Cigarette smoke fills my lungs.
My mind grows hazy.
Is it because I bled too much while hunting the fox?
Is it because of this bitter, bitter cigarette?
If not that,
if not that...
...
My body and mind are exhausted.
I don't want to do anything.
As I lay my body on a flat stone, I feel the sunlight shining down on my entire body.
That bright light is illuminating my whole body, but just this once, I want to avoid that sunlight.
I cover my eyes with the body wrap from my spoils.
It's too dazzling.
Even though I can't see.
"..."
I'm hungry.
I pick up the knife lying near the fox.
I'd never butchered anything once in my life, but looking at the mangled fox, it strangely felt like there wasn't much meat to eat, and it strongly seemed as though its entrails had been ripped open.
"Goddess."
[You called?]
"How do you butcher something?"
[Hmm~ Hmm... Fine, I'll tell you.]
With the Goddess's help, I skin the fox.
As I said, I'd never once tried butchering in my life, and the instructions weren't very detailed either, so it was grueling work.
[There's probably more you can't eat.]
"..."
[Let me tell you beforehand—if you eat the entrails raw without cooking them, there's a 100% chance of food poisoning, so you shouldn't eat them. I'll exclude that from the settings for now.]
"Ah..."
[And remember, all food items don't rot the moment the temperature hits subzero.]
So it follows the original work.
"Thank you."
[As long as you know.]
Even taking into account that it's my first time butchering, the actual amount of meat that comes out is small.
I didn't want to know that bones made up most of the weight.
Whenever I saw in the original game that eating raw food lowered Mood, I didn't think much of it.
Honestly, it was a hassle to manage, and rather than Mood, getting food poisoning made me tired, so I'd gotten by with nutritious porridge, but right now I'm in a situation with no vending machine, let alone electricity—hell, not even electricity—let alone a bed.
Tearing into raw fox meat, no, meat that is literally raw, which reeks of being uncooked, puts me in an extremely unpleasant mood.
I should just sleep while I recover.
[Something just fell from the sky.]
"..."
[A medicinal pill?]
"Medicine?"
[It's classified as a pharmaceutical, at least.]
Can't pass up medicine.
I still can't feel my left leg properly, but I feel a slight throbbing.
Just in case, I try getting up. Putting weight on my left leg makes me stagger like I'll fall, but I was able to stand in place to some degree.
"Where is it?"
[Let me see... if I do this like so, good. Done.]
As the Goddess muttered unintelligible words, a sense that could only be described as *something* activated in me.
From my position, the medicinal pill should be to the upper left.
[You feel the location?]
"Thank you..."
[It was annoying telling you every single time. From now on, whenever some event occurs, you'll be able to sense it.]
The fact that she gave me this ability because she found it annoying is one thing, but it's definitely helpful.
I led my staggering body toward the sensed location for quite a while.
Around the box that had burst open from the impact of falling from that high sky, I gathered medicinal pills individually wrapped in paper-like packaging and counted them.
"Twenty!"
[Good for you.]
My joy was short-lived as my condition suddenly grew strange.
It wasn't my body being cold from the chilly weather; should I say it felt like I was shivering from a cold?
"..."
[You have contracted the flu.]
"...???? Status window."
An opaque window I'm still not used to popped up.
Designated room: None
Contamination: 0%
Medicine held: 20
Food: 2 days' worth remaining
This isn't important; to check my body's current condition—
This is it, the third window.
[Whole body: Flu]
Progression: 0%
Antibody formation: 0%
Treatment required: -
Treatment effect expires: -
"...Fuck."
[Why?]
The progression rose by 1% with terrifying speed right after I cursed.
I immediately set down the medicinal pill box and took one out, but it was big enough to be burdensome to swallow whole, so I bit it slightly and broke it into pieces to eat.
Ugh, it tastes incredibly bitter.
[You did not swallow it in one gulp.]
[Quality has degraded.]
"Holy shit."
[What is it? Tell me too.]
"What I just ate, I didn't swallow it in one go, so the treatment quality decreased."
[You'll have to swallow it properly next time.]
Treatment required: 14 hours later
Treatment effect expires: 16 hours later
Of course, it's not a strange situation to get sick when the weather is this cold, but the timing is far too suspicious.
The feeling that the medicine fell so that I could be made to catch the flu, so that I could treat it—isn't it rational suspicion, no, rather rational conviction?
Progression: 2%
Antibody formation: 1%
If my body had been fine, I would have explored while I was up, but like this, I can't do anything useful.
I wondered if I died without treatment, I might regress and my body would be fine, but this fucked-up frontier world exists to make people suffer, so the regression point was probably saved from the moment I got sick. Thus, I had to return to the geyser at once to rest without moving a muscle from now on.
