カナエと交代したレイナがシオリに尋ねる。
「シオリ。私が休んでいる間に何かあった?」
シオリはレイナを安心させるために優しく
笑って返した。
状況は何一つ好転しておらず、状況を悪化させる要因はレイナ自身だ。それを自覚している負い目が、頑張って笑顔を保とうとしているレイナの表情に陰りを与えていた。
「お嬢様。目を覚まされたのでしたら食事に致しましょう。直ちに用意いたしますので、少々お待ちください」
シオリが手早く食事の用意を済ませた。部屋の中に高級レストランの一部を切り取ったような場違いな光景が出来上がった。
折りたたみ式のテーブルを真っ白なテーブルクロスが覆っている。その上に温かな料理が並べられている。料理は全てハンター用の携帯食だが、結構な高級品で自称高級店の料理より
しいものばかりだ。密封された携帯食は開封と同時に発熱する仕組みになっており、更に料理が冷めにくいように容器が適温を保つ仕組みになっている。温かなスープからは湯気も上がっている。
事情を知らないハンターが旧世界の遺跡の中で見た場合、高確率で困惑するであろう光景がそこにあった。
シオリもレイナと向かい合って食事を取る。今はレイナの
籠城中でも食事は大切だ。レイナが
む。レイナは自分の現金な様子をシオリに
雑談と食事を続けていたレイナがふと思いついたことをシオリに尋ねる。
「ねえシオリ。私達の現在の状況って、前にシオリから聞いたミハゾノ街遺跡の怪談と関係があると思う?」
レイナがシオリから聞いたミハゾノ街遺跡の怪談は3つだ。
悪食ビル。時折、市街区画に大勢いるはずのハンターやモンスターが急に姿を消す。それは腹を
どこかへの扉。ミハゾノ街遺跡の何もない場所に、開きかけている透明な扉が見えることがある。扉の中には旧世界の遺物があって、ハンターが遺物に釣られて中に入ると扉が閉まり、二度と帰ってこない。そのような話だ。
寂しがりな死者。ミハゾノ街遺跡で死んだハンターの死体を放置してしまうと、死体が動き始めて他のハンターを襲い始める。それはきっと死者の仲間を求めているのだ。そのような話だ。
シオリが少し考えてから答える。
「難しいですね。関わりのある可能性としては悪食ビルです。ですがあの依頼を受けたハンター達の戦力を上回る機械系モンスターの質と量は異常でした。ハンターオフィスもあの目立つ大規模な戦闘を確実に認識したでしょう。怪談で済ませるには規模が違いすぎます。恐らく無関係でしょう」
「そっか。何か関係があるのなら、脱出のヒントにでもなるかなって思ったんだけど」
「旧世界の遺跡には、その手の怪談が生まれる要素が多いものです。ですから警戒を怠らず、注意して行動いたしましょう。......昔のお嬢様は屋敷の中を好奇心で探索していました。旧世界の遺跡ではそのような
かつての自分を思い出して、レイナが少しだけ楽しげに苦笑して答える。
「分かってるわ」
レイナはその後もシオリと雑談をしながら食事を続けた。食事が終わり、胃にそれなりの量が収まった頃には、レイナは大分気力を取り戻していた。上質な食事は戦意高揚の役に立つ。高いだけの意味はあるのだ。
レイナが食事の後片付けをしているシオリに向かって少し申し訳なさそうに話す。
「シオリ。ごめんね」
シオリはレイナが何について謝っているのかを考える。該当する内容を幾つも思いついたが、
「でも、私がシオリの説得をちゃんと聞いてセランタルビルに向かうのを止めていれば、こんなことにはならなかったわ」
「あの時に現在の状況を予想することは、私にもお嬢様にも不可能でした。私の認識も、セランタルビルはドランカムの想定より危険かもしれない、という程度でした。ここまで事態が悪化するとは予想できませんでした。
シオリは真剣な表情でレイナにそう告げた。たとえレイナに自身の忠義を疑われようとも、シオリの忠義は揺るがないだろう。しかしそれでもその忠義を信じてほしいという気持ちはシオリにもあるのだ。
