Ch.1010. Self-Introduction.

# 10. Self-Introduction.

This world is excessively quiet.

The chirping voices of sparrows perched on power lines.

The sounds of cars carrying diligent people moving busily from early morning.

Various sounds coming from the kitchen, calling my name as I yawn and lazily get up.

All the city sounds that should naturally be heard in the morning are completely absent here.

When I wake from a deep sleep, all I can hear is just the sound of clothes sliding to the floor as I get up and the sound of my own breathing.

Greeting these strangely quiet mornings, I sometimes wonder if I’m really alive.

“…Good. I’ve safely greeted another morning today.”

So I speak out loud.

This voice that isn’t mine still feels awkward, which actually gives me a sense of being alive.

At least someone who died while still possessing what they had in life wouldn’t be wandering the afterlife with an unfamiliar body and voice.

This awkwardness that never existed in my life tells me this world is not a lie.

“Let’s see… Did any messages arrive while I was asleep?”

As always, I wake up at dawn when the pitch-black sky gradually begins to regain its gray color. Shivering in the cold indoor air, I reach for the drone first rather than my coat.

The battery that had dropped to one bar while I slept had recharged back to four bars.

And about fifteen new messages had appeared on the Controller.

“Hmm… Unfortunately, none of them are particularly meaningful messages.”

The drone is working fine and new messages have arrived.

This alone makes me happy enough that the corners of my mouth naturally turn upward, but since there’s a time difference between when videos are recorded and when messages arrive, there are naturally some disappointments.

A one-day error between when videos are sent and when messages are received.

If this error were just one hour… no, even half a day, that would have been so much better.

“They must be properly hearing and understanding my words and questions, right?”

The messages I receive are mostly expressions of surprise or fear.

Or people wondering what this video is about… or just sound effects without any particular meaning.

“It seems I’m not receiving all the messages being sent.”

It’s just my guess for now, but… there must be quite a lot of people watching my videos.

At least a hundred, thousand, or perhaps ten thousand times more people than the number of messages coming to my drone.

And they’re freely sending messages after watching my videos, but due to some technical issue or a problem on my end, I’m not properly receiving them.

That’s my serious theory. Not just because I hope many people are alive, but through logical thinking.

If only a few people were watching my videos, they wouldn’t still be sending messages asking what this video is or expressing surprise at the sight of this city even after three days.

…Of course, for those watching the videos, it would only be the second day, but even so, they wouldn’t just send surprised or confused messages all day long.

And if there were time or opportunity limitations on sending messages to me.

They would have sent more careful and serious messages that could help them get information about my situation.

But the messages on my Controller weren’t like that.

Just like many people living their happy daily lives happened to come across this video by chance.

They express primitive emotions like fear or terror in various languages, each showing their own reactions.

“It feels both good and disappointing.”

I’m happy that there seem to be more people existing in this world than I thought.

But for someone like me who thought we could meet face to face and have conversations soon, it’s disappointing.

Even if proper communication were possible despite the time gap, meeting each other would still be difficult.

Both a time gap and communication difficulties at the same time. At this rate, I don’t know when we’ll be able to properly share information about our situations.

“I wish there was something I could do. I should have studied harder in school. Should have read books more consistently…”

Maybe it’s because I’ve allowed myself to hope.

Like a rebound from the hope I’ve been suppressing all this time, disappointment spreads like frost on a window.

But the most disappointing thing was that I had no way to solve my own inadequacies.

What if I accidentally break the drone or Controller while trying to receive messages faster or in greater numbers?

When taking uncertain actions, you should think about what you might lose before what you might gain.

It’s true that taking bigger risks in gambling can lead to bigger rewards.

But for me, this drone and Controller were the only communication channels connecting me to the world.

Though it’s only been 3 days, they’ve already become precious friends I can’t live without.

It would be nice to receive messages faster, of course.

But that’s definitely not a gamble worth risking my only friend for.

“Still, the fact that this drone can connect and send messages must mean there’s some level of technology, right?”

I’m not even hoping for technology as advanced as the city I’m standing in right now.

If a civilization advanced enough to maintain such impressive and flashy technology still existed, they wouldn’t have left this place in this state, no matter how far away it was.

“23rd century, or even just 21st century level technology would be enough.”

With that level of technology, they could come pick me up from this unknown city where I’m stranded alone. By helicopter or boat.

“When I think about it that way, perhaps the day we meet isn’t so far off.”

Maybe it’s because I’m thinking hopefully, but I make a silly “hehe” sound at the smile that forms awkwardly often as I hurriedly put on my clothes.

And before organizing the heater, map, and other belongings spread out on the floor, I turn on the drone first.

“Good morning, everyone! Did you sleep well? Thanks to you all, I think I had a good dream.”

With the hope of receiving more messages and having conversations as soon as possible.

“So… I don’t know if it’s a problem with this device or if you’re really only sending these kinds of messages, but I’d prefer answers to my questions or information about yourselves rather than laughing sounds or small talk.”

I duck through the gap between a car crashed into one of the scattered telephone poles along the road and the fallen pole on top of it.

Then, carefully walking through a road littered with yellow and black barricades, various weapons, and corpses—as if there had been a major battle—I can see the superstore I entered yesterday.

“As I mentioned earlier, about ten messages came while I was briefly sleeping… oh.”

The moment I returned to the superstore, planning to slowly examine various places starting with the electronics section as I said yesterday.

The messages I’d been watching on the screen scrolled up one by one as a new message appeared.

“Another one just came in. [Wow, looks like a cold morning]… Yeah, most messages are like this.”

I chuckle after reading the rather meaningless message, staring directly at the drone’s camera.

“Anyway, from now on I’ll answer the questions you’ve asked me. Just as I have many questions for you, you must have many questions for me too.”

Most of the messages I received were ordinary messages without special meaning or information. But not all messages were like that.

Just as I first encountered living people through the drone, people who first encountered me through my videos sent various questions.

They talked about the video itself, asked why the city ended up like this.

And I haven’t properly answered the messages asking who I am.

“I should start with my name first. I’ve been so excited since meeting you that I didn’t even share this basic information.”

The more information we share about ourselves and each other, the more familiarity develops, so I smile thinking how foolish I’ve been.

Then, with a deep breath, I reveal the name that still feels strange on my tongue.

“First… my current name is Mori. Yes, Mori. Is it because I haven’t told anyone? It feels quite awkward even though it’s my name. Well, the biggest reason is that Mori isn’t the name I originally used… Oh. I wonder if you’ll understand what I mean by saying it like this?”

If this were the era when I lived in my original body, that is, a male body, people would understand just from this statement.

But I didn’t think people of this era would have the same technology and ideas as those from generations ago.

“Alright. I don’t have much to talk about while looking around at these items anyway. Before hearing about you, I’ll tell you about myself.”

By the time you hear this story, you’ll know me as well as my parents did.

…Though they’re not around anymore, of course.

I smiled at the drone after making that joke that wasn’t really a joke.