Chapter 3

Depths of the Otherworldly Labyrinth

Chapter 3: Other World System

After killing the wolf, I hurriedly examined my surroundings.

First, I found two corpses that had probably been ripped apart by the wolf.

I scavenged the corpses to acquire tools and foodstuffs. 

I felt no guilt for the looting. Part of it was because I deemed it as necessary for my survival, but more than that, I felt numb to it. With my body still shuddering, I resolved to do my best to survive without sparing a single thought. 

I would take all that I could.

And there, at that moment, I’d judged that the possessions of those corpses were things that I needed.

I slipped on the gloves I had looted, put on the cloak over my clothes, and slung the leather bag around my waist. 

I tucked an oddly-shaped knife (probably a throwing knife) into the belt of my jeans and took hold of a one-handed sword.

But there were two dead bodies, and there was only one of me.

There were a lot of things I couldn’t carry.

Finally, I put my hands together and made a motion of reverence towards the dead bodies.

Then, as I walked in the direction opposite the flame wall, I looked at where the wolf had died and vanished.

There was a greatsword casually lying on the ground.

I would have loved to use it, but carrying around something that weighed twice as much as a one-handed sword wasn’t practical. I made up my mind and gave up on the greatsword, but then I saw a glimmer at the edge of my vision. 

It was a glowing, green stone.

There were a lot of similar gemstones amongst the corpses’ belongings.

In the state I was in, they served as nothing more than dead weight. I didn’t loot them because I decided that bringing about dead weight could become a threat to my life. 

However, the color of that particular stone was similar to the color of the wolf’s fur.

Honestly, it was more because of sentimentality.

Perhaps because we were both attacked by those same people, I felt somewhat empathetic to it.

In the end, I picked up the stone and stuffed it into my pocket. 

“What do I do now…?”

I’d done all I could do.

Even if some hostile creatures appeared, I had the means to fight back. 

Next, I needed to choose whether I should ‘wait’ or ‘move’.

The cut on my thigh was shallower than I had initially believed (maybe because I reflexively pulled my body away from the blade). 

However, even if the bleeding had been stopped by applying pressure, walking with it would be a hassle.

There was no doubt that choosing to ‘move’ would make me bleed more and make me lose more stamina.

However, to ‘wait’ was terrifying on its own.

I had just experienced how terrifying it was to ‘wait’ for someone to save me. 

The wolf was traumatic too, but even more so, the fact that I was slashed by the person I had asked for help was rooted deep in my mind.

That’s why I decided I would ‘move’.

“…I should walk with this sword as a prop.”

I held the sword in one hand to see how it felt.

It really wasn’t suitable to be used as a walking prop. 

“Isn’t there anything better… A good ‘tool’ I can use…?”

When I looked around as I uttered those words——

【持ち物】

なし

I saw such a ‘Display’ floating in the air.

“Eh…? What, the hell…?”

A sense of unreality came rushing again.

Then, a dry sneer formed on my lips.

The ‘Display’ was clearly visible as though it was a piece of dirt stuck to my retina. Even if I moved my vision, the ‘Display’ didn’t disappear from my sight, 

“H-haha, it’s as if…”

As if it was a ‘game’.

They were words that felt too vague to be vocalized.

Illusion, Labyrinths, monsters, giant insects, giant wolves, adventurers, swordsmen, magician’s flame, turning to light after dying, gemstones—All those things only existed in fairy tales and were frequently found in classic RPGs.

The delusion of colors being inverted in my eyes along with a dizziness that made me feel like I was hanging off the ground hit me in waves.

So, I readily admitted it.

There was a part of me that felt better by admitting it.

I could feel my perspective becoming more distant like I was watching a dream, but as long as it eased my fear, I was fine with it. 

“If that’s the case…First, I need to know about myself. Show me the ‘Display’ of myself.”

For the time being, I let out whatever words sounded appropriate and hoped for it to work.

* * *

* * *

【ステータス】

名前：相川渦波　

HP4/51　

MP72/72　

クラス：

レベル1

筋力1.01　

体力1.03　

技量1.01　

速さ2.02　

賢さ4.00——　

“Th-that’s kinda hard… Can’t it be more readable…?”

