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“You have an augmented suit this time, so I think you have the choice of running away now.”

“No thanks. What would you do if it breaks my legs?”

“Well, let’s use medicine on your legs before they break. I think that should buy us enough time before your legs actually break.”

“Let me make myself clear, can you please come up with a solution so that I won’t get in that situation in the first place?”

Akira’s face distorted when he said that and he maintained his expression all the way back to the city. Akira thought that he would look like a frowning Hunter who was on his way back from his job knowing that he did not make much money.

Katsuya was looking at Akira with a puzzled face, he then whispered to Yumina and Airi.

“Say, did you look at him when he shot that monster?”

Airi shook her head and answered back.

“Nope.”

“I wasn’t looking at him too, what’s wrong?”

Yumina asked back curiously, to which, Katsuya replied back with a disappointed face and said.

“So both of you didn’t see that, huh?”

“We’re here for exploration training after all. So we didn’t have the time to look at others... Katsuya, that should be the case for you too, right? So why are you watching someone kill a monster? Were you skipping your training?”

Yumina scolded Katsuya. So he panicked and tried to come up with an excuse.

“I-I’m sorry, okay. I just heard some conversation that bothered me back there. So I was curious and kept an eye on them.”

“Get a better grip on yourself, okay? We’re a team here so we have to support each other, but even so, there’s a limit on how much support I can give you, you know?”

Katsuya saw that Yumina had entered her scolding mode again, thus he glanced at Airi, seeking for help. But Airi asked him a question as if she could not read the mood.

“What’s bothering you anyway?”

Katsuya immediately answered back in order to cut short Yumina’s scolding.

“Well, actually...”

Yumina noticed that Airi saved Katsuya from her scolding, so she just smiled since she knew that there was nothing she could do.

As Katsuya told them what he saw when Akira shot that monster, Airi thought for a moment before saying.

“Wasn’t that just pure luck?”

“It was already within his AAH rifle’s effective range and there was a chance that his shot hit by pure luck. Moreover, the shots might have not hit the monster directly too. The bullets might have hit the ground near the monster and the monster was surprised by it thus tripping over and breaking its own neck. Or maybe someone took a shot at that monster at the same time as him. It’s hard to believe that he intentionally aimed and hit all his shots at that monster’s weak points.”

“I see. But it did look like that to me.”

“Since it’s not like I saw it, I can only say that it might be just coincidence, moreover...”

“Moreover?”

“Even if he did hit his shots successfully, it has nothing to do with us.”

Yumina then asked Katsuya in an annoyed tone.

“By the way, why are you so bothered by that?”

Airi also joined Yumina.

“Putting that aside, I think you should pay more attention to the other Hunters who are on the same gang and same team as you.”

The reason why Katsuya was bothered by Akira was because of Hazawa. It was clear that Hazawa was looking down at them, but even so, it seemed like Hazawa admitted Akira’s ability. And that was more obvious after Akira took down that monster.

Although Akira and he were similar-aged Hunters, Hazawa recognised Akira’s skill but did not accept his own skills. Katsuya was just simply bothered by this fact. But since it pained him to say that, he just came up with an excuse.

“Well, it doesn’t really matter. It’s just that because he’s around the same age as us, it bothered me a bit. Of course, you girls are more important to me than him.”

Yumina looked embarrassed as she said.

“What are you talking about out of the blue...”

While on the other hand, Airi was delighted as she nodded and said.

“It’s fine as long as you understand.”

Although they said that, Airi and Yumina actually knew that Katsuya was trying to evade the real question. But they were swept off their feet by his words and let him get away with that.

Hazawa looked annoyed watching Katsuya and his friends, he then let out a sigh and said to Akira.

“Good grief, these guys are an eyesore right till the end, huh?”

Akira apathetically replied back.

“Just let them be. You’ll only waste your energy reacting to them, and it’ll cause you more trouble if you get in a fight with them. Not to mention that they have brought along another Hunter who looks relatively stronger than anyone here.”

Hazawa glanced at Shikarabe who was sitting near Katsuya.

