Chapter 31 - Cannon Insect (1/2)

Chapter 31, Cannon Insect

Translator: Athena13

Editor: Silavin

Proofreader: p4553r

Akira was having a quick rest beside the truck together with the Hunters that he just saved. Then, something suddenly came up in his mind.

“Alpha, now that I think about it, what should I do to complete this emergency request?”

“The subject of the emergency request is the city defense. I think it’ll not end until the city is completely safe. Of course, it depends on how the situation develops, but I don’t think it’ll be the end of the request even if more reinforcements come to this area. I think they’ll just send back the injured Hunters to the city and send the rest to another area.”

“So it depends on how the situation develops, huh?”

Alpha then smiled teasingly and said.

“Not to mention, you did receive that bike as an upfront payment, so I bet they’ll make you work hard.”

Akira looked doubtful as he said.

“I did save the Hunters here though. Is that not enough?”

“Unfortunately, it’s not for me nor you to decide whether it’s enough or not.”

“That’s true. I need to make sure that they won’t tell me to pay them back because I didn’t work hard enough.”

Although the truck was bombarded to a point where it could not run anymore, the detection device installed to it was still operational. The Hunters would take turns to monitor their surroundings using that device. Thus the rest of the Hunters could rest easy without fearing any surprise attacks. Akira had also lowered his guard as he was talking with Alpha.

Suddenly, the Hunter who was on watch duty shouted.

“We got incoming signals from the 2 o’clock direction!!”

The tension in the area suddenly raised. No one knew whether it was from monsters or from reinforcements, thus Akira and the other Hunters turned their attention to that direction while looking both hopeful and uneasy.

The Hunter who was beside Akira prayed to G.o.d as he was looking through his binoculars, but his face suddenly turned grim, his prayer was not answered. What he saw from afar was a swarm of mechanical monsters that he remembered well. His face turned stern as he let out a sigh and cursed.

“Those d.a.m.n bugs again!!”

“d.a.m.n bugs?”

“I’m talking about those monsters that broke our trucks. So they didn’t run away from the area, huh? Did they go back for an ammo refill or something like that?”

It was a swarm of mechanical monsters that looked like a small bug with tiny legs, their bodies were mounted with a big cannon and an automatic machine gun. Akira was a little bit slow in recognizing it, but when he did, his face immediately turned grim.

Alpha then added some explanations to what Akira was seeing.

“Those things are called Cannon Insects. I believe that they are produced in an old world’s automated weapon factory that’s still active somewhere till this date. It consists of a moving device in the form of those small legs. It is attached with a gun and an anti-vehicle cannon. That moving device part should be their main body part. Although their firepower varies, their main firepower comes from that tank cannon. But with that being said, they don’t have much reserve ammo, or more like, they can only bring a few warheads for that cannon. So, to deal with that, they would refill their ammo with help from another accompanying refilling robot.”

“If they are produced by a weapon factory, why do they have that insect-like form?”

“I think their information receiver malfunctioned and received weird data instead. Or maybe, the AI was so bored that it decided to make something weird.”

“Bored…? Is that even enough of a reason?”

Akira looked puzzled the moment he heard such unexpected reasoning.

The cannon insect was a separate machine from its weapon. Some of them were equipped with a big cannon not suitable for its size and some of them carried a small cl.u.s.ter of countless tiny cannons. There were also differences in the size or the number of their legs.

Despite all the differences, all the cannon insects were effective soldiers. They came close enough to the truck, stopped and then used all of their legs to support their body as they blasted their cannons.

The swarm then released a volley of cannons together with banging sounds. Cannon warheads showered the area around the truck like rain, they exploded and blasted all the monsters’ corpses in the area into small bits and pieces. Charred and in pieces, smoke rose up from the aftermath.

Of course, the Hunters started shooting back in retaliation. But due to their guns’ effective range, it did not do much damage to the monsters.

“Dammit, although they attacked from a closer range last time, those bugs are keeping their distance from us this time…”

The cannon insects were keeping their distance from the Hunters. They stood right outside the Hunters’ shooting range. By sacrificing their accuracy, they continued bombarding the Hunters with warheads from afar, and it soon turned into a one-sided fight. The Hunters also noticed that these monsters would not run out of ammo anytime soon since they were accompanied by other machines that refilled their ammo.

Alpha then turned to Akira with a serious face.

“Akira, let me reconfirm this, you have no plans of running away from this place alone, right?”

Akira firmly answered back while still making a grim face.

“Of course, that’s until I’m the only one alive.”

