Mission: Don’t Let Starvation Get the Better of You
You are out of ration. Search the skyscrapers before you and secure food through the hands of their inhabitants.
Difficulty: E
Reward: Some old emergency rations, miscellaneous items
Failure: Death by starvation; death by being eaten
“Maxim, I detected several manmade structures in the distance. It appeared that the area around there was strangely thinner in terms of the fog concentration,” Lunaria informed.
“Hmm, I know. Let’s go there; I need to gather up supplies so I can last longer.” Avoiding the place wasn’t an option at this point in time, as failure itself led to death.
Before long, the red fog in the distance thinned out quite a bit and revealed several skyscrapers amid it. Through my prior experience of sweeping a skyscraper clean of edible food, it didn’t net me with much. Nevertheless, little meant something more than nothing.
The only problem was the “inhabitants” within. Just what kind of creatures were nesting inside the buildings?
It was only a family or two of mutant rats and cockroaches before in the last skyscraper, and most of them were on the lower floors that I didn’t bother to touch. Furthermore, the red fog was toxic to humans. Just remembering what happened to the village where Raymond lived gave me goosebumps.
Ideally, if we could strike from far away, I would have done so, but even if the fog was thin, visibility was still an issue. The semi-automatic rifle I owned was similar to a mixture of Gewehr 43 and M1 Garand, which only had ten rounds and didn’t have a scope for long-range shooting.
On top of that, the ship lacked weapons on board as deterrence… It was as if this airship wasn’t intended to be used as a weapon of war. What a shame.
“You're probably pondering the ship's lack of long-range weaponry, aren't you?” Lunaria stated matter-of-factly as if confirming a known truth. “Well, it is designed primarily for exploration and personal use.”
“Figured. Welp, can only get down there then.”
Lunaria could use the spherical drone to scout ahead, but she only had one such thing. Losing it here would be a waste, but that wouldn’t stop her from following me, however.
I surveyed four to five skyscrapers before me through the ship’s cameras, and after ascertaining that one of the skyscrapers offered a more secure option, I skillfully maneuvered the airship to anchor it above its rooftop. Descending via the rope ladder, I secured the rope tightly, strategically choosing an open area that would facilitate a swift escape if needed.
With rifle in hand and a backpack filled with survival necessities on my back such as a first aid kit, tissues, and hunting dagger, among others, I checked the situation inside by peeking my head through the window. The building only had one entrance and not much visibility, hence nothing could be seen.
“Crap. It is at times like this that I always feel like there’ll be a jump scare ahead…”
“What are you being scaredy-cat for? Don’t you worry, you have me here; I can tell you if there’s something approaching.”
“Guess you’re right.” Her assurance calmed me a bit; I was someone that had survived in this world for three months. Three months!
Redoubling my courage, I stepped inside the building and went down the cold broken stairs while gripping my rifle with one hand and the steel dagger on my side with the other. To help with visibility, the drone Lunaria controlled turned on its flashlight to illuminate the path forward.
As I cautiously pushed open the metal door at the base of the stairs, a glimpse of the interior unveiled its purpose. It became evident that this building had once served as a hotel, with a luxurious resort area located two floors below. That must be where they kept the food.
I walked down the hallway to get to my place of destination until there was an intersection where I had to stop. The reason being, Lunaria had informed me that there were living creatures on the left side of the intersection…
“Shit! What the fuck are those?!” I held my voice that almost burst out at the last second while leaning my back against the wall before the intersection.
More than a dozen large insectoid monsters were munching on the corpses of other creatures with some of their brethren mixed in. Cannibalism seemed to be a common evolutionary trait for living beings in this place.
To get two floors below, I had to use the emergency stairs just by following the hallway straight, but I couldn’t rule out the possibility of them blocking my escape route, so I must take them down right here in this place.
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Most of them bore an uncanny resemblance to praying mantises, while others took a similar shape but had wings attached to their backs. Bad news!
While they were still unaware of me, I used one of the exclusive abilities available from [The Survivalist]: [Identification], on one of them.
Species: Entomothrope insectoid (mutant)
Sex: Male
Age: 8 months old
Height: 205 cm
Source Level: None
Source Element(s): None
Stats:
* STR: F (14)
* AGI: F+ (17)
* VIT: F (11)
* SRC: F (13)
* SPR: F- (5)
Accumulation Points: 9 [F+]
I can do this. I’m a bit stronger than them… I have a gun, too. As a result of my newfound courage, I began contemplating a perfect strategy in mind.
I could just throw a highly destructive weapon like a grenade at them and be done with it. Moreover, I always kept a couple of grenades with similar shapes as the M67 grenade with me in the side pocket of the backpack but using those might alert the other inhabitants— No, it would. So brute force was a no-go.
Since two heads were better than one, I consulted Lunaria. She was quick on the uptake, and we came up with a perfect plan.
