CH 103

Index

Translator: Athena13

Editor: Silavin

Proofreader: p4553r

A small flying drone just flew over Akira’s head. But it did not try to attack him, either because it could not see Akira, or because it did not have any weapon to shoot him with, or maybe it was just a reconnaissance drone that sent his location to the other mechanical monsters.

Alpha suddenly stopped Akira.

“Akira, stop and get inside that building. It might be a bit dangerous if you keep going forward.”

“Roger that.”

Inside the room that he was passing through, Akira noticed that there were tables and stationeries that, unnaturally enough, were neatly organized. He tilted his head in confusion.

“Those things look pretty well maintained, I might be able to get a lot of money if I bring them back, right?”

But Alpha shook her head.

“They might be left here because the current technology has no problem reproducing them. I think you can easily buy similar stuff from the stands in the city.”

“So basically, no one would risk their lives just to bring them back home since you can easily buy them with a small amount of money, huh?”

“I bet you can get a lot of money from bringing back the autonomous maintenance system in this building, but it’s very hard to bring that system back. Not to mention that system might even be embedded into this building. If you can seize the building, you might be able to get a building that automatically maintains itself, but with all the mechanical monsters roaming around this building, it might be not worth the hassle. But if we’re talking about the area near the Hunter Office, that might not be the case. As in matter of fact, the Hunter Office might have already seized some of the buildings in that area.”

Akira made a ‘Hmmm’ sound, he then thought of something.

“But like, isn’t it a good idea to seize some of these buildings and use them as resting places for the Hunters? The Mihazono ruin is a very big ruin, so it would be great if we have some resting points inside this ruin.”

“The security drones might react differently to some Hunters who only stay inside a building for a short time compared to a group of Hunters trying to take control of a building. After all, it’s to be expected that they would use a different level of strength to just chase off some intruders compared to when they fight people who try to capture a building.”

“So that’s also a no, huh. Well, if it was possible and if it was worth all the hassle, they would have already done that by now.”

“Yep, that’s correct.”

Akira once again looked around the room. Although the well-organized interior somehow gave off a safe feeling, in reality, that place was more dangerous than the back alley of the slum city. He thought that it would be a very difficult task to return back alive from that place without Alpha’s help. Thus he recomposed himself before starting to move forward again.

Once Akira reached the 14th floor, he looked outside through one of the windows to confirm the area around his destination building. It was a pretty tall building that could be seen from anywhere inside the Mihazono ruin and it was located in the middle of a big clearing. Although the buildings in the Mihazono ruin city area were densely packed in blocks, for some reason, there was no building in that clearing.

When Akira peeked through the aiming device on his rifle, he could see a few dozens of mechanical monsters roaming around that area as if they were guarding that place. They looked different compared to the other mechanical monsters inside that ruin. Some of them were autonomous monsters that looked like a vehicle equipped with big-sized missile launchers, while some of them looked like big cannons with legs. All of them were patrolling around that one building that Akira was aiming for as if they were guarding it.

After Akira confirmed what he saw, his face turned stern.

“So those monsters are the reason why you said it’ll be dangerous if I continued moving forward, huh. They are on a different level compared to the small mechanical monsters that I fought on my way here. And it’s obvious that they’re guarding that building.”

“I bet the other mechanical monsters that you fought are the security drones stationed in the city area. While those mechanical monsters are specialized for protecting that building. Their weapons and command protocols are completely different compared to the other mechanical monsters.”

“So is it like someone intentionally stationed them to protect that particular building?”

“It might be that they are just following the orders that they received from years ago. But it’s also perfectly possible that they’re under the control of a still-active artificial intelligence that’s managing that building. Or maybe it’s just simply because those monsters are under a separate security system compared to the other mechanical monsters. There are many possible explanations.”

“It’s a really interesting subject, but how exactly is that related to me?”

Akira actually did not really care about the difference between the systems controlling the mechanical monsters there. He was only interested if it would cause him more trouble or not, or if they would try to kill him or not.

But Alpha denied that.

“It actually has some effects on you, you know? If they’re really under the control of a separate system, it’s likely that they don’t share the same information as the other mechanical monsters, and that would affect the action that you need to take. Akira!! Get away from there!!”