“In that case, I have no other choice but to do this. Your AAH rifle can inflict enough damage to them, but you need to move close enough to get them into your shooting range. Of course, I will give you my support, but you’ll need to do something pretty reckless. This will subject your body to immense stress, thus I recommend you to take your medicine beforehand so that it’ll immediately heal your body in case your bones start cracking or your flesh starts tearing. After all, if you don’t take your medicine now, your body won’t be able to hold out what you’re going to do from now on. But we will only do this if we really have no other choice. Are you okay with that?”

Seeing how Alpha was giving out a warning with a serious face, Akira remembered when she used the augmented suit to forcefully move his body during the augmented suit training. He remembered that he could not move for a while right after that due to the fatigue and the pain.

Akira knew well that his body would be subjected to something worse compared to that. He completely realized that fact as he reached deep into his rucksack, took out the medicines, readied his resolve and swallowed a big dose of medicines.

Alpha who saw that just let out a small sigh before smiling invincibly.

“Are you ready now?”

Akira smiled back and replied in a firm tone.

“Well, maintaining resolve is my responsibility.”

After he finished all of his preparations, Akira took his gun and got on his bike before shouting to a guy near him.

“I’ll go and shoot them from up close, give me some support.”

The guy was surprised when he heard that, but he understood that the situation would only get worse at this rate, thus he did not stop Akira. Instead, he asked Akira while making a serious face.

“Are you sure you’re going alone?”

“I’m the only one with a bike here, so I think it’s better if we don’t make any clumsy move. This will at least divide their attention and reduce the pressure from their bombardment. Moreover, if I keep moving, they won’t be able to hit me… Maybe… Well then, I’ll be counting on you for the follow-up support.”

After he said that, Akira blazed out on his bike.

As he pa.s.sed by and made eye contact with the other Hunters, they immediately understood what Akira was thinking and moved.

“We should scatter out and approach those bugs too!! Put down the injured Hunters from the truck’s trays and use the truck as a s.h.i.+eld!!! To everyone with grenades, reserve your grenades!!!”

In the middle of the raining warheads, the Hunters too made their resolve and started running towards the monsters as well.

Akira rode his bike and cut through the wasteland as he was heading straight towards the monster swarm. Although he was fast enough to be considered as attempting suicide, he accelerated his bike even more.

The area was littered with wreckages and b.l.o.o.d.y corpses of the dead monsters. Even with wheels specially designed for exploring the wasteland, it was dangerous as muddy ground filled with obstacles were enough to flip Akira’s bike. But thanks to Alpha’s advanced support, Akira just blazed through it with no problem at all.

The violent shaking of the bike did not stop Akira from pulling the trigger on his AAH rifle. Although some of the bullets. .h.i.t the monsters, they just ricocheted off the monsters’ bodies. It was a common characteristic among mechanical monsters like the cannon insect to have a very hard body, and not to mention, Akira was shooting outside AAH rifle’s effective range, so it was not surprising.

But as those bullets. .h.i.t them, some of the cannon insects changed their focus from the other Hunters to Akira. Due to their big cannons that were too large for their legs to support, the cannon insects had to turn their whole body to aim their cannons at Akira. Then they were thrown back by the blasts when they shot warheads from their cannons.

The warhead landed 10 meters beside Akira and blasted the flesh, blood and metal wreckages in the surrounding area.

There was no doubt that it would instantly kill Akira if one of those warheads. .h.i.t him directly. Akira could feel a s.h.i.+ver running through his spine as he started sweating.

“Well, they mostly miss anyway, so it’s going to be okay, right? I won’t get hit, right?!!”

“Their accuracy is pretty bad since their huge cannons are unsuitable for their size. I bet it’s because the factory that produced them received corrupted data or something. So don’t worry, you won’t get hit that easily.”

“Alright then!!”

Akira sounded elated when he heard that. But his mood immediately changed when Alpha continued her explanation.

“But because of such level of randomness, it’s kind of hard to accurately predict their trajectories. Even with my superior computing skills, I can’t guarantee that they won’t hit you at all. So in the end, it’ll still depend on your luck.”

Akira frowned.

“Don’t say something scary like that!! I’ve used all of my luck, you know?!!”

“Just hope that your luck is only bad to the point that I can offset it with my support. That aside, remember that you got into this situation because of your own decision, okay? And it does not depend on luck.”

“I see!! If that does not depend on my luck, then it’ll be your fault if I get hit, right?!”

Akira laughed sarcastically, to which, Alpha just smiled invincibly.

“Are you sure you’re going to say that? In that case, I’ll increase the level of my support so that you won’t get hit. So you should give your best too, okay?”

“What do you mean by that…?”

In order to avoid getting shot at, Alpha increased the speed of the bike and made a slalom move. But because of that, Akira’s body was subjected to even more stress.

Akira thought that he should not have said something like that. He instantly regretted what he said and gritted his teeth as he endured the pain while making a grim face.

