Chapter 105: A Man Named Banri

“Why didn’t you load drones!?”

Howard Wargman, the capable adult man our campsite proudly boasted, looked at Shinzo’s machine and mine and hissed like an angry cat.

“I taught you this, didn’t I? In the Crash Race, you load armed drones so you can focus on driving.”

“…”

“…”

Now that he mentioned it, I did feel like he had said something like that.

Yeah, but we forgot.

If we forgot, then it could not be helped.

Yeah. Couldn’t be helped.

Shinzo and I exchanged a silent look. After that wordless conversation, we both nodded deeply.

“Of course I remember. But I want you to think about this. Given the effects of tree crystals, using drones in real combat is not realistic.”

“Yeah, exactly. We didn’t come here just to win. We came here so I could become a Sheepherd Dog. We’re not interested in practicing for a school play.”

For the time being, Shinzo and I lined up the excuses that came to mind.

“I see. A fine attitude. By the way, you know the phrase ‘the victors make the rules,’ yes?”

As he spoke, Howard-san jerked his thumb behind him.

There stood a large vehicle whose propeller drones were being checked over.

“…”

Shinzo looked at it with a deeply unpleasant expression.

I, however, had no idea what the problem was. What was wrong with that blond pretty boy who looked like he might barely survive out here in the wasteland? The blond girl clinging to him, who somehow resembled Karys while oozing bad personality, did seem vaguely familiar.

“…”

I made a deeply unpleasant face too.

“You probably don’t know this, Hound, so I’ll tell you. He’s also a Sheepherd Dog candidate. And a portion of Arawn Company’s technical development team is backing him completely.”

“I wish sisters would keep their fights elsewhere.”

At Howard-san’s words, I looked at Karys in her work clothes.

She smiled with elegant grace.

Probably, nothing I said would matter.

“…Shinzo, how good is he?”

“Barely good enough to become a pup.【Piloting: 3】. Closer to 2, though.”

“Then it depends on the drones’ performance.”

It was hard to imagine he had Shinzo-level mobility and my level of sniping ability, but Primula-san had an auto-snipe system. In a place like this, where tree crystal interference was low, it might be worth paying some attention to.

***

Apparently, thirty-five teams were participating.

An odd number.

What were they planning to do about that?

I was curious, so I asked the nearest Crash Race nerd.

“You don’t even know that, Hound?”

“…”

He snorted at me, so I decided not to help if his machine got into trouble.

“The preliminaries are a deathmatch. They split the teams into four groups. This time, that means nine, nine, nine, and eight, then have them wear each other down. Any team with a machine still alive at the end of its group advances to the semifinals.”

“I see.”

“If your machine takes too much damage here, you can make it through and still be too wrecked to fight properly in the next round. You’re allowed to give up too, so surrendering early and leaving the rest to your teammates is a valid strategy.”

“More importantly, doesn’t thirty-five teams seem a little low?”

For an event jointly hosted by three major corporations, I meant.

“You need a certain level of connections or ability to enter. Some teams got rejected during screening.”

“…I’m surprised we got through.”

“In this case, Shinzo probably pulled strings for his exam.”

“Ah. So that’s how it is…”

He relied on his wife’s family’s influence.

“And there’s one piece of good news related to that.”

Shinzo approached, smelling pleasantly of sauce, with a group of excited children in tow. He must have gone to one of the food stalls.

“Takoyaki?”

So octopuses still existed in this era.

Ah, but according to one theory, after humanity went extinct, octopuses would be the next rulers of Earth. Not in the Cthulhu sense. In the scientific sense.

“Apparently, they’re artificially cultured octopuses with genetic modification.”

“…”

Could those still be called octopuses? At that point, wouldn’t they be future friends better called a new intelligent species? Thinking that, I took one. Hot. I huffed and puffed, then swallowed it without really chewing. As a result, I had no idea what it tasted like.

“So, what’s the good news?”

Since I had no choice, I decided to sample this news of his instead.

“You know Banri?”

“…A Sheepherd pup like you, right?”

Of course I knew him.

Alongside Shinzo, he was one of the leading candidates to become the next Sheepherd Dog.

At present, there were four Sheepherd pups, including Shinzo. But in truth, the only two I judged to have the ability worthy of becoming Dogs were Shinzo and Banri.

Like Shinzo, he had【Piloting: 4】He was a fledgling hero standing at the boundary between quantity and quality.

That was Banri.

This exam would essentially be a duel between him and Shinzo.

If Shinzo was motion, then Banri was stillness.

A cold, sharp blade of ice. With the【Trapper】 skill, he excelled at driving prey into a corner and finishing them off. Under different circumstances, he might well have become a hound, so I could not consider him someone else’s problem.

And the mechanic backing him this time was trouble too. Of all people, Endo-san. If he applied his specialty in controlling large numbers of Monoz, he could probably operate a considerable number of drones with only a few Monoz. A limited battlefield. A school play stage. Even so, as long as he could use drones, his firepower was not something to laugh off.

I will say it outright.

The winner of this tournament would be either him or Shinzo.

“That guy got rejected during the entry screening.”

“…”

What was I supposed to do with this tightly clenched fist?