Elena and her team changed their main goal to rescuing the Hunters left trapped inside the Seranthal building. They also adjusted their exploration method to fit their new goal.
Up until now, they explored all the hallways and rooms from the first floor using their information-gathering devices to map out the inner layout of the building before. But this time, they only searched the rooms that Carol indicated and immediately went to the next floor once they were done. Their travel speed changed, so much that it surprised Akira.
Since they restarted their exploration, Akira always searched the rooms following the instructions from Alpha.
The level of the difficulty of the exploration suddenly went up compared to before. Since they increased their exploration rate, they did not have much time to check their surroundings and make decisions. And if they were late in doing so, it would cause the next action to get delayed, thus, increasing the accumulated stress, lowering their concentration, slowing them down, and eventually affected how careful they were in doing their searches. It was only a matter of time before Akira could not endure the accumulating stress.
Seeing how Akira was accumulating stress pretty fast, Alpha decided to stop the training.
"Akira, you should take a break. I'll do the search, so you should calm down and take a rest."
"…Alright."
Akira let out a light sigh. Although it was not like he completely lowered his guard, he fully relied on Alpha for detecting enemies now, thus, he could relax a bit as he followed Elena and the rest of the Hunters. Akira also started to move more sluggishly than before, but since Alpha also mended that through his augmented suit, it was not that apparent. Therefore, the other Hunters did not reprimand him.
Now that Akira got some leeway, he then asked a question that had been bothering him for a while to Alpha.
"Alpha, there's something that I want to ask, though…"
"Oh my, if you have so much leeway as to make a pointless chit chat now, it might be a good idea to restart your training again."
Akira went silent. Well, it was true that Akira was talking with Alpha through telepathy, so he did not make any sounds nor he did move his mouth, but even so, he suddenly went silent. Anyone who could notice that would think that conveying silence through telepathy was indeed a meaningless action. And the only thing there who could notice it was Alpha alone.
Alpha smiled mischievously and said.
"I'm just kidding, so, what is your question?"
Akira then frowned while still in silence as Alpha was smiling amusedly at him. If it was a competition of being obstinate, Akira had zero chance of winning. Akira knew that well, his face turned displeased as he sighed before his expression returned to normal and said.
"…I just thought that we're moving faster than before since we changed our main goal. I'm just wondering if that's really alright. Ah, that's not right, I actually think that it should be okay, but…"
Akira was trying to gather his thoughts as he was speaking with Alpha. Alpha quickly guessed what he was trying to ask even before he could finish his sentence, she then immediately answered.
"You basically don't doubt Elena's order. That's why you have no complaint about it. But that would be your subjective opinion. It's not like you, yourself, fully understand the effect of that order, evaluate it, and finally conclude by yourself that it should be fine. If I have to word it differently, if Shikarabe or Togami make the same decision, you would've questioned it. So you want to know if I also think that it's not a bad decision, and if I do, you want to know the reason why. You're basically wondering if the increased searching speed affects the quality of our searches. You're also wondering that if you only look in the places where you might find one of those mini information relay devices, you might be missing some devices on your way. It's not like you can ask about that to Elena right now, you can actually just ask her later, but since it's bothering you and you have the chance to ask me, you decided to ask me now, right?"
Akira frowned and was a bit weirded out by Alpha's words. He then said.
"…Well, yeah, something like that."
Although Akira was trying to hide it, Sara was able to accurately guess what happened when he joined the bounty hunt with Shikarabe only with the limited information that Akira shared with her. And this time, Alpha was able to quickly guess what he was thinking even before he finished gathering his thoughts.
Akira was actually feeling a bit scared that it was only a matter of time before they could completely read his thoughts even without him saying anything.
Alpha then started evaluating Elena's decision.
"I do also think that Elena's decision is the right decision. Although it ultimately depends on how you are going to evaluate that decision, and I'm sure that even you are not expecting Elena to have a god-like level of commanding skill, to successfully lead a team of Hunters filled with amateurs through a deathly battlefield, right?"
"Well, yes."
"Then, there should be no problems. Elena is doing a good job analyzing the current situation and adapting to the new information. I can at least say that much. So, if I have to start from the searching speed…"
Alpha suddenly stopped there and forcefully moved Akira's body through his augmented suit. Akira was putting too much attention on Alpha's explanation that he significantly slowed down. Akira, who realized that, flusteredly pulled himself together and aimed his rifle at the intersection that the team just passed through.
