Translator: Athena13

Editor: Silavin

Proofreader: p4553r

The people who just fought Akira near the hangar were talking to each other through their communication devices.

“Did he run…? No, a temporary retreat? What should we do? Should we chase after him?”

The guy with the blade asked, but the guy with the heavy augmented suit stopped him.

“No. It would be bad if he’s planning to divide us into smaller groups. Not to mention, I’m using a heavy augmented suit. You might be able to chase him, but I don’t believe that’s the case for me.”

The guy that was riddled with DVTS minigun’s bullet and fell down from the floor was still lying on the ground. His augmented suit had injected his body with battle stimulants to keep his body and mind ready to fight. He then pushed himself up while still dazed.

“Dammit, the heck is wrong with that boy?! He’s not normal!”

“If I’m not mistaken, that face… He’s one of the guys that the boss was planning to take control of. Judging from how he accurately sniped us while we were inside the hangar, he must be carrying a pretty high-quality information-gathering device. I bet his other equipments are more or less of the same quality, and his skill must be good enough to match them too.”

A call suddenly reached them. It was from those guys inside the hangar.

“How’s the situation over there?”

“We’re fighting one boy, I think it’s that Akira. Although we were able to repel him, we weren’t able to kill him. We have one man injured here… Hey, you, can you keep on going?”

“Of course! This much of an injury is not enough to drive me away from the battle, you know.”

The injured guy replied in a high spirit. But he then followed up with a calm voice.

“…But it’s also true that boy is indeed strong. I was only able to survive since we’re ganging up on him. To be honest, I don’t want to fight him in a one-on-one fight, he’s way more than I can handle. So, what to do? Want to let the boss know?”

The other guys did not reply. They had their own pride and reputation to uphold too. Although Rogelt did tell them to ask for help if they encounter enemies whom they could not handle, if they asked for help just because they could not handle a single young boy, people would definitely question their abilities. But if they were caught off guard and got Alna killed, it would be a huge disaster for them. After all, Akira almost got Alna during the previous surprise attack.

The guy inside the hangar understood that all of them were at a loss on what to do next, so he then said.

“Well, for now, let’s group up. We can decide whether to report it to the boss or not later. First of all, we need to treat anyone injured and refresh our ammo reserve.”

Unlike the Hunters who fought in the wasteland with limited ammo and supply, these guys were fighting in their own base. So they did not equip their rifles with a high-quality extended magazine. After all, they could always refresh their reserve in their base. So rather than using an extended magazine that did not increase their firepower at all, it was far cheaper to be using their usual magazines. That was also true for their energy packs too.

They also had used a considerable amount of bullets to fight back Akira just now. So they decided to return back to the hangar to refresh their supplies.

—*—*—*—

Katsuya was fighting the Haurias people who were invading the mansion. Just like in Akira’s case, Rogelt had paid a lot of money to Viola in order to be able to control him too. Katsuya had the skill and the equipment to make that piece of information worth the money, he did not have any trouble fighting back the Haurias, as in a matter of fact, it was a rather one-sided fight.

The guy accompanying Katsuya who also doubled as his observer was amazed to see Katsuya’s skill from up close.

…This boy is pretty strong for just a young Hunter. No wonder the boss wanted to be able to control him. But if he’s this strong, then why would he go so far just for that girl. If he only accepted that deal to be able to run away from the boss, he could have escaped once the boss left him alone. But since he’s not even trying to do that here, it means that he’s really fighting for that girl… I really can’t understand him at all. But well, different people have different tastes in women, so I guess I’m in no place to say anything about that. It’s all good and well as long as he’s obeying us, it’s great to be able to take it easy.

After Katsuya had finished all the Haurias’ men in that area, he just stood there with a grim expression. It was not like Haurias’ men were being hostile to him.

Katsuya was threatened by Rogelt and had no other choice but to follow his orders. Haurias, who came invading the mansion, were there to kill other people right from the start, so it would be their own fault if they got killed instead. Even if Katsuya told himself so, it did not lighten his feeling of guilt at all.

