Rebuild World 34

Index

Drankam's base was located near Kugamayama city's lower district. It was a huge complex sitting on a wide ground, complete with huge warehouses and buildings lined inside. It even had a large shooting ground inside it. The Hunter Office also built a branch in the complex. This displayed the power and influence of the gang.

Katsuya was undergoing his shooting training inside the indoor shooting ground while making a serious face. His face was clearly showing the frustration he was feeling due to his lack of strength.

He kept on training without even taking a break. He was already strained both physically and mentally, because of which, his accuracy was declining.

He understood that it would be meaningless even if he continued. But he felt like all the bullets that missed its target were mocking him. This made him obstinate as he continued his training in order to shake off that feeling.

Yumina and Airi were worried as they looked over at Katsuya. They were watching the heartbreaking scene where Katsuya continued his training despite the uncountable reminder of failure. They couldn't stand it anymore and called out to him.

“Katsuya. You should take a rest.”

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“It's better if you take a rest, continuing this way will only make you more tired instead of making you better.”

But even so, Katsuya kept on persisting in his training. Yumina then walked over to Katsuya and placed her hand on his gun, as Katsuya turned and met her eyes, she shook her head.

Katsuya finally placed his gun down, he hung his head low and mumbled in frustration.

“If only… If only I was stronger…!!”

“…It's not your fault.”

“We did the best we could. Just like you, everyone else was also prepared for it, it was not your fault.”

For Airi and Yumina, watching the current Katsuya was much more painful than the incident that happened yesterday.

Drankam dispatched a lot of its Hunters during yesterday's big battle.

It was a compulsory request for veterans like Shikarabe unless they were injured, or had any other reasons that made it impossible for them to accept the request. But most of these Hunters thought that it was a nice chance to earn a lot of money, thus they took the request voluntarily. Even Shikarabe was excited as he prepared himself and left for the request together with the other Hunters.

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Young Hunters like Katsuya may join the battle, but it was not compulsory for them. As for Drankam itself, the gang wanted to avoid sending inexperienced young Hunters to a battle against a swarm of monsters that even warrant the city to send its defense squad. But of course, the city welcomed any extra firepower, and it was also an emergency request coming from the Corporate Government. But, because of that, the Hunter gangs could prohibit the young Hunters from taking the request. In the end, they took a stance where young Hunters were allowed but not forced to join the battle.

But the young Hunters thought that it was a nice chance to make other Hunters recognize their ability since they were often despised due to their young age. So a lot of young Hunters opted to take the request. Katsuya was the first one to raise his voice and so did a lot of young Hunters, who were sent to the battleground.

The young Hunters were sent in groups of 10. They were stationed a bit further away from the main battleground where the city's defense squad clashed fiercely against the main monster swarm.

Katsuya and the other Hunters had a hard fight against the smaller groups of monsters that detached from the main swarm. They were able to test their ability in that battle. As a result, 7 of them were able to return home with the glory and money that they earned from that fierce battle, while the other 3 were claimed forever by the wasteland.

All the dead Hunters in his group were Katsuya's close friends. They had gone through the hard training together and shared the dream of becoming great Hunters. But after that fierce battle, Katsuya was only able to return back with their dead bodies.

Katsuya blamed himself and drove into a corner, thinking that he could have saved them if only he was stronger.

Yumina gently hugged Katsuya from behind.

“…Let's grow stronger so that we can protect everyone next time. I'll also help, so let's take a rest now, okay?”

Airi also conveyed her will to help Katsuya.

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“I'll help too.”

Because of that, Katsuya was finally able to cheer up a bit, although he was still in remorse. He then tried his best to put up a smile as a gesture of gratitude towards Yumina and Airi.

“…You're right. Sorry to make you worry. The three of us were at least able to return alive. I'll give my best so I can protect you two next time.”

“I'll be looking forward to that.”

“That would be great.”

Seeing how Katsuya was finally cheering up, Airi and Yumina were finally able to smile again.

While at another site, Shikarabe was called by his friend Arabe, who was also one of the officers in Drankam.

