Chapter 40 - About Shizuka’s Shop (1/2)
Translator: Athena13
Editor: Silavin
Proofreader: p4553r
Akira went to s.h.i.+zuka’s shop to buy ammo. But as he placed his order, s.h.i.+zuka looked at him surprised and asked with a puzzled look.
“Akira. You’re buying a lot of ammo this time. Are you planning to use these anytime soon?”
“Rather than a plan, it’s more like I’ve exhausted all of my reserve ammo. That’s why I want to stock a lot of ammo so I won’t end up running out of ammo when in the midst of a battle again.”
His answer hinted that he had fought against a big swarm of monsters that could not be killed using normal ammo. Those monsters were so big that he had spent all of his ammo reserves. Either that or he fought some super strong monster and ended up using all of his ammo. In the worst-case scenario, it might even be both.
s.h.i.+zuka wondered if Akira did something dangerous again. Although she asked him with a worried voice and gaze, her smile somehow gave pressure as if warning Akira not to lie.
“Is it okay if I ask you what happened?”
“Uhh… When I took the request to help the forward base construction in Kuzusuhara ruin, I met and fought with a lot of Yarata scorpions…”
Akira explained everything to s.h.i.+zuka without trying to hide anything. Since Akira explained it without making any suspicious behaviours, s.h.i.+zuka thought that there was nothing to worry about and patted her chest in relief.
In reality, Akira actually was in such a dangerous situation that he even thought of abandoning the Hunters that he had saved. But with that being said, he knew that he could easily escape if he just abandoned the other Hunters and not to mention that the other Hunters were also saved in the end. So he thought that it was not so dangerous and left off some details from his story. Thanks to that, s.h.i.+zuka could not tell that Akira actually had a brush with death.
“…Because of that, I could not use my usual AAH rifle’s ammo, you see. That’s why I thought that I should stock up piercing ammo.”
s.h.i.+zuka felt relieved and smiled gently at Akira. She then came up with a recommendation considering both Akira’s safety and the shop’s revenue.
“Stocking piercing ammo is a good idea. Though, there is an alternative. In the case you’ve described, I recommend you to add a modification to your AAH rifle. If you add a modification to increase the firepower of the rifle, you should be able to use it to fight against Yarata scorpion. It will give quite an increase in firepower even when you use normal ammo, but of course, there’s a limit on how far you can increase its firepower using modification.”
“Modification, huh? But like, isn’t that a complicated procedure?”
“Even if it’s called a modification, you actually just need to replace a part of the rifle. You should be able to do it if you know how to do standard maintenance for an AAH rifle. You’ve heard about those AAH rifle fan, right? They even usually make their own parts, you know? Some of them would even spread their modified rifles around to get more AAH rifle fans. I also have some modified AAH rifles here. Modifying your AAH rifle should be cheaper rather than stocking up piercing ammo for CWH anti-material rifle just because the normal AAH rifle ammo doesn’t really work against some of the monsters. So, what do you think?”
Akira would take s.h.i.+zuka’s recommendation if he had no problem with money, and as a matter of fact, this problem has been solved from the reward from his last request. Unlike the building scouting job that he took the other day, his rescue job yesterday scored him quite a huge reward. Because of the surplus money, he immediately decided to take her recommendation.
“I understand. In that case, I’ll take your recommendation.”
“Thank you for your patronage.”
As Akira smiled with a smile that only an independent Hunter could give, s.h.i.+zuka found it rather interesting and smiled back.
s.h.i.+zuka put all kinds of AAH rifle modification parts in front of Akira. A magazine extension to increase the ammo capacity, a port to connect the information-gathering device with the rifle, a gun barrel to increase the firepower. Although there were still other kinds of modification parts, s.h.i.+zuka only had these parts in her shop at that moment.
Akira looked at these parts with wide eyes while listening to s.h.i.+zuka’s explanation.
“There are so many different modifications, huh.”
“There are still many other types of modifications out there, you know. Some of them don’t even look suitable for AAH rifle. Although it would be cheaper just to buy a new gun, those AAH rifle fans would forcefully attach those parts to their AAH rifle. I guess those people are really zealous.”
