Ch.2323. Greed.

# 23. Greed

My bag, which is larger and sturdier than most even when emptied of its contents, has always been a reliable ally during my solo travels.

However, that dependable ally is now extremely bloated, hindering my steps as I walk through the snowfield.

“…Haha, maybe I should have listened when you all called me greedy.”

The weight on my back feels crushing even when I’m standing still.

Fortunately, the walking stick I picked up at the train station serves as a support, so apart from the difficulty, there’s no major problem with walking.

If my foot catches on a hidden ledge or object buried in the snow, I’ll fall forward before I can regain my balance.

It’s been about two hours since I left the city, and I’ve already fallen five times.

And all of this is my own doing.

My bag, now much larger and heavier than when I first entered the train station, is the physical manifestation of my greed and survival instinct.

“I suddenly remember a video I saw long ago. A hamster trying to pass through the bars of its cage, but its cheek pouches were so stuffed with food that it got stuck and couldn’t get through…”

When I stood in front of the mirror one last time to adjust my appearance before leaving the train station.

Even though I was clearly looking in the mirror, I ignored the strange phenomenon where my bag appeared larger than my body.

I wanted to pack as much as possible because I finally had abundant supplies and didn’t know when I might get hungry again.

“They say moderate greed can be a driving force that pushes you forward, but excessive greed blocks your path and exhausts your life. I’m exactly like that hamster now.”

I can already feel my stamina draining even though I’m walking much slower than usual.

If this were inside a city, I’d find a place to rest and call it a day, but there’s no suitable resting place here yet.

“The difference is… a hamster can empty its cheeks since it’s heading home anyway. But I can’t carelessly throw away items from my bag because I don’t know how far my destination is.”

I’d need to know the exact distance to my destination to properly organize the items in my bag accordingly.

My only landmark was the black tower, so tall it distorted my sense of distance.

How many more kilometers do I need to walk to reach it?

Even if I lighten my load to walk faster, will I reach it before my supplies run out?

“But I’m scared to put down my backpack and reorganize my things. I can’t stop thinking about what if my poor judgment leads me to my death.”

An ordinary person can make sensible, rational judgments only when they can somewhat predict the consequences and processes their actions will bring.

But to me, this snowfield and this world are complete ‘unknowns.’ I can’t even dare to predict what consequences my trivial actions might bring, let alone the past and future.

And since every choice and its consequences are always tied to my life, it makes me, just an ordinary person, even more passive.

[With so many abandoned cars around, it’s a shame none of them are usable.]

Heaving a deep sigh while silently moving my legs, I received a message.

I nodded repeatedly as soon as I saw the message, which I strongly related to.

“Really, if any of those cars, snowmobiles, or even motorcycles had been in working condition, I wouldn’t be struggling like this.”

I may be greedy as people say, but I’m not stupid.

So while increasing my bag’s load, I consistently looked for transportation in case I couldn’t walk properly due to the weight.

Of course… I have neither a driver’s license nor knowledge about operating vehicles.

But there’s no one in the city anyway. I could learn by driving carefully in the snowfield.

So while looking for items to put in my bag, I kept returning to the city to check if there were any functioning cars.

…As evident by the fact that I’m walking empty-handed now, it was all for nothing.

“It’s disappointing. Though I suppose it was wrong to expect a car that works with a ‘car key’ in this world in the first place.”

Easily replicable keys or smart keys vulnerable to theft have become things of the past.

Occasionally, I’d see vehicles that operated with keys, perhaps for an antique feel or nostalgia… but aside from not knowing where those keys might be, most of them were in terrible condition from the outside.

“But I can’t just… mutilate dead people. I haven’t fallen that far. I don’t intend to either.”

To find a working vehicle, I’d need to solve security measures through elements not visible externally, like fingerprint or iris recognition.

That would inevitably require the finger or… eyeball of a dead person.

Dead people feel neither pain nor anything else.

I have Maximus or a survival knife that could easily cut off fingers.

But even so, I didn’t want to commit acts that would damage my humanity.

Even if the result is being weighed down by my greed in this endless snowfield.

“Ah, it’s true that a full stomach gives you strength.”

I put down my bag briefly, sat on the ground to eat some canned food, and then lay down on top of my bag like dried squid to rest my tired legs.

The sky was still blue, and thanks to the sunlight, the temperature was warmer than usual, making me strongly tempted to take a nap right there.

But when I turned my head, I could see hazy clouds slowly approaching in the distance.

“Tsk, it seems the world doesn’t want to give me much time to rest.”

Though I’ve seen snow and darkness to the point of being sick of them, and they’ve become my daily life now, I still sigh every time I see them, just as no one welcomes a difficult daily routine.

I need to find a place where I can go further and sleep safely while the weather is good.

Carefully shouldering my heavy bag, I get up and start moving my legs again.

“I’m really glad I brought this walking stick.”

I can feel my legs getting tired with each step due to the snow piled up to my calves.

It’s truly fortunate that the walking stick helps distribute the weight.

“Sigh, since the sun is out, I was hoping it would melt at least some of the snow here.”

Although it seems like it will snow forever in this city, as evident from the clear sky now, the sun occasionally rises here too, and very rarely, the snow on the roads melts.

It’s only natural. If the accumulated snow never melted and new snow just kept piling on top, the world should have been completely covered in snow by now, unless the world ended right before I woke up from my long sleep.

While there’s plenty of space for snow to accumulate in the vast snowfield, in a city densely packed with buildings, the snow would have been piled at least higher than my height.

Or… like in Antarctica or the Arctic, all that snow would have turned into ice, and I might have died without even being able to leave the building I woke up in.

In that sense, the sun and clear weather were nothing short of a blessing for me.

Beyond just making me feel good, they allow me to somehow survive in this harsh world.

…Of course, it can be distressing when the sun comes out one day and a blizzard hits the next, making it feel colder than usual.

And occasionally, corpses that aren’t buried in snow or happen to be in sunny spots decay in above-freezing temperatures, revealing bones.

They can present horrific sights with maggots and various insects filling the inside of their skin, but still.

“I hope the sun comes out again while I’m in the snowfield. Not just because it feels good and warm, but because when the surface snow melts and flows in one direction, and the sky reflects in it… it’s truly fantastic.”

Whenever I see the path I’m about to walk and the path I’ve walked connected by flowing water, I imagine the end of this journey.

What will the city at the end of this path look like, as I walk forward and simultaneously climb upward?

And conversely, where does the water that flows away end up in this place where not a single common river is visible?

All cities are enclosed by fences, with designated entry and exit points.

Each city is connected by snowfields with train tracks and roads running through them.

And those paths are so flat that you can’t even notice they’re uphill, with no rivers or mountains in sight.

There are occasionally low hills in the middle of the snowfield, which could be called mounds.

But there’s always an unfinished building on such places, making me doubt whether they’re naturally formed mounds.

What is natural and what is artificial?

What am I walking on right now?

Hoping that the answers to all these questions exist at the end of my journey.

I move forward, little by little.