Chapter 169: Tsubaki (1/2)

After Akira arrived near Kuzusuhara ruin, he followed Alpha’s instruction to take a particular route. He paced his bike around the outskirts of the ruin as if to circle the whole ruin.

“Alpha, why are we not going into the ruin?”

“If we go into the ruin, we’ll have to go near the temporary front base. It’s not like we can use that wide road made for sending supplies into the deeper part of the ruin.”

“But isn’t it easier if we just go through that road? Since it’s a properly built road.”

Alpha’s expression was saying ‘you didn’t get it, didn’t you?’ as she shook her head.

“If you go through there, it’ll definitely gather a lot of attention, you know? A young and not-so-strong-looking Hunter going back home with a lot of expensive relics. A rumour like that would definitely spread around if we do that.”

Akira slightly frowned.

“I’m no longer the old me. After all, my current equipment cost me 500 million Aurum, so are they really going to still look at me as a young weak Hunter?”

“Indeed the current you have way better equipment compared to the past you, but judging from the relative danger of the places that you’re frequenting, you still look like a young boy coming into dangerous places that don’t suit your current skill. Of course, if you say that you can fight those big monsters guarding old-world facilities without my help, that would change my mind.”

Alpha said so with a challenging smile, Akira lightly frowned.

“…That would be a no.”

Akira looked a bit depressed, Alpha smiled at him as if to cheer him up while also approving of his reply. He smiled bitterly in reaction to that as he paced his bike faster. Not too long after that, once he had put enough distance between him and the temporary front base, Akira went into the ruin.

The ruin was filled with half-destroyed buildings, of course, most of the roads there were not maintained. It was not rare to find some of them semi-blocked or even fully closed by rubbles. There were only limited roads that Hunters could pass through, and that was if they were bringing vehicles designed for the harsh condition of the wasteland.

Akira was able to navigate through those difficult roads relatively fast thanks to the expensive bike that he bought and Alpha’s advanced calculation ability. Though its wheels bounced a few times against the hard rubble, its body was mostly undamaged.

Akira saw a huge pile of rubble blocking his way to the direction that Alpha was instructing him to go, so he was going to take a detour around it. But Alpha controlled Akira’s augmented suit and prevented him from doing that.

“Alpha? The way forward is blocked, you know?”

“It’s fine.”

“It’s fine…?”

Alpha took control of the bike and accelerated right into that pile of rubble. Akira was slightly thrown off-balance by the sudden acceleration but he flusteredly returned to his posture.

“It would take too much time evading all the blocking rubbles. Since you got yourself an expensive bike, let’s make the best use of it.”

“Wait for a sec!? There’s no way we can just charge through that pile of rubble!!”

The pile blocking Akira’s way forward was at least 8 metres high. Its slope was sharp enough to make it unscalable. As Akira was still flustered, his bike did not stop accelerating. At this rate, if he kept going forward, he would collide right into the rubble, and with that speed, not only his bike, it might as well danger his life too. But Alpha ignored him and kept on accelerating the bike.

Akira, who felt that his life was in danger, unconsciously used time compression. The scene in front of him slid past him at a slower pace, then suddenly, the direction of the sliding scenery in front of him changed. Alpha changed the direction of the bike, at the same time, she used small rubble on the ground to propel the bike to the sky and to the big building to its right. Akira was so surprised as he was lifted off the ground together with his bike.

Alpha forcefully readjusted the bike’s posture in the middle of the air. It then landed on the side of the big building without losing balance at all. Thanks to the bike’s exceptional shock absorption device, its tires were able to land on the building’s wall just fine.

Alpha was still in control of the bike as she paced the bike across the building’s wall, Akira was so surprised that he was barely able to do anything there. It went up until it was higher than the rubble blocking the way before it once again changed direction, went straight across the building wall while maintaining its height, and past the rubble blocking his way before heading down to the ground.

As Akira frowned seeing the ground coming closer and closer to his face, the bike bounced again and left the wall. It then readjusted its posture in midair again and landed its two wheels safely on the ground. Once again, thanks to its exceptional shock-absorption system, it was able to land on the ground barely sending any shock to Akira’s body.

The bike then just went straight without slowing down. It took some time before Akira returned back to reality and looked at Alpha’s confident smile.

“Aren’t you glad that you got yourself a bike instead of a vehicle? After all, it would be hard to get past that rubble with a vehicle.”

“…You have a point there.”

Akira smiled bitterly. All the complaints that he had in his mind were erased. After all, he did not have to take a detour around that pile of rubble and was already used to doing reckless things like that. And more than anything, he actually pretty much enjoyed that.

“Want to try doing that yourself on our way back?”

“Thanks for the offer, but no. If I do that myself, I feel like I would crash into the wall instead.”

“Well, that’s kind of true. But it would be really convenient once you can do it yourself, you know? Should I train you to do that?”

