アキラが荒野に出る準備を済ませて宿を出ると、外でシェリルが待っていた。
「アキラ。おはよう御座います」
「おはよう。朝から何か用か? 今から遺跡に行くから手短にしてくれ」
「あ、はい」
「後ですね、出来れば定期的に私の拠点に顔を出していただけないでしょうか? その、暇な時で構いませんので」
「暇な時で良いのなら、俺は貧乏暇無しでいろいろと忙しいから、その機会は無いな」
シェリルが笑顔を引き
実際にアキラは定期的な予定を加えることで、今後の行動に制限が加わるのを無意識に嫌がっていた。明日をも知れぬ身のハンター稼業。それを受けると場合によっては定期的に約束を破る契機となり兼ねない。ならば守れない約束はしない。自覚はないが、そう考えていた。
シェリルもそこまでの機微は読み取れず、少し焦って食い下がる。
「そ、そこを何とかお願いできませんか?」
暇なら顔を出してほしいという明確な日時の指定すら無い曖昧な頼みすら断られるようだと、今後の徒党の運営に多大な支障が出る。スラム街の者達から、アキラに切り捨てられた、と思われた時点でシェリルは詰む。アキラが拠点に全く顔を出さなければ、その危険は跳ね上がる。何とかしなければならなかった。培った経験を駆使して表情を作り、アキラを見詰めて懇願する。
だがアキラの反応は鈍かった。面倒そうな態度まで出して、少し強引に話を切り上げる。
「......その辺は後で相談しよう。まあ、行ければ今日の夜ぐらいに一度顔を出すよ。詳しい話はその時だ」
した。そしてこれ以上機嫌を損ねないように話を切り上げる。
「わ、分かりました。では詳しいことはその時に拠点で相談するということで。お待ちしています」
「用件はそれだけか?」
「はい。......あ、そういえば、実は私の拠点の前に死体が転がっていたんですけど」
「死体? スラム街なんだ。別に珍しくないだろう」
「いえ、まあ、ちょっと死体の数が多かったので、物騒だなと思っただけです。アキラなら大丈夫だと思いますけど、立ち寄る際には一応御注意をと、それだけです」
「そうか。分かった。じゃあな」
(......やっぱり安物よね。昨日はこれで私がアキラのお気に入りだって通したけど、少し無理があった気がするわ。アキラに金を渡してでも、もうちょっと良いやつを買ってもらった方が良いかしら?)
アキラの協力を取り付けたものの、まだまだ前途多難な状況だ。シェリルは次の手を思案しながら帰っていった。
アキラがクズスハラ街遺跡の近くで拡張視界上のモンスターを標的に射撃訓練を続けている。
標的はもう攻撃されるまで棒立ちの的ではなく、周辺を
落ち着いて照準を合わせたとしても、今のアキラの実力ではモンスターの弱点を正確に撃ち抜くのは至難の業だ。倒しきれなかったモンスターの攻撃で、アキラの死亡判定も増えていく。そのたびに死因に応じた負傷を負ったアキラの死体が積み重なっていく。
身体部位の欠損どころか、上半身や下半身を丸ごと失ったもの。全身に銃弾を山ほど浴びて
「訓練とはいえ、作り物とはいえ、自分の死体を見るのは慣れないな」
アルファが少し真面目な顔で忠告する。
「分かってるよ。それはそれとして、東部にはあんなモンスターが山ほどいて、ハンターにはそれを鼻歌交じりで倒せる連中が幾らでもいるんだよな。いや、それがハンターの実力としては普通なのか?
