Rebuild World: Volume 3 Part 1 E-Book

Nahuse

• Herausgeber: J-Novel Club
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Serie: Rebuild World
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Seitenzahl: 497

Beschreibung

Healed, rested, and armed with a powerful new arsenal, Akira is ready to resume relic hunting. His first target is a field of rubble that he suspects conceals an untouched ruin. Does the barren ground hold fabulous riches or disappointment—or long-dormant perils? The young hunter will need to put all his new skills to work in his quest to find out! But even that won’t be enough to profit off the answer—Akira will need to set aside his deep-seated suspicion and put greater trust in his allies if he hopes to make the most of his discovery.

Leseprobe

Chapter 70: The Buried Ruin

Akira had become a relic hunter to escape his life in the slums. In the Kuzusuhara Ruins, he’d met Alpha and accepted a commission from her, making them partners from then on. The checkered career that followed had tempered him, enhancing his skills at an astonishing rate. Alpha’s support—an advance payment on their contract—had given him a powerful advantage, swiftly transforming an ordinary slum kid into a hunter so accomplished that Kugamayama City had requested him by name for one of its projects.

As a result, Akira now had the life he’d dreamed of during his days in the back alleys, when he’d worn dirty clothes, eaten food so unsafe it was practically experimental, and never known whether he’d be killed in his sleep. He’d longed for decent clothes, a healthy diet, and a safe room to sleep in—humble wishes, but far beyond the reach of most slum dwellers.

And now he had them. His clothes were good, although they were combat gear. He’d eaten meals so delicious they blew him away. He’d rented a house larger than the average rookie hunter could afford. In short, he’d left the slums behind, and he was living his dream.

Even in his newfound affluence, however, Akira’s mind had remained trapped in the back alleys, where scorn, distrust, and murder were the norm. Yet even that was now slowly changing in the course of his work. Seeing people unflinchingly risk their own lives for others had opened his eyes to a new side of humanity. And then there had been a few words, spoken by a girl called Yumina:

“The thief is to blame, obviously!”

Coming from anyone else, in any other circumstances, this statement wouldn’t have left such a strong impression on him, would never have shocked him as it had. But as it was, the words loomed large in Akira’s mind. The day he’d heard them, his spirit had taken its first small steps out of the back alleys where it had been loitering and into the outside world. More such steps would carry him forward, leading him further into his career and closer to accomplishing the job he’d promised to perform for Alpha—and to achieving, one day, a wish he didn’t even realize he had.

Akira and Alpha had a lot more hunting ahead of them, each in pursuit of their own desires.

◆

Akira had successfully fought off a gang of relic thieves in Kuzusuhara, and then sold the credit for his achievement to Kugamayama City for 160 million aurum. But he’d already spent 150 million of that: sixty million on hospital bills after the battle, eighty million to replace all the equipment he’d lost, and ten million on high-end medicine.

Years of harsh slum life, followed by a series of even more brutal battles, had left his body a wreck. Thanks to his costly hospital stay after his fight with the thieves, however, he was now as healthy as those who lived in luxurious safety within the city walls.

To reach new heights as a hunter, he needed powerful weapons and a good powered suit. But the best gear commanded steep prices. Effective medicine, too, was a product of advanced technology, and hence expensive. Yet Akira would be far less likely to survive combat with injuries slowing him down, so products that could cure wounds on the spot were worth the small fortune they’d cost him.

In short, Akira needed all his recent purchases. He hadn’t wasted a single aurum. Nevertheless, the string of exorbitant payments had steadily chipped away at his financial sensibilities. No trace remained of the Akira who had once been ecstatic to make a mere two hundred grand.

He’d already ordered his full new kit from Shizuka. He’d been buying gear from her as long as he’d been a hunter, and he trusted her so completely that he hadn’t hesitated to pay her the full eighty million aurum up front. And now the news had reached him that his long-awaited order had arrived, he was rushing off to her store.

I see someone’s in a good mood, Alpha remarked, observing his excitement with a sardonic grin. Are you really that eager for your new gear?

’Course I am. I mean, did you see the list on the quote? I can’t wait! Akira replied matter-of-factly, taking more care than usual to stick to telepathy as he entered Cartridge Freak—he didn’t want to get carried away and let Shizuka see him talking to himself.

The shopkeeper was so beautiful that some hunters patronized her business purely to improve their chances with her, and she greeted Akira with a friendly smile on her lovely face. “It’s good to see you, Akira. Right this way.”

She stood up from behind the counter and beckoned to him. As Akira followed her into the back room, a sudden thought struck him, and he asked, “Shizuka, are you sure you can take time away from the front?”

“Don’t worry. I won’t get a line of waiting customers just because I left the counter for a bit. I only wish business was that good.”

“Y-Yeah?” Akira mumbled, looking torn. While he could tell Shizuka was joking (even with his paltry communication skills), he still didn’t think blithe agreement seemed the proper response. Yet he couldn’t think of a better one, so he returned to his original question. “No, I mean, what if someone steals a gun from a display or something?” From his perspective, this was an obvious concern. He was used to things being stolen the moment they left his sight.

Shizuka sensed where his question came from and inwardly deplored the life that must have given him such ideas. Yet she didn’t want to show him needless pity, so she kept smiling as if he’d said nothing unusual. “Oh, so that’s what you mean. Don’t worry about that either. All my display models are locked to their stands, and I’ve got security cameras watching the shop. I even have an insurance policy linked to a private security firm, so everything will be fine.”

Even if robbers did take this opportunity to burgle Cartridge Freak, Shizuka explained, her insurance would cover the damages and keep her store’s losses to a minimum. And to uphold its reputation, the private security firm under contract to her insurance company would capture the thieves—and then go about recouping its expenses. The robbers’ safety would ultimately depend on their ability to pay damage claims filed under a dizzying array of pretexts. If they lacked funds, their property, bodies, and futures would be converted into cash by any means necessary until they met with a fate that fit their crimes. Whether they merely lost assets to confiscation, got conscripted into backbreaking labor, or ended up as unwilling test subjects for new drugs and technologies depended entirely on how much they had cost the company and its clients.

