Clearing the Game at the End of the World

“Yes, yes sir. It’s not a big deal. No, I’m not being threatened. Huh? The code? I forgo—”

“[#(&[email protected]&()*$(!!!!!]”

“Ahh! I remembered! I remembered it! Rocket on candy, right? I already told you that I wasn’t being threatened. What? Team 3 is already prepared to depart? Fully armed?”

Thanks to Gyosu and the others’ desperate efforts, Ezel woke up, touching his face to find very swollen cheeks. For a moment, he just sat there in a daze, but he tried to listen to the rap of an explanation that Gyosu was pouring onto him. Once he saw the setting sun, his face paled in horror, and he ran towards his Exosuit and talked for over ten minutes on the built-in transceiver, letting out exasperated sighs like a salaryman who blew his contract.

“Hey, Vex. What’s he saying? Can you hear it?”

“Shh! I can’t hear all of it because he’s far away, but….. rocket—dispatch—armed? That’s what they’re talking about.”

“Shit, that means they’re coming for us! Gyosu! Shortie! We don’t have time to dilly-dally like this! You guys start packing! I’ll set the traps near the entranceway!”

“If push comes to shove, let’s take Soybar hostage. I’ve taken a hostage in Tobrune recently, and I think I have talent.”

“Why’d you need to cut the ropes like that?”

“I didn’t think we’d need to use them again.”

Unaware of what the three were planning behind his back, Ezel was succeeding in his attempt to peacefully resolve this situation.

“Yeah, yeah. Of course. Reports? Well, I guess this is a good chance to paste up those old bureau walls with my reports. You were complaining about that, weren’t you? Don’t worry about me, and sign off work. Oh, and you can treat Team 3 to something nice. Aw, of course, it’s getting cut from my salary. Yeah, yeah. I’ll be back soon. Yeah, see you soon, sir~”

Spt—

After pulling out his earpiece, Ezel let out a sigh of relief. He still needed to beg for forgiveness from quite a lot of people once he got back, but he’s taken care of the biggest problem for now.

‘And Gyosu didn’t seem to have that much of a grudge as I thought he would.’

Anyway, as long as he got back safely now, then all ends well. If he’s able to resolve his relations with the leader of BDSM with a coupled dozen apology reports, then it was more than worth it.

‘Yeah! This is a chance for me! With Gyosu and the Spice Merchant’s skills, it’s obvious BDSM is going to become big. If I use my friendship with Gyosu and act as the bridge to connect the Dome and BDSM, it’ll be a promotion instead of punishment for me!’

And if he continued to add onto that good relationship and the Dome took in BDSM altogether, then Gyosu could move into the Dome as well. Isn’t that going to be a win-win for everyone?

“Someone seems to be happy.”

“Eeeek!”

Ezel was pulled out of his happy imagination world when Gyosu silently approached Ezel and spoke to him.

“Hmm? Ah, yeah, the call went well.”

“It went well?”

“Y-Yeah. My persuasion must have worked, because they accepted the situation. Don’t worry, the problem won’t spread to you guys.”

“Oh. That’s a relief. Hey, Vex! Put that down! The Dome isn’t coming to attack us!”

“Huh?”

As Ezel looked towards where Gyosu shouted, he saw the old guy called Vex standing right behind him with a weird sack in his hand.

“They aren’t coming? So we don’t need to kidnap this guy, then?”

“K-Kidnap?”

“Mhm. Thankfully, it worked out smoothly. It’s a relief, isn’t it, Soybar?”

Ezel vigorously nodded his head in agreement as Gyosu tapped his shoulder with a bright smile.

Gyosu was still his friend, but a very scary friend. Most of the old grudges were probably resolved by the restraint and threats he received just today, and all were forgiven with the power of friendship, but there was one that Gyosu wasn’t aware of yet. A very fresh grudge that Ezel created last night at the Inspection Bureau.

‘If he learns about that, then I’ll actually end my life here as fertilizer for their greenhouse.’

Gyosu, who was unaware of Ezel’s concerns, seemed kind of sad to see the friend he had known for five years go so fast.

“Ezel, are you leaving right now?”

