Chapter 45: Journey Through The Wastelands And Taking A Step Forward

「From what that guard said, there seems to be a town northwest of that valley.」 (Hind)

「…Just as he said, it’s quite the big valley. It might be impossible to cross on our own.」 (Selene)

A little bit ahead of the checkpoint, there was a big rift.

The valley was quite wide and the wasteland stretched out far and wide.

If we wanted to go to the town that the guard mentioned, we had to cross this big bridge on the valley.

「Ooh, it’s so deep! Tobi, want to try jumping down!?」 (Yumir)

「No way! What are you even saying so suddenly!?」 (Tobi)

First off all, I don’t think we’d be able to save him if he fell down there…there’s no doubt that he would die from fall damage after all.

I wonder what Yumir and Tobi were happy about, they were happily looking at the valley.

Me and Riizu were getting a bit depressed because of this situation.

Other than this valley, we couldn’t see anything else in the vicinity after all…the ground was just infertile.

「This atmosphere is straight out of a western film…」 (Selene)

「Though there are no guns here. There seems to be horses though.」 (Hind)

「Ah, I saw them too. There were quite a few tied at the stable right? Though I haven’t seen them actually run-」 (Selene)

Selene-san suddenly stopped talking and awkwardly looked at Riizu.

「…」 (Riizu)

「You see, I-I’m sorry Riizu-chan. For talking with just the two of us.」 (Selene)

「?? I’m not angry though? I hope that your fear of strangers is cured.

「…You want it to be cured, right?」 (Riizu)

「Y-Yup! Though I may be causing you trouble…」 (Selene)

「Don’t worry about it. I might not be able to follow enthusiast topics like Hind-san, but I’m fine with any other topics.

「I won’t think that you are weird, so feel free to speak to me.」 (Riizu)

「-!! T-Thank you very much!」 (Selene)

After hearing Riizu’s words, Selene-san brought her face closer to my ear.

What is it?

「Like you said, deep down she’s really kind. Riizu-chan…」 (Selene)

「…That’s right. Though she’s misunderstood easily.」 (Hind)

She’s a little sister I’m proud of, when they praise her I get happy as if I was the one being praised.

Her normal gestures and tone makes her look cold, so people just get the wrong idea about her.

The reason she’s like that with Tobi and Yumir is because she has known them for a long time and there’s a big amount of tolerance and trust built.

「…I wish you stopped talking secretly in front of me though?」 (Riizu)

「Ah, I’m sorry!」 (Selene)

「…Well, it’s not like I’m angry. This is the second time I’m saying this you know? These words.」 (Riizu)

「Ah…fufu, you are right.」 (Selene)

After that, the three of us engaged in idle talk, since our hunger gauges had decreased I decided to start cooking.

Since Riizu and Selene-san helped me, we were done quite fast.

Even though I say that, they were just simple sandwiches with ham and lettuce.

I didn’t have the time to spread the ingredients evenly though…wait, the moment I put them in, it changed into a sandwich that looked like it had been there for a while. Well, I’m fine with things being simplified.

With this, our light meal was done.

「Hey, come back both of you! We made some sandwiches, let’s proceed once we have eaten them! Yumir, leave dropping Tobi for later.」 (Hind)

「Got it, I’ll leave it for later!」 (Yumir)

「Wait a moment! Stop talking as if it’s fine if you don’t do it now!」 (Tobi)

First off we have to recover from our hunger.

Once that’s done, we’ll proceed until midnight.

Today I’d like to get at least to the first town.

That’s what I was thinking but…

「Isn’t the public safety too bad!?」 (Hind)

「Hyahahaha! Leave the food and water behind!」

「If you take out your valuables we might let you get away! Hyaa!」

Seems like there’s more bandits than monsters!

An endless group of “hyahahs” forced us into a battle of attrition.

「What do we do Hind!? We are not making any progress!」 (Yumir)

「We have no other choice but to endure! There’s no place to hide after all! We have to persevere!」 (Hind)

「These guys, their body odor is terrible! They stink!」 (Tobi)

「…」 (Riizu)

「H-Hind-kun! Riizu-chan is kicking them in the crotch with an unconcerned look and looks scary! She’s even plucking their mohawks! She’s being more violent than the bandits!」 (Selene)

Even if you tell me that, unfortunately, the number of enemies is too much.

I don’t have enough leeway to bother with small details.

I don’t know how many of them there really are, but no matter how many we beat, there’s no end to them.

Reluctantly, we can just retaliate for now.

After that we focused on dealing with them.

Our diminishing items and this pace that was out of my control.

I was starting to get even more irritated…no, that probably wasn’t only me.

The bandits weren’t strong individually.

If it was something like striking with the back of the blade or going easy on someone, those were easy to do inside the game as long as you kept it in mind.

In this situation, no matter how we attack them, they won’t die.

However, they are persistent, noisy and vulgar, which makes them three times as unpleasant and this made it so our minds were gradually worn out.

And then, finally…

「You guys, why are you taking so long!? There are just five of them, crush them already and take their valuables!」

「Boss! We are sorry!」

After beating close to 100 bandits, he finally appeared.

「It’s youuuuu!!!」 (Hind)

「Doruaaaaaa!」 (Yumir)

「Fall down from your horse!! D-degozaru!」 (Tobi)

「…」 (Riizu)

「Ah, Eh…there.」 (Selene)

…In order to come to grips with our anger.

