Chapter 46 - Calculating the reward (1/2)

Reina noticed that Akira was using CWH anti-material rifle’s specially designated ammo. All the magazines scattered on the ground were of the same type too.

Reina was surprised since she knew how powerful and just how expensive those bullets were.

“Why are you even using CWH anti-material rifle’s special ammo?! It’s overkill to use that ammo against a Yarata scorpion, isn’t it? Are you here planning to hunt a tank or something?!”

“I’m just using them to complement my lack of skill!! Like h.e.l.l, I would fight a tank!!”

“How in the world did you get this many ammo?!! You would have had to pay a huge amount of money for all of these bullets!! Or like, have you been earning that much money?!!”

“The requester paid for them and they approved it when I told them I’ll be using loads of specially designated ammo for CWH rifle!! If you have any complaints, you can go ahead and say that to the requester!! I thought that they would refuse when I made that demand, you know!! It’s exactly because they accepted my demands that I’m here right now!! Now that I think about it, those people in the HQ must have predicted that something like this would happen huh, dammit!!”

Akira was lamenting his situation, he vowed to himself that he would make good use of this experience.

Reina turned to s.h.i.+ori, she was wondering if s.h.i.+ori also predicted this situation. By the way, Reina did not expect it at all.

“…I thought that something like this might happen, but the possibility was too small. I believed that the swarm would not be this dangerous if we faced it using all the facilities installed in the defensive point and with the help of all the Hunters stationed there.”

Reina’s eyes started getting watery when s.h.i.+ori pointed out that hurtful fact. After all, Reina had nothing else to blame other than her own selfishness now that she was in this place. If only she had stayed together with Katsuya’s group, she would not be in this situation now.

s.h.i.+ori suddenly turned her gun towards the centre of the hallway in a swift motion and started shooting. Reina inadvertently turned toward that direction and saw countless scorpions creeping out from the hallway showered under the flying bullets.

There was not even a single scorpion that pa.s.sed through Akira. So Reina was taken aback when she saw those scorpions.

“Where are those scorpions coming from?!! Are there more holes other than this one?!!”

“Milady!! More are coming!!”

Although their number was not too many, the new scorpions closing in from the left and the right sides surrounded Akira and the girls. Reina and s.h.i.+ori started shooting at those scorpions coming from the direction that they were facing.

Akira shouted.

“Their number is too small for them to come out from another hole!! They might be the scorpions that are coming back after exploring the area other than the defensive point 15!! Both of my both hands tied right now, so you girls need to deal with them yourself, okay?”

“Okay!!”

After Reina answered back, Akira sounded really desperate when he continued.

“I’m leaving those scorpions to you, alright!! I’m really counting on you girls, okay!! I’m really leaving those scorpions to you girls!!”

Akira was obviously so desperate as he yelled that. At the moment, he had to deal with the swarm gus.h.i.+ng out from the hole in front of him, so it was impossible for him to deal with the scorpions coming from his flank. He really needed Reina and s.h.i.+ori’s help in this situation.

Reina looked amazed, but she quickly pulled herself back together and smiled confidently.

“…Just leave them to us!!”

Since Akira was a Hunter who was skilled enough to quickly spot that swarm of Yarata scorpions and hold back that swarm all by himself, Reina was so excited that someone like him asked for her help. After all, Reina was dejected and felt inferior when Akira told her about his evaluation of her. But now, Akira relied on her. It basically meant that he recognized her skill and this fact greatly encouraged her. It cleared up her feelings of inferiority that was swelling inside her. The irritation and the impatience that had been slowing her down and causing her to make rasher decision were gone now.

Reina quickly started shooting the Yarata scorpions that were coming at her. More and more Yarata scorpions were appearing in front of her. In the middle of the battle, her rare talent started to s.h.i.+ne, she herself noticed that her psyche was heightened and sharpened as she started to smile confidently while shooting at those scorpions. Because of that, she was able to quickly shoot down the scorpions in front of her one by one.

s.h.i.+ori, who from time to time checked how Reina was doing in the midst of the battle, was taken aback when she noticed Reina fighting so skilfully and accurately that she even looked elegant.

[…To think that Milady was this skilled. I guess I really misjudged Milady’s skill, but still, why so suddenly…]

Although she was happy with the unexpected sudden growth, s.h.i.+ori also found it strange that Reina suddenly got this good. Although it was totally unexpected, it was a welcomed surprise, thus s.h.i.+ori did not try to think too deep about it. After all, she was not in a situation where she had the leeway to do that.

Reina and s.h.i.+ori were showing that they had the skills to cover Akira’s back as he continued shooting desperately at the Yarata Scorpion swarm.

Akira had emptied so many CWH magazines, he kept on using those expensive bullets without a trace of hesitation. If the requester had not paid for the ammo, Akira would have already gone bankrupt a long time ago. It could be said that he could perform this well only because of Kugamayama city’s economic power.

