Chapter 128
Translator: Athena13
Editor: Silavin
Proofreader: p4553r
Akira was completely dumbfounded when the pile of monsters that was blocking the entrance to the room suddenly got blown away .
From there, Kanae and s.h.i.+ori jumped out . Kanae immediately punched a B18 monster while s.h.i.+ori swiftly sliced a B18 monster near them . The punched monster crashed into the wall with a loud banging sound, while the sliced monster was beautifully cut into two symmetric pieces and fell down to the floor .
Akira immediately noticed that those were Kanae and s.h.i.+ori, both of them also immediately noticed Akira too . Not too long after that, Reina also jumped out from that room . The moment she was out, she immediately looked around and checked her surroundings .
s.h.i.+karabe quickly grasped the current situation and shouted .
“We’re heading back now!! Akira, you take the rear!! Togami, escort them back to the hall! Let’s go!!”
Right after s.h.i.+karabe gave that order, he immediately made a 180 degrees turn in order to secure the hallway back to the hall .
Kanae grabbed Reina’s arm and pulled her along since it seemed that Reina still did not fully understand the current situation . She then glanced at Akira and spoke to him in a good mood .
“I’ll leave the rear to you!!”
Kanae was waving at Akira with her free hand and a big smile on her face . Reina was half-dragged by Kanae as she pa.s.sed beside Akira, she was still obviously dumbfounded .
s.h.i.+ori elegantly stopped and stood next to Akira .
“Is it alright to leave the rear to you alone?”
“Just go . ”
Akira did not hesitate at all . Both of them were busy, after all .
s.h.i.+ori slightly bowed at Akira before quickly catching up with Kanae and Reina .
Togami just stood there frozen for a few seconds, his brain could not process what just happened, but he eventually returned back to reality and fl.u.s.teredly tried to catch up with the other Hunters .
Now Akira was left alone in the rear, Alpha was floating next to him while smiling .
“Aren’t you glad that you don’t need to search inside that room now?”
“You can say that again . We just need to return back now . Thank goodness we’re in the last part of this search . It went better than I thought it would . ”
“I’m sure that the rest of the job is not that hard, you just need to return back with the rescue targets . But you should not lower your guard yet, okay?”
“Yeah, I know . ”
Akira pulled out his A4WM automatic grenade launcher and aimed it at the hallway . The A4WM grenade launcher immediately spewed out grenades, it was not a weapon designed to be used indoors . Even if the inside of the old-ruin building was resilient, Akira still had to be careful using that rifle . Even though it was a powerful weapon, it would be meaningless if it ended up destroying the interior and blocking the hallway, that was why Akira did not use it until now .
But he only needed to head back now, so Akira thought that it was even advantageous in that situation if he ended up breaking the wall and blocking the hallway to prevent the monsters from chasing them, so he pulled the trigger without holding back at all .
Grenades flew from its muzzle into the hallway and swallowed the swarm of monsters coming from the deeper part of that hallway with explosions . The shockwave from the explosions did not have anywhere to escape inside the closed hallway, thus, it was blown right back at Akira . Because of that, a huge wreckage suddenly just flew right past Akira .
Akira staggered as he gasped .
“…Whoah!!”
Alpha amusedly looked at surprised Akira and said .
“That rifle is not designed to be used indoors, so you need to be careful . ”
Smokes raised inside the hallway and blocked the view . Akira kept his eyes on that cloud of smokes for monsters but he did not see any disruption in the smokes . So he then decided that it should be fine as he turned around and started running back while still keeping his eyes for more monsters .
Reina, s.h.i.+ori, and Kanae were running following s.h.i.+karabe, who was guiding them back to the hall where Elena and the rest of the Hunters were waiting . Since s.h.i.+karabe destroyed most of the monsters on their way to the room, they had not much trouble on their way back . It was not like there were no monsters at all, but s.h.i.+karabe, s.h.i.+ori, and Kanae could handle them just fine .
They then heard explosions coming from behind, it was the sound of Akira using his A4WM automatic grenade launcher .
Kanae glanced behind her .
“That Akira seems to be having fun back there . But still, I didn’t expect to find him in this building . I guess this must be some kind of fate, huh?”
But s.h.i.+ori quickly warned Kanae .
“Stop with the chatter and focus on the fighting . ”
“It’s fine, I can chat this must basically because I have the leeway… Here!”
