Breaking Open Cubes

"A cube. I think I can crack it open."

"What are you talking about?"

"Exactly what I said. It looks like this motel now has a facility where cubes can be opened safely."

"There was... something like that?"

"Yes. You could call it an added service."

Yu Ha-rin tilted her head, looking unconvinced. I couldn’t really blame her. I didn’t entirely understand it myself.

"Of course, you’ll have to pay for the use of it, but safety seems to be guaranteed."

"Seems to be...?"

"Probably...."

"...You don’t seem like the type to lie, so I’ll trust you. How much is the fee?"

"Just a moment."

I selected the Dimensional Stabilization Room from the list of facilities arrayed before me.

Along with the brief message, the motel gave a faint shudder.

Yu Ha-rin flinched and went on guard, but I understood immediately that this meant a new facility had just come into being.

After the tremor passed, a new room had appeared underground. I knew it instinctively.

"Looks like it worked. Follow me."

We took the elevator down to the second basement floor. Until now, the basement had only gone down one level, housing the laundry room and storage, but the opening of the Dimensional Stabilization Room had punched through to a second floor below.

"Was there always a second basement level?" Yu Ha-rin asked, catching on quickly.

"Does it matter? Come on."

When we reached the second basement floor, a white metal door with a somewhat futuristic design slid open smoothly.

The walls were lined with the same white metal panels, and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a strange circular pattern glowed faintly on the floor.

As soon as we stepped inside, the System helpfully sent a message.

In other words, even if an unstable cube went berserk in here, the aftermath wouldn’t leak outside to contaminate people or property.

That meant this was the perfect place to open cubes.

"This is... completely stable...."

Yu Ha-rin murmured, sounding genuinely surprised.

I wasn’t sure what she meant by "completely stable," but Awakened people seemed to sense these things differently.

"Yes. It’s a completely clean space. There won’t be any explosions or contamination to worry about, either."

"To think a place like this still existed...."

"Would you like to open the cube? Just put it here and break it open."

"Ah, yes...."

Yu Ha-rin took the cube from her bag and placed it in the center of the room.

"Then I’ll open it."

She closed her eyes and placed her hand on the cube.

The silver cube began to glow brightly as its surface split apart.

At that instant, the air inside the room seemed to be sucked inward.

Bang.

A small explosion erupted, and the cube lost its shape and vanished.

"A-are you all right?" I asked, worried she might have been hurt.

"I’m fine. If this had happened anywhere else, it would have exploded much more violently."

Fortunately, Yu Ha-rin didn’t seem to be injured.

Then again, saying it would have exploded even more violently was terrifying in its own right.

"Cubes normally blow up?"

"Once they’re silver grade or higher, it’s common. As I said, a cube is essentially a compressed core of dungeon power. The moment you open it, the force packed inside bursts out in the form of dimensional pressure."

Yu Ha-rin looked down at the floor, where the faintly glowing pattern still lingered.

"Normally, that pressure damages the reward, lets contamination leak out, or hurts the person opening it. That’s why silver-grade cubes can’t be opened carelessly unless you have a special stabilization room."

"And this place?"

"This room has forcibly suppressed that pressure. To a very high degree, too. It’s much cleaner and more stable than most opening rooms outside."

So if we opened cubes here, we could claim the rewards without losing anything?

Nice. That meant one more way to make money.

"Let’s check the contents."

Yu Ha-rin picked up the black pouch lying on the floor.

"This is... an interspatial pouch. Not something you’d normally get from a silver-grade cube, but...."

"Is it good?"

"Yes. This little pouch can hold more than my backpack."

Yu Ha-rin opened it wide and stuffed her backpack inside.

"Oh...."

Something that could hold more than a backpack despite being so small. The world really had changed.

"And this is... a high-grade mana stone. That’s quite rare as well. Are we just lucky?"

Yu Ha-rin seemed to think for a moment, then shook her head.

"It’s too much of a reward to call it simple luck. This room must be special."

"You mean the dimensional pressure suppression you mentioned earlier?"

"Yes. That seems to be the case. If we had opened it outside... who knows what would have happened. Cubes are delicate things. There’s a good chance the contents would have come out damaged from the pressure. In here, it seems the cube’s value is preserved as-is."

"That’s great. Congratulations."

"Yes. It is a good thing. I’ll use this stone as payment. Is that acceptable?"

Yu Ha-rin held out a large gray sphere to me.

Extremely high?

I didn’t need this much. A reasonable amount would have been enough. If I took too much, I’d feel like I was gouging a guest, and that made me uncomfortable.

"This seems excessive. Please pay me with something else."

"It’s a thing I don’t need right now, anyway. It would just be dead weight, so I’d rather settle with this. If there’s any difference left over, I’ll take the rest off the next time I come."

"Well...."

I still didn’t feel entirely at ease, but I supposed I could just let her stay for free the next time she came.

"All right. I’ll count it as an advance payment."

"Yes."

After cracking the cube open, we returned to the lobby.

When Yu Ha-rin asked whether she could take a few packets of instant coffee with her, I loaded her up with more than she could comfortably carry, and then we said our goodbyes.

"I look forward to your next visit."

"Yes. I hope you stay well, sir."

With that, Yu Ha-rin left the lobby.

Compared to the state she’d been in when she first arrived, her steps were much steadier now.

