Chapter 94 (1/2)

Index

Editor: Silavin

Proofreader: p4553r

By the time Varga told Akira to take care of the monster that he detected, Akira had already taken care of that monster. Even Varga was surprised by that. He then fl.u.s.teredly checked his radar and confirmed that Akira was not lying, and so he was still shaken when he replied back to Akira.

Varga then curiously asked Shikarabe.

“Shikarabe, where in the world did you find that boy? Wait, that’s not right. How the heck did you discover his ability?”

“There was a chance when we worked together in the Kuzusuhara underground ruin. That was the trigger.”

“Ohh, that, huh. If I’m not mistaken, they found a big Yarata scorpion nest there and executed a big scale extermination operation, right? I heard that the Katsuya faction was able to gather a lot of reward and achievement during that operation. So Akira also participated in that operation, huh?”

Shikarabe shook his head.

“Nope, as in matter of fact, he withdrew from the underground city request on the third day. So he did not participate in the extermination operation. The reason why I was able to see his ability was when I got assigned to a team of Hunters to explore the underground city.”

“So, did he do anything amazing there?”

“Not really, he was at least not a deadweight to me and the other Hunters. That was all there was to it.”

Varga tilted his head.

“Then why did you invite Akira? Judging from what you just said, there’s no real reason why we should invite him for hunting the bounty monsters, you know? Does he have anything particular written in his Hunter history?”

Yamanobe joined in and refuted that guess.

“Nah, there’s nothing amazing written in his Hunter history. Since Shikarabe invited that boy and after seeing what he was capable of yesterday, I went to the Hunter Office’s site to check his Hunter page. There’s nothing interesting in particular written there. He’s just a Rank 21 young Hunter, he has killed a lot of monsters and went up a few ranks sooner than most of his peers. That’s all that is written on his Hunter page.”

Varga looked a bit confused as he asked Shikarabe further.

“Then why did you invite him? Is it that thing? That Shikarabe’s intuition thingy? You always say that a good intuition is a crucial aspect for a Hunter.”

Shikarabe laughed.

“I know well enough not to rope both of you in solely because of my intuition, you know. Well, it’s true that it was because of my intuition at first, but I decided to invite him after I got more information about him.”

Shikarabe then pulled out his information terminal, operated it, and then gave it to Yamanobe and Varga. Both of them looked at that information terminal and checked the information displayed on its monitor.

Yamanobe looked slightly confused.

“Is this a copy from the Hunter Office’s webpage? I already checked it, you know.”

“You should already know why I went through all the work to get a local copy. It contains confidential information that you won’t be able to see normally unless you pay an information broker from the inside the Hunter Office. Look how it’s different from what you have read.”

Yamanobe then operated the information terminal to look for that difference.

“…There’s some difference in the request history. The details about the Kuzusuhara underground city request is really short… Hm?”

Yamanobe raised his eyebrows as he read through that short detailed description of Akira’s Kuzusuhara underground city request history.

“Confidential request from Kugamayama City Management… The details of the request… Is hidden. Ahhh, it must be a copy from someone who has no right to see this information, huh. The only available information that we can see is just a short summary of the request.”

Shikarabe then interjected.

“You can see the reward too, so check it out.”

Yamanobe and Varga checked the reward from that request. Both of them looked thunderstruck when they saw the number.

Yamanobe rechecked that number again to make sure that he did not misread it as he said.

“160,000,000 Aurum!? That boy is a Hunter who’s worth more than 100,000,000 Aurum, huh?!!”

That title referred to the Hunters who gained more than 100,000,000 Aurum in a single request. It was one of the indicators that showed the ability of a Hunter. Of course, there were not that many Hunters who could attain that title.

Although it was a customary title, if a Hunter had finished at least one request that earned that Hunter more than 100,000,000, Aurum or any other currency recognized by the Corporate Government, then that Hunter could claim that title.

But if a Hunter wanted others to treat him or her as a Hunter with that title, then he or she should find a way to prove it to other people. Thus it was hard for a Hunter who achieved that title from a confidential request, of course, that was excluding the people who knew about that confidential request.

Varga was honestly amazed as he said.

“…It says that 60,000,000 Aurum was used to pay for his medical bill. But it’s still a reward that’s worth more than 100,000,000 Aurum. There’s no mistaking it, he’s worthy of that title… No wonder he’s that strong.”

Varga then continued, but this time he sounded a bit suspicious.

