Chapter 98 (1/2)

Index

Translator: Athena13

Editor: Silavin

Proofreader: p4553r

Akira was heading back to Kugamayama city.

The request for hunting the bounty monsters from s.h.i.+karabe ended after that fight against the Tank Tarantula. Although Akira did prepare himself to head out for the next hunt, s.h.i.+karabe decided to decline the offer because of his circ.u.mstances. So then Akira returned all the equipment that he received from s.h.i.+karabe and quickly headed back home.

As for the other Drankam Hunters, they quickly proceeded to the meeting ground. Nergo also accompanied s.h.i.+karabe and the other 2 Hunters from Drankam to the meeting ground, it seemed that he negotiated with them and made a deal so that he could go along as one of the Drankam’s Hunters.

As for the rest of the Hunters, they had left the place. Akira did not know whether they also headed back to the city through a different route or they went to finish another request somewhere, but for now, he was heading back to the city alone.

Akira was listening to Alpha’s commentary about his previous fight against the Tank Tarantula.

“So, as I’ve explained to you, that was the gist of that fight. The Hunters fought as planned and then won as planned. Although it’s as simple as that, it was rather impressive that they could turn their plan into reality like that.”

“After listening to your explanation, it sounds as if s.h.i.+karabe, Yaman.o.be and Varga could have won by themselves if they got lucky.”

“To be honest, their chance of victory was not zero. One thing for sure, if the Tank Tarantula does not call for reinforcement like back there, they have a good chance to defeat it all by themselves. I bet the reason why they hired you and the other Hunters is simply to get a better chance at victory as well as to increase the safety and reduce the time needed to defeat that Tank Tarantula. Although it seems that something a bit complicated is going on inside Drankam, he also made preparations to quickly move to the next bounty monster which means that it’s already within his original plan. So I’m sure the real reason was to shorten the time needed to defeat the bounty monster.”

Akira felt both amazement and admiration after hearing that.

“So, if they’re not hard-pressed with time, they would have hired fewer people or they might have even hunted the bounty monster alone, huh… Those bounty monsters are really strong and it’s amazing how Hunters would still hunt for them. I guess that’s why those Hunters get renown from hunting bounty monsters, huh?”

That would explain why so many Hunters went out to the wasteland hunting for the bounty monster, and it seemed that s.h.i.+karabe and his friends’ skills were on a different level compared to those Hunters.

“If I have to be extremely picky, I would say that the only bad thing about that hunt was that it expended too much money. They prepared a lot of one-time-use equipment, so I’m sure they’ve spent quite a sum of money to prepare them. It’s true that they’ll still get some profit since we did take down the bounty monster, but if we had failed, it would have caused a huge loss.”

Akira remembered that the contract was that the equipment expense would be subtracted from the reward before it was distributed. He felt a bit worried.

“… Did we… Use that many ammo?”

Alpha smiled.

“We did. For example, those sticky devices that Yaman.o.be shot at the Tank Tarantula, those are not only guiding devices, those are also mini information-gathering devices. They must have used those devices for both guiding the rockets as well as to a.n.a.lyze the Tank Tarantula to find its weak points or parts of its body that are more brittle than the rest of its body. I’m pretty sure those devices are more expensive than the mini information-gathering device that Elena used in Yonozuka Station Ruin. I bet they a.n.a.lyzed those information using the a.n.a.lyzer installed in their APC and then used the a.n.a.lysed information to adjust the rocket targeting system in order to increase its firepower. Not to mention the rockets, they must be pretty expensive. And if they got the other equipment from renting, then it must have been pretty expensive too.”

Akira then remembered his short conversation with Elena. If he remembered it right, Elena’s mini information-gathering device was about 10,000 Aurum per canister, while the sticky device that Yaman.o.be used should cost more than that. Since those sticky devices would have been destroyed when the rockets. .h.i.t the bounty monster, they were indeed only one-time use equipment.

“In order for all of those rockets to hit their target at the same time, the rocket warheads must have been equipped with an advanced guiding device. Of course, they’re way more expensive than the warheads without a guiding device. Then that firepower too, that must not be cheap. And yet, they’ve used a lot of those rockets in the last fight.”

Akira remembered when the Hunters initiated a coordinated rocket barrage at the Tank Tarantula. It was true that they were pretty powerful rockets. It was rather obvious that one rocket would have taken a whole lot more money than just one cheap rifle bullet.

“If we were to consider the possibility of them buying an automatic reloading device fixed on their bikes especially for this hunt, it means that they would have spent even more money, you know?”

“Wait for a sec, that thing is not included in the equipment expense, right? Just like the other newly bought equipment right before the hunt?”

Alpha just smiled at Akira who was looking for an excuse to suppress the equipment expense.

“Akira, there are a lot of ways of selling things in this world. For example, when you sell a huge amount of consumables, you can sell the tool that you need to use those consumables together with it for cheap. And even if the customer gets that equipment for free, the cost of that equipment is well covered by the amount of profit you gain from selling the consumables. In our previous hunt, they were using special grenade launcher rather than usual cannon, so that might also increase the equipment expense.”

