Chapter 108 (1/2)

Index

Editor: Silavin

Proofreader: p4553r

A few minutes had passed since the transport drone had left the landing platform of the Seranthal building. Carol had already calmed down after she got too excited when she finally realized she had gotten out of that dangerous situation alive. Since Akira felt like Carol would keep hugging him if he just left her be, he quickly pulled himself away a bit forcefully when her hug relaxed a little.

Carol peeked at Akira’s expression. He did not seem to be angry, as a matter of fact, it looked like he was in a rather good mood. But for someone who just got his face buried in between a beautiful girl’s wonderful b.r.e.a.s.ts, he did not seem too delighted.

As her side job, other than being a Hunter, Carol had slept with a lot of other Hunters. For the sake of her main job and her side-job, she enhanced her body with nanomachines and spent a large sum of money that could be used to buy multiple augmented suits just to enhance her beauty.

Carol had absolute confidence in her own beauty, after all, there were Hunters who went crazy after experiencing her beautiful body. But even so, Akira was not that interested in her body. She understood that very well after peeking at Akira’s face and she felt a sense of defeat.

Carol smiled as to not show that in her face as she said to Akira.

“Geez, you’re no fun. There’s nothing wrong with enjoying it a bit more, isn’t it? I don’t mind if you want to do it later too, you know. And as I said, it’s free of charge.”

“No thank you. Moreover, you were the one who hugged me in the first place, not me. And I’m still in the middle of a job too. You’re paying me to be your bodyguard, remember? So don’t get in my way when you’re the one who gave me that request.”

“You’re so earnest, aren’t you?”

“Do you prefer to have someone not earnest escorting you instead?”

“You have a point there. Alright, I won’t bother you again.”

Since it seemed that Akira would only get annoyed if she continued, Carol decided to back off there.

After getting himself away from Carol, Akira returned back looking outside from a small window. For him, the view from a flying drone was entertaining enough.

Carol kept looking at him. Akira, who was looking outside with sparkling eyes, looked like a small boy from her point of view. He did not seem like he was that powerful Hunter who showed such amazing skill inside the Seranthal building.

[When I look at him like this, he looks like nothing but just a young boy. But even so, he’s not that young that he has no interest in girls, right?]

Carol still had her fastener pulled down, showing her bountiful b.r.e.a.s.ts. Unless she was told otherwise, she kept her fastener down hoping that Akira would change his mind. Normally, her beautiful skin and valley peeking out from that opening would gather the attention of any healthy young boys.

But even so, Akira kept his eyes fixed on the views outside. It seemed that the views outside were way more interesting for Akira.

Carol who got hit by another sense of defeat then made a bit of a sharp remark.

“Is the view outside that amusing?”

“It is.”

Akira answered back casually and instantly, there was no trace of hesitation at all.

Carol replied back, she sounded even more annoyed than before.

“…I see.”

Akira felt the faint pressure coming from Carol and realized that he gave a wrong answer just now. He then looked at Alpha who was smiling at him. So he decided to throw a different subject to change the mood there.

“We’re heading to the landing platform in Mihazono ruin’s factory district, right? How long until we get there?”

“It should be around 15 minutes.”

“…That’s pretty long. This is an old-world transport drone, right? So like, I think it should have been able to fly faster though.”

“That would be scary and dangerous, even if it’s possible, I hope that it won’t go that fast.”

Akira, who felt that reply from Carol was rather weird, returned his gaze back at her and asked.

“Why is that? We can get there faster, you know?”

Carol thought that reaction was a bit unexpected, but she quickly realized the reason.

“Ahh, I see, you don’t know about it, huh. By the way, what comes in your mind when I say Hunter’s transport vehicles?”

“A car or maybe a tank. And if I remember it correctly, there are Hunters with powered suits if we go further to the east, right?”

“All of them are ground transportations, right? Didn’t you ever think that it’s weird they don’t use combat drones or combat helicopters? Or why other than the Hunters, even the city defence squad and the corporate militaries don’t use them too? The cities also use trucks to trade and transport materials between them. Don’t you think it’s weird that they don’t use flying drones? Why do you think that is?”

“…Now that you mention it, that’s kind of weird. Why is that?”

Akira could not come up with any answers.

Carol then smiled smugly and explained.

“It’s because the monsters would attack them. The higher and the faster you go, the more powerful the monsters that would attack you.”

Carol did not realize it herself that she was actually feeling happy that Akira was looking back at her again as she explained to him why people did not use airplanes in the eastern district.

There were all kinds of monsters living in all kinds of places in the eastern district, and according to the area where they lived, they posed different levels of danger. But they roughly had 2 common features.

First of all, their strength depended on whether they lived further to the west or to the east. In most cases, the closer they lived to the frontline bordering the unexplored area in the far east, the more powerful they were. And the closer they were to the western area bordering the Federation of Nations’ central district, the weaker they were.

The other indicator would be the height where they usually roamed. Of course, there were monsters who roamed the sky, and the higher they were, usually, the stronger they were.

There were many factors that affected the encounter rate with the monsters, the usual indicators were the bigger, faster, and higher you go, the higher the chance for you to meet monsters.

