Rebuild World: Volume 6 Part 1 (eBook)

Nahuse (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025 | 1. Auflage
250 Seiten
J-Novel Club (Verlag)
978-1-7183-9114-7 (ISBN)

Infos

With the gang war behind him and touting a brand-new set of gear (again), Akira is ready to dive back into the ruins for relics once more! In the depths of Kuzusuhara, the enigmatic Alpha guides him to an Old World city. There he encounters Tsubaki-the AI managing the area-who seems to hold a grudge against Alpha! Meanwhile, Sheryl's relic shop finally opens for business. All is going well for Akira, but the city seems to have other plans for him. Many lives hang in the balance as conspiracies unfold and the Old and New Worlds clash!

Textauszug

Chapter 145: Tsubaki

Powerless and penniless, the boy had been fated to rot in the back alleys of the slums. But he’d resolved to leave that life behind in search of a better one. Dreaming of a roof over his head and three square meals a day, he’d set out to become a relic hunter.

Normally, this would have just meant he’d rot in the ruins instead of the slums. But an encounter with a mysterious woman named Alpha had set the future of this boy—Akira—on a different course.

Alpha had asked Akira to conquer a ruin. In return, he’d receive her support. Only a short time had passed—yet, with her help, Akira had grown by leaps and bounds. His skills were on par with veteran hunters, and everyone praised his ability. Akira himself appreciated that he was far and away more capable than when he’d first met Alpha.

He had danced with death many times since then, struggling desperately to survive, and had come out stronger each time. Yet while his skill couldn’t be disputed, what he’d accomplished on his own so far didn’t hold a candle to all he’d done with Alpha’s help. He knew the voices around him were lauding the power he’d borrowed from Alpha, not his own ability, and this awareness had warped his perception of himself. Compared to all he’d achieved with her support, his own accomplishments had felt insignificant—hardly worthy of praise.

Recently, Akira had gotten involved in a war between two large slum gangs, and he’d found himself up against gigantic mechs. Alpha’s support had saved his skin then as well, and with her help, he’d beaten a machine so powerful that the city’s defense force had been considering purchasing it.

During this fight, his opponent Rogert had acknowledged and even complimented his skill. But because that skill was Alpha’s and not his own, Akira had felt depressed and even a little guilty—Rogert had believed his opponent was truly strong, whereas the boy had really only borrowed that strength from elsewhere.

After the fight, Sheryl had noticed that Akira continued to feel down. She hadn’t known the source of his malaise, but she’d given him a hug and expressed her gratitude for all he’d done for her and her gang. Thanks to him, she’d said, they’d found a secure place to live even amid the harshness of the slums.

Her words had helped him see his power from a different perspective. Perhaps he was fooling everyone into thinking Alpha’s strength was his. Perhaps having to rely on Alpha was pathetic and shameful. But if her support made him able to help those who asked him for assistance, maybe that was good enough for now. He saw his reliance on Alpha in a more positive light, and he felt motivated to work harder so that someday he would truly be this strong on his own.

With his newfound determination, Akira prepared to resume hunting in the ruins. Even with Alpha’s support, the location Alpha wanted him to overcome was still far above his capability. He had to work even harder and develop more as a hunter, so that one day he could fulfill her request.

And he still had a long way to go.

◆

After spending the six hundred million aurum he’d earned for the Mihazono job on a brand-new set of gear, he’d had to wait for his order to come in before heading to any more ruins. During his break, he’d gotten involved in several other incidents, including the gang war, but he was now ready to once again focus on his primary goal. Besides a new suit and new weaponry, he’d purchased a large desert utility bike. Now he was tearing through the wasteland on it, en route to the depths of the Kuzusuhara Town Ruins.

Just before they approached the ruin’s perimeter, the Alpha-designated route displayed in Akira’s vision changed abruptly. Akira made a sharp turn, following the new route just as indicated, but he looked surprised. Alpha, wasn’t that the way to the ruins?

Just ahead, he could see the forward base that Kugamayama City had built. It had still been under construction during his last visit, but it was now complete and fully functional, ready to aid hunters in conquering Kuzusuhara’s interior. A well-kept road also stretched from the base deep into the ruins, and was currently being extended even farther.

The monsters on the outskirts of Kuzusuhara naturally weren’t a problem for hunters who were already capable of surviving its depths. But the routes to and from the ruins, blocked by collapsed skyscrapers and mountains of debris, were a nuisance to any hunter, no matter how experienced. Worse, the farther one penetrated into the ruin, the more cluttered and harder to navigate those routes became. The monsters also became more dangerous, and so the hunters found it even more difficult to survive with their movements hindered.

