The masked girl… was weird.

Leo saw how shocked she was when watching him come out of nowhere.

And yet, within seconds, she managed to analyze the situation, rush in to take an active part in it, and…

Leo squinted his eyes when the girl slowly raised her hands and stepped back.

Knowing better, the young man kept her aligned with the sights, watching as she retreated further and further back.

Upon retreating a few steps, she then fell down on her knees before slowly reaching out to her face and lowering her mask.

And with his perception currently occupied by the nanites, Leo could see more than he should be able to.

He could read her breath, deduce her heartbeat, and along with some other hints, draw a practical guess to the now unmasked girl’s intentions.

It was a precise, mathematical analysis of all the factors Leo could notice, all fed as data to the natural-born AI of the nanite swarm.

An AI that had access to nearly three dosages of the nanite shot, which was considerably more than the norm.

By calculating all the data in ways the human mind could never really understand, it produced a tangible result allowing the young man to read the girl like an open book.

Which, somehow, was necessary for Leo to see something any sane person should notice at first glance.

‘…’

Leo’s hand trembled, shaken by the sudden sense of guilt.

‘She’s scared shitless!’

For a moment, Leo realized that in this situation, he might be the big bad monster. An invader from out of nowhere, bringing down managed democracy upon the peaceful folk around.

And for better or worse, the girl’s eyes filled with terror as she glued them to the very front of Leo’s gun.

‘She’s smart too,’ Leo thought, slightly gritting his teeth down.

Even with all of this new data, he still couldn’t shake the memory of what happened to his team. On how just a single moment of carelessness did all of them in.

And the feeling of owing his life to random chance was something the young man never wanted to experience again.

(My lady…!)

One of the girl’s masked companions jumped up from the other end of the fight, stopping roughly twenty meters away upon taking a better look at the situation.

The other guy on the left rushed forth silently.

And Leo’s body moved without delay, still within the firm hold of the nanites.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

The young man’s reaction time was at the peak of what his body physically could perform. And even with all that speed, he slightly struggled to align his sights with the rapidly advancing target.

Ten meters and Leo’s aim was still off.

Five meters, too close. Leo lowered himself down to his knees, ready to leap back. But now that the threat got close, aiming became a breeze.

The masked woman rushed up, steeling Leo’s determination while he cursed his stupid hesitation.

‘That’s what I get for trying to be humane!’

Gritting his teeth in silent, self-oriented fury, Leo nearly decompressed his legs to jump back while showering the advancing opponents with the rain of needles…

“NO!”

The girl screamed out, turning her back right under Leo’s sights when she leaped to the side, grabbing at her advancing companion and then smashing him into the ground.

Then, once again, everyone froze.

The masked girl froze, her back mere meters away from Leo’s muzzle. And from how she acted, she appeared to be fully aware of what happened to those who stood in front of Leo’s gun.

The older of her companions stood rooted in place, realizing he was powerless to change the situation. The younger of her companions, half-conscious in a small crater left after the girl sent him flying into the ground.

And then, the unconscious noble leader with that peculiar armor lying in a ditch some few tens of meters away.

‘Wait, with that armor…’ Leo’s face suddenly turned still. As much as he would love to focus on the idea he suddenly got, there was still the problem of those people in front.

Up until now, the formerly masked girl did everything in her power to show a lack of hostility. And throughout the ordeal, her body didn’t stop shaking from terror even for a single instant.

‘Shit…’

Feeling as if his soul was tearing in half, Leo lowered his gun for the second time. This time though, he stood back up and took a step back then a step to the side, and then another…

Tracking the group down his sights as he stepped further and further away, Leo soon lowered his gun to a ready position before casually making his way over to where the leader of the knights ended up.

‘She exposed her back to me, knowing how it could end, god damn it!’

Still struggling with the idea of leaving a potential danger alive, Leo’s mood couldn’t get worse.

Thankfully, a sudden ticket out of the hell of the rifts arrived right before his eyes.

‘And if my guess is right…’

Leo raised his pace halfway across, struggling to hold back his excitement.

‘This armor could hold a prolonged barrage from the SMG,’ Leo thought, pulling down on one knee as soon as he got near the knight…

Only to realize those masked guys were now rushing towards him.

‘Fuck, again?’

Not even sure whether to laugh over his stupidity or despair over it, Leo raised his gun…

Only for the girl at the front of the group to instantly slow down and raise her hands.

“Please, stop!”

Leo’s face tensed up a bit.

Again, the nanites managed to figure out this damned girl’s language in a mere instant. Sure, she was using words and gestures that were extremely easy to understand, clearly desperate to bridge the language gap.

‘I’ve heard literally just a few words!’

This went against the instruction manual.

‘Maybe a benefit of chugging down all those nanites?’

A sudden wave of cold went down Leo’s spine.

And with a single waver of his consciousness, a simple alert went up in his mind.

Leo managed to keep going that far only by the courtesy of the nanites. And with the wave of cold, the time to pay the price of pushing his body beyond its natural limits has finally arrived.

‘Shit…’ Falling down on one knee, Leo lowered his gun, no longer having any energy to spare to hold it up.

Blood trickled out of his nose and his vision blurred.

Leo had no energy to spare for he threw his spare hand to the back, grabbing at one of the few devices decorating the outside of his gear.

‘If I’m going out, everyone is…’

The recovery from nanite overdose would be only a mildly unpleasant experience, but it would incapacitate Leo for a good while.

‘In the end, to make do in this world, I will have to make contact with someone. So, it would be a pity if I were to…’

Leo, on the verge of losing consciousness, fell down on both of his knees before slumping his ass down on his knees. And with his arms powerlessly falling down onto his lap…

He managed to sneak his fingers around the pin, tearing it off the device before letting it roll down his lap.

And as his consciousness faded away, a white cloud exploded all over the clearing.