Episode 6: The Rule That Engineers Wielding Crowbars Are Usually Freaking Strong

My body still felt incredibly light.
That was my first realization when I stumbled into this world.

(This is so strange. What on earth is happening to my body...?)

I mean, I could move with an ease that would have been unthinkable after one of my overtime shifts.

(It’s like I’ve really become Sera Harvey with a full health bar.)

It seemed I couldn’t pull off superhuman feats like massive jumps, but then again, the actual Sera couldn’t either.

DedCon was originally a game with deliberately clunky controls, a common design choice in horror games. If the protagonist moved too smoothly, the fear factor would be halved, so character movements were relatively sluggish.

In other words, the enemies in this DedCon 3 game were designed to be beatable even with the protagonist's relatively sluggish movements.

(If I can move this well... I can fight!)

I steeled my resolve, glaring at the formidable enemy before me.

My body could move.
The situation was dire.
...But I’d come this far. I had to do this, right?

An almost hopelessly desperate challenge was about to begin.

The zombie tank, having me within its firing range, made that familiar sound and fired a high-explosive shell.

...But it landed far from where I’d been standing.

(Alright! Just like in the game!)

I mentally pumped my fist.
This zombie tank, being operated by zombies, had pretty terrible accuracy. The first shot almost always missed.

And, just like with real tanks,
if a tank fires its main gun or even just moves, anyone nearby won't escape unscathed.

This element was particularly emphasized in DedCon.
The pressure wave from the tank firing its cannon was considerable, and if it revved its engine, the heat alone could easily incinerate a horde of zombies.

Taking the full force of the gas turbine's backblast, the surrounding zombies were annihilated, sustaining massive damage, and even the Minotaur suffered greatly.

(Alright! Just as I calculate—d?!)

...Something unexpected happened.
My vision suddenly darkened, and I couldn’t breathe.
The instant I registered being hit by something like a shockwave, intense pain wracked my entire body.

(What in the world... Does this mean I took damage too?!)

Unable to bear the excruciating pain, I collapsed. This wasn’t part of the plan. This wasn't how it worked in the game.
Before I fell, I’d managed to land a few shots on the zombie tank... but I didn’t get the feeling I’d taken it down. This was extremely bad.

"Ugh... ughh...!"

I tried to breathe, but I couldn't do it properly.
...I could definitely feel that my lungs themselves were damaged.
My breathing muscles were working fine, but it felt like I couldn't draw in enough air.

Did the blast puncture a lung? The lungs are for air exchange, but they don’t move on their own. They're like air-filled sacs that can't operate without respiratory muscles. If a lung gets a hole from an injury, air leaks out, it collapses, and you can't breathe properly... Traumatic pneumothorax.

(I can't move... This is bad, I can't fight like this!)

In the game, players didn’t take damage from this kind of distance, but it seemed the blast radius in this world was significantly wider.
Or maybe I’d just misjudged the range?
I’m no soldier; I’ve never had any training in judging distances to enemies.

"Sera!!"

I sensed Kiryu-san rushing over.

(But the tank's still there, it's dangerous...!)

That’s what I thought, but Kiryu-san seemed to have come prepared.
No sooner had he tossed me a vial – a healing item – than he immediately raised his crowbar and charged towards the tank.

(No way! Taking down a tank with just a crowbar? That's impossible for a human...!)

The thought flashed through my mind, but I was in too much pain, struggling too much, to even speak.
As I lay there, writhing in agony, a blood-soaked Kiryu-san returned, his crowbar equally drenched.

"Phew, did it. Thanks to you damaging it beforehand, I managed to unleash my EfuDa Special and it was an easy wi— Hey, you haven't used a healing item yet?!"

"..."

"Are you so weak you can't even use it yourself...? You okay? Do you know who I am?"

I somehow managed to nod in response to Kiryu-san’s question.

"Damn... I've never used a healing item in this game before, so I don't know what to do... This vial? Should I just splash it all over your body?"

