Slave Merchant: Derick Walker-3
Two days had passed since I'd fallen into this world. Having already gone through the strategy guide and setting collection with painstaking care, I had a reasonably solid grasp of how things worked here. Even so, there was a considerable gap between information read as text and information earned through firsthand experience. Over those two days, I had come to understand my situation with perfect clarity.
I was a slave. With no memories remaining from this body's previous occupant, I had no idea how I'd ended up in chains. Judging by the considerable fat still clinging to this frame, I had likely been the son of a wealthy household — yet somehow, I had plummeted to slave status. In a fantasy world of swords and magic, a fallen noble sold into slavery was hardly an uncommon setup. Well, it seemed I was one of those victims.
In the hardcore fantasy game Solari World, slaves were livestock — less than human. This was already a bleak medieval fantasy with no such thing as human rights, and slaves occupied the very bottom of that hierarchy. Consumable goods, blown this way and that at their master's whim like powerless reeds. That was what it meant to be a slave.
Of course, slaves weren't cheap merchandise, so it wasn't common for them to lose their lives to a master's idle whim — but that depended entirely on the master's temperament, so there were no guarantees. For now, this Derick Walker fellow leading the slave caravan didn't seem inclined to mishandle his goods. That didn't mean he treated us with any particular care, of course.
Clatter! Clatter! Clatter! Clatter!
The wagon rattled noisily along the unpaved road. Paved roads were virtually nonexistent in this world. Even a car would have a miserable time on these dirt tracks, and the ride quality of this rigid transport wagon didn't even come close to half of that. I'd been suffering from savage motion sickness for two days straight. The only silver lining was that I wasn't the only one — there were plenty of others in the same shape, so I didn't stand out.
"Fuck... how much longer are we going like this? It's already been a week. I can see stars in the middle of the day."
The guy next to me grumbled. I'd only been here two days and it already felt like hell. He'd been enduring this for a week. This was no way for a human being to live. Our status as slaves was being driven home with every jolt of the wagon.
Of course, getting off the wagon wouldn't make things any easier. Then we'd have to make a death march all the way to our destination. The rations allotted to us amounted to a single piece of bread and a few sips of water per day. That wasn't a figure of speech — that was literally all of it.
The guy next to me had mentioned in passing that my body had been reduced to half its original size. If this was half, just how fat had I been originally? I was starting to understand why he kept teasing me about being Derick Walker's son.
"Rest time, you pieces of trash! Everyone off the wagons! Anyone who needs to take a shit, get it done now!"
The long-awaited rest period. I dragged my aching body down from the prison-like wagon. For us, it might as well have been a prison.
Stepping onto solid ground after that rattling wagon, a sudden wave of nausea surged up. I barely managed to hold it down, but I could see others lining up to empty their stomachs. With so little in them, only sour bile came up. Even after this journey ended, we were going to be in rough shape for a while.
"You trash! If you're done with your business, make camp! This is the camp of Lord Walker, who has graciously granted you livestock a rest period! Anyone who does a sloppy job, I'll chop your hands off!"
Transport Captain Daven barked threats as he ordered us to set up a rest area. The bit about chopping off hands was clearly a threat, but there was nothing to gain by testing him. I dragged my obese body around, gathering branches from the surroundings.
A rest period might look like a golden opportunity for caged slaves to escape. Escape, however, was impossible. Even if these half-dead slaves ran as fast as they could, they couldn't outpace mounted transport guards.
The guy next to me occasionally told the story of someone who'd fled on the first day of the journey. The one caught by the transport guards had been bound tightly to a tree and stoned to death by the other slaves. What's more, the corpse had been hacked into five pieces and scattered along the roadside like excrement. Now I understood why disposing of slaves over food shortages raised your infamy in the game.
He mentioned the executed slave in a casual, passing tone. For the record, the one who'd thrown the hard rock that struck the slave between the eyes and finished him off was apparently me. This fat bastard had some unexpected guts.
"It's complete."
One of the slaves reported the camp's completion to Transport Captain Daven. I stared at that slave. The one looking toward Daven didn't notice my gaze.
His name was Jin. The protagonist of Solari World.
Jin was the default name assigned if you didn't choose a character name. He was the center of this world — a taciturn, handsome man. Even in rags, the innate nobility he carried couldn't be hidden. Even in this hell of surviving on a single piece of bread and a sip of water, his eyes were full of light.
Daven inspected the camp we'd built. If anything was even slightly sloppy, the whip in his hand would fly. Fortunately, we'd accumulated enough know-how by now to build a camp that could pass his inspection.
He checked the camp, nodded, and granted us rest. Naturally, the transport guards watched our every move with hawk-like eyes. The slightest suspicious action, and the nooses in their hands would tighten around our necks.
"Kh! Finally, a rest. Ugh...! If we keep going like this, I'm gonna die in that wagon."
The guy who sat next to me groaned as he collapsed onto the grass. I wanted to rest my exhausted body too, but I didn't have that luxury. My eyes were on Jin.
Jin.
A name that screamed protagonist. He carried an unmistakable air of nobility, but he wasn't a noble. Of course, ranks like noble or royalty paled in comparison to the stature of a protagonist. This world had been born entirely for Jin's sake.
Solari World was an RPG. The game's ultimate objective was to defeat the Demon King. And the one assigned that role was Jin.
If this world's predetermined ending was the defeat of the Demon King, then the clue to getting out of here surely lay in that as well. For now, the Unix Cube system had said I couldn't leave because no checkpoint had been set. I wasn't entirely sure what a checkpoint was, but I figured I'd find hints as I progressed through the game's story.
