175 館のモンスター
アキラ達は債務者の探索場所を庭から館内に移した。死体を片付ける者がいないため、館内は抗争の跡を色濃く残した惨状のままだ。死体が至る所に転がっており、床には乾いた血が広がっている。壁には大量の血痕が至る所に飛び散っていた。
館内を軽く探索していると、比較的多くの死体が雑に積まれている部屋が見付かった。死体の所持品に興味を示さずに室内の物品を持ち去った者が、運び出すのに邪魔になる死体を脇に雑に積んだのだ。コルベはここで債務者の識別作業をすることにした。
アキラはこの惨状の一部を作り出した者として館内の状況をある程度予測していた。しかし予想とは大分異なっていた部分に気付いて少し不思議そうにしていた。アルファがその様子に気付く。
『アキラ。どうかしたの? 今更ながら随分派手に戦ったと思って悔いているのなら、次はこんな状況を自分で招くような
い状態だけれど、大半は戦闘時に損壊したものよ。それ以外の部分は結構原形を残しているわ。少なくともエリオ達が死体の顔を写せば債務者の判別ができる程度にはね』
アキラは一定の納得を得ると、それでもう周囲の状況に興味をなくしてしまった。それはそれで常人の思考とは大分外れているのだが、アキラにその自覚はない。
エリオ達が死体の確認作業をしている横で、レビンが死体の所持品の品定めをしている。
高性能な銃器であっても破損が
いてるならお前も確認作業に入れ。周囲の警戒もしろ」
「それもやってるって。大丈夫だよ」
レビンは軽く笑いながらも真剣に選別作業を続けている。旧世界の遺跡でもなく、持ち帰る物が遺物でもないので、カツラギの売却制限にも引っかからない。その上に弾薬費も掛からない。膨れあがった借金を返すためにも、ここで稼がなくてはいけないのだ。
コルベもレビンの事情は知っている。そのため文句の後は軽く
アキラが周囲の警戒をしながら軽い疑問を覚える。
「ん? ああ、俺が仕事を請け負った金融業者の分だけならそんなに多くはないんだが、その業者のトメジマってやつが他の業者と話を付けて、捜索対象者の情報を一本化したんだ。つまり俺達はそこら中の金融業者の債務者を探してるんだよ。だから結構な数になってるんだ。それに債務者捜索に駆り出されているやつも少ないからな」
に興味ぐらい持つだろうと考えて、深くは気にしなかった。
アキラが急に部屋の出入口に視線を向ける。コルベも釣られてそちらを見ると、部屋に入ってくる2人の男の姿が見えた。レビンも彼らに気付くと作業の手を止めた。
男達はそのままアキラ達の方へ来るとコルベに気安く声を掛ける。
「コルベじゃねえか。こんなところで会うとは奇遇だな」
「ペッパか。何の用だ?」
「いや、お前がいたから声を掛けただけさ。別に用はねえよ。それにしても......」
ペッパがアキラとエリオ達を値踏みするように見てから軽く
ペッパと一緒に来たボッシュという男がペッパを制止する。
「ペッパ。それぐらいにしておけ」
ペッパは舌打ちしてそれ以上突っ掛かるのを止めた。コルベが軽く鼻を鳴らしてボッシュに
「ボッシュ。少しはペッパを押さえておけよ。お前の役目だろうが」
ボッシュは軽く笑っている。旧友へ向ける笑みだ。
「そう言うなよ。元はコルベの役目だったろう。俺も頑張ってるんだぜ?」
コルベとボッシュは気安い雰囲気を出していた。
「それで、コルベはこんなところで何をやってるんだ? 死体の所持品
ボッシュの視線の先では、状況を問題なしと判断したレビンが選別作業を再開していた。ペッパがそのレビンに侮蔑の視線を向けていた。
「俺は債務者の捜索に来ただけだ。連れのやつらはその手伝いだ。......あー、あいつは放っておいてやってくれ。借金が
「お前、まだ金貸しの雑用なんかやってるのか」
「こんなことを言うのも何だが、都市内での仕事に慣れすぎるとハンターに戻れなくなるぞ。復帰するつもりはあるんだろう? 腕も治ったんだ。そろそろリハビリを兼ねて軽い遺跡探索でも始めた方が良いと思うぞ?」
コルベは友人の苦言に僅かに意気を落とした。
ティオルの左腕は人の腕ではなくなっている。正確には肩口から大型の銃のような物が生えていた。サイボーグの各部位が食われて消えていくのに合わせて、肩口から生えている銃が伸びて大きくなっていく。そして一定の形状が形成されると肩口から外れて床に落ちた。
床には同じように形成された何らかの部品が散らばっている。それらの部品には細かいアームのようなものが付いている。その部品達がアームを器用に動かし始める。部品達は互いを
新しく製造された歩行銃座が歩き出し、先に製造された同系統の機体の横に並ぶ。部屋の中には多数の機体が整然と並んでいた。
無言で金属などを食べ続けていたティオルが急にその手を止める。そしてある方向に視線を向けた。視線の先にあるのは部屋の壁と義体者やサイボーグの死体だけだ。だがティオルには部屋の壁の向こう側、その先の更に先の光景が見えていた。
