Reinforcement Effect
So everything I'd seen and heard really wasn't the whole picture.
I'd kept up with every hunter video that went up, pored over the best posts on Hunter Gallery, and run the simulations by myself—and I still hadn't seen this coming. A fight, right out in the open, inside the Tower. On the second floor, of all places. They'd even pulled a box cutter.
They entered together, didn't they?
From the way they'd been talking, they were probably friends who'd come in as a group. What caught me off guard was Yoo Sia's reaction. She handled it cleanly, like she'd done it a hundred times.
"Sia, do you run into guys like that often in the Tower?"
"Sometimes. Packs like that turn up wherever you go. You'll run into them too, Jaeha, so watch yourself."
"Ugh. I'd rather avoid them if I can."
"Same."
So now what? It would be hours before the wave settled. The shopping street we'd chased them through was completely empty, but we couldn't go farming—not when we had no idea when they'd be back. The one mercy was that their objective was clear this time, so they weren't smashing the city to pieces.
"What time did you enter, Jaeha?"
"Uh, well..."
I didn't actually know. I'd wandered in mid-mumble, half asleep.
"I'm not sure of the exact time."
"Are you sleepy?"
"A little?"
"Then let's take turns. You sleep first."
Was it even all right to sleep in a place like this?
"I slept before I came, so I'm still fine. If you're tired, do you want to go first?"
"Then I won't say no."
She suddenly produced something.
Thump.
"Huh? A mattress?"
Thin, sure, but she was hauling a mattress around. No wonder that pack of hers was so heavy.
"Sometimes you have to stay for a long stretch."
"Yeah, that would definitely be more comfortable."
Thinking it over, carrying one seemed like the right call. Sleep on bare concrete and you'd wreck your condition for nothing.
"Wake me if anything happens."
"Got it."
She pulled off her helmet, lay down on the mattress, produced a pillow, and even slipped on a sleep mask.
Did she pack like she meant to live in the Tower?
Well, she was aiming at a major hospital. Her whole mindset was on another level.
All I could do was watch the street outside. Or the room inside. And so, inevitably, Yoo Sia asleep drifted into my line of sight. The mask hid most of her face, but her lips and the line of her features showed through anyway.
Someone this pretty lived in my neighborhood?
There's no way I wouldn't have seen her even once.
Did she move in?
I was turning that over when I remembered the pitch-black blanket I'd farmed for moments I needed to hide, and I spread it over her.
She'll get cold if she sleeps like that.
She didn't so much as stir. She trusted me that much. To live up to it, I kept a hard watch on the street outside.
Three hours later, she sat up.
"Mmm..."
"You're up?"
"Hah! Yes. But the time..."
The mask had barely come off before the helmet was back on. She glanced at her phone.
"Sorry. I slept way too long, didn't I?"
"It's fine. Sleep ought to be deep."
"I'll take the watch now, so get some real rest."
She indicated the mattress like it was the most natural thing in the world.
Hmm. Was this okay? Lying down where she'd just been sleeping? Then again, so what? I'd already held her for six hours straight.
"Then I'll take you up on it."
The warmth still lingering there, and a faint scent soaked into the fabric, closed around me. Up until that moment she'd had her head down, only half with it—but the second I lay on the mattress—
"Ah—!"
Only then did she seem to catch on. That I was about to sleep in the very spot she'd just used.
"Th-that's, um—"
"Haha. Lying here is a bit much, huh?"
I started to push the blanket aside and get up.
"N-no. Just sleep."
"You sure?"
Honestly, I didn't want the hard floor either.
"Yes. R-really."
She dropped her head. Sorry, but this one I couldn't help.
"Then I'll get some sleep."
"O-okay..."
Maybe it was the sweet scent and the warm bed, but I was out almost at once.
"Nnngh..."
I'd really slept. How long had it been?
"Sleep well?"
"Yeah. It was warm, so I slept like a rock."
Bare concrete would've been pretty cold.
"Eep! Th-that's—"
For some reason she was visibly flustered. Right. This was the mattress she'd been using. The warmth and the scent came back to me all over again. Damn. Half-asleep, and my mouth had run ahead of me.
"Thanks to you keeping watch, I could actually relax and sleep. Haha..."
"Uuu, y-yeah..."
Waking up to a reaction like that, I couldn't help wanting to laugh. I checked the time.
About three hours?
Outside, it was still pitch-dark.
"Sia, does the sun never come up inside the Tower?"
"No. I've never seen it rise."
"That's a relief."