Of course, once the firm mobilized, they usually didn’t care if they took their target dead or alive. The company would rather kill a suspect than lose face by letting them escape. So the opportunity to pay damages and live on applied only to thieves who survived capture.

Even after hearing all that, Akira still seemed a little uneasy, so Shizuka decided to try a different tack. “Anyway, even if I do lose something because I stepped away from the counter, I’d still call it a smart business decision.”

“You would?” Akira asked, incredulous and baffled to the extreme.

“Yes. You’re a big spender and a regular customer in the making,” Shizuka answered, not entirely seriously. “Showing you a little favoritism to keep you coming back will be better for my bottom line. So, step right this way, my good sir.”

Akira realized she was trying to reassure him and decided to stop worrying. With an answering smile a little too broad to be natural, he said, “All right. Let’s go.”

A “regular customer in the making,” huh? he reflected, struck by Shizuka’s choice of words, as he followed her into the back room. I’ve already spent a lot buying all my gear here, and I’ve made plenty of visits to stock up on ammo, but I guess that’s still not enough to make me a regular in Shizuka’s book.

He found himself regretting that he hadn’t yet made the cut, and he was just wondering how he could improve his standing with her when Shizuka said, “By the way, I always appreciate your business, but I’d like it even better if you bought more from my inventory. When it comes to something like a powered suit, I’m essentially just placing an order on your behalf. So to be honest, there isn’t a lot of profit in it.”

“Oh, er, I hope you don’t mind waiting a little while for that,” Akira said awkwardly, avoiding her gaze. She’d put him on the spot, and he didn’t know how else to respond.

“I don’t. I have high hopes, but remember: don’t do anything reckless.” Shizuka spoke chidingly, as if to a child, although she never lost her concerned smile.

“I understand,” Akira replied earnestly. He had just been thinking that, as a shortcut into Shizuka’s good books, it might be worth running a few risks, if they earned himself more opportunities to visit Cartridge Freak—and more money to spend there. But her casual admonition banished that idea before it was fully formed.

“Good.”

Shizuka’s storeroom doubled as a delivery entrance, and its shelves were packed with the heavy weaponry and ammunition she traded in. While Akira stared at the vast array of goods, she pointed to a shutter which led to her garage. “Now, that’s where you’ll find the new gear you ordered.”

Akira looked inside, shock and delight plain on his face. Although he’d known what to expect, he could still hardly believe his eyes. “Shizuka,” he asked hesitantly, “I read your sales quote, but are you sure I can have this as part of my new kit?”

Shizuka flashed him a proud grin. “Of course! I made sure to keep it in your budget.”

Before them sat a truck built for the wasteland. No compact car, confined to paved city streets, could match the intimidating presence of this five-meter-long machine. Akira had rented similar trucks in the past, and as off-road vehicles went, it was unremarkable. Nevertheless, the realization that this one was his left a deep impression on him. No hunter could roam the wastes without transportation, and here he had just gained a replacement for the motorcycle he’d lost in his battle with the relic thieves.

“All right, I’m going to check that your full order is here, and I’d like you to go over it with me.” Shizuka produced paper copies of her sales quote and handed one to Akira. Then she began pointing out each item on the list, confirming that all were accounted for.

“One Tatsumori Heavy Industries Telos Type 97 desert utility vehicle. It’s a used truck, but it’s in perfect repair, and it has an onboard control system with a threat-detection module.”

Wasteland vehicles, as they were commonly known, were built to traverse rugged, rubble-strewn terrain. More than that, they were designed to address the unique challenge of wasteland travel—monster attacks. The Telos Type 97, for example, lacked a roof so that passengers could easily open fire from inside the vehicle. (Hunters in powered suits often carried weapons far more devastating than typical onboard systems.) Its high suspension and large, rugged tires allowed it to drive right over the minor obstacles that littered the wasteland.

The truck’s body was also covered in plates called “armor tiles,” which responded to impacts by engaging force-field armor. Some of these tiles were thick, heavy plates, while others were as thin and light as stickers. But large or small, almost all were designed to affix to a surface and to peel and crumble away after activating their protection. Onboard force-field generators did exist, but only in top-of-the-line wasteland vehicles geared toward the high-ranking hunters who could afford their prohibitive energy costs. At present, that feature was out of Akira’s price range.

“One CWH anti-materiel rifle and one DVTS minigun,” Shizuka continued, “both mounted on the truck so you can use them even without a powered suit.”

The rear of the truck was an open bed with two gun emplacements, each of which held one of the weapons. The mounts weren’t on the front of the vehicle because monster encounters in the wasteland more often involved fleeing a target than driving toward it.

“You can detach them to carry with you, of course. But be careful with the DVTS minigun—it really guzzles ammo. Just to be safe, I had custom parts installed to expand its capacity. It’s designed for use with compatible high-capacity magazines, but don’t worry, it can still take standard ones as well.”

The minigun rested on a sturdy emplacement and looked so imposing that Akira had trouble believing a human could carry it. An ammunition belt stretched from the heart of its firing mechanism to a massive magazine stored behind the weapon. Although too large for portability, it could support rapid fire from the truck without resorting to custom parts. If Akira ran into another pack of monsters, he could simply mow them down.

“The custom parts for your AAH and A2D assault rifles are in that box. They’re compatible with either weapon, so you can mix and match them however you like later.”

Akira had purchased both rifles at the same time he’d ordered new gear, and he’d left them unmodified so that he could fire them without a powered suit. Naturally, they wouldn’t do much damage to Yarata scorpions and other hard-shelled beasts. He planned to keep one stock for emergencies and customize the other to fire overpressure ammo, among other upgrades that he could only take advantage of with his suit on.

“Two Tatsumori Ference data terminals for wasteland use. They’re built tough and equipped with armor stickers. They’re also both pre-synced with your Telos Type 97, so you can use them to control it remotely. When it comes to the features of wasteland gear, I’d say durability is king, wouldn’t you?”

