Aoi’s Point of View________________It had been two weeks since the day I kept training inside this room. I knew that I had improved my general skills: aiming, handling my weapon, moving, and adapting to any challenges thrown at me. And as the days passed by, those challenges facilitated by Vulcan were even more terrifying than the last time. Each day, he would fight me while protecting the dummies. And every time I tried saving all of those puppets - since they acted as a proxy for humans inside the portal - Vulcan wouldn’t hesitate to abandon our battle and attack my weakness. That was a cheap move, but the monsters would do the same.When I first accepted Vulcan’s challenge, I barely took out even one dummy. I desperately tried saving every mannequin that needed my help. But no matter how hard I tried catching up with Vulcan, he was slippery and focused more on killing the puppets, regardless if I attacked him with my decoy bullets or not. And even if I used items, Vulcan still ha
After saying those words, even Vulcan knew I was right. Since I had this overpowered ability, I knew that such a burden must be carried on my shoulders. I had to defeat those portals. If I can’t, then who will? Those thoughts kept me up all night, thinking if that was the right thing to do. However, I was still a hypocrite even after that. Instead of saving lives and defeating those portals, I remained here to train my powers. And I only planned on saving people who were already inside the portal I wished to conquer. Those unknown portals that weren't put into media or portals that were C-ranks and below would remain untouched by the adventurers. Thus, regular people who don't have powers would die without putting up a fight. It wasn’t a waste of time to visit each of those lesser portals. It was just that I, too, needed more funds because Hina and I still needed money to live. We were not robots meant to serve others without gaining nothing out of it. Those people could call us selfi
When Vulcan snapped his finger, a mannequin hurled something in our direction. I didn’t know what it was, but I reacted even before my eyes could see it. I used my hand and blocked the projectile, while praying that it wasn’t a devastic magical ball or something that could kill me. Fortunately, the item that was tossed at me was a stick - a random twig found elsewhere in the forest. I even unconsciously transformed and summoned my sniper outfit. I wasn’t used to these mannequins that would attack me. I perceived that these figures were nothing but displayed or another dead weight that I had to save. My brain thought that besides the people I had to save inside the dimension, I also had the responsibility to safeguard the citizens outside the portal. It would double my work, but it was still my responsibility to help those who needed me. But it appeared it wasn’t like that, since I was already content in saving people, or dummies for these circumstances, and not the latter one I had c
From my previous training sessions, I didn’t use anything. The items I had, the two types of bullets my weapon had, and Oculus were all at standby, watching me fight against the old man while protecting the target dummies. But now, everything changed. I was tasked by Vulcan himself to use every arsenal available in my hands for this challenge. I only had a week left before leaving this place, fighting the portal again until someone had to stop it or Hina and I gained enough money. Even so, it wasn’t just because of that. It was because I needed to learn and improve myself if I was facing a difficult battle. A battle where I could lose.“I’m going to fight you with everything I have, kid. I may be a smith, but I’ve also trained myself in my spare time. I can use every weapon here. So expect that I will use every single weapon I’ve created against you just to change the variety of our battle,” Vulcan said, as he prepared himself and conjured a bastard sword in his hand. “You cannot die
“Mom… Who’s this?” the boy whispered, and held the hand of his mother. “Is he going to save us?”The mother shook her head, afraid to describe me as a hero or one of those monsters that wanted to kill them. “I… I don’t know. But we should never trust anyone….”Something was wrong. However, something also told me that this was a natural problem I might face inside the portal. When a portal appeared in the world, the adventurers focused more on defeating it and taking its prize rather than saving people from harm’s reach. I didn’t see anyone who did that. But according to the news reporters and some journalists from the media, the survivors claimed the same thing, regardless if it was the Crimson Guild or other guilds were involved. But since no adventurer or evidence could strengthen those claims, those voices were unheard and set aside. Sometimes, those adventurers would even kill each other and innocent people inside the portals. When adventurers kill someone, the prizes would be sp
When my training formally began, the panel that laid the instruction for me vanished. The thirty second countdown commenced, meaning that was the only time left for me to spare. I had to evaluate the floors and the survivors - the mannequins - inside this training room on how to save them in order. If that wasn’t enough, the Pests Vulcan had mentioned materialised on each side, waiting for the countdown of thirty seconds to reach its climax. We had an extra five minutes and a couple of hours to spare, despite the timer having already kicked in. The actual timer from the portal was already down at 5:54:29. Even so, it wasn’t enough for me to turn this challenge around, knowing the events that could happen next. “Come on, let’s go!” I said, while gesturing my hands for the mother and her son to follow close behind.I could breeze through this setting and arrive everywhere within seconds. Oculus could easily create a jetpack and boost me onward. Or maybe my device could amplify my boot
I used my gun and hit those Pests attempting to attack the old man. As soon as my shells collided with the Pests, that person was safe. I waved my hands, hoping that the old man could see me from afar. Fortunately, he did. When the old man noticed me, he smiled in front of me and greeted my figure. I greeted him back and gave him a nod.“Let’s go, sir. I can protect you,” I uttered, and showed the two people - the training dummies shaped as humans - at my side. When the old man saw them, he happily complied and followed my lead.I didn’t think that the old man would easily follow me. I expected that this old man would act just like the mother when she first saw me and my weapon. However, that didn’t happen. It just showed that there were others willing to entrust their lives to an adventurer like me.And just like the others, this old man wasn’t Japanese. He didn’t have eyes similar to mine or Asian looks that were known worldwide. Despite our races, the old man had faith in me, even
Problems occured one after the other. When I accidentally killed the woman and indirectly let the man die because of it, someone from the group unlatched his hand and perished as well. I was left with twenty seven people and three survivors in my group. If I added them up, that made them thirty survivors. I still didn’t know if these twenty seven people entrusted their lives to me just like these three people did. But I would find out once we were out of this place and help others who needed us.As if that wasn’t enough, the cloud of smoke gradually disappeared. I had to use another smoke grenade just to secure our retreat. I didn’t want any more bloodshed to happen. This fight didn’t even include Vulcan. And that old man wished to join in the battle, the fight would immediately turn in their favour.“LET’S GO! JUST HOLD ON TIGHT, SO WE CAN MAKE IT THROUGH!” I yelled, and shot every Pests that I could in our surroundings.Thankfully, we got outside the smoke and momentarily safeguarde