問題は客を連れてきたティオルの報告にあった。シェリルが少々厳しめの視線をティオルに向けて尋ねる。
「8人? 4人じゃなかったの?」
ティオルがシェリルの視線にたじろぎながら説明する。
「露店では4人だったんだ。拠点に案内する途中で別の4人と合流したんだ。知り合いみたいで、何か話が盛り上がって、興味があるから一緒に行きたいって言い出して、帰れとも言い
(......仮に俺がシェリルの恋人になっても、シェリルに同じ生活をさせるのは無理なんだよな。......服もアキラから
ったって話だし、シェリルがアキラと別れたとしても徒党が崩壊するだけなんだよな。これだけ
現状ではティオルがシェリルを手に入れる可能性などない。だが未来に目を向ければ別だ。シェリル達の徒党が勢力を増して、規模を拡大させて、アキラの後ろ盾無しでも運営できるようになれば、アキラとシェリルの力関係が逆転する可能性もある。
(......今は俺達の組織をデカくしてアキラの助け無しでもやっていけるようにするしかない。その後にアキラとシェリルの仲が悪くなれば、俺にもチャンスがあるはずだ。組織に貢献すれば、シェリルの好感も得られるはずだ。......似たようなことを考えているやつは、俺以外にもいるんだろうな)
ティオルの予想は正しく、徒党にはそれなりの数の同類が存在していた。大半の者はアキラを敵に回してまでその
ティオルがいろいろな思案や覚悟をしている間にシェリルが結論を出す。
「8人は多いわ。店には4人ずつ入ってもらう。当初の4人が先で、追加の4人は後よ。嫌なら店には入れない。そう伝えてきて。相手がそれを断ったら、私がアキラと一緒に話しに行くわ」
「十分気を付けてね。無理をしては駄目よ」
「あ、ああ。分かった」
シェリルが男達に違和感を覚える。だがそれを表には出さずに観察を続ける。
男達は部屋の中を、部屋に陳列されている旧世界の遺物をどこか鋭い目で見ている。ある男からは部屋の出入り口を随分気にしている様子が見受けられる。別の男は天井から垂れ下がっている白いシーツの向こうを気にしている。
そしてシェリルは彼らの表情から僅かな緊張を、何かを始める前に人が抱く緊張の
男達の1人が愛想のよい顔でシェリルに近付いてくる。
シェリルはいつものように気品の漂う
「いらっしゃいませ。ようこそ、お越しくださいました」
シェリルに近付こうとしていた男の表情が僅かに緩んだ。それはシェリルの
アルファがアキラに指示を出す。
『アキラ。戦闘準備』
アキラがアルファの唐突な指示に少し驚きながらも意識を臨戦に切り替える。それとほぼ同時に、男の気が少し緩んだ瞬間に、シェリルは自身の判断に従ってアキラが隠れている方へ全力で走り出し、天井から垂れ下がっているシーツの裏に飛び込んだ。
「防弾の布!? ただのインテリアじゃねえのか!」
男はシェリルを人質に取ってゆっくり事を進めるつもりだった。しかし不意を突いて逃げだそうとするシェリルの態度から自分達の目的を察せられたことを理解すると、すぐにシェリルの殺害に切り替えたのだ。
「すぐに遺物を詰めろ! 外の連中に連絡してこっちに合流させろ!」
男は仲間に大声で指示を出した。
アキラは自分の方へ飛び込んできたシェリルを左腕で抱えると、右手に持つCWH対物突撃銃を一発だけ
男が近くのシーツで覆われた陳列棚を蹴飛ばして倒す。そして敵の銃撃から逃れるために、防弾性の布に覆われた陳列棚に素早く身を隠した。
「敵が奥にいる! 防具をしっかり装備し直せ!」
男は仲間に指示を出しながら、バッグの中からフルフェイスのヘルメットを取り出して装着する。シェリル達に余計な警戒心を与えないために脱いでいたのだが、もうその必要はなくなったのだ。
アキラはシェリルを抱えたまま強化服の身体能力で部屋を素早く走り抜ける。生身のシェリルに大きな負荷を与えないぎりぎりの速度を出していた。部屋の奥の扉に着くと急いで扉を開けてシェリルを押し出すようにして部屋から出して、そのまま扉を閉めた。
シェリルが勢いよく閉められた扉を見て驚きの表情を浮かべる。シェリルはアキラも一緒に避難すると思っていたのだ。その動揺でほんの僅かな間だけ思考を停止させていたが、すぐに自分のするべきことに気付いて行動に移す。この襲撃はまだ拠点の全体には伝わっていないのだ。
発砲音が聞こえた。シェリルの部下達の中には、そこで思考を止めてしまっている者も多いだろう。シェリルができる限りの大声で叫ぶ。
アキラの後ろ盾さえあれば、シェリル達の拠点が襲われることはないだろう。今日まで続いたその幻想は、今日あっさり消えてなくなった。
アキラは取りあえずシェリルを部屋の外に、4人の襲撃者がいる部屋の中よりは安全な場所に避難させた。これで一応シェリルの安全を確保したことにして、すぐに襲撃者の撃退に移る。
『それにしても、俺もスラム街で旧世界の遺物の販売店なんか開けばいつかは強盗ぐらい来るだろうとは思っていたけれど、随分早いな』
アルファが余裕そうに笑って答える。
