worse than being held at gunpoint! I just kept silent instead. I just
had to prove to her that I wasn’t anything bad at all. Acting as if
there wasn’t a bomb at my back, I grabbed a plastic tray and a pair of
tongs from one of the bread displays in the middle of the bakery and
started browsing for my meal, acting as if there wasn’t a literal bomb
hanging behind me.
Yuna had just finished tending to her leg, so I asked, “What kind of bread do you want? This place pretty much has everything.”
But instead of a genuine response, she raised her voice at me, “Are you fucking serious?”
Surprised, I turned to look at her.
In a bout of anger, she kept shouting, “I nearly got killed by those fleshwolves and your first thought is getting food?! You’d know how strong those monsters are if you fought a single one!”
I set my tray aside as I said, “We still have around fifty minutes left in this wave. That’s more than enough time.”
She continued her rant, “They aren’t like the goblins from last wave.
I had to use the last of my rewards from the previous wave just to kill
four of those wolves. I need this entire hour if I want to survive
‘till the next wave, so if you don’t want to die, I suggest you come
with me.”
“Yuna—”
“But if you still insist on eating, fine. Just don’t get in my way,”
She pushed herself up from the chair and nearly fell if not for the
counter catching her. She was still trying to walk, but it was obvious
she was in pain from the way she was hiding her limp.
I wasn’t obligated to stop her. If she was willingly marching to her own death, I wouldn’t stop her.
I just can’t stand the thought of my efforts being wasted. I mean,
why would I carry her all the way here and out of those fleshwolves if
she was just so keen on killing herself?
Without showing any care, I told her, “You’re being reckless.” Then I
sat down on one of the nearby chairs before continuing, “If what you’re
saying is true, then you wouldn’t survive another encounter with a
fleshwolf pack. Not only is your leg gashed, but unlike those goblins
with a pea for a brain, those things won’t hesitate to kill you just
because a walking sack puppet’s nearby.”
“What’s your plan if you run into them again? Are you going to blow
them up?” I said, then Yuna stopped. It seemed like I hit the mark—but I
wasn’t done talking just yet. “Let’s assume your plan works. You kill a
pack with your exploding puppets, but what happens when the noise draws
in another pack or more? What if those player-killers catch you, instead?”
And without missing a beat, I strongly said, ”You only survived because I got to you before they did.”
I continued to drill more sense into her, “You don’t have anything to
defend yourself when they get close. That’s why earlier, you couldn’t
explode the fleshwolf that was about to maul you alive lest you get
caught in the blast radius. I hope you know it only takes one of them to get close to you before you’re completely fucked.”
Her expression twisted with frustration. She knew I was right. But
she also knew that standing still and not doing anything felt just as
dangerous. Being stagnant in this environment was akin to death—and I
knew how that exactly felt when I nearly ran out of time last wave.
I exhaled slowly. “Look. Even if we work together, taking on a pack
of five fleshwolves head-on is a huge risk. I’m trying to come up with a
plan that keeps both of us alive,
so sit down, rest, and save your energy.” I paused. “And I’m not going
to backstab you. You can get the sack puppet off my back. If you still
want to go out there, I won’t stop you. I don’t care what happens,
anyway.”
Even with all that, still continued to hang itself on the back of my
shirt. I could still see Yuna hesitating, but she eventually nodded and
took a seat back on her chair. Silence occupied between us, and I took
it as permission to resume my bread shopping. While doing so, she
muttered inaudibly, “That’s a lot of words for someone who doesn’t care.”
“What?” I genuinely didn’t hear her, so I glanced over and asked her to repeat what she just said.
“I said I want the pizza bread. Ham and cheese croissant. Also the
chocolate donut,” she said quietly, not meeting my eyes. I turned back
to the display, a small sense of relief settling in my chest as she
finally calmed down. She’d also brought the puppet back to herself as it
now walked toward her.
[EVENT: Wave Tutorial (2/5)]
00:44:09 Remaining
76/50 Monsters Killed
With a plastic tray stacked with fragrant and unmistakably real bread
resting on the counter, Yuna and I sat across from each other, eating
in awkward silence. Not that it bothered me at all, though. Between
chewing and swallowing, my status panel remained open the entire time as
I tried to piece together a plan that would actually work for both of
us.
After Yuna swallowed her last bite of pizza bread, she broke the silence. “This bakery is a bit odd.”
Without diverting my attention off my list of skills and items, I replied, “How so?”
“This area’s supposed to be some kind of special area for the Wave
Tutorial EVENT, right?” She said. “Then why is there cooked bread here?
It’s still warm and the bread’s really delicious. It’s like it just got
baked this morning."
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
She had a point, but I didn’t think it was important for now. I
simply dismissed it as just her rambling, so I gave her a half-assed
response, “I don’t think anyone part of this EVENT has the time to bake
fresh bread for us.”
“Do you think it’s fake? Or poisoned in any way?” She asked while chewing a piece of pastry.
“I’d be the first to know, then. I already ate like three chicken
croissants the past five minutes.” As we were talking, another panel
slid open from below the event timer. I already knew it what the hell it
was.
[Pop
Fulfill any of the following conditions to get a special reward!
- Kill Yuna.
- Reward: (F-Tier Artifact) Plasma Shield
- PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE KISS HER.
- Reward: (C-Tier Potion) Soft Romance Potion
Expiration: 00:02:30
What the fuck?
That was my only reaction to that highly unnecessary second
condition. Whatever the GREED System was, that tutorial moderator named
Tesla who said to worship it as our god was seriously mistaken. There
was no way something as unhinged as this System has absolute authority
of this world.
