Starlink (1)
“...Haaam.”
I woke from my sleep and sat up groggily.
I pushed myself up from the blanket, which was still a long way from what anyone would call soft, and blinked the sleep out of my eyes.
It’s not like anyone would scold me for sleeping a little longer, and taking a quick nap wouldn’t cause any problems.
Not that I needed one, but I knew better than anyone how important it was to have a routine of my own in a place like this.
I don’t have a goal or a dream or anything...
Smack!
Still, I didn’t want to die, so I lightly slapped my cheek with my palm and slowly got to my feet.
After giving the gallery my wake-up report, I chewed through a piece of hard bread and swallowed it.
I forced myself to fill my stomach with lukewarm water, then got ready to climb the tower again.
The gallery seems fine too.
Wiki had disappeared, but it had only been a day, so I figured I should just let it go.
If he vanished again for a week, he’d still probably pop back up as if nothing had happened.
I’d worry if he actually disappeared again, but there was no need to get too worked up over just one day.
-1535-
[Doom 348:18:48:57]
[Section 4:18:48:57]
[ 37 / 21 ]
Looking at the timer displayed in the Lobby, I gave a bitter smile.
In the end, I’d moved on to another cycle, but the Irregular still hadn’t appeared.
Even if the Irregular did show up, I honestly didn’t know how I’d use it.
I wasn’t sure whether going back to the original world would be the right thing to do, or whether I even wanted to return there.
Of course, living alone in this place, with my life hanging by a thread and time breathing down my neck, wasn’t exactly enjoyable either...
...But even if I did go back, there wouldn’t be a single thing left there that mattered to me.
Neither life felt particularly close to what I wanted.
And unlike the other gallery members seemed to think, I hadn’t gotten the Irregular and become the Jutak of the gallery... or rather, its manager.
I’m only keeping it hidden because I don’t want to cause any confusion.
I hadn’t become the Jutak by wishing on the Irregular or anything like that.
...No, not Jutak—manager!
“I’d be happy if I could get up about three floors today.”
Whether I could manage that was another matter, but I decided to set my sights high.
Climbing quickly in the early stages meant that if variables cropped up later, I’d still have time to deal with them.
Since I couldn’t climb as recklessly as Wiki did, I had no choice but to keep going steadily.
Tap—
Just as I was about to start walking, thinking that today I’d finish the Tower of Trials up to the tenth floor...
Ding!
“...?”
“Uh...?”
A new window I’d never seen in my life popped up on my device.
It showed Wiki’s nickname floating over a translucent hologram.
And then there was that bizarre question asking whether I could see it.
I sent back exactly how I felt about this incomprehensible situation.
When he didn’t reply right away, I spent a moment checking around, wondering what on earth this could be.
...Is this some kind of messenger?
I realized it was a bit like the messengers used in the original world.
How the hell?!
How was he even talking to me?
How could something like a messenger exist in this tower?
When I checked the device, I found that right next to the Gallery program there was an unknown app called Starlink installed.
The only person available to talk to was Wiki.
I didn’t know if I could talk to anyone else, but my curiosity about the app itself was far greater than that.
Swish—
That was typing honed by fifteen hundred years of gallery life.
I could finish a sentence in two seconds flat.
I kept pressing him, demanding to know what the hell this was and telling him to answer faster, when—
Ding!
“...Money?”
I muttered under my breath at Wiki’s frantic message.
Money was being spent?
Had there even been money in the tower?
No... come to think of it, Wiki had climbed the tower in the blink of an eye before, and even sent me food whenever he wanted.
Could that ability have something to do with this so-called “money”?
Some kind of special ability user...?
The tower was full of people with all kinds of strange powers.
They’d been drawn here from countless worlds, so there were even people with abilities I’d never seen in my life.
Maybe Wiki was one of them, I thought, and waited a while longer.
“...”
10 seconds.
“...”
20 seconds.
“...How long am I supposed to wait?”
30 seconds.
As no other message came in, I bit my lip anxiously.
I didn’t know why, but I felt strangely nervous. Maybe it was because I knew this was a private little conversation just between us, or maybe because I’d found something I’d never seen before in fifteen hundred years. I couldn’t tell.
