Rebuild World – Chapter 277, Danger

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Translator: Athena13

Editor: Silavin

Proofreader: p4553r

 

During the battle, Akira noticed the sudden change in the enemy movement. He was a bit bewildered by it. The bombardment momentarily stopped and the enemies around him rapidly retreated.

 

After he broke through their encirclement, they now shifted to a fan formation, which was actively adapting to his moves. This also increased the effectiveness of their long-range bombardment.

 

Therefore, Akira was confused as to why they suddenly stopped their bombardment.

 

“Alpha. It’s not like they’re retreating, right?”

 

“Probably not. But if they’re changing to form a defensive formation, it might be a good idea for us to leave. There’s no need to continue fighting them when they have the advantages.”

 

“Hmmm, well, I think we’ve already done some damage to them anyway. Huh?”

 

In the first place, Akira was not planning to fight them until the last man. Even if the survivors regrouped and once again went after him, they would need some time before they could do so. If Akira could get his new equipment from Sakashita during that time, he could fight the next battle in a much better state. Therefore, he thought that it was a good idea to call it a day.

 

However, someone prevented Akira from doing so. A red powered suit suddenly came chasing after him.

 

“Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like they’re planning to let you get away just yet.”

 

“Yeah. That does seem to be the case. Though, it seems like it’s coming alone.”

 

Akira found that to be strange. However, it did not stop him from shooting at the powered suit. Carol and Akira were both shooting back at it while evading its shots. Even with most of their shots hitting their marks, the powered suit did not seem to slow down at all. It kept closing in on them.

 

“…This guy is just too tough! Well, since it’s charging at me, alone, I guess that’s just how much faith it has in its defences, huh?”

 

“Akira, it seems like the others are going to resume the bombardment. So, be careful.”

 

“Sure… Wait… If they do that, won’t they hit that unit too…?”

 

From Akira’s position, the red powered suit’s position, and the shooting angle of the fan-shaped formation. It was impossible to hit him without hitting the red powered suit. That was why Akira did not expect them to continue their bombardment. He could not help but frown

 

Even after receiving Alpha’s warning, he still showed surprise once the bombardment did resume.

 

The warheads were shot in parabolic trajectories; travelling high up before falling down. Meanwhile, laser beams that could only go in a straight line were shot from the sides. Instead of aiming properly at him, they were targeting the general area around him.

 

Akira shot, evaded, and sliced at them to defend himself.

 

“They really opened fire! Alpha! What about that red powered suit?”

 

The red powered suit was covered in smoke. However, the smoke was not produced by it. They came from the shells and warheads that hit it. The powered suit was unscathed as it still charged toward Akira. It was as if it wanted to show how the bombardment had no effect on it.

 

“It did get hit but it is still up and running. It seems like it temporarily raised its forcefield armour to the limit before the bombardment hit it.”

 

“I see. So, it’s exchanging information with the rest of the group, huh!?”

 

“Yup. So, be careful. This means that the powered suit has resolved itself to take some shots if it is to kill you. Judging from how it is moving, I bet it’s trying to keep you in place. Pin you down with a close-range fight and then take you down using the bombardment from the rest of the team.”

 

The red powered suit that kept Akira inside its effective shooting range started shooting more accurately at him. As if to confirm Alpha’s guess, those shots were obviously meant to stop him from maneuvering around instead of killing him.

 

“I see! So, he’s prepared to take some damage himself, huh!? Alpha! Give me your full support!”

 

“Leave it to me! But, this will place your body under immense stress. So, make sure that you’re ready.”

 

Against Alpha’s smile of challenge, Akira smiled in excitement, firing up his spirit.

 

“But of course! That part is my responsibility, after all!”

 

At the same time he gave his reply, the bikes suddenly made a sharp turn. It charged right toward the red powered suit. The closer they got, the more hits the red powered suit would have to take. It was between Akira and Carol evading the bombardment and the red powered suit taking it with its superb defence. It was a battle of attrition between them. Just which one of them would be crushed under the storm of warhead first?

