.

“Wrench, we need to go. There’s an entire Hab filled with Hume just for you to breed with,” Greedy promised. “Let’s go. That’s all you’ll have to do ever again.”

I mean… wasn’t that the whole point of this life?

To just enjoy myself?

It’s not like it’s hard to stud all those pretty Solos. Sit around and enjoy myself when I’m not. They were all really pleasant to be around, too.

Standing there, in the filthy, poisonous, disgusting sub-floor, he realized that Greedy was offering him exactly what he’d wanted at the start. A lazy and easy life filled with pleasure.

Then he immediately thought of Stripe and Goodie.

Both of them were important to him. In ways he both did and didn’t understand.

While life with Stripe and Goodie wouldn’t be perfect, or always fun, it was a life worth living. Or he at least believed that.

He wanted to put his money on his Hab and gamble. It didn’t feel like much of a gamble to him, but the Hab Greedy was promising was hard to decline.

“Alright. I guess this is where I hide for now,” Wrench mumbled. He walked over to a chunk of concrete and picked it up.

“Now… let’s do some experimentation. Because if I’m going to be stuck in the sub-floors, hiding, then I need to make sure I have something I can eat, and drink,” Wrench said with despair in his voice.

Down here there was only sewage, ruins, and things he didn’t really want to consider what they were.

Without thinking about it, his eyes turned to the fleshy half rotten skull not far away. Gazing up at him with a withered set of eyes.

“A life of sex and sleeping, or surviving down here in the muck until Goodie shows up… great,” he muttered, then looked back to the concrete. “Now… how do I make it so I get calories from concrete.”

Above him, Greedy continued to call, scream, and yell for him. At the same time, he heard a great deal of clattering and banging going on above him. She had to be actively tearing apart the Hab now.

Then the access elevator began to tremble and shudder.

Yeah… definitely tearing everything apart.

The Duct that held the elevator itself suddenly bent as if a great force had been applied to it. Partially collapsing it.

Definitely.