Chapter 5
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 5
Chapter Title: Awe and Fear (1)
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What does a person need to live?
Ask anyone that question, and most will give you a similar answer.
That to live, one needs food, clothing, and shelter.
Something to eat. Something to wear. And a safe place to stay.
Many things are required to guarantee even a minimal existence.
And it seemed the character on my screen was no exception.
Yutenia Hi-Lost, the first character to awaken the Fanatic trait.
Shed been displaying a food emoticon above her head for a while now.
"They called it an idle game, but now she's acting like I'm supposed to feed her."
The catchphrase I saw when I first found this game was 'An idle game anyone can play.'
An idle game.
That meant you could progress without much trouble, even if you did nothing.
But watching the character before me, just leaving her alone didn't seem to be the right answer.
Three days had passed in game time.
Yutenia had been holed up in a cave the entire time, starving.
The game's physics weren't too different from reality.
If she didn't eat for a long time, she would undoubtedly starve to death.
In that sense, letting her be was probably not a good idea.
"If I leave her... she'll probably starve. And I can't just let her die of hunger."
She's just one character.
It's not like losing one character matters, but I had a feeling I'd be disappointed if she disappeared.
She was the first Fanatic character I'd gotten, after all.
It wouldn't be so bad to take care of one character and see how she develops.
I moved my finger and tapped the inventory button in the corner of the screen.
Ting.
A light chime sounded, and the inventory screen, filled with my items, appeared.
- Rusty Iron Sword x 3
- Hard Black Bread x 4
- Torn Cloak x 1
- Crude Dagger x 1
Everything in my inventory had come from a 10-pull.
There was no way to acquire items other than through the shop's gacha.
So, the contents of my inventory hadn't changed much from a few days ago.
From the list, I dragged one Hard Black Bread.
As I clicked and moved the bread-shaped graphic, it followed my finger out of the inventory.
Thud.
The bread, now outside the inventory, dropped right in front of Yutenia.
As I placed the Hard Black Bread before her, her gaze immediately fixed on it.
- (Question)
Yutenia's first reaction upon seeing the bread Id produced was to display a question mark above her head.
From her perspective, a loaf of bread had just appeared out of nowhere.
For a normal AI, questioning it was the right reaction.
But as if she had quickly assessed the situation, she picked up the bread from the ground.
Yutenia's speech bubble changed rapidly as she held up the bread.
- (Gratitude)
- (Moved)
- (Gratitude)
- (Moved)
The crude pixel graphic held up the bread, but it was hard to distinguish from the character model.
Expressing her thanks, Yutenia began to slowly eat the bread.
Yutenia's graphic was small, and the bread's graphic was even smaller.
Looking at the screen, I could barely make out that she was eating it.
Still, the bread was slowly disappearing, so it was clear she was indeed eating.
"Is this what it feels like to feed a pet?"
Watching Yutenia eat, I felt a strange sense of satisfaction.
It reminded me of feeding my pet fish when I was a kid.
Whenever I dropped in food, the fish would swarm and nibble at it.
But since the graphics were so crude, it was hard to feel anything more profound.
I rested my chin on my hand and continued to watch Yutenia eat.
About twenty minutes after I'd given her the bread,
Yutenia finished it all and stood up.
- (Satiated)
- (Moved)
- (Gratitude)
After her meal, Yutenia offered her thanks once more.
I thought she was a pretty weird AI, but she was surprisingly proactive with her gratitude.
With a reaction like this, I didn't mind showing a little more mercy.
I opened my inventory and took out some other items.
Crude Dagger. Torn Cloak.
Things she would need to survive in the cave.
Yutenia blinked, watching the dagger and cloak that now lay on the ground.
"I shall graciously bestow upon you the byproducts of my 10-pull."
To me, they were useless junk.
I couldn't use anything except the grimoires, after all.
But for Yutenia, these items were valuable.
When I gifted the items to Yutenia, she reacted intensely once again, offering up a prayer.
- (Moved)
- (Gratitude)
- (Moved)
- (Gratitude)
You wouldn't get a reaction like that even if you lent money to someone desperate.
Satisfied with her response, I closed the inventory.
I didn't think she'd stay here forever.
But they would be useful while she lived on the mountain.
If I wanted to see a different reaction later, I could always just tap her and kick her off the mountain.
In any case, watching Yutenia's reaction to the items I got from the gacha was quite enjoyable.
If you ignored the fact that those items came from the gacha, that is.
"Vicious bastards. So this is how they plan to take my money."
I thought back on the items Id gotten from my last pull.
Bread to feed my character.
A weapon to give my character.
And on top of that, magic I could use myself.
