The pickup truck left the road and entered the edge of the wasteland.
At a point far from the safe zone, Rosco finally seemed to feel relieved. He stopped the car and hurriedly began sorting his luggage.
He took items out of a backpack stuffed between the seats. Cigarettes, alcohol, cigarettes, lighter, alcohol......
Was he insane enough to want to die young? Kim Yi-hyeon looked at him in disbelief, then suddenly asked.
“Was it okay for you to leave?”
“Shouldn’t you have asked that an hour ago?”
“Honestly, I needed a car.”
And as a bonus, someone who knew the roads. Thanks to Rosco coming to him, several worries had been easily resolved. For Kim Yi-hyeon, it was unexpected luck.
“Hmph. I thought that might be the case.”
No money had changed hands, but this was a kind of trade.
In return for providing transportation, Kim Yi-hyeon would protect Rosco. A temporary contract that would remain in place until one side’s usefulness ran out.
“......Well, I did think maybe this was a good opportunity instead. I only put up with it because it felt like a waste to throw away what I’d built, but I was sick of it.”
Rosco looked at the wasteland spread beyond the windshield. A desolate land without a single blade of grass.
It was a trace of a “calamity” that had passed.
Snowstorms swept through tropical regions, and rainstorms poured down over deserts for an entire month.
Natural disasters of unknown cause and pattern were sweeping the world.
They were the root cause behind the collapse of countless nations. The calamity that had struck this place had also shoved tens of thousands of lives into the abyss.
However, this vastness alone suited Rosco’s heart perfectly. The emptiness, where there was nothing at all, instead gave him a sense of liberation.
“When you live in Ulanz, you can’t help longing for the city. The fact that other people know your business feels filthy as hell.”
“That’s rich coming from an information broker, isn’t it?”
“I peeled off the information broker label when I left Ulanz. Sometimes even eating and taking a shit felt uncomfortable. It always felt like someone was watching me.”
“I know what that feels like.”
Kim Yi-hyeon nodded while feeling a fresh impression.
As far as he knew, Rosco had never left Ulanz in the game.
When Ast returned to Ulanz with the Professor, Rosco was the information broker she hired. A person who caused trouble, yet ultimately helped retrieve the sword.
‘And yet, to think it would turn out like this.’
The fact that the story could change in any number of ways according to his actions struck him anew.
The game-like thinking he had consciously maintained faded. A sense of reality filled the empty space.
“Anyway, where’s the destination? Bavenburg, as expected? Ah, I’ve always wanted to go there at least once.”
Cadillac’s capital. Rosco grew sentimental as he pictured scenery he had seen only in photographs.
Unfortunately, he was far off the mark.
“You really think three suspicious people of different races—you, me, and her—can just stroll in? We’d be lucky if the guard force doesn’t drag us away.”
The “her” sprawled in the back seat was a horned Pecatum. “Me” was a typical East Asian. With Rosco looking like a gangster, the combination stood out enough to make him look like a slave trader.
Taking that into account, the choices they could make shrank drastically. Ulanz was simply unusual. Cadillac was not a good country for immigrants to live in.
“Ah, mm. That’s true. Then what do you plan to do?”
“I’m going to cross the border.”
“Aha, the border...... Huh?”
Rosco’s expression turned strange. The relief of escaping Ulanz and anticipation for a new life gradually began turning into suspicion.
“You weren’t mafia from the city?”
“Do I look that much like a criminal?”
“No. Before... didn’t you say that?”
“I don’t remember saying that myself.”
At that moment, fragments of memory rose and joined together inside Rosco’s mind.
The conversations they had shared before. Thinking back, he had never received a definite answer.
“......You little shit!”
He had simply misunderstood on his own.
“Th-then what are you? A special agent of the Shiran Empire? Harenhal’s secret guard? Or something like an underworld assassin?”
“All wrong. I’m just homeless.”
There was a brief silence.
