Chapter 84: How To get Back To Everyday Life (5)

“Alright. As expected, we succeeded in hijacking the unmanned cargo train and arriving at the scene.”

“Yeah. Veritas was a big help. To think they could easily hack the train system on the spot.”

“As expected of someone with the skill to not hesitate to hack Millennium’s student registry if necessary!”

“…Isn’t that a crime…?”

It feels like I’ve witnessed something that goes beyond common sense…a scene of criminal accusation… but I’ll put that aside for later. First, Sensei and I successfully infiltrated Eridu’s underground.

“Doesn’t that have a bite to it? And a crime? I didn’t misuse it, I just did it out of necessity.”

No, isn’t it game over from the moment you hacked…?

“Anyway, be careful. Once we pass through that passage and get to the surface, it’s really Eridu’s territory from there.”

“Roger. Then, Sensei? Shall we enter?”

The operation plan is simple. While C&C is running wild on the surface, everyone, including Sensei, will enter through Eridu’s underground, confront Rio in Eridu’s central control room, and rescue Aris.

That was the whole operation. Considering that there are virtually no combat troops except for me and C&C, it was a reasonably useful diversion…

Unfortunately, the opponent was either aware of both sides from the beginning…or they were more concerned about my strength than I thought.

[Uh oh… that’s the drone Rio uses, AMAS…]

“Eek, have we been found out already!”

“Don’t worry, we have control of all the surrounding systems.”

Rio’s AMAS, her drone soldiers appeared in front of us, blocking our way.

But interestingly, Rio, the blade she once tried to check and cut down, eventually reached her and is now properly demonstrating its performance, its prowess, helping us enter.

“Hup!”

-Crack!-

[Wow…it’s an amazing power no matter how many times I see it…]

“Huh? You can’t say that to a girl… nev! er mind!”

-Crack! , Bang!-

Power control, if I put my full strength here, we’ll be exposed or the ceiling will collapse and we’ll be buried alive, so I start moving forward, breaking the AMAS one by one, controlling my strength appropriately.

Sensei’s words…I just lightly ignore them and focus on the drones in front of me.

C&C side will do well, but it’s better to minimize the disturbance if possible… so I move forward, breaking them with my physical strength while minimizing even shooting.

Those girls… I don’t know how skilled that Toki is… but they’ll be able to hold her off to some extent…

“C&C has started engaging Toki, run straight ahead now!”

“Roger. Sensei! I’m going to speed up!”

[Okay!]

As soon as I think about it, the radio rings saying that the battle with Toki has started. With this much commotion… there’s no time to hesitate or delay now.

I immediately take out the SRM and run, destroying the drones at top speed.

Considering the physical strength of Sensei, the engineering club, and the game development club students, it might be a little harsh, but since I’m in charge of all the drones in front, the speed itself was being matched reasonably well.

I destroy all the drones I can see and finally escape from the underground.

“Yahoo! We’re out!”

“It’s just the beginning…”

“Where do we go from here?!”

“The place where Aris is thought to be…?! Sensei! Everyone! Right now…”

-Rattle, Bang!!!-

Unfortunately, Rio… Chairman Rio… thinking about it again… she was quite wary of me…

“Wow, what is that machine with that desperate sense…”

[Wow… it’s amazing in many ways…]

“Sensei, you’ve come all the way here.”

A sudden vibration, isolation due to moving bulkheads, and decisively… a huge machine with a desperate sense appeared in front of me.

It was as if they knew all of our movements, and at the same time, communication with Veritas was cut off… and the one who intercepted that communication was, as expected… Chairman Rio, herself.

Probably these bulkheads and… the machine in front of me are also her doing…

“Ha, that machine with that desperate sense is your doing, right…?”

“…Yes, now is not the time to worry about such ‘personal things’. Now, Avant-Garde-kun, battle mode activated.”

A combat robot covered with a large amount of weapons and thick armor at a glance, regardless of its sense, it would not be something that could be dealt with lightly.

Therefore, my choices were limited to one.

I feel sorry for that child… and I didn’t plan to use it myself…

-Whirr, Bang!-

“Sensei! Take the kids and run to the center!”

