So far, everything that has happened to me is as real as it gets, even the skills have a degree of realism to them. In a lot of the novels I’ve read, some of them say that modern weapons are rendered useless when used against monsters. So I wondered just how much of that was true. This morning, I spent my time buying 5 boxes of 12-gauge shotgun ammo, new plates for my bulletproof vest, a whetstone, and some MRE’s. I still have my gear from my ‘rebellious’ period, including a pistol and a semi-auto shotgun at home, both of which I’ve maintained well since I got them.
I planned to try out the dungeons today. There’s not much else to do anyway, and it’s still a bit early to start stocking up on supplies, especially when I don’t have the space to store them properly yet. Putting them inside my Inventory and letting them occupy space there would be pointless right now. So, after I went to the ATM and withdrew $2,000, I headed straight to Bobbie’s house. He lives on the same street as I do, but his apartment is at the start of the street, so it’s comparatively safer than my place.
“
Knocking on his tightly closed door with its iron grill, I waited for a few seconds before I heard the rumble of things tumbling inside the house.
“
Unlatching the many locks on his door took 20 seconds, and only then did he open the door wide enough for me to get inside. As always, being a bachelor at the level of a grand wizard, his house was a mess—boxes of takeout food piled up in a corner, a bong on the table. It was chaotic, and the only things in the entire house that were in order and clean were his proud figurine glass closet and his mint-condition collection of comics, manga, and magazines.
Bobbie is a long-time friend with whom I share hobbies, from anime and manga to movies and our plans to become doomsday preppers. He’s a self-proclaimed expert on stuff like this, and he calls me the muscle of his kingdom-to-come—a title I vehemently refuse. Like me, he’s an orphan and a poor bastard. He makes a living by selling illegal videos, games, and music. He burns them onto CDs and sells them around the neighborhood. He’s also secretly a hacker, though his skills are mostly limited to unlocking phones for customers or just outright stalking someone on the internet.
“Here you go… burrito set…”.
“Ouh~ nice… thanks, man… so… what’s the business proposal you’ve got for me?… sounds kinda big since you refused to talk on the phone… just a heads up, man… you know my skills… so… I can’t do the hard and hot stuff…”.(Bobbie)
“I know… this job doesn’t require any hacking or anything like that at all… I just need you to download everything I want…”.
Like I’m going to let him hack anything. He’s got no real skill for that. Rather than being a true hacker, he just romanticizes the idea. So, I handed him the list I wanted him to handle.
“Hmm… ahmm… okay… dude… you’re telling me to download almost everything archived here… look, some of these movies go back as far as the 90s…”. (Bobbie)
At first, he was just nodding with a burrito in his mouth. Then he flipped through the notes, then flipped them again until he got to the last page of the list. I handed him a list of everything I need, entertainment-wise. It includes all the anime and manga from the year 2000 until now, and movies from the same period, though I stretched that back to include only a selection of box office hits and some personal favorites. The adult stuff includes everything he can get, and for information and knowledge, everything. The long list made him give me a deadpan look.
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
“Heck, if you can get a wiki working offline for me, I’ll take that as well… anyway, I want all that… I know that when it comes to anime, manga, hentai, and games, you’ve got that covered, right?”.
“Well, I do business with that, so yeah… I’ve got them all… some of the new games, anime, and stuff I’ll need to download, but that’s covered, I guess… Movies… hmmm… I’ve got almost 80% of this list. I’ll need to find the old ones, though… By the way, this information and knowledge list… this has everything covered, man… from medicine all the way to construction… are you preserving our human race’s knowledge with this?… hold up!… are you doomsday prepping on your own?!… Miz!… you said we’d do it together!”.(Bobbie)
His train of thought and how he comes to his own conclusions just amazes me. After all, the topic of preserving humanity’s knowledge has found its place in our doomsday prepping discussions.
“…I’m not doing that, Bob… I’m just leaving the country…”.
“Huh?… to where?… when?”. (Bobbie)
Bobbie dropped his half-eaten burrito on his plate, wiped his lips, and listened to me carefully.
“I’ve got nothing here, man… recently, my grandmother contacted me. She said she wanted me to live with her in the village… so, I accepted her offer. It’s a rural village on an island in Southeast Asia. There’s no internet connection there, so I want to prepare for everything…”.
“Ohh… that’s why… Miz, if you’re sure you’re going to be happy there, I support you, man… It might be shitty here, but maybe there, it won’t be so bad?… maybe?… right… Hahaha…”. (Bobbie)
Bobbie gave me his best attempt to console me. He knows how shaky my life is—he’s been my friend for quite some time now—so, to avoid hurting him and to make him less bothersome, I told him this setup excuse. It’s not like I can tell him I’m about to go to another world. He’d never believe it, and for safety measures, I won’t be telling anyone else about it either. The real story is that my grandmother on my mother’s side passed away in the 90s.
“Bob… you suck at comforting people… so stop it… so… can you do it?”.
“Sure, I’ll do it… but with this amount of stuff, it’ll take at least a few months and dozens of drives… if I work with my friends, we can shorten the time frame, but it’ll cost extra…”. (Bobbie)
“Don’t worry about money… I have it… how about I pay you 1k a month? How long will it take?”.
“Go for 1.5k a month… I’ll work this out with my boys, so I gotta pay them a little bit… can you? I’ll make sure to get it done in 3 months…”.(Bobbie)
It’s within the range I can manage. That’s a lot of data to store and find, and if it’s him, I know he’ll keep it secret and do his best for me—all high-quality stuff.
“Sure… but I want all of them in HD… no choppy stuff… as always… keep this confidential…”.
Reaching our agreement, I handed him the money—3k, presented in a roll. As he saw the money, his lips curled up.
“You know me, Miz—all business IS confidential… Ouh~! sweet!… it’s been a while since I saw a roll this thick!… damn!”.(Bobbie)
“That’s 3k right there… the other 1.5k is for you to buy the drives for everything… if you fill all the drives, call me—I’ll buy more for you to use… once again, Bob… everything on the list…”.
“I know!… geez… have a little faith, man… I’m not going to mess with you… I’ll call you when I need help with the drives…”.(Bobbie)
Only when I got his affirmation reply did we stop playing tug-of-war with the cash roll. It annoyed him a little—Bob is a large guy, but he’s never once won in a contest of strength against me. I remembered that in the past, this big guy used to come running up to me to fend off his bully.
“Hey… thanks, man… I appreciate you…”.
“Don’t mention it… besides, I can use some extra money… one of my CD burners broke… can’t do business without that… umm… Miz…”.(Bobbie)
“Yeah, big guy?…”.
“…take care of yourself… and also, don’t forget me and all your friends here… we’re buddies forever!”.(Bobbie)
“…Sure, Bob…and, hey… no homo…”.
“Hahahaha… fuck you, dude… shoo~… shoo~… go home~~…”. (Bobbie)
Bobbie was genuine just now, and I appreciate him. Among his close friends, I’m probably the only one who isn’t a shut-in and is a bit normal. From next year on, he’ll have to take care of himself alone, as I can no longer help him with that. I just hope he can find more happiness—he’s a good guy, chubby and big, but with a kind soul.
Wearing my backpack again, I walked straight home, knowing that Bobbie and his friends would deliver on the job. I can rest easy now. So, it’s time for me to get ready for my dungeon-diving adventure. When I got back home, I pulled out all of my gear from storage and prepared it. I oiled the firearms and sharpened my machete and knife—everything needed to be ready for action. I brought my backpack with me, filled with food, ammo, a medkit, and all the essentials. I charged what needed to be charged, packed what needed to be packed. And lastly, I needed to choose my [Job].