Chapter 18 (1/2)

Index

Editor: Silavin

Proofreader: p4553r

Akira, Darris and Katsuragi were traversing the wasteland in Katsuragi’s trailer. Kuzusuhara ruin was not that far from Kugamayama city, but it would still take them some time to reach Kugamayama city. Akira usually covered the distance by running, but most people would prefer riding a car.

Darris and Katsuragi were in a really good mood after their victory in the last battle. They were zealous since they dealt with all the monsters that had been chasing them for most of their journey. They could not help but smile jubilantly as they were talking to Akira about all the problems that they faced on their journey and the situation on the Frontline.

Akira, who spent most of his time in the Slum city, had almost no chance of listening to this kind of story, so he listened closely.

“Ohh. So that’s what it’s like in the eastern region, huh?”

“Yep. After all, we’re talking about the Frontline here, the boundary separating the unknown territory. It’s normal for Hunters in that place to own tanks, you know. They bring their tank around like us carrying our guns. But well, it’s also because the monsters there are so strong that you would have no chance against them without a tank.”

“So you’re transporting goods from such a dangerous place, huh? I can’t even imagine how dangerous it would be to stock up goods. Being a merchant is not easy, right?”

“Well, you can say that. And not just stocking, there’re a lot of things that we need to do like making connections, finding business deals. All of them are just as hard as stocking goods.”

“I see, you are really amazing. There’s no way I would be able to do what you are doing.”

Looking at Akira, who was genuinely amazed, Katsuragi could only smile bitterly.

“But well, I can’t deny that today’s stocking was way harder than usual. So don’t think that it’s normal for us to face something this hard. If you try, you might find that it’s not really hard, you know?”

Akira tried to imagine himself working as a merchant, but he could not see himself being a successful merchant. His thoughts were visible on his face, Katsuragi laughed as he noticed it.

“There are a lot of ways to be successful. You can just be a successful Hunter while we’ll be successful merchants. That’s all there is to it. I might be going around selling goods in a trailer like this at the moment, but I’ll use today’s revenue as a stepping stone and make my business bigger. Then one day, I’ll join the Corporate Government and be one of the 5 greatest companies.”

Akira was very surprised. Even with his limited knowledge as a slum city boy, he knew just how big Katsuragi’s dream was.

“One of the 5 greatest companies, huh. That’s a pretty big dream.”

“Once I join the Corporate Government, I’ll issue money coins and its name will be Katsuragi coins. Then I’ll make people update their catalogue using Katsuragi currency.”

After Katsuragi laughed as he talked about his dream, his face changed to a more serious expression.

“…And this job is my first step towards my dream. That’s why I’m really thankful to you, you know? It’s because of you that we’re able to survive without abandoning my goods.”

“Is that so? In that case, just consider that you owe me a favour. After all, you can help me in a lot of ways if your work goes well.”

“Of course, but go easy on me on the discounts, okay? Just like I said, I really need money right now.”

Although they were taking different routes, both of them were aiming to achieve success in the Eastern district. They were having a good time talking to each other. In the middle of their talk, Alpha who was also enjoying their chat suddenly made a serious face and said to Akira.

“Akira, quickly look through the right window with your binocular.”

Looking at how Alpha’s mood changed so suddenly, Akira immediately tensed up. He quickly grabbed his binoculars and connected it to his information terminal. He then checked his surroundings with Alpha’s vision support. In that direction, he could see a dust cloud in the middle of the vast wasteland.

“…Katsuragi, you’re the one who brought those monsters here, right?”

Katsuragi smiled bitterly and tried to evade the question.

“…Well, about that, you see…”

“I don’t care who brought those monsters here. But tell me something, were those monsters just a fraction of a bigger group?”

Katsuragi immediately understood what was going on from Akira’s behaviour. As such, his face immediately turned grim.

“Darris! Put the searching device on the trailer to the Maximum Area Search setting!!”

“If we do that, it’s sensitivity in detecting monsters will reduce, you know?”

“Just do it!”

Darris noticed that Akira and Katsuragi looked disturbed, so he quickly changed the setting of the detection device just like he was told to. Katsuragi’s face turned grimmer as he looked at the information shown on the detection device.

“Focus it to the 2 o’clock direction and zoom in 60 times.”

Darris was confused after hearing that order. If he did that, it would make it impossible for the device to cover other directions, thus it would increase the chance of them getting ambushed. But he immediately followed the order nonetheless. Once he did, Darris and Katsuragi’s face turned stiff after checking the result.

Akira then pressed them for an answer while making a very serious face.

