Clearing the Game at the End of the World

‘When was the last time I came out of the pod? The time is ratioed 5:1, so… a week? No, about 9 days ago?’

I did come out a couple times while playing, but Ian must be busy doing something because he was nowhere to be found, and Vex and Synthia were having the time of their lives going outside and playing around, spending almost no time at home, and there wasn’t much for him to do even if I came outside so I decided to stay inside for the rest of the time.

“Heheheh… The shelter changed a bit, didn’t it?”

“If this is ‘a bit’, then how much does it need to change to be a lot?”

One thing that stood out the most. The shelter was brighter.

Shelters were usually on the darker side. We had the shelter on low-power mode during the day to save electricity and relied just on the natural light that came in from the greenhouse on one side of the shelter.

But, when I came out of the room where the game pod was, it was bright enough to feel like the space had opened up.

“The wall’s… gone?”

Correction. It didn’t feel open, it was actually opened up. The wall to the front of the game pod was gone and was replaced with a glass corridor. At the end of the corridor was the middle-sized shelter that Ian and Vex were building last time.

“Yep! We were originally planning for Mister Ian and Vex to live in the new shelter while Miss Synthia lived in our shelter, but Mister Vex insisted that he was going to live here as well, so we just connected the two buildings. The current side we’re on will be used as the living quarters, and the new building will be used as a storage and garage center to store caravan supplies. We purchased the ‘n-shaped greenhouse’ sold on the Marketplace for the corridor, and it is a completely identical model to the current greenhouse we have in the shelter aside from the shape, so it can be utilized as a greenhouse as well. I thought of planting potatoes, but the temperature was starting to drop these days, so I planted some cabbage and radish.”

“Hm… that reminds me, we planted only big and fast-growing crops last year, thinking that the greenhouse could handle it, and it ended with a bad harvest. Good idea. Let’s try growing some autumn crops that grow in this temperature.”

September. The summer and autumn of the Wastelands were shorter than the time it takes to blink, and the winters were long to the point people would beg for it to end. There was no spring. Billions of people’s lives weren’t the only things that the nuclear explosions blew away.

Feeling the chilly air of the shelter, Gyosu pushed his spoon into a steaming claw the size of an adult’s head.

Clack, clack.

“Radiation Scorpion, it’s been a while since I had one of these. I caught all of the ones around our house, so they went extinct. Did you buy these?”

“Ah, Mister Vex and Miss Synthia went out far to go catch those. Mister Vex has been working hard recently to help teach the little Miss.”

“Wait, what exactly is he teaching a 10-year-old for the final product to be a Radiation Scorpion the size of a small car? Don’t kids usually bring, I don’t know, pretty decorations or crayon drawings when they come back from school?”

“I don’t know exactly what he’s teaching either…”

Nope. These guys are a no-go. I was a little relieved that Ian wasn’t home, but I didn’t think Vex would be teaching her something weird too.

“Damn it. I’ll need to check when they come back home. We’ll keep that on hold for now… Was there anything important that happened while I was gone? Check the messages. There are going to be a few important ones. And this, get me one of the bodies too. It’s pretty good after having it for the first time in a while.”

“Yessir! Everyone else wasn’t eating it anyway because it was too tough! Please wait one moment!”

With the sound of Koduro’s bright voice, he heard the automatic cooker in the kitchen turn on.

“Let’s see… that’s a hella lotta stuff.”

Seeing a black wave of messages wash over his screen like a tsunami, Gyosu let out a deep sigh.

Most were probably spam, but there were going to be a few that I needed to read in between them.

It looked like he was going to spend all night just reading through all of these.

“Ahhhh! Done!”

7 PM. I finished a lot earlier than I expected, thanks to Koduro helping next to me.

“Why didn’t I think of something so simple? Just getting rid of all the ones including either ‘Our Savior’ / ‘♥’ / ‘Recruitment’ cut out over half of them.”

“Master sure is popular now. Seeing just how much spam mail Master’s getting.”

“The Community people are just always looking for something to talk about, that’s all.”

Clack, clack.

“Are you eating that again?”

“Hm? I need to eat dinner, don’t I?”

“You’ve already eaten half of an entire scorpion by yourself since morning.”

“Me? Already?”

“Yes! In the afternoon, Master said you were craving something and then grilled it over the fire yourself!”

I wondered if I really ate that much, but the pile of scorpion shells next to the drone displaying his messages didn’t lie.

“I really did eat a lot, didn’t I? But I don’t feel especially full or anything.”

“Maybe… it’s because of ‘that’? I did think that the amount of calorie bars being consumed when Master was inside of the game pod was a lot more than usual.”

I raised up my left hand at Koduro’s speculation. A structure completely different from the normal human. Formidable hardness and strength. If it has the same output as a hydraulic press, then it probably takes up that much energy too. And though it looks like that, it’s part of my body, so I’m the one that needs to provide it that energy, most likely.