レイナはシオリのことを誰よりも信頼している。苦楽を共にした家族のように思っている。頼りがいのある姉のように思っている。
時にその信頼ゆえにシオリに我が
レイナが真面目な表情で答える。
「分かっているし、信じているわ」
シオリはどこか満足げに少し
「でしたら、先ほど説明したとおり、お嬢様に非がないことも信じていただきたく思います」
一本取られた。レイナはそんな表情を浮かべて楽しげに笑った。
食事の片付けを終えたシオリは再び装備の点検をしようと思い、椅子代わりに使っていた残骸に腰掛けた。シオリの視界に、床に横になって休んでいるカナエと、自分の近くに座っているレイナの姿が入る。
しいですか?」
レイナはシオリの様子から、シオリが重要なことを話そうとしていることを察した。
「私達は今までこの部屋で籠城を続けていましたが、それは時間経過により外の状況が改善されることを期待してのことです。ドランカムが追加の部隊を派遣する可能性や、この部屋を取り囲んでいる機械系モンスターが撤退する可能性、それらを考慮してのことです。しかしいつまでも籠城を続けているわけにもいきません。このまま事態が改善した様子を確認できない状況が続いた場合、私達は、部屋の外の状況がこの部屋に逃げ込んできた時よりは改善していることを期待して、自力での脱出を試みなければなりません」
レイナ達に部屋の外の様子は分からない。情報端末は圏外で外と連絡を取ることはできない。情報収集機器は原因不明の性能低下を起こしており、調べられるのは部屋の出口から数メートルの範囲だけだ。その範囲の外の状況は未知だ。レイナ達にできることは期待だけだ。外がこの部屋に逃げ込んできた時よりもましな状況であることを期待することだけなのだ。
運が悪ければ、レイナ達はより悪化した状況の中に飛び込むことになるのだ。悲鳴と怒号が響いていたあの空間に、その発生源を根こそぎ殺した機械系モンスターの群れの中に。
レイナは不安と恐怖を、決意と覚悟で塗りつぶして答える。
「......分かったわ。それで、いつやるの? すぐ?」
シオリは気丈に答えるレイナを見て、自身も最終的な覚悟を決める。
「準備を済ませてからです。出口の封鎖を解かなければなりませんし、カナエも休憩を取ったばかりです。身体能力強化剤の類いも幾らか持ち込んでいますが、効果が出るまで時間が掛かるものもあります。カナエにもう少し休憩を取らせた後で、そういった
うために動き出す。レイナを背にして封鎖中の出口を警戒する。だがシオリの目には異常があるようには見えない。
「カナエ。何があったの?」
アキラは嫌そうな表情で30階の光景を見ている。キャロルもかなり嫌そうな表情を浮かべている。エレナもサラもシカラベもトガミも、程度の差はあれど似たような表情を浮かべていた。
アキラとキャロルの表情がエレナ達よりも嫌そうなのは過去の経験の差だ。アキラ達の視線の先には、大量の機械系モンスターが通路を
する光景が広がっていた。
エレナ達の安全を保つためにもここが限度だろう。サラはそう判断していた。
だがエレナは判断に迷っていた。視線の先にある光景を見ながら悩んでいた。険しい表情で答える。
「何も情報がないのなら撤退一択なんだけどね......」
シカラベが口を挟む。
「つまり、判断を迷わせる情報があるんだな?」
エレナがシカラベの問いに答える。
「15階で見つけた伝言付きの設置端末と同じものを、ここに来るまでに何個か発見したわ。伝言内容も全く同じだったから一々伝えはしなかったけどね。ここでも同じものを発見したわ。でも伝言内容までは同じではなかったわ。簡易マップを見て」
エレナがアキラ達に送信している簡易マップの情報を更新すると、30階のある部屋が強調表示された。
「伝言の内容を信じると、小型端末を設置した誰かはその部屋で籠城しているそうよ」
キャロルがどことなく感心しているように話す。
