Escape From The Deserted Island

It was near the end of winter when I set out to sea on a raft made from bundled bamboo. And now, at long last, I’d returned to Yaso City. My raft had washed ashore near Mount Hakubi, which jutted out into the Sea of Japan like a protruding belly button on Yaso City’s coastline.

“…I finally made it back.”

I murmured, my eyes growing a little misty. After coming ashore with my face deeply tanned, I hoisted the enormous backpack I’d carried on the raft onto my shoulders. It had a capacity of over forty liters.

Inside were spare clothes, food, and water. It probably weighed around twenty kilograms. I picked up my mountain knife as a weapon, then hesitated over what to do with it.

Carrying a blade longer than 5.5 centimeters in public would violate Japan’s Firearms and Swords Control Law. My mountain knife definitely fell into that category.

“But I’m not comfortable going without a weapon, either.”

In the end, I decided to wrap the mountain knife tightly in cloth and carry it with me. I used the fabric that had served as my tent.

“All right, let’s go.”

I headed toward Saikyo Town, where my home was located. Saikyo Town was a residential neighborhood southeast of Mount Hakubi. From the coast, I walked east along the road that circled the mountain. Traffic was usually light on that road, so I didn’t find it particularly strange that I hadn’t seen any cars.

However, even after turning south at an intersection and entering the residential neighborhood, I still hadn’t seen a single moving vehicle. That struck me as odd. What was going on? There were no signs of people, let alone cars. It was like a ghost town.

On top of that, sections of asphalt had been torn up, exposing the soil underneath. Weeds were growing from the exposed earth, making the road resemble one in a developing country with little money for maintenance.

I looked around uneasily. This neighborhood had many detached houses with gardens, but the gardens had become completely overgrown. None of the houses appeared to be occupied.

Eventually, I spotted a car abandoned on the road. The vehicle had been wrecked. Judging by the damage, something seemed to have crashed into it.

I began noticing more and more buildings that had been badly damaged as well. They looked as though cars had rammed into them.

“Why isn’t anyone here? Did something happen here, too?”

I shuddered at the thought that the same kind of disaster that had struck Shiki Island might have occurred here. I remembered the man who had died on the island’s pier.

If Aberrant Beasts really had appeared here as well, what had happened to everyone? Normally, people would have evacuated somewhere. Had my parents managed to escape?

Just a short distance from my house, I encountered an enormous wild boar. It looked as though it weighed around 150 kilograms. Its most distinctive feature was its white hooves.

According to my Basic Aberrant Beast Knowledge, it was a monster called a Wild Boar.

“Why the hell is there a wild boar in the middle of the city?!”

Feeling that the situation was utterly unreasonable, I shouted at the animal.

The Wild Boar was scraping away the asphalt with its hooves. Apparently, this creature was responsible for wrecking the roads and vehicles. Suddenly, the enormous boar charged. Naturally, it was heading straight for me.

I threw down my luggage and pulled out my mountain knife, only to panic when I remembered it was still wrapped in cloth. For the moment, I concentrated on dodging the boar’s charge. The Wild Boar rushed past me and slammed into the wall behind me, leaving a huge hole in it.

“So you’re responsible for the damaged buildings, too?”

I removed the cloth from my mountain knife. Holding the blade ready, I glared at the Wild Boar. It charged again with enough force to crush the asphalt beneath its hooves. I raised my mountain knife and dodged its attack.

As I evaded the charge, I brought my mountain knife down on the boar’s neck with all my strength. The blade sank deep into its neck, inflicting a fatal wound. The boar collapsed and transformed into a Heartstone. However, the impact also snapped my mountain knife.

“Whoa, it broke! I guess I’ll have to make the next one out of steel.”

My Strength had increased so much through leveling up that the mountain knife could no longer withstand it. Of course, the real problem was that I was swinging the blade with brute force. Even though I possessed the Saber Technique skill, I was still only a beginner, so it couldn’t be helped.

“Hah… Well, whatever. I should be able to find something I can use as a weapon around here.”

I picked up the Heartstone. It was a brown, earth-attribute Heartstone. I could use it to make Cut-Resistant Cloth.

Worried about my parents, I hurried toward home. When my house came into view, I saw a large hole in one of its walls, and some of the roof tiles were scattered across the garden.

Anxiety gripped me, and I broke into a run. I opened the front door and rushed inside.

“Mom! Dad!”

There was no answer. Nobody seemed to be on the first floor. My anxiety intensified, and I raced up the stairs to the second floor.

