196 取扱注意
ロディンがその自動人形を起動させたのは偶然が積み重なった結果であり、つまりは運だ。
仲間が自動人形の情報を偶然手に入れたこと。
皆で遺跡探索の準備を念入りにしていた時にクロサワを雇えたおかげで、金は掛かったが死なずに目的地に到達できたこと。
4体の自動人形の保管場所を発見した後、クロサワが別の場所で更に自動人形を見付けても確保は戦力的に対処不可能だと判断し、万一発見したら確実に
クロサワがアキラ達と話を付けたことで、アキラ達が周囲の探索をせずに戻っていき、そのおかげで比較的近場にあった別の自動人形を見付けられなかったこと。
仲間に話を通しておけ、というクロサワの指示を、ロディンは仲間に説明する際に意図的に省略して話し、仲間はそれでクロサワが許可を出したと判断して、ロディンを1人で探索に向かわせたこと。
り着かせた。部屋を出たロディンはそのまま周囲を探索して、偶然、余りにもあっさりと、別の部屋で保存されていた自動人形を発見した。
自動人形の収納装置は少し小さめの部屋の中央に設置されていた。長期睡眠装置のようにも見える外観で、上部が透明な素材の蓋や覆いのようになっており、内部をはっきりと視認できる構造になっていた。内部には女性型の自動人形が機能停止状態で格納されていた。
ロディンはその自動人形に
ただしこの手段には欠点もある。基本的に遺物が発見者の物にならないのだ。専門技術が必要なほど取扱いが難しいため業者に支払う料金も高額になる。大抵はその業者を介して売りに出され、技術料や手数料を引いた額が支払われる。遺物を初めから金に換えるつもりならば全く問題ない。だが特定の遺物を欲して遺跡に潜る者にとっては大問題だ。
専門業者を呼ぶ場合、大抵は該当の遺物を競売に出すことが条件となっている。発見者が自分で買い取ることも可能ではあるが、貴重な遺物を欲している企業等と競うことになる。基本的に勝ち目はない。
ロディンは悩みに悩んだ末、自動人形の収納装置に手を伸ばした。そして使用方法など分からないが、いろいろ試して収納装置を開こうとした。ボタンやスイッチ、タッチパネルのようなものに恐る恐る触り、反応がないことに落胆しながら、そこでも思い
ではあるが、非常に聞き分けの良い自動人形が遺跡で自身を起動させたハンターに自身の所有を認めることがある。
その幸運に巡り会えたハンターが強力な自動人形を相棒にして遺跡を巡り、あっという間に大成し一流の仲間入りをした。その手の
分の悪い賭けだと理解しながらも、残りの人生で旧世界製の自動人形を手に入れる機会がもう一度回ってくる可能性など恐らくないと考えてしまい、ロディンはその賭けに手を出してしまった。
そしてここまで積み上がった偶然に、更に偶然が積み重なる。闇雲に収納装置を触っていたロディンの前で気体が漏れ出す音が響く。収納装置が開き始めたのだ。
りしている間に収納装置が完全に開いた。そしてメイド服を着た自動人形が目を開き、身を起こし、ゆっくりと立ち上がる。
を高めていく中、ロディンがぎこちない笑顔を自動人形に向ける。
激痛と現実がロディンの意識を夢想家からハンターに戻した。ロディンは胸に重傷を負ったまま銃を抜き、自動人形へ向けて乱射した。
旧世界の遺跡で自動人形を発見しても絶対に起動させるな。欲をかかずに専門業者に対応を頼め。東部のハンター達に広く知れ渡っている自動人形の取扱い方法だ。そしてそれを定着させた一番の理由は、それに従わなかったハンター達が積み上げた死体の山だ。遺跡でハンターが自動人形を起動させた場合、その自動人形が取る統計的に最も高い行動は、自身を起動させたハンターの殺害なのだ。
遺跡側の感覚ではハンターは施設に無断で武装して侵入した人物だ。自動人形も個体差や製品差はあるが大体それに準じた判断を下す。代金も払わずに非合法な方法で自身を取得した犯罪者に自身の所有権を与えるなど
「そういえば、俺達は日帰りの予定だって言ってたけど、もし自動人形が見付かったらどうするつもりだったんだ? あのハンター達はあの部屋を結構長時間防衛するように見えたけど、日帰りじゃ無理だろう」
「正直に答えると、仮に自動人形が見付かっても、破損状態が
みにアキラ達が途中で見た自動人形の立体映像だが、それが本物で起動する兆しがあった場合、シオリとカナエは自動人形を即座に問答無用で破壊するつもりだった。
「......そのどっちを選ぶかは、その時に考えてみないと分からないな」
その場合を想像して顔を軽く
「......何だよ」
アキラが微妙に視線を
クロサワ達がいる部屋の出入口付近で見張りをしていた男が、通路の奥から戻ってくるロディンに気付いた。
軽く小馬鹿にしながら笑って迎えてやろう。そう思っていた男の表情が一気に険しくなる。ロディンの足下から奥へ続いている血痕と、急ぎながらも
「敵襲だ! ロディンが負傷している! 援護を!」
そう部屋の中に叫んだ後、男がロディンに駆け寄っていく。そして今にも崩れそうなロディンを支えると、緊張の糸が切れたのか、ロディンはそのまま気絶した。
男がロディンを支えながら急いで部屋へ戻っていく。クロサワも奥を警戒しながらゆっくり下がっていく。
(......胸に一撃。あの負傷、何だ? 銃の類いじゃないな。......モンスターの角か? そんなやつこの辺にいたか?)