Two terminals lay on the truck’s passenger seat. They shared a rugged design, although a less charitable observer might have said that they’d sacrificed any sense of aesthetics in the name of durability. The covers that protected their screens when not in use looked almost as if someone had just slapped armor tiles over them. But their ability to survive trips through the wastes made them right up any hunter’s alley.

“And last but not least, one ERPS powered suit with a fully integrated scanner suite. The manufacturer calls it Powered Silence. It comes with a full set of accessories in that storage case there. This includes a rifle sight it can sync with, so remember to install that later if you plan to use it.”

The back of the truck held a large case that only barely fit on board. Akira currently needed a new suit more than any other piece of gear—he couldn’t reap the full benefits of Alpha’s support without one. It was so vital, in fact, that if forced to choose between the suit and all the rest of his new acquisitions, he would take the suit in a heartbeat.

So, anxious to thoroughly inspect this all-important piece of equipment, he grabbed the case by its handle and tried to lift it out of the truck. But it was heavier than he’d expected and didn’t budge. He tried gripping the handle firmly in both hands, to no avail. Refusing to give up, he braced one foot on the side of the truck and pulled with all his might. The case moved, but only barely.

Seeing that Akira was struggling, Shizuka walked up beside him, seized the handle in one hand, and gave it a tug. The case that had resisted all his efforts moved as easily as if it were made of styrofoam. Shocked, Akira hurriedly let go of the handle. Shizuka lifted the case out of the truck and set it down on the floor single-handedly.

“Whoa,” Akira gasped admiringly.

Shizuka’s friendly smile grew a bit colder as she asked, “You do realize my suit did all the work there, right?”

“Huh? Oh, right. I knew that,” Akira hastily replied, reminded that she wore a thin suit of powered inner wear underneath her clothes. But why had she stressed the point? That question he couldn’t answer.

Turning back to the matter at hand, he opened the case. Inside, he found a black powered suit, neatly folded, and a range of small electronic accessories. Before he could lift the suit out to take a better look, Shizuka beat him to the punch, unfolding it and holding it up for him to see.

The fabric that formed the suit’s base layer was woven of synthetic fibers, and while it appeared rigid at first glance, it was flexible enough to fold into a compact bundle. In place of an exoskeleton, a material like long, thin sheets of stiff rubber formed a sort of harness on its surface. More of the same substance sheathed the backs of the hands and tops of the feet, which also featured what Akira supposed were ports for connecting some kind of electronic device.

Shizuka noticed him staring curiously at them and explained, “Those ports are for attaching the miniature sensors it comes with. I told you this suit has a fully integrated scanner, right? It was designed to give you both in one package.”

Akira next unpacked the accessories. The miniature sensor terminals looked like regular polyhedrons split in half, and each one housed cameras, microphones, motion and vibration sensors, and more. This caused each module by itself to suffer from low individual performance, but linking them together made up for that weakness.

“So this suit has a whole set of scanners built in?” Akira asked, staring curiously at these accessories his old suit had lacked. “I’m guessing it must have cost more than a normal one, then.”

“Of course,” Shizuka confirmed. “Higher specs and additional features always add to the price tag.”

“That figures, especially since it has to include the cost of a scanner too. I can’t believe my budget covered this and a truck.” Akira’s whole kit cost eighty million aurum—a large sum, yes, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that he’d gotten more than his money’s worth.

“The Powered Silence has a bit of a...history,” Shizuka explained. “I found it for less than the list price.”

“What kind of history?”

“Oh, don’t worry. It’s brand new, and its performance is a cut above any other suit in its price range. It’s just that a little incident tanked its popularity. So, well, I got it on clearance.”

Of course, there were incidents, and then there were incidents. So, hoping to dispel the decidedly uneasy look that had appeared on the face of such a big spender, Shizuka embarked on a more detailed explanation.

Neither superiority in raw specs nor cost-performance guaranteed that a product would sell—there were other key factors at play. Reviews didn’t always match performance, while marketing and gossip often swayed perceptions—even when they had nothing to do with the product itself. This was as true in hunting as in any other field. And the Powered Silence had suffered for it.

Shortly after the suit had gone on sale, a hunter wearing one had failed spectacularly in a big job and then loudly panned the suit in an effort to shift the blame. To make matters worse, that hunter had had a decent reputation for competence prior to this, and had gone on to achieve great success in their next job after switching to a different suit. Overnight, the Powered Silence had gained a disastrous reputation, and its sales figures had cratered. Whether there actually was a bug in the suit’s control system—as the hunter had claimed—and whether it had really caused their failure was now a subject of endless—and pointless—debate. Even if the claim was false or the bug had since been patched, the suit’s reputation would never recover from this fatal blow.

Usually, Shizuka would never recommend such a maligned piece of equipment—unless she could be certain its infamy was undeserved. In the Powered Silence’s case, the success of a near-identical model under a different name had convinced industry professionals that there was at least nothing wrong with the suit’s design and performance. By that point, however, it had become too outdated to return to major retailers’ shelves. The ill-fated product—which did its job well, although its experimental nature had resulted in somewhat uneven specs—had never been able to escape its initial bout of negative press.

The story left Akira feeling a sense of kinship for the unfairly maligned suit. They were both victims of terrible luck. And Alpha read his feelings through their telepathic connection.

You’ve got nothing to worry about, she interjected. Even if there is a bug in the system, it won’t matter once I rewrite it all.

Yeah? That’s a relief, Akira replied.

I won’t let you down. Alpha’s smug grin dispelled the last of Akira’s misgivings.

With her explanation out of the way, Shizuka helped him to don and boot up the Powered Silence. Its resilient synthetic fibers stretched and shrank, contouring themselves to his skin. He experienced no discomfort, and the few simple movements he tried felt perfectly natural.

The accessories in the suit’s storage case included simple protectors—add-ons that provided surfaces to attach the thin defensive plates (also included), which would be difficult to stick directly onto the flexible suit. Akira plugged in the miniature scanner terminals, then added the protectors and a goggles-like wearable display. He finished by strapping on his two assault rifles. To his slight embarrassment, Shizuka looked him up and down, then smiled and nodded, as if to say that his new gear looked good on him.

