Rebuild World 86

Index

Akira was running through the long hallway in the underground ruin. Although him, Elena and Sara were still in good shape, Revin and his men were barely able to keep up, they were close to their limit.

Revin suddenly asked them to slow down.

“Wait, wait, I don't think I can go any longer!! Can you at least slow down a bit?”

Elena immediately replied back.

“No, if you can't keep up, we'll leave you behind. The longer we stay here, the dangerous it becomes. If you don't want to die, then keep on running. Just so you know, we're already running slower than usual even right now.”

“How exactly are you even doing that? Are you using that thing? That augmented suit thingy? None of us is using an augmented suit, you know. So please be kind.”

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“How in the world did you even think of coming to an unexplored ruin without it? Do you want to kill yourself or something?”

Elena's opinion was rather harsh, it might be because she knew just how bad their situation was, but what she said was not wrong.

Revin glanced at Akira, seeing how a Hunter younger than him was already using an augmented suit, he threw a question to Akira that sounded more like a complaint.

“Like I said, we came to this unexplored ruin expecting to return home with a lot of money so that we can buy better equipment, okay? Even you too bought that augmented suit after selling expensive relics, right?”

“Well, that's true. But in order to pay for it, I had to use almost all of my savings. Thanks to that, I had to live in an inn without a bath for a few days. It wasn't that easy getting this augmented suit.”

Akira vaguely recounted those days. Looking at his current equipment, it was unthinkable that he would have lived in such a situation.

Revin was a bit taken aback by Akira's unexpected reaction.

“I-I see.”

Elena then jabbed at Revin again.

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“I bet you spent all your money on women and booze, right? That's why you couldn't save enough money to buy good equipment. It's true that working as Hunters means that we would die anytime, but if you spend your money recklessly every day, there's no way you would be able to buy good equipment, you know?”

The moment he heard that remark, Revin immediately groaned. Elena's guess was spot on. His men also did the same, it was obvious that they realized they were also at fault.

Akira then asked Revin.

“Don't you have some medicines with you?”

“We already used all that we brought. It's not like we were able to run away from those monsters without getting injured at all.”

“I see, do you want to buy mine then? I still have quite a lot with me.”

“Really? Thanks and sorry, how much is it?”

“2,000,000 Aurum per box.”

“The heck? That's so expensive!! What's with that price? Just how much money do you guys want to squeeze out from us?!”

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Revin was thunderstruck by the price that he shouted in reflex. The price of that medicine was totally different from the price of the medicines that he and his men usually used.

But Akira replied calmly.

“It's the same price that I paid when I bought them. I'm not profiting from it, not even a single Aurum. Moreover, these medicines are powerful enough to save you even when you're already on your death's door. It's true that it's expensive, but it's way cheaper compared to my life. It's up to you to decide whether it's more expensive than your life or not. So, do you want to buy it?”

“…Still no.”

“I see, well, I won't force you.”

Revin and his men squeezed everything that they had to keep up with Akira, Elena and Sara as they were running through that long hallway. There was no doubt that they would experience severe muscle pain when they get back to the city.

He and his team were trapped for a long time in a situation where they did not have enough money to gather more money. Seeing how there was a younger Hunter in front of them who did well buying better equipment with the money that he saved in order to gather more money, they swore to themselves that they would also do the same from now on.

His men decided that they would stop spending their money on women and alcohol and use it for buying an augmented suit instead. Although It was a different story whether they would still think the same tomorrow too, but at least, they did think so now.

They eventually arrived in front of the stairs leading to the surface.

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But Elena suddenly turned back and stared at the hallway that they just passed. Her expression immediately turned grim, Akira and Sara reacted to that by staring back at the hallway too.

Revin and his men, who were barely able to catch up with them, felt that sudden mood change. He then nervously asked Elena while still trying to catch his breath.

“Hey, what's going on?”

Elena explained their current situation.

“If you don't want to die, climb the stairs as fast as you can, the monsters are coming.”

“…Hah?”

Revin's reaction was a little bit late, he was already both mentally and physically tired. He unconsciously did not want to admit that his situation was getting worse and it slowed his mind from processing the situation.

Elena then shouted at him.

“Don't just stand there and start running!! Do you really want to die that badly!??”

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Sounds started echoing from inside the hallway. They were the sounds of monsters' roars, hissing sounds from machines and some heavy stomping sounds.

Revin and his men also heard those sounds which quickly made them understand what was going on. They started taking the action that they should have taken way sooner as they desperately ran up the stairs with faces filled with terror and fear.