Alpha then smiled at Akira and said.
"As I thought, isn't it better if we talk about it later?"
"…You're right, let's save that for later."
"Alright then. But if talking with you slows you down that much, then I won't be able to talk to you when you're exploring an old-world ruin, huh. I'm sure you'll feel lonely too because of that. Do you think I need to train you to do that?"
Alpha said that while still smiling, while on the other hand, Akira pouted when she said that.
Elena and her team continued deeper into the building. They did not encounter any monsters as they explored the building, but unfortunately enough, they also did not get to encounter any of their rescue targets.
They searched only the rooms where there was a good chance the Hunters who they were looking for might be barricading themselves. But all of them were empty rooms. Although they did find some traces of battles and bloodstains that might be from the Hunters and some other traces showing that someone was once there, they did not find any Hunters at all, not even their corpses.
A change happened when they reached the 20th floor. As they were about to explore the 20th floor, Elena suddenly told them to stop.
They immediately put their guards up and scanned their surroundings. They noticed that the 20th floor looked completely different from all the other floors below it.
There were Hunters' corpses, wreckages, rubbles, and still-moving monsters.
Judging from their outer looks, they should be the A24 monsters that they fought in the Mihazono ruin's city district, but they were badly damaged, their torsos were dented and some of their limbs were blasted to pieces. Some of them lost their legs, while some others lost their wheels. But that did not hinder them from moving around as they were able to nimbly avoid the corpses and the wreckages that were scattered on the floor.
Shikarabe looked around and mumbled.
"…So, they only finished cleaning the lower floors, huh. Well, I guess it's better than having them waiting to welcome us here."
Looking at what those monsters were doing there, it did not seem like they were waiting for Akira and the other Hunters. But judging at the dead Hunters on the floor, it did not seem like they would peacefully let them pass either.
Elena immediately tried to think of a plan to clear up those monsters.
[I bet they're patrol drones. And judging from how they are moving around, it doesn't seem like they've noticed us yet. Is it because their sensors are broken or something? Are they not exchanging information with Seranthal's security facilities? Or is it because the very thing that is lowering the sensitivity of our information-gathering devices is also affecting them? Are they autonomous drones? Are they here for reconnaissance? Or is that they're simply roaming aimlessly after their control devices got destroyed or something?]
Elena thought of so many possibilities, then after going through all of those options, she then said to Sara.
"Sara, kill them."
"Roger that."
Sara aimed her anti-material rifle at those monsters. Just like the information-gathering device, the aiming device of her rifle was also affected by the Seranthal building, thus, its accuracy was worsened.
But, it did not cause much trouble for Sara's ability. She aimed her rifle at the torsos of those monsters and pulled the trigger once she was sure that her shots would hit.
The bullet that flew out of her rifle's muzzle hit its target accurately. That bullet was designed for firepower rather than piercing power, as such, it easily blasted A24's torso. The impact threw its body and scattered its inside around as it rolled over on the ground. It did not take that long before the next A24 also got blown away.
Elena told her team to stay on guard while she was observing the A24 that had turned into wreckages on the floor.
Akira suddenly realized something weird.
"Alpha. It's about the monsters that Sara-san just killed, from the outside, they look like mechanical monsters, it's not like they're actually biological monsters, right…?"
Alpha found that question rather strange, but even so, she decided to recheck the dead monsters that were scattered on the ground. They were made of metals and some kind of nanomaterials. They did not seem to be biological monsters.
"Well, from what I can see, I believe they're mechanical monsters. What's wrong?"
"Nah, I'm just wondering about what's the meaning of killing mechanical monsters. Judging from what Sara-san did back there, does that mean to break them and render them unable to move…? That still doesn't sound right, though?"
"Oooh, I see."
From how Elena worded it, Akira was wondering if they were actually biological monsters that looked like mechanical monsters. It was a subject that could easily cause a debate.
Alpha then thought, Akira just encountered a monster. So, it might be better to let him focus more on watching his surroundings instead of thinking about something else. So she was wondering if she should scold Akira instead.
But it was not clear yet whether it was really unnecessary or not. Being critical and extra cautious made people more careful, and sometimes, it might even be the trump card to escape a hopeless situation. An ability to think outside the box and come up with an unthinkable solution was an invaluable skill.
