Ignoring his dropped phone, Luca looked up and immediately saw the cause of the sudden stop.
At the previously normal intersection, a dump truck that had been driving in front of them had inexplicably slammed on its brakes, coming to a dead stop.
If Shamila hadn't maintained a safe following distance and reacted lightning-fast, the front of their car would have plowed right under the truck's chassis.
Even so, their car was forced to halt in the middle of the road.
However, just because Shamila reacted in time didn't mean the drivers behind them could do the same.
Before Luca could even catch his breath—
Bang!
A loud crash.
Unsurprisingly, the car behind them slammed into their rear.
The immense force of the impact shoved their vehicle forward again.
This was followed by a series of crashes—bang, bang, bang, bang.
It was unclear how many cars were involved in the pile-up.
But now, the front of Luca's car was thoroughly wedged under the dump truck ahead.
The windshield shattered into a spiderweb pattern, and the deploying airbag slammed Shamila's head back against her seat.
But Shamila ignored her own condition.
While pulling out a sharp knife to puncture the airbag, she shouted at Luca:
"Master! Get out of the car!"
Luca, dazed from the repeated impacts, relied on the muscle memory of car accidents from both his past and present lives. He quickly fumbled for the seatbelt release and unbuckled it.
But then—
Thud!
Another impact.
This time, a car from the side lane swerved and crashed directly into Luca's door.
The force wasn't massive, but the car wedged itself perfectly against his door, jamming it shut.
Luca righted himself and scanned the other vehicle.
He saw the driver of that sedan abandon his car without even glancing at Luca, fleeing in a panic.
Luca immediately realized this wasn't an accident.
Sure enough, as he turned to climb out the other side, he saw a massive dump truck barreling toward him from the other side of the intersection, showing no signs of slowing down.
Motherfcker!!
There was no time to think. Even if he scrambled to the other side and opened the door, he wouldn't necessarily be able to dodge the roaring truck in time.
Looking at the shattered window of the jammed right door, Luca's mind turned ice-cold.
He reached for the holster at his waist.
A dark green, peculiar-looking large pistol was drawn instantly.
Simultaneously, he scrambled toward the jammed door using both hands and feet.
The cyan light strip on the gun flickered rapidly, and a series of electronic announcements rang out.
"Portable psychological diagnosis. System unconnected. Dominator, initialization complete. User confirmed..."
"Cut the crap! Activate Decomposer Mode!!" Luca roared, interrupting the verbose startup sequence.
"User confirmed. Mode execution: Destroy Decompose!"
Immediately, the dark green pistol in Luca's hand began to transform and expand.
Like exposed circuitry, cyan light surged, forming rings of light that wrapped around half of Luca's arm.
The sound of crackling electricity filled the air—bzzt.
"Shamila! Get out!!"
Hearing Luca's shout and noticing the weapon charging up in his hand, Shamila, who knew its power, didn't hesitate. She scrambled out of the driver's side instantly.
By now, Luca had pushed open the jammed door enough to plant one foot on the ground.
The speeding dump truck was right in front of him, but Luca's eyes held only a chilling coldness.
Go to hell! I am NOT transmigrating again!!
He raised his arm, aiming the pistol. The voice in his ear continued its monotone report.
"Target elimination authorized. Caution advised!"
The orb of light gathering at the muzzle had expanded to its limit. The cyan bands of light converged, forming a terrifying stream of high-energy particles.
Next instant.
Vwoom—
A cyan-blue beam of high-energy particles blasted out, instantly striking the oncoming dump truck.
Cyan and white light exploded outward, transforming into a massive, crackling sphere of energy.
The terrifyingly high-temperature particles instantly carved a massive circular hole through the front of the truck.
As the vehicle continued its forward momentum, the incision spread rapidly backward.
In a split second, the high-energy sphere hovering in front of Luca had tunneled through the entire length of the truck.
The glowing red cross-sections of the sliced metal fell apart, carried by the truck's momentum and scattering in all directions.
The massive dump truck was utterly obliterated by a single shot.
Only the scraps in the blind spots of the circular beam remained intact.
Rumble—
Scattered debris flew past Luca.
He could feel the heat wave generated by the molten metal rushing past his ears.
Cars on both sides were battered and dented by the flying shrapnel.
Yet, Luca, standing at the epicenter of the "impact," remained completely unharmed.
The entire "attack" had been shredded head-on by that single shot.
He stepped his other foot out of the car, letting the breeze stirred by the heat wave brush his face.
Luca steadied himself.
The [Dominator] in his hand quickly retracted from its elaborate Decomposer Mode, reverting to a slightly odd-looking dark green pistol.
Until this moment, most passersby still hadn't processed what had happened.
But whether it was pedestrians on the sidewalk or drivers who had gotten out of their cars cursing about the pile-up, everyone was now staring dumbfounded at the scene Luca had created.
The entire street seemed to fall silent for a second.
...
Until...
"Holy! Sh!t!"
"Aaaahhhh!!"
Cries of shock and anger erupted one after another.
Well, no one was screaming in terror.
After all, New Yorkers who had just survived the Chitauri invasion had developed somewhat thicker skin.
More people stopped and pulled out their phones to record videos.
As for the "Aaaahhhh," that was the driver who had tried to ram Luca with the dump truck.
A varsity athlete, huh?
Maybe because he had planned to bail out at the last second, or maybe just sheer luck...
Despite the truck being blown into pieces, the guy was still alive.
Currently, he was lying on the ground, minus one leg which had been completely disintegrated, struggling and screaming in agony amidst bruises and burns.
Luca re-holstered the [Dominator] at his waist. He glanced at the crowd filming him but ignored them.
Shamila, who had exited the car earlier, circled back from the other side.
After knocking the screaming driver unconscious with a swift kick, she walked up to Luca and reported in a low voice.
"The drivers of the front dump truck and the side sedan have already fled. The driver behind us seems to be an accidental rear-end. This is the only live one left."
Luca nodded indifferently.
Confirming that none of the cars behind them were at risk of exploding, he leaned lightly against the car door and ordered Shamila.
"Call the lawyers. We'll wait here for the police."