「そうなのか?」
『そうよ。参考までに教えると、以前にアキラが助けたエレナとサラなら、今アキラが戦っているモンスター程度、相手が群れでも多分余裕で倒せるわ。鼻歌交じりかどうかまでは知らないけれどね」
アキラはかなり驚いていた。幾らアルファのサポートを得ていたとはいえ、自分が助けなければ恐らく死んでいた者達が、そこまで強いとは思っていなかったのだ。
「あの2人、そんなに強いのか? じゃあ何であの時は負けてたんだ?」
このある意味でエレナ達に対する不当な評価は、アキラの戦闘経験の浅さや自身の実力の軽視による部分が大きい。アルファはそれを分かった上で、
アルファが冗談交じりにそう言うと、アキラが非常に嫌そうな顔を浮かべる。
「......そういう
『あら、ごめんなさい』
アルファは軽く笑って謝った。アキラは黙って射撃訓練に戻った。その沈黙には心のどこかで、そうかもしれない、と思ってしまったことへのごまかしが含まれていた。そしてそのごまかしを兼ねて訓練に熱を入れた結果、遠すぎる目標への印象などすぐに忘れてしまった。
その結果に、アルファは満足げに笑っていた。
アキラは射撃訓練を終えると、続けて索敵訓練を兼ねた遺跡探索を開始した。まずはいつものように双眼鏡で遺跡周辺の様子を確認する。問題なければそのまま遺跡に進み、慎重に奥を目指すことになる。
だが今回はいつも通りにはならなかった。アキラが自力で周辺の安全確認と移動ルートの思案を続けていると、アルファから普段は自力での訓練だからと止めていた指示が出る。
『アキラ。双眼鏡を情報端末に接続して』
「ん? 分かった」
げると、アルファが制御下の情報端末を介して双眼鏡を操作し始める。画像の拡大率が急激に変わり続け、レンズの稼動部が上下左右に動き続ける。レンズの可動域の外は、アキラがアルファの指示通りに双眼鏡を動かして対処する。
双眼鏡越しの景色は目紛しく変化し続けており、アキラには何が映っているかの判別も難しい状態だ。だがアルファはその全てをしっかりと認識していた。そして急に表情を険しくすると、叫ぶように指示を出す。
『アキラ! すぐに遺跡へ急いで! 早く!』
その理由を問う時間が命取りになる。アキラは以前の経験とアルファの態度からそれを察し、すぐさま走り出した。
『何があったんだ!?』
本来ならここまで急いで走りながら会話など出来ない。だが念話ならば呼吸を乱すこともなく、全く問題ない。これも念話の利点だ。
『遺跡の中でトレーラーがモンスターの群れに襲われているわ』
『待ってくれ。何でそれで、遺跡の方へ急ぐんだ? 逃げるなら方向が逆だろう?』
『アキラ。何を聞いても立ち止まらずに走り続けてね。モンスターの群れはそれなりに規模が大きいの。トレーラーの人達も応戦しているけれど、殺されるのは時間の問題よ』
走る方向が逆だろう? 見ず知らずの人を命懸けで助けに行く義理はないぞ?』
自分の都合とはいえ、アキラは以前にその見ず知らずのエレナ達を助けていたのだが、それを完全に棚に上げていた。アルファも普段ならその指摘ぐらいはしていたが、今は割愛する。
にはクズスハラ街遺跡の中に入っておく必要があるわ。クズスハラ街遺跡の中なら私のサポートも十分に機能する。アキラ1人でも逃げ延びられる可能性が上がるわ。でもそれはトレーラーの人達との合流に失敗した場合よ。合流して一緒に応戦した方が生存の可能性が高いからね。だから急ぎなさい。遅れると、アキラ1人でモンスターの群れと戦う羽目になるわよ』
『トレーラーの人達! 俺が行くまで頑張ってくれ! ちくしょう! これも俺の不運の
『誰の不運かは知らないけれど、もしそうなら、今のところはトレーラーの人達がアキラの不運を肩代わりしてくれているってことね。......やっぱりアキラは、私との出会いで運を使い切ったみたいね。まあ、その分のサポートは私がきっちりやるけれど、アキラも頑張ってね?』
アルファは苦笑を浮かべている。つまり、真剣で険しい表情よりは顔を緩ませていた。
アキラはそのアルファの様子を見て、その程度には状況が改善したと思いながら、自身の運の悪さを肯定するアルファの言葉に表情を
