Chapter 9 - Enter the Void 2

Akina was unlike any girl Ash had ever known. She had none of the shyness or fear one would ordinarily expect of a girl her age.

"So this is a Grotesque. Ugh. Gross."

Just look at her, shaking her head as she nudged the bisected Grotesque with her foot. A sight that could make even a grown adult retch, dismissed with a simple "gross."

It certainly made many things easier in the extreme conditions of an expedition into the Outer, but that convenience left him with mixed feelings.

'She must have lived a difficult life. Difficult enough that corpses no longer trouble her.'

Ash watched her silently for a moment, then spoke.

"I hear Grotesques tend to gather in packs. We must proceed with greater vigilance."

"We should. Oh."

Pinching her nose against the appalling stench, Akina spoke in a nasal voice.

"The unexplored area starts here, right?"

"Correct."

Akina opened her backpack and took out a portable data pad.

"Let's see... That should put our current location about here. Okay. I'll start mapping."

"Will you do it yourself? I would not mind recording it."

She shook her head firmly.

"Sure, you'd be more precise, Mister, but that would eat up too many resources. You said Grotesques travel in packs, right? We could get into a fight at any moment. I can't ask you to handle every little chore too. I should do it."

She truly was a sensible girl.

Ash nodded.

"If that is your wish, young lady. I shall devote my full attention to keeping watch."

"Great. Well then, shall we go make some money?"

They exchanged a brief glance and headed into the unexplored area, moving as quietly as they could.

* * *

The unexplored area was distinctly different from what had come before.

To borrow Akina's words, there were definitely rich pickings here.

Perhaps because no human had set foot there, the depths of the ruins yielded rare metals, ultra-precision components, and even the occasional functioning data shard.

"Ooh!"

Akina kept exclaiming in delight as she examined her finds, her hands moving with remarkable speed and care.

To Ash, they all looked much the same, but apparently not to her. Her blue eyes swiftly assigned price tags to the objects in the ruins, and she selected the expensive ones and stuffed them into her backpack.

As she gathered up everything worth money, Akina eventually frowned.

"This one's too bulky. That one's too heavy... Ugh, seriously!"

Value and weight.

These were crucial considerations. The shared limousine allowed each passenger only a fixed amount of luggage.

Pathfinders therefore had to fit the most valuable spoils into that limited allowance. Akina called this "value per slot."

"Not enough value per slot. Can't be helped. I'll have to leave this."

Looking deeply disappointed, she set down the alloy plate she was holding.

"See, this is why we need our own vehicle. If we had one, we could scoop all this up without worrying... What a waste. Such a waste."

Keeping watch over their surroundings, Ash asked a question.

"How much does a personal vehicle cost?"

"About four million for the cheapest skeleton buggy?"

"... What?"

Four million credits?

Ash held up his blade.

"You mean a carriage costs nearly two hundred times as much as this sword? And that is the cheapest one?"

"Of course. Add maintenance costs and it'll be a lot more, you know."

Ash spoke cautiously.

"... Then how much have we earned so far?"

"Hmm. With this much..."

Akina looked through her backpack for a moment before answering.

"A hundred and fifty thousand? We've still got some weight to spare, so with any luck we could get it up to two hundred thousand."

"Good heavens..."

"Mister, we've made a lot. Rookie Pathfinders making two hundred thousand credits in Level 1? People would be amazed. And the mapping commission will add even more."

Ash nodded silently.

Two hundred thousand credits.

That would cover Akina's "breathing fee" for the month and pay off their debt to Santa. It was by no means a small sum.

"You are right, young lady. The price of a carriage seems to have startled me for a moment."

Ash was coming to appreciate just how important money was.

Breathing fees.

Equipment costs.

Limousine fares.

Even his own repairs and charging fees.

Everything cost money.

In this world, without money, one could not even keep oneself alive.

"All right, shall we get moving again?"

Akina called out brightly and swung the heavy backpack onto her shoulders.

* * *

There were three battles.

Or, more precisely, one-sided ambushes.

With his senses honed to an extreme, Ash always spotted his enemies before they spotted him and took their lives.

Every flash of his sword meant another Grotesque dead.

"Young lady. It is safe to come out now."

Ash returned after finishing his fourth ambush. Black blood dripped from the tip of his steel blade, bearing out his words.

Akina emerged from the corner where she had been hiding. Looking slightly sheepish, she tucked her pistol back into her waistband.

"Did you kill them all?"

"I did."

Ash flicked the black blood from his sword and sheathed it. Then he approached Akina as she fumbled to shoulder her backpack and picked it up for her.

"Huh? Wh-what?"

Taken aback by his actions, Akina looked up at him in bewilderment. Ash answered simply.

"Why do we not rest here for the day?"

Only then did Akina realize how tired she was. The tension and excitement of this unfamiliar place had kept her from noticing.

Ash bent down to meet her eyes and continued.

"A little farther this way is a place we can use as a shelter. Let us stop there for today."

At his casually gentle words, Akina slowly nodded.

"... Yes. Let's do that."

"Good. Follow me."

The place Ash led her to was not far away, and it made an ideal hiding place: a snug space behind the remains of a half-collapsed ancient structure, largely concealed from outside view.

The two settled in there.

Akina slumped to the ground, breathing hard. Now that she was aware of her exhaustion, her body felt even heavier.

"Oh, I'm dying."

Having uttered something Santa might have said, she caught her breath, then rummaged through a pouch at her thigh.

