Chapter 10: Square 8: An Outsider From Another World
No matter how many times I did this, it probably never got easier.
I sighed on the bench while furrowing my brows at the worst awakening I had experienced for the umpteenth time.
"Again... I died."
Nest... I finally realized that bastard was an insurmountable wall that only grew stronger the more I tried to overcome her.
I had slammed straight into her, tried talking, relied on state power, and even begged a complete stranger for help.
I had tried every sensible thing I could think of, and this was the result.
From the beginning, there was no way a normal salaryman could win against a vicious murderer who was used to killing.
I should have known that.
"But is that okay? If I run away..."
The girl won’t be saved.
I knew that painfully well.
"I saw it, the life of that girl who lost her family.
In an empty house, all alone..."
Only I could change that girl’s fate in this world.
To risk my life for a child I had met that very day was foolish, even in my own eyes.
I was already too kind, and even if they called me hypocritical, I couldn’t deny it.
...But I didn’t want to run away.
"If I run away here, I’ll probably regret it for the rest of my life."
To never regret it, and to move forward again, I told myself that.
I desperately tried to think of something I hadn’t tried yet.
"What haven’t I tried? What haven’t I experimented with yet?"
In situations like this, the first thing that comes to mind is a suicide attack.
Since I could reset as many times as I wanted, I could throw away my life and gradually figure out her patterns.
But if I did that, I’d destroy something that made me human.
I didn’t want to become a shell of a person.
I had already tasted enough pain, enough suffering, enough misery.
"I don’t have the skills to kill like that anyway.
Then let’s not use killing techniques. Let’s find a way for me to survive and drive my enemies back.
Probably... there’s nothing else I can do."
I placed my hand on my forehead and moved my gaze around as if searching for something.
That gaze stopped right next to me, on the bag.
"The bag... Come to think of it."
I opened the bag and looked inside.
It seemed Nest hadn’t used anything from it much.
To me, it was just normal daily necessities.
But none of the people in this world had ever seen them.
If I could use these effectively, maybe...
"Um, what was in there again?"
I arranged the contents of the bag on the bench.
Smartphone, charging cable, tablet, earphones, notebook, writing utensils, breath spray, hair spray, novel, bandages, handkerchief, digital camera, cigarettes, Zippo lighter, lighter oil, portable ashtray, and four meaningless documents in a clear file.
In my pockets were my wallet and business card case.
The remaining balance was 52,640 yen, enough, basically.
Among these, what might work against Nest...
"Right, these two."
I picked up the smartphone and tablet.
No matter how clever she was, she would definitely be confused by technology from another world.
The problem was what to do with them afterward.
If I wanted to attack while she was open, I had no means right now.
If I searched, there might be a store that sold swords, but a sword wouldn’t help me in this world.
At the very least, I wanted a small knife, a dagger, or even a kitchen knife that I could actually use.
"I guess I’ll look around at the general store."
With that decision, I stood up. The sight that entered my view was a single shop.
On the other side of the river, a dingy little gadget store where birds chirped in the silence.
In front of the store that displayed books and staffs, there was a plain, modestly decorated mirror covered in a light layer of dust.
I took the tablet in my hand and compared it with the mirror in my line of sight.
"A mirror... Yeah. That’s it."
I quickly packed my things back into the bag and stepped into the crowded streets of the town.
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