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nChapter 31, Cannon Insect

nTranslator: Athena13

nEditor: Silavin

nProofreader: p4553r

nAkira was having a quick rest beside the truck together with the Hunters that he just saved. Then, something suddenly came up in his mind.

n“Alpha, now that I think about it, what should I do to complete this emergency request?”

n“The subject of the emergency request is the city defense. I think it’ll not end until the city is completely safe. Of course, it depends on how the situation develops, but I don’t think it’ll be the end of the request even if more reinforcements come to this area. I think they’ll just send back the injured Hunters to the city and send the rest to another area.”

n“So it depends on how the situation develops, huh?”

nAlpha then smiled teasingly and said.

n“Not to mention, you did receive that bike as an upfront payment, so I bet they’ll make you work hard.”

nAkira looked doubtful as he said.

n“I did save the Hunters here though. Is that not enough?”

n“Unfortunately, it’s not for me nor you to decide whether it’s enough or not.”

n“That’s true. I need to make sure that they won’t tell me to pay them back because I didn’t work hard enough.”

nAlthough the truck was bombarded to a point where it could not run anymore, the detection device installed to it was still operational. The Hunters would take turns to monitor their surroundings using that device. Thus the rest of the Hunters could rest easy without fearing any surprise attacks. Akira had also lowered his guard as he was talking with Alpha.

nSuddenly, the Hunter who was on watch duty shouted.

n“We got incoming signals from the 2 o’clock direction!!”

nThe tension in the area suddenly raised. No one knew whether it was from monsters or from reinforcements, thus Akira and the other Hunters turned their attention to that direction while looking both hopeful and uneasy.

nThe Hunter who was beside Akira prayed to God as he was looking through his binoculars, but his face suddenly turned grim, his prayer was not answered. What he saw from afar was a swarm of mechanical monsters that he remembered well. His face turned stern as he let out a sigh and cursed.

n“Those damn bugs again!!”

n“Damn bugs?”

n“I’m talking about those monsters that broke our trucks. So they didn’t run away from the area, huh? Did they go back for an ammo refill or something like that?”

nIt was a swarm of mechanical monsters that looked like a small bug with tiny legs, their bodies were mounted with a big cannon and an automatic machine gun. Akira was a little bit slow in recognizing it, but when he did, his face immediately turned grim.

nAlpha then added some explanations to what Akira was seeing.

n“Those things are called Cannon Insects. I believe that they are produced in an old world’s automated weapon factory that’s still active somewhere till this date. It consists of a moving device in the form of those small legs. It is attached with a gun and an anti-vehicle cannon. That moving device part should be their main body part. Although their firepower varies, their main firepower comes from that tank cannon. But with that being said, they don’t have much reserve ammo, or more like, they can only bring a few warheads for that cannon. So, to deal with that, they would refill their ammo with help from another accompanying refilling robot.”

n“If they are produced by a weapon factory, why do they have that insect-like form?”

n“I think their information receiver malfunctioned and received weird data instead. Or maybe, the AI was so bored that it decided to make something weird.”

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n“Bored…? Is that even enough of a reason?”

nAkira looked puzzled the moment he heard such unexpected reasoning.

nThe cannon insect was a separate machine from its weapon. Some of them were equipped with a big cannon not suitable for its size and some of them carried a small cluster of countless tiny cannons. There were also differences in the size or the number of their legs.

nDespite all the differences, all the cannon insects were effective soldiers. They came close enough to the truck, stopped and then used all of their legs to support their body as they blasted their cannons.

nThe swarm then released a volley of cannons together with banging sounds. Cannon warheads showered the area around the truck like rain, they exploded and blasted all the monsters’ corpses in the area into small bits and pieces. Charred and in pieces, smoke rose up from the aftermath.

nOf course, the Hunters started shooting back in retaliation. But due to their guns’ effective range, it did not do much damage to the monsters.

