Chapter 45 - The Power Of Special Ammo (1/2)

Translator: Athena13

Editor: Silavin

Proofreader: p4553r

After a short argument with Reina and s.h.i.+ori about his evaluation of Reina, Akira quickly turned back to continue exploring the underground city. He thought that s.h.i.+ori and Reina would leave him alone after that fight, but unlike what he expected, they both decided to stay there rather than returning back to the defensive point 14.

Reina was extremely dejected, but she did not allow her feelings to affect her current work. As a matter of fact, she was performing better than before their argument, it might be because she was no longer bothered by any unnecessary thinking. s.h.i.+ori who noticed that felt hurt.

Akira could feel the mood behind him and felt rather uncomfortable.

“I know that it might be too late for this, but like, is it better if I say something to them since cheering them up might be included as my duty in the request that I accepted?”

To be honest, this mood was the result of Akira trying to take his job, which was to give Reina his support, too seriously that it caused a fight instead. So looking at the outcome, Akira wondered if he had actually done a bad job back then.

Alpha smiled bitterly.

“If you think that you should’ve prioritized avoiding a fight from the beginning, then your actions were wrong. Or at least, you should have told them your opinion using gentler words. So in short, that fight was basically because of your lack of skill.”

“Well, that’s true…”

“But putting that aside, I think it was more important that you’re taking your request very seriously. To be honest, I was happy to be able to confirm that you’re someone who takes requests very seriously since I’m also someone who made a request to you. And also by doing that, they’ll be more careful when they want to get involved with you next time. So looking from this point of view, what you did back there was not entirely bad. So, there’s no need for you to be this much bothered.”

People in the Slum city were forced to beg with all they had if they did not want to die. Although it was not like he had to go that far, Akira lived a difficult life for years. The reason why he became a Hunter was to gain power so he could escape from living in such an environment.

And then Akira became a Hunter, gained a small amount of power and finally was able to struggle against the environment he was in.

That was exactly why he refused to do the same thing that he always did if he was faced with the same situation as before. He was actually scared if he did the same thing as before, it would mean he returned back to his previous self. He was so afraid of that happening, that he would rather risk his life than beg for it.

Akira himself did not realize it, that was why he was troubled with the way he was acting. And in order to take advantage of it, Alpha smiled gently to Akira and encouraged him.

There was a dead corpse of Yarata scorpion scattered in the underground hallway. It had bullet holes in its torso and some of its legs were blasted to pieces. Bloods flowed from its wounds and left traces that formed a straight line.

Akira checked that corpse and its location in the underground city map.

“Looking at the direction of the traces left by this corpse, it seems that this is one of the Yarata scorpions that attacked defensive point number 15, huh. a.s.suming that it was dead on its way back to its nest, I might be able to find more dead scorpions which died the same way around here. If I tracked their traces, I might be able to find their nest, but… Alpha, do you notice any other Yarata Scorpions around the area?”

“I can’t find any alive or dead Yarata scorpions around the area.”

“I see… It’s not like I can finish the exploration just because I found one dead Yarata Scorpion. I guess I have no other choice but to keep looking for more, huh?”

“Of course I can even help you find traces that normally would be very hard to notice, but they might think it is unnatural if you discover traces that are extremely hard to find. If they ask you how you found them, you’ll need to come up with some logical excuses, you know. So, what do you want? Want me to look for any traces?”

Akira thought for a bit before answering back.

“…Let’s see… Please do that. With all the things that have happened, I want to finish the search as soon as possible. If they ask me how I found the traces, I’ll just tell them that it was just pure luck.”

“Although I told you to come up with an excuse, that’s a lame excuse.”

“It’ll be fine. Not to mention that the HQ told me to do this because they evaluated my skill when I had your support. If they ask me to explain all of my previous achievements, I can’t say anything more other than just being lucky. So it’s too late to complain about that now.”

Akira already made up his mind, Alpha who was watching how he behaved smiled at him.

“Alright, I found it.”

“That was fast!!!”

“Well, that’s just how good I am.”

As Akira looked surprised and instinctively turned to Alpha, she replied by smiling mischievously and pointed her finger towards a different direction than where the defensive point 15 was located. And at the same time, she enhanced Akira’s vision so that he could see faint traces that he would normally have missed. He could even see an indicator on the floor showing the route that he should take.

Akira started walking following the indicator in his vision. Reina and s.h.i.+ori found it strange that he suddenly changed route although they were heading towards the defensive point number 15 up until now. But since Reina still had not recovered from her dejection and with s.h.i.+ori’s hesitation in asking him, they just followed Akira without knowing the reason why he suddenly changed direction.

Although the hallway looked exactly the same even after Akira changed direction, he could see small traces had started popping out in his enhanced vision as he followed the route that Alpha indicated. Small scratches on the floors. Marks of wreckages and rubbles shoved aside to make way. Tiny blood marks scattered around the place. Putting everything together, it was obvious that a huge number of Yarata scorpions pa.s.sed through this place.

As Akira could see those small traces thanks to Alpha support, he started to unconsciously move following those traces. s.h.i.+ori, who noticed it, started to feel that it was strange how Akira was moving. He was moving as if he knew exactly where he was heading, or at least, he was moving as if he was following a guide. When s.h.i.+ori felt that, she just had to ask him about that sudden change of his movements, Akira who was leading the team suddenly stopped. He was standing in front of a big hole in the middle of the hallway.

