Chapter 170: Expired Articles (1/2)

Tsubaki guided Akira and Alpha into a room that looked like a warehouse. It was a pretty wide room with a tall ceiling. There were organized shelves lined inside and each of those shelves housed old-world relics.

Akira was a bit overwhelmed by the scene when he peeked from the entrance. A normal Hunter would go crazy in that situation, but for him, it took some time to process the scene in front of him. He was more troubled than happy.

Akira stepped off from his bike and just stood there, so Alpha smiled at him and told him to start working.

“Well, she did tell us to get out of here as soon as we finish, so let’s get this done fast.”

“Alpha, can you give me explanations of what is going on here?”

“I’ll explain it to you while you’re working. It would be bad if we don’t leave this place before that girl’s mood gets worse.”

“A-alright!”

Akira started his work. He took out a rucksack from his bike and pulled out more rucksacks from within the previous one.

“That girl is the manager AI of this Tsubakihara building. Although I said she’s the manager of this building, she’s also managing the area around this building. The well-maintained state of the area around this building is mostly thanks to her. Although it’s not like she did everything herself, you can just think of her as someone who is responsible for maintaining this area.”

There were all kinds of relics on the selves, it was impossible for Akira to carry all of them back home. So he was looking around the room to choose only the most expensive-looking relics.

“Remember that we were just driving around this area since we came to this city, right? It’s just as you guessed, I was looking for a building with not-too-strict security. I was planning to choose a building with a lowered security system due to the time deterioration to look for relics there. But unfortunately, in the end, I couldn’t find a good place at all.”

There were cases made of transparent-looking material that looked like glass or plastic. The height of the case itself was only about 4 centimeters. Inside it, there were spherical objects that seemed to be made of rubber or metal. While other cases had cubes, or triangles, or even powders inside them. Alpha said that they were basically some kind of old-world information terminals, so Akira prioritized those objects to stuff into his rucksacks.

“I did consider robbing a place with relatively lower security, but as I thought, it’s too dangerous. Although I don’t think they’ll use full force just to fight a single person, I have no idea how much force they would bring out. With that being said, it’s not like we can go back empty-handed, that’s why I made a change in the plan.”

There were also fabrics stored on some shelves. Some of them looked like working attires or some kind of uniforms, and of course, all of them had an old-world design. There were also other articles that looked like something that Akira could find in the current era’s shops. All of those articles including the clothing were stuffed inside boxes.

“So then I made a deal with that girl to let us take the expired articles. In exchange for that, we have to leave this place as soon as we’re done with it. Although I said it so casually, it’s the result of a difficult negotiation. If the amount of information that we exchanged is written in words, it might take about 100 years. Being able to make that kind of deal is one of the great things about my support, you know? Of course, normally it would be impossible to do that without me. Remember when you tried to talk with the AI manager of the Seranthal building? That time, she did not even respond to you, right? That’s what normally would happen without my support.”

There was also some lady underwear among the clothing articles. Although he hesitated, since they fetched a relatively high price for the amount of fabric that they had, Akira told himself that it would be the perfect relics to bring back in that situation where he only had a limited amount of space to spare and decided to take them too.

“She came by herself to pick us up because I was able to get us that deal. She said that she would only let us in if we can reach this place by ourselves, but it was no problem at all thanks to your bike. Aren’t you glad to have bought that bike?”

Akira also found some underwear for men, since he thought that he could use them later, he decided to take the whole box with him. After all, he kept changing between them quickly since they got soaked with blood in no time. Some of the underwear that he found were even made of strong enough fabric to even be used as armour. But personally speaking, as long as he could wash them and reuse them again instead of just throwing them away, it was more than enough for him.

“By the way, it seems that this warehouse is actually for obsolete articles. So all of the items here are basically trash.”

Akira’s hands stopped the moment he heard that and he inadvertently looked at Alpha.

“Trash?”

“Yup!”

Akira once again took a good look around. There were many shelves around him, all of them were filled with relics that were still in good condition.

“So all of these relics… They’re all expired articles? All of them? And since they’re trash, they’ll be just thrown away, right?”

“Yup, that’s exactly why she allowed us to take them for free. So let’s take as much as we can.”

Although Akira was surprised, he also looked slightly conflicted. If one of these relics was found in the slum city, it would definitely cause a fight where people would get killed. And here, all of them were basically trash to be thrown away later. He could not help but find it really shocking.

“…What a huge waste. All of these relics are basically in very good condition and I feel like they’ll fetch me way more money than those relics that I got in Yonozuka station ruin. To me, they don’t look like trash at all, you know.”

“Although they’re expired articles, it’s not like they’re broken or anything. Some of them have simply expired because of the change of season. Or they are just articles that simply get replaced after a fixed amount of time. These articles are basically registered as expired articles in the system although they’re not broken or faulty. Since no one would buy them and no one would use them, they were built and then showcased for sale, and later collected for disposal–this cycle has been going on forever.”

