Chapter 98

Index

Translator: Athena13

Editor: Silavin

Proofreader: p4553r

Akira was heading back to Kugamayama city.

The request for hunting the bounty monsters from Shikarabe ended after that fight against the Tank Tarantula. Although Akira did prepare himself to head out for the next hunt, Shikarabe decided to decline the offer because of his circ.u.mstances. So then Akira returned all the equipment that he received from Shikarabe and quickly headed back home.

As for the other Drankam Hunters, they quickly proceeded to the meeting ground. Nergo also accompanied Shikarabe and the other 2 Hunters from Drankam to the meeting ground, it seemed that he negotiated with them and made a deal so that he could go along as one of the Drankam’s Hunters.

As for the rest of the Hunters, they had left the place. Akira did not know whether they also headed back to the city through a different route or they went to finish another request somewhere, but for now, he was heading back to the city alone.

Akira was listening to Alpha’s commentary about his previous fight against the Tank Tarantula.

“So, as I’ve explained to you, that was the gist of that fight. The Hunters fought as planned and then won as planned. Although it’s as simple as that, it was rather impressive that they could turn their plan into reality like that.”

“After listening to your explanation, it sounds as if Shikarabe, Yamanobe and Varga could have won by themselves if they got lucky.”

“To be honest, their chance of victory was not zero. One thing for sure, if the Tank Tarantula does not call for reinforcement like back there, they have a good chance to defeat it all by themselves. I bet the reason why they hired you and the other Hunters is simply to get a better chance at victory as well as to increase the safety and reduce the time needed to defeat that Tank Tarantula. Although it seems that something a bit complicated is going on inside Drankam, he also made preparations to quickly move to the next bounty monster which means that it’s already within his original plan. So I’m sure the real reason was to shorten the time needed to defeat the bounty monster.”

Akira felt both amazement and admiration after hearing that.

“So, if they’re not hard-pressed with time, they would have hired fewer people or they might have even hunted the bounty monster alone, huh… Those bounty monsters are really strong and it’s amazing how Hunters would still hunt for them. I guess that’s why those Hunters get renown from hunting bounty monsters, huh?”

That would explain why so many Hunters went out to the wasteland hunting for the bounty monster, and it seemed that Shikarabe and his friends’ skills were on a different level compared to those Hunters.

“If I have to be extremely picky, I would say that the only bad thing about that hunt was that it expended too much money. They prepared a lot of one-time-use equipment, so I’m sure they’ve spent quite a sum of money to prepare them. It’s true that they’ll still get some profit since we did take down the bounty monster, but if we had failed, it would have caused a huge loss.”

Akira remembered that the contract was that the equipment expense would be subtracted from the reward before it was distributed. He felt a bit worried.

“… Did we… Use that many ammo?”

Alpha smiled.

“We did. For example, those sticky devices that Yamanobe shot at the Tank Tarantula, those are not only guiding devices, those are also mini information-gathering devices. They must have used those devices for both guiding the rockets as well as to analyze the Tank Tarantula to find its weak points or parts of its body that are more brittle than the rest of its body. I’m pretty sure those devices are more expensive than the mini information-gathering device that Elena used in Yonozuka Station Ruin. I bet they analyzed those information using the analyzer installed in their APC and then used the analysed information to adjust the rocket targeting system in order to increase its firepower. Not to mention the rockets, they must be pretty expensive. And if they got the other equipment from renting, then it must have been pretty expensive too.”

Akira then remembered his short conversation with Elena. If he remembered it right, Elena’s mini information-gathering device was about 10,000 Aurum per canister, while the sticky device that Yamanobe used should cost more than that. Since those sticky devices would have been destroyed when the rockets hit the bounty monster, they were indeed only one-time use equipment.

“In order for all of those rockets to hit their target at the same time, the rocket warheads must have been equipped with an advanced guiding device. Of course, they’re way more expensive than the warheads without a guiding device. Then that firepower too, that must not be cheap. And yet, they’ve used a lot of those rockets in the last fight.”

Akira remembered when the Hunters initiated a coordinated rocket barrage at the Tank Tarantula. It was true that they were pretty powerful rockets. It was rather obvious that one rocket would have taken a whole lot more money than just one cheap rifle bullet.

