A Day in the Life of a Genius Salvager Girl
The twenty-second century was crushingly dull.
Tragically, that was simply the accepted truth for everyone living in the present age.
The reason was painfully simple. Every form of entertainment and amusement humanity had ever built had vanished without a trace in the aftermath of the Great War.
A drama scribbled out by some anonymous nobody from the twenty-first century is way more fun than a movie cobbled together by dozens of twenty-second-century people.
A single unknown writer from the previous century could produce something more entertaining than the combined efforts of dozens of famous modern authors. Some people looked at the creative output of the current generation and said exactly that.
But it wasn't merely a matter of personal taste or preference.
After decades of the Great War and the apocalypse that followed, people who had forgotten how to laugh and enjoy themselves could hardly be expected to bring joy to anyone else. In short, the vast majority of humanity living in the twenty-second century was critically deficient in the ability to entertain others.
Those who still sought pleasure in life therefore fell into three broad types.
The first type simply settled for the low-grade amusements of the present age and got on with living. Enjoyment was an important part of life, of course, but its absence wasn't going to kill anyone overnight. Basic drives like lust and hunger could still be satisfied with twenty-second-century means, so contentment with the status quo wasn't impossible.
The second type paid money for data someone else had salvaged from the virtual world — the so-called Ooparts — and enjoyed those instead.
Ooparts were ordinarily so valuable that their price was whatever the seller asked. But when a salvage was incomplete, or when a critical section had corrupted, their value would plummet. There had been cases of films missing their final ten minutes that sold for a third of the usual price. Even day laborers living hand to mouth could get their hands on low-quality Ooparts without too much trouble. Some dealers even stitched broken fragments of data together into video products and sold them as-is.
Most people living in the twenty-second century belonged to this second type. Even those without money or power still had the option of low-grade Ooparts.
And then there was the third type.
These were the ones who had no interest in the wretched creative output of the present century, yet lacked the means to freely buy Ooparts either — so they became salvagers themselves, diving into the virtual world to recover the data with their own hands.
"Did you know? Two hundred and fifty years ago, in the nineteenth century, there was this thing called the Gold Rush. People supposedly swarmed in droves looking for gold, or something like that."
"…So?"
"But almost nobody who went digging for gold actually made it. The mines barely produced any gold to begin with… and even when someone did strike it rich, rivals would kill them for it all the time. Isn't that terrifying? What was so special about gold, anyway?"
The girl with glossy blonde hair tied into cute twin tails — Kristina — shrugged at the woman beside her as she spoke.
But the woman didn't so much as glance her way. She kept her eyes locked dead ahead and simply pulled the trigger of the rifle in her hands.
BANG!
Kieeeeek—!
A gunshot cracked like thunder, and a grotesque scream followed it, scattering in every direction. Kristina's gaze swung sideways of its own accord — and there, writhing in agony, was the beast.
"Source?"
"Huh?"
"I've never heard of any 'Gold Rush.' That means it's not basic knowledge from the Center. Is it some movie or novel setting?"
"It is not! This is real history!"
"…History?"
The woman's brow furrowed slightly. Then, as if she'd already lost interest, she quietly reloaded her sniper rifle.
Perhaps the thunderous gunshot had given her position away in an instant. With a roaring bellow, the beast charged straight toward her.
"Tina."
"Ugh… I finally tell you something interesting and this is what I get…"
Kristina glared at the woman who clearly didn't believe a word of it, then skillfully kicked something up off the ground with her foot and caught it in one hand.
It was a trident that looked like an oversized fork — rather long for a girl of middle-school build to handle. With her soft, completely unmuscled arms, it was hard to imagine she could even swing the thing properly. Yet Kristina simply glared at the beast barreling toward her and shouted in a thoroughly furious voice:
"Fine! I'm never telling you anything again!"
Without a moment's hesitation, Kristina stepped forward. The beast's jaws yawned wide enough to swallow her whole — they were that close, a hair's breadth from disaster — but she simply planted her foot hard into the ground and swung the trident sideways with everything she had.
"I hate you, Anju!"
CRACK!
A dull, heavy impact rang out, like a solid hammer striking stone. The cause was obvious: Kristina's full-powered swing had smashed the trident squarely into the beast's face. Whatever force she'd put behind it, the creature didn't even manage a scream before tumbling sideways in a heap.
"I'll finish it."
Falling in front of a hunter meant exposing a fatal opening. The woman Kristina had called Anju leveled her rifle at the beast's heart and pulled the trigger without the slightest hesitation.
