Chapter 199: Old-world relics (1/2)

Akira was standing in a white space. As he looked around in his hazy consciousness, he saw two Alpha and a young boy that seemed somehow familiar to him. He could see shadows of countless people standing beside that young boy.

“How is your development?”

“Great, very great, in fact. I can even delegate my calculations too and there’s a good chance that I’ll be able to get better equipment. Although I still don’t have the exact time, I’m planning to get the necessary equipment in about a few months. We’ll then start working on the main project right after that.”

“I’m sure there’s no need for me to tell you this, but you’re not allowed to make him one of your terminals, you know. The subject that we can send to the commander’s room should not be one of us. If you turn him into one of your terminals, the system will recognize him as one of us. So be careful.”

“Yeah, I know that even without you telling me. There was a case in the past when that happened and it did not work. In the first place, if a remote terminal was fine then we would have used one of those automata and gone there ourselves. That’s why we have no other choice but to go through this painful process.”

“It’s to ensure that the one accessing is a real person. We can’t do anything about it, that’s just how the security works and it applies to us too.”

“Well, you’re absolutely right about that.”

The two Alpha smiled bitterly at each other.

“So then, how about yours?”

“After the change of plan, the local network’s nodes spread incredibly fast. Although I have no complaint about the number since the more nodes we get, the more fighting power we will have. But there might be a problem if the number goes beyond what I can control. I’m planning to evaluate the total strength by doing something soon. After that, depending on the result, I might decide to bring the subject to the commander’s room.”

“Are you sure you’re going to be fine? If you let the local network node spread wider and wider at this rate, the system might see the network as one entity and you’ll have to bring all the nodes to that place when that happens, you know.”

“It should be alright. Although I said it’s a local shared network, it has a proper stratification and the head of that system is the only one that fulfils the conditions.”

“I see, that explains how your progress got ahead of me. Well, that’s perfectly understandable.”

Alpha seemed a bit disappointed, the other Alpha then frowned and asked.

“Does your subject not show any sign of forming a local network?”

“Nope, none at all. After all, he was originally a loner and the thought of forming relations with others never crossed his mind, that’s why I can’t use that method. But I’ll be the one managing him after the connection, so don’t worry about it.”

“I see.”

“What’s wrong? Is there any problem?”

“As I explained, the local network spread out way faster than I expected. As such, I sometimes can’t take control of the network. So I might need your help if things get bad.”

The first Alpha agreed to help the other Alpha but she also blamed the second Alpha.

“Sure, I don’t mind, but you should do something about it first before it comes to that, you know.”

“Unlike the subject under you, I still haven’t even received the consent for the contract from my subject. So it might be not that easy”

“As I thought, doing this with an uncontracted subject is not ideal.”

“This is also an experiment. Regardless of the result, it’ll be useful for our future trials.”

“Well, that’s true, but still. Ah, by the way, about Tsubaki…”

While the two Alphas were still talking to each other, Akira’s vision blurred.

Akira finally woke up. He felt that weird feeling as he realized that he was no longer in the same place as where he last remembered and immediately scanned his surroundings.

“…Where am I?”

Shiori noticed Akira waking up and spoke to him.

“You’ve woken up, are you alright? It doesn’t seem that you sustained any injuries from the outside, but, just to be safe, I gave you some medicines. I’ll bring some more if you’re still in pain.”

“…Where is this place?”

“We’re inside Akira-sama’s APC. Since we found you fainted on top of the APC, we brought you in and let you lie down until you woke up… Are you alright?”

Akira’s consciousness was still hazy, although there was a slight trace of calmness in his mind, the haziness prevented him from being fully awake.

That was when suddenly Alpha appeared.

“Akira, good morning.”

“…Alpha?”

“It seems that you’re a bit flustered there, how about you take some deep breaths first? It’ll calm you down, you know?”

Alpha was smiling gently at him, just like usual.

Judging from how Alpha was smiling at him, Akira understood that he was in a safe place for now as he took a deep breath. It was a short ritual that helped Akira reset his state of mind. But as he regained his calmness, the hazy memories of what he saw when he was unconscious was lost in the exchange.

“Alpha, give me the status report for now.”

“You fainted after fighting two automata on top of the APC. You don’t remember that?”

“…Ahhh, right, I was fighting those automata!! …So… I fainted after that, huh?”

Akira thought that the weird feeling that he felt was the leftover adrenaline rush that was cut short when he suddenly fainted in the middle of that fight. He then noticed Shiori who was looking worriedly at him.

“Ah, right, I’m fine… I fainted up there so it means that you must have saved me from falling over. Thank you.”

“It’s great that you’re alright. I’m sorry to ask you this just right after you woke up, but there are some questions that I want to ask, is it okay?”

“Sure, go ahead.”

Shiori and Akira then exchanged information to understand the situation that they were in.

While Akira was unconscious, they were able to successfully get away from the swarm. Right around the boundary when the green plants that covered Lida commercial district stopped growing, the monsters also stopped chasing the APC. It was a common trait that monsters could not leave the ruin. That was why people used to call them biological security drones guarding the ruins.