「下の階から上へ上へと逃げてきて、ここで籠城を決め込んだってことね。確かにあの部屋ならあの量のモンスターに囲まれたとしても、しっかり出入り口を固めさえすれば、補給を無視すれば長期間籠城できるでしょうね。事前にセランタルビルのマップを入手していたハンターなら、立て籠もりやすい部屋を知っていても不思議はないか。シカラベ。
「可能性の話で良いなら、そうだ」
この場で追及することでもない。キャロルはそう判断すると気にしない素振りで流した。
エレナはアキラに同意の返事を、状況の面倒さをその口調に乗せて返した。
目標の部屋までの距離が遠すぎるのなら、エレナは迷わずに撤退する。すぐに撤退して後続する予定の本隊に情報を渡し、彼らが対象を救出するのを期待するしかない。
目標の部屋までの距離が十分近いのならば、エレナは多少強引にでも敵の包囲を突破して、目標の部屋までの経路を確保して部屋の様子を確認する。救出対象が少人数で移動可能な状態ならば一緒に脱出すれば良い。多人数、又は負傷等で移動が困難な状態ならばそのまま籠城を続けてもらい、自分達は帰還して後は後続の本隊に任せるしかない。
目標の部屋はアキラ達から遠すぎず、近すぎずの微妙な距離に位置していた。それがエレナを悩ませていた。
自分達がここに来るまでに費やした労力。大量の敵を撃破して部屋まで進む危険性。今なら救出対象を助けられるかもしれない可能性。エレナは複雑に絡み合うそれらの要素を考慮して、悩んだ末に自身の才と経験から結論を出した。
エレナが皆に指示を出す。
「部隊を私とシカラベの2班に分けるわ。私の班は階段の近くで退路を確保する。シカラベの班は対象の救出に向かう。全員で周辺の機械系モンスターの数を減らしつつ、シカラベの班が進む突破口を作る。シカラベの班が部隊から分かれるタイミングはシカラベに任せるわ。救出の成否を問わず、シカラベ達が戻ってきたら合流してそのまま撤退する。敵の攻勢が激しくて突破口を開けない場合は、その時点で救出を諦めて撤退する。私とシカラベのどちらかが救出は無理だと判断したら即座に撤退よ」
「対象の救出は俺が言い出したことでもある。俺が連中の包囲の中に突っ込む
「無理だ」
「余裕を持って行動したい気持ちは分かるけど、その余裕は人数ではなく撤退する判断の方で調整してちょうだい。そっちに戦力を偏らせないと難しいってシカラベが判断するなら、この作戦は取り
全員で目標の部屋を目指せば、安全に部屋まで到達できる可能性は確かに高い。しかし最悪の場合はアキラ達まで部屋からの脱出が不可能となり、その部屋で籠城しなければならない羽目になる。エレナはそれを避けたいのだろう。後続の本隊がここまで来る保証はないのだ。
「アキラ。付き合え」
シカラベはアキラの実力をこの部隊の下から2番目だと判断している。その上でアキラの実力を計りきれずにいる。アキラが時々どう考えても不自然な索敵能力や反応速度を見せていることにも気付いている。
そのアキラの何かが、状況を好転させることはあっても、悪化させることはないだろう。アキラを連れていくことは、エレナ側の戦力的にもエレナの許容範囲のはずだ。シカラベはそう考えて、アキラの未知の部分に期待してアキラを誘うことにした。
アキラは普通に返事をして同行に応じた。
トガミが急に声を上げてシカラベ班への同行を申し出る。
「......俺も行く!」
アキラ達の視線がトガミに集まる。トガミの表情には確かに決意と覚悟が存在していた。
シカラベはそのトガミを見て少し判断に迷い、戦力を引き抜かれる側であるエレナの様子を確認して、更に少し思案してから答える。
「分かった。強行突破は野郎陣で、退路の確保は女性陣だ。エレナもそれで良いか?」
エレナが皆を見ながら返事をする。
全員が軽く
キャロルが軽く笑いながらアキラに話す。
「私もそっち側なら、以前とは違う私の活躍をアキラに見せつけられたんだけどね。残念だわ」
「俺がここに戻ってきた時のこの場の状況で、その辺の実力は十分見せつけられるんじゃないか?」
「そう? それならアキラにはちゃんと戻ってきてもらって、私の活躍をしっかり確認してもらわないといけないわね。報酬はしっかり弾んでもらうわ」
