『アルファ。そういえば、この緊急依頼ってどうなったら終わるんだ?』
『緊急依頼の目的は都市の防衛よ。恐らくその原因を排除するまで終わらないわ。戦局にもよるけれど、この場に追加の応援部隊が来ても、負傷者を都市に戻して残りを他の場所に派遣するってことも考えられるわ』
『戦局次第ってことか』
『一応ここの窮地を救ったと思うんだけど、バイクの報酬分にはまだ足りないか?』
『残念だけれど、それを決めるのは私でもアキラでもないわ』
『確かに。活躍が足りないから差額分を支払え、なんて言われないようにしないとな』
トラックは敵の砲撃を受けて移動不能状態だが、搭載している索敵装置などは無傷で残っていた。ハンター達がその索敵装置を使用して交代で周囲を見張っているので奇襲の心配はない。アキラも気を休めてアルファと雑談を続けていた。
その見張りのハンターが声を上げる。
「反応があった! 2時の方向だ!」
場の緊張が一気に高まる。新手のモンスターか。
「トラックを破壊した機械系モンスターだ。一度追い返したんだが、逃げたんじゃなくて弾の補給にでも行ってきたのかよ」
昆虫のような脚を生やした大砲や、自走する大型弾倉などで構成された機械の群れが迫ってきている。アキラも少し遅れてそれを見付けると、表情をかなり険しくさせた。
アルファが補足を入れる。
『あれはキャノンインセクトと呼ばれているわ。恐らく、旧世界時代から今もどこかで稼働中の兵器工場とかで製造されたものよ。機銃付きの多脚移動装置に戦車の大砲を複数付けたもので、移動装置の方が本体よ。個体差はあるけれど、攻撃力は戦車の大砲並み。機体の装弾数は少量、というより大砲分の数しかないわ。でも随伴している補給機体から補給するようね』
『兵器工場で作ったのなら、何であんなちょっと虫っぽい姿をしてるんだ?』
『工場の管理端末が誤作動で変なデータでも読み込んだのか、
『暇って......、そんな理由なのか?』
キャノンインセクト達の武装は個体ごとに異なっている。冗談のように大口径の大砲を持つ機体もあれば、極端に細い大砲を無数に持つ機体もある。移動装置の大きさにも多脚の数も差異が多々存在している。
しかし兵器としての統率は取れていた。キャノンインセクト達はその全てがトラックから一定の距離で接近を止めると、多脚で体全体を器用に傾けてその場から砲撃を開始する。
とともに発射された砲弾がトラックの周辺に降り注ぐ。着弾地点一帯に土煙を巻き上げ、周辺のモンスターの死体や残骸なども一緒に吹き飛ばしていく。
ハンター達も反撃を開始するが、互いの有効射程の関係でかなりの不利を強いられていた。
「嫌な距離を保ちやがる。前はもう少し近付いてきたんだが......」
キャノンインセクト達は絶妙な距離から砲撃を続けている。命中率を犠牲にすることで、一方的に攻撃可能な距離を維持し続けていた。随伴している補給機体の数から、弾切れは期待できないことにハンター達も気付いていた。
アルファが少し険しい顔をアキラに向ける。
『アキラ。一応確認するわ。アキラ一人で逃げる気は、無いのよね?』
アキラは険しい表情を浮かべながらも、はっきりと答える。
『俺が最後の一人になるまではな』
アキラも不敵に笑って返す。
準備を終えたアキラは再びバイクに
男は驚きの表情を見せたが、このままでは状況が悪化するだけなのは明白なので止めなかった。代わりに真面目な顔で随伴を申し出る。
「1人で大丈夫か?」
「バイクがあるのは俺だけだ。下手に一緒に行動しない方が良いと思う。的が分散すれば敵の攻撃も少しは分散するはずだしな。それに常に移動していればそうは当たらないだろう。......多分。それじゃあ、援護を頼む」
アキラはそう言い残してバイクで駆けていった。
アキラを様々な胸中で見送ったハンター達もすぐに行動に移る。
「俺達も散開して近付くぞ! 負傷者を荷台から降ろして、トラックが盾になるようにしろ! グレネード持ちに弾をケチらせるなよ!」
砲弾が降り注ぐ中、ハンター達も覚悟を決めて徒歩でキャノンインセクト達との距離を詰めていった。
アキラがキャノンインセクト達を目指してバイクで荒野を駆けていく。無謀とも思える速度を出して、更に加速する。
んだ場所などの上を通れば、荒野仕様のタイヤでも一気に体勢を崩して転倒しかねない危険な悪路だ。そこをアルファの異常とも呼べる高度な運転技術で突破していく。
