Chapter 13

The pickup truck veered off the road and into the wilderness.

A long way from the safety zone. Finally relieved, Roscoe parked the car and began to hastily organize his belongings.

Take items from the backpack slung between the seats. Cigarettes, alcohol, cigarettes, lighter, alcohol…….

Were you crazy for a short life?” Kim asked, looking at him incredulously.

“Was it okay to leave?”

“Shouldn’t you have asked that an hour ago?”

“Honestly, I was in need of a car.”

And someone who knows the way. Thanks to Roscoe’s arrival, many problems were easily solved. For Kim, it was an unexpected stroke of luck.

“Hmm, I thought about that.”

No money was exchanged, but it was a transaction.

In return for the transportation, Kim agrees to protect Roscoe. A temporary arrangement that lasts until one party has outlived its usefulness.

“There was a part of me that said, ‘Well, I’d rather not have that opportunity,’ but I’ve been holding on to it because it’s a waste of what I’ve gotten, and I’m sick of it.”

Roscoe stared out the windshield at the wilderness. A barren land without a blade of grass.

A sign that the ‘catastrophe’ has passed.

Blizzards in the tropics and month-long downpours in the desert.

Natural disasters with no known cause or law are sweeping the world.

It’s responsible for the collapse of countless nations. The disasters that have struck here have also destroyed tens of thousands of lives.

But the vastness of it all appealed to Rothko. The emptiness of nothingness was liberating to him.

“When you live in Ulantz, you can’t help but have a longing for the city, and the fact that someone else knows what you’re doing is very creepy.”

“That’s not what you’re supposed to say, is it?”

“I even got an information ticket on my way out of Ulantz, and sometimes I had to eat and shit because I always felt like I was being watched.”

“I know what it feels like.”

Kim’s head was spinning, but she was feeling fresh.

As far as he knows, Roscoe never left Ulantz in-game.

When Ast returns to Ulantz with the professor, Roscoe is the informant he entrusts with the commission. A man who gets into trouble, but ultimately helps you retrieve the sword.

“But I never thought it would turn out like this.

I was reminded of how much my actions can change the story.

The consciously maintained game mentality fades away. Realism fills the void.

“Where are we going anyway? Is it Babenburg again? Gee, I’ve always wanted to go there.”

The Cadillac capital of the world. Rothko was overcome with emotion as he tried to visualize the landscape he had only seen in photographs.

Unfortunately, they were wrong.

“You, me, and him. All three of us could easily fit in with a bunch of suspicious people of different races. We’ll be lucky if we don’t get picked up by the guards.”

‘He’ is a horned pecatum lying on the back seat. The ‘I’ is a typical yellow man. It’s a striking combination that makes the gangster-looking Rothko look like a slave trader.

This narrows down the options. Ulantz is an anomaly, but Cadillac is not a great place for immigrants.

“Ah, well. I see. What are you going to do then?”

“To cross the border.”

“Aha, the border is…… eh?”

Roscoe’s expression became bizarre. The euphoria of leaving Ulantz and the anticipation of a new life had begun to turn to doubt.

“Weren’t you a mafioso from the city?”

“Do I look like such a criminal?”

“No. We didn’t… talk about that before.”

“I don’t remember saying that.”

In an instant, fragments of memories flashed through Roscoe’s brain and coalesced.

Conversations we’ve had before. In retrospect, I never got a definitive answer.

“……Holy shit!”

I was just mistaken.

“Well, what then! Are you a special agent of the Shran Empire, or Harenhal’s secret guard, or some kind of underworld assassin or something?”

“You’re wrong. You’re just homeless.”

There was a short pause.

After a moment, Roscoe huffed. The corners of his mouth turned down in slow motion. His dilating eyes showed all the anguish in the world.

“I can hear your head spinning. Are you suddenly homesick?”

“He, crab, I forgot my medicine and came to….”

“Cigarettes, booze, and pills? Let’s quit one.”

“Not that kind of medicine, huh? I actually have asthma, look at this, whoop, whoop, whoop!”

He was hyperventilating like crazy and his face was all puffy. Kim put her hand on Roscoe’s shoulder as he gave his best performance.

“Leave the car, then.”

“Are you sure …… isn’t the mafia?”

“Living without a home made me feel rough around the edges.”

Rothko wrote The Pride and Prejudice.

Kim felt a strange sense of nostalgia. That was the look on her friend’s face when she’d gulped down the plum juice without realizing it.

“But you’ll be glad you came. I hear there’s plenty to see in Kilikia, and plenty of your favorite booze and cigarettes.”

“Kilikia?”

Roscoe’s mind quickly calmed down. He looked back and forth between his two homeless companions, then shook his head.

“If it’s as good as it sounds, it can’t be that bad.”

The city-state of Kilikia.

A city of freedom and opportunity.

Unlike Cadillac, it welcomes immigrants and has a deeply ingrained meritocracy.

To the best of our knowledge, yes.

“You were talking a little bit earlier, too, not to mention that Pekatum lady.”

“Anything is better than a Cadillac.”

A city where opportunity is available to everyone, regardless of race. That’s where Kim was going to get a foothold.

“I have a lot of work to do.

There are tons of characters in Polaris. As characters in a story, they have their own drama.

