In-Game Opportunity Becomes Reality Episode 141
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In-Game Opportunity Becomes Reality Episode 141
34. What Is This Now (5)
In a forest so dark on a night that not even a single step ahead could be seen due to clouds covering the moon.
A man sprinted forward, madly cutting across the underbrush.
"Huff, huff! What, what the hell is this!"
He kept denying reality as he ran and ran.
Behind him, what seemed to be a beast's presence chased at great speed, its eyes gleaming clearly even in the darkness, stoking the man's terror even further.
If it had been an ordinary beast, he wouldn't have fled in such fright.
The problem was that the footsteps of the beast chasing him and the sounds of branches snapping under its weight were anything but quiet.
There are things you can feel without even seeing them.
He could sense that the beast chasing him was bigger than an average car.
-Rattle rattle rattle!
The man didn't run in a straight line but moved erratically, using obstacles here and there, desperately struggling to survive.
But no matter how hard he tried, the distance only closed relentlessly, and soon he heard the beast's breathing right behind him and threw himself aside instinctively.
-Thwip!
"Gh!"
His choice was the best one.
The moment he ducked, something sharp grazed past his cheek.
-Grrrrr.
Of course, surviving one crisis didn't mean he was safe.
The moonlight that had been hidden by clouds broke through, making the surroundings clearly visible something the size of a dump truck was dripping saliva as it looked down at him.
"Th-That's a saber-toothed tiger?"
Disbelief filled the man's terrified eyes at the identity of the beast he'd only now confirmed.
The beast that had attacked him was a gray tiger with elongated fangs.
Such a creature couldn't exist in his common sense, so confusion was inevitable.
"It can't be."
The man kept denying reality under his breath.
But the moment he saw the giant saber-toothed tiger open its maw wide and lunge at him, he was forcibly jolted back to his senses.
The instinct to survive came before reason.
He rolled across the ground again.
-Thud!
"Gah!"
But it was as if the same trick wouldn't work twice.
Rather than biting him, the saber-toothed tiger swept its front paw across the ground and batted him far away.
Struck with an impact like a car crash, the man flew helplessly and slammed head-on into a massive tree that looked at least ten meters in diameter.
The pain stole his breath.
Even so, he could see himself desperately racking his brain to survive.
-Tap.
Then, an object caught his eye.
A small rectangular plate that had fallen from the man's pocket.
He quickly scooped it up.
And the moment the saber-toothed tiger lunged its maw at him.
-Click!
Along with the shutter sound, a blinding light burst out.
-Yelp!
Startled, the saber-toothed tiger tumbled across the ground, then turned and began to flee.
-Rustle.
Once the presence vanished completely with the loud rustling of grass, the man gasped for breath and spoke.
"D-Did I survive?"
He'd saved his life with a moment of wit, but as the pain rushed in belatedly, he swallowed a groan.
Staggering, he moved quickly rather than sinking to the ground.
He figured a carnivorous beast wouldn't easily give up its prey.
So he swiftly left the area, tearing up nearby grass roots and rubbing them all over his body without even checking what they were.
He was using his head to mask his scent, in his own way.
Was it luck that the tactic worked?
After that, the saber-toothed tiger didn't appear before him again, and the man managed to escape the forest safely.
'A saber-toothed tiger what the hell is going on here.'
Wondering if he'd seen wrong, he took out the rectangular plate he'd used to drive off the saber-toothed tiger.
When he activated it, the screen lit up, and he could see the clearly captured photo of the saber-toothed tiger.
[Not a service area]
But what was burned into his eyes far more strongly than the photo of the saber-toothed tiger was the message floating at the top of the screen.
'Even after leaving the forest, there's no signal?'
It was one incomprehensible situation after another.
But perhaps the world wasn't out to kill him after all.
"Huh?"
A faint twinkling light caught his eye in the distance, and finding it easy to recognize as the light of civilization, he moved his steps quickly with a joyful expression.
However, it didn't take long for his face to be tinged with bewilderment...
-Ziiing.
[Welcome to Pieren City.]
A hologram just like a signpost floated in the air.
High-rise buildings and ancient castle walls created a contrasting atmosphere.
And a UFO was floating in the sky a bizarre place had appeared before him.
"Wh-What the hell is this..."
He was certain.
This was not Earth, his hometown.
"Where is this?"
* * *
Three days had passed since the Crown Prince's eventful coronation ceremony as King had concluded.
Fiddling with the smartphone I had obtained through my Maternal Uncle, I asked Gregory.
"It's taking longer than expected. The search isn't easy, is it?"
"I apologize. We've confirmed that the person who sold it headed from the Pieren domain toward the Mirena domain, but at some point, he vanished as if he had evaporated."
"Hmm..."
Upon investigation, it turned out that the person who sold the smartphone was an illegal resident with an unclear identity.
Thus, I grew confident that the person who sold this item was an Earthling, but the illegal resident whom I thought would be found quickly wasn't easy to locate, which left me uneasy.
