Chapter 132: Trump Card (1/2)

Shikarabe’s team in the flank was also attacked by the dead Hunters, but unlike Akira who responded in panic, Shikarabe and Kanae were able to calmly handle the situation just fine. It was not because they expected someone to control the dead Hunter’s augmented suits, it was more because of the difference in their ability to handle a sudden turn of events like that.

After Shikarabe took care of the dead Hunters around him, he went back to the hallway and shot down the dead Hunters that might attack Elena’s team.

Shikarabe had already noticed that those dead Hunters were moving around because someone took control of their augmented suit. He had a grim face as he mumbled.

“Good grief, this is exactly why you shouldn’t buy cheap augmented suits, what a huge pain in the neck!”

There were many augmented suits that could be accessed from the outside. It was to help it to work in tandem with other equipment like an aiming device so that the augmented suit could help stabilize the aiming.

Depending on their users, some augmented suits could be set to be more open to external access, there were many different reasons why they did that. For example, it was so that the other Hunters could control and use the dead body as a decoy. Some Hunters forced the other Hunters to use that kind of augmented suit to make use of the other Hunters even when they were badly injured.

Of course, normally, it did not cause any trouble. After all, an augmented suit that could be easily accessed by anyone would not sell well in the market. That was why most of the augmented suits in the market were equipped with a safety function to protect them from unauthorized access. And as expected, the better the protection, the more expensive the augmented suit would be. While on the other hand, it was very rare for people to try to hack into someone’s safety feature. So it was a rather delicate balance.

Kanae lightly smiled and said.

“Well, this is a huge surprise. How did they hack into the dead Hunter’s augmented suit? But well, this is an old-world ruin after all, in front of their eyes, our technology might be nothing but primitive. While on the other hand, these might be augmented suits that use their users’ biological signature as a key, so their safety feature is significantly lowered down even when the users get killed.”

“Well, I really can’t say for sure.”

When Shikarabe saw Kanae smiling happily, he looked back at her exasperatedly.

A young girl in a maid outfit, equipment tailored for CQC, loved fighting, a total oddball. She was a rare kind of person even for Shikarabe. Although he had nothing to complain about her fighting strength, Shikarabe had no plans to associate too much with her if it can be helped.

Kanae loved fighting too much. Associating with someone like her would dull one’s sense of danger. Only battle maniacs could get along with the other battle maniacs. If someone else tried to get along with them, he or she would get killed in no time, or at least, that was what Shikarabe thought.

Kanae noticed that Shikarabe was looking at her, so she just smiled back and said.

“Oh, did I just mesmerize you?! Oh my, you’re making me blush here! I love strong Hunters too, you see!! So you’re more than welcome if you want to try to hit on me! Ah, but I’m a bit busy at the moment, so it would be great if you can save it for later.”

Shikarabe obviously had given up on trying to fix that misunderstanding.

“Sorry, but even for me, I would choose who I want to hit on. I have no wish to try to hit on a battle maniac. Especially when she’s fighting monsters in close range in a maid outfit.”

“Ah, this is just because I enjoy punching them directly more than shooting at them, you see. There are a lot of cases where I can’t bring rifles with me during my job. You look pretty strong yourself, want to do some light duels some other time?”

Shikarabe’s face twitched, he bet that Kanae would not stop only with light duels.

“No thanks.”

“That’s just too bad.”

Kanae honestly felt bummed by Shikarabe’s answer.

Togami and Reina were evacuated to a safe hallway. When the dead Hunters started to move, Togami and Reina reacted late, thus forcing Shikarabe and Kanae to help them. After that, they were escorted to a safe place and they were warned not to go out so as not to get in the way of the battle.

Reina checked her surroundings and peeked out, Kanae who noticed that immediately warned her.

“Milady! Get back, it’s dangerous out here! If Milady gets injured, Ane-san would slice me, you know?!! Is this some kind of harassment?! If it is, that’s so cruel!!”

Shikarabe shouted at Togami.

“Togami, don’t just stand there! Get her back in the hallway! It’s your job in the first place to keep your eyes on your surroundings!! And don’t let her get out from there! I put you there to guard her you know?! Or is it that you don’t know what’s the meaning of guarding someone?!!”

Togami grabbed Reina’s shoulder and shoved her back.

When Reina was pulled back, she could also feel that it was out of her patheticness. Thus, she instinctively glared at Togami.

“Even I want to know what’s going on outside too, you know!!”

Reina had a fierce look that she once had in the past, but the moment she saw Togami, her expression completely changed to a troubled face. Togami had a stern expression, but somewhere in his face, there was a trace of weakness, it was as if he was about to cry. He then asked Reina a question.

“Am I… Really not good enough?”

“W-what do you mean by that?”

“Am I really that bad to the point that my escort target would just ignore me to check the situation themselves? Am I really that useless?”

Togami’s expression was asking Reina to deny it. When Reina saw that, it reminded her of herself.

Reina responded back with a whisper.

“…That’s not it.”

“…Is that so? Then please step back. During that surprise attack just now, we could not do anything at all, we let the other two Hunters take care of everything. I’m your escort at the moment. Although I have no plans to die, at the moment, it’s my job to get killed first before you… So please at least let me do my job.”

Reina obediently walked behind Togami, who peeked out and checked the situation.

“…Sorry.”

