21 I Storm In

Author: Bishamon Mine
Raw: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n0664js/24/
Translator: Lilia v4
Editor: Yuriko AYA

——My legs want to freeze, but I scold myself thinking there are NPP-san (people) in danger in here.

I check inside again. This time properly. No sense of enemies.
No mines or wire-like traps either, seems. I can’t know perfectly though.
I send Alice a “hand sign”——the movement military people use to instruct allies without speaking.

The content is, “I’ll go,” “wait there.”

Alice tilted her head. I figured.

Then…… I send Alice eye contact.
Then Alice nodded, and we start the breach.
I look at nearby wall-sides that were blind spots and do safety confirmation (clearing).
When I confirm there’s no danger I stay hugging the gun, bend at the waist, and run in a low posture.
I look back and make eye contact with Alice.
Then Alice followed in the same posture as me. What do you call it, that wordless communicates better than even hand signs.

I run to a place that seems safe, knock over a metal-looking desk without making sound——but quickly. I sit with my back to the desk. Then I look around and confirm safety again.

“All right, seems safe.”
“Um…… Suu-san, may I ask one question?”

Alice, who came beside me, asked while watching around.

“What, operation info or something?”
“No…… even in our clan there was nobody who moved like this; did you take military training?”
“I-I would never participate in training! I-it’s scary if the Marines are watching so stop!! ……I copied what I saw, ‘maybe you do it like this?’……”
“I think the Marine colonel is definitely watching.”

❝I’m watching❞

“Scary!”
“Copied what you saw, where did you see this.”
“Anime, and manga, and——games……”
“I see…… that just now was a hand sign, right…… where on earth did you learn it.”
“SNS……”
“——The wellspring of your knowledge is weird.”

❝Miss Suu, your movement is splendid. There was amateur “awkwardness” of course, but you could become a fine Marine. I, a Marine colonel, guarantee it. Now, no interest in becoming a Marine!❞

This person isn’t even inviting me to a clan anymore, he’s inviting me to the Marines?

“Colonel James…… inviting me endlessly into the military, are you some immortal monster from a horror movie……”

❝Y-you don’t have to hate it that much…… I am heartbroken That I can’t breathe❞

“Should I laugh?”

❝Meanie…❞

❝Suu-tan’s movement got the Marine colonel’s stamp of approval lmao❞
❝Subculture power exploding lmao❞
❝She seems like she daydreams countermeasures for when terrorists enter school❞
❝Maybe she moves like special forces in daily life❞
❝FPS-syndrome girl lmao❞
❝No way FPS movement in daily life is why it helped now lmao❞
❝No such girl exists❞

……I’m here……

Alice laughs “that’s going too far” at the comments, then asks while looking around my chest.

“Or rather that’s an unusual hold. Like hugging the gun to your chest.”

❝Miss Alice, that’s. A stance called the CAR system. In gunfights mortality is highest in close combat, so this stance was devised for that❞
❝But her boobs (pay) are too big so it looks hard lmao❞

“Please be quiet.”

I answer the comments and start advancing. While continuing “hide and confirm safety, move to a safe place. Hide and confirm safety——” I slowly explore the hotel interior.
Midway I find an elevator, but right now narrow places and the instant you leave an elevator are scary so we take the stairs to the second floor.
I watch overhead and always keep the muzzle along cover as I walk. Walking with AIM on the parts coming into view, gazes tangle on the landing.
——My eyes met glowing eyes on the floor above.
A goblin!

Tata ta.

The instant the goblin’s fingers move to lift the assault rifle on its shoulder, my Housekeeper round punches through the brow of the goblin’s ant-like face.

❝Eh❞
❝Fast!❞
❝——When I noticed the goblin, the goblin was already starting to fall❞
❝Her reflexes are already weird❞
❝Stopped being human too much❞
❝Which one is the monster❞

As a maiden’s heart, being compared to a petit-horror-looking monster is sad.
The goblin’s body crystallizes and shatters to powder.

“What is this creature……”

When I tilt my head at the strange phenomenon, butterfly-winged Ill-san drone answers.