 

Carol was watching closely from his back. It was an abnormal scene where a full-sized powered suit was duking out intensely with someone on a bike. They were exchanging bullets and slashes, pushing and pulling. But instead of feeling fear, all she felt was exhilaration.

 

[I always thought that he was extremely strong… But I never thought he was this strong…!!]

 

The area that was enveloped in smoke was muddled further with the dust particles that were thrown around during their intense exchange. The red powered suit kept shooting as the continuous explosions that enveloped the area kept even the rocks and rubbles from reaching the ground. The powered suit’s gun was spewing out large bullets that tore the air as they sought after their target.

 

Akira dexterously controlled his bike to evade the bullets. With its ability to ride freely in the air, he made erratic moves. Sharp turns, sudden stops, quick acceleration, and vertical climb. All these to prevent the red powered suit from getting a good hit. On top of that, Akira also kept its rifle in check by shooting at it from time to time to throw off its aim. He would also shoot at the unavoidable bullets and redirect them away from him.

 

To nullify Akira’s technique, the red powered suit used its blade to attack. Its powerful generator fed the blade, encasing it in a layer of energy that could release sharp energy waves. Once swung, the blade released a wave of energy that dissipated in all directions. It seemed able to cut everything in its way. Even smoke and dust from their surroundings got separated into two from its slash.

 

In the face of this strike, Akira extended out his liquid metal blade. He then swung at the energy wave. It was impossible to slice nor redirect the energy wave as it did not have substance. However, by pumping a huge amount of energy into his blade and increasing the might of its forcefield armour to its limit, it could make contact with the energy wave. Dampening it, causing it to break down and safely disperse into the air.

 

Moreover, with Alpha’s help, the liquid metal was adjusted to turn into the most effective shape. They managed to almost completely neutralize the energy wave, which could have sliced Akira and his bike cleanly into two. The remaining energy that did not get dispersed, hit a few of the bike’s armour tiles and sliced them into two.

 

While Akira was busy defending from the attacks, Carol was focused on the offensive. She kept using her laser cannon. While trying to not get thrown off by the erratic moves of the bike, she somehow found an opening. The moment she fired; the AF anti-material rifle also released a shot aimed at the exact same place. The anti-material bullet was siphoning energy from its surroundings, increasing its firepower. When it found itself surrounded by high-energy laser beams, it increased the bullet’s firepower manyfold.

 

The shots travelled towards the powered suit, which was also moving around as fast as the bike. However, before they struck the red powered suit, they got blocked by its forcefield armour. The red powered suit had temporarily hardened its forcefield armour to its utmost limit. It spared no expense, using the energy that it had charged up from the mobile HQ. Moreover, it had used information from its scanner to predict the trajectory of the attacks and only focused its defence on the impact areas.

 

As the battle continued, locked in an impasse, they still managed to throw attacks at one another even when under the intense bombardment. This demonstrated their skill as a 50 billion bounty Hunter and a Hunter who was after him.

 

Gelgus once again found himself surprised by how powerful Akira was. He quickly felt that something was not right.

 

[To think that he’s this powerful! That 50 billion Aurum bounty from Lion Steel is really based on his real strength, huh!? No, this is already way past the 50 billion bounty mark. What the heck is with those moves? I’m fighting this guy with information support sent from the other units around here, you know? I should be able to hit him with my weapons easily. How the heck is he managing to avoid everything I throw at him?]

 

Having been locked in a melee fight with him while avoiding the non-ceasing bombardment. It seemed impossible to survive no matter how much Gelgus thought about it. He could not help but get suspicious that there was something more going on behind the scene.

 

“Wait… don’t tell me…”

 

As he was thinking of the impossible, he tried to clear his doubt. He compared the data that his information-gathering device acquired with the information that he was receiving from the other units. His fear was proven to be true, there was a small difference in the data used to refine his aim.

