Episode 24 — Laser Line 6



Once the fighting at each gate had wound down, the secretary's face appeared on the holoscreen set up midway up the WAC building at the city's center.
[Everyone. You've truly done magnificent work. For now, please return to the rally point.]
"Huh. Guess we're heading back for now?"
"Hey, hey, hurry up and strip them! Grab as much as we can!"
The users were fully absorbed in looting the items off the enemy soldiers they'd cut down.
The Professor's team, apparently having no interest in looting, simply stood waiting beside Kiss's vehicle.
"Surprising. I'd have thought you'd all be off looting too."
"……."
"Well, there's only so much worth taking off small fry like that anyway."
Having already grown used to the top-tier gear Cuticle crafted for them, the women found the equipment carried by common foot soldiers hardly satisfying.
Watching them, the Professor let out a short laugh and tossed the long case he'd secretly brought along toward Shadow.
"Catch."
"Huh?!"
Catching it on reflex, Shadow carefully opened the case to find a plain-looking black short sword packed inside.
"What's with this sword?"
"……."
The Professor took it in hand and pushed the lever on the hilt. With a buzzing hum, a faint band of energy flickered to life, running along the blade.
"Ah!"
"…A Cosmo Spawn energy blade. The quality's nothing special, but if we hand it over to Cuticle later, it should help her put together something proper."
The Professor climbed straight into the passenger seat of the vehicle, and seeing that, the other two climbed into the back.
"We're heading back."
"Yes-."
Waiting for the users once they returned to the concert hall rally point were rewards and a new quest.
Through his device, the secretary distributed a coupon item called a "WAC Fine Coupon" to all the users.
"So, what exactly is this coupon?"
The Roaring Dragon Society user who'd asked questions before demanded an explanation.
"Ahem. That coupon can be exchanged at our company's store for one piece of equipment, up to High-grade rarity."
"S-seriously?!"
The users began murmuring amongst themselves. Despite the limitation to High-grade, they hadn't expected a coupon that let them obtain an energy weapon or piece of equipment — hardly cheap items — for free, handed out to every single user.
"Ah, of course... there do exist coupons that can be exchanged for even higher grades, but it's been decided that those will be prioritized for those who distinguish themselves going forward... my apologies."
The users' eyes flashed.
Coupons that could be traded for even higher-grade gear existed, and they could be earned. Just knowing that much was already a considerable find.
"Alright! So what's next?!"
The users clamored, eager to be told what came next — but the users from the larger clans kept a composed demeanor.
Sure enough, given this was a major update, the enemies had proven tougher than expected. In particular, the heavy infantry that had appeared toward the end had forced no small amount of damage onto the users despite their small numbers.
Unless they developed proper countermeasures against them going forward, things were bound to get difficult.
"…A bunch of carefree fools."
The Professor, too, watched on with a subdued air.
Most of them still had no effective countermeasure against the heavy infantry's reinforced shields and protective suits. If things proceeded as they were, the next quest — or the one after — was bound to inflict serious casualties.
Even as an advance party, many clans had handpicked their most capable members right after the official season ended, so avoiding losses was surely a priority for them. Going forward, the clans would no doubt start eyeing each other warily, growing hesitant to take the lead.
Letting out a short laugh, the Professor decided now was exactly the right moment and turned to face his team.
"…This is as far as we go."
"?"
"What do you mean?"
"We're pulling out of this quest here, for now."
"What?!"
"Why?!"
Sure enough, both women protested, cheeks puffed out, but the Professor shook his head.
"We're a small team. On top of that, our party composition is unstable. We'd be stuck entirely in a support role for other clans."
"Well, sure, but we already got some loot, didn't we?"
"…That's not the issue."
The Professor pulled up footage on his device — recordings he'd taken earlier of the heavy infantry they'd encountered.
"Among the clan members who came as the advance party, not a single one of them has an effective countermeasure against these guys right now."
"……Ah."
"The real fighting starts from here. And I'd bet that before long, there'll be sections crawling with enemies just like these."
"…And that moment's going to be a massacre."
Grave, finally grasping the situation, nodded along as well.
Waiting until the users gathered intel and came back properly equipped to deal with it was the wiser choice.
"So we're heading back first."
"Still, having just the one sword from Shadow as loot feels kind of thin to me..."
"Can't help that. The risk is too high."
While the other users were still listening to the briefing, the Professor's team quietly slipped out of the venue.
"Kiss. We're heading back."
"Huh...? Back where?"
"Back to our own server."
"What? Already?"
"Yeah. The situation's turned bad."
The team boarded the vehicle at once and drove toward the spaceport.
Just as they arrived at the spaceport, about to transfer back to their home turf — the conflict-zone server—
"A moment of your time, if you would."
"……?"
Turning his head to look, the Professor found Winkley, the man introduced as WAC's Chairman, standing there.
"…What business do you have?"
"There's a job I'd like to entrust only to you, if I may..."
"Declined."
At the Professor's immediate, blunt answer once again, both women flanked him on either side, lightly jabbing an elbow into his ribs and a fist against his helmet.
"Ngh... We're on our way back. I'm sorry, but we can't take on—"
As the Professor tried to push through with the refusal regardless, Grave shoved his helmet aside and stepped forward.
