Endzone: Simulated Apocalypse

- An Hour Later -

"Whew… okay, let's stop for today," Kirika said, standing up from the ground. "How was that?"

Cyanide opened his eyes slowly and shot her a sideways glance, then sighed and stood up as well. He had not expected her to join in with the meditating, when she was supposed to be instructing him. He had originally thought relaxing would've been hard for him, but really, all Kirika meant by 'relax' was close his eyes and be quiet, while conjuring a calm state of mind. Since he was always calm, that was easy.

"… Easier than expected," he answered truthfully.

"Really?" Kirika blinked in surprise. "Huh… well, I do suppose you are quite a calm and collected person. When I first started learning how to do this, I could never sit still for more than a minute…"

"Sure that's not just your AD/HD?"

Kirika was taken aback, and dropped her jaw in surprise. "W-Wha- how did you know?!"

Cyanide snorted. "A wild guess, nothing more."

"Hrmph… this is not fair," Kirika said with a pout after a while, folding her arms and pursing her lips. Cyanide raised an eyebrow, prompting her to continue.

Kirika sighed. "I mean, you know so much about me, but I really don't know anything about you except your real name, which I'm not even allowed to call you by…"

Cyanide gave a low chuckle. "If this aura reading ability actually works, I'll tell you why I came here."

Of course, Cyanide had no intention of telling her the whole truth, but a little snippet to lure her curiosity couldn't hurt. To his surprise, however, Kirika jumped up excitedly, any sign of tiredness gone.

"Really?! Let's go right now, then! You'll be able to do it… I think!"

'This again…?' Cyanide thought in his head, wondering just how many things coming out of this girl's mouth was merely something she 'thought' was the case.

Well, this was fine, he supposed. He needed to get some more levels anyway. He was planning on farming the Scarlet Hour tonight too, so might as well get some more XP in now.

"… Well, whatever. Let's go, then," Cyanide muttered, turning away and heading for the stairs leading up out of the basement.

"Yes!" Kirika called out happily, but then, Cyanide stopped.

"Hm… come to think of it… Luna, is the old geezer still asleep?"

"Not sure," Luna replied. "Do you want to check on him, Cyanide?"

Cyanide shook his head, but Kirika tilted hers curiously.

"Eh? Old geezer? Where?"

"… Furthest room down the hallway. He's a Stage Three Mutant, but he won't hurt you. Probably."

"Huh… allies with a mutant? Interesting!"

"If you want to go see how he looks like, go ahead. Just know I won't wait for you."

"Okay~ I'll be quick!"

With that, they parted ways momentarily, and Cyanide decided to take this time to run yet another sweep of the building. His precautions proved useful as he found two stray mutants who had infiltrated into this building while he was away, which he promptly killed without any issue.

Why wasn't he just outright blockading the entrance of the building whenever he left? It's simple. He was purposely letting these stray mutants into the building so he could easily clear them for free XP whenever he ran these daily checks. Everything Cyanide did was calculated, and everything he did had meaning.

*****

Soon, just as Cyanide returned from clearing out the two mutants in the building and prepared to head out, Kirika emerged from the stairwell with a playful smile on her lips. She seemed happy for whatever reason, and even Cyanide who usually didn't care about such things was slightly intrigued and raised an eyebrow.

"… What are you so happy about?"

"Heheh… the old guy—Doctor Finch, was it? He was still asleep when I got there, and seeing his completely defenseless face and the marker on the table…"

She didn't need to finish for Cyanide to know what she meant.

"… When he finds out, he won't be happy. I said he probably won't hurt you, but after doing this, you can completely disregard that comment. Don't expect me to save you when that time comes."

"Don't worry—I made sure to check his stats before doodling on his face. He's pretty weak, I can handle him."

'He's not going to like hearing that when he wakes up either, but…' Cyanide kept that remark to himself and instead silently walked out the door, Kirika trailing behind.

*****

It was past noon, and Cyanide decided to take a little trip outside the city of Lumina to do some exploring. The streets of Lumina were pretty much devoid of mutants, so it was the perfect opportunity to do some hunting in the woods outside the city.

The Aterra Headquarters was right at the corner of Lumina, so it didn't take the two of them long to reach the forest by following the broken highway bridge that was filled with destroyed vehicles and mutants.

Fortunately, all of them were simple Stage Ones, so Cyanide and Kirika took them out with ease. The latter's various sword skills with her katana such as [Orbital Slash] and [Star Splash] were especially useful for clearing out hordes of weak enemies at once, while Cyanide provided 100% accuracy ranged support with his gun.

The two, contrary to Cyanide's expectations, made a nice duo in terms of combat. Personality aside, Kirika was actually quite serious and strong when it came to battle, and Cyanide could appreciate having someone help him in a fight for once, despite not being used to it at all.

By the time the two finally made it across the highway and walked off-course to arrive at the forest, both of them had gained levels. Cyanide was now Level 25, and Kirika, who killed more than Cyanide due to being on the frontline, gained two levels and reached Level 23. Both emptied all of their CP from the level-ups into AGI while conserving the SP for once they got back.

The sun was going to set soon, after all, and they had a forest to explore. Cyanide was curious about the two notifications that popped in front of him, saying that he had unlocked [Weapon Arts] and [Cooking], but since the explanation would take a while according to Luna, he decided to also save it for when they returned.

Standing before the thick green trees that marked the start of the wilderness, Cyanide reloaded his gun with dexterity that could only be born from thousands of repetitions of that same movement, and activated his [Radar] skill.

"Now then… let's head in."