Kevin’s gunfire punched holes right through the Crab-chans.
The gun was finally performing to its specifications, unlike any I had encountered before.
“Leo-kun! I can actually fight with this!”
I see. It was a machine used by a famous actress, after all. The arena’s owner and sponsors must have dumped a fortune into it; it was clearly far more expensive than any standard machine. Even the ballistic weaponry was in top-tier condition.
I guess some people really do have the good stuff...
If that was the case, I would have loved an anti-materiel rifle. They probably didn't have any since there was no use for them in an arena, though.
I charged into the swarm of Crab-chans. My chainsaw was battery-operated, so just like with beam weapons, I didn’t have to worry about energy levels. While ballistic weaponry was effective against Zorks, the weight and the need for ammunition were major drawbacks. I couldn't afford to be wasteful.
That was why I took the lead.
I carved my way through the Crab-chans. Gradually, I was beginning to understand their weak points. I would dodge an attack, wait for their posture to break, and then sever their joints. I was finally starting to move like Melissa.
The moment I stripped one of its offensive power, another Crab-chan lunged at me. I severed its claws in the same way—there!
The weak point was almost exactly in the center. I pierced it with the chainsaw. If you hit the core in a single blow, they stopped moving instantly. There was a specific trick to killing them in one shot. It had taken me a long time to notice it, and even longer to actually pull it off in the middle of a fight.
“Such strange dexterity and mental stability during combat! This is truly the Jester showing his true worth—the one said to have an ‘unusually high survival rate despite low specs’!”
“Fairy-san! That wasn't a compliment at all! Not even a little bit!”
“But no analyst has ever been able to figure out why Jesters survive!”
Well, that’s because our sense of fear is broken, I thought. Most people died because they panicked and tried to dodge poorly. If you kept your head and only moved for the truly lethal strikes, you lived. It wasn't that the pilot was actually strong.
Moreover, that calmness was contagious. It infected the other soldiers. From the Zorks' perspective, we must have been the most annoying creatures in the galaxy.
But as a Jester, I wasn't about to tell anyone that! If I did, they’d just throw me into even harsher battlefields!
Analysts probably wouldn't bother explaining why Jesters—who were considered disposable—were strong, anyway. They’d just credit the achievement to some noble who wasn't an enhanced human. If they were bureaucrats instead of scholars, they’d do it in a heartbeat. There was no point in keeping records on disposable soldiers; it just caused trouble later. It made the analysts' lives much easier to just ignore us.
As a result, only a handful of documents had been left behind by the rare few who prioritized the truth over politics. That was why the information remained buried. It wasn't intentionally hidden; it was simply forgotten due to collective laziness. In their eyes, it was information not worth keeping.
Man, that was chilling. They truly didn't treat us like humans at all.
I pushed those thoughts aside and continued the battle. It was just Crab-chans for now, though their numbers were high. Kevin and I finished them off one after another. If my hands were full with the chainsaw, I used the submachine gun. I already knew where to aim. I felt firsthand that "leveling up" was really just the accumulation of combat experience.
After burying about a hundred of them, the fighting finally died down. The ones that only had their claws ripped off scuttled away.
“Whew, I’m beat.”
“Good work... I’m exhausted...” Kevin was also breathing heavily. He wasn't going to last if we didn't rendezvous with the others soon.
“Fairy-san, how much further to the Palace?”
“There is still quite a distance to go.”
“Wow, we’re stuck.”
“Hmm, calculating the optimal route... Huh?”
“What is it?”
“A light truck is approaching from ahead.”
A light truck? I wondered who it could be.
After a few moments, a light truck arrived, blaring its horn.
“Hey! Are you guys with the police?”
A young man hopped out of the vehicle. He looked like the working-class types I’d met during slinging training. He probably assumed we were cops because my machine was still in police colors.
I climbed out of the cockpit. I saw Kevin getting down as well.
“No, sir. We’re students from the Officer Academy... we got separated from our unit during the attack on the airport.”
“Whoa! Are you the real Leo Kamishiro?!”
Oh. Apparently, my face was famous. Was this more of that propaganda at work?
“O-Oh. Um, Leo... san?”
“Yes?”
“Your mission is...?”
“Crab extermination.” I pointed to the mountain of Crab-chan corpses.
“Woooooooah! Wait a second!” He started calling someone on his device. “Boss! It’s the real deal! The real Leo Kamishiro! I’m bringing him over now!”
The conversation was moving forward without me. But I didn’t object. I've always lived by going with the flow, and it's worked out well enough so far.
“Hey, Leo-san. There’s a subway station nearby. A special service train to the Palace is coming in two hours. I’ve been out searching for evacuees. You’re coming too, right?”
“Thanks!”
It looked like we’d have to abandon the police machines here. It couldn't be helped.
“Then hop in the back. Um, the girl over there is... well... she's got a really impressive chest. I—I mean, I’m Takahashi! I’m single!”
I saw Kevin’s face twitch. He looked like he was about to murder the guy.
“I’m Kate!” Kevin said in a strained, high-pitched voice. A vein was visibly throbbing in his temple.
“Takahashi-san, let’s hurry. More Zorks might show up!”
I pushed Kevin—whose chest was definitely getting in the way—up into the truck bed from below and then climbed in after him.
“Man, I can't believe I’m giving a ride to a legendary hero. Oh, I work for a construction company nearby. We build apartment buildings and stuff. I was out looking for survivors with my coworkers. We got surrounded by those crabs and had to hide in the underground parking lot of a nearby building.”
“Wow, what a coincidence.”
After driving for a bit, the entrance to a subway station came into view.
“Stopping now! Hold on tight!”
Takahashi didn't seem like a bad guy. He parked haphazardly on the road, and we headed into the station. We pulled down the shutters at the entrance and headed inside. The emergency lights flickered on.
“There’s a vending machine food court downstairs. You guys must be hungry, right?”
“Definitely. Thanks.” Come to think of it, it had been ages since our last meal.
“Man, I heard you were a nobleman, but you're actually really easy to talk to. It’s a relief.”
“Oh, well, I usually spend my days off attending heavy machinery training and things like that.”
“Really? How about it then? Want a part-time job with us when things settle down?”
“Hehehe. I’ll keep that in mind.”
As I chatted away with Takahashi, Kevin spoke up in an exasperated voice. “Hey, Leo. You realize you're the head of a Marquis House, right?”
“This is just how lords of backwater planets are, Kevin!”
I’m telling you, this is reality! The youngest kids of Barons and Viscounts have it even tougher than this!