ティオルが機械系モンスター達へ何らかの指示を出すように視線を向ける。すると機械系モンスター達が一斉に動き始める。機体達は部屋の出入口を塞いでいた
アキラはアルファと雑談しながら訓練を兼ねて周囲の警戒を続けていた。そして情報収集機器の索敵結果に微弱な揺らぎを見付けると、僅かに顔を険しくして詳細な反応を調べようとした。
だがその前にアルファが警戒を促す。
『アキラ。モンスターよ』
『モンスター? 他のハンターとかじゃないのか?』
『分かった。じゃあエリオ達に貸した武器を返してもらうか』
だからエリオ達にも働いてもらいましょう。彼らの護衛を請け負った訳ではないのだからね』
『大丈夫なのか?』
アキラが少し
アキラはAAH突撃銃とA2D突撃銃の弾倉を対機強装弾に交換し始めた。
エリオ達は訓練の時にも使用していたゴーグルを装着している。このゴーグル自体に大した機能は付いていないが、それでも仲間内で短距離通信ぐらいはできるので、訓練以外の時にも使っているのだ。
そのゴーグルに訓練の時と同じ指示表示が浮かび上がった。エリオ達が視界に突如現れた各種の指示に驚きながらアキラを見る。そしてとっとと動けとでも言わんばかりの態度を見せているアキラの様子に、慌てて指示通りに動き出した。
「モンスターだ。準備してくれ」
コルベやボッシュ達の情報収集機器にそれらしい反応は出ていない。それでもアキラを知っているコルベはすぐに応戦準備に動き出す。だがボッシュ達は一応動きながらも疑いの様子を隠さなかった。ペッパがあからさまな懐疑の視線をコルベに送る。
「お前はお前で判断しろ。自分で判断もできねえのに他人の判断にケチを付けるのか?」
ペッパが不機嫌そうに舌打ちしてから配置に付く。ボッシュも苦笑してからペッパに続く。どちらもアキラを信じたわけではない。アキラの言葉を妥当と判断したコルベを信じたのだ。
コルベがまだ選別作業中のレビンを見て
「何でモンスターがいるんだよ。弾薬費なしで稼げるって言うから付き合ってるんだぞ?」
「じゃあお前だけモンスターを殴ってろ。一応強化服を着てるんだろう? 生身よりはましだ」
「くそっ。これで赤字になったら俺は何しにここに来たんだ......」
きながら応戦の用意を始めた。
アキラ達が配置に付いた。部屋の出入口や壁に
で敵襲に備えている。
エリオ達は緊張した面持ちで比較的防衛し
DVTSミニガンを構えているエリオのゴーグルに、遮蔽物に隠れている敵影が透過表示された。遮蔽物ごと撃ち抜けという指示に従ってエリオが引き金を引く。連続して響き渡る発砲音が戦闘開始の合図となった。
DVTSミニガンから大量の弾丸が放たれる。
他の少年達も同じように何とか銃撃を続けている。不足している実力をアルファによる指揮と銃弾の質と量で補うことで、エリオ達は何とか優勢を保ち続けていた。
アキラはエリオ達から少し離れた場所で敵を食い止めていた。訓練を兼ねて、アルファのサポートを受けずに、体感時間の操作も使用せずに、隠れて見えない敵の位置を情報収集機器で探りつつ、敵の弱点箇所を想定しながらよく狙って対機強装弾を撃ち込んでいく。
部屋の出入口から僅かに身を乗り出して、強固な装甲を持つ移動可能な簡易防壁のような敵機体に対機強装弾を連続して撃ち込む。すると相手の動きが止まる。だがアキラにはそれで敵を本当に破壊できたかどうかまでは分からない。少々念入りに弾丸を撃ち込んでいく。装甲を穴だらけにして、内部の重要機関を十分破壊したと判断するまで撃ち続けた。
アキラが敵のいる辺りを壁越しに凝視すると、頭部装備がその視線の動きを読み取り、連携している情報収集機器が周辺の情報収集精度を一時的に向上させる。すると頭部装備の表示部に肉眼では見えない敵の姿が映し出された。
アキラが敵の銃口が自分の方に向いていないことを確認して素早く身を乗り出す。そして歩く機銃のような機械系モンスターに対機強装弾を連続して撃ち込み、敵の銃身と機関部を大きく変形させて破壊した。
現在アキラが使用している情報収集機器は、高額を支払って購入した強化服の付属品だけあってかなり高性能だ。索敵等に関してアルファのサポートの
アキラは新たな知識や経験、更なる装備や実力を手に入れるたびに、アルファの際立った異常さを思い知り、より強く認識していた。それは今回も同じだ。
だが今は戦闘中だと思い直し、取りあえず余計な詮索を頭の中から
『......アルファ。この質問もアルファのサポートの内で、自力での訓練の制限からちょっと外れているんだろうが、敵の規模ぐらいは教えてくれ。今も際限なく増え続けている敵を倒し続けるなんてのは御免だ』
『大丈夫よ。大した規模ではないし、増援の気配もないわ。そもそも危険な規模ならアキラだけでも脱出させるしね』
コルベ達も別方向から襲ってくる敵に冷静に対処していた。敵は駆け出しハンターなら苦戦必至の脅威度を持っている。だがコルベ達は全員それなりの実力者だ。借金を抱えて装備を向上させた者も混ざっている。問題なく対処していた。
