Vol 3 Chapter 7 (2/2)

It was a rather large room, about 10 square metres in size.

Inside were four firm-looking, wooden single beds lined up along the wall.

Additionally, there was a closet, a sofa, as well as a fireplace at a corner of the window. Part of the room served as the kitchen. The room, just like the entirety of the building, was very lovely. It looked like visitors could lodge here even now.

The room was located to the east of a staircase in the middle of the log house.

On a wall not covered by logs hung a large picture──

A 『Geyser park map』 was placed there. It introduced the area of gra.s.s and water on the east side of the log house and explained how deep each pond was, the intervals at which water spouted from each geyser, and how high the water would reach; all of it was in English, of course, but it was explained in detail.

Atop one of the beds lay Pitohui. The hit effect on her right eye had already disappeared, but her eyes were still closed.

At the top left corner of their field of vision, M and the others could see that Pitohui's hit pointshad already recovered past fifty percent. The bar was yellow. It would still take a few minutes to fully recover.

And, most importantly,

”Oi, get up. We don't have the time for you to lose consciousness.”

Despite M addressing her and slightly hitting her on the cheeks, Pitohui remained asleep.

PM4 was put in its biggest predicament yet.

Pitohui was sniped and fainted due to getting too excited. They safely retreated to the log house to make preparations, but thus far, all of this did not prove much of a problem.

The second floor of the log house had a splendid line of sight, so they could see farther away than lying on the plains, and could aim farther.

Hindering s.h.i.+NC and LLENN, who were probably coming from the south and north, would have been simple with their machine gun and sniper rifles. In fact, M had shot the shoulder of a female sniper who carelessly revealed her upper body.

Holding their ground here, awaiting Pitohui's full recovery, and, afterwards, borrowing her power to continue the battle.

To M and the three masked men, the plan had sufficient odds of succeeding.

That did not account for MMTM's unexpected intrusion and break-in.

There was no point in regretting it now, but they should have foreseen that cars would appear.

”No dice! Returning to you for now!”

The voice of M's comrade with the machine gun reached his ears. He was in one piece. However, a large machine gun was awfully disadvantageous in close quarters combat indoors.

They were being put in a more and more disadvantageous situation, but,

”Alright.”

Nevertheless, that did not mean that they could just do nothing and be killed.

M instantly thought of the next best plan and conveyed it to his three comrades. Currently, the UTS-15 shotgun user was atop the central stairway, while the tall man was in the corridor in front of the room. The machine gunner was running towards him through that corridor right about now.

”We're gonna use the central stairway as our line of defence. That's the only stairway in the building.”

While saying this, M operated his storage with his left hand. He materialised a large number of grenades. Not plasma grenades, which were just as dangerous to them with all that power in such a confined s.p.a.ce, but regular fragmentation grenades.

”No matter what it takes, don't let them get up to the second floor.”

He began materialising grenades one by one, and while waiting for that to finish, M drew out the 《HK45》 pistol from his right thigh holster. After confirming that it was loaded, he returned it to its holster. He intended to fight not with his M14 EBR, but with the pistol.

At that moment.

”M-san── I know that our agreement was to 〝follow orders without asking questions〟, but can I ask a question?”

The not-so-talkative tall man asked a question as he went into the room while materialising a Savage 110BA from his own storage.

”Yeah. Sure.”

”Alright, then I'll ask. ──What is Pitohui-san to you, M-san?”

At this awfully unexpected question,

”Hah?”

M's thoughts came to a halt. The tall man turned his face, hidden under the mask and goggles, straight at M,

”Umm, I mean── is she someone that you want to protect that much, is what I'd like to know.”

”…………Yeah!”

After a moment of silence, he firmly answered in agreement.

This also reached the ears of the other two men.

”Hu──”

The tall man… smiled. In front of him, the Savage 110BA and its magazines materialised and fell to the floor.

”You heard him guys. It's our time to s.h.i.+ne.”

In response to the tall man, the shotgun user,

”Now yer talkin'!”

And then the machine gunner on the way back,

”You got it!”

Responded in excitement.

The tall man took out his Glock 21 from its holster and reloaded its magazine. With a 25-round long magazine that stuck far out from the .45 caliber pistol's grip.

”We'll be sure to block off the stairs for a while, so in the meantime, M-san, please wake up our sleeping beauty. Once you do, we'll leave the rest to the princess. We'll be waiting for her order to 〝kill everyone〟.

Once he said what he wanted, the tall man suddenly turned around.

And left the room.

The video in the bar displayed MMTM's merciless room clearing.

As if they were actually 〝cleaning〟, they swept through the building where their enemies lurked; it was a close combat technique.

