WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Alyo

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◈ Surviving as a Warrior in a TRPG World ◈

Chapter 56: Pulsating Ruins (1)

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"Just how far away is it?"

When he had seen it from the hill, Gerik had thought it would not be far. But he had been mistaken. The ruins that had seemed close enough to reach out and touch from the hilltop refused to grow any nearer once he started walking.

That only meant the ruins were enormous. They had looked that large even from a distance, so they had clearly been much farther away than he had estimated.

"Haah... Haah..."

Walking with a body that did not have a single uninjured part was torture. Every step felt unbearably heavy, and sweat poured down him like rain.

After walking for who knew how long, Gerik spotted a small stream flowing through the grass just before exhaustion made him collapse. He used every bit of strength he had left to approach it.

Gulp... Gulp...

Gerik dropped to his knees and began drinking, practically burying half his face in the stream. Cold, clean water soaked his dry throat, and only then did he finally feel a little more alive.

He considered filling his empty waterskin, but the crushing fatigue filling his body made him give up.

Leaving the waterskin where he had tossed it, Gerik sat beneath the shade of a nearby tree to rest.

"Haah... Haah..."

As he caught his ragged breath and blankly stared up at the tree, something caught his eye.

Yellow fruit. By sheer luck, delicious-looking fruit hung in clusters from the tree beneath which he rested.

'Can I eat these...?'

Thankfully, the tree was not very tall, so Gerik easily gathered the plump fruit with his scabbard. His mouth watered at the sight of food for the first time in ages, but he held a fruit and hesitated.

'They say a lot of the fruit growing in the Demonwild Forest is poisonous...'

His injuries were severe, and his stamina was completely drained. If he carelessly put just any food in his mouth in that state and it turned out to be poisonous, that would be the end of him.

As he wondered whether to eat it, a thought crossed his mind.

'My status window...!'

Remembering the cheat code nobody else had, Gerik picked up a fruit and brought up its status window.

[Wild Golden Berry]

『Type: Fruit』

『Grade: Common』

『Effect: Provides moderate fullness and hydration』

『Note: It's summer! In summer, have Golden Berry shaved ice! - Ray Lin, celebrity of a destroyed world -』

Gerik scanned the information in the status window and rejoiced upon seeing that the fruit was edible. His joy was short-lived, however, as his gaze stopped on one particular detail.

'A destroyed... world?'

Gerik suddenly felt wide awake. One line written in the note section. The phrase "destroyed world" bothered him for some reason.

As Gerik sensed something strange and focused, he noticed what his fatigue had dulled his judgment too much to see before.

It was the forest's unfamiliar vegetation.

At first, he had thought they were merely ordinary trees and grass. But after looking closely, Gerik realized he had never seen any of them in the Demonwild Forest.

'Is this place... not the Demonwild Forest?'

Over the last few months, Gerik had gone in and out of the outskirts of the Demonwild Forest dozens of times while completing adventurer missions. Naturally, he had memorized the trees and plants that grew there.

But every part of the vegetation here was different from what he knew.

'Did I come somewhere farther away...?'

Gerik realized that what he had believed was a portal leading to the Demonwild Forest might actually have been a door to a completely different place.

At first, it seemed like a baseless guess. But the more he thought about it, the more convinced he became.

'Whatever. What does it matter where this is? I need to survive first.'

But with death closing in, worrying about where he was was a luxury. He stopped thinking and began eating the Wild Golden Berries he had picked earlier.

"These are good...?"

A faint tartness whetted his appetite, followed soon by a sweet fragrance filling his mouth.

They were pleasantly firm as well, making them satisfying to chew.

They felt similar to apples. Starving, he ate them again and again like a madman.

After devouring the fruit for some time, the hunger that had tormented Gerik for days finally faded, and overwhelming drowsiness swept over him.

'Just a little... Just... sleep...'

* * *

Gerik had slept beneath the tree as if he had passed out. When he opened his eyes, the sunset above him had vanished, and the bright sun was shining over the area.

'Phew... Thank goodness it's early summer...'

Even if he had been exhausted, Gerik reflected on the fact that he had fallen asleep without making even the most basic camp.

He had only endured because it was early summer. If it had been late autumn, let alone winter, he likely would have frozen to death.

'I should take some with me.'

Gerik laboriously removed the padded under-armor he had worn beneath his ruined Grizzly Owl brigandine. He was grateful for the item that had protected him from the cold overnight, but it was daytime now.

He took it off to cool down, then tied it into a pouch. After that, he began filling it with Wild Golden Berries.

'I don't know when I'll be able to find food again. I should stock up while I can.'

As he picked fruit, Gerik suddenly doubled over, clutching the tree as his body convulsed.

"Khuk...!!"

A gob of red blood fell onto the grass. His vision also seemed to grow hazy and dark. He could feel his internal injuries worsening.

'This won't do...!'