“If we were to consider the possibility of them buying an automatic reloading device fixed on their bikes especially for this hunt, it means that they would have spent even more money, you know?”

“Wait for a sec, that thing is not included in the equipment expense, right? Just like the other newly bought equipment right before the hunt?”

Alpha just smiled at Akira who was looking for an excuse to suppress the equipment expense.

“Akira, there are a lot of ways of selling things in this world. For example, when you sell a huge amount of consumables, you can sell the tool that you need to use those consumables together with it for cheap. And even if the customer gets that equipment for free, the cost of that equipment is well covered by the amount of profit you gain from selling the consumables. In our previous hunt, they were using special grenade launcher rather than usual cannon, so that might also increase the equipment expense.”

Akira hung his head low, it seemed that the equipment expense was way more than he had expected.

“I wonder how much the total is, and how much of the bounty prize will be left after subtracting it. Remember that it’ll still get divided for multiple heads after that, you know? So you can look forward to the final reward that you’ll receive.”

Alpha’s beautiful face was beaming with a teasing smile when she said that.

The bounty prize was 800,000,000 Aurum. Even if it was distributed to multiple people, it should give a huge sum of money. That was what Akira unconsciously thought, but after listening to Alpha’s explanation, Akira hung his head low in dejection.

Alpha thought informing Akira about that would reduce the chance of conflict between him and Shikarabe in case the reward money from Shikarabe was lower than what he was expecting.

Akira tried to find a reason to point out that his reward might still be higher than that.

“It’s not like it has been confirmed that the equipment expense would be that big, right? If it really takes that much money to defeat that bounty monster which is only worth 800,000,000 Aurum, then no one would have even tried to hunt for that bounty monster in the first place. So like, isn’t that guess just too pessimistic?”

“The bounty prize doesn’t always fit the strength of the bounty monster, you see. It’s hard to judge how difficult it would be to defeat a bounty monster unless you try to fight it yourself. That 800,000,000 Aurum bounty on that Tank Tarantula is based on the size and the approximated fighting strength of the other Hunter teams that failed to hunt it. If back then Shikarabe decided to pull back, it would have meant that his team had also failed hunting that bounty monster, and I bet it would have increased the bounty prize even more. If I have to make a guess, it could have gone up somewhere to 1,200,000,000 Aurum.”

Akira made an annoyed face.

“So in short, that would mean we were desperately trying to defeat a bounty monster that was severely underestimated and so we can only get that heavily undervalued bounty prize…”

“That might be exactly the case. And if that’s true, well, tough luck, right?”

Akira obviously twitched as he let out a big sigh.

“…I’m not bothered at all. I just need to go out to the wasteland to hunt for relics to earn money. Once all the bounty monsters are gone, I can once again safely go to the old-world ruins. That battle is basically for that goal in mind. Shikarabe and his friends also paid for the equipment and ammo expenses too. So it doesn’t bother me all that much.”

Although it was obvious that it was bothering him, Akira said those words to cheer himself up.

Akira checked the bounty monster information in the info bulletin of the Hunter Office site through his information terminal. The bulletin had been updated to announce the bounty monsters that had been defeated. It was Tank Tarantula, Multi-turrets Maimai and Overgrown Snake. There were pictures of the bounty monsters when they were still kicking and alive put right beside the picture of their corpses or leftover wreckages. It also included the Tank Tarantula that Akira had defeated.

“So there’s only 1 bounty monster left, and according to Shikarabe, Drankam pooled all its Hunter team to hunt for that last bounty monster. I guess all the bounty monsters will be defeated today. So let’s head back home, get a good rest, and get ready for exploring old-world ruins starting from tomorrow.”

Suddenly Alpha accelerated Akira’s vehicle. Akira let out a shriek of surprise as his body was pushed against the seat.

“Alpha!? What’s wrong?”

“Shhh!!”

Alpha looked grim when she said that. The moment Akira noticed that, he quickly raised his guard. Alpha would only make that face when something really bad happened, he might even be in a life-threatening situation right now.

Alpha kept pacing Akira’s vehicle to its top speed. After about 10 seconds keeping Akira’s vehicle on its top speed, she eventually said something still with a grim expression.

“It’s not working, it’s catching up with us.”

Alpha slowly decelerated the vehicle. Akira looked at Alpha with a serious face.