 

Gelgus was frozen for a split second. However, he quickly returned to himself and opened a line toward the whole hunting party.

 

“Everyone! Cut off the information sharing system! We’re being hacked! The data has been tampered!”

 

The information that Babalod leaked, also included the security code to connect to the information-sharing system. Naturally, once they knew of the leak, they had changed the access code to a new one. However, the fact that it had leaked once, meant that other things might have been leaked too. Gelgus was shocked that his suspicion was right.

 

He did not want to think further. There might be someone who was betraying the group from the inside. Otherwise, it might have leaked from another route. Nonetheless, they could not afford to do a witch hunt right now. With his mind muddled with many thoughts, Gelgus decided to cleanse everything up and focus on one thing for now.

 

With the information-sharing system hacked, he could no longer use the data from the sharing system. Without it, his accuracy would greatly fall. It was not like the data got completely forged. It was only slightly changed to throw off his aim. Enough not to hit Akira. Gelgus then placed another assumption on top of his train of thought.

 

[It is not like the information-sharing system has been fully rewritten. There was only a slight information tampering. There’s a good chance that it’s being done in real-time. Although the tampered information is in regards to our target, it cannot be done by him. After all, the target shouldn’t be able to do that while fighting me. If it is being sent from a far-off location, it should not be fast enough to throw off my aim. So, whoever is helping him should be somewhere nearby…]

 

Gelgus kept his optimistic guesses and assumptions. That no one leaked the access code from the inside. As he kept searching the area, he eventually found one place. There was a nearby camping vehicle where Shirou was. Considering the amount of information being tampered, it should have required a large computing device. It would make sense if such a machine was housed inside that camping vehicle.

 

Gelgus immediately moved away from Akira and raced toward the camping vehicle at full speed.

 

Shirou, who was tapping into Gelgus information sharing system, panicked.

 

“Yikes! They noticed me!”

 

The red powered suit and the team now had their sights on a new target. Cannons were now pointed towards the camping vehicle. Meanwhile, the red powered suit was racing towards it. Shirou’s panic increased twofold. The bombardment now continued towards him but was no longer using the information-sharing system. Therefore, it was not that accurate. However, if he could feed them false information to throw off their aim, he could guarantee none would hit him. Now, even if the chance was small due to their low accuracy, some of their warheads could hit him.

 

To prepare in case Akira needed to return back again to resupply, Shirou kept rather close. But, now that he got discovered, he quickly turned the camping vehicle the other way and raced away from this place as fast as he could.

 

“Akira! They noticed the hacking and they’re aiming for me right now! Do something!”

 

“Just try to get away! I will take care of the red powered suit!”

 

“How about the bombardment?!”

 

“Run like your life depends on it.”

 

“Dammit! Alright!”

 

Shirou spat out and put his full weight on the gas pedal. He had a grave expression as explosives and warheads rained down around him.

 

With Gelgus prioritizing the destruction of the camping vehicle, his situation with Akira had been reversed.

 

The red powered suit was trying to get to the camping vehicle while Akira and Carol were trying to stop him. Although they were now on the offensive, they were also the ones pushed into a corner. This time, they had to destroy the red powered suit before it could destroy the camping vehicle.

 

“Dammit! Alpha! This is bad! That powered suit just won’t go down!”

 

“Stop complaining and keep shooting. It must strain its forcefield armour to withstand our assault, which is quickly depleting its energy reserve. For now, we can only pin our hopes on exhausting its energy.”

 

“I know!”

 

While escaping, Shirou was also firing at the red powered suit using the camping vehicle’s machine gun. Unfortunately, it barely had any effect. Or at least, it was not able to push the red powered suit back. The red powered suit kept charging forward, taking all the incoming bullets. It did not even make an effort to evade. It was closing its distance to the camping vehicle with the shortest route possible.