What I urgently took out was a railgun, Aris’s Sword of Light. Honestly, I brought it to just hand it over… but there was a moment when it was so helpful…

Because I took it out with one hand in a hurry, my right arm started to tingle from the recoil, but its power was enough, and it broke through the bulkhead that was blocking the way.

[Sora, what about you?!]

“Sensei? Do you think I’ll be pushed around by a machine with such trashy sense? I’ll destroy it and follow you…”

Thick armor… anti-tank guns and gatling guns, and an enlarged rifle-equipped arm… a shield that would make it even harder to penetrate the already thick armor… ha… this won’t be easy…

“…The spirit of sacrifice? Yes, it’s certainly rational. It would be more likely for your plan to succeed if you sacrifice yourself and let Sensei get to me…”

“It’s funny, Chairman Rio. I don’t know what you think of that machine… but I’ll make you regret thinking you could stop me with just that bizarrely-sensed robot.”

“…Yes, try your best.”

With a short word, the communication was cut off… and that huge machine, the machine called Avant-Garde-kun, started staring at me.

-Whirr!-

And the gatling that starts rotating soon, no matter how you look at it, it’s not the caliber that a normal person can carry around, it’s clearly a large-caliber machine gun.

Defense is… probably better not to think about… Then I have two choices.

Evasion and…

“Really…I’m glad I brought it…!”

-Whirr, Bang!-

The second method is to simply apply an above-normal impact to nullify the attack itself.

If it were the original me… I would have to concentrate my mystique on my arm and directly punch, or I would have to fire my Daedalus or aeternitas by absurdly infusing mystique, but…

Interestingly, although I borrowed it… I had a means to do so in my hand.

The blue light emitted from the Sword of Light rushes and strikes the guy’s shield. The impact slightly disrupts Avant-Garde-kun’s balance, and the rotating sound of the gatling stops.

“Well… then… shall we try…?”

“Combat target data collected, combat algorithm changed.”

-Rat-tat-tat!-

The enlarged rifle in the guy’s hand starts firing.

Probably there is a customized behavior pattern, before the gatling gun starts firing, the impact caused the gatling gun to misfire, so it immediately switched to a rifle that can be fired.

At first glance, the caliber looked similar to the gatling gun, but the RPM was clearly different, and the box magazine caught my eye, so the firepower and its sustainability were clearly inferior to the gatling gun.

And with that level of firepower, it seemed like I could withstand it enough, so I put my left wing forward again, concentrating my mystique, solidifying my defense posture, and starting to charge the Sword of Light.

-Bang!-

When I thought I could withstand it to some extent, an overwhelming amount of impact is applied to the wing’s shield.

Anti-tank gun, the anti-tank gun that had not moved once, the arm equipped with it moved, and the ejected rocket hits my wing.

“Ugh… you handle all four arms at the same time… that’s dirty…”

-Whirr!!!-

A rocket fired around the time the rifle’s ammunition was running out, and the gatling started rotating at the same time I was pushed back from the impact of the rocket…

As a machine designed only for combat from the beginning, the connection between each weapon is natural.

It’s extremely annoying to deal with, and I even feel like my weight class is pushed back.

The only thing I can be ahead of is… the Sword of Light, which is not my weapon, I don’t know how much it will work, but I concentrate mystique on the Sword of Light.

-Fzzzt-

The Sword of Light’s current charge is 70 percent. The goal is to hit at least 90 percent output, pouring in my mystique, and landing one proper shot.

Otherwise, it would be difficult to properly penetrate even the shield, let alone the armor of the body.

There is also the option of finding a weak point and firing, or continuing to fire until it is effective, but right now I am short on time, so I choose the option that can end it the fastest.

-Rrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!-

And… the gatling’s warm-up, which felt a bit long, ended… and finally, it started to spew flames of overwhelming firepower.

I concentrate my mystique on my legs while maintaining the mystique directed to the wing and the Sword of Light, leaping and escaping from the fire net.

The fire net persistently chased me endlessly, but I already expected this, so I firmly set up the wing’s shield to block as much as I could, and dodge as much as I could.

-Bang!-

“Ugh…”

As if not letting that happen, a rocket from the anti-tank gun immediately flies in.

A decisive blow hits the wing, which is already becoming tattered due to the firepower of the gatling gun, and the shield, unable to withstand the impact, is pushed aside.