In order to polish that skill, there was no other way but to keep being critical and always ask difficult questions. If Alpha scolded Akira, there was a good chance that Akira would obediently do that, thus, reducing his chance to polish his skill in thinking outside the box.
If it was about the ability to detect enemies, Akira would not be able to get better than Alpha. Thus, Alpha decided that she should encourage him to polish other kinds of skills, although it was unlikely.
Alpha then answered Akira's question.
"It could be interpreted as putting a short gap in between executing the actions that would kill and when the target could be assumed dead. So applying that to mechanical monsters, I would say that Elena told Sara to leave a small time gap, from the moment she started shooting at those monsters until when those monsters fully stopped moving anymore. Or, maybe even put no time gap at all if it was possible. That was what Elena asked from Sara. Although it's nothing but a guess, I believe that's the gist of it."
"Is it not enough to just destroy them?"
"Let's say if those monsters are a part of the building's security. They might immediately call for reinforcement when they're attacked, or maybe they won't. They might only call for reinforcements once they judge that they can't win only with their firepower. This condition might also include the damage done to its own body. Some of them might have a self-repairing system, then they would repair themselves, check the damage on their bodies, and if it's above the threshold, they would call for reinforcements. So in order to stop them from doing something like that, there's a need to completely stop their functions with one shot. That's why Elena used that word. I think you can interpret her like that."
"If they're really a part of the building's security, won't they already know our location and would call for reinforcement the moment we destroyed them?"
"We don't know how much these monsters are exchanging information with each other. Maybe Elena wanted to check that too, that's why she gave that order, or maybe, she wanted to know how many monsters would come here just from the sound of the gunshot. It should be hard to ascertain our position only from that gunshot inside this building, you know. After all, something is reducing the sensitivity of your information-gathering device inside this building, but we don't know for sure if that also affects the monsters. Moreover, if they're really a part of the building's security, even if their sensors are also affected, they should have already known our location from the sensors scattered all over the interior of this building. So these monsters might as well know our location from that shared information. I think Elena is trying to check that too."
Akira looked a bit surprised, he did not even consider that at all. It might be because he always relied on Alpha to decide on what to do during a fight. After listening to Alpha's explanation, it reminded him of his lack of skill in that department.
"I can make other guesses too, but let's just stop here. Now that we just encountered some monsters, you need to be more careful from here and on."
"Just tell me one more thing then. About that thing that you just explained to me, is that a normal thing for Hunters to know that? Am I the only one who doesn't know that far?"
"It might be just simply because Elena thought you would understand what she wanted to convey only with those words. Elena and Sara seem to have been working together for a long time, so I bet they can tell what each other is trying to say without actually saying it. I bet she would add an extra explanation if she was to give the same order to you. But judging from the content of that order, I think it's as you said. If you're bothered by that, you should put more effort into studying from now on. I'll help you too, you know?"
Alpha smiled mischievously, Akira returned that with a bitter smile.
"I guess I still have a long way to go before I can be a proper Hunter, huh?"
When Alpha said that she would help him, she was actually saying that she was willing to increase the difficulty of the training and the study. Akira at least knew that much.
Togami confirmed the change of the situation as he continued watching his surroundings. The monsters were now scattered on the ground while Elena was scanning the area with a serious look. That was all the changes there for now.
Togami who was seriously watching his surroundings suddenly made a confused expression, he then looked slightly troubled.
In the back of his head, he was thinking that there were no longer any monsters in that area and there did not seem to be any reinforcement coming either, which in that case, should it not be better to continue the search? After all, in order to reach their rescue target as soon as possible, it might be better to hurry up.
Togami then asked Elena.
"Uhhh, aren't we going to continue the search?"
Elena did not even turn or change her expression as she replied.
"Sorry, I don't have the time to explain it. If you have any questions, just ask Shikarabe."
"But, like, you know, we've been doing this for a while now and…"
Since Togami did not seem likely to step back anytime soon, Shikarabe said with an irritated voice.
"Just shut up."
Togami flinched and immediately turned to Shikarabe. Shikarabe was exuding a level of antagonism toward him.
Shikarabe had this serious expression, he did not even try to hide his irritation as he said to Togami.
"Listen here, Elena is busy, so don't interrupt her."
"…Alright."