クロサワの疑問は通路の奥から現れた人影によって中断された。その人影、メイド服を着た妙齢の女性を見て、シオリ達やその関係者を疑ったが、すぐに取り消して表情を険しくする。
「......自動人形。起動してやがる! 手袋に血液! あの負傷はあいつか!」
(砲撃型ではなく、機銃型に変形させるべきだったか......)
クロサワは判断の誤りを反省しながら厳しい表情で部屋に戻っていった。
「無理だ。相当の重傷で、延命機能が仮死保護モードになっている。下手に解除すると容態が急激に悪化して死に兼ねない」
頭を抱えるクロサワを見て、他のハンター達が不思議がる。
「そんなに何かすぐに確認しなければならないことがあるのか?」
「ああ。こいつが襲われた状況を知りたい。俺の推測が混ざるが、こいつは自動人形に襲われたはずだ。さっきそれらしい人影を見た。逃げられたけどな」
めきが広がっていく。
「他にも自動人形があったのか!?」
「おいおい、それでロディンが起動させたとかじゃないだろうな」
「そうと決まったわけじゃないだろう。人型の警備ロボットを見間違えたとかじゃないのか?」
クロサワがハンター達を手で制して落ち着かせる。
「その辺のことをこいつに確認したかったんだよ。最悪を想定して行動するなら、俺達が発見した自動人形を事前に破壊する必要がある」
「は、破壊って......」
「可能性は大きく3つ。既に起動していた自動人形と遭遇した。新たに見付けた自動人形をこいつが起動させた。ここまでは良い。問題は、新たに自動人形を見付けたが、こいつに起動させるつもりなど全くなかったのにも
「い、いや、そ、そこを決断するのが隊長の仕事だろう!?」
クロサワがそう念を押すと、ハンター達が
『10億オーラムほど出せば自動人形が買えるって話だけどさ、資金に余裕があれば買った方が良かったりするか?』
アルファが珍しく表情を少し
『必要性を全く感じないけれど、欲しいの?』
『いや、アルファは俺の強化服や車やバイクを動かしているだろう? 同じように自動人形を動かせばアルファも便利かなと思ってさ』
『嫌よ』
その短い言葉には強い否定が込められていた。
『いや、大した理由じゃないんだ。別に無理に頼む気もないしな。ほら、あのツバキってやつがツバキハラビルで自動人形を動かしていただろう? それでちょっと思っただけなんだ』
『あー、そうなんだ』
アキラは以前にアルファを目覚まし時計扱いにして非常に機嫌を損ねてしまったことを思い出していた。そしてアルファの態度からその時よりも気に障る話だったことを把握した。
『悪気があったとは思っていないけれど、もうこの話は持ち出さないでね』
アルファが機嫌を戻したことを伝えるように
あの自動人形は今どこで何をしているのだろうか。ふとクロサワはそう思い、奥の小部屋の方へ向けていた視線を何となく僅かに上げた。
そのメイド服を着た自動人形は、偶然にもクロサワの視線の先にいた。その方向の天井の向こう側、小部屋の上の部屋に立っていた。小部屋の中にある自動人形の保存装置の真上から、下へ信号を送り続けていた。それは単純な遠隔起動信号ではなく、収納装置と自動人形の電子防壁を無理
侵入側も防衛側も旧世界製の自動人形。本来ならば電子防壁の突破は困難だ。だがメイド服の自動人形は遺跡の通信網に自身の通信を通し、通信認証を擬態した上で、格上の演算力に物を言わせて多少時間は掛かったものの障壁を突破した。
小部屋の収納装置の中にいる自動人形達の目が開いていく。そして収納装置の蓋を内側から殴り飛ばし蹴飛ばし吹き飛ばすという、明確に非正規の稼働方法で収納装置の外に出た。
クロサワが小部屋に設置していた情報収集機器の反応に気付き、即座に動き出す。
「自動人形が起動した! 応戦しろ!」
稼働したが敵対はしていない可能性もあった。だがクロサワはその可能性を迷わず全て切り捨てた。可変式の銃を機銃型に変形させながら奥の小部屋の扉に向けて変形完了と同時に発砲する。無数の銃弾が扉に激突し、部屋中に着弾音を響かせる。
のものだ。同時にハンター達が応戦の態勢を整えるまでの時間稼ぎでもあった。ハンター達の技量は決して低くない。急展開で僅かに戸惑っても、すぐに体勢を立て直す実力はある。クロサワが数秒場を硬直させれば問題はなかった。
扉が内部から勢いよく吹き飛ばされる。更に中から自動人形の収納装置が正確にクロサワを狙って高速で飛んでいく。撃ち落とせないと悟り、クロサワはその場から大きく横に飛び
その動きの中、クロサワは収納装置の背後に自動人形達の姿を見た。投げ飛ばした収納装置を盾にして銃弾を防ぎながら、2体の自動人形が部屋の出口を目指していた。
クロサワはその2体の迎撃に意識を割こうとしたが、後方の残り2体の動きを視界に捉えるのと同時に、部屋の出口を目指す方の対処を切り捨てた。後方の1体がクロサワを狙って追加の収納装置を投げつけようとしており、もう1体が収納装置を鈍器代わりにしてハンター達を襲おうとしていた。
クロサワは投げつけられた収納装置を更に飛び
(逃げられたか! ......いや、今は敵が減ったと解釈しろ! 連中が戦力を分散させた理由を考えるのは後回しにしろ! まずは、こっちの排除が先だ!)
ハンター達が応戦の態勢を整える前に、自動人形が収納装置をハンター達に向けて振り回す。避けきれなかったハンターが吹き飛ばされて部屋の壁に
Ch 196
Rodin activating an old-world automaton was the result of multiple coincidences layered on top of each other, basically, it was his bad luck.
The chance that his friends got that information about the old-world automata.
The chance that they decided to pay Kurosawa to lead the exploration when they were preparing it, thanks to that, they were able to safely reach their destination, although hiring Kurosawa was not cheap at all.
After they found the four automata, Kurosawa decided that it was impossible to secure more automata in case something bad happened. So to prevent any complications, he told his men to stop searching the area anymore.