"Let's at least hear what the job is."
"…My thanks."
The job the Chairman wanted to entrust them with was to infiltrate a research facility, retrieve its data, and destroy the facility.
"Why would you want to entrust a job this big to a small outfit like ours?"
At the Professor's suspicious question, the Chairman averted his gaze — a sign the question was a difficult one to answer.
"…If you can't tell us, then we can't take the job."
"Professor?!"
As the Professor turned to leave once more, the Chairman finally spoke up from behind him.
"…It's a facility researching biological regeneration treatments using lasers and nanomachine dispersal."
"……."
"Cosmo Spawn's special forces struck that facility first, the very moment this invasion began. It had clearly been under top-secret research until then..."
Behind his helmet, the Professor's expression turned grave.
This was a hidden quest. And not just any hidden quest — a crucial one, serving as foreshadowing for the next story quest. Naturally, the difficulty was bound to be dangerous in the extreme.
Just as he was thinking it would be best to decline after all, he noticed the two women on either side of him, tugging at the hem of his clothes, watching him intently.
"……."
Letting out a sigh, the Professor set the two women in front of him and spoke.
"Our team's name is Absolute Solution. Just as the name says, we're a team that guarantees a one-hundred-percent success rate."
"……."
"And the other side of that meaning is that we don't take on a job unless we're certain of succeeding one hundred percent."
The Professor reiterated, once more, to the two of them, that without that certainty, this job wasn't one they could accept.
But what came back from them was something altogether more brazen.
"Does the Professor really trust our skills that little?"
"Who do you think you're talking to?! A job like this is a piece of cake for me!"
"……."
The Professor shook his head. Of all people, they should know better than anyone that this wasn't something to be decided on bravado alone — and yet here they were anyway.
"If you two are professionals, you should know better."
"Still...!"
"A hundred percent is plenty for ordinary user contracts! Let's have a little fun once in a while!"
"……."
The Professor turned his head toward Kiss and Cuticle, only to find Cuticle simply smiling and nodding along.
No help from that one, as usual.
"…Fine. We'll take the job."
"Thank you so very much."
"However, there's one thing I'd like to confirm."
The Chairman tilted his head, as if to ask what it might be, and the Professor looked down at him, his voice turning cold.
"Why us?"
"……!"
Without a word, the Chairman pulled out his device and played a video. It showed footage from the previous battle — the Professor's team steadily racking up damage against the heavy infantry through sniping and ambush tactics.
"Does that answer your question?"
"Tch."
Maybe he should have held back a little.
Though he inwardly regretted it, since it was already done, there was no helping it now. The Professor simply turned away.
"That said, given the unreasonable nature of this job, we have a condition of our own."
"…What condition would that be?"
"Cuticle here — our team's gunsmith."
"Yes."
"I require that you supply her with WAC parts going forward, at factory cost."
The room froze.
Even allowing for everything, proposing such an audacious deal so casually was something else entirely.
But the Chairman was no ordinary man either.
"…Agreed."
"Eek?!"
"Whoa?!"
"…Heh. As shrewd as ever, I see."
"If it becomes known that a professional outfit like yours uses our company's equipment, that's a tremendous promotional boost for us. There's nothing to lose in it."
Flashing the smug smile of a seasoned executive, the Chairman immediately offered to guide them and climbed into his own limousine.
The Professor gathered his team back into the armored vehicle, and following the limousine's lead, they headed toward the research facility.
What the group arrived at looked less like a research facility and more like a botanical garden, or some plant-related research center — a peculiar place, with part of the building swallowed up by what looked like enormous climbing vines.
"Surprisingly light on the exterior security."
"…Instead, they've fortified the interior defenses heavily. In truth, we did attempt to send in our own private soldiers separately, but the operation failed..."
"…That's unfortunate, indeed."
After scanning the area for a moment, the Professor immediately moved on to checking his equipment. With the fighting bound to take place inside a cramped building, his usual anti-materiel sniper rifle would only get in the way.
"Cuticle. You brought the C-type loadout?"
"If it's the Professor's gear, I've packed every last piece. Just a moment!"
Cuticle promptly pulled out of the vehicle's trunk a compact assault rifle, a bayonet-mount knife, and a small round shield-like piece of equipment.
"Didn't realize the Professor ever used an assault rifle."
"…It's secondary-line gear I don't normally use, mind you."
Shadow examined the unfamiliar sight of the Professor equipped with something other than a sniper rifle, turning it over in curiosity.
"Even a shield! This really is surprising."
"……Heh."
At the remark about him even using a shield, the Professor only let out a quiet laugh in response.
"Grave. Take point."
At the Professor's command, now that preparations were complete, Sister Grave gripped her machine gun firmly and approached the entrance.
She tapped the open button on the touchscreen beside the door a few times, but getting no response—
"Oh, to hell with it!"
She slammed the screen with the butt of her gun, shattering it outright, and sparks flew as the door creaked open.
"Let's go!"
"Entry order: Grave, me, Kiss, Cuticle, Shadow."
"Why am I last?!"
"Because you're the scout."
—To be continued—