NOVEL ONLINE FREE Book 17: Chapter 4: Part2
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Part 2
“I wonder if they’re okay…”
As I said this, thinking about Rikuto and the others who were yet to return, Akane-san opened her mouth in surprise.
“Yuuya-san is such a nice person, isn’t he?”
“Eh? Is that so?”
“That’s right. Normally, when something like this happens, you wouldn’t care.”
W-well, even though I was involved in various things, whether I cared or not was another matter…
“More than anything, you don’t have to think about it that seriously. It’s not uncommon for people to be a day or two late, and especially someone like that is a first-class awakened person, so there’s no way they could be taken down by mechanical knights so easily.”“I-I see.”
“That’s right! Besides, this is our free time, so let’s enjoy it!”
As a matter of fact, since I had just finished exploring and had some free time, I let Kazuya and Akane-san show me around the city again.
I don’t know where we’re going though…
“Well, I didn’t ask, but where are we going now?”
“We just finished exploring, so I thought we’d go to an entertainment facility to take a break.”
“An entertainment facility?”
Although people are currently living normal lives in this underground space, there are limits to the resources and energy available, so there is not much of an entertainment element.
What kind of entertainment facility is there in this city?
As I thought about this, Akane-san gave a wry smile.
“…Well, it’s an entertainment facility, but it’s nothing like that for us.”
“?”
As I tilted my head, even more confused than before, we finally arrived at a building.
“This is the entertainment facility of the future─the virtual combat room!”
“Virtual combat room?”
I couldn’t help but repeat the words, and as I followed Kazuya and Akane-san into the building, I saw countless capsule-shaped machines installed inside.
To my surprise, not only adults but also children entered these capsule machines, and they all closed their eyes.
“What in the world is this place?”
“In Yuuya-san’s time, there was no technology called virtual reality, was there?”
“Huh? Ah… I’ve heard of something like that…”
The most I knew about virtual reality was that it’s a technology that appeared in manga and movies or a technology that allowed you to watch videos by putting on VR goggles, but I didn’t know anything in detail.
“As you can see here, by going into these machines, you can send your consciousness into the cyber world, or virtual reality, and have various experiences there.”
“I-I see…”
So you mean that virtual reality was like the kind that appeared in the manga and movies I know?
“Could it be that the various experiences you’re talking about are… like video games?”
“That’s right! This is a place where you can play games that use virtual reality.”
“I see…”
So that’s what the kids were playing.
Although I was satisfied with this explanation, I was still curious about Akane-san’s earlier words.
“But what do you mean it’s not entertainment for you and Akane-san?”
“Because there’s only one game you can play here.”
“Eh?”
“And the content of that game is a virtual battle with a mechanical knight.”
“…..”
His unexpected words left me speechless.
Can you really call that a game…?
Kazuya, who must have sensed my thoughts, explained with a wry smile.
“Well… this is the kind of reaction you would have. As Akane said, from our point of view, this game doesn’t have any entertainment value. After all, we’re actually going to the surface and fighting the real mechanical knights. But for children and adults who aren’t Awakened, it’s different. Even though we experience it in our daily lives, it’s something extraordinary for them.”
“I see…”
Indeed, for those who are not fighting the mechanical knights, even if it is a virtual reality, fighting the mechanical knights while walking around the world above ground must be a game-like experience.
“Especially the awakened children cannot go above ground until they grow up, but here they can train safely. So this place is also an entertainment facility, and for awakened people like us, it is also a safe training ground.
What an amazing world.
From my point of view, entertainment is just for fun, but in this era, even entertainment is training for survival.
As I was once again speechless at the strangeness of this era, it seemed that a capsule machine had just become available.
“Oh, it looks like it’s free… what do you think? Do you want to try it?”
“Yeah, I think so… but I think I’d like to see someone else’s example first…”
“Okay, then I’ll go first.”
Akane-san said, and with practiced hands, she operated the machine and entered the capsule.
Then, when she closed her eyes, it seemed as if she had entered a virtual reality world.
“Yuuya-san! You can watch Akane from here, so let’s watch together.”
“Ah, yeah.”
At the place Kazuya indicated, countless images were projected into the air, and there, on a stage that looked like a wilderness, it was possible to see each player fighting the mechanical knights.
“Hey, that was supposed to be a retreat!”
“No, no, if we had retreated there, we would have been surrounded by the enemy and destroyed.”
“Hey, hey, have you tried the special class awakened status?”
“I did, but you can’t just awaken to the highest level, and you have to be realistic to some extent. Otherwise, you won’t be able to do anything in a real battle, right?”
“Well, it’s a game, so it’s okay to have some fun.”
There were countless people gathered in the viewing area, and they were getting excited as they watched the footage.
I listened to the conversation, and there was one word that caught my attention.