“So there are even those kinds of parts too, huh. That aside, about this gun barrel to increase firepower, I wonder how much increase it would give when I use normal ammo.”
“It’ll give quite an increase, you see. It would even lessen the kickback too. Although, to be honest, I don’t really understand the reason behind it and the kind of technology it uses. I only know that it uses some kind of complex technique to produce such an effect, I guess it’s a technique from the old-world technology.”
“The old world technology, huh…?”
Akira understood well just how out-of-common-sense the old-world technology was. It was already obvious by looking at the monsters. Even for Akira who had very limited knowledge, he knew well that it would be impossible to reproduce those monsters even by using all the knowledge of the current world. But the old-world technology was able to accomplish such a feat.
Although Alpha was teaching Akira about basic scientific knowledge, she prohibited him from asking about the monsters.
The out-of-common-sense technology of the old-world could create things that were close to magic. If Akira wanted to understand the knowledge behind it, he would need to spend his whole life studying. That was why Alpha told him to not think about it for now.
“The technology of the old-world, if all kinds of mysteries in this era can be solved with those 3 words, it would take one’s whole life to understand it. I bet those researchers who are working under the Corporate Government are devoting their entire lives to do that, but I heard that even they still don’t fully understand the old-world technology.”
A gun’s barrel that could change the velocity and ma.s.s of a bullet, or a magazine that allowed stocking impossible amounts of bullets in such a small s.p.a.ce. All of these things were made possible due to the old-world technology and the people of the current era still did not understand the working mechanism behind it.
“If it still bothers you that much, you can try becoming one of those researchers and research it yourself. So what do you think? Want to give it a try?”
He would be lying if he said that he was not interested. But Akira still had a heap of other stuff that he had to learn and do. He just did not have the time nor the money to indulge himself in studying the old-world technology.
“I’m a Hunter, so I won’t be digging too deep into that kind of stuff.”
Akira smiled mischievously when he said that.
After that, Akira followed s.h.i.+zuka’s recommendation and bought some modification parts plus an aiming device that he could connect to his information-gathering device. And with that, half of the money that he earned yesterday was gone.
Hunters had 2 choices, to use the money for updating equipment or to increase their quality of life. Focusing more on the former would help to earn more money. But neglecting the latter would ruin their health and affect their performance as Hunters. It was important to be able to maintain the balance between these two, after all, all the Hunters who could not do this end up dead.
But for Akira who had spent his whole life till now in the slum alley, his current lifestyle was actually lavish for him. Rather than ruining his own health, it was actually an upgrade from his previous living condition. So even if he splurged on equipment, it would not disturb his balance.
Suddenly, Akira could hear Elena’s voice from inside the shop.
“s.h.i.+zuka!! Come here for a bit!”
“Akira, wait for a sec here, okay?”
s.h.i.+zuka just smiled at Akira before she went to the back room.
Akira waited for s.h.i.+zuka while making a puzzled look. Not too long after that, he could hear Elena’s panicked voice and s.h.i.+zuka’s voice which sounded like she was teasing Elena.
“…Eh?! Akira is here?!!”
“Yep. And remember that you did promise him to show it when it arrived, right? So let’s go.”
“I never said yes to that, you went and made that promise without my permission, didn’t you?!!”
“But you didn’t say no either, didn’t you? Let’s show him, it’s not like you’ll lose anything anyway.”
“Whoa- stop pus.h.i.+ng me…?!”
Elena appeared from behind the back room with s.h.i.+zuka pus.h.i.+ng her from the back. Akira was frozen when he saw Elena, who was wrapped in a thin bodysuit-shaped augmented suit.
Her augmented suit was made of glossy material. It fit tightly on her body that it fully showed her bodyline. It was obvious that the augmented suit was made of very thin material. There were thin lines that were just a few centimetres wide running on the surface of her augmented suit. It ran from her shoulder to her elbow and extended to the tip of her fingers, some of it ran down from her neck to her chest and down to her lower abdomen, and also from her hip to her knees and reached her ankles.
