The Sunlit Darkzone
I carefully avoided any direct contact with the possible canopy and diligently cleared away the vines and undergrowth along the jungle path.
And as I performed these mechanical tasks, a person naturally tends to fall into their own thoughts.
'The theme of sunlight existing in the dark zone couldn't even be in the middle of the story, but was it due to the influence of the 10th anniversary update?'
Currently, even if it's well done, it's still the very beginning of the story.
The number of prisoners who have become familiar with the dark zone is still fewer than the many evil and extortion elements that the dark zone has prepared with all its heart.
Of course, considering the recent circumstances, I had prepared for a high-difficulty themed dark zone to appear, but I didn't expect it to come in so suddenly.
30 minutes have passed.
On hearing the notification from Crazy Clock, I immediately stopped my actions and checked each other's conditions with Lucy.
“Fever, thirst, dizziness, or any other abnormal physical sensations?”
“None.”
“Since we walked under the possible shade, the moisture consumption was probably less than thought. But since we wasted more time detouring around the toxic spore zone, the energy consumption will be quite high. We should rest here for a bit.”
I handed the tube-shaped preservation food and water pack to Lucy.
These were structured to suck in and ingest the contents of the pack without contamination through special tube caps attached to the gas mask lower part.
The drink doesn't have to be water; we can drink ion drinks, energy drinks, or even alcohol if needed.
But for preservation food, since we can't ingest solids, naturally it would be nutrient broth, nutrient jelly, or semi-melted sherbet-like ice cream.
'It was rather convenient when playing games, but when it comes to reality, it's so inconvenient.'
If cooking and eating using fire were possible, it would have felt like a fantasy world's hero party setting out on an adventure.
In reality, it was like competing with a patient lying in bed receiving food through a tube helplessly.
Energy and moisture have been replenished, and there's no special abnormality in the equipment.
We had already checked each other's bodies for any strange things sticking or unknown wounds.
I wonder why I'm suddenly so obsessed with safety when I used to just move, farm, and fight when meeting enemies.
The reason is simple.
'Because sunlight exists here.'
Do you remember? In the dark zone with the foggy modern city background where sunlight didn't exist, plants didn't grow.
The plants that originally existed were all dried up and withered to the point where they were worthless even as firewood, and the entire ground was filled with an aura of death.
That's the general landscape of the dark zone.
Kwak!
At that moment, Lucy threw her dagger from her waist towards my side.
A vine that was carefully showing its form from the gap of fresh green leaves and targeting this side was precisely stuck in the dagger and writhing.
I didn't even turn towards it and swung the jungle blade to cut off the tentacles in one breath.
Then, the severed tentacles abandoned their ends and quickly disappeared into the forest.
“This one has been targeting us several times now. Can't we deal with the main body?”
“This one doesn't have a main body. It's that kind of thing.”
I wiped off the unpleasant fluid on the jungle blade's blade and stared into the depths of the forest.
“This is a kind of gimmick. It's one of the many elements that allow you to properly taste the viciousness of the dark zone.”
When playing hardcore games, there are often invincible enemies that pop up.
These don't die and there's no way to completely remove them, so the player has to continuously respond to them from start to finish to safely complete the mission.
In this case, every time that vine covering the entire forest approaches, we poke, cut, crush, and burn it to give it a scare and drive it away.
As long as we respond properly, such a threatening gimmick isn't that bad, and a squad of at least two people can handle it well.
But most of the convicts deployed to this dark zone don't know that.
“Tsuk.”
The sunlight that continuously gnaws at our stamina, the constantly dense jungle, the tentacle vines and native species hiding in the gaps and eyeing us.
Even I think it's a dark zone theme that would be hard to handle without some preparation.
'I bet many of them will die in this dark zone's exploration.'
It's not my business if the losers die, but if the number of prisoners suddenly decreases, the number of items on auction will decrease temporarily and prices will surge.
This is a phenomenon where the supply side physically decreases, causing consumer prices to skyrocket, which is not the flow I want.
'Do I have to become a real academy instructor?'
Thinking such trifling thoughts, I started advancing again.
And after about 10 minutes, we finally found human traces in the middle of this hellish jungle.
“This is... a solar power generator. It seems like a spherical model that isn't used much in this era.”
“But the efficiency wasn't bad, right. In an environment where the sun is shining brightly all year round, there's no better power source than this.”
We passed a large solar panel half-covered by vines and leaves extending from the trees, and entered an open area with traces of someone artificially clearing the jungle.
The outside and inside of this open area had clear differences, just enough to distinguish. The inside of the open area was covered with hardened brown earth so solid that not even a blade of grass could grow.
“Burned with fire. It looks like napalm was used.”
