Rebuild World (WN)

Akira and Carol reached Mihazono ruin right before the sunrise. There were a lot of vehicles parked near the Hunter Office. Among the normal vehicles brought by the Hunters, there were some trailers owned by weapon merchants, portable clinics, and trailers used by Hunter gangs as their temporary base.

A traffic officer stopped Akira and said.

“All the parking lots near the Hunter Office branch are controlled under strict regulation to make sure there is smooth traffic. I don’t mind if you are just passing through to the ruin, but make sure not to block the way when you do that. And, if you want to park your vehicles around here, make sure that it won’t block the way too. Do note that the parking lot inside is already full.”

“Okay.”

“I’ll at least tell you this. If you’re here to hunt for relics, you might want to pick another day.”

“I know. I can tell just by looking at it.”

Akira gazed at the Mihazono ruin when he said that.

The loud banging sounds of battles kept resounding endlessly from the Mihazono ruin. There were some places where smoke was rising into the sky. Flashes of lights illuminated the ruin that was veiled in darkness. The Mihazono ruin showed a completely different side compared to the one that Akira saw yesterday.

“I guess you’re right about that.”

That officer then left Akira.

Carol suddenly asked Akira a question.

“So then, what are we going to do from here?”

“We’ll meet up with Elena’s team. The real problem is how exactly are we going to find them… It’s not like we can just dive into the ruin looking for them without any clues.”

Akira made a stern look, he then asked Alpha.

“Alpha, we’re in Mihazono ruin now. So like, we still can’t contact Elena-san?”

Alpha shook her head.

“No, I still can’t establish any connection at all. There is still no reply from your last message and I still can’t connect your call. If I have to make a guess, it might be because there are too many signals around this area that interferes with the communication line. Or maybe, the comm relay in this area is already turned off.”

It might be a waste of time if they just waited for Elena and Sara without doing anything. After a bit of thinking, Akira then turned to Carol.

“Carol. If you were looking for a certain Hunter inside this ruin, where would you go?”

“Look for them? Can’t you call them or something?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you have any clues where they might be?”

“Sadly, no.”

“Have you decided where to meet beforehand?”

“I could not manage to contact them even before we made the decision.”

Carol looked at Akira with a slightly pitiful gaze.

“….Akira, are you one of those people who tend to decide on a whim and move first, and then think later?”

“…Yes.”

Akira replied back with a feeble voice, he sounded a bit ashamed after Carol pointed that out. Alpha, who was next to him, tried her best to hold back her laughter.

Carol looked a bit disappointed as she looked at Akira, she thought that she might have overestimated his strength. But she then decided to just forget about it and started to think for an answer to his question. She was hired as a guide by Akira, so she thought that she should at least do her job properly.

“Looking for other Hunters, huh? Do you have anything that can uniquely identify both of your positions? For example, if both of you know each other’s information terminal’s identification code, you can set the local connection to the maximum hoping you can find each other. And if the other Hunter notices you, then, he can also set the local connection to the maximum and make a call with your information terminal. But, there’s a good chance that the mechanical monsters roaming around this ruin would notice your location if you do that though. And since you’ll need to set your information terminal to constantly broadcast signals, it’ll be pretty dangerous.”

Some of the monsters in the wasteland could detect the signals broadcasted by the information equipment often carried by the Hunters. They could use that to ascertain the locations of those Hunters and attack them. The only reason why Hunters could send signals across the wasteland was because they were using the comm relays buried under the ground. After a lot of trials and errors, they managed to create comm relays that could withstand monsters’ attacks.

Unlike in the middle of the wasteland, the ruins had denser monster distribution and fewer escape routes. Thus, broadcasting strong signals inside a ruin was extremely dangerous. The only people who would do that would be fatally wounded Hunters who could not get out from the ruin using their own power. But even so, they would only do that for a few seconds just to let the rescue squads know their location.

Akira tried to imagine what would happen if he were to do that. Inside his mind, he imagined that he would end up in a situation where he was surrounded by a huge number of monsters. And then, unfortunately enough, Elena tried to contact him in that situation which caused some of those monsters to head toward her location. Although he might be able to break the encirclement and force his way to Elena’s location, it did not change the fact that he would still drag Elena and Sara into more trouble.

Akira then cut his imagination there.

“That would be too dangerous so, let’s not do that.”

Carol then made another suggestion.

“In that case, your only choice will be either diving into the ruin and looking for them or wait for them near the Hunter Office branch. If they are taking that emergency SOS request, I’m sure they’ll be back here after rescuing some Hunters.”