アキラが射撃訓練を続けていた頃、1台のトレーラーがクズスハラ街遺跡の東の荒野を進んでいた。過酷な荒野の長距離移動を前提に設計された大型トレーラーだ。屋根には機銃も搭載されている。
トレーラーにはカツラギとダリスという男達が乗っていた。カツラギは主にハンターを商売相手にしている武器商人だ。移動店舗を兼ねたこのトレーラーで長年商売を続けている。ダリスはカツラギの相棒として店の護衛や店員などをやっていた。
統企連の支配地域である東部、その更に東には未調査領域や未踏領域などと呼ばれる広大な地域が広がっている。山のように巨大なモンスターが平然と
もそれは商品の売り先があればの話だ。最前線付近で使用される装備品は、当然その危険地帯に見合った一級品ばかり。クガマヤマ都市の周辺で活動するハンターにとっては余りに高額高性能な品であり、ある意味で無用の長物。普通は買い手など付かない。
だがカツラギは自身の商才を
な護衛を雇える金が無かったんだから仕方ねえだろうが! お前だって納得しただろう! 第一お前が移動ルートを途中で変更なんかするから、こんなことになったんだろうが!」
「うるせえ! 護衛の契約期間が短くて当初の
護衛として雇っていたハンター達は、群れの規模が自分達には手に負えなくなるほど拡大した時点で、カツラギ達を見捨てて逃げていった。
護衛達を擁護するのであれば、そもそもモンスターの群れに追われる羽目になった原因は、輸送を急いだカツラギ達が契約上の走行ルートとは異なる道を通った
「あそこへ? 何でだ?」
「このままクガマヤマ都市に向かったら、俺らの生死に
の望みを賭けて都市に入ろうとすることがある。アキラが過去に経験したモンスターによるスラム街の襲撃は、大体はそのような者が原因だった。
「あのな、カツラギ、俺もそれぐらい分かってる。聞いているのは、クズスハラ街遺跡へ向かう理由だ」
「遺跡はそこのモンスターの縄張りだ。俺らを追っている連中もその縄張りを意識して、遺跡の中までは追わないかもしれない。それにあそこの奥部はこの辺でも屈指の高難度だ。あいつらぐらい一掃できるハンターがいるかもしれない。緊急依頼はもう出したよな?」
通常ハンターオフィスを介して依頼を出す場合、依頼内容の確認等を含めた審査を通すので、それなりに時間が掛かる。しかし今すぐに助けてほしい状況など即時性を求める場合は、緊急依頼とすることで最低限の審査のみでの即時依頼が可能になる。
基本的に切羽詰まっている者が依頼主なので報酬も比較的高額になり
「このまま都市には向かえない以上、一番助かりそうな場所はそこしかない。後はもう俺らの運試しだ。行くぞ!」
カツラギ達はそのままクズスハラ街遺跡に乗り込んだ。そして大型トレーラーでも通行可能な道を選んで突き進む。だが遺跡内の地形など知っている訳がなく、ネットから適当に手に入れた地図にも間違いがある。そのまま奥まで逃げ進めるかどうかは運だった。
そして不運となった。カツラギ達は
「カツラギ! ここで迎え撃つぞ! 急いで機銃に予備の弾薬を装填しろ! 装填が終わったら運転席に戻って機銃で応戦しろ! この期に及んで弾代がどうこうとか馬鹿なことをほざくんじゃねえぞ!」
ダリスが車外に出て銃を構える。カツラギも予備の弾薬の用意を急いだ。
アキラは既にモンスターの群れを視認できる距離まで遺跡に近付いていた。群れの方もアキラに気付き、その一部が襲撃対象をカツラギ達からアキラに切り替えて迫ってくる。
『アルファ! 気付かれたぞ! このまま進んで大丈夫なのか!?』
アキラを先導しているアルファの表情も同様に険しい。だがその指示に揺らぎはない。
『また負傷前提で戦うのか!?』
『その回復薬には体力の消費を抑える効果もあるの! もう休憩する暇なんかないと思いなさい! 後は訓練と同じように、私の指示通りに動けば大丈夫よ!』
『俺は訓練で何度も死んでるんだけど!?』
『死ななかった時と同じようにやるの! 急ぎなさい! 来るわよ!』
アキラは走りながら回復薬を取り出し、視界の先にいるモンスターの群れを見ながら飲み込んだ。そして、その回復効果を必要とする戦闘への覚悟を決めた。
指示に従って立ち止まり、敵の群れに向けて銃を構える。同時に視界がアルファのサポートにより戦闘用に拡張される。迫りくるモンスター達に、撃破の優先順位が表示される。個体ごとの弱点も強調表示される。銃口から伸びる弾道予測の軌道も視界に加わる。