Thanks to the agreement between Kurosawa and Togami's party, Akira and the others left the area right after. Thus preventing them from finding any nearby automata if there were still some left.
Kurosawa did tell Rodin to at least convey his warning to the rest of Rodin's friends, but Rodin deliberately left that out from his explanation to his friends. Therefore, the rest of the team thought that Kurosawa gave Rodin permission to go. Thus they did not say anything as they allowed Rodin to go alone to search around the area.
That was the reason why Rodin was able to reach this place. After he left the room, he randomly looked around and came to this area by pure chance where he found more old-world automata.
The automaton was inside a container in the middle of a relatively small room. From the outside, the container looked like a stasis pod. The upper part of the lid was made of a transparent material, which let Rodin clearly see what was inside that container. The automaton had female features and was in a deep sleep inside that container.
Rodin was mesmerized by that automaton and smiled widely.
But there was one big con with that process. The credit of finding the relics would usually not go to the Hunter, but to the specialists whose services were expensive. Most of the time, these specialists got their cut right after those relics were sold to some companies through their connection. Of course, it was not a problem at all for the Hunters who only wanted to exchange those relics for money, but it was a big problem for Hunters who wanted to get their hands on those relics themselves.
When a Hunter called for a specialist, normally, the deal was for the Hunter to accept that the specialist would take the relics and sell them. It was still possible for the Hunters to buy those relics themselves, but considering that there were large corporations vying for the same relic, normally these Hunters had no winning chance at all.
After taking his time calculating his options, Rodin extended his hand to the terminal of the container. Although he did not understand what the buttons were for, he started pushing the buttons randomly while checking the reactions. He carefully pushed the buttons and flicked the switches on the touch screen panel, only to find that there was barely any reaction at all, but that did not stop him.
Although it was a very rare case, there were reports when a Hunter somehow activated an old-world automaton and that automaton registered that Hunter as its master by pure luck.
Those super lucky Hunters would then explore the ruins with their advanced automata, thanks to which, they were able to quickly reach success and became first-rate Hunters. This kind of rumour was not that rare in the eastern district. Although they were rumours, parts of them must be true. After all, even a short investigation could easily uncover those Hunters.