 

Eventually, the camping vehicle entered the red powered suit shooting range. The red powered suit started spewing out bullets, which were abnormally large when compared to normal bullets. Some managed to hit the camping vehicle, peeling off some of its armour tiles and shaking it violently. Shirou’s desperate voice reached Akria through telepathy.

 

“Akira! It’s coming closer! Closer! It has even started shooting at me! I’m also being bombarded! Weren’t you going to take care of that!? If they manage to get the camping vehicle, you’ll have no place to sleep in the middle of the wasteland, you know!? Are you sure you’re fine with that?!”

 

“I’m working on it right now! Just wait for a bit!”

 

In reality, Akira was indeed working on it. However, if he focused too much on trying to shoot the red powered suit down, it would create an opening where he might get killed instead. Compared to the red powered suit, Akira’s bike defences were negligible. A single clean hit at the bike would immediately spell his death. Meanwhile, even if he used his most potent shot, it would not be able to immediately take down the red powered suit.

 

Fortunately, the camping vehicle was prepared by Carol. It was fitted to be proficient at escaping. It was protected by resilient armour tiles. Thus, was still able to withstand the assault. It was still fine even after getting hit by the bombardment and a few of the red powered suit’s shots. Basically, it could maintain this situation for some time. However, the closer the red powered suit was, the more damaging its hit would be. The melee weapon that it had was way stronger than its gun. One hit was enough to destroy the camping vehicle.

 

As the pursuing red powered suit got close enough to the camping vehicle. It also started taking hits from the bombardment. It reached for its blade instead of its gun and attacked the camping vehicle. It was a clear indication that Akira was running out of time. It swung and the released energy wave sliced the ground apart, all the way past the camping vehicle. However, it did not manage to hit its target.

 

That miss was not intentional. The moment the red powered suit swung its blade, Akira and Carol shot its arm. This slightly shifted the direction of its swing. 

 

Nonetheless, even after being spared, Akira was still getting more anxious. The powered suit was already close enough to release such a powerful attack at the camping vehicle.

 

“Alpha! This is getting really bad! Can you do something about it?”

 

Alpha frowned.

 

“It can’t be helped then. This will get a bit dangerous but let’s take that powered suit down right away.”

 

Akira was surprised by her reply, he then pouted and asked.

 

“If you knew of a way to take it down, couldn’t we have done it sooner?”

 

However, Alpha replied with a grave expression.

 

“That’s just how dangerous it is, are you sure you want to do this?”

 

All the intense exchange of close-range blows under continuous bombardment up until now was still on the safe side according to Alpha. By that standard, the next move would certainly be extremely dangerous. Akira understood this. Thus, he pulled himself together and firmly replied.

 

“Let’s do this.”

 

Now that he had decided on it, Alpha had no reason to refuse. She smugly smiled and said.

 

“I see. In that case, let’s get this over with.”

 

Alpha then shared her plan with Akira, who then informed Shirou through telepathy about what he needed to do. However, Shirou could not begin to comprehend what Akira was trying to do.

 

“Is there any reason why I should do something like that?”

 

“Just do it. If you don’t, that camping vehicle will be sliced into two by the next attack. I somehow managed to make it miss the last time. But, I have no guarantee I can do it again for the next one.”

 

As Shirou glanced at the energy blade through the camera, he decided to shut up and do as he was told to.

 

“Alright, when should I do it?”

 

“I can go anytime, just hurry up.”

 

“You owe me one for this, you hear me?”

 

“Just do it already.”

 

Akira shut off the telepathic connection and was honestly impressed by how Shirou still had the guts to bring that up in his current situation. Though, that thought deviated from the main task at hand so Akira quickly shook it off his mind. He informed Carol of what she should do next. In contrast to Shirou, Carol lightly smiled and asked.

 

“Are you sure you want to do that? Well, I guess it’s pointless to ask you that question, huh? But do we really have no other choice? If you’re worried about destroying the camping vehicle, I can buy a new one later. So, you don’t have to worry about that, you know?”

 

“No. I’m worried about it, I don’t want to sleep out in the open wasteland.”