“Sorry to ask you this while you’re busy, but answer me… How many more monsters are left from that group that was chasing you?!”

The dust cloud that he saw from his binocular was caused by another group of monsters. The result from the searching device showed that monsters were swarming towards them from afar.

The swarm of monsters that were chasing Katsuragi from the eastern wasteland was naturally divided into several groups depending on their type and moving speed, and those groups were moving separately from each other. The group that attacked Akira and Katsuragi sometime ago were the frontrunners of the main group. As for the groups that consisted of slow monsters, they gave up midway and returned to their original territory. Now, the group with moderate speed finally caught up with them.

Katsuragi and Darris looked very tense as they talked to each other.

“Katsuragi, can we reach the city at this rate? Can we make it?”

Katsuragi shook his head.

“Nope, we won’t make it. They’ll think that we brought the monsters and the city’s defense force will kill us together with all those monsters… Looking at how fast that group is moving, we might be a  little bit faster if I push the trailer to its maximum speed. So how about buying time until we can run from them, we’ll head to the city once we put some distance from them.”

This time, Darris was the one who shook his head.

“That’s impossible. We only have little energy left inside the trailer from the long journey. The trailer will run out of energy if we take a detour.”

They rejected each other’s suggestions and let out a sigh not talking anymore, silence prevailed. Since no one was giving anymore suggestion, Akira gave his.

“How about heading back to the ruins? I’ll guide you through the ruins this time. I’m pretty knowledgeable about this area. I think we might be able to survive if we go there. And even if the trailer runs out of energy, it’s easier to evade those monsters or break up that monster group in the ruins rather in the wasteland…”

In reality, Alpha would be the one guiding them. He hid this fact as he gave his suggestion. But Katsuragi flat out rejected his suggestion.

“No, we can’t.”

Looking at how Akira was shocked by his reply, Katsuragi regained his composure. He then told Akira his reason.

“…We just left piles of monsters corpses in the ruin. The blood, meat and bones there should’ve attracted other monsters by now. In the worst-case scenario, it might even attract strong monsters from the deeper part of the ruins. There’s no way we can win against those monsters.”

Akira doubted that reason as he looked at Alpha, asking for a confirmation. Alpha then answered back with a serious face.

“While his reasoning is true, he also doesn’t want to leave the trailer behind. Also, the situation will only worsen if you go back to the ruins now.”

After hearing this, Akira dejectedly let out a sigh.

“Do we have no other choice but to fight in this place…? Ah right, can’t we use the weapon that you carried from the Frontline? It’s some kind of super-powerful weapon, right?”

Katsuragi shook his head.

“No, you can’t use those weapons unless you’re using an augmented cloth adjusted for handling those weapons, and it’ll take at least 4 hours to make preparations. We’ll also need the corresponding special ammo that we don’t have right now. We normally procure ammo from a different route after all… Dammit!!”

Fighting back in this place was their only option. Everyone in the trailer understood this. They accepted this fact on different levels which was shown on their face, none of them looked relaxed at all.

Akira prepared his gun while Katsuragi drove the trailer to a more advantageous position and parked the trailer. He readied the machine gun ammo for easy and fast reload. Akira and Darris stood ready not too far from the trailer. They would make contact with the group of monsters in just a few minutes.

Akira rushed to finish his preparation just like Alpha told him to. He reloaded a new cartridge into his AAH rifle, took out all the cartridges inside his rucksack and put it out in the open so that it is easy for him to find them. He also prepared medicines in case he needed it in an emergency, he had already put some of them inside his mouth in case if the effect from the last one weakened. With that, Akira finished all the preparation that he needed except for his own resolve.

Alpha was standing beside Akira just like usual. He was feeling nervous but he had a sense of reassurance from making all the necessary preparations, he then asked Alpha.

“Alpha, answer me honestly. Can I win… Or more like, do I even have any chance to win?”

He felt like Alpha would say that there was a good chance he would lose if he asked whether he could win. Thus he changed his question midway.

Alpha just smiled like usual as she answered back.

“You do have a chance to win since I’m giving you my support. So give it your best too, okay?”

Alpha was not lying. But she did not reveal how much chance he had in surviving this monster horde attack. She thought that revealing it would only lower his already small chances. Thus, she did not give an accurate number.

“I see. So I can win, huh?”

Akira also did not ask any further. It was better to not know things that were better left alone. Both of them seemed to agree on this point.

Akira readied his gun and looked at Alpha. He was about to say something but stopped midway,  seeing that Alpha just smiled back.