“It's kinda rare for you to call me like this, do you need anything? If it's about that debt from the battle, I should've repaid that with my contribution in the Frontline. Or is it that I'm here for another lecture?”

The defense squad that clashed with the main monster swarm consisted of a private army equipped with tanks, humanoid weapons, heavy-armed cyborgs and Hunters with a powerful augmented suit. In short, each of the monsters in the swarm was so powerful that only soldiers with those kinds of equipment could stand a chance against them.

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In the last battle, Shikarabe's squad was positioned near the main battleground. Despite the danger, he was able to earn quite a lot of money. So it was not like it was a bad thing for him, but he did not like the reason why he was positioned there. Although he only got to know it later, he was actually positioned in such a dangerous place as punishment after making that ruckus arguing with Katsuya during the patrol job.

In such a dangerous place where he could be blown away by the shockwave from the main battleground, he did so well that it would definitely bring fame to the gang. So if he got another scolding after doing so much, he was planning to give Arabe a piece of his mind.

Arabe smiled bitterly and tried to calm him down.

“I was not even included when they made that decision, you know. So don't vent it on me, will you? Well, due to the gang's policy, we prioritize getting more young Hunters. So, it's understandable for something like that to happen. Although it's not like I did this as a form of an apology, I just adjusted the assignment so you don't have to look over those children again. So calm down and cheer up, okay?”

“…Very well then, sorry I was venting on you.”

“Don't worry, I can understand. I too don't want to get assigned to watch over children anyway.”

Shikarabe cheered up after the friendly banter.

“So then, if it's not for small talk, then why did you call me here?”

“Ahhh, well, it's about those children that you don't have to watch over anymore. Those guys were assigned in a group of 10 and sent into a quite dangerous place, but then I heard they did very well, you know. Even without someone to watch over them, only 3 of them were killed. Looking at their achievements, they are pretty competent. Not to mention that they already had some brushes with death and returned back alive. Don't you think they've graduated from being conceited young Hunters?”

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As Shikarabe heard those words that sounded as if Arabe recognized their abilities, he replied back with strict critiques.

“Well, I'm not really sure. Looking from the other perspective, it can also be said that they had to sacrifice 3 people to be able to get back alive. I think it's too fast to approve their abilities. I'm sure Katsuya's thinking that he would have been able to protect everyone if only he was stronger. That's just stupid. Even if he gets 1,000,000,000 times stronger, he'll just get sent to a place that's 1,000,000,000 times more dangerous and he'll lose some of his friends there again. What he really needs is the ability to know his own capability.”

“So, does that mean that he has no talent for being a Hunter?”

Shikarabe went silent for a moment after hearing that before he answered the question with a serious face.

“Talent-wise, he's more talented than me or you. It's extremely rare to be able to find someone as talented as him. He'll be a great Hunter if we train him well. If we keep polishing him and sending him to dangerous battlegrounds, there's no mistaking it that he'll be an extraordinary Hunter.”

Arabe looked very surprised.

“That was quite a compliment. I thought you hated him.”

“I'm not a fool that I would let my personal feelings cloud my evaluation. Even you know just how talented he is, right? Isn't that why you're prioritizing him? Am I wrong?”

“Well. I wouldn't assign you to watch over him otherwise, you know. I originally thought of having you to train him, but it seems that you can't get along with him. Can you at least endure it for a bit more? It's worth making him indebted to you while you can, you know?”

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Shikarabe looked annoyed as he lashed back.

“No thanks. First of all, that's only true if he's really going to be a great Hunter in the future. I did say that he would be one if we keep training him, but there's no way I would be his grinding stone. I have no plans of becoming a stepping stone for his bright future. Not to mention that there are already 3 people that died because of him, you know? If he did not stir them up, those young Hunters would not even think of going to that battle in the first place, right? Having people close to him dead would make him more disciplined and make him grow up as a man. But it is all over for the people who died. So what I'm saying here is that I have no wish to die just to make him grow as a Hunter.”

As Shikarabe's mood turned worse, Arabe let out a big sigh.

“You always find something to critique about, that's exactly why we can't decide the next young Hunter to be assigned under you.”