“Well, now you’ve seen everything you ordered,” she announced. “Does it meet your expectations, sir?”

“Yes. I really can’t thank you enough.”

“Wonderful! Cartridge Freak looks forward to your continued patronage.” With that, Shizuka’s smile changed slightly, no longer quite the one she used with customers, and she tenderly embraced Akira. “I’m sure you’ll go right back to hunting, but try to be careful. You will, won’t you?”

“Yes.” Akira nodded happily.

Akira packed all his purchases back into the truck, then nodded to Shizuka from the driver seat and departed for home. She saw him off with a cheery little wave. But once he was out of sight, she sighed and murmured ruefully, “This isn’t healthy—I’ve gotten much too attached to him. Maybe I’m not as good at keeping my feelings out of my business as I always thought I was.”

Procuring Akira’s new equipment had been an eighty-million-aurum deal and a major boost to her sales figures. In terms of coming out ahead, however, it had been questionable at best. She wasn’t in the red, but her profit was nowhere near what she would have expected to earn on such a large contract—a mere pittance, even to a woman who took pride in not gouging her customers. Of course, she’d known this when she made the call to purchase his gear. She’d justified it to herself as an investment to secure repeat business from a major customer, but she had still cut her own percentage to the quick to furnish Akira with the best possible gear. The young hunter could be dense in some matters, but even he had realized something was off.

“Akira,” she said, chuckling to snap herself out of her reflections, “I got you the best your money could buy. Now I’m counting on you to keep shopping here for a long time. So you’d better come through, okay?”

Shizuka returned to her sales counter, wishing that she would see Akira return to her shop many times in the years to come—that the wasteland wouldn’t swallow him up.

◆

Three days later, after making all the necessary preparations to resume hunting, Akira drove his truck out into the wasteland. Alpha had taken over the computers in his suit, terminals, and truck. He had gotten the hang of his integrated scanner on a quick tour of the wasteland near the city limits. And he’d installed the custom parts in his A2D, swapped out its sight and those of his other weapons, and test-fired all of them. He felt ready to get back to work, and now that he had a truck of his own, he was champing at the bit to resume his search for undiscovered ruins.

Today’s destination was a field of rubble he’d once visited while following clues from the terminals left behind by Lion’s Tail, Inc. The arrow pointing to his objective had seemed to be directing him underground, indicating the possibility of a ruin below the barren surface. Such a find would mean a treasure trove of relics—a dream for which many had braved the wastes and charted the East. The few who succeeded became fabulously wealthy overnight, inspiring fresh waves of explorers to follow in their footsteps. Most, however, fell short and vanished into the wasteland with their broken dreams.

Fresh ruins weren’t so easily found, and their perils were as unknown as their treasures—hunters lucky enough to stumble upon one sometimes ended up slaughtered by the hordes of monsters within. And while untouched sites often contained relics, nothing was guaranteed. Even successfully locating one might turn out to be a waste of effort. Still, it was a lucrative prospect, and with Alpha on his side, Akira felt sure he could pull it off.

“Y’know, I still can’t believe I got my hands on a truck this quickly,” he mused as he cruised excitedly through the desert. “Now I should be able to scope out new ruins without other hunters catching on too soon. Right?”

That’s correct. Alpha nodded cheerfully from the passenger seat. Or at least you don’t have to worry about a rental car giving away your finds.

Most rental vehicles logged their position and travel routes for easier tracking and retrieval. Naturally, the rental companies had access to that data, meaning that no discovery Akira made in a rented vehicle was safe from their notice. So he and Alpha had called off their search until they could get their hands on their own transportation.

“Great! Then let’s get looking!” Akira then took another look at what Alpha was wearing and added, with a hint of frustration, “But seriously, can’t you pick a better outfit?”

Alpha sat beside him in the passenger seat of the desert terrain vehicle, her pure-white dress at odds with everything around her. Layers of fine, lustrous fabric swathed her divinely perfect figure, the striking purity of its hue making her seem almost sublime. Her pale veil—intricately embroidered—fluttered in the breeze, and beneath it her flowing locks formed breathtaking waves of radiance. And she sat as if she hadn’t a care in the world, although her impractical outfit should have caught on so many different parts of the truck that simply climbing into her seat would be next to impossible. She could never have pulled it off if she’d been more than a virtual image.

Oh, this doesn’t do it for you? she asked, her smile as much in contrast to Akira’s combat gear as the rest of her appearance. I suppose it must not be to your tastes.

“That’s not what I mean. You look so out of place it’s distracting, and I’m trying to drive. Don’t you see how risky that is?”

I’m running my support in the background, so the truck won’t crash even if you make a mistake. Just lean back and enjoy the drive.

“I guess you’ve got a point, but I still don’t like it.” A slight frown creased Akira’s face.

Alpha laughed. We’ve been over this before, remember? I dress like this to make sure I get a reaction out of any human who can see me.

“Oh, right. Well, I guess that getup would do the trick.”

There were only so many things someone could reasonably do in a pure-white dress, so the outfit was certain to startle any unsuspecting person who caught sight of it in the wasteland. Akira could see the logic, but he was also still experiencing the dress’s eye-catching effect up close, so he remained ambivalent.

Think of it as an exercise to improve your concentration. You shouldn’t let something as minor as a strangely dressed woman in your passenger seat spoil your focus.

“Couldn’t you at least go back to that maid outfit from before? That one wasn’t as bad.”

No. A maid outfit might be perfectly normal attire for a female hunter in the wasteland.

“Not in a million years.”

Are you sure? You’ve run into more than one woman dressed that way yourself.

That much was true. He’d seen one hunter dressed as a maid draw stares in the tunnels beneath Kuzusuhara. Another had appeared with her in the lower district of Kugamayama City. Given enough time, the fashion might become commonplace. At the very least, many people had already seen a woman wear a maid outfit into the wasteland, and they might simply shrug if they encountered another.