Kanae kicked a B18 monster that suddenly appeared in the hallway when she said that . As her leg that was wrapped in black tights and a pretty big shoe extended out under her maid outfit, she drove a powerful kick into the B18 monster near her .
Kanae’s maid outfit actually had a good defensive capability, while her black tights was a part of her augmented suit . s.h.i.+ori was also using the same equipment as Kanae except for the boots . The ones that Kanae was using were specially designed boots for CQC . Not only was it exceptionally robust, it was also equipped with mini force field armour that could create short force field burst . It was specifically designed to boost the power of the kick of its user .
The B18 monster that Kanae kicked was blasted as if it was a cannon .
s.h.i.+ori immediately focused her attention on another B18 monster that appeared in the opposite direction and cut it with her blade . s.h.i.+ori’s blade was able to easily cut open the B18 monster as if it just ignored the force field armour and went straight for the monster’s body .
s.h.i.+ori sighed, exasperatedly .
“No matter whether you have the leeway or not, it’s shameless to make unnecessary chit-chat, you know? They should’ve taught you that right, Kanae?”
But instead, Kanae tried to make an excuse .
“They taught me that random chatter is important to calm down my nerves during a long fight though? Didn’t you also do that with Milady?”
“Your unnecessary chatter is not the same as my conversation with Milady . ”
s.h.i.+ori and Kanae showed enough leeway to make that exchange while keeping their guard up and making sure that Reina was safe .
Reina was running behind Kanae and s.h.i.+ori . The swarm of mechanical monsters that surrounded them when they were barricading themselves inside the room were mostly gone . The moment they came out from that room, s.h.i.+ori and Kanae immediately killed any monsters near them . Reina had considerably calmed down compared to when she was inside the room .
Reina, who regained some of her composure, finally noticed Togami who was looking in her direction . She then somehow sounded a bit harsh as she asked Togami .
“…What?”
Togami fl.u.s.teredly replied .
“No, it’s just that… If I’m not mistaken… You should be on the same team with Katsuya, right?”
“…I was . But I’m no longer in Katsuya’s team . So, what about it?”
“Well, Uhh… No, it’s nothing . ”
Togami finally looked away . Reina kept staring at Togami with a confused look for a few seconds before she just casually returned her view forward .
Togami lightly sighed and thought .
[What the heck am I doing…]
Togami was actually only glancing at Reina when she suddenly looked back at him . When that happened, he thought that he should at least say something and just spoke out anything that came up in his mind about Reina . That was all there was to it .
But Reina sounded a bit annoyed when she replied . Togami was slightly overwhelmed by that and decided to just cut their conversation short .
Although Togami did not realize it himself, he actually glanced at Reina since he felt a sense of camaraderie with Reina .
Togami was together with the other Hunters who were better than him . Although this was only his self-evaluation, he believed that he did not contribute much, it could even be said that Akira and s.h.i.+karabe were protecting him along the way . Or at least, he did not think that he contributed much or did anything that he could be proud of during that rescue operation .
At that time, Togami caught sight of Reina who was protected by s.h.i.+ori and Kanae . The scene of her being protected by s.h.i.+ori and Kanae inside a place that was far too dangerous for her to be, and the fact that it seemed she lamented her situation there . It was basically similar to the situation that Togami was currently in . As in matter of fact, Reina’s skill was indeed relatively closer to Togami than to s.h.i.+ori or s.h.i.+karabe .
When Reina suddenly spoke to him, Togami did not even realize that he was staring at her and could only react fl.u.s.teredly and throw out a random subject . But in the end, it seemed that it somehow annoyed Reina and it left him with a strange feeling of self-admonishment .
Reina also lightly sighed and thought .
[Why in the world did I do that…]
The reason why Reina reacted harshly was because Togami’s question reminded her of her own patheticness, so it was her venting to Togami .
In reality, Togami’s impression of Reina was simply one of the people from Katsuya’s team, that was all there was to it . The only reason why he remembered her was simply because he saw Reina on Katsuya’s team from time to time back when he had a one-sided rivalry with Katsuya .
But on the other hand, Reina knew Togami to some extent . She knew that Togami was a skilled young Hunter in Drankam, he might as well be the second strongest young Hunter in Drankam after Katsuya . People in Drankam had their attention on him and they hoped that he would be the beacon for the anti-Katsuya faction . She also knew that Togami was a skilled Hunter who successfully hunted a bounty monster with s.h.i.+karabe and a handful of other Hunters .