n“Dammit, although they attacked from a closer range last time, those bugs are keeping their distance from us this time…”

nThe cannon insects were keeping their distance from the Hunters. They stood right outside the Hunters’ shooting range. By sacrificing their accuracy, they continued bombarding the Hunters with warheads from afar, and it soon turned into a one-sided fight. The Hunters also noticed that these monsters would not run out of ammo anytime soon since they were accompanied by other machines that refilled their ammo.

nAlpha then turned to Akira with a serious face.

n“Akira, let me reconfirm this, you have no plans of running away from this place alone, right?”

nAkira firmly answered back while still making a grim face.

n“Of course, that’s until I’m the only one alive.”

n“In that case, I have no other choice but to do this. Your AAH rifle can inflict enough damage to them, but you need to move close enough to get them into your shooting range. Of course, I will give you my support, but you’ll need to do something pretty reckless. This will subject your body to immense stress, thus I recommend you to take your medicine beforehand so that it’ll immediately heal your body in case your bones start cracking or your flesh starts tearing. After all, if you don’t take your medicine now, your body won’t be able to hold out what you’re going to do from now on. But we will only do this if we really have no other choice. Are you okay with that?”

nSeeing how Alpha was giving out a warning with a serious face, Akira remembered when she used the augmented suit to forcefully move his body during the augmented suit training. He remembered that he could not move for a while right after that due to the fatigue and the pain.

nAkira knew well that his body would be subjected to something worse compared to that. He completely realized that fact as he reached deep into his rucksack, took out the medicines, readied his resolve and swallowed a big dose of medicines.

nAlpha who saw that just let out a small sigh before smiling invincibly.

n“Are you ready now?”

nAkira smiled back and replied in a firm tone.

n“Well, maintaining resolve is my responsibility.”

nAfter he finished all of his preparations, Akira took his gun and got on his bike before shouting to a guy near him.

n“I’ll go and shoot them from up close, give me some support.”

nThe guy was surprised when he heard that, but he understood that the situation would only get worse at this rate, thus he did not stop Akira. Instead, he asked Akira while making a serious face.

n“Are you sure you’re going alone?”

n“I’m the only one with a bike here, so I think it’s better if we don’t make any clumsy move. This will at least divide their attention and reduce the pressure from their bombardment. Moreover, if I keep moving, they won’t be able to hit me… Maybe… Well then, I’ll be counting on you for the follow-up support.”

nAfter he said that, Akira blazed out on his bike.

nAs he passed by and made eye contact with the other Hunters, they immediately understood what Akira was thinking and moved.

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n“We should scatter out and approach those bugs too!! Put down the injured Hunters from the truck’s trays and use the truck as a shield!!! To everyone with grenades, reserve your grenades!!!”

nIn the middle of the raining warheads, the Hunters too made their resolve and started running towards the monsters as well.

nAkira rode his bike and cut through the wasteland as he was heading straight towards the monster swarm. Although he was fast enough to be considered as attempting suicide, he accelerated his bike even more.

nThe area was littered with wreckages and bloody corpses of the dead monsters. Even with wheels specially designed for exploring the wasteland, it was dangerous as muddy ground filled with obstacles were enough to flip Akira’s bike. But thanks to Alpha’s advanced support, Akira just blazed through it with no problem at all.

nThe violent shaking of the bike did not stop Akira from pulling the trigger on his AAH rifle. Although some of the bullets hit the monsters, they just ricocheted off the monsters’ bodies. It was a common characteristic among mechanical monsters like the cannon insect to have a very hard body, and not to mention, Akira was shooting outside AAH rifle’s effective range, so it was not surprising.

nBut as those bullets hit them, some of the cannon insects changed their focus from the other Hunters to Akira. Due to their big cannons that were too large for their legs to support, the cannon insects had to turn their whole body to aim their cannons at Akira. Then they were thrown back by the blasts when they shot warheads from their cannons.

nThe warhead landed 10 meters beside Akira and blasted the flesh, blood and metal wreckages in the surrounding area.

nThere was no doubt that it would instantly kill Akira if one of those warheads hit him directly. Akira could feel a shiver running through his spine as he started sweating.

