Unfamiliar Destinations Always Call for Extra Caution
After landing atop the scrap heap by rope, the first thing I did was retrieve the scissor blade stuck in the ground.
This pitch-black blade I'd scavenged from the scrapyard. Nothing seemed better suited to keeping me alive.
So I untied the rope from its handle — the one that would let me get home again — and re-fastened it to a jutting piece of scrap metal.
Yeah. Barring something truly catastrophic, getting back shouldn't be a problem.
And if I returned only to find the path cut off again…
Well, I'd just have to pull another stunt with the spare rope stashed in my bag.
Stuffing things into the bag seemed to stretch their time limit a little, after all.
"Ugh, it's still so dark here. At least for a scrapyard, there's no stench — small mercies."
Clatter-rattle.
Muttering that as I surveyed the surroundings, I slid down the scrap heap as if skating across it — upright, balanced, gliding straight down.
It was a technique I'd devised after climbing up and down last time and realizing the scrap was piled far more solidly than expected.
Barefoot, the jagged metal shards would have shredded my soles into a bloody mess…
But the high-quality shoes that came with Nia's default outfit simply crushed the scrap flat beneath them.
"Ugh-da-da-dat… Landing!"
Thud.
Before hitting the ground I kicked off the scrap pile and jumped, touching down cleanly.
At that speed and height, my previous life's self would have cracked a leg bone without ceremony. For me now, it barely registered as a burden.
Once on the floor, I glanced back. A fairly tall scrap heap greeted me.
"…How am I supposed to climb back up? Should I build some stairs? Rock-climbing this every single time is a pain."
It wasn't difficult, of course. Not hard. How much weight had I already lifted? Was my own body weight really going to be the problem?
But repeating an activity where one wrong step could send me tumbling wasn't my style. It was scary.
So I crossed my arms and pondered for a moment — then had no choice but to quietly droop my shoulders.
The more I thought about it, the clearer it became: this wasn't a problem with an immediate solution.
Haa… Guess I'll just have to put up with it for a while. I still haven't even found a proper way to travel between home and the scrapyard.
Come to think of it, I hadn't even established a proper path between the scrapyard and home yet.
Sorting out this slope would have to wait until after that.
"Well then… shall we get going?"
Click-click.
The high-performance flashlight I'd prepared for this expedition was in good working order.
When I swept its beam across the surroundings, the still-creepy expanse of the scrapyard stood fully revealed.
Ugh… I don't think I'll ever get used to this place, no matter how many hundreds of times I come…
"Let's make it back safely. A haul would be even better."
But beyond that darkness lay something clearly worth overcoming the fear for.
So I had to move forward. Big risks came with big returns.
I couldn't stay curled up forever.
Roughly two hours had passed since I'd begun exploring this vast, dark place I'd arbitrarily named the Data Trash Heap.
No notable buildings or structures — just a chaotic scrapyard that all looked the same at a glance.
Well, this was only my second visit. Of course I wouldn't know where anything was.
But I couldn't simply get lost, either.
So, like an explorer marking trees in a jungle, I carefully folded nearby scrap metal into arrow shapes and left them to mark the path I'd taken.
"Done. Hanging it right here should work."
The crooked scrap-metal arrow I'd painstakingly folded with my fingers swayed unsteadily atop the structure.
No wind here. Nobody around. Leaving it and moving on probably wouldn't cause any trouble.
"…It won't disappear, right?"
No — thinking about it again, that wasn't something I could be sure of yet.
A newbie who'd only been wandering this scrapyard for two days.
Maybe things I couldn't even imagine would happen here.
Being overly afraid of things that hadn't happened yet wasn't healthy — but being too careless was just as dangerous.
Unlike before, I now had someone I needed to provide for.
If I disappear, what happens to Noise?
The thought settled a heavy weight of responsibility into my chest with a dull thud.
I had to feed Noise. I couldn't keep making her cheap sandwiches forever.
Right. Needing a safe return wasn't for my sake — it was for Noise's.
Only now did I truly feel the necessity of putting safety first.
With that changed mindset, I advanced carefully, sweeping the flashlight thoroughly in every direction — when suddenly an object entered my field of view.
"Huh? A refrigerator."
It was none other than a refrigerator. A conspicuously white refrigerator in a scrapyard painted entirely in darkness.
Something about its color and presence naturally snagged the eye.
So after checking left and right like crossing a crosswalk, I carefully approached it.
