Chapter 113 (1/2)

Index

Editor: Silavin

Proofreader: p4553r

Akira and Carol reached Mihazono ruin right before the sunrise. There were a lot of vehicles parked near the Hunter Office. Among the normal vehicles brought by the Hunters, there were some trailers owned by weapon merchants, portable clinics, and trailers used by Hunter gangs as their temporary base.

A traffic officer stopped Akira and said.

“All the parking lots near the Hunter Office branch are controlled under strict regulation to make sure there is smooth traffic. I don’t mind if you are just passing through to the ruin, but make sure not to block the way when you do that. And, if you want to park your vehicles around here, make sure that it won’t block the way too. Do note that the parking lot inside is already full.”

“Okay.”

“I’ll at least tell you this. If you’re here to hunt for relics, you might want to pick another day.”

“I know. I can tell just by looking at it.”

Akira gazed at the Mihazono ruin when he said that.

The loud banging sounds of battles kept resounding endlessly from the Mihazono ruin. There were some places where smoke was rising into the sky. Flashes of lights illuminated the ruin that was veiled in darkness. The Mihazono ruin showed a completely different side compared to the one that Akira saw yesterday.

“I guess you’re right about that.”

That officer then left Akira.

Carol suddenly asked Akira a question.

“So then, what are we going to do from here?”

“We’ll meet up with Elena’s team. The real problem is how exactly are we going to find them… It’s not like we can just dive into the ruin looking for them without any clues.”

Akira made a stern look, he then asked Alpha.

“Alpha, we’re in Mihazono ruin now. So like, we still can’t contact Elena-san?”

Alpha shook her head.

“No, I still can’t establish any connection at all. There is still no reply from your last message and I still can’t connect your call. If I have to make a guess, it might be because there are too many signals around this area that interferes with the communication line. Or maybe, the comm relay in this area is already turned off.”

It might be a waste of time if they just waited for Elena and Sara without doing anything. After a bit of thinking, Akira then turned to Carol.

“Carol. If you were looking for a certain Hunter inside this ruin, where would you go?”

“Look for them? Can’t you call them or something?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you have any clues where they might be?”

“Sadly, no.”

“Have you decided where to meet beforehand?”

“I could not manage to contact them even before we made the decision.”

Carol looked at Akira with a slightly pitiful gaze.

“….Akira, are you one of those people who tend to decide on a whim and move first, and then think later?”

“…Yes.”

Akira replied back with a feeble voice, he sounded a bit ashamed after Carol pointed that out. Alpha, who was next to him, tried her best to hold back her laughter.

Carol looked a bit disappointed as she looked at Akira, she thought that she might have overestimated his strength. But she then decided to just forget about it and started to think for an answer to his question. She was hired as a guide by Akira, so she thought that she should at least do her job properly.

“Looking for other Hunters, huh? Do you have anything that can uniquely identify both of your positions? For example, if both of you know each other’s information terminal’s identification code, you can set the local connection to the maximum hoping you can find each other. And if the other Hunter notices you, then, he can also set the local connection to the maximum and make a call with your information terminal. But, there’s a good chance that the mechanical monsters roaming around this ruin would notice your location if you do that though. And since you’ll need to set your information terminal to constantly broadcast signals, it’ll be pretty dangerous.”

Some of the monsters in the wasteland could detect the signals broadcasted by the information equipment often carried by the Hunters. They could use that to ascertain the locations of those Hunters and attack them. The only reason why Hunters could send signals across the wasteland was because they were using the comm relays buried under the ground. After a lot of trials and errors, they managed to create comm relays that could withstand monsters’ attacks.

Unlike in the middle of the wasteland, the ruins had denser monster distribution and fewer escape routes. Thus, broadcasting strong signals inside a ruin was extremely dangerous. The only people who would do that would be fatally wounded Hunters who could not get out from the ruin using their own power. But even so, they would only do that for a few seconds just to let the rescue squads know their location.

Akira tried to imagine what would happen if he were to do that. Inside his mind, he imagined that he would end up in a situation where he was surrounded by a huge number of monsters. And then, unfortunately enough, Elena tried to contact him in that situation which caused some of those monsters to head toward her location. Although he might be able to break the encirclement and force his way to Elena’s location, it did not change the fact that he would still drag Elena and Sara into more trouble.

Akira then cut his imagination there.

“That would be too dangerous so, let’s not do that.”

Carol then made another suggestion.

“In that case, your only choice will be either diving into the ruin and looking for them or wait for them near the Hunter Office branch. If they are taking that emergency SOS request, I’m sure they’ll be back here after rescuing some Hunters.”

As Akira was still thinking about which option to take, Alpha suddenly pointed her finger toward the parking lot near the Hunter Office branch.

“Akira, look over there.”

When Akira looked toward the direction that Alpha pointed, he saw a vehicle that looked somehow familiar to him. It was the APC that Shikarabe used when they were hunting for bounty monsters.

“So? What do you want me to do with that?”

Akira thought that it was the same APC model owned by other Hunters. But Alpha knew for a fact that it was Shikarabe’s APC.

“That’s Shikarabe’s APC. If Shikarabe is inside it, how about you try contacting him? He might be able to help you find Elena and Sara.”

Akira pulled out his information terminal and called Shikarabe through the local connection. The call almost immediately got through.

“Shikarabe’s speaking. Is this you, Akira? You’re calling me through a local connection though, does that mean that you’re somewhere nearby?”

“Yeah. I’m just outside the parking lot near the Hunter Office branch. I want to contact Elena-san and Sara-san but I can’t get any connection at all. Do you know where they might be?”

Shikarabe sounded exasperated as he said.

