Not Betting My Life
The crow tilted its head, meeting my eyes as if examining some curious animal.
"Yeah. And I got my ass handed to me like a dusty teddy bear on a nightstand. That was just round one, though."
Or maybe it was just the user who was peculiar.
Even while talking to me, the crow kept checking information about this world, its eyes darting back and forth across the monitor. Watching that, a thought suddenly crossed my mind. I let my irritation settle and smoothed out my furrowed brow.
"Hold on — one question. This whole city is in chaos from a blackout of unknown cause, so how is this monitor even on?"
"...I don't know what kind of fucked-up aesthetic you're talking about. So how did you turn this monitor on?"
Fighting back my anger as best I could, I asked again. The crow shrugged its shoulders.
"...You called me over here like a goddamn mutt, so I never got to see that manual. Haha."
I locked eyes with it for a few silent seconds before finally speaking.
"Mind if I kick this monitor? Just enough to crack it shouldn't matter, right?"
At my deadly serious expression, she(?) suddenly drooped, fidgeting with her wing-hands.
"Really?"
The crow added that supplying the whole school would be realistically difficult, but I wasn't listening to the rest. In other words — the goal I'd half given up on after checking the rooftop was actually possible.
I put on a blank face again and asked quietly about the most important information.
"Then tell me what that equivalent exchange is."
"So what is the resource."
What the hell did I have to do to wash this bloody stench off my body in a shower?
At that point my brain kicked into overdrive, seized by the excitement of finally being able to wash properly.
We're near the mountains, so there has to be a separate water source. The facilities here are famous for being good, so odds of no shower rooms are low. If I can just get the electricity running...!
"...Wait. So that means—"
"....."
That was when it hit me just how important the gear on this building's rooftop really was. And I also realized that to fully leverage that importance, there was one bastard I absolutely had to eliminate — the same bastard I'd been planning to kill out of pure spite and competitive fire.
"So we're back to square one."
"Meaning if I want to properly run the gear on the rooftop, I have to gather up and process the corpses in this building."
"And to do that, I have to kill that interference first."
With a short lament, the crow dropped its brightly gleaming red eyes.
Of all things, overlapping with a Beta Type spawner. And in the extreme early phase, less than a week into the apocalypse.
And of course, during that time its range of activity would be limited to inside this monitor. I watched the crow wallow in its own despair over the grim reality, then tapped the monitor with my finger to make it look at me.
"So, how about answering me?"
"The question I asked first. How to take that thing down."
Don't even make eye contact with a Beta Type.
"There's really no way at all?"
"...Regulate what?"
"Who the hell says that while watching people thrash around trying not to die? That mummy bastard?"
"So who the hell are they."
After a brief silence, the crow fidgeted with the bandages wrapped around its body before speaking.
At that, I dropped the blank expression and narrowed my eyes.
"...Actual gods? For real?"
Glancing at my dumbfounded expression, the crow added:
"...What, lightning out of a clear sky or something?"
I had no idea what any of this meant. I pressed my throbbing temples a few times, then leaned my face close to the monitor and spoke in a low tone.
"Whatever. Stop going off on tangents. Gods or whatever — so there's really no way?"
I raised my hand and cut it off completely. This damn electronic crow clearly wasn't grasping the core of my question, so I had no choice but to ask more specifically.
"The bastard roaming this building right now. If I stab it with a knife, burn it, smash its head in — does it just come back to life? Is it a completely hopeless case?"
Only then did it seem to understand. Blinking its red eyes, it slowly shook its head.
The Transcendents would call it a balance break and start complaining.
Hearing that answer left me with a vaguely uneasy feeling, and I asked again.
"Then that means it can be killed. Why do you keep saying it's impossible?"
By this point the crow looked completely incredulous.
Watching the crow frantically try to persuade me, practically spraying imaginary spit, I wondered. Was this pure concern for me, or was it because if it disappeared there'd be no one left to talk to?
Either way, it didn't matter. I tapped the monitor again to cut it off.
What I wanted wasn't a firearm. It wasn't some drill that could punch through that incredible skull in one shot either. Just a basic weapon that would make minimal combat viable. One was enough.
"You said you could help. The help I want is just one thing. A long-reach weapon that can counter those fucking orangutan arms."
I thought I saw her sigh, but that kind of trivial detail was beneath my notice. The crow fiddled with various settings, then asked me one last question.
"Got it. What's the price."
I didn't want to waste any more time. My body was itching so badly I could barely stand it. Ever since my racing heart had gone quiet, something kept trying to rise up only to stall halfway, and I couldn't stay still.
"I've met plenty. Enough to be sick of them."
"...Mark? What mark."
"This skull thing?"
I stared hard at the blackened skull pattern on the back of my hand.
So that's what it was for?