Countless reinforcement requests from the other Ezont Family’s soldiers reached the observer’s information terminal. The battle in the mansion had been going on for some time now. With all the corpses already lying around the mansion, the number of people fighting in that area should have been reduced by that much too. But with the Ezont Family’s men who were outside the base returning back to their base, they were also bringing along Haurias soldiers that were chasing them.

Using his powered suit, Rogelt was fighting the enemies outside the base. If he spotted any tanks, he would prioritize taking them out first. While at the same time, it was impossible for him to hold back the enemies that were invading from the other parts of the fences that had been torn down. The area was filled with Ezont Family and Haurias’ soldiers as well as the former Hunters, whom they paid to fight for their causes, fighting against each other.

The observer thought for a bit before he gave an order to the other guys near him.

“Good grief! I’ll take that boy to the east side of the mansion, you guys go to the west side.”

“You’re going alone? Are you sure?”

“This boy doesn’t need a bodyguard, you know. I can just let this boy take the front while I’m just observing him from behind.”

“This damn guy, taking it easy like that.”

“It’s one of those special privileges I get for being this boy’s observer, yeah?”

He jokingly laughed. Katsuya sent a glare at him.

They immediately went to the west side of the mansion, leaving Katsuya and his observer behind. The observer guy then said to Katsuya.

“Hey, get a move on!”

“…I know.”

Katsuya replied brusquely and followed the other people who went before him.

—*—*—*—

Akira was gathering his focus in one of the rooms inside the mansion. Alpha was going to start rewriting Akira’s augmented suit’s control software, they had already finished their preparations. Since it was impossible to use his CWH anti-material rifle without his augmented suit, Akira just left it on the floor with the other things that he could not use without the help of his augmented suit. He was only carrying AAH and A2D assault rifles that he could use just fine without his augmented suit and held one each on his right and left hand.

The entrance to the room was barricaded. The lamp in the room was already destroyed during the fight, so the room was pitch black. There were corpses scattered around on the floor. And if he gathered his focus, he could hear gunshots echoing. The mansion was right in the middle of the war zone of that battle, and Akira was planning to deactivate his augmented suit in that room.

Alpha made the final confirmation to Akira.

“I’ll start updating the control software of your augmented suit. You won’t be able to use your augmented suit at all while I’m doing that. There’s quite a large portion of the software that I need to rewrite, so once I start, even if you try to reboot the augmented suit because something came up, it’ll take about 1 minute until you can use your augmented suit again. So, are you ready?”

“Yeah, you can start.”

Akira could feel his augmented suit suddenly turn slightly heavier. With his augmented suit completely turned off, it did not provide any support to him at all. If someone attacked him in that situation, he would have to fight back with his own power. But the enemies that he just faced were able to tank a direct shot from his CWH anti-material rifle and was able to survive a barrage from his DVTS minigun. If he encountered them right now, it would be game over for Akira. So it was, in a sense, a test for his luck.

Alpha was still monitoring the surroundings for enemies, Akira’s job there was to keep himself hidden and made sure that he could quickly react if something were to happen. In that pitch-black room, Akira could hear the sound of gunshots, screams, and footsteps coming from the floor below and the ceiling above him. As he breathed deeply, he felt like the world was strangely running in slow motion.

Akira kept telling himself to keep his calm and not to focus too much on the sounds coming from his surroundings to make sure that it would not dull his focus. That was when he said.

“By the way, it’s thanks to you that I can see clearly in the dark like this, but I wonder how about the other guys.”

“Well, they would be able to see just fine too if they are using high-class night vision. Although it won’t be as good as my support, they should be able to see enough as not to lower their fighting ability.”

Akira looked at the dead corpses lying on the floor. Some of them were indeed equipped with such night vision. But most of them were not using anything like that.

“You’re right, they do, although it’s not all of them. That kind of thing is pretty expensive, right?”