Sara readied her automatic grenade launcher and shot grenade shells toward the hallway. After explosions echoed through the hallway, the sounds from the monsters stopped. But not for long, they started to hear those sounds again from the hallway in no time, and those sounds were getting louder and louder.

Elena turned to Sara.

“Sara, I'll leave it to you to slow them down. We'll go to the surface and get ourselves ready to leave this place, so there's no need to hold this place for too long. You just need to buy some time and quickly retreat after that. If it seems that you won't be able to hold the monsters back while waiting for Revin and his men to retreat, you can just abandon them.”

Although they did receive an SOS request from Revin's team, Elena thought it would be all for naught if Sara fell here. They would save Revin's team if it was possible and just abandon them if that was impossible. That was all there was to it.

“Roger that. I'll be careful, so you guys need to be careful too, okay?”

Sara smiled when she said that. She then handed the other things that she did not need to Elena and Akira. After Elena and Akira received them, they quickly went up the stairs.

They then came across Revin and his team, who had started climbing the stairs, ahead of them. However, they were already exhausted. Although they were still swinging their legs, they were moving very slowly.

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Akira shouted at them.

“Want the medicine now?”

Akira would only wait for an answer until he passed beside them, so they only had a few seconds to answer.

Revin looked at Akira and shouted back.

“Dammit!! Give it to me!”

Akira then dropped a box of medicine beside Revin and his team as he kept running to the surface with Elena without slowing down.

Revin used his leftover power to pick up and open those medicines, he then took a capsule out from the box and swallowed it in a hurry.

He quickly regained his strength, even before the medicine actually started working due to the placebo effect from that 2,000,000 Aurum per box medicine. And when its effect started to kick in for real, as expected of expensive medicine, it immediately boosted his physical condition.

“…This thing works wonders! As expected of 2,000,000 Aurum per box medicine!!”

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He quickly handed over the medicine to his men. Now that they had recovered their vigour and power, they started running up the stairs as if they were completely different people from just a moment ago.

Akira and Elena climbed the stairs and reached the surface. They quickly scanned their surroundings and confirmed that there were no monsters near the entrance, they then went to their respective vehicles and got themselves ready to leave that place.

They parked their vehicles not too far from the entrance as not to block Sara's way out from that ruin, and then they waited for Sara and the other Hunters to come out from the entrance.

Akira looked down the stairs, he could see Revin and his men not too far down below, their expression was a mix of fear from the monsters and hope since they were already close to the surface.

But his expression immediately turned grim. He quickly jumped off from the driver seat and once again walked down the stairs, he could not see Sara behind Revin and his men.

Sara was slowly walking up the stairs while repelling the monsters that were approaching her. Her movements were relatively slow. It was obvious from the way she moved that she was injured. She might have gotten hit by some splinter as the blood that was flowing out from her head had already doused her face in red.

There were many reasons why she got injured, some of the monsters that she was fighting were stronger than the monsters usually found in the underground, some monsters had ranged weaponry, some tended to attack her even if they also injured the other monsters, she had no place to hide and she sometimes did not have enough time to evade the monsters' attacks. And above all, she took too long before she decided to retreat.

Although Sara thought that she was fighting just like usual, in reality, that was not true. If she was fighting like usual, she would not make a fatal mistake like taking too long a time before deciding to retreat. Elena had even told her to just abandon Revin and retreat when the push came to shove. If it was her usual self, she would have retreated sooner.

Sara then realized the reason why she made that fatal mistake.

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“…Ahhh, I see, I wanted to show my good side to Akira.”

Sara smiled, she was laughing at herself. As a veteran Hunter, she wanted to show off her skills to Akira. She wanted to amaze him by holding back the monsters without any trouble even when she had to protect Revin and his men. She wanted to live up to Akira's expectations since he always looked up at her as a great Hunter.

That feeling disrupted Sara's ability to make the right decision. It made her want to achieve a better result which caused her to take a more dangerous choice. It made her greedy.

Being able to stay collected and keep fighting calmly in that situation was enough to show her ability. Sara herself had no plans to die in that place, she had not given up returning back alive from that place. If only she had a few minutes of break, the nanomachines inside her body would quickly heal her wounds.

But as long as she was in the middle of a fight, her healing rate would be considerably slowed down. Just withstanding the kickback from her gun was enough to aggravate her wounds.