The hole was big enough for multiple people to pa.s.s through at the same time. The inner part of the hole looked completely dark since there was no illumination installed inside it. And the biggest problem of all was that hole was not present in the underground city map.

When Akira shone his torchlight into the hole, he could see a man-made floor about 20 metres below. It was obvious that it connected the underground city to a different area. But the map also had no information about the area that hole was connected to.

Akira quickly picked up his terminal and contacted the HQ.

“This is number 27. HQ, you there?”

“This is HQ. What’s wrong?”

“I found a hole that is not on the map. It seems that it’s connected to the other underground area. It might be the place where the Yarata scorpions that attacked defensive point 15 came from.”

“Wait for a sec… Can you turn the rental terminal towards that hole?”

Akira then turned the rental terminal’s camera towards the hole just like he was told to, the terminal then sent the image and the other data to the HQ.

“…We’ve confirmed it, that hole leads to an uncharted area. I bet there are Yarata Scorpions down there.”

“So like, there is more than one Yarata Scorpion nest down here?”

“Yes. There are countless Yarata scorpions’ breeding grounds located in the underground city. At the moment, we already took out 17 nests. I’m sure there are still other nests out there. I think it’s not an exaggeration to say that the whole underground city itself is their nest.”

Akira remembered the building he was in when he was ambushed by a swarm of Yarata Scorpion, he frowned as it looked similar, just that this was inside the underground city.

“…I see. With this, my job to search the area is finished. I’ll be heading back to the defensive point 14.”

“No. We have to build another defensive point there. Stand by over there and wait for reinforcements to arrive. Stop any monsters that try to come out from that hole.”

“Wait for a sec. Only with the three of us? Isn’t that a bit impossible…?”

“Whoah there, you decided to go out alone so it means that you have enough confidence in your own ability, right? Not to mention that among the 2 people that came with you, one of them is a skilled Hunter among the other Hunters in the defensive point 14. I think you have enough firepower there. Securing the safety of the area is also the defence team’s job. So just do it.”

“…This is number 27, roger that.”

Of course, Akira could not tell the HQ that he was so close to killing the other 2 Hunters who were with him, so he just obediently accepted that order from HQ.

They started installing temporal illumination around the hallway, although it was not that bright, it was still better than the total darkness that wrapped the underground city. The big hole on the hallway peered into the darkness. The dim light that illuminated the area around its entrance seemed as if it was showing the people who looked at it about the danger it housed. Compared to when you were in an explored area, the possibility of meeting monsters in an uncharted area was far higher.

In the middle of the current scene, Akira was seen sitting in front of the big hole staring into the darkness. Normally, one would only be able to see total darkness inside that tunnel, but due to Alpha’s support, he could see shapes and distances within his monochromatic vision.

“This vision is really useful. You did this when we were in the Higaraka Residence ruin too, right?”

“Yep. It’s better than total darkness, right?”

“Yeah, it is. With this vision, I wonder if I can recognize a Yarata Scorpion from afar if one of them decides to crawl out from this hole?”

“When that happens, I’ll let you know before you can see them, so don’t worry.”

“Then I’ll be relying on you.”

Akira chatted with Alpha and did some studying too while waiting for the arrival of people who would properly secure the area.

Reina and s.h.i.+ori were watching Akira’s flank, they stood facing the opposite direction while watching the hallways. There was no guarantee that monsters would only come attacking from that hole. As Akira was monitoring the hole, s.h.i.+ori and Reina were monitoring other places.

While keeping watch on her side, s.h.i.+ori occasionally glanced at Akira. Now that she was calm, she tried to rea.s.sess the person who she was about to fight not too long ago.

s.h.i.+ori had been sharpening her skill to judge other people’s real ability in order to protect Reina. On the basis of that skill which she developed through her devotion, she could only see Akira as nothing more than a common young Hunter, just like the other young Hunters who she had met. Or at least, Akira did not look like someone who could accomplish the achievements listed in his battle record.

But s.h.i.+ori somehow was still doubting her own judgement and tried to observe Akira more closely. At least for now, she admitted that his resolve was not something to scoff at. But she did not expect that he would even go as far as to risk a fight where he might get killed just to stick to his principles. While on the other hand, she also had a feeling that it was not just a foolish action taken by an amateur who did not know the real power of his opponent.

So, was Akira really the skilled Hunter given his battle record? Was he just only acting in order to hide his real ability? Did he do what he did back there because he knew for sure that he would have won if they really tried to kill each other? So many questions were floating inside s.h.i.+ori’s mind as she kept glancing back at him. But she immediately rejected those possibilities and cleared up her mind.

After going around in circles, she tried to wrap up a conclusion. It was still not clear whether he was a strong or a weak Hunter. Although so many things about him did not make sense at all, one thing for sure was that he was not someone who would step back when threatened. Something unexpected or even unwanted might happen if he fought beside Reina, thus she thought that she had to be cautious not to do anything careless.

[It was a big blunder that I unconsciously looked down on him and threatened him thinking that he would back down. I bet it would have gone really wrong if Milady didn’t stop me, I should have been more careful.]

s.h.i.+ori reevaluated her loyalty and reflected on how she should act, while on the other hand, she also became more cautious toward Akira.

Reina was extremely dejected, but as the time pa.s.sed by and with s.h.i.+ori trying to cheer her up, she started to calm down. She was in a place that had a low risk of getting ambushed, there were 2 good Hunters with her, the area around her was very silent, and there were some illuminations installed in the area, it was a perfect place to calm herself down. The leeway created after she calmed down made her think back.