So in short, Reina saw Togami as a Hunter who was above her, just like how Togami saw s.h.i.+karabe .
So when Togami asked Reina if she was still in Katsuya’s team, to Reina, it sounded as if Togami was asking her why an incompetent Hunter, who could do nothing but tag along with Katsuya, was in this place .
Reina’s logical side was telling her that was not what Togami meant and it was nothing more than her imagination . But since she thought like that once, it was hard for her to change it now .
Reina realized that she just vented her anger at Togami and she hated herself for doing that .
If only they were in a safe place and they could take their time talking to each other calmly, Reina and Togami could be able to get along . But unfortunately, they did not have that luxury at the moment . The still-growing Hunters, both of them, just pulled themselves together for now and somehow moved on from that worry .
Akira was still shooting grenades using his A4WM automatic grenade launcher while retreating . His retreat was going very well, even too well that Akira started questioning it .
“The monsters stopped coming . I don’t think it’s because I’ve defeated them though… So what’s going on here?”
Alpha casually answered his question .
“They might have decided fighting frontally would be ineffective, so they might be avoiding you right now . ”
Alpha was not smiling like during the last battle, but she did not seem worried either . Her expression was neutral .
“Either way, let’s use this chance to retreat . ”
“You’re right . ”
Although it was not as dangerous as before, Akira still could not lower his guard on his way back .
s.h.i.+karabe led the group in the front while fighting the enemies that were blocking their way back to the hall where Elena and the other Hunters were waiting . Once they returned back, s.h.i.+karabe immediately scanned the situation and finally sighed in relief .
Elena immediately approached s.h.i.+karabe .
“How was the rescue?”
“It went well, we secured the targets and retreated back without any trouble . Give us your next order to get out of this building . We basically recovered 3 Hunters and they’re not badly injured . ”
Elena looked at s.h.i.+karabe, then looked at the hallway where s.h.i.+karabe came from . Not too far from the entrance, she could see Reina, s.h.i.+ori, Togami, and Kanae running, then also Akira a little further behind them .
Elena’s face slightly relaxed after she confirmed that everyone was alright . But she then immediately pulled herself together and gave the next order .
“Sara! Carol! We’re pulling back!!”
Carol and Sara who were guarding the entrance to the other hallways gathered around Elena when they heard that .
Elena then asked s.h.i.+karabe .
“s.h.i.+karabe, is it alright to count those 3 Hunters as extra fighting hands?”
“Yes, but only two of them . And keep in mind that those two are here to protect the other one . ”
“Got it . s.h.i.+karabe, you lead them down to the 19th floor . If the situation down there is still the same as before, we should be able to get a short rest . ”
“Roger that!”
s.h.i.+karabe waved at s.h.i.+ori, signalling her to follow him . After s.h.i.+karabe confirmed that the other Hunters got his signal, he immediately moved out to lead the way down to the 19th floor .
s.h.i.+ori, Reina, Kanae, and Togami appeared out of the hallway and they did not stop running as they went straight to the stairs . Elena was obviously surprised when she saw 2 maids and a young girl pa.s.sing through the hall .
She then mumbled while still looking at Reina and the other two Hunters .
“…Maid outfit? No, more than that, I feel like I’ve seen them somewhere before…”
Elena tried to dig through her memory, but s.h.i.+ori and Kanae’s maid outfits distracted her from remembering them . Sara and Carol finally grouped up with Elena, Sara then asked Elena a question .
“…Elena, about those Hunters though…”
Sara seemed to be thinking of the same thing as Elena, but Elena responded back prioritizing her position as the leader of the team .
“They’re the rescue targets . We’ll also move out once we meet up with Akira . s.h.i.+karabe said that two of them are basically bodyguards for the other one and it’s okay to count them as extra fighting hands . Since I sent s.h.i.+karabe down ahead, they should not face any trouble going down . We’ll join with Akira to guard the rear while retreating too . After all, the monsters from the 30th floor might chase us on our way down . ”
Sara looked a bit bothered as she nodded .
Carol also seemed a bit bothered .
