55. [Cave Ant Extermination]
55. [Cave Ant Extermination]
Cave Ant Tunnel
Basement Level 2, Area C-4
Tadatadatadatadatadatadatatang!
"WRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!"
I dashed among the Cave Ants, wielding a submachine gun.
What I needed were firepower and judgment.
The corpses gradually piled up, oozing a thick stench of blood, and the number of Cave Ants bewitched by that blood smell began to increase exponentially.
I was a bit uneasy at first......!
Perhaps it was a reality correction of sorts—in the game, the maximum monster count was fixed at four each time, but now they swelled to ten, twenty at a time, swarming so much that I was incredibly tense.
However, numbers meant nothing in the face of firepower.
Especially since by achieving [Firearm Mastery Lv5], the [Submachine Gun] part had been unlocked, and my ability to deal with them had also increased exponentially.
"Now, if I hit level 10 here, then by that time...."
a sniper rifle.
Probably, ordinary ones would die from a hole in their heads.
If that happened, the game's power balance would go haywire, so later, enemies who could shrug off things like sniper rifles would appear, but by then I planned to be carrying a rocket launcher, so it wouldn't matter.
Oh, not just a rocket launcher.
RPGs, anti-materiel sniper rifles, all sorts of guns would be unlocked.
The only problem was that, unlike other skills, this consumed ammunition and cost a ridiculous amount of money—but Cronus's scythe was a clean energy weapon that didn't cost a single bullet, a weapon beneficial to my wallet.
If I had to reload every time, I'd have switched weapons midway.
In the early game, it was efficient, but later, even just for the money involved, I'd have to switch weapons.
But now that things had turned out like this, this weapon was worth carrying all the way to the ending.
Tadat!──Kkagagak!
"Huh?"
As I kept firing without rest, an ant that deflected bullets appeared.
Granted, the submachine gun's attack power was a bit low, but it shouldn't be something that ended with just a scratch.
Among ordinary ants, those who could handle guns were extremely rare, so considering the floor...
"It's a Soldier Ant?"
Rechit, chit, chippeu!
Unlike other ants, it had a physique about 1.5 times larger.
Jaws that looked large and sturdy. A glossy exoskeleton.
At a glance, it was clearly no ordinary ant.
Just the fact that it deflected bullets right away was enough to recognize its might──but
Taaang!
Ret....chaaat?
The gunshot was slightly thicker than before.
The first one was a pistol; the rate of fire had lowered a little, but with attack power that rose accordingly, the Soldier Ant's carapace cracked and oozed.
Re...Rechi, Rechyuu...!
"Alright, alright. You're coming to me, huh?"
Thick blood flowed from the cracked carapace.
The Soldier Ant's eyes sharpened, and it barked at the other ants that were swarming around, shaking its jaws up and down—or rather, without any such command, it just yelled.
Rechyaaaaaaat!!!
Rehu! Repeupeupeu!
Reppiiiiiiit!
Reppbyaaaaaak!!!
"Wow. Look at that."
That one's a runner.
The Soldier Ant tried to use the other ants as sacrifices and escape.
As if to prove it was a Soldier Ant, worker ants were a dime a dozen, so this spoiled Soldier Ant had no intention of sacrificing itself for everyone in such a place.
Indeed, a survival tactic befitting its position.
It is not the strong who win, but the survivors who win—that is the wild.
From the perspective of the wild, the Soldier Ant's survival tactic might have been an excellent move in its own way.
"[Double Step][Double Excel][Double Boost]"
───Rechat?
But if I let you live, the Ant Captain shows up next.
I wasn't strong enough to handle that bastard yet, so I couldn't let it go.
Re....chyaaaaaaaaat!!!!
"Oh."
Perhaps it intended to resist rather than die in vain like this?
The Soldier Ant thrust its jaws at me with its last strength, trying to chew me up.
Indeed, if I got chewed up from this distance, it would be a bit dangerous──
"──[Counter]"
Ret, rere...?
That's something I could just deflect.
Between the jaws that were soon forced apart by the Counter, I shoved the muzzle into its grotesquely squirming mouth.
"[Point-Blank Shot]"
Taaaaaang!!!
The terrified cry blurred, mixing with the gunshot,
and all that remained below was the body of the Soldier Ant with its head blown off.
Re...ppyeok?
Reheeeeng....
Re,chyaaa.....
"Alright, then."
The ants' morale visibly plummeted once the Soldier Ant died.
I switched back to the submachine gun and spoke to the ants.
"Shall we call it a day with this?"
Ah, I wish grenades would get unlocked a bit later, too.
They cost a lot, but they'd be perfect to use in moments like this.
I fed bullets to the ants fleeing in all directions.
...
..
.
"Good job, Chrono♩"
"Hweeeee......"
Ground Level 1
A temporary lodging set up near the Cave Ant Tunnel.
Actually, it was closer to a temporary tent than a lodging.
Building a lodge near the cave would just get torn down once the raid ended, so as long as you could eat and sleep for the moment, they didn't really care.
Besides me, a few other people gathered, eating meals or selling ant by-products for money, displaying various scenes.
Of course, I was also one of those people.
"I'll take the settlement too──Huh?"
"Chrono, stay still♬"
Ur stretched out her hand over the electronic scale.
Soon, a hazy mist formed on her hand, and from within it, ant by-products began to gush out.
