episode_0114

Ding!

“Huh? Did they finish the job already?”

Luna, who had become the COO, the Chief Operations Officer, of R&B Risk Control, a private military company that succeeded the mercenary group Rune’s Bar, put aside the electronic documents she was handling and looked up at the message that had arrived on her internal computer.

Sender: Ayakashi Jun.

Her irreplaceable friend of ten years, who had somehow ended up becoming a direct descendant of the Ayakashi owner family.

Luna mulled over the name internally for a moment before deciding to open the message.

And the message sent by her precious friend contained no text, only a single video file attached, as if telling her to just watch and judge.

“I left the on-site judgment to them…”

Given the lack of information and the extremely narrow scope of their activity, Luna honestly thought that even if they failed, it couldn’t be helped. So, the Wild Hunt case was more akin to trying their luck with something they didn’t expect to succeed.

Still, could there be significance in the fact that they at least made contact?

Slurp-

Luna sipped the black liquid, a concentrated caffeine capsule dissolved by Martina, and felt her mind awaken with a bubbling intensity from the caffeine as she played the video.

Rumble—!

A roar like thunder.

The motorcycle’s exhaust, bouncing off the arched sewer walls and amplifying, produced an enormous sound, creating the illusion that lightning had struck.

A motorcycle and a mysterious figure in plate armor, both thrusting their heads towards the entrance of the sewer, where only darkness lay thick.

Vroooom!!!

As the throttle was pulled and the RPM surged, the ear-splitting sound grew even louder.

And then—

Whoosh!!!

Like an arrow shot from a bowstring, a single motorbike launched towards the dark sewer.

Above the biker, who was tearing through the narrow tunnel with a torrent of spiraling sound waves.

A group of bikers, similarly wearing gleaming metallic breastplates, followed, riding along the 3km road covering the sewer.

The goal was the end of the sewer.

Rumble rumble rumble-

The power of over twenty ultra-high-output engines, racing at a speed impossible for normal motorbikes, caused vibrations that shook the ruined road as if an earthquake had struck, and thick smog dissipated, as if it dared not block their path.

A crazy speed, covering a distance of 3km in just 18 seconds.

Even a rough calculation showed they maintained an insane speed of 600 km/h. At the end of their run, grotesque creatures, screaming as if terrified, burst out of the sewer and fled in a panicked scramble.

Their shocking appearance was unsettling, but even more shocking was how the one leading the charge crashed straight into a guardrail and glided towards the riverside, where the sewage outlet was located.

Maintaining tremendous momentum, a massive transport drone that had been following behind the flying, heavy biker opened its mouth—

Clank. Thwack—!!!

Something like a harpoon shot out with the sound of gunpowder exploding, flying towards the biker. The biker, who had begun a parabolic descent, casually snatched it out of the air and secured it under his armpit.

That harpoon-like object was a lance.

However, instead of a sharp spearhead, its end had a large-caliber hole, resembling a muzzle, making it a grotesque-looking lance.

Holding that massive object, whose original purpose seemed forgotten by its structure, the biker crashed down.

Precisely onto the monster fleeing at the very front—

Thud—!!

Landing on his front wheel, he simultaneously plunged the lance into the monster’s back, tearing up the ground as he moved forward.

Grind grind grind! The grotesque creature, its face and chest ground down by the lance, followed his charge. The biker pressed down on the motorbike’s body, bringing the rear wheel down, then twisted his body to change the direction of his kinetic energy, drawing a circle and becoming a fatal boundary that blocked the fleeing monsters.

“Kyaaaah!!!”

The grotesque creature screamed.

Though its form seemed devoid of emotion, its struggling, writhing movements in fear and pain looked rather pitiable.

But the biker, his face completely hidden by a full-face helmet, remained unfazed. With the grotesque creature still impaled, he raised the lance and aimed it at another grotesque creature, then—

Thwack──!!

The lance’s muzzle spat fire, and simultaneously, the entire upper half of the grotesque creature exploded into fragments.

Thump- thump- thump- thump- thump-!

The engine’s exhaust rumbled low like a growling beast, and with a ‘clank,’ the biker loaded a new round into the break-action lance that had opened.

The monsters hesitated at the threatening exhaust sound, as if it warned them they’d die if they moved, but that was the worst mistake they could make.

The monster hunt by the bikers who had followed closely behind began.

“…What is this?”

Luna couldn’t help but be astonished after watching the video.

Leaving aside the monsters, whose forms she didn’t even want to know about, the performance of the bizarrely dressed bikers was quite shocking.

