No matter how resolved or focused I am, though. It only brought me back to my previous problem. The fact that I couldn't read a lick of the languages of this world. `Sure hope it's not the same when I eventually find someone to talk to. Otherwise, I'm really cooked.`
I brush my fingers over the letters on the supply crate before me. Dusting the snow that had accumulated on it off. Like it was going to somehow allow me to read it. But only got more frustrated at the sight of more unknown letters.
"Ehh. Whatever." I brush my hand over the crate the other way. Using the momentum of the motion to turn halfway away from the crate. Towards the wrecked airship. `Best bet to find anything useful is in there.`
"I don't wanna step inside." I complain. `I mean this shit really might blow up at any moment.` Which leaves me with only one choice. The crates dotted around the landscape.
And of course. I tilt my head while looking down. At a body lying nearby. `Only woke up in this world a few minutes ago, and I'm already thinking about pilfering shit off of dead bodies. Really bodes well for me, huh?`
In the end, however, I had no other choice but to do exactly that. I had no tools on me to even attempt to open any of the storage crates. No crowbar. No axe. Not even a pocketknife. So that was the first thing I had to find. If I wanted a shot at surviving this.
`Guess it's fair, though. I mean, which student in a magical world on a supposedly safe airship would carry weapons on him?` This thought and another one I had previously. About how this ship was supposed to bring me to the capital, finally, knocked things loose in my mind. A memory from long ago resurfaces.
`Wait.` I freeze mid-crouch. In the process of reaching for the corpse of the student before me. `Now I remember.` I snap my fingers. Or at least try to. Since my gloves stop me from doing it properly.
This was, in fact, in the tutorial. Or rather. The prologue of the game. But the prologue was just text. About how your character was the only one to survive the airship crash.
Rescued shortly after by a group of passing mages and brought to the capital. In which the game starts.
This memory resurfacing immediately made me straighten up. To look around. Trying to see if I can spot anything approaching this area. But no matter how hard I looked. Even when I took the time to circle the wreck of the airship. I saw nothing. No rescuers.
"Will they arrive later? Or should I even rely on events that happened in the game?" This question stumped me.
I mean, in the first place, I don't really remember very many of the events of the game. As said. I never paid attention to the story. That I even remember this was already surprising to me.
But of course it didn't mean anything. `This wasn't just a game anymore after all.` A game and a real world are obviously going to be vastly different.
`Even if I have a status window. It's not like I can just click a button and cast a spell. So, events that happened in the game might not happen in this world. Or might be vastly different.`
I ponder this thought for a while longer before finally shrugging my shoulders. `Just standing here thinking won't get me anywhere. So I'm back to square one. I can't rely on events happening like they would in the game. That would be naive and foolish.`
Sure. An airship wreck full of magic academy students and nobles is bound to attract some kind of rescue mission. Unless this attack was planned beforehand by the Eidralûn Kingdom. Whose capital we were heading to. `But there was no reason for that as far as I know.`
That, in turn, meant it was highly likely that they would send a rescue mission. `Or maybe already have.` I interrupt my own line of reasoning as I spot something that might just answer my question for me.
There in the snow. In the shadow of the airship wreck. Tracks. Shielded from being blown away or covered by snow by a large snowdrift on one side and the wreck on the other.
I approach them quickly. But carefully. Listening intently to any noises from the airship wreck. Just in case some sound might forewarn me of it blowing up. My attention was split between listening and looking at the tracks.
Luckily, it wasn't difficult to figure out what those tracks were. They were clearly boots. Multiple pairs. Different sizes and makes. All converging to one spot. A clear indent in the snow. Like someone had been lying there.
`Must have been lying down for a while. There is a hint of snowdrift around the indent.` I pause. Then, step away from the indent and the airship wreck until I was a reasonably safe distance away.
So I could think without having to worry about anything else. Think about what this could possibly mean.
And the conclusion I came up with, while sounding far-fetched, might actually be true. `Could it be they already came here. And rescued someone?` Now this thought was unhinged, and I had no real proof to support it.
But I don't discard it right away. After all, what had happened to me was already unbelievable. It was well within reason to assume that whoever was lying in that indent in the snow might have been the main character. And that the rescuers had already come here to save him or her.
Now the only piece of evidence I had to support this was, once again, something I shouldn't necessarily trust in. As this theory relies on the fact that the events of the game will happen in this world. And the fact that when I woke up, I actually had to brush a lot of snow off me to get up.
`The indent next to me was definitely larger than the one I saw there.` Of course, this could still be explained away.
Currently, I am a chubby boy. And whoever it was, the rescue team came to retrieve might have been a thin person. Possibly a girl. `Or maybe like a half-blown-up corpse.`
Not that it was all that important in the end. Because one fact remains. People had been here. Retrieving something or someone. And they missed me. Leaving me once again to fend for myself.
Not that I'm angry with them. I was already prepared to fight for my survival on my own anyway. `Fuck it. We ball and all that.`
Going back to what I had planned on doing already.
"Huh." I sigh. `No more excuses or reasons to delay.`
I didn't much care about looking at the corpses around me. But touching them was a different matter. There was plenty to consider while doing this. Like diseases.
Although the chance of catching something from these corpses was slim, considering how cold it was.
`Before that, I'd catch a cold.` My own always unserious, intrusive thoughts distract me again. This time I welcome them, though. Because then at least I won't have to think about what I'm doing too much.
Yeah. That's right. The first corpse I see from up close. The first corpse I touched was melting. Specifically, his face. Some kind of magically induced fire was still sizzling his skin off ever so slightly. Exposing more of his skull with every moment. Hollow eye sockets staring back at me.
"Ahh. Fuck." I drop the corpse while cursing. Immediately checking that none of this seemingly ever-burning fire caught onto me or my clothes. Luckily, it didn't. But it was totally a valid reason to drop that corpse. This was for safety reasons.
`Yep. Did not get scared or grossed out at all. I've seen way worse on the internet.` I reason to no one in particular. Calming my racing heart with a few deep breaths. "That was…" I shake my head and shut my mouth. Stopping myself from making useless excuses.
`Not like anyone even saw that.` I reassure myself while squaring my shoulders and looking back at the corpse I had dropped face down in the snow again.
This time, I kick it over. Carefully. Avoiding looking at the sizzling face. Instead, I focus on the body. Checking to see if any of his clothes are on fire before bending down and rummaging through his pockets.
Only to find nothing. Nothing immediately useful, at least. He had a cracked golden pocket watch in his coat pocket. It had stopped ticking. Frozen.
Probably at the moment the airship crashed, and he was hurled out. Or maybe after that. But either way. It wasn't very useful to me, so I placed it back in his pocket out of respect and moved on to the next corpse.
"Huuuuuuuuuuh." Sighing deeply at the gruesome job awaiting me. My sigh carried off with the wind blowing past me. Swirling more snow through the air and slowly covering the tracks that had belonged to the rescue team.