揺れる車体から止まらずにAAH突撃銃を構えて引き金を引く。一応命中したが、あっさり
直撃すれば即死は免れない。その威力を肌で感じたアキラが冷や汗をかく。
『結構外れているし、大丈夫だよな!? 当たらないよな!?』
『不吉なことを言わないでくれ! 俺は残りの運を使い切ったんだろう!?』
『私のサポートで対処可能な程度の不運であることを祈りなさい。それに、アキラが今こんな目に遭っているのはアキラの選択の
銃撃しながら急速に距離を詰めてくるアキラに対して、キャノンインセクト達が明確に反応し始める。攻撃目標をアキラに切り替える個体が増えていき、アキラの周囲に降り注ぐ砲弾の量も増えていく。
更に距離を詰められると、キャノンインセクト達は曲射を止めて直接アキラを狙い始めた。水平に発射された巨大な砲弾が大気を
で体全体を攻撃目標に向ける必要がある。敵が照準を定め直すまでの間に、アキラは無数の銃弾を敵に撃ち込み続けた。
無数の弾丸がキャノンインセクト達に随伴している補給機体に直撃する。弾薬補充用の補給機体さえ先に破壊してしまえば、機体の僅かな残弾を使い果たしたキャノンインセクト達はただ固いだけの的に成り下がる。最優先で撃破していく。
無数の銃弾がアルファによる精密射撃で機械系モンスターの弱点部位に撃ち込まれていく。多脚の関節部分を破壊された機体が横転してもがき続ける。弾倉に似た形状の補給機械が被弾して誘爆し、周囲の個体を巻き込んで吹き飛んでいく。
可能な限り避けるつもりでいるけれど、必要ならやるわ。その状況を選んだのはアキラでしょう? 今更泣き言を言わないの』
選択に後悔はないが、痛いものは痛いのだ。アキラはその痛みを勢いでごまかすように
にキャノンインセクトの後部に取り付こうとしている。アキラがそれに気付いて補給機を念入りに銃撃すると、弾倉の砲弾が誘爆してキャノンインセクトごと大破した。その成果にアキラが機嫌を良くする。
『良し! 次だ! 大分減ってきたな!』
『順調ね。他のハンターも頑張っているようだし、このままなら勝てるわ』
キャノンインセクト達に随伴している補給機体の数が減ると、敵の砲撃圧力も弱まっていく。既にハンター達も距離を詰め終えて攻撃に参加していた。基本的に火力ではアキラを超える者ばかりだ。敵の数は急激に減りつつあった。
最終的にキャノンインセクト達は、補給機体を全て倒されて砲弾補給が不可能となり、固いだけの的となった。ハンター達がそれらの的を今までの鬱憤を晴らすように粉砕していく。全てのキャノンインセクトが
アキラが急激な疲労感を覚えて大きく息を吐く。
『......やっと終わった。何とかなったけど、砲弾を避けながら戦うのはもう御免だ』
『バイクがなかったらもっと苦戦していたわ。やっぱりアキラにはまだ早かったわね』
『装備が? 実力が?』
『......強化服を手に入れて、アルファに
『一朝一夕で強くなれるのなら誰も苦労なんかしないわ。これからも頑張りましょう』
『そうだな。頑張るしかないか。頑張ろう。......後は今回の報酬がどうなるかだな。これだけ頑張ったんだ。期待したいところだけど、どうなるかは分からないよなぁ』
少し休んでからトラックに戻ったアキラを、先に戻っていたハンターが出迎える。
「大したもんだ。AAH突撃銃だけで行くから単なる
アキラが何となくそう答えると、男がそれで納得したような表情を浮かべる。
「もしかして、お前はAAH愛好家か? その銃も改造品だったりするのか?」
「愛好家? まあ愛用はしている。知り合いの店で買った銃だから、特に改造とかはしていないけど」
「ならその店主がAAH愛好家で改造品を黙って売っているのかもな。AAH愛好家はそうやってAAH突撃銃のファンを増やしていくんだ。まあ、お前みたいなハンターが愛用していればAAH愛好家が増えても不思議はないか。名銃と言われるだけはあるって訳だ」
『AAH突撃銃を愛好している人のことだと思うわ』
『気になるのなら、後で自分で調べてみなさい。それも訓練よ』
『......分かった』
アキラが微妙なもやもやを覚えていると、別のハンターが近付いてくる。そして少し言い
「悪いがまた負傷者が出たんだ。俺達の回復薬はとっくに使い切っているんでな。そっちに余裕があるなら、もう少し売ってもらえないか?」