And even if she decided to drop her gun and ran up the stairs, in her current condition, the monsters would reach her first before she could reach the surface. Thus, she had no other choice but to slowly climb up the stairs while suppressing the monsters although it slowed down her healing rate. If she abandoned the only means she had to fight back, the monsters would catch up with her and she would be dead in no time. While on the other hand, she did not have unlimited ammo to fight back the monsters.

According to her experience as a veteran Hunter, it would be bad to keep doing the same thing. But at the same time, her experience was also telling her that there was no other viable choice. Sara just gritted her teeth as she continued fighting back the monsters.

Akira, who was running down the stairs, did not stop even after he spotted Sara and the monsters ahead of her. He did not slow down as he readied his CWH anti-material rifle and took an aim at those monsters.

“Alpha!”

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“Leave it to me!”

He showed no hesitation when he asked for Alpha's help. Alpha suddenly appeared within his view and replied to him, at the same time, her support was back online.

Akira pulled the trigger, he had already loaded his CWH anti-material rifle with CWH special ammo. Thanks to Alpha's support, his shooting was highly effective, even close to godly. The CWH special ammo that could even easily destroy tanks pierced through the monsters in the front and took out the monsters behind them too.

He did not slow down his shooting, he made quick work of the monsters that were running up the stairs. Due to Alpha's support, Akira was able to accurately snipe the weak points of his targets. The big monsters that got shot fell down and blocked the other monsters from climbing up the stairs. They then rolled down the stairs while taking some monsters down with them.

The monsters that formed the vanguard quickly fell and died one by one, but even so, the monsters behind them continued pushing forward without a care.

Akira was only carrying his CWH anti-material rifle since he decided to leave anything that might slow him down back in his vehicle, and that included his DVTS minigun. In exchange for the lowered firepower, he loaded CWH special ammo into his CWH anti-material rifle. Thanks to that, he was able to move relatively faster without sacrificing much firepower.

After Alpha quickly confirmed Sara's situation, she then gave a command to Akira.

“She's wounded, but her life is not in danger. Pick her up and start running, it's faster than repelling the monsters while waiting for her to recover.”

Akira used the kickback from his rifle to stop his momentum. He then quickly picked Sara up with his left hand and started running up the stairs. While he was ascending the stairs, he continued shooting at the monsters behind him without even looking back at them. Although it seemed like he was shooting randomly, he was actually properly aiming at the monsters with help from Alpha and his shots were also properly hitting those monsters.

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Although she was shocked at first, Sara understood that Akira was there to help her. She also understood that she would only slow him down if she made any needless moves, thus she obediently let Akira carry her to the surface.

Elena was still waiting for Akira and Sara on the surface, she quickly noticed that Akira went back down to help Sara, but it was not like she could leave her station too. She decided that the best course of action for her was to wait for Sara and Akira on the surface so that they all could leave the moment they escaped the ruin. Although there were no monsters around at the moment, monsters could appear anytime without notice, she could not afford to drop down her guard there.

Even after some time passed, Sara and Akira did not appear. Although to be more precise, she had been waiting only for a few seconds, but even a second felt too long for Elena and she just could not stand it. And it was enough to make her expression fill with desperation.

Her desperation was also felt by Revin and his team. They were all on Elena's vehicle since Akira left his vehicle with no driver.

Although Revin and his team looked relieved when they boarded her vehicle, looking at how Elena was waiting for Sara instead of leaving that place, they started to feel uneasy.

One of Revin's men mumbled nervously to her.

“…S-say, isn't it bad if we keep staying in this place…”

“Shut it.”

Elena snapped back at that guy. There was no trace of hatred when she said those words. Her calm voice carried an invisible pressure that shut that guy as he looked away from Elena.

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Then at the next moment, Akira came out from the ruin while carrying Sara. He immediately headed to his vehicle and jumped in. The moment he did that, his vehicle suddenly turned-on on its own.

Elena, who saw that, also quickly started her vehicle. The sudden acceleration threw Revin and his men out of balance and they hurried to grab on to anything.

Akira and Elena quickly sped their vehicle away from the entrance. Right after that, the monsters that were chasing Akira and Sara flooded out from inside that ruin, they were relatively small monsters, small enough to pass through the stairs.

Because he was in a hurry, he just threw Sara on the back seat. Alpha was already driving the vehicle. When Akira was about to sit on the driver seat, Alpha suddenly stopped him.

“Akira, I'll do the driving, you should take care of that side.”

“Which side?”

