Fuyuu Gakuen no Alice and Shirley Vol 1 Chapter 5.5

Masaki got onto the ostrich’s back…

Or rather he grasped its neck with all his might so that he wouldn’t be thrown off.

He couldn’t count the number of times that his foot hit the wall when it was running down the stairs, the constant pain had him in agony.

But it was fast.

Thanks to that, he was able to arrive at the 15th underground level in no time.

 
 
It was a large cave that was a hundred metersin width and height.

It was like he had gotten lost in a country of giants.

There were also wriggling pipes that seemed thick enough for a car to pa.s.s through, and there were several rails running along the floor for the sake of transporting equipment.

There was a black and yellow striped line drawn on the floor.

The Ring Gear gave him a warning.

Entry is forbidden beyond this point.

From what Midorikawa-sensei said, there should have been some secturitydevices…

There were lots of warning windows displayed in the air.

“Woo!”

The ostrich continued to run without faltering.

It crossed the black and yellow lines.

When they crossed the warning line, they entered the defensezone. Even though he had prepared himself, Masaki shuddered at whatever had happened here.

What was therewas––

A large number of disk-shaped robots and completely and utterly destroyed.

They might have been attacked by Hariya’s Dialect or Alice and s.h.i.+rley.

It was as if he had found a graveyard of machines in the land of giants. The ostrich was breathing heavily while runningover the rubble.

“Are you okay?”

“Woo.”

“According to the navigation it’s a little further…about another 300 meters…”

“Wo…o!? Heey! Let’s fly,BOY!!”

The ostrich s.h.i.+fted its body then opened its large wings.

Masaki was thrown off of the ostrich due to the sudden movement.

“Ah!?”

A disk-shaped robot appeared from the rubble underneath his feet.

Could some of them still be working?

“Defend… defend…”

The cover of the disk rose and a muzzle peeped outfrom the middle. A heavy firing sound resounded.

It was a rubber bullet.

But it was about the size of a baseball and was going around 300 kilometers per hour.

The ostrich was shot and it gave a painful scream.

“Wooo…!!”

“Ah!?”

“…*cough*… Good luck…”

It disappeared.

Did it take the bullet for me?

Alice said that it would revive tomorrow, buteven so Masaki was sad about it.

He placed both of his hands on the rubble then stood up.

He had thought that the security robots were all disk shaped, but as they got ready to attack, all of them were lifted up by something that looked like a large octopus.

It was around six meters wide andthree meters tall. There wereabout eight spheres supporting the disk.

Masaki spotted the muzzle that was shooting out high speed rubber bullets.

What would happen if one hit a human directly?

“Please retreat… when you retreat, the defense will be stopped… please retreat…”

The synthetic mechanical sound flowed through the area.

So, if Igo back would it leave me alone?

Masaki took off his gla.s.ses and placed them in his breast pocket.

He took a deep breath. Then let it out.

“…I’m sorry but… I need to get through!!”

He broke into a run.

“Advance confirmed… defend… defend…”

The sound of heavy shots could be heard.

Masaki evaded them.

The warning and the sound ofmovement were enough for him to change the direction he was running in just before the shot was fired without much difficulty.

The spheres rotated as he ran past and the octopus robot drew closer to him.

Is it trying to killme by running me over!?

“Oooooooooo!!”

He sped up.

If the robots had been unhindered on a flat floor, the outcome might have been different. However, the abundant ruins gave Masaki an advantage.

He ran faster than the machine’s predictions.

“Defend… defend…”

A firing sound.

He had already avoided it.

He continued to run.

How many metersdo I have left?He was sprinting as fast as he could in a zig-zag, trying to get past them, but…

Mechanical sounds could be heard in front of him.

Lots of them.

“Huh!?”

“Defend… defend…”

“Please retreat… as you retreat, the defense will be stopped… please retreat…”

“Entry to this area is prohibited. Please leave immediately…”

Including the ones that were partially destroyed, there were about 20 or 30 of them. They were pus.h.i.+ng aside andtreading on the remains of the robots, gathering themselves into a group.

There were still this many robots moving!That mustmean it’s an important facility.

The feeling of hopelessness stopped his feet from moving.

He could die.

“It’s not… a joke… I need to go forward!”

Masaki wiped away the sweat on his forehead.

He took a step forward.

“”””””””””Advance confirmed””””””””””