Akira moved quickly following Alpha’s order, he did not even have to ask why since he could see the reason through his aiming device. The missile pod monsters suddenly launched missiles in his direction.

The missiles were also equipped with a homing device. They flew chasing after Akira who was running through the rooms inside the building. The first wave of missiles destroyed the wall where Akira was taking cover and opened a path for the following missiles to go right into that building. As they raced through the insides of that building, seeking for Akira, they destroyed walls and any other obstacles on their path and forcefully carved a way to find Akira. And eventually, they found Akira when he was running through a long hallway.

“Shoot them down!”

“Roger that!!”

Akira made a 180-degree turn as he grabbed and aimed his DVTS minigun, he quickly fixed his footing, confirmed the missiles heading in his direction, gathered his focus, compressed his time perception, and finally pulled the trigger.

With the help from Alpha’s support, the bullets spewed out from the DVTS minigun’s muzzles accurately shot down the missiles in front of him. The missiles that were shot either immediately exploded in the middle of their flight or ricocheted and crashed into the inner wall of that building before exploding. Either way, they released a blinding light together with a loud banging sound and a lot of smoke when they exploded.

Although Akira was able to evade a direct hit, the explosion blew his body. He crashed really hard into the wall behind him, so hard that he made a crater and left huge cracks on that wall. Akira’s augmented suit could not fully absorb the impact as it propagated into his body. He then fell to the ground. Although he was able to stop himself from falling flat on his face with his hand, he immediately coughed out blood after that.

Akira could feel sharp stinging pain running through his body, but his consciousness was still completely intact. He quickly tried to reach out for his medicines. Although due to the impact of that crash, his body was moving way slower than his brain was telling it too, the augmented suit was still able to operate normally. Thanks to that, he was able to take the medicine without trouble.

Akira forced the medicines down his throat although they tasted like nothing but blood. The expensive medicines showed its worth as the pain inside Akira’s body quickly subsided. It might be just because of the painkiller, but it would not take that long before his wounds were healed.

Akira pushed himself to stand up and smiled bitterly. He was able to see the outside of the building through the small gaps between the smokescreen in front of him, it showed just how hard those missiles were chasing for him.

“That was close!!”

“We need to move quickly. I’m not sure if they’ll do that again, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.”

“Roger that.”

Akira blazed through the rooms to leave that place. He frowned when he saw just how bad the rooms had turned into.

He took a rest inside a floor that was not damaged from the previous missile barrage. There was no following barrage after that and he was able to safely evacuate from that place.

The medicines that he took a few minutes ago were already working. He was resting there until he could return back to tiptop shape, or at least, that was what Alpha told him to do and he had no objection at all. He took a rest there while vaguely feeling the nanomachine fixing his body.

Akira suddenly said.

“But still, for the security drones of the ruin to do something like that. If they’re really security drones for this ruin, I really hope they don’t try to destroy the ruin that they’re protecting. It’s not like I was bringing a tank in their direction, you know? So why exactly did they go that far just to kill one Hunter? It really isn’t worth the expense, right?”

Alpha then answered Akira’s question.

“As I said before, it might be because they’re under the control of a different security system. The mechanical monsters that attacked you just now are protecting that one building and not the whole Mihazono ruin. That’s why they don’t hesitate to destroy other buildings.”

“Wait, now that you mention it, is that clearing because those monsters destroyed any buildings around the building that they’re protecting? Ah, but I didn’t see any rubbles there though…”

“The other maintenance drones might have cleaned the leftover rubbles from that area, you know. And of course, they could not rebuild the destroyed buildings. Or maybe the other buildings were built in that place only on a fixed regular interval, and when they were built, the Hunters used them as covers so those monsters destroyed them during their fights. So the reason as to why this building is still intact, it might be because it’s barely outside their active area.”

“Wait, does that mean that they extended their active area back there? Is it because they found someone aiming at them? Is that why they shot missiles at me? And then the reason why they didn’t try to pursue me is because they think I’m dead so they returned back to their usual active area?”

“That’s a plausible explanation.”

