Chapter 77 - Taking Shelter From The Rain (1/2)

Sheryl and the other children immediately started gathering relics when they arrived at the Higaraka Residence Ruin.

The Higaraka Residence ruin was one of the ruins near Kugamayama city that were once frequented by a lot of Hunters. But the current Higaraka Residence Ruin was already emptied from any expensive relics. It had little worth in searching for relics, so Hunters normally would not go there just to hunt for relics.

But with that being said, there were still some relatively cheap relics left in that ruin. And so, Sheryl and the other children were there to collect those kinds of relics.

Although those relics were not worth bringing back home for the Hunters, they were still precious relics for Sheryl’s gang. The ruin was filled with relics that those children of the slum city could never find in the back alley of the slum city. If they had any cheap means to go there, those people of the slum city would happily travel to the ruin to collect relics.

So in short, that ruin was like a treasure box for Sheryl’s gang. Of course, if they had to pay Akira for escorting them there, Sheryl would have still ended up with a deficit, but she did not have to worry about that problem this time.

They had already decided beforehand how they would gather the relics. First of all, they would stay in the cart until Akira parked the vehicle near the entrance to one of the buildings. Then Akira would go in first to scan the building for relics and to clean up any monsters inside it. After that, the children from Sheryl’s gang would go into that building to carry any relics inside it to the cart while Akira would patrol the area for any monsters. Once they were done emptying the building, Sheryl would contact Akira through the information terminal to meet up before moving to the next building.

As Akira was patrolling the area, he suddenly stopped as he watched the relics that were carried into the cart. The cart was filled with all kinds of relics, there were curtains with holes, broken beds, cracked kitchen utensils, old furniture that had their shape distorted, and also small relics with mechanical parts inside them. Akira stood there staring at that pile of mismatched relics.

Alpha found that weird and asked Akira.

“Akira, what’s wrong? There are no expensive relics in that pile, you know?”

“Nah, I just remembered that I was also gathering those kinds of relics not too long ago.”

Akira felt slightly nostalgic, but Alpha quickly cut that short.

“Nothing has changed even now. Then you used to go to dangerous ruin to hunt for expensive relics, now you are going to a more dangerous ruin to hunt for more expensive relics. The only difference is the degree of risk involved.”

“… Well, that’s kinda true now that you mention it.”

As Akira looked at the pile of relics in his cart, it reminded him of his past self. Although he felt like he had come a long way since then, after Alpha pointed it out, he realized that what he was doing right now was not that much different from his past self.

The only difference was that the back alley slum city had turned into a relatively safer place for him and stuff that he could find there was relatively not worth the time for him right now. So right now, in order to gain more profit, he chose to go to a more dangerous place and get more expensive relics. That was the only difference between the current him and the past him.

Akira still encountered some monsters inside Higaraka Residence ruin. But he was able to handle them just fine. Thus, Sheryl’s gang was able to gather relics without facing any particular trouble. With more and more relics piled inside the cart, the sitting s.p.a.ce for the children from Sheryl’s gang shrunk.

After they finished collecting relics from one of the buildings there, Akira returned back to his vehicle and asked Sheryl.

“Sheryl, How long are you planning to stay here for today? I don’t mind staying here until the sunset though, but it seems we’re running out of free s.p.a.ce in the cart. I have no complaint if you want to let them sit on the top of the relics, but I won’t care if any of them trip and fall off the cart, okay? Also, I might have to pace the vehicle if we encounter a monster on our way back home. So don’t blame me when that happens.”

Sheryl went to check the cart, and as Akira said, the cart was more or less filled with the pile of relics that they gathered that day.

But since it was a very rare chance for her, Sheryl wanted to take back as many relics as she could. After all, she might not get any more chances to go to the Higaraka Residence Ruin again.

Sheryl did not know what she should do so that Akira would accept if she asked him to escort them again. Thus, as long as she did not know how to get Akira to accept her request, she thought that she would not get another chance like this.

Sheryl looked hesitant, she then said to Akira.

“Let’s go for another one before going home. I think it should still have enough free s.p.a.ce for one more building.”

“Alright.”

Akira then went back to the driver seat, Sheryl sat next to him on the driver’s a.s.sistant seat. As he was about to turn on the vehicle, suddenly a water droplet fell in front of him.

Akira raised his head and looked up, the sky above him had already turned cloudy before he even realized it.

“Rain, huh. The weather forecast said that we’ll have a clear day though? As I thought, I can’t really trust a free weather forecast, huh?”

“Akira, we should move.”

“Hm? I can just go to that building over there to take shelter from the rain…”

Akira turned his head to glance at Alpha. The moment he confirmed Alpha’s expression, he quickly turned on his vehicle.

Sheryl who was sitting in the driver’s a.s.sistant seat could feel the G-force as Akira stepped on the pedal, the children in the cart lost their balance as they quickly grabbed on the cart railing. As the whole cart swayed, some of the relics from that pile toppled over.

The usual smile on Alpha’s face was not there, it only meant that Akira was in a situation that might endanger his life.

Akira drove the car following the instruction shown in the navigator of the vehicle’s control unit. His destination was a big mansion located deep inside that ruin. It was the same mansion where Alpha told him that he was someone who could connect to the old-world domain.

