183 少年型の群れ
ヤツバヤシが診療所に運ばれてきたハンターの男に高額な治療費を吹っ掛けている。
男は頭部に緊急時の生命維持処置を済ませていたおかげで、ハンター基準で
基本的に義体への換装処置をしなければならないほどの重傷者を再生治療で治すと、義体の性能にもよるが義体の代金より高額になる。また好き好んでサイボーグになる者ばかりではない。幾ら戦闘能力が急激に増すと言っても生身には生身の良さがある。男は生身のままでいたかった。
付き添いの仲間達が口を挟む。
「なあ、何とかならねえか?」
「代わりに金を出せば一瞬で解決するぞ?」
言うな。俺達にだってそんな金はねえよ。保険も利かないんだろう?」
「悪いな。ヤツバヤシ診療所は零細の個人営業でね。その手の保険とは提携していない。ハンターオフィスがハンターの治療費を一時的に肩代わりする制度も使えない。あの制度、零細だと申請を通すのが難しいんだ」
め息を吐く。負傷した男を見捨てられない程度には情を持っているが、助ける手段を持ち合わせていないのも事実だ。
それに男を仮設基地の診療所で治療させれば死にはしないのだ。義体者になって義体換装処置の代金の借金を抱えて生きていく。それもハンターとしては仕方がないのではないか。その思いが仲間達の何が何でも男を救うという気持ちを若干落としていたのも事実だった。
ヤツバヤシが内心を隠しながら男達に提案する。
「まあ、仲間を助けたい気持ちは分かる。それに俺も医者だ。一度無償奉仕をしてしまうと話が広がって後で大変なことになるってだけで、別に助けたくないって訳じゃない。だからちょっとした提案をしよう。こいつの治療費の代わりに仕事を引き受けないか?」
「仕事? 何の仕事だ?」
「要はちょっとした応援要請や緊急依頼のようなものだ。他言厳禁でな」
臭い笑顔で詳細を説明する。指定された場所に行ってハンターを助けて戻ってくる。要はそれだけの話なのだが、いろいろと裏がありそうな気配が漂っていた。
「何で他言厳禁なんだ? それに端末でその位置を調べてみたが、その付近から応援要請は出ていないし、誰かがいる反応もないぞ?」
ヤツバヤシが
「お前はそういうやつからの救援依頼を裏で受けているってことか。でも1回助けに行っただけで治療費相殺ってのは、ちょっと話がうま過ぎるぞ?」
「馬鹿言うな。1回で済むわけねえだろうが。治療費を相殺するほど稼ぐまで何度も行くんだよ」
「......そういうことか」
男達はそれで納得した。そしてヤツバヤシに軽い非難の視線を向ける。自分達を安く使おうとしていること。新たな
ヤツバヤシが解釈によっては譲歩とも呼べないことを告げると、負傷した男が仲間達に必死に懇願を始めた。仲間達は軽い舌打ちを混ぜてヤツバヤシの提案を受け入れた。
エレナ達が遺跡内の調査を進めている。自前の情報収集機器で周囲の情報を収集しながら、都市側から配布された設置式の小型情報端末を設置して回るのが主な作業だ。それを車両で通行可能な場所から行っていた。ビルの外観や散らばっている
瓦礫
エレナが車を徐行させながら周辺の調査を続けている。サラはエレナの護衛をしながら、たっぷり遺物の残っていそうな周辺の建物を物欲しげな顔で見ていた。
「エレナ。ちょっとぐらい中を見ていかない?」
「駄目。調査は車で通行可能な場所で行う。遺物を探しに建物の中に入ったりはしない。初めにそう決めたでしょう?」
「気持ちは分かるけど、駄目よ。建物の中を調べて戻ってきた時に、車が無事に残っている可能性が十分高いと判断するまでは駄目。ここは未調査地域でその辺の判断材料が少ないって言うか、私達がそれを調べている最中でしょう」
個人、又は少数で行動するハンターが、建物内などを探索する際に車を置いていくことは多い。だが戻ってきた時に車が無事かどうかは結構賭けになる。エレナ達も過去にその賭けに負けて車を何度か失っていた。
も人数を増やして車に何人か残しておけば問題解決とはならない。人数を増やせば分け前も減る。居残り側がモンスターに襲撃された時に探索側を置いて逃げ出す可能性もある。賭けの内容に多少の変化が出るだけだ。