“If my eyes didn’t trick me, I saw 2 of them are in maid outfits though…”
“Since we can count them as extra fighting hands, there should be no need for us to protect them . So just put that back in your mind first and you can ask about things that have nothing to do with escaping from this building later . ”
“O-Okay . ”
Sara and Carol seemed a bit confused, Elena could understand their feelings . But it was not like she had the answer to that either and it was not the place to ask that question now . So Elena decided to prioritize more on escaping that building and save any questions for later .
Akira was running through the hallway, his face slightly relaxed the moment he saw Elena and the other Hunters .
“It seems that Elena-san and the others didn’t face any trouble either . ”
“Akira, keep running! It seems that s.h.i.+karabe and the rest of the Hunters have gone down first . ”
Alpha urged Akira to hurry up . Akira was a bit surprised by that but complied and started running faster .
The moment Akira entered the hall where Elena was, one of the barricades that blocked the way to the other hallways suddenly burst open as a relatively big monster burst into the room .
That big mechanical monster smashed its way through the barricade with high momentum . So the moment it broke in, the barricade was forcefully blown away, crashed into the ceiling, wall, and floor as they made loud banging sounds .
One of the wreckages was even sent flying towards Elena even though she was far from that barricade . Although it really surprised her, she was able to nimbly evade the wreckage that flew straight at her . The same thing happened to Carol and Sara, but they skilfully kicked the flying wreckages aside .
The big monster was more or less tall enough and wide enough to block the whole hallway alone . It was wrapped with a robust-looking body . Although about 10 metres of its body had extended out of the hallway, it was not its full length yet, there was no telling how far its body extended down the hallway .
Akira ducked and evaded the flying wreckage as he was running to where Elena was . He then quickly turned around, aimed his A4WM automatic grenade launcher at that big monster, and pulled the trigger . The grenades flew out straight to that big monster, stuck on its armour, and exploded .
The impact forced that big monster down into the floor and kept it flat on the floor . But then a part of its lower armour suddenly peeled off and legs with wheels appeared under those peeled off armours .
It seemed that Akira was able to somehow stop that monster momentarily, but Elena immediately shouted at him .
“Keep running!!”
Akira immediately ran toward the stairs and was about to go down the stairs .
In that instant, a part of the monster’s big body peeled off, exposing the guns under it . On the next moment, it shot indiscriminately inside the room as if to make sure that it hit all nooks and crannies around it . Loud gunshots followed with a barrage of bullets filled the room, it hit everything indiscriminately, wall, floor, ceiling, and even the wreckage of the other monsters .
Akira, Elena, Sara, and Carol quickly jumped down the stairs and barely avoided the bullet storm . It was a rather intense situation .
They then hurried to catch up with s.h.i.+karabe who went down earlier . The situation below the 30th floor did not seem to have changed much, there were no extra monsters at all . And since they already destroyed most of the monsters on their way up, they were able to quickly and safely go down .
Sara was still running when she suddenly asked a question to Elena .
“Elena, did that huge monster not trigger your radar?”
Elena frowned .
“…Sadly enough, yes . Not only the sensitivity of my information-gathering device is lowered in this building, the dead monsters that we used to block the other hallway were also producing weak signals that might have interfered with my information-gathering device . I’m sorry . ”
It seemed that Elena felt responsible for that, Sara just smiled at her and replied .
“Don’t worry about it . If you couldn’t detect it, then there’s really nothing we can do about it . It’s not like I’m blaming you here, right Akira?”
Akira lightly smiled and agreed to what Sara just said .
“Yes, I agree with Sara-san . So please don’t worry about it . ”
Akira then sent a glance to Carol, who understood what Akira was trying to say .
Honestly speaking, she was not interested in blaming it on Elena at all, but at the same time, she also wanted to know why she could not detect a monster that big .
Back then, Carol noticed that Akira suddenly ran faster . If Akira did that because he knew about that big monster, it would mean that he was able to detect a monster that Elena could not . But then again, Akira’s surprise did not seem to be fake the moment he saw that monster .
Although she still had some questions, it was not the time to ask those questions . Carol held her curiosity back as she smiled at Elena and said .
“The fact that no one detected that huge monster means that it might have some kind of special camouflaging device that exploits the lowered sensitivity of our information-gathering device . Or maybe that the setting adjusted to help to detect the smaller monsters is not good at detecting big monsters . But if we readjust the setting to focus more on detecting big monsters, we will have trouble with the smaller monsters instead . So I think this is where it’s important to make a compromise, I’m just happy that we could survive that big monster without losing anyone . ”
After saying that, Carol checked Akira’s reaction . Akira seemed to be listening closely to her and nodded in agreement .