“It depends on its quality. Night vision is also a type of information-gathering device, some of them might be using other kinds of information besides optical information to increase the accuracy of the imaging process. There are mass-produced night visions for Hunters who want to explore dark ruins. I’m sure that kind of night vision equipment is relatively cheap.”

“But they’re still pretty expensive, right? I don’t know about the people of this base and those who are attacking this place, but since they have this kind of equipment, they must be pretty rich, right? Not to mention, they have those powerful soldiers and those powered suits too. The amount of money that I’m earning must be nothing to them.”

The 500 million Aurum that Akira received from that one request in Mihazono ruin was not a small amount of money. But that was not even close to enough to hire those powerful men and buy equipment for all those soldiers, not to mention those powered suits too. Akira could not even imagine how much money he would need for all of those things.

Akira basically picked a fight against someone with enough power and money to be able to pay for all of those things. He did not regret it at all, but it was still rather discouraging when he thought about it.

Alpha lightly smiled.

“Well, I don’t think it’s the right thing to do to compare how much one man can earn to how much an organization can earn though, but it might be a good idea to aspire to earn that much too. It won’t be strange for a first-class Hunter to be earning around that much, you know. So let’s keep working hard.”

“First-rate Hunters, huh. I do plan to work hard, but I have no idea how long it would take until I can be earning that much money…”

Akira replied back rather ironically after he was reminded of his current situation. But Alpha smiled at him and told him that it was not necessarily correct.

“Oh my, it might be sooner than you think, you know? You only got 300 Aurum in your first exploration and now you’re already earning 500 million Aurum for one request after all. If you keep this up, you’ll be able to easily earn more than 10 billion Aurum by next year. And once you get there, you’ll be one of those big earners.”

Alpha once told him that anything less than 10 billion Aurum was nothing than a small amount of money. Of course, Akira understood that such a comparison did not make any sense at all.

Akira smiled as he thought that once it reached that amount of money, even Alpha would not call that a ‘small amount’.

“You’re right, I guess I’ll keep working hard until I can reach that point, huh.”

If that was enough to discourage him, he would not be able to finish Alpha’s request to him. Akira thought so as he picked himself up.

Suddenly Akira’s expression turned grim. Alpha was also making a serious face.

“Akira, get yourself ready.”

“Yeah, I know.”

There were already some people passing through in front of the entrance to that room, when that happened, Akira would hold his breath to hide himself. But this time, some of them were trying to break into that room. Whether they were only trying to save their friends or search and kill their enemies, either way, they were Akira’s enemies. After all, he was neither a part of Ezont Family nor Haurias.

“Well, I guess it’s too much to expect a respite with my luck, huh?”

“Buy as much time as you can, I’ll also hurry up and finish rewriting the control device of your augmented suit. But don’t expect too much, I think it’ll still take some time until you can reboot your augmented suit even if I do so.”

“Roger that!”

Akira aimed both rifles on his hands at the barricaded door. He then gathered his focus, the moment the door was blown open, Akira immediately started shooting.

A few guys stormed into the room. But Akira did not have enough firepower to deal fatal injuries on those people. Amidst that confusion, Akira was desperately fighting back those guys.

Akira compressed his time perception to its limit, thanks to Alpha’s support, he could clearly see the trajectory of the enemies’ bullets as he did his best to evade them. Akira could feel the big difference in his movement without his augmented suit. From his perspective, he was moving so slowly as if his body had lost its mobility. With that difference in the moving speed without his augmented suit, Akira put most of his effort into making up for that difference.

Akira was evading the incoming bullets while aiming his rifles at the enemies. Alpha had given him the orders in which enemy he should shoot and how he would do that. He tried his best to follow that order in spite of his current limits. When he was not fast enough to follow that order, he paid that failure with a bullet in his body.

But thanks to the coat he took off and set in the maximum output beforehand, Akira was able to withstand a few direct shots. But of course, his energy reserve had to pay for that. He could only keep that up for a few minutes even without taking any bullets. If Akira stopped moving there, he would only be able to keep that force field armour up for 2 seconds.