 

Carol lightly giggled. It seemed that for Akira, that was what most mattered to him. For the sake of it, he was willing to do something extremely dangerous.

 

“Okay. Good luck then.”

 

“You too.”

 

Akira made his resolve and readied himself.

 

While chasing the camping vehicle, Gelgus noticed a change in Akria’s movement. He was certain that his guess was correct. Although some parts of his guess were not wrong, it did not change the fact that the hacking would stop if he killed Shirou, who was inside that camping vehicle. In other words, Akira was in a hard-pressed situation.

 

Although the bombardment continued to hit the red powered suit, he continued to solely focus on catching up to the camping vehicle. He could opt for his rifle. However, the camping vehicle was well armoured, and his rifle would not be enough to destroy it. Thus, his choice was to come close. Enough to use his blade to cut it apart. Since his first swing got interrupted and was made to miss, he swore that the next one would land. He quickly gathered energy into his blade to prepare for the next strike.

 

Suddenly, the back door of the camping vehicle opened up and an enormous amount of explosives rolled out from it. Each one of them blew up, making a trail of black smog.

 

Gelgus quickly realized that it was jamming smoke. However, what bothered him the most was why his opponent did that.

 

[Raising that much smoke out in the open like this is pointless. It will get dispersed in no time. In this high-speed pursuit, we will pass through the jamming area in no time. What exactly are they planning?]

 

It puzzled him, this was something that someone helping a 50 billion bounty target did. Therefore, there must be some kind of meaning behind it. He judged Shirou’s action as something planned; not an action taken out of desperation. Naturally, his thoughts led him to suspect they were staging an attack. [It must be the moment I enter the jamming smoke.]

 

The powered suit’s forcefield armour was an adaptive type, which adjusted its strength automatically depending on the incoming attack. Naturally, it would be meaningless if the adjustment came late and only activated once the attack had already hit it. Thus, it was essential for its information-gathering device to predict where the incoming attack would land, to adjust in time.

 

Gelgus was certain that they were planning to nullify his adaptive forcefield armour. They were trying to weaken his information-gathering device using the jamming smoke and break through the powered suit’s defences. Therefore, he prepared the powered suit. Before entering the jamming smoke, he manually set the forcefield armour to output its maximum.

 

By doing so, it would consume a huge amount of energy. However, it would also strengthen the forcefield armour to the point where it would prevent its information-gathering device from scanning its surroundings. This further worsened his accuracy. Gelgus understood the risks but still decided on doing so. After all, he believed it to only be temporary and could set it back once he got out of the jamming smoke.

 

Right before the powered suit entered the jamming smoke, Akira swung his blade with one hand. He did so while still on top of his flying bike. Gelgus had already anticipated this attack. Though, he was slightly surprised by the fact that Akira did not use his rifle. Nonetheless, it was still a reasonable move and was still within his expectations. After all, there was an anti-forcefield armour function on the blade. Therefore, Gelgus was still able to react calmly to Akira’s attack.

 

Both Akira’s bike and the red powered suit plunged into the jamming smoke. The powered suit reacted against Akira’s slash with a slash of its own. Two blades, extremely different in size, passed each other. 

 

The large blade just went and sliced through the air. While on the other hand, the small blade got deflected by a powerful forcefield armour. The bike was the first one to get out of the jamming smoke, while the red powered suit followed behind it a moment later.

 

With the effect of the jamming smoke gone, the information-gathering devices were back in action. This allowed the powered suit’s adaptive forcefield armour to once again be able to function.

 

Believing that his powered suit was able to withstand Akira’s attack, Gelgus aimed his rifle at the bike. But for some reason, there was only Carol on top of it, aiming back at the powered suit.

 

Gelgus raised his eyebrows. Akira was nowhere to be found.

 

[He’s gone! Where is he!? Did he fall off?! The sensor!]