She didn’t look like someone walking off to die.

"That was worthwhile."

It seemed like I’d done well to take up the role of innkeeper.

***

After Yu Ha-rin left, the motel fell quiet again.

Sitting at the front desk and drinking instant coffee, I thought to myself, "I’ve reached level 2."

Apparently, that had unlocked the shop function and another guest room.

"Shop?"

When I said it aloud, a translucent holographic window appeared in front of me.

"Oh...."

It looked like a neatly designed online store.

"They really have everything."

Clothing, furniture, groceries, electronics, and even weapons and industrial machinery.

The categories stretched on endlessly, and if I wanted something specific, I’d have to use the search function.

"So I can buy things with points.... Points?"

A term I’d never seen before came up.

My point total was displayed in the upper-right corner of the screen, and right now it was zero.

"How do I get these?"

After rummaging through the shop for a while, I found a sales tab.

"Ah, so that’s how."

If I sold items, I could receive points according to their value.

Just to test it, I put a ballpoint pen sitting on the front desk into the sales tab.

[Sell: Ballpoint Pen (1 point)]

"Huh... stingy."

Did that mean it was worthless?

Considering that 500 milliliters of bottled water cost around 1,000 points, it didn’t look like I’d be able to game the system by selling junk from inside the motel.

"What about this?"

I put the low-grade mana stone Yu Ha-rin had left behind into the sales tab.

She’d accepted it because the System said its value was appropriate, but I still didn’t know ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠what I was supposed to use it for.

Would they even take something like this?

"What the hell."

So that was what it was for.

I’d been wondering what to do with these stones, and it turned out they were meant to be sold in the shop.

And as if to prove my guess correct, the sales tab was glowing green.

"T-then what about this...?"

I tried putting the high-grade mana stone from the cube into the sales tab as well.

"Huh?!"

Five hundred thousand?!

I nearly keeled over. Ten times the value of a low-grade stone.

"W-what can I even buy with this?"

I started moving around the shop tabs.

First, one liter of bottled water was 3,000 points.

Then a big can of fruit in syrup was 10,000 points.

"Huh. That’s actually...."

It was a lot, but fifty cans of fruit?

I’d thought a high-grade mana stone would be real money, but in this apocalypse it wasn’t nearly enough to live on for long.

"Sigh.... Kind of disappointing."

Maybe greed really was endless. I’d gotten dissatisfied and greedy again almost immediately.

As I kept browsing, I realized the shop’s pricing seemed to be adjusted to apocalypse standards.

Everyday necessities, luxury goods like coffee and cigarettes, and weapons were expensive, but things that were basically useless in this world, like electronics, books, and precious metals, were relatively cheap.

Right now, I had seven low-grade mana stones and one high-grade mana stone, which meant 850,000 points in total.

I wanted to do something with it, but....

"What should I do?"

For safety, I could buy weapons. Guns were too expensive, but blunt weapons and tools that were easy to use were within reach.

"I do have the stuff from those undertakers."

The axe, sledgehammer, and the greatsword carried by the bastard who seemed to be their leader were all piled up in one corner of the motel.

I didn’t know how to use a sword, but the weapons should be enough.

"Then...."

I could use electronics, so maybe electronics? The prices were low enough.

"A game console...."

A selfish desire quietly poked its head out from inside me.

"No. Get a grip. This is an apocalypse. Do I really have the leisure to play games?"

But my motel was invincible, wasn’t it?

Wasn’t mental health management important too? I’d painfully learned that much already.

"Besides, there’s nothing to do when we don’t have guests."

Mm-hm, yes, exactly. Buying one wouldn’t be a bad idea.

I immediately added a Switly OLED to my cart.

150,000 points. Cheap. Very cheap.

As for the remaining 700,000 points, I decided to spend some of it on a coffee machine.

It was instant coffee, sure, but Yu Ha-rin liked coffee too.

And before the world ended, I’d basically lived on the stuff.

Sweet instant coffee was nice, but if I could choose, I’d rather have an iced Americano, right?

"This is also good for the motel’s development."

By bringing in a coffee machine, the motel could offer a better service in the form of iced coffee.

"Yeah, that’s the right call."

I spent 450,000 points in total on the game console and the coffee machine. The remaining 400,000 became emergency funds.

The moment I pressed the purchase button, the products appeared in a flash on top of the front desk.

"That’s incredible...."

Then a message window popped up before my eyes.

"Standard rate? So if I turn this place into something that can slap five-star hotels in the face, I can charge more?"

Of course, I could always choose to charge less or more however I wanted, but it seemed there was a standard rate system in place first.

Well, that made sense. You needed a standard for when the number of guests increased later. I couldn’t exactly run this place like a street market, shouting out prices on the fly.

I wasn’t running a charity, either, so maybe this was only natural.

"Enough of that. Game first."

I was a little too excited.

I shoved the coffee machine aside, rushed over, connected the game console to the TV hanging in the motel lobby, and

spent days and nights in a stupor, lost in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠gaming.

There were no guests.

For a world under gray rain, it was an exceptionally peaceful, quiet stretch of time.

But the rumor of a motel where a woman had gone in covered in blood and walked back out cleanly dressed, carrying instant coffee and looking perfectly fine, wasn’t the sort of thing that would stay buried outside for long.