Every time bullets flew out from his rifles, he could feel kickbacks assaulting his arms. Depending on the armours that his enemies were using, Akira might not even have enough firepower to pierce their armours. Both of Akira’s rifles were loaded with powerful bullets that he could control well without his augmented suit, but still, the kickback was enough to damage his arms. He was only able to keep that up because the medicines that he took beforehand kept healing his damaged arms.

Akira bravely jumped the gaps in between his enemies and used the enemy in front of him as a shield while he aimed at another person. The guy that he shot lost his balance, Akira used that opening to quickly thrust the rifle on his right hand at that guy’s throat and pulled the trigger while he used the rifle in his left hand to shoot the other enemy behind him. The guy in front of him lost consciousness from that point-blank shot, so Akira kicked him away and aimed both of his rifles at the other guys. The barrage from Akira was able to break their balance as they fell on the ground and sprayed bullets randomly inside that room.

The combination of Akira’s skill and Alpha’s command was barely able to secure a victory over those guys. The people that he just defeated were lying on the floor both inside the room and the hallway outside the entrance to the room. But most of them were not dead, they were only rendered unconscious. Once everything was done, Akira then fell on his knees.

Alpha shouted at Akira, pulling his consciousness together right when he was about to faint.

“Hurry up, get on your feet! Get some medicines first, quickly!”

“…O-okay.”

The exchange did not even last a minute, but Akira had squeezed all of his physical and mental strength in that exchange. Akira’s movement was severely dulled as he was reaching for his medicine inside his coat and he was still a bit dazed. But strangely enough, he could not get his medicines, and when he looked at his arm, he found that some of his fingers were bent in an unnatural way.

Akira smiled wryly and used his still functional fingers to take out his medicines and swallowed them while gritting his teeth against the pain assaulting his body. His broken fingers were slowly returning back to their original shapes in a rather forceful manner. He then slowly pushed himself back up.

“Some of them are still alive, so you need to make sure that they’re really dead. Hurry up! If they get up, you would have to go through that fight again.”

“…That wasn’t enough to kill them, huh. Although these bullets are usable without an augmented suit, they are powerful, and I shot them from a point-blank range, you know? These guys are pretty strong.”

“Remember that some of them even survived a direct shot from a CWH anti-material rifle. Aren’t you glad that these guys are weaker than that guy?”

As Akira picked up his rifles, an indicator could be seen from his vision telling him which one he should kill first. So he walked toward the guy with the highest priority.

“…But still, I feel like my bad luck is making me fight incessantly against stronger enemies, you know. Those guys that I fought when I went to save Sheryl were nowhere near these guys. Is it that they were especially weak?”

“To be honest, I think it’s way too late for you to be complaining about your own bad luck.”

“…You have a point there.”

Alpha was giving a rather conflicted smile at Akira, so he replied back with a bitter smile.

Just like the other guy that Akira shot down, the guy who was lying on the ground returned back to his senses thanks to his augmented suit that injected him with multiple battle stimulants. But when he looked around to confirm his current situation, he already found Akira standing in front of him with a rifle extended straight to his head.

Akira used both of his arms to keep his rifle stable when he pulled the trigger. The guy was frozen still as a bullet blew off his head and instantly killed him. Akira immediately moved to the next person on his priority list and killed them without hesitation. From their point of view, it could be said that they were more unlucky than Akira to die in that place.

“So then, how’s my augmented suit, is it not ready yet?”

“I’m trying my best here, but it’ll still take some time.”

“I see… It’s taking too long. It might be a good idea to get out of here first, I mean, out of the base. It’s safer outside, right?”

“Well, I’m pretty sure that it’s quite safe if you go that far, but with your bad luck, I feel like you’ll encounter that black powered suit before long, you know. That’s why I didn’t tell you to do that. Although, it’s fully possible for him to appear in front of us even if we stay here.”

Akira looked super annoyed and said.

“…That’s true, rather than fighting that black powered suit with my augmented suit, I would gladly fight the guys inside the mansion even if it means that I don’t have the support from my augmented suit.”

