Urchin are falling from the sky. I think that’s supposed to be chestnuts, but anyway, they’re falling.
But although they’re big and live in space, they look just like Japanese urchin.
They’re not round, they’re semicircles with spines growing out of the rounded part. The bottom is relatively flat with no spikes.
The one I shot didn’t rotate or anything, it just fell towards me.
Meanwhile, I’m still spinning. I wanted to kick the flat part without spines to propel myself to the surface, but would it be safer if I tried grabbing the bottom and the spines with my bare hands and moving that way?
Oh? It’s even bigger up close. Is it just me, or does it have a diameter of about two meters? How much does it weigh at that size? Do I know my legs won’t break if I use it as footing?
I use my strengthened kinetic vision and reflexes to turn and secure my position, grab a middle-aged guy’s leg, and carefully kick the urchin away. When did this guy get here!?
And the urchin is super heavy!!! I was right in kicking it carefully! It’s like I kicked the ground!
“Aaah! Fugyah!?”
“Dammit, another old guy!?”
I bear with it and fall with him.
“Hey, are you okay!?
“No, I pissed myself.”
“Are you trying to tell me stuff that will make me want to let go!!? Get off me idiot!!”
“Stop!”
Maybe I really should let go… but we fall slowly, and should be okay as long as we’re not attacked by urchin. I can’t imagine…
“Let’s fall slowly and go from there. Then run to a toilet or something, urchin are falling.”
“Ah, damn! I told them…!”
“Ah?”
This guy is actually wearing a helmet and clothes with storage pockets on his leg and chest. Is a worker of some kind?
“I told them urchins were infiltrating the colony and we needed money to exterminate them! Half a year ago!”
“I want to hear that even less than you pissing yourself!!! So the bulkheads are infested with urchins?”
“Probably! Or they wouldn’t be falling! You can see in this darkness! There were urchins in the maintenance area too! We don’t have the budget, so take care of them, they said! And they gave me a sledgehammer!”
I feel like this isn’t a problem for one guy to solve. It’d be one thing if there was a mother urchin, but is it just that there’s a lot of them?
This is bad. The laser pistol can’t shoot hundreds. I have to charge its puny. It’d be hard to shoot all the falling urchins and escape.
So what can I do? I’d like to restore power and gravity, but…
“Hey! Can you operate the gravity device!?”
“It’s my job to maintain it!”
“Is it possible to restore power while keeping the force of gravity weakened!? If we restore gravity to normal, it’s going to rain people!”
“I can! The problem is restoring power! Those urchins bite into power cables and eat electricity! This blackout is either because there’s a problem with the nuclear fusion reactor, or too many power cables have been cut and the electrical net is gone! The solar panels should be operational, so it must be the electrical net! I need to call higher ups to manage this!”
Okay, that’s too much for me. I see, the colony is in a blackout, so that’s the problem.
“Hey! Was that laser light from you!? Are you a mercenary or something!? Can you come with me to our stupidly big underground maintenance area!? I need to hurry and turn on emergency power generators!”
“Why!? I am a mercenary, but why would I do that!?”
“There’s a good chance that without a power source, the environment control and life support systems are down! All the emergency generators are connected to them! Do you want to suffocate!? Freeze or get roasted!? If we don’t turn on the working ones, this colony’s in trouble!”
“Shouldn’t the emergency generators start automatically!? That’s how that works! Lives are in danger!”
“They didn’t, that’s why we have a blackout!!! I don’t know why they’re not working either!! There’s a manual switch underground, so I wanna flip it!”
I don’t know the situation of the colony, but I get what he’s saying. I know if someone can do something, he should, but…
“I need to charge my laser pistol’s puny. I don’t know how many there are in the maintenance area, but I’ll die if they stab me. Is there a way to recharge puny!?”
“Damn, that… How… Ah, geez, I woke up to alarms this morning, but this really is the worst day.”
“Wait, we’re landing!”
This is bad, he doesn’t know when we’re hitting the ground because it’s dark, so he’s using his smartphone’s light to illuminate the ground and try to get it right. The moment we make contact, we kick the ground towards a building, and hang on to it.
And let’s use the purification magic item hanging from my neck to cast purification on him. It’s red and black around.
“Sorry, that’s a lot better.”
“Damn, with all these urchin falling from the sky, I want to go to my ship in the dock and resupply but… Where are we?”
“This… I can faintly see. That giant display is the one in the shopping district in front of a department store, right? I can see a pedestrian bridge too. That dock you’re talking about is in the outer rim, three kilometers away. Isn’t it crazy to move that long?”
“Is it faster to turn on the emergency power or something?”
I can hear sniffling, cursing, and angry yells. Whatever this is, it’s not a good place. At least the automatic cars running wild must have all hit something and stopped.
“I think we can do it if we enter the department store nearby, but we have to worry about charging your laser pistol, and the urchin underground. That’s where I was told to use a sledgehammer…”
“Can we get it 100% off from the department store…”
“The security drones and defensive turrets won’t allow that. They have their own power sources, but we couldn’t even pay with electronic currency in this power outage…”
I’m getting off track, but a laser pistol costs tens of thousands on puni here. I want to buy a gauss minigun or a plasma pistol, but I keep hearing no.
“If we assume there are ten urchins, this could work.”
“No, I killed ten every week and they kept popping up. When I complained about it, they said they’d send more sledgehammers.”
That’s harsh. At this point, I’m thinking about resupplying in Tortilla Double or ignoring all that and running away.
I look up, and see power armors coming down here and there. I’m trying to look around, but what building are we hanging on to anyway?
“A fast food place… Can’t we get puny from waiter robots or food printers?”
“You’ve been bringing up a lot of crimes… Should I say it’s just like a mercenary…”
“I’ll use anything to save myself in this situation.”
There’s no gravity, so we’re careful not to move suddenly and get blown away as we carefully open the door. I didn’t notice until now, but a big truck crashed into a wall, and it looks pretty gruesome.
“Purification. I’ll be pissed if I get sick from this.”
“Those are your thoughts when you see that…”
“You can turn the light off if it bothers you. If you can’t see it, it’s not there.”
I kind of feel like throwing up, but that won’t help anyone. I wouldn’t feel like throwing up so much if it wasn’t for the smell.
The front of the large truck is destroyed, and luckily, there’s puny there.
This solid electricity technology really is crazy. A perfect battery that won’t burn on impact.
I get two bottles of puny around the size of a litter and a half bottle. There’s more, but I can’t carry all that.
“I’m ready old man. I’ll go to that emergency generator, but no more. I’m worried about myself and my loved ones.”
“Okay. Be very careful about the urchin underground. They really like to stab us.”
Now it’s on to the department store, and get underground from there.
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