Chapter 2 - Alpha’s support (2/2)

Akira shouted and wasted his precious chance to take a breath, but Alpha was satisfied by that answer and smiled happily.

“There’s no need to aim for anything. Just point your gun forward and empty it as fast as you can, okay?”

“Okay!”

Alpha started counting down with her fingers.

“5… 4… 3…”

Akira resolved himself and made a grim expression. He knew that he had no other choice since he’ll get killed otherwise.

“… 2… 1… 0!”

Akira turned as fast as he could and immediately emptied his gun without even aiming at all.

But when he turned back, the monster’s big eye was already right in front of his gun’s muzzle. The bullets that he shot in point blank range tore right through into the monster’s eye and swallowed deeper into its head.

Akira kept pulling the trigger on his gun like crazy in a close range like that. All the bullets that came out from his gun went right into the monster’s head thus injuring the monster from the inside.

Although Akira had caused a lot of damage on the monster, its augmented vitality saved it from instant death. But there’s no mistaking it that it’s already on its death door as it kept screaming in agony until its inevitable death.

Although the dead monster had fallen limp on the ground. Akira kept pulling on the trigger of his already empty handgun. it’s only after he saw the blood coming out from its head and confirmed that the monster had totally stopped moving at all that he let go his finger from the trigger.

“…D-did I do it…?”

Akira breathing was roughly but he still managed to squeeze out a few words. Since he couldn’t confirm whether it’s really already dead or not, Akira kept his guard up while staring at the monster. Once he calmed down and fixed his breathing for a bit, the reality that he killed the monster started seeping in as he was looking at the dead monster soaked in its own blood.

“Akira”

Akira turned into the direction of the voice as he was about to slump down. Then he was about to say thanks and sorry with a still dumbfounded face when he saw Alpha pointed toward the outside of the ruin while smiling. He immediately pulled himself up back again.

“In 10 seconds…”

Akira dashed without even waiting for the end of her sentence.

Alpha kept looking at Akira as he ran off, she only gave a playful smile and suddenly vanished, leaving the dead body of the monster all alone behind.

Akira who kept running as fast as he could from the attacking monster didn’t realize it, but there were a lot of things happening behind him.

Just like Akira, the monsters could also see Alpha, so they were trying to eat Alpha who was behind Akira.

While Alpha was actually using herself as a decoy to lead the monsters around, then she would let herself ‘get eaten’ after adjusting their positions.

The monsters couldn’t feel anything at all although they clearly bit her. Thus, they would stop for a bit as they were confused to what happened.

Then, Alpha would tell Akira to use that chance to shoot at these monsters. And just like when Akira shot the eye and killed the monster from before, Alpha manipulated the monsters’ position and condition by using herself as a decoy so that Akira could easily destroy them.

That group of monsters appeared the moment Akira accepted Alpha’s request, but Akira who was running as fast as he could to the outside of the ruin didn’t notice that at all.

Akira was somehow able to get outside of the Kuzusuhara city ruin. That place was still a bit dangerous, but it’s way safer there compared to the inside of the ruin.

Alpha suddenly appeared and welcomed Akira as if she got there first before him. Akira immediately fell down on his knees trying to calm his breathing. Then Alpha gently spoke to him.

“I don’t mind if you want to take a rest there, but is it okay if I continue our talk? We were in the middle of talking on how are you going to get enough equipment and skill to explore the ruin that I want you to go to”

“Ah, sure, go on”

“For the equipment, you’ll need to either buy them or scavenge them from the ruins. But the old world equipment from that you can find in the ruins are much more powerful than the commonly sold equipment. So I’m thinking that you can buy your first equipment, and then use them to hunt for better old world equipment from the ruins. As for your ability… There’s no other way but to train and experience real battle. But there’s no need to worry, I can give you the best training possible with my support.”

Akira couldn’t imagine what kind of training it could be. But hearing from how confident Alpha sounded, he at least knew that it must be some kind of super effective training.

“That would be really helpful. But is it okay for you to give me that much help?

“Don’t worry, this is included as my down payment, you know. Not to mention that it’s in order so that you can complete my request. So in the end, it’s more or less for my own sake too. If you think that I might have given too much for your down payment. Then you should give your best in your hard training”

“O-Okay, I’ll give my best.”

Akira winced and gave a nod, he could get a feel for just how harsh this special training that she’s talking about from her playful smile.

Alpha looked satisfied as she gave him a nod back.

“Our main aim for now is for you to be a good hunter so that you can get enough money to get high quality equipment. But first, you have to go to the hunter office, you need to register yourself as a formal hunter and graduate from being a self proclaimed hunter… Just in case, let me ask you about one thing, have you registered yourself as a formal hunter yet?”

Akira took out his hunter certificate from his chest. It looked like just a cheap piece of paper with the written prove saying that he’s a certified third rank worker from the eastern region corporate government. It also has his number ID as a hunter and his name written on it.