One man continued covering the corridor while the remaining five entered the room one by one and, the moment they were in, they thrust their a.s.sault rifles forward like blades to cover each other's blind spots. It need not be said that they would fire the instant they saw anyone.

After checking a room, they once again stepped out into the corridor, and while keeping watch on their surroundings through the windows, broke into the next room. They did not stop.

The members of MMTM finished inspecting the two small guest rooms and the rather big room that looked like an office on the the first floor.

They pa.s.sed by the stairs in the middle of the building, leaving one of their men to stand guard as they broke into the remaining rooms. Just like that, they were done clearing the first floor of the building.

All that time, they remained silent.

The spectators in the bar did not know when and at what moment the grand indoor battle would begin, thus they watched on, swallowing their saliva.

And so, MMTM came to the central stairway.

Who would take the lead during their a.s.sault was dependent on their current formation. Aside from the machine gunner Jake, any one of them could be the vanguard.

The SCAR-L macho man had just been the vanguard and Samon was providing support in the corridor, thus the ones who charged into the hall as the vanguard were the two G36K users, the black-haired Kenta, and the sungla.s.ses-wearing Lax.

The stairway in the centre of the building was about 3 metres wide. It began from the first floor corridor (north) side, had a large landing midway, then continued up to the second floor after a 180 degree turn.

The two men climbing up the stairs with their muzzles aimed upwards,

*Pakon!*

Were a.s.sailed by a rain of shots.

”Yeah…… they're in a fight……”

It had been tens of seconds since MMTM broke into the log house.

LLENN was peeking through her monocle from the same spot as before. Through the windows, she got glimpses of MMTM's camouflage uniforms, and understood that they were entering and then leaving the rooms.

And then finally, when they moved to the center of the building, she heard m.u.f.fled gunshots and saw something s.h.i.+ning inside.

”LLENN, it would be pointless for you to go into a place like that.”

At f.u.kaziroh's calm voice that sounded like a reb.u.t.tal,

”I-I know that! I know……”

LLENN responded as if she were admonis.h.i.+ng herself.

Right now, even if she entered that place, it was obvious that she could not make use of the fight to go after and bring down Pitohui.

No, if she carelessly approached the log house, there was even a chance of being sniped by the members of MMTM. They still had six people alive, and they were undoubtedly formidable.

Currently, LLENN──

'G.o.d sorry please protect Pito-san till I bring her down myself!'

Could only pray that Pitohui's side would win, even if she were the only survivor of the PM4 versus MMTM battle.

”They're upstairs, just as I thought.”

Kenta spoke out for the first time, informing his comrades.

Simultaneously, Lax continued aiming up the stairs for suppressing fire. The two returned to bottom of the stairs, prepared for a hand grenade to come from above.

The two almost predicted that the enemy would come shooting down the stairs.

Forcibly rus.h.i.+ng in was not their way of fighting──

〝Based on the structure of the stairway, if we stick our heads out a bit, the enemy upstairs will probably come down shooting.〟

With this in mind, it was natural to intentionally pretend to run up the stairs to draw out the enemy's fire. Just like what happened moments ago.

The short man who 〝fired〟 his UTS-15,

”Hah! Not bad!”

Praised the enemy, pulling the foregrip of his angular shotgun backwards and expelling an empty sh.e.l.l.

”But, this will buy time.”

Next to the man who muttered this, the large machine gunner was working on something while crouching.

His work was forming a roll out of the large number of grenades that M had taken out, using a dull gray and highly adhesive tape called duct tape.

Duct tape was far more adhesive than j.a.panese gummed tape; Americans used it for any kind of repair work, and at times for other uses.

Even in GGO, it was one of the items that everyone had at least one of on them, as if it were only natural. This was to such an extent that there were even players who were awakened to how useful the tape was, and thus bought it IRL by mail order to use it.

With intricate finger movements that were unbefitting of his build, the man linked twelve grenades into a row by using the duct tape, creating an approximately 2 metre-long 〝hand grenade rope〟 . Finally, he wrapped the tape around the safety pins so that they could all be removed at the same time when pulled.

Then, he put that on his large body like a belt so that it would not fall off his body. He wrapped the tip of the tape for pulling out the safety pins around his right hand, grasped it tightly,

”Well, I leave the rest to you.”

And, stating this lightheartedly as if he were asking to turn off the lights, ran loudly down the stairs.

Kenta and Lax, who were at the ready at the bottom of the stairs──

Despite being surprised by the man suddenly coming down the stairs, the moment he exposed himself at the landing, they fired their G36Ks simultaneously.

