Chapter 18 - A Chance Meeting Between Lucky People and Unlucky People (2/2)

The death that was approaching Akira distorted his sense of time, it felt like everything around him was happening in slow motion. The same thing happened the other day as he remembered when monsters attacked the slum city and he almost got killed. So he did what he did back then as a reflex. He thrusted his AAH rifle into the gaping jaw together with his arm.

As the gun reached the deepest part of the monster, it stopped for a second due to the pain. During that opening, right before its fangs sunk into Akira’s arm, Akira grinned and pulled the trigger.

The bullets that spewed out from the gun destroyed its head. It then fell down to the ground with bullets flowing out from behind its head.

Akira shoved the corpse aside. The excitement of his victory was dampened by the stinging pain on his right arm. His right arm was injured when that monster jumped on him.

Alpha immediately shouted at Akira while making an unusually grim face, it helped Akira to stay awake as he almost fainted from the pain after narrowly escaping death.

“Quickly take some medicine!! You should still have some in your pocket!”

Akira immediately reached out to the capsules inside his pocket while trying to withstand the pain and spread the contents of the capsule directly onto his wound. Thus another intense pain a.s.saulted him immediately.

“You can’t faint here! You’ll definitely die if you faint here! Get a hold of yourself!”

The medicine that he applied to his wound caused severe pain, but Akira was barely able to bear the pain without fainting. He gritted his teeth and stood up. He then took the rest of the medicine orally.

The healing nanomachines inside the medicine detected that Akira was in pain as it immediately gathered on his wound and started healing it. Since Akira pushed himself to keep moving, his open wound only got worse which was immediately healed by the nanomachines. This cycle continued as he started shooting again while enduring the pain. Most of the monsters were able to come close to Akira while he was lying on the ground, one misstep was enough to turn the situation worse.

Akira, Katsuragi and Darris were trying hard to fight back. But the situation was getting worse. The monsters were already close enough that it would be nigh impossible to fix the situation.

Katsuragi then mumbled from the driver seat.

“…The machine gun is running out of ammo… Dammit, this is the end, huh?”

His words leaked out through the mic in the trailer, hearing which Darris also complained.

“…So this is as far as we go, huh?”

Akira did not say anything because he did not have the time to join them. But inside his heart, he was actually agreeing with them. Eventually, his gun ran out of ammo too.

Alpha then smiled at Akira and said.

“This is the end.”

Seeing how Alpha smiled gently as if it was really the end, Akira could only smile back bitterly.

“…You’re right.”

“We’re saved.”

“…Eh!?”

Akira was surprised after hearing what Alpha said. Then the next moment, explosive projectiles rained down on the monsters around them. Explosions turned most of the monsters into minced meat as blood and meat splattered around the area. Then the area near Akira and the trailer were swarmed with anti-monster bullets, thus further making sure of their safety.

The sudden change of events left Akira confused as Alpha pointed her finger towards the wasteland while still smiling. He tried to stand as fast as he could and looked towards the direction Alpha was pointing. There he saw familiar faces of 2 female Hunters riding a vehicle while unleas.h.i.+ng countless bullets on the monsters in the area. They were Elena and Sara.

Sara was standing on the vehicle while carrying a huge gun that did not suit her size. The gun on her hand kept launching explosive projectiles from its muzzle.

“Elena! The location is a bit different from the request, but those people are from the SOS request, right?”

Elena was also shooting at the monsters using a machine gun from the vehicle, it looked like she was enjoying it.

“That’s correct. The SOS request said that they’re in the Kuzusuhara ruins but I bet they arrived in this place after running away from those monsters. Let’s eliminate them all!”

“Roger that! The requester will pay for the bullets! So let’s not hold anything back!!”

From there on, the battle was overwhelmingly one-sided. Sara and Elena who had surplus money from the last time brought expensive but powerful ammo with them for cleaning the monsters. And their ammo seemed to be working splendidly, worthy of their cost. The explosive bullets that kept spouting out from her gun were like a storm that rained down on those monsters and left the ground clean. Akira was looking at this scene with his jaw dropped on the ground.

After suffering such an intensive attack, the monsters that were troubling Akira and the other two merchants just a moment ago were completely annihilated.

***

The insides of the trailer that also functioned as a moving shop was wider than it looked. Elena and Sara then met up with Katsuragi and finished processing the SOS request without heading back to Kugamayama City. As Katsuragi and Elena were negotiating with each other, Akira talked to Sara who was not too far. He bowed deeply to Sara while saying his thanks.

“Thank you very much for your help. You really helped us in escaping death back there.”

“Don’t mention it. It’s also one of our jobs. It was also thanks to you fighting back desperately and cutting their numbers down, that it was not hard cleaning them up.”

Sara laughed in a good mood. It was obvious that her plump chest did not weigh too much as they jingled when she laughed.

“But I was so surprised to find you here too. To think that you would get involved in fighting those monsters, you do have quite a bad luck, you know.”

“You can say that again. I honestly think the same too… I wonder if I should get myself some kind of charm to increase my luck.”

Akira smiled bitterly while mixing a joke. Sara laughed a bit and followed his joke.

“Well, it’s true that things like that might work. After all, no matter how much information you gathered beforehand, things outside your predictions will still happen. I also had a close call not too long ago… A charm, huh? You can also buy one, but I think it’s better if you keep something that you already had when you got lucky as a talisman. In my case, I have this.”

As she said that, Sara opened the front fastener of her armour and took out a pendant, it was a bullet that was repurposed into a decorative pendant.

“When I almost got killed, someone came and saved us by pure coincidence and gave us this bullet, then I remade it into a pendant like this. It’s to remind me of our grat.i.tude and good luck from back then.”