「それなら俺は相手をしっかり救出して、相対的なキャロルの成果を下げておかないとな」
アキラとキャロルはどこか冗談交じりの笑顔で笑い合った。
シカラベがアキラとトガミに話す。
「先に言っておくが、俺は一々細かい指示なんか出さん。適宜適切に行動しろ」
アキラは普通に、トガミは決意を込めて答えた。
「アキラ。気を付けてね。無理をせず、引き際を誤っちゃ駄目よ?」
「はい。サラさんもお気を付けて」
アキラがしっかり
「カウントを始めるわ。5、4、3......」
アキラ達が各自の武器を構えてその時を待つ。ハンター達の装備は人間とモンスターの理不尽な基本性能の差を、より理不尽な後付けの性能で覆すために存在している。殺される前に殺すために、破壊される前に破壊するために、倒される前に倒しきるために。たとえ相手が、何であれ。
アキラ達が一斉に30階に飛び込んだ。そしてそれぞれが素早く広間に展開し、視界内にいる甲B18式へ銃口を向けて、照準の手間を省いて引き金を引く。銃口から高速で飛び出した無数の弾丸が、無数の機械部品で構成されている甲B18式に激突する。金属の表皮を引きちぎり、鋼の配線を食いちぎり、主要な内部装置を粉砕し、各部位を四散させていく。
先手を取ったアキラ達によって、大量の甲B18式が瞬く間に破壊されていく。
アキラが右手に持つDVTSミニガンを目標の部屋に続く通路の中へ向けて乱射し続けている。銃口からは無数の銃弾が絶え間なく放たれ続けている。射線の先、通路の前方にいる甲B18式達は既に
全員で階段付近の広間から敵を除去した後、エレナ達は広間の確保に、シカラベ達は救出対象への通路の強行突破に移る。
シカラベは自分が倒した甲B18式の内の数機を意図的に完全には壊さなかった。機銃を破壊して攻撃能力を奪い、多脚を破壊して移動能力を奪い、強力な防衛兵器をただの置物に変えていた。
「行くぞ」
シカラベがそれだけ言って通路の奥へ進んでいく。アキラとトガミはシカラベの強引な行動に僅かに
い装備品を買うことになるわ。私からの依頼を達成してもらうためにもね』
その装備を買うためにどれだけの金が必要なのか。その金を稼ぐためにどれだけの苦労が必要なのか。アキラはそれを想像して苦笑を浮かべた。
アルファが自信に満ちた口調で
『あら、案外早いはずよ? 私のサポートがあれば大丈夫よ』
短くなった期間の分だけ自分の身に降りかかる苦境が濃縮される気がする。アキラは何となくそう思った。
をして中途半端に破壊した甲B18式を敵の銃撃を防ぐ盾にしたり、増援が来そうな脇道を塞ぐ障害物にしたりして進んでいく。
アキラが甲B18式を前方へ蹴り飛ばす。その蹴りはアルファのサポートによる補正が乗っており、蹴りの衝撃を無駄なく効率的に目標に
(アキラの強化服......、あれは根島技研製のパワードサイレンスだ。だがあそこまで高性能だったか? 本人の力量で補うにも限度があるだろう。何かの伝で改造品でも手に入れたのか?)
東部には強化服を愛用しているハンターが大勢いる。当然、東部に出回っている強化服の量も膨大になる。
しかしその強化服の流通量から判断すると、改造品の量は意外なほどに少ない。強化服は精密機械の一種であり、専門の技術者でなければ改造など難しい代物であることも理由の一つだ。
強化服の制御装置を
アキラの強化服がその類いの品ならば、どう考えてもカタログスペックから逸脱している性能に対して、シカラベもある程度納得することができる。しかしそれでも疑問は残る。
アキラの強化服は何らかの改造品である可能性が高い。シカラベの推測はそこまでが限界だ。そしてそこから派生する様々な推測が、アキラへの評価をよりややこしいものにしていた。
アキラを敵に回すと面倒そうだ。前回の賞金首討伐依頼の報酬で
Reina, who just exchanged shifts with Kanae, asked Shiori .
