It became quiet after that topic, but Sachi's heartbeats kept speeding up due to reasons unknown.
Without a word, she suddenly came closer to Shiro and hugged him from being. Surprisingly, Shiro only tensed up for a bit before pausing his cooking.
Although, it's still a mystery as to why she calms down every time she does this. Even Shiro only has a few guesses about this.
He sensed her heartbeats slow down to the normal level while her body that is subconsciously tense calmed down. It took more effect after she buried her face in his back.
Since they're wearing casual clothes right now, with Shiro wearing a white overcoat on top of his black t-shirt and Sachi wearing a plain blue tunic and a skirt, there are only a few layers of clothing separating them.
Even so, Shiro remained composed until Sachi separated from him.
"Thank you, Shiro..." She said so while blushing.
"No need. This is just a small favor."
Soon, she left the kitchen with quickened steps.
"Sigh... This is my problem."
Shiro quickly reflected from his actions more than a year ago. He noticed that he mostly acted due to interest, and that he didn't care if he gets pulled into something.
He simply didn't take any initiative when it comes to most things.
After all, how would an amnesiac have a big goal straight away when he just woke up? It's not like Shiro would set a lame long-term goal such as "World Domination" and "Becoming the Strongest".
If it's for fun, yes, but he wouldn't take them seriously.
"Come to think of it, the system kept giving me directions all this time. Heh, I would not integrate with the world faster if I didn't get pulled in by it..."
As for Sachi's matter, it started a year ago...
*****
One time, Sachi escaped from the guild due to her fear of fighting against monsters. Shiro was training them at that time, so he took it upon himself to find her.
Unsurprisingly, he found her under that bridge. That was exactly the place where the protagonist found her, thus he searched for those in the Town of Beginnings.
When he was about to approach her, but he noticed that she's having a... mental breakdown.
It's not that shocking knowing that she's a normal high school student before she got dragged into this death game. She was also the one who couldn't rid of her apprehensiveness towards monsters.
It worsened to the point that she developed a phobia against them.
Over time, she worked on it, but she could only use a two-handed spear since she couldn't bear being closer to one.
"Hey."
"...Shiro-san."
Sachi sat down on the cold hard floor, with her head rested on her knees. Clearly, she didn't expect for him to find her that easily.
"Feeling scared?"
"How did you know..?"
Sitting down, Shiro continued, "It's completely normal for a normal student to get scared. In fact, most of the players inside this game is just like you."
"Like how most of us stayed in this accursed town."
"Exactly."
In the first few months, there has been a huge amount of players who couldn't even step out of Town of Beginnings, much less fight against a monster. If they ever regain their confidence to do so, it'll only dissipate due to a number of reasons.
"I'm not fit for this game at all..."
At first, she'd only tried it due to her fellow club members, but who would've expected that everything will turn out like this?
"My friend... She died just yesterday."
That time, she was shocked to see that her only friend in-game had died when her name turned gray. When she saw her cause of death in the Monument of Life, it is none other than what she feared the most--monsters.
"I'll die sooner or later if we keep doing this."
"How'd you know?"
"Because... I'm weak. Death is inevitable for me."
Tap-! Tap-!
The sound of raindrops falling from the sky soon dominated the area. It's as if the game had wanted to make the depressing atmosphere inside this town worse.
Tap-! Tap-!
Shiro was surprised to see that some raindrops that he heard earlier are actually... tears.
'How should I go with this..?' He thought with a perplexed face.
This is the first time that he'd encountered someone crying. Even Shinji and Kuroneko back then are strong enough to hold back their tears.
It took him some time to finally think of something.
"Mn... Alright, then." Shiro mumbled as he decided on what to do. He knew that protecting someone who's a self-aware weakling won't work, as seen on the original story, thus he-
"Sachi."
"Yes..?"
"Wanna become stronger?"
-decided to make her stronger, so that she could protect herself.
...
======
[Notice]
Skill has leveled up.
======
As he finished the final step for the dish, a notification appeared.
