Rebuild World (WN)

ng’s members, compiling all the relics for her shop, and many other jobs too.

Akira was sitting on the sofa while working on his information terminal, he was just silently operating his terminal without saying anything, or at least, that was how it looked from Sheryl’s point of view.
He sometimes made a confused face as he was focused only on his information terminal.

Sheryl glanced at Akira and threw a question.

“Akira, what are you doing there? It seems that you’re so focused on it.”

“Ahh, it’s just game…”

“Is that so? Is that game really that fun?”

“It is… Well, at least, I think it’s an interesting game.”

Sheryl thought that there was something strange about how Akira worded it out.

She then made some guesses from what she could see.

There were many games that could be played on an information terminal.
The theme was also various.
Some of them were games that you could not really tell a girl.
Since Akira was a boy, Sheryl thought that it was understandable for him to be interested in that kind of game and she could not help but get suspicious of him.

She wondered if it was the right choice to ask Akira.
If it was really that kind of game, it might help her understand Akira’s preference.
It might give her a good reference to get him interested in her.
So she decided to casually ask Akira.

“What kind of game is that?”

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“Hm? It’s a relic hunting game.
You basically control a Hunter character to safely carry old-world relics back home.”

“I-I see…”

After hearing Akira’s answer, Sheryl realized how wrong her guess was which made her blush and fidget around, she tried to smile to hide her embarrassment.

Someone suddenly knocked on the door.
Sheryl’s face returned back to normal, and then she raised her voice a little to hide what just happened there.

“Come in.”

Erio opened the door.

“Sorry, there’s a problem in one of the stands.
So if Akira-san can come with me for a bit…”

If something happened, they did not have any other choice but to ask for Akira’s help.
Sheryl herself knew that very well.
But it would be bad if they asked for Akira’s help for every little thing.
As the boss of the gang, Sheryl wanted to make sure that her men did not have the wrong impression of Akira.

Sheryl then said to Erio.

“Can you not do something about it? You and some of your men have rifles with you, right?”

“That would be impossible.
Just because we have some weapons that don’t mean that we’re as strong as Akira-san.
It’s not like we call for Akira-san for every little thing, it’s exactly because we can’t handle the situation ourselves that we ask for Akira-san’s help.”

Judging from the way Erio reacted, Sheryl knew that he was not lying.

Sheryl thought that she needed to keep Akira’s impression as someone who was reliable but his help was not cheap.
After all, in reality, her gang did not pay anything to Akira, they were just simply taking advantage of his kindness.

It would not be a problem if her gang members felt thankful and indebted to Akira’s help when they realized it.
But in reality, some of her gang members would look down on him instead.

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In the end, the gang did not pay anything to Akira.
So since Akira’s help was something that they could get any time without paying anything, it would affect their impression of Akira sooner or later even if they only asked for Akira’s help for trivial things.
After all, humans could get used to anything, both for the better and for the worse.

Although it was something in the past, Sheryl thought that it was a good thing when Sebla tried to kill Akira.
Sebla was one of her gang members, in Higaraka Residence Ruin, he looked down on Akira and betrayed the gang.
He then went against Akira and Akira killed him without showing any hesitation.
What happened back there served as a good example to remind the rest of her gang members.

It should be able to hold back Sheryl’s men from looking down at Akira or getting too used to Akira’s kindness.
But that effect would not last forever.

So for the sake of Akira, of herself, and for her gang, Sheryl had to keep Akira’s image in the gang.

Sheryl then said to Akira and Erio.

“It can’t be helped then.
Akira, I’m sorry to bother you again, but can you help me?”

“Sure.”

Akira put his information terminal on the table and picked up his equipment.

He picked up his rifles that he left on the corner of the room.
His AAH assault rifle, A2D assault rifle, CWH anti-material rifle, DVTS minigun, and A4WM automatic grenade launcher.
With all of those rifles on him, he really stuck out like a sore thumb within the slum city.
Akira did not have the imposing aura of a strong person, that was why giving that impression through his equipment was quicker and safer.

Even before Akira had the idea to scare his opponent with his equipment, he already killed 4 thugs and 2 former Hunters.
If they were still alive now, they would have told anyone that it was a bad idea to cause a ruckus in Sheryl’s gang’s territory.

In order to send Akira off, Sheryl stood up and walked towards him.
There she glanced at Akira’s information terminal that he left on the table.

After Akira finished his preparation, he noticed Sheryl was looking at his information terminal.
He then remembered that Sheryl asked him about what kind of game he was playing, so he casually said to Sheryl.

“If you’re interested, you can go ahead and try it.”

“Eh? Ah, yes, thank you.”

Sheryl actually was not that interested in the game, but since Akira said so, she replied with gratitude.

After Akira left the room, Sheryl returned back to her desk.
From there, she could see Akira’s information terminal lying on the table.

