217 踏み込む者達
大型車両の屋根の上はそれなりに広い。だが銃を使用して殺し合う場としては狭すぎる。それぞれが逆方向の端にいても十分に至近距離だ。その非常に狭い場所で、アキラ、カツヤ、ティオルが自分以外を敵と
した。更にそのまま背中から倒れ込むように屋根から落ちると、強化服の両足の接地維持機能を応用して車の側面に水平に立ち、車体でカツヤの射線を塞ぐ。その体勢で両手の銃を頭上に向けて構えると、即座に引き金を引いた。その射線の先では、先ほどのアキラの銃撃で車の屋根から追い払われていたティオルが、向かいのビルの側面を走りながらアキラを狙っていた。強力な身体能力で跳躍してそこまで逃げていたのだ。
アキラはティオルの位置を情報収集機器の反応で大まかに
攻防の中で生まれる無数の選択肢がそれぞれの命を握っている。だが脱落者は出ていない。足場にしている車はかなりの速度を出しており、周囲の景色は高速で流れ続けている。しかし激しい攻防の中で意識を研ぎ澄まし、更に速く死地を駆けている3人の目には、流れる景色など止まって見えた。
アキラはその世界の速度に体感時間の操作で何とか追い付いていた。激しい頭痛と鈍る意識が、脳への負荷が限界に近いと伝えている。
アキラは体内に残っている回復薬の残量を、度重なる経験からこの不快感の強弱で何となく把握できるようになっていた。そしてそれは、その残量も体の負担も限界に近いと教えていた。
弱気を、自身が死ぬ可能性を、その考えで険しく
の攻防がアキラの更なる覚悟で動き出す。ほんの僅かずつだがアキラが押し始める。それを感じ取ったティオルは、焦るどころか喜んでいた。
(分かるぞ! 無理をしているな? 必死になっているな? つまり、それだけ追い込まれているってことだ!)
ティオルが巨人と化して戦った時もアキラは必死だった。だがその時のアキラからは、ある種の余裕が感じられた。それはアルファのサポートに対する信頼であり、悪く表現すれば結果に対する保険、アルファならきっと何とかしてくれる、という甘えだった。同時に、アルファのサポートを受けた上で全力を出しても駄目だったのなら、きっと初めからどうしようもなかったのだ、という諦観でもあった。それがアキラの態度に
(あの時とは違う! これなら殺せる! 殺しきれる! あと少しだけ踏み込めば良い! くたばりやがれ!)
ティオルが更なる力を、アキラを殺しきる力を求めた。その為に自身の意識の立ち位置に更に踏み込んだ。人としての意識を、システムの
大規模遺跡探索が始まった後、ティオルがカツヤのチームを襲ったのは偶然だ。明確に狙ったのではない。大勢のハンター達の誰かとしか認識していなかった。カツヤを明確な目標と定めたのは、カツヤがこの大規模遺跡探索を成功させればシェリルが手に入るようなことを、少なくともティオルがそう判断してしまう内容を偶然口に出し、それをティオルに偶然聞かれてしまったからだった。
積み重なった偶然は、更にティオルをアキラと遭遇させた。加えてカツヤにアキラを自分の仲間だと誤解させるのにも成功し、アキラ達を本格的に潰し合わせる考えも浮かばせた。そしてそれは成功した。
運が自分に味方している。そう思ってしまうほどにティオルは状況に熱狂していた。アキラ達を殺せばシェリルが手に入る。そのような短慮が浮かび、それを信じてしまうほどに浮かれていた。それはティオルの
(通信障害の発生と同時に強化服の動きが大分鈍くなった! 何でだ!? 総合支援強化服の支援部分は通信を介しているから仕方無いとしても、強化服としての基本性能まで落ちるのは変だろう!? どうなってるんだ!?)
無意識に苦境の理由を探してしまい、余計な思考に意識を割いてしまった分だけ、カツヤの動きが僅かに鈍る。だがそれはこの状況下では致命的な
く追い付いたのだ。そしてカツヤの危機を察知すると、すぐに一斉射撃で援護した。車を運転する者も、身を乗り出して銃撃する者も、全員が合図もせずに素早く的確に一斉に行動していた。しかもカツヤ以外の空間を射線で埋め尽くすように、それぞれが少しずつ照準をずらす芸当まで行っていた。
弾幕の一部がカツヤにも当たっていたが、カツヤは無傷だ。アキラが車体の輸送部の端に身を隠しながら推察する。
(だから、タイミングが完璧すぎるぞ!? 総合支援強化服の支援ってやつか!? この状況下でも使えるのか!?)