って、早めに片付けてしまいましょう』
『そうだな。そうしよう』
いはシェリルの幸運のおかげか、又はその両方か。それはアキラには分からない。だが取りあえずは、襲撃してきた者達を不運な者達にするために、不運を押しつけるために、アキラは気合いを入れて迎撃に向かう。
『それでアキラは彼らをどうするつもりなの? 一番手っ取り早いのは皆殺しよ。殺さないように手加減する必要がなくなるわ』
『矛盾したことを言っているって理解している?』
『だから、できる限りだ。俺も死にたくないし、早めに手早く片付けないと被害が増える。その上でできる限りやるだけやってみるってことだ。アルファのサポートが有っても連中を手早く皆殺しにしないと無理だって言うのなら、俺もアルファの指示に従うしかないな』
アキラのどことなく挑発的な言葉に、アルファが不敵に笑って答える。
『馬鹿なことを言わないで。私のサポートがあれば大丈夫よ。楽な手段を取らない分だけアキラが苦労するのだから一応確認しただけよ。アキラがそれでも良いって言うのなら、私は構わないわ』
『よし。行こう』
アキラとアルファの会話は音声を介さない念話で行われている。普通に口で話せば数十秒掛かる内容であっても、念話で行えば短時間で済ませられる。更にアキラが意識を臨戦に切り替えてからは無意識に体感時間の圧縮も実行していた。それらの要素により、アキラとアルファは口頭では不可能な迅速な意思疎通を実現させていた。
これはアキラの訓練でもある。アキラの脳の単位時間当たりの情報処理能力を上昇させる技術訓練だ。戦闘とは大量の情報を処理し続けることでもある。1秒意識を止めれば死にかねない状況で、あらゆる危険を認識してそれに対処し続ける。有益な情報と無益な情報を振り分けて、効率的な処理を続けなければならない。敵の攻撃が自分の命を刈り取る前に。
その処理能力が状況の危険に対処しきれなくなった時、アキラはその分の危険に対して運試しをすることになる。運良く生き残るか、運悪く死ぬかだ。今の所はアルファがアキラの運の悪さを補っている。だがそれも絶対ではない。
それでも、あの日アキラがアルファに出会えた幸運は、今日もアキラを生かし続けていた。
アキラが銃をCWH対物突撃銃からAAH突撃銃に持ち替えて、襲撃者達へ素早く距離を詰めていく。
男が陳列棚に半身を隠しながら銃撃をしている。その男の視界に突如アキラが現れる。アキラは防弾性を残しているシーツを盾にして、既にぎりぎりまで男達との距離を詰めていた。そこから男との距離を更に詰めるために、シーツの影から一気に飛び出したのだ。
男は急に現れたアキラに驚きながらもアキラを銃撃しようとする。だが男の攻撃よりもアキラの方が早かった。アキラは既にAAH突撃銃の照準を合わせ終えていた。引き金が引かれ、銃口から放たれた銃弾が男の頭、胴体、腕、銃に命中する。
だが男はほぼ無傷だ。アキラが撃った通常弾では、男の強化服とフルフェイスのヘルメットの防御を突破できなかったのだ。被弾の衝撃も軽減されて軽傷すら負っていない。銃も強化服の握力でしっかり握っていたため、
にアキラが3人との距離を一気に詰める。3人の位置がアキラの前方と左右となる位置に素早く潜り込む。アキラの左右にいる男達は同士討ちを避けてアキラを銃撃できずにいた。
だがアキラの前方にいる男は、アキラに近付かれたことで慌てたのか、覚悟を決めたのか、開き直ったのか、盾にされている男に構わずにアキラを銃撃する。盾にされている男の強化服やヘルメットに無数の銃弾が連続して撃ち込まれる。被弾した男の体が激しく揺れ、着弾の衝撃がアキラまで伝わってくる。銃撃の衝撃で盾の男が吹き飛ばされるのを、アキラは強化服の腕力で強引に押さえ込んだ。
同時にアキラが右側にいる男を銃撃する。右手の男はアキラが盾にしている男ほど装備が充実していなかった。AAH突撃銃の銃弾を近距離で浴びた男がその場から吹き飛び床に崩れ落ちた。
更にアキラが前方の男を銃撃する。前方の男は被弾の衝撃で銃弾を
アキラが残りの1人に銃を向ける。引き金を引こうとして、男の様子を見て動きを止める。男は銃を持ちながら両手を上げていた。
アキラは少しだけ考えてから、男にその結果を告げる。
アキラは盾にしていた男を離すと、最後の男の頭部に回し蹴りを放った。男の意識を刈り取る程度に威力を抑えた蹴りだった。男は全ての糸が突然切れた操り人形のように、その場に真下に崩れ落ちた。
アルファが余裕の笑みを浮かべながら話す。
『まだ4人残っているから、気を抜いては駄目よ?』
『大丈夫。相手の方からこっちに向かっているわ。ここで待って迎え撃ちましょう』
急にアルファの表情から余裕の笑みが消える。アキラがアルファの様子に気付いて警戒を高める。
『アキラ。装備を変更するわ』
襲撃者達の残り4人は拠点の外で待機していた。シェリルが一度に全員を拠点の中に入れるのを
「......分かった。すぐ行く」
ザルモは通信を切ると他の3人に目で指示を出す。3人は