“Akira!? What’s going on?!”

Sheryl was surprised when Akira suddenly paced the vehicle. But Akira only signalled her with his hand that he had no leeway to answer her question. After all, it was not like he had the answer to that question anyway.

“Alpha, what’s going on?”

“I’m sorry to rush you like that. But don’t worry, it’s not like we were about to get attacked by a swarm of monsters again.”

“I see. So then, why did you rush me?”

“It’s to make you move out from the area with the same level of signal interference as the colourless mist as fast as possible. If we had stayed in that area, there’s a good chance that monsters might ambush you. You also need to find a place where you can take shelter from the rain as soon as possible.”

“If it’s because of the rain, can we not pick one of those buildings around here?”

“I’m sure you want to avoid a situation where you’re surrounded by monsters and forced to fight them in a small closed s.p.a.ce, right? You need a big place where you can fight optimally. That big mansion would be perfect for that, and even if it’s filled with monsters, you can secure one of the empty rooms for Sheryl and the other children and it would be an easy job for you to clean those monsters from that building.”

As Akira was talking with Alpha, the rain was getting stronger and stronger. Akira noticed that the effective scanning range shown in his goggles was growing narrower because of that.

“Whoah there, this small rain has this much effect? If a small rain has this much impact, what would happen if it’s heavy rain?”

“In the worst-case scenario, your information-gathering device would be completely useless outdoor and there might be some effect even when you are indoors.”

“According to your prediction, how bad will this rain be?”

“To be honest, I don’t know for sure. That’s why I urged you to get out as soon as possible a.s.suming the worst-case scenario.”

Akira frowned. Sheryl looked worried when she saw his expression, Akira then noticed that Sheryl was worried about him.

“I’ll save the details for later, but we’re basically heading to a safer place, so don’t worry.”

Sheryl replied back with a smile.

“I understand, we’ll be in your care.”

Just that short explanation from Akira was enough to make Sheryl regain her calm.

Originally, Akira and Alpha planned to continue their training until Akira escorted Sheryl’s gang back to Kugamayama city. But now with this sudden turn of events, although he planned to rely on Alpha’s support as little as possible, Akira himself had no plans to keep that up and unnecessarily put Sheryl’s gang under more risk.

“Alpha, let’s end the training here. I’ll be relying on your support again.”

“Roger that, I’ll take the wheel.”

The moment Alpha took control of the vehicle, it obviously moved much stable than before. Akira stood up from the driver seat and moved to the back seat.

Up until now, Akira operated the control panel and set the vehicle on auto-drive before he moved to the back seat. But he did not do it this time, Sheryl who noticed that panicked and asked Akira.

“Uhmmm, is it okay to leave the steering wheel?”

“It has a self-driving function, so it’s okay.”

“Don’t you need to set to auto-drive mode using the control unit terminal?”

“It’s alright, it’s one of those advanced control units.”

Akira did not hesitate when he said so. Because of that, he was able to convince Sheryl. And since there was really no problem with the driving, Sheryl easily accepted his explanation.

Alpha smiled teasingly and said to Akira.

“Yep, that’s right. It’s an advanced control unit after all… So you should make your explanation more convincing than that, you know?”

“It’s alright… Maybe.”

Akira thought to himself in secret that he should be more careful next time.

He took out the camouflaging sheet that he usually used on his vehicle and threw it to the children in the back cart.

“Just use that for now!!”

Akira shouted as he set up the folded roof on his open-roof vehicle. The children from Sheryl’s gang expanded the camouflaging sheet to protect the relics and themselves. As for Akira, the vehicle that he was driving was equipped with a foldable roof. Although it still depended on how strong the rain was, they would at least be able to avoid getting completely drenched because of the rain.

They eventually arrived at the mansion that they were heading to. The mansion that Alpha picked was a big mansion complete with a parking lot. There were leftovers of dead monsters scattered around that mansion. There were also metallic wreckages scattered here and there, those might be what was left of the defensive equipment of that mansion. Of course, those already turned into broken sc.r.a.ps after enduring the harsh weather of the wasteland. Akira parked the vehicle near one of the entrances of that mansion.

Akira removed the DVTS minigun and CWH anti-material rifle from his vehicle and carried them with both of his hands. Both of them were heavy rifles, the only reason why he could carry them around with one in each hand was because of the quality of his new augmented suit.

Of course, it was completely a different problem whether he could use them with only one hand since he had to deal with the recoil of those rifles. But with the help of Alpha’s support, it should be no problem at all.

When Akira saw some of the children from Sheryl’s gang about to enter that mansion before him, he quickly stopped them.

“Don’t go in there before me, step back.”

But when Akira stopped them, they sounded super annoyed as they replied.

“What the heck, just let us in already.”

The rain had gotten pretty heavy. So Akira understood their feeling of wanting to get in that mansion as soon as possible. But he could not let them do that since he was working as their escort at the moment.

“I don’t mind if you want to meet the monsters that might have taken shelter from the rain inside that mansion before us.”

When he said that, the children from Sheryl’s gang fl.u.s.teredly moved away from the entrance.

After Akira made sure that everything was safe around the area, he gathered all the children from Sheryl’s gang in a big hall. The hall was so big that it still had a lot of free s.p.a.ce even after everyone gathered there.