「分かった。まだ残ってたはず......」
ハンター達はそのモンスターを殺したと判断したのだが、実際には気絶していただけだった。交戦中に、今まさに至近距離で襲われている最中に、無数のモンスターの生存確認を一々している余裕はなく、その個体は気絶した状態で放置されていた。
意識を取り戻したモンスターは本能に従って即座に一番近くにいた人間に襲いかかった。それが偶然アキラだった。
アキラは銃で反撃しようとして、銃を持っていないことに気付き、地面に置いた銃を急いで拾って反撃しようと考える。その余計な思考で動作が更に遅れる。
アキラの反応は致命的に遅れ続けていた。大口を開けたモンスターは既に眼前に迫っていた。
ゆっくりとした世界の中で、アキラは自身の死を理解した。
次の瞬間、アキラの強化服が勝手に動き出した。全身が左足を軸にして勢いよく回り、同時に右脚が跳ね上がる。強化服は使用者の安全性を無視して出力を可能な限り上げていた。その身体能力はその一瞬だけ超人の域に達していた。
の間に、アキラの体がAAH突撃銃を勝手に拾った。同時に混乱していたアキラの意識が立ち直る。透かさずモンスターの口に銃口を押し込んで引き金を引き、連射する。口内で撃ち出された銃弾がモンスターの頭部に内側から着弾し続ける。
それでもモンスターは即死しなかった。だが致命傷には届いた。弾倉を空にする勢いでそのまま撃ち続けると、その巨体は
『い、いま動かしたのは、アルファだよな?』
『強化服に残っていたエネルギーをほぼ使い切ったのよ。消費効率は最悪だけれど、一瞬だけ身体能力を限界以上に上げたわ。そうでもしないと、もうどうしようもなかったわ。無理をしたから強化服も故障しているかもしれないわ。それは後で調べないと駄目ね』
アキラが座り込む。全身に痛みが走っている。特に右足からは激痛がする。
『......右足は、折れてるのか』
『強化服を可能な限り硬質化はさせたけれど、元々装甲目的の機能ではないから限度があるわ。早く脚を治療しないと歩いて帰れなくなるわよ。急ぎなさい』
『普通に飲めば良いんだよな? 骨折しているからって、肉を切って骨に振りかけるのは嫌だぞ』
『本当にどうしようもない時は、そうするしかないわよ? 今は折れた骨のずれを直してから回復薬を飲むだけで良いわ。ある程度時間は掛かるでしょうけれど、今なら大丈夫でしょう。骨のずれを直すのも私がやった方が良い?』
アキラの両手が勝手に動き始めて右足を
その激痛にアキラは歯を食い縛って耐えた。その後で回復薬の箱に入っていた残りを全て口に放り込んだ。回復薬の鎮痛作用が痛みを和らげていく中、治療用ナノマシンが自分の右脚に集まっていく感覚を覚えていた。
空になった箱を握り潰したところで先ほどの男と目が合う。リュックサックの中を確認すると、回復薬はかなり少なくなっていた。かなり迷ってから1箱取って男に渡すと、男はそれを一度受け取ってからアキラに返した。そして不思議そうな顔をしているアキラの前で軽く笑う。
「ああ。負傷者は重傷じゃない。安静にしていれば大丈夫だろう」
ハンター達が銃声を聞いて慌てて駆け寄ってきたので、男が叫んで状況を伝える。
「気絶しているだけでまだ生きているモンスターがいた! 頭部が無事なやつを見付けたら、念の
キャノンインセクト達の襲撃を退けたハンター達は再び救援待ちの状態となった。
アキラは負傷を理由に休憩を取っていた。他のハンター達は周辺の警戒を続けている。一人だけ休んでいるアキラに文句が出ないのは、彼らがアキラの働きを認めているからだ。
強化服がただの重い服になる前に動力源のエネルギーパックを取り替える。AAH突撃銃の弾倉を交換して装弾数を最大にする。予備の弾倉を体に
め息を吐く。予備の弾薬も回復薬も残り僅かだった。
『......減ったなぁ。帰ったら弾薬もちゃんと補充しないと。......報酬、ちゃんと出るよな?』
『あのバイクが幾らかは知らないけど、
納得した。報酬額を決めるのは自分達ではないと言われた記憶もあるが、それは忘れることにした。その方が気が楽だからだ。
日が落ち始めた頃、待望の救援がハンター達の
く役に立ったから、それは礼を言っておく」
「そりゃよかった。お前にバイクを渡した