n“Well, they mostly miss anyway, so it’s going to be okay, right? I won’t get hit, right?!!”

n“Their accuracy is pretty bad since their huge cannons are unsuitable for their size. I bet it’s because the factory that produced them received corrupted data or something. So don’t worry, you won’t get hit that easily.”

n“Alright then!!”

nAkira sounded elated when he heard that. But his mood immediately changed when Alpha continued her explanation.

n“But because of such level of randomness, it’s kind of hard to accurately predict their trajectories. Even with my superior computing skills, I can’t guarantee that they won’t hit you at all. So in the end, it’ll still depend on your luck.”

nAkira frowned.

n“Don’t say something scary like that!! I’ve used all of my luck, you know?!!”

n“Just hope that your luck is only bad to the point that I can offset it with my support. That aside, remember that you got into this situation because of your own decision, okay? And it does not depend on luck.”

n“I see!! If that does not depend on my luck, then it’ll be your fault if I get hit, right?!”

nAkira laughed sarcastically, to which, Alpha just smiled invincibly.

n“Are you sure you’re going to say that? In that case, I’ll increase the level of my support so that you won’t get hit. So you should give your best too, okay?”

n“What do you mean by that…?”

nIn order to avoid getting shot at, Alpha increased the speed of the bike and made a slalom move. But because of that, Akira’s body was subjected to even more stress.

nAkira thought that he should not have said something like that. He instantly regretted what he said and gritted his teeth as he endured the pain while making a grim face.

nAkira was closing in high speed with a rifle in his arm, aiming towards the monsters. The insect cannons started to take notice of him and reacted. Most of the cannon insects already changed their target to Akira and showered him with warheads.

nAnd when he got close enough, the cannon insects stopped shooting in curved trajectories and instead aimed at him in a straight line. The cannon warheads travelled along a straight line and hit about 1 meter away from Akira as rumbles echoed through the wasteland. He was filled with fear when the vibration and the shockwave from the explosions reached him. But he then just gritted his teeth and crushed the fear.

nWhen Akira had gotten close enough to cannon insects, Alpha smiled and said to him.

n“This might be a bit painful!! But just endure it!!”

n“Alright!!”

nThere was a trace of desperation in his voice when he replied.

nAlpha made the bike turn 90 degrees. It tilted so low that Akira’s left leg grazed the ground in order to resist the leftover momentum from throwing him off the bike. As for Akira himself, he was held in place by the augmented suit. The reason why the bike did not flip over or get thrown off was because Akira was applying an optimal amount of pressure with his right leg to keep the bike’s wheels on the ground. Thus he was able to decelerate rapidly without falling over or getting thrown off.

nAkira gripped his AAH rifle tightly in that leaning position as he pulled its trigger. The augmented suit helped him stabilize his arm as the kickback sent by the rifle transmitted through his body and into the bike.

nAkira’s body was subjected to an intense force. His bones started to crack and his flesh started to tear open, thus the medicines that he consumed beforehand immediately activated and started healing his micro-wounds and injuries. But even before his body could be completely healed, he was subjected to even more burden and new wounds started to open up again. He had to endure the pain as his body went through that cycle again.

nWhen his bike suddenly decelerated to make a sharp turn, all the cannon insects around the area immediately turned to Akira. But when the bike decelerated enough, it suddenly accelerated again while still keeping its tilted position before the cannon insects could shoot at him. As countless warheads hit the ground where Akira was just a moment ago, he just kept pacing his bike alongside the swarm in a tilted position while keeping his finger on the trigger of his AAH rifle.

nSince the cannon insects had no pivot to rotate their guns, they had to readjust their whole body when they aim at something. As they were reorienting their position, Akira released countless bullets towards the swarm.

nThe bullets spewed from Akira’s AAH rifle hit the robots that were resupplying the cannon insects. If he was able to destroy the machines resupplying the cannon insects, then all the cannon insects would only turn into moving target practices once they depleted their ammos. That was why Akira prioritized destroying them first.

