BXBX NOVEL Chapter 154 - Konosuba Side Part 39.
Under the scorching sunlight, green fields and forests filled a whole inhabited area outside and cities. These places are always filled with monsters and other threats that can easily kill normal people.
When these monsters appear in large numbers, adventurers and other related jobs are responsible for clearing them to secure routes and also avoid any possible attack from the monsters. However, this area was strangely filled with a considerable amount of monsters. Bears, frogs, and even some orcs and goblins could be seen once in a while.
Suddenly, fluctuations of mana appeared in this peaceful place despite all the monsters around. The mana came quickly and by surprise, but it didn\'t stop the sensitive monsters to glance in its direction only to see a seven colors trail of light fall from the sky.
The light hit the ground around several beasts before it scattered into a magical circle quickly and several figures appeared from beneath the glow.
*Thud*
The sound of a heavy object landing made the area shake a little and the monster confused, but that was only before a wave of oppression hit the monster\'s heads like a truck and made the air feel heavy like the gravity effect was augmented directly.
Not to mention the scary atmosphere, the terror-filled the monsters\' hearts instantly as they started to flee, well, at least who managed to stay conscious after that heavy oppression hit their minds like a truck.
Appearing from the magic circle, Whitebeard released a wave of air from his nostrils before he glanced at the surrounding his sharp and scary eyes.
At his sight, it was either monsters fleeing, passing out, or playing dead just because of the dreadful atmosphere around this giant man. Then after a brief moment, the atmosphere vanished suddenly like it didn\'t appear from the start, but all the monsters didn\'t stop their survival tactics.
"UGH!!! My head!!"
Behind Whitebeard, Kazuma fell directly on the ground rolling because he was experiencing a sharp headache that lasted for a few moments.
"Stop using uncontrollable AOE moves, old man!"
Despite the headache leaving quickly because Whitebeard deactivated his Conqueror Haki, Kazuma still felt his head ringing like a bell.
"Guahahahaha! Can\'t you handle that tiny pain, kid?"
Whitebeard laughed straight at Kazuma as the latter couldn\'t say much after seeing all those monsters falling unconscious like tree leaves.
"I second that. I don\'t want to start each mission with a headache"
Leone rubbed her head to ease the pain, but she was in overall better shape than Kazuma, who straight rolled on the ground.
"Hmph"
Misaka shook her head slightly to remove the headache. Regardless of having her electromagnetic field on, she couldn\'t completely block that mental ability from Whitebeard like she usually does in the Academy City.
{The nature of ability must be quite different to treat it like Espers\' ability. Is this what that fool meant by different laws between all worlds?}
Misaka thought for herself for a moment before she heard a voice coming from her back.
"How I\'m supposed to use this thing. Where are these coordinates? In another dimension?!"
Not hiding the annoyance in her voice at all, Kaguya was turning the Chat Screen and changing it several times like she\'s trying to find something.
"Still no use?"
Misaka opened her own Chat before she entered the quest area. Under the Konosuba mission to the bottom left, there was a new button with a gray [ :) ] icon that suddenly appeared there without anyone noticing.
Clicking on it quickly, a huge and detailed map that spanned at least all surrounding kingdoms appeared in the chat. Inside this holographic map, several, no, a lot of red marks like target signs were flashing rapidly all around the map.
What are they pointing at? Who knows, you can\'t even look at one of them for instance before it changes location repeatedly. It was just a total mess that made one wonder if this map is useful or just a bad joke from someone. Yet despite all this chaos, the target marks were scattered in different quantities around the map, especially around three large marks that didn\'t move at all.
Like this place, the wilderness in the Elroad kingdom has a lot of red marks. In addition to Alcanretia, the headquarters of the Axis Order, and the wilderness near the capital of Bilzerg kingdom, this was the most targeted place on the map.
"Anywho, I should be at my bed, sleeping and recovering from the unfortunate event that fell upon my head"
Yawning, Kazuma shook his head to clear some bad memories and wake up a little. He was really tired right now, especially after getting assaulted two times by nightmares.
"Stop whining, you\'re completely fine and it\'s not like you were forced to be here."
Leone tried to hit the back of Kazuma\'s head, but his body moved on its own and dodged the attack at a weird angle.
"Look who\'s talking. I want to see you saying that after you get pulled into a literal nightmare and terror fuel of dreams by some asshole! That damn guy even ran away after everything like a coward!!"
