Hero Party After the Nuclear War

Chapter 2

With the pixie's help, Raven descended straight down the elevator shaft, then kicked open the elevator door with his foot, forcing it open, and jumped inside.

There were supposedly no summoner reactions or spiritual body responses. Raven shoved the pistol he was holding into his holster, slung the heavy M4A1 over his back, and pulled out a flashlight to illuminate his surroundings.

Exploring underground ruins wasn't exactly a one-time thing, but it always felt unsettling. Kicking aside the scattered bones of dead humans on the floor, he walked into the steel corridor.

"First, I need to activate the emergency power."

With the power out, the small beam from his flashlight made it extremely difficult to find his way.

On top of that, since it was a supposed research lab, all the doors were designed in a 'hatch' style to maintain security, and they were locked with complex ancient mechanical devices—meaning some areas might be completely inaccessible without power.

Upon entering the underground, Raven immediately approached a nearby skeleton clad in a white lab coat and snatched the ID card hanging around its neck.

Although it was quite old, artifacts from the ancient magical civilization were generally several times more advanced than modern technology, so even if they were somewhat eroded by time, they should still function properly.

Using the navigator on his summoner to locate the emergency power station, Raven ignored the nearby terminal-like device and immediately drew his gun to aim at the door handle.

Perhaps due to the assumption that the security system would be disabled if the power went out, this door wasn't in hatch format but was a regular hinged door with a handle.

Bang! Ratatat! Bang!

After firing several rounds into the hinges holding the door in place, the now unsupported door was kicked backward by Raven's powerful kick and tumbled across the floor.

[You attempted door breaching with a firearm and succeeded.]

(Strength check successful.)

"Of course."

Raven kicked open the door with the broken handle and lightly swung it open, then entered and linked the emergency power station's terminal to the summoner.

[Emergency power, activating. ※ Warning: As power is restored, the security system may also reactivate, potentially reactivating the building's self-defense system.]

"Self-defense system?"

Clank. Thud! Whirrrrr...

Light began to return to the darkened lab. Despite having been hit by a nuclear bomb and 200 years having passed, the light bulbs were still operational.

As Raven stepped out of the power station, impressed, a surveillance camera mounted on the ceiling detected his movement and began to swivel around.

And then...

"Danger. 'Demon reaction detected.' Danger. 'Demon reaction detected.'"

"What the hell..."

From who knows where, small machines with caterpillar tracks quickly surrounded Raven and deployed firearms used during the ancient civilization, aiming them at him.

"Calling it a demon reaction is too much. I'm a half-blood."

"Eliminating intruder. Commencing fire."

Just before the bullets rained down, Raven activated the summoner and issued a command to the pixie he had summoned.

"Pixie!"

"Yes!"

[Spirit-Type Pixie: Fairy Dust.]

As the pixie suddenly spread the wings on her back wide open, green dust scattered around like pollen.

The machines touched by the fairy dust all simultaneously malfunctioned and stopped. Raven turned invisible—like he had scattered optical camouflage particles—becoming transparent polygon by polygon until he disappeared.

While the fairy dust was still active, Raven quickly escaped the narrow corridor, then immediately raised his M4A1 in his right hand and began spraying bullets at the machines.

[Aiming Assist System activated.]

Ratatatatat! Ratatat! Rattat!

Piercing only the main circuits of the machines with pinpoint accuracy, Raven completely disabled their functions. With a deep breath, he then aimed his pistol at the ceiling-mounted CCTV and fired.

"Alright. Whatever it was they were guarding, it must've been something seriously messed up."

Raven slightly shrugged his shoulders and left the exploding machines behind as he entered deeper into the lab.

Most doors were automatic and opened as Raven approached, but the deeper he went, devices that required actual 'security' began to appear one by one.

[Lock released.]

Raven used the ID card he had picked up earlier to open all such doors and stormed deeper into the lab, but before long, he encountered a door that even the card he had couldn't bypass.