Akira let out a big sigh. The other day, although only at the very end, he was able to get out of a dangerous situation using his own power, that was why he started to feel confident in himself. But now he felt like he received a painful punch in the gut saying that he was nowhere strong enough to challenge those autonomous weapons.

Alpha then looked at him with a serious expression.

“Akira, I’ll ask you this while I still have the chance, what are you planning to do? Are you still going to try and get to that building? Or are you planning to retreat?”

Akira was about to answer that he was thinking of retreating, but he suddenly realized something and looked at her with a confused face.

That missile barrage just now almost killed him. He thought that it would not be strange if Alpha suggested him to retreat and strongly told him not to continue. But even so, that question just now sounded as if she was telling him that it was also okay to continue.

Akira looked at Alpha with a serious face as he asked her a question.

“What will you do if I say I want to continue? You will not stop me?”

“If you want to continue, I will not stop you. But of course, other than my support, you’ll need some more preparation and resolve before trying to challenge that place.”

“That barrage just now almost killed me, you know.”

“That one was sort of an ambush after all. But thanks to my support, you didn’t get any fatal injuries, right? So there’s no problem. You said it before yourself, remember? Since you didn’t get killed instantaneously and had enough leeway to say that it was really dangerous, it means that you’re not in that much danger in the first place. So by that standard, that one just now was not that dangerous.”

Looking at how Alpha was smiling like usual, Akira hesitated and still looked a bit confused as he said to her.

“Well, uhh, it’s true that I did say that. But still, when you say I need to resolve myself, how much resolve do you mean? If it’s the same amount of resolve that I had when I fought that pseudo bounty monster, I would rather choose to retreat for now.”

“You don’t need to go that far. Compared to back then, you just need to put in a little more effort than usual, that’s all you need. And like I said before, that barrage just now caught you off-guard, it was like an ambush. So if we properly make a plan, prepare ourselves well, and with my support to top it off, we would be able to handle that kind of barrage just fine. Of course, I won’t say that you would be able to kill those mechanical monsters easily. And there’s no mistaking it that you would use more bullets and medicines than usual. So that’s the level of resolve that you’ll need.”

Akira stared at Alpha’s smiling face while thinking that there was no need to call a retreat right now and he must have enough winning chance. As long as he did not slow Alpha down, he should be able to win using the predicted amount of ammo and medicine.

The rest depended on Akira’s decision. It was not a mistake to avoid a fight that he might lose. While on the other hand, it was also not a mistake to take the risk to challenge a fight that was winnable to continue with his exploration.

But Akira knew he had to become stronger, he had to eventually do that request that Alpha asked of him. He had to take responsibility for the advance payment that he was already receiving from her. He had to return all the debt that he had piled up from Alpha, or at least, he had to make the effort to do so.

Moreover, if he hesitated in risking his life there, then what would be of his Hunter work?

Akira made his decision.

“We’ll continue. If I decide to run away from enemies that I have a good chance to defeat, then I would need to stop working as a Hunter.”

Alpha smiled full of confidence.

“Are you sure? Like I said before, you’ll need to resolve yourself, you know.”

“Resolve is my responsibility. So let’s do this.”

Alpha smiled even more.

“Very well, let’s go then. I couldn’t give you my support last time, so I’ll show you again how great it is to have my support.”

Akira prepared himself for the upcoming fight. He followed Alpha’s instruction to return to the first floor before climbing that building from bottom to top. Every time he visited a new floor, he would check the area with his information-gathering device before moving to the next floor. And it was not like he checked the whole floor, he only checked the side of that building which was facing the skyscr.a.p.er.

After reaching the top floor of that building, the 27th floor, Akira finalized his preparation. He attached the extended magazine on his DVTS minigun, exchanged the piercing ammo inside his CWH anti-material rifle into CWH special ammo, he also took extra medicine beforehand to make sure that he would still be able to move his body even if he broke his bones doing some crazy manoeuvre, and to top it off, he put some medicines inside his mouth so he could just swallow it anytime.

He had his CWH anti-material rifle in his right hand and DVTS minigun in his left. He only carried extra magazines with him and left his other rifles and his rucksack on the rooftop so that they would not hinder his movement. He carried as little as possible without sacrificing his firepower.