ペッパが戦いながらアキラやエリオ達の様子を確認して少し驚いている。荷物運び程度しかできない子供の集まりだと考えていた者達が意外な健闘を見せているからだ。
「おいコルベ。あのガキ連中は何なんだ?」
「徒党? ハンターの? ドランカムが子供を加えていろいろやっているが、どっかの徒党がその
ペッパがアキラ達の様子を改めて確認する。エリオ達はアルファの指揮を受けているおかげで、それなりの動きを見せている。アキラは訓練を兼ねて制限を加えて戦っている所為でかなり動きが鈍っている。そのためアキラとエリオ達の動きに隔絶した差はない。一人だけ結構強いやつが混ざっているという程度だ。少なくとも一人でエゾントファミリーの拠点に乗り込んで生還するような実力者の姿はなかった。
「もしかして、遺跡に行かなくても腕が鈍らないように、お前がガキに訓練でも付けているのか?」
「詮索は後にしろ。戦闘中だ。気を抜きすぎだぞ。それとも俺がいなくなったから低難度の遺跡にしか行けなくなって、緩んだ意識が戻らなくなったのか?」
平然としているアキラ。不本意な面倒事を済ませた程度の態度のコルベ達。レビンに至っては早速持ち帰る物品の選別作業に戻ろうとしている。エリオはそれを見て、ハンターとそうではない者の差を見せ付けられたような気がして、沸き上がっていた興奮の大半を打ち消された。
「......それでも、勝ちは勝ちだ」
自分達がそれなりに戦えた事実に変わりはないのだ。エリオはそう思い直すと、笑って
「ああ、俺達は仕事でここの調査に来ただけだ。その調査結果次第では、都市がここを焼き払いに来る類いのやつだよ」
モンスターが拠点跡地に住み着き、死体などを餌にして繁殖して大規模な巣を作ってしまえば、都市側としても
「軽く見て回るだけで金になる。そういう楽な仕事だったんだが、これでしっかり調べないとまずくなった。コルベ、暇なら手伝わないか?」
「いや、俺達は帰る。ガキを連れて
「そうか。じゃあ俺達は仕事に戻る。......ああ、そうだ。俺達は仕事の絡みで汎用討伐依頼も受けている。そっちは?」
「そうか。そうなると、このままだと討伐報酬は俺達の総取りになるな。それが嫌なら後でそっち側のハンターコードを俺に送ってくれ。途中参加ってことにして、討伐依頼に加えておいてやる。今日中に届かなかったら俺達の総取りだ。じゃあな。ペッパ! 行くぞ!」
ボッシュがペッパに声を掛けて立ち去っていく。ペッパがそれに続こうとしてコルベに不機嫌そうに声を掛ける。
「じゃあな、ハンター崩れ! ......戦えるならとっととやる気を出せってんだ」
嫌みを言い残して去っていくペッパに、コルベは苦笑を向けていた。
「ああ、昔ハンター稼業で組んでいた連中だ。まあ、強引に抜けたからな。嫌みを言われる程度には迷惑を掛けたんだよ。それだけだ。帰るぞ。......レビン! 帰るぞ! 切り上げろ! お前が残るのは勝手だが、待ったりはしねえぞ!」
レビンが選別作業を止めて、選んだ物を持ち帰る準備を慌てて始める。エリオ達も帰還の準備を急いだ。
ティオルが金属類を食い千切る作業を止めて視線を部屋の壁に向ける。視線は戦闘を終えたアキラ達がいる方向に向けられていた。肉眼では視認不可能な場所の光景をティオルはしっかりと認識していた。
拡張された視界には状況を人間用ではない言語で記述した文字列が浮かんでいる。派遣個体全滅。戦力差劣勢。退避推奨。ティオルは文字の意味を理解して表情をほんの僅かに不機嫌そうに
Ch 175
Akira and his companion finished checking the corpses outside the mansion, so they moved to check the corpses inside. Since no one took care of the corpses, the mansion was filled with them from the last battle. The floor, as well as the walls and the ceilings, was still dyed red with blood.
A short check was enough for them to find a room filled with dead bodies inside that mansion. The people who came beforehand had no interest except for the loot, so they just piled the corpses in one place to clear the way for them. Colbert decided to start working in that room.