nDue to Alpha’s advanced target support, most of the bullets hit the weak points of the mechanical monsters. The monsters that got their leg connections destroyed, struggled to keep standing. While the resupplying robots that had a magazine-like body exploded when they got hit and took out the monsters within its explosion radius.

nThe cannon insects pushed the ability of their small legs to their maximum as they turned with a speed that was not befitting of their size and immediately blasted their cannons. Warheads flew past Akira’s side and landed not too far from him throwing rocks and dust into the air.

nAkira puckered his face from the pain assaulting his body and the shockwave from the explosions.

n“Alpha!! That one was really dangerous, you know?!!!”

n“But thanks to that, you didn’t get hit at all. And that’s all that matters, right? That aside, is your left leg okay?”

n“It hurts like hell, feels like my bone will break or my flesh will tear off if I do that again.”

n“Then that means we have to do it with your right leg next time.”

n“Is there any options where I don’t have to do that?”

n“Of course there is. You just have to buy a bigger and better gun. Now that you have an augmented suit, you should be able to handle those guns easily.”

n“So in short, I don’t have any other choices at the moment, huh?”

nAkira looked annoyed as he sent his gaze at Alpha, but she just smiled.

n“Of course I’ll try to avoid such a situation as much as I can, but you’ll have to do it when you are left with no other choice. Remember that it was your decision now that we’re in this situation, right? So don’t start complaining, okay?”

n“Yeah yeah, I get it already!!”

nAlthough Akira did not regret his choice, painful stuff was still painful to him. But he tried to forget the pain by answering back in an annoyed tone.

nAfter that, Akira used his AAH rifle to prioritize shooting down the resupplying robots. Although the AAH rifle did not inflict much damage to the cannon insects, it was able to somehow destroy the relatively weaker resupplying robots.

nThe resupplying robots looked like a big magazine with small legs attached to it and they resupplied the cannon insect by connecting to their backside. Akira realized that and noticed that they would blow up together with the cannon insects if he shot them. Akira’s mood got better and better every time he blew up one of those monsters.

n“Alright then, next! We already took down most of them!”

n“This is going very well. The other Hunters are also working hard, we can win this battle at this rate.”

nOnce most of the resupplying robots were taken out, the bombardment from the cannon insects started to weaken. The Hunters had also closed their distance to the swarm. Since most of the Hunters had bigger firepower than Akira, they wiped out the swarm in no time.

nThe last few cannon insects were only standing in their place without doing anything. They already ran out of ammo and there were no more resupplying robots around them. The Hunters just walked to them and crushed them in order to vent all of their pent up frustration and stress. Eventually, all the cannon insects turned into wreckages and the battle had come to a closure.

nAkira let out a big sigh, he was very tired.

n“…It finally ends, huh. Avoiding warheads while shooting at monsters… Although we somehow pulled it off, I don’t want to do that ever again.”

n“That would have been a hard fight if it was not for this bike. As I thought, it’s still too early for you, Akira.”

n“Is it because of my equipment? Or my skill?”

n“Both. Or more like, you lack everything.”

n“…Although I have an augmented suit now and your amazing support, I’m still not that good, huh?”

nAkira was a bit depressed. He thought that he got a big power-up ever since he got his augmented suit. But now it was as if his incapability was thrown right at his face.

nAlpha smiled and tried to cheer him up.

n“If you can get strong in one night, then we won’t be doing all of those training up until now. So let’s keep on working hard in the future too.”

nAkira just changed his mood and faintly smiled back.

n“You’re right. There’s no other choice but to work hard, huh… That aside, I wonder how they are going to distribute the reward from this. We worked really hard this time, so I’m looking forward to a big reward. Although to be honest, I don’t really know how they are going to decide on my reward.”

n“Well, I suppose it’ll be at least enough for you to stay in a room with a bath. So you can look forward to having a good rest today.”

n“That’s true, I guess I’ll just do that.”

nAkira took a short rest before returning back to the truck. When he arrived, the other Hunters who went back to the truck before him welcomed Akira.