客だけを外で待たせるわけにも行かないだろうと、警戒を兼ねて彼らの近くに立っていたシェリルの部下が彼らに尋ねようとする。
何かあったのか。少年がそう尋ね終える前に、ザルモは自然な動作で銃を少年に向けると、そのまま引き金を引いた。
数発の弾丸が少年の胴体を貫通する。少年が身に着けていた見せかけだけの防護服では、本物の弾丸を防ぐことはできなかった。少年の胴体を貫通した弾丸は、少年の重要な臓器を的確に破壊していた。少年はそのまま崩れ落ち、絶命した。
ザルモは1人殺したことに全く感想を覚えず、
シェリルの部下達の悲鳴が拠点の中に響いていた。それもザルモ達にはただの雑音にすぎなかった。
ザルモ達は遺物販売用の部屋の前まで何の障害もなく
扉の向こう側では、アキラがAAH突撃銃とA2D突撃銃を両手に持って構えて立っていた。アルファのサポートによって拡張されたアキラの視界には、扉の向こう側のザルモ達の姿がしっかりと映っていた。アキラは強化服の身体能力で銃の反動を片手で押さえ、両手の銃を撃ち続ける。
無数の強力な弾丸が部屋の扉を粉砕し終えると、アキラが
アキラはアルファの指示で銃の弾倉を通常弾から対機強装弾に変更していた。機械系モンスターへの使用を前提とした弾丸であり、確かに対人用ではない。
アキラがザルモを冷めた目で見ながら話す。
「仲間を盾にする人間に言われたくはないな」
むと、自分の前に引き寄せて盾にしていた。2人分の強化服と肉体による急造の盾はアキラが撃った弾丸の威力を十分に減衰させていた。盾にされた2人が少々原形を失ったのと引き替えに、ザルモはほぼ無傷でアキラの攻撃を防いでいた。
ザルモが薄く笑いながら答える。
「いやいやいや、これは仕方がない犠牲ってやつさ。俺が2人を盾にしなければ俺達は全滅していた。最悪の事態を防ぐためのやむを得ない犠牲だよ。全滅するより誰か1人でも生き残りがいた方が良い。0よりも1だ。分かり
「先に部屋に入った4人もお前が1人で倒したのか? 大したもんだ。しかも全員生きているようだな。慈悲深いじゃないか。その慈悲を俺達には恵まなかった理由を是非聞いておきたいね。何でだ?」
「おっと、そうすると俺は俺が強すぎる所為で、こいつらを巻き添えにして死なせたってわけか。実に残念。心が痛むねえ」
ザルモがあからさまに心にもないことを口して、どことなく余裕を感じさせる表情を浮かべながら、状況を思案する。
(......先行組は全員生きている。出血等もない。強化服に着弾の跡が少々残っている。ヘルメットに
(違うな。こいつは先行組なら格闘と通常弾で倒しきれると判断した。だから生かした。俺達に強装弾を使ったのは、俺達の装備だと通常弾では苦戦すると判断したからだ。......どうやってそれを判断した? 先行組から俺達の装備を聞き出したのか? いや、先行組の連絡が来てから俺達がここに来るまでの時間でそれを聞き出すのは無理だ。襲撃の情報そのものがこいつらに漏れていた? いや、それもおかしい。それならもっと事前に対応を取るはずだ。その様子はなかった。......分からん。得体の知れないガキだな)
ザルモが余裕の表情を浮かべたままアキラを強く警戒する。ザルモにはアキラが余り強そうには見えなかった。しかし既に7人倒されたことは事実だ。それもアキラ1人にだ。それでもザルモの余裕は崩れない。その程度のことは自分にも
The problem was the report that Tiol, who brought the customers there, gave. Sheryl frowned and said to Tiol.
"8 people? Wasn't it supposed to be only 4?"
Tiol flinched from Sheryl's gaze alone, but he managed to give her an explanation.
"There were only 4 people when they visited the stand. But when I was guiding them here, they met up with another 4 people, they said that those people were their friends. They then seemed to get rather excited and the other 4 asked to come along too, it was hard to refuse them and they seem to carry quite a lot of money, so I ended up bringing them all the way to the back alley... If you want to send them home, please ask Akira to do so. All of them are armed so I'm sure they won't listen to me."