Kazuma knows that he is already scared for life because of those two nightmare fuels rickrolls, but what made him furious is that Leo directly escaped without any other word! His account and whole name are grey in the Chat Room and completely offline with no other way to contact him, except the unblockable Chat Room announcements.
"Also… there is no way I am letting this mission go after all that has happened."
Looking at Leone with a bitter face, Kazuma clenched his face like he\'s forcing himself on something.
"Only the points and cash that I\'m getting from this quest will cure my wounded heart"
Ignoring Kazuma\'s shenanigans, Misaka and Kaguya were observing the chaos on the map. The origin of this map is actually something that came by surprise. Remember when Konosuba World\'s Will said \'he\' will appear again after a day? Yeah, that happened exactly at the time \'he\' left yesterday, although not in the same fashion.
Without any warning, all the previous quests in the chat got deleted instantly and replaced with a single mission titled Hunt and Destroy.
[Urgent Task:
Number of Participants: Everyone who is stuck here and also decided to join the \'fun\'.
Description: The first threat has already departed from the vicinity of the world, but it left inconvenient unrecyclable trash, PE-SS-26-13287. Considering the inability of the world and the consummation of resources, this new threat requires a manual operation.
Objective: Hunt and destroy, PE-SS-26-13287. A modified amalgamation entity that lost its rationality and reason, used as a hunting dog and for kamikaze tactics.
Rewards: Let\'s talk about that later ;).
Additional Note 1: Because of the environment and its nature, the condition of PE-SS-26-13287 is very critical and it is decaying slowly, which may lead it to go completely berserk as long as it is pushed beyond a certain limit. It\'ll be in search of things, like devices, to keep itself stable.
Additional Note 2: Using the new function, you can have a tracker that scans the planet for PE-SS-26-13287 and its avatar\'s location. Unfortunately, it went under the radar very fast and made the tracking very hard. Use the location of the remaining three devices as bait.
Additional Note 3 (Important): Taking into consideration PE-SS-26-13287 condition, it\'s confirmed that it has already awakened two of its \'mutations\'. The nature of those \'mutations\' remains a mystery for now.
Ps: Do this and leave my world. Hey, you might also want to steal something from PE-SS-26-13287 before leaving, heh.]
Just like that, the World Will put the mission and left directly. The group left immediately to finish this surprising new quest, yet the most detailed one of them all.
Compared to all that they saw now, this mission gave a lot of details to finish it. The target\'s goal, condition, and even somehow the location are all present. It\'s like Konosuba is done playing or maybe \'he\' already got what \'he\' wanted, so \'he\' is clearing the last traces now.
This gave them many new questions like when the first threat left? How did this PE-SS-26-13287 appear and why?
Whitebeard also appeared suddenly when that happened. Kazuma could swear that this old man is abusing the stealth ability of Thief Job, and why does it work without a problem for him?! Also, Whitebeard seemed to be in a good mood that day, which made Kazuma more worried.
Despite that, the group went to deal with this PE whatever, although from its description, it doesn\'t sound like a nice thing to deal with at all.
"Oh, I found it"
Misaka raised her head suddenly as it alarmed Kaguya, who was thinking of a way to break the screen.
"What did you find?"
"The approximate location of this new threat. Although the signal seems to be completely random, which a bunch of them are, they follow a pattern in some places"
Misaka showed her chat room for everyone before she made several circles around this area.
"The number of signals here is huge and very chaotic, but it actually changes its numbers in a pattern. Also, the so-called location isn\'t about this exact time, but it\'s the threat\'s previous location. So, if we calculated it according to these sittings…we\'ll able to know its general direction"
Pointing a part of the map, the marks suddenly filled the point where Misaka\'s finger pointed before they scattered again.
"That\'s impressive. That calculation power is sure handy"
Leone was impressed that Misaka found meaning in this chaotic map that looked like a bunch of scribbles.
"Hmmm, doesn\'t this mean that it\'s close?"
Whitebeard pulled their attention as everyone looked at this greenfield, but except for monsters, there was nothing else.
"Not exactly. If we took the approximate direction and expanded it, it\'ll be going around in this direction… to this mark"
*Boom!!*
Misaka didn\'t finish her words before Whitebeard shot like a rocket to the sky and went directly into the forest where the map pointed.
"Wait! We don\'t know anything about this! Let\'s think about it… first"
Misaka called Whitebeard, but she dropped her hands in defeat when she saw him disappearing into the forest.
"I supposed to know this by now, but this old man doesn\'t listen to anything he doesn\'t too, huh"
Leone put her hands on her hips and looked at the pothole on the ground from Whitebeard\'s jump before she followed him.