It was a quick semi-auto barrage. About 5 bullets went into the man's body, but he had crossed his arms in front of his face and was wearing a bulletproof plate on his chest, thus that alone was not enough to result in his death.

While running down the stairs,

”Uoryaa!”

With a yell, the masked man forcibly pulled his right hand, taking out the safety pins of all the hand grenades on his body.

Kenta and Lax immediately realised.

That he was a special suicide bombing soldier.

If the enemy had simply dropped a hand grenade from above, the two could have escaped.

So, the man's plan was to wrap them around his body and run out. Even if he were shot several times, he planned to continue running during the few seconds before his hit points fell to zero, and he exploded.

If that happened, neither they nor their teammates would escape unscathed.

However, even if they sacrificed one of their own to stop the man, it did not seem like they could stop the kinetic energy of his large physique descending the stairs. If they tried ramming into him, they would be the ones blown away.

'Then, what should we do?'

The two men instantly and simultaneously came up with the answer, and simultaneously took action.

The two pointed their G36Ks 3 metres, or about five steps, upwards──

And focused on the man's left ankle that had just stepped there.

The 2 G36Ks made well-matched roars as the 5.56 mm bullets they fired were soaked up by the man's black boots.

In an instant, several bullets made contact with the narrow area of the ankle, and it was torn off. Unable to support the man's weight, his foot was separated from the s.h.i.+n.

”Ga?”

The man, trying to step forward with his right foot in order to support his left, inclined greatly to the left. He then collapsed sideways atop the stairs and slid down the remaining three steps.

Kenta and Lax ran away by hopping to the left and right,

”c.r.a.p, they got me.”

The man, no longer able to give chase, groaned a single phrase as he was enveloped in consecutive explosions from the hand grenades on his body. His upper body was engulfed in red effects and shattered.

*Zuzuzuzuzuzuzuzun*, an explosion resounded throughout the entire building, and hearing that,

”…………”

M, still standing, looked down at the face of the sleeping beauty on the bed.

The well-featured face, engraved with a tattoo, was quietly breathing in slumber.

He had already applied a third first-aid kit; her hit points continued to rise gradually and had already pa.s.sed seventy percent. It would probably reach the green state soon.

M no longer attempted to awaken Pitohui.

He neither hit her cheeks, nor called her, nor did anything else of the sort.

He just remained silent, quietly waiting.

The voice of the short man reached his ears.

”M-san. It seems that our suicide attack was quite the failure. But, well, I'll be buying time next. No need to worry!”

And then, seconds later, he could hear the sound of the UTS-15 shotgun's grand rapid-fire through the logs.

Then the sound of several a.s.sault rifles that were hiding there tearing a single man to pieces.

M did not look at his comrade's hit points. He did not need them to know how many were left.

MMTM prepared their formation and, at the exact moment they were about to charge upstairs──

A masked man continuously firing his UTS-15 ran down the stairs.

Immediately, Samon, who had moved to the vanguard, pounded away with his SCAR-L.

Although he managed to land a few shots on his target's chest, he had also been hit in the feet by some shots and toppled over on the spot. His hit points decreased by twenty percent.

If this were a one-on-one battle, Samon would probably suffer a finis.h.i.+ng round of shots and die, but,

”Uraa!” ”Hah!” ”Tah!”

If Kenta and Lax, as well as the leader behind them, simultaneously added their firepower, the short man would be unable to continue his next attack.

His left hand, which handled the pump action, was shot, thus the man was left with no way to counterattack.

Hit effects sparkled throughout his body, and he turned into a corpse while still standing.

Then, he collapsed, slipping down the stairs while leaning forward, and stopped at the spot where the large man had exploded and scattered.

Just as the 【Ｄｅａｄ】 marker lit up, the restoration of a large body began, creating a human shape with its limbs in place.

It regained the form of a corpse belonging to the man who died first, and the body landed heavily atop the short man.

”That sure looks heavy……”

Bold muttered shortly.

'Alright, get up!'

The leader's final command via hand signs.

Kenta and Lax, Bold and the leader behind them, as well as Samon, who had risen after being shot, all ran up the stairs at once.

Stairways were one of the most dangerous places in indoor battles. Especially when they had to attack from below, as was their current situation. If a plasma grenade were dropped, the whole team could even be wiped out.

Thus, once they decided to climb up, speed was life. They had no choice but to instantly run up as a team and take control of the upstairs area.

The men of MMTM went beyond the landing, saw the second floor──

And saw a bed sliding down.

”Uwa” ”Aah?” ”Uhh” ”Hah?”

Even the members of MMTM were surprised by this.

Because a wooden single bed, turned sideways, slid down from the top while bouncing due to the stairs.