“Hmm? Ah, yeah, I need to go right away. I’m already several hours late, and if I get any later, it’s the Executive Bureau that’s coming. Since these Exosuits are pricy and all.”

“That’s true. They’re not as good as the Dome, but the Raptors still have some skilled mechanics. You guys are done for once they make even a makeshift copy of an Exosuit.”

Whiiiir— Clank—

After getting on his Exosuit, Ezel asked one last question to the group before he said goodbye.

“Gyosu. Can I ask you one more thing?”

“Hmm? What is it?”

“About Area 45. How did you even know that was going to happen?”

Because they had an agent in Area 45 and because it was related to the Raptors they were always on alert for, they were able to prepare one step faster than the others. Based on the information saved in the database about the past building owner, they were able to gain blueprints and prepare the best-fitting agents and gear that could make it through the bullet hell. But Gyosu had just been struggling to survive in GG just two days before the Area 45 incident happened, so how did he even prepare for it?

“Oh, that? There actually isn’t much to it. I was just on my way to refund this thing when I met this small guy on my way to Area 43. And when I heard that there was some incredible treasure in Area 45, I decided that it would be a better way to make money. I met the big guy inside there.”

“So….. you’re saying. It isn’t an operation planned with proper preparation, but just a sort of makeshift team that happened to be in the same place at the same time and just kind of made it through there.”

“Uh…. Well, yeah, that’s one way you can say it.”

“Kehehehe! I didn’t think I would find my customer in that ruckus either. And a refund customer at that.”

Shudder—

As Ezel looked at the three of them giggling as they looked at the shotgun in Gyosu’s hand, he was caught up in an immense terror once again. They just looted it on their way. The hellhole that the Dome and Raptor poured their best men into to fight like beasts was just some sort of walk in the park for them.

“Hmm? Ezel, why are you sweating again? Ah, right, you said you had hyperhidrosis.”

“Y-Yeahhh! R-Right!”

“Sigh, it’s a good thing you live in Area 47. You would not have survived if you were in an Area that didn’t have water. Take this.”

Whoosh!

Ezel caught the canteen Gyosu threw at him and said goodbye with an awkward smile.

“I’ll actually be going now, then.”

“Ah, right. Let me ask you one thing too.”

Thunk!

Ezel was certain his heart had just dropped to his kidneys just now. What is it this time? Did he figure it out? That I changed the name?

Gyosu scratched his head as he approached, then spoke out with a slightly low voice.

“You said you were twenty-two years old right now, so that means you were seventeen years old five years ago, right? What were you doing back then?”

“Huh? Well, I was in school. The Dome tried their best to provide an environment as close to the old days as much as they could. The subjects they taught were definitely different, but there was still an elementary, middle, and high school.”

“Really? Hmm…. Then you’re definitely not related to that work. Alright. Be safe. And you can stop by if you ever want to. Oh, and it’d be nice if you reported only good things about our ‘Big Dream Caravan.’”

“Y-Yep! N-No problem! See you in the chatroom!”

Whiiiir— Whiiir—

After what felt like an eternity, Ezel was finally out of Gyosu’s sight, and he started running towards the Dome at full speed.

‘They made it out of the bunker with valuables and without any casualties, in a confined space with two of the largest combat organizations in the Wasteland, with no information and just a couple of people they met on the spot? How is that even human? We were severely underestimating them. I don’t know what they are, but the HIV is a much stronger group than the Dome is predicting!’

And Ezel had just lit that monster’s tail on fire last night. Once Gyosu’s caravan started up their external activities, then what he had done was going to be revealed.

‘Ahh, this is all karma. They say all of the sins you have committed will come back to you like a boomerang. I have made one too many sins…..’

And after Ezel arrived at the Inspection Bureau with a very swollen face, he pushed away Kimi, who was asking him what had happened, and started to vigorously work on his report. Not long after, Ezel submitted his earnest report to the Director of the Inspection Bureau, and the report with the title [BDSM Caravan Danger Rating Adjustment and Response Manual Proposal] was filled with concerns about how strong this organization was and the damages that the Dome was going to receive if this group was treated as just a normal caravan.

“He was weird.”

“He was really weird.”

“Leave him be. He’s always been that way.”