「そうだ。俺が受けた緊急依頼はどういう状況になれば終わりなんだ? 彼らが都市に戻るまでか?」
「おお。そうだったな。ちょっと待ってろ」
キバヤシが情報端末を取り出して操作する。
「終わりなのか? 帰るまで彼らを護衛とかしなくても良いのか?」
「ああ。俺達がここに来たのは、また別の救助依頼としてだからな。クズスハラ街遺跡から出現したモンスターの群れは都市の防衛隊が排除した。既にその緊急依頼は完了済みだ。そっちの用事が済んだから他のハンターの救助に人員を割く余裕が出来たんだよ」
「何ならついでにこの救助依頼も受けていくか? 受けるなら俺がこの場で手続をしてやるぞ?」
アキラが疲れた顔で首を横に振る。
「......いや、受けた依頼が終わったのなら先に帰るよ。弾薬も随分消費したし、何より疲れた」
「そりゃ残念だ。帰りにまた何かあれば、お前の無謀ぶりを間近で見られると思ったのにな」
「気を付けて帰れよ? 死ぬ時は派手な無理
楽しげにアキラを見送ったキバヤシに別の職員が報告に来る。
「キバヤシさん。戦歴評価用データのデータ移行が終わりました。破壊されたトラックの損傷は駆動系に偏っていましたので、データ収集自体は比較的問題なく行われていたようです。ただ、一部妙なデータが含まれていましたが......」
「妙なデータ?」
報告を聞いたキバヤシが吹き出した。楽しげに笑いながら指示を出す。
「他のハンター達から話を聞いて誤データかどうか確認しろ。いや、俺が聞いて回る。誤データと判断して勝手に消すなよ? ああ、そのデータは俺宛てにも送ってくれ。後で俺も確認する。俺が荷台で他のハンターから話を聞くから、お前は移動の準備が済み次第部隊を出発させろ」
"Alpha, now that I think about it, what should I do to complete this emergency request?"
"The subject of the emergency request is the city defense. I think it'll not end until the city is completely safe. Of course, it depends on how the situation develops, but I don't think it'll be the end of the request even if more reinforcements come to this area. I think they'll just send back the injured Hunters to the city and send the rest to another area."
"So it depends on how the situation develops, huh?"
"I did save the Hunters here though. Is that not enough?"
"Unfortunately, it's not for me nor you to decide whether it's enough or not."
"That's true. I need to make sure that they won't tell me to pay them back because I didn't work hard enough."
Although the truck was bombarded to a point where it could not run anymore, the detection device installed to it was still operational. The Hunters would take turns to monitor their surroundings using that device. Thus the rest of the Hunters could rest easy without fearing any surprise attacks. Akira had also lowered his guard as he was talking with Alpha.