"Shiori, did anything happen when I was resting?"
Shiori smiled gently to calm Reina .
Reina was a bit weirded out since Shiori answered back so firmly, she then forced a smile .
Reina understood very well that she was the very reason why the situation was getting worse from here and on out . Her dejection was slightly leaked out of her forced smile .
"Milady, since you've woken up, let's get a bite . I'll prepare the meal right away, so please wait for a bit . "
Shiori immediately made the preparation for the meal . She somehow magically transformed a part of that room into a luxury restaurant, it made a rather awkward scene against the backdrop of the old-world ruin's room .
She put a clean white tablecloth on top of a portable table, then she placed warm food on top of it . Although all of them were foods designed for Hunters, they were from expensive products that might even be much more delicious than most of the self-proclaimed high-class restaurants out there .
The portable foods were designed to reheat themselves when opened, and their containers were designed to keep the foods from going cold, the soup there was even steaming .
If a Hunter who did not know what was going on suddenly saw this scene, there was no mistaking it that he or she would be completely dumbfounded .
Shiori and Reina were sitting facing each other while they were having the meal . Shiori decided that it was better to take the meal together with Reina rather than standing next to her and serving her .
Consuming food is important even when they were barricading themselves . Reina's face relaxed as she took a spoon of the delicious meal . Shiori, who saw that, smiled . Reina, who could feel Shiori smiling at her, blushed and tried to throw a conversation to change the mood .
Reina imagined a situation where she was eating a luxurious looking meal while the other Hunters around her had to nibble on their Hunter ration, she then lightly smiled .
Reina and Shiori continued chatting while having their meal when Reina suddenly asked Shiori something that just came up in her mind .
"Say, Shiori, do you think that our current situation has something to do with the Mihazono Ruin's ghost story?"
Reina heard about 3 ghost stories of Mihazono ruin from Shiori .
The ghoul building . From time to time, a lot of Hunters and monsters in the Mihazono ruin would suddenly vanish . According to that ghost story, the real cause of that was because the Seranthal building grew hungry and ate them .
The second story was about a door that would suddenly appear out of nowhere inside the Mihazono ruin . It would bait the Hunters to enter that door with relics, but when they entered, the door would shut and the Hunters were never seen the outside ever again .
The third story was about the lonely ghost . It was said that the dead corpses of the Hunters left in the ruin sometimes suddenly started moving on their own and attacking the other Hunters . They must have been longing for more friends .
Shiori thought for a bit before answering .
"I can't say for sure . If I have to make a connection, it might be related to the story of the ghoul building . But it's also not normal to find this many monsters in this place, not to mention, they're abnormally strong, even stronger than the Hunters who took that SOS request . I'm sure the Hunter Office already knows about that fierce battle too . The level of abnormality is too big to blame everything on a ghost story . So I believe that it's not related to that . "
"I see . I just thought that if it's related, it might give us some hints on how to get out of this building . "
"It's common for weird things to happen around old-world ruins, which might develop into ghost stories later . That's why let's not drop our guard and keep being careful... I understand that in the past you loved to explore the mansion, Milady . But please don't do that here, if you get inside that vanishing door from the ghost story, it would be hard for me to find you, you know?"
While on the other hand, Reina remembered her past self and could not help but to make a bitter smile .
"I know . "
After that, they continued having a silly talk while taking the meal . Once she was done and got her stomach filled, Reina regained some of her energy . Nutritious food was the main fuel for fighting, that was why they were worth their price .
As Shiori was cleaning after the meal, Reina suddenly apologetically said to her
"Shiori, I'm sorry . "
Shiori tried to think of the reason why Reina was apologizing . Although she could come up with several guesses, it did not change what she would reply with .
"But if I had properly listened to you and decided not to come here, we wouldn't be in this situation right now . "
"Neither I nor Milady could have seen this coming . I also only thought that this Seranthal building would only be a little bit more dangerous than what Drankam thought it was . I also did not expect it to be this bad . Although it might be an exaggeration, I believe that being able to see this coming at that time would be close to predicting the future . If I knew that something like this would happen, I would have tried everything that I could do to stop Milady back then... After all, I'll never let you go to a dangerous place just to get killed . I hope that Milady could at least believe me about that . "
Shiori had a serious look when she said that to Reina . Even if Reina somehow doubted Shiori's loyalty, Shiori's devotion will not waver . But even so, Shiori still held the desire of Reina trusting her .