ハンターにできることは様々な手段で可能な限り期待値を上げることだけだ。個人の実力。組織の統率力。同行者との信頼関係。裏切った場合の利害の大きさ。それらを見極めなければ、夢破れて荒野に飲み込まれて消えたハンターとして生涯を終えることになる。
サラはまだ遺物収集への未練を残していた。エレナがその様子を見て別の説得材料を持ち出す。
「ここで私達が醜態を演じて応援要請とかを出したら、多分アキラは駆け付けてくれると思うわ。私達のハンターの先輩としての威厳とか信頼とかを消費してね。まあ、それもまだ残っているかどうかも結構怪しいけど」
サラは一度表情を
「分かったわ。私だってもう少し頼れる先輩でいたい。ここは我慢します」
エレナが急に聞き分けの良くなったサラに苦笑を浮かべる。
「親友からの助言の方にも、その調子でもうちょっと耳を傾けてほしいわ」
「それはあれよ。一心同体の相手からだと、自分から自分への小言になるから、聞き流しやすくなったり、我が
「そう? それなら自己への問いかけってことで、これからも何度でも言ってあげるわ」
エレナとサラが軽く笑い合う。そして気を取り直して安全に調査を続けた。
「エレナ。どうかしたの?」
「他の調査員とか、偶然この辺に探索に来たハンターとかじゃないの?」
「その可能性もあるわ。ただ、ちょっと気になってね」
収集データには恐らくモンスターである反応も多数存在していた。エレナはそれらの反応の位置と人間ほどの大きさの位置に無意識な疑念を抱いていた。人とモンスターの反応ならば、戦闘が発生しても不思議はない距離だったのだ。
に上がっている人型モンスターの話が浮かんでいた。両方ともモンスターの反応だから戦闘が発生していないのではないか。エレナの才はその根拠も確証も薄い判断結果を、嫌な予感として本人に伝えていた。
エレナは少し迷った後、車を再度進行させた。ただし進行方向を大きく切り替えた。
「サラ。調査場所をちょっと変えるわ。調査領域や情報精度に
「良いわよ。その辺の判断はエレナに任せているしね。安全にやりましょう」
サラは全く気にせずに笑って答えた。エレナは自分の判断を信頼してくれているサラの態度に、険しくしていた表情を少し
「また外れじゃねえか」
ソノダは仲間の治療費の
ソノダが情報端末でヤツバヤシに連絡を取って文句を言うと、軽い態度で返事が返ってくる。
「ハンターオフィスを通さない緊急依頼もどきだからな。しかも依頼元は不明で俺にも分からない。だからその手の
通話が切れて次の目的地が送られてくる。ソノダは舌打ちして情報端末をしまった。
「全く、人をこんな奥まで派遣して気楽なもんだ。次行くぞ! 次だ!」
「分かった。......ん? ちょっと待て。あっちに人っぽい反応がある」
ソノダが仲間と一緒にその反応の場所を目指す。反応は近くの建物の1階から出ていた。慎重に警戒しながら反応の場所に近付くと、出入口付近のホールの暗がりに少年が立っていた。
少年がソノダに反応を示す。しかしそれは言葉の内容に対しての反応ではなかった。
「該当区画は封鎖中です。緊急時治安維持条例により、治安維持システムは不法侵入者への殺傷権を得ています。直ちに個人識別情報を......」
ソノダが即座に銃を少年に向けて引き金を引いた。無数の銃弾を浴びた少年が着弾の衝撃で壁まで押されていく。ソノダの仲間達も反射的に応援に入る。少年の頭が吹き飛び四肢が千切れて飛んだ。
ソノダがすぐに撤退を指示する。
「脱出だ! すぐに戻るぞ!」
「お、おい。お前が撃ったから加勢したが、良かったのか?」
「気付いてねえのか! あれは救出対象じゃねえ! 襲った
ソノダ達が建物の外に急ぐ。その間にも暗がりから声が響く。
「......提示を確認できませんでした。即時拘束への抵抗は鎮圧基準の更なる引き上げを......」
「すぐに車に乗り込め! 一度診療所まで撤退だ! 何かやばいぞ!」
ソノダは仲間達に激しく指示しながら全力で撤退を促した。
少年の千切れ飛んだ手足が床に転がっている。腕は肘から先が大型の銃に変わっていた。義手に銃を仕込んだ形状ではなく、生身の腕の先に強引に銃器を移植したような
そして暗がりから出てきた別の少年が、床の銃を、倒された少年の腕を拾ってソノダ達の後を追った。
