Chapter 39 - Yarata Scorpion (2/2)

Akira was obviously confused, but Alpha then said to him with a smile shaking Akira off from his confusion.

“Akira. There’s no need to think about the things that you don’t understand right now. Let’s just head back for now. Just see it from the bright side, it’s a good thing now that you have a reason to go back.”

“…You’re right.”

There was no mistaking it. There was something going on. But since Alpha was not making a solemn expression, Akira thought that it should be alright. So he decided to just push that aside for now.

And so, Akira and the other Hunters headed back to the temporary base. The Hunters were walking in front while Akira followed behind them on his bike. Since his job was finished the moment he evacuated the Hunters from that building, Akira could just directly go back. But the other Hunters pleaded with him to accompany them on their way back.

Akira was tinkering with his information gathering device to correctly detect the Hunters in front of him in order to get himself familiar with it. But it did not go well. Although the Hunters were not too far in front of him, the output from the information gathering device could not display the correct information. Akira mumbled as he was playing with the information gathering device’s setting.

“This thing is difficult. The output goes crazy every time I make even the slightest change from Elena-san’s setting. Maybe I should just stay with Elena-san’s setting.”

“Elena’s setting is basically an ideal setting after all. If you change it randomly, the accuracy of the information gathering device will fall greatly. But you should play with its setting to understand the setting parameters and get familiarized with it.”

“Now that I think about it. You’re also using this information-gathering device to detect monsters, right? If I play with its setting, wouldn’t it disrupt your detection ability? Is that really alright?”

“It’s okay. I’m directly using the raw data from that information-gathering device and a.n.a.lyzing it myself. The data that you’re seeing right now is produced by the software inside that information-gathering device and it has nothing to do with my detection ability. So no need to worry, you can play with it.”

“I see. In that case, I’ll just keep on tinkering with it.”

Akira was viewing the scanning result through his visor type display. There was a separate area on his upper right visor showing the scan focused around Akira. Although there were Hunters walking in front of him, the signals coming from those Hunters were rather wacky and unclear. It was because the setting on the information-gathering device was incorrect.

The search results would vary greatly every time Akira changed the individual setting of his information-gathering device. If he could optimize the setting to focus only on the important information, the information-gathering device could be effectively used in many different situations. By adjusting the values in the settings, he could focus on a vague signal, which only showed that something was detected, and get a better set of information that would let him extract shape, size and any other information.

Alpha then explained to Akira the basics of adjusting the setting.

“Normally, you would just expand and contract the search area. And when you find a signal, you would focus on where the signal comes from and try to a.n.a.lyze it. It’s important to set the interval between wide-range and close-range scan, the power output ratio between the image, sound and movement processor, and the type of a.n.a.lysis that you would use for each data. For example, when you’re in a place with a lot of obstacles, it’s better to decrease the power output of image a.n.a.lysis and increase the range of the scan. In case when you can see your target, it might be better to focus the image sensor to only detect images from behind you. There are basically a lot of things you can do with it.”

“Yep, it’s not easy.”

Akira was listening to Alpha as he was having a hard time adjusting the setting of the information-gathering device. Not too long after that, Alpha suddenly said to him in a serious tone.

“Akira, you should either go ahead and leave those Hunters behind or tell them to start running to the temporary base as fast as they can. A swarm of Yarata scorpions is closing in on us.”

Akira immediately shouted to the Hunters in front of him.

“Hey!! Run to the temporary base as fast as you can!! A swarm of those monsters from before is coming this way!!”

The Hunters were shocked as turned towards Akira. Akira made a grim face as he continued.

“I’ll try to slow them down!! So run as fast as you can!!”

The Hunters looked around but they could not see any Yarata Scorpions. One of them asked Akira in panic.

“Are you sure?! Where are they?! I don’t see them at all, you know?!”

Akira started to get irritated since the Hunters would not start running.

