Chapter 1 - Akira and Alpha (2/2)

It had been quite a while since then and Akira was still frozen there as he couldn’t process the situation that he was in. But even so, nothing bad has happened to him, so he was slowly able to regain his composure. And once he has calmed down to a certain extent, his focus changed from the empty s.p.a.ce and back to the girl’s face.

The girl who noticed that just smiled back to Akira.

“Are you okay? Can you see me? Can you hear my voice? Where am I? Who are you?”

Akira who had calmed himself down had regained his composure enough to answer those questions, so he answering her questions while looking at her with suspicion.

“…I can see you, I can hear you well, this place is Kuzusuhara ruin, and my name is Akira…”

The girl laughed merrily.

“Thank goodness, my name is Alpha, nice to meet you”

At least he knew that she didn’t seem to have any ill will against him. Although it didn’t change the fact that she’s a mysterious ent.i.ty to him, he understood well that she didn’t mean him any harm, so there’s no need for him to be overly cautious about her. Moreover, he’s in the middle of a ruin, its better if he put his attention for watching out for Monsters. As Akira concluded his thought, he lowered his guard.

“…So, Alpha-san, you’re not a ghost… Right…? I can’t touch you though…”

“…Yep, I’m not a ghost, though it’s not easy if you tell me to prove that. If I am to explain this current condition that you’re in. The me that you see here is a type of augmented reality. You recognize my existence here since the information about my voice and my appearance are sent directly into your brain. For some reason, your brain has the ability to receive information sent through wireless transmission in a special format, so that’s why you can receive the information that I’m transmitting. I don’t know whether it’s an inherent ability that you have since you were born, or is it an ability that you got from somewhere else. But for me too, I don’t hear your voice from the sound made by your vocal cord, but instead, I’m receiving the command that your brain is sending to your vocal cord in form of information packets, and then I’m interpreting it to voice. The same thing is also happening for your vision. That’s also the reason why I know that you can see me.”

Akira didn’t understand even a shred of Alpha’s explanation; Alpha could see that clearly from his expression. So Alpha explained the main points only.

“You’re the only one who can see me; you’re also the only one who can hear my voice. If you’re not careful, you’ll look like a crazy boy talking with air to other people. For now, it’s all good as long as you understand that. And also, you can call me Alpha and I will call you Akira.”

Alpha was giggling as she was giving Akira her explanations. For a small kid from the slum like him, that smile that had no trace of hatred, caution, or pity only served to increase her likeability, but Akira didn’t realize that at all.

“…Alright, sure… I understand. So then, Alpha, what are you doing in this place?”

“I’m looking for someone who can see and hear me. I actually have a request, you see. But I can’t ask them to do anything if they can’t even hear me in the first place, you know. And it would be the best if that person is a hunter, after all, there’s a good chance that they would listen to my request. But well, as you can see, it didn’t go well at all.”

Alpha laughed bitterly for a bit.

Akira was at lost for a while before he hesitantly opened his mouth.

“Well, uhh, I’m actually a hunter, you know…”

Akira could see clearly that Alpha was a bit surprised.

“Eh? You’re a hunter? Although you’re that young? How long have you been a hunter?”

“O-one”

“One year?”

“…One day, I just became a hunter today…”

Both Akira and Alpha were exchanging an awkward look. There’s an awkward silence between them.

“…Nope, it’s nothing. Just forget what I said”

Since he had decided to live his life as a hunter, he had no wish to hide the fact that he’s a hunter. But, he thought that it was a bad idea to call himself a hunter despite the fact he didn’t have the skill. After realizing that, he lost all his confidence.

But Alpha kept pus.h.i.+ng the conversation forward.

“Please don’t say that, can you at least please listen to my story? After all, this must be some kind of fate that we met here,”

Even though he called himself a hunter, Akira didn’t have the skill, and Alpha knew that very well. But it’s also true that there’s no one else other than him who could communicate with her. Moreover, the fact that Akira was just an inexperienced hunter was not a minus point in the long run for Alpha.

“My request is that for you to delve into a certain ruin in secret. In exchange, I’ll give you my support, but this is only a down payment. Once you complete my request, you may take all the precious relics of the old world inside that ruin”

Akira was so surprised by that offer that he inadvertently raised his voice.

“Relics of the old world, you say…? Seriously!?”

As she heard Akira’s reaction, Alpha giggled inside his heart, while on the outside, she’s making a friendly smile that persuaded Akira further.

“Of course. Or more like, to be honest, you’ve used all your life worth of luck to get this offer, so if you don’t accept it, it’ll be bad for you, you know? After all, you’ve already run out of luck, so you won’t be able to survive for long without my support.”

The cynical side inside Akira was screaming at him that Alpha was trying to trick him. But to Akira, Alpha didn’t look like trying to trick him at all.

[…First of all, there’s nothing that she can get from tricking a little kid like me, right? She should have known that since I don’t have any money at all with me. Or is it that she’s just playing a prank on me? Moreover, even if she’s being serious about her offer, is it really okay to accept a request from an unknown ent.i.ty like her?]

