'ugh... my head, hurts a little.'
'Wait... didn't I get out of the monsters stomach? Am I dead?'
Ishiki remembered blurred memories that came in as fragments. After he pierced the monsters heart, it burst open with a flood of blood. He fell back into the slimy substance and then crawled towards its mouth.
After that... after that he didn't know what happened. Did he fail to get out?
Then suddenly as the pain in his head increased, consciousness returned like a drowning man breaking to the surface.
Ishiki's eyes snapped open, staring at a ceiling he recognized immediately. He was in the room that had been assigned to him, and he had spent his last 15 days almost closed here.
A sigh escaped his lips. As he pushed himself into a sitting position. His body felt strange all over, his muscles were sore, as if he had just ran a marathon.
But there was no sharp pain or agony. He was healed.
'So, I am alive and completely healed. That's good.'
He rubbed his temples, his head was throbbing unusually too much. Maybe side effects of being exposed to that monsters digestive horror. Ishiki's face twisted at the thought of it, he wouldn't wanna remember it ever again.
Inside his peripheral vision, he saw Kenji slumping on the sofa nearby, his head was tilted backwards and he was dozing off in an uncomfortable position. The young man's blonde hair were disheveled and the dark circles under his eyes suggested he hadn't slept properly in days.
He turned around and behind him, the window spilled faint moonlight into the room—silver, cold and beautiful in ways Ishiki had stopped appreciating until he'd nearly died in complete darkness.
'Its... beautiful.'
A chuckle escaped Ishiki's lips. It was not quite sane or relieved, somewhere in between.
The door suddenly burst open.
Ishiki flinched violently, body tensing for attack despite having no weapons. It had become a reflex of his body now.
Kaori entered the doorway holding two packages in both hands, her expression twisted into disgust as she looked at Ishiki.
Ishiki forced a smile that felt more like a grimace. "Hi, Kaori. Did... did something happen?"
She took a deep breath, set the package down on the side table with deliberate care, and summoned her sword.
She sighed and then pointed the blade at Ishiki, who looked at it with twitching eyes. "Uh... uh What are you doing?"
"You must die, Ishiki."
Ishiki raised his hands immediately. "Wait... wait, We can talk this through. What did I even do?"
Kaori flashed the blade closer that made Ishiki sweat like a cold bottle in summer heat. "Stop, Stop... are you attempting murder?"
"Murder?" Kenji jerked awake like a startled cat, half-asleep. "Who? Where? Why?"
Kaori stepped towards Kenji and dismissed her sword, then grabbed Kenji's collar, and slapped him across the face with enough force to echo in the small room.
"OUCH! That hurts." He rubbed his eyes and then looked at Kaori's ugly expression.
"Where are his clothes?" Her voice carried the particular sharpness of someone whose patience had been tested beyond reasonable limits.
Kenji blinked and looked between Kaori and Ishiki, then down at Ishiki specifically, and his eyes widened in realization.
"OHH! So, What clothes? He's been naked ever since we brought him here."
Ishiki looked down and confirmed that he was, in fact, completely naked. Again, for the second time. Standing in his room in front of Kaori like some kind of serial exhibitionist.
"Oh." His face went hot as he turned around. "That's... that's unfortunate."
Kaori's eye twitched. Then she turned on her heel, and walked out muttering something about killing someone soon.
Wonder who?
***
About twenty minutes later, Kaori returned with clothes salvaged from somewhere—a too large and pants that needed a belt to stay up, both smelling faintly.
Ishiki dressed quickly, grateful for coverage even if the fit was comical on his scrawny frame, and sat back down on the sofa. Kenji came ack from the bathroom after washing his face and sat opposite to him.
Kaori remained standing, arms crossed and still looking vaguely homicidal.
Then she unwrapped the package she had brought and put four food boxes on the table and sat on one of the couch.
There were two pieces of bread in each box, along with some white rice and a raw egg.
Ishiki's eyes gleamed as he looked at the food. His growling stomach hasn't been fed properly for who knows how long.
He grabbed the bread and tore into it without ceremony, chewing mechanically and just shoveling it into his body without even tasting it.
Ishiki swallowed a mouthful of rice and eggs, and remembering something, his expression turned somber.
"How long?" His voice came out quiet, almost afraid of the answer. "How long was I out?"
"Three days." Kaori's reply was flat and indifferent.
Ishiki's eyes widened. His jaw clenched.
Three days. Three entire days unconscious while the world kept turning, while the Scenario timer kept counting down.
'Darn it! Three days wasted just like that.'
"Don't let the food cool down." Kaori's voice cut through his spiral. "Who knows when you'll get food next."
Ishiki looked up, frowning. "What does that mean? Didn't we have enough supplies for six months?"
This time Kenji spoke, his usually cheerful face twisted into something dark and bitter. "It was... stolen."
"What?" Ishiki's voice came out strangled. "Stolen? How? By who?"
Kaori finished her portion, took a long drink from a water bottle, and cleared her throat.
The door opened again—Akari slipped in quietly, looking exhausted and worried. Kaori gestured for her to sit on the couch without breaking conversational flow.
"Tell me, Ishiki." Kaori's tone shifted. She looked as if she was about to give him explanations about unpleasant realities. "You don't think we're the only ones alive in the world, do you?"
"Well, there are thousands of people out there. Tens of thousands, across Japan alone. This camp is just one of many. There are more than a hundred such groups scattered across the country. Maybe two or three here in Sector 12 specifically." She paused, letting that sink in.
"So what do you think happens when resources become scarce? When survival becomes first priority? And when someone else's supplies mean your people live another week?"
Ishiki gritted his teeth. "Someone attacked us, after the Xenon breach. While we were vulnerable?"
"No." Kaori shook her head, and her expression turned even darker. "That's the part that makes it worse. I admit we were an easy target after the attack. But did you ever consider that the Xenon attack itself was unusual?"
Kenji leaned forward, frowning. He hadn't been briefed on this either. "What do you mean unusual?"
"Six superior Xenons don't just coordinate an assault," Kaori said flatly. "Do you think those things planned the attack thinking about, when our strongest fighters are away on patrol?" She spat the word like a curse. "Someone lured those things here. And while we were fighting for our lives, while people were dying, they stole more than half our resources."
The implications crashed over Ishiki like a mountain.
Yeah... the world had changed. People had changed, or rather. They have started showing their true side.
"How did they even move that much?" Kenji asked, voice hollow. "Our warehouse had tons of supplies. You can't just carry that away."
Kaori shrugged. "Who knows? We can't rule out the possibility of some skill that enables mass transportation, spatial storage or Teleportation. Anything can be possible." She looked around at all of them, making sure they understood. "Earth is not the same anymore. We've entered a new era. An era of supernatural powers and beings. And that includes the ugly parts—people using those powers to prey on other survivors."
Ishiki finished his food, stood, and moved to the window. Outside, the camp was silent. Moonlight painted everything in silver and shadow.
Tents stood empty or collapsed. The breached gate remained unrepaired, guarded by tens of players all the time.
It would never be the same. The attack had broken the illusion of safety, the belief that walls and numbers provided security. Fear had been instilled in hearts that couldn't afford to carry more weight.
Ishiki raised one hand and summoned his system window with a mental command.
The platinum screen materialized, translucent and glowing, displaying information only he could see.
His eyes went immediately to the Scenario timer.
[Time Until Next Scenario: 9 D]
Nine Days...