The gatling, which stopped firing due to overheating, and the anti-tank gun, which needs reloading, in between, the enlarged rifle, which had finished reloading at some point, appears, and I meet the muzzle.

“I’ll shoot you down!”

-Baaaaaaang!!!!-

But just barely, the Sword of Light, sufficiently infused with mystique, was slowly boasting a sufficient charge, and soon a red flash mixed between the blue light from the Sword of Light is emitted.

An absurd recoil, an impact greater than being hit by an anti-tank gun acts as a recoil, sending my body flying backwards.

Since it was a recoil of the expected level, I didn’t lose my balance or anything, but the distance was quite widened.

There was a result.

“Number 2 main arm lost and body damaged, resource redistribution, algorithm readjustment, target risk level revised upward.”

Avant-Garde-kun, I succeeded in piercing the shield of that grotesque-sensed robot and directly hitting the body.

The arm holding the shield was completely blown off and sparks were flying, and some of the armor on the body was blown off, exposing the internal parts.

“Certainly… this consumes a lot of stamina…”

It’s a borrowed item in the first place, so I’m not familiar with it, and if I hit it with maximum power, even I can’t withstand the recoil.

And since I succeeded in the original purpose of directly stripping the armor, it would be enough to deal with it…

“Target weapon change confirmed, algorithm modified.”

-Click-

I put down the Sword of Light for a moment and take out ‘aeternitas’, the SRM, and load 12-gauge buckshot.

A rather ignorant attack method learned during a short engagement with Neru, exploding the steel balls of 12-gauge buckshot with mystique,

but if I directly hit the hole in the armor of that machine and create an explosion from the inside, stopping its movement would not be a difficult task.

…However… there was an easier way…

“Dust to Dust”

-Boom boom boom boom!-

A familiar bombardment I saw sometime, this bombardment is definitely Misaki’s… Special Escort Unit’s… Misaki’s Stinger missile.

Avant-Garde-kun, caught up in the bombardment of Stinger missiles, staggers greatly and loses its balance.

“I, I’ll support you!”

-Bang!!-

Following that, a loud and familiar gunshot, a bullet from an anti-material sniper rifle with absurd power accurately hits the part of Avant-Garde-kun’s head that seems to be the camera, destroying the camera.

I’m not the kind of person to throw away such a precious opportunity.

“Hup!”

-Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!-

I concentrate my mystique on my legs and leap, kick Avant-Garde-kun, who is about to lose its balance and fall over, to completely knock it down, then climb on top of it and gift it with the SRM at zero range, with steel balls filled with explosive mystique.

Clearly, its firepower is less than the bullets I put a lot of mystique into. It’s impossible because it’s an item that has been poured with too much mystique to go through a process like this to change its properties.

Therefore, its explosive power is not very strong. But if the firepower is insufficient, I just have to hit it again and again, I shoot until Avant-Garde-kun’s movement completely stops.

-Bang! Bang! Bang!, Click Bang! Bang!-

Anyway, the SRM is a shotgun with 37 rounds.

-Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!-

I succeeded in completely stopping Avant-Garde-kun’s movement without running out of ammunition.

“Phew… it’s timely support, Saori.”

-Whirr!-

“It’s been a while, Sora… no, Chief.”

“Yeah, seeing you rolling around like this after coming all the way to a foreign place, it seems like fieldwork suits your aptitude.”

“No… Atsuko… I didn’t want to do this…”

Saori and Atsuko descended to the ground on a rappel dropped from the helicopter.

I don’t know how they knew and came, but it was really the best timing and appropriate support.

How did they know and come… how… ah… could it be…?

-Whirr!-

“Hehe, thank you, Misaki.”

“Haa… take it easy… you look busy…”

“I’ll keep that in mind… I can’t promise.”

After that… holding Nagisa… Misaki… came down on a rappel…

Ah… that… I forgot for a moment… what kind of bomb I dropped in the group chat room with my sisters…

“Hehe… Sora…?”

“Ye, yes… sister…?”

Nagisa… came all the way to this fortress city, far from the remote Millennium… in person by helicopter….

It’s clearly my fault, an excuse… even if there is one… what I should do first is….

“An excuse…?”

“I, I’m sorry!!!!”

To bury my head in the ground.