アキラは無駄な思考を続けようとしている自分に気付くと、その思考を無理
「頑張ってみるけど、無理かもね。この車両の耐久もそろそろ限界だし、車載の機銃の残弾も少ないし、あっちの方が速くて小回りも利くわ。それに、何が何でも逃がさないって感じで追われている人がこの車に乗っている訳だしね。やっぱり無理っぽいわね」
車体の限界は近い。高性能な装甲タイルを山ほど貼り付けていたとはいえ、既にその大半を
この車は荒野仕様の大型車で、遺物の輸送を目的にしている分だけ高出力だ。その出力を活かしてかなりの速度を出せる。だが設計思想を戦闘面に大きく偏らせている戦闘車両に比べれば機動性に欠けている。カツヤ達の車両はその戦闘車両だ。単純な機動性の勝負では勝ち目は無い。
車載装備の残弾量にも大きな差がある。加えてアキラの車は進行方向を塞ぐモンスターを排除する
アキラが非常に険しい表情を浮かべる。ネリアの態度の理由はアキラにも分かったが、同じように割り切ることも楽しむことも出来ないからだ。
車体後方からは着弾音が絶え間なく響いている。それでもネリアは平然と笑っていた。アキラはそこに妙な頼もしさを覚えながら急いで作業を進める。消費した弾薬とエネルギーパックの再装填や回復薬の服用などを素早く行い、いろいろ消耗した状態を整え直す。その作業の中、アキラの視界の片隅に、車内に
カツヤが仲間の車両に飛び移ると、この通信障害下でも通信可能な距離に入ったことで部隊と通信が回復した。すると途端に通信でユミナの怒鳴り声が届く。
「カツヤ! また1人で飛び出して何やってるの!?
続いてアイリの少し真面目な声が届く。
「カツヤ。昔はそれで助けられた人も多かったから
カツヤはユミナ達と話して落ち着きを取り戻した。それでも意気は落ちていない。
「よし! 行くぞ!」
本来のアイリならここで疑念を抱いていた。アキラが本当にティオルの仲間なのかは不明なのだ。不明確なのであれば無駄に敵を増やす必要は無い。疑わしきは死を。その判断で片付けるには、アキラは強すぎる。本当にティオルの仲間だったとしても、今のカツヤなら後で組織の力で潰すことも十分に可能なはずだ。そう考えてカツヤに提案ぐらいはしていた。
しかし今のユミナ達にそれらの思考は浮かばない。カツヤから送信されている印象に押し流されて、その判断を当然だと思って疑いすらしていない。部隊全体が一つの意思で動いているようにも思える高度な連携、その代償に思考の多様性が失われていた。多数決なのにも
「......いない!? そんな馬鹿な!?」
バイクには遺物収集用のリュックサックが取り付けられている。その中にはネリアが入っていた。顔と腕の一部を外に出して楽しげに笑っている。
車に固執しては逃げ切れない。アキラはそう判断すると、高い金を出して買った車の廃棄を決断した。そしてバイクに可能な限りの物を詰め込むと、ネリアを連れて脱出を試みた。
ネリアの卓越した運転で車体をカツヤ達の視界から外した一瞬を
ネリアが軽く吹き出す。
ネリアもアキラの言葉を否定する気は無い。だがそこからビルの側面をバイクで走り続ける思考に至るのはどうかとも思っていた。それを当然のように答えたアキラの態度は、ネリアを大いに楽しませていた。
バイクの制御装置はアルファの改造で格段に性能を上げており、アキラの
Ch 217
Due to its relatively large size, the top of the APC was rather spacious. But of course, it was way too narrow for a gunfight. Akira, Katsuya, and Tiol saw the other as their enemies and aimed rifles, originally made to fight against monsters, at the other two.