[S-Class Security Gate. To unlock, a higher-level security ID card is required.]

"Higher-level security, my ass."

Shooting the noisy security terminal with his pistol, Raven rummaged through his bag and planted the 'door breaching' explosives he had prepared for such situations in front of the door.

Sure, he could try hacking with the summoner, but Raven wasn't smart enough to pull that off, and risking a worse disaster due to a failed hack seemed far worse than this method.

"Alright then."

Raven laid out the explosives he had packed just to blow open a single door, moved a safe distance away, and pressed the detonator switch.

...

"Huh. What the...?"

Click.

Click-click.

"Why won't it work, damn it!"

As Raven, flustered, repeatedly pressed the switch in panic, an ominous mechanical noise began to echo from the other end of the steel corridor.

[Intruder. Demon. Eliminate.]

"Haah. I'm seriously going crazy."

Just as he was anxiously hiding and frantically pressing the switch, whether the signal was just delayed or it was fate's twisted joke, the explosives finally detonated with a massive boom.

KABOOOOOM!!!

The moment the explosives went off, Raven, who had been hiding, pulled out the rifle slung over his back and immediately fired at the security robot. But in that instant, Raven wasn't the only one firing.

The AI of the security robot wasn't stupid either. The moment Raven emerged from hiding, it quickly retaliated. Just before its heavy silver bullet reached Raven's head—

Zzzzzzt! Crackle!!!

"Eeep?!"

The pixie he had summoned took the hit from the headshot Raven was supposed to receive and was dismissed. In exchange, Raven calmly and coldly unloaded bullets into the security robot, disabling it.

"Tch."

There's a reason summoners are called 'human weapons.' All damage a summoner takes is instead absorbed by the spiritual body they control—their 'servant.'

Thus, only by disabling all of a summoner's servants can you inflict meaningful damage to the summoner's actual body. And during that time, the summoner doesn't just stand still either.

With various techniques, magic, and miracles using their servants—considering that most summoners are also excellent warriors—it's entirely possible for one to wipe out an entire squad or even platoon alone in a firefight.

"Your turn, Jack."

[Summon: Jack O'Lantern.]

Replacing the dismissed pixie, Raven summoned a new servant. As the flames of hell flared up, his dependable servant appeared. Raven gave him a glance, then cautiously entered the room beyond the explosion, staying alert.

Just what kind of terrifying ancient weapon could be waiting in there?

As he stepped inside thinking just that, what greeted him was...

"This is..."

It was a transparent coffin.

Right. A coffin—though there are many types. To be precise, it was the kind of coffin used to bury a corpse in the ground after death.

There might be a better term for it. But for now, 'coffin' seemed like the most accurate. Because beyond the transparent glass, a woman frozen solid was sleeping inside, unaware of the passage of time.

"What... is this?"

Whoever she was, she was far more beautiful than the 'average' woman living in the wasteland.

Since she was naked inside, it was a bit embarrassing, but her figure was fully exposed, and not a single man would complain about it.

Some might say it was overly voluptuous, others might say too skinny—but her height was just right, with a figure proportionate to her build: a well-shaped bust and hips, and a slender waist.

Most of all, unlike Raven, who was born and raised in the wasteland, her body had no scars, no blemishes, not even a speck—her skin was perfect.

Of course, Raven wasn't interested in that right now. His mission was to retrieve a 'weapon' hidden somewhere in the underground of this lab, but the so-called weapon in front of him was nothing but a frozen ice-candy girl.

"...Hmm. Let's see."

Still, if he brought this back, maybe he'd get a decent reward out of it.

Raven set down his bag beside the transparent cryo pod and quickly operated the terminal. Apparently, even in the current state where all power was deactivated, mana and electricity were still being continuously supplied to this cryo pod.

Is this woman really that important?

That question lingered somewhere in his mind, but Raven connected the summoner to the terminal and immediately deactivated the cryo pod's cooling system.

[Rapid cooling deactivation in progress. * * * Deactivation complete.]

