Chapter 150: Shijima’s Disaster (1/2)

After they finished a round, Akira and the other children grouped up. They lined up in front of Akira, who looked a bit dejected as he said to them.

“So that’s basically the gist of it, anyone has any questions? If not, then let’s do another round.”

Erio and his friends asked all kinds of questions, Akira answered them one by one while listening to Alpha’s explanation too.

“We can see all kinds of things in the goggles, what is with that?”

“The training system is taking care of most of the things in the background. It’s mostly focused on adjusting your movement as a group, but it also gives individual orders through your goggles. If you follow those orders accurately, you can learn how to fight. Next!”

“How do you know our locations? And how does it decide when one of us gets shot?”

“It’s connected to the information-gathering device in my vehicle and it does calculations based on the data from your goggles and the aiming device of your rifle. Next!”

“The trajectory line from the muzzle sometimes vanished suddenly, what should I do when that happens?”

“Reload a new magazine. It’s properly counting the ammo inside your magazine, if your magazine is empty, the trajectory line would vanish. It’s so that you can learn to protect each other when you reload a new magazine. At the moment, it’s set so that you can still shoot for a while even after your magazine is empty, but I’ll have to change that soon. Next!”

“I can always see the location of the other people in my goggles, is this really effective as a training?”

“It’s only available to you guys, but not for me. I also don’t get that trajectory line nor the specific order from the training system. I’m basically fighting you guys while you guys know my exact position at all times. So use that advantage to corner me, or to sneak on me. Basically, follow the orders shown by the training system and learn how to fight from that. Although it’s impossible to know your opponents’ location anytime during a real fight, you can actually set a situation where you can do something similar to that. For example, if you install expensive information-gathering devices in all places inside the base and install a security system to support it, you should be able to get a similar situation. Next!”

There was no more question, so Akira decided to stop the Q.A session there.

“No more questions, huh? Then let’s do another round.”

But Erio flusteredly stopped Akira.

“Wait for a sec! So basically we’re the only ones who know your location all the time? And that’s not the case for Akira-san?”

No one was asking questions since they were shocked when they heard that from Akira. Akira then casually replied.

“Yeah, I don’t get anything like that.”

“R-really?”

“This won’t be much of a training if I don’t at least have that much handicap. Not to mention, we have different equipment too. Unlike you guys, I have my augmented suit and my information-gathering device. So without that handicap, it would be a one-way fight and that would not help anyone.”

Erio and the other children were dumbfounded. They thought that Akira could also see through rubbles and wreckages like them, they thought that Akira was also receiving instructions from the training system like them. But that was not the case, they had that many advantages, but even so, they were only barely able to win in an 8 vs 1 fight.

Without that much handicap, they would not be able to give any meaningful fight to Akira. Their difference in strength left those children in shock.

Seeing that no one asked anything more, Akira urged them to move on.

“So, no more questions? Let’s restart the training then.”

They finally snapped back to reality, then one of the children sheepishly asked Akira.

“…Uhmm, I can’t read the instructions, so what should I do?”

“…Just follow the indicators in the map and try to make a guess from there.”

Akira completely forgot the possibility that some of them could not read. It made him feel a bit conflicted remembering that he also could not read until recently.

They then had a few rounds after that, both sides fought desperately in each round.

Akira’s victory ratio was 50%. Most of the rounds ended up either with Akira shooting down all of his opponents or Erio’s side using one of the boys as a decoy to shoot Akira. Alpha adjusted the training to be like that. Akira suddenly asked Alpha a question while hiding behind a cover.

“But still, I didn’t expect them to get this strong just by following your instructions. Although, unlike in my case, I bet they don’t always move following your orders.”

“You’re right. After all, back in the Kuzusuhara ruin, there was a time when you took an action against my instruction, right?”

Akira remembered that blunder back in Kuzusuhara ruin and smiled wryly.

“I’m really sorry about that.”

Alpha lightly giggled.

“Well, I do all kinds of adjustment in the background though. For example, when I give them an instruction to go right, they would need to read that instruction, understand the instruction and check if it’s safe first before actually following that instruction. So if they take 10 seconds to go through this process, I’ll adjust it to show that instruction 10 seconds earlier before it’s actually needed. That way they’ll move much more efficiently.”

“…You’re even doing something like that, huh. How did you know that it’ll take 10 seconds?”

“Through a lot of different methods. For example, I measure the lag between when I send an instruction into their goggle until they actually execute that order. I also do other adjustments depending on the psychological state of the receiver, how nervous or tired they are, or if they’re in a dangerous situation, or how difficult the order is.”

Akira nodded in amazement.

“I see, that’s really a lot of things to consider and adjust… Well, your support did help a slum city kid who recklessly went to Kuzusuhara ruin to look for relics to return alive, and that boy is now doing pretty well as a Hunter. So I guess it’s only to be expected for you to be able to do that much, huh?”

“Yup, that’s true. Aren’t you glad that you got to meet me?”

“Yeah, I’m really grateful to you. I’ll return back the favour by completing your request, so wait patiently until I can do that, okay?”

Although Akira sounded like he was being cynical, he did not lie. He really felt thankful to Alpha and he was planning to complete her request no matter how long it would take him.

Alpha could see through him and smiled satisfied.

“Yup, I’ll be counting on you.”

“By the way, how strong are they now since they have your support?”

“Remember back then when you saved Elena and Sara in Kuzusuhara ruin? They’re basically slightly weaker than you from that time. Although, that’s only true during this training.”

“…All of them as a whole?”

“Nope, each one of them.”

“…No wonder why I’m having a hard time here.”