The first thing Lucy did was pick up a bit of the soil from the ground, looked carefully at the powdery soil particles crumbling at the tip of her finger, and said.
Anyway, Lucy doesn't know much about the dark zone like I do, but she seems to know a lot about this field.
“It doesn't seem like it was just burned with fire; the scale is too big.”
“It seems special chemical drugs were used too. After all, the people who visited this place would have had at least minimal protection against bio-chemical contamination like us, so they used it without hesitation.”
That makes sense.
Would a research team dispatched to investigate this place and mercenary teams protecting them build a base camp in such a crazy place without knowing that much?
Of course, in terms of EFD's story setting, I don't know exactly what kind of people they were.
Anyway, if Lucy's guess is correct, we might be able to salvage some decent things from here.
'Even in games, base camp farming spots could yield quite good profits.'
With high expectations, we followed the thick wire connected to the solar panel and entered the interior of the base camp.
The first thing we saw was the barbed wire and fence surrounding the base camp, which was now seriously damaged and unable to function.
Then, the monitoring post and the small container box-shaped office that followed were half-collapsed with traces of being smashed.
No matter how you look at it, it's a scene of being attacked by threatening beings and completely wiped out.
'I don't have time to investigate all that. If necessary, I'll gather info, but first, I need to feed our hungry backpacks.'
That's right.
The backpacks are hungry.
Suddenly, our stomachs growled, and like neighbors in neighboring countries who go crazy looking for restaurants when hungry, we too sniffed around like neighborhood dogs searching for item traces.
Clang!
Right after entering the base camp, Lucy and I switched positions.
Lucy held a close combat weapon, and I drew a silenced pistol and took up the perimeter.
The interior of the base camp was filled with temporary barracks of various sizes. The small ones were simply made of container boxes, but the large barracks were properly built using PVC panels and light rebar.
It seems like they were places used by mercenaries, so there were only spartan buildings with a military advanced barracks feel, but the clear distinction made exploration easy.
'Still, because of the blind processing, I can't read the letters, but if it's a military veteran, they can roughly know what each place was used for.'
The place where we stacked barrels to gather contents later was obviously connected to the kitchen, and since there's a kitchen, there's also a large dining hall next to it.
When Lucy opened the kitchen door first, I felt my expression sour.
“Nothing intact.”
“It’s fortunate I can’t smell it.”
The door of the freezer for storing food was forcibly torn open by something, revealing the interior clearly, and in the place where various cooking tools were stacked, there were dark, unrecognizable dense 'lumps' that I couldn't make out.
I thought they looked like human arms or legs, but I didn't say it out loud.
“The inside of the freezer... still, there's some salvageable stuff.”
This side was filled with even more intense dark traces and traces like a child messing around with paint.
Still, there were quite a few intact items.
No fresh food, but there were quite a few intact cans.
I carefully examined the labels on the cans and put one in my backpack after another, and Lucy asked me in a cautious tone.
“Can we eat food obtained from the dark zone?”
“We can eat it.”
“It probably got contaminated.”
“It hasn't been contaminated yet. If we open it here, it will get contaminated immediately, though.”
All food and delicacies that can be obtained from the dark zone can be used inside the dark zone. We can use them.
But the risk we have to bear to use them is quite high.
“Just like how we saved the cigarettes before, if we take these out, we can sell them to the big corporations outside for quite a high price.”
“It’s just a simple can, though.”
“To us, it's just a simple can, but from the perspective of outsiders who can't enter the dark zone, each one is a precious research sample. These cans are worth taking apart one by one for their molecular structure, more than just simple plastic or iron pieces?”
It's like how the unknown drug inside the syringe excites amateur scientists more than the latest smart syringe.
We quickly took as many cans as needed and moved to the dining hall, and as expected, we finished investigating the mess there.
If any incident happened here, there would be equipment or 'information' swept away in the process.
“Bingo.”
Through the broken window, a package of keys that was the only thing reflecting the sunlight coming in and sparkling came into view.
Not an electronic card key, not a smart key with special security code inserted, but really a plain analog key package.
Such security items can be kept and used as long as the durability allows.
Moreover, since it's the most widely used security item in the dark zone, even if the theme is different, if it's a similar background building, there are many compatible doors.
It's like the one-time electronic security key I got by chance when I first entered the dark zone.
'Places that require keys in similar environments to the military aren't rare.'
Gun storage, ammunition storage, fuel storage, decoration item warehouse, and other security areas.
Already, my saliva is flowing as I think about only picking up the 'tasty' items.
But just as that expectation was about to be realized, when I carefully twisted the door handle to open the dining hall door.
I felt my breath stop unconsciously at the faint noise coming from beyond the iron door.
“Pushiiii... Pushiiii...”
Current oxygen filter remaining: 43%