𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟑: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐭𝐡 𝐅𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧
Even about four hundred meters away from the battlefield, the sound of gunfire telling of intense combat makes the speakers vibrate.
Chihaya was operating a computer in the Actor room, occasionally returning to the All-Rounder’s controls, staring at the screen while progressing with detailed work.
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“Fu-he. . . . . .”
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Unless it’s an Order-series Actanoid, you can communicate by directly operating the mech and inputting the startup key.
This function is for reestablishing communication and returning to action if an autonomous Actanoid loses communication and becomes immobile in the backlands of the New World, with nearby Actanoids acting as communication hubs.
Depending on the model, by typing the model number into the part located next to the black box, direct communication becomes possible.
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Chihaya was directly communicating with an abandoned Psycholon and an All-Rounder, sharing the view on a monitor.
Around Chihaya’s All-Rounder, collected arms and legs of abandoned mechs, grenades, and the like had been gathered.
And between the trees in front of her, a wire was stretched.
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Previously, Chihaya had bombed a colony of medical plants secretly owned by Hachigi Technology, using wires and grenades.
And now, Chihaya’s All-Rounder shot the head of the Psycholon using an improvised wire ballista.
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The Psycholon’s head flying high in the sky overlooks the battlefield with various cameras attached in all directions. The imagery is provided to Chihaya’s All-Rounder through communication and shared on the computer monitor in front of Chihaya.
The Psycholon’s head, falling through the observational drones flying right above the fierce battle, accelerates further towards the battlefield.
The impact of hitting the ground shatters the Psycholon’s head, and communication is lost.
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“Fu, Fu-he. . .He.”
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Chihaya lets out a creepy laugh due to tension.
The Psycholon’s camera is excellent. Thanks to it, she was able to gain information about the battlefield.
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Actanoids jumping out from the mountains on either side of the stream seemed to have engaged Actanoids downstream in hand-to-hand combat.
An Actanoid with arrows stuck in it had rolled over, which was concerning, but the situation seemed even more inexplicable.
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Normally, hand-to-hand combat with Actanoids does not occur.
Because of lag, hand-to-hand combat is difficult. The Actor always selects attack, defense, or evasion based on a situation a few fractions of a second earlier.
The foot of Shizuhara Mountain is somewhat hard for signals to reach, naturally causing lag and packet loss.
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Choosing hand-to-hand combat, which can knock off All-Rounder’s armor, must mean something urgent happened.
The dominant side will naturally avoid hand-to-hand combat and opt for long-range shooting. In other words, the front line constantly moves.
Those Actanoids fight in chaos while moving, destroying the surroundings and rampaging. Whether there’s crepe herb, which might contain valuable genes, they would trample it.
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Chihaya predicts the Actanoids’ movements and estimates the center of the chaos, comparing it with the images left by the Psycholon.
It doesn’t matter if it’s a bit off.
After all, she had prepared enough firepower to blow up the entire area if scattered.
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“Fu-he, I won’t let them get close to the crepe herb.”
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No matter what happens to the others.
Chihaya hooks the Psycholon’s arms and legs onto the wire, pulls the pins of the grenades packed inside them, and immediately activates the wire winding machine.
Arms and legs filled with explosives are drawn by the rapidly wound wire, tracing an arc in the sky.
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Betting the existence of their affiliated clan and themselves, who could have predicted the Actors of the battlefield fighting with mechs worth tens, hundreds of thousands dollars.
That powerless decoy All-Rounder returning to the battlefield and bringing down a rain of chaos.
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“Hit. Next round, loading. Go, fu-hehehe.”
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Chihaya doesn’t know the situation on the battlefield. Only that a grenade exploded flashily near the predicted position, she can tell by the sound.
And then, the next round is fired into the sky.
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The limbs of the incoming Actanoid blow away the surroundings by detonating the internal grenades, and the individual parts that have been scattered ride the blast wave to cause further destruction.
For the Actanoid made of metal, a cluster bomb isn’t much of a threat.
To begin with, it’s a blind throw without observation. Normally, there shouldn’t be any damage.
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But, direct hits can occur at a scene of melee with three forces. In fact, about three mechs had been struck by the explosion, severely damaged, and were on fire.
Most of all, no one expected an attack from above. They were in great confusion, wondering which fool had set off an indiscriminate bombing that could also involve allies.
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In the vicinity, there’s the 『Renegade Warrior』, the strategic target of each force. If it’s severely damaged by the explosion, it would cause problems for analysis and research.
It must have been set up by one of the other two forces, not their own. To safely capture the Renegade Warrior, they had to strike back hard.
As a result, the melee further accelerated.
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Chihaya, who knows nothing of the battlefield’s intentions, was meaninglessly scoring significant achievements as the sole fourth force.
The third round is loaded, and the wire reeling machine is activated.
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The scattered grenades around the melee dig into the humus of the mountain forest, which was already roughened by previous bombings and combat of the three forces, and are lifted by the blast wave.
Due to the close proximity causing radio interference, and the radio confusion caused by the blast wave and the lifted humus, and the weakened radio signal of the Lannoid system covered in humus, the communication situation on the battlefield was severely degraded.
The worsening of communication at the foot of Shizuhara Mountain, where radio waves are already hard to reach, was fatal.
Mechs with a high volume of communication suddenly dropped in specs, and in some places and mechs, communication was cut off.
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There, the Renegade Warrior raised his sword and charged in, beginning to hunt the survivors.
Such changes in the battlefield do not reach Chihaya.
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What Chihaya has is a sense of mission. A troublesome sense of mission that doesn’t share a purpose with anyone on the battlefield to protect the crepe herb.
She has no interest in whether the Renegade Warrior turns into scrap due to her own bombing.
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When the fourth round was fired and brought further destruction to the battlefield, the three forces judged that it was impossible to continue fighting and began to retreat all at once.
They don’t know who carried out such a reckless bombing. Unable to criticize anyone in particular, they turned on their speakers and shouted at each other.
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“Don’t mess around, Bomber!”
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