“Hey, I heard something about special status earlier…”
“Ah, this game has data on various awakened children, and you start the game by choosing the awakened child’s superpowers first. Children who have already awakened and children who haven’t awakened yet choose their status while thinking about what kind of superpowers they will awaken in preparation for the actual battle. Well, it’s a game, so I think there are more people who play with special statuses.”
“I see… So Akane-san’s and Kazuya’s superpowers are registered as well?”
“Of course.”
That’s amazing… Even before you know whether you’ve awakened or not, you can try out various superpowers, and when you do awaken, you can train further based on what you’ve experienced here.
While I was impressed with the game’s system, Akane-san appeared in the video.
“Ah, Akane has appeared!”
“I see. So, the person operating the game is still the same person…”
It seemed that the player wasn’t operating some kind of character, but was being fully projected into the virtual reality as themselves, and was fighting with the status they chose beforehand.
While I was thinking this, the viewers around me also noticed Akane san’s appearance.
“Hey, look at that!”
“Wow, that’s Hellfire!”
“Could it be that we’re going to see a special class of awakened people fighting?”
Obviously, Akane-san was famous, and the excitement of the spectators was growing.
Then, Kazuya looked at Akane-san’s appearance with a somewhat nostalgic look.
“By the way… it’s been a while since I’ve seen Akane play here.”
“By any chance, did you play here a lot in the past?”
“That’s right. Both Akane and I awakened quite early, but Akane was amazing. She was really good at this game… look, take a look.”
“?”
I look at Akane-san’s video again as Kazuya prompts me.
“That girl… She chose the highest difficulty level with a level 10 status.”
“Eh?”
I can understand the highest difficulty, but… level 10?
“Well… I don’t know how many classes there are for awakened ones, but Akane-san is a special awakened one, right? And yet, level 10?”
“Well, the lowest rank is tenth. In other words, she’s chosen the highest difficulty for both status and level.”
“Is that okay?”
When I asked him without thinking, Kazuya laughed.
“Well, just watch and see~”
As he said that, Akane-san’s game started.
Apparently, Akane-san’s superpower in the game was only able to produce small flames, and it was a weak ability, which was unimaginable from the figure that was rampaging against the mechanical knights on the ground.
Furthermore, from the other footage of her battles, if it was a normal difficulty level, she would only have to deal with five mechanical knights at a time, but Akane-san’s enemies had more than ten.
I don’t want to say this, but… can she really do it?
Despite this doubt, the mechanical knights all swarmed around Akane-san at once.
However, Akane-san looked at the mechanical knights calmly and then ran to a gap in the group.
Of course, the mechanical knights intercepted Akane-san and fired laser after laser at her.
However, as soon as Akane-san approached the group of mechanical knights, she produced a fireball in her hand and smashed it into the ground.
The impact caused a cloud of dust to rise, obscuring the view all around.
However, the mechanical knights did not seem confused; they all fired their lasers at the same spot.
“Can the mechanical knights see Akane-san?”
“That’s right. They basically sense our heat, so just blocking their view won’t help us escape.”
So, Akane-san’s actions were in vain…
That was the moment I thought that.
As the laser pierced through the dust and cleared the view, I realized that the mechanical knights were aiming at a collection of countless small fireballs.
“That’s…!”
“It seems that she used her superpower to block their vision and deceive them about the heat source.”
Using a method that no one would have expected, Akane-san had managed to dodge the mechanical knights’ attack, and soon, she was in the middle of the mechanical knights’ group.
The mechanical knights realized that the target they had been aiming at was a decoy, and they immediately tried to fire a laser attack at Akane-san, but since she had already infiltrated the middle of the mechanical knights’ group, they couldn’t attack her recklessly.
Then, while moving as if to use the mechanical knights as a shield, Akane-san jumped onto their shoulders and fired a small fireball at their heads!
Even though it was a small fireball, the heads of the mechanical knights exploded, and they became unable to fight due to the new human race’s physical abilities and superpowers.
In this way, Akane-san continued to reduce the number of mechanical knights… and in the end, she defeated them all.
The incredible scenes left everyone around me, including myself, speechless.
And then…
“Th-That’s amazing!”
“Can you really fight like that with such a weak superpower?”
“Hey, let’s try it too!”
The spectators all had shining eyes, and they crowded around the capsule as if to say that they wanted to try it, too.
While I was still in a daze, Akane-san came out of the capsule and approached me.
“It’s been a while since I’ve done this, but it’s actually not that bad.”
“Well done. As always, Akane is amazing.”
“If you try, you can do it too, you know?”
“No, that’s impossible…”
“What? Well, never mind. I thought you could try it too, Yuuya-san, but the capsule is full now…”
“Oh well, it can’t be helped. Seeing Akane play made everyone want to play as well.”
Kazuya said with a wry smile and then looked at me with an apologetic expression.
