Chapter 10 (2/2)

Alongside M’s voice, the hovercraft’s speed decreased slightly. The sound of flying bullets could no longer be heard.

With a blank expression, she gazed at the surface of the flowing lake.

“…………”

“LLENN, you asleep?”

“No, I am fine…… Thank you very much for saving me.”

“Were you half asleep? You started using keigo.”

“Wha? Ah, yeah…… but, I’m sorry—— sorry. For doing nothing……”

“No need to apologise. I was negligent in observing our surroundings as well. Well, even if we were vigilant, it wouldn’t be that easy to see what’s 600 metres ahead of us. More so when our opponent is hiding.”

“Haah……”

The hovercraft continued moving.

Based on the position of the sun, all she knew was that they were heading south-west.

“M-san, what’re we going to do?”

“For the time being, we’ll put some distance between us and them until the next scan. And fully recover our hit points.”

LLENN moved her eyes, and gazed at the upper-left corner of her vision. Currently, her hit pointswere still recovering, just a bit away from 10 percent. Still red.

As for M, his decreased by a bit and was probably at eighty percent. Was it because of his st.u.r.dy body, or that he wasn’t shot at any critical points, or both?

“I’ll apply it on you too, M-san.”

“Thanks. It’s in the penholder on my left arm.”

LLENN applied it to the nape of M’s neck in his stead, who was using his right hand for driving. She got a short expression of grat.i.tude in return.

“I can’t believe that they were that close……”

As LLENN muttered, she remembered the shock of the sniping she had endured just moments ago,

“Uuuu…….”

And s.h.i.+vered slightly. While admiring that even the chills were reproduced in the VR game,

“Even though they were far away 10 minutes ago……”

She let out her honest impression.

“I was negligent as well. It’s the same as with this hovercraft. Those guys got their hands on some vehicle as well.”

“Ahh! So that’s it……”

“It’s only my guess, but when the game enters the final stage, they become easy to get in various spots to increase the speed of the teams. It’s probably either a four-wheel-drive car that can be used even in deserts and wastelands, or a truck. And, they are players that are skilled at driving them.”

“Uugh…… we’ve been negligent……”

“Don’t feel down. You really are a lucky girl after all.”

“W-why?”

“You didn’t die because of that sniper, right? 10 cm more, and it would be recognised as a hit to the heart or lungs and would have led to instant death.”

“Well, that’s true……”

“The enemy sniper was barely in range as well. He was at a range where he could only hit a still target.”

“But, M-san, you were hit too, right?”

“That was a fluke. Because I’m huge. I saw the Bullet Line, but it was aimed at my thigh, so I ignored it. It was also fortunate that the hovercraft with the two corpses had just come to sh.o.r.e.”

‘I see, M’s talking about the guys that were the most to the right when he sniped them’, LLENN understood.

“That sniper’s gun is a 7.62 mm cla.s.s, and the interval between firing was narrow, so it must be automatic, with a magazine that has at least 10 bullets. It’s more bothersome than a bolt-action, so don’t let your guard down.”

“Gotcha…… I absolutely won’t let my guard down until the end of the game anymore! I won’t be prideful either!”

“Yeah. That’s a reliable answer.”

‘What’s reliable is you, M-san.’

LLENN began to say and stopped. No matter how many words of grat.i.tude she offered, it wouldn’t be enough for M. She decided to hold on to it until SJ ended before saying it.

Instead, she enquired about his plan.

“Where are we headed now?”

“The south-west. We’ll be landing at the wilderness that you can see on the left-hand side right now.”

“Eeh?”

LLENN turned her head to the left, and saw the landscape. She discovered a wilderness of rocks and sand stretching about 300 metres away from surface of the red lake.

“Why? Wouldn’t it be better to head to the north-east and cross the lake and swamp? Our opponents are using a car, right? Won’t they come chasing after us?”

“That’s right, but we can’t. We don’t have much fuel left. There’s no guarantee that we’d be able to cross the lake and swamp.”

“Oh……”

‘Even a useful tool becomes a mere ornament if it runs out of fuel, huh’, LLENN gazed up at the sky.