“I’m ready. Now, Lunaria!”
The spherical drone quickly floated toward the insectoid monsters and caught their attention, even though it didn’t emit any noise. Once it was cornered, the drone turned on its strobe lamp mode and released an extremely bright light that blinded all of them.
Immediately, I aimed my rifle at them — more specifically their heads — and began shooting, firing several rounds in a row.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Yellowish-green blood spurted out and painted the surrounding walls. Each shot was enough to take one down, but there were more than ten of them here. With the gun only having ten rounds, I got to reload in the middle.
Perhaps the blinding effect wasn’t as effective as I’d previously thought, as they switched their attention toward me after only a moment.
“Be careful! They are approaching you,” Lunaria warned.
“Shit! I know!” My hand didn’t stop pulling the trigger, killing like five of them while missing 30 percent of my shot, now leaving the magazine empty.
Although these past three months had given me time to practice shooting, I was still not quite the sharpshooter, not to mention that my racing heart and sweaty arms had only made things worse.
In haste, I reloaded the rifle with trembling hands by throwing the used magazine to the floor since there was no time, and quickly inserted another one, then cocked the handle.
But before I was able to shoot again, one of the insectoid monsters that looked like a mantis with mandibles lunged at me, its razor-sharp scythe-like appendages slashing downward. In order to defend myself, I could only use my gun as a makeshift shield to block its scythes.
“Screech!” The monster hissed at my face, its menacing mandibles gnashing inches away from my face, as if eager to tear me apart.
“Fuck.” Luckily, I possessed superior strength, so I was able to push it back, held its head away with the gun, and took out my dagger to slice at the gap near the neck. Its carapace was hard, but the steel dagger was sharp and managed to slit its throat with a slight hiccup.
Its disgusting blood splattered on my clothes, but I didn’t give a fuck. Yuck.
Now, there were only five left. Lunaria had been controlling the spherical drone to buy time by releasing intermittent bright flashes, and the space being narrow helped me in limiting their approach. I used that chance to finish the rest with my trusty rifle, killing them with each shot.
“Whew… Thankfully, they’re stupid.” My legs gave up and I fell to the ground, trembling. I didn’t know what would happen if I made even a single mistake.
How nostalgic. It reminded me of how I was barely able to kill a cockroach three months ago.
“Are you okay? Your gunshots were dampened by the surrounding thick walls, but no saying when another of their group will approach here. Let’s make haste.”
“Sure, after you.” Everything that happened just now still felt surreal, but I couldn’t simply stop here.
I got back on my feet and carried on, not forgetting about the magazine that I had thrown to the ground. There were only three such rifles inside the airship, a bit less than a thousand bullets, and ten grenades. I had to save those in time of need.
Walking down the stairs, we encountered another group of insectoid monsters, swarming near the broken emergency door. Since their numbers were less than before, it was much easier to eradicate them.
After descending to another floor, we were finally at the resort area. What blocked me from going in was a locked double glass door.
I didn’t act rashly by destroying the door’s lock and instead examined the inside. There were about three dozen or so of them inside the resort, spread about in an area almost large enough to host a football match.
“I suggest we take a high point and kill them one by one. I’ve discovered a good place upstairs.”
“Uh-huh, all right.”
That said, Lunaria led me to an inner secluded balcony upstairs. Same with the previous problem, I didn’t have a scope, so I had to somehow lure them closer.
“Lunaria, can you control the drone to kite ‘em closer? Of course, one at a time if possible.”
“M’kay. No problem.”
The spherical drone floated closer to an unsuspecting insectoid monster and kited it toward me. Once it was within a mere twenty meters of my position, I squeezed the trigger after ensuring the place was sufficiently dampened.
Repeatedly, I executed this tactic, methodically picking off clueless insectoid monsters one by one. In all honesty, this was a waste of ammo, but everything had its price. Without taking these measures, I would surely meet my demise at their hands.
Even so, it wasn’t as smooth as I had hoped for. The rest of the insectoid monsters noticed the sounds and began grouping together, steadily advancing toward my location. Even the airborne ones were hot on my heels.
Adopting the instincts of a seasoned sniper, I swiftly shifted to another secluded balcony on the opposite side. Alas, this path was not without its own obstacles as additional insectoid monsters lurked in my way. Determined to outmaneuver them, I made a split-second decision to make a daring rush toward the resort area, capitalizing on the monsters' preoccupation with my previous position.
I had pinpointed the most likely place to have food beforehand: the once-fancy restaurant with a rundown entrance. It was rather close to the double glass door; I could make it there unnoticed.
Once I cut the locked glass door open, I quickly took off in a sprint and vaulted into the restaurant like a desperate person. Normally, this would be the time for me to rejoice, but the scenery inside made me jerk my head and scramble to hide.
The restaurant was actually their nest!