As the frost covering the transparent coffin slowly melted away, color began to return to the body of the unknown ice-candy girl. Perhaps due to the intense cold during the process, she shivered violently and coughed as if coming back from the dead.

"Cough... cough cough. Ugh... cough cough cough... Huff... huh... huh... Thank you so much for waking me up, Hero. Cough... cough cough..."

Gasping and exhaling repeatedly, she finally came to her senses and glanced over at Raven.

"..... Who... are you?"

"Me?"

"You're not... the Hero, right? Who? Who are you! You!!! I'm going to call for someone! Security!!"

"Um... that's actually what I should be saying. What the hell are you?"

She backed away, covering her chest with arms as thin as eels, staring at Raven in fear. And only then did Raven realize how he must look to someone else.

He took off the gas mask he had been wearing over his face and tossed it to the floor, then ran his hand through his tangled hair to loosen it.

For someone born and raised in the wasteland, he had a surprisingly well-defined and handsome face, with a subtle, irresistible charm emanating from him.

Though that was related to his 'origin.'

But for now, that wasn't particularly relevant.

"I said I'm going to call someone! Security!! Somebody! Help! There's a robber here..."

"There's no security. I got rid of them all. Unless, of course, by 'security' you mean those tin-can robots instead of 'living people'. Then, sure."

"... What did you say?"

"And for now, I don't plan to hurt you. Also..."

"Wait a second."

She belatedly spotted the remains of a 'researcher' lying nearby and inhaled sharply in terror.

"Uh... excuse me. Right now... what day is it today?"

"Today? Friday."

"Which month...?"

"August."

"What year is it?"

"Aha."

Finally understanding the situation, Raven used his terminal attached to his left arm, choosing not the commonly used war calendar but the 'Gregorian calendar' used by ancient human civilization to answer her.

"Year 2293 of the Gregorian calendar. August 18. Friday."

"..... Wait... don't tell me. I've been frozen for almost 200 years...?"

"Seems like it."

And then came the heavy silence.

Still unable to accept the situation, she half-lost her mind and asked Raven.

"This... this is like some hidden camera prank, right? If this is some twisted joke, you'd better stop it right now. What, are you a new employee? When did you join?"

"Do I look like I'm joking right now? Still, that's a relief. I thought our language systems would be completely different after 200 years. But we can still understand each other..."

When not a single trace of playfulness could be found on Raven's face, she finally accepted that 200 years had passed since she fell asleep, and tears welled up in her eyes as she began to sob.

"No way... no way... 200 years have passed? 200 years? How is that possible? What about the war? The Demon King...?"

"Hey. First, let's get out of here. There's no point staying here any longer. Right now, the security robots are trying to bury me. If we stay here, you'll get caught up too."

Even then, when 'she' shook her head in denial, Raven finally grew sick of her defeatist attitude and sighed, then slapped her cheek with his hand.

"Get a grip! So what if 200 years have passed. What matters now is that you're alive. Isn't that enough? If you're alive, then stand up. Walk on your own two feet. Struggle like hell to survive!"

"Uuuuugh..."

Maybe that made it worse.

Just as Raven sighed and shook his head—

A suspicious tremor shook the ground, and dust fell from the ceiling to the floor. Something must have happened aboveground. Raven quickly grabbed his bag and pulled the hand of the woman who had been frozen for 200 years.

"If we stay here, both you and I are going to die. Let's get out of here first."

---

Stat: Intelligence.

Raven's current Intelligence: 3

* The average for all stats is 5.

Expert knowledge in science and technology.

Hacking terminals of ancient magical civilizations.

Usage of magic tools that require magical knowledge.

Affects actions such as alchemy for making explosives and drugs.

A stat that affects the usage of magic tools requiring magical knowledge. Higher Intelligence grants additional bonuses to the above actions, while lower Intelligence increases the chance of failure.

In a wasteland where demons and various spirits roam and nukes make life unbearable, a sharp mind can often be more helpful than bulky muscles.