"Eh... Three levels in a single dish..? Wait a minute..."
It didn't take long for Shiro to realize that the cause of it is the dish's main ingredient, the . This is the first time that he cooked using this ingredient, thus this blunder.
After all, its drops is what mattered in Shiro's eyes. Not only does it drop a huge amount of Cor when killed, its taste is heavenly, too.
He didn't mind this ingredient before since he got dozens of them in his inventory, but it seems that he overlooked its rarity.
"What a dumb mistake. Well, I tend to overlook minor things anyways..."
Since he thought that the Ragdoll Rabbit is something common, he didn't care about it.
Moving on to this revelation of his, he continued cooking dishes continuously. After the entire work, which took around an hour, his cooking skill now sits at level (900/1,000).
By the time he is done, the enticing smell of the food wafted even to the outside, prompting them to stop their daily training. When they got in, they saw both Shiro and Sachi placing the dishes on the dining table.
"Gulp... How could they be this appetizing when it's only virtual reality?!"
"This is definitely the taste of a Michelin Restaurant. I'm sure of it!"
As expected, Ducker and Tetsuo, who are the most rowdy bunch, are the first ones that got their mouth drooling from the scent of the dishes alone.
"You didn't even visited one yet." Ducker teased.
"I don't care, Shiro-san's cooking is the best!"
"Agreed."
While the two are doing their roles as the comedic duo, Keita said something that affected a certain someone.
"Whoever marries Shiro-san in the future will be lucky."
"Sure it is."
Sasamaru, who finished his paper works and went to the dining room, agreed to it.
"Looks like you're already done. Nice work, Sasamaru."
"No worries, guild leader. You take up the helm while we take care of the other stuff."
Clap-!
"Alright, let's eat?"
Shiro clapped once to take their attention back to the food. Though, he is pleased to see this guild function properly, in contrast to the ragtag bunch who always created a mess a year ago.
While they took their seats, only one thought remained in Sachi's mind:
'Shiro-san's wife...'
Unbeknownst to the other girls who is close to Shiro, someone is already contemplating whether to take the first step or not...
*****
Fact #24: Did you know that Kal'tsit's explanation is reputed to be "the longest" by the Arknights fans? It's to the point that many skipped parts when she speaks, just like in Walk in the Dust and Chapter 8 of the main story. I don't need to explain why, feel free to read one of her excerpts:
(Take note that she really said this in Chapter 8.)
"Actually, Doctor, there will come a day I won't be able to protect you.
First, there's simply far more factions than anticipated fighting against each other. Their penchant for violence is no less destructive than the Catastrophes, and not only will that present unexpected problems, it will also bring with it deaths that we simply could not have anticipated.
Even if we knew everything, it doesn't necessarily mean we would be able to change everything. It's precisely this that gave rise to so many tragedies, and it's also the beginning of many journeys.
Are you really worthy of my protection?
I'm just putting on some pressure with information asymmetry.
Of course, Cautuses will bite if it comes down to it. (A/N: Cautuses=Rabbit race)
But if I just handed you the answer, it'd only make you be even more suspicious of the truth. You have to either fight for the truth yourself or wait for the answer to reveal itself.
What I said may have been a lie. I don't think the world is going to become a better place overnight, and there's basically no way the Infected will get to go back to their previous lives.
But what I said could also be the truth.
Suppose we leave this place right now. He will never have the chance to see his daughter again, regardless of whether his family or he himself die of other causes in the events that will transpire.
And suppose we aren't able to solve the problem we are facing right now. Most broader academic research will forever remain theories and nothing more.
The successes of those who put in the work is what gives us the right to continue.
There are countless people trying to revolutionize the system for the Infected, but all it takes is one failure, and not only will they forever lose the right to try that, we will never again have that opportunity again.
If you need a more suitable metaphor, consider the concept, 'life'.
...Each time a major operation ends in success, we live to see another day. On the other hand, failure means death.
There is no such thing as coming back from the dead in science.
We only have one chance to save our lives. We will come to face many disasters, and it will be the end of us each time an accident happens. That's both ourselves individually or Rhodes Island as a whole.
