Chapter 745: Hea・Ven・Shat・Ter・Ing・Pile・Driv・Er・One・Hit・In・Sta・Kill
The Special Duty License Exam.
In short, you must enhance your own weapon... in this case, the Civilian Sub-Device 【Aguacate】, right here on the spot, and accomplish three conditions within a time limit.
One: Destroy the seven Target Decoys present in the field.
Two: Defeat the mechanical monster appearing in the field known as the "Agent Tester."
Three: Clear the exam without dying even once.
"I see... So it's a difficulty where 'not dying' has to be set as a condition, huh."
『Since the Agent License was originally designed with Divine Age humanity in mind, it might not be all that important for you Second Humanity individuals, but... Special Duty personnel are, to borrow Dr. Amatsuki's words, individuals expected to perform functions equivalent to 'Heroes.' As a matter of fact, even if they are scattered like dust, what is sought from Special Duty is not meaningless death, but a continuation of the fight acting as a certain kind of symbol, you see.』
"Doesn't an undying Special Duty Corps sound pretty cool?"
『It is quite a blunt statement to make, but I really don't know what to say considering it actually seems like it would yield a certain degree of effectiveness...』
Throwing about a hundred guys in as meat shields, decoys, and living bombs all at once and then flattening the whole area with mortars or bombings sounds like a fun application, but simply saying it out loud feels like it would chip away at my Vorpal Soul, so I'll keep quiet.
Now then, what should I do? Since the Full-Auto Flick Finger is a rapid-fire magazine type, maybe I should intentionally make Aguacate-kun a mana-charge type... Yashirobird was saying that the magazine type was comprehensively superior, but that relies entirely on Inventoria—no, wait, was his Chestoria? Anyway, it's based on the premise that you pack an insane amount of magazines into an infinite inventory and manually reload them instantaneously using movements that can only be seen as magic tricks.
The greatest advantage of the mana-charge type is the reduction in physical actions; after all, unlike real life, this is a world where even getting a bullet slammed directly into your skull just results in heavy damage, okay? A gun can't be the main star; at least with my current player build, it's strictly nothing more than a sub-weapon.
"Bullet speed to maximum efficiency... no, rather than making it the same as a finger flick, would it be harder to deal with if I staggered them? If so, I'll intentionally skew it towards pure firepower... and for the bullets, going full piercing-specialization is the only choice; with this bullet speed, rather than piercing, it'll probably feel more like it's gouging out the wound... Hmm, sounds like a nicely inhumane weapon."
And with that, the Special Duty Execution Device Type: Guacamole (Provisional) is completed. All that's left is to clear the certification exam, and this large-caliber handgun will officially roll out.
"Alright, let's get started, 'Isana.' Two hours and twenty minutes remaining... that's more than enough for a time attack."
『Then I will commence the Special Duty License Certification Exam targeted at Second Humanity Sunraku! Please wait for the transfer to the special test field to complete...』
A so-called Now Loading?
◆
The standard strategy for this type of single quest with multiple completion objectives is "series for the first run, parallel for the loops."
While you're not used to it, prioritize the main target above all else; even if you clear the sub-targets, focus entirely on one target at a time. Once you get used to it, you can clear the main target while handling the sub-targets on the side.
Just as the people of the past coined the incredibly wise proverb "He who chases two hares catches neither," getting greedy when you're inexperienced will only lead to disaster.
However, my predecessors, what do you think happens if one of the two hares you're chasing happens to be a slaughter machine aggressively trying to kill the hunter?
This is what happens.
"Hahahahaha! It saves me the trouble of having to search for it!"
As for the monster known as the Agent Tester, to describe it in a single phrase... a horse with tires for feet... perhaps? No, that scuttling, rustling movement feels a bit like a four-legged spider too... what is this, a horse where only its legs are a water strider? Its body shape is similar to the Red Dragon Dreadhowl, but its legs aren't as long... Is it like a human crawling on all fours (with really long arms)? It really is a completely incomprehensible body shape.
But as long as I know that Agent Tester-kun will relentlessly chase me the moment it spots me until it loses sight of me, what I have to do is simple: play a game of tag, keeping it neither too close nor too far, while running around destroying the Target Decoys!!
"There's number four!"
I shoot through what looks like the head? part of the completely incomprehensibly shaped Target Decoy using the Provisional Guacamole. I may be a former isolated islander, but I'm currently a Bakumatsu patriot and a Nephilim pilot; shooting while sprinting is absolutely nothing to me.
Although it resembles the maze of the Leviathan's First Shell Layer, this field has paths that are generally much wider overall. Even with my current state where sustained acceleration is difficult due to the Reversed Position modifier, it's spacious enough for me to dash through without any issues, and the Agent Tester's leg strength is only fast enough that I can shake it off whenever I want.
In other words, while my predecessors apparently failed by chasing two hares, because I am amazing, it means I can hunt two hares simultaneouslyyyyyy!!
"Number six!"
Where is number seven! For now, I'll slash the Agent Tester with the Final Blade of Aspiration's End With the Hero, and......... alright, via its effect, I'll transfer the mana accumulated in the sword to the gun! It's the ultimate combo; back when I was using Aguacate-kun, there was little point in doing this during prolonged use, but with this Provisional Guacamole!!
"Found you, number seven!"
It's placed right at the top of some moving aerial platforms... will it be hard to snipe it with a handgun from here... alright, skill activation, thought acceleration out of a mid-air jump, line up the sights, and fire.
"Sub-target cleared! Now you're the only one left, Agent Tester!!"
Sporting joints that blatantly and intensely scream "weak point"—it would be faster to just smash them with a sword, but since this is strictly a licensing exam for a Special Duty device, it would be a huge pain if I was told to do it over again, so I'll chip away at it using the Provisional Guacamole as my main weapon.
"Take this, Gun Punch!"
Close in, point-blank, destroy! If you fire from punching range, any gun is a guaranteed hit!
A bullet-like, or rather, literally just a bullet fist shatters the Agent Tester's front-right leg shoulder joint, physically stripping away about 1/4 of its mobility.
"Dempsey Shot! Uppercut Shot! Don't move, flinch, finger flick barrage!!"
I'm not the kind of guy to struggle against an enemy with joints so fragile they shatter in two shots!!
Gasha
"Hm?"
...
.........
One hour after Yashirobird's departure.
『Congratulations! You have successfully passed the Special Duty License Certification Exam!!』
"Ah, yeah... Yay."
Nobody told me about Agent Tester (plural)... To think it would go up to a maximum of seven units linked to the number of destroyed decoys.
But I won; I was victorious. And the proof of that is exactly what is asserting its solid weight in my hands right now: the SP Duty Execu-Device Type: Guacamole "Aerial PD".
By the way, PD is an abbreviation for "Pile Driver," and this name is derived from the fact that the move I ultimately used to defeat the very last Agent Tester unit was a pile driver clutched in mid-air... Well, honestly, I wanted to finish it off in a much more 'master agent!' style, but I just got caught up in the flow.
Author's Afterword
・Aerial Pile Driver
When Sunraku kicked an Agent Tester off an aerial platform and tried to look cool by finishing it off with a gun, he tripped and fell along with it. In a split-second reaction, he clung to the Agent Tester, whose limbs had been destroyed leaving only a torso, and invented this finishing hold on the fly.
Its sheer destructive power was such that it not only shattered the skull of the recipient Agent Tester but also inflicted massive damage to the buttocks of the one executing it—Sunraku. During an interview with 'Isana', Sunraku reportedly answered, "I'm giving this device this name as a warning to myself to never, ever do that again..."
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