Alpha said so in such a casual manner. But Akira felt an indescribable feeling, a mix of suspicion and something close to loneliness. He then said with a serious expression.

“…Why are they doing that?”

“Well, even if you ask me so. There are actually various reasons why they’re doing that. The core system which manages this place doesn’t question that at all although it might look meaningless to normal people. That’s why they never stop doing it. That’s also the case for most of the manager AIs too, that’s why they don’t try to stop that system. Even if there are some AIs with better intelligence that question the system, unless they have the right to change the system, they would not be able to stop that cycle either.”

“Is that so?”

“Yep, well, but of course, there are exceptions. If some AIs prioritize individual opinion above rules, they might decide to ignore the rule and apply some changes. For example, some of them might adapt to be able to trade with the people of the current era. These AIs might be the reason why some of the big companies can trade with them using Chrome. It’s even possible for some of these AIs to adapt to trade with the people of the current era using the money for the current era too, you know. Some of them might as well already be secretly mixed among the rank of the Corporate Government.”

Akira listened with full interest.

“What can I say… It’s really something.”

Alpha smiled amusedly.

“Well, if we’re talking about possibilities, that’s just how it is. And also, don’t stop there, keep moving your hands. She did tell us to leave as soon as possible, so we need to hurry up.”

Akira flusteredly returned to gathering relics again.

Once he was done, Akira looked at his bike with relics piled on top of it and murmured. The rucksacks that he used were those that could slightly expand their volumes, and Akira had filled all of those rucksacks with relics before putting them on his bike. He also stuffed the backside of his coat with the smaller relics. But even so, he actually still had some spaces to spare.

“Hmmm, Alpha, I feel like we can still carry some more relics though.”

“Nope, this is as much as you can carry.”

“But like, I can still put in some relics there, right?”

“If you carry more relics, you’ll just drop them on our way back. Not to mention, they would prevent you from moving freely during a fight. So just give it up, okay?”

Akira slightly frowned, displeased, but he then shook his head and got on his bike.

“You’re right, it would be stupid to be greedy here just to get myself killed later.”

Alpha smiled bitterly and said.

“To be honest, I think you’re already greedy enough here though. There’s no guarantee you’ll be able to save all of these relics in case we encounter some monsters on our way back home, you know? So just keep that in mind.”

“I’ll be counting on you to find a safe route so that we won’t have to go through that.”

Alpha smiled mischievously at Akira.

“Of course, I’ll do that without you asking me. But it will still depend on your luck, you see. Let’s just hope that you don’t run out of luck after we got here safely and collected all of these relics without any trouble.”

Akira smiled bitterly and slowly accelerated his bike.

When Akira exited the warehouse, Tsubaki was standing close by, waiting for him. There was no smile on her face, she just looked at Akira with a business-like and flat expression.

Akira felt awkward. Although he was already used to having people looking at him with contempt, Tsubaki’s cold gaze was an unfriendly gaze for a robber who was not even trying to be discreet about it while she could not do anything against it.

Akira inadvertently bowed lightly to Tsubaki.

“…Uh, uhmm, I’ll excuse myself then.”

“Be careful on your way back.”

“Ah, yes, of course.”

As Akira was about to awkwardly walk past Tsubaki, she suddenly said.

“May I ask you one thing?”

“Uh, sure, what is it?”

“It seems that you’re using all of your bandwidth for a single connection, are you really okay with that?”

“Eh?”

Akira tilted his head. He could not understand the meaning of that question, but Alpha suddenly interjected while still smiling like usual.

“It’s fine. It’s in order to maintain my full support for him for the sake of his safety. So it’ll be fine, or more like, can you just mind your own business?”

Alpha and Tsubaki stared at each other. There was no friendliness between them.

“Akira, let’s go.”

“Eh? Ah, okay.”

Alpha accelerated his bike before he could. Akira was a bit surprised, but he could immediately regain his balance. Tsubaki kept watching Akira as he left the building until he eventually vanished from her view.

Akira was on his bike as he drove down the wall of the Tsubakihara building at a relatively high speed. He could not help but frown as he watched the ground coming closer and closer to his face.

“Alpha, aren’t we going too fast!? I did ask you to drive safely, didn’t I?!”

“It’s far safer than getting the tire stuck on something since its sticky feature would activate if we’re too slow and that might trip the bike. This is the safest option. The ground is not too far below, so just hang on tight for a bit longer.”

“I have to say there’s something wrong with your standard of driving safely!”

Akira smiled wryly. All the questions and doubts inside his mind were erased.

The bike’s wheels kept in close contact with the building’s wall until the bike went past the curved slope that connected the wall and ground. Once the bike was on the ground again, it slowed down under the speed limit and kept going at that stable speed. Now that Akira had calmed down since he was able to safely reach the ground again, the question that he decided to just forget came back up again.

“Say, Alpha, what was she talking about when Tsubaki said something about bandwidth?”

“Oh, are you curious?”

“…Yeah, a bit.”

In order to maintain her friendly relation with Akira, Alpha was actively discouraging him from asking questions about particular subjects.