As Akira was still thinking about which option to take, Alpha suddenly pointed her finger toward the parking lot near the Hunter Office branch.

“Akira, look over there.”

When Akira looked toward the direction that Alpha pointed, he saw a vehicle that looked somehow familiar to him. It was the APC that Shikarabe used when they were hunting for bounty monsters.

“So? What do you want me to do with that?”

Akira thought that it was the same APC model owned by other Hunters. But Alpha knew for a fact that it was Shikarabe’s APC.

“That’s Shikarabe’s APC. If Shikarabe is inside it, how about you try contacting him? He might be able to help you find Elena and Sara.”

Akira pulled out his information terminal and called Shikarabe through the local connection. The call almost immediately got through.

“Shikarabe’s speaking. Is this you, Akira? You’re calling me through a local connection though, does that mean that you’re somewhere nearby?”

“Yeah. I’m just outside the parking lot near the Hunter Office branch. I want to contact Elena-san and Sara-san but I can’t get any connection at all. Do you know where they might be?”

Shikarabe sounded exasperated as he said.

“That’s what you get from using a cheap connection line. Wait a sec, I’ll connect you.”

After Akira waited for a bit, Elena’s voice suddenly came out from his information terminal that was connected to Shikarabe.

“It’s Elena. Can you tell me where you are now?”

Akira then explained where he was to Elena. He then told her that he hired Carol, the fact that he tried to contact her but couldn’t, and that he had sent a message to her.

“…Wait for a sec there… Ahh, yep, I got your message. I see, it seems that the signal priority change also affected the connection line that I’m using, huh. So, basically, you want to meet up with us first, right?”

“Yes, please.”

“Alright then. In that case, come here together with Shikarabe. We’re actually working in a team with Shikarabe right now. If you follow him, you’ll be able to meet up with us. We can talk in more detail later after we group up. We’ll be waiting for you.”

“Understood.”

Shikarabe’s voice suddenly interjected.

“Akira. If you’re going to follow me, come and help me carry the wounded Hunters. I’m parking my APC in the parking lot near the Hunter Office. You already know my location, right?”

“Yep, no problem. Will be there in a sec.”

Akira then turned his vehicle back on and drove off.

Shikarabe’s APC was parked in the parking lot near the Hunter Office. The backdoor of the APC suddenly opened up and wounded Hunters came out from the inside of that APC.

Shikarabe could be seen carrying out corpse bags filled with dead Hunters. The corpse bags were not closed completely as it let the face of the Hunter inside exposed. The faces peeking out from the corpse bags clearly showed that no life remained in them.

When Shikarabe saw Akira’s vehicle approaching the APC, he then pointed toward the inside of the APC.

“You’re finally here. Help me carry out the wounded too. There’s no need to help those who can still walk on their own.”

Akira stepped inside the APC and looked around, there were numerous corpse-filled bags exposing the ‘deceased’ face. Meanwhile, some in the corner, which were folded, empty.

Akira then asked Shikarabe a question.

“…Fatally wounded Hunters, huh. For now, I just need to carry those who can’t walk on their own, right?”

“Yeah, just leave it to the doctors to check if they’re already dead or not. We don’t know if any of them have suspended-state devices installed inside their body. So, just assume that they’re all just fatally wounded until the doctors say otherwise.”

Akira remembered the scene of a clinic in the Kuzusuhara city that he visited in the past. That time, the doctor in that clinic, Yatsubayashi, treated even Hunters who had lost half of their body as only badly wounded.

If Hunters with such a level of injury could still be saved, there was no way an amateur like him could judge the wounded Hunters in the APC. Thus, Akira just thought all of those Hunters inside the corpse bags as only fatally wounded, and started carrying them out of the APC.

Carol, who was behind Akira, followed him inside the APC. When Shikarabe saw her, he suddenly shouted in surprise.

“….Geh?!”

Carol smiled mischievously at Shikarabe.

“Geez, you don’t need to be that mean, you know. Long time no see by the way.”

Shikarabe, who just realized that he was flustered, tried to contain himself.

“W-well, right… So, why are you here?”

“Akira hired me. Don’t just stand there, you have bags to carry, right?”

Carol then left Shikarabe and followed Akira. Shikarabe kept staring at Carol as she walked toward his APC.

“Why in the world would Akira hire that woman?”

Shikarabe was still a little bit bothered by that as he returned back to his job carrying the corpse bags.

Akira and Shikarabe then handed over the fatally wounded Hunters to the Hunter Office, they had no reason to worry about how many of those Hunters were still alive. Even if some of them were already dead, the Hunter Office would handle them appropriately. One thing for sure, the Hunter Office would handle them better than just leaving them inside the ruin.