Disasters like Chernobog are bound to happen again and again. If we fail to solve a problem like that even once, we will die.
On one hand, we have to stop the disease before it catches up and overwhelms all of us. On the other hand, we need to save ourselves from within this storm.
I'm not singing Rhodes Island's praises. Not too much, at least. It's just, right here, right now, this is a problem that only we can handle.
Most of us only get to live once. Once our lives are lost, it's gone forever.
What I mean is that there are people who haven't ever treasured their own lives.
There are a lot of people who have never been around anything normal ever since they were born. Twisted places will only bear twisted fruits.
The reason there is so much malice in Chernobog is precisely because there has always been malice not kept in check there.
Malice, or more precisely, all those chains of malice aren't going to disappear on their own.
Each destruction, each killing might only have been caused by a modicum of desire. In a lawless land, barbarism is simply left to breed rampantly on its own, and that is how it becomes the law of the land.
And this kind of law is much stronger than the law you'd find in the cities. It's simply indestructible.
That's violence. The violence that flows in our blood veins comes from the parts of us left untamed by civilization.
Doctor, something terrible might be happening.
Based on the chaos we've seen along the way, we probably would've reached this conclusion all the same, but I'm afraid what we are about to face might be far worse than what we could ever have imagined.
I wouldn't say it's always a foregone conclusion.
Perhaps someone has placed a curse on either us or this city. That being said, curses can be broken.
If you plant the seeds of evil, the flowers of evil will blossom, bearing fruits of evil. If we water the earth with goodwill, then even if this parcel of land doesn't get any better... at least it wouldn't meet such a dreadful fate and be buried by a tragedy like this.
It's a shame...
It's a shame that, as far as I know, evil is a vicious cycle that will only breed even worse malice, and fate is rarely kind to those who are kind at heart.
I can't allow you to bring about yet another nightmare, Infected."
-- Kal'tsit
This should explain everything. Almost 800 words, all said in one go.
It became quiet after that topic, but Sachi's heartbeats kept speeding up due to reasons unknown.
Without a word, she suddenly came closer to Shiro and hugged him from being. Surprisingly, Shiro only tensed up for a bit before pausing his cooking.
Although, it's still a mystery as to why she calms down every time she does this. Even Shiro only has a few guesses about this.
He sensed her heartbeats slow down to the normal level while her body that is subconsciously tense calmed down. It took more effect after she buried her face in his back.
Since they're wearing casual clothes right now, with Shiro wearing a white overcoat on top of his black t-shirt and Sachi wearing a plain blue tunic and a skirt, there are only a few layers of clothing separating them.
Even so, Shiro remained composed until Sachi separated from him.
"Thank you, Shiro..." She said so while blushing.
"No need. This is just a small favor."
Soon, she left the kitchen with quickened steps.
"Sigh... This is my problem."
Shiro quickly reflected from his actions more than a year ago. He noticed that he mostly acted due to interest, and that he didn't care if he gets pulled into something.
He simply didn't take any initiative when it comes to most things.
After all, how would an amnesiac have a big goal straight away when he just woke up? It's not like Shiro would set a lame long-term goal such as "World Domination" and "Becoming the Strongest".
If it's for fun, yes, but he wouldn't take them seriously.
"Come to think of it, the system kept giving me directions all this time. Heh, I would not integrate with the world faster if I didn't get pulled in by it..."
As for Sachi's matter, it started a year ago...
*****
One time, Sachi escaped from the guild due to her fear of fighting against monsters. Shiro was training them at that time, so he took it upon himself to find her.
Unsurprisingly, he found her under that bridge. That was exactly the place where the protagonist found her, thus he searched for those in the Town of Beginnings.
When he was about to approach her, but he noticed that she's having a... mental breakdown.
It's not that shocking knowing that she's a normal high school student before she got dragged into this death game. She was also the one who couldn't rid of her apprehensiveness towards monsters.
It worsened to the point that she developed a phobia against them.
