Chapter 41 - A Request For Akira (1/2)
Translator: Athena13
Editor: Silavin
Proofreader: p4553r
Akira traversed the wasteland in his car and finally arrived at his destination. After he looked around his surroundings, he seemed uncertain.
“…Alpha, is this really the place?”
“This should be the place according to the data that we got from Higaraka Residence Ruin.”
There was a weird silence between Akira and Alpha.
“In order to find an undiscovered ruin, we’re trying to look for Lion Steel Corporation’s branch office or any facility with a terminal. If it is located in an area that is not widely known to the public, there is a good chance that there’s an undiscovered ruin there. This place is one of such an area, am I right, Alpha?”
“That’s right.”
There was an endless wasteland laid in front of Akira. Buildings that were abandoned would slowly become decrepit before crumbling down. The wind and rain would then shave the debris into fine particles. As for the dead human and monster corpses, they eventually returned back to be one with the earth. Then, new life would bloom out from where they were. However, only small traces of civilization were left in this place, it was too barren to be called as a ruin.
“…I guess I got my hopes up too high, huh. But it’s only to be expected though. If finding an undiscovered ruin was an easy thing, the other Hunters would have found dozens of them already.”
Akira tried to cling onto his faint hope.
“Is it possible for you to get more precise data? Even if you tell me that it’s around here, this place is vast. We might be able to find something if you can come up with a more precise location.”
“Wait… Look over there…”
When Alpha pointed her finger towards a location that she extracted from the data set, Akira quickly turned towards that direction. With his vision that was enhanced by her support, he was able to see an arrow that was pointing at a specific location. But unfortunately, it was pointing at an empty s.p.a.ce.
Akira tilted his head when he saw where the arrow pointed to.
“Are you telling me that there’s a building with some kind of optical camouflage over there….?”
“Nope… Alright then!! This one is a bust! Let’s go to the next one!”
Alpha answered immediately in a fas.h.i.+on as if she was trying to just gloss it over. Akira found that a bit funny as he smiled bitterly.
It was not like Akira was blaming Alpha. Even old-world cities that spanned over a very wide area could not resist the might of time and had turned into a barren wasteland. The so-called ruins were basically nothing more but a part of those cities that, for some reason, were able to withstand the withering of time and were preserved till now. They were exceptions but not the rule.
Akira and Alpha just left that place and headed to the next one. They then checked all the places that they could extract from their data, but they did not find anything interesting.
Akira could not help but let out a sigh since he kept finding the arrows pointing at empty s.p.a.ces. Frustration kept piling every time he headed to a different place. His motivation was slowly shaved and his original expectation was crushed.
Looking at the discouraged Akira, Alpha tried to cheer him up with a bright voice.
“It’s all busts, huh. What do you want to do now? Want to stop looking for an undiscovered ruin and go back to exploring already discovered ruins? Those data are also useful even in an already explored ruin, it might help to navigate through confusing areas or dangerous places. With that data, we might even be able to find undiscovered hidden places filled with untouched expensive relics, you know.”
Akira hesitated before answering back.
“…I think I’ll stay looking for this undiscovered ruin for some more time. Since we got that data, I want to make use of it as much as possible.”
“Alright. I hope we hit a jackpot in the next place.”
“You can say that again. Although it would totally suck if it’s overrun with monsters.”
“Well, no one knows the number and type of monsters roaming in an undiscovered ruin. They’re called as undiscovered ruins because Hunters haven’t discovered them, so there’s no information about the monsters that roam there. If there’s a monster that you can’t handle, then you have no other choice but to give up on it. So I hope there will only be monsters that you can easily handle.”
“About that though, can’t I rely on your support to evade fighting them?”
“Of course I’ll help you. But there’s no guarantee that you’ll be completely safe. I can only give you my best support in the Kuzusuhara ruin, I can’t give you the same level of support in another ruin. I’ve told you about that too, remember?”
Akira’s face turned grim.
“Ahh, you’re right. I remember it now.”
“To be more precise, my detection ability will fall outside Kuzusuhara ruin and there’s a limit on how much the information-gathering device can supplement my detection ability. The monsters might even be able to discover you before you discover them. You can’t explore the other ruins as easily as when you’re exploring the Kuzusuhara ruin.”
“I understand, I’ll be careful.”
Alpha’s support was the reason why a child from the slum such as Akira could survive in the ruins. Akira understood that well, that was why he tensed up, knowing that Alpha’s support would drop outside the Kuzusuhara ruin.
Alpha then continued.
“And also, even if you find an undiscovered ruin, it’s not like you can bring the rental vehicle to explore that ruin. After all, there’s a possibility that other Hunters can find out the location of that newly found ruin from the route history of the vehicle. And it won’t be strange for them to sniff the existence of an undiscovered ruin by checking the vehicle’s record if you stop the vehicle in one place for an extended length of time and linking it to a big relics sale of its borrower not too long after that.”
“So my only choice is to go there with my own vehicle, huh. But borrowing a vehicle is the best that I can do for now.”
“There’s also the problem of your parking spot once you buy one. You’re still living in an inn after all. So you’ll need to rent a house with a parking lot first before buying a vehicle, and if you have some extra money, it’ll be a good idea to install a wide range information-gathering device on it too. With that, you’ll be less likely to be tailed by other Hunters and you’ll be able to avoid the monsters also.”
“And just when exactly would I have enough money for all that? Working as Hunters really needs a lot of money, huh. But in the end, it will still be a gamble whether all the money that I spend on the equipment was worth it.”
Reminded by how hard was working as a Hunter, Akira let out a sigh. Alpha then smiled at him trying to cheer him up.
“That’s why you have to make sure you have a solid preparation so that it won’t be a gamble. Of course, I’m talking both about your equipment and skill. Moreover, you have my support too, so it’ll be alright. It has been like that up until now, hasn’t it?”
