83 Grande Mall (1/2)
Hayden was barreling down on the freeway, on the designated motorcycle lane, that was specifically built for intercity travel within Metro Manila when he had a bad premonition. There was someone, or something, watching him. He was sure of it.
As a safety measure, Hayden activated his Divine Perception. He observed his surroundings through his supernatural senses. There were no vehicles around him as most people used public transport these days.
Within a city, there was the handy bus-jeeps, taxis, and trams. For your intercity travel, there were tons of metro subways that wasn't as packed as it was due to the improvements on budgeting of transportation. As for interregional travel, there was your Afterimage Rail Transit that zips around an entire country at high-speed.
These five modes of travel were so handy and affordable that you won't see any vehicle on the road unless it was to transport something big, those rich people that possessed cars to flaunt their wealth, or if it was someone that had high popularity and cannot take public transport as easily.
Even then, some of these people sometimes chooses to travel in public transports as it was indeed faster than traveling on a personal car.
Except if you're someone like Hayden, who hated public transports for the same reason that he hated enormous crowds. There was not that much space to move.
At this point in time, he was regretting traveling on a motorcycle in such a time of day. The road was too desolate and eerie. It deeply unsettled him. There's also that unshakeable sensation of someone watching him intently and with killing intent.
A few minutes passed without nothing happening. Hayden reminded himself that he should be alert and prepared for anything to come. Another few minutes passed. He increased the speed of his motorcycle to the very limit of the freeway, which was 140 kilometers per hour.
That was when, in front of him, a barrier of black convertibles and a couple of monster trucks blocked the road. Standing in front of the cars were people in olden punk fashion, with wrapped up chains, Mohawks, piercings, emo clothing, and all the fad.
All of them had weapons in their hands. Some had modern AK47s. Some had modern Uzis. While some had shotguns. What was the difference between modern AK47s and Uzis from the past ones, you asked? The silencers and bullets. It's always those two.
What's more insane was that there were three mounted machine guns. Hayden cursed in his heart and with his mouth, ”Holy fucking shit, what the hell did I do to deserve this?”
Suddenly, the people mounting the machine guns fired streams of bullets at Hayden and his motorcycle. Fortunately… Wait, honestly, there's nothing fortunate here at all… they all seem to be regular human beings and not wielders.
The second his feet landed, he conjured up an essence energy blockade for his motorcycle, at the same time taking out his White Fox mask, and with a flick, wore it. The sound of the ripping of his clothes rang in his ears, though that's the extent of the damage. He purposefully made the essence energy barrier behind him as thick as possible so as to not damage his motorcycle.
That motorcycle was half a million credits, if it was damaged, he'll go berserk right then and there. He dodged some of the bullets that aimed for his face in consideration for the mask he had.
All the hooligans who witnessed this were stunned. One verbalized his disbelief, ”What the hell is that guy? He's not human at all!”
A sense of impending doom washed over them the more they watched. They were frightened of Hayden's inhuman toughness. Anybody would have died due to the streams of bullets. To think that anybody can withstand bullet with a puny human body was impossible! Even with tough modern robots, that feat should be impossible!
Soon, the bullets of the machine gun ran out. Akin to a god of death, Hayden shouted in his deep voice, ”My turn you fucking bastards!”
Disregarding his tattered clothes, Hayden took out his two ginunting blades made of Damascus Shojin Steel and infused it with essence energy.
Fear washed over the hooligans' hearts. Consequently, they all attempted an escape, to no avail. Hayden vanished from his position, first cutting down the three people that fired the machine gun.
”What the fuck is this!?” One of the men who fired the machine gun shouted in despair. In the people's eyes, Hayden was analogous to the Devil himself who hailed from the fiery pits of hell.
Seeing a person climb up a monster truck, Hayden's figure disappeared and reappeared on top of the monster truck. He kicked the roof with just the right amount of force so that it was crushed instead of perforating a hole on the hood.
He did so as well for the rest of the vehicles. Afterwards… Well, there was no afterwards. It was a simple bloodbath as a result of Hayden's rage from being attacked out of the blue. I'd say it wasn't as 'simple' as it sounded, but Hayden was going easy, so who knows?