A moment later, Rosco laughed hollowly. The corners of his mouth lowered like slow motion. All sorts of agony could be read in his wavering eyes.
“I can hear the gears turning in your head. Suddenly missing home?”
“Th-that’s, I left my medicine behind....”
“Cigarettes, alcohol, and drugs too? Pick one to quit.”
“Not that kind of medicine! Huh? The truth is, I have asthma. Look, huff, huup!”
Because he hyperventilated like mad, his face turned completely red. Kim Yi-hyeon placed a hand on Rosco’s shoulder as he put on the performance of his life.
“Then leave the car behind.”
“......Are you sure you’re not mafia?”
“Living without a home made my heart rough.”
Rosco grimaced with his whole face.
Kim Yi-hyeon felt a strange nostalgia. That was exactly the expression his friend had made when he unknowingly drank plum extract concentrate.
“Still, once we arrive, you’ll think it was good you came. They say Cilicia is overflowing with sights to see, and with the alcohol and cigarettes you’re crazy about.”
“Cilicia?”
Rosco’s mind rapidly settled. He looked back and forth between his two homeless companions, then nodded.
“If it’s as I’ve heard, that wouldn’t be bad.”
The city-state of Cilicia.
A city of freedom and opportunity.
Unlike Cadillac, it actively accepted immigrants, and meritocracy was deeply rooted there.
At least, that was what people generally knew.
“Seeing you earlier, brother, you’ve got some skill too. And that Pecatum lady goes without saying.”
“Anything would be better than Cadillac.”
A city where opportunity was given to anyone regardless of race. Kim Yi-hyeon planned to properly establish a foothold there.
‘There’s a lot I have to do.’
The countless characters that existed in Polaris. Since they were characters in the story, each had their own drama.
‘I do know almost all the side stories, but... the problem is that it’s hard for me to interfere.’
There was a limit to acting while relying only on game knowledge. With Ghost, he had only been able to save him because the conditions had coincidentally aligned.
What if his skill had not been [Special Armament Crafting]? What if the backlash from creating the same armament consecutively had been even a little stronger?
‘Then I would’ve failed. Or given up early.’
In short, he had been lucky.
Even then, he had gone through danger. Shadower’s Spell had been threatening, and because he used an exploit, Leila’s group had looked at him with suspicion.
‘If it’s like that every time, my body won’t last.’
He needed to have more varied cards than he did now. Powerful companions. A position. And purely, his own strength.
‘Asterike is still weak too.’
Even as a 2-star operative, Kim Yi-hyeon was confident he could kill her easily. In a frontal fight, of course he would have no chance, but did battle have to be fair and square?
Most defeats and deaths were born amid cowardice. Asterike needed not only to become used to her Spell, but also to become a little more cunning.
It was a matter of selection and concentration. Rather than running around here and there, now was the time to focus on growth.
Most of all.
A major incident would soon occur in Cilicia. He needed to stop it somehow. He had to settle in early and prepare for the threat.
The adjustment period ended here.
***
The journey to Cilicia was not exactly smooth.
Far from the safe zone, the pickup truck driving across the open road often became a target for monsters.
Bang!
The gunshot he had heard to the point of boredom over the past few days rang out once again. The Raptor’s body slowly tilted.
He did not skip confirming the kill either. The Raptor soon stopped moving.
Kim Yi-hyeon let go of [Ivory], then wiped the sweat flowing down his forehead with his sleeve.
“Ha, Raptors are a pain in the ass here too.”
He had used ten bullets on just two of them. Fast and tough monsters. The sight of them approaching even after four or five shots were lodged in their bodies was practically a zombie.
‘I feel like I can’t hear well after firing guns so much lately. Should I use close-range weapons next?’
He could not deny that he had come to depend on guns. It was not a good tendency. In Polaris, firearms were not exactly all-purpose.
This was a world where the limits of the human body were extremely high. Though it was an extreme example, there was even a madman who threw spears from hundreds of meters away.