Even though I'm young, perhaps because it's this cold with no proper bed and I'm outdoors, the progression and antibody percentages are rising at similar rates.
"..."
[Aren't you doing anything?]
"I'm treating the flu."
[Aha. You were sick?]
"You're a Goddess, can't you see my physical condition?"
[I could normally, but I haven't had long since I shared my power. I need to recover too.]
"Ah..."
I know better than anyone that I can't just keep lying like this, but it's nothing but sad that I can do nothing but lie here.
Having to lie still for a full 14 hours is another kind of pain, but it can't be helped.... Supposedly 14 hours, but the sun sets so fast, and not even an hour seems to have passed by perceived time, yet 13 hours had already gone by, so I could tell it's different from Earth time.
Progression: 4... 5... 6... 7
Formation: 2... 3... 4... 5... 6.
They each increased by 1, but since I'm doing nothing but lying down, the formation is barely keeping up.
It's kind of fun watching the race.
It is a problem that it's a race where you die if you can't catch up, though.
Even though the medicinal pill's effect dropped because I broke it and ate it, seeing that it's still at this level, if I swallow properly, the flu should pass smoothly.
Using the body wrap as a pillow and covering myself with the furry side of the fox hide as a blanket, I became much more comfortable.
Six hours before treatment is needed. The sky is dark, and I'm hungry.
I tore into and ate the fox meat.
Cold.
...
One hour before treatment is needed.
I was sleepy, but I held it in.
Treatment required.
This time, I swallowed properly.
[You consumed it in one sitting.]
[Quality has not degraded.]
Progression: 20%
Antibody formation: 18%
Time to sleep now.
I hope tomorrow is uneventful.
If something must happen, let it be a good event.
...
I don't know when I fell asleep, but the sun is already up.
Treatment required: 4 hours later.
I slept for ten hours.
A deep sleep.
I devoured all the remaining fox because I was hungry.
All that's left now is one rabbit.
Progression: 30%
Antibody formation: 35%
Good, let's keep it up like this.
[You consumed it in one sitting.]
[Quality has not degraded.]
"Ughhh... I'm going to choke to death swallowing this."
[Then cut it up and eat it.]
"They say the treatment quality decreases."
[Didn't know that.]
It's still cold, but it feels slightly warmer than yesterday.
Summer, Day 4. Seven degrees Celsius.
In the original work, one season is sixteen days, so roughly calculating, until Day 10, the temperature probably won't drop enough to freeze to death unless some insane event like a cold wave happens.
...
Progression: 38%
Antibody formation: 43%
Treatment required: 4 hours later.
The antibody formation situation is smoother than ever, but there is no food left.
"Status window!"
Designated room: None
Contamination: 0%
Medicine held: 16
Food: 1 day's worth remaining
"What?"
Wondering if I hadn't gnawed at the fox enough, I looked closely but saw nothing but bones.
Wondering if I hadn't finished the rabbit, I stabbed it a few times with the knife and searched through it, but no flesh remained.
Then how is it marked as having food remaining?
"Goddess!"
[...]
"Goddess, are you listening?"
There is no response.
I learned that this Goddess isn't always watching over me, but she's really absent when needed.
...
Progression: 45%
Antibody formation: 59%
Treatment required: 4 hours later.
"... ..."
I'm so, so dizzy.
I forced down a medicinal pill, but looking at my body's state, next time I'll have no choice but to break it into pieces.
The formation level is in such a good state that breaking it seems like it won't matter, but that's not the important thing.
Of course, that is important, but there's no food.
Seeing the medicine count decrease in the status window, it seems to be working fine, but the food still shows 1 day's worth remaining.
"Goddess! Goddess???"
[Mmhmm, what?]
"There's something strange about the status window..."
[That can't be?]
"There's no food, but it keeps saying I have some, what on earth..."
[Is it because entrails are counted as food? No? I excluded entrails from food.]
"... ..."
I can't feel any strength throughout my whole body.
Cold sweat is chilled by the icy wind.
Despite this physical condition, my tactless stomach is screaming to stop playing around and give it food.
...
Wait, the frontier world.
This is the frontier world.
" "
[You should probably rest. Where are you going? ...Uh.]
" "
[Wait, are you trying to eat that?]
"Goddess."
[What.]
"...Th-that, can you change, the food, s-settings?"
[I suppose so.]
"...In the c-corpses, e-excluding h-humans. Is it, is it p-possible?"
[Should I hand over the authority? No. I'll do this one for you. ...Done.]
Food: None in possession.
"...Please reactivate it."
[Done.]
Food: 1 day's worth remaining.
I know for certain.
In the original game, Architect World, human butchering and cannibalism—
—that cannibalism, is possible.