Ch.3333. Beginner’s Mind.

# 33. First Principles

I worried that people might be hostile toward me as an outsider when I entered the city.

But that was needless concern. There was nobody in the city. No one to be hostile toward me, no one alive at all.

I’m not sure if I should consider this fortunate or unfortunate.

[I thought there would definitely be people here since the lights were on.]

[Is this really not just some movie set?]

A day had passed since I entered the city beneath the pillar.

Except for brief naps, I’d been continuously exploring the city on Alexander, but hadn’t encountered a single person.

My head ached. An indescribable sense of emptiness circled through my entire body.

I was certain there would be survivors here. Why aren’t there any?

The electricity is working perfectly… if there are no survivors even in a properly functioning city like this.

Just how far do I need to go before I can meet another person?

“You know… I thought you might be living here.”

Exhausted, I slumped over the steering wheel, staring blankly at the messages appearing one by one on the Controller.

“Where are you, who thought there must be people living here based on how this city looks? Why… won’t you answer my questions?”

Since waking from my long sleep, I’ve constantly felt like I’m wandering through an endless maze.

Not knowing where I’m going, just wandering day after day in search of an invisible exit… a destination.

Then I met the Drone and received messages from living people, making me think I was getting closer to the exit.

But it seems that was just my own hollow delusion.

—I was still wandering in a maze with no end in sight.

“I wish it were true what you said—that the entire world I’ve been walking through was just one big set, and I was just an actor who knew nothing.”

At least then I could meet living people once I left the set surrounding me.

I’d be angry, demanding to know why they left me alone in this cold, lonely place, asking if they enjoyed watching me.

But whatever I might expect, it would be far better than remaining in a world that offers nothing but deeper despair beyond any expectations.

“…But I know better than anyone that this world isn’t fake.”

The clouds drifting by, the sun and moon rising and setting with the passage of time.

Above all, corpses that send chills through my entire body just by looking at them can’t be faked with props.

Even if it were all fabricated by someone else, at least my perception of it is entirely my own.

Until someone suddenly appears and tells me it’s all fake, this entire world exists as reality to me.

“…Alright. Let’s stop these foolish thoughts here. Thinking about it again, just arriving in this bright, clean city is a major achievement. I think I mentioned this before, but when you’re consumed by depressing thoughts, you can’t even do what needs to be done right now. Just like me a moment ago.”

Slap, slap—my cheeks sting from the impact of my palms.

Unlike when I was walking through the cold world with nothing but my body, the sharp pain helped me rise from my sunken depression.

“First, I need to make a map. I’ve been wandering so randomly that I can’t even remember how I got here from the fence, which is strange since I’ve never skipped a day until now.”

I parked Alexander in a spot where less snow had accumulated and put on my backpack.

“Ugh, it’s heavy! Is it because I haven’t worn it since finding Alexander? It feels heavier than usual.”

The backpack should be much lighter now, since I’d eaten many of the heavy canned foods while riding the cart across the snowfield.

Just a few days. Just because I’d traveled comfortably on a vehicle, the backpack felt so heavy that I ended up falling right on my backside.

“…How foolish.”

For some reason, I started laughing.

Maybe because everything seemed so ridiculous.

In a situation where I would normally have been irritated, I found myself laughing instead.

“Sigh. Right, not everything in life will go the way I want. I think I was being too greedy.”

I hadn’t expected much, but I was able to communicate with living people through the Drone.

Then I obtained a vehicle I couldn’t have even dreamed of, allowing me to cross the grueling snowfield in one go.

Finally, I arrived at a wonderful city with electricity and no corpses.

“Just two months ago, I couldn’t have even dreamed of living a day like this, yet here I am, being ungrateful.”

Besides, I haven’t explored the entire city yet. It’s only been a day since I arrived.

Did I really look around properly? I was the one who said we should consider the possibility that there might not be people here.

I still need to climb that pillar, and there’s so much left to do. What am I doing, falling into despair on my own?

“I guess I’ve become too accustomed to hope. I need to get my act together and return to first principles.”

Getting used to a solitary life.

Getting used to the despair that comes.

And through it all, not giving up on life.

I steeled my resolve and took a powerful step forward.

* * *

“I think I’ve completed a rough map of this area, and I’ve found quite a few useful stores too… pretty productive.”

After climbing a tall building nearby, I spent considerable time drawing two maps.

One detailed map of the buildings near my current location.

One rough map showing the route to what appears to be a place where I can climb the pillar.

Since the buildings were generally low, I could include more of them than I expected, and I found stores that looked useful, like pharmacies and grocery stores.

But the biggest find was discovering a room with a large, soft bed.

“I’d really like to sleep there tonight if possible…”

With the lights on, I could clearly see inside buildings through my telescope, making it incredibly easy to distinguish between useful and useless buildings.

“But still no sign of people. Where did they all go?”

I looked around with my telescope to record the routes, but unfortunately couldn’t find any people.

There were signs that people had lived here—half-empty water bottles on tables, folded clothes on beds.

“It doesn’t make sense that people living here would just vanish overnight. Did they perhaps collectively move to the city above the pillar? It’s not impossible. But it still doesn’t explain how the city maintains itself like this.”

I looked up at the pillar. The city at the top was also pushing back the darkness with human-made light, just like here.

Whether that’s really light produced by people, or just meaningless light emitted by buildings programmed to do so like here, I couldn’t tell—but that wasn’t what mattered right now.

“There are two possibilities. Either people left this place relatively recently, or there’s still something here maintaining the city.”

I fell into despair when I saw a city with lights on but no survivors.

But that was because my expectations were too high. Thinking about it carefully, the situation wasn’t entirely bad.

Whether people existed here until recently, or something still exists managing the city.

Whatever the truth is, haven’t I moved one step closer to my goal?

Finding living people and discovering why the world became like this.

Or finding out where I am now and where I need to go to meet living people.

Whether the entity managing the city is human, or a robot operated by artificial intelligence like in the factory.

I’ve already moved halfway toward my goal. I just didn’t realize it.

“Come to think of it, I planned to go to the library. Today, I’ll first stop by the pharmacy, then replenish my energy in that bed I saw earlier, and look for both the city’s administrator and the library.”

People gain strength when they get closer to their destination.

With a face much brighter than a few hours ago, I put the map in my bag and descended from the building.

“The pharmacy is a bit far, but I shouldn’t move Alexander too much in case we run out of fuel… it’s better to walk.”

There’s still plenty of fuel in the cart, but I’m not going to abandon Alexander after just exploring this city.

I’ll definitely need Alexander to climb that pillar more easily, so I decided to save fuel whenever possible.

“Is this much luggage enough? The distance didn’t seem too far when I looked from above.”

Instead, I left everything in the cart except for a day’s worth of food and my thermos to walk more comfortably.

It’s been a while since my bag has been this slim.

“How nice it would be if the stores had well-stocked shelves, as clean as this city is… Of course, if there had been plenty of food and goods, people probably wouldn’t have disappeared from this city… but still.”

I move forward step by step with my considerably lightened body.

It was quite nice not having to worry about accidentally stepping on someone collapsed on the ground.

Walking slowly over the lightly fallen snow, I found myself murmuring:

“Peaceful.”

A quiet city, clean streets, bright lights.

It was eerie that the only sound in a city with so many buildings was the wind.

But at least for now, it looked peaceful.