Akira hung his head low, it seemed that the equipment expense was way more than he had expected.

“I wonder how much the total is, and how much of the bounty prize will be left after subtracting it. Remember that it’ll still get divided for multiple heads after that, you know? So you can look forward to the final reward that you’ll receive.”

Alpha’s beautiful face was beaming with a teasing smile when she said that.

The bounty prize was 800,000,000 Aurum. Even if it was distributed to multiple people, it should give a huge sum of money. That was what Akira unconsciously thought, but after listening to Alpha’s explanation, Akira hung his head low in dejection.

Alpha thought informing Akira about that would reduce the chance of conflict between him and s.h.i.+karabe in case the reward money from s.h.i.+karabe was lower than what he was expecting.

Akira tried to find a reason to point out that his reward might still be higher than that.

“It’s not like it has been confirmed that the equipment expense would be that big, right? If it really takes that much money to defeat that bounty monster which is only worth 800,000,000 Aurum, then no one would have even tried to hunt for that bounty monster in the first place. So like, isn’t that guess just too pessimistic?”

“The bounty prize doesn’t always fit the strength of the bounty monster, you see. It’s hard to judge how difficult it would be to defeat a bounty monster unless you try to fight it yourself. That 800,000,000 Aurum bounty on that Tank Tarantula is based on the size and the approximated fighting strength of the other Hunter teams that failed to hunt it. If back then s.h.i.+karabe decided to pull back, it would have meant that his team had also failed hunting that bounty monster, and I bet it would have increased the bounty prize even more. If I have to make a guess, it could have gone up somewhere to 1,200,000,000 Aurum.”

Akira made an annoyed face.

“So in short, that would mean we were desperately trying to defeat a bounty monster that was severely underestimated and so we can only get that heavily undervalued bounty prize…”

“That might be exactly the case. And if that’s true, well, tough luck, right?”

Akira obviously twitched as he let out a big sigh.

“…I’m not bothered at all. I just need to go out to the wasteland to hunt for relics to earn money. Once all the bounty monsters are gone, I can once again safely go to the old-world ruins. That battle is basically for that goal in mind. s.h.i.+karabe and his friends also paid for the equipment and ammo expenses too. So it doesn’t bother me all that much.”

Although it was obvious that it was bothering him, Akira said those words to cheer himself up.

Akira checked the bounty monster information in the info bulletin of the Hunter Office site through his information terminal. The bulletin had been updated to announce the bounty monsters that had been defeated. It was Tank Tarantula, Multi-turrets Maimai and Overgrown Snake. There were pictures of the bounty monsters when they were still kicking and alive put right beside the picture of their corpses or leftover wreckages. It also included the Tank Tarantula that Akira had defeated.

“So there’s only 1 bounty monster left, and according to s.h.i.+karabe, Drankam pooled all its Hunter team to hunt for that last bounty monster. I guess all the bounty monsters will be defeated today. So let’s head back home, get a good rest, and get ready for exploring old-world ruins starting from tomorrow.”

Suddenly Alpha accelerated Akira’s vehicle. Akira let out a shriek of surprise as his body was pushed against the seat.

“Alpha!? What’s wrong?”

“Shhh!!”

Alpha looked grim when she said that. The moment Akira noticed that, he quickly raised his guard. Alpha would only make that face when something really bad happened, he might even be in a life-threatening situation right now.

Alpha kept pacing Akira’s vehicle to its top speed. After about 10 seconds keeping Akira’s vehicle on its top speed, she eventually said something still with a grim expression.

“It’s not working, it’s catching up with us.”

Alpha slowly decelerated the vehicle. Akira looked at Alpha with a serious face.

“Akira, calm down and look behind you. I’ll handle the steering, so no need to worry.”

Akira slowly turned his head. There was something long and thin far far away from his vehicle and that thing was chasing him. Although it looked small, it was because of the distance between them. In reality, it was actually ginormous.

Akira reached out to his binoculars and took another look. He could see a familiar monster in the direction he was looking. It was a monster that he saw not too long ago.

Akira’s face turned grim. The monster looked similar to the one that he had met in the Yonozuka station ruin’s entrance as well as one of the pictures in the Hunter Office bulletin, and that monster was chasing him right now.

It was the overgrown snake.

Akira immediately rechecked his information terminal. The overgrown snake was indeed included among the bounty monsters that had been defeated, there was even a picture of its dead corpse in the Hunter Office bulletin. He then looked at that monster one more time through his binoculars. Although it looked smaller, it looked like nothing but the bounty monster overgrown snake.

Akira then asked Alpha.

“T-the bulletin said that they’ve defeated that monster though?! What the h.e.l.l is going on here?!”

“There are many possibilities, it might be another monster of the same type, or the bounty monster might have cloned itself, or it might even be one of its children. Judging from its size, it might be one of the overgrown snake’s children. After all, it looks smaller compared to the original bounty monster.”

Akira looked at the overgrown snake’s picture in his information terminal one more time to compare it with the snake that was chasing him. It was as Alpha said, the snake chasing him was smaller compared to the bounty monster. But with that being said, it was still way larger than his vehicle. Thus Akira could not take that monster lightly.

