Chapter 2 - Escape from the Forest!
I am an old man who has somehow gotten lost in what seems to be another world.
It seems like another world, where I can open my status and do online shopping. What kind of ability is that? I don’t know.
Anyway, I ate a cup of noodles and some bread then settled down. When you are full, you become optimistic.
But if I don’t do something right now, I'm going to run out of steam. I will have to go to a human village somehow and earn money by doing business or bartering.
If I use the money I earn to mail-order goods and sell them at a higher price, I can make it, right? Spices are a standard item for this kind of thing.
I think a hundred yen a bag of pepper refills will sell for a lot of money. It will surely be a piece of cake, no?
Well, to do that, I need to get out of this forest.
「Now, what should I do. 」
I bought a compass at Shangri-La for 1,500 yen. This should help me find my orientation. The compass needle points in a certain direction, so it seems that there is a magnetic field in this world.
Then, I bought a mountain bike for 20,000 yen, even though it was a bit pricey. In case you’re wondering, I looked at the product ratings and bought the one with the highest rating.
I heard that some of them were so bad the frame would break with a strong impact, but I couldn’t waste my money here, so I decided to compromise.
Well, I guess I can manage.
By the way, the item box is really convenient. I bought so many things, but I remain empty-handed.
Maybe I can use this item box to become a courier. I am probably the only one who can access the item box.
「Okay, let’s go! 」
I got on my mountain bike and set off! I rode slowly through the forest, checking the compass as I try to navigate towards a village.
There is no need to panic. At least I have something to eat. This is the comfort of having a full stomach.
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This is my second day on the mountain bike.
Even though I was going slowly, I must have gone several tens of kilometers already, but there was no visible boundary in the forest.
How big is this forest? There are huge endless lines of coniferous trees. I don’t think they would look like this unless they were planted…
An old-growth forest is usually a jumble of coniferous and broad-leaved trees.
I took a break and drank some water. Then, I took out some insect repellent from the item box and sprayed it all over my body.
As I expected, there seemed to be a large number of insects in the forest.
Along the way, I also checked out the abilities of the item box and trash can while eating the food I bought from Shangri-La.
For example, living insects will not go into the item box, but dead carcasses will get sucked in - the display will change to something like 【Insect (Beetle)】 x 1.
Then, what about plants? If you put in a seedling that you dug up with a shovel, it will be displayed as 【Seedling 】 x 1.
Some plants have unique names, so I guess some plants that are here already have names given to them.
What is interesting is that even if you put a cup of boiling water in it, it will stay in the same state. Even if you leave it for a while, it never cools down and stays hot forever.
This alone could make for some interesting business. When you get meat or vegetables, you can put them in the item box, and they won't spoil.
And the trash can is a black box that can swallow anything. No matter what you put in there, whether it's a bag of candy or leftover soup from a cup of noodles, it will disappear when you press the whirlpool button.
I don’t know where it's going, but it seems to have the same specification as the item box that no living thing can enter.
Perhaps there is a safety device in place to keep people and creatures out.
The second day of my arrival in the other world is drawing to a close.
I get off my mountain bike early and rest it against a large tree. In preparation for camping, I set up a one-person tent. This was also purchased at Shangri-La - for 2000 yen.
The weather is mild and hot during the day, but it gets a little chilly in the morning, so I bought a sleeping bag, also for 2000 yen.
I bought an igniter to light the fire, and a gas burner to attach to the cassette cylinder - 2,500 yen.
If you have a fire, you can keep warm and avoid critters.
I think I am going to go all out and make grilled meat today. I bought a 1.5kg pork cutlet for 2000 yen. If there's any leftover, I’ll just put it in the item box.
As for the sauce for the yakiniku (grilled meat), I used my favorite Genghis Khan sauce. Genghis Khan is made for lamb, but you can also use the sauce for regular grilled meat. One liter of Genghis Khan sauce costs 1,000 yen per bottle.
And when it comes to yakiniku, rice is a must. I bought 24 packages of rice for about 3,000 yen.
While I was boiling water on the stove to heat the rice, I bought another cassette gas stove and got ready to grill the meat.
I bought a wire mesh to put on the stove for 1,000 yen, and when it is lit and heated, the meat is cooked. White smoke billowed up from the stove, and the savory smell of burning fat filled the air.
Since I was outdoor, I could smoke all I wanted, so I grilled two or three pieces of meat and enjoyed them.
「Delicious! So good! 」
My poor taste buds would be fine with cheap meat, but Shangri-La sells a lot of expensive meat. If I make enough money, I might as well buy some.
But if this actually is a different world, there might be some delicious meat that only this different world can offer.
Looking for such gastronomic delights is one of the best parts of otherworldly adventures.
After the food was warmed, I put it on a paper plate. There is no need to wash the paper plates, just put them in the trash when you are done eating.
However, the stove and grill net need to be washed. If it is grease, you can buy the appropriate liquid alcohol and wipe it off.
「 Yakiniku and rice is the ultimate combination! And I don't know why it tastes so much better when you eat it outdoors. 」
But I was so excited by the grilled meat that I got carried away. I didn’t realize that the smell of yakiniku was attracting something bad.
As I finished my meal and stretched out, I saw something black in my line of sight... I looked over again.
There were about ten large, black, deformed shadows - wolf-like creatures - surrounding me. I had attracted them with the scent of roasted meat.
If I smelled something like that in the mountains, it was quite conceivable that it would attract animals.
I regret my overzealous behavior. I regret my actions. It was already starting to get dark.
「 Whoa! A weapon! Some kind of weapon! 」
I take a piece of firewood from the bonfire and throw it at the black animal - at the same time, I bring up the Shangri-La screen to look for a weapon.