Reina herself trusted Shiori more than anyone else, she thought of her as one of her family that she had been together with through thick and thin . For her, Shiori was like a reliable sister .
Sometimes, that level of trust caused her to make selfish requests to Shiori, and the current situation was the result of one of her selfish request .
Reina replied with a serious face .
"I know, and I do trust you . "
Shiori smiled happily, she looked somehow satisfied . But her smile then changed to a teasing smile .
"In that case, as I explained just now, I hope Milady would understand that there's nothing for Milady to apologize . "
Reina smiled, her expression was saying that she understood Shiori just pulled a good one on her .
After cleaning up the table, Shiori returned to check her equipment . She returned back to the wreckage that she was using as a seat . From there, Shiori could see Kanae who was lying down not too far from her and Reina who was sitting close to her .
"Milady, if I may?"
Seeing from how Shiori was acting there, it seemed that she had something important to talk about .
"We're barricading ourselves inside this room for days since we hope that the situation outside will get better with time, hoping Drankam might send out a rescue team for us, or the monsters that were surrounding this room might leave . But with that being said, we can't keep barricading ourselves inside this room forever . If we keep ourselves inside this room without no means to check the situation outside, we can only hope that the situation outside is getting better, and sooner or later, we have no choice but to dismantle the barricade and try to make a run for it . "
They could not check the situation outside and they could not make any contact outside either . Due to the unknown source that was lowering the sensitivity of information-gathering devices inside that building, they could only detect a few metres outside the entrance, and they knew nothing about the area further than that . They could only wait and hope there that the situation outside was getting better .
If they got unlucky, the situation outside might have actually turned worse than before when it was filled with monsters, screams, and cries .
Reina then replied back firmly in order to expel the fear and worry that were creeping inside her .
"...alright, so then, when are we going to do that? Is it soon?"
Seeing how Reina replied back so firmly like that, Shiori made her resolve too .
"We'll do it once we've finished all the preparations . We need to dismantle the barricade and Kanae just took a rest not too long ago . We have several strengthening drugs too, but they'll take some time before the effect kicks in . Other than giving Kanae more time to rest, we have other preparations to do . We'll try to make our run once we're sure we're 100% ready..."
The moment Shiori noticed that, she immediately stepped in front of Reina to protect her while keeping her eyes on the barricaded entrance . But Shiori did not see anything out of the ordinary .
"Kanae, what's wrong?"
Akira's face twitched when he saw the situation on the 30th floor . The same also happened for Carol, Elena, Sara, Shikarabe, and Togami, although at different levels .
The reason why Akira and Carol looked far more concerned than the other Hunters was because of their experience . They could see countless monsters filling the hallways in front of them .
Sara frowned .
Sara evaluated that this was as far as they could go safely .
But Elena was still unsure, she was still facing forward, looking at the monsters in front of her, she then said with a stern expression .
"If we have no extra information, the right choice, in this case, would be to pull back, but..."
Shikarabe immediately intervened .
"So in short, you have a piece of information that warrants us to push forward, right?"
Elena then answered Shikarabe's question .
"On our way here, I found similar information relay devices like the one we found back on the 15th floor . The content of those relay devices is also the same so I thought that there's no need to tell anyone . But then, basically, I also found similar devices here but with different content . Look at your map . "
Elena updated the map data that the others were receiving from her to show an indicator that was pointing at a particular room on the 30th floor .
"If we are to trust the data from that relay device, the people who owned those relay devices should be in that room . "
Carol sounded slightly impressed as she said .
"So basically they ran all the way from the below up to this floor and barricaded themselves inside that room, huh . Well, it's true that room should be able to hold for a long time against all the monsters outside as long as they properly barricaded the entrance . And it won't be strange for them to find that room if they bought a map of Seranthal building before they came in here . Shikarabe, you know all of this, that's why you guessed that they're still alive, right?"