アキラが診療所の警備を暇そうに続けていると、端末に応援要請の通知が届いた。要請の場所は調査部隊が調査をしている辺りの更に先だ。アキラは少し考えてから、バイクをその方向へ全力で走らせた。
『......まあ、確かに、応援要請が出るってことは結構面倒なモンスターの群れでも出たのかもしれないし、それにエレナさん達が巻き込まれていたり、救出を手助けしていたりしたら、俺も手を貸そうとちょっと思ったのは認める。でもそれぐらい別に良いだろう? この辺はモンスターも全然出ないし、診療所の周りをぐるぐる回り続けているより確実に成果を稼げるんだ』
『不用意に奥に進まないこと。良いわね?』
強くなるために実戦経験を積む意味でも、応援要請を積極的に受けた方が自分にもアルファにも都合が良いのではないか。アキラはそう不思議に思いながらも、下手なことを言ってアルファの機嫌を損ねないように、黙って先を急いだ。
アキラがバイクを全力で走らせる。アルファのサポートも
『それなら引き返す?』
アキラが僅かに悩んでいると、視界の先の横道から一台の車が勢いよく飛び出していた。車の後部、半分だけ開けられた後部扉から大量の銃弾が吐き出され続けており、横道の先にいる敵から必死に逃げてきたことが分かる。
車は通りに飛び出すとすぐにアキラ側へ進行方向を変えた。急激な方向転換で大きく体勢を崩しながらも、卓越した運転技術で何とか体勢を立て直しながら、後方へ弾丸を
砲撃を続ける後衛のウェポンドッグ達に小型ミサイルが降り注ぐ。小型ミサイルのそれぞれがアルファの操作によって的確に砲口に飛び込んでいく。そして砲の内部で敵の生体爆薬の誘爆と一緒に敵の身体を内部から破壊し飛び散らせていく。
車と擦れ違ったアキラがバイクを急停車させながら進行方向を反転し、すぐさま急加速する。垂直の壁ですら接地を保つ機能が路面の一部を削り取りながら車体の安定を維持し続ける。強い慣性が掛かった体を強化服で強引に押さえ込みながら、銃撃の反動でバイクに更なる加速を与えつつ、大量の銃弾を敵に浴びせ続けた。
車に追いつこうとしているアキラに情報端末の短距離通信が届く。相手はソノダで、後部扉から軽く手を振っていた。
「無事で何よりだ。実はウェポンドッグの群れを見た時は引き返そうかと思ったけど、良いタイミングで出てきたな」
「危ねえな。あの砲撃の量から考えて、そっちで連中をある程度間引いてくれなければやばかった。結構ぎりぎりだったか。変な連中に追われた時は俺達の運も尽きたかと思ったが、まだまだ残っていたようだな」
「いや、俺達を襲ったのは......」
そこでアキラが車の側面を見て
「ちょっと待て。車の側面に誰か貼り付いてるぞ? 仲間を車内に入れる暇もなかったのか?」
「何だと!?」
ソノダは車の後部扉から身を乗り出して側面を確認すると
「あれは仲間じゃない! 敵だ! 俺達は連中に襲われて応援要請を出したんだ! 恐らくこの遺跡を警備している自動人形の類い......」
「警告します。治安維持への抵抗は即時拘束への......」
少年がどこか意識に欠けている事務的な言葉を止めた。そして無表情だった顔に僅かな意思が浮かぶ。それは敵意だった。そして車の屋根から跳躍してアキラに飛びかかった。
『......前にビルで戦った人形達の同類か? あいつら、ビルの外に出てくるんだ』
『アキラ。考察は後にして戦闘に集中して。まだまだ終わっていないわ。追加が来るわよ』
アキラがSSB複合銃を上に向けて厳しい表情を浮かべる。道の両側のビルからティオルに似た顔の少年達が無数に飛び出していた。一見普通の四肢の個体。銃を手に持つ個体。腕自体が銃になっている個体。表面が剥がれて内部を露出させた義体のような個体。腕が3本以上ある個体。様々な形状のものが次々にアキラに襲いかかろうとしていた。
アキラは圧縮した体感時間の中でアルファが指定した優先順位に従って照準を定めると次々に銃撃していく。撃ち落とされた個体の結果は同一ではなかった。一部は被弾箇所を四散させて機械部品の残骸を周囲に
ソノダ達は追いかけてくる少年達を後部扉から必死に銃撃していた。しかし少しずつ少年達との距離が狭まり、追ってくる少年達の数も増え始めていた。