Akira turned to the direction where Alpha was pointing at, she was pointing at the entrance to the stairs leading down into the underground ruin. As he focused on the entrance, he felt that something big was trying to force its way out from that stairs as smaller monsters were pushed or even thrown out from that entrance.

Then suddenly, a huge monster jumped out from the stairs. Its size was almost as big as the entrance's width. It opened its huge mouth and crushed countless monsters inside its mouth.

It looked like a huge snake but its scales resembled a mix-match mosaic of different monsters. There was even something that looked like a broken cannon embedded into its scale. As it forced its way out the stairs, some of its scales got peeled off and dropped to the ground.

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Akira dropped his jaw in shock when he saw that huge monster which was way bigger than any other monsters he just fought.

Due to its momentum when it forced its way through the stairs, that huge monster looked like it actually jumped out from the entrance. But after losing its momentum in the air, it then fell down to the ground due to gravity. It landed with a loud bang and crushed all the small monsters underneath its huge body.

That loud bang snapped Akira back to reality, he inadvertently shouted.

“What the heck is that thing!?”

Alpha answered his question.

“I believe that it's a subspecies of the greedy crocodile. Those monsters that were inside the hallway were not chasing you, they were running away from that greedy crocodile.”

“Greedy crocodile?! I don't remember seeing a greedy crocodile like that one, you know?!”

“I did say that it's a subspecies of greedy crocodile, right? Remember that greedy crocodile evolves according to what they eat, and since it was living in that hallway for a long time, it might have adapted its body shape to the hallway. Now then, don't just stand there and start shooting. Don't shoot at that big monster, aim for the smaller ones instead. If its food runs to your direction, there's a good chance that you'll get caught up in its feeding time. I'll handle the driving, so you should handle the monsters.”

Akira jumped to the backside of his vehicle, grabbed both CWH anti-material rifle and DVTS minigun and aimed at the small monsters that were running away from that huge greedy crocodile before pulling the trigger.

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Sara quickly turned back and helped Akira too. They were aiming at the monsters that were running in their direction. Bullets from Akira and grenade shells from Sara rained down at those monsters and massacred them.

The monsters that slowed down after getting hit by Akira's and Sara's barrage were quickly chomped and swallowed by the huge greedy crocodile. It was indeed a very greedy crocodile. It kept chomping down the smaller monsters no matter whether they were biological monsters or mechanical monsters. Since its attention was focused on the prey near it, it ignored Akira and Elena who were speeding away from it.

Elena was driving her vehicle at a high speed. She was trying to catch up with Akira's vehicle since she would block Akira and Sara's aim if she drove behind them. But in order to do that, Elena was driving pretty recklessly.

Revin and his men desperately clung on anything they could find so that they would not fall off the vehicle. They were sure that Elena would not stop the car to pick them up if any of them fell off and it was obvious that the huge monster would be happy to munch at them if that happened. Their faces were filled with terror as they were holding tight and screaming on top of their lungs.

Akira and Elena blazed through the wreckages and rubbles while speeding away from the monsters behind them. As they were getting away from that place, the huge monster started to look smaller and smaller, and when that huge monster was no longer visible with n.a.k.e.d eyes, they knew they had finally escaped from those monsters.

Akira and Sara looked at each other, then gulped down at the same time. It was unclear whether they did it because they felt so relieved or it was because of something else, but then they suddenly started laughing.

Akira and Elena were driving straight to Kugamayama city. After they got away from that huge greedy crocodile, they did not get to encounter any more monsters on their way.

Putting some more distance between that monster and them, they stopped the vehicle after checking the safety around the area. They then resumed their drive once Akira and Sara moved to Elena's vehicle and Revin and his men moved to Akira's vehicle.

Elena looked worried as she asked Sara.

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“Sara, are you really okay?”

“I'm fine, don't worry. I won't die just because of something like this, not to mention, my wounds are mostly healed already.”

Sara smiled, affirming that she was really okay. As in matter of fact, she had already recovered to the point that she would be able to fight normally in case if they encountered more monsters on their way back to the city.

When Elena saw Sara was bleeding from her head, she was extremely worried about her.

“Well, I guess it's fine if you say so. Good grief, don't scare me like that. Just because your body is stronger than a normal human, it's not enough of a reason to do reckless things, you know. I did tell you not to be reckless, didn't I?”

Sara's body was enhanced by the nanomachines. Thus her body was way stronger than that of a normal human. But it did not make her invulnerable, she would still die when seriously injured.

“I'm sorry, things are going so well lately that I guess I got a little bit too c.o.c.ky. I'll be more careful next time.”