One by one, the lower bodies of the four men were rammed by the bed──

And pushed back to the landing by that force.

Then, their backs. .h.i.t the log wall, being sandwiched by the bed.

Their feet, lower bodies, and rifles were caught by it. They also suffered some damage, albeit very minuscule.

”Hah!”

At the exceedingly unexpected attack, a smile subconsciously appeared on the sandwiched leader's face.

And when he raised his head, he saw a tall, masked man standing at the top of the stairs.

Above the man's head, a single bed was being held up.

”Wha?”

And at that moment, it was thrown. At them.

The masked men of PM4, and the bed attack by the last of them with terrifyingly superhuman strength,

”…………” ”…………”

Was broadcast to the bar as well, and the spectators were all dumbfounded.

From the room right beside the stairs, while his comrades were being brought down, the man took out two beds.

'I see, so when you raise your Strength high enough, you can do something like that, huh', everyone learnt something new.

”Long ago…… I think there was a video game where a large gorilla threw barrels from above……”

Someone said.

Another bed, identical to the first, landed atop the one that sandwiched the four men on the log house's landing.

The dull sound of wood cras.h.i.+ng into wood resounded,

”Guhah!” ”Oooh!” ”Buh!” ”Gah!”

Followed by the helpless shrieks of the squashed men. Damage was registered again. Though it could not possibly be enough to kill them.

While being sandwiched, the leader saw.

That the man who threw the two beds had quickly drawn a Glock from his hip holster.

And how he mercilessly and slowly pointed his black pistol with the long magazine at them. Of course, he would probably fire out all of his bullets.

The tall man took a step closer to improve his aim. He stood at the edge of the stairs.

Before the man could fire,

”Jake! Now!”

The leader shouted.

Naturally, the tall man also heard his voice,

”!”

His aim with the Glock… faltered slightly. The Bullet Lines coming from his muzzle went from the four people, whose movements were sealed, to the corner of the landing.

However, a new enemy… did not appear there. Instead──

*Doka doka doka doka doka doka doka*.

One by one, holes opened up on the board the man was standing on.

The bullets that came from below pierced the man's feet and body one by one. Red hit effectsbegan s.h.i.+ning from his lower body.

”Nuu……”

The tall man let out an anguish-filled groan and, while being shot, aimed his Glock at the MMTM leader, and fired 1 bullet.

The .45 caliber bullet hit the bed in front of the leader, and its wooden frame caused a small wound on his cheek.

”Uooooooraah!”

The man underneath, Jake, pounded away with his beloved HK21 machine gun from the first floor.

Holding it with both hands, he raised the muzzle overhead and pulled the trigger. He unleashed a full auto rapid-fire.

The bullets on the belt coming from the ammunition box were sucked in and fired out with a roar. The bullets pierced the first floor ceiling boards, pierced the heat insulation in between, and then pierced the floorboards of the second floor.

*Kachin*.

The moment the last of the 50 bullets on the ammunition belt had been exhausted, the man standing there turned into a corpse.

As the 【Ｄｅａｄ】 marker popped up, the tall man collapsed.

”Jake! Dodge!”

Hearing the leader's voice,

”Hah!”

Jake took a step back.

Piercing the ravaged floor, the corpse fell down to where he had been standing.

”Uhya!”

Gun shots from a machine gun resounded beyond the log wall and his comrade's hit pointsturned to zero instantly.

M's large body was kneeling beside the bed.

Among the four beds lined up westward, atop the second bed from the window, the sleeping beauty had her eyelids closed.

”…………”

M lifted up a plasma grenade from the floor. The timer was set rather long, at 5 seconds.

His lips… moved quietly, forming words.

”You…… saved…… me……”

Tears flowed from his eyes and dripped on the plasma grenade.

”Thanks.”

M slowly inclined his large body──

And placed a short kiss on the sleeping beauty's lips.

Then, he returned to his former position and quietly pulled the explosion switch of the plasma grenade on his left palm.

This event was not broadcast to the bar.

The members of MMTM,

'Hold on!'

'Sorry!'

Were conducting a rescue of the four men sandwiched on the landing.

While the leader, who was released first, and Samon, who had not been sandwiched in, were pus.h.i.+ng the beds, the remaining three members were released one by one. During that time, having reloaded his HK21, Jake was standing at a corner of the landing, aiming upstairs.

A few seconds later, when all of them regained their freedom of movement and quickly finished checking on their beloved guns,

'Alright, we're going up!'

The moment they were about to climb over the bed and rush to the second floor, following the leader's hand signs.

A roar that seemed like it made the whole building shake resounded and hit their earlobes.

'A plasma grenade explosion? Where?'

Instantly, they all had the exact same idea.

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