Akira remembered how the black powered suit was moving around the battlefield when he looked at it from the rooftop of the mansion. A powered suit was a powerful piece of equipment, it was not something that one would fight with normal equipment. Not to mention, that powered suit was stronger than a common powered suit.

Of course, he was questioning why these people had that kind of powered suit in their base. But now that it was there, it was not like he could do anything about it. He just blamed it on his bad luck and stopped worrying about it anymore.

Akira reloaded new magazines to his rifle and replaced the energy pack in his coat with new ones. He then took some medicines and hid himself in one corner of the room. He was breathing silently while feeling the nanomachines from the medicines spread through his body. He calmly let his body and mind take a rest while waiting for Alpha to finish rewriting the software in his augmented suit.

But that resting time was immediately cut short. Not because Alpha finished, but because another enemy appeared.

“Akira, get out of the room and try to shoot him, it would be bad if you let him get near you.”

Akira jumped out of the room with rifles in both of his hands, he quickly aimed at the guy who was on the other end of the hallway. When Akira saw who that was, he could not help but frown.

“Why is that guy in this place…?”

“Just keep shooting, don’t get in his range no matter what.”

Akira immediately pulled the triggers of his rifles, releasing a barrage against that guy. That guy immediately crouched his body and used a big-sized blade to shield himself from the bullets. The bullets generated sparks when they hit his blade.

“That is the guy who tried to cut my leg, right? Is he here chasing after me?”

“Don’t stop shooting. You have no winning chance against him if you fight him up close without your augmented suit. Though unfortunately, your bullets won’t be able to pierce through his armour. But at least it’s enough to slow him down. So hold him back with bullets.”

Actually, some of Akira’s bullets passed through the blade and hit that guy’s body, but that guy kept his calm and firmed his footing. Although he could not push forward against the incoming bullets, it did not seem that he was about to run away either.

Akira frowned.

“…Is that guy waiting for me to run out of ammo?”

“Likely so, but you can’t stop shooting, okay? If you slow down even for a bit, he will immediately close the distance. Without your augmented suit, it’s impossible for you to run away from him. So just keep on shooting for now to buy some time.”

“So either I run out of ammo first or you finish rewriting my augmented suit’s software first, huh. Basically, it’s another test for my luck, huh!”

“It won’t even be a test of luck if you don’t properly aim at him. Keep your focus on shooting at him and don’t show any openings.”

“I know!”

Akira desperately kept on shooting at that guy. He deliberately aimed at the points that would easily break that guy’s balance as he kept that guy from coming any closer. If he was using a normal magazine, he would have already run out of ammo by now, but thanks to the expensive extended magazine that he was using, he could somehow survive that long. As he was thinking how lucky he was for preparing those beforehand, he noticed another issue that he was facing.

…My arms… Can they hold out until I run out of ammo?

The kickbacks were damaging both of his arms while the medicines that he took beforehand were continuously healing them. He made his resolve and firmly held his rifles with both of his arms. That resolve was Akira’s lifeline there. But of course, that did not help his arms at all, otherwise, he would not even need his augmented suit. He could not use his CWH anti-material rifle or his DVTS minigun without his augmented suit. Of course, that was not the case if he was a superhuman, but Akira was not one.

…If other people would even suspect me of trying to be a superhuman, it means that I should have more strength than a normal human!! So please hold out!!

Akira wished for good luck as he held down the triggers. It was only a matter of time before the result of his wish came out.

The guy, who was hiding behind his blade from Akira’s bullets, confirmed that he had the upper hand and smiled. That guy, Toralt, was indeed waiting for Akira to run out of ammo just like Akira had guessed.

Toralt actually did not come there for Akira. After Akira retreated, he discussed with his friends what to do next.

It would be hard for them to fight someone as strong as Akira while protecting Alna. But if they asked for extra help, it would hurt their reputations. As such, they wanted to finish Akira by themselves without involving their boss if it was possible. They could just make a deal with the guy observing Katsuya to bring Katsuya somewhere close by and let him fight Akira. Since Katsuya did not want Alna dead, he would give his best to fight Akira too. Toralt and his friends decided to let Katsuya take on the dangerous job while they could just protect Alna in safety, that way, they would be able to deal with Akira without much trouble.