Roughly 4 minutes ago——

At 14:59.

In the residential area, there was a gorgeous house far away from the houses on the ground. Atop the wide balcony on the third floor of the house,

“Found them! Tohma, get over here!”

A woman that was holding binoculars while lying on the ground shouted in a menacing, deep voice.

Her height was at least 180 cm, she had developed muscles, and her chest was bulky - she was a woman that looked like a female pro wrestler. If it wasn’t for her braided, brown hair hanging down to her left and right, it would probably be hard to even determine her gender. As for her age, she seemed to be easily past her mid-thirties.

She was wearing camouflage clothes, dotted in several shades of green.She had equipped a vestwith several magazine pouches.

“Where are they? Boss.”

A voice rang out from behind, and another woman crawled out into the balcony.

This one was slightly shorter, but even so, she was easily over 175 cm tall. Based on her appearance, she was slightly younger, but nonetheless she was a fine adult. She had the same camouflage and equipment on her slender body. Underneath her green knit cap was her black short cut hair.

A Russian-made sniper ≪Dragunov≫ was held in the hands of the woman named Tohma. It was a sniper which represented the old Eastern Bloc, and had a characteristic silhouette that looked slender and elegant. Its ammunition were 7.62x54 mmR(1) rounds. A semi-auto gun that could fire every time the trigger was pulled. As for its scope, it didn’t use the quadruple magnification one that is typically used on a Dragunov, but a larger and rougher looking one that could magnify three-fold to nine-fold. It came with an exclusive bipod in front of its magazine.

While pointing to the north-west over the balcony’s guardrail with her left hand, the woman called ‘Boss’ said,

“Do you see the point where the lake sh.o.r.e turns to a road? One minute to the left of thesilhouette of the crashed s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p.”

Tohma nimbly unfolded the bipod of her Dragunov, and a.s.sumed a p.r.o.ne posture on the floorboard of the balcony.

“Two people sighted. A chibi in dusky-pink, and a giant in a camouflage pattern.”

Boss used the rangefinder of her binoculars and,

“That’s them. 623 metres to the chibi. ——It’s far, can you do it?”

“I can! It’s our chance!”

“Alright! Begin with the small target.”

“Roger.”

Tohma turned the dial on the right side of her scope, and raised her magnification to the maximum. In the magnified, circular field of vision, the playful pink-coloured enemy became bigger.

Boss’s voice could be heard.

“Everyone, listen up. Tohma will snipe the chibi. Rosa and Sophie, prepare your machine guns. They’re on the north-west lake sh.o.r.e. On my command, fire like crazy. Anna, search for other enemy members and, if possible, shoot them. Tanya, check the satellite scan.”

‘Roger’, four female voices answered over the communication item. This was proof that there were still six members remaining, in other words, it was a full member squad, and that all of them were female characters.

And so, the clock struck 15 o’clock.

In the field of vision of Boss’s binoculars, the pink chibi and camouflage-patterned giant man became bigger, and a map was displayed from the satellite scan terminal.

The fact that they expanded a large map in front of them was proof that they weren’t watching out for approaching enemies.

Boss’s mouth opened widely to the side, exposing her canines.

“Those guys sure will be surprised. ——Tohma?”

Tohma aligned the Bullet Circle in the lower-right part of her scope with the pink target. Thecircle contracted based on her heartbeats, but the flickering was really gradual, and at its largest, it almost entirely covered the pink chibi’s body.

“Preparations complete.”

“Do it.”

Right after the command was given, before her heart began beating faster in excitement, Tohma waited for the timing when the circle was at its smallest, and then squeezed the trigger.

The Dragunov roared, and its long and narrow body sprang up sharply, as if it was. .h.i.t by a whip. An empty sh.e.l.l was expelled to the right.

The fired bullet flew, piercing the wall of air and——

And flung up the small pink body 3 metres into the air.

“Bullseye! Nice skill you have Tohma! After the game, I’ll treat you to a piece of purin(2)!”

Boss’s cheerful voice reached all her party members, and Tohma replied,

“If possible, I want a second!”