“To be honest, things MoB made are dubious as to whether they’re living things.”
“I-is that so?”
“The body is almost all silicon and germanium, and the brain is just like a computer. Only purpose, hunger toward it, and satisfaction.”
“Hmm, is it okay not to show mercy?”
“You can judge MoB as life, but either way even if Master shows goblins mercy, goblins will not show Master mercy. When they deceive or torment humans, a reward variable is injected into the brain and they feel pleasure.”
“Uwah……”
“Master, the goblin seems to have dropped a sealstone.”
“What sealstone?”

I’ve never even seen a sealstone in the first place, but what came out.
When I lift the stone I feel like it’s faintly warm.

“The skill 〈Fertility Enhancement〉.”

A skill—— 〈Fer til i ty En hance ment〉 ?

“…………Don’t want it.”
“B-but.”
“…………Don’t want it.”

I refuse absolutely.

But I know there are people who want a sealstone like this.
It might be able to treat people who lost function.
Just my maiden won’t forgive getting this on stream.

“Alice, you can’t transfer these to others?”
“Impossible. They auto-register to the person who defeated it. Don’t you feel that stone as warm?
Sealstones you can use feel warm.”

I see…… not being transferable is a waste but 〈Fertility Enhancement〉 is, well……
I peek into the sealstone, a stone like a night sky contained in zircon, also looking like opal. Like a galaxy.
Incidentally zircon has various colors, but the 〈Fertility Enhancement〉 sealstone was yellow.

“Then if multiple people defeat it whose is it?”
“The drop chance seems to be split among each participant. Maybe it changes by contribution. NPCs have told that kind of story, apparently. Also if you defeat with many people you often get sealstone fragments.”
“What are sealstone fragments?”

Alice answers my question barrage without a single annoyed face.

“They’re treated as trash with no use. You can also make them by smashing a skill sealstone you already have; they really feel like trash.”
“Trash, huh.”

For now I have Alice put 〈Fertility Enhancement〉 in her convenient bag connected to another space. I won’t use it, but it is a waste.
When Alice operates the device on her wrist to start the convenient bag, around her chest wavers a little.——A hole in space? Something like a wormhole?
When Alice takes the green stone to her chest, the stone vanishes like a magic trick.

“It really is a convenient bag. I wonder if I can get one……”
“With the hotel in this state, I wonder what happens……”

We resume the march while confirming safety. Walking the second-floor hallway, there was a place where a room door was open.
When we get near the door, goblins are waiting inside the room.
Muzzles pointed this way.
I at once stick a grappling wire to the hallway ceiling and fire the Housekeeper while passing the door.
My rounds punch the brows of the three goblins who had guns up.
Then two goblins with swords were lurking in the back of the room so I punch those too.
The goblins crystallize and vanish.
But——I also got shot in the shoulder.

“I———————”

It huuuurts!
It huuurts!
I might cry!!

❝You okay Suu-tan!❞
❝Did you get hurt!?❞

Alice’s color changes and she runs over.

“Are you all right!!”

Then she looks at the wound and winces.
But the pilot suit Alice gave me apparently has amazing stretch; a round buried in the shoulder but it didn’t pierce the suit, and the suit returned by tension.
The suit returning extracts the bullet.
Then the suit tightens gyu and stops the bleeding.
And it started getting slimy——I thought it was my blood slime but apparently some medical fluid is seeping out.
The pain recedes.

“Ah, it doesn’t hurt anymore. Alice, isn’t this pilot suit too amazing———?”
“Among what you can buy with Galactic credits, I picked the most all-right one.”
“Th-thank you so much……”

Alice’s kindness soaked in physically.
The pilot suit I used before doesn’t have functions like this……
The one Alice gave me, the swimsuit look is whatever——but it’s really a good thing.
While I’m moved, Ill-san’s voice.

“Master, a sealstone seems to have appeared.”
“……〈Fertility Enhancement〉 again?”

I answer Ill-san a little fed up.

“I don’t know. Sealstones come out according to hostile-race traits, but normally there are several types. For goblins the obtainable skills are,
★1 Common: 〈Fertility Enhancement〉. Makes it easier to have children.
★★2 Uncommon: 〈Night Vision〉. You can see infrared.
★★★★4 S-Rare: 〈Tough Stomach〉. Whatever you eat, no poison, infection, or parasite effects.
.”

There was important information in Ill-san’s words just now.
Probably “goblins can night-vision”——mustn’t fight in dark places.

“But 〈Night Vision〉, if I have a thermal scope (night-vision scope) I might not need it.”