n“That was amazing. I thought you were planning to be a decoy since you went out only with an AAH rifle. But that was really something.”

n“Well, it’s the famous AAH rifle after all.”

nAlthough Akira was half-joking when he said that, the guy looked convinced with the answer.

n“Are you, by any chance, an AAH fan? Is that gun a modified AAH rifle?”

n“AAH fan? Well, I do like the rifle though. After all, I bought it from my acquaintance’s shop, but I didn’t particularly put any modification on it.”

n“In that case, that would mean your acquaintance is actually selling modified rifles without telling you. Fans tend to do that in order to get more people loving their favourite gun. Well, if a Hunter like you really like that rifle, I bet there’ll be more people liking that gun in the near future. As expected of a famous rifle.”

nAkira did not fully understand the reasoning, so he asked Alpha.

n“Alpha, what is this AAH fan thingy?”

n“I think it refers to the people who really like AAH rifle.”

n“Well, I can at least understand that much though, but still…”

n“If you’re curious about it, you should investigate it later by yourself. It’s also a type of training, after all.”

n“…Alright.”

nAs Akira was still wondering about the meaning of those words, another Hunter came up to him. He looked hesitant when he spoke to Akira.

n“I’m sorry but we got more injured Hunters. We already used all of our medicines. If you have some to spare, can you sell some to us again?”

n“Sure, I should still have some left…”

nAs Akira lowered his rucksack and gun, pulled out a box of medicines, and was about to hand it over. He suddenly had a really bad feeling, as a matter of fact, it was the worst one that he felt that day. Suddenly a monster appeared near Akira and the other Hunters and it was running straight to them.

nIt was a relatively big sized biological monster with a powerful and durable body. It ignored bullets that were flying towards it as it shoved aside corpses and wreckages when it ran towards the truck before it was knocked down by a powerful blast.

nThe Hunters thought that it was dead, but it actually was only knocked unconscious. During the fierce battle that just happened, they did not have the time to check if all the downed monsters around them were really killed. Thus they left this monster alone thinking that it was dead.

nOnce the monster regained its consciousness, it followed its bestial instinct to attack the nearest human, and the nearest human was Akira.

nAkira moved to shoot that monster, but he realized that he had no gun in his hands. He quickly tried to reach for his gun that he dropped on the ground. But that sequence of thinking made his reaction slow down even more.

nAkira’s late reaction turned his situation for the worst as the monster was already right in front of him with its big mouth wide open.

nI won’t make it in time!!! I’m really dead now!!

nAs the world felt like it was running in slow motion, Akira could feel the death that was creeping onto him.

nIn the next moment, Akira’s augmented cloth moved on its own. His whole body rotated with his left leg as a pivot as Akira raised his right leg at the same time. The augmented suit ignored its user’s safety and mustered all of its strength, thus for a spare second, Akira’s strength and ability broke through the limit of a mere human and transcended into the realm of a superhuman.

nAkira’s right leg sliced through the air and drove into the head of the monster that was right in front of him with enough power that it would be able to easily send metal wreckages flying.

nBut even with that much power, it was not able to kill the monster. Although it recoiled back from the kick, it did not fall to the ground. The strong shock on its head only stopped its movement momentarily.

nDuring that opening, Akira’s arm quickly reached for his AAH rifle on its own. Although he was still very confused, Akira quickly regained its composure as he immediately shoved his gun into that monster’s mouth and pulled the trigger. As he held the trigger of his gun, the bullets spewed out from its muzzle tore through the monster’s head from the inside.

nBut even so, it was only enough to fatally injure the monster and not enough to kill it. Akira firmly held the trigger and emptied his magazine into the monster’s mouth. There was a moment of silence after which the monster’s large body fell down to the ground and never moved again for the second time.

nAkira was breathing roughly.

n“W-was that you who moved my body, Alpha?”

n“Yep. You should quickly treat your wounds before your augmented suit stops working.”

n“Stop working? Is it broken?”