One day, Alpha concluded, it may become normal for all hunters to dress like maids, not just the women.

“D-Don’t you think that’s kind of a stretch?” Akira asked, rendered puzzled and slightly uncomfortable by this blow to his common sense.

I wouldn’t be so sure. Fashion is far more arbitrary than you think. For instance...

With a teasing grin, Alpha began spinning a tale of a hypothetical future. Some everyday clothes from the Old World, she explained, offered greater protection than present-day body armor. Maid outfits were no exception. So, what if a ruin yielded a massive stockpile of maid outfits? Or a machine that produced a virtually unlimited number of them? No matter how technically impressive the outfits were, excess supply flooding the market would drive down their price. Once it dropped below a certain threshold, maid outfits would be accepted as affordable, high performance body armor with an unfortunate aesthetic downside. Every cash-strapped rookie hunter would start wearing them—better to dress like a maid than fight in normal clothes and get murdered by monsters. And once enough hunters made that choice, people would get used to it. Eventually, no one would feel self-conscious about wearing a maid outfit anymore, and they would become standard equipment for most hunters.

“Would that really happen?” Akira demanded, with a look of stunned consternation.

Absolutely, Alpha replied. But only if my underlying assumptions prove true, of course. If you want a real example, take Old World combat gear. It looks completely bizarre to you, right?

“You mean that thing you wore before? Yeah.”

Hunters near the Front Line have no problem wearing that sort of “Old World—style” gear. I’m sure that at first they just put up with the aesthetics because the specs were so high, but they got used to it over time.

“Huh. Then, I guess your maid story isn’t so far-fetched after all.” Akira was convinced, although he didn’t look entirely happy about it. He couldn’t help picturing a world where all hunters wore maid outfits, from the washed-up failures in the slums to the patrol truck crews—and even the relic thieves who had attacked him beneath the ruins. And there he was, dressed as a maid just like the rest of them. No one questioned it—that was just how things were.

The mental image made him want to tear his hair out so badly that he forced himself to abandon it.

“Y’know,” he muttered, “I feel like my common sense takes a hit every time I learn something new about the Old World.”

What counts as common sense is always changing.

Akira and Alpha weren’t quite on the same page, but they kept chatting anyway as they made their way across the wasteland.

The first thing Akira did when he reached the debris field was to park his truck behind a heap of rubble and cover it with a camouflage sheet. It wasn’t active camo—nothing nearly that fancy—but it was colored to blend in with the terrain and would make his ride much harder to spot from a distance. Even so, Akira gave his covered vehicle a worried look.

“Do you think it’ll be okay?” he asked, his expression contorting with the same fear he’d felt in Cartridge Freak—that his things would be found and stolen the moment he took his eyes off them.

Why even have a truck if you’re too scared to step away from it? Alpha countered. You’ve done what you can by putting the camo sheet over it, so accept the risk and move on.

After a tense pause, Akira conceded, “I guess you’re right.”

Putting his worries aside, he began his investigation. The ground was covered in dirt and debris, and a look around turned up no sign of a ruin, so he moved on to scanning for buried entrances. He shifted his suit’s sensor modules to his feet and focused them downward. Then he started to search in a gradually widening circle, centered on the subterranean arrow that marked the Lion’s Tail installation in his view. But although he tested numerous settings in his prolonged scan below the surface, the results—displayed in augmented reality—showed only that the ground beneath his feet was a mass of dirt and debris. Below that, he saw nothing but the wall of noise that meant he’d hit the edge of his effective scanning range.

“By the way, Alpha, how does my new scanner compare to the old one?” he asked. “Is it a lot higher spec?”

No, it’s about the same.

“Really? But Shizuka said it was a cut above.”

She must have been talking about the suit overall. That scanner you bought from Elena was fairly high-end, so while this suit’s performance is a major step up from your last one, its scanner isn’t much of an upgrade. Alpha added that Akira had only been able to afford his old scanner because Elena had sold it to him used, for next to nothing. It would normally have been out of his price range.

“Wow. I had no idea.” Akira looked startled as he realized once again how much he owed Elena. He promised himself he would find some way to repay her.

Three hours into Akira and Alpha’s search, they still hadn’t found what they were looking for. At one point, they had located a subterranean cavity and dug down to it, hoping for a buried entrance. But the hole led only to the interior of a crumbling building, not to the tunnel system they sought. Although a warehouse would have been a windfall in its own right, the vast, empty space they uncovered seemed more like a parking garage—hardly fertile ground for relic hunting.

And still the search dragged on. Akira had traveled quite a distance from the arrow that marked their buried target when Alpha informed him that they had now thoroughly covered a wide area around it.

“We keep drawing a blank,” he grumbled. “Why don’t we just go back to where the arrow is and dig straight down?”

That wouldn’t work, Alpha replied. We’d need to bring in heavy machinery for such a large excavation, and we’d have to work slowly and carefully to prevent cave-ins and other damage.

“So, even if we did find a new ruin, we’d stand out like a sore thumb. We’d just be telling everyone else where to look.”

Exactly.

Despite his growing frustration, Akira went on searching with deliberate care. While the circle he’d checked grew, he had no entrance to show for his pains.

“Alpha, say there was a shopping district here, with lots of ways in and out, like the one under Kuzusuhara,” he mused. “Can you think of any reason why you wouldn’t be able to see those entrances?”

Well, what if what we think is ground level actually used to be about three stories up? That might do it. Alpha added that the amount of rubble in the area suggested it had once contained numerous skyscrapers and other works of monumental architecture. Their collapse might have left a thick layer of debris. And if sediment had built up on that layer in the long years since, the original ground level—and the way into any tunnels below it—now lay buried deep beneath the surface.

Akira considered. “In that case, maybe we’re looking in the wrong spot. We oughta check around the edges of all this debris. The layer of crap over the old ground might be thin enough for my scanner to pick something up out there.”

All right. Let’s give it a try. The pair changed tactics.

An hour later, they finally found what they sought.

