The Beginning of the Fourth Day

I woke up.

I slept soundly.

I check, just in case, for any signs of monsters nearby.

'Enemy Search' isn't picking anything up, either, so it seems safe.

"Aka, drop 'Mimicry.'"

"...(shakes)"

Once I have Aka drop its disguise, I stretch widely.

"Good morning, Momo, Aka."

"Woof!"

"...(shakes)"

Momo had apparently woken up earlier, as expected.

As for Aka... Come to think of it, do slimes sleep?

When I asked, Aka shook its body as if to say it didn't really know.

Well, whatever. It looks lively enough.

Now then, today is finally the day Ichinose-san joins our party.

Hmm... I'm still nervous.

At any rate, this is my first human party member.

And she's a woman, too, so I'm feeling restless.

Is my hair okay? I don't have bedhead or anything, right?

"Oh, right. I need to confirm the meeting place and time."

I send Ichinose-san an email.

As expected, she replies almost immediately.

The place is a nearby apartment building. The time is one hour from now...

"I've still got plenty of time."

I might as well eat breakfast first.

I take some food out of the Item Box and have breakfast.

Bread and fruit, salad, and milk. Dog food for Momo.

I have Aka absorb the trash after we finish eating.

Aka happily eats it, too, so it's very eco-friendly.

After breakfast, I wash my face, shave, and check my bedhead.

Well, just in case. I should at least make myself presentable.

When I look in the mirror, my usual unremarkable face stares back at me. Damn it all.

I still have time, so maybe I'll explore a little more.

The meeting place is only a few minutes' walk from here.

I should have enough time even if I look around a little more of the shopping mall.

Now that the Orcs are gone, after all.

"...Come to think of it."

Those Skeletons from yesterday.

Could they have appeared because the Orc horde left this place, too?

Otherwise, the timing would be too perfect.

"It did look like the monsters were fighting among themselves, too."

The Orc I encountered in the rice paddies was being chased by a pack of Shadow Wolves, so relations between monsters must be pretty cutthroat, too.

Well, that doesn't change the fact that I'll hunt them.

Otherwise, they'll kill us.

So I resume exploring the shopping mall in the time I have left.

I'll make the rounds of the places I couldn't see yesterday.

And collect anything that might be useful while I'm at it.

Repeating this, I make my way around the first floor, second floor, and parking lot.

The parking lot is filled with abandoned cars.

Of course, I put them in the Item Box.

I also collect broken-off pieces of pillars. Those make fine weapons, too.

"Even so, there aren't many corpses..."

There are no corpses on the second floor or in the parking lot.

So, were those piled-up corpses the remains of everyone killed in this mall?

But what were they planning to do by gathering them all in one place?

Come to think of it, when you defeat a monster, its body disappears, you gain experience, and a magic stone is left behind.

But humans leave corpses behind when they die.

What's the difference?

"...When you think about it, there are so many mysteries in the world's current system."

Monsters suddenly started flooding the world, and a system like something from a game became available.

Why did monsters appear in the first place? What are magic stones?

There are just too many things we don't know.

There are far too many strange aspects to simply accept it as 'that's just how things are.'

The laws of physics, and all sorts of other things...

"...Hm?"

While I was thinking, 'Enemy Search' picked up a reaction.

It isn't a monster. It's a human presence.

Could it be... a survivor?

No, that's hard to believe.

Given the Orcs' sense of smell, it would be nearly impossible to stay hidden.

Unless they had 'Odorless' and 'Presence Concealment' like I do, they'd be found.

"Then did they come from outside...?"

Like the Skeletons, had they been waiting for the Orcs to leave?

For now, I might as well go take a look.

I have Momo hide in my shadow and activate 'Presence Concealment,' 'Silent Action,' and 'Odorless' as we head toward the presence.

"...There?"

It is the entrance opposite the one I came through.

Two women are there.

They look young. They seem to be in their late teens or twenties.

"Excuse me, is anyone here?"

"Hey, shouldn't we go back after all? It's okay. I'm sure everyone has already escaped."

"...It's okay. Unlike last time, we've properly raised our levels. This time, we won't be o...outdone by monsters. We'll definitely find him."

"That isn't very convincing when your voice is shaking..."

The two women wander around the store, carrying backpacks and holding weapons resembling pitchforks.

"Oh...?"

One of them looks familiar.

I peer at the woman's face from the corner of a shelf.

She's a beautiful black-haired woman with a distinctive beauty mark beneath her eye.

There's no mistaking it. She was the newlywed who had lived next door to my apartment.

So she survived...

Then could she be looking for her husband?

Despite a growing sense of unease, I decide to watch what they do.

Meanwhile―――.

"This is bad... My stomach hurts..."

Ichinose Natsu was hunched over in a room in a certain apartment building.

Even after waiting a day, her mental state had not stabilized.

"Ugh... I'm nervous."

If anything, the extra time had only made her more anxious, and she could barely sleep.

What if he laughed at her when they met? What if he disliked her? What if she was really a nuisance? Had she sent too many emails? Had she petted Momo too much?

As she thought only negative thoughts, night gave way to dawn before she knew it.

"But I have to see Momo-chan... Hang in there, me...!"

Ichinose struck an "I'll do my best!" pose to psych herself up.

But talking to strangers still made her nervous. It wasn't good for her mental health.

It had been a year since she dropped out of high school, after everything that had happened.

Her shut-in lifestyle, cutting off contact with the outside world, had only worsened her shyness.

That hadn't changed even after the world became overrun with monsters.

"If only I could have met him that easily while he was unconscious... Damn."

The healing potion she'd won from the gacha.

When she'd approached that man to heal him, she must have been unusually keyed up herself.

Looking back on it calmly, she realized how mortifying it had been.

"What kind of face am I supposed to make when I see him...?"

He probably hadn't even noticed her, but it still felt awkward.

"Uuu... Get a grip... I have to get a grip...!"

But... even so, there was someone she wanted to face those hardships and travel alongside—a dog.

She wanted to pet something fluffy and be comforted.

So she stood up.

She would overcome her shyness.

All for the sake of her new companion.

For the sake of a single dog.

"Wait for me, Momo-chan... I'll do my best...!"

With her trusty rifle slung over her shoulder, she opened the apartment door.

Her face wore the expression of a battle-hardened warrior resolved to march onto the battlefield.

Just to be clear, all she was doing was leaving her room to meet someone.