Chapter 76 - Ruin Exploration with Sheryl and Her Gang (2/2)

“It’s a monster.”

Akira swiftly replied to Sheryl who was sitting on the driver’s a.s.sistant seat.

Sheryl quickly turned to the direction where Akira was aiming, but she could not see any monsters there.

“Uhhmm, where exactly is this monster?”

“Just use that binocular. It’s integrated with my information-gathering device, so you should be able to easily spot the monster.”

Sheryl picked the binocular that was lying near her and tried to look for the monster. She followed the indicator shown in her enhanced vision to look at where the signal was coming. Thanks to the automatic readjustment function of that binocular, which worked in tandem with Akira’s information-gathering device, she was able to quickly find the monster that Akira mentioned.

She could see a big carnivorous beast running toward Akira’s vehicle with a speed that did not fit its size. As she saw the large legs that supported that monster’s huge body kicking the ground, she could somehow hear its stamping sound that she should not be able to hear from such distance.

Akira started shooting at that monster with his AAH a.s.sault rifle. But none of his shots. .h.i.t its mark.

He kept on shooting at that monster although he could not hit any of his shots. That monster eventually got close to Akira’s vehicle.

The children in the cart noticed the monster when they heard the gunshots. They quickly peeked out their heads from the cart to look for the monster. Since that monster was raising a cloud of dust while running toward the vehicle, they could easily find it. Also, it was already close enough to be spotted with naked eyes.

The children in the cart started to make a ruckus.

“Oii!! It’s getting closer and closer!! Can he hit his shot?!!”

“I-Isn’t this getting bad!?”

That monster was running faster than the vehicle and it did not slow down even though Akira was shooting at it.

The children who started to panic moved to the other side of the cart except for Erio. Although he was pointing his gun at that monster, he was also making the same scared expression as the other children.

Akira let out a sigh and put down his AAH a.s.sault rifle. He then moved to the back seat of the vehicle and aimed the DVTS minigun at the monster. He calmed himself down and pulled the trigger.

The minigun showered that monster with bullets, so many that it didn’t matter even though Akira missed some of his shots. Those bullets pierced through the monster’s skin, tore its flesh, and crushed its bones. It splattered its meats and blood around before falling over and stopped moving.

Akira sighed and returned back to the driver seat. It took sometime before the children in the cart started making another ruckus.

“Whoah!! He just killed that huge monster like it was nothing!!!”

“As expected of a Hunter.”

All the children then started raising their voices at the same time after they were released from the fear of that monster. All of them were smiling except for one person, it was Sebla.

“He couldn’t hit that monster when he was using a normal rifle. The amazing one is that weapon. I can do that too if I had that gun…”

Sebla’s complaint was drowned by the voice of the other children celebrating, so no one heard him.

Sheryl welcomed Akira with a smile.

“That was amazing, as I thought, you’re really a powerful Hunter, Akira. It’s really rea.s.suring to have you escort us.”

Sheryl directed her wonderful smile filled with amazement and praise to Akira, but just like usual, Akira’s reaction was very bland. Or more like, it was worse than usual.

Akira’s expression showed no change as he said.

“…Well, I’ll at least do my escort work properly.”

For some reason, it seemed that Akira did not want to be thanked. Sheryl understood that from how he reacted.

“…A-alright, I’ll be relying on you.”

Although Sheryl was surprised by that, she decided not to ask any further to avoid making Akira’s mood worse.

Akira did not say anything as he kept driving the vehicle. There was an awkward silence between him and Sheryl who was sitting in the a.s.sistant driver seat, it was not a mood that could be fixed by simply throwing some random subject to talk about.

Moreover, it was not like Akira was in a situation where he could afford to engage in silly talks. He was focusing all of his attention to monitor his surroundings for any monsters and he had no plans to divide his attention for anything unnecessary.

In the middle of that awkward mood between Sheryl and Akira, Alpha was smiling as if it did not affect her at all.

“Akira, you’re too tense. If you don’t calm down, it’ll only unnecessarily shave your stamina, you know?”

“I know.”

Just like usual, Alpha was relaxed. But in contrast to her, Akira replied swiftly while pouting.

Since Sheryl took the a.s.sistant driver’s seat, Alpha was sitting on the door on the other side of Akira. She let her legs flap freely on the outside of the vehicle as she lightly turned her body around to Akira’s direction.

“It seems that you’re having a hard time there. Just tell me anytime you think that you can’t take it anymore, okay?”

Akira was escorting Sheryl and the other kids without Alpha’s support. Although he might still be able to see and hear Alpha, she did not give any type of support to Akira at the moment. She did not enhance his views as she usually did nor did she help with his aiming. There was also no aiming correction support from his augmented suit. And Alpha did not give Akira any instructions at all.

But more than that, Akira had to search for enemies himself. If he let his guard down, he felt like he would be ambushed by monsters in no time. Thus, he could not relax much which slowly shaved his focus and stamina.

This time, Akira was going to gather relics in the ruin as well as to train. To be more precise, the training was his main aim.

The last time he went to explore ruins without Alpha’s support, it was with Elena and Sara. At that time, he was able to finish the exploration without encountering any monsters. But if his performance was to be strictly evaluated, then the only word that Alpha could come up with was ‘embarra.s.sing’.

Alpha thought that it would be bad to let it stay like that, thus she sent Akira for another training. And that was today’s relic hunting. His duty was to simply escort Sheryl and the other children to the ruin and return back alive.