Alpha pointed at the ground, augmenting Akira’s vision with a view of what lay below. Under a comparatively thin stratum of rubble, he saw what looked like a stairway descending even deeper into the earth.

“Finally!” he exclaimed, breaking into a broad grin. “We found it! It’s a long way from the arrow marker, but it looks like an entrance all right! And it doesn’t even matter if it connects, as long as it takes us to a ruin!”

Given how far it goes, I doubt it just leads to some skyscraper’s basement. Alpha added, Of course, we won’t know for sure until we take a look inside. That’s one more reason to hurry up and clear this rubble.

“Yeah! What’re we waiting for?!”

Akira grabbed a nearby chunk of debris. The fibers of his new, more powerful suit acted as artificial muscles, giving him the strength to lift it as if it were light as a pebble. Triumphantly, he hurled the massive slab away.

Near a thin wreck that resembled a five-story-tall billboard—the single surviving side of a crumbling high-rise—lay what appeared to be the crushed remains of a sign. In horribly scuffed letters, it read, “Yonozuka Station South Entrance A27, for Kuzusuhara,” and it was part of the rubble Akira had just flung aside.

At his feet, the head of a newly unearthed stairway was soaking up its first rays of daylight in a long, long time.

Akira peered inside, but he couldn’t see the bottom. The boundary where his sight ended, swallowed by the darkness, seemed like a warning: “Stay out if you want to live.”

Bringing home a horde of relics from an undiscovered ruin would make him a fortune. That thought had delighted him while he’d enthusiastically cleared the entrance—right up until he’d looked into its depths.

That elation was no more.

In its place, he felt the same sort of nervous tension that had marked his first foray into Kuzusuhara, armed only with a pistol. Naturally, he couldn’t know yet what dangers lurked within this unexplored ruin, and he was getting cold feet. The stairway seemed like the maw of some gigantic monster.

Keep cool, he told himself. As long as I’m careful, I’ve got nothing to worry about. I’ve got Alpha to watch my back, and I can always leave if it looks dangerous.

After a deep breath to psych himself up, he said, “Okay. Let’s do this, Alpha.”

Wait a second.

“What for?” he demanded, annoyed at this loss of momentum. Then he quailed slightly when he saw how somber Alpha looked.

Akira, she said carefully, if you suddenly lose sight of me down there, turn around and leave as fast as you can. Is that clear?

“Y-Yeah.”

No exceptions! If you can’t see me, it means our connection is broken. If that happens, I want you to keep calm and prioritize reestablishing contact with me. Again, is that clear?

Akira froze for a moment. Then, with a stiff, strained expression, he said, “Hang on. You’re saying I might lose touch with you if I go in there?”

Yes. Remember what I told you about how I can’t scout as effectively in ruins or under them? That’s partly because I lose signal strength there. If you go below a ruin other than Kuzusuhara, I might lose contact with you completely.

Akira was speechless.

It’s not likely, of course, Alpha added. But it’s enough of a possibility that I thought I should warn you. So be extremely careful if it comes to that.

Akira took another look down the stairway and felt himself freeze in terror. What if he suddenly lost Alpha—and all her support—while deep in a pitch-dark tunnel or under attack by a fearsome monster? He knew all too well how fatal that would be. Just knowing that he was looking at a place where it would be a real possibility rattled and unnerved him.

Should we call it off? Alpha asked gently. There’s nothing wrong with that. And our work won’t go to waste—even if you don’t explore this ruin yourself, you can always sell its location for a tidy profit.

At that, Akira’s expression hardened. But while he looked grim, he no longer seemed afraid. “Are you trying to talk me out of it because I’m too scared, or because it’s just that dangerous?”

Both, Alpha replied, with a calculated smile. Although mostly the former. Exploring a ruin when you’re too frightened to think straight would be extremely risky.

“Oh.” Akira grinned back at her. “In that case, the expedition’s still on. Will and resolve are my end of our deal, remember?”

That was what he owed Alpha, even if it meant willing his quaking legs forward and resolving to put a bold face on his fear. If he could make himself do something, he had to go through with it. Alpha made up for what he still sorely lacked in skill, so it was his responsibility to provide all the rest himself. He’d promised her that will, motivation, and resolve were his burden to bear, and he was determined not to make himself a liar.

Without meaning to, he telepathically transmitted his memory of that moment. Alpha received it with a wistful smile.

Thanks for reminding me. All right, Akira. Let’s go.

Akira began to descend the stairs alongside her. Then he climbed back up them to the surface.

Akira?

“On second thought, I wanna bring some insurance,” he said. He returned to his truck, which he’d parked nearby, and detached the DVTS minigun from its mount. Then he swapped out its normal ammo belt for a high-capacity magazine, rendering the massive weapon portable. He had originally planned to leave the minigun behind, thinking that it was overkill for indoor combat, but now he’d changed his mind.

Armed to the teeth with two assault rifles, an anti-materiel rifle, and a minigun, Akira returned to the head of the stairs. Beside him, Alpha’s cheerful face looked as if she had something to say.

“What?” he demanded, a little awkwardly. He knew how silly he must have looked, psyching himself up for a descent into the tunnels only to immediately turn around and come back up.

Alpha gave him a look that said all she cared to. Nothing. Being cautious never hurt anyone.

Once again, Akira was ready. And this time, he took the stairway down into the ruin.

Chapter 71: The Fine Art of Selling Relics

Akira stalked down into the darkness, shining his light on a staircase that seemed to descend into the bowels of the earth, and which in fact led (he believed) to an undiscovered ruin. The passage was about four meters wide, with a high, intact ceiling, so he had no difficulty navigating it despite his bulky arsenal. The floor and walls were free of major cracks, and Akira saw no sign of encroaching vegetation either. Considering how long it must have been buried, the stairway was shockingly well-preserved.

Although Akira had dug out the entrance, he hadn’t completely cleared it of rubble, so only faint shafts of daylight filtered through the cracks. Even so, the opening he’d come through stood out like a shining beacon in the dark passage when he turned back to look at it. Pointing his light down ahead of him, he found that its rays vanished into the inky depths without illuminating anything that suggested a bottom.