Suddenly, the Hunter who was on watch duty shouted.
"We got incoming signals from the 2 o'clock direction!!"
The tension in the area suddenly raised. No one knew whether it was from monsters or from reinforcements, thus Akira and the other Hunters turned their attention to that direction while looking both hopeful and uneasy.
"I'm talking about those monsters that broke our trucks. So they didn't run away from the area, huh? Did they go back for an ammo refill or something like that?"
It was a swarm of mechanical monsters that looked like a small bug with tiny legs, their bodies were mounted with a big cannon and an automatic machine gun. Akira was a little bit slow in recognizing it, but when he did, his face immediately turned grim.
Alpha then added some explanations to what Akira was seeing.
"Those things are called Cannon Insects. I believe that they are produced in an old world's automated weapon factory that's still active somewhere till this date. It consists of a moving device in the form of those small legs. It is attached with a gun and an anti-vehicle cannon. That moving device part should be their main body part. Although their firepower varies, their main firepower comes from that tank cannon. But with that being said, they don't have much reserve ammo, or more like, they can only bring a few warheads for that cannon. So, to deal with that, they would refill their ammo with help from another accompanying refilling robot."
"If they are produced by a weapon factory, why do they have that insect-like form?"
"I think their information receiver malfunctioned and received weird data instead. Or maybe, the AI was so bored that it decided to make something weird."
"Bored...? Is that even enough of a reason?"
The cannon insect was a separate machine from its weapon. Some of them were equipped with a big cannon not suitable for its size and some of them carried a small cl.u.s.ter of countless tiny cannons. There were also differences in the size or the number of their legs.
Despite all the differences, all the cannon insects were effective soldiers. They came close enough to the truck, stopped and then used all of their legs to support their body as they blasted their cannons.
The swarm then released a volley of cannons together with banging sounds. Cannon warheads showered the area around the truck like rain, they exploded and blasted all the monsters' corpses in the area into small bits and pieces. Charred and in pieces, smoke rose up from the aftermath.
Of course, the Hunters started shooting back in retaliation. But due to their guns' effective range, it did not do much damage to the monsters.
"Dammit, although they attacked from a closer range last time, those bugs are keeping their distance from us this time..."
The cannon insects were keeping their distance from the Hunters. They stood right outside the Hunters' shooting range. By sacrificing their accuracy, they continued bombarding the Hunters with warheads from afar, and it soon turned into a one-sided fight. The Hunters also noticed that these monsters would not run out of ammo anytime soon since they were accompanied by other machines that refilled their ammo.
Alpha then turned to Akira with a serious face.
"Akira, let me reconfirm this, you have no plans of running away from this place alone, right?"
Akira firmly answered back while still making a grim face.
"Of course, that's until I'm the only one alive."
Akira smiled back and replied in a firm tone.
After he finished all of his preparations, Akira took his gun and got on his bike before shouting to a guy near him.
The guy was surprised when he heard that, but he understood that the situation would only get worse at this rate, thus he did not stop Akira. Instead, he asked Akira while making a serious face.
"Are you sure you're going alone?"
"I'm the only one with a bike here, so I think it's better if we don't make any clumsy move. This will at least divide their attention and reduce the pressure from their bombardment. Moreover, if I keep moving, they won't be able to hit me... Maybe... Well then, I'll be counting on you for the follow-up support."
After he said that, Akira blazed out on his bike.
As he passed by and made eye contact with the other Hunters, they immediately understood what Akira was thinking and moved.
"We should scatter out and approach those bugs too!! Put down the injured Hunters from the truck's trays and use the truck as a shield!!! To everyone with grenades, reserve your grenades!!!"
In the middle of the raining warheads, the Hunters too made their resolve and started running towards the monsters as well.
Akira rode his bike and cut through the wasteland as he was heading straight towards the monster swarm. Although he was fast enough to be considered as attempting suicide, he accelerated his bike even more.
