Akira has only spent two days exterminating the heavily armored scorpions hiding out in the underground tunnels, and he’s already had more close calls than he bargained for. And try as he might, his bad luck’s about to get worse. A chance encounter soon proves that the biggest threat in the tunnels aren’t monstrous bugs but other humans. Now a gang of cyborg relic thieves have him in their crosshairs, and his fellow hunters may not take his side. With his lines of communication cut off, and forced to fight new enemies and old allies, Akira is outclassed, outgunned, and out of options. How will the young relic hunter stop a threat that can pursue him from beyond the grave? As Akira fights for survival, the scheming ghosts of the Old World look on...
Akira has come a long way from his life on the streets. He’s a proper hunter now, with a roof over his head, food on his plate, and cash in his pocket. And under the guidance of the mysterious Alpha, he continues to acquire superior weapons, skills, and gear. But success has its downsides, and unfamiliar threats are hurtling toward him—both in the desert wastelands and in the city streets. Akira’s deal with aspiring gang leader Sheryl puts him in conflict with the rival bosses eyeing her territory, and it’s going to take more than firepower to navigate the web of schemes and alliances ensnaring the slums. Meanwhile, a massive swarm of monsters bursts out of the ruins, heading straight for Kugamayama City. Rushing to answer the call for help offers Akira a fresh chance for advancement, but the real danger may prove to be his fellow hunters...
Akira has made it out of Yonozuka Station alive, but he’ll have to put his next relic hunt on hold—the ruin’s drastically altered ecosystem is spawning mutant behemoths, rendering the wasteland unsafe. The Hunter Office steps in and offers a large bounty for exterminating them, leading to an enticing proposition for Akira from an unlikely source. Meanwhile, the internal conflict within Druncam escalates. Akira must now face deadlier foes than ever before, and this time Alpha’s support might not be enough!
Akira is riding high after his successful rescue operation. With new gear and new friends, he’s ready for the next phase of his relic-hunting career. But Akira isn’t the only young hunter in the wastelands, and success might just paint a target on his back. Katsuya, a rookie with the hunter syndicate Druncam, is desperate for recognition, but the veterans around him are more interested in Akira’s feats. Unaware of how much support Akira receives from the ghostly Alpha, Katsuya struggles to outdo his fellow up-and-comer, pushing himself and his friends into ever greater danger in the process. But just when it seems he’s pushed his luck too far, Katsuya has a mysterious encounter of his own. When a major job throws these two young hunters together, Akira must come to grips with Katsuya’s one-sided rivalry while facing down a nest of new and deadly monsters.
Akira has learned the hard way that his fellow relic hunters can be just as deadly as anything else in the wasteland. He’s more determined than ever to go it alone, but life has other ideas. Suddenly, fortune seekers are crowding his favorite hunting grounds, and when a mysterious phenomenon blankets the ruins, he finds it harder to steer clear of conflict than he’d like. Back in the city, his luck isn’t much better: one of the many gangs that rule the slums is out for his money—and his blood. Compared to the ravenous beasts and killer machines that roam the wastes, these petty outlaws don’t seem much of a threat—but they won’t stop coming after him until he racks up a body count that shows gunning for him doesn’t pay. And to cap it all off, he crosses paths with a girl who might just end his self-isolation for good. Akira has an arsenal of new gear and the ever-mysterious Alpha to guide him, but will that be enough to navigate the rocky road ahead?
The pinnacle of human civilization has come and gone, leaving only ruins in its wake. Society and science now struggle to rebuild, rediscovering scraps of knowledge from powerful ancient artifacts that defy comprehension. These relics of the “Old World” can make the fortunes of those who find them—if ancient security systems and rogue bioweapons don’t kill the relic hunters first. Akira, a young street orphan, sets out to become one such hunter to escape his brutal life in the slums. Untrained, malnourished, and poorly armed, Akira would be lucky to make it back from the ruins alive—until an encounter with Alpha, a mysterious, ghostly woman, changes his fate forever. Alpha needs a hunter, and she’s willing to train Akira to get one. Will her support be enough to help a penniless kid from the slums climb to the top of a crushing and merciless world?
In Part 2, a smattering of the novellas are a young Irishman's escapades as he experiences that the local legend isn't really a legend in The Washerwoman; help a young orphan find her biological parents and unearth her family's secrets in Looking for Home; experience the lives of a prisoner and his torturer in The Inquisitor; find out what Horatio really thinks of Hamlet in Horatio; and check out the follow up to Newly Minted Wings and salty French Fries in You Want Me to Clean What?
This unprecedented collection of 27,000 quotations is the most comprehensive and carefully researched of its kind, covering all fields of science and mathematics. With this vast compendium you can readily conceptualize and embrace the written images of scientists, laymen, politicians, novelists, playwrights, and poets about humankind's scientific achievements. Approximately 9000 high-quality entries have been added to this new edition to provide a rich selection of quotations for the student, the educator, and the scientist who would like to introduce a presentation with a relevant quotation that provides perspective and historical background on his subject. Gaither's Dictionary of Scientific Quotations, Second Edition, provides the finest reference source of science quotations for all audiences. The new edition adds greater depth to the number of quotations in the various thematic arrangements and also provides new thematic categories.
Margaret Oliphant (1828-97) had a prolific literary career that spanned almost fifty years. She wrote some 98 novels, fifty or more short stories, twenty-five works of non-fiction, including biographies and historic guides to European cities, and more than three hundred periodical articles. This is the most ambitious critical edition of her work.
The difference between Part I and Part II – Volumes 1 & 2 – of this series, is that in Part I the author showed how what we call reality starts with the inner self whereas Part II describes what, in fact, impacts and modifies the environment or reality and what are the factors behind that dynamics. What impacts and modifies the environment is science. This Volume 2 starts by showing how technology plays an important role in scientific progress. Although the relationship between the two is symbiotic, science can exist without technology but technology desperately needs science. Military technology is an example of how technology can help science advance. Some military inventions end up having civilian use. Science being at the center of society, the book makes the case for the direct impact of such social sciences as politics and economics on the advancement of science. Politics, says the author, influences science because of uncertainty in science, and economics does it thanks to the availability of money to scholars and scientists for their research. On the other hand, government also influences scientific progress through regulations. The book gives cyberspace regulation as an example. Furthermore, by showing how art influences science, the author really argues for the polyfactorial aspect of scientific progress. In that line of thought, he goes on to also prove that factors such as skepticism, curiosity, and the quest for knowledge greatly influence the advancement of science. That, says the author, “is a ninety-degree turn … By ending Part two that way, I wanted to, somehow, link it to Part I, which argues that reality starts from within.”