“Akira, unfortunately, it’ll catch up with us at this rate.”

“Can’t we break away from it? If that snake is really of the same species, it might as well qualify as a bounty monster if we’re not lucky, right? Do I have a winning chance if we fight it?”

“If we keep running until this vehicle runs out of energy, it might give up on chasing us. Do you want to try and do that?”

Akira’s face still looked grim as he moved to the back seat of his vehicle. It was true that the snake might give up, but if that was not the case, once his vehicle ran out of energy and could no longer move, that snake would eat his vehicle along with him in it. Not to mention, he knew he had bad luck.

Akira smiled bitterly and said to Alpha.

“I guess I have no choice but to fight, huh… Back then when I refilled my supply, I did buy extra ammo just to be safe if I encountered a bounty monster in the wasteland, but why in the world would I really get to meet a bounty monster now?”

Akira had indeed filled his vehicle with ammo, he bought a lot of CWH anti-material special ammo and DVTS minigun extended magazine. It would give him an advantage when he fought a strong monster, but using those ammo against normal monsters would only cause him to lose money. And to be honest, just for today, he really did not want to end up in the red.

Alpha smiled and said to him.

“There’s nothing to worry about if you’re prepared. It was a correct decision to restock your ammo back then.”

Seeing how Alpha was smiling like usual, Akira regained some of his calm and composure. He then smiled bitterly and replied to her.

“I really hope that it’s just a needless fear sometimes, you know. When I have a bad feeling, I’m more than happy to have that bad feeling completely miss its mark. After all, most of my good guesses always miss, so I hope sometime it would happen when I have a bad feeling too, you know.”

Alpha smiled back and asked Akira.

“So this time, what’s your intuition saying?”

Akira smiled confidently.

“It depends on you.”

Alpha smiled back invincibly.

“Yep, that’s the correct answer. If you know that, then just leave the rest to me. I’ll show you that my support can offset your bad luck, just like always.”

Akira and Alpha smiled at each other full of confidence. Akira had made his resolve there.

He then aimed his CWH anti-material rifle toward the overgrown snake. He supported his CWH anti-material rifle with both his hands while aiming at that overgrown snake through the aiming device on top of a shaking vehicle. He then concentrated his focus as much as possible to the point that it felt as if he could accurately recognize the pattern in which his vehicle was swaying.

To top it off, his aiming was augmented with Alpha’s support. When he pulled the trigger, the CWH special ammo which flew out through the muzzle went straight toward the overgrown snake. Although it was so far that its huge body looked like just a small dot from Akira’s point of view, the bullet ripped through the air and hit the snake’s head.

But the moment that happened, the snake’s scale easily repelled the bullet as it left a dent on that particular scale.

Akira reconfirmed what just happened through the aiming device.

“I got a hit there… right?”

“It did hit. It was at least enough to annoy that snake.”

“That’s all the damage that I can inflict using a CWH special ammo, huh? Those bounty monsters do have really hard bodies, don’t they? What should I do then?”

“We have no other choice but to increase the firepower. Akira, get your resolve ready.”

Akira smiled lightly.

“If resolving myself can get my shots stronger, I’ll do it as much as you want. Resolve is my responsibility after all. I thought I’ve made my resolve though, was it not enough?”

Alpha smiled invincibly and said to him.

“That will be enough if what we are going to do next won’t faze you. Alright then, let’s do it.”

Alpha suddenly hit the brake, while on the other hand, the snake increased its speed as it was closing in on Akira.

If the distance to the enemy lowered the firepower, then they just needed to reduce that distance. It was simple logic. The closer the enemy got, the easier it would be to kill that enemy. That applied both to Akira and that snake.

Akira gritted his teeth and was somehow smiling in that situation, he was not fazed at all.

The monster which was only a small dot in his binoculars now had become big enough to be seen with n.a.k.e.d eyes. The overgrown snake did not move like a snake, it was more like a long connected vehicle. If Akira took a better look at it, he would notice that it had countless wheels and caterpillar tracks under it. It looked as if it forced its separate compartments to move forward together although they had different speeds and shapes. Due to that, its huge body seemed to be wiggling up and down just like a snake.

Akira took another aim at the overgrown snake. This time his shot hit the snake’s weak point and peeled off its scale. But compared to its huge body, it was nothing but a scratch.

Alpha slowed down the vehicle even more. The overgrown snake was close enough for Akira to hit it even if he just shot randomly at it. He took another shot at the snake. This time, the CWH special ammo peeled off its scale and ripped off a small portion of its flesh, but it was far away from a fatal wound as it did not even slow the snake down.

Akira frowned.

“It’s not working even if it’s this close, huh! Is it that thing?! Is it that it has some kind of force field armour?!”

“That’s not it. It’s simply because it has a very hard scale. It didn’t produce any light when you hit it, right? So it’s not a force field armour.”

“Seriously, just how hard its scale can be!?”

“It won’t cause any meaningful damage unless you get even closer. This is it Akira, this is where you really need to steel yourself.”

Seeing how Alpha was smiling like usual in that situation, Akira got a bit annoyed.