The area was littered with wreckages and bloody corpses of the dead monsters. Even with wheels specially designed for exploring the wasteland, it was dangerous as muddy ground filled with obstacles were enough to flip Akira's bike. But thanks to Alpha's advanced support, Akira just blazed through it with no problem at all.
The violent shaking of the bike did not stop Akira from pulling the trigger on his AAH rifle. Although some of the bullets hit the monsters, they just ricocheted off the monsters' bodies. It was a common characteristic among mechanical monsters like the cannon insect to have a very hard body, and not to mention, Akira was shooting outside AAH rifle's effective range, so it was not surprising.
There was no doubt that it would instantly kill Akira if one of those warheads hit him directly. Akira could feel a shiver running through his spine as he started sweating.
"Well, they mostly miss anyway, so it's going to be okay, right? I won't get hit, right?!!"
"Don't say something scary like that!! I've used all of my luck, you know?!!"
"Just hope that your luck is only bad to the point that I can offset it with my support. That aside, remember that you got into this situation because of your own decision, okay? And it does not depend on luck."
Akira was closing in high speed with a rifle in his arm, aiming towards the monsters. The insect cannons started to take notice of him and reacted. Most of the cannon insects already changed their target to Akira and showered him with warheads.
And when he got close enough, the cannon insects stopped shooting in curved trajectories and instead aimed at him in a straight line. The cannon warheads travelled along a straight line and hit about 1 meter away from Akira as rumbles echoed through the wasteland. He was filled with fear when the vibration and the shockwave from the explosions reached him. But he then just gritted his teeth and crushed the fear.
Since the cannon insects had no pivot to rotate their guns, they had to readjust their whole body when they aim at something. As they were reorienting their position, Akira released countless bullets towards the swarm.
The bullets spewed from Akira's AAH rifle hit the robots that were resupplying the cannon insects. If he was able to destroy the machines resupplying the cannon insects, then all the cannon insects would only turn into moving target practices once they depleted their ammos. That was why Akira prioritized destroying them first.
Due to Alpha's advanced target support, most of the bullets hit the weak points of the mechanical monsters. The monsters that got their leg connections destroyed, struggled to keep standing. While the resupplying robots that had a magazine-like body exploded when they got hit and took out the monsters within its explosion radius.
"Of course I'll try to avoid such a situation as much as I can, but you'll have to do it when you are left with no other choice. Remember that it was your decision now that we're in this situation, right? So don't start complaining, okay?"
Although Akira did not regret his choice, painful stuff was still painful to him. But he tried to forget the pain by answering back in an annoyed tone.
The resupplying robots looked like a big magazine with small legs attached to it and they resupplied the cannon insect by connecting to their backside. Akira realized that and noticed that they would blow up together with the cannon insects if he shot them. Akira's mood got better and better every time he blew up one of those monsters.
"Alright then, next! We already took down most of them!"
"This is going very well. The other Hunters are also working hard, we can win this battle at this rate."
Once most of the resupplying robots were taken out, the bombardment from the cannon insects started to weaken. The Hunters had also closed their distance to the swarm. Since most of the Hunters had bigger firepower than Akira, they wiped out the swarm in no time.
The last few cannon insects were only standing in their place without doing anything. They already ran out of ammo and there were no more resupplying robots around them. The Hunters just walked to them and crushed them in order to vent all of their pent up frustration and stress. Eventually, all the cannon insects turned into wreckages and the battle had come to a closure.
Akira let out a big sigh, he was very tired.
"...It finally ends, huh. Avoiding warheads while shooting at monsters... Although we somehow pulled it off, I don't want to do that ever again."
"That would have been a hard fight if it was not for this bike. As I thought, it's still too early for you, Akira."
"Is it because of my equipment? Or my skill?"
"...Although I have an augmented suit now and your amazing support, I'm still not that good, huh?"
"If you can get strong in one night, then we won't be doing all of those training up until now. So let's keep on working hard in the future too."
"You're right. There's no other choice but to work hard, huh... That aside, I wonder how they are going to distribute the reward from this. We worked really hard this time, so I'm looking forward to a big reward. Although to be honest, I don't really know how they are going to decide on my reward."
