Chapter 17 - The Unlucky People (1/2)

Chapter 17, The Unlucky People

Akira finished packing his stuff in the inn. He was about to head to the wasteland when he saw Sheryl waiting for him outside.

“Akira, good morning.”

“Morning, why are you here this early? I’m going to the ruins after this, so make it short.”

“Ah, yes.”

Sheryl was actually trying to make a friendly smile towards Akira, but his reaction was very cold and her smile did not have any effect on him. Akira was a hard nut to crack, that was what she thought as she was dumbfounded by his reaction. But she immediately regained her composure and proceeded with explaining about her business with him. It was about the current condition of the gang’s territory, the location of the base and how to get in contact with him. And also, Sheryl wanted to introduce the new members of the gang to Akira. She asked him to come to the base tonight. After she finished explaining everything, she casually made a gesture showing that she really wanted him to come. At the same time, she was trying to b.u.t.ter up with him.

“Ah, and also, if possible, can you come to the base from time to time? It’s okay even if you come only when you have some spare time.”

“Even if you ask me to come only during my spare time, I’m so poor that I can’t afford to have any free time.”

Sheryl’s smile faded as she understood that Akira was not joking when he said that.

To be honest, Akira actually did not want to lose his already scarce free time by adding an extra schedule to go to the base regularly. Not to mention that he was working as a Hunter which meant no one knew what would happen to him on the next day, as such, it was fully possible that he would end up breaking his promise. Thus he did not want to make any promise that he might not be able to keep right from the start. Although he did not realize it himself, he was very concerned about keeping his promise.

But Sheryl could not read his reason, so she bowed and begged in panic.

“C-can you please spare your time somehow?”

Akira refused her request, although she did not give any detailed time and date as to when Akira had to visit the base. Sheryl would be in big trouble if the people of the slum thought that Akira abandoned her and she would be in great danger if Akira would not come to the base at all. As such, Sheryl understood that his absence might cause a big problem for her gang in the future. She had to do something about it. She gathered all of her experience to make her best expression for begging him.

But even so, Akira’s reaction was very cold. He even tried to cut their conversation short as if he was annoyed.

“…I’ll talk to you about that later. Well, I might pay a visit tonight if I have the time, then we can continue this conversation.”

Sheryl was relieved since she at least got Akira’s word for tonight’s visit. So she ended their conversation in order not to annoy Akira.

“I-I understand. Let’s talk about the details later in the base tonight. I’ll be waiting for you.”

“Is that all?”

“Yes… Ah, by the way, I found a pile of corpses in front of my base though.”

“Corpses? It’s a common thing in the slum city anyway.”

“Ah, I didn’t mean it that way, the corpses were quite a lot so I thought that the area is pretty dangerous right now. I’m sure you’ll be fine, but just to be safe, please be careful when you come tonight.”

“I see, alright then. See you later.”

“Please be careful out there.”

Sheryl saw Akira off with a friendly smile. But once Akira’s figure was gone from her views, her expression immediately changed to puzzlement.

[…I asked Akira since I thought that he was the one who did it but… Did I make a wrong guess? But, it also felt like he was lying to me. So was it really him? But I don’t think he has any reason to hide it from me if he was the one who killed those people who tried to attack me… And if that was really what happened, he should have come to tell me to let me know that I owe him a favour. I really don’t understand… Well, those might also be people who got killed in some random fight.]

Sheryl then looked at the pendant that she was wearing, it was something that she got from Akira.

[…As I thought, this is a cheap pendant. Although I got the feeling that Akira liked this pendant, but I guess it’s really too cheap. Maybe I should’ve asked for something more expensive yesterday even if it meant that I had to help in paying too, huh?]

Although she already received Akira’s words that he would help her, it seemed that there were still a lot of difficulties in stock for her in the future. Sheryl walked back home while thinking about what she should do next.

***

Akira was continuing his shooting practice using images of monsters produced in his vision support.

His target changed from monsters that were standing still to monsters that were roaming around. Moreover, these monsters would attack if they noticed him. They would shoot at him using the guns growing on their backs and ran towards him trying to eat him. This training was for him to practice being level headed and calm even during such a situation.

With his current ability, it was actually a very difficult task for Akira to accurately aim at those monsters’ weak points even though he was allowed to calmly take his aims. In the end, Akira could not shoot those monsters accurately most of the time and ended up getting killed from the monster’s counter-attack. As such, the images of him getting killed kept piling around him.

Some of the corpses had Akira’s upper half or lower half completely disintegrated. Some of them were the remains of Akira’s minced body after being showered by hundreds of bullets. The images of him getting killed in all kinds of gory manners kept piling up.

Akira looked at the pile of corpses and mumbled with a bewildered face.

“Although this is just training and these are fakes, I just can’t get used to seeing my own corpses like this.”

Alpha then replied with a serious face.