[...To be honest, even if I can become Sheryl's lover, I don't think I can give her that level of luxury... After all, she got that dress from Akira, and even if she breaks up with him, I'm pretty sure the whole gang will be disbanded. Since she's this beautiful, I'm sure there are a lot of people out there aiming for her too. I bet one day, a leader from a big gang would get his eyes on her and force her to be his lover or something. Once that happens, I bet I won't get that many chances to meet her anymore.]
Then, if something happened at that point, for example, let's say Akira fell in love with another girl which caused his relationship with Sheryl to sour, they might break up and Tiol thought Sheryl might start getting interested in another man.
At the moment, Tiol had zero chance to win Sheryl's heart. But that might not be the case in the future. If the gang grew bigger and bigger to the point that it was big enough to maintain itself without any support, then, the power relationship between Akira and Sheryl might get reversed.
[...For now, I have no other choice but to help the gang to grow big enough so that we won't need Akira's help anymore. And if Akira's relationship with Sheryl gets worse after that, then I should be able to get my chance. And if I help to develop the gang, Sheryl might start to like me... Although, I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks so.]
Tiol's guess was correct, there were other people in the gang who thought like him. Most of them had no plans to get on Akira's bad side just to get Sheryl, but at the same time, most of them also hoped that they would eventually get some chance.
As Tiol thought about a lot of things in his mind, Sheryl finally reached her conclusion.
"8 people is too many. Just let 4 of them in. Let the first 4 come in then once they're done, let the last 4, who came along with them, come in after that. If they refuse to do so, then tell them that none of them is allowed to get in. If they still insist on coming in after that, Akira and I will tell them to go back ourselves."