Togami just backed out obediently, Shikarabe was rather surprised by it. It was true that Shikarabe put a little bit of extra intimidation there to make sure that Togami would not get ahead of himself and worsened the situation there. But with that being said, it was still a bit weird for Togami to be so obedient like that. Or at least, to Shikarabe, it did not seem that there was any sign of grudge when Togami backed out.
[…What the heck is with this boy? Since when he becomes this obedient, it's true that it's a good thing though, but still…]
Although Shikarabe was really surprised, he immediately decided to just forget about it for now. They encountered some monsters just now, so as long as it did not hinder them, there was no need to think too much about it.
Togami then reassessed the current situation. From his point of view, including that level of caution against the first group of monsters they encountered inside that building, he thought that they were wasting time and were just delaying rescuing their targets.
This team was formed on such a short notice, so it would be normal for some of the team members to complain if they found the order given to them by their leader was just a waste of time or meaningless. But other than Togami, no one there was complaining.
[So basically she's doing something important, and Shikarabe also thinks so too. But then, how about the other Hunters? Do they also understand why she's doing that and understand its importance too? Is it only me who doesn't understand it?]
Actually, there's one more person there who did not understand why Elena had not given her orders to continue the search yet, it was Akira. But Alpha gave him an explanation that answered his question.
Togami thought that he was the only person there who did not understand something that everyone should already understand. So he used all of his brainpower to keep thinking about the reason why Elena gave that order to stand by there.
Elena then pointed her finger toward a hallway leading to another opening on the right.
"Sara. If it's possible, let it pass. If it gets dangerous, just destroy it. There's no need to wait for my order."
"Roger that."
Sara aimed her rifle toward the entrance of that hallway, she then lightly smiled and said.
"We don't really know what's going on here, so isn't it safer to just destroy it."
"I leave that decision to you."
Sara looked at Elena, she was making a serious face when she said that. Sara then got herself ready while still looking pretty relaxed.
The map of the 20th floor was displayed in Akira's goggles. It was showing the hallway that Sara was pointing her rifle at. After Elena gave the order to Sara, a red dot suddenly appeared on that map located somewhere deeper in that hallway. It was the indicator for enemies.
Alpha then enhanced Akira's vision, thanks to that, he was able to see through the walls.
Akira was able to see the monster indicated with the red dot on the map, that monster was also painted red in his vision. Although he was not able to see the shape of the monster, he was at least able to see that there was a monster there.
Alpha then said to Akira.
"They're enemies, I'm sure Sara can take care of them. But just to be safe, get yourself ready too."
"Alright. But still, the display looks rather blurry, is it because of that thing that affects the information-gathering devices?"
"Yep, that's correct. Don't drop your guard just because you see the same information as from the map."
Akira aimed his CWH anti-material rifle toward the hallway. He was aiming at the monster way deep inside the hallway and behind the walls.
Shikarabe and Carol were also aiming their rifles in ready, but they were aiming toward different hallways. It was because they believed Akira and Sara would be enough to handle the monster shown on the map. Moreover, they also understood that just because the map did not show any monsters in the other hallways, it did not mean that there definitely were no monsters there.
Togami also readied his rifle while looking at Akira, he was surprised when he realized Akira was aiming his rifle toward a wall.
[Where the hell is he aiming at?]
Togami shifted his gaze from Akira to the wall that Akira was aiming at. But it was just a plain wall without anything that might garner attention. Togami then looked at Akira again with a weirded out face.
The red dot in the map started to approach Elena and her team. It would not be long before they encounter each other.
As the red dot, the enemy, kept getting closer and closer, Akira started to be able to see the shape of the monster through his enhanced vision. The image of the enemy started getting better and better. It was because the closer they got to each other, the better his information-gathering device was reading that monster.
Akira followed the enemy with his eyes. As they got closer, the image of the monster on the other side of the wall was also getting clearer.
It was the same type of monster as the ones that Sara just killed, the A24-type monster. But this one was only slightly damaged, it nimbly moved over the wreckages on the floor as it travelled through the hallway and eventually showed up in front of Akira right when he was aiming at the entrance of the hallway.
Togami who was watching Akira's movement was taken aback. He realized Akira was looking straight at the monster in front of him.
[That guy is following a monster with his eyes, huh?! How did he do that?!]
Togami was so surprised that he focused more on Akira rather than on the A24 monster that just appeared. If that monster had already known their location beforehand and immediately released a shot there, it would have been a fatal opening.