“The only thing that bothers me is that this information is not set to be hidden by Akira himself. This information is not just simply hidden from public view, this means that it’s basically forged public information. I bet it was forged after Kugamayama City Management made a formal request to the Hunter Office and Akira himself had given his approval too. What exactly happened?”

Shikarabe smiled and answered Varga’s question.

“There was an incident the same day Akira withdrew from the underground city’s request. The army sent from the Kugamayama city engaged in a battle against some relic thieves. Since the thieves were aiming for the relics in the underground city that were originally owned by the City Management, a lot of Hunters got roped in that incident. You guys heard about that too, right?”

“Yeah, but I heard that the army was able to easily apprehend the thieves. It was written somewhere in a small corner in the news sites.”

“I bet that incident has something to do with that confidential part in his Hunter history. It’s just my guess though, but I believe that Akira was somehow connected to that incident and did something which made the Kugamayama City Management pay him 160,000,000 Aurum. Either that or it was bribe money to make sure that Akira won’t leak anything. I can’t really judge his ability, but looking at the reward that he received, I can make a guess that he’s at least as strong as us. Does that convince you?”

Yamanobe smiled confidently and said.

“Yeah. But still, hypothetically speaking, if we can’t pay him enough reward, you’ll be in big trouble right, Shikarabe?”

Shikarabe laughed.

“No need to worry about that, it won’t be a trouble if we get to beat one bounty monster. Let’s have Akira work hard for his own reward.”

After Shikarabe said that, they laughed together. Being over-optimistic in their betting was normal in Hunter’s line of work. As long as they went out to the wasteland, they were gambling with their lives at stake. And so, these Hunters expected a high return for the high risk that they were taking.

Akira was driving his vehicle while talking with Alpha, so from the outside, he looked like he was driving silently. Or at least, there was no conversation between him and Togami.

Togami always had an annoyed expression plastered on his face, but now his anger was no longer present. And in its place, he had a cautious and curious face as if he was looking at an unidentified object. He had been looking at Akira for some time now.

Alpha then asked Akira.

“He’s been glancing at you, you know. Are you sure you want to just leave him alone?”

“It’s a huge pain in the neck to react to that. And it’s not like I can just throw him off from my vehicle just because he’s staring at me, so let’s just leave him alone.”

Akira knew that Togami was staring at him, but he just ignored Togami. As long as Togami did not strike any conversation, Akira had no plan to say anything to Togami. He would not even reply to Togami’s question unless he had no other choice.

“If you don’t mind, then I don’t really mind him either, but it really doesn’t bother you?”

“To be honest, it does, but ignoring him is a hundred times better than getting into trouble with him.”

“We should’ve refused right from the start, this was a mistake.”

“It’s not like I have any other choice. The person who made the request told me to take him with me, and to be honest, I didn’t expect he would agree to that condition.”

Alpha smiled, she looked a bit regretful.

“It can’t be helped then. Let’s just wait until we get a chance to throw him to Shikarabe’s vehicle.”

“Honestly speaking, I hope we don’t even need to do that.”

Akira looked exasperated when he said that.

Togami was still staring at Akira.

Akira was able to discover a monster even before Shikarabe told him about that monster, he then sniped that monster from a moving vehicle and was able to hit and kill that monster in one shot. If Togami asked himself whether he could execute the same feat, the answer was a loud and clear no.

In the first place, aiming from a moving vehicle was really difficult. Even if he was shooting from a stationary vehicle, sniping a monster from afar was already difficult enough. And even if he could hit his shot, he would need to either accurately snipe at the monster’s weak point or use a powerful gun to be able to defeat that monster in one shot, both of these only increased the difficulty of executing such a shot. When you want to take out a huge monster, you would have to do both—use a strong rifle and hit the weak point—at the same time.

Togami was a Hunter skilled enough to be sent to hunt a bounty monster, but even if he overestimated his own ability, he was sure he could not execute the same feat as Akira just now.

Moreover, the person who did that was a Rank 21 Hunter who was supposed to be below his own Rank. Because of that, it really shocked Togami.

If it was a story that he heard, he would be able to just laugh it off as a joke or a lie, but Akira did that right in front of his eyes.

On the other hand, he could just think of it as a pure coincidence, a lucky shot that only happened once out of thousands of shots. That might be all there was to it, but Togami could not wrap up that incident as a lucky shot. The reason was because Akira did that so casually.