As one of the many people who were responsible for that, Akira, did expect to find something like this. But he also noticed something that he did not understand when he saw all the corpses there. Alpha noticed it.
"Akira, what's wrong? If you regret fighting in that battle, it would be great if you can hold yourself back from doing something like that next time."
"Although most of them are in a bad shape, they're basically the leftover after that battle. Fortunately, most of them still retain their original shape, it should at least help Erio and the other children to identify those corpses."
Akira nodded as he understood what Alpha was saying. After that, he immediately lost interest in that subject. Although there were other things that were out of place, he did not notice any of those.
While Erio and the other children were checking the corpses, Revin was checking the equipment those dead corpses left behind.
It did not matter if it was a powerful rifle, or if it was mostly destroyed, it was nothing more than wreckage. Of course, Revin could fix them, but its worth would still be greatly lowered. As for the augmented suits, although they were expensive, most of them were readjusted for personal use. So it would be worthless to resell them. Not to mention that he would need a good connection for selling them too, otherwise, he would not be able to sell them at a good price, and to top it off, taking them off from the corpses were too much of a hassle.
"If you have free time, you should help them in checking the corpses or help to keep eyes on the surroundings."
"Don't worry, I'm doing that too."
Although Revin was answering lightly, he was still sorting the loot with a rather serious face. Since these were not old-world relics, they had no obligation to bring them to Katsuragi. Furthermore, he did not have to spend bullets to gather them. He needed to get money from wherever he could in order to repay his debt.
Colbert also knew Revin's situation. Because of that, he held himself back from saying anything more after letting out a big sigh.