To that question, I shook my head, my face contorted in pain.
The vial Kiryu-san is holding... it has a rubber stopper. You can’t just open it. Prying it open and splashing it around won't do anything. You have to jab a syringe needle into it, draw out the contents, and then inject it. The game’s protagonist somehow had a syringe from the start, but we don’t. We’d probably have to find one later in the hospital area or somewhere.

"Then should I use this medicinal herb? Will it be okay if I just stuff it in your mouth?"

"..."

...

... ...

...Huh?

Um, is that how it works?

I had no idea; there wasn’t a scene of it being used in the game.
In the game, you just opened the menu screen, selected ‘Item List,’ then ‘Medicinal Herb,’ answered ‘Yes’ to ‘Use item?’, and that was it.
But how did you actually use it...? I had no clue.
Whatever he made of my reaction, Kiryu-san started stuffing all the medicinal herbs he had into my mouth.

"...Mgh, ughh..."

A handsome young man stuffing weeds into the mouth of an innocent young woman... The visual was pretty horrific.
Can this really heal the countless lacerations all over my body?!
I wondered, tears welling in my eyes... but then, a miracle occurred.

"Ughh...?!"

Just as a refreshing sensation, like menthol being slathered all over my skin, began to well up... all the pain and breathlessness I’d felt until that moment vanished instantly.
Traumatic pneumothorax, cured...

"...What in the world is going on with this world...?" I said, spitting out a wad of medicinal herbs with a blech.

"That medicinal herb just now, it worked as fast as a sublingual tablet..."

"That's what I'd really like to know too..."

Listening to Kiryu-san’s sigh, I slowly sat up.
Then, still seated, I looked at him.
The blood all over him seemed to be just splatters he’d picked up.
Kiryu-san himself didn’t appear to be injured at all.
Could an ordinary person really do something like this? Well, he did it, so I guess that’s that.

"That’s amazing, Kiryu-san... You defeated the Minotaur and the tank without a scratch?"

"I just kept up a hit-and-run. The tank was weakened thanks to you, and the Minotaur self-destructed after getting hit full-on by something like a gas turbine engine's backblast when that zombie tank thingy went full throttle."

"Even so, you’re incredibly strong. You really saved me... but I feel so pathetic about myself."

Saying that, I gave a bitter smile.
I was the one who’d confidently boasted, "I’ve got this," yet here I was, being saved by Kiryu-san, a beginner...
Seeing me so down, Kiryu-san scratched his head, looking a bit flustered.

"...Ah, no, uh, Sera. Like I said before, I'm pretty athletic. So, there's no need for you to lose so much confidence. Besides, I'm just a thirty-year-old good-for-nothing old guy, you know? Why should you, a perfectly capable nurse, lose confidence because of an old guy? You're doing great."

"Old guy, old guy... You’ve been putting yourself down way too much lately." I couldn't help but frown and tilt my head.

"Or is bringing up that topic all the time also part of that 'preemptive defense against younger girls' thing you mentioned at the start, Kiryu-san?"

"...Yeah, pretty much," Kiryu-san sighed, affirming it.

"I was a no-rights otaku from a bottom-tier school, so I've never had a girlfriend, not once. College was all guys too. Someone like me could easily say something incredibly rude to a woman without realizing it and ruin myself, right? But thanks to all the preemptive measures I take, I've never once been reported to HR for sexual harassment. And because I act my age and keep quiet like an old guy should, I've never been caught in a honey trap or marriage scam either."

"What is all this?" I couldn't help but chuckle.
Then Kiryu-san looked at me, a faint, relieved smile on his face.

"...Looks like you're feeling better."

"Eh?"

"Enemies are spawning. We need to hurry." No sooner had he said that than he quickly stood up, crowbar in hand.

(...He was trying to cheer me up again...) I thought, blinking.
In this short time, I felt like Kiryu-san had been supporting me in all sorts of ways.

My first impression was that he was a kind person... but now, the stronger impression was of someone used to comforting subordinates or juniors.
He said he’s "never been in a romantic relationship with a woman," but it felt more like he was accustomed to behaving in ways that avoided romantic relationships.
He probably disliked getting into that kind of entanglement with others.

Right, I need to make it absolutely clear I’m not thinking that way so I don’t burden him!