“Just go now!! If you keep standing here, I won’t help you, okay?! I’ll just go ahead on my bike, you know!!”

The Hunters started running in panic. Akira then looked around, but he could not find any scorpions.

“Alpha, where’s the swarm? I can’t see them and I got no signal from the information-gathering device, you know?”

“Akira, I’ll enhance your vision now, so stay calm, okay?”

After giving Akira a warning, Alpha enhanced his vision. Because of that, Akira was able to see the Yarata scorpions around him. His face turned grim the moment he saw the scorpions.

The other Hunters were running desperately towards the temporary base. They were running on an open ground with little to no wreckages, thus they were able to run quickly, but on the other hand, there were not many covers in case they got attacked. In short, they had no winning chance in case a swarm of Yarata scorpions attacked them here. The Hunters understood this fact, and that was why they were running so desperately.

The Hunter who was running at the front suddenly stopped, so all the Hunters behind him immediately stopped too.

“What’s wrong…?!”

The Hunter who stopped because the one in front of him stopped did not even need to wait for an answer to understand the reason why.

There were multiple wreckages scattered not too far in front of them. Although they looked like nothing but normal wreckages, they were actually Yarata scorpions waiting for their prey to come close. The Yarata scorpions antic.i.p.ated the Hunters’ movement and already laid an ambush here.

The Hunters picked up their guns in panic, but even before they were able to do so, a scorpion quickly jumped into action and ran toward the Hunters.

But at the next moment, a gunshot echoed and that monster was sent flying. The Hunters immediately turned to where that gunshot came from, it was Akira aiming his CWH anti-material rifle at that monster while still on his bike.

“Don’t stop!! Run!!!”

The Hunters immediately started running again, pa.s.sing the dead Yarata scorpion that Akira just shot.

Akira was able to see the scorpions with the help of Alpha’s support as all the scorpions around him were outlined in red. Some of them were camouflaging themselves as wreckages, some of them hid behind the wreckages and some of them were still on their way from afar. He could clearly see their positions and shapes thanks to Alpha’s support.

Akira did not find any signal from his information-gathering device that indicated the existence of the Yarata scorpions around him. Or at least, Akira could not recognize if there was such a signal.

Thus Akira looked confused since it was as if Alpha summoned those monsters out of thin air.

“There are so many of them around but why is my information-gathering device not picking anything up?”

“The sensors installed in that information-gathering device do receive signals from the Yarata scorpions. But even if it can receive those signals, it is a whole different story whether it can recognize it as Yarata scorpions or not. It’s just like you, you can see all those pebbles scattered around you but it’s not like you always recognize that those pebbles are there, right? It’s not an easy thing to segregate a big amount of information. That would simply drive you crazy. And if you take all of them seriously, you won’t be able to differentiate noise from useful information. It would be pointless if you try to compare my powerful information-gathering ability and superior information-a.n.a.lysis ability with the result from that information-gathering device, you know. But if I have to say anything about it, you should be able to notice those scorpions had you retained Elena’s setting.”

“So in short, because I changed the setting, I messed up the setting that Elena-san left with it and so it doesn’t work properly, huh?”

“If I have to be honest, then yes, that would be true. But If I have to say anything else, then it just means that you should be thankful for Elena-san’s setting.”

“So, it’s basically pointless to have a good tool if I can’t use it, huh? This shooting skill is basically because of your support too. I really wonder now if I am actually getting stronger or it is just all because of your support all along.”

As Akira stated his own weakness and berated himself, Alpha smiled and tried to cheer him up.

“If you have anything to complain about your own strength, then you should work hard to train yourself from now on. But at least I can guarantee you that you’re stronger now compared to before you started training.”

“You’re right. I’ll definitely do that.”

Akira kept on aiming and shooting at the Yarata scorpions while smiling bitterly.