"Possibility wise, yes . "
Carol knew that she should not pursue any further as she said that .
Elena also agreed with Akira's opinion . It was obvious that from the way she said it that things would get complicated from here .
If the location was too far away, Elena would have not hesitated and immediately decide to pull back there . She then could just convey that information to the main squad that would come to that building later and hope that they would rescue those Hunters .
But if they were close enough, they could just break through the monsters' encirclement, secure the hallway to that room, and check the inside of that room . Then from there, they could escort their rescue targets out if it was possible, but if there were too many Hunters, or there were badly wounded Hunters, they would have no other choice but to ask those Hunters to keep barricading themselves inside that room and convey the information to the main rescue squad .
But the problem was that the room was not that far but not that close either . That was why Elena was hesitating .
They already spent most of their energy to come all the way here . Elena tried to calculate all the factors before finally made her decision, the dangers that they had to face if they pushed forward and the possibility of rescuing their targets now .
Elena then ordered the rest of the team .
"I'll break the team into two--My team, and Shikarabe's team . My team will secure the hallway while Shikarabe's team will go and try to reach the rescue targets . Everyone will try to open a path for Shikarabe's team to go through while reducing the number of monsters . I'll leave the timing to Shikarabe when he'll try to make the run . Once we group up again, we'll immediately retreat no matter what the condition of the rescue targets . And also, if the encirclement is too hard to break through, we'll just give up on rescuing the targets and immediately retreat . The moment either I or Shikarabe decides that it's impossible to rescue the targets, we'll immediately pull back, okay?"
"Well, I was the one who asked you to rescue them, so I can understand leaving the job to break through the encirclement to me, but who will be in my team?"
"No, that would be impossible . "
"I do understand that you want to stay in a safe situation, but we don't have enough manpower to spare here, so just pull back if you think that it's impossible . If you think that it's difficult to break through the encirclement unless you take too many people from my team, I'll stop this plan here and call a retreat now . And also, Sara will be on my team, so you can't pick her . "
If they took everyone to reach the room where their rescue targets were, it was indeed pretty much guaranteed that they would be able to reach that room, but in the worst-case scenario, they might get surrounded and have no other choice but to barricade themselves inside that room too . Shikarabe understood that Elena wanted to avoid that . After all, there was no guarantee that the main squad would come for them later .
"Akira, come with me . "
Shikarabe believed that Akira was the second strongest person on the team . Moreover, he believed that he had not seen Akira's full power yet, and he knew sometimes, Akira had an abnormal ability to detect or react to enemies .
Although there was no guarantee that bringing Akira along would give him a better result, Shikarabe was sure that he at least would not slow him down, and Elena should at least be okay with bringing Akira along . Thus, he decided to put his bet on Akira's unknown real ability and proposed to take him into his team .
Akira answered back casually .
Togami suddenly raised his voice and requested to go together with Shikarabe's team .
"...I'll go too!"
Everyone there turned to Togami, whose expression there was saying that he was resolute to go too .
Shikarabe looked at Togami and was honestly at loss on what to do . He glanced at Elena to see her reaction if he took Togami from her team too and thought for a bit before replying back .
"Alright then, the men will break through the encirclement while the girls will secure the hallway . Elena, you're okay with that, right?"
Elena looked at everyone present before replying .
Everyone nodded back to Elena .
Carol lightly smiled and said to Akira .
"If only I'm in your team too, I would be able to show you how good I'm at fighting but... Well, it is just too bad . "
"Didn't you already show me enough when we returned back to this ruin and found it in this state?"
"Is that so? In that case, make sure to come back here alive and see how good my skills are again . So I can expect a good reward from you, okay?"
"Well, in that case, I just need to secure the rescue targets and balance out your contribution with mine this time . "
Akira and Carol were smiling at each other while lightly poking fun .
Shikarabe then turned to Akira and Togami .
"I'll say this beforehand . I won't give you detailed orders, just observe and adapt to the situation . "
Akira replied casually while Togami took a small pause to gather himself together before replying back .
"Akira, be careful and don't get too reckless, try not to make a mistake when to pull back, okay?"