That was when Alpha said, Turn off your light.

Akira hesitated but complied. Immediately, pitch darkness swallowed him. He couldn’t even see his own body. But he could still see Alpha clear as day, a silvery glow in the black tunnel. She raised her right hand, and the scenery around Akira took on living color, revealing even the tiniest cracks and stains on the walls in vivid detail, as if the noonday sun were shining only on his immediate surroundings.

“Whoa,” Akira gasped in admiration.

I’m processing your scanner data and showing you the results in AR, Alpha explained with a self-satisfied smile. Wouldn’t you agree it makes for a much better view?

“Definitely.” Akira returned the grin. “Is it still dark deeper in because my scanner isn’t strong enough?”

Objects closer to him seemed both brighter and more distinct, as if he himself were giving off light. And the dim, hazy terrain at the edges of his view faded into still-unbroken blackness.

Sensor range is part of it, but processing priority also plays a role, Alpha replied.

“So, if there were monsters in the darkness up ahead, wouldn’t I have a hard time aiming at them, even if I knew they were there?”

Don’t worry. If that happens, I’ll focus the sensors on wherever they are. Try looking through your rifle sight.

Akira raised his A2D assault rifle and took aim at the depths of the passage. Through the sight, he could see the distance as clearly as the walls beside him. The device emitted light too faint for the human eye to detect—a feature of its night-vision system—and Alpha had analyzed the resulting visuals.

Another hushed “Whoa” escaped Akira’s lips. “Looks like I’ll be able to snipe in the dark no problem,” he said, impressed. “This is perfect.”

Of course it is, Alpha chimed in. This is my support we’re talking about!

Akira lowered his rifle and flashed a smile at his smug companion while, inwardly, he prepared for the worst. All this convenience would vanish if he lost contact with Alpha, and he needed to be ready to make a calm, cautious return to the surface if that happened. So he remained alert and on guard as he resumed his descent.

Given the slope of the stairway and the distance he’d traveled, Akira estimated that he was roughly four stories belowground when he finally reached the bottom and emerged into a long corridor. He let out his breath, then took a good look around and noted, to his relief, that Alpha was still with him.

“Is your signal gonna be all right?” he asked. “We’re a long way down.”

Don’t worry. This is nothing, she replied with a smile.

Reassured, Akira returned his attention to searching the ruin. The passage was quite clean, its floor bare of rubble, skeletons, and the remains of hostile beasts or machines. It had accumulated a layer of dust and grime, but that was nothing to complain about. A pristine corridor would have been cause for alarm, suggesting that at least an Old World cleaning system was probably still operational—and that security robots now classified as monsters might be as well. Dirty floors, however, argued against the presence of active technology, and the undisturbed dust revealed that no organic threats had been here in a long time. The discovery, Alpha explained, immediately made this ruin seem much less dangerous. The lack of footprints also suggested that no other hunters had gotten in via another entrance—it looked more and more likely that this ruin truly was undiscovered.

Akira nodded, satisfied. “So no monsters or people have been in here? Throw in a load of relics, and this place’ll be everything I could hope for.”

This area seems to be a simple passage, Alpha informed him. Let’s pin our relic-hunting hopes on any shops or storerooms we find up ahead.

“Great. What’re we waiting for?”

Farther along the passage, Akira spotted what looked like a show window. Eager for relics, he jogged up to the glass-like panel and peered inside. A moment later, he froze in shock. Then, unable to control himself, he raced up to the wall and pressed his hands against it.

“Jackpot!” he cried gleefully, eyes sparkling. “Alpha, there are relics in here! And they look like they’re worth a fortune!”

He saw clothes without stitches or seams, although their elaborate, layered designs could not possibly have been fashioned from a single piece of fabric. A hexagonal plate—apparently some sort of data terminal—projected strange writing into empty air. The regular polyhedrons with translucent, geometric designs suspended within them must have been decorative objects of some kind. And there were more relics besides, all made of strange materials using unknown methods. Akira couldn’t begin to guess what most of them were for, but he could tell they were products of advanced Old World technology, and they looked extremely valuable.

In a rush to loot the shop, he glanced around for an entrance, but saw only solid walls.

“Where is it?” he demanded. “Where’s the door?! How come there’s no way in?!” He found no hint of an entrance or opening in the seemingly transparent wall before him or in the interior backdrop behind it.

How had someone gotten the relics in there in the first place? Akira didn’t know, but he only cared about how he was going to get them out. And he arrived at an extremely primitive solution—he would just have to smash the window.

Just as he made a fist, however, Alpha said, Akira, calm down.

“You think busting in is too risky?” he asked nervously. “Like, maybe it’ll set off an alarm or something?”

A smash-and-grab approach might be safe in a truly dilapidated ruin, but one this intact could still have a security system in sleep mode. And blatantly antagonistic actions—like breaking through a show window—risked waking it up. Even so, Akira wasn’t about to give up on his hard-won find just because it might be dangerous. And anyway, he wouldn’t be any safer if he passed this up and went looking farther in.

So if he wanted relics, he would have to take the plunge and seize them somewhere. Why not here, close to the entrance? Even if he did trip an alarm, he could at least escape more quickly than if he tried the same thing deeper inside the ruin.

Akira resisted the lure of his own greed long enough to explain his reasoning to Alpha, but she merely shook her head.

“Is it really that dangerous?” he asked, scowling. “Or do you just think we should go deeper in and take a look around before we try anything?”

That’s not the problem, Alpha replied. Removing those relics is physically impossible.

“Wait, what?” Akira couldn’t hide his confusion.

I’ll make the visuals easier for you to understand. Calm down and look carefully. Alpha wore a rueful grin while she made the adjustment.

What Akira had taken for a view through a show window abruptly lost all appearance of depth.

“Huh?” he murmured, taken aback.

I prioritized terrain data to more or less disable the 3D effect, Alpha explained.

Akira still saw relics, but only as images on a flat surface. Racking his brains, he came up with a word that fit what he was seeing:

“A poster?”