少年達が近くのビルからアキラを目指して飛び降りながら、手に持つ銃や腕型の銃を空中で構えてアキラを狙う。アルファがバイクを機敏な挙動で動かし続けて敵の照準を狂わせていく。常に激しく動き続けるバイクという最悪に近い足場の上で、アキラは限界まで意識を集中してSSB複合銃を連射し続ける。拡張された視界に表示されている優先順位に従って照準を合わせ、並のモンスターなら木っ端
『なあアルファ。もしかしてなんだけどさ、あいつらは俺を優先して、いや、俺だけを狙ってないか?』
『その確認のために一人で残りたいという案なら却下よ』
『アキラに彼らを置いて一人で先に逃げるつもりがないのなら、今は車を優先的に狙われていないのは好都合とでも考えておきなさい』
アキラは気を切り替えて余計な思考を追いやった。
バイクから再び無数の小型ミサイルが上空に発射された。小型ミサイルの群れが空中に大きく弧を描き、車の後を追う少年達に襲いかかる。銃を持つ個体が統率された動きで銃口を小型ミサイルに向けて一斉に銃撃する。小型ミサイルの一部が迎撃されて空中で爆発した。
それでも残りの小型ミサイルが少年達を吹き飛ばした。アキラはその光景を見て僅かに顔を緩めたが、すぐにまた険しい顔に戻した。吹き飛ばされた少年達の一部が起き上がってアキラの追跡を続行したのだ。
『アキラ。残念だけれど小型ミサイルは今ので終わりよ』
『あれだけ持ってきたのにもう使い切ったのか。消耗品代が一部でも自費だったら恐ろしいことになってたな』
アキラはバイクからDVTSミニガンを取り外して小型ミサイル用の大容量の自動給弾装置に取り替えていた。その残弾を使い切ったのだ。弾薬費は桁違いの額になっていた。
それでも勢いを弱めているようには思えない敵の様子に、減り続ける残弾に、アキラは少しずつ焦りを強めていた。その状況の中で、アルファがアキラには聞き捨てならないことを口に出す。
えず山場は抜けたわね。私は少し席を外すから、ここから先はまた自力で頑張ってちょうだい。バイクの運転を返すわ』
『所用って何だ!? いや、それよりも、ここで、今か!?』
アルファが非常に慌てているアキラに
『大丈夫よ。山場は抜けたって言ったでしょう?』
そう言い残してアルファは姿を消してしまった。アキラが慌てながら前方を見る。そこにはかなりの速度でこちらに向かってきているヤツバヤシ移動診療所の姿があった。診療所の防衛を引き受けている他のハンター達や、調査を一時中断していた調査部隊の姿も見える。
装甲兵員輸送車を改造した移動診療所の武装が砲火を上げる。随伴のハンター達も攻撃を開始する。アキラは移動診療所と擦れ違った後、エレナ達の姿を見付けてバイクを近くに移動させた。
エレナがアキラに気付いて軽く笑う。
「アキラ。随分大変だったようね。大丈夫?」
サラがアキラの様子を気遣う。
「ソノダってハンターから物
はない? 疲れたのなら後ろで休んでいて」
しそうに笑う。そして調整を済ませてエレナ達と一緒に戦った。
診療所の防衛を引き受けた者達も、未調査領域の調査に参加した者達も、モンスターの群れに飛び込むヤツバヤシの行動や未調査領域の危険性を知っていたため弾薬を十分に用意していた。そして実力の方もその危険度を承知で依頼を受けるほど高かった。
アキラ達を追いかけてきた個体達は、その後にやってきたウェポンドッグ達の一部と一緒に、念入りにじっくりと
Ch 183
Yatsubayashi was charging a crazy amount of money to the Hunters brought to his clinic.
Thanks to the first aid done to his head, that Hunter was able to stay conscious even after he was gravely injured. The expensive treatment cost was enough to make his face go pale though. He did try to bargain, but Yatsubayashi wouldn't budge at all.