【Status】

Name：Kanami Aikawa　

HP: 4/51, MP: 72/72　

Class：

Level: 1

STR: 1.01, VIT: 1.03, DEX: 1.01, AGI: 2.02, WIS: 4.00, MAG: 2.00, APT: 7.00　

Constitution：

Confusion: 1.01　

Bleeding: 0.52　

EXP：805/100

Equipment：

One-Handed Iron Sword

Otherworldly Clothes

Elven Cloak

Leather Gloves

Scorched Otherworldly Shoes

Throwing Knife with a Spell Mark

“Ah, it changed to English.”

The ‘Display’ had responded to my careless remark.

It was a little awkward compared to Japanese Kanji, but readability was much more important. I figured I should read it in English letters.

The first and foremost thing that bothered me was the ‘持ち物なし’ from before.

If I took those words at face value, that meant that I was recognized to be in possession of nothing. 

“I have beef jerky and a water canteen hanging around my waist, though…”

And yet, this was what was shown:

【Item List】

Empty

I checked again, but it seemed like I really was not in possession of anything. 

“Well, I can more or less see the approach here… I mean, I love games, so…”

The point was whether or not I had met the conditions.

There were very crude, inflexible, game-like conditions at play, and I happened to not meet those conditions. 

“Perhaps Equipment refers to things that directly affect battle… Things that affect the so-called parameters…”

I felt like that meant that I shouldn’t ‘equip’ anything that didn’t change the parameters. Or, in other words, I shouldn’t put it on or have it attached to my person—

“Do I have cliched bags with infinite storage or something similar…?”

I took another look at what I was wearing.

I tried to pull things in and out of the waist bag and my empty pockets.

But nothing happened.

“Then…”

Enter…~

As an experiment, I held up a piece of jerky to the empty space in front of me as I prayed so in my heart.

And when I did, the space twisted, and the dried meat was swallowed into the vortex.

“—?! S-scary…!”

I hastily retracted my hand.

The sight terrified me to the bone, but perhaps that was the correct course of action. 

“Okay. Let’s check the ‘Item List’.”

【Item List】

Beef Jerky

“Haha. Yup, very game-like.”

What slipped out was half a laugh and half a fearful snicker. 

However, I then understood one of the rules of the ‘Item List’ storage.

If I held up an item in the air and thought of inserting it consciously, it would be inserted into some other place. 

Yup.

Some other place, somewhere…

“…This should make things easier.”

It looked like I would be able to loot more tools and foodstuffs that I had given up on earlier.

With a lot of trial and error, I managed to put various things into that other place one after another.

Incidentally, I couldn’t insert the dead bodies or the small insect.

Maybe because they were too big—or maybe because they used to be living beings. They seemed to have been rejected due to some conditions.

And thus, my ‘Item List’ had become:

【Item List】

Beef Jerky

Water Canteen

Hemostatic Potion

Oil

Numbing Needle(s)

Antidote

File

Auria’s Greatsword

Leather Gloves

Leather Shoes

Clothes Bundle

Wooden Bow

Iron Knife

Arrows without Mark

Lighter

Smartphone

Pebbles

Twig

10th Grade Magic Stone

9th Grade Magic Stone

Incidentally, my lighter and smartphone were in the pair of jeans that I was wearing, so I put them in the ‘Item List’ after making sure I could take them in and out safely.

I tried my smartphone’s signal, but obviously, there was no connection. The date was off by a few years from the last time I had checked as well, so it might have been damaged during the impact. However, the flashlight and the clock functions were still working, which was a huge help. 

“I’ve put a lot of things inside, huh… If anything, it helps me to have the names for things I don’t understand. Won’t this actually make the difficulty lower… as a game, I mean. No, well, it is helpful, though…”

My face slackened on its own when I saw the name ‘Antidote’ displayed on what looked to me to be nothing more than a powder.

“There’s still a lot I can test—”

“——, ————————!!”

Just as I was about to make a more serious attempt to test the system, the roar of a beast echoed in the corridor.

“B-but let’s test it later…”

I had been so lost in savoring the convenience that I had forgotten that I was still in the heart of a danger zone.

I used the high-priority ‘Hemostatic Potion’ (I still didn’t know how to use it, so I just smeared it on my wound after I rinsed it) and walked away while using my sword as a walking prop to distance myself from the roar.

Don’t be hasty and strain yourself too much…

Keep moving while carefully watching the surroundings.

When I checked my status in the ‘Display’, I found that my ‘Bleeding’ had been eased, and my HP was naturally recovering. 

I walked down the corridors of the Labyrinth, sensing that my life was no longer in grave danger.

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