"I suspect someone else stepped in and helped him along the way."
Certainly, that seemed quite possible.
Whether it was with good intentions or bad ones, though.
Even as I felt it might be better if he just disappeared like this, I also held the expectation of finally meeting someone from my homeland.
I don't even understand my own feelings.
I let out a sigh and rose from my seat.
And just then, the office door opened, and Arcia walked in wearing a light blouse, pants, and a coat.
"Aren't you leaving?"
"Yeah, I'm heading out now."
Shaking off the stray thoughts at the sight of her, I accepted the coat the waiting lady-in-waiting respectfully held out and approached Arcia.
"Sir Gregory, can we increase the number of search personnel?"
"This is the maximum number we can move without drawing attention from others."
"Then there's no helping it. Please keep up the good work as is. I have business to attend to, so I'll step out with Arcia."
"Yes, Your Highness. Please take care."
With that, I finished my conversation with Gregory, left word that I was going out, and immediately used the teleport alongside Arcia.
The smartphone had distracted me for a moment, but today's main task was something else.
That was the lonely island floating atop the Sea of Silence.
Visiting Ophelia.
"Welcome to Ophelia Island. Your Highnesses Duke Lawrence and Duke Klein."
"You've worked hard."
As the two of us appeared at the teleport gate on Ophelia Island, many personnel who had been waiting in advance approached and offered their greetings.
The reason we visited Ophelia Island today was to check its development status.
Ophelia Island was comparable in size to a barony in our Kingdom, but with a population of only three thousand and being far from the mainland, it was a very underdeveloped place.
However, over a month had passed since we resolved the incident in the Kingdom of Roberto and leased this place, and Ophelia Island had transformed so dramatically it was unrecognizable.
First, there had been a large influx of population.
After recruiting migrants from my domain, ten thousand households applied for Support, and with steady migration, the island's population had reached around twenty-five thousand as of today.
Most migrants were still living in hastily airlifted temporary structures, but since the planned city that would become the island's center was being built rapidly, the housing issue seemed likely to be resolved soon.
"Are there no complaints from the residents?"
"Almost none, thanks to how generously the Lord has provided. The migrants fully understand the initial inconveniences of life here, and the existing residents are very satisfied with the influx of cheap food and manufactured goods."
That's a relief.
First, I looked over the market, which determined the quality of residents' lives.
Even though it was a temporary market, it was quite decent, and seeing it bustling with customers, it finally felt like a place where people lived.
Before, it had been a scene frozen in time.
"Are you not short on supplies?"
"Yes, we have plenty. But we're selling everything so cheaply that we're constantly operating at a loss due to shipping costs. Is that alright?"
"Don't think about profits for the time being. Anyway, any small losses are more than made up for elsewhere."
The goods in the market were very cheap.
That was because the Lord's estate was trading directly at the same prices as the mainland for the convenience of the residents.
Shipping costs were so high that considerable losses were piling up, but compared to the profits earned from this island's tourmaline, it was a cheap expense.
Perhaps that was why quite a few people could be seen carrying armfuls of goods here and there.
Watching the satisfied expressions on people's faces, I couldn't help but feel good as a leader.
Next, we headed to the construction site of the new city.
"The construction has progressed a lot."
"Construction speed tends to be proportional to the money poured in. I think we'll be able to start moving residents in within a month."
The new city was divided into two districts.
One was a general residential district, and the other was a security district where the Mage Tower's production facilities were located.
There are currently three Heaven-Piercing Fortresses floating in the sky.
That's not a small number, but once the city is fully operational, I plan to expand the Heaven-Piercing Fortresses to up to ten.
Additionally, I plan to station five hundred permanent Vanguards and around five thousand soldiers, creating a watertight security network.
The Mage Tower is my cash cow.
So this level of investment was only natural.
"Watching the buildings go up one by one is pretty fun."
It feels a bit like playing a domain-management game, I suppose?
Until now, I'd always received existing cities as domains, so this is the first time I'm building one up piece by piece.
So it was quite entertaining.
"Oh, and also, have a resort built around the sea as well."
"Excuse me? You want to develop this place as a vacation spot?"
The island's administrators expressed doubt at my instruction.
They thought it was strange to pour money into security while building a resort that would allow outsiders free entry.
"Only I, my family, and my acquaintances will use it, so it doesn't matter. Don't skimp on money pack it with amenities."
"Ah, understood."
At my words, the administrators marveled at how my scale was on a different level.
Anyway, adding more construction work on this island meant that many jobs would be created as well, so there was nothing to lose.
Lastly, I headed to the tourmaline mine, a core area that couldn't be left out of Ophelia Island.
"Unlike before, when we relied on manpower, we've brought in large quantities of mining equipment, and output has increased significantly."
If the old mine had been like a coal mine from the 1980s, now it looked like a state-of-the-art vehicle tunnel.
Seeing that the things being moved around carelessly like lumps of stone were the goods replacing diamonds, I couldn't help but laugh.