Over time, she worked on it, but she could only use a two-handed spear since she couldn't bear being closer to one.
"Hey."
"...Shiro-san."
Sachi sat down on the cold hard floor, with her head rested on her knees. Clearly, she didn't expect for him to find her that easily.
"Feeling scared?"
"How did you know..?"
Sitting down, Shiro continued, "It's completely normal for a normal student to get scared. In fact, most of the players inside this game is just like you."
"Like how most of us stayed in this accursed town."
"Exactly."
In the first few months, there has been a huge amount of players who couldn't even step out of Town of Beginnings, much less fight against a monster. If they ever regain their confidence to do so, it'll only dissipate due to a number of reasons.
"I'm not fit for this game at all..."
At first, she'd only tried it due to her fellow club members, but who would've expected that everything will turn out like this?
"My friend... She died just yesterday."
That time, she was shocked to see that her only friend in-game had died when her name turned gray. When she saw her cause of death in the Monument of Life, it is none other than what she feared the most--monsters.
"I'll die sooner or later if we keep doing this."
"How'd you know?"
"Because... I'm weak. Death is inevitable for me."
Tap-! Tap-!
The sound of raindrops falling from the sky soon dominated the area. It's as if the game had wanted to make the depressing atmosphere inside this town worse.
Tap-! Tap-!
Shiro was surprised to see that some raindrops that he heard earlier are actually... tears.
'How should I go with this..?' He thought with a perplexed face.
This is the first time that he'd encountered someone crying. Even Shinji and Kuroneko back then are strong enough to hold back their tears.
It took him some time to finally think of something.
"Mn... Alright, then." Shiro mumbled as he decided on what to do. He knew that protecting someone who's a self-aware weakling won't work, as seen on the original story, thus he-
"Sachi."
"Yes..?"
"Wanna become stronger?"
-decided to make her stronger, so that she could protect herself.
...
======
[Notice]
Skill has leveled up.
======
As he finished the final step for the dish, a notification appeared.
"Eh... Three levels in a single dish..? Wait a minute..."
It didn't take long for Shiro to realize that the cause of it is the dish's main ingredient, the . This is the first time that he cooked using this ingredient, thus this blunder.
After all, its drops is what mattered in Shiro's eyes. Not only does it drop a huge amount of Cor when killed, its taste is heavenly, too.
He didn't mind this ingredient before since he got dozens of them in his inventory, but it seems that he overlooked its rarity.
"What a dumb mistake. Well, I tend to overlook minor things anyways..."
Since he thought that the Ragdoll Rabbit is something common, he didn't care about it.
Moving on to this revelation of his, he continued cooking dishes continuously. After the entire work, which took around an hour, his cooking skill now sits at level (900/1,000).
By the time he is done, the enticing smell of the food wafted even to the outside, prompting them to stop their daily training. When they got in, they saw both Shiro and Sachi placing the dishes on the dining table.
"Gulp... How could they be this appetizing when it's only virtual reality?!"
"This is definitely the taste of a Michelin Restaurant. I'm sure of it!"
As expected, Ducker and Tetsuo, who are the most rowdy bunch, are the first ones that got their mouth drooling from the scent of the dishes alone.
"You didn't even visited one yet." Ducker teased.
"I don't care, Shiro-san's cooking is the best!"
"Agreed."
While the two are doing their roles as the comedic duo, Keita said something that affected a certain someone.
"Whoever marries Shiro-san in the future will be lucky."
"Sure it is."
Sasamaru, who finished his paper works and went to the dining room, agreed to it.
"Looks like you're already done. Nice work, Sasamaru."
"No worries, guild leader. You take up the helm while we take care of the other stuff."
Clap-!
"Alright, let's eat?"
Shiro clapped once to take their attention back to the food. Though, he is pleased to see this guild function properly, in contrast to the ragtag bunch who always created a mess a year ago.
While they took their seats, only one thought remained in Sachi's mind:
'Shiro-san's wife...'
Unbeknownst to the other girls who is close to Shiro, someone is already contemplating whether to take the first step or not...