“Well, you’re correct. But still, there are children like them, and again, there are children like you. I’m just wondering how you guys can be so different from each other like this.”

Hazawa was only trying to engage in a silly conversation. But Akira went silent for a while before answering back in a serious tone.

“I’m not that different from those children.”

“Is that so? But from my perspective, you look very different compared to them, you know.”

“We’re the same. Although we behave differently, both of us are children who’re staking our lives out in the wasteland. That’s a fact, no matter whether someone admits that or not. Our luck and skills to explore the ruins, to fight against the monsters and to get out from a mess are not that different. The more dangerous a request we take, the more rewards we can get. But since we’re out in the wasteland, we’re bound to meet different kinds of people. We were not lucky enough to avoid problematic people this time, but we’re sure lucky enough to get back home, that’s all there is to it.”

After saying that, Akira went silent as if he was trying to hide his emotion.

Most of the things that he just said were actually directed at himself.

The biggest advantage of joining a Hunter gang was being able to get support from the other Hunters. But if he had to compare that point, Akira with Alpha’s support was obviously in a better position.

But even so, looking at the other hunters who were similar to him in age, it was true that Akira felt a bit jealous, especially Katsuya and his friends who were having silly talks and joking around enjoying their trip to the wasteland.

Hazawa kept staring at Akira without saying anything, he was in deep thought.

He got a close look at Akira when he used the AAH rifle to easily kill that monster. Although Hazawa looked calm on the outside, he was actually very shaken deep within.

Hazawa knew that he could not do the same feat although he was holding the same rifle. He had no confidence he could hit a target from such a distance. If he was in that situation, he could only spray some bullets hoping to weaken that monster before firing a killing shot. It was impossible for him to defeat the monster with the least amount of bullets like what Akira did. He understood this fact very well.

Hazawa’s gaze shifted to Akira’s gun, it was the same AAH rifle like his. But Akira’s gun looked like it was properly maintained. In contrast to that, he could not even remember the time he had done full maintenance for his own rifle.

As expected of a favourite gun, AAH rifle could maintain its performance even when it was not properly maintained. But it was to be expected that the performance of a gun would slowly worsen if it was not properly maintained. When Hazawa looked at his gun, it looked like a shabby gun to him now.

Hazawa then just smiled bitterly.

[...I could return back home safely from the wasteland although I’m using this gun, huh. It seems that I’m pretty lucky.]

Although he took this relatively safe patrol job because he was afraid of dying, he did not properly maintain his own gun and went out to the dangerous wasteland. Even though this job did not seem worth the money at first glance, it looked even more unworthy of the money to him now.

Hazawa did a lot more dangerous Hunter jobs in the past. He explored a lot of ruins, brought back a lot of relics, fought all kinds of monsters and survived all of those. At the same time, he also saw a lot of people getting killed. Some of them were his fellow Hunters who went to the ruins with him, some of them were bandits who tried to rob him and some of them were his friends who suddenly stopped coming to their usual drinking place. All these deaths weakened Hazawa’s resolve. Eventually, Hazawa decided to exchange his chance of success with his safety.

[...If I keep doing cheap work like this because of fear, I guess it’s given that I would end up being a Hunter with no achievement, huh. Now that I remember it, I was way more ambitious back in the days....]

One of the reasons why Hazawa was so annoyed watching Katsuya and his friends was because he could feel their determination to raise up as successful Hunters. They still tried to chase a higher position despite all the dangers that they were facing. If they did have the ability and the luck, it would be as Airi said, they would raise up in the Rank in no time.

But putting that aside, it was true that Katsuya and his friends were aiming for a higher position, just like he did in the past.

[...I guess this is it for today, I’ll go back home after this and do proper maintenance on my gun. Then I’ll redo everything again. I’ll once again aim for becoming a Hunter that I was dreaming about. After all, I’m a lucky person. I’m lucky that I was able to meet these brats today, it’s as if saying that I should retry again.]

Hazawa made up his resolve in silence.

In truth, Hazawa was actually a lucky person. After all, he was able to finish his job for the day and go back to his inn to do proper maintenance of his gun. He was actually luckier than he thought he was.