アキラは真剣な表情で最優先の撃破対象へ銃口を向け、照準を敵の弱点に合わせて引き金を引いた。
荒野に銃声が響き渡り、銃口から勢い良く撃ち出された弾丸が、アキラを目指すモンスター達に直撃する。弱点に命中しなくとも、対モンスター用の弾丸の威力を
にアキラは地面に表示されている移動ルートに沿って指示通りに走り、次の最適な銃撃位置に移動すると、再び指示通りに銃撃を開始した。
アルファは非常に的確な指示を常に出し続けている。その指示はその全てが、モンスターの動きを予知に近い領域で予測し、アキラの未熟な動きによる失敗すら計算に入れた、最大効率の内容だ。
アキラはその指示に自分の能力が許す限り従い続けた。その結果、アキラの
『アルファ。ちょっと聞いて良いか?』
『こんな時に余裕ね。何?』
『倒したモンスターの中に、訓練で戦った記憶のあるやつが混じっていたんだけど、何か弱くないか?』
『......じゃあ何で俺は訓練で何度もやられてたんだ?』
『訓練の個体は、戸惑ったり、
次の瞬間、それを現実にするはずだったモンスターが、眉間に被弾して派手に転倒した。転倒した個体が障害物となり、他の個体の攻撃を僅かな時間だけ食い止める。その僅かな時間の間に、更なる無数の銃弾がモンスター達に浴びせられる。そして次々に死んでいく。
我に返ったダリスが応戦しながら銃声の方向を見る。そこには、近くのビルの窓辺から銃撃を続けるアキラの姿があった。
アキラは訓練の成果を最大限出しながら、この機を逃したら後は無いと、必死になって応戦し続けた。
カツラギもアキラの援護にすぐに気付く。機銃の装弾を続けながら笑って
「......緊急依頼の成果が出たか? よし。運が向いてきた。もう少しだ」
そして制圧射撃を再開すると、ダリスとアキラと協力し、互いに援護しながら敵の
「助かったぜ。緊急依頼のハンターか?」
「そうなのか? お互いについてなかったな」
カツラギは自分達があの群れを連れてきたとは教えなかった。聞かれなかったからだ。アキラも深くは尋ねなかった。自分の不運の
「俺はカツラギだ。あっちのやつはダリスだ。このトレーラー兼店舗で商売をしていて、クガマヤマ都市へ戻る途中だったんだ」
「俺はアキラだ。一応ハンターをやっている。この辺にいたのは
「おっ! ハンターならお客さんだな。これも何かの縁だ。助けてもらったことだし、何か買うなら安くしておくぜ? ダリス! お前も礼ぐらい言っておけ!」
機銃の整備で離れていたダリスが叫ぶ。
「分かってるよ! 俺はダリスだ! ありがとうな!」
にこれから訓練を再開する気にはなれない。
『アルファ。帰っても良いよな? いや、帰る。帰るからな』
アキラのどこか必死な様子に、アルファが少し楽しげに笑う。
『分かったわ。今日は帰りましょう』
Akira finished packing his stuff in the inn. He was about to head to the wasteland when he saw Sheryl waiting for him outside.
"Akira, good morning."
"Morning, why are you here this early? I'm going to the ruins after this, so make it short."
"Ah, yes."
"Ah, and also, if possible, can you come to the base from time to time? It's okay even if you come only when you have some spare time."
"Even if you ask me to come only during my spare time, I'm so poor that I can't afford to have any free time."
Sheryl's smile faded as she understood that Akira was not joking when he said that.
