The Lone Sniper: I Was Just Minding My Own Business Sniping Players, and I Ended Up Becoming a Raid Boss

Chapter 98

Just as things reached a pause, I got a friend call from Ness-san.

When I answered the call, a TV call started. An electromagnetic window appeared from the wristwatch terminal on my right wrist. In the window were Ness-san and Six Sages sitting at a desk.

"Hey there, Shiki-kun~, how are you~?"

"I'm feeling a little down. I've got a problem......"

"Is it about the bounty placed on you?"

"Y-yes! Six Sages, do you happen to know anything?"

"Yeah. Most likely, the one who put up the bounty is Green Ice."

Green Ice. The worst terrorist in Oceanus......

"W-what's the basis for that?"

"Because the method is the same. She often uses this tactic to measure the strength of anyone she finds interesting or wants to keep an eye on. Besides, there are only so many outlaws who can easily pay a bounty of three hundred million chips."

So that means I've been targeted by Green Ice?

"For now, I'd like you to come to Mother Base."

"Eh? —Ah! I see. If I'm inside a military facility, bounty hunters won't be able to lay a hand on me, right?"

"That's part of it, but I also want you to come to the prison with me. Labyrinth's girl says she'll only tell you where the treasure vault is, and she won't listen to anyone else. Sorry, but could you help us out?"

Rabi-chan...... I wanted to see her once anyway, so this is perfect.

"U-understood. I'll head over by train right now."

"Hold up. Don't use public transport. If we get into a shoot-out on a train or passenger ship, it'll be a pain. I hear you live on a battleship. We'll send a warship by sea. For now, you just stay put."

"Roger that!"

After that, I boarded the warship that came to pick me up and headed for the metropolis of Ashia.

---

I met up with Six Sages and Ness-san at Military Police HQ.

Then the three of us plus some guards went to the great prison near HQ.

"This is our military prison, 'Vortex'." Dıscover more novels at NoveI[F]ire.net

It's a dome-shaped facility. We go inside, pass the reception desk, and take the elevator underground.

"All the cells are underground."

We get off on the fourth basement level.

Mechanical floors. Mechanical walls. Mechanical cells. Everything is high-tech. Even the guards are robots.

I peek through the gaps in the machine-made grating, but the prisoners are all asleep and don't move an inch. The other cells are the same. Almost everyone has logged out. It's quiet.

"Well, it's a game, so most players either log out the moment they're caught and wait for their sentence to end, or delete their account and start over."

After a few minutes of walking, we finally arrive in front of the cell we came for.

"Yoo-hoo! Shiki-chan! I missed you sooo much♪"

It's Rabi-chan, wearing prisoner garb. By the way, the other prisoners aren't wearing prisoner clothes. For some reason, only Rabi-chan is wearing striped prisoner garb.

On top of that, this cell alone has luxurious furniture and a refrigerator for some reason, and the walls are covered with nude pin-ups of women.

"W-what is this cell...... Only this one has completely different equipment......"

"Really, where did she even bring all this from......"

"Shiki-chaaan! Let's have a reunion kiss! A kiiiiss!"

"No way. Rabi-chan, could you tell Six Sages where the treasure vault is?"

Rabi-chan let out a happy "fufun♪" while purring, then flopped onto the cell's bed.

"Sure. I've got a bad feeling about this. If those guys are just going to steal everything, I'd rather hand the treasure over to the military."

"Is the treasure vault really in a place that could be exposed to thieves?"

"I'd totally forgotten, but the Triads attract each other. To be specific, if another Triad is within a one-kilometer radius, it glows orange. I figured I could use that to find the vault without much trouble."

Green Ice has one of the Triads. That means we can use it with a detector.

"I don't like the idea of Green Ice completing her Triad."

"Huh. Even though you're both criminals, you don't care for Green Ice, do you?"

"Don't lump me in with the likes of her! I hate people with no sense of aesthetics. Anyway, I'll tell you where the vault is, so go steal the Triad! If Green Ice beats us to it, I'll never forgive you!"

"Good grief, what a willful lady...... You steal it on your own and then tell us to steal it back."

"Sorry about this."

Why do I feel like her guardian?

"But is it really okay, Rabi-chan? If you tell us where the vault is, everything you've stolen so far except the Triad will be taken too, you know?"

"My treasure vault isn't just one. I've hidden vaults in various colonies. So not all the treasure is in Oceanus. No problem!"

"By the way, the locations of the vaults you hid in colonies outside Oceanus are......"

"Eh? I'm not telling."

"Figures."

For now, the other colonies don't matter. The vault in Oceanus, and the Triad inside it, are what's important.

"So, where's the vault?"

When I asked, Rabi-chan raised one corner of her mouth,

"The Oceanus vault is—under the pyramid in the desert zone."

Come to think of it, there was a pyramid near the Jolly Roger. That must be it.

"That pyramid should be an artificial dungeon set up by the military for leveling...... Is the vault really there?"

Six Sages asked.

"Yeah! Precisely because it's under the military police's jurisdiction, it's a blind spot. You wouldn't expect a Phantom Thief's vault to be under a facility run by the military police, right?"

True enough.

"How do we get into that underground area?"

"There's an altar at the very back of the pyramid. You just have to place three items there."

"What are those items?"

"A photo of a girl in a school swimsuit, a photo of a bunny girl, and a photo of a maid. And it has to be a photo taken within three days......"

Six Sages and I pulled out our guns and put bullet holes in Rabi-chan's bed.

"'Get serious!!'"

"Serious, super-serious, cross-my-heart! It's really true! Swear!"

Doesn't seem to be a lie. I wish it were.

"By the way, it has to be a girl of my type! The judging AI is set to my tastes!"

"Oh? And what's your type, for example?"

"A girl just like Shiki-chan~♪"

"Eh!?"

"Understood. Then we'll prepare the outfits."

Six Sages rested a hand on my shoulder,

"I'm counting on you."

"Eeeh!?"