n“It’s running low on energy. Although I was able to increase its power output above its limit for a few seconds, it consumed a huge amount of energy in that short amount of time. I didn’t have any other choice back then, you know. But since I pushed it past its limit, it might be broken, we should make a thorough check later.”

nAkira sat down. His whole body was pulsing in pain, especially his right leg.

n“…My right leg, I wonder if it is broken.”

n“Well, I did harden the augmented suit as hard as it could, but since it’s not designed with user protection as one of its main functions, there was a limit on how hard it can go. If you don’t heal your leg, you won’t be able to walk back home you know. So you should quickly treat your leg.”

nAkira quickly picked up his rucksack and took out some medicines.

n“I just need to swallow them, right? Since it’s a broken bone, it’s not like I should open up my leg to apply the medicine directly onto my broken bone, right?”

n“In the worst-case scenario, you have no other choice but to do that, you know? For now, you just need to straighten your broken bone and swallow the medicine. It might take some time to fully heal your broken bone, but I think that will be fine at the moment. So, should I help you straighten the broken bone?”

n“…Yes, please.”

nAfter that, Akira’s hands started moving on their own and grabbed his right leg. Alpha then partially turned off some parts of the augmented suit, thus the augmented suit regained its elasticity and weight. And with that, the whole augmented suit forcefully straightened Akira’s broken bone.

nIntense pain immediately assaulted Akira, he gritted his teeth and endured the intense pain. After that, Akira took his medicine box and poured all the medicines inside that box into his mouth. As he swallowed all of those medicines, the analgesic inside the medicine immediately dulled his pain, but even so, he could still feel the healing nanomachines quickly gathering around his right leg.

nAs he strongly squeezed the empty medicine box, Akira’s eyes met with the eyes of the guy from before. He quickly grabbed his rucksack and confirmed that he did not have many medicines left with him. He hesitated for a bit before he decided to hand over one box to that man. That Hunter received the box, stopped for a moment and then returned the box back to Akira. Akira looked puzzled when that Hunter did that, but he just smiled and said to Akira.

n“There’s no way I can accept that box when someone who’s as good as you make that face. Not to mention that you already gave me a box before.”

n“Are you sure?”

n“Yeah, the Hunters are not that badly injured anyway. They’ll be okay if we just let them rest.”

nThe other Hunters came running as they heard gunshots, then the guy in front of Akira shouted at them.

n“There was a monster that just lost consciousness and was not dead yet!! Go and check the other monsters, if you find any of them with their head intact, shoot them a few times in the head as a precaution!!”

nThe other Hunters quickly picked up their guns in panic. All of the Hunters there, including Akira, had lowered their guard as they thought that the battle was over, thus it took some time before the Hunters were able to return their guard back up.

nThe Hunters who just repelled the assault from the cannon insects swarm were once again waiting for reinforcement.

nAkira used his injury as a reason to take a rest as the other Hunters kept monitoring the surroundings. The reason why none of them complained when Akira was resting was because they acknowledged Akira’s hard work.

nAkira started to prepare himself for another fight. Of course, he hoped that there would be no more battle, but the world did not care about his wishes. Thus he had no other choice but to prepare himself.

nHe replaced the power source of his augmented suit with a new energy pack before his augmented suit ran out of energy and turned into a mere dead weight heavy suit. He then took a full magazine and inserted it into his AAH rifle. He also attached some spare magazines around his augmented suit. When he finished, his right leg was almost fully healed. With this, he was ready to go for another round.

nAkira stared inside his rucksack and let out the biggest sigh of the day. He only had a spare amount of reserve ammo and healing medicines.

n“…I don’t have much left, I need to replenish my ammo reserve when I get back… I’m going to get a reward from this, right?”

nAlpha smiled and tried to cheer him up.

n“I don’t know for sure how much that bike is, but you fought quite a lot today, so I’m sure the reward will be enough to cover it. So don’t worry, it’ll be fine.”

n“Is that so? Well, I guess you’re right.”