"This old man\'s head is harder than a titanium plate. I feel that the words can\'t enter it at all"
Kazuma spread his hands and shrugged his shoulders before he took his gun and rushed forward.
"And where are you going?"
Misaka\'s eyebrow twitched at Kazuma, who went rushing after Whitebeard and Leone. She usually forgets, but this guy already brought that basic body upgrade at the Chat Room, so his movements are kinda fast.
"I\'m just overjoyed that we finally have a normal mission with a clear target!! I really hate mystery missions, so I\'ll take this mission no matter how fishy it sounds. Like hell I\'m staying here doing nothing… also, those monsters might wake up at any moment...bye!"
Misaka was rendered speechless as she looked at all the monsters lying on the ground. {This guy actually has a point}
"I\'m also taking my leave, but Mikoto-chan. Keep your attention high for this, I\'m not really sure of this quest"
Kaguya tapped Misaka\'s shoulder before she vanished in thin air. Sighing silently, Misaka shook her head, but thinking about it for a moment, she took a coin from her pocket and placed it on her thumb.
Making a railgun shot ready, Misaka ran after Kazuma, although this passed him after a few moments, which made the latter go full out because of his imaginary dignity.
"Hm? Shouldn\'t you preserve energy for any expected situation?"
Running for a while and entering the huge forest, Misaka turned to her side to see Kazuma running with all that he got. His breath was slightly rushed and sweat was falling from his forehead. The only thing that he didn\'t use is the skills, but Misaka thinks he\'ll start using them soon.
"No problem! We need to catch up with the others!"
"....."
Not poking through Kazuma\'s obvious lies, Misaka continued running forward and increased her speed a little as Kazuma kept up.
" Wait… why didn\'t they teleport us there?! Kaguya should be able to do that!"
"Maybe, but a slight exercise for your lazy body wouldn\'t cause harm, right?"
Kazuma was complaining before Leone suddenly jumped next to him, which almost caused him to trip on his face because she tapped his back.
"What are you doing here, you crude woman? Shouldn\'t you be at the front?"
Regaining his balance, Kazuma directly retorted at Leone, whose smile became more \'kind\' when she heard what he called her.
"I figured that you two are very slow, so I decided to wait for you, especially you, do you even call yourself an adventurer?"
"Shut up! Don\'t question my NEET lifestyle!!.... well"
Kazuma suddenly went silent when he remembered the destructive lifestyle he had before. Maybe if he changed his habits a little, even this body upgrade would be more effective. Yet, if they gave him another chance… he\'ll fucking do it again!
"Enough both of you! Can\'t you focus on the matter at hand?!"
Leone felt weird about this sudden silence from Kazuma, but Misaka had enough from their actions.
"Sorry, not sorry, Mikoto-chan"
"*Sigh* what do you think about this?"
Misaka sighed before she asked Leone, who was clearly at the front, about this situation.
"Who knows, but you can see it\'s not something easy… wait, why are you asking me? Aren\'t I supposed to be the new member?"
Misaka blushed as she noticed how embarrassing what she just did. To be honest, even they are still new to all the Chat Room stuff, after all, this is only the second mission, but this doesn\'t change she\'s more experienced in it than Leone.
"Anway, the old man went first to test the water. I don\'t know if he did that intentionally or because he wanted to punch something, but it\'s better than nothing"
Although she wanted to tease Misaka about this, Leone shook her head and increased her speed.
"So, if the old man can handle it, we\'ll stay. And if the situation isn\'t good, we\'ll run away and reduce the dead weight, which is ourselves, right? Got it, let\'s go"
Kazuma\'s words made both Leone and Misaka speechless for a moment. Do you really have to say it like that? Misaka was even more because she can theoretically take down a fully armed modern army by herself!
*BOOOOM!!*
However, before Misaka said anything, a deafening sound echoed in the front and made Leone, Kazuma, and Misaka flinch before everything started shaking.
The whole ground under their feet started to tremble violently and cracks appeared suddenly splitting the hard dirt.
Leone\'s hair became longer and got the features of a lion when she used her Teigu to keep her balance from being shaken by an intense earthquake. Misaka directly used the magnetic field to stay in place without any problem.
Trying hard to keep his balance, Kazuma looked at some huge trees falling down and the cloud of dust in front with surprise.
"W-what is this? An earthquake?"
"It should be that old man, Did he get in contact with the thre-... GET DOWN!!!!"
Without any warning, Leone\'s enchanted senses from the Teigu directly kicked in as he tried to push Kazuma away.