Akira was having a hard time holding the swarm from coming closer. Both Alpha’s support and the economic power of the city that allowed him to survive the swarm were not of his own. And even with both of those things, he was only barely able to hold the swarm off.

“Alpha!! No matter how you slice it, aren’t there just too many of them?!!”

“You’re properly holding them back, so let’s keep calm and hold the ground. Even if you complain, it won’t reduce their number after all.”

“At this rate, I’ll run out of ammo in no time, you know?!”

“Let’s run as fast as possible if that happens, I believe you’ll be able to run away from the swarm if you’re willing to sacrifice both of your legs.”

If Alpha took control of his augmented suit and made him run as fast as possible while ignoring the stress that it put on his legs, he might be able to run away from all the scorpions. But of course, it will put his body under immense stress. Akira also understood that very well, that was why he wanted to avoid that situation as much as possible.

“W-well, let’s do that only if we really have no other choice, okay?!”

“Of course. Let’s hope that you can take out all the scorpions or the reinforcement from the HQ arrives here before we run out of reserve ammo.”

“That’s right!! The reinforcements!! They’re coming, right?!! Are they already somewhere close?!!”

“I still can’t find their signals within my scanning range.”

“Dammit!!”

Even Akira did not want to get both of his legs torn off. He continued to fight back the scorpions while also trying to retain his fighting spirit.

Their hard work was not for naught, the swarm finally stopped coming. They squeezed their leftover energy to clean up the rest of the scorpions.

Alpha smiled and cheered the tired Akira for his hard work.

“Good job there. It’s finished. That was rather lucky, wasn’t it?”

“I-It’s done, huh…”

Akira dropped on the floor right where he was standing, he let out a long sigh as if he was expelling all the tiredness that had built up inside him.

“But Akira, in the end, the reinforcements didn’t come at all. I wonder if something happened to them.”

Akira quickly reached for his terminal and contacted the HQ.

“This is number 27! HQ!! You there?!”

“This is HQ. What’s the matter?”

“Where are my reinforcements!? They’re not coming at all, you know?”

“We’ve told them to go to your location. They’re not there yet?”

“I don’t see anyone else here!! Thanks to that, we had to deal with a swarm of scorpions just with the 3 of us, you know!! Tell them to hurry up!”

“Roger that. Before that, I’ll need to access the record from that battle, so wait for a bit.”

The monitor of Akira’s rental terminal changed. It seemed that it was sending some kind of information. But once it was done, the HQ did not immediately answer back. He was about to say something to the HQ, but suddenly the HQ staff gasped.

“What the heck is this!? W-wait for a sec!”

Right after that, Reina and s.h.i.+ori’s terminal rang, those were calls from the HQ.

Reina answered the call and yelled.

“This is number 17, what’s going on with the reinforcement?”

“This is HQ. Can you tell us what’s happening there?”

“We just finished fighting against a swarm of Yarata Scorpions.”

s.h.i.+ori then interjected.

“This is number 18. Let me give a more detailed explanation. We just encountered a huge swarm of Yarata scorpions. Most of the scorpions came from the hole, it can be a.s.sumed that there’s a big scale nest down that hole. With that in mind, please dispatch a search team and an extermination team this way.”

“…I see, we’re just wondering if number 27’s terminal is malfunctioning. Wait for a bit while we access the record of that fight. We’ve contacted the reinforcement, so just wait there until they arrive.”

“Please wait, what do you mean by malfunctioning?”

“It’s the record from number 27’s terminal. The number of scorpions that he took out doesn’t make sense. So we need to check the record from both of your terminals to confirm it.”

“I believe that his terminal is not malfunctioning. We saw it by ourselves how he took out the scorpions that were gus.h.i.+ng out from that hole all by himself.”

“…Seriously? Once you confirm the safety of that area, can you snap a picture of the hole and send it over? And also, it would be great if you could put some illuminations too.”

“…I’m not happy to do it, but I guess I have to, huh.”

“Well then, that’s all.”

The HQ ended the call after that.

Akira was picking up the magazines that were scattered on the ground and putting them back in his rucksack.

CWH anti-material rifle’s special ammo was expensive already, and it was even more expensive to buy them in the form of a magazine rather than as individual bullets. Akira had used dozens of those magazines and the empty magazines were scattered on the ground.

While Akira was picking up the magazines that were still loaded with bullets back into his rucksack, he imagined the money that he would have spent on those ammo if he had to pay them by himself. It did not take much time for him to figure out that there was no way he would be able to pay for it as he looked all gloomy.

Akira then turned to Alpha, he sounded worried as he asked.

“With all of these ammo that I used, it’s not like they would tell me to pay them myself, right? It will be okay, right?”

Alpha smiled bitterly as she said.

“Don’t worry, it will be okay… Maybe.”

“M-maybe?!”