Chapter 17

  Jake walked down the middle of a street, holding the semiautomatic shotgun at the ready. Except for the whistling of the wind and his footsteps, all was quiet. Yet he remained alert, stantly sing his surroundings for any threats. Rusted old car frames lined both sides of the road. Tall grass pushed through the cracks in the asphalt, and long vines bhe building fronts. Jake tio traverse the post-apocalyptic city streets, taking in the sight of abando aation.

  It had been a couple of hours since he woke up in the building where he’d spent the night. For the several minutes, he had been cheg the building for threats, but just like the previous day, there were no enemies within the premises. Jake was relieved that no mutants had ehe building while he slept as he’d feared could happen. After returning to the sed-floor room, he pondered for a bit and decided to use this pce as his secret hideout. This room was as good for st his belongings as any. He left behind most of the ed food and bottled water as well as the sleeping bag and the pump-a shotgun. After pig up a few essentials and pag them into his rucksack, he hoisted it onto his shoulders.

  He took out his PDA and marked the location of the building on the map. The operating system of his PDA allowed him to input a short text limited to fourteen characters to use as a bel. Taking advantage of this fun, he beled the pin as HIDEOUT.

  He then noticed that there was an asterisk above the Diary tab, indig there was something new in there. He tapped oab to open it. There were two entries in the Diary.

  Day 1: The Awakening

  It’s been six years sihe event known as the Colpse turh into a post-apocalyptic wastend. I was fortunate enough to live through the Colpse, but now I have to learn to survive in this dangerous new world.

  Jake recalled havihe short piece of text yesterday. However, below it was a ry that caught his i. Jake proceeded to read it.

  Day 2: Survival of the Fittest

  Despite all the dahat I entered during the previous day, I mao survive. I faced various types of mutants and had to defend myself against another survivor who tried to steal my supply drop before attag me. In the evening, I found a good pce where I could crash. Nothing woke me up or attacked me during the night. I slept like a baby and now feel refreshed and ready to handle whatever the new day may throw at me.

  Just like the first entry, Jake hadn’t written it himself—it was added to the Diary of its own volition. And it’d apparently happened after Jake woke up, though he hadn’t heard his PDA emit any sounds to inform him about it. He racked his brain, trying to remember if the device had emitted a sound when the first entry appeared in the Diary. As far as he could remember, it hadn’t, but he wasn’t one hundred pert sure about that. He came to the clusion that his PDA likely emitted audible alerts solely for critiotifications that required attention.

  Giving the matter no more thought, Jake switched to the map. Those parts of the city that he’d explored yesterday were visible, but the rest of the city remained obscured by the gray mist. He pced a marker on a misted-over, unexplored part of the city and then stowed his PDA in his inner jacket pocket. , he picked up the semiautomatic shotgun. He briefly pted leaving the submae gun behind to avoid carrying too much weight. Ultimately, he opted t both ons, draping the submae gun around his neck before exiting the building.

  For the couple of hours, Jake had been expl the city. Every now and theook out his PDA to sult the map. However, he didn’t do it too often for fear of being jumped by mutants while he was distracted.

  At some point, he entered a building that seemed vaguely familiar. He stepped in for a quick look. After taking a moment to gnce around, he realized he’d indeed already explored this buildierday. He recalled finding a spare pistol mag in one of the decrepit ets ihe room he was in. Without any particur reason, simply on a whim, he decided to look into the same et. He made his way across the room and opehe et door. When he looked inside, he was surprised to find an autoior resting on a shelf in the precise spot where the pistol magazine had been the day before.

  This discovery made him think. Did it mean that the system reset this world at the beginning of eaew day, causing all previously looted locations to refresh aems to reappear in the same pces? Si was a game-like world, he wouldn’t be all that surprised if that was the case.

  He decided to put this theory to the test and over the hour, retraced his steps through the familiar streets he had explored yesterday. He ehe buildings he’d looted the day before and fouems in them, mostly ammo or ed food. It became evident that the system did indeed refresh this game-like world every twenty-four hours, causiems to respawn in previously looted locations at the start of a new day.

  The same went for mutants as Jake found out a little ter on. When he arrived at the high-rise building where he’d pleted a missioerday, he saw that the empty supply drop and the dead body of the survivor he’d killed remained in the same spots. However, wheered the building, there were no dead bodies of the mutants he’d killed the day before. Instead, living ones wandered around the hall as if they had been resurrected, which might have been the case. Or the dead bodies had simply disappeared, and new mutants had materialized where the corpses of the previous ones had on.

  Anyway, Jake left the building before the resurrected mutants could spot him. For a moment, he just stood on the sidewalk, pting the situation. That ems reappeared every new day was a good thing. Thanks to that, he would always be able to find ammo and food. Living as a sger wasn’t his dream life, but at least, he would be able to survive. But it was a bad thing that previously killed mutants respawned every day too. It meant he wouldn’t be able to find a peaceful pywhere in this world, requiring him to stantly remain vigint and prepared to fight monsters.

  He then studied the map on his PDA for a moment. He located the marker he had pced earlier and oriented himself. With his bearings set, he resumed his trek to the unexplored parts of the city.