Akira stood on top of that building which was facing the skyscr.a.p.er that he was aiming for, he was standing at the edge of the exact opposite side that was facing that skyscr.a.p.er. He took some deep breaths to prepare himself.

Alpha smiled at him before confirming for the last time.

“Akira, are you ready?”

Akira made a serious face as he said.

“Yeah, let’s do this.”

Alpha smiled back full of confidence before telling him to start.

“In that case then, let’s go.”

The battle had started.

Akira ran straight to the very end of the rooftop as fast as he could and jumped off.

While still falling, Akira aimed his DVTS minigun at the autonomous weapons around the skyscr.a.p.er and pulled the trigger. The extended magazine allowed him to continue pulling down on the trigger for a long time without the need for reloading. The loud banging sounds coming from the bullets flowing out from Akira’s DVTS minigun echoed through the wasteland as they flew straight at the autonomous weapons that he was aiming at.

The kickback from his DVTS minigun pushed Akira toward the building’s wall. He then used both of his legs to propagate the kickback against the building’s wall. The continuous shots pushed his body toward the wall to the point that he was able to stand flat on it. He then did not let go of the trigger as he ran down the building’s wall just like that.

Countless bullets rained down on the autonomous weapons near the skyscr.a.p.er. The bullets rained down on the mechanical monsters’ super hard body as if they were trying to drill a hole on those bodies. But due to the loss of momentum because of the distance those bullets travelled and the force field armour that ricocheted them off the monsters’ bodies, none of them was able to cause any serious damage to monsters’ inner parts. But it was at least enough to make those monsters notice Akira as their enemy.

The cannons on their bodies immediately turned toward Akira who was running down the wall. Then in order to shoot their cannons, they temporarily lowered their force field armours.

The moment they did that, CWH special bullets immediately slipped in and hit them right before they could shoot their cannons, it caused the gunpowder inside their bodies to explode prematurely and took out their cannons from the inside. Akira shot those bullets beforehand by following Alpha’s instruction. Those bullets hit the cannons with unrivalled accuracy although those cannons were not even directed at Akira when he released those shots.

When their cannons were destroyed, the control unit inside the monsters’ bodies recognized it as a fatal damage and it also recognized that they had lost their means to fight back. As such, the other autonomous weapons that were still untouched diverted their force field armours to the badly damaged autonomous weapons, thus temporarily reducing the power of their force field armours.

During that split second when their force field armours were weakened, the CWH special bullets that Akira had shot beforehand hit them in succession. The first hit opened a hole in their armour while the second bullet went straight for their control units. The autonomous weapons that had lost their control units immediately stopped working without being able to react at all.

Once Akira destroyed some of the autonomous weapons, the rest of the autonomous weapons quickly recognized him as a threat. They immediately started to make their moves to deal with that threat.

Countless missiles launched from the missile pods aimed at Akira. While the ones with cannons immediately aimed their cannons and released shots at him. The countless missiles flew straight up for a few seconds to gather momentum before readjusting its trajectory to head straight for Akira, while the warheads released by the cannons just went ahead first and flew in a straight line to him.

Akira used the kickback from his rifles to push against the wall and gain traction to run down the wall. He then used the different contours of the wall to jump to the side or even jump straight down to avoid those missiles and warheads. So instead, they hit the building’s wall, turning it into rubbles and filled the area where they landed with smokes.

Akira was desperately running down the building’s wall, he could feel the shockwave from the explosions coming from all directions as he said to Alpha.

“Please please please, make sure that I won’t get hit, okay? If I get blown away off the wall, there’s no mistaking that I’ll die, you know?!”

It was his first time running down along a wall. Because of that, he really relied on Alpha’s control through his augmented suit to be able to do that. Although he was able to see the predicted trajectories of the missiles and warheads coming at him with his enhanced vision, he did not have the leeway to react to them and decide which route was the safest. It took everything that he had to just follow Alpha’s instruction.

Alpha was sliding sideway parallel to the building as she smiled and replied.