Akira took a short rest before returning back to the truck. When he arrived, the other Hunters who went back to the truck before him welcomed Akira.
"That was amazing. I thought you were planning to be a decoy since you went out only with an AAH rifle. But that was really something."
Although Akira was half-joking when he said that, the guy looked convinced with the answer.
"Are you, by any chance, an AAH fan? Is that gun a modified AAH rifle?"
"AAH fan? Well, I do like the rifle though. After all, I bought it from my acquaintance's shop, but I didn't particularly put any modification on it."
"In that case, that would mean your acquaintance is actually selling modified rifles without telling you. Fans tend to do that in order to get more people loving their favourite gun. Well, if a Hunter like you really like that rifle, I bet there'll be more people liking that gun in the near future. As expected of a famous rifle."
"I think it refers to the people who really like AAH rifle."
"If you're curious about it, you should investigate it later by yourself. It's also a type of training, after all."
"...Alright."
As Akira was still wondering about the meaning of those words, another Hunter came up to him. He looked hesitant when he spoke to Akira.
"I'm sorry but we got more injured Hunters. We already used all of our medicines. If you have some to spare, can you sell some to us again?"
"Sure, I should still have some left..."
The Hunters thought that it was dead, but it actually was only knocked unconscious. During the fierce battle that just happened, they did not have the time to check if all the downed monsters around them were really killed. Thus they left this monster alone thinking that it was dead.
Once the monster regained its consciousness, it followed its bestial instinct to attack the nearest human, and the nearest human was Akira.
Akira moved to shoot that monster, but he realized that he had no gun in his hands. He quickly tried to reach for his gun that he dropped on the ground. But that sequence of thinking made his reaction slow down even more.
Akira's late reaction turned his situation for the worst as the monster was already right in front of him with its big mouth wide open.
As the world felt like it was running in slow motion, Akira could feel the death that was creeping onto him.
In the next moment, Akira's augmented cloth moved on its own. His whole body rotated with his left leg as a pivot as Akira raised his right leg at the same time. The augmented suit ignored its user's safety and mustered all of its strength, thus for a spare second, Akira's strength and ability broke through the limit of a mere human and transcended into the realm of a superhuman.
During that opening, Akira's arm quickly reached for his AAH rifle on its own. Although he was still very confused, Akira quickly regained its composure as he immediately shoved his gun into that monster's mouth and pulled the trigger. As he held the trigger of his gun, the bullets spewed out from its muzzle tore through the monster's head from the inside.
But even so, it was only enough to fatally injure the monster and not enough to kill it. Akira firmly held the trigger and emptied his magazine into the monster's mouth. There was a moment of silence after which the monster's large body fell down to the ground and never moved again for the second time.
"W-was that you who moved my body, Alpha?"
"It's running low on energy. Although I was able to increase its power output above its limit for a few seconds, it consumed a huge amount of energy in that short amount of time. I didn't have any other choice back then, you know. But since I pushed it past its limit, it might be broken, we should make a thorough check later."
Akira sat down. His whole body was pulsing in pain, especially his right leg.
"...My right leg, I wonder if it is broken."
"Well, I did harden the augmented suit as hard as it could, but since it's not designed with user protection as one of its main functions, there was a limit on how hard it can go. If you don't heal your leg, you won't be able to walk back home you know. So you should quickly treat your leg."
"I just need to swallow them, right? Since it's a broken bone, it's not like I should open up my leg to apply the medicine directly onto my broken bone, right?"
"In the worst-case scenario, you have no other choice but to do that, you know? For now, you just need to straighten your broken bone and swallow the medicine. It might take some time to fully heal your broken bone, but I think that will be fine at the moment. So, should I help you straighten the broken bone?"
After that, Akira's hands started moving on their own and grabbed his right leg. Alpha then partially turned off some parts of the augmented suit, thus the augmented suit regained its elasticity and weight. And with that, the whole augmented suit forcefully straightened Akira's broken bone.