Gritting his teeth, Gerik endured the pain. He sat there for a long time, calming himself as he caught his ragged breath.

Once his breathing settled somewhat, he forced his heavy body back up and started toward the ruins again.

* * *

"Huff... Huff..."

As the blazing sun gradually dipped and the sky began turning red, Gerik finally managed to reach the ruins.

"What the hell...?"

The ruins were far larger than he had imagined. His estimate that they were the size of a large ship had been laughably wrong. In reality, they were closer in scale to a cruise ship.

Even Gerik, who had seen all kinds of skyscrapers on modern Earth in his previous life, could only stare with his mouth hanging open.

"The damage is much worse than I thought..."

Unlike when he had seen it from afar, only the part that looked like its head remained intact. The body and tail were so badly damaged that they had collapsed and twisted in places, making them difficult even to approach.

"Please be here..."

Using his sword as a cane, Gerik slowly circled the ruins and searched for signs of people. He prayed that whoever he found would be friendly.

'...Nobody.'

Despite such impressive ruins, he could not find any trace of people.

It seemed nobody had visited for a long time. There was not a single footprint or trace of a campfire. Only silence surrounded the ruins.

"Haah..."

Gerik's last hope had crumbled. Despair washed over him, and he sank to the ground as if collapsing.

Reflecting his state of mind, the pain in his chest, which had improved after a short rest, began worsening again.

"Khuk...! Cough...!"

Gerik spat blood again as agony tore through him. This was not like the amount he had judged he could somehow endure before.

There was so much blood that he could feel it still running when he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. Seeing how much worse the bleeding had become, Gerik realized that his condition had truly reached a critical point.

'This is driving me crazy.'

It was enough to make an ordinary person give up. Yet Gerik quickly pulled himself together and got back to his feet.

'I've already had enough of dying helplessly without even struggling in my last life.'

His death in his previous life seemed to have given Gerik a calm attitude toward death and a reverence for life.

With the expression of an enlightened monk, he moved toward the head of the ruins as if nothing had happened.

There was a massive door resembling an iris, formed from dozens of metal plates interlocking toward the center.

Like a flower closing its petals, the tightly fitted pieces of metal completely sealed the entrance.

'I'm lucky.'

Despite the firmly sealed entrance, the wall beside it had been badly shattered by an impact. The opening was just large enough for Gerik to pass through.

Gerik lit his last remaining torch and cautiously stepped inside the ruins.

Gloop.

The moment he stepped through the broken gap, a bizarre sound echoed from within.

It was difficult to describe. If he had to, it sounded like sticky masses of innards colliding and sliding against one another. The sort of sound that would send chills down the spine of any living being.

Hummm...!!

As Gerik looked around in alarm at the strange noise, an odd resonance rang out, and lights began turning on one by one around him.

When he looked for their source, he saw crystals embedded throughout the walls.

"...What the hell is this?"

With the lights illuminating the interior, Gerik looked around, disgusted and deeply unsettled.

The inside was grotesque beyond belief. The walls and ceiling in every direction seemed to be made of damp masses of flesh, as though living flesh and entrails had been used as building materials.

They even pulsed at times, as if they were still alive.

Yet paradoxically, despite being made of masses of flesh, the interior was remarkably refined. It even gave Gerik a strange sense of familiarity.

The materials were bizarre, but the interior reminded him of the inside of the giant ships he had seen on Earth in his previous life.

'Is it... a living ship? No way.'

As if entranced, Gerik slowly examined the interior while moving deeper inside. When he reached the very front of its head, he came to a unique space resembling a bridge.

'...A monitor?'

There stood a device that anyone would recognize as a monitor from his previous life.

On Earth, machines had been made by combining plastic, metal, and glass. But the machine before him was made from flesh, blood, and something like an unknown cornea.

"What kind of civilization is this?"

It was bizarre and disgusting, but it resembled the familiar machines he had seen in his previous life. Curious, Gerik reached toward a panel that looked like a keyboard.

Squelch.

To his astonishment, the moment he touched the panel, that part began writhing as if it were alive.

Then, starting from that spot, the masses of flesh began to squirm, and hidden panels rose one by one.

"!!"

Gerik flinched at the chilling sight, pulled his hand away, and staggered backward.

He had barely stepped back when the huge mass of flesh attached to the wall began opening upward and downward. It looked like a sleeping eye opening.

Then light began gathering in the part resembling the cornea of an eyeball. Before long, a screen appeared before Gerik.

"This is..."

The massive central monitor displayed various graphs, seemingly showing the ship's condition, while warnings filled the screen in characters he could not recognize.

Though they were letters from an unknown race, the jagged characters and low bars told him that this ship was certainly not in good condition.

'For some reason, this feels like one of those "your battery is running low" notifications from my smartphone in my previous life.'

Gerik examined the central panel with interest, then turned his gaze to the right.

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