Akira might not realize it himself, but his skill was actually improving at an incredible speed. It was all thanks to Alpha’s super effective training. It was the reason why, although he had bad luck, he was able to survive after he encountered 2 swarms of monsters on the same day.

But Akira looked down on his own skill. It was because he understood that compared to Alpha’s support, his skill was basically not even worth mentioning. That fact had greatly caused him to develop a biased evaluation of himself.

People who had absolute confidence in their own skills usually were indeed skilled people. So in contrast, Akira’s low self-confidence made him look weaker than how he really was.

Because of that, there were children who looked like a completely different person when they were in battle. People used to mistake them as pebbles and stepped on them, just to find out that they were actually closer to land mines.

Akira shot down the Yarata scorpions one by one. The piercing ammo that he used, pierced through their strong exoskeleton and destroyed their nervous system. It then either killed them on spot or at least rendered them paralyzed. But there were still a lot of Yarata scorpions there. Akira thought that there was no end to them as he s.h.i.+fted his aim to his next target. But Alpha suddenly said to him.

“Akira, that was your last bullet.”

“…Do you mean I’ve already run out of piercing ammo?!”

“Unfortunately so. Change your gun.”

Akira quickly changed into his AAH a.s.sault rifle while making a grim face. He knew that his rifle was only loaded with normal ammo, so it would be difficult to kill a Yarata scorpion using this ammo.

He suddenly heard a scream from the Hunters. When he quickly glanced at the direction of that scream, he saw Yarata scorpions standing in front of the Hunters.

“Hold on!”

As Alpha said that, she controlled Akira’s augmented suit and moved his body to grab onto the bike. At the same time, his bike suddenly accelerated, pa.s.sed beside the Hunters in front of him, and headed straight to those Yarata scorpions.

Akira tried to follow the movement of his augmented suit. When Alpha gave him the signal, he quickly leaned his body sideway to make the bike slide on its wheel. He used one of his legs to prevent him from falling over, as he slid on his bike and slammed its wheels onto the Yarata scorpions. Alpha accelerated the bike when its wheels got in contact with the scorpions and sent the scorpions flying into the air.

One of the scorpions that were sent flying crashed into wreckage not too far from Akira. Although it did not kill it, it was enough to stop it from moving for the time being. While the other scorpion was sent flying upward. Akira got off his bike and kicked the scorpion as it fell back to the ground with his augmented suit enhanced strength. That scorpion was blown away on its side and bounced further away as it landed onto a wreckage.

The other Hunters were dumbfounded watching such a scene unfolding right in front of their eyes. Akira then shouted at them.

“Go!! Now!!”

The Hunters got back to their senses and started running again.

More and more scorpions joined the swarm that was chasing Akira and the Hunters. As the other Hunters were running away, Akira protected their back as he carried two AAH rifles and showered the monsters with bullets. But as expected, the normal bullet could not do much damage on the scorpion’s exoskeleton.

Due to Alpha’s accuracy support, Akira was able to land multiple shots at the same spot on Yarata scorpion’s hard exoskeleton which eventually destroyed that exoskeleton and injured them, thus slowing the scorpions down. But even if he managed to kill some of them, it was only enough to slow down the whole swarm.

“That thing is freaking hard!! And there is no end to them!! This is getting pretty bad!!”

In contrast to Akira who started panicking, Alpha was still calm. But even so, she suddenly made a decision that fit the situation.

“It might be a good idea to consider abandoning the other Hunters behind and heading to the temporary base soon.”

“T-that’s a little bit… You know… Can we ask for rescue from the HQ instead?”

“Those Hunters already did that while running, you see. And it seems that the reply was not positive at all.”

“…I’ll try to hold on until the last moment.”

Since he had worked so hard to help them, Akira wanted to save these Hunters. But he had no plan to die with them. That was his thoughts as he kept on shooting at the scorpions while making a grim face.

