Chapter 62 - The Value of A Battle Record (1/2)
Chapter 62, The Value of A Battle Record
Akira was standing in the middle of a white world. His mind was cloudy. But even so, he somehow understood that he was dreaming and it was the same world that he once visited in the past.
He could see Alpha not too far from him. And just like the last time when he was in this world, Alpha did not seem to have noticed him at all.
Alpha was completely expressionless while talking to herself.
“Evaluating the 499th try. Calculating the possibility of the subject stepping into the targeted area… Less than 1 per cent. Calculating the possibility of the subject returning back alive from the unexplored territory… Less than 1 per cent. Unsuitable. Recommending increasing the subject’s fighting capability.”
Alpha continued.
“Constructing a plan on how to direct the subject. Making sure to take into account the reason why the previous subject broke the contract. Predicting the factors that steered the previous subject’s judgement. If the previous subject’s action was successful, there would be undefined numbers of human well-being affected and rescued, etc… As such, this unit needs to be careful so that the current subject would not even consider taking the same action that the previous subject took.”
Alpha continued.
“Now, taking into account the character of the current subject. It’s unlikely that the current subject would take the same decision as the previous subject. This is based on the fact that the current subject doesn’t trust other humans, is apathetic toward others, and tends to be egocentric. It’s highly unlikely that the current subject has the same moral values, tolerance, morality and principles as the previous subject.”
Alpha continued.
“In order not to repeat the same mistake as the 498th try, it’s recommended to keep watch of the current subject’s possible change of att.i.tude.”
Akira’s consciousness waned. The world was once again enveloped in darkness, his dream had ended.
Akira woke up inside a sickroom. He felt like he just saw an important dream, but he could not recall what it was. It only left him with the feeling that he saw a similar dream once before.
The sickroom where he woke up was a room for one, filled with devices to treat a human with an organic body. As Akira tried to sit on the bed he was lying, he saw Alpha.
“Good morning, Akira. Did you sleep well?”
“Morning Alpha. Yeah, I feel like it has been a long time since I slept so well.”
He felt completely refreshed and his body felt better than usual. His injuries were fully healed as he no longer felt any pain. His body was in tip-top shape now.
Akira scanned the whole room. There were no railings on the window and it seemed like the camera installed in the room was not to prevent the patient from running away, but to check the patient’s condition. It was not a bad place at all, but it did not tell anything about his current situation.
“So then, where am I?”
“Kugamayama city’s hospital. They brought you here to get you treated.”
“Is that so?”
There was a big public hospital inside the city that both Kugamayama city and the Hunter Office relied on. It was designed to be able to treat organic human and cyborg, as such, it was naturally expanded into a huge facility. Most of its patients were people who regularly went into battle such as Hunters and soldiers who guarded dangerous places.
This hospital mainly focused on treating injuries than curing diseases. It was so specialised in its treatment that it could heal someone who had lost 4 of their limbs by using an expensive procedure to regenerate them back, or fix people with a modified body or even transplant some of their body parts, or install cyborg body parts with better and more powerful parts, or even revert a cyborg body back into an organic body by regrowing body parts.
Akira had fainted when the defense squad was transporting him. He was suspected to be one of the relic thieves, as such, it would not be strange if he had woke up inside a cell.
“What do they think of me now?”
“I believe that someone would come here to explain that. But don’t worry, they no longer suspect you to be one of the relic thieves. So don’t worry about that part.”
“That’s good to hear.”
Akira stroke his chest in relief.
Although he was in good shape, it was not like he could just go out of the room. So he just spent his time inside that room talking with Alpha. It did not take long before a city staff came in, and it was Kibayas.h.i.+.
For some reason, Kibayas.h.i.+ looked like he was in a really good mood.
“We meet again. It’s good to see that you’re as reckless as always.”
Akira appeared to be puzzled as he looked at Kibayas.h.i.+. Kibayas.h.i.+ realized that Akira did not remember him.
“It’s me, Kibayas.h.i.+. The guy who gave you that bike, remember?”
“Akira, he’s the person who gave you the bike when you decided to accept the SOS request when a swarm of monsters from Kuzusuhara ruin headed to Kugamayama city. He’s the Hunter Office staff from that time.”
Akira vaguely remembered Kibayas.h.i.+’s face, and after listening to Alpha’s explanation, he recalled immediately.
“Ah, I remember it now. If I’m not mistaken, you’re the Hunter Office staff who was driving the truck, right? And from that SOS request too…”
Kibayas.h.i.+ nodded happily.
“That’s right, so you remember me now, huh? I was there as a Hunter Office staff, but today, I’m here as City staff. It’s good to see you, Akira.”
Kibayas.h.i.+ extended his hand, expecting a handshake. When Akira grabbed his hand, Kibayas.h.i.+ excitedly shook it up and down. It seemed that Kibayas.h.i.+ was really in a good mood.