“I’m sorry, Yuuya-san. It looks like it will be difficult to play games today…”
“No, it’s fine. It’s interesting to watch everyone here play.”
In fact, even if I don’t play, it’s fun just watching everyone else play.
Most of all, after seeing Akane-san play like that, I didn’t have the courage to play myself…
Anyway, in this way, I was able to experience the entertainment of this era.
＊＊＊
A few days after the initial exploration of the surface.
The search for Rikuto’s team, who had disappeared without a trace, continued, but time passed without any clues being found.
In fact, after that, it was not even possible to see the mechanical knights in the area being explored on the surface.
If things had gone according to plan, a large-scale operation to retake the surface would have been carried out.
However, since the mechanical knights had been equipped with new stealth functions and Rikuto and the others had not returned, there was no choice but to postpone the operation.
Even now, the researchers, including Marin-san, were desperately searching for a way to counter the new stealth functions.
With the postponement of the operation and the disturbing movements of the mechanical knights, research had also been suspended.
“I wonder if Rikuto and the others are okay…”
“I’m worried…”
Even though we had our problems, I was still worried about them.
While I was quietly spending time at Kazuya’s house, suddenly, an alarm sounded throughout the city.
“W-what is that?!”
“No way…!”
Kazuya’s face turned pale as he looked at me in surprise, but this time, an electronic sound came from Kazuya’s wristband device.
As soon as Kazuya operated the device, I could hear Sein-san’s voice coming from it.
“This is an emergency! All Awakened, please come to the underground shelter immediately!”
Sensing that something was wrong from the panicked look on Sein-san’s face, I immediately went to the underground shelter with Kazuya.
On the way, we also ran into Akane-san, who had rushed out of her house.
“I never thought I’d hear this alarm outside of a training session…!”
“Um, what does this alarm mean?”
I asked as we walked, and Kazuya told me.
“This alarm is a signal for the attack of the mechanical knights.”
“An attack? But the mechanical knights can’t attack this underground area, can they?”
I had heard that the mechanical knights move while receiving orders from their leader, the Machine God Mother, via a special radio signal.
And since this radio signal doesn’t reach this underground space, the mechanical knights won’t attack…
“As Yuuya-san said, the mechanical knights wouldn’t have attacked until now. Most importantly, this base must not have been discovered by the mechanical knights.”
“Then how did they find out?”
“I don’t know either, but now that this alarm has gone off, there is no doubt that we are under attack.”
“If they’ve attacked, it means that the problem with the radio waves has been solved… I had a bad feeling when the stealth function was developed.”
As Akane-san said, just as the stealth function had evolved without anyone noticing, it seemed that the other side had also been constantly searching for a way to wipe out humanity.
In any case, there was no doubt that this was an emergency situation.
When we arrived at the underground shelter, a large number of awakened people had already gathered there.
There were about 20,000 of them.
That was 10% of the total population of the city and the total combat strength of humanity.
However, it was impossible to say that they were in the majority, as there was no way of knowing how many of the mechanical knights that controlled the surface of the earth there were.
After a while, a hologram appeared in the sky above the underground shelter.
It showed Sein-san, the leader of the Awakened.
“Everyone, listen up! The alarm earlier was not a drill! We have learned from the reports of those who have been out on reconnaissance that a large group of mechanical knights are advancing on this underground city! We don’t have much time before they reach this place!”
The awakened people listening to the speech had grim expressions on their faces as the situation was more serious than they had expected.
“Normally, we would have attacked first and retaken the land. But now they struck first and attacked us. That doesn’t mean we can just sit back and watch! From now on, we will fight against their army!”
Sein-san said as he looked at us.
“There is no doubt that the situation is hopeless. But if we don’t fight here, there will be no tomorrow for mankind.”
Sein-san said this with a pained expression but then immediately raised his voice.
“Therefore, we must fight! To take back the land, the sea, the sky, and tomorrow! We are also blessed with a savior! Don’t despair! We will take back everything on this planet in this battle!”
“Ooooooooooooooohhhhh!!!”
A terrifying voice echoed through the underground shelter.
When I’m expected to do so much, the pressure is incredible…
Suddenly, I turned my eyes to Kazuya, who was standing next to me.
“I’ll do it… I will definitely take back the surface of the earth…!”
Kazuya was burning with fighting spirit.
“For our future…!”
Akane-san is also full of enthusiasm.
Not only these two but all the people who live in this underground mall have been dreaming of life on the surface for hundreds of years.
When I was suddenly brought to this future world, I wondered why me.
But Kazuya and the others were desperately fighting to regain the surface, and they were driven to the point where they had to rely on me.
Awakened people like Kazuya and the others can’t just go to school like me.
From the moment they are born, they are destined to spend their lives fighting as soldiers to protect this city.
…Such a life was too sad.
That’s why I would do my best for Kazuya and the others.
And so the real war against the mechanical knights finally began.
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