"Urgh…" Levin groaned weakly, being woken up by the sunlight peeking through the veil. "Where the fuck am I right now?" He narrowed his eyes slightly, wondering out loud.
He stretched his stiff body, somehow feeling refreshed after waking up naturally like this. This was probably his first long and good sleep in a long time, considering that in the military, he would usually get woken up by the loud command from the instructor or when it was in the middle of the operation, no soldier would be able to sleep peacefully. Even on the first day of this game, he didn't have a good sleep, considering that was when he and Mira got attacked by the illusionist.
'Speaking of Mira, where is she?' Levin murmured to himself.
He got up off the floor, tidying up the sleeping bag he used before cleaning the room first. He was lucky that the abandoned town was not that abandoned. While from the outside, it looked like the buildings here were uninhabitable, what was inside the building was still pretty decent. Just like this building where Levin and Mira stayed for a night, even though it was dark and cold without any electricity in it, there was still one medium-sized bed that Mira could use, a set of kitchenware, and even a comfortable blanket to use. With a little polishing here and there, this building could be a pretty comfortable home to live in.
As he woke up, Levin checked the room where the bed was, just to find out that everything had been tidied up already without Mira being there. Curious, he started to search for the girl's whereabouts, and he suddenly smelt something burnt outside.
"Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! I am too careless!" Mira's panicked voice could be heard as he went outside. "Uncle Levin will be angry about this!"
"Angry about what?" Levin asked, curious. However, his sudden presence seemed to surprise the girl a little.
"Kyah!" She yelped, turning around quickly. "Uncle?! When did you wake up?!"
"Just a minute ago. But it is me who should ask that question, right?" Levin asked once again, looking at the girl with an expression full of amusement. "What are you doing here? And how long have you been awoken?"
"Uh… I have been awoken since before the sun rose. As for what I am doing here… I am trying to cook the eggs we got from Uncle Chen Ze yesterday, but I am too careless, burning them all. Now, we don't have anything to eat…" She bowed her head deeply while willingly offering the back of her hand as if she expected him to hit that.
Levin was taken aback by her explanation. First, he didn't expect the girl to wake up that early. Secondly, he didn't expect that the girl would react violently as if she was ready for him to hit her just because of that. As for the eggs themselves, those were the gift from Chen Ze after Levin saved his ass. Not only that, the scientist also gave them four packs of instant noodles and some dried fruits for a snack, something to be used to make them feel grateful for him, he said.
Still, granted, with the limited resources they had, losing the egg was a big deal. However, that shouldn't make her act like this. He wondered why…
Oh…
That was when Levin remembered that Mira lived in the world where they lived in a fucking bot, having to sail since their world was drowned already. Food should be scarce there, and every resource matters for them all. No wonder Mira would expect a harsh punishment for a small mistake like burning the food.
"Hey, Mira, look at me here." He kneeled, letting their eyes meet. "It is okay. I am not mad."
Mira's lips quivered as she was holding back tears. "But… But… That is the only thing we have to eat this morning…" Her voice got smaller as she explained their condition right now.
Levin frowned, pondering for a moment. This was indeed a problem here. However, he knew there must be a solution out there. After all, no matter how powerful they were, all the players in this crazy game were living beings, and they all needed to eat something. There was no way the ruler – the crow man – wouldn't consider that beforehand, or all the players here would die of starvation or dehydration. There should be a way to gather resources like that outside here.
"Let me talk with Chen Ze after this. Maybe, he can find a solution for our current problem." He finally said. "As for our breakfast, there is still one left, right?" He pointed his finger at the egg that Mira still carried carefully in her hand. "Wash your face first. Let me do the cooking."
Mira could only nod silently, still feeling guilty for wasting their resource. However, Levin didn't care about that, starting to light a fire to cook the egg. As he did that, the soldier couldn't help but sigh, starting to wonder what kind of world Chen Ze lived in before.
After all, by now, he had already guessed that the players came here bringing the last thing they had in their body before getting transferred into this world, just like him with a military bag that was still full of all the emergency things to survive or Mira who had her wooden staff that she had never put off her hand.
However, Chen Ze was different.
Not only did the scientist have the robot eagle and all the microbots in his possession, but he also had a lot of things from the most useful like food and any other survival resources like a box of matches and even a swiss army knife to even the most useless one such as an oriental wall decoration that Levin saw yesterday. If he didn't know better, he would have thought that Chen Ze lived in an apocalypse world.
An apocalypse world….
'Shit!' Levin widened his eyes in realization. 'That fits in! No wonder that he almost has everything in his possession!'
No wonder Chen Ze was full of resources. Levin couldn't imagine what kind of apocalypse the scientist had in his world, but whatever it was, being resourceful was necessary to survive.
After he had done cooking the egg, Levin shared half of it with Mira, enjoying the sunny-sided egg in silence. He somehow felt distressed at how bland the food was, realizing that there was no salt, pepper, or any other spices there. It seemed that he had to get used to eat plain food from now on.
"Okay, are you ready?" He asked after they finished their breakfast.
"Um!" Mira nodded, grabbing her wooden staff. "Will we cooperate with Uncle Chen Ze in the future?" She asked, looking at him with a hopeful expression. Levin knew that the scientist started to grow on the girl, so he couldn't blame her for still hoping that they would cooperate again. However, he had to think about their situation first, and since he was the only fighter in the group, adding a non-fighter person would be a bit too much if something like yesterday when the gravity boy – Mattheus – suddenly barged in.
Still, he didn't want to discourage her, and Levin also knew that the chance of them cooperating with each other was still pretty much open. So, he just patted the back of her head fondly and said, "Don't worry. Let me talk with him first. But for now, let's go to his place first. I need to get my laser gun before he can dismantle it all."