“I know most of the backstory… but the problem is, I can’t get involved.

You can only rely on your knowledge of the game so much. In Ghost, I only survived because the conditions were just right.

What if your skill wasn’t [Craft Special Weapon]? What if the recoil of the same weapon was a little stronger when you crafted it back-to-back?

“Then it must have failed, or you gave up early.

In short, we got lucky.

Nevertheless, there were dangers. Shadow’s spells were intimidating, and his maneuvering raised the suspicions of Leila’s group.

“I can’t do that every time, I’m not going to have any left.

We need to have a more diverse hand. Powerful allies. Position. And sheer power.

“Asterike is still weak.

Even as a 2-star agent, you’re confident of killing him easily. In a head-to-head fight, you’d have no chance, but why fight fair?

Most defeats and deaths are born of cowardice. In addition to familiarizing herself with spells, Asterike needs to become more cunning.

It’s about choice and focus. When you need to grow instead of scramble.

Above all.

Sooner or later, something big is going to happen in Kilikia. We need to stop it somehow. Get in position early and prepare for the threat.

That’s it for the adjustment period.

* * *

The journey to Kilikia was anything but smooth.

Far from a safe zone. Pickup trucks traveling on open roads were easy targets for the beasts.

Bam!

The gunfire I’d heard so many times over the past few days erupted once more. The raptor’s body tilted slowly.

I didn’t skip the confirmation shot. The raptor soon stopped moving.

Kim let go of [Ivory] and wiped the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve.

“Ha, Raptor sucks here too.”

Ten shots for only two. A fast and tough beast. Even with four or five shots to the torso, it was like a zombie coming at me.

“I’ve been shooting a lot lately, and I feel like I’m going deaf. I think I’ll try some melee weapons next.’

There was a sense that I had become dependent on firearms. It wasn’t a good trend. Because in a Polaris, Chapter isn’t exactly a jack-of-all-trades.

A worldview with very high human physical thresholds. This is an extreme example, but there are crazies who throw spears from hundreds of meters away.

‘I don’t think I’ll ever be that…. but it can’t hurt to have it on hand.’

Ghosts have been taught, and while guns may be the most effective weapon in the moment, practice makes perfect.

By the way.

“I guess I’m getting used to it now.”

Kim glanced to his right before speaking. There, Asterique was catching her breath, having just finished a similar battle.

At his feet was the charred carcass of a raptor and soot. It was the mark of a spell.

Three days after leaving Ulantz.

Asterique had been asleep the entire time and had just woken up yesterday. Kim explained the situation and handed over the inhibitor she’d gotten from Leila.

He was able to utilize spells, albeit in a shorthand way. He was hesitant at first, but then seemed to get the hang of it.

“Yeah. I don’t like it, but… I have to do my part. I don’t want to be the only one eating.”

“You’ve grown up in a day. Yesterday, I woke up and was like, “Where am I, I’m hungry, where’s my knife,” and I was like, “I’m not even mad.”

“I… didn’t.”

Asterike’s mouth twitched, as if embarrassed by her own thoughts. It was a look the in-game Astra would never wear.

‘It’s a shame. It would have been nice to see something a little more human.

His face is blackened, and his scattered hair looks like Ashwolf’s mane. When you get close enough, you can smell his fetid odor.

I wasn’t disenchanted, disappointed… not really.

It was safe to say that the Asterike of today was not the same person I knew before.

‘I would have rolled with it for years and become that personality.’

If you wanted to meet Ast, you didn’t have to touch the Pavoni family. Let it roll as it was meant to roll.

But Kim made his own choice to bring Asterique into his life. I can’t blame her for being disappointed in the person who changed her life.

It will only be right if you take responsibility.

“Sorry about the knife, I could have kept it, but I didn’t think of that.”

In addition, Asterike’s sword was lost. The sword, prized as the family heirloom, was melted with the Pavoni in Ulantz’s warehouse.

“…No. Never mind. I did this with my own hands, and who am I to blame?”

That’s right.

Kim didn’t say sorry, either. It was self-inflicted from any angle.

“I was actually very sad until yesterday, because I didn’t bring any photos from home… It was the only thing I had left, and when I held it, it reminded me of the past, even when I didn’t want to.”

“Uh, what. Is this serious?”

I’m sorry, but I’m not ready to take this seriously. First of all, it smelled bad. Bloody, burnt meat, and the smell of something that hadn’t been washed in a long time…….

It was hard to shift my thinking. Kim continued to talk even as Lee held his nose.

“But now I think it’s for the best, because I’m dumb, and I might have ended up with someone else. No, I’m sure it would have.”

Asterike nodded.

“It’s going to be someone else’s… I might as well get rid of it myself, don’t you think?”

“That… lunga?”

“Oh, but don’t worry. I’ll keep this inhibitor you gave me, Hyun.”

He glances at Kim with a newfound interest as he clasps his bracelet-like spell suppressor.

“And, I’m late to tell you, but-”

Asterike’s face soon broke into a sunny smile.

“Thank you. For finding me.”

The recorded voice echoed in Kim’s head.

-Thank you for everything, Professor.

It was the same face, the same smile, but unlike Ast’s back then, it was filled with innocence instead of wistfulness.

Both cheeks were streaked with grime, not blush… but still, not bad.