To be honest, Akira actually did not want to lose his already scarce free time by adding an extra schedule to go to the base regularly. Not to mention that he was working as a Hunter which meant no one knew what would happen to him on the next day, as such, it was fully possible that he would end up breaking his promise. Thus he did not want to make any promise that he might not be able to keep right from the start. Although he did not realize it himself, he was very concerned about keeping his promise.
But Sheryl could not read his reason, so she bowed and begged in panic.
"C-can you please spare your time somehow?"
Akira refused her request, although she did not give any detailed time and date as to when Akira had to visit the base. Sheryl would be in big trouble if the people of the slum thought that Akira abandoned her and she would be in great danger if Akira would not come to the base at all. As such, Sheryl understood that his absence might cause a big problem for her gang in the future. She had to do something about it. She gathered all of her experience to make her best expression for begging him.
But even so, Akira's reaction was very cold. He even tried to cut their conversation short as if he was annoyed.
"...I'll talk to you about that later. Well, I might pay a visit tonight if I have the time, then we can continue this conversation."
Sheryl was relieved since she at least got Akira's word for tonight's visit. So she ended their conversation in order not to annoy Akira.
"I-I understand. Let's talk about the details later in the base tonight. I'll be waiting for you."
"Is that all?"
"Yes... Ah, by the way, I found a pile of corpses in front of my base though."
"Corpses? It's a common thing in the slum city anyway."
"Ah, I didn't mean it that way, the corpses were quite a lot so I thought that the area is pretty dangerous right now. I'm sure you'll be fine, but just to be safe, please be careful when you come tonight."
"I see, alright then. See you later."
[...As I thought, this is a cheap pendant. Although I got the feeling that Akira liked this pendant, but I guess it's really too cheap. Maybe I should've asked for something more expensive yesterday even if it meant that I had to help in paying too, huh?]
Although she already received Akira's words that he would help her, it seemed that there were still a lot of difficulties in stock for her in the future. Sheryl walked back home while thinking about what she should do next.
Akira was continuing his shooting practice using images of monsters produced in his vision support.
His target changed from monsters that were standing still to monsters that were roaming around. Moreover, these monsters would attack if they noticed him. They would shoot at him using the guns growing on their backs and ran towards him trying to eat him. This training was for him to practice being level headed and calm even during such a situation.
With his current ability, it was actually a very difficult task for Akira to accurately aim at those monsters' weak points even though he was allowed to calmly take his aims. In the end, Akira could not shoot those monsters accurately most of the time and ended up getting killed from the monster's counter-attack. As such, the images of him getting killed kept piling around him.
Some of the corpses had Akira's upper half or lower half completely disintegrated. Some of them were the remains of Akira's minced body after being showered by hundreds of bullets. The images of him getting killed in all kinds of gory manners kept piling up.
"Although this is just training and these are fakes, I just can't get used to seeing my own corpses like this."
Alpha then replied with a serious face.
"Yeah, I know. But that aside, there're a lot of those monsters in the eastern district and most of the Hunters can kill those monsters while humming, right? Ah, but that level of ability is normal for Hunters, huh? I was actually happy after registering myself as a Hunter but I wonder how long it will take for me to have the ability of a real Hunter."
"Is that so?"
"Yep. If I have to give you an example, Sara and Elena whom we met the other day can defeat those monsters that you just fought even if there were dozens of them. Although, I'm not sure if they can do that while humming though."
Akira was shocked. Although he received Alpha's support, he never thought that those people who would have died if he did not save them would actually be very capable.
"Those two are that strong, huh? So why were they losing that time."
The wrong perception of their skill showed Akira's lack of experience and how bad he thought his ability was. Alpha understood that but she replied back while trying to avoid the subject.
Alpha said that while joking but Akira looked a bit disturbed by that.
"...Can you please stop saying that?"
"Oh my, my apologies."
Alpha apologized while smiling as Akira was back doing his shooting training without saying anything. He too thought that they were really affected by his bad luck, but he hid this thought behind his silence. He also put more focus on his training in order to hide the fact. As such, he ended up forgetting his goal that he was still far away from.
Looking at that, Alpha smiled with satisfaction.