Looking at that measly hunter certificate that looked like a fake certificate, Alpha inquired further.

“…Is a hunter certificate… Something that looks that cheap? Please don’t take me wrong, it’s not like I’m doubting it, it’s all fine as long as you can use that as a hunter certificate… So, that thing is okay, right?”

“…It should be okay… I think.”

The staff in the hunter office gave him that piece of paper when Akira registered himself there, there’s no mistaking it. But after Alpha pointed out just how it looked so cheap, Akira started doubting himself.

“I want to ask you a lot of things like where did you register yourself as a hunter, is that okay?”

“Sure”

As he was telling Alpha his story from around that time, Akira remembered all the bad things that happened to him and made a mixed expression.

Akira went to a hunter office located in the lower district of Kugamayama city.

It’s located a bit far away from the slum city. From the outside, it looked just like a half destroyed bar as half of the letters on its signboard were already beyond recognition. If it’s not because of the hunter office symbol on its signboard, no one would know if that building is a hunter office.

The staff who served Akira was a drunk young man that didn’t look like he wanted to do any work. Being a hunter was quite a popular job. Even in the eastern region and there are a lot of great hunters in that area, but that man didn’t give that feeling at all. Although it’s a popular job, many people hate to be posted near the slum city. That man must be someone who got demoted and transferred into this post that was befitting of his motivation and ability.

Akira nervously asked that man.

“I came to be a hunter, may I do my registration here?”

That staff looked annoyed as he clicked his tongue and put off the magazine that he was reading. And then he moved on with his duty, although, Akira could obviously see that he didn’t want to do it.

“…Your name?”

“Akira”

The staff operated the terminal in front of him, not too long after, a printer near him printed out a piece of signed hunter certificate. He rudely took the paper from the printer and handed it over to Akira. Once he’s done with his job, he quickly grabbed his magazine and started reading again.

Akira was confused, he looked back and forth from the hunter certificate that he just received to that staff. He thought that registering as a hunter would take a lot more work than that, but there, he just told the staff his name and it’s done. He wasn’t sure whether the registration was really already finished or not, and so he involuntarily asked the staff.

“I-Is that it?”

The staff looked annoyed as he s.h.i.+fted his view from the magazine to Akira.

“That’s all, now go home”

“You just needed my name? Don’t you need any other information too…?”

He looked really annoyed from the bottom of his heart as he made a gesture to shoo Akira and said.

“Since you’ll be dead in no time, do you really think I’ll ask you for more information? I don’t care about any information that you have. To be honest, I don’t even really care about your name. I just asked for it because that’s the rule, I don’t even want to know if that’s your real name or not”

That reminded Akira of how much worth someone like himself has. After he realized that, he just shut up and walked away from the hunter office.

Akira kept staring at his certificate after he finished explaining how did he get it. As he understood the situation he was in, he vowed that he would crawl up from his current condition.

Alpha smiled as if she was trying to cheer up Akira.

“We’ll start your training with reading and writing, after all, collecting information is a very important thing. But don’t worry, you’ll be able to read and write in no time with my first cla.s.s level support”

“I understand. I’ll be in your care… By the way, how do you know that I can’t read?”

“The name written in that hunter certificate, it’s Ajira”

That man didn’t only treat him unpleasantly, he even made a mistake in his job. Akira was desperately trying to hold himself back from crus.h.i.+ng his own hunter certificate.

Then Alpha made a suggestion while smiling bitterly.

“Let’s just return to Kugamayama city for now, then we can continue our talk there. Until you learn how to write and read, I’ll do the reading in your place”

Akira just nodded without saying anything. He tucked his hunter certificate back in and started walking toward Kugamayama. Alpha followed and started walking beside him.

Akira asked a simple question to lighten the mood there.

“By the way, what is the name of that monster that I just defeated in Kuzusuhara city ruin?”

“It’s weapon dog”

“…Really? that one doesn’t look like them at all though, so that monster was also from the same type as them? “

“Presumably, that one made a mistake in executing its self remodeling. That’s why you’re able to easily defeat it”

“Was that appearance only for show?”

“That depends on how you see it. That monster had a fatal weakness that allowed you to defeat it and it might just be out of pure luck that you were able to use that weakness. But if you can defeat that kind of monster one more time, then you might interpret that as its appearance is just for show, of course that is if you can defeat it again without my support, you know?”

“Nope, impossible”

“Then that means that my support is just really that good, so you better be thankful for that, okay?”

“Thank you very much”

“You’re welcome.”

Akira and Alpha kept walking toward the city while having an idle talk just like that.

From the outside, Akira would look like an insane kid talking to nothing. But there’s no one there to tell him that.

That is of course save for Alpha who kept observing him from the moment they met.

Athena13 : Wait, so he defeated one big monster and some smaller ones then he went back home without salvaging even a single one of them…? Interesting.

Silavin: I doubt he can carry them. After all, I don’t think those dogs are light, considering that they have weapons growing out of their bodies

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