Sara smiled as she apologized to Elena, but her smile was clouded compared to her usual smile. It somehow felt like she forced herself to smile in order to avoid getting herself too depressed.

Elena looked at Sara and decided to stop dwelling on that subject. As long as Sara returned back alive, felt sorry for her action, and promised to do better next time, that was enough for Elena. After all, scolding her too much would only be counter-effective.

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Sara herself knew that she was feeling rather down, so in order to change the mood, she smiled and turned to Akira to thank him.

“Akira, thank you for saving me.”

Elena quickly followed up with a bright voice.

“I also feel grateful to you, Akira. Thank you.”

Akira was a bit surprised by their sudden thank you, so he fl.u.s.tered when he replied back to Elena and Sara.

“Don't mention it. And I'm sorry, it seems that the ruin is way more dangerous than I thought. There's also that monster right at the end. I'm just glad that everyone got out alive.”

Seeing how Akira seemed down since he was feeling responsible for what happened, Elena smiled and said to him.

“It's not your fault. Exploring an unexplored ruin is always dangerous. We both knew that well when we decided to come to that ruin.”

Sara also agreed with her.

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“Elena is right. It's not something that you should feel guilty about.”

“Moreover, although it sounds cruel to say this, but if we had returned back as soon as we finished collecting relics, today's exploration would have ended up without any trouble, right…? We might really have bad luck when it comes to meeting other Hunters in the old-world ruins.”

Elena meant to say that as a joke, but now that she said it, it made her think about that possibility for real. Sara and Akira groaned as they realized that what Elena said might be true.

Akira felt that the subject of their conversation was leading toward a bad direction, thus he tried to remember anything that contradicted that way of thinking as he presented it to Elena and Sara.

“Uhmm, well, I met Sarsan and Elensan for the first time in an old-world ruin, so I don't think it's all that bad… Or at least, that's what I think.”

Akira realized that he said something that was way out of his character and felt rather embarrassed.

“W-well, you're right about that. I guess I was just a bit too paranoid.”

“T-that's true.”

It might be because Akira's embarrassment propagated to Sara and Elena, they stuttered when they replied back. The mood between the three of them felt a bit awkward.

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The only one who was not embarrassed at all and was smiling like usual was Alpha.

“You're right, after all, you got to meet me in the old-world ruin too. So I can reassure you that it's not true.”

“…That's a good point, but you're not a Hunter, right?”

Alpha made a displeased face and said.

“Good grief, you should just agree with me here, you know? We're talking about compatibility here, or are you saying that you don't like me?”

“Not at all. You really help me in a lot of ways.”

“Yep, that's the reaction I was expecting.”

After talking with Alpha, Akira regained his calm. He also forgot about the embarrassing thing that just happened.

Elena suddenly came up with another subject, it felt like she did that intentionally to hide her embarrassment.

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“Now then, once we return back to the city, there are a lot of things that we need to do like going to the Hunter Office to take care of the SOS request. So I'm thinking of deciding things that we can decide here while we have the chance. I'll make some suggestions, just tell me if you don't agree with any of it.”

“Alright.”

“First of all, about the money that we get from today's exploration. Since Sara would cry if we sell all of the relics that we gathered today and divide it equally among the three of us, so I think it's better if each of us sells our own relics, is that okay?”

If they did not do that, Sara would have to sell the old-world underclothing that she gathered just to buy it herself later. And of course, she would have to pay more than when she sold them if she did that.

“I'm okay with that, but then, what should we do about the relics that we will get from Revin?”

“Hmm, Sara, do you have any good ideas? If not, then we might as well sell them all and divide the money equally.”

“Well, can you let me buy the underclothing at market price before selling the rest?”

“Even if you say so, who exactly is going to decide the market price for it? And how? Even if you find a way to do that, are you sure that you can get an accurate price? Also, are you going to buy them at market price or at the selling price of relics merchants?”

It was not like Elena was trying to pressure Sara, she just wanted Sara to know that if they picked another option, then they would have to make a lot of adjustments.

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But Sara, who really wanted to get the old-world underclothing, made another suggestion.

“…Then how about equally dividing the relics between us?”

“How exactly are you going to do that while making sure that the three of us get the same worth of relics? It's not easy to decide the worth of a relic. So who is going to do that? I don't mind if we want to talk it out, but I'm not sure that it'll end up peacefully.”

“In that case, how about asking a relic appraiser to do that for us…?”