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it.”

Reina did not know if Togami was apologizing because he shoved her back too hard or it was an apology for something else. But in the end, Reina did not ask him either.

After that, Togami started to take his duty to protect Reina seriously.

The vanguard team finally took care of all of the moving dead Hunters. Akira got shot two more times, but he was still able to repel the surprise attack. While Elena, Sara, Carol, and Shiori did not face any trouble at all. The only one who got injured in that surprise attack was Akira.

Elena tried to confirm everyone’s situation.

“Is everyone alright?”

Akira answered back while enduring the pain.

“I’m alright.”

Elena immediately replied with a worried tone.

“Akira, are you really alright?”

“I’m okay… If there’s anything, it’s just that I set my augmented suit in battle mode, so it’s consuming more energy than usual. I’m not so sure if my energy reserve is okay. I’m sorry but when I run out of energy, please let me withdraw temporarily to put in a new energy pack.”

When Akira knew that he would be going into a battle without Alpha’s support, he set his augmented suit to battle mode. Thanks to that, it was able to absorb most of the impact from the bullets that hit his body, but in exchange, it was actively using a lot of energy. It was only a matter of time before Akira ran out of energy and rendered useless in that battle.

Elena then worriedly said to Akira.

“Alright. There’s no need to hold back, just quickly retreat when things get too dangerous. How about the others?”

The other Hunters told Elena that they were fine.

Elena then said to the whole vanguard team.

“I’m glad that everyone is okay. Well then, I have some bad news here, it seems that a part of the monster swarm started to move differently. It seems that they’re avoiding us while trying to reach Shikarabe’s team. If we don’t take care of them, we might get attacked from both sides later… Or more like, we’re already in that situation.”

Some of the B18 monsters that were heading outside the building changed their aim to support the big monster. It was as if they changed their plans after confirming that the Hunters survived that surprise attack.

“There’s no need to hold back, use everything you have, you can use any trump card that you still have hidden up your sleeves. I’ll handle the negotiation later to make sure that you’ll get compensated for that even if those cost you a few million aurums.”

Elena mixed a bit of a joke there before closing the communication.

Akira smiled bitterly, his trump card was not with him at the moment.

[…No, that’s not right. A trump card is not something that you casually use all the time. Without Alpha’s support, I only amount to this much. I’m just someone who is fully reliant on a borrowed power, on something that is only lent to me.]

When Akira thought so, he realized that his augmented suit, rifles, and even medicines were nothing but were given to him. He then lightly mocked himself for getting too conceited.

When Akira was about to start shooting again, Carol and Shiori approached him. They started shooting at the big monster while asking Akira a question.

Carol was the first one as she worriedly asked Akira.

“Akira, are you really okay? It seems that you’re moving slower than usual though.”

“I got shot, so it might have caused me to slow down.”

Carol tried to be careful not to change her expression. She had seen him get shot when he covered her, but back then, it did not seem to have affected Akira’s movements at all. So in short, he was lying and Carol knew that.

Shiori pursued even further.

“To be honest, it seems that your movement was slowed down even before you got shot.”

Akira frowned. Both Shiori and Carol were keeping their eyes on him even before he got shot.

Akira sighed and then replied with a serious face.

“I apologize if I’m slowing everyone down, feel free to just abandon me.”

Carol did not stop shooting as she flusteredly said.

“…Ah, it’s not like I think you’re taking it easy, I didn’t mean that when I asked you that question. I was just worried since you didn’t move like usual.”

Shiori also did not stop shooting as she tried to probe what might be behind Akira’s words there.

“I’m not suspecting you for cutting corners, not at all. But I could not find any reasons that might cause your movement to worsen.”

Akira shot out a couple of grenades at the enemy before he hid again. Shiori was still staring at Akira as if she was waiting for an answer.

It seemed that Akira finally gave up as he gave a mildly vague explanation.

“…If I have to say something, it seems that I consumed too many medicines since we returned from the 30th floor. When I use the full power of my augmented suit, it puts my body in immense stress and I’m compensating that with medicines. But I feel like it’s a bad idea to keep consuming medicines at this rate. The last time I overused medicines, I fainted for 3 full days out of exhaustion. I thought that it would be really bad if I faint in this situation, so I decided to reduce my medicine consumption.”

Akira was not lying, even if that was not fully convincing, it should at least be enough to hold back their suspicions. As Akira thought so, he glanced at Shiori and Carol.

Carol and Shiori seemed to be somewhat convinced by that explanation, but it was not like they just accepted Akira’s explanation as it was.

They added extra guesses based on their experiences and knowledge on top of the new information that they just received from Akira.

Carol unconsciously nodded lightly.

[Although he said that it’s because of the medicines, I bet he’s taking medicines with strength enhancers or something. Judging from the fact that he fainted for 3 days out of exhaustion, it should be a pretty strong drug. If his slowed movement is because of the kickback from that drug after it ran out of effect, then his reasoning does make sense. After all, the kickback of an accelerator drug is really not something so scoff at.]

Carol was definitely sure of half of her guess as she asked Akira a question.

“Akira, do you usually modify your time perception? I mean like, you know, when things around you run on slower time than they should.”

Akira was surprised by that question.

“Oh, you can tell?”

Carol smiled satisfied thinking that she opened one of Akira’s secrets.