Akira was watching the surroundings when a question came up in his mind.
"Hm? Well, it's not that many if we're talking about the debtors for the company that paid me. But the boss of the company, Tomejima, seems to have discussed it with the other companies to share information. So in short, we're also searching for the debtors of those companies too. That's why there are a lot of them. Also, there are not that many people who are interested in doing this job."
Colbert noticed it, but he did not dig too deep. He believed that it was understandable for a Hunter like Akira to at least have some interest in such a rumour.
Akira suddenly looked at the door into the room. Colbert followed suit and saw two men enter the room. Revin stopped sorting the loot the moment he noticed them.
Those guys walked toward Akira and Colbert and casually said to Colbert.
"Well now, isn't it Colbert? What a coincidence meeting you here."
"Peppa, huh? Why are you here?"
"Nah, I just came to say hello since I heard that you're here. Moreover..."
Peppa looked at Akira, Erio, and the other children as if to evaluate them before lightly laughing.
The guy who came with Peppa, Bosch, interjected and stopped Peppa.
"Peppa, cut it out."
Peppa clicked his tongue and stopped prodding Colbert. Colbert snorted and looked exasperatedly at Bosch.
"Bosch, you should keep him properly under your leash, isn't that your job?"
Bosch lightly smiled, it was an honest smile for his old friend.
"Don't say that. It was your job in the first place, wasn't it? I'm already giving it my best, you know?"
Colbert and Bosch had a friendly air around them.
"So then, Colbert, what are you doing here? Don't tell me that you're here to pick up the loot from these corpses."
Bosch caught Revin who was sorting the loot as if there was nothing to worry about. Peppa looked mockingly at Revin.
"I'm here to search for dead debtors. These other guys are here to help me out... And also, just leave that guy alone. He's in big trouble from debts, you see. As someone who is also here to keep my eyes on him, I can't really bring myself to tell him to stop, you know?"
"You're still doing work for those creditor companies, huh?"
"I know it's not my place to say this, but if you get yourself too comfortable working inside the city, you might not be able to return back to doing Hunter job, you know? You already have both of your arms healed. Honestly speaking, I think it's a good idea if you go hunting for relics once in a while as a rehabilitation."
Colbert was a little bummed from that rather harsh but indeed true advice from his friend.
His left hand was no longer of a human hand. To be more precise, a huge gun grew out from his left shoulder. As he ate more and more cyborgs, the gun on his shoulder grew longer and bigger. Eventually, once it grew out into a complete rifle, it detached from his shoulder and fell to the ground.
There were already other parts on the ground. Small arms were growing out from some of those parts and those arms suddenly started moving. They were dragging themselves toward each other and reassembled themselves into something that looked like an autonomous turret monster.
The newly made turret walked away and lined up beside the other autonomous turrets that were made before it. There were already a few dozen autonomous turrets lined up inside that room.
Tiol, who was eating metals without saying anything, suddenly stopped and looked away. Although he was looking in the direction of a pile of dead cyborgs, he was actually able to see past that pile and through the wall behind it too.
He then turned at the small mechanical monsters in front of him as if he was giving them a command. After that, all of the small mechanical monsters immediately sprung into action. They removed the wreckages blocking the entrance to that room and left the room.
Akira was keeping his eyes on his surroundings which doubled as training for him while talking with Alpha. But when he noticed a small change in his information-gathering device, his expression immediately turned stern as he shifted his focus to check that signal more closely.
But before he could do that, Alpha suddenly warned him.
"Akira, there are monsters."
"Monsters? Not Hunters?"
"Alright, I'll go and get back my rifles from Erio and the other children."
"There's no need to do that. Since we have them here, how about we get them to fight too? After all, it's not like you're here to protect them anyway."
"Are they going to be okay?"
Akira was a bit surprised by that suggestion from Alpha, but she replied with a smile that was filled with confidence.
Akira reloaded armour piercing ammo into his AAH and A2D assault rifles.
Erio and the children were using the same goggles that they used for training. The goggles itself was nothing special, but even so, it could be used to communicate with each other in short-range. That was why they were also using those goggles outside of training.