“Akira, I did say this to you before but I’m repeating once again. Since you spent all your luck to meet me, I’ll take responsibility and properly assist you. That’s why you can’t give up no matter what, okay? I give my support assuming that you have resolved yourself, you know. So don’t forget that. If you give up, then I’ll also stop providing my support.”

Alpha smiled while teasing Akira and he could only smile bitterly in return.

“You’re right, motivation and resolve, both are my responsibility. So then, well, since we’re in this situation, I’ll be relying on your help.”

Alpha smiled proudly and answered back with full confidence.

“Just leave it to me.”

Akira laughed lightly. He already threw out the feeling of wanting to give up and his will to fight back started growing.

Akira resolved himself, with this, he was finally truly ready.

The monsters were already within the shooting range of Katsuragi’s machine gun, but he did not start shooting. After all, there was no point in making a pre-emptive attack in this situation. He also wanted to save his ammo, thus he waited till those monsters were close enough for the machine gun to inflict maximum damage. There was a need to draw the enemy close enough, Akira and Darris also understood that. Thus they only held their guns ready while waiting for the monsters to get close range.

Since monsters that could attack from long-range were already killed by Katsuragi and Darris before, this group only consisted of monsters that could only attack from close-range. Thanks to that, the three of them were able to stand their ground while waiting for the monsters to approach them.

Once they got close enough for the machine gun to inflict mortal wounds on them, the machine gun started spewing bullets. Those bullets tore the monsters on the front of the flock and splattered their blood and meat onto the monsters behind them.

Although the monsters behind them were showering under their companions’ blood and meat, they kept charging at Akira and others without even slowing down. Akira took his aim and pulled the trigger on his gun. The bullet that came out from his gun tore right through his target’s forehead and instantly killed the monster. Then he shot the monsters that jumped over that corpse and killed those monsters too.

Then the next one, and the next one and the next one. With the help of Alpha’s support, Akira was able to perform way better than his original ability as he kept reaping the life of those monsters. But that only caused a small dent considering the total number of monsters. The monsters just kept pouring at him with no end in sight, and so the hopeless endurance battle had started.

They desperately fought a fierce battle. They already lost count of how many monsters they had killed since the battle started. Akira did not care about anything else other than shooting those monsters and following Alpha’s instruction.

Due to the power of the anti-monster bullets, it also had a strong kickback. The powerful kickback scrapped Akira’s stamina bit by bit every time he pulled the trigger of his gun. But thanks to the medicines he prepared beforehand, he was able to maintain his fighting strength.

He swiftly reloaded a new cartridge every time he ran out of ammo. And when all the cartridges that he prepared on his suit were exhausted, he grabbed cartridges that he prepared on the ground near him as he ejected the empty cartridge and immediately loaded it into his gun. Although he got more and more worried as the number of leftover cartridges kept decreasing, he  ignored it and just kept shooting. After all, hesitating now would spell his death.

Every time he felt pain in the arm that supported his gun, Akira would swallow the medicine in his mouth bit by bit. The medicine would recover his body, without it, he would’ve already lay limp on the ground by now. He paced himself so he would not run out of medicine quickly while maintaining his optimal fighting strength. He gritted his teeth and kept shooting as he adjusted the dosage of the medicine he was taking.

Alpha’s orders were near perfect. She considered the speed of each monster as she gave out orders. She tried to prevent the monsters from approaching Akira by telling him to target the front row so that its corpse would block the monsters behind it. She gave out orders to maximize everything that might help Akira.

But it was a completely different matter as to whether Akira was able to follow her orders. Not only was his ability still amateurish, but he was also nervous, agitated and tired. Thus his movements were becoming duller as time passed. He could not perfectly follow half of the orders that Alpha gave him. But she would immediately adjust her instructions depending on the previous result.

Then there was a twist of event. A monster that was faster than any other suddenly jumped towards Akira. Of course, Akira focused his shots at that monster, after unleashing a barrage of bullets and confirming that they hit that monster, he thought that the monster was already dead and shifted his focus towards another monsters. Because he was in a panicked state and tired, and had seen monsters dying after getting shot like that, he made a wrong assumption.

“It’s not dead yet!”

Hearing Alpha scream at him, Akira aimed back to where the monster was in a panic. But it was too late, although it was badly injured, the monster was already too close to Akira. Its speed didn’t reduce after being showered in countless bullets as it charged towards him. It then jumped trying to bite him, but it could only push him down while taking bullets from his gun.

The reason why it missed to bite Akira was because it had lost its original form after getting shot several times. Thanks to that, Akira was able to narrowly escape death. But it did not change the fact that his life was hanging by a thread as that monster opened its jaw again and was getting ready to take another bite.