After finishing his shooting training, Akira headed to the ruins to search for relics as well as for his ruin exploration training. First of all, he pulled out his binoculars and watched his surroundings as usual. If there was no problem, he would start moving into the ruin cautiously.
But something unexpected happened. As Akira confirmed the safety and picked a route to explore the ruin, Alpha who usually would not disturb his training said to Akira.
"Akira, connect your binocular to your information terminal."
"Hm? Okay."
Akira pulled out a cable from his binocular and connected it to his information terminal like he was told. Alpha then started operating the binocular through the terminal. The image zoomed in and zoomed out rapidly as the lens moved rapidly up-down left-right. Since Alpha could only move the lens, Akira had to help Alpha moved the rest while following Alpha's instructions.
The image from the binocular rapidly changed from one to another, Akira did not understand what Alpha was actually looking for. Alpha properly confirmed all the images that the binocular captured. She then suddenly shouted to Akira with a grim look.
"Akira! Get into the ruin! Quickly!"
It would be fatal to ask for the reason, Akira understood by experiencing it firsthand and Alpha already warned him about that before. So Akira immediately started running.
"What did you find?"
Originally, they would not be able to talk while running since it would mess up with his breathing. But thanks to the telepathic communication, they were able to have a conversation while running too.
"There's a trailer inside the ruin that's being attacked by monsters."
"Wait for a second. So why are we running to the ruin instead? Shouldn't we avoid it instead?"
"Akira, you can ask all you want but don't stop running. There're a lot of monsters there. The people inside the trailer are fighting back, but it's only a matter of time before they get killed."
"What I'm saying here is that shouldn't I be running in the opposite direction? I don't have the duty to risk my life in order to help people whom I don't even know, you know?"
Although it was out of his own reason, Akira had helped Elena and Sara in the past although he did not know them at that time. But Akira completely ignored that fact and Alpha would have pointed that out normally, but she also ignored it this time.
"Yep, that's it. And in the worst-case scenario where you're the only one still alive, you'll have to go to the deeper part of the ruin. I can give you better support when you're in the deeper part of the Kuzusuhara City ruins and it'll give you a better chance to survive. But that'll be our next plan if our plan to meet up with the people in the trailer fails. After all, you have a better survival chance if you meet up and fight together with them. So that's why you need to hurry up, if you're too late, you'll be fighting all of those monsters alone."
"You guys in the trailer! Give your best until I'm there! Goddammit!! Is this because of my bad luck too? Because I used all of my luck?!"
"I don't know who's bad luck it is. I would say that those people in the trailer are helping to shoulder some of your bad luck... As I thought, Akira, you used your lifetime worth of luck when you met me. Well, I'll give you my utmost support in exchange though. So you do your best too, okay?"
Alpha smiled bitterly and her serious face relaxed a bit.
As Akira saw that, he more or less was able to understand his current condition. He was making a bewildered face after hearing that cheering from Alpha as he kept running as fast as he could in order to survive.
A trailer was heading to the Kuzusuhara ruin through the eastern wasteland when Akira was in his shooting training. It was a trailer made to traverse the harsh environment of the wasteland and designed for a long journey. It was even equipped with a machine gun on its roof.
There were 2 men in the trailer, Katsuragi and Darris. Katsuragi was a weapon dealer who frequently sold his goods to Hunters. He had been working as a merchant using this trailer which also functioned as a moving shop for years. As for Darris, he's the main fighting power of the duo. He worked as a shopkeeper helping Katsuragi as well as his bodyguard.
If you go further east from the region ruled by the Corporate Government, there was a vast unexplored wasteland. Monsters as huge as mountains roamed freely inside that unexplored wasteland. Because of the harsh condition in that region, the Eastern Government could not explore the area even after exerting all of its power. The region was simply that dangerous. But ruins with advanced technology, enough to even produce those monsters, were located in that region. It was a region filled with knowledge and treasures from the old world that was worth exploring despite all the dangers.
Of course, they would only do that if they already had a patron who would buy their goods. The equipment used in the front line were of course of the highest quality suitable for the dangers there. Hunters who only operated around the Kugamayama city could not afford this equipment and few of this equipment were just simply too powerful for the Hunters here. As such, this equipment just would not sell around Kugamayama city.