nAkira decided to just accept her explanation. Although he remembered Alpha once said to him that she did not know for sure how much reward he would get, Akira just decided to forget that part for now. After all, he would feel better this way.

nAs the day turned darker and the sun was about to set, reinforcements finally arrived.

nThey decided to tow back the broken truck back to the city. As they were preparing to tow back the trucks, Akira just sat on his bike and waited for them to finish. Suddenly, Kibayashi waved at him. He looked like he was in a good mood.

n“Yo there! So you’re still alive, huh!! I heard everything from the other Hunters, you did a crazy thing back there. To be honest, I thought that you’d be definitely dead by now. It seems that my ability to judge people has gone bad, huh. But at least, I was correct when I said that you are a Hunter who would challenge a reckless, impossible and even futile things.”

nAkira frowned a bit when Kibayashi said that he thought Akira was definitely dead by now. But he was able to understand Kibayashi’s opinion, thus he controlled himself and didn’t retaliate.

n“…The bike was really useful, so thank you for the bike.”

n“I’m glad to hear that. It was the right choice to give you that bike. And that’s doubly true if it helped you do those crazy things.”

n“Ah, right. About the emergency request that I accepted, what should I do before it’s considered finished? Is it until these Hunters return safely back to the city?”

n“Ah, about that, wait for a sec.”

nKibayashi pulled out his information terminal and operated it.

n“Alright, I’ve finished registering your accomplishment for the emergency request. You can do whatever you want now.”

n“Is that it? Is it really okay not to escort those Hunters back to the city?”

n“Yeah, after all, we came here because of another aid request. The monster group that headed to the city from Kuzusuhara ruins was already annihilated by the defense squad. So that emergency request has ended. Because of that, we have the leeway to send some people to help other Hunters now.”

n“Ohh, I see.”

n“Now that you mention it, do you want to take the aid request too? If you want to accept that request, I’ll help you with the registration here and now.”

nAkira looked so tired as he shook his head.

n“…No thanks. Since I’m done with the emergency request, I’ll go ahead and return back to the city first. After all, I already used most of my ammo reserves and not to mention that I’m really tired now.”

n“Well, that’s just too bad. I was actually hoping to see what kind of crazy things you would do if we get attacked on our way back, you know.”

n“…Hahaha, give me a break already. Well then, I’ll head back first.”

n“Be careful on your way back, okay? If you’re going to die, make sure that you die doing something really crazy. So don’t drop dead because of something lame like tripping off your bike, okay?”

nAkira felt even more tired as he saw Kibayashi so excited and in such a good mood. He then let out a sigh and went ahead to the city.

nAs Kibayashi was seeing Akira off with a big smile, another Hunter Office staff came to him and reported.

n“Kibayashi-san, I’ve checked the history log data from the battle. It seems that the damage on the truck was mostly done on its driving function, thus we were able to easily retrieve the data, but… There’s this one weird data…”

n“Weird data?”

n“For some reason, there’s this one Hunter who made a strange move, or more like, a reckless move. There’s this ridiculous data saying that this Hunter charged right into the monster swarm all alone and started shooting at the swarm. It might also be because of some kind of a malfunction in the information gathering device though…”

nKibayashi burst out in laughter when he heard that report. He then said to the other staff.

n“Ask the other Hunters to check whether that data is correct or not. No, wait, I’ll do that. Don’t go ahead deleting the data even when you think that it’s from a malfunction, okay? Aaaah, or more like, just send the data to me and I’ll check it later. I’ll go and ask the Hunters in the tray, you just go ahead and start driving once the preparation is complete.”

n“Yessir.”

nThat staff then returned back to his job of preparing the truck for moving out. As for Kibayashi, he smiled and mumbled.

n“…That boy, he was crazy enough to even make the staff doubt the data huh. That’s really nice!! It’s been so long since the last time I met a Hunter with this much zest!!!”

nKibayashi was in a really good mood that day.

nSilavin: God. It seems like his body is falling apart. I wonder if this was what caused the others that Alpha had dealings with to break down?

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