「Weapons! Uh, how about a bow? 」
No, I have never used a bow before, and I'm not sure I can hit a target with it, no matter how powerful it is.
There are crossbows that look like guns, but I don’t know how to handle them at all.
However, on the same search page for bows, I found a slingshot that uses rubber bullets.
「 This is it! I can handle this. 」
I once bought a slingshot from Shangri-La to scare away the crows that come to my vegetable garden. I bought the same one that I had bought before.
I also bought a 9mm ball bearing as a bullet. I also bought a set of fireworks.
I bought the set of fireworks were because my parents' dog was terrified of fireworks, so I thought it might work for this black creature.
The slingshot cost 6,000 yen, the fireworks set 3,000 yen, and the 80 ball bearings 2,000 yen.
As my purchases began to trickle down, I lit the fuses of the fireworks with a fire burning right in front of me.
White sparks erupted like a fountain and lit up the area in white, belching smoke. As if the brightness had spooked them, the black creature began to retreat, scampering around.
「 All right! 」
I took the ball bearings out of the bag and shoved them straight into my pocket and started firing them repeatedly with the slingshot.
One shot, two shots, three shots - I made a few adjustments, and on the fourth shot, I hit one of them.
「 Gyan! 」
The black beast whined like a dog and retreated.
Without pausing, I threw out a series of fireworks and kept firing slingshots.
「 Kyain! 」
One of them jumped up and started to run away from my attack. The slingshot| must have hit some vital point. It could have been an eye or a nose…
This slingshot is powerful enough to penetrate a thin sheet of plywood.
It is a good idea to have a plan of action.
「 Gyan! 」「 Kyain! 」
One or two of them dropped out, and as soon as the somewhat large boss-like one started to run away, the others all started to flee at once. I guess they had no idea what they were being attacked with.
「 Fuoooo~! 」
With a huge sigh, I slumped over and fell on my butt. It was a close call, but I seemed to have succeeded in fighting it off.
But I had been too careless. I had not encountered any animals at all, so my fear had diminished.
I hurriedly folded up the tent and shoved everything, including the grilling tools, into the item box, and started preparing to leave. It was dangerous to stay here.
It was already dark, but there was a chance they might come back. Wild animals are more vindictive than you think.
I started to pedal my mountain bike in the darkness... This item box is so convenient. I can concentrate on riding in this kind of situation with nothing in my hands.
But it is too dark. I cannot see a thing. The mountain bike has a light attached, but I cannot see a thing.
I had no choice but to open the Shangri-La screen and buy a headlamp. I bought one of those headlamps people wear in the mines.
It was 300 lumens and cost 3,000 yen. Since it accepts AA batteries, I bought 20 of them in bulk for 600 yen.
I put in the batteries and put it on my head.
「 Switch on! Whoa! It's so bright! 」
If it were this bright, it could be used for blinding creatures. If I were to be hit by this light, my eyes would be rendered completely useless.
I pedaled my mountain bike incessantly, wanting to get away from the horrible place I had just seen.
Get away!
Get away!
I could not think of anything else, so I just kept chanting in my head like a Buddhist incantation.
I paddled for about two hours in the dark. Set up the tent among the large trees and made a fire to set up camp.
It was too dark to look for firewood, so I bought some at Shangri-La - 2,000 yen.
I have bought quite a few things so far, but my item box is still not full. There are no percentages or anything to tell me what the capacity is, so I have no idea.
I need to go to bed, but I cannot sleep at all because I'm so dizzy from the scare I just had. I cannot sleep at all. I keep thinking about what I will do if I'm attacked again.
I thought about buying a crossbow as a weapon, but it was expensive! They cost around 40,000 to 60,000 yen.
I had already spent a lot of money, so I didn’t want to spend a lot of money here, I don’t know what's going to happen next.
Hmmm, I am troubled.
Even if the enemy appears, I can blind them with this bright light and get away with a slingshot. But that's wishful thinking.
I could not sleep at all and just sat in front of the fire waiting for morning. I hadn’t realized how scary the night could be. I’ve been too optimistic up until now.
When I finally started to fall asleep, the sky was beginning to light up.
As soon as dawn broke, I threw all my gear into the item box, and without eating breakfast, I continued to pedal the mountain bike.
I wanted to get out of this forest as quickly as possible.
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I took a loaf of bread out of the item box and spent about five hours biting into it as I rode, my butt was aching.
I’m getting sleepy and wonder if it is time to take a break. But then I saw a bright light in front of me. A clearing in the forest.
The brighter it gets, the more undergrowth there is, and where the forest breaks, there is a green wall of grass as tall as a man, blocking my way.
「Wow~ the forest just stops, but now it's a grassy area. 」
For now, I need to know what is going on. I pulled up the Shangri-La screen and bought a six-step aluminum stepladder - 9,000 yen.
It was a bit expensive, but I had no choice. I spread it out flat and put it up against a tree, making it about five meters high. This would allow me to see quite far.
I bought a 1000 yen monocular and climbed up the stepladder. Stepladders are easy to use, but you’re prone to accidents. You can easily climb up to a few meters high, but if you have an accident, you get knocked down from that height.
Well, the soil underneath is soft and humus, so I don’t think I'll die, but it would be fatal to get injured here, so I climb carefully.
After climbing up to a certain height, I could see beyond the tall grasses. And beyond that - A city surrounded by walls.
Using my monocular, I confirmed that it was indeed a city, and I could see people moving about.
There is a road extending from the city towards me, so it might be passing through the forest.
In other words, I was running parallel to the road through the forest. --If that is the case, I should be able to get to the road if I keep going to the right...
「I did it... 」
I got off the stepladder, and a strong wave of sleepiness hit me. Maybe I was relieved to see the path I should take.
I fell asleep at the base of a large tree.