 

Gelgus quickly used his information-gathering device to scan the surrounding area. However, he could not find Akira. The unexpected turn of events shocked and greatly confused him.

 

Right at the next moment, a barrage struck the powered suit. The forcefield armour automatically adjusted its power to the area where the barrage landed. This caused the power output towards the remaining locations to wane. It created a weak spot in the forcefield armour right opposite of where the barrage hit. Unfortunately, that was the exact position where Carol was aiming her energy cannon.

 

[Dammit!]

 

Gelgus quickly tried to reroute the energy to the weakened side of the forcefield armour. Unfortunately, it was already too late. Carol’s laser combined with AF anti-material cannon pierced the weakened forcefield armour. It went past and obliterated the front portion of the powered suit.

 

When Akira and the red powered suit exchanged slashes, Akira jumped off the bike and activated his camouflaging defensive coat. The main goal of the jamming smoke was to hide him when he did that. Even with Alpha’s help, there was a high chance the red powered suit would still be able to notice him when he got that close. Thus, Akira only dared to do this under the veil of the jamming smoke.

 

After Akira jumped off, he used the soles of his augmented suit to stick onto the red powered suit. Alpha then adjusted the output and control of the camouflaging coat masking it to the powered suit’s forcefield amour. This completely erased his presence. 

 

Akira then crawled to the back of the powered suit and emptied the magazine in his rifle. It was to reduce the defence on the front as much as possible. Even with a barrage of fully charged C bullets, released point-blank, it was not enough to leave a scratch on its armour tiles. Rather, it did not even manage to break through its forcefield armour. Though, Akira’s barrage at least managed to force all its energy to focus on its back.

 

That was exactly when Carol made the best use of that opening.

 

“Akira! Hurry up!”

 

“I know!”

 

If Akira missed this opportunity, he would have to pay it with his life. Therefore, in order to take full advantage of this small opening, he compressed his time perception to the limit. 

 

The powered suit was actively moving at a high speed. Therefore, clinging on to it was like bracing against a storm. Running across its surface was equivalent to trying to run up a mountain while enduring a natural disaster.

 

That was why Akira relied heavily on the might of his augmented suit. Although he felt like he was walking slowly, in reality, he was running extremely quickly. Every single move was impeded by the wind, preventing him from moving forward. But even so, he still forced his way through.

 

Thanks to that, he was able to get to the opposite side of the powered suit in less than a second. He then shoved his LEO multi-rifle into the opening that was created from Carol’s attack and held down the trigger.

 

The number of bullets that he released was enough to create a wall of them. Although there was a bit of space between the muzzle and the powered suit, he had basically shoved everything that was left in his gun inside the powered suit.

 

In the midst of his attack, the forcefield armour had returned back. However, due to the damage to the forcefield device, the power output got greatly reduced. Furthermore, Akira’s point-blank barrage damaged the forcefield device even more. The randomly flashing light from the barrage showed just how badly damaged it was.

 

The bullets drilled through the inner part of the powered suit. But even so, it was still not enough to kill Gelgus. The red powered suit swung its hand, trying to get Akira off of it.

 

Akira dexterously evaded its hand and the only way to do that was to get away from the powered suit. Thus, he leapt into the air. This meant that he would not be able to evade its next attack. Although he could create a forcefield platform under his sole to do another jump, it would not be fast enough to get away if the powered suit tried to attack him again.

 

But the next attack did not come. Carol, with the help of the AF anti-material cannon, shot again. It was at the same spot as before. After Akira’s point-blank barrage, that location was no longer protected by forcefield armour. With that much energy focused at that one point, it pierced, fried, melted, and wrecked the red powered suit.

 

Before the unit broke down, Gelgus smiled wryly, accepting his defeat. As a high-ranking Hunter, he was able to keep up with everything that just happened. He knew well what Akira did that led to this conclusion.

 

[So… he was sticking on me when we were in the jamming smoke, huh!? What a crazy bastard…!]