An ancient advertisement, I suppose.

What Akira had taken for a show window was in reality a poster covering a section of wall. He had been confused by the ancient visual effects, which had advanced to a point where they were almost indistinguishable from reality.

He sighed. “Guess I got worked up over nothing.”

It happens, especially on your first visit to an unexplored ruin, Alpha reassured him. Think of experiences like this as part of what gives hunting its charm.

After a moment, Akira said, “Thanks,” and resumed walking.

A little farther in, Akira discovered an abandoned storefront. Its walls were clear as glass, affording him a good view inside from the passage. A quick glance revealed rows of display cases full of what he took to be relics—a major find. But his earlier experience had made him distrustful of appearances, so he looked to Alpha for confirmation before celebrating.

Don’t worry, she answered wryly. This time, it’s real.

“Yes!” Akira nodded, grinning from ear to ear.

An automatic door led into the shop, but it had long since ceased functioning. Akira grabbed it by the edge and put his suit-enhanced strength to work wrenching it open. The sturdy door moved slowly, even when subjected to the same force that had so easily shifted the rubble above. And although the pressure would have easily shattered ordinary glass, it neither cracked nor bent. Once he finally had it open, Akira stepped inside, relieved that forcing the door hadn’t triggered an alarm.

The display cases held a diverse assortment of goods. Not all, however, were equally well-preserved. The passage of time had reduced some to heaps of dust, while others, stored in clear bags, looked almost suspiciously new.

“A bunch of these are no good, but that still leaves a big haul,” Akira commented. “I don’t see anything as exciting as the relics on that poster were, though.”

This must have been a mass-market retailer that didn’t deal in luxury items, Alpha agreed. But these are still Old World goods, and that makes them relics. And since the alarm didn’t go off, let’s help ourselves to them.

“Good idea. Between my truck and my suit, I should be able to haul a bunch of them!”

Once, before he’d gotten his hands on a powered suit, Akira had stuffed a large backpack full of as many relics as he could physically carry. He had staggered under the heavy load and griped about the unendurable pain it had inflicted on his legs. But thanks to his suit, such concerns were now a thing of the past, so he was fired up and ready to fill his bags to capacity.

Akira opened the backpack he was wearing and took out several more. Once he’d unfolded all of these rugged relic carriers, he dragged them around the store and began packing them with loot. He lacked the expertise to appraise his finds, so he simply took every intact relic that he saw.

One case held small electronic devices and things that looked like calculators (although he had no idea what any of them were really for), along with what seemed to be writing utensils and unnaturally pristine notebooks. Into a bag they went.

Some kitchen knives and other cooking implements had also survived. Although he felt a little crestfallen when Alpha informed him that the knives merely cut well and couldn’t be used like some he’d found in the past, he still held on to them to sell.

He found tops, skirts, undergarments, handkerchiefs, and more in flat packaging—possibly vacuum-sealed. They looked like only thin sheets of cloth to him in their compressed state, leaving their cuts a mystery. And some of the packaging was opaque, so that he couldn’t even tell what type of clothing it contained. Akira wondered if they were meant to be sold like this, and if the ancient people had really bought their clothes blind. Alpha explained that customers would have been able to view the contents in AR, but this function had been lost to time. Because unsealing the relics might reduce their sale price, Akira packed them away unopened, wondering whether they contained examples of the distinctive designs he associated with Old World clothing.

Then there were bottles of liquid and containers of what seemed to be pills. Akira asked Alpha what kind of medicine he had found, but she replied that their labels were too badly damaged to identify. He wouldn’t want to try any of them, but he decided to lug them back to the city anyway.

He also found jewelry and toys, which he likewise transferred to his bags, wondering as he did if there might be any lucky charms among them.

After ransacking the store, he’d filled all the backpacks he had with him. Since he had no way to transport more relics, he decided to stop looking and return to his truck. As he made his way back along the passage, his multiple trailing backpacks cut long stripes through the dust behind him. The find was bigger than he’d dared to hope for.

“So, this is an unexplored ruin,” he remarked contentedly. “No wonder every hunter dreams of finding one. I’ve barely even explored it, and look how much loot I’ve got already!”

It was well worth the trouble we went through looking for it, Alpha agreed, giving him an approving smile. And I had no trouble communicating with you down here, so I’d say we hit the jackpot with this ruin.

“Yeah, that’s true! I’m really glad I didn’t get cold feet about going underground.”

He’d defied his fear and maintained his resolve, and the rewards more than reassured him that he’d made the right call.

After Akira trudged back up the long stairway to the surface, he still had one last job to do: reburying the entrance to the ruin. Even while excavating it, he had taken care to arrange the rubble so that the opening would be difficult to spot. He had only cleared enough room so that he could squeeze through on the way in, and he’d enlarged the passage just enough to accommodate his backpacks on the way out. Even so, he took the trouble to replace the dirt and debris—he didn’t want anyone else discovering his ruin, and it would be far better hidden if he filled in the hole.

The sun was setting by the time he finished. Exhausted despite his suit, Akira let out a long breath and surveyed his handiwork.

“Do you think it’ll be safe?” he asked under his breath. He couldn’t hide the fact that the ground had recently been dug up, and knowing that the entrance to a ruin lay beneath it made the telltale signs of disturbance seem more suspicious in his eyes.

You did your best to hide it, Alpha replied. The rest is up to luck. We’ll just have to hope that it stays hidden.

After a brief silence, Akira said, “I guess you’re right.” He knew that he was unlucky, but he also realized that he’d done all he could, so he brushed his worries aside and headed back to the city.

◆

Once at home, Akira refreshed himself with a bath after his tiring day’s work. Usually, he quickly succumbed to the pleasures of the tub, his mind dissolving into the hot bathwater. Today, however, his great success remained uppermost in his thoughts.

“How much do you think those relics’ll sell for?” he cheerfully asked Alpha, who shared the tub with him as usual. “There are a ton of them, and they’re mostly in good shape, so I figure they might be worth a lot. How about you?”