Read Novel Full Prologue
Prologue
Yes, since the Author of Evasion Healer has deleted his work on Syosetu, I have to put it on hold for now at least until I found out the raw of it again. So with that in mind, I have to bring a new project to replace it for now. So this is the one I decided to bring, I hope all of my dear readers can enjoy as the same as me, so yeah, here is it!
Prologue
Have you ever heard of a survival type of game? No, I’m not talking about the ones where you shoot each other in the forest with an air or electric gun.
It’s the kind of game where you have a physical condition like hunger and thirst, and you gather materials by gathering and mining to build a base for yourself. It’s probably best known for those games from overseas where you collect materials by digging and cutting trees in a world made up of blocks to build houses and have adventures.
It’s not a genre that has a large number of games for home consoles, but there are a decent number of PC games available, and I’m a big fan of those games.
There are many different genres of survival games. There are games in which you survive in a post-apocalypse world where human civilization has collapsed. There are also slightly science-fiction-like games in which you crash-land from a wrecked spaceship in an escape pod on an undiscovered planet and survive while facing off against aliens and natives.
Some are survival in frigid, snowy mountains, others in a zombie-infested world. There are also more casual games where you can build your own city and have adventures in a world with civilization and commerce.
I’m sorry to say that this is a pointless story. But it’s the information I need to explain the situation I’m in right now. I’ve gone on at length, but my point is quite simple. I love those kinds of games.
Yes, I love games. But…
“How did this happen…”
My name is Kosuke Shibata. I’m 24 years old, single. I’m an office worker. My hobby is playing PC games, and my daily routine is to run around the town at night in my neighborhood.
What spreads out in front of me is a wilderness. When I look back, I see a dense forest.
All I was wearing was my underwear, shirt, sweatshirt and sweatpants, socks, and my favorite walking shoes. The only possessions I have are my phone, house keys, and my wallet.
If I have a wallet, well, I can do something with it. I’ve got at least three yukichis in there. If I can catch a taxi or whatever it is, I can manage to get home if I get into town as long as this is the Earth and somewhere in Japan. [T/n: Yukichis = the common name for the 10,000 Japanese Yen bill (because they bear the portrait of Yukichi Fukuzawa, a japenese writer. Thank to jorgelotr for pointing it out).
“Where is this place…?”
In the sky, there are seas, land, and clouds… You can see the so-called Earth-like planets in the sky. Yes, you can see Earth-like planets like the moon and the sun in the sky. You can also see moon-like ones with bumpy surfaces.
And both of them are big. Earth-like planets occupy about 30% of the sky, and moon-like planets are as big as my fist. They’re huge.
For all intents and purposes, this Earth I’m standing on now is not that of Earth. It’s a miracle that I can breathe without problems, and the temperature is not abnormally hot or cold.
Huh? Isn’t it a dream? I’ve tried pinching my cheeks, tensing both cheeks, and various other ways of waking up from common dreams. I’m perplexed by the fact that it didn’t wake me up, damn it.
This isn’t such a bad situation for a game. In a game, this isn’t so bad. But in real life, this doesn’t make me happy…
I’m now in the middle of succumbing to disappointment. It’s the so-called “orz”*. However, it is useless for me to keep doing this for a long time. Even if I remained silent, I would starve, I would thirst, I would take a shit, and the sun would go down. There is no wildlife around me, but I don’t know what will come out at night.
*TLN: It is a Japanese based emoticon of a man pounding his head on the floor.
These are the types of things that are dangerous at night.
I crossed my knowledge of the game with my half-baked knowledge and came up with an idea.
At night, I’m sure that there will be zombies, skeletons, belligerent wildlife, and hard to describe monsters. Yeah, I’m familiar with them. I mean, it’s no joke, and I’m not a night owl, so when I get locked on to a nocturnal predator, the whole thing will be a disaster. I will need to make sure I have a safe place to spend the night.
“But what should I do?”
The protagonist of a survival game can create basic tools without tools as long as he has the materials, and in some cases, he can cut down trees and crush rocks with his bare hands… I can’t do that.
I can’t do it, can I? Should I give it a try? Nope, not here.
As an alternative, I looked up a reasonably sized stone lying around in the wilderness. Two of them are about the size of a pickle stone. I made a sharp piece of stone by slamming it against the rock as hard as I could.
There is a difference in the convenience of searching between having this kind of lancet or something that can be used in place of a knife and not having it. It would be much more convenient to cut vines and process wood than to make it with bare hands. Although a stone tool is a primitive tool, it is better than bare hands.
“So!”
I threw the stone down on the larger rock several times to break it up. After a dozen or so attempts, I finally managed to get a piece of rock in a satisfactory shape. I was worried that some kind of creature might appear because of the noise, but it was a relief that nothing happened.
I got a stone fragment, a stone blade with a sharp tip, and a comfortable grip. I found some other stones that were just the right size for me to throw, so I put them in my sweatshirt pocket.
Humans’ two strengths are endurance to run for long periods of time and the ability to throw things. The dexterity and wisdom to make tools are also advantages over wildlife, but I’m not so sure about those two things. My endurance for running for long periods of time is also in doubt. The only exercise I do on a daily basis is a neighborhood run around town at night.
The first thing I’d have to do is secure a safe shelter…
What is the “first thing” needed in survival life? It is a safe place to stay.
A lot of people think water is the best answer. I thought so too. But when you play a lot of survival games, the truth comes out that the first thing you need to secure is a shelter to get through the night in safety.
In those blocky world adventures, you’d be walking around like a maniac, collecting stuff. Then at night, you’d get beaten to a pulp by zombies or skeletons that came out of nowhere.
After the end of humanity’s existence, I was devoured by zombies that came running around at night. I froze to death in the sudden drop in temperature during snowy mountain survival, so there’s no doubt about it.
Without water and food, you will eventually die. It’s an undeniable fact. But without a safe shelter, you won’t make it through the first night, and you will die.
“If this world were a game world, I’d build a shelter on high ground…”
A shelter on high ground is a very simple shelter with the floor atop a pillar. In most games, hostile characters are often unable to climb pillars without a clue, so it’s usually safe to retreat to a height where they can’t easily jump up after all.
It’s even better if there are walls and roofs. Depending on the game, though, there are enemies who actively try to break the pillars by hitting them, so you can’t feel safe.
Anyway, it’s too difficult to build walls and roofs—both in terms of materials and technology. Therefore, the direction I’m heading is not the wind-swept wilderness but the dense forest.
There are rocks and stones in the wilderness, but there are no large rocks to hide behind. Then I decided to go into the forest and climb a tree. The trees are good. If you climb up and hide in the thick foliage, you won’t be found from the ground so easily.
But you have to be careful about bugs, snakes, and lizards. When you climb a tree, look carefully for claw marks on the trunk! That was my brother’s promise.
No one wants to spend a night in a tree with an iguana-like reptile that’s over a meter long, do they? I don’t want that. So that’s why I headed off into the forest.
Author Note: The author entered this world from 7DtD, but for now, the zombies… may be out sooner or later _(:3」∠)_
TLN: 7Dtd is probably 7 Days to Die, but I’m not sure since I didn’t play the game 😉