For that, I'll need Jin's power.
I withdrew my gaze from Jin and pictured the future ahead. Knowing the strategy guide, imagining a future where the Demon King was slain wasn't difficult. Of course, I didn't know exactly what the process would look like.
No matter how I think about it, this is a problem. The protagonist's existence... and my own...
I was not the protagonist. I wasn't even a member of the protagonist's party. I was nothing more than Extra A, appearing in the game's opening. I didn't even know this bastard's name.
Obviously, before defeating the Demon King, my own survival had to come first. The best strategy for survival was sticking close to the protagonist — but that didn't seem like a particularly clean answer.
For one thing, it was questionable whether the protagonist would even accept me as a companion. And even if he did, it was uncertain whether he could defeat the Demon King according to the walkthrough.
That guy might be this world's protagonist, but strictly speaking, he was merely the avatar of the real protagonist — the player. When I first played Solari World, I'd gone through countless trial and error in the prologue alone, never mind the ending. It was hard to believe this guy would advance toward this world's ending without a single mistake.
If I helped from the sidelines, things would go much more smoothly — but would the protagonist even listen to me? Earning the protagonist's trust and progressing the story toward the Demon King's defeat was a path full of obstacles.
Was there a better way, then? I looked at Jin again. He was leaning against a great tree, eyes quietly closed, taking his rest. Jin was this world's protagonist — but the one who actually belonged in that seat was me. The one who knew how to clear this world.
"Captain Daven! A monster is approaching from nearby!"
"What? A monster!? Here? I've passed through this place dozens of times and that's never happened..."
So it's finally here?
I turned my gaze toward the soldier who'd reported the monster's presence to the transport captain. At last, the world was beginning. This was the monumental prologue of Solari World.
"AAAAAGH!"
"Wh... what? In broad daylight... and on the road to Tellibai, a Vice Vine?!"
CRUNCH!
A bone-chilling sound rang out from behind the wagon procession. The slaves who'd been resting finally picked up on the abnormal atmosphere.
"Everyone form ranks! You livestock bastards! Line up and take the front!"
Even in a dangerous situation, Daven commanded his forces with precision. Throw the slaves out as meat shields, then have the soldiers take down the monster. Slaves were merchandise; escort soldiers were expensive combat assets. Even a child would know where the priorities lay.
The slaves milled about in confusion. But Daven's sharp whip brought them under control. We slaves, myself included, stood in a line in front of the soldiers, forming a long human barrier. Then we could see the monster approaching from behind the wagons, letting out a savage cry.
It had already sampled human flesh, it seemed — bright crimson blood dripped from its maw. The moment my neighbor saw the monster, he collapsed to the ground. The aura of death the creature radiated had shattered a weak human's will in an instant. Daven cracked his whip at the man. Fuck, the splash hit me too.
"Move and I'll chop your head off along with the ones on either side of you! Soldiers, prepare for battle!"
A monster covered in sharp steel scales from head to toe — Vice Vine. The boss of Solari World's prologue, and the very first enemy you encounter in the game. Staging an absurd boss fight from the prologue itself told you everything you needed to know about Solari World's vicious difficulty.
"Fuck, isn't that thing the kind you barely ever see even in a monster wave? Running into one of those in broad daylight..."
"I've heard pregnant Vice Vines sometimes wander this stretch of road. Our luck's completely shit."
I could hear the soldiers' agitated voices. And they had every reason to be. Vice Vine was a considerably powerful monster. By Solari World standards, a low-rank mercenary's attack power was around 10; Vice Vine's exceeded 80. On top of that, its defense approached 100, meaning even dozens of ordinary low-rank mercenaries couldn't hunt it.
"Don't panic! We have the numbers! Slowly surround it and pin it down with nets!"
Like the seasoned warrior he was, Daven shouted the correct answer for hunting a Vice Vine. Physical attacks were meaningless against something with such high defense. Restricting its movement with nets was the best approach. The Vice Vine, however, had no intention of waiting for them.
"Grrrrrk!"
A body the size of a van leaped high into the air. Clear footprints remained where it had launched from. How dense did those thigh muscles have to be for a bulk like that to jump so high? It vaulted over the human barrier we slaves had formed and landed in front of the soldiers.
BOOM!
"Grrrrrrrk!"
It identified the strong and the weak in an instant and selected its priorities. For a monster, its intelligence was excessively high.
An ordinary Vice Vine didn't possess this level of intelligence. But this one was the prologue boss. The setting collection had noted that it possessed intelligence far superior to other Vice Vines. As a result, the patterns it used were remarkably varied.
"AAAAAGH!"
Daven, who until moments ago had been issuing orders with a composed face, screamed and fled, his face drained of all color. With their commander in flight, the soldiers scattered in disarray and were hunted down by the Vice Vine. It opened its massive jaws wide and chewed a soldier's entire body in one bite. A human body crumbled like a cracker. The way the entrails popped and splattered was almost comical.
Strange.
People were dying like that, and I wasn't particularly shocked. I was able to maintain a state of mental detachment. And I had a rough idea why.
Mental Resistance Lv. 2
A-RANK
Grants 20% resistance to status conditions.
"Grrrrrk!"
The Vice Vine had sampled more than ten soldiers and Daven in an instant. It seemed to be a gourmet. It didn't eat its prey whole — just a single bite of each. Finely shredded scraps of meat were scattered everywhere.
But the Vice Vine still looked unsatisfied as it turned its gaze on us. This was the perfect chance for the slaves to flee, yet none of them could lift their feet from the ground. They all trembled, soiling themselves, crying out to the gods. All except one person: Jin.