“It’ll be troubling if you get used to this. Just because this is a training, don’t take this lightly and do this seriously so the same thing won’t happen to you during a real fight.”

“Yeah, I know. But that aside, there’re a lot of those monsters in the eastern district and most of the Hunters can kill those monsters while humming, right? Ah, but that level of ability is normal for Hunters, huh? I was actually happy after registering myself as a Hunter but I wonder how long it will take for me to have the ability of a real Hunter.”

Akira’s training continued and it was clear that his ability was growing. But it was also clear that his current ability was still far away from his goal.

Even if the goal was so far away, there were people who thought they would reach their goal as long as they did not stop training. But half of these people gave up midway thinking that the goal was too far off or just simply because of the frustration of not reaching it. It would be troublesome for Alpha if Akira also stopped because of the frustration. As such, Alpha smiled to cheer him up and change the mood.

“There is also the differences from the equipment that you use, so there’s no need to be so pessimistic. If you can earn enough money and buy good equipment, they’ll help you a lot, you know?”

“Is that so?”

“Yep. If I have to give you an example, Sara and Elena whom we met the other day can defeat those monsters that you just fought even if there were dozens of them. Although, I’m not sure if they can do that while humming though.”

Akira was shocked. Although he received Alpha’s support, he never thought that those people who would have died if he did not save them would actually be very capable.

“Those two are that strong, huh? So why were they losing that time.”

The wrong perception of their skill showed Akira’s lack of experience and how bad he thought his ability was. Alpha understood that but she replied back while trying to avoid the subject.

“There are differences in fighting monsters and fighting people. There’s also the effect from the colourless mist too. But if I have to say, it was mainly because of their bad luck. But again, since they were following your footprints, I wonder if they got caught in some of your bad luck.”

Alpha said that while joking but Akira looked a bit disturbed by that.

“…Can you please stop saying that?”

“Oh my, my apologies.”

Alpha apologized while smiling as Akira was back doing his shooting training without saying anything. He too thought that they were really affected by his bad luck, but he hid this thought behind his silence. He also put more focus on his training in order to hide the fact. As such, he ended up forgetting his goal that he was still far away from.

Looking at that, Alpha smiled with satisfaction.

***

After finis.h.i.+ng his shooting training, Akira headed to the ruins to search for relics as well as for his ruin exploration training. First of all, he pulled out his binoculars and watched his surroundings as usual. If there was no problem, he would start moving into the ruin cautiously.

But something unexpected happened. As Akira confirmed the safety and picked a route to explore the ruin, Alpha who usually would not disturb his training said to Akira.

“Akira, connect your binocular to your information terminal.”

“Hm? Okay.”

Akira pulled out a cable from his binocular and connected it to his information terminal like he was told. Alpha then started operating the binocular through the terminal. The image zoomed in and zoomed out rapidly as the lens moved rapidly up-down left-right. Since Alpha could only move the lens, Akira had to help Alpha moved the rest while following Alpha’s instructions.

The image from the binocular rapidly changed from one to another, Akira did not understand what Alpha was actually looking for. Alpha properly confirmed all the images that the binocular captured. She then suddenly shouted to Akira with a grim look.

“Akira! Get into the ruin! Quickly!”

It would be fatal to ask for the reason, Akira understood by experiencing it firsthand and Alpha already warned him about that before. So Akira immediately started running.

“What did you find?”

Originally, they would not be able to talk while running since it would mess up with his breathing. But thanks to the telepathic communication, they were able to have a conversation while running too.

“There’s a trailer inside the ruin that’s being attacked by monsters.”

“Wait for a second. So why are we running to the ruin instead? Shouldn’t we avoid it instead?”

“Akira, you can ask all you want but don’t stop running. There’re a lot of monsters there. The people inside the trailer are fighting back, but it’s only a matter of time before they get killed.”

Akira was puzzled, but he did not slow down at all, or else his life would be at risk too.

“What I’m saying here is that shouldn’t I be running in the opposite direction? I don’t have the duty to risk my life in order to help people whom I don’t even know, you know?”

Although it was out of his own reason, Akira had helped Elena and Sara in the past although he did not know them at that time. But Akira completely ignored that fact and Alpha would have pointed that out normally, but she also ignored it this time.

“Of course your safety is the top priority, so I’m picking the safest route.”

“Wait a sec, so how in the world it ended up with me having to run toward those monsters?”

That question was very logical, but Alpha replied back with a tone that showed how bad their situation was.

“Unfortunately, the monsters already encircled you. Even if you start running back to the city now, they’ll eventually catch up and kill you. If you try fighting against those monsters in the wasteland where there’s no hiding place for you, your chance of winning is basically zero. Those monsters might be focused on those people in the trailer right now, but once they’re done with them, it’ll be your turn next.”

Akira’s face twitched as he was making a grim face.

“So if I don’t meet up with them and help them fight back before they get killed, then we’re all goners, huh?”