‘I don’t think I’ll end up like that, but... there’s no harm in getting used to all kinds of weapons.’
Had he not also received backseat advice from Ghost? Guns might be the most effective for now, but if he practiced, would there not come a day when it paid off?
That aside.
“Looks like you’ve gotten a bit used to it now.”
Kim Yi-hyeon checked the right side with his eyes as he spoke. There, Asterike had also finished fighting and was catching her breath.
At her feet, he could see the charred corpse of a Raptor and scorch marks. Traces of her Spell.
Three days had passed since they left Ulanz.
Asterike, who had been asleep the entire time, had only woken up yesterday. Kim Yi-hyeon had roughly explained the situation and handed over the suppressor he had received from Leila.
In short, she had become able to use her Spell in a limited fashion. True to her reputation, she had seemed hesitant at first, but she had already grown quite skilled.
“Yes. Even if I don’t like it much... I need to do my part. I don’t want to only eat up food either.”
“You matured in a single day. Yesterday, as soon as you opened your eyes, it was ‘Where am I?’ ‘I’m hungry.’ ‘Where did my sword go?’ It was a whole mess.”
“I... didn’t do that.”
Perhaps she was embarrassed even by her own memory, because Asterike pouted. It was an expression the Ast from the game would never have made.
‘It’s kind of a waste. If she looked even a little more human, it would’ve been nice to see.’
There was soot on her face, and her wildly disheveled hair looked almost like an Ash Wolf’s mane. If he went close, even a foul smell wafted from her.
It was not that his affection had cooled, or that he was disappointed... not particularly.
It was fair to see the current Asterike as a different person from the Ast he had known before.
‘She must have been ground down for years before becoming that kind of person.’
If he had wanted to meet “Ast,” he should not have touched the Pavoni Family. He could have simply let her be rolled around as scheduled.
But Kim Yi-hyeon had chosen to draw Asterike in. The one who had twisted her life could not exactly go around saying he was disappointed or anything.
It was only right that he take responsibility in his own way.
“It’s unfortunate about the sword. I might’ve been able to save it, but I didn’t think that far.”
Incidentally, Asterike’s sword had been lost. The sword she had treasured as her family’s treasured sword had melted together with Pavoni in an abandoned warehouse in Ulanz.
“...No. Don’t worry about it. I did it with my own hands, so who could I blame?”
That was true.
Kim Yi-hyeon also did not say a single word of apology. From any angle, it had been self-inflicted.
“The truth is, until yesterday, I was really sad. I couldn’t bring even a single photo from my hometown... so that was the only thing I had left. When I held it, I could remember the old days. Even when I didn’t want to.”
“Uh, what is this? Is this a serious conversation?”
Sorry, but he was not ready to listen seriously. First of all, the smell was awful. The smell of blood, burnt meat, and the stale stink of not washing for a long time......
It was hard to shift his thoughts. Even while Kim Yi-hyeon pinched his nose shut, the story continued.
“But now, I think it’s better this way. I’m dull, so in the end, someone else might have taken it from me again. No, they definitely would have.”
Asterike nodded.
“Rather than letting it become someone else’s... isn’t it better to destroy it with my own hands? Don’t you think so?”
“Is... that so?”
“Ah, but don’t worry. This suppressor? That you gave me, Hyeon? I’ll take good care of it.”
As she touched the bracelet-type Spell suppressor, she stared at Kim Yi-hyeon anew.
“And although I’m late saying this—”
Soon, a clear smile spread across Asterike’s face.
“Thank you. For finding me.”
A recorded voice echoed inside Kim Yi-hyeon’s head.
— Thank you for everything, Professor.
A line both similar and different. It was the same face and the same smile, but unlike Ast then, pure innocence overflowed instead of sorrow.
Both her cheeks were marked not with a blush, but with filthy grime... still, it was not bad.