“Akira, calm down and look behind you. I’ll handle the steering, so no need to worry.”

Akira slowly turned his head. There was something long and thin far far away from his vehicle and that thing was chasing him. Although it looked small, it was because of the distance between them. In reality, it was actually ginormous.

Akira reached out to his binoculars and took another look. He could see a familiar monster in the direction he was looking. It was a monster that he saw not too long ago.

Akira’s face turned grim. The monster looked similar to the one that he had met in the Yonozuka station ruin’s entrance as well as one of the pictures in the Hunter Office bulletin, and that monster was chasing him right now.

It was the overgrown snake.

Akira immediately rechecked his information terminal. The overgrown snake was indeed included among the bounty monsters that had been defeated, there was even a picture of its dead corpse in the Hunter Office bulletin. He then looked at that monster one more time through his binoculars. Although it looked smaller, it looked like nothing but the bounty monster overgrown snake.

Akira then asked Alpha.

“T-the bulletin said that they’ve defeated that monster though?! What the hell is going on here?!”

“There are many possibilities, it might be another monster of the same type, or the bounty monster might have cloned itself, or it might even be one of its children. Judging from its size, it might be one of the overgrown snake’s children. After all, it looks smaller compared to the original bounty monster.”

Akira looked at the overgrown snake’s picture in his information terminal one more time to compare it with the snake that was chasing him. It was as Alpha said, the snake chasing him was smaller compared to the bounty monster. But with that being said, it was still way larger than his vehicle. Thus Akira could not take that monster lightly.

“Akira, unfortunately, it’ll catch up with us at this rate.”

“Can’t we break away from it? If that snake is really of the same species, it might as well qualify as a bounty monster if we’re not lucky, right? Do I have a winning chance if we fight it?”

“If we keep running until this vehicle runs out of energy, it might give up on chasing us. Do you want to try and do that?”

Akira’s face still looked grim as he moved to the back seat of his vehicle. It was true that the snake might give up, but if that was not the case, once his vehicle ran out of energy and could no longer move, that snake would eat his vehicle along with him in it. Not to mention, he knew he had bad luck.

Akira smiled bitterly and said to Alpha.

“I guess I have no choice but to fight, huh… Back then when I refilled my supply, I did buy extra ammo just to be safe if I encountered a bounty monster in the wasteland, but why in the world would I really get to meet a bounty monster now?”

Akira had indeed filled his vehicle with ammo, he bought a lot of CWH anti-material special ammo and DVTS minigun extended magazine. It would give him an advantage when he fought a strong monster, but using those ammo against normal monsters would only cause him to lose money. And to be honest, just for today, he really did not want to end up in the red.

Alpha smiled and said to him.

“There’s nothing to worry about if you’re prepared. It was a correct decision to restock your ammo back then.”

Seeing how Alpha was smiling like usual, Akira regained some of his calm and composure. He then smiled bitterly and replied to her.

“I really hope that it’s just a needless fear sometimes, you know. When I have a bad feeling, I’m more than happy to have that bad feeling completely miss its mark. After all, most of my good guesses always miss, so I hope sometime it would happen when I have a bad feeling too, you know.”

Alpha smiled back and asked Akira.

“So this time, what’s your intuition saying?”

Akira smiled confidently.

“It depends on you.”

Alpha smiled back invincibly.

“Yep, that’s the correct answer. If you know that, then just leave the rest to me. I’ll show you that my support can offset your bad luck, just like always.”

Akira and Alpha smiled at each other full of confidence. Akira had made his resolve there.

He then aimed his CWH anti-material rifle toward the overgrown snake. He supported his CWH anti-material rifle with both his hands while aiming at that overgrown snake through the aiming device on top of a shaking vehicle. He then concentrated his focus as much as possible to the point that it felt as if he could accurately recognize the pattern in which his vehicle was swaying.

To top it off, his aiming was augmented with Alpha’s support. When he pulled the trigger, the CWH special ammo which flew out through the muzzle went straight toward the overgrown snake. Although it was so far that its huge body looked like just a small dot from Akira’s point of view, the bullet ripped through the air and hit the snake’s head.

But the moment that happened, the snake’s scale easily repelled the bullet as it left a dent on that particular scale.