Instructions suddenly appeared on the displays of those goggles in a similar manner as if when they were in the middle of that training. Erio and the other children were surprised and looked at Akira the moment they noticed those instructions. But when they saw Akira hurriedly readying his rifle and repositioning himself, they also flusteredly started moving out following the instructions on their goggles.
"Monsters. Get ready."
Colbert, Bosch, and Peppa immediately checked their information-gathering device, but their devices did not show anything suspicious. But even so, Colbert, who knew Akira well, immediately prepared himself to face the incoming monsters. Of course, Bosch and Peppa could not hide their confusion. Peppa looked at Colbert with obvious doubt.
"You do you. Don't go complaining about other's decisions just because you can't make your own."
Peppa clicked his tongue and repositioned himself too. Bosch smiled bitterly and followed suit. It was not like both of them believed in Akira, but they believed in Colbert who believed in Akira.
Colbert noticed that Revin was still sorting loot and shouted at him.
"Why in the world are there monsters in this place? I only came here to help you since I thought that I would be able to earn some money without spending any bullets, you know?"
"In that case, feel free to fight those monsters with your fist. I know that you're using an augmented suit, right? You should be at least stronger than normal humans."
"Dammit! If I end up in red again because of this, then there will be no meaning in coming here."
Revin mumbled as he also got himself ready.
Everyone there had repositioned themselves to welcome the incoming monsters. They were waiting beside the big holes on the walls and the door to that room to set up an ambush for those monsters.
They maintained the upper hand during that fight and it did not take long for them to defeat all the incoming monsters.
Erio and the other children saw a notice saying that the battle was over on their goggles, after that, all the other extra information on their displays immediately vanished. They looked so relieved after they were finally released from the gripping nervousness during that battle. Some of them sighed in relief, some of them lightly laughed, some of them cheered, while some of them sat on the ground, tired.
Erio, who was carrying Akira's DVTS minigun, could see the monsters crawling behind the covers in his goggle's display. When an instruction to blow them away together with their covers came up, he quickly pulled the trigger. The repeating sound of the DVTS minigun echoed through the room.
The DVTS minigun unleashed a barrage of bullets that easily pierced through the weak covers and demolished the mechanical monsters hiding behind them. Since it was equipped with a part to help fix it to the bike's arm, even Erio who was not using an augmented suit could withstand the kickback and control the minigun to some extent.
As for those who did not have enough firepower, Alpha gave them instructions to help them compensate their firepower with the type or the amount of ammo that they used. Thanks to that, Erio and the other children were somehow able to maintain the upper hand.
Akira was facing monsters not too far away from Erio and his friends. Since it was also training for him, he had to guess the monsters' weak points and aimed carefully at those points without Alpha's support nor his time compression.
Akira slightly peeked out from the room's door and shot at the small monsters that looked like a small self-moving portable armour plating. It did not take that many bullets to stop them from moving. But he could not tell if that was enough to actually kill the monster, so he made sure to put in a few more bullets until its armour was riddled with holes and its control unit was obviously destroyed.
When Akira kept his eyes on the wreckage that the monsters used as a cover, the equipment on his head scanned for the enemy's movement and worked together with his information-gathering device to predict the enemy's position behind that wreckage. Thanks to that, he was able to see the prediction of where the enemies were located on the display of his headgear.
Akira confirmed that the monsters were not aiming at him, so he quickly jumped out from his cover and released some shots at those monsters. The monsters that got shot bent and finally stopped moving after a few shots.
The information-gathering device that he was using at the moment was the information-gathering device that came as a set with his expensive augmented suit, because of that, it was a rather high-quality information-gathering device. Its detection sensitivity was more or less as good as Alpha's detection ability, but of course, its quality and accuracy also depended on how close those monsters were to him.
Every time Akira gained a new skill, or knowledge, or pieces of equipment, it reminded him of how abnormal Alpha was. And that was also the case this time.
But he reminded himself that he was in the middle of a battle, so he pushed anything unnecessary off his mind and shifted his focus to a question that he had about the current situation.
"...Alpha. This is included in your support, though it might not be a question that I should ask during training, at least tell me how many of them are there. I have no plans to keep fighting these monsters like this if they're still replicating themselves somewhere."