"Be careful, there's no need to get reckless."
"O-okay, I understand."
Sheryl felt something was wrong with those guys, but she decided to shelve that for now.
Those men were browsing the relics displayed in that room, but somehow, they did not seem that interested. One of them kept checking the exits and doors in that room, and another one seemed to be keeping his eyes on the sheets hanging from the ceiling.
Then Sheryl could feel from their expression a slight nervousness, it was like a calm before the storm. Something was going to happen, something really really bad. But she tried her best not to let that out in her face.
One of them walked to Sheryl with a big smile.
Sheryl had her usual graceful smile as she welcomed them.
"Welcome to our shop."
The smile of the man who was walking toward Sheryl grew bigger, it was not because she was smiling at him, it was because his plan was going really well.
Alpha suddenly gave Akira an instruction.
"Akira, get ready for a fight."
Although Akira was a bit surprised by that sudden order, he quickly swapped to battle state. At the same time, the man who was walking toward Sheryl slightly lowered his guard, Sheryl trusted her calculation and immediately started running toward Akira's direction as fast as she could and dashed through the white sheets hanging from the ceiling.
"Anti-bullet sheet!? They're not just simple interior sheets!?"
Originally, they were planning to take Sheryl hostage and take their time robbing the relics. But he was caught off guard and Sheryl was able to run away from him, which meant that Sheryl was able to quickly guess why they were here. So he immediately changed their plan from capturing Sheryl to killing her.
"Get the relics!! Tell the guys outside to meet up with us!!"
That guy shouted and gave an order to his men.
Akira caught Sheryl who dashed right to his direction with his right hand and hugged her close, he raised the CWH anti-material rifle on his left hand and pulled the trigger. There was no need to hit his target, his main aim was only to let them know that he was there. After that, he immediately brought Sheryl further into a door that was leading outside. It was an emergency exit prepared beforehand and the sheets were there to hide that emergency exit.
That man kicked a display covered by the anti-bullet sheet down and hid behind it to make sure that he would not get hit by the enemy's bullets.
"The escort is behind the sheets!! Make sure to equip your defensive suits!!"
While he said that, that man pulled out a full-face helmet from his bag and put it on. They did not put that helmet at first so that Sheryl and his men lowered their guard, but now their situation had changed and they had to put them on.
Akira ran quickly while still carrying Sheryl, he was able to do that thanks to the augmented strength from his augmented suit. He made sure to run as fast as possible while not injuring Sheryl. Once he arrived in front of the door, he quickly opened it, pushed Sheryl out, and immediately shut the door.
Sheryl was dumbfounded when the door in front of her was closed with such force, she thought that Akira would run away together with her. Although she stood frozen for a few seconds, she immediately returned back to herself and started to move. The rest of the gang still did not know what just happened.
A gunshot echoed through the base, most of the gang members stopped what they were doing the moment they heard that gunshot. Sheryl shouted as hard as she could.
With Akira protecting the gang, they thought that no one would dare to attack the base, but that day, their assumption was proven wrong.
At first, Akira evacuated Sheryl to a safe place, out from that room and away from the 4 men shooting from inside the room. With this, Sheryl's safety was pretty much guaranteed, so he quickly moved to his next order of business, shooting back at those 4 men.
"But still, I always thought that I'll eventually open up a shop in the slum city big enough to warrant some robbers, but this is way faster than I thought."
Alpha smiled and replied.
"Yup, then let's try to take advantage of that luck and clean up this mess as soon as possible."
"You're right, let's do that."
Akira had no idea if it was him being unlucky, or it was Sheryl being lucky, or maybe it was even both. In order to make sure that the people who attacked the base that day were unlucky, to push his bad luck to those people, Akira fired himself up to shoot back.
"So then, Akira, what's your plan with them? The fastest solution would be to kill them. That way, there's no need for you to hold back."
"You do know that you're being impossible, right?"
"That's why I'm only saying that if it's possible. I don't want to die anyway, the longer we dilly-dally, the more dangerous this might become. We just need to try but there's no need to be reckless. If it's impossible to hold back and not to kill them even with your support, then I'll just follow your instruction to kill them."
