I am forced to wake up by a rumbling that makes the whole cabin tremble. Then, I find my head lying on Mirai's lap. The weird softness makes me startled and sits up directly from the sleeping pose. So it is not a dream. - Good, you are awake. I think there is no need to explain right? - Besides the lap pillow, I would assume that the Intruders decide to level the whole central area. - Yes. Quickly gear up, we will bring this place down today. I wear the protective suit and put on my backpack. As soon as everything is ready, Mirai dismantles the barrier and we get out of the cabin. The place is like a mess, which is not what we saw before we entered the cabin. Besides the small buildings and stuff, the roads and plots of land have been completely ploughed up. They even go to the point of searching the underway. It is a miracle that they do not detect us. - Move with the way highlighted on your spectacle vision. We will head to the biggest
- How come all of them have red numbers on their heads? - I whisper to Mirai who stands right next to me. - You step into their territory, what do you expect? - I thought, should you have accounted for this in your plan already? - Who said I have not? We are surrounded by nothing but the big, flashing red numbers taking over half of our vision and a seemingly impenetrable formation of the low-level Intruders. My brain is burning itself, trying to find a way to stay alive, yet Mirai is just calm. As calm as the water surface of a pond. Mirai takes out two sealed canisters. After brute forcing to unseal, she throws the canisters into the air and shoots them with two bullets. They pierce the metal cover of the canisters, causing blue smoke to emerge and spread in every direction. The smoke quickly disperses throughout the town, blending into the air. - I have told you, the moment I know that I have encountered them before, the town b
A snap? As I hear the weird sound, a submarine appears between us and the boss whose sceptre is on the way to slamming the Force Field. The sudden appearance of the submarine makes the sceptre hit the submarine cover with full force. Bonk! The submarine is still materialising, so it does not move, sending all of the slamming momenta back to the boss. The stronger the force of the sceptre, the more the boss is sent backwards. The subsequent vibrations from the metallic clank make its whole body tremble, and it becomes unconscious. It falls onto the ground. The shock waves also render all of the other mobs neutralised. The water level has risen sufficiently for the submarine to safely land in the water and float. Mirai wakes up and dusts her suit. - What the hell? I thought you passed out already. - Even if the Intruder forces completely outperform humans, I still have a fifty-year advantage. At, least, for the next twenty years, they are harmless. But
The video footages are a few years' worths of content showcasing Mirai's collection of items that she crafts, from the photon series with over a hundred weapons and typical support items to the aerial units, drones and the stuff that if not observed from the footages, I would never believe that they exist. "Here is the final version of the submachine gun SMG-01, with a fully improved stabiliser system and better weight efficiency. I realise that I can just copy and paste the design from the Battle Royale tournament. Their designs utilise physics concepts to simulate real-world guns. By the way, I win the 2,543rd tournament, making it the one-hundred streak of consecutive wins. The theme is not about the wealth gap, so I secure a win in just ten minutes.." Wah, it is impressive that the tournament lasts for almost fifty years. If I am not wrong, they organise that once every week, and the year's top players will be invited to a grand tournament. But what the hell? A hundred suc
In exchange for the crosses immediately disappearing from the map, the angled firing of the torpedoes causes our submarine to rotate. Adding up with the fact that Mirai has lost bearing, we take another hour to adjust our course and catch up with the cruise ship. It is midnight again, so that makes nearly two full days. As the submarine ascends to the water level, the barometer shows falling pressure, and air from the submarine is slowly pumped out of the cabin to help us adapt to the changing pressure. Mirai steers the submarine around the cruise ship to find the exact spot where we departed. After scouting for some time, she turns to me. - Yuusha, we have some bad news. - Yes? - The scouting drones are still here, although the density is less. The map on the control panel shows crosses that overlap with the dot representing our submarine. - Wait... Are they supposed to be retracted already? Why are they still here? Right as when I s
- Emergency! The central square has been destroyed. Emergency! The central square has been destroyed. Cabin crew, please assist the passengers in evacuating. The siren has been set throughout the cruise ship, stealing the chill atmosphere away. I glance out the room window, giving me a fairly clear view of the whole ship. As expected, there is a large hole in the central square. Water starts to pour in like a flood. - Mirai, have you detected the source of the missile? - I turn to ask Mirai. - Not yet, but I have circled down the possible locations based on the missile's trajectory. But we will talk about it later. The ship will sink in five minutes. At this point, the drones should have evacuated, but just in case, I reload my photon pistol with another full round. We pack our luggage into the tablet's storage space and take our leave. The way to the nearest lifeboat is highlighted by the yellow lights along every nook and cranny of the ship. We u
The Earth, 2043. University of New South Wales. In the building of the Applied Science department... - Good job, Albert, you have graduated. Do you have any plans for the future? - I am not sure... Maybe I would just work here. I feel like contributing back to this university, and this department. It was the graduation day of this batch of students. The building was decorated with a vibrancy that strayed from the normally dull atmosphere of a science building. In the grand hall, a few hundred students sat neatly in rows, while the professors and the staff of the department were making lengthy speeches. Albert was among the graduates. Like any other graduate, he was also uncertain about his future. However, unlike the other graduates who were in a state of partial to complete loss of direction, Albert had something in mind. He wanted to continue working in the department, either as a student or a researcher. The girl next to him held his hands tightly. She
It had been days since Albert's social withdrawal. He wanted, but he could not overcome the series of trauma that befell him. He was lost. Lost in his memories. Lost in his sense of ethics and morality. His mind was wandering among the vast pool of thoughts, which overlapped and interfered with each other into a complexity that he did not even want to comprehend. Next to him, there were empty bottles of wine, rolling on the floor. He did not bother going out to restock his groceries. He trapped himself inside his house, the only comfort zone that he probably had. Like his mind, his body wandered around the house, aimlessly. The food in the refrigerator depleted, slowly but steadily. The dust had accumulated around the house due to no cleaning. If only something would save him from this misery. "Knock. Knock." Speak of the devil. Somebody is knocking on the door. Albert remembered that he installed a doorbell but did not even care enough to question it. He made his bod