The rapid, repeated switching between "bullet time" and normal time left Kobayashi suffering from intense physiological discomfort.
Fortunately, the enemy in front of him was incapable of reacting at "bullet time" speeds.
So even though Kobayashi felt he'd wasted precious moments, the man still stood there blankly, waiting for his next attack.
That said, the man appeared to be wearing body armor of some kind. He was likely the team's heavy firepower unit—tough, stubborn, and difficult to put down.
Kobayashi's blocks of psychic force slammed into him, but the results fell short of expectations. Ironically, the launcher that had been reflected caused far more chaos, throwing the man into a frantic scramble.
—At the same output, attacks that had physical "ammunition" were more powerful than pure psychic constructs.
Kobayashi etched that rule into his mind.
He spared a glance at the bullet he had reflected earlier. It had shattered a window in another building over a hundred meters away. Whether it had hit the sniper was impossible to tell.
After a quick calculation, Kobayashi realized that the destructive power of the reflected bullet was no weaker than when it had first been fired at him.
This only further confirmed his conclusion.
—He couldn't rely solely on raw psychic force blocks for offense.
What around him could serve as "ammunition"? Kobayashi scanned his surroundings.
But at that moment, the enemy had already regained his footing and pulled a short-barreled submachine gun from the pack on his back.
Seeing this, Kobayashi immediately raised his hand and swung it outward.
It was an instinctive motion born of urgency—but also the most effective auxiliary gesture for activating his ability.
A lateral burst of psychic force knocked the muzzle aside, and an entire spray of bullets went wide, tearing into the flowerbed instead.
Firearms were always a lethal threat. Kobayashi decided to use his psychic power to disarm the man.
Yet just as he acted, his train of thought abruptly shifted.
The submachine gun didn't fly out of the man's hands.
Instead, the burly man—and the weapon he was holding—were lifted into the air together.
—Kobayashi suddenly remembered that his psychic power could lift at least half a ton.
In that case, why bother looking for other "ammunition"?
He could simply use the ground and the walls themselves as weapons.
After dealing with yet another enemy, Kobayashi couldn't be bothered to interrogate him. He decisively knocked the man unconscious.
Because new enemies were already arriving in an endless stream.
That sniper shot just now was like the signal flare for a full-scale assault.
More enemies burst out from hidden positions on all sides.
They were well aware of how dangerous Kobayashi was. The moment they revealed themselves, the storm of bullets from their submachine guns had already reached him.
Using "bullet time" and psychic propulsion in tandem, Kobayashi slid across the ground as if skating, dodging every bullet by the narrowest of margins—while launching counterattacks at the same time.
One enemy after another collapsed without warning, faces slamming into the pavement, skulls cracking, and blood spilling.
Almost every second, another foe was taken down.
After barely ten seconds, the area around Kobayashi had fallen silent. Not a single enemy remained standing.
It wasn't that the Dark Side organization "Hunters" were weak.
It was simply that Kobayashi was too fast.
Kobayashi himself didn't quite realize it, but from the enemies' perspective, his movements were clean, precise, brutally efficient—and terrifyingly fast.
Like a veteran forged through countless battles.
Or rather… like a combat machine.
"Hunters," in the end, couldn't be compared to "warriors." And when Kobayashi was wielding an invisible psychic power, it made him even harder to guard against.
Kobayashi felt nothing special about it.
But the sniper observing the entire battle from afar was furious and shaken.
"Hunters" wasn't a particularly large Dark Side organization to begin with. Including himself, they had only a little over twenty full members—and now, in the attempt to secure this target, more than half had been lost.
"The intel is wrong. Judging from his performance, this kid isn't some newly awakened Level 3—he's a fully developed, thoroughly trained Level 4 Esper!"
The sniper was the leader and commander of "Hunters." At this point, he had no intention of continuing the mission, nor even of rescuing his subordinates.
They were professional "hunters," but the upper limit of targets they accepted was Level 3. As for Level 4 Espers, those were entirely beyond what an organization of their tier could handle.
According to the contract, if the target was Level 4, they had the right to refuse the mission outright—and could even demand compensation from the employer for faulty intelligence.
"Retreat. Immediate retreat. Target confirmed as Level 4. Intel error. Operation canceled!" The leader issued the order at once, stopping the remaining members from throwing themselves into the meat grinder.
As for those already knocked out and lying unconscious around the target…
They could only blame their bad luck.
That was the kind of organization "Hunters" was. None of its members were saints, and no one should expect these "comrades" to risk their lives for a rescue.
On the "Hunters" side, the decision had already been made to abandon the mission and withdraw.
But Kobayashi had no way of knowing that.
From his perspective, today's battle was far from over—if anything, it might only just be beginning.
After all, he had no idea of the enemy's true numbers. All he knew was that they were a "large-scale" Dark Side organization.
Based on Kobayashi's understanding, Dark Side organizations generally fell into two categories.
The first were the "small but elite" groups—such as School, Item, Member, Group, or the Corpse Disposal Unit. Their true core usually consisted of only four or five formal members, most of whom were high-level Espers or specialists with unique expertise. The rest were auxiliary forces recruited from armed non-Espers and could largely be ignored in actual combat.
The second type consisted of large-scale units like the Hound Dog Unit, Anti-Skill, and Judgment Punitive Forces. These groups rarely included espers at all. Instead, they were made up primarily of adult personnel, structured much like the city's security forces—a gray or outright blackened version of Anti-Skill.
Since they were called "units," their scale naturally matched the name: at least in the hundreds.
In Kobayashi's view, the "Hunters" attacking him belonged to this second category—no Espers, but plenty of adult soldiers armed with all manner of firearms.
If that was the case, then there was no way they numbered only a dozen or so.
The enemy's main force was likely still behind the scenes.
The enemy was hidden; he was exposed.
Kobayashi had to think this way.
"No… I still lack critical information," Kobayashi muttered, pressing a hand to his forehead in frustration. "Why hasn't Anti-Skill arrived yet?"
His phone still had no signal, which only made him more anxious.
Looking at the enemies sprawled across the ground, a thought suddenly occurred to him—
Wouldn't their phones or other communication devices have a signal?
Without hesitation, he began searching their bodies.
(End of Chapter)
If you are enjoying the story and would like to read ahead Join my Patreon
https://patreon.com/Omarfome