"Eh?"
Much like Leone, Kazuma\'s danger senses skill ring like a giant bell as he sees something flashing inside the cloud of dust.
A bright silver light flashing like lightning piercing the dark clouds flew towards Kazuma\'s face at a ridiculous speed.
Despite his luck and Auto-Dodge skill kicking in, Kazuma\'s body couldn\'t move at all because his speed was much, much slower than the silver blur.
Suddenly, an orange spear of light unexpectedly and silently shot past Kazuma\'s head. It was more like a laser than a spear. He could only tell it had originated from his side because the afterimage of light stretched back to it.
Just like that, the orange laser hit the silver light and deviated its course towards Kazuma\'s forehead.
Almost like thunder, the noise rumbled in with a slight delay. As a shockwave tore through the air around his ears, Kazuma\'s sense of balance was thrown off. He staggered as the impact blew his hair and clothes, but luckily his Auto-Dodge was still working and made him jump back, or else his face will be hit too.
The instant the orange laser struck the silver light, both of them ricochet and went in different paths. The orange light hit the ground as the dirt and rocks were blown away like nothing. Even after traveling a twenty-meter path of utter destruction and stopping, the orange afterglow was still burning the air like an afterimage.
The silver light continued in its new path, tearing apart the air and everything it came in contact with, even several huge trees and boulders were pierced like hot butter before it froze in mid-air.
*Biri-Biri!*
The zapping sound of bluish-white sparks echoed as an afterimage of a faint orange light stretched from Misaka\'s thumb.
Looking at the scene, Kazuma stumbled a little as he felt a terrible chill like his whole body was splashed with cold water, even the sweat stops coming out.
{I...I-I almost died there}
Only after regaining his sense from the shockwave, Kazuma figured out the situation he was in as a feeling of fear filled his mind and body, but Leone quickly pulled him into reality by pushing him down.
"Don\'t lose focus now, you idiot!"
Hearing the angry screams, Kazuma shook his head quickly as he saw the silver light, or what should be called a long piece of metal that moved like a flexible tail, retreating back with the same crazy speed.
"It didn\'t even leave a mark"
Misaka muttered in a somewhat unbelievable voice as she witnessed how her railgun was only able to deviate the trajectory of the metallic tail a little.
"Are you okay, Kazuma?"
Shaking her head, Misaka quickly asked Kazuma, who was still in the aftermath of his near-death experience.
"Ye-yeah...Um, I\'m okay, no worries"
Standing up, Kazuma gave a thumb up, but his slightly shaking voice showed the complete opposite. Leone didn\'t bother with that for now as her focus was on the front and Kazuma and Misaka also followed her line of sight as they froze.
The thick cloud of dust slowly cleared as it showed an empty spot deep in the forest. The whole area was like it witnessed a meteor fall into a huge pothole in the middle as cracks filled the ground, especially the broken rocks and trees around.
At the side of the pothole, Whitebeard was standing there holding his Naginata and Kaguya was floating with a grim expression. However, Whitebeard\'s forearm that was covered in Armament Haki was bleeding from a wound that looked like a vicious bite from some sort of animal.
Despite that, his expression didn\'t change as he stared at the middle of the pothole.
In the center, there was a moderately big pillar that appeared to have some sort of futuristic features and vibes, even the ground under it had some sort of glowing circuits extending for about five meters around it.
But that didn\'t really compare to the \'thing\' on the pillar. A snake? No, maybe a worm is more fitting. A metallic color creature that looked like a worm was warping the pillar with its body. At the top, the worm had a vicious head made of a giant mouth filled with huge fangs made from the same material its body had.
It didn\'t have a single different part, all of them were made from the same metallic substance. Its tail that just attacked Kazuma retreated back and returned to warping the pillar while the most disturbing part is the mouth was biting on the pillar as a faint green glow was slipping into it. Although it wasn\'t really clear, the closest thing that resembles it is like feeding or eating something from the pillar or should be called the device.
Just like that, everything froze in its place and no one took the first step forward. From his wound, Whitebeard seemed to have just taken a hit because of carelessness or surprise and Kaguya\'s solemn expression showed that she also has problems.
However, Kazuma couldn\'t move when he looked at that \'worm\'. Despite not having any visible organs that resembled eyes, Kazuma had a weird feeling that the \'worm\' was eyeing him and ignoring the others.
Moreover, it wasn\'t the usual feeling, but one where a predator is looking at its prey and food, which made Kazuma wish if he could change his choice of coming here.