Up close, the corners were hideously dented — as if it had endured its share of rough treatment in this place.
"Power's obviously off. Condition is… Whoa, cold!"
I set my hand on the refrigerator — then jerked back in shock at the unexpected sensation.
A dizzying cold so intense that the finger that casually touched it went numb with frostbite-sharp chill.
Enough to make me look around in bewilderment.
"Huh? Why is this so cold? How many degrees below zero is this?!"
It was an unfamiliar sensation that forced the flustered cry out of me.
When was the last time I'd felt cold like this since becoming Nia's body?
Probably… never, I think.
"It's not something dangerous just to touch, right?"
I eyed the refrigerator's pure-white body with considerable wariness, then picked up the scissor blade I'd set on the ground.
A refrigerator so cold on the outside that mere contact felt dangerous. This was absolutely not something to take lightly.
This scrapyard was a place made of odds and ends that mostly didn't work properly.
Thinking nothing of that distinctive refrigerator in such a place… would be no different from a fool with zero sense of danger.
Still, let's open it first. If it seems dangerous, run without looking back.
But I had no intention of running without doing anything.
It might be an extremely dangerous object — or, conversely, something extremely beneficial to me.
I couldn't know which was more likely… but roughly, fifty-fifty. Success or failure.
"What, a fifty-percent gacha? That's totally free! In gacha games, the chance of pulling an SSR is usually around one percent!"
I steeled myself and raised the scissor blade.
Then, gripping it with both hands side by side like thrusting a spear, I poked the refrigerator.
Okay. At least it's not the type that explodes on contact.
Then let's open the handle like this.
"Like this — wedge the blade into the gap… Whoa! The handle broke off!"
…Anyway. After various twists and turns, I managed to fling open the mysterious cold refrigerator.
Immediately, the pure-white cold air trapped inside began billowing out in soft, rolling waves.
Enough to make me worry whether the entire scrapyard would be blanketed in frost at this rate.
Fortunately, what I'd feared didn't happen.
"…Oh. Is that it?"
The pure-white cold air the refrigerator had been spewing quickly dissipated as it spread, melting into the air.
The unstable form seemed extremely vulnerable to the time limit.
I was genuinely glad my worry about an ice age starting right then and there hadn't become reality.
Once the white cold air vanished, the interior of the refrigerator stood fully revealed.
Perhaps because it was a high-end home refrigerator that looked rather expensive from the outside, the inside also had a refined, orderly feel…
And within it, foods with familiar shapes — hamburgers, hot dogs, pizza — were waiting for me.
"Wait — hamburgers…? Pizza?!"
At that radiant appearance, my body naturally leaned toward the refrigerator.
Even though my current body didn't need food, that didn't mean I'd come to dislike it.
I still loved tasty things, and enjoying fine dining had been one of my few hobbies in my previous life — though lack of money had kept the experiences limited.
The reason I hadn't been eating was simply that alone, I didn't particularly feel the urge. And the CP consumption was wasteful, too.
But recently, while feeding Noise… I'd rediscovered the happiness that food brings.
I'd realized again how good the satisfaction of texture and taste could feel.
So my feet moving forward without conscious thought was pure instinct.
Things like pizza and hamburgers had high value — creating them without detailed data burned a lot of CP.
If I obtained those and analyzed their composition precisely? I could freely enjoy hamburgers and pizza on a low CP budget.
…Doesn't something feel off?
The thought flashed through my mind like a spark, and my legs urgently hit the brakes.
…Yeah. That's right. It is weird.
Of all places, in this vast scrapyard — food sitting inside a properly working refrigerator?
The sheer convenience of the setup naturally triggered a sense of dissonance.
What I did next after recognizing the problem was very simple.
I picked up the scissor blade I'd briefly set down… and swung it at the refrigerator without the slightest hesitation!
If someone who didn't know the circumstances had been watching, they might have asked what the hell I was doing…
But the intuition in my chest was clearly saying this was the right action.
And that premonition turned out to be all too correct. I immediately had no choice but to wear an expression of pure shock.
Kieeeek!
"Ugh…!"
In that brief instant just before my scissor blade touched the refrigerator —
the suspicious appliance grotesquely warped, transforming into something hideous…
and hurriedly retreated backward, dodging my attack!
"What… is that…?"
Goosebumps rose along the back of my neck and forearms.
The fact that something of a form I didn't even want to understand was looking at me was far too chilling.
Kiggeugeuk…
Perhaps I had awakened something troublesome.