Alpha thought that Akira needed to get used to the situation where he had no support from her. It should at least be to the point where he would not endanger himself from being way too nervous when he was in such a situation.

The reason why Alpha chose Sheryl’s gang as the target for the escort was because Sheryl and the other children were complete beginners when it came to exploring the wasteland. Thus, unlike Sara or Elena, they would not be able to protect Akira. And also even if Akira failed and they ended up killed, it would not affect his conscience much.

If Alpha told Akira to invite Sara and Elena for such a purpose, he would be super angry. In the worst-case scenario, it might cause considerable damage to his trust in Alpha. She herself understood that very well.

Because of all those reasons, Alpha decided to use Sheryl’s gang. And in order to convince Akira, she put an excuse that it would give Sheryl and her gang some profit too. She also told Akira to cancel the plan if Sheryl refused his offer. But Sheryl accepted it, after all, just like Alpha explained to Akira, it was a delicious offer for her.

Akira was always putting his life on the line as a Hunter and Sheryl’s gang was reaping benefits from it. So it should be alright to put Sheryl’s gang in danger from time to time as a compensation to that. After all, if Akira died, then Sheryl would lose her position anyway.

That was why Alpha thought that it was okay to put Sheryl and her gang in danger in order to train Akira. Alpha adjusted her explanation to Akira to make him agree with her thoughts, and as she planned, he unconsciously began to think like that too.

If Akira had shown even the slightest refusal when Alpha manipulated him, she would have categorized Sheryl’s gang as a threat. Had Akira put that much care for Sheryl’s gang, he might even place himself in danger in order to help them. So in the worst-case scenario, there might be even a need to exterminate Sheryl’s gang.

The lesser Akira was emotionally attached to the people around him, the better it was. Alpha planned all of this to ensure that she will have the biggest influence in his action. In order for him to accomplish her request, in order for her to accomplish her goal, and in order not to repeat the mistakes that she made in the past, Alpha kept adjusting her plans behind her usual ever-present smile.

Sheryl’s gang’s profit, Akira’s profit, and Alpha’s profit. Alpha might be the only existence there who fully understood that these 3 interests were mixed in today’s ruin exploration.

Akira glanced at Alpha and complained.

“In that case then, I’ll do that right away. Can you change into something else that won’t disrupt my focus?”

Alpha was wearing a bold swimsuit with a small amount of fabric. It was a swimsuit with a lot of laces wrapping around her body to secure the few pieces of fabric in their respective places. That extremely risqué swimsuit only served to boost Alpha’s charming body.

On the other side of Alpha, there was Sheryl who was wearing prim and proper clothing, thus it made Alpha’s swimsuit even more disturbing for Akira’s focus.

Alpha smiled and said.

“Nope. Don’t let yourself get bothered by something unnecessary. Just focus on the important information. This is also a part of your training, you know? If your focus is disturbed by my appearance, then it means that you’re not focused enough.”

“That might be true, but still…”

When Akira made that pause, Alpha quickly turned her body around like a gymnast. Thus her body wrapped in that risqué swimsuit was facing Akira right now. Her chest was right beside him.

Alpha got her face close to Akira and said.

“Don’t just sit there, another one is coming.”

Another monster was running towards him. Akira quickly confirmed its position from the data shown in his goggle.

Akira turned on the auto-drive function, stood up, readied his rifle, and aimed at that monster through the aiming device in his goggle. Although that monster was only a small dot when seen with naked eyes, he was able to properly aim at that monster.

Akira stabilized his grip with the help of his augmented suit, but since the ground was not smooth, the vehicle was swaying up and down and disrupting his aim. While on the other hand, that monster was running as fast as it could towards Akira. It would be nigh impossible to hit that monster’s weak points in such a situation. It was even hard enough to accurately shoot at that monster in the first place.

“Predict the moves of your target. Consider the lag between when you pull the trigger and when the bullet reaches your target. Feel the swaying of the vehicle and adjust your aim accordingly. There’s no need to rush yourself, just calm down and take your aim. Even if you might miss your shot because of your bad luck, don’t think that you can hit your shot because of your good luck. Don’t rely on luck and aim properly.”

Akira listened to Alpha’s instruction and pulled the trigger. The bullet flew past right beside that monster.

He frowned and asked.

“That’s a miss, what did I do wrong?”

“That was simply because you did not take a good enough aim. Now try again but do it more carefully.”

“Even if you tell me so, if I take too long to aim, that monster would move outside the view of the aiming scope, you know?”

“If you can slow down your time perception right before you pull the trigger, you should be able to take a far more accurate shot though.”

“I’m already trying to do that.”

Akira was still doing his time perception compression training until now. But he still could not use it freely. If he could do that, it would boost his shooting accuracy.

As that monster came closer and closer, Akira was able to hit its oversized body. But as long as he could not hit any of its weak points, the bullets which hit that monster were barely affecting it.

The children in the cart started making a ruckus again. That was it, Akira put his rifle down and moved to the backseat to aim his CWH anti-material rifle at that monster. He then readied his stance and pulled the trigger. The powerful piercing bullet that flew out from his CWH anti-material rifle pierced the torso of that monster and immediately killed it. As that monster fell to the ground and the vehicle moved further away leaving that monster’s corpse behind, the children in the cart started to raise their voices once again.

Although Akira encountered some monsters again after that, he eventually was able to arrive at the Higaraka Residence Ruin safely.

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