Chapter 58 - Searching Method (1/2)

Nelia and Kain were easily able to find the building where Akira was hiding by following his tracks.

Nelia’s and Kain’s powered suits were equipped with advanced information-gathering devices. Not to mention, there were particular substances stuck on Akira’s body such as dust from Kain’s missile barrage. So, they only needed to increase the sensitivity of their own information-gathering device to find Akira’s trace even inside the thick colourless mist.

Kain looked at the building and asked Nelia.

“That building, huh? Is he thinking that we’ll just catch up with him if he runs away?”

“Yup, maybe he thinks so. It’s a good thing that we don’t have to chase him. Let’s just quickly finish this.”

“You’re right.”

The moment he said that, Kain’s force field armour flashed brightly from the impact of a bullet. Away from them, Akira was aiming at Kain from the window of that building.

Nelia hid behind Kain.

“It seems that the boy is expecting a fight.”

“That d.a.m.n brat, looking down on us!!”

Kain’s powered suit’s control device quickly a.n.a.lyzed the impact angle and made a conjecture about where the shot came from. The camera on the head of his powered suit captured the image of Akira holding his CWH anti-material rifle on one of that building’s windows.

Kain quickly aimed his 4 big guns toward Akira’s direction. Those huge cannons then released a barrage of warheads at Akira, causing a loud bang.

Those big guns normally could only be used by humanoid mechanical soldiers, but Kain was able to handle them thanks to his powered suit. The warheads released by those big guns could tear metals as if they were sheets of paper. But even so, they were only able to cause slight damage to that building.

Nelia was shocked.

“That’s one strong building. Although it might only be the outer wall that is durable, I wonder how long it has been standing there.”

There were many types of old-world buildings. Their locations, positions and ages showed the different techniques and technologies used to construct those buildings. The people of the eastern district did not know for sure about the era and the culture when the Kuzusuhara ruin was constructed. But by seeing just how strong the building in which Akira was hiding, Nelia and Kain caught a glimpse of the culture and the era when Kuzusuhara was thriving.

But Kain just brushed Nelia’s question.

“Like h.e.l.l if I know! So how was that? Did that finish him off?”

“Nope, the control device is still locked.”

“He survived that again?!!”

As Kain shouted, he took another shot from CWH special ammo. Akira had evaded that barrage as he ran through the hallway and shot Kain from another window.

“That d.a.m.n br-…!!!!”

Another shot hit Kain, cutting his words midway. Akira judged that Kain would not shoot back at him, so he quickly took another shot at Kain.

“…Dammit!!!”

Kain fixed his stance and readied his guns again. Nelia stood behind him and also helped him shoot back. They showered the window, where Akira was, with bullets that would easily turn a tank into papier-mâché. Those bullets pa.s.sed through that window and created holes on the wall inside that building.

Since Alpha told Akira to quickly leave that position, he was able to avoid those bullets. As he was running through the hallway, his face turned grim when he saw the walls that were about to crumble down after the recent barrage.

“Yikes!! That’s scary!! I won’t even leave a trace if I get caught in that!!”

“Although it’s not as strong as CWH special ammo, with a similar budget, that barrage has more or less the same amount of destructive power.”

“I can only shoot one bullet at a time while he can go full auto. I’ll be dead if I get shot even once, while on the other hand, he can take a direct hit from CWH special ammo just fine. This is just crazy.”

Akira smiled bitterly. Although he had decided to stand up against Nelia and Kain, it did not make them any weaker.

Akira looked at the CWH anti-material rifle in his hand. It was indeed a rifle that carried overwhelming firepower when he was underground, but now, it was barely able to do any damage.

But even so, it was true that it was his lifeline. Even if he loaded AP bullets into his AAH rifle, it would only ricochet on Kain’s powered suit like water falling on an umbrella.

(p4553r: AP bullets are Armor Piercing bullets)

“Although I heard that this CWH special ammo can easily destroy a tank…”

“But they didn’t say that it can easily destroy any tanks, right?”

“Well, that’s true. It’s just that I’m starting to doubt whether it can even do anything since it seems that my shots barely damage him at all. So how much do my shots affect him? Wait, it does affect him, right?”

“That big sized powered suit must have an equally big generator. I bet half of the generator output is routed to maintain his force field armour. Although it doesn’t look like it had any effects, there’s no doubt that each shot shaved its energy. So don’t worry about it and keep shooting.”

“Roger that.”

No matter how much it affected Kain, there was a limit on how much Akira could do. He crouched close to the ground while moving through the hallway to his next shooting position.

As Akira was crouching through the hallway, he could clearly see Nelia and Kain through the wall, it was thanks to the vision enhancement from Alpha.

Because of that, Akira was able to quickly line his aim at them the moment he peeked out through the window. If he took more time aiming, it would not give him enough time to evade the returning fire. Even the slightest delay would be fatal. He heightened his focus to the peak to maintain a high level of accuracy, he could even feel the time stretched out as he kept shooting.

Akira peeked out for a short moment through the window and sniped Kain, he then quickly pulled back and moved to his next shooting position before Kain could shoot back at him. Akira was the mole in their game of whack-a-mole, but in his case, one whack would turn him into minced meat. In order to avoid getting whacked and to get the chance to shoot Kain at the same time, Akira repeatedly executed that dangerous sniping.

On the other hand, the player in their whack-a-mole game, Kain, was aiming his heavy weapons toward the windows of that building while waiting for Akira to show himself. He was waiting to see Akira’s muzzle the moment Akira took his aim. The 4 heavy weapons he was carrying were aimed at 4 different windows of that building, but of course, there were more windows in that building than his limbs.