“Yeah, I can understand that. I don't want to be assigned to watch over any young Hunters after all.”

Arabe was originally thinking of assigning Shikarabe back to Katsuya's group after letting him off for a while so that he could calm down. But seeing how much Shikarabe despised Katsuya, he completely scrapped that plan and changed to another.

“Do you know anyone that might happily watch over him?”

When he said that, Arabe meant for Shikarabe not to pick someone out of grudge. But with that being said, Arabe thought that Shikarabe would never intentionally pick someone bad anyway. And as expected, Shikarabe answered back seriously and even came up with some names.

“Elena and Sara, how about those two? It seems that he really likes them, if I'm not mistaken, Drankam is also trying to recruit those two, right?”

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“We're still in negotiation about it, but it doesn't look good.”

“Then just make them watch over him through training requests. They've been doing some requests together lately, right?”

“Having them accompanying him and actually training him are two completely different things. The amount of the reward will also be different. Not to mention that it's not that simple to employ someone from outside the gang, you know?”

Looking at how Arabe frowned while racking his brain, Shikarabe smiled teasingly since his friend had completely changed from doing Hunter work into running the gang.

“That'll be your job together with the other officers, so good luck with that.”

“I know that. So, about those two, are they skilled enough?”

“I can't really say much about their teaching ability. But as Hunters, they are extremely skilled. I don't think there are many Hunters in Drankam who are on par with their skills. I saw them during yesterday's battle, they were able to completely annihilate the camouflaged monsters. Although they had some hard time, they were able to quickly regain the upper hand.”

“Is that so? I'll offer more rewards and see how it goes from there. I'm sure those people in the management would shut up if I say that I'm doing it as an initial step for inviting them to join Drankam.”

Shikarabe pulled back his head and grumbled.

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“The people in the management, huh? I really hope they would try to understand the difficulties that we're facing in the field.”

Arabe laughed bitterly.

“Well, it'll be troublesome if they're not around too. It's just one of those disadvantages when the gang grows this big.”

“And we're the ones suffering from that, you know.”

“In that case, how about you join the officers too? You can help me fix this problem, you know?”

Arabe smiled, challenging Shikarabe, but Shikarabe just smiled back and said.

“No thanks, I'm not suitable for working behind the desk like you.”

“Geez, and so you threw that job to me, huh.”

After that, Shikarabe and Arabe laughed together at their displeasure with Drankam.

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Elena and Sara were buying ammo and medicines from Shizuka's shop. They looked tired, but among those two, Elena looked especially tired.

“Shizuka. We're taking the usual, but triple the amount.”

“That's a lot. And you look very tired too, was the battle so worse?”

Shizuka shifted her gaze from Elena to Sara's face before sliding down to Sara's b.r.e.a.s.t. Sara's suit could not hold back her glorious b.r.e.a.s.ts the last time Shizuka met her, but this time, her suit was able to hold them in.

“…Yep, it seems that it was a hard fight, huh?”

As Sara was the main firepower among the two, she would spend quite a lot of nanomachines when she used the heavy and powerful gun which had a strong kickback even if it was used only for a short period of time. Not to mention, Sara would die if she depleted the nanomachines inside her b.r.e.a.s.ts. Elena understood that well, that was why she always strategized such that Sara would not use too much of her nanomachines. But, even so, Sara spent a huge portion of her nanomachine reserve in the last battle. It showed just how brutal and chaotic the battle was. Shizuka was able to understand that just by looking at Sara's b.r.e.a.s.t size.

Sara just smiled bitterly.

“I really hope you would stop coming up with such a conclusion from my b.r.e.a.s.t size though. Well, the reward was worth all the hard work. I think they distributed extra rewards for the Hunters who came back alive in order to avoid any complaints.”

Elena joined the conversation and grumbled.

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“There were monsters which could camouflage, you know. All the Hunters with investigative devices were suddenly sent near the main battleground, it was hell, you know. So it's not my fault for complaining.”

Shizuka gently smiled.