If the sun ever did come up, everything out there would turn into runners.
"Then how about a quick snack, and we go farming?"
"Sounds good."
The zombies had already drifted back to their places. The second floor was so vast, and so thick with them, that they didn't respawn. We didn't have to clear the shopping street all over again.
We stepped back into the big sportswear store.
Nothing beats looting a clothing shop.
Rare oversized bags were scattered all over the place. They couldn't touch a subspace backpack, but they'd still sell for a fortune.
At this capacity, I figure they clear fifteen thousand dollars without even trying.
Absurdly expensive, but that was reality. Shove them in and haul them out, and you'd make several times your money back. Even setting the price aside, they were worth it—tougher by far than anything you could buy outside.
In the States they're swapping every military ruck for a Tower pack, aren't they?
Which raised the question of America itself. What they had to recover from the Tower was a full year's national tax revenue, and for the land of a thousand trillion, that sum was astronomical.
Can they even collect it?
Not the time to worry about other countries. Our own was already in a state of emergency.
Oh! This is good.
Shin guards and knee pads. Elbow pads, too.
Figures, for a big sportswear store.
Protective gear that was hard to find anywhere else, and here it was for the taking.
"Sia."
"Yes? Don't tell me you found another item."
Her tone sounded distinctly wary.
"Not that. Here, use these."
"These are..."
I handed her the set of pads. I was already wearing my mountain-bike gear, and luckily there were two sets of elbow pads.
"Try them on."
For some reason she hesitated.
"Y-you use them, Jaeha. I'm fine."
"I already have some."
I pointed at my legs as I said it, and my eyes landed on her shins.
Ah. Don't tell me.
Because of the reinforcements I'd already put on her? No. Couldn't be.
"Right. Could you take off the ones I reinforced earlier? I'll redo them."
"W-why?"
"I picked up a skill. Dexterity."
"What's that?"
She tilted her head like she'd never heard of it.
"It corrects precision work. I won't know exactly what it does until I try it."
"Th-then... I'll leave it to you."
She sat neatly in a chair nearby.
"Legs first."
Without a word she offered a leg, just a little, and I fitted the knee pad onto it myself.
"Nnh."
Don't make sounds like that. I was getting weird too.
This pad's unusual, though.
Unlike my mountain-bike gear, the knee was open, as if a hole had been cut in it. Probably so you could move more freely. Over that I layered a cushion pad with heavy-duty adhesive and stuck on a round, hard piece of plastic, careful not to get in the way of the joint. Light, tough, and it shouldn't be uncomfortable.
"Wow... this is nice?"
"Right?"
Even I thought it was perfect. Good thing I'd farmed junk so obsessively. I scanned the knee pad.
"A durability boost, increased hardness, and a shock-absorption modifier?!"
"It had effects like that?"
"First time I'm seeing them too. I had no idea Dexterity would do this."
With effects like these, you could almost call it a real item.
I should put the Dexterity effect on all my gear.
If I'd known, I would've maintained my own equipment instead of staring at Sia's face. Ahem. Well, I could do it after we got out.
"Arms next."
She stuck her arm straight out. It made me want to laugh. Like a stray cat that had finally let its guard down. I fitted the elbow pad first—the same open design as the knee pad—and reinforced it the same way. For her arm I cut up a neoprene sweatshirt into a cushioning sleeve, had her put it on, and fixed it to the elbow pad. Leather over the top, a plastic plate layered on, and it was done.
"Woooow..."
A scan showed the same effects had taken.
"There. All done."
"Thank you, Jaeha..."
"Heh. It's nothing."
I just found myself smiling.
"Shall we finish farming?"
"Yes!"
Unfortunately, there was nothing else worth taking. The season was turning from summer to fall, and only thin, light clothes were out.
And it is a sportswear store.
Time to move on.
"Sia, let's hit the next place."
"Wait. The floor above is open too."
"Then upstairs first."
The upper floor held a coffee shop, a general store, and offices. From the coffee shop I took bags of beans. From the general store, all kinds of miscellaneous goods. The offices had nothing worth carrying. Last was a movie theater. Curiosity got the better of me, and I peered inside.
Is a movie playing?
Light was leaking out of the theater. I stepped in.
Huh? ...That's—?!
A cube on the floor was pouring out light.
"Ah—!!"
Sia, coming in behind me, froze.
"Sia, isn't that an Energy Cube?!"
"It is!"
A new energy resource that would shake the balance of the world—an Energy Cube. We'd just hit the jackpot.