Chapter 59: Recognized
’Then now...’
Let’s look at the remaining categories.
[Special Sales], and the [Dimensional Exchange].
But he couldn’t get a good look at them.
[Special Sales] only opened starting at level 80, and the [Dimensional Exchange] seemed to be some kind of auction system, but a notice said it was currently closed.
’Can’t be helped.’
I’ll look into it slowly later, when the time comes.
Having browsed the whole shop, Walfred took Elsa’s hand and resumed their journey.
The destination was Bayway Station, The 1 Line.
If he followed the Northeast Corridor tracks, he could head south without any worry of getting lost. A moment later, as he entered the station building and passed through the turnstiles,
He stopped short.
Walfred’s steps came to a halt.
It was because of a faded advertising flyer stuck to the bulletin board by the turnstiles. A flyer promoting a new apartment was posted there, and it read like this.
[5-minute walk from Prospect Park Station!]
[New Villa, Quick Sale!]
[Down Payment Starting at $50,000~]
Prospect Park Station.
The moment he saw it, a memory he’d briefly forgotten surfaced. The survivors of the Silicon Alley Shelter.
Up until he’d been dragged off by the Bone Drake, Walfred had been planning to link up with them.
But now his mind had changed.
’There’s no reason to go back anymore.’
For one, the need to be at a shelter at all had vanished.
Thanks to [Blessing of the Frost Dragon] and his passive skill, Walfred’s cold resistance had reached a full 90%.
The cold was no longer a threat.
On top of that, he could get food from the Hunter Shop anytime, and it didn’t matter where he slept either.
’And the problem of my hard-counter monster is solved too.’
The greatest enemy of the frost attribute, the Ice Golem.
With Elsa’s [Frost Resonance] effect, frost-attribute monsters no longer attacked him first, so the need to fight Ice Golems at all had disappeared.
And even if, by some chance, he did have to fight one, he could just smash it with [Ice Shatter]. So there was no longer any need to rely on fire-attribute Hunters either.
’And...’
The information he was supposed to get from Chief Jonah.
Contacting the Hunter in Key West to track down Jenna’s whereabouts could also be handled by asking through the Hunter Community’s new feature, one-on-one chat.
There was no real need to meet face-to-face.
What’s more, the decisive reason his intention to join up with them had vanished was something else entirely.
’Those people abandoned me.’
Walfred’s gaze turned cold.
Of course, he understood it on a rational level.
At the time, the Bone Drake had relentlessly targeted only Walfred. If Walfred had gone down to the basement, it would have chased after him even by breaking through the blocked exit.
’But...’
Just as he was trying to flee to survive,
the memory of his escape route vanishing right before his eyes wasn’t easy to forget. That was why his desire to join up with the Silicon Alley Hunters had faded.
If there was one thing that still nagged at him,
’Lauren is a bit of a concern, I suppose.’
The fire-attribute Hunter, Lauren.
The sole survivor of the Crown Heights Shelter. Leaving that kid there all alone weighed on his mind.
’Still, I kept my promise.’
The promise Walfred had made to Lauren wasn’t to find her sister, but to link up with the survivor group at the Silicon Alley Shelter together.
He’d done his duty as a traveling companion.
’Besides, Elsa’s by my side now.’
A Frost Dragon who found even lukewarm things hot.
A fire-attribute ability user who emitted heat.
The worst possible matchup from the start.
Walfred quickly reached a conclusion.
’From here on, it’s best to move separately.’
Coldly put, having Elsa beside him was far more helpful than having Lauren.
That said, it would be good to at least let her know he was alive. She was surely worried.
Walfred reached his hand out into the air.
[System: Connecting to Hunter Community]
[Accessing the New America Republic channel.]
Right after connecting to the community,
a notification message was the first thing to appear.
[New features have been unlocked.]
[Friend Add System]
[One-on-One Chat Feature]
And then.
[A friend request has arrived.]
[Requester: StoneFist]
[Requester: Ace]
Bauer and Jonah.
Walfred touched the accept button.
[Friend addition complete.]
[StoneFist]: Offline
[Ace]: Offline
But neither of them was online.
Well, they were probably swamped right now working out countermeasures for the White Dome. So Walfred decided to just let them know he was safe.
But.
[The other party is offline.]
[One-on-One Chat is unavailable.]
To think he couldn’t even leave a message if they weren’t connected. Walfred furrowed his brow.
’Can’t be helped.’
I’ll talk to them when they come on later.
Before leaving the community, Walfred checked the post he’d written earlier. With the hope that maybe Aqua had shown up.
But the result was the same this time too.
There was no nickname "Aqua." As he let out a short sigh, a good idea suddenly came to him.
’Wait, come to think of it...’
The friend-add feature is open now, isn’t it?
In that case, wouldn’t it be fine to send Aqua a friend request? He didn’t know whether it’d be accepted or not, but he had nothing to lose anyway.
So he put it into action right away.
[Friend Request]
[Enter the nickname of the user you wish to add as a friend, then press the request button.]
The way to send a request was simple itself.
Walfred operated the screen as instructed, and before long the whole task was done.
[Nickname]: Aqua
[A friend request has been sent to "Aqua."]
[Friend Request List]
[Aqua: (Pending)]
’Done.’
A smile formed at the corner of Walfred’s mouth.
With this, everything he had to do was finished. Walfred was about to close the community connection.
But just then, some posts on the General Board caught his attention.
[Is the White Dome really okay?]
[Doesn’t look like it plans to get any bigger, though...]
[Still, we can’t let our guard down.]
[For real. Who would’ve guessed it’d get this big?]
It was about the White Dome.
Watching the anxious reactions of people, Walfred realized anew. The fact that, at this point, he was the only one who knew anything about the White Dome.
’I should let them know.’
Right now the White Dome had stopped expanding.
But that didn’t mean people should carelessly go inside. Once you went in, you couldn’t come out until Elsa granted permission.
Walfred touched the write button.
[Title]: Sharing Info on the Inside of the White Dome
[Author]: FrozenMan
And he wrote, in as much detail as possible, focusing on the information he knew that was safe to disclose.
The environment inside the White Dome, and even the fact that once you went in, you couldn’t get out. Everything.
Of course, he hid both the existence of the cleared A-rank gate and the truth about Elsa.
’This should do, right?’
Walfred submitted the post.
Then, a moment later,
the view count shot up explosively, and a long string of comments started piling on.
[What? Minus 148 degrees?]
[Holy crap, that’s insane, seriously.]
[So it’s not just your headcanon, it’s for real?]
[How would you even know that, man?]
All kinds of reactions.
Most were doubt or skepticism, but among them were some who tried to analyze the situation in their own way.
[If it’s true, then there’s no way anyone should go in.]
[You said once you go in you can’t come out? So that means the author is inside the White Dome right now?]
[Whoa, holy crap, that’s terrifying.]
[If you’re trapped in there, give us a wave.]
[Don’t want to get smacked, then no BS please.]
As he looked through the various comments,
his eyes stopped on one.
[Hey, are you by any chance Walfred?]
"...?!"
The instant he saw that comment,
Walfred’s eyes flew wide open before he knew it.