The five of us struck the bandit group’s boss that foolishly appeared riding a horse.

Since his subordinates had already lost their nerves, it was easy enough for us to get close to the boss.

「Moh!?」

「B-Boss!?」

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And we easily captured him.

After seeing that, the subordinates started running away and scattered.

It was a long battle.

After tying the bandit’s boss with a rope, we placed him on the horse and I pulled the reins.

He had lost consciousness so he was quiet.

「However, I get the feeling we have advanced quite a bit while fighting. Where are we currently at?」 (Hind)

「If the distance the guard at the border said was correct, I believe we’ll reach the town soon.」 (Selene)

「I see…Selene-san, are you OK?」 (Hind)

「Ah, yup. I’m a bit tired, but I’m still fine.」 (Selene)

「…」 (Riizu)

Since Selene-san is not used to fighting yet, she seems to have accumulated more fatigue than the other members.

On top of that, she had changed her environment suddenly from her usual blacksmith workshop.

This might be a game but VR is a special case.

As expected, there’s a need to play the game so that fatigue doesn’t remain once you return to the real world.

We might have paced ourselves wrong today…

For next time, let’s think about going at a pace that suits Selene-san.

「They are late, Yumir-san and Tobi-san.」 (Selene)

「You are right. I did tell them that they shouldn’t really go that far though.」 (Hind)

While we were taking care of the boss, we asked Yumir and Tobi, who seemed to have a surplus of energy, to scout the area.

I think it should be about time they got back though…

Ah, there they are.

I saw the figure of two people running towards us while waving their hands.

「Hind, there was one! A town!」 (Yumir)

「Really!?」 (Hind)

「It’s just a bit further! Let’s go fast!」 (Tobi)

I’m glad, if we can get to the town, we’ll be able to safely log out.

You are able to log out whenever you want in TB, but it’s hard to log in at the same time as your friends, I heard that there are times where you log in and are surrounded by monsters that had just respawned.

Taking that into consideration, unless it’s an emergency, it’s way safer to log out inside a town.

「Selene-san, Riizu, let’s go.」 (Hind)

「Yes.」 (Riizu)

「I’m glad. To be honest, it’s a relief.」 (Selene)

While being guided by Yumir and Tobi, we proceeded through the wastelands full of sandstorms.

After some minutes, we could see a speck in the horizon that looked like a town.

The town was formed with box shaped buildings red in color, they suited the place.

「Town in the wastelands, Baska」, seems like this town is called that.

It seemed like the public safety wasn’t that good, but there seems to be some guards.

Because we explained our fight with the bandits at the entrance, we were taken to the guard station.

Seems like they were a big bandit group that attacked travellers and merchants that passed through the border, since we handed their boss over, we received quite the reward for it.

Maybe the number of bandits in the group rose up this much because players usually don’t come here?

…If we thought of this as a game, there’s the possibility of that happening.

It’s probably set so that player’s influence has a big impact on things like that.

Anyway, after going through various procedures, we decided to log out in a high-end residential area inside the town.

We decided to meet up the next day at 10pm, and break up for the night-

「Ah, Hind-kun」 (Selene)

「Hmm? Selene-san. Are you not going to log out now?」 (Hind)

「Yes, I wanted to thank you.」 (Selene)

「Thank me?」 (Hind)

Immediately after the other three logged out, Selene-san started talking to me.

What is this about?

I get the feeling I should be the one thanking her, but I don’t remember doing anything to be thanked for.

「Thanks for taking me out of that blacksmith’s workshop. If it wasn’t for you saying those words, I’m sure I’d be…」 (Selene)

「…」 (Hind)

Ah, this is probably a serious talk.

I got serious and listened to what Selene-san had to say.

「I initially started playing VR games to heal my fear of strangers, but I never had the courage to take the first step.

「There were other blacksmiths that found my skills promising and talked to me, but I got scared…」 (Selene)

…To think that she was thinking this deeply about her troubles.

I’m quite angry at myself for inviting her with such shallow feelings.

Taking that into consideration, wasn’t the way I introduced her to Yumir and the rest bad…?

…Wasn’t it too insensitive of me?

「I’m sorry. I didn’t think that much about it, I…」 (Hind)

「No no, in the end, the one that decided to go with you was me. Besides, I’m very timid…the way that you were slightly forceful and came vigorously to me…I was very happy about that.」 (Selene)

「…If you say it like that, I’ll feel less regretful.

「Were you really not reluctant to come with us?」 (Hind)

「I wasn’t. On the contrary-」 (Selene)

Selene-san cut her words there.

After hesitating for a bit…she was blushing for some reason and said this.

「Y-You see, what I’m about to do now might be because I still can’t gauge the sense of distance between people and it also might be something that Hind-kun dislikes.

「However, if I don’t do this I won’t be able to express my feelings, eh, you see, I mean-」 (Selene)

「I-I see.」 (Hind)

What should I do?

For some time now, I have been unable to understand what Selene-san is saying.

I was quite perplexed at the words that didn’t sound like her…suddenly, I felt something warm on my cheek.

Selene-san’s face without her glasses on, slowly became more distant.

…Eh?

「W-Well then, see you tomorrow! Good night, Hind-kun!」 (Selene)

「Eh? Ah, good night…」 (Hind)

Selene-san logged out and I was the only one left after that.

For a few minutes, I stood there dumbfounded and unable to move while pressing down on my cheek.

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