Chapter 27: Remembering

Chapter 27: Chapter 27: Remembering

"It’s better if we stay here a little longer. We need to make sure that thing is really gone," Victor said.

"Of course. Why didn’t I think of that sooner?" Brika replied. The sarcasm in her voice was unmistakable.

The next few minutes passed in silence. Victor wanted to keep moving, but the fright he’d experienced during his recent encounter with that creature forced him to wait a little longer. Besides, as he stared into the void, he thought:

’I still need to use my Daily Summon, but I don’t know how safe it would be to use my Path in front of her.’

Although he’d already gotten a small taste of what Brika could do, he couldn’t afford to show his hand to someone he didn’t trust. After all, they were still strangers clinging to the slightest chance of survival.

’It also seems like I can see her System window. That means she’ll probably be able to see mine, too. It’s not safe to summon anything here.’

Even so, he wondered how he could summon something from the gacha without attracting Brika’s attention. She was still lying on the floor, pointing her flashlight at the ceiling. Her eyes were closed, and she was breathing softly as she rested.

Victor could barely see her in the flashlight’s glow. He considered taking a risk while she wasn’t looking, but eventually gave up. He had no options at the moment, which was incredibly frustrating.

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They resumed their journey two hours later. As they made their way through the dark mist, Brika kept a grenade in her hand the entire time. Her face wore a more serious expression than before, but since Victor could only rely on his sense of smell in the darkness, there was no way for him to know.

The terrain changed a couple of kilometers farther ahead. They had reached an elevation, a long, steep slope with a straight road running through it and several houses on either side. This time, the houses were larger, with two or more stories.

Thanks to his sense of smell, the silhouettes of the houses became clearer in Victor’s mind.

’How big is this place? We’ve been walking for so long, yet it doesn’t feel like we’ve made any progress.’

At least in the forest, he had some idea of where he was going because he could observe the trees from above. Here, however, he had neither a wide field of vision nor enough light to figure out where the hell they were headed.

’At least we’re not walking in circles or heading back to where we started.’

Thanks to his sense of smell, he could tell that their entire journey had been in the opposite direction from where he’d first appeared. That was a good sign because he was moving farther away from his Spawn Point, and if they kept going like this, he would eventually manage to leave the scenario.

It was as simple as that. Of course it was! Now, all he could think about was what would happen if they ran into another one of those monsters. How would they fight them or, if necessary, escape?

Even Brika hadn’t been able to defeat those things. If anything, she’d been lucky those creatures had left her alone after tearing open her abdomen with their claws. Speaking of which, that reminded Victor of something he’d been curious about: the battle itself.

Considering that Brika was a goblin warrior, it must have been quite a fight. Those explosions hadn’t been anything to scoff at, after all. The same went for the capabilities and limitations of the goblin girl’s System.

’She mentioned that her System used points or something like that. Could that actually be possible?’

If she could exchange those points for weapons and other items, was there a weapon powerful enough to tell those bastard monsters to go to hell? Something like a lightning gun or, at the very least, a vacuum cleaner.

Those thoughts flooded his mind, preventing him from concentrating as he traveled with Brika. Since she walked quickly despite her short stature, keeping up with her was somewhat difficult.

’She’s getting faster and faster. At this rate, we’ll end up running through the darkness. I’d better stop thinking and focus on moving forward and surviving.’

A few more hours passed. With no further sightings of the spectral creatures, Brika and Victor spent the night in one of the two-story houses, on that strange stretch of elevated terrain that had gone on much longer than expected.

The firewood in the kitchen stove was burning, and water was boiling in a pot. Once it was ready, Victor poured the water into the instant noodle cups and waited, glancing at them from the corner of his eye.

"I used to eat that stuff when I was younger. A lot more than I’d like to admit," he said suddenly, drawing the attention of the young goblin, who was sitting in a chair in the farthest corner of the first floor.

"Hmm?"

"Well, I’ve done nothing but eat this stuff for the past few days. I can’t help remembering those days. It was the only thing I could afford back then."

’Ah... Those were the days,’ Victor thought, but his faint nostalgic smile soon gave way to the same gloomy yet, ironically, hopeful expression he’d worn when he died.

"What is your universe like?" he suddenly asked.

Brika raised her eyebrows. It took her a while to answer. In fact, Victor thought she wouldn’t respond at all, but then the goblin finally spoke...

"My universe... There’s nothing special about it. Just war and stupid people using their powers to start even more wars. That sort of thing."

"I see. There was some of that in my universe, too, though I was lucky enough not to be born somewhere where war was constant."

Brika let out a small laugh. Victor didn’t understand why she’d laughed. It sounded more like a weary snort, but he had a feeling there might be an explanation for it.

Suddenly, the System window appeared before Victor with a notification.

[You have exactly 1 hour left to use your gacha summon.]