Shikarabe then closed the back door of his APC and looked at Akira with a gaze saying that he wanted to say something to Akira. It was not like it was a gaze of hatred or anything, but it was undeniable that he did not appreciate the fact that Akira brought Carol together with him. His gaze was saying that he honestly did not know what to do about the current situation. Although Akira did not notice it, there was also a trace of pity in Shikarabe’s gaze.

Akira looked at Shikarabe and tilted his head in confusion, he then asked Carol.

“Carol, you know him?”

“Yep, well, a lot of things happened between us.”

“I see.”

Akira at least understood that Carol and Shikarabe were acquaintances. In reality, Akira was actually trying to find a roundabout way to ask her the reason why Shikarabe looked at her with such a gaze.

But Carol only gave a short answer that only confirmed that they knew each other. Akira had no idea if she did not catch his real intention or that she just simply did not want to talk about it, or it was simply that she did not care about it.

Akira then shifted his gaze to Shikarabe, his gaze was asking for an explanation from Shikarabe.

But Shikarabe did not answer that gaze as he said.

“Let’s go then, just follow me.”

Shikarabe still looked a bit bothered as he returned to the driver seat.

Akira returned back to his vehicle and sat on the driver seat, he then glanced at Carol to check her reaction. It did not seem like he did something that worsened her mood. As in matter of fact, it looked like she was a bit amused by the situation.

Akira prioritized grouping up with Elena for now, as he just shelved that subject and followed Shikarabe from behind.

Akira, Shikarabe, and Carol went inside Mihazono ruin. There were countless wreckages of dead mechanical monsters scattered around. There were almost no biological monsters inside the Mihazono ruin, so all the blood splatters should be from the Hunters. After all, other than those monsters, there were also Hunter corpses scattered here and there. But those corpses were already crushed into an unrecognizable mush, the monsters might have trampled over them, or it might be because of the Hunters who drove over them.

The further they proceeded into the ruin, the more prominent the leftover of fights surrounded them. They were pretty standing out although it was still dark. It would have given a more solemn scene once the sun was up.

Alpha then told Akira that there was a monster approaching.

“Akira, there’s a monster from behind. It’s a vehicle with a long-range rifle, they came from the alleys.”

“Roger that.”

Akira let go of the wheel and moved to the backside of his vehicle. He then took off the CWH anti-material rifle fixed on his vehicle and aimed it to the back. There were no monsters visible.

Carol saw Akira move to the back and aim his rifle. But she could not see any monsters in that direction and her information-gathering device did not pick up any signal from that direction either. She thought that it might be because the vehicle’s information gathering device caught something, but when she checked it, it also did not show such a signal.

So Carol decided to ask Akira if he detected any monsters.

“Akira, is there-“

Akira suddenly pulled the trigger. Gunshot echoed through the ruin and cut Carol’s question short, the bullet from the muzzle flew straight and hit a monster that just came out from behind an alley. It pierced through the monster’s torso and threw its body into the air. It then landed and rolled over on the ground with half of its body destroyed.

Alpha then warned Akira.

“A24 type, huh. Akira, be careful.”

“You don’t even need to tell me, but is it okay if I ask you why did you warn me?”

“That monster is designed as a city guard, it’s built exactly as the blueprint. Thus, it’s a well-equipped monster.”

“How much is it different to the other mechanical monsters that I faced until now?”

“If you compare it to those cannon insects that you fought in the past, those cannon insects are like failed product made by putting a big cannon on a faulty blueprint while the A24 type is a well designed and well-equipped monster.”

Akira inadvertently twitched.

“That’s a huge difference.”

“That’s why, keep your guard up. Don’t put your guard down just because its size is relatively small or because it looks like the other monsters that you’ve fought before.”

“Roger that.”

Akira decided to be extra careful this time as he took another aim. His vision was enhanced by Alpha’s support, thanks to that, he was able to clearly see and aim at the monsters that were hiding in the alleys just with his naked eyes. It even showed the time left until those monsters jumped out from the alleys and the points that he should aim at.

Akira followed Alpha’s instruction and shot down the A24-type that appeared from the alleys one by one. He was able to deal enough damage to render them unable to fight by leaving them half-destroyed or even completely destroyed in one shot. Thus, adding more wreckages on the road. It did not take that long for Akira to take care of all the monsters there alone.

Alpha smiled and praised Akira.

“Good job. You did well.”

But Akira, who thought that there was no way he could hit those shots without Alpha’s support, smiled bitterly and said.

“I don’t have any complaints at all, all of my shots hit their targets… I wonder how long it would take for me to be able to do something like this on my own. I guess I still have a long way to go, huh.”