*****
Fact #24: Did you know that Kal'tsit's explanation is reputed to be "the longest" by the Arknights fans? It's to the point that many skipped parts when she speaks, just like in Walk in the Dust and Chapter 8 of the main story. I don't need to explain why, feel free to read one of her excerpts:
(Take note that she really said this in Chapter 8.)
"Actually, Doctor, there will come a day I won't be able to protect you.
First, there's simply far more factions than anticipated fighting against each other. Their penchant for violence is no less destructive than the Catastrophes, and not only will that present unexpected problems, it will also bring with it deaths that we simply could not have anticipated.
Even if we knew everything, it doesn't necessarily mean we would be able to change everything. It's precisely this that gave rise to so many tragedies, and it's also the beginning of many journeys.
Are you really worthy of my protection?
I'm just putting on some pressure with information asymmetry.
Of course, Cautuses will bite if it comes down to it. (A/N: Cautuses=Rabbit race)
But if I just handed you the answer, it'd only make you be even more suspicious of the truth. You have to either fight for the truth yourself or wait for the answer to reveal itself.
What I said may have been a lie. I don't think the world is going to become a better place overnight, and there's basically no way the Infected will get to go back to their previous lives.
But what I said could also be the truth.
Suppose we leave this place right now. He will never have the chance to see his daughter again, regardless of whether his family or he himself die of other causes in the events that will transpire.
And suppose we aren't able to solve the problem we are facing right now. Most broader academic research will forever remain theories and nothing more.
The successes of those who put in the work is what gives us the right to continue.
There are countless people trying to revolutionize the system for the Infected, but all it takes is one failure, and not only will they forever lose the right to try that, we will never again have that opportunity again.
If you need a more suitable metaphor, consider the concept, 'life'.
...Each time a major operation ends in success, we live to see another day. On the other hand, failure means death.
There is no such thing as coming back from the dead in science.
We only have one chance to save our lives. We will come to face many disasters, and it will be the end of us each time an accident happens. That's both ourselves individually or Rhodes Island as a whole.
Disasters like Chernobog are bound to happen again and again. If we fail to solve a problem like that even once, we will die.
On one hand, we have to stop the disease before it catches up and overwhelms all of us. On the other hand, we need to save ourselves from within this storm.
I'm not singing Rhodes Island's praises. Not too much, at least. It's just, right here, right now, this is a problem that only we can handle.
Most of us only get to live once. Once our lives are lost, it's gone forever.
What I mean is that there are people who haven't ever treasured their own lives.
There are a lot of people who have never been around anything normal ever since they were born. Twisted places will only bear twisted fruits.
The reason there is so much malice in Chernobog is precisely because there has always been malice not kept in check there.
Malice, or more precisely, all those chains of malice aren't going to disappear on their own.
Each destruction, each killing might only have been caused by a modicum of desire. In a lawless land, barbarism is simply left to breed rampantly on its own, and that is how it becomes the law of the land.
And this kind of law is much stronger than the law you'd find in the cities. It's simply indestructible.
That's violence. The violence that flows in our blood veins comes from the parts of us left untamed by civilization.
Doctor, something terrible might be happening.
Based on the chaos we've seen along the way, we probably would've reached this conclusion all the same, but I'm afraid what we are about to face might be far worse than what we could ever have imagined.
I wouldn't say it's always a foregone conclusion.
Perhaps someone has placed a curse on either us or this city. That being said, curses can be broken.
If you plant the seeds of evil, the flowers of evil will blossom, bearing fruits of evil. If we water the earth with goodwill, then even if this parcel of land doesn't get any better... at least it wouldn't meet such a dreadful fate and be buried by a tragedy like this.
It's a shame...
It's a shame that, as far as I know, evil is a vicious cycle that will only breed even worse malice, and fate is rarely kind to those who are kind at heart.
I can't allow you to bring about yet another nightmare, Infected."
-- Kal'tsit
This should explain everything. Almost 800 words, all said in one go.