“If it’s really something that I need to learn in order to finish that request of yours, then sure… Or is that there are places that I can’t go to unless I learn that trick?”

“That’s a secret for now.”

“I-I see.”

Akira felt a bit scared that Alpha did not say no. But since she offered to train him to do that, it meant that it was possible for him to learn that manoeuvre. And when he imagined himself doing that trick on his own, he could not help but get a bit excited.

After that, Akira kept going deeper into the ruin following Alpha’s instruction. He was able to go through small roads that would have been hard to go through with a vehicle thanks to his high-performance bike. Because he was able to force his way through rubbles that he would have usually gone around, he was able to arrive at the inner part of the ruin relatively quicker.

Once Akira arrived in the inner part of the ruin, he stopped his bike and looked at the scenery. Once he scanned the area around him, he then made a serious face and said.

“Alpha, this place…”

“This is the inner part of Kuzusuhara ruin. Although it’s not the deepest part yet, at least we’re no longer in the outer part of the ruin.”

Akira could see the place where he had given up the first time he came to that ruin. The ground was properly paved, there was no crack at all. He could not find any crumbling buildings either. It was a completely different scenery compared to the outer side of the ruin where it was filled with half-destroyed buildings.

He felt a bit intimidated by the scene in front of him. The area was completely silent as if it was shrouded in a thick colourless mist, but his vision was not blurry at all. He could see clearly the scenery in front of him which should have been blurred if there was a colourless mist.

Akira looked over the city in front of him and felt something was weird about it as if it was devoid of any sign of people. Compared to the outer part of the ruin where there was still some leftover of human civilization, the inner part of the ruin felt so unnaturally empty.

“Alpha, is it really okay for us to just go straight deeper into the ruin like this? This is one of those, right? The areas that are still properly maintained by the old-world drones, right?”

“Yep, that’s exactly why it’s very clean.”

“So in short, those security drones are also roaming around this place, right? It’s not like I would get shot the moment I enter the city, right?”

“Well, regarding that, it would be fine if you just follow my instructions. That’s why, make sure not to ignore my instruction like before, okay?”

Alpha had a rather deep sarcastic smile when she said that. Akira remembered the time when he got attacked by a huge monster when he ignored Alpha’s instruction and smiled bitterly.

“Roger that, let’s go then.”

Akira once again paced his bike forward and went straight into the city that gave off an unsettling feeling.

An old-world city that still maintained its condition. Normally, anyone would get killed the moment they stepped into that city. But that did not happen. The thing besides Akira was preventing that from happening, Alpha had the ability to prevent that from happening.

As he thought that it must be because Alpha was doing something there, it helped him from being overly cautious.

It was true that it was thanks to Alpha. But in reality, it was completely different from what he guessed.

Akira looked around with full interest. The area around him was properly maintained, it was as if he was brought back to the old-world era. But with no human presence anywhere, it was unsettlingly calm and silent.

The road was wide and nothing was blocking the road, though there were also no other vehicles or bikes other than Akira’s bike. But even so, he followed Alpha’s instruction not to pace his bike too fast. Compared to when he was outside the city, he was going rather slowly.

“Alpha, why do we have to go this slowly?”

“We’re making sure not to go past the speed limit of this road, you see.”

“Speed limit? Does that kind of thing exist in the old-world ruin?”

“Yup, so we have to properly obey it.”

Alpha was speaking as if to calm down a small boy, Akira seemed to be not fully convinced by that.

“…There’s no one else other than me here though, do I still need to obey the speed limit?”

“That’s just how law and rule work, you see.”

“Is that so? I see then.”

Akira hummed, seeing that, Alpha smiled bitterly at him and said.

“If you can’t accept it no matter what, just simply keep in mind that the security drones will swarm you if you break the rule. And if you force your way through them, they’ll call even bigger and stronger security robots to stop you. And even if you can deal with them too, you’ll have to fight those big humanoid soldiers that the Kugamayama defence squad fought in Mihazono ruin the other day. You don’t want to do that, do you?”

“Yeah.”

Akira nodded firmly while making an annoyed face. Although it was able to fully convince him, another question came up in his mind.

“I just thought of something though. Those mechanical monsters guarding the old-world facilities usually have that camouflaging device, right? So it’s not like they are actually hiding somewhere nearby, right? After all, it’s impossible to see through old-world camouflaging with naked eyes, right? And it’s hard to detect them even with an information-gathering device. So like, are we really going to be alright?”

Alpha smiled at the worried Akira as if to calm him down.

“Don’t worry, it would be alright.”

“Is that so? Then I guess they’re not around, huh.”

Akira smiled and sighed in relief. After all, when he thought that those monsters might actually be around him and that it was just he could not see them, that in itself was scary enough. But Alpha then smiled and said.

“As long as you keep following my instructions, there won’t be any trouble.”

Akira’s face stiffened.

“…They’re not here, right?”