[Vault Pressure: 88%]
The lead Enforcer lunged. His cybernetic legs hissed with steam as he closed the distance in a fraction of a second, swinging the spiked baseball bat directly at Yuto's head.
"Die, rat!" he screamed.
Ayase cried out, trying to raise her katana, but she was too slow.
Yuto didn't dodge. He couldn't. His body was so bogged down by the gravitational pressure of his unspent stats that dodging was mathematically impossible. Instead, he just raised his bare left forearm to block.
CRACK.
The steel bat hit Yuto's arm—and shattered into three jagged pieces.
The Enforcer's jaw dropped. The recoil sent a shockwave up the cyborg's arm, dislocating his own shoulder. Hitting Yuto wasn't like hitting a human. Because he was hoarding 53 unspent Code Fragments and a Boss Core inside his physical Vault, his body density was acting like a solid block of tungsten.
"My turn," Yuto grunted, his eyes bloodshot.
He threw a right hook. It wasn't a martial arts technique. It wasn't a System Skill. It was just a slow, incredibly heavy punch driven by pure, agonizing frustration. His glowing, crimson Stigma slammed into the Enforcer's chest plate.
The compressed magical pressure violently released on impact. The Enforcer's armor caved in like a crushed soda can, and he was launched twenty feet backward, crashing through a rusted ticket machine.
"What the hell is he?!" the second Enforcer yelled, pulling a plasma-pistol from his coat.
Before he could pull the trigger, Ayase was a blur of white silk and silver steel. Her katana flashed in the dim neon light, neatly severing the man's cybernetic hand at the wrist.
The third Enforcer didn't even try to fight. He took one look at his broken leader, looked at Yuto's violently glowing red aura, and sprinted away into the dark tunnels of Floor 4.
Yuto didn't chase him. He stood over the two defeated men, breathing heavily. Two glowing green loot cubes popped out of their unconscious bodies.
[Loot Dropped: 2x Uncommon Code Fragments.] [Consume or Discard?]
Vault it, Yuto commanded mentally, his vision swimming.
[Loot Vaulted. Current Stack: 53 Common, 2 Uncommon, 3 Rare, 1 Boss Chest, 1 Milestone.] [Multiplier: 145.4%]
The crimson mist around his arm pulsed, and a fresh wave of nausea hit him. The pressure was becoming unbearable. His knees buckled, and the dark, ruined subway station finally faded to black.
The last thing he felt was Ayase catching him, her soft, lotus-scented hair brushing against his cheek.
[System Prompt: Physical Intimacy Detected...]
Shut up... Yuto's mind groaned before he passed out completely.