Solitude and Fatigue

　By the time Akira finally arrived at the office, it was already past 7:30 a.m. He hid from the monsters, sometimes running away from them and avoiding combat as much as possible.

(This is not good. I need to get ready fast.)

　Pushed by his impatience, Akira packs his backpack with the necessary items.

　The preparation took only a few minutes. He packed his backpack with only a few days’ worths of food and the supplies he had determined to be usable during the previous leveling.

　Akira put his bulging backpack on his back and left the office in a flash as he dashed out into the city.

(Uhh, hmm…… The minotaur will appear over there―――― so, this way）

　Looking around, Akira turned his feet in the opposite direction from where the minotaur would appear.

　In the city, the sound of gunfire has already disappeared, and as before, people, monsters, and all their signs were no longer felt. The deafening silence was an existential sign that the minotaur was close.

“――Uh.”

　Akira ran through the quiet town.

　Leaving the street lined with residential buildings where the company was located, he stepped into a commercial district lined with department stores and retail stores.

　And so, after running for a while, Akira finally slowed down his running speed as goblins began to appear sporadically.

“Now that I’ve made it this far, I can relax, right? “

　As he said that, Akira made sure that the goblins that attacked him added to his experience, then quickly looked around and hid himself in the shadows.

　For at the end of the alley, he spotted a group of Boars moving in a herd.

“Haaa……”

　Letting out a breath, Akira wiped the sweat from his forehead.

(How far away am I?　Two kilometers……No, I must have run three kilometers easily.)

　The time he spent on the distance was short, only a few minutes or so. This may also be an effect of his increased status.

(For the moment, I’ll just hide somewhere.)

　It was also necessary to recover from the fatigue accumulated in the battle with the Man-eating Plants and to heal the wounds received.

　Akira walked around, hiding in the shadows, and when he found a drugstore, he broke a window and barged into it.

(After only this time, I’m no longer hesitant to trespass. Well, this is the world we live in now, and we don’t have time for that sort of thing.)

　Muttering in his mind, Akira rummaged through the store and found an antiseptic solution, compresses, gauze, and bandages. In addition, when he found some over-the-counter painkillers, he picked them all up and sat down in a corner of the store to begin treating his wounds.

　After disinfecting the torn skin, he pressed gauze over it and wrapped a bandage around it. He applied compresses to the blue bruises and lacerations, and then took over-the-counter painkillers to deal with the pain.

“……I’m terrible at this.”

　And so, after all the wounds were treated. Seeing the bandages wrapped messily around his own body, Akira could not help but blurt out these words.

　Akira clearly knew that he himself was clumsy, although current his appearance would without doubt raise eyebrows in the eyes of doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals.

(Well, so long as these things don’t let any weird germs get into the wounds.)

　Akira spoke in his mind, a rough but somewhat masculine thought, and then laid back down on the floor.

(……This place is also very quiet. Is everyone but me already………… dead?)

　The likelihood of this being true was high. The great amount of blood on the ground was more visible in the morning than at night. There were more than one or two monster-eaten corpses lying by the side of the road. The scene, which shocked him at first, had become familiar to him by now.

(…………So tired.)

　Maybe it’s because he was relaxed, but his eyelids became heavy all at once. But he couldn’t sleep right here, right now. If he fell asleep, he might even be attacked by a monster and lose his life.

　Knowing this, Akira desperately continued to fight his drowsiness.

　How long have I been lying here?

　Suddenly he realized that the time was well past 8:00 a.m., beyond the time of his previous death.

(……When did I……?)

　Akira mumbled in his mind, getting to his feet.

　Perhaps because he laid down and rested his body, he was somewhat less fatigued. The painkillers he took seemed to be starting to work, and his physical pain seemed to be easing.

(Yeah. Looks like I can keep going without issue.)

　His leveling process, which had to be interrupted, might be able to continue at this rate.

　With this in mind, Akira exited the drugstore quickly, keeping a wary eye on his surroundings.

(As a leveling opponent…… Will the Man-eating Plant still do?)

　It was a tough monster to fight, but Killer Bees, the previous candidate, posed a greater risk of killing him than Man-eating Plants. Since there was only one option if he wanted to play it safe, Akira was determined to make the best of the situation.

“The question is, where can I find Man-eating Plants at…… ?”

　The last time he was walking around the city, he visited the area around his office, which was lined with multi-tenant buildings, and the residential area stretching east and north from the office. He did not set foot on the south side, here in the commercial district, the last time.

　If it was in the vicinity of the company or the residential area, he could determine the location of the Man-eating Plants to some extent, but he did not know the location of the Man-eating Plants that appeared on this side of the city.

(……For now, should I walk around?)

　Then he should be able to fight them as he finds them.

　Akira concluded so and began his search while keeping a wary eye on his surroundings.

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 ToC    

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