“If they gave you enough reward to stop you from complaining, you should use it to buy some stuff from my shop. Let's see, if it's for you, Elena…”

Shizuka, who was about to recommend some of her goods to Elena, looked closely at Elena's equipment and found something weird.

“Now that I think about it, Elena, you don't use an augmented suit, right? Even Akira who just became a Hunter bought one not too long ago, you know? So how about you buy one too?”

“…Augmented suit, huh? Hmmm… Well…”

Elena let out a long “Hmmmmm” before she smiled faintly and said.

“…I thought that I can still go on for a while without an augmented suit though, but I guess it's better if I buy one soon, huh?”

Those from the eastern district had higher physical abilities than most of the common people. Although there were individual differences, they were able to attain superb physical ability with enough training.

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But from time to time, some people with abnormally high physical ability would appear. There were also people who had gone through long and hard training in order to have a strength equal to the people with an augmented suit even without equipping an augmented suit themselves. These people were called super-human and they were able to destroy a tank with their bare hands.

Even right now, no one knew for sure why such a thing happened. There were many theories floating around like they were descendants of the people from the west who could slay numerous monsters with their bare hand or just a sword. Some even thought that they were descendants of physically enhanced humans using the technology of the old world.

The reason why Elena was able to carry all of the heavy information gathering devices without an augmented suit was because of her training and not because she was a super-human. For Sara who nearly had the same power as a person with an augmented suit, Elena was relatively weak.

There was no precise way to measure the physical strength of a person. Those who aimed to be superhuman had no other choice but to believe they were superhuman and keep on training. Not to mention, there was a rumor saying that using an augmented suit would stop your physical ability from improving because training would be meaningless at that point.

Because of that reason, plus they were in an economical problem until recently, Elena did not have the leeway of buying an augmented suit. But the money problem, or to be more precise, Sara's nanomachine reserve problem was already solved. Thus Elena thought that it might be a good chance to renew her equipment and give up increasing her physical ability through normal training.

“Well, it's true that this is a good chance to do that. Shizuka, can you pick something good for me?”

Shizuka looked troubled, both she and her shop were not specialized in an augmented suit, after all.

“Stop that, you should go to the right shop for it. Go ask an expert about it and buy an augmented suit from them. I'm sure you can buy one with the reward money that both of you received, right?”

“Well, it's fine, isn't it? I heard that you picked Akira's augmented suit, you know. So you're already experienced in choosing one, right? I want to buy all my equipment from the same shop. Not to mention, I don't like the measuring device in the speciality shop. I just don't feel comfortable with that measuring device which measures my body up to the tiniest detail. I can understand that if one wants to get a custom made augmented suit that fits perfectly on their body, but it's not like I'm planning to buy something that expensive.”

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“In that case then, you pick an augmented suit then I'll put the order for it. Gathering and analyzing information to come up with a conclusion is your speciality after all, right?”

“I'm asking you to choose one since you usually have a good intuition, you know. And not to mention that nothing you suggested has gone wrong up until now. So, won't you do that for me? Just think of it as a service for your frequent customers. Since you did that for Akira, you can at least do that for us who have been coming to this shop for a longer time, you know?”

Shizuka finally gave up and let out a bitter smile. She then answered back jovially as she was smiling.

“It can't be helped then. I'll make you buy a very expensive one, so you better be ready for it.”

After hearing Elena wish to buy an augmented suit, Shizuka suddenly remembered something.

“Augmented suit, huh? Just a question though, but do you turn super strong just by equipping one?”

Sara answered Shizuka's question.

“Of course not. An augmented suit is nothing more than a piece of equipment, you can't be strong unless you train. It's not a rare occurrence for a Hunter to have difficulties in performing simple movements because of the sudden increase in strength, you know. But well, if we're talking about an augmented suit from the old world, I guess it's to be expected for you to suddenly become strong without any additional training. Although I'm enhancing my strength with nanomachines, I still had to go through hard training to be this strong, you know?”

“…Well, I thought so too.”

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There was no mistaking that Akira got that huge amount of money from yesterday's big battle. But even so, it was still not normal. He should not have had much time to train himself properly, not to mention that he fought against the mechanical monsters only with his AAH rifle that was not an effective rifle against such an enemy. It was hard to believe that he would return alive from that battle with 12,000,000 Aurum.