“Don’t worry. You’re actually getting better. Your aim barely needs any readjustment from me compared to before. I’m sure it won’t take long before you can accurately snipe from this range.”

“I see, it’s good to hear that all my training are not for vain.”

Akira then remembered that Carol was about to say something back then. So he lowered his rifle and turned to her.

“Sorry, what were you saying again?”

Carol smiled, she was hiding the shock inside her heart as she praised Akira.

“It’s nothing. You’re really good at shooting. I didn’t know you’re that good from yesterday.”

“Well, yesterday we’re in a situation where all my shots would hit no matter where I aimed after all.”

Akira remembered when he was trapped inside a Seranthal building as it was getting flooded by monsters, his face twitched a bit when he remembered that.

Carol smiled amusedly and asked Akira a question.

“That rifle, can I take a look at it?”

“Sure.”

Akira then handed over his rifle to Carol.

Carol checked the rifle that she just received. From the outside, it looked like she was just lightly checking out that rifle, but deep inside, she was actually closely checking that rifle including its production code, its parts, and its condition.

Carol then aimed Akira’s CWH anti-material rifle to the back. When she gazed through the aiming device, she could see nothing but the usual information from a normal aiming device. There was nothing in particular that surprised her, she confirmed that it was just a normal rifle.

Carol then handed it back to Akira, she smiled at him and said.

“Thank you, that’s a pretty good rifle. I wonder if I can aim as good as you as long as I use this rifle.”

“I think anyone would be able to do that with enough training.”

Akira did not really think it through when he said that. He only thought that if he would be able to do that with enough training, then everyone should be able to do that with enough training too.

Carol then casually replied.

“Really?”

“Yes, but of course it’s assuming that you use an augmented suit that would help you suppress the kickback. Even I too have no plans to use this rifle without an augmented suit. I’m pretty sure that my hand would get ripped off if I do that.”

Carol then smugly pointed at her augmented suit.

“If that’s the case, then there’s nothing to worry about. Look here, my augmented suit is actually a pretty advanced one after all.”

“Well, it does look like an advanced augmented suit.”

Akira looked at Carol’s augmented suit and nodded.

Akira put his CWH anti-material rifle back and returned to the driver seat. Carol also returned back to her seat.

Carol pretended to look casual as she kept observing Akira.

[That CWH anti-material rifle, is a normal rifle, and judging by the information shown in its aiming device, its aiming device works in tandem with his information-gathering device… It has no auto-aim function. Or at least, it’s true that it has no support function that would allow him to normally hit all of his shots at the same time those monsters show themselves from behind the alley even when he is shooting from above a moving vehicle.]

There were some rifles sold in the eastern district equipped with auto-aim function to help with aiming. Some of them could automatically move when the user pulled the trigger, to ensure that the trajectory of the bullet would hit the target. Or, they would not allow the user to shoot a bullet even if they pulled the trigger when the calculated trajectory of the target will not hit a monster.

Carol thought that Akira’s accurate sniping was due to the auto-aim function of his rifle. But it did not seem to be the case. It might as well be due to the feature installed in his augmented suit, but Carol judged that it was also unlikely since such a feature usually relied a lot on the feature installed on the rifle and she should be able to find such a device installed on that rifle if that was the case.

[In the first place, how did Akira detect those monsters? I bet he already noticed the monsters even before he let go of the wheel. Although I have a pretty good information-gathering device, I didn’t get any signals at all even when he started taking aim. What would he do if the one jumping out from the alleys were not monsters and instead Hunters on bikes? Or did he know for sure that they were monsters? Did he notice that they were monsters with long-range weapons, that’s why he decided that he needed to take them out as soon as possible? Since when did he know that…? Was it right from the start?]

Detecting enemies was a crucial skill for Hunters. If they could discover and ascertain enemies’ positions quickly, they would be able to evade having to fight them, and even if they decided to fight those monsters, that would give them the upper hand.

Carol was a Hunter who preferred to evade fighting as much as possible, because of that, she invested a lot in her detection ability. The reason why she tried to seduce Akira yesterday was because she knew for sure there were no monsters around.

Carol was pretty surprised by Akira’s ability to shoot, but more than that, she was very surprised by his ability to detect enemies.

When Carol praised Akira’s shooting skill and asked if she could borrow his rifle, she was actually checking for his reaction. She was testing if Akira would boast about his skill or his rifle. She was wondering whether he would credit that to his own skill, or to his hard training, or to the features installed on his rife.