Then, after about a minute—time that felt as long as a year—had passed...
Ding!
“...Huh?”
I blinked dumbly at the message, which was full of words I couldn’t make sense of.
I understood what they all meant.
Other than TP and the main office, they were all things I knew, of course.
Anomaly was... the thing Wiki showed me before, right...?
I tilted my head and frowned, trying to figure out what this meant.
I wanted to ask directly by message, but since he said it cost money, I held myself back and decided to wait.
If he kept not replying, I’d ask again later.
I decided I wouldn’t make him suffer for my own sake.
Since I’d already made one huge mistake before, I needed to be even more careful with Wiki.
...
So I waited another 10 seconds, then 20... and eventually another full minute passed.
Then—
“...?”
I frowned at the newly arrived message after nearly two minutes had passed.
What the hell was he talking about?
“Huh...!!”
I was so shocked by Wiki’s words that I let go of the device.
Five sodas? To lose that much over such a short exchange felt far too serious.
At the sight of Wiki emphasizing that I should send everything at once, I nodded to no one in particular.
Everything you sent above is visible... and as for any changes on my side...
Maybe just the fact that the Starlink program had been installed on my device.
Just in case, I looked around the Lobby and went back to the hideout to check, but nothing else seemed out of place.
The tower timer was running normally, and the gallery looked perfectly fine too.
After checking everything I possibly could, I sent Wiki another message.
At Wiki’s words, I scratched my cheek.
Wouldn’t it be good to be able to talk to other people?
At the very least, I felt kind of happy.
It was a little different from chatting through comments in the gallery.
It felt special in a way that made the corners of my mouth lift on their own.
“I do like soda, but...”
To be honest, I wanted to keep talking more than I wanted soda.
I wanted to know what kind of person he was, how he could climb the tower so fast, and how he sent food to me in the first place.
I wanted to have all kinds of conversations, but... hearing that three messages cost one soda made me hesitate a little.
...It’s been a while?
It had only been two days since Wiki sent me fried chicken and beer.
Maybe he’d spent a long time in the tower.
Time inside a section of the tower could stretch for months while only a single day passed outside.
I didn’t really know how it was possible... but since that was reality, I just had to accept it.
That was the truth.
I wasn’t entirely sure how to put it, but I was happy just because I’d had a special experience.
Because we’d shared a private conversation no one else knew about, and because Wiki had messaged me first instead of someone else.
“Heh...”
I couldn’t stop smiling.
I should hurry up and get back to climbing the tower.
Wiki didn’t reply after that.
He didn’t reply, but this time I didn’t care much.
We’d both said everything we needed to, and the morning drowsiness and fatigue had already flown far, far away.
Right now, I just needed to keep climbing the tower in a good mood and hurry back to manage the gallery.
Just as I was about to head toward the cave where the Tower of Trials stood...
Rumble—!
“...!”
Behind me, I heard a sound I’d long since gotten used to, absurdly enough.
“Soda...”
I’d said I didn’t need anything.
And because of the money issue, he probably hadn’t even wanted to reply.
Yet he still bothered to take care of soda for me like this, and I couldn’t help but smile brightly.
I should get back from the tower quickly and drink it.
Today really did feel like it was going to be a very, very good day.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
I climbed much faster than I’d expected.
Maybe it was because I’d been more motivated than usual.
-1535-
[Doom 348:12:30:37]
[Section 4:12:30:37]
[ 40 / 21 ]
I’d reached the floor I’d aimed for faster than I expected.
I’d planned for three floors in six hours, about three hours per floor, but I’d climbed at a speed that was nothing short of ridiculous by comparison.
“Then... right away...!”
I swallowed as I looked at the soda sitting motionless in the center of the Lobby.
I’d worked hard for that. I’d worked incredibly hard.
Familiar now, I popped the cap and thought I’d just take one-fifth of it.
Gulp... gulp...
“Khhhhh... heh heh...”
The sweetness filling my mouth and the fizzy rush sliding down my throat made laughter spill out of me on its own.
I was happy. Thanks to Wiki, I’d really enjoyed the whole day.