Although he understood that it was a dangerous bid, he could not push aside the chance of getting an old-world automaton. Considering this chance might not come to him ever again, Rodin could not stop himself from testing his luck there.
That was when all the luck that was piling up on one another was extended even more. The container in front of Rodin that was wrapped in a dark cloud suddenly made a hissing sound before opening up.
As Rodin unconsciously took a few steps backwards, the lid of the container was fully opened and the maid automaton inside it finally opened its eyes. It then pulled itself out from the container and got itself standing on the floor.
The automaton turned toward Rodin with its face devoid of emotions.
The pain and reality pulled him back from his thoughts, he was back into his Hunter mode. While enduring the fatal wound on his chest, he reached for his rifle and shot at the automaton.
It was common sense among the Hunters in the eastern district that when they found an old-world automaton, they would have to call for a specialist and definitely keep their hands off the automaton. The real reason for this wisdom was simply because there were already so many Hunters who ended up dead after not obeying that warning. When a Hunter activated an old-world automaton inside the ruin, most often than not, the automaton immediately turned hostile and killed the Hunter who activated it.
From the ruin's point of view, these Hunters were like armed robbers. Although different automata had different A.I, most of them had the same view as the ruin regarding the Hunters. Thus in order to retain their value, they would try to kill or repel these armed robbers.
"By the way, you did say that you're planning to not spend a night in this ruin, right? Will that still be true if we had found an old-world automaton? It seemed that those guys were standing inside that room for quite some time, you know? I bet they've been there for more than a day."
"To be honest, even if we had found an old-world automaton, I thought that we would find it in broken condition, which in that case, we can just carry it back normally."
In reality, back then when they found the holographic image of the old-world automaton, if there was a sign that it might cause any danger, Kanae and Shiori would have stepped in and destroyed it without even consulting first.
"...Although I will only decide based on the situation when we find the automaton, it's basically one of those two plans."
Togami frowned as he imagined being thrown into that situation, he then noticed Akira was looking surprised at him.
"...Anything wrong?"
Akira awkwardly looked away and made eye contact with Alpha who was smiling teasingly at him, so he looked away from her too.
The Hunter who was guarding the entrance to the room where they were standing by, spotted Rodin returning back.
He was about to welcome Rodin back with a light joke, but his face immediately changed when he saw Rodin's condition. Rodin was stumbling and dragging his legs in a hurry through the hallway, leaving a trail of blood behind him.
"We're under attack!! Rodin is injured!! Asking for reinforcement!!"
After he shouted that into the room, he immediately ran to help Rodin. The moment he lent his shoulder to Rodin, who looked like he was about to fall anytime, Rodin immediately fainted which might be because he thought he was finally saved.
The guy who was carrying Rodin hurriedly went back into the room. Kurosawa and the other Hunters slowly retreated back to the room too while still keeping their eyes on the hallway.
[...One injury in his chest, but what caused that injury? It's not from a bullet... Horn then? But I don't think we have spotted monsters with horns around this area.]
Kurosawa's thought was cut short as he saw an old-world automaton coming at him. Since it had a maid uniform and a figure of a young lady, he thought that it was Kanae or Shiori at first, but he immediately understood that was not the case.
"...An active automaton?! Is that blood on its glove?! So it was from that automaton?!"
[Maybe I should've used rifle mode instead of cannon mode...]
Kurosawa lamented his bad decision as he retreated back into the room.
"That's not gonna happen. It's a pretty bad injury, so he's basically under the stasis mode to make sure he survives. If we wake him up, it might cause his situation to worsen, he might even die."
Now Kurosawa had to think of another approach. The other Hunters who saw him at a loss got curious.
"Is there something you need to check as soon as possible?"
"Yeah, I want to know what happened when he got attacked. This is just my guess, but I bet he got attacked by an old-world automaton. I saw an automaton back there, unfortunately, it got away though."
Murmur propagated through the other Hunters.
"So, there are more old-world automata?"
"Don't tell me Rodin activated an old-world automaton."
"We don't know for sure yet, it might be just a humanoid robot, right?"
Kurosawa raised his hand to calm the other Hunters down.
"That's what I want to ask this guy. In the worst-case scenario, if he really has woken up an old-world automaton, we might need to break the old-world automata that we have right now."
"B-break them?"
"There are 3 possibilities. The first one is that this guy found an old-world automaton and activated it, this would be a relatively better scenario though. The problem is if the automaton activated on its own even without him trying to do that. It would have been better if it was because there was an activation button that only comes up when you get close enough, but it would be really bad if it activates on its own in order to remove any unauthorized intruders. This would mean that the other 4 automata that we're guarding might activate anytime soon. After all, that one automaton might have been activated simply because the system is still in the middle of its activation sequence. A full-fledged old-world automaton is often designated as a bounty monster, and we have four of them down here with us. If we have to fight them, it would be super tragic."