Akira somehow sounded as if he was doubting the value of Alpha's support, but Alpha smiled smugly and replied.
"Don't be stupid. It'll be alright as long as you have my support. It's just that if you won't take the easiest way, then you'll have to put more effort yourself. So I just want to confirm that. If you're okay with that, then I don't mind either."
"Alright then, let's go."
Akira smiled and ran back into the room. The conversation between Akira and Alpha happened through telepathy. Even if it was something they would need a few minutes to talk about, if it was through telepathy, they could finish that in split seconds. Moreover, when Akira switched to his battle state, he unconsciously activated his time compression. Thanks to that, Akira and Alpha could communicate almost instantly. A feat impossible if done verbally.
This was also a form of training for Akira to quickly process information inside his brain. After all, being in the middle of a fight needed him to process a huge amount of information. In the middle of that dangerous situation where stopping to think even for one second meant certain death, Akira needed to continuously identify all the dangers around him. It included filtering what information was important and what was not, he had to process all the information effectively before the enemy could get him first.
If Akira could not process all of the information fast enough, he would be testing his luck, whether he would get unlucky and die, or he would get lucky and live. At the moment, Alpha was compensating for his bad luck, but that was not enough to guarantee his safety.
But even so, the luck that brought that meeting between Akira and Alpha was the very thing that allowed him to survive until now.
Akira swapped his CWH anti-material rifle with his AAH assault rifle and quickly headed back to meet the enemies. The 4 men inside that room were shooting in random directions. The sheets were not invincible, they eventually ripped and danced in the air as they fell down, thus blocking their field of visions even more.
They hid behind the displays while shooting around randomly. Akira suddenly appeared in their field of vision, he was hiding behind an anti-bullet sheet and had come as close as possible to those 4 men. He jumped out from that cover to get even closer.
One of the 4 men was surprised by that sudden move, but he still somehow managed to shoot at Akira. But Akira was able to shoot at him faster, Akira already had his AAH assault rifle fixed at him. A bullet flew from the rifle's muzzle and hit that man's head, body, arm, and rifle.
But that man was mostly uninjured. Akira's normal bullet could not pierce the full-face helmet that man was using. It did not even leave a mark on that man, and since he was gripping his rifle strongly with the help of his augmented suit, he also did not lose his rifle. Akira's shots were only able to surprise him, nothing more.
Akira used that short opening to quickly close his distance. The other 3 men immediately dispersed to surround Akira from the front, left, and right. The men on Akira's left and right could not shoot at Akira since they might shoot their friends.
But that was not the case for the man in front of Akira, either because he was in panic seeing Akira moving toward him, or because he had consciously made that decision, he ignored the man that Akira was using as a shield and started shooting at Akira's direction. Bullets riddled the augmented suit and the full helmet of the man that Akira was using as his shield. The momentum shocked that body hard and the shockwave was transmitted all the way to Akira, the only reason that did not blow Akira back was because he was bracing against it with his augmented suit.
At the same time, Akira shot the man on his right. The man on Akira's right was not as well-armed as the man that he was using as a shield. The close range AAH bullet barrage knocked that man back before he fell down to the ground.
Akira then shifted his aim to the man in front of him and pulled the trigger. The man in front of him fell down to the ground while still pulling the trigger on his rifle.
Akira quickly shifted his focus toward the last man there. When Akira was about to pull the trigger, Akira saw what that man was doing and stopped. That man had both of his hands up with his rifle.
Akira thought for a bit before curtly saying.
Akira let go of the man he was grabbing and delivered a kick to the last man there. It was a single kick that was enough to knock that man unconscious as he fell down like a puppet cut off from its threads.
Alpha smiled and calmly answered that question.
"There's 4 more left, don't drop your guard yet."
"Don't worry, they're coming here themselves, so let's wait here to welcome them."
Alpha suddenly stopped smiling, Akira who noticed that immediately heightened his senses.
"Akira, you need to swap your rifle."
The other 4 men were left waiting outside since Sheryl did not want to have them all inside at the same time. They were waiting next to the back entrance of Sheryl's base. One of them, Zalmo, received a call from their friends and swiftly replied.
"...Alright then, we'll head there now."