Akira reconfirmed what just happened through the aiming device.

“I got a hit there… right?”

“It did hit. It was at least enough to annoy that snake.”

“That’s all the damage that I can inflict using a CWH special ammo, huh? Those bounty monsters do have really hard bodies, don’t they? What should I do then?”

“We have no other choice but to increase the firepower. Akira, get your resolve ready.”

Akira smiled lightly.

“If resolving myself can get my shots stronger, I’ll do it as much as you want. Resolve is my responsibility after all. I thought I’ve made my resolve though, was it not enough?”

Alpha smiled invincibly and said to him.

“That will be enough if what we are going to do next won’t faze you. Alright then, let’s do it.”

Alpha suddenly hit the brake, while on the other hand, the snake increased its speed as it was closing in on Akira.

If the distance to the enemy lowered the firepower, then they just needed to reduce that distance. It was simple logic. The closer the enemy got, the easier it would be to kill that enemy. That applied both to Akira and that snake.

Akira gritted his teeth and was somehow smiling in that situation, he was not fazed at all.

The monster which was only a small dot in his binoculars now had become big enough to be seen with n.a.k.e.d eyes. The overgrown snake did not move like a snake, it was more like a long connected vehicle. If Akira took a better look at it, he would notice that it had countless wheels and caterpillar tracks under it. It looked as if it forced its separate compartments to move forward together although they had different speeds and shapes. Due to that, its huge body seemed to be wiggling up and down just like a snake.

Akira took another aim at the overgrown snake. This time his shot hit the snake’s weak point and peeled off its scale. But compared to its huge body, it was nothing but a scratch.

Alpha slowed down the vehicle even more. The overgrown snake was close enough for Akira to hit it even if he just shot randomly at it. He took another shot at the snake. This time, the CWH special ammo peeled off its scale and ripped off a small portion of its flesh, but it was far away from a fatal wound as it did not even slow the snake down.

Akira frowned.

“It’s not working even if it’s this close, huh! Is it that thing?! Is it that it has some kind of force field armour?!”

“That’s not it. It’s simply because it has a very hard scale. It didn’t produce any light when you hit it, right? So it’s not a force field armour.”

“Seriously, just how hard its scale can be!?”

“It won’t cause any meaningful damage unless you get even closer. This is it Akira, this is where you really need to steel yourself.”

Seeing how Alpha was smiling like usual in that situation, Akira got a bit annoyed.

“So my resolve is still not enough, huh?! Alright alright!! I get it already, let’s do this!!”

Akira guessed that the snake would not slow down and it would keep closing into him. His guess was correct, or to be more precise, it was 200% correct.

Alpha suddenly accelerated the vehicle to make a 180 turn and she sped up the vehicle even more as it was heading straight to the overgrown snake.

Akira thought that Alpha would slow down the car to let the snake get closer, but instead, they were heading straight toward the snake at a high speed.

He grabbed the frame of his vehicle so that he would not get thrown off. Although Alpha controlled his augmented suit to prepare him for that beforehand, it was so sudden that he was still surprised by it.

Now that both Akira and the overgrown snake were heading towards each other, they quickly closed the distance between them.

“Akira, get your DVTS minigun ready.”

Akira shifted his hand from grabbing the frame of his vehicle to get the DVTS minigun attached to his vehicle. The overgrown snake was already right in front of his eyes, it opened its huge mouth filled with sharp teeth as it was going to swallow Akira and his vehicle whole, while on the other hand, Akira gritted his teeth tight.

The overgrown snake made a slight change on its move to add extra momentum in order to leap on Akira. Alpha was able to precisely catch that slight move through the information-gathering device.

Alpha then used her advanced driving capability to swerve the vehicle to the side and barely avoided the overgrown snake’s teeth. The vehicle did not slow down as it passed beside the snake’s head and just continued going forward beside the snake’s body.

When the snake opened its huge mouth right in front of him and he swerved to the right and barely avoided it, Akira got a good long look of its intimidating mouth up close in a slowed-down world which caused him to make a grim face.

Inside that slow-moving world due to Akira’s concentration and high tension, Alpha was the only one that was moving around normally. She then smiled at Akira and said.

“Shoot!”