Anyhow, when he finished there, Hayden executed the Breathing Technique and shaped a huge ball of white flame. He chucked it at one of the monster trucks. The white flame quickly shifted color into a yellow flame when Hayden liberated his own control of it.
Prior to turning his back, he threw the corpse of that Evershifter into the fire as jet-black smoke was exhaled out of his mouth. Hayden walked towards his motorcycle.
Three steps later, a gigantic explosion arose behind him. If anybody else was there, they would describe the scene with a singular word: Epic.
The wails of pain and suffering from those that didn't die entered Hayden's ears. Hayden had no remorse for them, emotionlessly storing his ginunting back in his Space Rings. He didn't remove his mask yet in fear of being seen in cameras.
Subsequently, Hayden performed the Breathing Technique once more, repairing the bonds of the tears that the bullets that landed on his body caused. Hayden was surprised that his jacket and shirt had no visible damage after the repairing, especially since he was careful to not spill blood on it.
No one would suspect that Hayden just came from a murder of tens of people. Hayden muttered with disgust, ”The fucking bastards…”
Nodding his head, Hayden sat on his motorcycle and took out water from his essentials Space Ring to wash his dirtied feet.
At that moment, from one of the distant buildings in Quezon City, Hayden heard the faint sound of a sniper shot. He recognized it. It was from a Sinukuan rifle.
Returning the water bottles back in his Space Ring, Hayden took out his own Sinukuan rifle. With the help of his Divine Perception, Hayden deduced the trajectory of the bullet aiming for him without the usage of scope.
It was all basic sniper shot calculations, such as wind resistance, where the sound came from, blah blah blah. If anybody heard these, they would, for sure, beat Hayden up with a stick. You call that fucking basic!? Some of us here can't even do basic calculus, and here you are calculating trajectories effortlessly and call it basic!? How fucking dare you?
Anyways, with all the required information at hand, Hayden didn't need to use the scope and fired a seemingly random shot with his Sinukuan. This bullet from the Sinukuan clashed with the first bullet mid-air.
That's when he looked the scope. Basing from his estimations, Hayden aimed at the building where the shot was fired from.
On that very building was a man clad in black, who was looking through a scope. Without moving, the man mumbled, ”He didn't die? I think my skills are deteriorating… Should I retire…? Wait, where the hell did that guy get a sniper rifle?”
When he witnessed everything that Hayden had done, fear already crept in his heart. He chose to do a shot because no one can plausibly survive a sniper shot. Now, this fear was augmented when he saw that sniper rifle.
Despite that, when he looked for a second time, the sniper was gone in Hayden's hands already. Instead, Hayden was putting on his shoes. ”Yeah, he-”
Unable to finish his words, a bullet penetrated his brain, killing him in an instant. His final thoughts were, 'How the hell did he shoot me from there…?'
”Tsk, idiot.” Hayden shook his head with annoyance rather than repentance. ”First, a punk parade barricade. Now, a sniper? Simultaneous as well. What the fuck universe?”
Hayden sputtered out a few more curses to the universe prior to lugging his motorcycle off the pavement and jumped from one side of the road to the other over the ruined freeway. Without letting the camera see his face, Hayden removed his mask and put on his helmet in an instant. Mounting the motorcycle, Hayden drove off.
Thankfully, Hayden didn't encounter any more trouble along the way. However, there's something that bothered him. 'Why the hell did those guys come seeking trouble?'
It didn't made sense. Regular people hunting him… 'Regular people hunting me? Holy shit… Wait… Could it be…?'
Hayden's eyes widened as he entered the parking spaces of the Grande Mall. 'Somebody put a bounty on my head!'
How did he come into this conclusion? Well, regular humans wouldn't have any business messing with him. Nobody in the underworld truly knew him. He didn't dabble in any illegal work. So why would they?
There were not enough curses in the world to express the rage and infuriation that Hayden was feeling. Ultimately, Hayden released his fury in one sentence, ”I hate the world.”
Afterwards, with his Divine Perception, Hayden delimited the wrath that slowly rose up in his heart. He stoically accepted reality and decided to deal with the troubles that would come along his way when it comes along his way.
With a blank countenance, Hayden waltzed inside the Grande Mall, a towering skyscraper mall that had 45 floors in total. It occupied a total land area of six square kilometers.