To recover the sealstone I enter the room carefully.
Alice follows from behind.

“There don’t seem to be more enemies in this room.”
“Yeah——”

When I start to answer the nape of my neck goes cold. I look at the ceiling——“there!”

A green ant-like goblin stuck to the ceiling, pointing a pistol this way————I punch its brow.
The goblin loses strength, thuds to the floor, crystallizes, and vanishes.

“Scary.——A huge bug look stuck to the ceiling is completely horror.”
“I’m more scared of Suu-san, who instantly senses a horror enemy and punches the brow.”

❝I’m in dread of Suu-tan❞
❝That’s scary. I screamed at the monitor.❞

I get a little teary being feared by everyone.
But lives are on the line, so I can’t hold back.
Even if I die and a copy machine makes a new me, that isn’t me.
After all Swampman isn’t the person.

Ah, the goblin stuck to the ceiling dropped a sealstone too. 〈Night Vision〉.
Inside a transparent purple stone, lots of light floats like a night sky.
A thermal scope can substitute——well, being able to not carry a thermal scope is nice I guess.
There’s a sealstone where the sword goblins were too.
This is 〈Tough Stomach〉. Inside a transparent yellow stone, light floating like a night sky here too.
And there was also an item called 〈Goblin Ear〉. This isn’t a sealstone; it’s really a goblin ear. A little grody, what is this?
Incidentally each time I defeat a goblin I trickle in Galactic credits and merit points too.
I heave-ho lift the small stones.

“〈Night Vision〉 and 〈Tough Stomach〉, huh. If I use 〈Tough Stomach〉 hair won’t grow in my stomach, right?”

While I’m holding the night-sky stone to the sunlight and looking through it, Alice says in a trembling voice.

“W-wait please! Suu-san! Another sealstone came out!? ——Two, and one is S-rare!?”
“Eh———yeah.”
“Th-this makes three?! It’s weird! The probability is completely broken!! Even I, called a top player, still only have two skills!? And only rare and common!”

❝Sealstone drop rate is like 1 in a thousand or 1 in ten thousand, right?❞
❝S-rare I heard is 1 in hundreds of millions to tens of billions……❞

“I-is that so!?”
“Why something like this!? ——Even real luck has a limit, you know!?”

Ah, it’s definitely that.

“Th-…… that’s probably the sealstone I got as a reward for clearing 〈Insanity〉 Death Road. It makes sealstones easier to drop, apparently; so that’s what it meant.”
“I…… see———…… if there’s a reward like that I want to clear 〈Insanity〉 Death Road too…… but——Suu-san taking three years isn’t a joke I can laugh at; I definitely couldn’t……”

❝I want one too❞
❝The condition being 〈Insanity〉 Death Road clear, of course it’s impossible admin……❞

“But when it was Grand Harpies no sealstones came out.”
“There are no reports of sealstone drops from Grand Harpies. Instead you get a lot of the item 〈Grand Harpy Great Wing〉.”
“There are MoB without sealstones too.——Ah, what’s that ‘item’?”
“Items have an effect as talismans. They raise physical ability a little.——〈Grand Harpy Great Wing〉 raises ‘jump power’ a little. 〈Goblin Ear〉 is ‘ears get a little better.’ Well about 1.05× that degree, and if you have multiple only the strongest item acts, so they’re called degraded sealstones.”
“Not very meaningful things?”
“As talismans they really feel like charms.——But if you have what’s commonly called an “alchemy cauldron,” you can combine items to create new items.——Even in Knights of the Stars with 2,000 members, only one person owned an alchemy cauldron. Subhuman-type monsters like the goblins and kobolds, orcs and trolls we’re fighting now seem to drop them——incidentally until recently alchemy cauldrons were thought to be just talismans; after all the official name was 〈Cauldron〉.”
“Science doesn’t even matter anymore.”
“Sealstones themselves are mystery objects. Some people say sealstones are crystals of MoB spirit.”
“MoB spirit, huh——ah, right, in the simulator. When I got the 〖Miracle〗 sealstone they said ‘first-time bonus.’ I don’t know if it’s only my first time or every player’s first time.”
“I see……——I’m jealous. Well even if I say it I couldn’t clear it anyway. Shall we resume the rescue.”
“Y-yeah, got it.”