It seemed that she made the right decision there to even put up a reason as to why Elena was blameless in order to score some point with Akira . As Carol thought, Akira seemed to lack common knowledge for Hunters and he was showing interest in such a thing . After Carol was able to confirm that, she kept her poker face although she was smiling happily deep inside .
After Elena heard supportive words from her best friend that she was together with for years and a young boy that she got along well just recently, plus extra reasoning that Elena was pretty sure Carol said mostly for someone else, Elena pulled herself together and smiled . She sounded delighted as she said .
“Thank you, now I know that there is such a kind of monster too, I’ll be more careful next time . ”
Sara smiled satisfied seeing that Elena had cheered up .
“But still, how did a monster that big get inside the hallway? I wonder if that thing is a part of the security of this building . ”
Akira seemed interested in that subject too .
“It doesn’t seem to be an extra security monster though… Not to mention, with its size, I don’t think it can move around freely inside the hallway . Carol, do you have any guess? You’re pretty knowledgeable about the Seranthal building, right?”
Carol frowned and said .
“As far as I can tell, I don’t remember monsters like that guarding this building before . In the first place, with a body that big, I don’t think it’s possible for that monster to come from outside of the building… I really have no idea why that thing is in this building . ”
There was no one present who could answer that question . So they decided to just shelve it for now and move on .
They were able to reach the 19th floor and group up with s.h.i.+karabe without any trouble .
Reina and Togami were breathing heavily, compared to them, Akira looked completely normal . Rather than the difference in their physical strength, it was more because of the medicines that Akira kept consuming . But Reina and Togami, who saw Akira, could not help but misunderstand . They looked at Akira with a mix of surprise and amazement .
Elena then gave an order to everyone there .
“We’ll head out again after 5 minutes . Until then, make sure that you have everything ready . ”
Akira immediately checked his equipment . He pulled out reserve ammo from his rucksack and reloaded his rifle even if he only used it once . He also replaced the empty reserve magazines attached around his body, refilled the medicines in his pocket, and replaced the energy pack of his augmented suit .
While in the middle of doing that, Akira suddenly mumbled .
“…I used quite a lot of my reserve supply this time . ”
DVTS minigun extended magazine, CWH anti-material rifle special ammo, A4WM automatic grenade-launcher grenades-magazine, medicine, augmented suit energy pack–all of them were expensive consumables . But Akira did not remember wasting any of them, it was a necessary expense .
But still, when he imagined how much expense he had acc.u.mulated there, he could not help but to smile bitterly and lightly sigh .
Alpha then teasingly smiled at him .
“Just in case if you want to know, I can tell you how much you’ve spent until now . ”
“No thanks . ”
Akira answered back firmly . After all, if he was worried about the money that he used to fight the monsters, it might force him to pay that cost with his life later . He thought that he could worry about it later after he returned back alive .
“…It should be alright, I should be able to earn more money . Not to mention, I made quite a lot of money yesterday too . As for this request, Carol and Elena-san should have properly negotiated the details with the City Management . And since we successfully rescued Reina, I should get an extra reward from Drankam too, it should be alright . ”
Akira was telling himself that it should be fine . He should not think how many days the money that he spent this time would have bought in the inn where he once lived, or how many times he could eat in that luxurious restaurant that he visited once out of s.h.i.+ori’s invitation with the money that he spent that day . Akira kept telling himself not to think about it .
Alpha just smiled and said .
“You’re right, it should be alright, maybe . You should be able to end up with huge profits from this request . That’s why, if you want to get extra motivation, it should be alright to use the reward that you get this time to eat a meal in that luxurious restaurant where s.h.i.+ori invited you in the past . ”
“I know you’re saying that on purpose!!”
Akira tried his best not to show his emotion on his face .
Alpha smiled at Akira who was trying to keep his poker face and said to him .
“Oh my, that’s not true at all . I’m just saying that since I think it’s totally okay to reward yourself with something like that after working this hard . It’s not like I’m teasing you for taking this dangerous request from Elena without thinking much about the reward, you know . ”
Alpha was still smiling like usual next to Akira, while Akira just silently continued checking his equipment . His face only twitched for a bit in response to what Alpha said to him .