Akira pulled his head back to evade Katsuya's shots, he then fell backwards in that posture. Although it seemed that he was going to fall to the ground just like that, Akira used the contact surface of the boots of his augmented suit to stand straight, horizontal to the side of the APC, thus blocking Katsuya from targeting him. While he was in that position, Akira aimed both of his rifles above his head and pulled the trigger, to be more precise, he was aiming at Tiol, who had jumped and was running on a building's sidewall ever since he evaded Akira's indiscriminate shooting from before.
Akira knew the general location of Tiol from his information-gathering device. Since he had no leeway to take a proper aim at him, he instead focused more on trying to prevent Tiol from joining back. So, he spread grenades everywhere, as if to destroy everything around him.
With so many factors suddenly mixed in the battle, every single decision that they make could easily decide whether they live or die. But even so, none of them was knocked off the APC. Although the APC was going pretty fast causing the scenery around them to blur, for the three of them, who were pumped full of adrenaline with heightened senses, it seemed that the scenery around them had stopped.
Akira somehow managed to keep up with the intense fight with the help of his time perception compression. The panging pain in his head caused a growing haziness to flood his mind. It was obvious that his brain could not take this burden any longer.
Akira more or less knew how much time he had left, judging from how numbed pain felt and his abundant experience from all the battles that he had gone through. All those experiences were indicating to him that he was at his limit soon.
The fear of death caused Akira to frown, but then a mocking smile overwrote his fear. He then ignored the burden, increased his time compression, strengthened his reality-bending willpower, and pushed his body to move even faster.
The stalemate between the three of them started to change as Akira committed himself further into the fight. The tide of the battle started to turn toward Akira's favor. Tiol, who understood that, felt joy instead of fear.
[I can tell, you know!! You're getting desperate, right? You're pushing yourself past your limit, right? That just means you're that cornered right now!!]
Akira was also desperate when he fought against the giant Tiol. But at that time, Akira seemed to still have some leeway. That came from the fact that Akira trusted Alpha's support, even in the worst-case scenario, he believed that Alpha would do something about it. Moreover, if the opponent was too strong, then Alpha would have done something right from the start.
[This is not like the last time! I can kill him this time! I finally have the chance to kill him! I just need to push just a little bit more! Go to hell!!]
Tiol wished for more power. His wish stemmed from his desire to kill Akira. But because of that, his consciousness started to show bias and leaned more toward the system instead of that of a human.
After the expedition started, Tiol met Katsuya's team by pure coincidence, it was not like Tiol deliberately went after Katsuya's team. At that time, he only recognized Katsuya as nothing more than one of the common Hunters. But the reason why he was clearly aiming to kill Katsuya, was simply because he heard Katsuya mentioning, 'I will turn this expedition into a success in order to win Sheryl's heart.'
As if it was a prank from the god, Tiol then met Akira by coincidence as well. Moreover, he successfully caused Katsuya to mistake Akira as one of his allies. At that time, he thought it might be a good idea to make them fight against each other, and he succeeded.
At the moment luck was siding him. Tiol, who thought so, became extremely excited. The thought of killing Akira and Katsuya and then winning Sheryl's heart now felt within his reach. The excitement threw his logic off the window as he sold a part of himself for more power.
[I've been moving slower ever since the jamming happened, why is that!? Is it because the support system is affected by that jamming!? But even without the support system, it should still function as a normal augmented suit, right!? What the heck is going on?!]
Katsuya ended up unconsciously looking for the reasons he was having difficulty. This divided his attention, which caused him to slow down even more. But that was enough to cause a fatal opening in that battle. Akira and Tiol did not let that chance slide as both of them simultaneously aimed their rifles at Katsuya.
That attack just now came from Katsuya's team. After Akira's APC broke through their formation, they immediately turned around and started chasing the APC. Then the moment they felt that Katsuya was in danger, they immediately took action to provide supporting fire to him. Both the ones that were peeking out from the vehicles as well as the ones driving the vehicles were all moving in a quick organized manner, without exchanging any information in between them. Moreover, they sprayed the bullets in such a fashion that it covered the whole top, except for where Katsuya was standing.
Of course, Katsuya also got hit by some of the bullets, but he was unscathed. Akira then thought, while hiding himself around the edge of the rooftop.
