159 Insect

Emerging from a deep indigo space, Altair landed on both feet. As his vision cleared, he began to survey his surroundings.

After the daily celebrations with the Hestia Familia, Hestia and Saeko went to the bathroom to bathe together, while Altair, as usual, slipped into his study to work on his latest world-level breakthrough mission.

Now, he found himself in a new world.

"According to the previous setup, it's another save-the-world gig, huh? Tch."

Altair gazed at the towering trees around him and clicked his tongue in mild frustration.

"In a forest again? Is this another ancient-era scenario?"

Though Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress technically took place after the Industrial Revolution, making it more modern, to Altair, it didn't feel much different from being stuck in the past.

"Nimbus!"

(A/N: I change Somersault Cloud to Nimbus!)

With his trusty Nimbus cloud at his disposal, Altair had no intention of trudging through the forest on foot like last time. He summoned the cloud, hopped aboard, and reclined comfortably as he directed it to rise into the air. Skimming just above the treetops, he maintained an altitude of a few dozen meters and began soaring over the forest.

Within his field of vision, there were nothing but mountains and endless trees—no sign of human settlements anywhere.

"Did I end up in some prehistoric era with pristine vegetation, or is this a tropical rainforest or something?"

Half-lounging on the Nimbus, Altair peered down at the forest below, muttering to himself. He then urged the cloud to climb higher, hoping to get a better view since the hills here were a bit too numerous for his liking.

After cresting one such hill, Altair finally spotted a familiar landmark.

Mount Fuji. Yep, seeing Mount Fuji told him exactly where he was. It seemed he'd landed in Japan again.

If that was the case, Tokyo should lie to the southeast.

Glancing up at the sun, he gauged the time and oriented himself toward the southeast.

Hm?

Just as he was about to head in that direction, a holographic panel popped up on his left hand.

A sneak attack?

Altair immediately commanded the Nimbus to swerve sideways, dodging from his original position. In that split second, a dark blur shot past where he'd been, streaking upward into the sky.

Looking up, Altair got a clear view of what it was.

A giant… dragonfly?

It looked a little bizarre, but it was definitely a dragonfly—or something like it. The size, though, was absurdly massive, and its head was downright terrifying. With a gaping maw full of razor-sharp teeth, it resembled a monster more than an insect!

The dragonfly looped in the air, then dove straight toward Altair at breakneck speed.

"Well, damn, you've got some guts charging at me like that!"

Springing up from his reclined position, Altair pulled his trusty ship-slicing blade from his spatial pocket and steadied himself on the Nimbus.

"Let's go, Nimbus!"

Mentally directing the cloud, he charged head-on, clashing with the dragonfly like knights jousting on a battlefield.

As they collided, Altair flipped the Nimbus upside down. The cloud came equipped with a special gravity field, shielding its rider from the brunt of high-speed winds and drastically reducing inertia. Even when inverted, it kept its occupant firmly in place—utterly unscientific, but incredibly convenient!

The sudden roll put Altair directly above the dragonfly. Gripping his blade with both hands, he swung downward in a vertical slash. The beam-edged weapon sliced through the creature's head in an instant. As they passed each other, the dragonfly's elongated body was cleaved clean in two, its halves splitting apart midair and plummeting toward the ground.

Maintaining the Nimbus's inverted position, Altair glanced down at the dragonfly's corpse as it crashed into the forest, toppling several trees and kicking up a cloud of dust.

And with that dust came more giant monsters. These ones couldn't fly, though—they barreled across the ground, racing toward the dragonfly's remains.

"Seriously? Did I just stumble into some kind of insect era?"

But an "insect era" wouldn't match Japan's modern geography—that would've been millions of years ago.

The holographic panel on his hand vanished, and Altair could speak freely again, meaning the immediate danger below no longer threatened him.

Righting the Nimbus, he didn't lie back down this time. Instead, he reshaped the cloud into a chair, sat upright, and set off toward the southeast.

As he drew closer, signs of human civilization came into view—massive black pillars, far larger than mere columns. They were more like monoliths, some so tall they pierced the clouds. The structures stood in an eerie, orderly pattern across the landscape. Beyond them loomed a distinctly modern city.

Tokyo. Giant black monoliths, sprawling forests teeming with terrifying monsters.

Alright, Altair knew which world this was.

He couldn't help but pull up his system interface, glancing at the new skill he'd recently acquired.

[Loli Guardian of Gensokyo]

His first world had granted him a spatial pocket for storage. The second gave him a passive presence-erasing ability, letting him waltz through Kabaneri's hordes unscathed. The third handed him a loli contract, and now this world just so happened to be full of lolis in need of saving.

"Wow, you're really handing me the answers on a silver platter every time, huh?"

Closing the interface, Altair grumbled inwardly.

This was the world of Black Bullet. Humanity, in its infinite wisdom, had messed around with biological research and unleashed a Gastrea virus. That virus turned the infected into Gastrea—giant monsters like the one that had just attacked him. Regardless of whether their original DNA came from herbivores or carnivores, they all became ravenous predators, relentlessly hunting humans.

Great. Another virus. It was like he had a personal vendetta against them now!

Ninety percent of humanity had perished in the Gastrea outbreak. The survivors discovered a metal called Varanium that could repel the virus, using it to erect massive monoliths and huddle behind them for safety.

The setup felt… familiar. In stories like this, the trope was almost overdone.

Especially if some angsty teenager showed up, shouting at the monsters beyond the monoliths: "Drive them out! Leave none alive!" That'd push the cliché meter to a solid 100%.

Okay, this world didn't have that teenager. But it did have exactly what Altair's new skill demanded.

Girls!

___

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