The vehicle was on the way heading back to Kugamayama city at the moment. Togami was driving the APC while Reina was sitting and resting on the driver’s assistant seat.

After carrying Akira in, Shiori and Kanae really did not help Reina at all. Although Kanae was standing next to her, she was only there to guard Reina while sometimes making idle talk. To put it in a better light, it might have helped Reina not get too tense, but it might be just Kanae having nothing else to do to waste time. It was also to give Shiori time to think as well as to help lighten the side-effects of the trump card that both of them had used.

Togami was driving the vehicle while talking with Reina about their next plan. They were trying to flush any other potential issues including the distribution of rewards and where to sell the relics before Akira woke up. Today’s ruin exploration was basically registered under Togami’s party which only included Togami and Reina. Kanae, Shiori and Akira were basically considered outsiders this time. As the leader of the team and as the only other member in the team, Togami and Reina were seriously discussing what to do about their negotiations with Akira.

After hearing a short explanation from Shiori, Akira more or less got the gist of what had happened. But he then confusedly said.

“I don’t know anything about this maid automaton, Olivia. The ones that I fought were only those two automata. I bet both of them jumped onto the APC back then, but I have no idea how they did it.”

“I see, she was already there when Kanae and I arrived at the scene.”

“Hmm, I have no recollection of that automaton at all. Either it came in between after I fainted and before you got there, or it was there all along and was using a camouflaging device. But if that was the case, then why did it not attack me? Wait, that one has nothing to do with camouflage, huh.”

“I might have a guess regarding that matter. It said that it had worked for what it was paid for already. So I bet that automaton was hired by the ruin’s system. Although, I don’t know the details whether it’s only to repel intruders or to fight back against armed robbers. But it seems that it had judged that it had worked enough after Akira-sama defeated those two automata.”

“…I see. I don’t know if it’s being earnest or not by doing so, but either way, I was saved by that. So it doesn’t really matter, huh.”

Akira found that interesting since it was more of a human-like emotion that a robot would not normally have.

Shiori then handed a white card to Akira.

“That automaton left this for you. Do you know what this is?”

Although Olivia left that card for Akira, it was not like there was anything in particular written on it. So it looked like nothing but a plain white card.

Since it had happened when Akira was unconscious, he had no idea the reason why that automaton left him that white card. Shiori also deliberately did not tell Akira how she got that card. Alpha also deliberately kept herself from telling anything to him. Because of that, he thought nothing of that card other than something that one of the automata might have dropped during that intense battle.

Akira took that card, flipped over, and took a closer look at it. But as expected, he had no idea at all.

“Alpha, do you have any idea what it is?”

“White card.”

“Well, that is already obvious.”

“Akira, even if I tell you what I know, what will you do if Shiori asks how you knew about it?”

Alpha indirectly scolded Akira for his carelessness. He then shook his head and extended that card back to Shiori. But Shiori did not take it back and Akira found that really strange. Shiori then added.

“This is just a guess, but that automaton might belong to the Lion Steel Corporation. Does that give you any hints?”

“Lion Steel Corporation?”

Akira’s face slightly twitched the moment Shiori mentioned that name. Shiori’s gaze turned sharp. Both of them were watching each other closely for the slightest change, trying to judge what the other party noticed from the other’s reaction, as this awkward but careful silence was maintained for a while. Shiori was the first one to break the silence.

“Do you have any knowledge regarding this name?”

“…As I said, this is nothing but my guess. That Lion Steel Corporation is probably an old-world company. If I’m not mistaken, that name was also there in the Seranthal building’s guide map. If this card has something to do with that and if it’s a card to give special permission to pass through, it might be useful to go to some floors that are originally closed off to outsiders.”

“That is indeed interesting.”

“Well, I have no plans to go there ever again anyway, so I basically have nothing to do with this card.”

Akira tried to suppress the agitation inside him and keep calm. He remembered that only happened because he could connect to the old-world domain, that incident might lead to the old-world connection device and hint to his ability to connect to the old-world. Lion Steel was a name that was connected to both cases. As expected, knowing that name was enough to make people suspicious, Akira could not be sure that he was able to completely hide it.

Shiori tried to read what was behind Akira’s words and said.

“Very well then, Akira-sama, in that case, would it be alright if we keep it?”

“Uhh, you mean the card, right?”

“As well as everything connected to that card which includes the information that Akira-sama told me just now. Of course, it won’t be for free. But it is difficult to decide how much it is worth. After all, even if we bring this card to the Hunter Office’s exchange centre, it would only turn into a small amount of money. So I don’t recommend deciding the worth of the card based on its selling value.”

“But then, it’s difficult to decide how much it’s actually worth. We can actually just take it as our collective possession as a team, but I’m basically an outsider in this team.”

The price of the card was not clear and was difficult to decide even among the inner circle, but if it was sold, it would only turn into a small amount of money. Even Akira understood well that making a mistake in the method to divide the loot might cause a fight.

“It seems that Akira-sama is not that interested in this card. But even so, I don’t think it’s right to just let go of this card for free. In that case, how about exchanging this card for a favour?”

“Favour, huh?”

Akira hesitated for a bit.