Akira looked back into his memories and noticed that it was indeed true, thus he was finally able to get over it and lightly smile.
“You’re right. I’ll be counting on you.”
“Just leave it to me.”
Alpha gave a confident smile to Akira.
Akira had been gambling since the day he met Alpha. As a Hunter where he had to gamble using more than his own life, he had been winning all his bet.
But there was no guarantee that it would continue from here and on.
As Akira and Alpha continued to roam the wasteland in search of undiscovered ruin, they also continued to find empty s.p.a.ces.
Akira thought that he should head back to the city soon, so he decided that the next place will be the last stop before returning back to the city. The last place he checked was also a vast empty wasteland, but there was a cl.u.s.ter of completely buried debris in a certain area not too far from there.
As Akira thought, it was another bust. He asked Alpha to reconfirm the location from the data as she had always done.
“Alpha, do that thing again, please.”
“It’s over there.”
Just like usual, Alpha used the data as a reference and pointed at the direction of the location. Akira then could see an arrow pointer with his enhanced vision.
Akira was surprised when he saw the arrow, it was pointing below the ground.
“…Underground?”
“That seems to be the case.”
Akira scanned his surroundings one more time, but he did not find anything that resembled an entrance to the underground.
“Is there any gate mentioned in that data?”
“I was only able to extract the location. I thought that location data would be enough since you can decide the route through simple research. It might have completely collapsed and buried underground, but if that’s not the case, then you’ll be discovering a new ruin.”
“But even so, I can’t go in without any entrance.”
“So, what do you want to do? Want to look for an entrance?”
“…No, let’s go back home for today. I’m here with a rental vehicle. So even if there’s really an undiscovered ruin here, I just can’t stay in one place for long looking for an entrance, the record left in the vehicle will be suspicious after all. So yep, I’ll have to get my own vehicle first before searching for an entrance here.”
“That’s true. We’ll have to wait until then. Let’s just go back home for today.”
Although he could not find an undiscovered ruin, he was able to find hints of one. Akira was at least satisfied with that as he decided to go back to the city.
—*—*—*—
Akira was taking a good dip in the bath inside his inn. He looked completely relaxed as he let the warm water melt away all of his tiredness.
As usual, Alpha was also there taking a dip in the same bath as him. The only thing that hid her wonderful body was the hazy steam and the ripples on the water surface. But even so, her body was utterly captivating.
Akira did not seem bothered by that at all. Although there was an unreal beauty in the same bath as him, as always, he was just wasting that luxurious scene.
A notification message reached Akira’s information terminal that he left inside his room. But since it was connected to Alpha, she also received that message’s information.
“Akira, there’s a request for you from the Hunter Office.”
“Request?”
“Yep, you’ve become quite a Hunter now that the Hunter Office would even send a specially designated request to you, huh… Well, normally, you should be delighted, but the content of the request is rather concerning.”
Akira quickly understood that there was something bad going on. He quickly tensed up as all of his consciousness that was melted into the warm water was snapped back into his body.
“So, what it needs me to do?”
“To put it simply, they’re thinking of taking out all the Yarata Scorpion’s nest in the Kuzusuhara ruin and they want you to help them out.”
“Nice, let’s refuse it.”
Akira immediately refused it. Normally, any Hunter would have welcomed any specially designated request from the Hunter Office. But as he remembered the hard battle he had fought in that abandoned building and how he had to fight a swarm of Yarata scorpion while trying to run away from that area, he did not hesitate when he decided to refuse this request.
But Alpha then lightly shook her head.
“It is concerning because you can’t just refuse the request, you see. The requester is the Long-term Strategic Division of the Kugamayama city. It would be simple if it was from the city guards since their duty is to maintain the safety around the city. But this one is from the Long-term Strategic Division, if you refuse it without any good reason, they might paint a bad mark on you thinking that you have no motivation in helping with the city’s growth. It would be very troublesome if they see you in a bad light as long as you’re living in this city, you know. Well, in the worst-case scenario, you can just move out to another city though, but I don’t think it is worth all of that troubles for just refusing this request.”
Akira groaned, even he would not want to be put in a bad spotlight in the city.
“…Is there any way to politely refuse this request? Maybe I can put extra conditions if they want me to take this request, but what should I put so that they would retract the designated request?”
“Well, it is indeed a hard question, a condition that is not impossible but enough to make them retract this request, huh…”
After Akira had a long consultation with Alpha about what condition should he demand from the requester. He understood that simply asking a big reward would not work, even if that might be able to let him evade the designated request, there was no mistaking it that it would buy him animosity from the city. So, they decided to ask for a big reward for his next request as his last option.
In the end, they came up with 3 conditions. Because of his lack of skill, he would be using a lot of the special piercing ammo for his CWH anti-material rifle, and so they will be paying for the ammo upfront. And although he would be working as a part of a team, he was to be allowed to make his own decision and move alone separated from his other team members from time to time. That also included the time when he decided to return back home. The reward would be paid based on the number of monsters killed. And lastly, his reward would not be deducted from any pa.s.sive actions such as going back home first.
He had a hard time fighting the Yarata scorpions yesterday because of his lack of skill. Thus, he would not take the request unless he was ent.i.tled to get this much exemption. This was what he added to his reply mail before sending it.
“I wrote a lot of stuff there, but I wonder if I’ve asked too much.”
Akira could not take back his reply mail since he had already sent it, so it was a little worried.
Alpha smiled at him to calm him down.
“It can’t be helped. If it was too easy, then they would just accept your conditions. Let’s just hope that they would retract their request without getting too angry.”
Akira let the warm water take over his body as he wished for this matter to be resolved peacefully.