Being a talented merchant that he was, Katsuragi was somehow able to get a deal. Thus he used his own personal trailer, filled it with high-quality goods and started transporting goods through a long journey from the Front Line. They only needed to go a little further before they reached Kugamayama city, thus their bet was on the verge of succeeding.
"Just shut it!!! We didn't get ourselves a good escort because we don't have enough money!! You too know that, don't you?! Not to mention that it was your fault for changing our route out of the blue, that's why we're in this situation!!"
"You shut up!! The contract for the bodyguard was too short!! If I stayed on the original route, we wouldn't be able to arrive on time, you know!! If only you had more money, we could've taken a better route than this one!!"
The Hunters whom Katsuragi and Darris employed to escort their trailer had already abandoned them when they saw that the number of monsters chasing them were much larger than they could engage.
From the perspective of the escorts, it was because Katsuragi took a route outside of what was decided in their contract, they met those monsters. So, their current situation was a consequence of the employer not upholding the contract, thus the escorts had a good reason to abandon them.
"To the ruins? But why?"
"If we keep heading to Kugamayama City, we'll definitely be dead."
But even after knowing that, there were people in similar situations who drove straight for the city looking for a slim chance in surviving. Most of the monster attacks on the slum city that Akira had gone through were because of this.
"Katsuragi, I know that much. I was asking why are we heading to Kuzusuhara ruins?"
"The ruin is the territory of other monsters, those monsters that are chasing us know that too. So they might stop chasing us if we get deep into the ruins. Not to mention that place is very dangerous, so we might even be able to meet a strong Hunter who can clean up all of those monsters in one go. You've sent the SOS, right?"
Normally, any request submitted in the Hunter Office would be checked and evaluated first, thus it would take some time before it would get accepted. But in the case of an SOS request, it would be processed as fast as possible and immediately broadcasted. SOS request was frequently used by Hunters who found themselves in a pinch in the middle of the wasteland.
Since the one requesting the SOS would the person in danger himself, the reward would also be relatively big. As such, many Hunters would take such high reward low-risk request. Even if the requester lied about the reward out of desperation, the Hunter Guild would still give a suitable amount as a reward in their place. Thus the Hunters did not need to worry about anything. As such, it was better for them to send SOS rather than making a random wireless broadcast.
"Well, there's no chance we can go to the city, so the ruin is the place with the best survival chance for us. We can only leave everything to luck after that, let's go!!"
After that, Katsuragi and Darris just dove into the ruin. They chose a route that was wide enough for the trailer to pass through as they kept moving deeper into the run. They did not have the detailed map of the inner part of the ruins, the map that they randomly acquired from their network had a lot of mistakes, thus it was fully up to their luck as to how far they could keep running away.
Unfortunately, Katsuragi bumped into a wreckage that threw their trailer into a small alley, thus they had no other choice but to stop their trailer. But it did not end there, the monsters chasing them ignored the fact that they were entering other monster's territory and kept running towards Katsuragi and Darris.
"Katsuragi!! We'll shoot them back!! Quickly load the machine gun with new ammo! Once you're done, get back to your driver seat and give me support with the machine gun! Given our situation, you wouldn't complain about the money that we would spend for the ammo, right?!"
Darris then jumped off the trailer and readied his gun as Katsuragi started loading ammo as fast as he could.
Akira was already deep into the ruin for him to be able to directly see the monsters. Some of the monsters noticed him and changed their target from Katsuragi and Darris to Akira.
"Alpha, they noticed me! Are you sure it's okay if I keep going like this?"
Akira looked at Alpha with a very worried look, but Alpha did not change her command.
"Am I going to get injured again in this fight!?"
"That medicine can also relieve your fatigue!! Just keep this in your mind, we won't get any rest from now on! You just need to follow my orders and shoot just like you practised and it'll be alright!"
"I got killed so many times during the practice though!?"
"Remember the times when you didn't get killed, you just need to do it like those times!! Hurry up! They're coming!"