“It’s true that it’s extremely dangerous if you lose your footings. That’s why you need to keep running to spread the incoming missiles and warheads over a wide area. And also, don’t stop shooting. It would be impossible to move quickly around the wall without help from the kickback. So just resolve yourself and keep running.”

“Didn’t you say that I don’t need that much resolve for this fight back then?!!”

“That’s relative compared to when you fought the pseudo bounty monster. I did say that you’ll need some more resolve than usual, remember? But compared to when you had to get out from inside a monster with your own power after it ate you, it’s not that big of a resolve, right? Or is it that it was not that much of a difficult thing to get out from inside that monster?”

Alpha smiled amusedly. Akira looked at that smile and believed that he was not in as much danger as he thought as he fl.u.s.teredly replied back.

“That there!! You’re comparing it to the wrong occasion!!!”

“Stop playing around and start shooting.”

“Okay okay!!”

Akira aimed his DVTS minigun at the missiles coming at him while still running on the wall and pulled the trigger. The countless bullets rained down on those missiles and made them explode in the middle of their flight, the shockwave from those explosions then threw the other missiles off-flight and disrupted their targeting.

Some of those missiles flew way off and hit the other buildings, some of them collided with the other missiles and exploded, while some other missiles landed away from Akira and left a big hole on the building’s wall.

While at the same time, Akira aimed his CWH anti-material rifle toward those autonomous weapons. Since Alpha did all the aiming, he just had to point it in the general direction of his target and hold the kickback from it. But since he was holding it with one arm, he could not fully take the kickback and each shot put his body in extra burden.

Thanks to the medicines that he took beforehand, Akira did not feel much pain. But since he was pushing his body past its limit with the help of his augmented suit and withstanding all the shockwave from the missiles that exploded near him, his bones were grinding against each other and micro-wounds were tearing his muscles. Those injuries were healed almost instantaneously only to be formed again right after that. That cycle continued until either the medicines ran out of its effect or the battle ended.

Akira could feel the strange feeling of his body going through that cycle while experiencing his first battle where he was running down a wall while fighting, he went through all of that inside his compressed time perception. To be honest, he wished that it was his first and his last time going through something like that. He was currently somewhere around the 18th floor. If he was free-falling, he would have been way closer to the ground by now.

The autonomous weapons spread their missile pods and launched countless small-sized missiles to the sky. Those missiles went up in a straight line before readjusting its course to head towards Akira. By fanning out their missile in a big arc, they targeted the whole area around Akira while reducing the possibility of him shooting them down and suppressing the loss from secondary explosions.

Akira saw the missiles fanned out in front of him.

“Alpha!! Is it possible to shoot them down?!!”

“Nope, that will be impossible. They’re too spread out. But it’s alright.”

“Well, that’s good to hear!!”

Akira forced himself to make a smile as he continued shooting. If Alpha said that it would be alright, he had no other choice but to believe that and continue fighting. And of course, he trusted Alpha. After all, if he did not trust her, he would not be doing something like this in the first place.

Akira kept on running down along the wall while moving around to just barely evade the incoming warheads from the autonomous cannons. While at the same time, he kept sniping the autonomous weapons’ weak points using his CWH anti-material rifle. The autonomous weapons that got shot on their engines, or their weapons, or their control units turned into just a pile of wreckage that posed no threat whatsoever. Akira destroyed those powerful autonomous weapons with utmost efficiency as if it was those autonomous weapons that were trying to match with Akira’s action.

But due to their firepower, even if only one of them were left, it would be enough to kill a normal Hunter. The autonomous weapons would not retreat, as long as Akira did not destroy every single one of them, they would keep on trying to kill him.

As those countless missiles headed towards Akira, he aimed his CWH anti-material rifle and DVTS minigun and pulled the trigger. The kickback from his shot and the shockwave from the missile that he shot blew him right into one of the windows on that building.

All the missiles collided with the wall where Akira was just a few seconds ago. They exploded almost synchronously as they released a loud bang. But since their explosions were more spread out than before, their firepower was greatly reduced compared to when they were focused on one small area. The building that was created with the superior old-world technology was left only with cracks after that amazing explosion.

Alpha quickly gave Akira her next instruction. Akira had already checked all the floors in that building beforehand. So Alpha used that information to move him into the safest location on that floor.