“Yep, that’s it. And in the worst-case scenario where you’re the only one still alive, you’ll have to go to the deeper part of the ruin. I can give you better support when you’re in the deeper part of the Kuzusuhara City ruins and it’ll give you a better chance to survive. But that’ll be our next plan if our plan to meet up with the people in the trailer fails. After all, you have a better survival chance if you meet up and fight together with them. So that’s why you need to hurry up, if you’re too late, you’ll be fighting all of those monsters alone.”

“You guys in the trailer! Give your best until I’m there! G.o.ddammit!! Is this because of my bad luck too? Because I used all of my luck?!”

“I don’t know who’s bad luck it is. I would say that those people in the trailer are helping to shoulder some of your bad luck… As I thought, Akira, you used your lifetime worth of luck when you met me. Well, I’ll give you my utmost support in exchange though. So you do your best too, okay?”

Alpha smiled bitterly and her serious face relaxed a bit.

As Akira saw that, he more or less was able to understand his current condition. He was making a bewildered face after hearing that cheering from Alpha as he kept running as fast as he could in order to survive.

***

A trailer was heading to the Kuzusuhara ruin through the eastern wasteland when Akira was in his shooting training. It was a trailer made to traverse the harsh environment of the wasteland and designed for a long journey. It was even equipped with a machine gun on its roof.

There were 2 men in the trailer, Katsuragi and Darris. Katsuragi was a weapon dealer who frequently sold his goods to Hunters. He had been working as a merchant using this trailer which also functioned as a moving shop for years. As for Darris, he’s the main fighting power of the duo. He worked as a shopkeeper helping Katsuragi as well as his bodyguard.

If you go further east from the region ruled by the Corporate Government, there was a vast unexplored wasteland. Monsters as huge as mountains roamed freely inside that unexplored wasteland. Because of the harsh condition in that region, the Eastern Government could not explore the area even after exerting all of its power. The region was simply that dangerous. But ruins with advanced technology, enough to even produce those monsters, were located in that region. It was a region filled with knowledge and treasures from the old world that was worth exploring despite all the dangers.

The border that separated the territory owned by the Corporate Government from the dangerous unexplored wasteland was known as the Front Line. The Corporate Government kept pouring a huge amount of money to Front Line in order to get a piece of some treasure and knowledge of the old world.

Of course, only high-level Hunters were there and to work there was the highest point in the Hunter profession. Powerful Hunters were living in that place, some of them formed groups that would even scare big corporations while some of them were lone wolves who could pick a fight against the government all by themselves.

Katsuragi and Darris were on their way back to the Kugamayama city from the Front Line. Of course, the road from the front line was very dangerous, thus a huge amount of money was offered to transport goods. Normally, goods transported by big companies would be accompanied by a lot of bodyguards. The people who did not care about the danger and risked their lives in transporting the goods by themselves could get a lot of money.

Of course, they would only do that if they already had a patron who would buy their goods. The equipment used in the front line were of course of the highest quality suitable for the dangers there. Hunters who only operated around the Kugamayama city could not afford this equipment and few of this equipment were just simply too powerful for the Hunters here. As such, this equipment just would not sell around Kugamayama city.

Being a talented merchant that he was, Katsuragi was somehow able to get a deal. Thus he used his own personal trailer, filled it with high-quality goods and started transporting goods through a long journey from the Front Line. They only needed to go a little further before they reached Kugamayama city, thus their bet was on the verge of succeeding.

But right now, they were driving as fast as they could, trying to escape from the danger that was approaching them from behind. So they prioritized driving fast rather than driving safely. Thus the car was shaking violently.

Darris shouted to Katsuragi.

“Katsuragi!! This is why I keep telling you to get yourself a better escort!!”

Katsuragi shouted back at Darris.

“Just shut it!!! We didn’t get ourselves a good escort because we don’t have enough money!! You too know that, don’t you?! Not to mention that it was your fault for changing our route out of the blue, that’s why we’re in this situation!!”

“You shut up!! The contract for the bodyguard was too short!! If I stayed on the original route, we wouldn’t be able to arrive on time, you know!! If only you had more money, we could’ve taken a better route than this one!!”

“So it’s money, huh!! As I thought, it’s money’s fault, huh!!”

“Yeah, it’s money!! This world runs on money after all!!”

Katsuragi laughed loudly from the driver’s seat, laughing at their own hopeless situation.

The reason why Katsuragi and Darris were feeling hopeless was because of the monsters following their trailer. Those monsters were chasing them with their powerful vigour while letting out howls that reverberated through the air and stomps that shook the earth.

They already used the machine gun on the top roof of the trailer to shoot at those monsters until it ran out of bullets. Although it turned countless monsters into minced meat, it was eventually futile. Those monsters did not even care about their companions’ corpses as they ran over them while chasing Katsuragi and Darris. Not to mention that other monsters along the way joined them on their chase. Thus, the monsters count was s...o...b..lling.