Akira did that as if it was nothing to him, he did it so easily and casually just because he could, it was as if he had just squatted a fly that passed in front of him. That was the only impression that Togami got from Akira’s action. Also, Akira did not show any reaction after he executed that impossible feat and silently went back to driving.

As Togami kept on thinking and evaluating Akira, the image of Akira inside his mind was of an unknown boy Hunter who had a lower Hunter Rank than him. Since he could not admit that it was Akira’s real ability, he could not hold his curiosity back and ended up saying something to Akira.

“…Oii, don’t get ahead of yourself just because of that lucky shot. I won’t ever admit that it’s your real ability.”

Togami actually wanted to confirm whether it was really a lucky shot or was it because of Akira’s aiming skill. But the words that came out from his mouth were completely different than what he actually meant.

Akira glanced at Togami and casually replied.

“I see.”

After he said that, Akira returned his gaze forward and continued driving. Normally, people would take his reply as an affirmation to what Togami just said. While on the other hand, it was a feat that Akira would not be able to execute without Alpha’s support, so it could also be understood as an affirmation from that point of view. Akira kept training himself every day so that he would be able to do the same thing on his own without Alpha’s support.

Togami laughed awkwardly after hearing Akira’s answer.

“…Hahaha, As I thought, it’s just a lucky shot, huh. Don’t surprise me like that. Ahh, now that I think about it, there’s no way a Rank 21 Hunter can do that in the first place.”

Togami laughed as if he was trying to convince himself, but since he himself was still not fully convinced by it, his laugh was somehow stiff and awkward.

—*—*—*—

Drankam had a base in the Kugamayama city’s lower district. Somewhere near that base, a lot of Drankam’s young Hunters were preparing themselves to hunt for the bounty monsters. They were preparing their vehicles and equipment to go out to the wasteland and filled their APCs with supplies.

Elena and Sara boarded one of those vehicles and waited until the dispatch time while looking at the scene around them. They were the Hunters assigned to help the young Hunters from Drankam to hunt for the bounty monster. Their job was to fight under the other’s orders. Both of them had already finished their preparation yesterday, so they had nothing to do but wait after they received the contact device specially used by Drankam members.

Sara looked at the other Hunters who were going to join them in hunting the bounty monsters and mumbled.

“There are quite a lot of them, but most of them are young Hunters. Some of them are even as young as Akira, well, it’s not like I’m discriminating against them because of their age though. But it makes me worry with this many young Hunters. I wonder if they really understand that they’re going to hunt for bounty monsters. It’s not like we’re going to hunt common strong monsters, you know?”

The longer someone was working as a Hunter, the more and more obscure his or her age became. But even so, it was rather obvious that the Hunters in that place were mostly young Hunters who were not even considered as a.d.u.l.ts yet.

Most of the Hunter equipment was designed to be used by a.d.u.l.ts, thus they were not perfect for young Hunters. As long as it was not some kind of fetish, even cyborg Hunters would not prefer to have a child’s body.

Due to that, most of the young Hunters who looked like young children were really young children. And as young Hunters, they did not have long experience being a Hunter, the same thing could also be said for their skill too. Of course, there were some exceptions though.

Sara was observing those young Hunters preparing themselves while waiting. To be honest, she thought that most of those young Hunters were not ready to join the hunt for bounty monsters.

Elena then spoke to her as if she was trying to reassure her.

“Both their numbers and their equipment should be enough to defeat a bounty monster. Seeing the vehicles prepared for this expedition, it seems that they assume they’ll be able to successfully take down the bounty monsters. Although, I’m not really sure if the reward from the bounty is enough to bring them profit after preparing all of these equipment. Not to mention, they also pay other Hunters like us to help out too and it’s not like all of them are only young Hunters. So there should be no problem.”

Sara frowned a bit.

“…Depending on how you look at it, it sounds as if we’re here to look over these young Hunters though.”

“There’s no need to do that, it’s obvious that we’re here to look over these children. Leaving the bounty monster aside, the reward that we will receive this time depends on the young Hunters who can return back alive, you know. So, our reward will get a huge hit if the leader of the team gets killed. Since it’s not an escort request, there’s no need to try too hard protecting these children, but if we want to keep our reward, we should make sure that the leader returns back alive or take out the bounty monsters fast. Ah, this is confidential info though, so don’t tell anyone, okay?”