(...Ugh, jumping to conclusions about people's words and actions based on "evidence" is such a bad nurse habit...) I mentally chastised myself for definitely overthinking it.
In front of me, Kiryu-san sighed as he fended off zombies that had spawned over time with his crowbar.

"Still, fighting enemies that might kill you if they hit you is really bad for the nerves..."

"You’re right. We need to secure a safe place quickly."

Since we’d defeated a tough miniboss, a large horde of enemies probably wouldn't appear for a while.
However, if we strolled around leisurely, there was a chance that tanks or Minotaurs might show up again.

(We need a fundamental solution so we don't have to fight these things ourselves, huh?) Thinking that, I nodded deeply.

"...You know, instead of meticulously holding back on leveling up, we really need to just go all out and get strong, don’t we?"

"Hey, hey, Sera, have you already forgotten why you were on the verge of death just now? That kind of enemy appeared because you got too strong from defeating too many, right?"

"I haven't forgotten. But if we just run away every time an enemy appears, we'll be overwhelmed in no time, won't we? So, we do need to get stronger. But, we don't necessarily have to be the ones who get stronger."

"...What do you mean?"

"Leave it to me this time," I declared with enthusiasm. "I'll create an army of hell."

"...A-Army of hell?"

"Yes, that's right. In this game, even if you don't raise your own level, there are various ways to go about things. We just need to find NPCs, recruit them like crazy, and train them up like crazy. If we do that, even this whole area will turn into a flower garden of a safe zone where we can walk around humming."

"I don't really care about a field of flowers, but first, I'd like to go somewhere we can calmly decide on our next course of action." Kiryu-san chuckled, cracking his neck.

"For now, the destination is this way, right?"

"Ah, yes. We’ll be at the starting point soon. It feels weird to be backtracking towards the starting point, though. It’s a first for me..."

As the two of us talked while exiting a narrow back alley, another new enemy came slithering out.

—It was a ‘Heart.’

No metaphor. Its size was equivalent to about four giant yoga balls. It was a heart-shaped enemy that moved using tentacles.
I’d forgotten its name. It was that kind of forgettable enemy.

"This is bad, we used up all the medicinal herbs earlier...!"

"That enemy’s fine. It looks gross, but it’s just a ‘kinda strong’ enemy, so we can definitely take it down with our current weapons," I said, stepping in front of Kiryu-san.
Kiryu-san cast a worried glance my way, but I returned his gaze with a look that said, no problem.

"Kiryu-san, please lend me the crowbar."

"It's slick with blood, can you hold it?"

"I’ll be fine if I wipe it on my skirt. Don’t worry, this’ll be a piece of cake. Back in the day, I beat the crap out of this thing countless times before my anatomy and physiology exams... Just watch, here I go."

Saying that, I swung the crowbar high.

"──Let's get on with it. We just have to!!"

☆

"Phew. That was a good sweat for the first time in a while! The heart has such a complex and confusing structure, and there are so many parts you have to memorize, so this enemy was a real lifesaver for studying, you know~"

After pulling off the psycho-level feat of lecturing Kiryu-san while blood-soaked, all while shouting the names of major blood vessels and bashing the enemy's vascular parts with the crowbar, I returned it to him with a beaming smile.

"Oh, by the way, this guy dies instantly if you stab it right in the left atrium. Keep that in mind, okay!"

"G-Got it... I mean, are all nurses like this...?" Kiryu-san’s jaw dropped, but I paid him no mind.
I ran down the slightly wider street, hurrying towards the location of the Vital Watch.

"...Just to be clear, not all nurses are 'like this'," I said, pouting even as I ran.

"A woman who loves games where you blast monsters with a BFG and send blood and guts flying against an army of hell is bound to be an extreme minority, not just among nurses, but among women in general, isn't she?"

"BFG... You don't mean the Big Fucking Gun, the ultimate weapon from DooM—that 1993 computer game beloved by American boys? It should have zero recognition in Japan. Why are you even into something like that...?"