“…Welp. Go get the rest of what’s left.”

Thinking that it was a possibility, Professor finally added a period to the document where he was organizing the personal messages he received.

======

- Ian : At the Dome for trades. According to the news he’s regularly sending, he is arranging a big contract with the ‘Life N Murder’ Corp. Coming back on September 5th. At current time 20 o’clock, 34 hours left.

- Vex : Teaching Synthia something. According to Koduro’s records, he took a very diverse collection of firearms with him and even bought something from the Dome with his personal ownings. Should check on… and most likely stop whatever he’s doing.

- Dome / Department of Biotechnology & other research departments : 238 Messages about their desire for me to visit them. Should briefly go meet them when I go to the Dome. +++ Excessive energy consumption? Maintainance fee? Usage fee? Should confirm as soon as possible. Chance of side effects or rejection of new substance.

- Soygaybar / Ezel : Long text of apology about the selling of tickets to enter Room 1. Said a bunch of things, but it’s ultimately about how ‘the sales costs have already gone into the Dome’s business departments, so it isn’t possible to give the 30% commission’. Will need to go beat up and get money. Additionally, something about a Ranker meeting? Said there’s going to be a GG ranker information exchange and social meeting that I have to participate in. Should go ask what that’s about.

- Inspection Bureau President : Suggested I visit him in the near future. [Attachment : Dalmoar.jpg] Think it means I should pay up the booze price. That snake.

- Speedwagon : 40.227.90381 Just this one line. Coordinates? Place of meeting? + What the heck even is this guy?

Area 40 is pretty remote. Let’s go meet them.

======

Chomp chomp, gulp!

“Mm, mmph… Is this all of the important stuff?”

“Are you going to stop here?”

“Yeah. We might get something more out of the spam mails if we dig deeper, but I might die if I do any more of this.”

From 10 in the morning to 8 at night, spending close to 10 hours just looking at these tiny letters made it feel like my eyes were going to burst.

“I would think eating an entire scorpion within 10 hours would be ten times harder.”

“Don’t remind me. I’m getting scared of it too.”

Even though I was internally thinking, ‘Is this really okay?’ by hand was scraping up the last bits of flesh inside of the last piece of scorpion shell.

“Let’s go to the hospital. We need to figure out exactly why this is happening first.”

Just as Gyosu was about to dump the empty scorpion shells into the trash can, he thought for a moment and dumped them all inside of the kitchen.

“Master? What are you going to do with those? A Radiation Scorpion’s shell is too weak to use for anything…”

“It’s pretty good when you fry it. Let’s eat it tomorrow morning.”

I didn’t understand it myself, but I was getting peckish again now that I was done eating. It looked like I needed to fall asleep early to stop this endless hunger.

[05:59]

Tick. Tick. Tick.

[06:00]

Tick—

Rustle!

6 AM. It felt like my eyelids were being pulled down by heavy weights when I was falling asleep yesterday, but when I woke up, my eyes opened at the time they always had.

[Uuuuughhh, let me sleep, please! Can’t you wake up a little calmer! Your sleeping habits make me wake up too!]

Like always, Hyde’s agonized yells filled up the morning. After the entire left arm was handed over to him, Hyde also fell asleep like I did, but he slept a lot more, so he complained every time I woke up early like this.

“Huahmm. Yeah, good morning to you, too, Hyde. You’re always asleep inside of the game too. What makes you that sleepy all the time? You don’t even move.”

[When I’m not using the body, I use all of my energy to use this brain. A person that works their body all day gets tired, but a person that reads all day gets that tired too!]

“So that’s how it works?”

The small moment after you wake up when you are still a little zoned out and think about the insignificant things. It’s personally my favorite time of the day. Because the fact that you didn’t need to wake up with all of your senses on alert meant that you achieved some level of success as a Wasteland survivor, and that in itself was a small blessing.

Just then, he could hear the sound of rustling through the cold morning air.

‘A light, narrow footstep. Is it Synthia? Why is she up at this time of the day?’

When I listened closely while lying down on the sofa inside the pod room, I could hear between the sounds of someone padding around the shelter a sound of cloth rubbing together. Not a soft cloth that you wear inside at home, but the tough one of sturdy activity wear.

[Looks like she’s planning to go out. And alone at that. You can’t hear Vex.]

‘No, if he really makes up his mind, then even I can’t hear him. But if they came in yesterday, they should know that I’m here, and he’s not the type to leave without telling me… Wait. Did Vex come in yesterday?’

[Yeah. The two came running in, all excited looking for you, then turned off the lights and left when they found you sleeping.]

‘I didn’t wake up even with all of that commotion?’

[You must’ve been tired. You literally slept like a log, didn’t even dream. Speedwagon’s right. You do need some rest.]

‘Mmm… I really need to go to the Dome today and figure this out.’

