第１１９４堀：二回戦その３ (Part1)
Chapter 1194: Second Round, Part 3
Side: Kagura
"Yes!"
I couldn't help but pump my fist and let out a cheer at the sight of the weapon lying before me.
"Kagura? What’s wrong?"
"Did you find something good?"
Mikos and Enora asked, reacting to my voice.
"Oh, sorry. I found something good, so I couldn't help but let it out."
"Something good? Did you get a decent weapon? I mean, don't we all have assault rifles already?"
"That’s right. We all agreed that our main arms would be assault rifles for this round, didn't we?"
"No, that’s not it. What I found is a suppressor."
Yes, a suppressor.
It’s the perfect attachment to muffle the sound of gunfire and keep our position hidden from the enemy.
"Oh, that’s nice. You’re having quite a run of luck this time. Enora, you had a scope, right?"
"Yes. With a scope and a suppressor, I can snipe to my heart's content from a distance."
"Exactly. This should be enough to keep us from coming in last place."
That’s right—in the first round, we were soundly defeated in a firefight against Hairen-sama and her team.
To be honest, we hadn't even realized they were lying in wait, and we were turned into a beehive before we knew what hit us.
I still find it mysterious how they managed to pull off such a perfect ambush. They don't seem like the type...
Well, that doesn't matter now.
We ended up in last place, and as a wife of Yuki, I simply cannot accept such a result.
Yuki is incredibly kind and told me not to worry about it, but I shouldn't take advantage of his kindness.
I need to prove that I am a capable woman.
"We can't let the newcomers beat us, after all."
"Yeah. Let’s do our best. Though, I hate to say it, but we might run into enemies soon."
Mikos is right. The play area has already shrunk twice, and the third contraction has just begun.
That said...
"Regardless, we just need to hold this house. We have plenty of supplies, and the area is mostly just the road and the building behind us."
The location we’ve chosen is right in the center of the next shrinking zone. It has an open line of sight, making it the perfect spot to spot approaching enemies.
Therefore, we don't need to move recklessly; we just need to wait here for the enemy teams to come to us.
"Let’s stay on high alert. But what if the next contraction puts us outside the zone?"
"What do we do? Well, we’ll have to move, obviously. But we won't know until we get there."
"Yeah, I guess so. That part is just down to luck. Anyway, shouldn't we regroup?"
"True. We can't coordinate if we’re too far apart. We should head back. How about you, Kagura?"
"I don't see any enemies from here, so it’s fine to come back. How are the supplies?"
I peeked out the window as I spoke, but there was nothing out of the ordinary.
I’ve been acting as the guard and scout in our current base, while Mikos and Enora went to scavenge supplies from other houses.
"Yeah, I’ve got ammo, recovery potions, and grenades."
"Same here. Even if we find more, we’re running out of space to carry it all."
"Understood. If you have extra, we might be able to stockpile some here at the base."
"Oh, that’s an idea. But if we end up outside the zone, we won't be able to carry it all, right?"
"It’s a trade-off between the effort and the risk of being discovered by enemies. What do you think, Kagura?"
"I can't make that call yet. Let’s check what we’ve gathered first. Just get back here safely. Meet on the second floor."
" "Understood." "
Now, what should I do?
Gathering supplies isn't inherently bad, but because the combat zone shrinks over time, hoarding items and hunkering down isn't always the best strategy.
That said, if our current location happens to be the 'final battlefield,' having an abundance of supplies would certainly be an advantage.
...The problem is the likelihood of our position remaining in the zone until the very end.
Realistically speaking, it’s highly unlikely.
In other words, it’s better to observe the situation than to focus solely on hoarding.
Just as I finished that thought, the sound of the front door opening echoed through the house, followed by footsteps climbing to the second floor.
I hid in the shadows and raised my gun, ready to fire just in case it was an enemy. But once I confirmed it was Mikos and Enora, I stepped out.
"Both of you, just put the items on the table for now."
"Whoa!? You scared me!"
"My, you’re unexpectedly cautious."
"We were ambushed inside a house last time, remember?"
"Ah, that’s true. Eris-san was smiling so normally, too."
"That wasn't a 'smile,' that was the look of someone who knew a sucker had walked into a trap."
Yes, the reason we were eliminated so quickly in the first round was because of an ambush by Eris-san’s team.
We had gathered items and entered the same house together to ensure our safety, but right in front of the door, recovery items were left lying around carelessly. We thought, "Yay!" and as we approached, Eris-san, Milly-san, and Ratz-san jumped out from the shadows and turned us into a beehive.
We managed to escape by the skin of our teeth thanks to some cover, but that forced us to flee toward the town, where we ran into Hairen-sama’s team.
"We were totally baited by those items."
"Indeed. They perfectly exploited the nature of this game and human psychology."
I never imagined they would use recovery items as bait instead of picking them up.
As we talked, the two of them quickly laid out the items they had collected on the table.
"It looks like we won't have to worry about assault rifle ammo for the rest of this match."
"Yeah. We have 200 rounds each; we’ll either win or lose long before we run out of that."
"True. If we fire that much, we’ll definitely draw the attention of other teams. Besides, if we can't finish them off with that much ammo, it’s clearly a failure of skill and strategy."
We all agreed that ammo was no longer a concern.
As for the rest...
"With this, we can each carry two recovery potions, right?"
"Yeah. No more running out of healing items. Though, more is always better."
"If we start thinking like that, there’s no end to it. It’s pointless to go out into town looking for more items or shields only to run into enemies and end up depleted."
Enora is right. It would be meaningless to go out looking for potions only to end up exhausted—or worse, defeated.