Shizuka was still bothered by it, that was why she clarified with Elena and Sara. And Sara's answer confirmed that it was indeed a weird situation. But as she was looking at Sara, she remembered what she talked about with Sara not too long ago. And suddenly, everything made sense.

[…As I thought, Akira is someone who can connect to the old world domain. But his augmented suit should have nothing to do with it. After all, I was the one who picked that augmented suit for him. Ah, now that I think about it, he did ask for some specific functions. I wonder if those functions are very useful to someone who can connect to the old world domain.]

As Shizuka was about to dig deeper, she suddenly decided to stop there.

[Well, it's not like I can ask him about it. I guess I should stop trying to dig any deeper.]

Curiosity killed the cat. If she pried too deep, it might rub Akira the wrong way. As Shizuka thought of that, she decided to stop thinking about it.

In the middle of their silly talk, Elena suddenly asked.

“On another subject though, Shizuka, what do you think about the battle?”

“Even if you ask me, I don't know much outside what was reported. Is there anything strange in the report?”

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There was a big wall display in Shizuka's shop. It was set to mainly show information about the Corporate Government, the City, the Hunter Office, or any other Hunter related information. As Shizuka turned the display on, it was showing the news about that attack. A woman from the Corporate Government was delivering the news.

“The Corporate Government had come into conclusion that yesterday's monster attack from the Kuzusuhara ruins was a terror attack instigated by the nationalists. There were already a number of confirmed statements from some terrorist groups. They were saying that this is a holy war against the eastern district ruled by the Corporate Government that's treating them unfairly. The Corporate Government immediately took action in response to this statement in order to protect the people from the terrorist group which disrupted the peace in the eastern district…”

Sara then worded out her opinion about the news.

“The nationalists, huh? I bet that's the reason why the request dispatcher was the Corporate Government. If they had that information before the incident happened, I really hope they would do something about it. Well, it's not like I have anything to complain about the reward though.”

It was a big thing in the eastern district when the Corporate Government was the one issuing the request, not to mention that the reward would also be abnormally huge. After all, if the reward was too small, it would hurt the Corporate Government's reputation, and it was even more important when it came to requests regarding the nationalists.

The nationalists aimed to form a nation. There were a lot of them in the eastern district so the Corporate Government could not afford to just ignore them. They also received help from the Federation of Nations in the central district which worsened the situation in the eastern district. These nationalists often invaded and occupied a city and declared independence from the Corporate Government. When that happened, the situation often developed into a full-blown war. Because of that, a lot of cities had turned into a mountain of wreckages which ended up as a big expenditure for the Corporate Government.

Elena could not agree with the news.

“To be honest, I don't think this city holds so much influence that the nationalists would aim for this city. Baiting monsters from the deeper part of the ruins like that would definitely need a lot of sacrifices from the nationalist's side. Not to mention that it would affect their current standing among the other nationalists. It's questionable how much of that news is the truth. What do you think, Shizuka?”

Shizuka spent a bit of time thinking before answering.

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“They're not lying. The story fits the situation. But there's something that still bothers me. But again, about that part… It's not like we can do anything about it, right?”

No matter what was actually happening behind the scene, it was not like it would cause any loss to them. At least that was what Shizuka's intuition was telling her.

Elena and Shizuka changed the subject of their conversation.

“That's true. Since they gave us such a huge reward, I don't think it's something for us, the Hunters, to worry about. Rather than talking about that, let's focus more on how we are going to spend the reward money. Shizuka, with that being said, I'm counting on you for the augmented suit, okay?”

“Sure, remember that you're the one who told me to choose, okay? No matter what I pick, you'll have to use it, okay? Don't come running at me crying later, alright?”

Shizuka smiled fearlessly while teasing Elena.

Shizuka's intuition that day was on point like usual.

An armed squad was marching to the deeper part of the Kuzusuhara ruins. Their guns were on a different level compared to the common Hunters around the Kugamayama city and their coordination showed that they were trained soldiers.