"W-wait, it's your job as the leader to make that decision, right?!"
After Kurosawa warned the Hunters as such, they staggered back and went silent.
"The thing that we talked with Shiori about, it seems that I can get an automaton for 1 billion Aurum, do you think it's a good idea to get one when I have some leeway?"
Alpha frowned.
"I don't think that it's necessary. but... Do you want one?"
"No, I just thought that you can control my augmented suit and my vehicle, right? So you might be able to do the same for the automaton too."
"But I don't want to."
That short answer was filled with rejection.
"It was just a simple thought, nothing more. It's not like I'm planning to force you to do it. It just reminded me of Tsubaki back then when she was using an old-world automaton."
"Ohhh, I see."
Akira remembered back then when Alpha got angry the moment he referred to her as an alarm clock. But this time, it was obvious that she was angrier than back then.
"I know that you had no bad intention when you suggested that, but never bring this subject up again, okay?"
Alpha then smiled to let Akira know that her mood was back to normal. But Akira's frown still stayed for some time.
Kurosawa did think for a bit about where the automaton was at now and what it was doing at the moment. His sight slightly shifted up while he was still looking toward the small room that he and his team was securing.
That was when he spotted the automaton in a maid uniform standing on the other side of the ceiling on top of that small room. It was sending some data into the automata inside that small room. But it was not a simple activation signal, the automaton was hacking through the container.
Of course, the container was secured with old-world technology, normally, it would have been impossible to try to break through it. But the old-world automaton used its own communication device to access the ruin's signal receiver to imitate it using its advanced computation ability. It was only a matter of time before it broke through the security system.
The automata inside the small room opened their eyes. They then broke through the container using brute force by banging and kicking the lid away.
Kurosawa immediately noticed the signal coming from the information-gathering device planted inside the small room and sprung into action.
"The automata are activating!! Get to your battle station!!"
Although the automata were activated, they might not be hostile. But Kurosawa did not hesitate to throw away that possibility and changed his rifle into machine-gun mode. The moment it finished changing mode, he immediately started blasting. The bullet storms ripped through the door and straight into the room, he could hear the sound of bullets ricocheting from inside the room.
Even if the door opened, Kurosawa would not stop shooting in order to prevent the automata from leaving that room as well as to buy some time for the other Hunters to finish their preparations. The other Hunters present there were not amateurs, although they were surprised by that sudden change of events, they immediately got to their positions. Kurosawa just had to buy them a few seconds.
The door was blasted away followed by containers flying out from inside the room straight in Kurosawa's direction. Kurosawa understood that it was impossible to shoot them down, so he leapt aside to avoid them.
In the middle of that, he saw two automata hiding behind those containers to block the bullet storm...
Kurosawa was about to shift his focus to those two automata that were aiming for the exit, but the remaining two automata left inside the room immediately started to move and took his attention so he had no other choice than to let the other two pass by. One of the two automata threw the container at Kurosawa while the other one used the broken container as a blunt weapon against the other Hunters.
Kurosawa jumped aside one more time to evade the incoming container, he aimed at the automaton attacking the Hunter to try to stop it. But that created a small opening in which the other two just blasted past Kurosawa and escaped the room.
[Dammit, they got away!! No, I should just think that it's a good thing we have fewer automata to face now! I can just think of the reason why they broke their forces up later! At the moment, I just need to focus on the enemies in front of us right now.]
Before the Hunters were able to regroup, the automaton swung the large container toward the Hunters. The Hunters who could not get away in time were smashed and crashed into the wall, it even left a dent on the durable container.
Rebuild World (WN)
リビルドワールド
https://www.novelupdates.com/series/rebuild-world/
Action Adventure Drama Harem Mecha Mystery Sci-fi Seinen
Abandoned Children Adapted to Manga Adventurers Alternate World Anti-social Protagonist Apocalypse Artificial Intelligence Beautiful Female Lead Cautious Protagonist Child Protagonist Dense Protagonist Determined Protagonist Distrustful Protagonist Futuristic Setting Gangs Gunfighters Harsh Training Lack of Common Sense Male Protagonist Manipulative Characters Monsters Near-Death Experience Older Love Interests Poor Protagonist Poor to Rich Ruthless Protagonist Shota Sudden Strength Gain Survival Twisted Personality Unlucky Protagonist Weak to Strong
https://ncode.syosetu.com/n9736dt/
非公開