The situation just kept getting worse as the Hunters started to reach their physical limits. The Hunters pushed themselves to keep running although they were already short on breath. While on the other hand, the scorpions did not show any sign of exhaustion as they kept closing in. It was only a matter of time before the scorpions reached them.

“This is not good at all.”

“Tell the Hunters to hole up in the building near them and wait for rescue from the HQ. If we’re lucky, we might be able to survive this swarm.”

“There’s no other way, huh? Do you have any recommendation about which building should we pick?”

“Let’s see, how about that… Oh, there’s no need to do that anymore.”

When Alpha was about to point at a building near them, she suddenly turned and pointed at the direction of the temporary HQ. As Akira turned to that direction, he could see multiple armed vehicles heading towards him.

Akira then moved his bike aside to make a way for them. After those vehicles pa.s.sed Akira, they scattered the scorpions away with their huge guns. Explosive warheads showered the scorpions and quickly turned the whole swarm into minced meat.

The armed vehicles then continued to decimate the rest of the scorpions as they headed straight to the deeper part of the ruin. One of the armed vehicles stopped beside Akira, a guy then came out from it and said to Akira.

“Are you number 14?”

“Yes, why…?”

“I’m the Captain of Kugamayama defense squad. We’re here by the request from HQ. Give me your rental terminal.”

Akira handed his rental terminal to that man.

“Alright. With this, your job has ended. You can go back home now.”

“Wait for a second. What’s happening here?”

“The ruin is flooded with Yarata Scorpions. So we’re here to eradicate those scorpions. There’s a good chance that a big nest is around here somewhere and it seems that the exploration around this area has stirred up the nest. I heard that they’re re-sweeping the area around the construction site now. The HQ is trying to identify the location of that nest from the information terminals that they lent to the Hunters, but it seems that a lot of Hunters were killed, you see. So it seems like they’re having a hard time pinpointing the number and the locations of the nests because of the lack of information. They also told us to retrieve the terminals from the dead Hunters too. Ahh, in any case, do you want to help us collect the terminals? You came all the way here escorting those Hunters, so you’re a pretty good Hunter, aren’t you?”

Akira shook his head and refused.

“No thanks. I thought I came here with plenty enough bullets but I’m all dry now. I simply don’t have enough resources right now. I’m not even sure they would cover for the ammo that I spent, you know.”

That man laughed lightly at Akira’s complaint.

“That’s too bad. You should at least make a contract to make sure that they would cover for your ammo next time. Later then, kiddo.”

After he said that, the man went and joined with the rest of the armed vehicles.

Akira looked at the other Hunters. It seemed that they were talking with the people from the other armed vehicles. Akira could not hear what they were talking about, but Alpha could as she used the information-gathering device to a.n.a.lyze the faint voice that reached it.

“It seems that they asked for a ride to the temporary base but got refused. It has nothing to do with us, so let’s just go ahead and go back home.”

“Alright.”

Akira then got on his bike and drove past the other Hunters. Some of them tried to call him but he just ignored them.

The other armed vehicles continued deeper into the ruin after taking the rental terminals from the Hunters. The Hunters that were left behind could not help but grumble.

“That boy and the defense squad won’t even give us a ride…”

“There’s no helping it. Let’s just go back home now. Although the defense squad had cleared the way to the temporary base, it’s not like it will stay safe forever, you know.”

“You’re right. Let’s go then… But still, who was that boy? He is really strong.”

“No idea. But all I know is that he’s strong enough to charge at that swarm all by himself. I heard that there’s a strong boy in Drankam, that boy might be him. I also heard that boy from Drankam did well in that big battle not too long ago.”

“Ahh, right, I heard about that too. But I heard that he’s just an above-average but a little arrogant boy with some good equipment though. I don’t really remember what his name was, was it Ka… Ka… Ka… Kazuya?”

“I don’t care about that. Let’s just hurry up and return back.”

The Hunters sounded dead tired as they were talking. But even so, they managed to drag their feet back to the temporary base.

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