Estimated reading time: 8–10 minutes
Chapter 15: First AP battle
Hiniru and the others were angry. After wasting two days chasing the fleeting shadows and glimpses without engaging, their fighting spirit and stamina were drained. The number of simultaneous viewers of the livestream had fallen below 200, despite the presence of “Orange” and the name “HAO”.
And that was also widening the rift between Hiniru and his collaborators. Because things weren’t going as Hiniru wanted, he had lashed out strongly at them. Meanwhile, from the perspective of the viewers who were cooperating, discontent was building up over having to be subjected to such abuse for no reason.
This raid truly represented that widening gap. With Hiniru not on site, attacking Orange directly as part of a livestream event was out of the question.
「Alright, let’s go and beat Orange into submission!」
Gathered in front of the Kōmitsu Solutions building were as many as 20 players. They were all clad in powered suits, clutching machine guns called “Janky” in their arms. True to their motto of low-cost, high-firepower and high-failure rate, those guns were cheap but formidable armaments.
But before that power could be unleashed, a blade over 5 meters long severed their necks. Everyone present was stunned. It wasn’t just the blade’s size, but the fact that an AP was moving and had somehow gotten behind them unnoticed.
「It’s behind us! Shoot it!」
「You guys are pretty tough, aren’t you!」
Despite them being unable to dodge, he clicks his tongue in annoyance that his first strike only took down two people. The severed heads dance through the air, blood and cross sections of neck hideously exposed.
Before they can hit the ground, his second strike slams down. Hampered by heavy armor, their lack of mobility is a handicap they all share. But gaining their rear like this with the AP gives it an immense advantage.
He shoves the control stick forward with all his might, synchronizing his thoughts with the AP’s. The rumors about applied VR technology seem true – when he moves his hand, it moves as willed.
But unlike a simple machine, there is mechanical lag occurring, around 0.5 seconds by his estimate from the previous slashes. Furthermore, the weight of the blade causes his attacks to hit with two steps less power than envisioned. Thus it snagged on the powered suits’ armor plates, only bisecting two people.
Therefore…
「Two steps higher.」
「Guns over swords, dammit!」
The leg joints creak, artificial muscle fiber straining against momentum. Hips lubricated by beast oil move smoothly, translating leg force cleanly into the blade, aimed right at the thinner neck armor.
Even so, these are still armored models – trying to outright cleave through over 100 kilograms of augmented artificial muscle moving at full throttle is no easy task. Though it struck the thinner neck armor it should have sliced apart, sparks and vibrations scatter wildly, warping the blade’s form.
In the instant he swings the blade, four bodies are bisected regardless. Their machine guns fly as they let out shrill screams.
The exertion from swinging the blade at full power causes the body to stagger slightly, but there is no room given for exploiting that opening.
「Not bad at all AP, for fighting. Partly because those guys were amateurs and mid-range types as well though.」
「Thank you, we’ll handle the rest yeah.」
As they turn their backs, two girls come bursting out from the door’s narrow gap of awareness and into the space between.
One swiftly drops low, sliding to the right into a perfect blind spot to spray with her submachine gun. I had heard Momiji took the 『Leg Modification: Acceleration』 to the second stage at initial skill acquisition. Those acrobatic movements utilizing it greatly bewilder the enemies.
The instant they turn to guard against the rear gunfire with armor and return shots, Momiji vanishes from that spot. Like a shadow of the other entourage, she slides in and shoots their joints through, bullets drawing blood from the knee regions.
Unable to properly react due to the overwhelming speed directing shots without pause at thinner armored spots – such is her style.
She’s definitely strong. But the other one is also…
「There you go.」
「Not there you don’t, dammit…」
Together with a wet slicing sound, ten lumps are tossed to the ground. The severed heads of the players who were trying to kill us just moments ago.
As if her role is already finished, Reina casually wipes the bloodstained knife. Truthfully, even from my perspective it was barely possible to grasp what had transpired.
All she did was continually slash off heads with the knife. The issue was that every action occurred at such tremendous velocity that nothing could be seen besides the knife’s reflections, the flying heads, and flickering shadows.
Whereas Momiji and I could talk about openings and such, Reina had clearly transcended to another plane. She probably could have handled all 20 by herself.
「Man, having low physicals sure makes things a pain. Dealing with them took way more effort than I expected.」
「Excuses or what. So, turning the stream back on and heading to the destination should be fine now yeah?」
「If we broadcasted all this it’d make the connection between Kōmitsu Solutions and Orange way too obvious. If the types aiming for Orange kept swarming this place it’d be bad news. Best to leave it vague enough that you’d have to properly investigate to realize anything, I’d say.」
「The raid is at 4 PM, I’m counting on you.」
As instructed by our master strategist Lady Reina, I turn on the stream. Apparently Hiniru is on the verge of raging in the city square right now after being kept waiting for the report. We’ll make straight for that location and use me as the frontal decoy with the two assassinating from behind – that’s our strategy for the ambush.
I’m not too enthused about the stream title, so plain old 『Orange Stream』 will do. Saving in the reset account, aaaaand ok.
「Watch it yeah, numbers can be dangerous. Not so much for that guy there though.」
「Cause he’s the strongest. Shouldn’t humanity be ashamed that everyone else has less than 1 Reina of combat ability?」
「You’d say the same after getting your knees shot out?」
「In real life I’d just regenerate so no issues there.」
「We’re talking about the game here…」
Saying that, Reina and Momiji slip into the back alleys out of camera view. Since I have nothing in particular to say after starting the stream, I silently start the AP running.
APs have a silence mode. Implemented in every model for covert missions, especially against machine beasts with sharp hearing. Utilizing that, I advance step by step.
As expected, those who spot me have their eyes wide open in awe. Behold, gaze upon the magnificence of this AP!
「Alright, passing through the commercial district and over the station should get me there.」
An AP’s walking speed is considerably fast. It can consistently move about as quick as a car – after all, these were originally used for transport. So it looks like I’ll reach the destination quicker than expected, presenting a slight dilemma.
The comment section has already erupted into a festival mood.
『Orange showed up!!!』
『What happened with that Hiniru thing?』
『We getting any new info?』
『Login limits suck, update when?』
And so forth. Since I’m not the operator I obviously can’t provide updates. Viewer count also exceeded 2k already, that was fast. Wish Hiniru would share like 10% with me.
After running a bit more I arrive at the station. Problem is, there’s quite some time remaining until the target hour. I wonder if going ahead would cause issues, just as I’m thinking that something strange enters my vision.
This station was originally proper facilities that got damaged and turned into ruins after repeated disasters. So I had assumed it was just empty objects now, but seems that was wrong.
「Underground…?」
It’s a hole where elevators once stood, stretching far deeper underground than just 2 or 3 floors.
…A slight detour wouldn’t hurt right?
『Combat Balance』
AP > 3rd Generation Beastkin > Espers > Cyborgs > Powered Armor Humans
The above balance refers to anti-machine beast operations, but as expected the more expensive APs are extremely formidable. Thanks to Momiji handling repairs for free it’s fine, but proper maintenance would likely require at least a year of fundraising.
Incidentally, that balance does not account for the adaptability of cyborgs and powered armors being able to equip new gear to specifically counter encountered machine beasts.
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