Kain aimed his guns toward the windows that he guessed Akira would shoot from, he set his rifles ready so he could pull the trigger the moment Akira peeked out. If Akira showed up in any of the windows that he was aiming, it would be the end for Akira. Thanks to his forcefield armour, even if his guess was wrong and took a direct hit from Akira, he could keep on playing this game just fine. He absolutely had the upper hand here.

Akira kept on shooting from the windows that Kain was not aiming at. Although the impact threw Kain off-balance, he was able to quickly return fire. But the moment he did that, Akira had already pulled back and was on his way to the other window.

“A miss, huh. Next!”

Akira took another shot from a different window, Kain countered back, but it was too late. The extension limbs of Kain’s powered suit were quite heavy. Not to mention that the 4 big cannons that those limbs were carrying added to the total weight he was supporting. On top of that, most of the generator’s output was routed to his forcefield armour. Thanks to that, his movement was greatly slowed down.

“No luck. Next then.”

He only needed one correct guess as to where Akira would shoot from and it would be his win. But Akira was able to keep avoiding the windows that he was watching. Statistically speaking, if it was completely a uniform random chance, he would have killed Akira about 3 times by now.

Kain kept on receiving CWH bullets from Akira while trying to shoot back at him. He kept on hoping that his next guess would finally get a hit, but after that so many misses, Kain started getting irritated.

“Next…!! Next…!! Next…!! Dammit!! Next!!”

Kain thought that it was all because of his bad luck and started getting more and more annoyed, but in truth, that was not the case. Alpha was telling Akira where to shoot, she kept picking the right windows where he would be able to easily evade Kain’s attack.

With her superior detection ability, Alpha was able to ascertain Kain’s stance and accurately calculate where he was aiming. She knew exactly where he was aiming and she placed Akira in the safest window when he sniped Kain.

Kain noticed that Akira was somehow able to read his guesses. He didn’t notice it until now because Akira was only able to barely evade getting hit. If Akira was able to perfectly evade his aims without any trouble, he would have found out sooner. Akira’s lack of skill made him notice it later.

“Dammit!! Dammit!! F*cking dammit!!!”

Kain yelled in anger. Nelia looked annoyed as she said.

“Kain, you’re too noisy. If you want to shout, cut the connection first.”

“Nelia!! You should take a better aim than that!!!”

“I’m doing that even without you telling me!! He’s evading my shots too. Moreover, I never thought that he could evade this well. As expected of someone who killed Yajima, he might really be an agent from the city.”

Nelia continued wording out her guess.

“This means that he’s somehow able to accurately read our movements, huh? I guess that’s also the reason why he could survive that missile barrage from you.”

Kain sounded surprised as he replied.

“What do you mean? Even if he’s really an agent from the city, does it have anything to do with his ability to evade our attacks? Or is it that he’s carrying some kind of advanced information-gathering device to read our movement since he’s an agent? That’s just impossible!! Are you telling me that he’s using some kind of advanced information-gathering device that allows him to completely see our movement even from this distance? We’re under the colourless mist right now, you know? Wait, it’s possible that he’s using one, but that level of an information-gathering device is something that the Hunters in the frontline would use. There’s no way someone around this area would use something like that.”

“That’s not what I’m saying. But I guess, it’s something similar.”

Kain got more irritated since Nelia was being cheeky.

“Yeah, right, so what? Just tell me already!”

“I’m sure that you at least know some facilities in this Kuzusuhara ruin are still operating, right? It’s rather obvious when you see those big buildings in the deeper part of the ruin. There are many important facilities in the ruin that are guarded by powerful securities even now. I heard that the city plans to eventually control those facilities.”

“I at least know that much. So, what does it have to do with this?”

“I heard that among the relics that they brought back from the ruin, they found a device showing the full map of Kuzusuhara ruin in real-time… Or was it the technology to access the full map of the ruin anytime…?”

“So then what?? Just tell me already!!”

“What a clueless man. Just like I said, that relic shows the full map of the ruin, all the details, and in real-time. You know it yourself just how unbelievable the old-world technologies are, right? In the worst-case scenario, he might be able to trace even every single bullet that we shoot at him. Of course, that would mean he can do the same for us too. So in short, he might be using that relic as an advanced information-gathering device which can only be used in this ruin. Using its data, he would be able to know where we’re aiming.”

Kain was flabbergasted.

“…Seriously?”

“Well, it’s just a possibility. Although it’s just silly talk, there’s another rumour coming around the same time when the rumour about that relic spread. That ghost story of the Kuzusuhara ruin, the beguiling ghost. I heard that the people, who could access that full map by some kind of means, were able to see that ghost and always ended up dead. Well, it might be just some kind of rumour that the city spread to prevent people from trying to connect to that network which somehow leaked out. That’s why, if he’s really an agent from the city, he might be connected to that network…”

Nelia seemed to be enjoying boasting her knowledge, but she suddenly realized that Kain had gone silent.

“…Kain? Hmm? Kain?!!”

Kain shouted. He sounded very irritated.

“…That d.a.m.n brat!!”

The mole in this whack-a-mole game knew exactly where he would hit. Kain was so angry since he felt as if Akira was playing him for a fool.

“I’ll f*cking kill you!!”

Kain readied his gun to shoot all the windows in that building.

Akira was in the midst of moving to his next shooting position, but Alpha suddenly said to him with a grim face.