While having this conversation, we hurried towards the game’s starting point.
Around us were small, two-story shops and clothing stores with shattered display windows.
This area was wider than the back alleys we’d been in earlier, but many places were impassable due to fallen utility poles or collapsed walls.
There had clearly been a large-scale battle here between zombies and the military. (I don’t know what nationality the military was, and you’re not supposed to question it.)

"Ah, there are medicinal herbs over there too. Let's grab some."

Kiryu-san would stop here and there to unceremoniously yank medicinal herbs planted in planters.

(Dirt's practically overflowing from his pockets...) I couldn’t help but narrow my eyes.
I mean, a devastatingly handsome man stuffing his pockets full of weeds... it looked like nothing but a bad joke.
But, since those medicinal herbs had saved my life earlier, I couldn’t bring myself to say, "That looks lame, please stop."

Still, I wanted pockets too.
I wanted to be able to quickly pull out medicinal herbs.
At the very least, I wanted space for my phone... but even in reality, women's dresses often lacked pockets for the sake of ‘making the body line look beautiful.’ Honestly, it’s just inconvenient.

"...Actually, I want a drink," I muttered, suddenly craving my post-work alcohol.

"Huh? Did you just say alcohol?" Hearing my murmur, Kiryu-san stood up, looking at me. I nodded.

"I said alcohol. Ahhh. I was planning to have just one can of beer after my overtime ended. But then, I ended up here without getting to drink it. To run into this kind of trouble, I’m really unlucky, huh."

"That's... too bad," Kiryu-san said, scratching his cheek, offering some rather bland consolation. "No matter how you look at it, you can't drink here. When you get back to your own world, you can drink to your heart's content."

But I couldn’t give up. "No, there’s a possibility I can drink, you know. This game, for some reason, includes alcoholic beverages among its healing items."

"Huh. If you can find it, then yeah, I guess you could drink it."

"Exactly! I wonder if there’s any lying around somewhere... Ahh, there it is!"

"...That was another conveniently dropped item, wasn't it..."

Ignoring Kiryu-san’s exasperated face, I gleefully picked up the alcoholic beverage I found on the street, opened the lid, and chugged it down.

"Puhaah, that hits the spot~!"

"A lot of nurses sure like their alcohol, huh... I mean, shouldn't you avoid drinking things you find on the street?" Kiryu-san tilted his head, voicing his doubt. I grinned sheepishly.

"It’s fine, it’s fine, those medicinal herbs were also found on the street, weren't they? Same difference, same difference. I mean, I got dragged into this adventure before even finishing my unpaid overtime! I deserve at least this much of a reward, don't you think?"

"...Well, yeah, maybe you're right."

"Right?" I said, laughing even as I gulped down more alcohol.
Then, exhaling with a puha,

"Still, this game is interesting, you know. When you drink alcohol, your health recovers an amusing amount. But if you drink too much..."

"If you drink too much?"

"...You puke. Uweeeh."

"You puke?!"

【Unhelpful Character Introductions That Won’t Help You Understand the Main Story at All】

■ Gas Turbine Engine Backblast
Something the author just wanted to say. It’s the superheated gas that blasts out from the back of rocket launchers or tanks. It can cause serious injury or, at worst, death within at least a thirty-meter radius directly behind it.
It’s apparently hot enough to cook a human nicely, so if you ever see a moving tank, staying well clear of it is definitely a good idea to increase your survival rate. (Not that you’d have many chances to get close to a moving tank in modern Japan anyway.)

■ Sublingual Tablet
Medicines take effect and spread through the body at different rates; intravenous injection is the fastest, followed by inhalants and sublingual tablets, then intramuscular injections, subcutaneous injections, and finally oral medications, which are the slowest. Based on these absorption rates, drugs are designed to spread through the body at an intended speed (or to limit their spread) and exert their effects on specific parts of the body. A typical example of a sublingual tablet is nitroglycerin, used during heart attacks. This drug is quickly absorbed through the mucous membrane under the tongue and rapidly reaches the heart.

■ Pockets
Until relatively recently, they weren't very common, but now that people of all ages and genders carry smartphones, women’s clothing with pockets has become much more prevalent. Still, formal dresses typically don't have them.