Her hand emerged with a short energy stick. Chewing on it, she searched for her water bottle through half-closed eyes.

"Here you are."

Ash found the bottle in her backpack and handed it over. Still nibbling her energy stick like a squirrel, Akina accepted it.

"Thank you."

After a break that scarcely deserved to be called a meal, Akina curled up on the bare ground and spoke.

"Mister."

"I am listening."

"Thank you."

"You already said that."

"Not for the water. Thank you for today."

Akina knew.

They had reaped such a rich harvest in this perilous unexplored area and advanced without encountering a single crisis because of Ash's overwhelming combat prowess.

Even noticing her exhaustion before she did and suggesting a rest, or finding a useful spot like this, were abilities of his.

It was strange.

Ash was only a humanoid, yet he showed the poise of a veteran in so many ways. It was tremendously reassuring.

"It's all thanks to you, Mister."

"..."

Ash offered no real reply. He merely gazed into the darkness ahead, which formed the only passage into their shelter.

Akina watched his back as he sat cross-legged, then closed her eyes under the weight of her mounting exhaustion.

Before long, her breathing became steady.

Only then did Ash glance behind him. Akina was asleep, curled uncomfortably on the cold ground.

He quietly rose, removed his Gore-Tex cloak—the only clothing he had—and draped it over her.

Sitting cross-legged once more, he switched his body to power-saving mode.

[POWER SAVE MODE. . . NOW<<<]

[ENERGY RESERVE: 78%]

[ETA_STANDBY: 43.2 HRS]

With his bodily functions reduced to the bare minimum, Ash briefly lost himself in thought.

Nothing profound. He was simply reviewing the journey ahead.

The mapping data came to mind first. They should have completed about seventy percent of their target.

Next was his battery power. As the system message indicated, his remaining power stood at 78%. That should be more than enough to keep him running until pickup.

'Come to think of it, how long until pickup?'

For Pathfinders—especially those without personal vehicles—time mattered most.

The limousines provided by the Sanctum Administration were not private vehicles that stayed parked in one place. They arrived at specified locations at scheduled times, waited just ten minutes, and returned to the city.

That meant Pathfinders had to reach the rendezvous point on time.

Ash called up his internal chronometer. Text appeared across his optical sensors.

[DURATION: 48H]

[ELAPSED TIME: 17H 43M]

[TIME REMAINING: 30H 17M]

Ash and Akina had been allotted forty-eight hours—two days. They had used roughly seventeen, leaving a little over thirty.

'Even allowing for Miss Akina's rest, that should be plenty.'

Not bad.

They had ventured fairly deep, but with so much time left, the return journey should pose no problem.

'The backpack is nearly full, too. Once we finish the mapping commission, we need only head out.'

This could be called a successful first expedition.

Ash genuinely believed that as he cleared his mind of all thought. He might not tire physically, but mental fatigue still accumulated.

Listening to Akina's steady breathing, he took his own form of rest.

How many hours had passed?

It happened while he was enjoying his brief respite.

BANG... RAT-A-TAT-TAT...

Sharp gunshots echoed through the desolate ruins, shattering the silence.

[EMERGENCY OVERRIDE!]

[EMERGENCY OVERRIDE!]

[AWAKENING SEQUENCE. . . NOW<<<]

Every system rapidly activated.

Ash, who had been sitting cross-legged as still as a rooted tree, switched to combat mode in an instant.

"Miss Aki—!"

He immediately tried to wake Akina, but the gunfire had already startled her to her feet. Her pistol was in her hand.

"Mister!"

The gunfire continued.

Not just one or two shots. A relentless barrage of violent reports suggested several guns firing at once.

"What on earth...?"

There were no telltale Grotesque cries. And there were far too many gunshots.

Amid the thunderous barrage, Ash quickly grasped the situation.

"Pathfinders are fighting each other!"

Even now, the gunfire was drawing closer. Whoever was being pursued was clearly headed their way.

"Damn...!"

The place they had chosen to rest had only one way in or out. It had seemed relatively safe at the time, but now they were rats in a trap.

There was nowhere to flee from the approaching sounds.

"Mister, what do we do...?"

Akina's voice trembled with urgency.

"We must hide for now. This way, quickly!"

Drawing his blade, Ash hurriedly searched for cover. Fortunately, since they had made their camp behind a collapsed structure, there were plenty of hiding places.

At his words, Akina grabbed her backpack and hurried after him.

"Fuck, you goddamn bitch!"

"Shoot! Shoot her!"

"Aaaaargh!"

Now shouts joined the gunfire.

And at last, a Pathfinder burst into their shelter, panting raggedly as he fled desperately from something.

"Ah, fuck! No! No, no!"

The moment he entered, he realized it was a dead end and swore viciously. At the same time, he sprayed gunfire back the way he had come.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT!

"Stay back! Stay the fuck back, you crazy bitch!"

CLICK, CLICK.

His ammunition ran dry.

He kept pulling the trigger, but only hollow clicks rang out.

"Shit...!"

As he hurried to reload—

BOOM!

A bullet fired from the darkness came hurtling in with a report like a cannon blast.

It completely shattered one of the nameless Pathfinder's legs.

"Agh, aaaargh! Aaaaaaargh!!"

The man screamed.

And between his screams came the sharp sound of high heels.

CLICK.

CLICK.

A woman emerged from the darkness.

The LED hearts in her mechanical eyes lit up as she made a V sign with her fingers.

"Ta-da! It's your least favorite bitch!"