And fired for the second time.

It was a bullet aimed for the giant man. The Bullet Circle was perfectly focused on his body, but the bullet missed. Because the giant man rushed over to the chibi with nimble movements.

“s.h.i.+-!”

Tohma continued firing as she aligned her the Bullet Circle with the moving giant man. However, her pulse rose in excitement, consequently increasing the speed of contraction and size of the circle, thus the bullets continued missing.

The giant man suddenly grabbed the chibi with his right hand, put her on his right shoulder, and proceeded to the lake. There was a drifting hovercraft there.

“Like h.e.l.l I’m letting you!”

Tohma continued firing. 1 bullet somehow hit the giant man’s right thigh, and created a red hiteffect.

However, that did not stop the giant man’s movement. He mercilessly kicked away the two corpses on the hovercraft, threw the chibi to the back seat, and the driver’s seat himself.

Tohma’s 10th bullet raised a waterspout on the side of the hovercraft. The fact that the bolt that would move back and forth each time she fired stopped at the lower position indicated that her remaining bullets numbered zero. At the same moment,

“Boss. Their position is the lake sh.o.r.e. One of the two is the leader.”

Came the voice of Tanya, who had been looking at the scan. Boss immediately gave the order.

“Machine guns, fire.”

The next moment, a roar sprung forth from two windows of the third floor of a mansion.

From a child’s bedroom, and a back room.

At the windows of the two rooms were two women, who had set up ≪PKM≫ machine guns onbipods, and their atrocious muzzles continued emitting fire towards the lake.

These were also Russian-made machine guns that used the same bullets as the Dragunov. They were masterpieces designed by Mikhail Kalas.h.i.+nikov-s.h.i.+, the person who created the AK a.s.sault rifle series; PK were the initials for „Kalas.h.i.+nikov machine gun“(3), while M was the initial for “modernised”.

The PKMs continued firing several bullets at a time. From the case attached under the gun, ammunition tied to a belt flowed from right to left, the bullets went forwards, while the empty sh.e.l.ls and empty belt were spit out to the left.

The bullets flew towards the escaping hovercraft. In the field of vision of her binoculars, Bosssaw numerous waterspouts in the surroundings of the hovercraft, but there weren’t any bullets that hit the target.

“Hold your fire! ——It’s unfortunate, but it seems we let them get away.”

The two machine guns stopped roaring, and the world suddenly turned silent.

“Boss. The scan position is moving atop the lake.”

Came Tanya’s voice. While peeking through her binoculars, Boss asked,

“Anna, did you see any other enemies?”

“No, Boss. I could not spot any.”

“Me neither. ——So, the odds that that group only has two members left is high, huh.”

Boss continued following the hovercraft, which was raising white-crested waves and going into the distance, until it disappeared.

“Those guys escaped to the south-west. There is a possibility that this is a trick, but the lack of fuel is a more likely case.”

As Boss put her binoculars to her waist pouch, she said in a calm tone.

“From this point, we’ll be heading to the north-western part of the wilderness. Everyone, gather at the truck.”

The team that was given the name „foxtrot“ some time ago——

Boarded the large truck stopped at the back of the mansion one by one.

To go after and take down their last prey.

15:06.

The place that LLENN and M landed at after finis.h.i.+ng their seemingly elegant cruise on the lake was the south-western area, a wilderness of rock and sand.

Light brown ground already began with the bank of the lake, and it suddenly turned rugged. Naturally, it wasn’t something that the hovercraft could traverse through. Even if it did, there was barely any fuel left.

On the water, LLENN applied a second first-aid kit on herself. Her hit point recovery seemed to be nearly over. And yet, she only had sixty percent of her full state. She would probably need to use another one. Having abandoned their hovercraft at the bank, LLENN and M surveyed their surroundings vigilantly.

The wilderness was almost flat. There were oval rocks of various sizes throughout it. Starting with rocks that were 1 metre large in every direction, to large ones that were likely 5 metrestall. Because of this, there were plenty of places to hide in.

There weren’t any hilly areas, on the contrary, if they climbed on a rock, they would be able to see reasonably far away.