Seeing Elena wrapped in that thin body-tight augmented suit which showcased her bodyline in a suggestive way, Akira could not help but to remember the naked Elena’s image that Alpha reconstructed using the data left inside his information-gathering device. Elena’s image from back then was so breathtaking that it was enough to make Akira lose his cool.
As Elena’s eyes met Akira’s, she could see him fl.u.s.tered and blus.h.i.+ng. Because of that, her face started turning red too.
s.h.i.+zuka who was the only person who wasn’t fl.u.s.tered, smiled teasingly as she explained about Elena’s augmented suit.
“The augmented suit that Elena is using is the B3CSD augmented suit. Unlike Akira’s augmented suit, this augmented suit is not equipped with exoskeleton support. It might be all baggy before being turned on, but once you turn it on, it will fit tightly on its user’s body. Because of that, it would feel like it’s not even there and it won’t disturb the user’s movement. It has enough air permeability that the user would even be able to feel the breeze as if it was blowing directly over the user’s skin. And of course, it also augments its user’s physical power too.”
Just like s.h.i.+zuka said, Elena felt like she was actually naked. Although she did not feel cold nor hot because of the temperature control function in the augmented suit, she could feel as if the air was blowing directly on her skin. It felt like she was walking naked had she not confirmed that she was actually using an augmented suit.
Her augmented suit was so baggy earlier, but it completely shocked her as it fit tightly on her body when she turned it on. Elena knew that her augmented suit would show her body line. So she still couldn’t believe that she came to meet Akira with her augmented suit on.
Elena glared at s.h.i.+zuka while still blus.h.i.+ng.
“…s.h.i.+zuka, this thing is just too much, you know.”
Although a Hunter with a powerful physical ability was glaring at her, s.h.i.+zuka could not feel the pressure from her glare at all because Elena was fl.u.s.tered and still blus.h.i.+ng. Thus s.h.i.+zuka could maintain her smile as she replied.
“I want you to still use an armour if it’s possible. I picked this augmented suit since it would be hard to operate your information-gathering device if it has baggy gloves, right? I wouldn’t want your augmented suit to become an obstacle when you’re using your information-gathering device. That’s why I picked an augmented suit that you can use comfortably and can be used along with your information-gathering device. I also considered your request for an augmented suit that enhances your physical strength and it can be finely adjusted by yourself. You don’t like it?”
Elena could not argue back, her augmented suit fulfilled all the requirements which she originally thought to be a bit impossible. So she had no complaints about it.
“…To be honest, I thought it would be impossible to get an augmented suit with all of those functions with my budget, you know?”
Elena tried to come up with any arguments that she could find, but s.h.i.+zuka calmly and quickly answered back.
“For the sake of her precious friend, Sara also contributed for the budget, you see. You should thank her properly later…”
“So that’s why, huh?”
It was true Elena felt really happy that Sara helped her to pay for her augmented suit. But looking from the other perspective, it meant that she would not be able to get her hands on this augmented suit had Sara not helped her pay for it. Elena understood this as she smiled bitterly.
s.h.i.+zuka who was smiling at Elena suddenly turned to Akira and asked him.
“By the way, what do you think after seeing Elena’s augmented suit?”
Akira and Elena looked at each other. Akira’s face turned red, he then answered back while trying to avoid looking at Elena’s body.
“…I think it’s a bit too extreme, I think it’s a good idea to wear something over it.”
Akira tried his best not to get too fl.u.s.tered, but that was rather impossible for him.
Elena immediately realized that she could just put on her usual armour on top of her augmented suit. She was so fl.u.s.tered up until now that she did not realize that at all.
Elena smiled awkwardly.
“…Y-you’re right! Erm. W-well, I’ll be back soon!!”
Elena went to the backroom in panic. Akira just saw her off without saying anything while s.h.i.+zuka giggled mischievously.
Akira took a deep breath and calmed himself down. He thought that he would not be able to talk normally with Elena once she returned if he was not calm enough. So in order to change the mood, he asked a light question to s.h.i.+zuka.
“…s.h.i.+zuka-san. Do all advanced augmented suits look like that?”