So then Toralt decided to move alone to find and make a deal with Katsuya’s observer. The reason why he would go that far was to make sure that it would not leak, after all, his boss would know if he used the wireless communication. And even if Rogelt asked him why he went alone, he could use chasing Akira as an excuse. Toralt thought so as he went alone into the mansion.

That was when he encountered Akira by pure chance. He used his blade as a shield from the barrage instinctively. After all, his blade should be able to hold a few shots even from a CWH anti-material rifle. He was originally planning to temporarily retreat once Akira ran out of ammo, but the impact from the incoming bullets made him change his decision.

…Too light, what’s with this sudden drop of firepower?

Toralt glanced at Akira.

That’s… AAH assault rifle? Why is he using that? Did he run out of ammo for his big guns?

That level of firepower was barely able to inflict him any damage even if he was to take them head-on. Such leeway allowed Toralt to check on Akira. Akira was shooting at him while gritting his teeth and looking very nervous. His arms were shaking while supporting the guns in both hands. Looking at that, Toralt lightly smiled.

I see now, is it some kind of trouble with his augmented suit? I bet he can’t use his big guns even if he wants to, right?

From the impact of the bullets and type of the rifle that Akira was using, Toralt could make a guess on how much kickback Akira was resisting. If Akira was using an augmented suit, that level of kickback would not even affect him at all. So looking at Akira, Toralt could make a guess that Akira’s augmented suit was not functional.

Toralt smiled because of his sudden good luck.

Lucky!! If I can kill that guy, it’ll give a good boost to my reputation!! I’m sure that no one would know even if I kill him while he has no functional augmented suit! So then, what’s the next plan? He’s a little too far. If it’s only this much, I can just resolve myself and take some bullets head-on while closing into him, so, should I do that? No, wait, I’m okay right now because I’m using my blade to shield myself from the bullets. Without it, if I get shot on my legs or arms, it would definitely take away my mobility. Of course, it won’t kill me, but he might use that opening to run away. I need to get closer first, or at least wait until he runs out of ammo. Even if he’s using an extended magazine, it’s only a matter of time before he runs out of ammo if he’s shooting at me like that! If he loses his balance before he runs out of ammo, I can just use that opening to jump on him!

Toralt was slowly closing into Akira while still using his blade as a shield. With the help of his augmented suit, he had a longer swing range than normal If he jumped at Akira before slashing down, he could easily trim a few meters between them. It was only a matter of time before Toralt thought that he was close enough to Akira.

Akira kept shooting at Toralt, who was slowly closing in. But he could not step back to open up some distance between them. He had no leeway to put his power on something else other than holding his rifles, if he wavered even for a bit, he felt like his opponent would immediately jump on him.

Then finally, Akira’s AAH assault rifle ran out of ammo. Akira who noticed that was rather flustered. As the force of the kickback from his AAH rifle was gone, he immediately lost his balance, and the kickback from his A2D rifle broke his balance even more. Akira could see Toralt suddenly close the distance between them.

The compressed time perception allowed Akira’s eyes to follow Toralt’s movement. But his body was nowhere fast enough to react to it. He could see Toralt had his pale blue blade raised up, ready to split him into two. With its length, that blade would hit the ceiling first before hitting him, but Akira knew very well that it would hardly hinder that sharp blade. Without his augmented suit, Akira had no method to evade the incoming blade. Akira understood that the blade would cut him into two in the next moment.

The time stretched into infinity as if it was completely stopped. In that frozen world, Akira and Toralt looked at each other’s eyes. Toralt was sure of his victory, while Akira already accepted his defeat.

But in the next moment, that assumption was completely flipped over.

