Chapter 117: After The Rescue Operation (1/2)

After the situation suddenly worsened, Elena finally decided to pull out sooner than she planned. She had a grim face as she said to Shikarabe.

“Shikarabe! We need to withdraw now!!”

“Roger that!”

Shikarabe immediately replied with a firm answer without asking any question to Elena. It was because he understood they were not in a situation where she could leisurely answer his question.

Shikarabe then shouted to the other Hunters inside the building.

“We’re leaving soon!! If you don’t get into the APC now, we’ll leave you behind!! So hurry up!”

Shikarabe picked up a guy who was lying on the ground, he was the guy that Shikarabe threw not too long ago. Since no one carried him, he was left there lying on the ground until now. Shikarabe just thought that it would leave a bad aftertaste if he just left that guy there since he was the one who knocked that guy unconscious.

After Shikarabe gave off that sudden announcement, a Hunter said in a panic.

“Wait for a second!! We still have some relics inside…”

Shikarabe just ignored that Hunter and went back to the APC, he then threw the guy that he was carrying inside and quickly got on the driver seat.

The Hunters who stood there carrying relics looked sadly at their relics before leaving it behind and running into the APC. It was because they understood well that Shikarabe was serious when he said he would leave them behind.

The back door of the APC started closing even before all the Hunters in that place were able to get inside, and when Shikarabe immediately started the engine, the remaining Hunters started running toward the APC in a frenzy.

Shikarabe suddenly accelerated the APC. It blazed as fast as it could out of the building site under the barrage of bullets coming from above. The entrance to the building site was half-filled with wreckages of dead monsters. But he just smashed his way through using the momentum of his APC.

Elena, Sara, Akira, and Carol followed behind Shikarabe. Numerous monsters flooded out from the building such that the surrounding area was filled with them, some of them even started chasing Akira. But Akira was way faster than them, and by shooting down the monsters that were leading the pack chasing for Akira, they were turned into obstacles that slowed the monsters behind them even more. Thus it was an easy thing for Akira to get away from those monsters.

After they opened up some distance from that building site, Alpha smiled at Akira and said.

“It should be fine now, you did well back there.”

Akira sighed in relief. It seemed that he was able to escape from the dangerous situation for now as he went back to the driver seat and relaxed for a bit.

“Say, Alpha. Is that building also filled with monsters just like the Seranthal building from yesterday?”

“I can’t exactly grasp the situation inside that building. But looking at what happened just now, I think that’s highly possible.”

“I wonder where all of those monsters came from.”

“I can come up with a lot of theories, but well, I think there’s a warehouse somewhere nearby filled with those monsters and they were suddenly dispatched at the same time, and also factories nearby also suddenly started producing those monsters at a high rate. After all, most of those mechanical monsters were all the same type.”

“Then why did something like that suddenly happen?”

“No idea. As a matter of fact, if you know the reason why, you can sell that information for 10,000,000,000 Aurum. If you’re interested, we can try to investigate later, you know?”

Alpha was smiling confidently at Akira when she made that suggestion. But he instead made a displeased face and replied.

“…No thanks.”

“That’s a wise decision.”

Carol, who saw Akira relaxed back, also lowered her guard. She then returned to the driver’s assistant seat and said to Akira while smiling at him.

“That was pretty dangerous. They’re just simply too many of them.”

“It’s still better than yesterday. This time we could run away using a vehicle after all.”

“Well, you’re right about that. As expected, even I too don’t want to get through the same thing as yesterday again.”

Akira and the rest of the team were driving through the Mihazono ruin, they were in a situation where they had enough leeway to chit chat. None of them were injured during the rescue and they were able to rescue the Hunters inside that building. They just needed to return back to the Hunter Office now. It seemed that they did well in that rescue operation. They just blazed through the road while crushing the leftover wreckages of dead monsters scattered around under their wheels.

In the middle of their way back to the Hunter Office, Akira checked his information terminal that he put in his vehicle. It was showing that he received an emergency SOS request sent through a local connection.

Elena had told him beforehand to just ignore those emergency requests, after all, they had to prioritize finishing the contract that they had taken first and make sure that they would get the reward before thinking about the other requests. That was all there was to it. Even if those Hunters who sent the emergency SOS request were barricading themselves somewhere near, Akira could not afford to stop every single time to save them, he had no responsibility to do something like that nor he had the leeway to do so.

But it was not like they completely ignored those requests, Elena at least forwarded that SOS emergency request to the Hunter Office. If those Hunters were lucky, someone would accept that request. Although it was a completely different problem whether anyone would take that request which had no guarantee of getting paid with the promised reward, even the person who sent that request might as well already be dead by now.

That was why Akira did not even think of checking the details of those emergency SOS requests. It just aroused his interest for a bit, that was all there was to it.

Alpha noticed that, she then said to Akira.

“If it bothers you, I can just erase those notices.”

“You’re right, please erase them.”

After he said that, the notices on his information terminal immediately vanished. Alpha erased them.

Akira then tried to come up with another subject as if he was trying to forget something that was bothering him.

“But well, there are still so many of those requests left, huh?”

“I’m sure it’s because most of the Hunters thought that it would be safer if they barricaded themselves inside a building, I bet that’s why a lot of them decided to do that. I think that’s indeed a good option in case they can’t return back on their own. I bet some of the Hunters who decided to barricade themselves inside the Seranthal building from yesterday are still alive even right now.”

“Well, even if that’s true, it’s impossible to get out from there in that situation, you know.”

“As I said, it’s indeed a good choice only if they have given up returning back on their own.”

“…Ahh, if the situation inside the building gets better later, I guess they still have some hope, huh.”