For these reasons (among others), the city was having the defense force clear a path of monsters, then build a diligently maintained highway over it, thus facilitating transportation to and from the ruin’s depths. Now amateur hunters who were merely curious about what the depths of Kuzusuhara were like had a safe way of getting there. Experienced hunters, meanwhile, could reach the depths quicker and without wasting precious resources on their journey. Despite the tolls charged for its use, the city road was therefore a popular option among hunters of all skill levels.

Akira, too, had naturally assumed he’d be taking this path. But Alpha smiled her usual smile and shook her head.

We won’t be using it. We’re going somewhere special, so we’ll need to take another route. Plus, the city monitors that road and keeps records of everyone who uses it. That’s another reason we want to avoid it.

Does that mean we’re headed to an undiscovered ruin? Akira grinned, anticipation written all over his face. If this were the case, he could look forward to finding some amazing relics.

You got it, Alpha confirmed with a grin of her own. So let’s get going!

Yes, ma’am! Akira sped into the Kuzusuhara Ruins without further ado.

Because so many hunters searched for relics on the outskirts of Kuzusuhara, this area was the cleanest, most well-kept part of the ruin. Even back when Akira had fought Yarata scorpions, he’d had no issues driving his bike here. But that was only on the outskirts—now, as Akira progressed deeper into Kuzusuhara, the condition of the road swiftly and decidedly took a turn for the worse. He quickly saw why even experienced hunters, though unafraid of formidable monsters, still preferred to take the city’s highway—before he knew it, there was no longer any road to speak of. The ground beneath him was all debris, and enormous walls of toppled, broken buildings frequently blocked his path forward.

But Akira forced his way through, thanks to Alpha’s expert handling. She used the speeding bike to knock minor pieces of debris out of the way; when larger walls loomed before them, Akira shot at them to weaken their structure, and then Alpha smashed the bike through. She also treated smaller rubble piles as jump ramps, from which she cleared towering mountains of wreckage and even raced up and along the sides of collapsed skyscrapers. No obstruction was impassable for them as they made their way farther and farther into the ruin.

Still, all those acrobatics proved just how difficult this part of the ruin was to traverse. Now I get why we didn’t take the truck, Akira commented dryly. Back when they’d agreed on the Kuzusuhara depths as their next relic-hunting target, Alpha had recommended he purchase a bike, saying he’d have a hard time getting there by truck. Now he understood what she meant.

See? Alpha said smugly. Aren’t you glad you have a bike now?

Absolutely, he agreed. “A hard time” didn’t mean “impossible”—he probably could’ve made the journey even with the truck, but it would’ve called for even more excessive, absurd maneuvers. So he was grateful he had a bike to make the trip comparatively easier.

Akira continued to blaze a trail deeper into the ruin until the wheels of his bike were reunited with solid ground at last. He breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, a normal path! Does that mean we’ve made it pretty far in?

There were many reasons an area could become ruined, but the only logical explanation for the normally resilient Old World buildings to lie collapsed in mountains of rubble as far as the eye could see was war—specifically, between hunters desiring the ruin’s relics and the monsters nesting there. Not that the monsters never fought each other, but this certainly wasn’t the main reason for a ruin being in such a sorry state. Akira had grown to realize as much during his time as a relic hunter, and he knew that if this area was comparatively intact, it meant very few hunters had made it this far, if any at all. Thus, he had to be considerably deep within the ruin.

Akira excitedly scanned the area for any buildings that clearly housed valuable relics. Ahead, he spotted an enormous wall of toppled, but relatively intact, buildings stacked horizontally on top of each other. Even the gaps between the buildings were filled in with debris, forming a solid mass with no openings whatsoever.

Staring at the tall edifice in awe, Akira had a thought. It kinda reminds me of the wall around the inner city. I guess Kuzusuhara has something similar? Taking this as proof that...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 29.1.2025
• Reihe/Serie: Rebuild World
• Illustrationen: Nahuse
• Übersetzer: Nahuse
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Fantasy / Science Fiction ► Science Fiction
• Schlagworte: Cyberpunk • Guns • Light Novel • post-apocalyptic • Survival
• ISBN-10: 1-7183-9114-5 / 1718391145
• ISBN-13: 978-1-7183-9114-7 / 9781718391147