WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Cyberpunk Chivalry ◈
Chapter 9: ENTER THE VOID 2
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Akina was unlike any girl Ash had ever known.
She had none of the shyness or fear he would normally expect from a girl her age.
“So this is a Grotesque. Ugh. Gross.”
Just look at her, shaking her head as she nudged the Grotesque’s severed halves with her foot. Even a grown adult might have gagged at the sight, yet she dismissed it with a simple “gross.”
That made many things easier in the harsh conditions of an Outer expedition, but the convenience left Ash with mixed feelings.
‘She must have led a difficult life. Difficult enough to think nothing of a corpse.’
Ash watched her in silence before speaking.
“I have heard that Grotesques tend to gather in packs. We must be even more watchful as we proceed.”
“We’d better. Oh.”
Akina pinched her nose against the terrible smell, making her voice sound stuffy.
“This is where the unexplored area starts, right?”
“Correct.”
Akina opened her backpack and took out a portable data pad.
“Let’s see... That puts our current location around here. Okay. I’ll start mapping.”
“Will you do it yourself? I can record it, if you wish.”
She shook her head firmly.
“Of course you’d be more precise, mister, but that would use too many resources. You said Grotesques travel in packs, right? A fight could break out at any moment. I can’t ask you to handle every little thing, too. This is my job.”
She really was a sensible girl.
Ash nodded.
“If that is your wish, young lady. I shall devote myself to keeping watch.”
“Good. Then shall we go make some money?”
They exchanged a brief glance, then headed into the unexplored area as quietly as possible.
* * *
The unexplored area was certainly different from what they had seen before.
To borrow Akina’s words, there were definitely rich pickings here.
Perhaps because no humans had set foot there, they often found rare metals, ultraprecision components, and even data shards that still worked deep within the ruins.
“Ooh!”
Akina kept letting out delighted cries as she examined their finds. Her hands moved quickly but carefully.
To Ash, the objects all looked much the same. The girl clearly saw things differently. Her blue eyes swiftly put price tags on the objects in the ruins, and she picked out the expensive ones to stuff into her backpack.
As she scooped up anything worth money, Akina eventually frowned.
“This one’s too bulky. That one’s too heavy... Ugh, seriously!”
Value and weight.
Both were extremely important.
The shared limousine service allowed each passenger only a fixed amount of luggage.
Pathfinders therefore had to choose the most valuable finds that would fit within their allowance. Akina called this “bang per slot.”
“The bang per slot isn’t good enough. Can’t help it. I’ll have to leave this.”
With a look of deep regret, Akina set down the alloy plate she was holding.
“This is why we need our own vehicle, you know? If we had one, we could just grab everything without worrying about any of this... What a waste. Such a waste.”
Still keeping watch, 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 the running costs, and it’ll be a lot more.”
Ash spoke carefully.
“...Then how much have we earned so far?”
“Hmm. With this much...”
Akina looked through the contents of her backpack for a moment before answering.
“A hundred and fifty thousand? We’re still under the weight limit, so we might reach two hundred thousand if things go well.”
“Good heavens...”
“Mister, we’ve made a lot. Rookie Pathfinders earning two hundred thousand credits on Level 1? Everyone would be amazed. And we’ll get even more once you add the mapping commission.”
Ash nodded silently.
Two hundred thousand credits.
That would cover Akina’s “breathing fee” for the month and pay off the debt to Santa. It was by no means a small sum.
“You are right, young lady. I suppose the price of a carriage startled me for a moment.”
Ash felt the importance of money keenly.
Breathing fees.
Equipment costs.
Limousine rental fees.
Even his own repair and charging costs.
Everything took money.
In this world, you could not even keep yourself alive without it.
“Right, shall we get moving again?”
Akina spoke brightly and swung the heavy backpack onto her shoulders.
* * *
There were three battles.
More precisely, they were one-sided ambushes.
With his senses sharpened to an extreme degree, Ash always spotted his enemies before they noticed him and took their lives.
Every flash of his sword meant another dead Grotesque.
“Young lady. It is safe to come out now.”
Ash returned after finishing his fourth ambush. Black blood dripped from the tip of the steel blade in his hand, proving his words.
Akina emerged from the corner where she had been hiding. Looking a little sheepish, she tucked her pistol back into her waistband.
“Did you kill them all?”
“I did.”
Ash swung his sword once to shake off the black blood, then sheathed it.
He approached Akina as she fumbled to put on her backpack and picked it up for her.
“Huh? What?”
Startled by his action, Akina looked up at him in confusion. Ash gave a brief reply.
“Why do we not stop and rest for today?”
Only then did Akina realize how tired she was. The tension and excitement of being somewhere unfamiliar had kept her from noticing.
Ash bent down to meet her eyes and continued.
“A little farther this way, there is a place we could use as a hideout. Let us stop there for today.”
His words sounded casual, yet kind. Akina slowly nodded.
“...Yes. Let’s do that.”
“Good. Follow me.”
The place Ash led her to was not far away.
It was also an ideal hideout.
Behind the remains of a half-collapsed ancient structure lay a sheltered space, mostly hidden from outside view.
The two settled in there.
Akina flopped down, breathing hard. Now that she was aware of her exhaustion, her body felt even heavier.
“Oh, I’m dying.”