[As I thought, their timing is just too good! Is it because of that coordination support system!? Is that thing still working even in this situation!?]
But Akira quickly realized that he was about to pursue something unimportant right now. So, he immediately stopped his thoughts there. With both Katsuya and Tiol off the APC now, Akira went back to the back door of the APC.
"I'll try my best, but to be honest, I think our chance of running away is small. This APC is already in very bad shape and there's not much ammo left in the machine gun. While on the other hand, they are using faster and smaller vehicles with greater mobility. Not to mention, they seem hell-bent on killing a certain someone who is on this APC right now. As I thought, we won't be able to get away from them."
The APC was already close to its limit. Although Akira used a lot of expensive armour tiles to protect it, it had already lost more than half of them. After all those intense fights, the APC was already badly damaged. It was only thanks to Nelia's skill that it was still barely able to somehow avoid the enemy's attacks.
Since it was originally a transport vehicle to be used in the wasteland, it had a powerful engine. However, its capability was vastly different compared to the vehicles made for battles. With Katsuya's team's vehicles being specialized for combat in terms of specs, Akira's APC had no chance of winning.
There was also a big difference in their remaining ammo. Moreover, he still had to keep using the machine gun to clear up the monsters blocking the APC. So, they were still using what little they had left.
Akira knitted his eyebrows. He understood why Nelia was acting like that, but at the same time, he could not just completely ignore it nor just enjoy the situation like Nelia.
Endless explosions could be heard from behind. But even so, Nelia smiled and did not seem to be bothered at all. Akira could feel a strange feeling of reliability from that reply as he hurried up to finish his preparation. He immediately replenished his ammo and energy packs and did not forget to take extra medicines as well. In the middle of that, Akira spotted something inside the APC and stopped. It was his bike.
Katsuya landed on one of the moving vehicles from his team. Despite the jamming, they were able to communicate with each other since they were within close-range communication. The moment Katsuya got into communication range, he was welcomed with a scolding.
"Katsuya!! What the heck were you thinking? Jumping out all by yourself like that again!? I'll deck you if you don't stop doing that, okay!?"
Airi's calm voice followed afterwards.
"Katsuya. I know that you would do that since you were able to save some people in the past by doing so. But we're a team right now. It's better to move as a team instead of moving alone."
Katsuya regained his calm after talking with Yumina and Airi. But even so, he was still relatively excited.
"Alright then! Let's go!!"
Normally, Airi would have been suspicious of the situation. There was no evidence showing that Akira was on Tiol's side. As long as there was no evidence, there was no need to add more enemies into the mix unnecessarily. Akira was too strong to handle. A moment of doubt when against him would result in death. Even if Akira was really working with Tiol, the current Katsuya would not have a high chance of victory even if he worked together with the team. At the very least, she would have notified Katsuya of this if she was in her normal state of mind.
But both Yumina and Airi did not think about it at all. The impression sent from Katsuya had overwhelmed their rational judgment so much that they simply believed that the course of events so far as normal. In exchange for their level of teamwork, their individuality had been suppressed. Even though it was a decision made by majority votes, Katsuya's line of thinking basically always vetoed as the final decision.
"...He's not here!? How!?"
A few relic rucksacks were dangling from the bike. Nelia was inside of one of those rucksacks. She had her head and her arm peeking out the rucksack as she smiled amusedly and commented.
Akira judged that it was impossible to get away with his APC. Thus, he decided to abandon his expensive APC. He then brought as many supplies as possible with him before trying to escape with Nelia on his bike.
Nelia was able to conceal the moment the bike leapt outside the APC thanks to her advanced driving skill. Moreover, the explosions that surrounded them threw off the accuracy of the information gathering device in that area. They used that chance to get away from the APC before setting the APC to just drive about randomly.
Nelia then replied casually.
Nelia had no reason to argue with Akira's reasoning there. She also thought that it was strange how Akira would come up with the idea of driving through the sidewall of the buildings. Nelia found it amusing that Akira replied as if it was common sense to do that.
The bike's control device was modified by Alpha to increase its performance, thanks to that, Akira was able to drive horizontally on the sidewall of the building even when he was not that good at driving. The tires of the bike were properly stuck on the wall as Akira drove. It was as though he was normally driving on the ground.
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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