Sheryl thought that Akira might ask about her impression of the game later, so she decided to try the game.

The game that Akira was playing was a game of a Hunter hunting old-world relics.
The player controlled a Hunter in a simplified top-down view of a ruin to look for relics.

Sheryl saw a chibi form of a Hunter on the display of that information terminal, she noticed that it looked like Akira.
Even the name displayed on that Hunter character was ‘Akira’ and its equipment were similar to Akira’s.

[…The character really looks like Akira, even the name is Akira too.
Well, Akira was the one playing this game, after all, I bet he set it so that it looks like him.]

Since Sheryl did not get any instruction on how to play the game, she decided to just give it a try for now.
The character that looked like Akira inside the game moved around, encountered a monster, and immediately got killed.

Sheryl tried the game a few more rounds and eventually more or less understood the rules of the game.

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“…Alright then, now that I know how to play this game and understand the rules of this game, I can get to play it for real now.”

The game was basically a top-down simulation game where the player controlled a Hunter inside an old-world ruin.
The main goal was for the character to look for relics, gather expensive relics, and return back alive.

Sheryl renewed her resolve and restarted the game.
But again, although she understood how to control the character and the rules of the game, her character immediately got killed again.

Sheryl then frowned.

[Isn’t this game a little too hard? Or is it like this level of difficulty is normal?]

The time in the game stopped when Sheryl did not move the character.
Thanks to that, she could take her time thinking of her next move.
But even so, the Hunter that she controlled quickly got killed again attacked by either monsters or the other Hunters.

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Since it was only a game, the character that looked like Akira could try again as many times as Sheryl wanted.
But of course, in reality, you got only one chance.

[Thank goodness this is only a game… Or at least that’s what I want to say, but this thing is still ticking me off.]

If Akira got killed, Sheryl and her gang would lose their support and the gang might as well get disbanded.
Although it was only in the game, for ‘Akira’ to not be able to return back alive even after multiple tries made her upset.

Sheryl got a little obstinate since it felt like the game was saying that the Hunter supporting her gang was so weak.

[I can understand now why Akira got so invested in this game… I’ll definitely clear this game.]

Sheryl then used all of her skill and brainpower to try clearing that game.

Erio guided Akira to the stand where there was trouble.
On their way there, Akira asked Alpha a question about the game that he was playing until just now.

“Alpha, as I thought, isn’t the difficulty of that game too high?”

But Alpha just smiled and refuted his claim.

“Oh my, but its difficulty level is already lowered compared to the original, you know? If I convert your skill, your ability to shoot, and your equipment to numbers, that’s basically the status that you’ll get.
Not to mention, you have all the time to think about your next move and your movements will not be affected by your mental condition, from that point of view, the character in the game is relatively better than the real you.”

“Well, that’s true, but still…”

Akira understood Alpha’s reasoning, but it did not erase his displeasure.

Alpha smiled at Akira and tried to cheer him up.

“You’re the one who said that you want to know your skill from another point of view, remember? So, just accept the result and focus more on getting better.
Although it’s a simplified game of real ruin exploration, it’s still good training for you to see the overall situation when you’re in a ruin.
So just focus on working hard.”

“I know, it’s just that it’s not that fun when I keep getting myself killed without making any progress.”

Akira then sighed.

The game that he was playing had a character based on him and a stage that was made based on a real ruin.
Although it had other modifications too, it was still pretty much close to a real situation.
It looked like just a game from the outside, but it actually was an advanced simulation.

The character inside the game was based on him and he was the one controlling it, so it was more or less Akira himself.

The biggest difference between that character and the real Akira was that the real Akira had Alpha’s support.
The Akira in the simulation was exploring the dangerous ruin with the current Akira’s real ability.

The simulator was showing how the real Akira would perform including the price that he must pay when he made a mistake or one wrong step, which was basically death, just like many other Hunters who met their ends inside the dangerous old-world ruin.

Akira was still not able to finish even a stage of that game.
Alpha already explained to him that she reduced the difficulty of that game so that he should be able to clear it.
So basically, the real Akira was pulling the Akira in the game down.

Akira sounded a bit dejected as he said.

“As I thought, I’m still really weak.
Even back then in the Seranthal building, Shiori and Carol got suspicious of me just from seeing my movements when I lost your support.
So I guess it must have been obvious.”

But then Alpha tried to cheer him up.

“Of course you can’t become strong after just one night.
Don’t worry.
You’re at least stronger compared to the past you.
It’s just that there’s always a bigger fish, so likewise, there’s always more dangerous ruins out there.
But don’t worry, one day, you’ll be able to grow strong enough.
After all, I’m the one training you.”

Alpha was smiling confidently as she said that.

Akira saw that smile and lightly smiled back, erasing the dark feeling welling inside him.

“You’re right, I’ll be counting on you.”

“Just leave it to me.”

Alpha smiled satisfied seeing that Akira completely cheered up.

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