Indeed they could take a regenerative treatment to grow back their lost limbs that would normally need to be replaced with a prosthetic or cyborg body, but that kind of treatment was more expensive than replacing them. Furthermore, there were not many Hunters out there who would become a cyborg out of their own volitions. No matter how strong a cyborg body was, there were still unique advantages to keeping a flesh body, and this Hunter wanted to keep his body.
His friend then jumped in.
"Can you at least do something about it?"
"We can get this done right away if you'll pay in his place."
"Don't be crazy, we don't have that much money. It's not like we can use our health insurance too, right?"
"Sorry but my clinic is not a corporation's clinic, so I don't really accept health insurance. And there's a limit on how much the Hunter Office would be willing to lend you to pay for it too. Not to mention, their lending limit is extremely low for a small individually ran clinic such as mine."
That guy then sighed and rubbed his head with one of his hands. Although he had no plans to abandon his injured friend, it did not change the fact that he did not have any way to save him either.
Moreover, it was not like he was going to die if they decided to take him back to the clinic in the forward base, though, he would be living with prosthetics and incur debt for that medical treatment. In the first place, this was an injury stemming from the occupational hazard Hunters faced. It could happen again. That thought discouraged them from paying the cost of Yatsubayashi's treatment no matter what.
Seeing that, Yatsubayashi hid his real intention as he made a suggestion to those Hunters.
"Well, I can understand that you want to save your friend. And I'm a doctor, you see. But if I treat his injury here for free, it'll only give me a lot of trouble later down the line. That's why, I have a suggestion here, instead of paying me with money, how about you pay for the treatment for your friend by helping me with a certain job?"
"Job? What kind of job are we talking about here?"
"It's basically a kind of emergency rescue request, you see. Of course, it'll be a secret one though."
Yatsubayashi started explaining the aforementioned job with a suspicious smile. To put it simply, those Hunters only needed to go to a certain location to rescue a certain Hunter and bring him back to Yatsubayashi. Although it sounded simple, it sounded as if it had a lot of hidden intent behind it.
"Why should this be a secret anyway? Moreover, I checked my information terminal and it doesn't seem like there's any SOS request from that location though?"
Yatsubayashi smiled at that question.
"I see, so basically you're accepting that kind of request under the table, huh. But still, you're willing to give him free treatment just by saving one Hunter, this is too good to be true, you know?"
"Are you kidding me? Of course, it won't only be once. I'll have you do that for me multiple times until I judge you've worked enough to pay for the treatment cost."
"...I see."
The Hunters nodded and looked at Yatsubayashi with a stern gaze. They thought that Yatsubayashi was planning to use them and charge them with more bills every time they returned back with more injury.
Putting it from a different point of view, it also meant that Yatsubyashi gave no space for negotiation, and the wounded Hunter also started begging his friend. So in the end, the other Hunter clicked his tongue and took that offer.
Elena and her reconnaissance team proceeded deeper into the ruin. Their main job was to harvest the information gathered by the small information-gathering device spread beforehand inside that ruin while retrieving and replacing those small information-gathering devices owned by the City Management. The accessibility of the site with a vehicle, the number of monsters in that area, and the number of rubble and their material found around the area, all of this information was enough to judge if a site was worth exploring or not.
The members of the reconnaissance team were free to search the inside of a building. They were even allowed to gather relics. Even if it might disturb their main duty of scouting the ruin, the relics that they gathered could also be used to judge if that part of the ruin was worth securing or not, not to mention the information that they brought back, also took note of the difficulty and the danger of that building. As such, no one stopped them from doing so.
Elena scanned her surroundings while driving her vehicle slowly. Sara stood ready next to Elena, guarding her, but she was also eyeing the buildings that seemed to be containing expensive relics.
"Elena, can we just like, you know, go and take a peek?"
"No. We will only take a route that this scouting vehicle can go through, so we won't be searching the inside of any buildings. Didn't we agree on that right from the start?"
"I can understand your feelings, but no. There's a good chance something will attack this vehicle when we're away searching the inside of a building. We have almost close to no information about this area, so I can't really guarantee the safety of this vehicle when we're gone. Or more like, we're exactly here in order to gather that information, no?"
Hunters who tend to work alone or in a small group often left their vehicles behind when they searched the inside of a building. But of course, no one could guarantee that their vehicles would be still in one piece when they returned. Elena and Sara had more than enough experience with losing their vehicles in such a manner.