Akira took some medicines while running. He kept his eyes on the monsters in front of him as he swallowed the medicine. He made his resolve to face the upcoming fight for which he even needed to take the medicine beforehand.
He followed Alpha's order as he stopped and took aim with his gun. His vision was further augmented for battle by Alpha's support. It showed the priority order to kill the monsters that were heading their way and it put on markers on their weak points. It also put TP line from the muzzle of Akira's gun.
Akira took aim on the monster with the highest kill priority and lined the TP line to its weak point before pulling the trigger.
A gunshot echoed through the wasteland. The bullet flew from Akira's gun and hit its target right on. Although it did not hit its weak point, the anti-monster bullet was able to tear off its meat, crush its bones and caused enough injuries in its inner organs that made it a fatal wound. Those monsters that got hit on their legs were significantly slowed down while those that got hit right on their weak points just rolled dead on the ground.
Akira used this chance to run to his next shooting position following the route given by Alpha and started shooting again after he reached that position.
Alpha kept dashing out unusually strict orders. She considered everything inside those orders like the movement range of the monsters and Akira's amateur manoeuvrability. She tailored her order for maximum efficiency.
Akira tried as hard as he could to follow those orders. As such, from other points of view, it seemed as if Akira was performing above his original ability. He himself was surprised at how he was performing. As he kept fighting through the monsters, he finally arrived in the deeper part of the ruin, but then he thought.
"Alpha, can I ask you a question?"
"This is a good time, so go on."
"About those monsters that I shot just before, although I remember fighting some of those monsters during my training, aren't they way too weak?"
"...If that's true, then why did I get killed a lot of times during the training against those monsters?"
"It's because monsters in your training don't get surprised, shocked, confused or try to escape. I set them so they would chase and target you like a machine as long as they can. If I make the monsters in the training so easy to defeat, it might make you less careful when fighting those monsters for real, right? So I did that just to be safe. But thanks to that, you can fight without dying and perform really well just like now. So the training was really useful, wasn't it?"
Darris had already given up all hope. But the next moment, the monster that should have delivered him his death rolled over and stopped moving, a bullet had torn through its forehead. Then its corpse became an obstacle to the monsters behind it, as such, the other monsters stopped for a moment. But during that small opening, those monsters were showered by countless bullets and fell limp to the ground.
Darris then snapped back to reality, he started shooting back while looking at the source of that gunshot. There he saw Akira shooting from a window of a building near them.
Akira squeezed everything that he learned from his training. He put everything he had for providing support while thinking that it would be fatal if he let go even a single monster.
It did not take long before Katsuragi noticed Akira's help. He mumbled while smiling as he was preparing his machine gun.
"...So the SOS request is already broadcasted, huh? Alright. The future looks bright, we just need to keep at it a bit longer."
With the machine gun back up, their overwhelming firepower returned. And with the help from Darris and Akira, they laid waste on those monsters. Then after 2 more machine gun reloads, they finally eradicated all the monsters in that area.
"Thanks for the help, are you a Hunter who accepted our SOS request?"
"Is that so? It seems that both of us are not blessed by lady luck today."
Katsuragi did not say anything about the fact that they were actually the ones who brought that monsters. It was because Akira did not ask them about that. After all, it felt like they involved Akira in their bad luck.
"I'm Katsuragi and that guy over there is Darris. We're merchants and this trailer doubles as our moving shop. We're actually in the middle of our way returning to Kugamayama City."
"I'm Akira, a Hunter, I was just passing through the area by chance."
"Oh! A Hunter! Then you're a customer. This must be some kind of fate. Since you saved us, I'll give you a big discount if you want to buy anything, you know? Darris! At least say your thanks to our saviour."
Darris, who was doing maintenance on his gun not too far, shouted back.
"I know! I know! I'm Darris! Thanks for the help you provided!"
Akira also thought that he had enough for a day, so he was not thinking of going back to training now.
"Alpha, it's okay if we go back today, right? No, we'll go back, I take no objection."
Looking at how desperate Akira was, Alpha smiled as if she was enjoying.
"Sure, let's go back for today."
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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