"Don't worry, there are not that many of them out there and I don't detect any reinforcement either. In the first place, if the situation here gets dangerous, I'll have you escape from this place."
Colbert and the other Hunters were fighting the monsters in another place. Although the monsters there were strong enough to pose danger to new Hunters, Colbert and his friends were no new Hunters. Not to mention, one of them even took debt to get better equipment, so they had no trouble fighting those monsters.
Peppa glanced at Akira and the other children during that fight and was flabbergasted. He thought that those children were only useful for carrying the corpses, but they were performing pretty well during the battle.
"Colbert, what the heck is with those brats?"
"Gang? A Hunter gang? I know that Drankam is putting more incentive for young Hunters, but I haven't heard of any other gang doing the same though?"
Peppa took another look at Akira and the other children there. Erio and his friends were fighting following Alpha's instruction, so they were moving around pretty well. As for Akira, he was putting some restrictions on himself since he was taking that battle as training, so he was moving relatively worse than usual. Because of that, Akira seemed to be performing as well as Erio and the other children, at most, Akira only seemed to be slightly stronger than the other children. Or at least, it was hard to believe that he raided Ezont Family's base all alone just the other day.
"Don't tell me that you're training these children to make sure that your skill won't rust even if you don't go to the old-world ruin?"
"Save that for later, we're in the middle of a fight right now. You're taking this too lightly, you know. Don't tell me that you've been only going to safe ruin since I left and now you're back to your old sloppy way of thinking?"
Akira was perfectly calm. Colbert and his friends were also calm. They looked as if they just finished taking care of something trivial. Revin even had already returned to sorting the loot. Watching it reminded Erio of the differences between the Hunters and the non-Hunters there, all the excitement that welled up inside him immediately got shot down.
"...Well, it is still a win."
The fact still held that he had participated in that fight as well. Erio told himself so as he nodded.
"Yeah, we're here because of a request to check this place. Depending on our report, the City Management might decide to burn this place up."
A big mansion might be turned into a nest for monsters, not to mention that the bodies inside it provide food for those monsters, thus the City Management could not just leave that mansion be. They sent requests to check the area to decide whether they had to send people to clean the place up themselves or they could trust the resident around it to take care of that place.
"Although it's an easy job where we just need to look around, it would be bad if we don't do our job properly. Colbert, if you have some free time, you should help us too."
"Nah, we are leaving. It's not a place for these children to loiter around. Not to mention, no one told us we're going to fight monsters just for checking the corpses."
"I see. Well then, we'll go back to our job too... Ah, by the way, because of that request, we're also taking that general monster-hunting request too. How about you?"
"I see, which means that we're the only one who will get money from killing those monsters, huh? If you don't like that, give me your Hunter code later. I'll put your name in that general monster-hunting request too. If you get nothing for the rest of the day today, then it means that all the rewards will be sent to us. Later then, Peppa! Let's go!"
Bosch called Peppa as he stood up and left. Peppa followed behind him while sending an unfriendly gaze at Colbert.
"Later then, former Hunter! If you can fight that well, you should get yourself back out there."
Seeing Peppa did not forget to leave a bad message before leaving, Colbert just smiled bitterly at him.
"Yeah, we once belonged to the same Hunter team. Well, I did leave that team, after all, I guess it's no surprise that they don't like me. But that's all there is to it. Well now, let's go back home... Revin!! We're leaving!! I don't care if you want to stay here, but just so you know, we won't wait for you, alright?!"
Revin stopped sorting the loot and flusteredly packed the loot he chose. Erio and the other children also flusteredly got themselves ready to leave that place.
While on the other side of the mansion, Tiol suddenly stopped eating and stared at the wall. To be more precise, he was looking in the direction where Akira fought the monsters he sent. Tiol could see past the walls and look at the scene that was unseeable with normal eyes.
A weird language that was not used by humans appeared on Tiol's augmented vision. It said 'total annihilation', 'overwhelming difference in firepower', and 'pulling back was advised'. Tiol understood that as his expression turned to displeasure.
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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