Of course, they could just get more Hunters with them and have some of them guard the vehicle when they were gone. But with more headcounts, each of their shares would also reduce. There was also the possibility of the Hunters guarding the vehicle running away abandoning the Hunters inside the building when monsters attacked them. So it did not change the fact that it would still be a gamble in the end.
The only thing that the Hunters could do was to increase their winning chance with all kinds of methods that they could find. Getting stronger, working with a team, deepening their trust with the other team members, emphasizing the loss in case someone betrayed them. If they did not do that, they would end up as one of those lost Hunters with broken dreams who could not return back from the wasteland.
But Sara seemed to be not fully convinced by it, seeing which Elena gave another reason to convince her.
"If we get ourselves into trouble and send out an SOS request, Akira might come to answer that request, you know. That would really erase our dignity and his trust in us as his senior Hunters, you know. Although, I'm not even sure that we still have those two things even right now."
Sara frowned and sighed.
"Alright. I still want to stay as the senior Hunter that he can rely on, after all. I'll hold myself back."
Sara suddenly turned obedient, seeing that, Elena could only smile bitterly.
"Honestly, I really hope you would be this obedient when your best friend warns you though."
"That's that, you know. It's like we're one soul, so hearing you warn me like that is like giving myself a little scolding. So it's much more likely for me to just ignore it, you see. Just like how it's more likely for me to get selfish when I'm alone."
"Is that so? In that case, then I'll be doing that too when I'm pondering about something."
Elena and Sara lightly smiled at each other before returning back to watching their surroundings.
"Elena, what's wrong?"
"They might be other Hunters exploring this area, no?"
"Possibly, yes. It's just that there's something bothering me."
Some of the signals were possibly from the monsters. Judging from their positions and the signal that the fact that they seemed to be coming from something with a humanoid shape, Elena could not shake off her bad feeling. After all, if some of those signals were from monsters and some others were from Hunters, they were close enough to notice each other.
But Elena remembered a certain rumour, specifically, about a humanoid monster that prowled the Kuzusuhara Ruin. Her sharp intuition was telling her that this was it although she did not have enough evidence that supported it.
Elena thought for a bit before she stepped on the gas. But she made sure to change her direction, away from it.
"Sara, we'll be changing our scouting area. It might lower our area coverage and the information accuracy that we can get, which in turn might lower our reward later. Sorry but please just let this one go."
"Don't worry about it. I'll leave making that kind of decision to you. So let's just continue this safely."
Sara lightly smiled, she seemed to be not bothered at all by that. Seeing how Sara fully trusted her, Elena's stern face slightly softened.
"Another dud, huh?"
Sonoda was one of the Hunters forced to work for Yatsubayashi to help the treatment fee for his Hunter friend. He came to the location where there should be someone who needed help but did not want to send an SOS request. But when he arrived, that person was nowhere to be found and there was not even a since remnant of a fight, and this had happened multiple times now.
Sonoda called Yatsubayashi using his information terminal to complain, but Yatsubayashi just replied casually.
"It's not a proper SOS request to the Hunter Office after all. It's also not clear who's the issuer of that request, heck, not even I know. So, it could be just that there are some people who played a prank on you. Well, I'll at least put in some words with those that informed me of that request, so I hope you would work the best as you can for your part. Don't worry, even if you don't get to find anything, I'll still count your work. I'll send you the next location."
After Sonoda ended the call, he received the location of his next target. He clicked and put his information terminal back into his pocket.
"Good grief, these guys are sending us to the deeper part of the ruin like it's nothing! Alright guys!! To the next one!!"
"Alright... Hm? Wait, it seems that there's someone over there."
Sonoda led his group to the location where that signal came from. It came from the first floor of a building not too far from them. They moved slowly and carefully into that building and spotted a young boy standing in a dark hole in the wall not too far from the door.
That young boy reacted to Sonoda, but it was not in the form of words for communication.
"The current area is under a lockdown. Due to the emergency situation protocol, the security system is allowed to kill any intruders. Please give your identification information..."
Sonoda immediately raised his rifle and barraged that young boy, pushing him all the way to the wall from the shockwave. Sonoda's teammates immediately jumped in to support him. The young boy lost his head and all of his limbs were torn apart.
Sonoda quickly told them to retreat.
"We're running away!! Let's go!!"
"W-whoa, I only shot to help you since you started shooting first though, was that alright?"
"You didn't notice it yet?! That young boy is not the rescue target!! It's the one that attacked the rescue target!! Retreat now!!"
