SS1 2.3 – Post-hunt Brief

  Morning in Pukin’ Dogs’ quarter went peacefully. After returning from our night adventure, everyone went straight to their room and resumed their sleep. We were very tired and I was not exception. It’s just that every time I closed my eyes, Laurie’s beautiful breasts and tits instantly popped up right in front of my face. The impression was too strong.

  In the end, I couldn’t sleep in peace. Then, at noon Mike knocked everyone door one by one, asking us to take a bath before gathering in the lounge for post-hunt brief. I managed to get up and arrived in the lounge together with everyone. However, even after the bath heavy drowsiness still plagued my mind.

  “Take a vial of stamina potion,” Mike said after seeing my sleepy eyes and sluggish body. “Right now, your body is not strong enough to take the blowback from blue potion without it.”

  “Okay.”

  Without delay I took one stamina potions. Mike gave me several vials before we went for the hunt yesterday. If I recalled correctly, Matt also said that I should took a vial of stamina potion when I finished the play with Laurie, but I totally forgot about it.

  A moment later, I felt my drowsiness rapidly evaporated and my mind became clearer. At the same time, Mike using his tablet to buy tones of chicken cutlet, fish and chips, strawberry yogurt Mochi, and draft beer from a diner in Tokyo.

  “Japanese food huh?” I said while helping Mike to arrange them in the table.

  “Don’t underestimate Japanese comfort food,” Mike firmly said.

  “Japanese is very good at making cheap and delicious but fully safe food,” McKay added. “Their work and dedication in this field is unmatched.”

  After letting out a sigh Sanchez said, “When I was stationed in Japan I always had complain on Japanese food and beer, even though they were always my first pick when I went outside the base.

  Now, after I left the country, I always crave for it. It’s karma I guess”

  “I love Japanese comfort food by the way. I also understand how much the work and dedication they put on it,” I happily said. “When I visited Kyoto with my father back then, we just randomly pick eatery or food truck in the business district that was full of salary man, but the food never disappointed us.”

  “But you should be careful when ordering Japanese food using your tablet,” Matt warned me in friendly manner. “Not all Japanese stores outside Japan are being run by Japanese or carry their spirit and dedication. Mostly it’s owned and ran by Kainese.”

  “Kainese?” I asked as a question mark popped up in my forehead.

  “It’s a group of people who love to cutting corner in everything they run in every chance.” Matt casually said. “And maybe that’s the reason why food from their store is very often pale in comparison in taste and quality compare to what we buy from Japan directly.”

  “To be safe, if you want to eat Japanese comfort food, just buy it directly from Japan, Japanese-run store, or Taiwanese international chains that their store in Japan is flourished,” Tim added. “Don’t waste our hard-earned money on shady food, when we have access for the real deal.”

  “Got it,” I firmly replied.

  It seemed Pukin’ Dogs was very serious about their food. Maybe, they had experienced the dangerous side of shady comfort food. Well, whatever it was, I took their words seriously. They were strong folks who could eat any edible material almost without repercussion. Therefore, I should avoid food that could put them in full alert.

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  After toasting our beer and gulped down a mouthful, we wolfed down the food heartily. As expected, it didn’t disappoint me. It’s still as delicious as I remembered, and brought me back a good memory when I visited Japan with my father.

  We couldn’t eat pork, but the porkless Japanese food was still delicious as hell. There was a possibility the chicken, fish, or turkey we ate was not kosher enough because it was not slaughtered in accordance to Jewish tradition, but when we were traveling overseas my father taught me to slightly lower our kosher level.

  Then, as everyone took their second portion Mike started the post-hunt brief. “Yesterday, we have to retreat midway, but we still managed to score some kills.

  We also obtained good intels like the nest size, the number of remaining Minotaur, and the absence of human prisoner.

  So, it’s not too bad and don’t let it get us. There are still lots of hunt we can carry. We have to stay sharp.”

  “Roger that.”

  Matt firmly replied while the rest of us firmly nodded our head.

  “So,” I curiously asked. “What will we do to yesterday nest?”

  “Nothing,” Mike casually said. “Unless A-rank or B-rank team asks our assistance to raid it again, we will have to find other target. Torrak also told me earlier, another B-rank and D-rank team will hit it in two days. They have good intels so I’m sure they will shut down the nest for good.”

  “So, we will let it go,” I said in low voice.

  “That’s the wisest move,” Matt casually said. “We can put down 2-3 Minotaur to the ground using precision or overwhelming firepower, but fighting eleven of them in close quarter is out of our league.”

  I nodded and asked another question, “Can we use explosive to wipe them out in one sweep? I think one Mk.82 GP will do the job.”

  “It’s not that simple,” Sanchez said before putting a piece of chicken cutlet in his mouth.

  Question mark instantly popped up in my forehead. “How so?”

  “The biggest non shoulder-fired ordnance we can buy is 81 mm mortar,” Matt casually replied. “Most of all, even if the nest is only 30x25x20 meters at most, it doesn’t have flat floor. Some area is 2-2.5 meters higher, while some other is 2-2.5 meters lower.

  The difference in floor height forms cubicles where the monster sleep separately based on their rank. These sleeping cubicles make it impossible to kill them all in one sweep using blasts fragmentation or other detonation means.”

  “Can we use poison or sleeping gas?”

  “Nope,” McKay replied before giving his beer a sip. “Poison and sleeping gas won’t work on monster.”

  “What about tear gas to degrade their fighting capacity?”

  “Tear gas badly affect monster, but inside the nest it won’t work,” Matt said.

  “Why?”

  “The air circulation in the nest is very good,” Matt added. “Tear gas won’t last long, and if the monster stays in the nest center, approaching them is a high risk move even though they are still under tear gas influence.

  Facing monster that can go berserk at any moment in tight space is the last thing we want to do.”

  If I asked another question, I believed Mike and the rest would think I was very stubborn. However, my training dictated me to check every possibility thoroughly and it already became a second nature for me. Therefore, even if there was a risk I would piss someone off, I couldn’t help but would keep checking every possibility.

  “What about detonation that generate extreme heat? We can design extreme heat illumination that envelope every space in nest center evenly.”

  After letting out a sigh Matt replied, “Minotaur can resist heat exposure up to 700 degree Celsius for 4 minutes. To kill it using extreme heat, we have to expose it to 900 degree Celsius heat for 3-4 minutes. This is the minimal math to damage them beyond their Regeneration.”

  “The problem is,” Sanchez added, “Until now, no hunter who know how to handle explosive manage to translate this math into practical weapon. A demo dude detonated a Thermobaric package in the nest center once. It killed some but only wounded the rest. The heat that reached the sleeping cubicles is not high enough or stays long enough to kill them.

  And if we take this route, we also need to think how we will retreat into safety distance after delivering the package while holding back the monster inside the nest.”

  Without delay I took out a notepad and a pen. “How much budget we can use?”

  Mike instantly turned his gaze to me. He kept looking at me for a while before finally he said, “I don’t know how much the reward from shutting down a nest. Last time we support a B-rank team to do it, they just gave us 100.000 mollar as a reward.

  But killing 11 Minotaur will give us 110.000 mollar. Let’s put 5000 mollar for fuel and ammo, and 90.000 mollar to build the bomb and the delivery system.”

  I immediately made the calculation. I could use my tablet to buy things from earth, so it enabled me to build something I was familiar with and finished the calculation in no time.

  “We can do it below the budget,” I confidently said.

  “Well, share us the detail,” Mike calmly said. “If it’s feasible and the risk is acceptable, let’s do it.”

  *****