Akira, who was barely avoiding those missiles, was running through inside that building. In the middle of that, Alpha said to him.

“Akira, swallow the medicine that you already have inside your mouth.”

“Roger that, is the effect from the ones that I took beforehand already waning?”

“You might not notice it since you don’t feel any pain, but your body is already in pretty bad shape. If you don’t want your limbs torn off in the middle of the fight, make sure to take your medicines.”

Akira swallowed the medicine inside his mouth and loaded new magazines into his rifles. He then followed Alpha’s instruction and jumped out of another window. He was already on the 10th floor, the ground was not too far away down, and the enemies left were also not that many.

Alpha knew the enemies’ location. When Akira jumped out of the window, he immediately started shooting again. The CWH special ammo easily pierced through the autonomous weapon’s hard armour and destroyed its weak point. That was one more monster around the building turned into scrap.

Akira only had 10 floors left. He kept on running down the building while shooting at the autonomous weapons. After a few shots, he finally reached the ground. The moment he landed on the ground, he quickly fixed the aim of his CWH anti-material rifle.

“That is the last one!!”

As he heard those words from Alpha, Akira spotted his last target, adjusted his aim, and pulled the trigger. The CWH special ammo flew in a straight line toward that autonomous weapon and almost immediately followed by a blinding light of the force field armour released right where the bullet landed on the autonomous weapon’s body.

Akira had showered that autonomous weapon with bullets using his DVTS minigun when he was running down the wall, thus its force field armour was already considerably weakened. The CWH special ammo pierced through the armour and bore a hole right into the autonomous weapon’s control unit and shred it to pieces.

As that autonomous weapon made the last squeaking sound, the area was finally shrouded in silence. All the monsters present were already dead.

Akira did not move as he was still monitoring his surroundings. As silence returned to that place, he finally stood up.

Alpha who was floating next to Akira smiled and reported their victory.

“Akira, that’s the end, we won.”

Akira’s first reaction to his victory was a long and big sigh. He then looked up at the building that he jumped off from and smiled bitterly. After that, he turned to Alpha who was smiling smugly.

“So how was that? Did you get just how great my support is?”

Akira smiled bitterly at her.

“Yeah, I got a good feel of it. So, since I already got a good feel of how great your support is, I would prefer not to go through something like this again.”

Alpha smiled mischievously at him.

“Oh, there’s no need to be reserved, you know? I’ve promised you to give you my utmost support as an advance payment, moreover, you know that I’m your ally, right?”

“If it’s possible, with that support that you’re so proud of, can you make it so that I don’t need to go through something like this again?”

Seeing Akira, who looked rather displeased, Alpha tilted her head and said.

“To be honest, I did consider a lot of things before I gave you my support, you know? After all, if you die it would be a huge issue for me too. So before I made that suggestion, I already ran all the calculations for your safety and I even confirmed and respected your wish too. But you know? If you keep counting special rare occasions in your calculation for your safety, it would be impossible for you to go out to the wasteland.”

Akira tried his best to replace his displeased expression with a bitter smile. He knew that he had terrible luck, and it was true if he assumed that he would be swarmed by monsters the moment he stepped out of the city, then he would not be able to go out to the wasteland. What he needed was not the ability to evade bad luck, but the ability to stomp that bad luck down.

“…Alright, I got it. I hope that you’ll keep providing your support so I can deal with a situation like this easily.”

“Of course. Just leave it to me. Now then, let’s go and get the stuff that you left on the rooftop so that you can get a better advantage if anything happens after this.”

Alpha smiled and pointed her finger up. Akira had left his rucksack filled with ammo and other equipment on the rooftop together with the other rifles that he did not use in that battle.

Akira looked up. Now that he looked at it, the 27 storey building was indeed a very tall building. And now he had to climb the stairs back to the rooftop.

“…Stairs again, huh?”

“Yep. But don’t worry, you can go down through stairs this time, or is it that you want to jump off again?”

Alpha smiled teasingly. Akira instantly refused.

“No thanks!”

Alpha just giggled amusedly seeing how Akira got a bit annoyed there.

Index