“Now then, to be honest, I have a lot of things that I want to ask. But work comes first, I’m here today to make a deal with you.”
“A deal?”
“Yep. But before we do that, I want to explain to you about your current situation. I’m sure you want to know why you are here or if the city still suspects you as one of the relic thieves, right?”
“Yeah, please do.”
Kibayas.h.i.+ nodded firmly in response to Akira’s words.
He then handed a pile of papers to Akira. Those were doc.u.ments explaining his current situation.
“All the details are written in it. I’ll read it for you, you are free to stop and ask me if you find anything confusing.”
Kibayas.h.i.+ then started giving explanations to Akira, he also had a copy of the same doc.u.ments in his hand.
After the defense squad captured Nelia and Akira, they handed them over to the medical squad in the underground exploration HQ to receive emergency treatment. They were then transported to Kugamayama city as suspects.
It did not take long for them to deduce that Nelia was one of the relic thieves. After all, she quickly confessed and told them everything about the other relic thieves.
Nelia was very cooperative during the questioning. She honestly told the City Management about the details of her plan, the number and ident.i.ty of the people who were working with her, the amount of the relics that they hid and where they hid them, and where they hid their truck. She told everything that might be of help even when not asked about that information. Of course, Nelia gave all those information in exchange for a lighter sentence.
Akira found such a change of att.i.tude really strange from the girl who he had a deathmatch with.
“Nelia, was it again? Was she really being that cooperative?”
“Yeah. I heard that she was very cooperative. Even though she only did that to reduce her sentence, it’s strange that she was so cooperative. Even the person responsible for questioning her found it strange and asked her.”
“And what did she say?”
“She said that she’s someone who doesn’t let herself get stuck in the past.”
Akira’s expression showed a mix of admiration and dismay.
“That girl really holds to her value… Or more like, she doesn’t take much time to move on… So there are people like her out there, huh.”
“But thanks to that, the investigation went really well and the suspicion on you was quickly cleared up. Normally, we would have done a stricter investigation, you know. Maybe because the person who was a.s.signed for her investigation was the best one there is, they got it done like this.”
“But even if that’s true, I don’t feel thankful to that Nelia at all. She was so close to killing me, you know… So, what happened to her after that? From your story, it sounded like she got a big pardon in her sentence. Did she escape the death sentence? It’s not like you just set her free, right?”
“Of course not. But it at least saved her from severe punishment. She was sent for forced labour under the City Management. She was given a cyborg body with the City Management’s authority set above her own authority plus an explosive planted in her head. So forget her right of life and death, she doesn’t even have the right over her own body. She’ll be sent to explore dangerous ruins or fight dangerous monsters. I bet the city would use her as an expendable p.a.w.n until she serves her punishment period or pays back her debt to the city. Depending on how hard she works, she might be set free in the future, that’s unless if she doesn’t die first of course.”
“…I see.”
After listening to what would happen to Nelia, Akira was rather relieved. But he still somehow felt uneasy.
Although she deserved that, Akira somehow felt unsatisfied. Even though someone as strong as Nelia was denied authority over her own body and sent to do forced labour, he still felt that she was let off easily.
Kibayas.h.i.+ noticed that Akira still looked a bit unsatisfied.
“What’s wrong?”
“…It’s nothing.”
“Ohh, I see, you wanted to kill her yourself, huh? Since her cyborg body is owned by the City Management now, don’t even think of killing her, okay? In the worst-case scenario, all of her debt will be s.h.i.+fted to you if you do that, you know? If you want to kill her yourself, do that after she finishes her sentence.”
“It’s okay. I have no plans for picking a fight with the city.”
“It’s good to hear that. There are people who do that from time to time, you know. Well, it’s not like I don’t understand their feelings though.”
Kibayas.h.i.+ continued his explanation.
After that, it did not take long to capture the rest of the relic thieves. The transport truck was also confiscated by the city and the city recovered all the stolen relics. Although few of them escaped with some of the stolen relics, thanks to Nelia’s confession, the city had precise information about who they were. It was only a matter of time before the City Management captured them.
But there was still no information about Kain. The city did investigate the information about him that they received from Nelia, but they only ended up finding out that it was fabricated information. They even inspected and a.n.a.lyzed the powered suit left behind in the battle site, but there was no personal information that could be extracted from that powered suit. They only knew that this Kain was someone brought in by the mastermind of that operation, Yajima.
When Akira fainted, the city also investigated him and it was quickly proven that Akira had nothing to do with the relic thieves. So then he was sent to get treated until he woke up just a while back.
Kibayas.h.i.+ then finished his explanation about the relic thieves and what happened to them after they were apprehended by the city’s Defense Squad.
“…And that will conclude my explanation about the relic thieves. Do you have any questions?”
Akira thought for a bit, he did not have any questions at the moment.