Swish—
Now it was time to report back to the gallery that I’d finished my tower climb and see what had been going on.
It’ll be full of stories about Wiki, won’t it?
Thinking back on our conversation, he must have spent a long time in some tower.
Probably he’d climbed to the fiftieth floor of the Tower of Mind. The gallery would be buzzing with stories about that.
A full two hundred floors.
A newbie who’d somehow climbed two hundred floors in just about two months.
There would be a flood of posts about Wiki’s unbelievable achievement, something even I could hardly believe.
...What is this?
The atmosphere was quite different from what I’d expected.
How should I put it... overall, it felt down.
“Search nickname...”
“...”
The state of things looked a little different from what I’d seen earlier.
Of course, when we’d been talking, part of it was probably because I’d been guzzling Wiki’s money like an idiot...
Meeting someone who died again...
Seeing a post like that, I immediately understood why Wiki had written those things.
It made perfect sense.
I’d been through it more than once myself.
It wasn’t always the same situation, and even when I thought I’d properly put something to rest, it would show up again.
The more that repeated, the more the separations piled up just for me alone, the more worn down I became.
This was the first time Wiki had gone through it, but first time or not, that didn’t make it hurt any less.
In fact, because I didn’t know what kind of past he’d been through, it was even harder for other people to touch the wound.
...He must be having a really hard time.
That was all the post said.
He didn’t share food as usual, and he didn’t put up any playful posts either.
The version of him I’d seen while talking to him had been the brightest he’d looked.
Conversation... messages...
At a sudden thought, I opened the newly installed Starlink app.
My conversation with Wiki was still there, exactly as it had been.
What could I say to cheer him up? Would sharing my own experiences help him even a little?
I mulled it over, but my hand wouldn’t move easily.
Maybe even bringing up my own story was nosy of me.
Would saying something he didn’t even want to hear—while spending his money—actually help at all?
I was worried I’d only be provoking him belatedly after several hours had already passed.
What if he was doing his best to get through it and I ended up reminding him of it all over again?
Just like I was struggling... maybe he’s crying alone somewhere...
When I first watched my younger sibling die all over again, I’d stayed holed up in the hideout for days, crying my eyes out.
Bringing a cruel memory back to life, even one I’d tried so hard to bury, was never a pleasant feeling.
“I... probably wouldn’t have been able to get back up if it weren’t for the former Jutak either.”
She had been the only person who comforted me and cared for me slowly, patiently.
I didn’t know her face, or her name, or even where she was now.
But I still clearly remembered that someone else’s comfort could be a tremendous help.
So I wanted to comfort Wiki too.
Since I was always the one being helped, I’d once again gone and wasted a ton of Wiki’s money like an idiot and even accepted soda from him.
Still, talking about myself doesn’t seem like the right move...
He might not even mind, of course, but I was the one who minded.
Gulp.
So... this was a little embarrassing, but...
Maybe it would be enough if I just comforted him in the way Wiki liked.
That might be better than some difficult speech or an arrogant-sounding piece of advice.
Swish.
“Ahh...”
Honestly, I didn’t want to do this even a little bit, but...
If it could only help Wiki feel a little better...
“W-Wiki also showed me his own face by accident... so... so...”
Click—!
I should go to sleep the second I send this.
I didn’t have the confidence to keep holding my device while fully conscious.
“Uuuuuu...!!!”
“Aaaaah─!!”
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Ding!
Ding!
“...?”
I blinked dumbly at the Starlink notification.
I told her to only send it if something serious happened.
The Jutak’s message had arrived after roughly half a day.
Even though my mood had already turned sour from watching several thousand TP melt away in an instant, I hadn’t expected her to send another message so soon. And two, at that.
Should I make the warning even clearer?
Or had something truly serious happened?
I pressed at my throbbing head and opened the Jutak’s message immediately.
Seeing the photo icon in the preview, I tilted my head.
Had something happened that called for sending a photo?
Clink.
“..............”
Without thinking much of it, I entered the chat room—and the moment I saw what was there, my mouth fell open.
Wow...
Her gallery pocket had completely lost its mind.