“That’s what you get from using a cheap connection line. Wait a sec, I’ll connect you.”

After Akira waited for a bit, Elena’s voice suddenly came out from his information terminal that was connected to Shikarabe.

“It’s Elena. Can you tell me where you are now?”

Akira then explained where he was to Elena. He then told her that he hired Carol, the fact that he tried to contact her but couldn’t, and that he had sent a message to her.

“…Wait for a sec there… Ahh, yep, I got your message. I see, it seems that the signal priority change also affected the connection line that I’m using, huh. So, basically, you want to meet up with us first, right?”

“Yes, please.”

“Alright then. In that case, come here together with Shikarabe. We’re actually working in a team with Shikarabe right now. If you follow him, you’ll be able to meet up with us. We can talk in more detail later after we group up. We’ll be waiting for you.”

“Understood.”

Shikarabe’s voice suddenly interjected.

“Akira. If you’re going to follow me, come and help me carry the wounded Hunters. I’m parking my APC in the parking lot near the Hunter Office. You already know my location, right?”

“Yep, no problem. Will be there in a sec.”

Akira then turned his vehicle back on and drove off.

Shikarabe’s APC was parked in the parking lot near the Hunter Office. The backdoor of the APC suddenly opened up and wounded Hunters came out from the inside of that APC.

Shikarabe could be seen carrying out corpse bags filled with dead Hunters. The corpse bags were not closed completely as it let the face of the Hunter inside exposed. The faces peeking out from the corpse bags clearly showed that no life remained in them.

When Shikarabe saw Akira’s vehicle approaching the APC, he then pointed toward the inside of the APC.

“You’re finally here. Help me carry out the wounded too. There’s no need to help those who can still walk on their own.”

Akira stepped inside the APC and looked around, there were numerous corpse-filled bags exposing the ‘deceased’ face. Meanwhile, some in the corner, which were folded, empty.

Akira then asked Shikarabe a question.

“…Fatally wounded Hunters, huh. For now, I just need to carry those who can’t walk on their own, right?”

“Yeah, just leave it to the doctors to check if they’re already dead or not. We don’t know if any of them have suspended-state devices installed inside their body. So, just assume that they’re all just fatally wounded until the doctors say otherwise.”

Akira remembered the scene of a clinic in the Kuzusuhara city that he visited in the past. That time, the doctor in that clinic, Yatsubayashi, treated even Hunters who had lost half of their body as only badly wounded.

If Hunters with such a level of injury could still be saved, there was no way an amateur like him could judge the wounded Hunters in the APC. Thus, Akira just thought all of those Hunters inside the corpse bags as only fatally wounded, and started carrying them out of the APC.

Carol, who was behind Akira, followed him inside the APC. When Shikarabe saw her, he suddenly shouted in surprise.

“….Geh?!”

Carol smiled mischievously at Shikarabe.

“Geez, you don’t need to be that mean, you know. Long time no see by the way.”

Shikarabe, who just realized that he was fl.u.s.tered, tried to contain himself.

“W-well, right… So, why are you here?”

“Akira hired me. Don’t just stand there, you have bags to carry, right?”

Carol then left Shikarabe and followed Akira. Shikarabe kept staring at Carol as she walked toward his APC.

“Why in the world would Akira hire that woman?”

Shikarabe was still a little bit bothered by that as he returned back to his job carrying the corpse bags.

Akira and Shikarabe then handed over the fatally wounded Hunters to the Hunter Office, they had no reason to worry about how many of those Hunters were still alive. Even if some of them were already dead, the Hunter Office would handle them appropriately. One thing for sure, the Hunter Office would handle them better than just leaving them inside the ruin.

Shikarabe then closed the back door of his APC and looked at Akira with a gaze saying that he wanted to say something to Akira. It was not like it was a gaze of hatred or anything, but it was undeniable that he did not appreciate the fact that Akira brought Carol together with him. His gaze was saying that he honestly did not know what to do about the current situation. Although Akira did not notice it, there was also a trace of pity in Shikarabe’s gaze.

Akira looked at Shikarabe and tilted his head in confusion, he then asked Carol.

“Carol, you know him?”

“Yep, well, a lot of things happened between us.”

“I see.”

Akira at least understood that Carol and Shikarabe were acquaintances. In reality, Akira was actually trying to find a roundabout way to ask her the reason why Shikarabe looked at her with such a gaze.

But Carol only gave a short answer that only confirmed that they knew each other. Akira had no idea if she did not catch his real intention or that she just simply did not want to talk about it, or it was simply that she did not care about it.

Akira then shifted his gaze to Shikarabe, his gaze was asking for an explanation from Shikarabe.

But Shikarabe did not answer that gaze as he said.

“Let’s go then, just follow me.”

Shikarabe still looked a bit bothered as he returned to the driver seat.

Akira returned back to his vehicle and sat on the driver seat, he then glanced at Carol to check her reaction. It did not seem like he did something that worsened her mood. As in matter of fact, it looked like she was a bit amused by the situation.

Akira prioritized grouping up with Elena for now, as he just shelved that subject and followed Shikarabe from behind.

Akira, Shikarabe, and Carol went inside Mihazono ruin. There were countless wreckages of dead mechanical monsters scattered around. There were almost no biological monsters inside the Mihazono ruin, so all the blood splatters should be from the Hunters. After all, other than those monsters, there were also Hunter corpses scattered here and there. But those corpses were already crushed into an unrecognizable mush, the monsters might have trampled over them, or it might be because of the Hunters who drove over them.

The further they proceeded into the ruin, the more prominent the leftover of fights surrounded them. They were pretty standing out although it was still dark. It would have given a more solemn scene once the sun was up.