“I-I see.”

Akira was somehow able to keep himself calm. Sara noticed that Akira was behaving weirdly, but she thought that it was because Akira was still nervous after narrowly escaping death, so she just ignored it. As for Alpha who was always beside Akira, she smiled teasingly toward him.

“Aren’t you glad? The person that you helped not too long ago just came and saved you this time. What’s wrong? Aren’t you happy?”

“No, of course, I’m happy. So like I told you, it was the right choice helping them that day, right?”

“You’re right. Not only you were able to escape death, you got to see a beautiful girl’s plump breast after all.”

Akira was barely able to stay calm when he heard that. Alpha giggled as she was teasing him.

“If you have no plan of groping one, you can also look at mine though. Or is it important for you to know that you can touch them if you extend your hand although you don’t really want to do it?”

“Just shut up.”

Akira stiffened his face as to not change his expression as he said that to Alpha through telepathy. But then he suddenly heard Elena’s voice.

“No money? Are you kidding me?”

Katsuragi nervously replied back as he was overwhelmed by Elena’s pressure.

“Well, it’s not like I don’t have money, it’s a big misunderstanding. I do plan to pay you. But I can’t pay you right now at this moment.”

Elena kept putting pressure while glaring at Katsuragi.

“Isn’t it normal to pay us with cash when you don’t write any particular reward on your request? We even used expensive ammo back there, you know.”

“I-I know. But, it was an SOS request, right? It was an emergency. We were in a dangerous situation that we didn’t have the time to write a detailed request, you know! It’s not like we’re planning to trick you!! I swear!!”

Beautiful girls are scary when they are angry. Moreover, if that girl killed a mountain of monsters not too long ago. As Katsuragi thought that, he tried to calm Elena down.

“Look at this! The trailer is packed with a lot of equipments! If I can sell all of them, I’ll get a lot of money! You do understand me, right?! Just for a bit, can you wait just for a bit! Of course I’ll also give you more money for waiting too! Okay?”

Katsuragi then showed all the goods that he carried inside the trailer. Seeing at how Katsuragi was saying the truth, Elena regained her mood back. She then enthusiastically looked at those goods as Katsuragi squeezed every single cell in his brain for anything that might let him breakthrough his situation.

Akira and Sara then joined them as they looked at Katsuragi’s goods. It was given for Akira, but for Sara too, it was a rare chance to see equipment used in the Frontline. As such, both of them looked really interested in those goods. Not to mention that Alpha also looked a bit amazed.

“I really wish you can start using these kinds of equipment soon, Akira.”

“Please wait patiently if it’s about that thing. By the way, which one that you wish for me to be able to use?”

“If I have to pick one from this place, then it will be this one.”

Alpha was pointing at a huge gun that in no way a normal human would be able to use. It was made of black metal and was as big as a person with the manufacturer’s logo carved on its body.

“No no no, no way I can carry something like this.”

“Of course you can once you get an augmented cloth. So you should get one of those first. But well, no need to hurry, we’ll get there eventually.”

Looking at how Akira was staring at that gun, Sara could not help but look at that gun too. But then she shouted in surprise.

“Elena!! Look at this!! It’s amazing! They have Ragnarok too!!”

Elena who was called by Sara then came there, looked at that gun, and was also surprised.

“…Whoah, they really have one. This is the gun that can shoot Annihilator Warhead, right?”

“Yeah, that’s one of my best goods. It was really hard to get my hands on one, you see… Wait, what are you thinking?”

Katsuragi started having a bad feeling as he saw Elena’s expression when she was looking at that gun. Elena was smiling since she found something that she could use for negotiation as she mumbled.

“…I wonder if Sara can use this gun.”

Katsuragi immediately went into panic mode.

“Wait wait wait wait!! No no no!! You can’t have that!”

“But you can’t pay us with cash, right? In that case, you have no choice but to pay us with your goods.”

“No matter how you look at it, it’s way above your reward money, right?! Please don’t make me do this!”

“I wonder which one of us is asking for the impossible. You can’t even pay our rewards and ammo from that SOS request and you don’t even know when you might be able to pay us. Are you telling us to wait for the reward that we don’t even know if you would even really pay us or not? We also need money to live, you know?”

Elena’s expression turned intimidating as she glared to Katsuragi. That was also a gamble. Katsuragi understood that, but he could not say anything. Katsuragi was a merchant. He could not deny the fact that he could not pay them with cash. Even Katsuragi himself was actually carrying goods that he had not paid yet.

Katsuragi who in trouble then guessed that Akira and Elena knew each other as he looked at Akira, seeking for his help. But since Akira was also saved by Elena and Sara, it was more like he was in Sara and Elena’s side. As such, he could only look away when Katsuragi stared at him.

After that, Katsuragi begged all he could and somehow the negotiation came to a conclusion. Elena and Sara would be employed as Katsuragi’s escorts which of course increased the amount of the reward that Katsuragi owed to them. Then in case if Katsuragi could not pay that money until the deadline, Elena and Sara would take Ragnarok with them. It was also for keeping their eye on Katsuragi that Elena and Sara took the job.

As Elena and Katsuragi were talking about the details of their contract. Akira’s vision suddenly blurred and he lost all of his power in his body as he fell to the ground.

He did not even have the power to get up. As his vision went dark, he could see Elena and Katsuragi ran to him. It looked like they were saying something, but Akira could not hear it. But he understood that they looked panicked stricken.

Although everything looked blurred in his vision, he could see Alpha clearly. She was smiling like usual as she looked down at Akira who was lying on the ground and said.

“Well, I guess you hit your limit. But it’ll be okay, just take a good rest.”

Akira could hear that in his haze and felt a bit relieved as he lost his consciousness.

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