Zalmo closed the call and sent a glance at the other 3 men. The other 3 men only replied with a nod and put on their helmet that they did not use from the beginning in order to lower Sheryl's men's guard.
Of course, Sheryl could not afford to let her guest wait outside without anyone to accompany them. The young boy, whom Sheryl stationed there to accompany them as well as to stand guard there, noticed that change and was about to ask those men a question.
That young boy was about to ask what was wrong, but before he could finish it, Zalmo pulled out his rifle in one fluid move, aimed it at that young boy, and pulled the trigger.
The bullet ripped through that boy's torso. The armour that boy was using was nothing more but fake armour, it had no defensive power against a real bullet. The bullet also destroyed the boy's important communication device, he then fell down and died.
Zalmo did not show any feeling even after he killed someone, his expression did not change at all as he gave an order to the other 3 men.
The scream of Sheryl's men could be heard echoing inside the base. But for Zalmo and his men, it was nothing but meaningless noise.
Zalmo and his men arrived in front of the door of the room that they were aiming for without much trouble. Zalmo sent a glance to his men, telling them to break in, but right before they did that, a barrage of bullets pierced the wall and the door and rained on them.
On the other side of that door, Akira had A2D and AAH assault rifles on both of his hands aimed at the door. Thanks to his enhanced vision from Alpha's support, he was able to completely see what Zalmo and his men were doing. Akira used the power of his augmented suit to help him hold both of his rifles at the same time as he kept shooting at the door.
Once the door was shredded to pieces, Akira finally stopped. He could see Zalmo and his on the other side of the door, it seemed that they took the barrage pretty much head-on.
Akira followed Alpha's instruction to exchange the normal magazine for armour piercing magazine. It was a type of bullet designed to fight mechanical monsters, not fellow humans.
But Akira just looked back coldly at Zalmo and said.
"I don't want to hear that from someone who used their friends as a shield."
Among all the 3 people standing in front of Akira, Zalmo was the only one who was still alive. When Akira released that barrage, Zalmo grabbed the other two people next to him and pulled them to shield him. Their augmented suit and flesh were enough to protect him from Akira's bullets. The bullets shred the other two men beyond recognition, but in exchange for that, Zalmo was uninjured.
Zalmo replied with a smirk.
"No no no, this is one of those important sacrifices thingy. If both of them did not shield me, all of us would have died by now. So it was an unavoidable sacrifice to escape the worst possibility. It's better to have one person alive rather than having zero people alive, right? Do you get that now?"
"So you defeated the other 4 alone, huh? That's pretty amazing, not to mention that all of them seem to be still alive. That's pretty merciful of you. I really hope you would have been that merciful to us too, you know. So why wouldn't you be that kind to us?"
"Ohh, so it's basically my fault for being too strong and I got them roped in my situation, huh. That's really regrettable, I feel really bad for them."
It was obvious that Zalmo was lying. He was trying to act unperturbed by what just happened as he assessed his situation.
[...All the men that went in first are alive, they're not bleeding, there are some spots in their augmented suit indicating that they got shot, some of them have their helmets bent... CQC, huh. There's a good chance that they're knocked unconscious with gunshots too... So why did he use armour piercing ammo instead of normal ammo against us? Is it because he noticed that normal bullet has almost no effect on the men that we sent in ahead so he changed to ammo with better firepower?]
[No, that's not right. He noticed that he could defeat the men that we sent in ahead only with CQC and normal bullets, that's why he spared them. But our hard armour is too durable for his normal ammo, that's why he decided to change ammo... But why did he make that decision? Did he interrogate one of them before we came here? No, There was not much time gap between when they went in first until we arrived here, so that's just impossible. Did the info about our surprise attack somehow get leaked out? No, that's not right too. If that's really the case, they would have made more preparations to fight us back and that doesn't seem to be the case here... I really have no idea, this boy is really strange.]
Zalmo still looked relaxed while carefully watching for Akira's movements. To Zalmo, Akira did not seem that strong, but it was true that he had already defeated 7 of his men, all alone by himself. But even so, that was not enough of a reason for Zalmo to get alerted, after all, it was not a hard thing to do.
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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