Since Dojun had filmed it himself at close range with a body cam, it wasn’t likely that JQ had edited it to mess with Luna.

The performance shown by the vanguard biker on a motorbike reaching 600 km/h, and the subsequent monster massacre by the bikers who followed.

Scenes like a B-movie, strung together with sensational action.

‘This is the Wild Hunt… So, they’re called monster hunters because they actually hunt monsters?!’

Honestly, Luna, like Dojun, thought ‘monsters’ was a metaphorical term.

Mercenaries specialized in dealing with ‘Chrome Psychos’ who turn into monsters consumed by their mechanized bodies, or ‘Cursed Beasts’ driven mad by bio-ware rejection.

Such freelancers with specialized skills were rare, so she had planned to recruit them to use as a dedicated team for augmented individuals, but!

Regardless of her plans being thwarted, the performance they showed was still noteworthy.

‘That lance’s caliber looks to be roughly 60mm…’

In terms of caliber alone, it surpassed not just personal firearms but even autocannons.

If hit head-on by something like that, even a superhuman whose entire body was replaced with ultra-expensive cyberware wouldn’t survive.

Naturally, the vanguard biker who used such a weapon so casually stood out, but the other bikers were also undeniably specialists in mounted combat.

For example, a biker using a hammer spun to lean his body low, dodging a monster’s attack as it stretched out sharp claws, then crushed the monster’s lower body in a single strike with the spinning hammer, and then performed a ‘sit-down wheelie’ to grind the head of the falling monster with his wheel.

“What the…”

They were practically performing acrobatics, making it impossible to tell if what she was watching was a combat video or a circus act.

At the end of the video, Dojun took off the body cam, aimed it at his own face, and spoke to Luna, which is how it concluded.

“[“JQ, this idiot’s eyes are spinning, he’s rambling about wanting to do the Wild Hunt, so I’m cutting it here. By the way, these guys are much crazier than I thought, aren’t they?”]”

With a thumbs-up and the parting words, ‘See you back,’ the video cut out, and Luna leaned back into the chair.

“…Should I organize them into a rapid response team?”

* * *

“Wow… So, guys with experience really are different, huh?”

I clicked my tongue, kicking the monster corpses strewn along the riverside with a ‘thump- thump-‘.

There were about fifteen monsters hidden in the sewer, though they seemed to be of different types.

It was shocking that so many disgusting creatures were hiding in such a short section of sewer, but the Wild Hunt’s combat style, flying around on motorbikes, was even more shocking.

‘Damn, that’s awesome… So cool!’

Bikes equipped with ultra-high-output engines with their power limits removed, transport drones delivering weapons during combat, and an awesome break-action cannon lance…!

At first, I thought their outfits looked a bit idiotic, but seeing them fight properly, nothing embodies romance quite like this.

Of course, Cerberus, the triple-composite operating system designed by Kathleen, not intended for human use, could also be called the epitome of romance, disregarding efficiency. But isn’t it true that two is better than one, and three is better than two?

‘Should I ask her to make me one of those?’

If I somehow manage to ask Kathleen, she might design it for me.

‘But asking for something else just because I saved her once feels like taking too much for granted, doesn’t it?’

I already received help with Cerberus and even Yuki and Kana’s treatment, so by my calculations, aren’t I the one in debt?!

As I was racking my brain, wondering what to do about this, Pasio, who had roughly dealt with the monster corpses, approached me.

“So? Are you satisfied with our skills?”

“Yeah, much better than I expected. When you first said you’d show me, I wondered what you were thinking, but it was quite a sight.”

“It’s truly an honor to receive such praise from the young master, a direct descendant of Ayakashi.”

Young master? Hmm… While it’s not wrong according to the official announcement, it’s not a very welcome title.

In reality, I’m not even a direct descendant, let alone part of that family.

‘To be precise, Jwabudong is considered to be close to an adopted child whose detailed relationship has not been disclosed.’

‘Then who are my mom and dad?’

‘Ayakashi Senji, the eldest son of the current Ayakashi Chairman, Ayakashi Nozaburo, and…’

“Damn it.”

I’m the grandson of that crazy lolicon incestuous old geezer? No way.

“Why the sudden outburst?”

“Ah.”

I coughed a few times unnecessarily, then changed the subject.

“Anyway, the atmosphere is unexpectedly welcoming. Were you just working as freelancers because you hadn’t received any recruitment offers until now?”

“How could we live without money? Ask the others if they’d like to join R&B too.”

Pasio gave a meaningful smile.

“Provided you help us with one thing, that is.”