Fortunately enough, or more like, as Elena had predicted, the A24 monster just continued walking through the hallway without paying any attention to Akira. Sara confirmed that the gun growing out of its back was not aiming at anyone there. She was still aiming at that monster's gun while letting it pass, just like Elena told her to.
That monster continued walking past through the wreckages of the other A24 monsters that Sara just killed and left that place, that was when Elena told Sara.
"Sara, destroy it."
Sara did not hesitate at all as he immediately shot a bullet at the monster.
The first shot hit its machine gun and tore it off from the monster's body, the impact also threw it off balance.
The second shot hit the monster's torso and threw its body as it rolled on the ground.
As it was tumbling over, Sara released her third and fourth shots. The third shot hit its legs, pierced through its armour and went through its torso, while the fourth shot pierced its body and slammed its body to the wall behind it.
That monster was rendered harmless in just a few seconds. It then tumbled over to the ground, twitched as if it was squeezing the very last drop of life that it had, and finally completely stopped moving.
Sara confirmed that she killed it as she lowered her rifle. Elena looked at the monster that Sara just defeated and hummed.
Akira looked at that monster that still mostly retained its original shape and asked Alpha.
"That was a little bit different compared to when Sara-san took out the first group."
"That's because the order from Elena was different too. If my guess is correct, after she disarmed that monster with the first shot, she released the rest of the shots with the goal of checking how durable it is."
"I see."
"Monsters of the same type or species usually have the same structures. Since Sara just showed you how much damage you can cause by shooting at which part, you should properly use it as a reference the next time you shoot at them, okay?"
Alpha was smiling as usual when she said that. But in contrast to her, Akira was making a stern face. It was true that Sara just showed how effective it would be if he shot at a particular part of the monster. But even so, he had no idea where he should aim his shot at.
In that short display, he needed to discern which one was the monster's control device among all the small pieces of the monster that were scattered. Then, he should guess from there the location of the control device before it got destroyed, then finally guessed the weak part of its armour where he could snipe that control device. But of course, Akira could not do that.
"So, should I first prioritize destroying the monster's gun just like what Sara-san did?"
"That's a good idea, which in that case then, you just need to be able to accurately aim at the monster's gun while it's still moving and without my support."
"…So, what's the right answer?"
"The right answer would be that your aim depends on how good you are at shooting. With your current skill, I think it's better if you aim at its torso to break its balance and lower its accuracy. You need to at least be able to hit it to do that though."
"You're right about that, the first step would be to hit my shots."
He might still need a lot of time before he could shoot as accurately as Sara, Akira then sighed.
Togami suddenly asked Akira a question.
"…How did you know its location?"
Akira frowned.
"It's shown on the map, right? Or is it that it didn't show up on your map?"
Togami seemed obviously confused as he said.
"That's not what I'm asking about, I'm talking about how you followed that monster when it was still behind that wall?"
When Togami asked that question again, Akira finally realized what Togami was talking about. Normally, people would not be able to see through a wall, it was thanks to Alpha's support that he could do that. Although he was a bit surprised inside, he made effort to not show it on his face.
"The location of the enemies on the 20th floor is shown as red dots in the map, right? If you look at that, you can more or less guess the real location of the enemies."
"They're basically nothing but a rough approximation. But back there you were accurately tracking that monster when it was still behind the wall. How did you do that…?"
Togami was not convinced by Akira's explanation as he pressed for more answers. That was when Shikarabe suddenly interjected.
"Akira, there's no need for you to answer all of his stupid questions. Just ignore him. I bet this guy thinks that everything that he can't do or understand are all strange things. There's no need to listen to him."
Although it was unclear why Shikarabe said that, it was not a bad suggestion for Akira. So Akira just nodded and said.
"Got it."
Togami looked at Shikarabe with a bit of hostility, but when he saw Shikarabe's face that was mixed with a bit of mockery, he immediately looked down and hung his head low. And then he returned to monitoring his surroundings.
Shikarabe looked at Togami with a slightly surprised look. It was true that Shikarabe interjected to stop Togami from picking a fight with Akira, but he also expected Togami to pick a fight with him when he did that. But just like last time, Togami just meekly obeyed his order.
[He really has toned down, huh. Honestly though, what happened to this boy?]
Although Shikarabe still had no idea why Togami turned so obedient, seeing how Togami stopped being selfish, he no longer thought of Togami as a spoiled brat for now