The volume was far beyond imagination, piling up almost like a small mountain──and finally, when all the by-products were out, the staff member checking the weight silently stared at me.
"....It's not... fraud, right?"
"I don't think... it is..."
I slowly turned to look at Ur.
"How is it?♪"
"I love you."
Not only did she provide buffs, but she was also a magnetic pet.
This was an essential pet, one I'd have to pull even if it cost me a thousand.
"F-First... let me check the weight."
The staff member's tablet trembled in their hand.
They pressed the scale with their hands here and there, pushed a button, and soon the weight appeared on the screen.
[1,041.6]
".....About one ton."
Roughly 1 ton when converted just by weight.
One ant weighed about 5 to 8 kg, so that meant I'd hunted around 200 ants throughout the whole day.
I caught fewer than I thought?
It felt like I'd caught at least a thousand, but time was eaten up searching for ants in between, and I took breaks too, so it turned out like this.
Plus, I'm only human, so I ate and all that, which inevitably created temporal gaps.
Should I even reduce my eating time later? While I was pondering hunting efficiency, a few more people came out of the staff tent and approached me.
Ah, fuck.
And I realized.
I immediately shut the door to my heart.
"Would you perhaps care to talk inside the tent?"
"No."
"Yes, then inside this way....
....Huh?"
You bastard, you, you.
You're an NTR villain.
Not just any, but the kind of rotten son of a bitch who sets the quota absurdly high at the moment of signing a contract, and if you can't meet it, turns it into debt and makes you pay with your body.
I later found out that the quota was inflated by ten times, and I was so shocked I clutched the back of my neck, but even if the sky split in two, I'd never talk to you.
"I am a student of NTR Academy. I came here as a request, and I don't have such great skills as to sign a contract with anyone."
"Ah, how typical of an NTR Academy student to be so upright. However, we wish to offer a reward befitting your excellent performance, so please don't be too wary and come with us?"
"I'd like to receive the listed price written on the board over there."
"......If you say so, then there's no helping it. Process it at the listed price."
The NTR villain went back into the tent.
The staff member standing beside me approached the scale again and continued the settlement.
"...It's not my place to say, but you did well."
"Pardon?"
The staff member suddenly spoke to me.
"That person is notoriously ill-reputed in many ways, famous for slipping toxic clauses into contracts and exploiting people."
".............."
I already knew that from having experienced it once.
But why were they telling me this?
"So later... would you come to our guild's headquarters and receive a proper contract without toxic clauses?"
"Eh....?"
Why was this suddenly being brought up?
As I stared blankly at the staff member, they grinned and replied.
"The Athena Guild always seeks powerful and skilled Awakened."
"......Wow."
A scout.
The staff member handed me a business card and went back into the tent.
"...What's this now."
I stared blankly at the business card in my hand.
It didn't feel like a dream, indeed. And so this place was a subsidiary guild of the Athena Guild, I see.
Truthfully, when doing quests, I never paid any attention to backstory or anything, so I didn't know.
How many people really remember the middle details during a subjugation quest?
Everyone just skips past them. All you needed to remember was that the H CG that appeared in the middle was an NTR event.
"Settlement is complete. For the money, a bank account... ah, since you're a student, shall I deposit it into your academy student account?"
"Ah, yes. Please do it that way."
"Yep~ understood. Ah, shall I transfer the additional portion for the request as performance pay?"
"Huh? Ah....yes."
"Yep~ understood. Oh, and by the way, if you intend to keep taking requests here──shall I submit a request extension application to the academy on your behalf?"
"....I'd appreciate it?"
"Yep~ understood!"
Whoosh, something passed by in an instant.
Well, I got all the money, so I guess it's fine?
"I'm back~~"
After disposing of all the by-products, I bought food from a general store open near the tent.
The prices were about 1.5 times the average market rate, but the big advantage was not having to go back and forth right away.
"Chrono. It's our first time being out together just the two of us, isn't it?"
"Hweh?"
"Chrono... what do you think?"
".........."
While eating, Ur asked me a question.
I silently looked down at my lower body.
"Um... can I ask you a favor?"
"Hooong... if you make weird noises, it's no good, okay? People around will notice."
"Please... be gentle....."
Experience can't be ignored; every time she catches me, I end up half out of my mind.
But this addiction—really, I can't express it in words.
"Ah, right. Instead of that, before we do it, play me a song?"
"Can it be a calm song?"
"But at Master Level."
"....I still get some misses, so I'll turn off the mode and play."
"But at Master Level."
"..........Yes."
If she says do it, I'll do it.
But I enjoy it too, so it was an ideal give & take relationship.
Around this time
In the case of NTR Academy
Chrono: 132 points
Record: [Cave Ant Subjugation][Cave Ant Subjugation][Cave Ant Subjugation][Cave Ant Subjugation][Cave Ant Subjugation][Cave Ant Subjugation][Cave Ant Subjugation][Cave Ant Subjugation][Cave Ant Subjugation][Cave Ant Subjugation][Cave Ant Subjugation][Cave Ant Subjugation][Cave Ant Subjugation][Cave Ant Subjugation][Cave Ant Subjugation][Cave Ant Subjugation][Cave Ant Subjugation][Cave Ant Subjugation][Cave Ant Subjugation]............[Cave Ant Subjugation][Cave Soldier Subjugation]
""".......?"""
A legend was recorded.