Akira had no idea in what situation those monsters would leave the Seranthal building. They might have already left the building since Akira left yesterday, but they might be still there even now.

Since Akira had no plans to go there and check it himself, he just decided to forget about it.

Elena and her team were able to return back to the Hunter Office without encountering any trouble. Although they encountered some monsters on their way back, they were only in small packs, so they could handle those monsters just fine. It was either because they killed most of the monsters in that route when they were heading out to save the Hunters, or it was simply because those monsters were in the middle of fighting another group of Hunters, that was why there were only small packs of monsters.

Elena and her team parked their vehicles in front of the Hunter Office’s parking lot. Akira, Carol, Elena, and Sara stood in front of the backdoor of Shikarabe’s APC. The door itself was still closed.

Akira thought that the door would immediately open, but it did not seem that it would open anytime soon. Right when he thought that it was rather strange, an armed group approached them. The guy who was taking command of that squad compared the data in his information terminal with the data in Elena’s information terminal. After that, he asked Elena.

“You guys are the Hunters who took the C32 area rescue request, right? Are the rescued Hunters inside that vehicle?”

“Yep, can I just leave the rest to you then?”

“Of course, just leave the rest to us.”

“Shikarabe, open the door.”

After she said that, the back door of the APC slowly opened up.

As the rescued Hunters looked around, they realized that they were back in the Hunter Office, all of them looked really relieved. But in contrast to that, some of those Hunters were making a grim face while hanging their heads low. They looked really desperate as if they were driven to the corner.

The squad commander then stood in front of the opened door and said to the Hunters inside the APC.

“We’re from Alhain insurance company. We’ll escort you to an emergency clinic to check if any of you need any treatment. I hope that all of you will cooperate and follow our orders. If any of you having trouble moving on your own, please let us know.”

Those Hunters then slowly boarded off the APC one by one following the instruction from the people from Alhain insurance company. Some of them could walk on their own, some of them could only walk with the help of others, some of them could not walk and had to be carried with a stretcher.

Among all of those walking Hunters, one of them looked extremely pale and worried. He was breathing roughly and his hand that was holding his gun was slightly shaking. He was keeping his distance from the other people around him, especially from the people from Alhain insurance company.

Another Hunter in front of him asked a staff nearby.

“Uhh, excuse me, I want to contact my friend but I can’t seem to get any connection from here, can you help me?”

“It depends on the situation of your friend. If it’s only a problem caused by the connection line, you might be able to call your friend inside the temporary clinic. You can use Alhain insurance company’s communication line there after all.”

That staff shifted his focus from that nervous Hunter to another Hunter who asked him that question. When that nervous Hunter noticed it, he made his resolve and suddenly started running.

But when he started running, another Alhain soldier who was standing guard in his blindside immediately held him down. That soldier locked his movements by pushing him down on the ground. He looked like he was in pain on the ground as his weapons were taken away from him. The other guards came and cuffed both of his hands and legs, thus rendering him harmless.

The other Hunters in that area looked at that guy being secured by Alhain’s soldiers. One of the Alhain soldiers then turned to the other Hunters, smiled, and said.

“Please stop trying anything that might cause misunderstanding. Don’t try to leave without our permission until you finish all the administration work with us. I hope all of you will cooperate.”

Akira was watching when that incident happened, he looked pretty surprised by it. But the other Hunters looked completely normal as if they expected something like that to happen. It clearly showed the difference in their experiences as Hunters.

It did not take long for Shikarabe and Elena to hand over all the Hunters that they rescued to Alhain insurance company.

Elena was negotiating with someone from Alhain insurance company when Shikarabe called Akira to come in from inside the APC.

“Akira, come and help me check if any of them left anything behind.”

“Sure, what should I do if I find something?”

“If it’s a relic or a piece of equipment, just leave it outside the APC. If it’s a body or limbs, gather them all inside a corpse bag and put them outside. You can find the empty corpse bag under the seat.”

Akira frowned. He did not expect that limbs or torso would be included in the list of things that he might find.

“…Okay.”

“Thanks, I’m counting on you.”

Akira used his information-gathering device to help him scan the inside of the APC. He found 2 rifles left under the seat. Fortunately enough, no one forgot to bring their limbs or torsos out with them.

It only took a while for them to finish searching the inside of the APC. That was when the commander of the squad from Alhain insurance company said to Elena.

“Thanks for the hard work. If it’s okay with you, would you take another request from us? Actually, we lost contact with the Hunters who took the rescue request to area C47. Since you’ve finished the rescue request to area C32 from us, we’re willing to give you an extra bonus for the reward if you’re willing to take this request.”

“Just leave it in the request list for me, I’ll think about it.”

“I see. Well, if you end up taking it, we’ll be counting on you.”

After that, the squad commander left with the rest of his squad.

Elena and his team moved their vehicles to another place first as not to block the way to the Hunter Office before they grouped up again to discuss what to do next.

“First thing first, let’s take a 1-hour break to replenish our supplies. So make sure to use this time to properly replenish your ammo and other expendables. And also, can you guys tell me your impression about the last request that we just took? Although it’s kind of weird for me to say it myself since I’m the one who decided to pick that request, that last one was harder than I thought it would be. That’s why I’m thinking of picking an easier one for the next request.”

Akira agreed with Elena’s opinion as he said.

“It’s true that the last request was pretty dangerous, so I think that is a good idea.”

Shikarabe made a stern face and said.

“We did decide to withdraw sooner than we planned. I believe that, including me, we underestimated the difficulty of that request. So I think it’s a good idea to take an easier request, it doesn’t matter even though it means that we would get less reward out of it.”