I headed toward my parents’ bedroom. Standing in front of the door, my anxiety reached its peak. Please, God… I prayed desperately. I quietly opened the door. Then I saw two bodies.

My legs gave way, and I collapsed onto the floor as tears poured from my eyes.

“…No… This can’t be true…”

I stared at the skeletal remains, desperately praying that it was all a dream. The two bodies lay side by side on the floor, as though they had been huddling together.

I had no idea how much time had passed, but it had grown dark outside. I slowly got to my feet and went into my room. Everything inside was exactly as I’d left it.

I flipped the light switch, but nothing happened. Apparently, the electricity was out. For the first time in months, I slept in my own bed.

The next morning, I woke when the rising sun filled my room with light. Realizing I was sleeping in my own room, I remembered what had happened the previous day. When I looked toward my desk, I noticed a white envelope lying on top of it.

I got out of bed and picked up the envelope. Inside was a letter from my mother. Apparently, my parents had been home when the disaster began. A municipal announcement vehicle had driven around the neighborhood, instructing residents to evacuate to the area east of the Higashisuna River, which flowed through the eastern part of the city. My mother had written that they would wait for me until the last possible moment before evacuating.

“Why…? Weren’t you supposed to evacuate?”

I didn’t know what had happened to my parents, but the bodies in the bedroom were undoubtedly theirs. I recognized the wedding rings still encircling their skeletal fingers.

I returned to my parents’ bedroom and removed the rings from their fingers. After putting them in my pocket, I wrapped their remains in blankets and carried them downstairs. I brought them to the entrance before stepping outside.

I fetched a shovel from the storage shed and dug a temporary grave. I buried my parents’ remains inside, filled the hole with soil, and placed a large garden stone over it in place of a gravestone.

“Did you wait for me until the very end? I wish you’d just evacuated sooner…”

I bit my lip, pressed my hands together, and prayed.

Once I’d calmed down a little, I began worrying about Misaki, my childhood friend. Her house was three doors down from mine. I searched the house, but nobody was there. There were no bodies either, which gave me some relief.

“I wonder if Misaki managed to evacuate.”

East of the Higashisuna River lay Higashikami Town and Higashishimo Town, with rural farmland stretching beyond them.

I decided to head toward Higashikami Town, east of my home.

“Man, I’m getting hungry.”

By that point, I’d eaten all the food I’d brought from the island.

I headed toward a nearby convenience store. As a weapon, I’d taken a hammer from home. It probably weighed about a kilogram. My grandfather, who had enjoyed fossil hunting, had used it to break rocks.

I arrived at the convenience store. Its windows had been smashed, and the interior was a complete wreck. The display shelves had been knocked over, and almost all the merchandise was gone. Only items such as stationery remained.

“There’s nothing here. What about the back room?”

The back room of a convenience store was an employees-only area containing facilities such as storage rooms, offices, and mechanical equipment rooms.

The door was locked, so I smashed the lock and entered the back room. Inside were an office desk and chair, along with lockers concealed behind a curtain.

Among the remaining stock were several cases of mineral water and carbonated drinks, several cases of canned beer, dried pasta, and cooking ingredients such as oil and sugar. I wanted to take everything, but there was far too much to fit inside my backpack.

“What should I do?”

It wasn’t as though I had no options. One possibility was to find an undamaged car, load everything into it, and drive away. The problem would be finding the keys. The other option was to create a bag capable of synchronizing with Shadow Space. Such an item was called a Shadow Bag.

I hadn’t made one before because I’d been prioritizing construction of the raft. Creating a Shadow Bag required approximately eighty small darkness-attribute Heartstones.

I’d collected around a hundred darkness-attribute Heartstones on the island, so I had more than enough. Using Heartstone Processing Technique, I created eighty sheets of cloth with the ability to synchronize with Shadow Space, then used Shape Processing to turn them into a bag.

The Shadow Bag was complete. It was an enormous black bag measuring ninety centimeters long, forty centimeters wide, and fifty centimeters high. It had handles and four cords that served in place of a zipper.

I activated [Shadow Space] to test whether the Shadow Bag could actually enter it. After confirming that the bag slipped smoothly into the black Shadow Space that had appeared on the floor, I deactivated the ability.

Shadow Space disappeared, taking the Shadow Bag with it. I activated [Shadow Space] once again and retrieved the bag.

“Excellent. This will make carrying supplies much easier.”

I loaded the convenience store’s remaining stock into the Shadow Bag and lowered it into Shadow Space.