In order to not get thrown off the vehicle, Akira fixed his position and tightly grabbed his DVTS minigun. In that situation where his vehicle was severely tilted to the side, Akira looked desperate as he pulled the trigger.

The DVTS minigun spewed countless bullets at the sides of the snake in a close distance. Akira did not let go of the trigger. In order to make the minigun portable, it was equipped with an extended magazine that could house way more bullets than it looked. As long as that magazine still had ammo inside it, the revolving muzzle would not stop spewing powerful bullets that could easily turn a normal monster into minced meat in one cycle.

Akira was close to the snake, so close that he might be able to kick the snake from his vehicle. In such a close range, the countless bullets from the DVTS minigun ripped through the snake’s abdomen and threw pieces of its flesh to the air. Akira left a trail of flesh and metallic wreckages behind him. Those parts were the result of all the things that the snake had eaten until now. The DVTS minigun basically drilled through its body and threw pieces of the snake’s huge body around the area.

Due to Alpha’s advanced driving skill, Akira was able to maintain his distance beside the snake’s huge body. The snake passed beside Akira at such a high speed as he left a long straight wound-mark on the snake’s side after releasing a huge amount of bullets at its body.

Akira did not let go of the trigger right until the very end of the snake’s body. Then after that, the vehicle still moved forward due to inertia and made another 180-degree turn before stopping. The magazine in the DVTS minigun was already completely empty.

“Akira, reload a new magazine!”

Akira was still a little bit dumbfounded when he pulled the trigger on his DVTS minigun, but when Alpha gave him his next order, he quickly returned back to reality. He immediately loaded a new magazine to his DVTS minigun and asked Alpha.

“T-that wasn’t enough to kill that snake?”

“It did some damage, but it’s not enough to kill it. We’ll do it one more time.”

“J-just how many times do I need to do that again?”

“As many times as it takes to kill it. So let’s keep giving our best until we can kill that snake. It’s better than letting yourself get killed by that snake, right?”

Akira was put off when he saw Alpha smile as she said that.

He finished loading a new DVTS minigun extended magazine. The overgrown snake was trying to make a turn, at least, it did not seem like it was going to run away anytime soon.

Akira got desperate and shouted.

“Alright alright, I just need to do it, right?!!”

“Yep, that’s right. Let’s go!”

Alpha immediately drove the vehicle again, and Akira tightly grabbed his DVTS minigun. He was planning to do the same thing again and again until the snake died.

Every time Akira passed beside the overgrown snake, the ammo that he brought with him was greatly reduced. But even after exhausting that much ammo, it was still not enough to kill that snake. As his ammo reserve started looking dangerously low, Akira, who had made his resolve looked a bit worried.

“Alpha! We’ll run out of ammo soon!!

“This snake is really strong. Is it not running away since it knows that this won’t be enough to kill it? If only it has some kind of a weak point.”

Akira smiled bitterly.

“‘I’ve already used this much ammo on that snake, if it really has a weak point, I’m sure as hell that I hit it at least once, you know? Or is it that I didn’t get that lucky hit at all? Is it because of my bad luck? I even shot that many bullets to its head!”

“In that case, we can just destroy it to the point that luck doesn’t matter at all. It’s coming, one more time!”

“Roger that!”

Akira knew his situation would not change no matter how much he complained. Although he had inflicted that much damage, the overgrown snake still did not show any signs of retreating.

Akira knew well that such behaviour was normal for a monster. But since it looked like a big snake from outside, he wondered if it would feel fear and run away like a usual snake. Unfortunately, his wish did not come true, at least that was the case until now, and that wish will probably never come true.

He prepared himself for the next barrage, which was also his final barrage.

Alpha mustered the vehicle’s engine one more time. And just like last time, she planned to swerve past beside the snake. Their surrounding area was already filled with leftover wreckages of that overgrown snake.

The overgrown snake had eaten Hunters’ vehicles which included the ammo inside those vehicles. Those explosives were absorbed into the snake’s body and each of Akira’s barrage caused those explosives to spread around on the ground of that area. Unfortunately, some of those explosives started exploding for some reason.

The explosion itself was not that big, at least, it was not enough to cause any damage to both the snake and Akira’s vehicle. But it was enough to deflect the vehicle’s direction even with Alpha’s advanced driving capability. And due to Akira’s bad luck, one of those explosions happened right before the snake leapt at him.