After the chaos passed, Vex and Ian were cleaning up the messed-up shelter, and Gyosu approached Koduro’s drone and turned back on the speech configurations he had turned off beforehand.

Beeep—

“Pwah! Wow, I almost died of suffocation, Master! I could have resolved those small misunderstandings for you if I could have spoken!”

“You’d have solved the small misunderstandings with unbelievably larger ones. I don’t even need to see it happen to know. Just go and make dinner, will you?”

“Hmph.”

Koduro kept on grumbling to himself, but he prepared a big feast by cooking the last bit of meat up with other vegetables like potatoes and carrots from the garden on the side.

“Wow, this is a feast, alright. Do you eat like this every day, Gyosu?”

“This is the first time in five years since my mother died. Since we need to save the electricity that goes into the fridge, it’s better to finish off this meat as fast as possible. This is the last fancy meal you guys will have. It’s back to potato and leaf calorie bars starting tomorrow.”

“Hwack-tu! I can’t live like that. We’re rich. Why don’t we just buy some meat?”

“Yeah. I’m not a poor scavenger anymore. I have enough to treat Hepburn and Jaw with protein now.”

Gyosu talked to Vex as he moved a cube of meat from the pan to his plate.

“That reminds me, you said the key was still up on the Marketplace, right?” “Gulp— Yeah. I haven’t sold it yet since the price is still going up. Jaw, pass me the carrots.”

Clink—

“Right. How much has it gone up, though?”

“I need to check. Uh…. Koduro? Can you remote access my account?”

“Yep! Of course, new master! It’s impossible to input data without a player inside the pod, but it’s still possible to view the data that’s already been posted. Should I log in with my new master’s name?”

“Yeah. Log in as ‘Vexoup.’”

After entering his nickname and completing the biopattern recognition, Vex entered the marketplace and turned the screen to Gyosu.

“Here. It’s gone up quite a bit since the last time I checked.”

“Munch munch— Then let’s see how much meat we could affo—”

[Auction : Area 45 Underground Bunker Security Key 1/2(Left) – Auction Starting Price (1,000k/sil) / Highest Bid(10,320k/sil)]

“Psssffhphk—!”

“Aaack!”

“My goodness! Gyosu Park! That’s disgusting!”

“W……What is….”

Ian’s cursing? Vex’s complaining? He couldn’t hear anything. 10,320K. What did ‘K’ stand for again? It’s the measurement for 1,000 units, right? Aha, no way. Then you’re saying that a tiny key is worth over 10 million shillings? That can’t be true, right?

“I-It stands for Korea, right? A new currency called Korean Shilling was made. Right, Vex? So you’re saying that thing is 10,320 Korean Shillings, right?”

“What kind of dumb idea is that? It’s been decades since countries disappeared.”

Gyosu grabbed Vex’s arm, which was still plating the food even after all of his spittle landed all over it.

“T-Then you’re saying that’s actually 10 million Shillings?”

“Ye….ah?”

Rustle—

Thump!

The strength left Gyosu’s legs as he slumped down on the floor.

“Keheheh. I almost fainted when Vex showed me that listing, telling me we should use it as our funds. Hah! The eyes of a real Wasteland survivor—scavengers’ eyes—really do know what costs the most, don’t they?”

Between the two giggling men, Gyosu’s head was running a mile a minute.

‘My prediction was that the maximum would be 5 million. Why did the price jump that high? The only ones that could command that high of a price are the Dome and the Raptors. Situation? Did the situation change? The butterfly effect of the recent happenings?’

When he thought of the big incidents that happened recently, Gyosu was able to reach his final conclusion.

“An arms race…. This isn’t just about the value of the facility, is it?”

“Wow, you really have to give it to him for his brain. He reached the conclusion we needed to talk about for four days in just one minute.”

“Kehe! That’s his main method of survival, after all.”

Ian and Vex’s conversation told him that they agreed with Gyosu. With a shaky voice, he started to share the conclusion he had reached in his mind.

“The situation just became much better for the Dome. As you know, the Dome is only able to fight with unbelievable power near their cities. In other words, where they are able to charge and fix their Exosuits. On the other hand, they can’t do anything against the Raptors once they leave that area. So naturally, the Dome is trying to create a city there, and the Raptors are trying to prevent that.”