[Hey! Why’re you dressing up, then? Just rest!]

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‘Hey, I’m still a Wastelands person. You can’t just stay in bed when the sun’s going up.’

Gyosu tossed on a shirt for outdoor activities, then tightened his shoelaces so the walkers didn’t move, then quietly poked his head out of the game pod room.

Pshwoo—!

He saw Synthia, who was on her tiptoes in front of the shelter entrance, flinch in surprise at the sound of the decompression chamber and almost lose grip on the large sack she was carrying on her back.

Honestly, it was a little cute, reminding him of a Disney animation character.

‘Seeing that there isn’t anything else in front of the decompression chamber aside from my jacket… Vex must have gone out somewhere in the morning too.’

That was good for me. If Vex was moving with Synthia, then it would have been useless no matter how stealthy I tried to be.

“Stealth… Reminds me of the old days.”

[How old do you mean by old? When you lived alone? Military days?]

“Military. Every time our operation area overlapped with another company, I would go loot their supply depots, and I used to move in the early morning like this back then too.”

Though she was being careful, Synthia wasn’t able to even hide her footsteps yet, and trailing her was bringing back old memories in my mind.

Before the decompression chamber that Synthia used closed, Gyosu quickly slipped past the doors to see that after leaving the shelter, Synthia didn’t head straight towards the main door but towards the storage room to bring something out, then grinned widely.

[Isn’t that the cart inside the storage room? The one you use in supermarkets to put things in?]

‘And the one that I cut and welded together to make several times bigger. There are smaller ones than that, so why that one?’

Anyone could see with just a glance that just the cart itself looked too heavy for a 10-year-old girl, but Synthia continued without hesitation with the large cart to the main gate.

‘Is she trying to farm?’

[That’s the only explanation that makes sense. She’s been through a lot, so maybe she felt a little guilty for just staying home and playing around…]

‘Mmmm… how sweet of her. I should follow her and give her a treat—’

Cr-r-r-r-eak—!

Gyosu, who was thinking about how he could reward Synthia for her unexpected behavior, was suddenly at a loss for words when he saw what was past the main gate to their shelter.

‘Wait…’

[Dang, when’d they all get here?]

Under the dim lights of dawn were countless Wasteland people in practical rag-wear that were dismantling old debris or digging through collapsed buildings with a crowbar.

You could clearly see the difference between the messy streets around our shelter and the areas where the expert Wastelands cleanup crew scoured past for scraps. As if there was an invisible line they weren’t allowed to cross, there was a round perimeter around our shelter, and people walked around beyond that line.

‘Don’t tell me… when I told them to maintain the safety distance, they really just excluded our spot and settled down nearby?!’

Ctr-r-r-r-r-k, trr-r-r-r-rrk!

While Gyosu was surprised by the ‘crowd’ that was rare to see in the outskirts of Area 47, Synthia managed to push the cart out all the way to the area beyond the invisible border with much effort, then took off her goggles while wiping off her sweat and exclaimed out enthusiastically.

“Hello, everyone! Good morning!”

The Wastelands and Scavengers. And a bright little girl.

The people that faced an incredibly unnatural situation, unlike Gyosu’s expectations, all welcomed the girl that brought the large cart with a warm greeting.

“Ah, Miss! Good morning to you too!”

“Did you come out instead of the adults again? How mature already for a child your age!”

“Heheheh. Ah, I brought some snacks from home today!”

“Hm? Snacks?”

“Yes! Daddy said that I should share good things!”

“Wow, to think there were still such generous people left in this world!”

“It looks like there aren’t that many mutes as expected either. It was a good choice to move into BDSM’s territory.”

They were friendly. I didn’t know I could use such a word to describe something in the Wastelands, but as the people soaked in sweat and dust shared the fried scorpion shell leftovers, they were having a genuine friendly conversation.

Of course, the one who had supposedly made this said situation, Gyosu, knew nothing about this.

[Daddy? Aren’t you her dad? No, Synthia’s dad was your friend called Luwil, right? Is she talking about that dad?]

‘I’m not it, but it’s even more unlikely that it’s Luwil. He’s the type of guy that would hide anything that’s good and eat it all by himself, not share it like a good person.’

Ratttle!

After saying something that Gyosu’s never heard about, Synthia poured out what was inside of the sack into the cart.

“Tada! Everyone must be hungry, take a break and have some of this!”

“Oooooh! Thank you!”

“Tell Mister Gyosu, ‘Thank you for the food’!”

“Hah, well, would you look at that.”

Unable to figure out whether he should be mad or laugh, Gyosu was scratching his palm habitually.

It was because after the people took a piece of the fried Radiation Scorpion shell that Synthia poured into her cart, they all started to take out a little bit of the scraps from their own sacks and put them in Synthia’s cart.

Growwwwl—

“Did she really… just sell my breakfast?”

It looked like Synthia found her own way to survive out here.