Suddenly, Yuna coughed violently. She must have choked mid-swallow.
She recovered quickly enough, slamming a hand against the counter. It
followed with, “What the fuck is wrong with this System?!”
The moment I looked at her, she also looked at me. We locked eyes,
sharing a moment of understanding with an experience that wasn’t
entirely unique to us. Yuna urgently asked, “Did you get that quest,
too?”
I sighed, then nodded.
Yuna said, in an irritated tone, “We need to get the hell out of here. Do you have a plan already?”
I couldn’t agree with her more, though I still had to confirm
something. “Just to make sure, you really don’t have anything for
close-range defense?”
“Nope. I have nothing useful for fighting close up anymore,” Yuna
answered, then she cuddled her cheek with one of her sack puppets who
had climbed on top of her shoulder. “Buuuuut, my puppets are still
pretty cute and useful, don’t you think?”
I took out my Crude Multi-shifting Blade and dropped it on one side
of the counter. I fell with a solid clank. Yuna’s pause indicated she
was inspecting the item information. “I-I don’t know how to use a sword.
Or an axe. Or any weapon that this blade can shift to, for that matter.
Did this drop from a goblin pack leader?”
“Yeah,” I replied. “And right now, it’s your only option for
close-range combat. And also,” I glared at her. “I’m only lending this
sword to you, so you have to give it back to me the moment you get a
better weapon.”
She pouted. “Pfft. Fine.”
“Alright,” I said, leaning forward. “Here’s the plan.”
And so, I told her the following.
Since drawing a full pack of fleshwolves would be suicide, we’d have
to use the alleyways to our advantage. It provided us significant
advantage over those wild monsters by limiting the directions they could
ambush us on, while ensuring that we could only fight one or two of
them at the same time. Although Yuna and I would be exchanging our kills
during this ordeal, I’d be the one engaging the fleshwolves first to
weaken or disable them, so the she could claim the kill on a wolf with
minimal risk.
The only drawback to this plan was our movement. Along the narrow
alleys, we could only go forwards and backwards, and the occasional left
and right. If our escape gets blocked, Yuna’s exploding puppets was a
last resort. Once those went off, anything nearby would come running at
us and so we’d have to escape to a nearby building.
“So I’m a liability?” Yuna asked. “I’m just as regular as I was back on Earth if I can’t use my puppets.”
“Not exactly. They’re small and technically silent, but you can use
them to scout the area around to act as our eyes, just like how you did
it when you scoured the bakery earlier.” And a curious question popped
in my head that I just had to ask, “By the way, if the puppet’s don’t speak, how do you know what they’re seeing?”
“I can only control six puppets at a time from a range of around
twenty meters, roughly the length of two buses. I always have this one
right here that’s kind of like a receiver,” she pointed at the puppet
sitting on her shoulder. “They don’t exactly speak, but when I want to
see something or if I need to see something important, this receiver
puppet downloads the information into my brain. I… don’t know how it
works, exactly.”
We were getting off track, so I put us back in topic before that
train of curiosity derailed us somewhere. “As for my fighting stance, my
current loadout allows me to buff my stats and physical fighting stance
to a certain degree.”
Yuna mouthed an ohhh. “Then, like a tank?”
“I can’t take too much damage, so brawler is the more accurate term.”
“Alright,” She reached for the blade and lifted it carefully. As she
did, the weapon shimmered and reshaped itself, smoothly elongating into a
spear. it shifted into another weapon—notably, a spear. It was a good
choice; it allowed her to attack from a certain range without
compromising herself.
“…Okay,” she said quietly. “I like this one.”
When she tried to stand up again, her leg buckled almost immediately.
I moved to help, but she stopped me with a raised hand. “No, I can do
it. The pain is manageable, but I just… can’t run very fast.”
I filed that thought away. She was basically implying I’ll be carrying her again if things go south.
“All that’s left,” she murmured, gripping the spear, “is finding our targets.”
“Remember the wolves from earlier?” I said. “Nothing loud has
happened around here since. If they didn’t wander off, they should still
be close.”
Once everything was set, we moved toward the back door. The warmth of
the bakery faded the moment I cracked it open. Cold air, dust, and the
distant echo of something howling crept in. Yuna’s puppets slipped out
first, disappearing into the shadows of the alleyway.
I took out the Goblin Longsword off my inventory and used it as a weapon, and with that, we stepped outside.
The alley was narrow, hemmed in by brick walls and rusted fire
escapes. Every sound we made felt amplified—from our footsteps, our
breathing, to the occasional screams we’d hear across the city. Even so,
we advanced slowly to allow Yuna’s puppets to cover more ground. Our
weapons were raised, ready to defend against any surprises.
Is this even the right direction? It is, right?
I assured myself. There were instances in the past where I had to have
Harvey ask people to get us out of some area after our door-to-door
sales work. Without him, I probably would’ve gotten lost almost every
time… I was not saying I was directionally challenged, though. It’s
probably only because I had an aging brain before I died.
To kill the doubt off of me, I decided to talk to Yuna, “How many kills do you need to clear the wave?”
“I’ve killed 29 out of 50. You?”
“Oh, uh…” I hesitated, but after genuinely seeing her curious
expression, I didn’t think it would be wise to hide anything from her.
She was technically relying on me now. “I’m at 76 out of 50.”
Yuna stopped walking behind me. She obviously didn’t believe me at
first, but after seeing my serious un-joking reaction, her first
reaction was to say, “What?”
I met her stare, acting as if getting seventy-six kills in the first wave wasn’t totally abnormal at all.
“…What?” I said, hoping that she’d simply ignore what I said and brush it off as a lie.