The shockwave from the explosion caused the vehicle to shake for a few split seconds, leaving it impossible to control. The overgrown snake easily swallowed Akira’s vehicle with Akira still on it in that split seconds.

Since the snake had closed its mouth, no light was able to reach its insides. Akira was still standing on the back-side of his vehicle that was almost flipped over after the snake swallowed it. He could only hear the strange sounds which were produced as some kind of liquid touched the body or the wheel of his vehicle.

Akira’s vision was totally pitch black. A similar thing had happened when he entered a certain bas.e.m.e.nt in the Higaraka Residence Ruin. At that time, he entered a room with no light source at all, it was also pitch black. But back then, even inside that pitch-black room, he could still see Alpha clearly. Her figure was the only thing glowing with colours back then, but that was not the case this time.

“Alpha!”

Akira tried to call for Alpha. But there was no reply, his vision was still filled with darkness.

He noticed and understood his situation, he had lost all of Alpha’s support there.

She once explained to him that there were places in the old-world ruin where her support could not reach him. Akira was always connected to her through his ability as someone who was connected to the old-world domain, so he bet that there must be something in the old-world ruin that blocked his ability to connect to the old-world domain. He thought that must be the case right now too.

A part of the snake body must be blocking Alpha from connecting to him.

Akira could not see anything inside that total darkness if he relied solely on n.a.k.e.d eyes. He no longer had the support to maximize the power of his augmented suit and no one was giving instruction to him that would provide him with an advantage in such a dangerous situation.

He was all alone inside the snake’s body. He no longer had the support that allowed him, an untrained slum boy with minimum equipment, to win against a fully armed veteran Hunter. He no longer had the miracle that allowed him, a Rank 21 Hunter, to be worth more than 100,000,000 Aurum.

Akira started hearing banging sounds, it seemed that the snake had started crushing his vehicle from its sides. He no longer had the driving support that would help him get out of that dangerous situation. As the strange liquid dripped onto his augmented suit, it made a sizzling sound. It was the liquid produced by monsters to digest vehicles and mechanical monsters. It was only a matter of time before it melted his augmented suit too. In case if his augmented suit’s control device got melted, the augmented suit would start moving on its own and that would spell doom for Akira.

He understood the reason why he was inside the overgrown snake’s body right now. It was not because Alpha made a mistake, it was simply because of his bad luck. To be more precise, it happened because Alpha’s support could not win against his bad luck.

Akira had spent his lifetime-worth of his luck when he met Alpha and he had been relying on Alpha’s support to overcome his bad luck up until now. But to be honest, somewhere inside his mind, he knew that one day he would not be able to rely on that. He always thought when that happened i.e when he lost Alpha’s support, that would be the moment he died. And now he was facing that very moment.

In the midst of that dangerous situation, Akira compressed his time perception as much as possible. It had been just a few seconds since the snake swallowed him. Because he could not see anything inside that total darkness, there was nothing that could help him gauge just how slow his time perception was right now. He did not notice that everything around him was already running in an extremely slow time.

Inside that pitch-black world, Akira laughed.

“So my resolve to charge straight to this snake is not enough, huh! Alright alright! I get it! Steeling my resolve is my responsibility, yeah?!!”

Akira screamed on top of his lung and laughed as hard as he could. He was mockingly laughing at his bad luck that caused this predicament.

The voice that he produced while in that extremely time-compressed state was severely distorted, he might not be able to properly listen to sounds in such a state. But it was not a problem, his outburst was just a statement, or to be more precise, it was a declaration of war against his bad luck that caused this unfortunate situation.

He was there screaming all alone and he was the only person there to listen to his screams. But that was okay, it was a statement to ridicule, resist and fight back against his own bad luck.

Akira probed around for his DVTS minigun’s handle. When he found it, he gripped it tightly and pulled the trigger.

The loud sound of gunshots reverberated through the snake’s insides. The muzzle flash illuminated Akira’s surroundings as he released bullets indiscriminately through the inner walls of the snake’s insides. The already grotesque insides of the snake were turned even more grotesque as the countless bullets ripped through its flesh and fanned out meat and blood in Akira’s surroundings. As the pressure vanished, his vehicle returned back to its original shape.