Aside from the unreasonable prices and probabilities, the setup made me want to pull more often than I expected.
It was a temptation I only understood after getting used to the game.
I fought back the urge to pull again, my fingers itching.
It was all for the sake of my wallet.
Yutenia Hi-Lost.
The ash-haired girl with parched lips looked up at the sky.
Three days had already passed since shed holed herself up on the mountain, filled with despair over her ruined town and hatred for the world.
An unknown god had saved her when her life was in danger, but that didn't mean Yutenia's life had reached a happy ending.
Family. Lineage. Relationships.
Everything that had supported her had already crumbled.
All that remained was the god watching over her and Yutenia herself, a lonely outcast.
Even her continued existence was only thanks to the nameless god who had saved her life.
If not for the unknown god who had saved her with a bolt of lightning at the last moment, she would have taken her own life long ago.
"Hah..."
A sigh escaped Yutenias lips as she gazed into the darkness of the cave.
The empty cave was damp and dark.
Grrrrowl.
Her stomach, empty for three days, screamed in protest.
Cold. And hungry.
Had she ever gone hungry for so long?
As far as she could remember, she hadn't.
For Yutenia, who had always sat before a bountiful table, this experience was foreign.
But she couldn't hope for a lavish meal to suddenly appear, so all Yutenia could do was stare blankly into space to forget her hunger.
"..."
Yutenia's gaze swept across the empty cave.
Moss. A damp floor. Humid air.
There was nothing here but Yutenia.
Her gaze shifted once more.
Moss. And a damp floor.
Thud.
Moss. The floor. A hard-looking loaf of black bread.
Life returned to Yutenia's listless eyes.
"...A loaf of bread has fallen."
No matter how she looked at it, the thing on the floor was bread.
It looked quite hard, as if it were old, but it was still edible.
Picking up the bread, Yutenia glanced up at the ceiling.
It was impossible for bread to have suddenly sprouted from the moss in the middle of the cave.
She hadn't missed it rolling on the ground, so Yutenia figured it must have fallen from the sky.
But when she looked up, all she saw was rough stone.
"He must have sent it."
A wide smile blossomed on Yutenias face as she held the black bread.
The moment with the lightning hadn't been the end.
The nameless god was still watching over her.
And what's more, knowing she was hungry, he had even provided her with bread to eat.
Yutenia brought the black bread to her lips and took a small bite.
Clink. Clink.
Her teeth couldn't break through and bounced off the hard crust.
The stale bread was harder than she'd thought.
"I suppose I'll have to lick it until it softens."
It seemed the only way to eat the hard bread was to moisten it enough.
Lick. Yutenia's tongue traced the surface of the black bread.
Normally, she wouldn't have given such hard bread a second glance.
But when one was starving, even just a lick of it felt delicious.
Yutenia slowly softened the hard black bread and took it into her mouth.
She was in no position to wolf it down, so she ate slowly, making sure not to choke.
'It would have been nice to have some milk.'
The bread was so hard that she felt a pang of regret that there was no milk to dip it in.
But for a starving person, there could be no greater delicacy.
Besides, wasn't this black bread a benevolent gift from the heavens?
To complain any more, she thought, would be an act worthy of divine punishment.
"Mmm, mmm..."
A good amount of time had passed since Yutenia started eating.
The large loaf of black bread had now mostly disappeared into Yutenia's stomach.
Only a final piece remained in her hand.
Yutenia popped the last crumb into her mouth and looked to the heavens with a satisfied expression.
It felt good to have a full stomach for the first time in a while.
Clasping her hands together, Yutenia offered a short prayer of thanks to the sky.
"I ate well. Thank you."
She didn't know which god was watching her, but she had already received his help several times.
Now, Yutenia was ready to serve and worship him, no matter what kind of god he was.
He was the last remaining signpost in her empty life.
To not follow the only path left would be foolish in anyone's eyes.
Even if he were a god surrounded by ominous rumors.
As the slightly elated Yutenia was praying to the sky, she heard something fall from above.
"Hm...?"
Thud. Thump.
Before her eyes lay a shabby cloak and a crudely made dagger.
A light dagger that anyone could use.
And a warm cloak to cover her body.
Her god was not only concerned with her meals but also with her survival on the mountain.
Seeing the items bestowed upon her, Yutenias eyes welled with tears as she picked up the dagger.
"What words could possibly express my gratitude? Truly, it is a difficult task."
They say a sweet reward comes after hardship.
She believed all her trials up to now had been for the sake of this encounter.
Devotion to a god whose name she did not even know.
That was the path the ash-haired girl had chosen for herself.