It sounded like something Santa would say. After catching her breath, she searched a pouch near her thigh.
She pulled out a short energy stick. Chewing on it, Akina looked for her water bottle through half-closed eyes.
“Here it is.”
Ash found the water bottle in her backpack and handed it over. Akina accepted it, munching on her energy stick like a squirrel.
“Thanks.”
After something that barely deserved to be called a meal, Akina curled up on the bare ground and spoke.
“Mister.”
“I am listening.”
“Thank you.”
“You said that already.”
“Not for the water. I mean, thank you for today.”
Akina knew.
They had gathered so much in this dangerous, unexplored area and made it through without facing a single crisis because of Ash’s overwhelming combat ability.
Even noticing her condition before she did and suggesting a rest, or finding a useful space like this, were part of what he could do.
It was strange.
Ash was only a humanoid, yet he seemed so experienced in so many ways. It made her feel incredibly safe.
“It’s all thanks to you.”
“...”
Ash gave no particular reply. He simply stared into the darkness ahead, the only passage leading into this space.
Akina watched his back as he sat in the lotus position. Then, overcome by exhaustion, she closed her eyes.
Before long, her breathing grew steady.
Only then did Ash glance back. Akina was asleep, curled up uncomfortably on the cold floor.
He quietly stood, took off his Gore-Tex cloak, his only piece of clothing, and draped it over her.
Ash sat in the lotus position again and switched his body to power-saving mode.
[POWER SAVE MODE. . . NOW<<<]
[ENERGY RESERVE: 78%]
[ETA_STANDBY: 43.2 HRS]
With his body’s functions now reduced to a minimum, Ash briefly sank into thought.
It was nothing profound.
He was simply reviewing the journey ahead.
The first thing that came to mind was the mapping data.
They had probably reached about seventy percent of their target.
Next was his battery level.
As the system message showed, he had seventy-eight percent of his power left. That should be enough to keep him moving until pickup time.
‘Come to think of it, how long is it until pickup?’
For Pathfinders, especially those without a personal vehicle, time was the most important thing.
The limousines provided by the Sanctum Administration Office were not personal vehicles that would sit and wait in one place.
They came to a specific point at a set time, waited just ten minutes, then returned to the city.
That meant Pathfinders had to reach the rendezvous point on time.
Ash called up his internal chronometer. Lines of text appeared across his optical sensor.
[DURATION: 48H]
[ELAPSED TIME: 17H 43M]
[TIME REMAINING: 30H 17M]
Ash and Akina had been allotted forty-eight hours, or two days. They had used roughly seventeen hours, leaving a little over thirty.
‘Even allowing for the young lady’s rest, that should be plenty.’
Not bad.
They had come fairly deep into the ruins, but with so much time left, getting back should not be a problem.
‘The backpack is almost full, too. Once we finish the mapping commission, we can head straight out.’
This could be called a successful first expedition.
Ash sincerely thought so as he cleared his mind. Even if he did not suffer physical fatigue, mental fatigue still built up.
Listening to Akina’s steady breathing, Ash took his own kind of rest.
How many hours had passed?
He was still enjoying that brief rest when it happened.
Bang... Rat-tat-tat...
Sharp gunshots echoed through the bleak ruins, breaking the silence.
[EMERGENCY OVERRIDE!]
[EMERGENCY OVERRIDE!]
[AWAKENING SEQUENCE. . . NOW<<<]
Every system rapidly came online.
Ash had been sitting in the lotus position like a deeply rooted tree. In an instant, he switched to combat mode.
“Young la...!”
He immediately tried to wake Akina, but the gunshots had already startled her to her feet. Her pistol was in her hand.
“Mister!”
The gunfire continued.
It was not just a shot or two. A fierce, endless series of cracks rang out, as though several guns were firing at once.
“What on earth...?”
There were none of the cries peculiar to Grotesques. There were also far too many gunshots.
Amid the crashing storm of gunfire, Ash quickly grasped the situation.
“Pathfinders are fighting each other!”
Even now, the gunshots were drawing closer. Whoever was being chased was clearly coming their way.
“Damn...!”
The place they had chosen to rest had only one passage in or out. It had seemed relatively safe at the time, but in a situation like this, they were rats in a trap.
There was nowhere to run 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, they were behind a collapsed structure, so there were plenty of places to hide.
At his words, Akina grabbed her backpack and hurried after him.
“Fuck, you goddamn bitch!”
“Shoot! Shoot, damn it!”
“Aaaargh!”
Now shouts joined the gunfire.
And finally, a Pathfinder came running in, panting hard as he desperately fled 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 bullets back the way he had come.
Rat-tat-tat-tat!
“Stay away! Stay the fuck away, you crazy bitch!”
Tick-tick, tick.
His ammunition ran out.
He kept pulling the trigger, but only empty clicks rang out.
“Shit...!”
As he hurried to reload, a shot rang out.
Booom!
A bullet fired from the darkness came hurtling in with a report like a cannon.
It completely shattered one of the nameless Pathfinder’s legs.
“Aaargh, aaagh! Aaaaaagh!!”
The man screamed.
And between his screams, the sharp sound of high heels rang out.
Click.
Click.
A woman emerged from the darkness.
She lit up the LED heart in her mechanical eye and flashed a V sign.
“Ta-da! It’s your least favorite bitch!”
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