After all, he was fighting enemies who were as strong as him from that time, and not to mention, it was in an 8 vs. 1 fight. Although Akira smiled bitterly, he also felt slightly happy since the fact that he could fight them well meant that he had grown pretty strong.

Erio and the other children kept their distance from Akira as they were trying to surround him. The fight had not started yet. Previously, right after the fight started, Akira would immediately focus on those who had not moved much and take them out first before taking out the rest of the enemy. Since that had happened several times, they decided to only start the fight after Erio and the other children had finished repositioning themselves.

Instructions were sent to the goggles, Erio read the instructions shown in his goggles.

“‘Starting from this fight, if you shoot from a bad position, we will void your shot considering the kickback from shooting from a bad posture’, huh? Then how should I carry my rifle?”

Erio looked at his rifle. The trajectory line from its muzzle had vanished. Right when he was confused about what to do, his goggles shown an image of someone carrying a rifle. So he imitated that image.

“…Like this?”

Erio used both of his hands to grip tightly on his rifle, right on the next moment, the trajectory line extended out from its muzzle. He then tried to carry his rifle with one hand again, and just like last time, the trajectory line vanished again.

“So basically I need to properly carry it with my both hands, huh? But I remember Akira shot with only one arm and in a very bad posture though… Ahh, I see. It’s because he has his augmented suit so that he can properly stabilize the kickback with only one arm, huh?”

After that, the goggles also showed all kinds of other shooting postures which Erio tried. Since the trajectory line only came out when he took the correct posture, it helped him to learn how to correctly carry his rifle.

Erio looked at the other children, it seemed that they were also trying to imitate the postures shown in their goggles. Looking at that, he thought that they looked completely like a group of amateurs. The other children must have thought so too when they looked at each other.

“…It seems that we still have a long way to go, huh.”

Erio had made his decision to train himself so that he can be strong enough to protect his lover, Alicia. Back then when he won against Akira for the first time, he thought that it might be not as difficult as he thought it would be, but right after that Akira won 4 times in a row.

Erio fully recognized his weakness and admitted that he had a long way to go. He let out a sigh as he felt really pathetic, he then remembered about his lover and resolved himself once again. He had already made his decision, things like this would not break him.

The battle started, Erio ran as fast as he could.

Right about the time when Akira and the other children were training in the wasteland. Somewhere in the lower district of Kugamayama city, Shijima put both of his hands on his head in frustration.

Shijima was the boss of one of many gangs in the slum city and his gang once had an incident with Akira. A guy from his gang by the name of Wataba once went to Sheryl’s base and threatened Akira to give up Sheryl’s base.

Wataba was killed in Sheryl’s base by Akira. Then Akira dragged his corpse all the way back to the gang’s base. They were in a situation where they were just one step away from a fight.

At that time, Akira said that with his current strength, Shijima and his men might be able to kill him, but Shijima himself would die too. So in the end, they were able to reach a deal where Shijima could still uphold his reputation by making Akira pay him some money.

Not too long after that, there was no further problem at all. Shijima originally planned to take over Sheryl’s gang if Akira died due to the dangerous nature of his job as a Hunter, but Akira was able to survive and was doing fine. So Shijima did not make any big moves. The most that he could do was only visiting Sheryl’s base from time to time to check if Akira was still alive.

Then one day, a certain Hunter caused trouble inside the gang’s territory. That Hunter was causing a ruckus since he was being chased by someone.

Gangs in slum city like Shijimas’ were also functioning as guards in the area. So if someone armed caused trouble in their territories, it was crucial for them to deal with that person with force. If they ignored something like that, it would not only damage the protection money income that they were receiving, in the worst-case scenario, it might cause other gangs to look down on them and attack them.

Normally, Shijima would demand compensation money from these troublemakers and let them go. He was willing to negotiate if it was needed, but he rather not if he was given the choice. It was important to let people know that they had the ability to take care of these trouble makers. So if those Hunters paid him with money, then that would be enough.

Shijima usually checked the identity of the Hunter before dealing with that Hunter. That was when the real problem arose, that Hunter was Akira.

Shijima was being careful of Akira. It was not because of Akira’s strength, but it was more because of his unstable personality. After all, he once came to Shijima’s base fully expecting a fight. For people who did not want to die, someone who did not hesitate to challenge anyone even if he or she was weaker, like Akira, was someone that they needed to be careful with.

But for the sake of the reputation of the gang, he could not afford to just let Akira go. While on the other hand, it was not worth trying to provoke him since it was almost certain that he would fight back. Shijima just did not know what to do with this single Hunter.

That was when another information reached Shijima; Akira was a careless person who let his wallet get stolen and he was a coward who ran away when another young Hunter threatened him. It was a piece of information that destroyed Shijima’s image of Akira.

After hearing that, Shijima was even more confused than before. It was either his mistake for being careful of Akira, or it was because Akira’s behaviour changed after he was about to get killed somewhere in the wasteland, or maybe the information that he received was simply wrong information. Shijima could not decide which one was the correct guess.

So in the end, Shijima asked Viola to investigate more about Akira. He knew well about how bad Viola was, but he had also heard how skilled she was. He also heard that he would not have any trouble with her as long as he did not antagonize her. Viola was able to finish that request in a short time.

Then, right now, the reason why Shijima was so frustrated was because he was listening to the result of that request from Viola herself.

Shijima shouted at Viola who he was talking with through his information terminal.

“Goddammit!! Are you kidding me!? What the heck is going on? Explain everything to me!! All I asked is to get some pickpocket to aim for him to poke for his reaction!! So how in the world did it turn into sending an armed group to Sheryl’s base!?”

In contrast to Shijima, Viola replied calmly.