After hesitating there, Akira realized what he should’ve realized right from the start and tried to rethink his current situation. It’s exactly because she’s an unknown ent.i.ty who strangely enough would come to him with a request, so there must be some kind of secret or a particular situation behind it. But normally, no one would offer a request to a kid like him. That’s why; he knew that he should grab this opportunity. And so Akira hardened his resolve and said to Alpha.

“I understand. I still don’t know how far I should go for your request, but I’ll accept that request.”

Akira resolved himself so much that he himself was surprised by it, which was his first time as a hunter accepting a request.

Alpha looked so happy hearing that.

“That will conclude our contact then. Now, I’ll immediately start giving you my support as my down payment to you.”

And so, Alpha who was always giggling during their conversation suddenly changed into a serious mood.

“If you don’t want to die, then go into the building on your right in 10 seconds.”

“What do you mean…?”

Akira was about to ask her what she meant. But from that dead serious look on her face indicating she would not be take any question, he understood just how dangerous the situation that he was in and stopped his question middle way. If that wasn’t a lie, then he would definitely get killed if he stayed there. Once he realized that, he sprinted as fast as he could to the building on his right.

The moment Akira jumped into the building. A huge explosion blew off behind him, the wind from that explosion rushed through his side. Shocked by the explosion, he immediately looked back to where the explosion came from. He saw a huge crater right where he was standing a few seconds ago, the area around it was scorched in black from the explosion. If he stayed there just a few more seconds, there’s no mistaking it that he would have been killed, at least he knew well that much looking from the aftermath.

Akira was frozen with fear from what just happened. But Alpha appeared so suddenly in front of his eyes and snapped him back into reality.

“W-what was that…?”

Alpha kept that serious expression from before as she pointed her finger to the stairs.

“Go there and start climbing up in 8 seconds.”

Akira desperately ran toward the stairs and started climbing up. Then again, another explosion blew off behind him and the shockwave sent by that explosion stopped Akira from climbing higher. Once it died down, he immediately started climbing up again, and then he suddenly saw Alpha already standing on one of the stairs while pointing upward.

“Go to the rooftop in 5 seconds…”

Akira ignored his screaming lungs and legs as he kept climbing the stairs.

Akira followed Alpha’s instruction and kept running, and then he finally reached the rooftop. Out of breath, there he saw Alpha standing in one end as she was waving at him, telling him to come closer. But by looking on how she was smiling and how she was waving at him, it didn’t seem like he had to do that in a hurry, so Akira ran slowly to approach her.

Alpha then pointed her finger below. Akira was baffled, he though she’s telling him to jump down, but then Alpha said while smiling.

“Be carefully looking down below. Make sure to do it slowly and quietly, okay?”

Akira slowly and carefully peeked down as ordered by Alpha. His face immediately turned pale, what he saw down there were Monsters who attacked him just now, they roaming around as if they’re looking for something.

The length of those Monsters was about 2 meters and they looked like dogs. If it was only that, they would look like just big dogs with strengthened muscles, but no, some of those Monsters had small cannons on their back, some of them had rockets, and some of them had small missile launcher. All of these Monsters equipped with destructive weapons were roaming outside looking to eradicate any invaders.

It would make him a lot of money if he could kill those Monsters and bring some of them back home. But Akira didn’t have the power or method to do that. That young hunter who just about to get killed by those Monsters looked frustrated as he was looking at the potential money that was out of his reach.

“Wh-what are those…?”

Then Alpha gave him a detailed explanation about the Monsters.

“They are the weapon dogs, the man-made living organism created in order to protect the city. Although guns and other weapons are growing on their body, they are not machines, they are living biological organism. I’m sure that these ones were programmed to watch over this area. They might evolve differently from one and another, but the weapons behind their back will get stronger as they grow up. Maybe that weapon dog with missile pods growing behind it is the leader of the pack.”

There’s no harm in hearing that information but Akira wasn’t actually asking for an explanation about those Monsters. The question that he muttered was only a form of his frustration because of his bad luck getting attacked by those Monsters. But then, a lot of questions came into his mind after hearing that explanation.

“But why guns can grow from a living organism? Isn’t that just strange?”

And so Alpha gave a simple answer to Akira’s simple question.

“Their living tissues have become home for the nanomachines inside them. Then these nanomachines use the metal ores that they ingested to grow guns on their backs. I’m pretty sure that they’ve deviated so much from their original design. Well, I guess they’ve evolved independently from their original design in order to adapt to the current condition.”

It is such an important piece of information that would even surprise the people who specialize in these Monsters. But someone like Akira, who didn’t know just how valuable that information is, could only understand was that there was a particular reason that these living organism could grow weapons on their bodies.

Alpha’s expression that was so serious when they were attacked but after it was over, she changed back to smiling. Judging from that, Akira calmed down as he understood that he’s pretty much safe in that place.

Silavin: Ah. Finally, we are releasing this novel! I think the author is amazing for writing this novel. It had won an award as well. Something fresh and interesting. Even before the manga came out, I wanted to translated already,

Anways, enough of my praises. This will be a weekly release. Each chapter is pretty long (around 4-6K words).

If you wish to support, the Patreon is up but I haven’t fully fleshed it out yet.

Anyways, hope you guys enjoy this series as much as I am going to. Peace.

edited

Silavin: Ahhh! s.h.i.+t! Posted the wrong content. Sorry guys. It has been updated. Hope you enjoy.

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