Sonoda and his friends quickly left that building when another sound came from the dark hole behind them.
"...Unable to identify. Immediately changing to restraining protocol..."
"Get in the vehicle!! We're retreating back to the clinic! Something bad is coming, I know it!"
Sonoda retreated back as fast as he could while barking orders to his team.
The limbs that were torn off from the young boy were scattered on the ground. His arms from elbow down were completely turned into rifles. It was not like a rifle fixed on a prosthetic arm, it was more like rifles that were growing out from those arms. Its body seemed like it was layered with armour in a glance, but it was not armour, it was countless layers of metallic scale.
Another young boy emerged from the darkness. He took the gun lying on the ground, the leftover limb of the other young boy and started chasing after Sonoda and his men.
While around the same time, Akira was bored guarding the clinic when a notice reached his information terminal. The coordinate written in that notice was around in the direction where the reconnaissance team went.
"...Well, I do know that since it's an SOS request, there's a good chance that I'll find a troublesome swarm of monsters, and I admit that I do really want to help them if Elana-san or Sara-san are the ones that got into trouble. But at least let me do this much, alright? There are not that many monsters around, so I should be able to get my rank up faster instead of just guarding the clinic, right?"
"Just don't get too deep into the ruin, alright?"
Akira thought that it was weird since, in order to get stronger and to gather as many experiences as he could, it was better if he was actively taking SOS requests and that Alpha would have preferred it. But since it seemed that it might sour her mood if he said anything there, he just kept his mouth shut and paced his bike faster.
Akira drove his bike to its max speed. He was fully relying on Alpha's support without holding back. After all, he felt that he would slow down if he tried controlling the bike on his own and he had no plans to arrive late. Due to Alpha's advanced driving skill, the bike could sway nimbly left and right evading the rubbles scattered on the ground without losing much of its momentum.
"Want to withdraw then?"
As Akira was thinking about what to do from there, he could see a vehicle suddenly jumped out, running away as fast as it could. The backside of that vehicle was half open and there were people there desperately trying to fight back the incoming monsters, Akira could at least tell that much.
Right after it jumped out, that vehicle immediately turned and drove right toward Akira. The sharp turn almost threw the whole vehicle into the air, but it was able to regain its balance thanks to the advanced driving skill of its driver while still shooting the monsters behind it and keeping its speed.
The backside of the swarm was hammered by the mini-missiles. Thanks to the guiding system from Alpha, they struck accurately at the weapon dogs' cannons, igniting the black powder inside their body and resulting in a big explosion. Thus shredding those weapon dogs into small pieces.
As the vehicle filled with Hunters went past Akira, he immediately pulled the brake, made a U-turn, and once again pulled down the accelerator. The special function of the bike that helped its wheel to stick on the vertical wall prevented it from flying off. The powerful inertia assaulted Akira's body, but he was able to endure it with the help of his augmented suit. Even as he was driving off, Akira kept on shooting at the weapon dogs, using the recoil to accelerate his bike even faster.
As Akira was trying to catch up with the vehicle in front of him, he received a short-distance call from his information terminal. It was a call from Sonada who was waving at him from the backside of the vehicle in front of Akira.
"It's good that you're alright. To be honest, I was thinking of retreating when I spotted that weapon dog swarm. It's a good timing that you pulled yourself out from that."
"That was a close call. With that many cannons, if it was not because of you taking away some of the heat, they would have wiped us out. And here I thought we have really run out of luck when those weird things attacked us, but I guess we still have some luck left, huh."
"Yeah, it was because of those..."
Akira noticed something weird on the side of the vehicle.
"Hey, someone is latching on the side of your vehicle? Didn't you get enough time to take everyone inside?"
"What!?"
Sonada peeked out from the backside of his vehicle and pulled out his gun at that 'someone' latching beside the vehicle without showing any hesitation. The barrage peeled that small boy off from the vehicle as he tumbled on the ground. Akira who saw that could not help but to raise his eyebrows.
"That thing is not friendly!! It's an enemy!! We sent that SOS request because we got attacked by those things!! I bet they are one of those humanoid robots posted to guard the ruin or something..."
"Warning. Detecting resistance, arresting targets..."
The small boy stopped his formal warning midway and his expressionless face twitched. Hostility replaced his face and he immediately jumped off that vehicle and lunged straight at Akira.
"Is it one of those dolls that I fought with the other day? I didn't expect to find them outside a building."