Akira quickly grabbed a tube-type medicine and emptied its content on top of his head. With this, it would buy some time until his head got digested, after all, unlike his limbs, his head was not covered by his augmented suit. The medicine paste that covered Akira’s head made a hissing sound as it made contact with the snake’s digestive liquid.

He then swallowed a handful of medicine pills as if he did not care about their side-effects. It was in order to help prolong his body’s durability under that constant stress. He forced his body to move past its own limit inside that world where time was extremely compressed. The nanomachine inside his body immediately kicked to action as he forcefully moved his body with the help of his augmented suit way above the capability of a human.

Akira reached to the driver seat and set the vehicle to auto-drive mode through the vehicle’s control device. His vehicle received a simple order as it spun its 4 wheels as fast as it could to drive forward. Since there was no way back, there was no other choice but to move forward.

Akira was grinning in that situation, but he did not let go of his finger from his DVTS minigun’s trigger. There was no need to take an aim, his bullets would hit the snake no matter where he aimed. He kept on spewing bullets in all directions as he drove through the inside of the snake while cackling.

Unlike the exterior part of the snake’s body, its inner part was way weaker. The flying bullets wreaked havoc inside its body as if they tried to push the outer scales inside-out.

The overgrown snake screamed and wriggled in agony. Although it was wriggling up and down, Akira who was inside its body could not feel it since he did not even know which way was up.

But even so, Akira did not stop coursing through the snake’s body. The kickback from the DVTS minigun pushed his vehicle downward, thus exerting pressure and preventing the wheel from spinning. But with that being said, his vehicle still forcefully pushed forward while being under such pressure. The violent shaking that caused its body to collide with the snake’s inner wall and the digestive liquid that was dripping from the snake’s inner wall shaved the durability of the vehicle.

Even on top of that violently shaking vehicle, Akira did not let go of the trigger and laughed like a mad lad. He had exchanged the empty magazine for a new one many times as he fired ammo randomly inside the snake’s body.

The overgrown snake that was wriggling violently eventually fell down and stopped moving. But even so, bullets were still flying out from the inside of its body. And then, from a weakened side of its huge body, a vehicle flew out with Akira in it.

As it flew out with a lot of momentum, the vehicle landed on its side and flipped over, throwing Akira off-board. He then landed and rolled over on the ground.

“…I’m out?”

Akira was lying on the ground facing upward, the big blue sky was presented in front of him, he finally realized that he was outside.

“Akira! Are you alright?!”

Alpha looked at Akira with an extremely worried face. He stared at her, dumbfounded. The image of Alpha in his vision was slightly blurred. After she called his name a few times, her image finally returned back to normal.

“… Uhhh, welcome back, Alpha.”

“I-I’m back?”

To that strange reaction from Akira, Alpha could not help but give that awkward answer.

“Alpha, can you check if that snake is dead for good?”

“Eh? Ah, sure, wait for a sec… It’s alright, it’s dead for good.”

Akira laughed a bit.

“That’s good news. If even that didn’t work, then nothing would have worked.”

It was rare for Alpha to look so confused, she then asked Akira a question.

“Akira, what exactly just happened?”

Alpha did not know what happened during the time when her connection to Akira was cut. Although it seemed that Akira survived the fight, it was important for her to get the gist of what had happened when she lost her connection to him as soon as possible.

“…Sorry but, can you put that for later? And also, can you check if there are any monsters in the area?”

“Alright, make sure to tell me all the details later.”

“Ahh, and also, you did say that we just need to destroy its body to the point that I won’t need to rely on luck, right? I’ve done it for you, but I’m super tired right now because of that.”

Akira smiled confidently when he said that. He then relaxed his body as he was still lying on the ground while looking at Alpha’s face. It was really rare for Alpha to look as confused as she was now.

According to her calculation based on the situation right before she lost connection to Akira, there was a 100% chance that he would be killed. He should not have been able to return alive from that situation without her support.

But even so, Akira managed to return alive. He once again overturned her calculation.

Akira, who was under her grasp, had started to change. She kept on recalculating whether his growth that exceeded her expectation was a good thing or not. She focused all of her processing power on the recalculation to the point that she neglected to control her expression.

Athena13: Akira is a real mad lad!!!

Index

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