So in short, the faster they flew in the eastern district’s sky, the higher the chance for them to meet such powerful monsters, which would be fatal. There were also cases where it might even attract stronger monsters that would not usually roam in a particular area. Because of that, it was prohibited to use any kind of flying vehicles around the city. And if there was anyone who did that without proper authorization, the defence squad would take them down without warning, suspecting that they were trying to attract strong monsters to attack the city. As a matter of fact, such a thing had actually happened a few times in the past.

Because of this, the main means of transportation in the eastern district were land transportations although, technology-wise, the eastern district had no problem building airplanes. And back when the Corporate Government had a huge war against the nationalist, they were normally using airplanes.

Akira, who was listening closely to Carol’s explanation, then applied that newly received information to the flying drone that they were riding.

“Wait? Doesn’t that mean this thing is dangerous?”

“That’s why it’s equipped with sophisticated camouflaging features and is moving at a slow speed. As you said, it can fly way faster so that we can reach our destination way quicker, but its speed is mainly determined by an ignorable chance to meet any powerful monsters.”

“So that’s why, huh.”

Akira nodded.

Carol was completely cheered up after seeing Akira listening closely to her explanation. And in order so that he would not start looking outside again, she tried to come up with a more interesting subject.

“By the way, Akira, do you know that the old-world ruins are not only located on or below the ground? You can also find old-world ruins in the sky too, you know?”

“In the sky? Like, a floating ruin?”

“There are many types though, like a floating fortress or just a flying ship. It’s from those stories where Hunters sometimes notice that there’s a huge shadow cast on the ground but they can’t see anything in the sky when they look up, that might be because of the camouflaging features. There are also theories saying that the ever-present colourless mist in the eastern district is hiding all the floating structures that are already there since the old-world era. Other theory says that when the colourless mist suddenly thickens, that’s because a floating object is passing through.”

“…I see. It sounds like we can find some amazing relics if we can somehow get to one of those floating ruins.”

“It seems that there are a lot of Hunters who are looking for floating ruins, you know. I heard that even the Corporate Government is sponsoring those Hunters. Moreover, it’s on a whole different level of difficulty and a lot of high ranking Hunters are actually doing exactly that… As I thought, it has some kind of romanticism in it.”

Carol was talking, filled with interest. Among the Hunters that she had slept with, one of them told her that he dreamt of finding a floating ruin. The last time she heard from that Hunter was when he was talking happily to her that he got recruited into the search squad through his connection. She never met that Hunter again since then, that Hunter might as well already be dead by now.

Although Akira was interested in that story of floating ruins, he still analyzed that information realistically.

“Romanticism, huh? Honestly, I don’t really get it. It’s not like I’m out in the ruin chasing renown after all.”

“You’ll understand once you’re older.”

“Is that so?”

“Yep.”

Akira tilted his head, Carol smiled at him.

As Akira and Carol were talking about Hunter stuff, they eventually arrived on a landing platform. After packing their stuff up, they then stood in front of the door of the storage room and the door automatically opened.

Carol remembered that she had not pulled up her fastener yet, so she pulled it back all the way up to her neck before stepping off the transport drone, Akira followed suit afterwards.

Once they boarded off, the door closed automatically. It then turned invisible again unless you got close enough. If anyone saw them, it would look like Akira and Carol just appeared out of nowhere.

The Mihazono ruin’s factory district was filled with factories and warehouses. Although most of them had already turned into rubble, some of them were still in operation. It was a dangerous area filled with security drones.

Basically, the landing platform where Akira and Carol were was clean of anything. There were only some cracks in the platform, nothing more. There might be other transport drones there too, but those were invisible to Akira and Carol.

Carol stretched out her body once and said.

“Well then, can you escort me to the Hunter Office, now?”

“Sure… Which way is the Hunter Office?”

It was Akira’s first time coming there, so he had no idea which way to go. Fortunately enough, the landing platform was located in between the ruin and the wasteland, so if they followed that boundary, they should be able to find the Hunter Office sooner or later.

“This way.”

Carol smiled as she guided the way.

As Akira was walking the boundary between the ruin and the wasteland with Carol guiding him, Carol suddenly asked him a question.

“Akira, what are your plans after this? Are you going to hunt for relics again?”

“No, I’m planning to stop for today and get a good rest. I’m too tired after going through all that, so I have no power left to hunt for relics. So, don’t ask me to extend the escort, okay?”

“Don’t worry. I’m also planning to wrap up for today. So, basically, you’re free after this, right?”

“…Well, yeah, but I want to get a good rest. I’m really tired, you know.”

“Want to take a rest with me?”

Carol smiled mischievously at Akira. Even for someone as dense as Akira, he understood that she was inviting him.

“No. I want to rest.”

“Don’t be that uptight, we both went through that dangerous situation together after all, right? Although you’re under my request to escort me, it’s true that you did save my life. So I want to repay it.”

“You’ve already paid me for escorting you, and you said you would also pay for the relics that I lost, so I have no plans to ask you for any more reward. Well, if you’re still bothered by it, you can buy me some meals. But I won’t accept a cheap meal, okay?”

There was a trace of irritation and frustration in Carol’s bitter smile, she then became a bit obstinate as she said.