Intense pain immediately assaulted Akira, he gritted his teeth and endured the intense pain. After that, Akira took his medicine box and poured all the medicines inside that box into his mouth. As he swallowed all of those medicines, the analgesic inside the medicine immediately dulled his pain, but even so, he could still feel the healing nanomachines quickly gathering around his right leg.
As he strongly squeezed the empty medicine box, Akira's eyes met with the eyes of the guy from before. He quickly grabbed his rucksack and confirmed that he did not have many medicines left with him. He hesitated for a bit before he decided to hand over one box to that man. That Hunter received the box, stopped for a moment and then returned the box back to Akira. Akira looked puzzled when that Hunter did that, but he just smiled and said to Akira.
"Yeah, the Hunters are not that badly injured anyway. They'll be okay if we just let them rest."
The other Hunters came running as they heard gunshots, then the guy in front of Akira shouted at them.
"There was a monster that just lost consciousness and was not dead yet!! Go and check the other monsters, if you find any of them with their head intact, shoot them a few times in the head as a precaution!!"
The Hunters who just repelled the assault from the cannon insects swarm were once again waiting for reinforcement.
Akira used his injury as a reason to take a rest as the other Hunters kept monitoring the surroundings. The reason why none of them complained when Akira was resting was because they acknowledged Akira's hard work.
He replaced the power source of his augmented suit with a new energy pack before his augmented suit ran out of energy and turned into a mere dead weight heavy suit. He then took a full magazine and inserted it into his AAH rifle. He also attached some spare magazines around his augmented suit. When he finished, his right leg was almost fully healed. With this, he was ready to go for another round.
Akira stared inside his rucksack and let out the biggest sigh of the day. He only had a spare amount of reserve ammo and healing medicines.
"...I don't have much left, I need to replenish my ammo reserve when I get back... I'm going to get a reward from this, right?"
"I don't know for sure how much that bike is, but you fought quite a lot today, so I'm sure the reward will be enough to cover it. So don't worry, it'll be fine."
Akira decided to just accept her explanation. Although he remembered Alpha once said to him that she did not know for sure how much reward he would get, Akira just decided to forget that part for now. After all, he would feel better this way.
As the day turned darker and the sun was about to set, reinforcements finally arrived.
"...The bike was really useful, so thank you for the bike."
"I'm glad to hear that. It was the right choice to give you that bike. And that's doubly true if it helped you do those crazy things."
"Ah, right. About the emergency request that I accepted, what should I do before it's considered finished? Is it until these Hunters return safely back to the city?"
"Ah, about that, wait for a sec."
Kibayashi pulled out his information terminal and operated it.
"Is that it? Is it really okay not to escort those Hunters back to the city?"
"Yeah, after all, we came here because of another aid request. The monster group that headed to the city from Kuzusuhara ruins was already annihilated by the defense squad. So that emergency request has ended. Because of that, we have the leeway to send some people to help other Hunters now."
"Now that you mention it, do you want to take the aid request too? If you want to accept that request, I'll help you with the registration here and now."
Akira looked so tired as he shook his head.
"...No thanks. Since I'm done with the emergency request, I'll go ahead and return back to the city first. After all, I already used most of my ammo reserves and not to mention that I'm really tired now."
"Well, that's just too bad. I was actually hoping to see what kind of crazy things you would do if we get attacked on our way back, you know."
"Be careful on your way back, okay? If you're going to die, make sure that you die doing something really crazy. So don't drop dead because of something lame like tripping off your bike, okay?"
As Kibayashi was seeing Akira off with a big smile, another Hunter Office staff came to him and reported.
"Kibayashi-san, I've checked the history log data from the battle. It seems that the damage on the truck was mostly done on its driving function, thus we were able to easily retrieve the data, but... There's this one weird data..."
"Weird data?"
Kibayashi burst out in laughter when he heard that report. He then said to the other staff.
"Ask the other Hunters to check whether that data is correct or not. No, wait, I'll do that. Don't go ahead deleting the data even when you think that it's from a malfunction, okay? Aaaah, or more like, just send the data to me and I'll check it later. I'll go and ask the Hunters in the tray, you just go ahead and start driving once the preparation is complete."
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/
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