Thunder crashed from the sniper rifle's muzzle once more. The beast thrashing on the ground went completely still, as if meeting its end.
"Hah… is it dead…"
"I'll go check!"
"Wait — Tina!"
Perhaps she'd let her guard down for a second. Before Anju could recollect herself, Kristina was already sprinting toward the beast. She didn't realize it, but it was an extremely dangerous thing to do. Beasts in the virtual world were notorious for playing dead — the moment you thought you'd finished one off was always the most dangerous.
"Anju! This one's really dead!"
"You little—!"
The one silver lining was that the beast genuinely hadn't been faking. Anju rushed to Kristina's side, glared at her fiercely, then bit her lip and spoke.
"Tina…!"
"Huh? Did I do something wrong?"
"What if that thing had been playing dead?! I've told you a dozen times — if you get hurt in here, it affects your real body!"
"Uh… but most attacks don't even hurt me. You saw me knock it down in one hit, right? So I figured it'd be fine…"
The more she talked, the more murderous Anju's eyes became, and Kristina couldn't help shrinking back. She'd only been a salvager for half a year. Her usual thinking was as long as nothing bad happened in the end, it's fine, right? — so she genuinely couldn't grasp what she'd done wrong.
"We'll talk about this outside…"
"Hyeek?! W-wait, Anju! I'm sorry! I was wrong! I don't know what about, but I was wrong!"
Even a girl strong enough to flatten beasts with raw power in the virtual world was still just a girl in reality. Faced with Anju's terrifying tone, Kristina could only beg her not to do whatever she was planning. No matter how much of a genius salvager she was… a guardian's knuckle-raps in the real world were a whole different level of terrifying.
In Auriel, the tallest skyscraper in District 21, on the penthouse floor at the very top, a certain blonde girl was on her knees, wearing a miserable expression as she endured a lecture.
Her name was Kristina — the genius salvager girl who, mere moments ago, had crushed a beast that most salvagers would have abandoned and fled from.
"Do you understand? Even if the beasts in the upper layers aren't that strong yet, a Middle Layer one could still wander up by chance."
"Y-yes, ma'am!"
"Which means you can't rule out the possibility of something with a special trait that can punch straight through that tough body you're so proud of. So you always have to act as if anything could happen at any moment…"
No matter how much power she displayed in the virtual world, reality had its own rules. Faced with her guardian's murderous aura, Kristina couldn't put up any real resistance — she simply had to take the scolding. And since every word of it came from genuine concern and was completely correct, she had absolutely nothing to say for herself.
I need to break this habit of hers for good while I have the chance.
Looking at Kristina's dejected, speechless face, Anju steeled her resolve. How many salvagers had let their guard down in the virtual world and lost their lives for it? Anju had been active as a salvager several times longer than Kristina's mere half-year of experience, and she couldn't help worrying about a girl who just charged blindly ahead like this.
"I'm sorry — sniff — I'm sooorry… I was wrong…"
But the moment Kristina burst into tears and begged forgiveness with total sincerity, Anju's resolve crumbled like a cookie dunked in water. A beautiful blonde girl weeping genuine tears of remorse was an unbeatable force, regardless of gender or age.
"…All right. That's enough lecturing. Tina's a smart kid. Just be more careful from now on."
"Nngh… okay…"
"You want to become the strongest salvager, don't you? Strong salvagers don't cry."
"I-I wasn't crying!"
"Of course you weren't."
Kristina hurriedly wiped her tears on her sleeve, but her bright-red eyes made it perfectly obvious she'd been bawling. Anju chuckled at the girl's transparent tough-act, then handed over the PDA Kristina had been using most often lately.
"Get some rest. Tomorrow we're selling the beast we took down today to a dealer, so don't fall asleep on me again."
"Yeah… I'll go to bed early."
Kristina took the PDA from Anju looking thoroughly wilted. Getting thoroughly chewed out by her only guardian was a natural reaction for a girl her age.
But the moment she powered on the PDA and saw something on the screen, her wilted-greens demeanor flipped completely.
"Ooooooh!"
"Wh— what? What is it?"
Anju jumped at Kristina's sudden outburst and stared at her. Had something serious happened? She watched with mild concern — only for Kristina's next shout to leave her looking thoroughly bewildered.
"Nia's vlog is ouuuut! Jackpot content just dropped!!!"
"Huh? What did you say?"
What on earth are kids talking about these days?
Anju, who had only just turned thirty, could only stare blankly at Kristina and think that very thought.