Akira was closing in high speed with a rifle in his arm, aiming towards the monsters. The insect cannons started to take notice of him and reacted. Most of the cannon insects already changed their target to Akira and showered him with warheads.

And when he got close enough, the cannon insects stopped shooting in curved trajectories and instead aimed at him in a straight line. The cannon warheads travelled along a straight line and hit about 1 meter away from Akira as rumbles echoed through the wasteland. He was filled with fear when the vibration and the shockwave from the explosions reached him. But he then just gritted his teeth and crushed the fear.

When Akira had gotten close enough to cannon insects, Alpha smiled and said to him.

“This might be a bit painful!! But just endure it!!”

“Alright!!”

There was a trace of desperation in his voice when he replied.

Alpha made the bike turn 90 degrees. It tilted so low that Akira’s left leg grazed the ground in order to resist the leftover momentum from throwing him off the bike. As for Akira himself, he was held in place by the augmented suit. The reason why the bike did not flip over or get thrown off was because Akira was applying an optimal amount of pressure with his right leg to keep the bike’s wheels on the ground. Thus he was able to decelerate rapidly without falling over or getting thrown off.

Akira gripped his AAH rifle tightly in that leaning position as he pulled its trigger. The augmented suit helped him stabilize his arm as the kickback sent by the rifle transmitted through his body and into the bike.

Akira’s body was subjected to an intense force. His bones started to crack and his flesh started to tear open, thus the medicines that he consumed beforehand immediately activated and started healing his micro-wounds and injuries. But even before his body could be completely healed, he was subjected to even more burden and new wounds started to open up again. He had to endure the pain as his body went through that cycle again.

When his bike suddenly decelerated to make a sharp turn, all the cannon insects around the area immediately turned to Akira. But when the bike decelerated enough, it suddenly accelerated again while still keeping its tilted position before the cannon insects could shoot at him. As countless warheads. .h.i.t the ground where Akira was just a moment ago, he just kept pacing his bike alongside the swarm in a tilted position while keeping his finger on the trigger of his AAH rifle.

Since the cannon insects had no pivot to rotate their guns, they had to readjust their whole body when they aim at something. As they were reorienting their position, Akira released countless bullets towards the swarm.

The bullets spewed from Akira’s AAH rifle hit the robots that were resupplying the cannon insects. If he was able to destroy the machines resupplying the cannon insects, then all the cannon insects would only turn into moving target practices once they depleted their ammos. That was why Akira prioritized destroying them first.

Due to Alpha’s advanced target support, most of the bullets. .h.i.t the weak points of the mechanical monsters. The monsters that got their leg connections destroyed, struggled to keep standing. While the resupplying robots that had a magazine-like body exploded when they got hit and took out the monsters within its explosion radius.

The cannon insects pushed the ability of their small legs to their maximum as they turned with a speed that was not befitting of their size and immediately blasted their cannons. Warheads flew past Akira’s side and landed not too far from him throwing rocks and dust into the air.

Akira puckered his face from the pain a.s.saulting his body and the shockwave from the explosions.

“Alpha!! That one was really dangerous, you know?!!!”

“But thanks to that, you didn’t get hit at all. And that’s all that matters, right? That aside, is your left leg okay?”

“It hurts like h.e.l.l, feels like my bone will break or my flesh will tear off if I do that again.”

“Then that means we have to do it with your right leg next time.”

“Is there any options where I don’t have to do that?”

“Of course there is. You just have to buy a bigger and better gun. Now that you have an augmented suit, you should be able to handle those guns easily.”

“So in short, I don’t have any other choices at the moment, huh?”

Akira looked annoyed as he sent his gaze at Alpha, but she just smiled.

“Of course I’ll try to avoid such a situation as much as I can, but you’ll have to do it when you are left with no other choice. Remember that it was your decision now that we’re in this situation, right? So don’t start complaining, okay?”

“Yeah yeah, I get it already!!”

Although Akira did not regret his choice, painful stuff was still painful to him. But he tried to forget the pain by answering back in an annoyed tone.

After that, Akira used his AAH rifle to prioritize shooting down the resupplying robots. Although the AAH rifle did not inflict much damage to the cannon insects, it was able to somehow destroy the relatively weaker resupplying robots.

The resupplying robots looked like a big magazine with small legs attached to it and they resupplied the cannon insect by connecting to their backside. Akira realized that and noticed that they would blow up together with the cannon insects if he shot them. Akira’s mood got better and better every time he blew up one of those monsters.

“Alright then, next! We already took down most of them!”

“This is going very well. The other Hunters are also working hard, we can win this battle at this rate.”

Once most of the resupplying robots were taken out, the bombardment from the cannon insects started to weaken. The Hunters had also closed their distance to the swarm. Since most of the Hunters had bigger firepower than Akira, they wiped out the swarm in no time.