"Akira, leave the guessing for later and focus on the fight. It's not done yet, more of them are coming."
Akira aimed his SSB multi-weapon up with a stern face, there were multiple of those young boy dolls jumping at him from the buildings to his left and right. Some of them had 4 normal limbs, some of them carried rifles, while some of them had their whole arms turned into guns. Some of those dolls had open bodies, exposing the mechanical parts inside them, some of them even had 3 arms attached to their bodies.
Akira compressed his time perception and shot down the enemies in front of him in turns following Alpha's instruction. But that did not end all of them, although some of them plummeted straight to the ground and turned into scrap, and some of them were thrown off and crashed to the building near them and stopped moving. But of course, there were also those with stronger bodies which rose up again after getting shot down before they started chasing him.
Although they were fighting back the dolls chasing them, the distance between them was slowly narrowing, and their number was not getting smaller at all.
The young boy dolls jumping out the buildings left and right straight at Akira also had their guns and cannons aimed at him. Alpha controlled the bike to keep making evasive manoeuvres to get away from their aims. Due to the continuously moving bike and the bad ground, Akira had to maintain his compressed time perception while aiming his SSB multi-weapon at those dolls. He followed the instructions shown in his augmented vision, displaying the order of the enemies that he had to shoot down. The bullets that he was using should be able to easily turn normal monsters into minced meat.
"Say, Alpha. It's just my feeling though, but like, aren't those dolls focusing on me? Or more like, they're only attacking me, right?"
"If you want to leave one of them alive in order to confirm that, then you don't have my permission."
"If you have no plans to just abandon those people behind, then just take this positively, at least they won't be attacking those Hunters while you're around, right?"
Akira then banished that thought and any other unneeded things inside his mind to the void.
Another batch of mini-missiles was launched from the backside of the bike. They drew a huge arc on the sky and went for the dolls chasing from behind. The dolls with guns immediately tried to shoot some of the missiles, causing several explosions in the air.
But even after that, the rest of the mini-missiles were able to reach them and blow them away. Akira looked slightly relieved watching those explosions, but his face immediately tensed up again. Those mini-missiles were not enough to stop those dolls from chasing him.
"Akira, bad news here, that was the last batch of mini-missiles."
"And here I thought I carried quite a lot of them. It starts to scare me to think how much I spent in this fight alone."
Akira took his DVTS minigun off from his bike and replaced it with the automatic reloading system for the missiles since it has no mini-missiles left to load. The ammo expense from that battle was nothing to laugh at.
But even so, the incoming dolls did not seem to be letting off at all and his ammo reserve was getting smaller and smaller. Akira could not help but start feeling nervous. Right in the midst of it, Alpha said something that he could not ignore.
"We at least got out of the most dangerous part now. I'll need to go for a bit, so do your best yourself for the time being, okay? I'll give the bike's control back to you."
"Small business?! Right now? In this situation?!"
In contrast to the panicking Akira, Alpha just smiled and pointed her finger.
"Don't worry, like I said before, we already got out of the most dangerous part."
Alpha immediately vanished right after that. Akira quickly shifted his gaze forward and saw Yastsubayashi's mobile clinic coming right in his direction. He could also see the Hunters guarding the clinic standing by near it as well as the Hunters that were a part of the expedition team.
The mobile clinic was originally an APC, so it had rifles and other weapons equipped. Those weapons immediately started shooting, half of the other Hunters around that clinic also started reacting. After Akira went past the clinic, he spotted Elena and Sara, so he turned his bike toward them.
Elena noticed Akira and threw a smile at him.
"Akira, it seems that you're having a hard time there. Are you alright?"
Sara then worriedly said to Akira.
"This Hunter by the name of Sonada keeps broadcasting SOS requests, so you came to rescue him, huh? Are you alright? Did you get any injury? If you're tired, you can take a rest in the back."
"In that case, I don't have much ammo left, so is it okay if I stay close to you?"
Akira smiled happily as he said so. After he finished his readjustment, he then fought the dolls together with Elena and Sara.
The other Hunters that were guarding the clinic and the Hunters from the expedition team knew well of the danger that they were going to face, thus they came well prepared with a lot of ammo. Of course, the bullets that they had prepared were suitable for the danger of the requests that they had accepted that day.
After that, they took their time cleaning up the dolls chasing Akira and Sonada as well as the weapon dog swarm that came not too long after those dolls.
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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