"Of course, Sara-san too, be careful . "
Akira nodded firmly and said that, Sara too replied with a firm nod .
"I'll start the countdown, 5, 4, 3..."
Akira readied his rifle and waited for the countdown . The Hunter's equipment were specially made to give the Hunters some chance to fight against the monsters that were way stronger than a normal human and to even give the Hunters the upper hand against them . To give the Hunters the ability to kill before killed, to destroy before destroyed, to defeat the monsters before getting overwhelmed by them, no matter what kind of monsters that they were facing .
They immediately jumped into the 30th floor and spread out into the hall room, they aimed their rifles at the B18 in front of them, fixed their aim, and pulled the trigger without a trace of hesitation . The place was filled with flying bullets in an instant as bullets rained down on the B18 monsters, tore off their outside armour, pierced through their metallic wiring, crushed the inside of their bodies, and ultimately destroying them .
The Hunters who had the first shots quickly turned the B18 monsters into scraps .
Akira kept his finger on the trigger of the DVTS minigun on his right hand as he aimed to the hallway . Countless bullets flew out through its muzzle against the B18 monsters in that hallway . Although most of the monsters there had already turned into scraps, Akira kept on shooting bullets in that direction .
After they secured the hall entrance, Elena's team immediately reinforced their position while Shikarabe's team immediately went to their rescue target .
Shikarabe did not completely destroy most of the B18 monsters that he fought, he only stripped most of them from their weapons to render them harmless or destroyed their means to move around and turned them into useless flying devices with nothing but a robust defense .
"Let's go!"
Shikarabe only said that and immediately went into the hallway, Akira and Togami were a bit surprised how Shikarabe forced his way into the hallway, but they quickly followed him from behind .
"You'll be able to buy that kind of expensive equipment sooner or later . After all, you'll need those to accomplish my request . "
Akira smiled bitterly as he imagined how much money he would need to buy that kind of equipment and how much he would need to work to get that money .
Alpha smiled full of confidence and replied .
"Oh my, it's actually sooner than you might think, you know? It'll be fine with my support . "
For some reason, Akira felt that mention of the time gap being shorter than what he knew, also meant that his suffering would be doubled .
Shikarabe led the way into the hallway . Akira imitated Shikarabe and used the destroyed B18 to hide from the incoming bullets while creating obstacles to prevent the monsters from entering that hallway as he followed behind Shikarabe .
Akira kicked the dead monster in front of him . Thanks to Alpha's support, the monster that he kicked flew straight to another monster with very high accuracy as if he had kicked a lot of monsters in his life . The powerful kick released from his augmented suit transmitted the full impact of the kick into that monster and sent it flying into the hallway with a high speed .
[The augmented suit that Akira is using...It is the PWD Silence from Nejima R&D corp, right? But I don't remember it being that strong and I don't think Akira is that strong either . Did he get some kind of upgraded version or something?]
There were many Hunters in the eastern district who used augmented suits, and of course, in response to that, there were many types of augmented suit distributed in the eastern district .
But compared to the number of augmented suits distributed in the eastern district, the number of the modified augmented suits in the eastern district was extremely low . One of the reasons was because the technology used in those augmented suits was secret information, thus, it would be extremely difficult to modify them without the help of a specialist .
Of course, there were many Hunters who tried messing with their augmented suit, but they only did that to the spare augmented suits that they had . To top it off, most of them tend to leave the control device alone . Since even if they tried, the best that they could do was usually just to readjust some options that were not shown in the usual display .
If Akira's augmented suit was really one of those modified augmented suits, it would not be strange for it to be stronger than the public catalogue spec . If that was the case, Shikarabe could easily understand that power . But even so, he still found something bothering him .
Shikarabe could guess that Akira was probably using a modified augmented suit, but that was as far as he could go and all the guesses that could come up from that fact made it more difficult to estimate Akira's real ability .
It would be really troublesome if he got on Akira's bad side, Shikarabe was really glad that he was able to peacefully resolve the problem about the reward for the bounty hunting request from last time . As Shikarabe thought so, he decided to be more careful around Akira, the boy that threw off his intuition .
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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