 

With the generator completely destroyed, Gelgus was no longer able to control the powered suit. He was at the mercy of inertia as he flew straight and crashed. Without the forcefield armour to protect the suit, impact crushed the powered suit.

 

[To think that he’s this powerful… Zelos was right, huh…]

 

Gelgus accepted his mistake and mocked himself. He realised that it was too foolish to disagree with Zelos’ decision. In actuality, it was a hard decision for Zelos as well. In terms of the ability to make decisions, both of them were almost on the same level.

 

The only thing that caused them to end up making different decisions, was the fact that one of them had met Akira beforehand and witnessed his might.

 

[Good grief… Those damn bastards from Lion Steel… They should have put more money on that bounty… 50 billion Aurum is far from… good… enough…]

 

The explosion from the inside of the powered suit had already burnt half of his body. The crash quickened the half-dying Gelgus to reach his end. At the end of his life, he smiled and uttered a complaint before taking his final breath.

 

Carol accelerated the bike upwards to catch the falling Akira. She grabbed Akira from the front and tightly held him, making sure that he would not fall off.

 

“Akira! That was amazing! We did it!”

 

“Yeah, somehow.”

 

“You don’t look that excited after defeating a powered suit without using one ourselves!”

 

“This is not my first time after all.”

 

“Just how many times have you done this then!? Are you sure you’re alright in the head?!”

 

“…I will take that as a compliment.”

 

“I did mean it as a compliment!”

 

Unlike Carol, who was thrilled after defeating such a big and strong opponent, all that Akira gave was a bitter smile. That was when Shirou’s sudden telepathic message reached him.

 

“Akira! Give me a break already! We’re retreating this instant, right!?”

 

“Yeah, we’re leaving now.”

 

“Alright! Let’s go! Full speed away from here!”

 

Akira and Carol caught up with the camping vehicle on the bike and parked it on the rooftop. They then quickly shifted their focus to shooting down the ongoing bombardment. After some time, the bombardment finally stopped.

 

Akira sighed.

 

“…They’ve stopped. I guess they have given up on us, huh? Man, that was tiring…”

 

“Let’s take a good rest inside. We protected the camping vehicle for that, right?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

Akira smiled at her and turned around to head into the camping vehicle.

 

But Alpha suddenly shouted at him. 

 

“Akira! Watch out!”

 

Akira, who had already relaxed, quickly tensed up. Everything around him immediately came to a halt due to his time perception compression. He directed all his senses, including the extrasensory sense that he had obtained for being an old-world connector, to all directions, steeling himself for an attack.

 

“Alpha! What’s wrong?!”

 

“To your right!”

 

Akira quickly reached for the LEO multi-rifle that he did not fix on the bike’s arm and looked to the right. He scanned around but there was nothing at all. It was either that the enemy was too far away to be seen with the naked eye or someone who was hiding using an extremely advanced camouflaging device.

 

Suddenly, someone appeared out of nowhere from where Akira felt a slight disturbance from. Alpha quickly focused Akira’s information-gathering device to check that particular location and displayed the result in Akira’s enhanced vision.

 

However, everything was already too late. Right before Akira was able to align the muzzle towards his target, the opponent quickly closed the distance between them. The enemy released a powerful punch, launching Akira off from the top of the vehicle like a rag doll. He landed hard on the ground, enough to create a crater. It was so powerful that Akira’s augmented suit was not able to neutralize the impact.

 

It all happened in a blink of an eye. Akira was not able to react at all. Of course, Alpha did try to control his augmented suit, but neither attempts to block nor evade made it on time.

 

Right after Akira crashed, the opponent did not grant him any opportunity to act as a rifle was immediately pointed at his head.

 

“Nice to meet you. I am Yanagisawa from Kugamayama City Management. Can I have a bit of your time?”

 

Akira was on the ground with a rifle pointed toward his forehead. His stern gaze was directed at the person in front of him, Yanagisawa, a man who was smiling with his usual flippant attitude at Akira.

 

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