Gyosu’s voice started to go from shakiness out of shock to shakiness out of excitement. The fact that this incredible chance had come to them started to actually feel real once he started explaining this situation.

“In that situation, the Dome and Raptors went head-to-head in Area 45, but it ended on a very weird note. Since they aren’t able to access the bunker system even if they win the fight, going in there right now is basically digging their own grave.”

“Right. An underground bunker like that becomes a coffin with even a little fire without its ventilation system.”

“So the Raptors just need to take that key in order to stop the Dome’s expansion. And the Dome needs that key in order to win the battle, and since they’re filthy rich, the auction was basically theirs to win to start with. If they just manage to push back the Raptor forces, then the framework of a new city without any scavengers or radiation nearby is just waiting for them to take over!”

10 million Shillings? In this perspective, it’s basically nothing. That key is basically the key to the start of a new city in Area 45. That meant there was still a lot of potential left for that bid to go up.

“Vex, you’re a seriously wealthy man now……”

“Heheheh. Don’t say it like that. It’s not me—it’s we. That money is going to be the funds for us to settle down here and start up the caravan business.”

Hmm. Even just the leftover cash after all of that would be enough to eat meat every single day.

Gyosu could feel himself tearing up at Vex’s casual response.

“Hepburn. I want to ask you something since we’re on this topic. When should I sell that thing?”

“Shouldn’t you hold onto it for a bit longer? I don’t think the Dome and Raptor are willing to give up on it just yet.”

“No, we need to sell it right away.”

Ian and Vex looked confused at Gyosu’s firm decision.

“Already? But there’s still a lot more room for it to grow.”

“That’s the problem. Because the Dome’s going to start calculating their losses.”

To individual survivors, 10 million Shillings is an unbelievably large sum of money, but to an organization like the Dome, it’s just a small dent in their savings. But what if that dent starts to get bigger?

“Once the Dome decides that the price of that key becomes higher than their costs to fight this [mysterious but very strong combat group called HIV], then they will come to attack us without any hesitation and just steal the key. And we just happen to be in the Dome’s territory right now. The fact that it hit 10 million Shillings probably includes the cost of them considering our recruitment into the Dome and the loss they’re willing to take if they fail to recruit us.”

Gyosu’s explanation made the two sigh in realization.

“Damn it! Then we should have waited a little longer in Area 43 to sell this thing before coming here!”

“That’s not exactly true. The Raptors won’t think of all of these calculations and will just come to steal the key once they find the HIV’s base. You said the big groups in Area 43 are starting to leave, right? They were the ones keeping the Raptors out, but now that they’re gone, the Raptors could probably enter Area 43 pretty easily. It was a smart decision to come into the Dome’s territory.”

Draggg—

Gyosu got up to sit back down on his chair, then continued to talk as he took a bite of a slightly cold piece of steak and veggies.

“So, in conclusion, the current bid is probably the highest price we could get from this auction.”

“Kehehehe. That’s true. A thousand three hundred twenty shillings isn’t a bad haul for three days of hellish work.”

“Mhm. Definitely. This is just a small profit compared to Big Dream’s scale.”

Unlike what they were saying, the two of them were unable to hide the laughter in their voices.

Gyosu thought as he looked at the two people deeply caught up in their happy decision-making of where to use this money.

‘This is almost completely perfect for the matters outside. Now…. I think it’s time for me to go and resolve my personal matters as well.’

Big Dream was now successfully in place. They made a good impression on the Dome, and Soybar said he’d say good things about them, so they’ll probably be treated well. And now that he’s living with Ian and Vex, he’s less vulnerable to external threats. They did make enemies with the Raptors, but that was fine as long as they didn’t leave Area 47.

‘Now that the small things are dealt with, it’s time to deal with the big ones.’

[Snicker. You called me?]

‘Yeah, you bastard. I’m talking about you.’

Hyde. The new consciousness that entered his mind. A malignant being that would one day swallow up his own consciousness. It’s only a sliver of hope, but there’s a possibility that the ones who created GG could cure him.

“Now then, why don’t we return to our game of chicken, Hyde?”

Gyosu let out a savage laugh as he looked at the pod.