As Toralt swiftly swung his sharp blade down through the ceiling and right at Akira, Akira slid his body to the side even faster than that and evaded the blade. At the same time, Akira used the momentum that he had from evading that blade to spin and delivered a kick to Toralt’s head. The 350 million Aurum augmented suit squeezed more than its original power due to Alpha’s control.

Toralt received that kick head-on, like, literally on his head. His body was blown straight to the wall, his body was even slightly planted into the wall from the impact and created a big crater on the wall. He was still confused by that sudden turn of events, and in that confused state, the last thing he saw was Akira diving through the air with both legs aimed at his body.

Both of Akira’s legs landed straight on Toralt’s head, leaving a big splatter on the wall. Toralt’s life was blown to pieces together with the wall behind him.

After he landed, Akira still looked flabbergasted. But when he saw Alpha nodding in satisfaction, he returned back to himself. But he was still confused since he could not process what just happened.

“The augmented suit is pretty strong, and the improvised control software is pretty accurate too.”

“Eh? Ah, Eh!? Hm!? W-wait for a sec!!”

“What is it? If you have any questions, let’s get yourself ready first. You need to get your rifles and other equipment you left behind in that room. Then you should treat both of your arms too.”

“Ah, right!”

Akira was still confused, but he knew that he needed to move. He hurriedly returned back to the room where he left his equipment just like he was told to, and picked up all of his equipment that he had left on the floor. He then used medicines to heal as much as he could. After he did all of that, he was mostly calmed down.

“Alpha, when exactly did you finish rewriting the control program?”

“Around when you were in the middle of shooting at that guy.”

Akira frowned.

“Thought so. You should have told me, you know. I thought I was going to die there.”

But Alpha smiled at him as if it did not bother her at all and replied casually.

“It’s not like I did that to bully you, you know. If I had told you, the enemy might have been able to guess it from the change of your behaviour. That was why I didn’t tell you. Thanks to that, we were able to catch him off guard and finally kill him, right? So I think it was the right decision not to tell you back there.”

Akira understood Alpha’s argument. But that was not enough to make him accept it. But at the same time, he did not have any other ideas on how to get out of that situation. Not to mention that his hardship just now was the result of his selfishness, so he was just reaping what he had sown. That thought made Akira give a conflicted look, but his anger toward himself immediately changed his expression.

Alpha smiled and tried to cheer Akira.

“Thanks to the time that you bought there, I was able to make a good improvisation on the control device. With this, not only can I give you support to increase your fighting power, I can help you calibrate your aim too. The next time you try to snipe at that pickpocket, you’ll be able to accurately snipe at her as long as there’s no disruption. So cheer up, okay?”

Akira looked at Alpha who apologetically smiled at him, so he returned with a light smile and decided to forget about that for now.

“You’re right. I guess it means that it was worth the risk, huh… Alright then, let’s go.”

As Akira pulled himself together and left the room, Alpha pointed at the blade lying on the ground.

“Akira, let’s take that.”

It was Toralt’s blade that was on the ground not too far from Akira. It had lost its pale blue light and did not seem that sharp any longer.

“That? Is it still usable?”

“Yep. Performance-wise and security-wise, it’s still functional. You can use it for melee combat. Just leave it to me.”

“Is that so? Alright then.”

Akira picked up that blade. He also picked up the part that fixed the blade from Toralt’s body. After that, Alpha told Akira to connect his information terminal to that blade.

“Is there any meaning in doing this?”

“I’m rewriting its control device just like what I did to your augmented suit… It’s okay to take it off now. Let’s equip that thing to fix the blade on your body before we go.”

Akira then equipped the blade. With this, he had an AAH assault rifle, A2D assault rifle, CWH anti-material rifle, DVTS minigun, A4WM automatic grenade launcher, and foldable blade with him. He was basically fully armed. He would not have been able to move at all or even crushed under their weight if it was not for his augmented suit.

“Hmm, I feel like I’m carrying too many weapons”

Akira smiled wryly, Alpha then mischievously said.

“If it’s getting in the way, you can discard some of them, you know?”

“No thanks!”

Akira replied back firmly and started running.