It depended on the height of the rock that one would climb, and the height of other rocks in the surroundings, but it seemed that they could be used to see about 300 metres away. The ground full of pebbles lost to the paved road in terms of hardness, but it was better as a foothold.

“It’s not bad as a place to fight. We can defend here, and we can snipe from atop a rock. The same applies to the enemy team, but we have LLENN’s agility for that.”

M said.

“And cars can’t pa.s.s through here, right.”

LLENN answered in agreement. She searched the surroundings as far as her monocle allowed, but she could not see any enemy figures for the time being.

As the healing of the second first-aid kit was over, LLENN applied the last one to the nape of her neck. LLENN no longer had any more of them, but their enemy probably wasn’t that kind to let them use any more of them anyway.

“Let’s head west. We’ll get away from the hovercraft a bit, and wait for the scan with our backs facing the water.”

Agreeing with M’s proposal, LLENN began slowly walking. There was the possibility that their opponents were chasing them by using the remaining hovercrafts, thus she constantly looked at the lake surface, but she could not see anything.

And so, it was 15:08.

The two hid in the shadow of a large rock, and decided to wait out the remaining 2 minutes.

‘My hit points aren’t full, but I recovered most of them. And, I won’t let my guard down next time!’

“Ah! That reminds me……”

LLENN remembered. That before the 15 o’clock scan, M had taken out a writing paper and tried reading it. Since they were under fire, he should have left it unsettled.

“Say, M-san——”

LLENN turned around towards M, who was crouching at a place about 10 metres away from here,

“Like, didn’t you try reading something like a letter some time ago? Are you sure it’s okay?”

“Ah!”

Based on M’s seriously surprised face, it seemed that he had completely forgotten about it.

“Thanks for reminding me. I was told to read it at exactly 15 o’clock.”

M took out the writing paper from his arm pocket, opened it, and began reading.

Feeling relieved, LLENN returned her glance from M’s face to watching the surroundings. She had to protect M while he was reading the letter.

She was interested in who the letter was from, and what was written on it, but since it was a breach of manners to peek at someone else’s letter, even if this was a virtual world. LLENN only admired that someone would write a letter and carry it even in a VR game.

What stretched out in her field of vision was a wilderness of rocks and pebbles. The P90 in her hands was ready to fire at any time.

She took out two new magazines from her storage, thus, including the one equipped on her gun, she was back to seven on her body.

Using the opportunity, she materialised the two plasma grenades that she had added to herstorage just in case, and hung them at the back of her left waist.

During the next battle, she’ll definitely shoot them up. Even if she died, she’d take down one or two, as many as she could. If she realised that she was done for, she’d press the switch of thegrenades on her waist and charge at them.

While calmly building up her war spirit, and sharpening her five senses, LLENN waited for thescan, when she heard the sound of M putting away the letter behind her.

And she heard the sound of footsteps.

LLENN realised again that there were pebbles underneath them, and that footsteps were clearly audible. They could probably be heard even if they were several metres away. She’d better not carelessly move around when ambus.h.i.+ng at this place.

*Saku*, *saku*, M’s footsteps could be heard. They were coming towards her. The time on her wrist.w.a.tch was 15:09.

‘Does he want to have a strategy meeting and show the map? Or is this about the letter?’

While having these thoughts, LLENN suddenly turned around——

“Eeh?”

M’s stood 2 metres ahead of her, held his HK45 with just his right hand, and was aiming the muzzle directly at her face.

“Sorry.”

M fired.

LLENN clearly saw how the HK45’s large muzzle shone.

NOTES

1. ^ 7.62×54mmR is a rimmed rifle cartridge developed by the Russian Empire for the bolt-action Mosin-Nagant rifle, and is still used nowadays for sniper rifles like the Dragunov, and some other guns. The R in mmR stands for ”rimmed”.

2. ^ j.a.panese name for creme caramel or custard pudding.

3. ^ In Russian, Пулемёт Калашникова (Pulemyot Kalashnikova). Technically, it means “Kalas.h.i.+nikov’s (possessive case) machine gun”.

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