There were many Hunters who would boast about their talent, or skills that they acquired after working hard, or their advanced rifle. After all, it made them feel good talking about their hard work or their advanced equipment with other people. Carol was actually an expert in coaxing those kinds of people into leaking information.

If Akira was one of those people, Carol might be able to harvest information from him. But Akira did not show such a sign at all. It did not seem like he wanted to boast about his equipment or his skill at all.

Carol then reflected. She admitted that Akira’s shooting skill was amazing, but that was all there was to it. In contrast to that, his detection skill was way above amazing.

If it was only amazing, she could just use that to praise and coax Akira into telling her any valuable information that he had. But that was not the case when it was more than amazing. In that case, she needed to make sure how he would react to other people who tried to dig for the secrets behind such an ability first. After all, there were people who would go as far as to kill the other people who knew their secret to make sure that it would not leak.

If that person was a man, Carol could wait until they were close enough before asking for such information, or she could wait for a situation where she could casually ask that question without any risks. Of course, she would use her side-job to help her do that.

Carol had the skill and experience to cajole someone. She was confident that she could fight them back in a situation where both of them were naked and unarmed. No matter whether they were a cyborg or a person with enhanced bodies, Carol was confident she could accurately judge their strength after sleeping with them at least once.

Carol then sighed.

[…So basically, I can’t use that method on Akira… Although it’s true that he’s still just a boy, strangely enough, he has less interest in women compared to the other boys of his age.]

Carol glanced at Akira. The current Akira did not show any childish vibe of a young boy that he showed yesterday when he was watching the scene outside with sparkling eyes from inside a flying drone. It could even be said that he gave off the intimidating aura of a skilled Hunter, he even looked somehow more mature.

[Well, it would be troublesome if he won’t grow more mature in the more important aspects. Although, honestly, he doesn’t seem to be that young to be more interested in food rather than in women. I wonder if it’s because he’s only interested in a certain type of women.]

Carol’s guess was correct. Akira’s interest was completely biased. No matter whether it was a man or a woman, the only thing that interested him was whether they were enemies or not. For now, he saw Carol as not any enemy. For him, that fact took precedence over gender and appearance.

Carol did not doubt her charm at all. After all, she was really proud of it and she had used that charm on a lot of people in the past. But that was exactly why her pride was hurt when Akira showed almost no reaction at all when she tried to use her charm on him.

She sounded a bit irritated as she suddenly said to Akira.

“Akira, what kind of girl do you like?”

Akira was a bit confused by that sudden question as he asked back.

“What’s with that sudden question?”

“It’s because it seemed you’re not interested at all when I invited you. Normally, that won’t happen to most of the people that I Invite, you know?”

“Isn’t that because you only invite those people who seem to be likely to accept your invitation? I’m sure those people with girlfriend won’t readily take on your invitation.”

“Well, for the sake of common sense, I won’t try inviting people with girlfriends though. But of course, it’s a different story if they invite me first. Because of that, I won’t take responsibility if they break up with their girlfriend.”

Carol smiled when she said that.

Akira looked a bit disgusted as he said.

“You are quite a bad individual.”

“It just shows how charming I am. That’s why I’m interested in your fetishes since you won’t even consider my invitation.”

“Stop calling it a fetish. But well, even if you ask me so…”

Akira himself knew that he was very unfamiliar with that kind of talk. When he was giving a ‘hmm’ sound, Alpha then suddenly pointed at herself with full of confidence. Akira immediately stopped pondering.

“Nope. I don’t even have the slightest idea.”

“But you should, right? After all, you have a perfect example here.”

Alpha could freely change her appearance, and so she chose to match her appearance with Akira’s preference. So in short, her current outlook was the mirror image of his taste. Akira knew that very well as he replied.

“Yep, no idea at all.”

“You’re pretty stubborn, aren’t you? If you have anything to complain about my appearance, there’s no need to hold back, you can just tell me. I can change my appearance as much as you want, you know.”

Alpha smiled mischievously.

Carol frowned as she looked curiously at Akira.

“…You don’t seem to genuinely have no idea at all though?”

“Well, that’s because I feel like a certain someone would try to match it if I say it here.”

“Ahhh, I see… You won’t tell me because you don’t want to, huh? But just so you know, I’m someone who can keep a secret.”

“Still, no.”

“I see, that’s just too bad. I wonder if it’s because it’s something that you can’t say out loud. But if that’s the case, I can help you overwrite it if you would take my invitation even if it’s only once, you know. I would recommend you do that if you have a rather peculiar fetish.”

“Like I said, stop making it sound as if I have a weird fetish.”

Akira looked so annoyed while Carol was smiling amusedly.