Ch.6363. Explosion.

# 63.

“This box looks suspicious, doesn’t it? Seems perfect for hiding something inside.”

Religious institutions with thousands of years of history had adapted to changing times while maintaining their distinctive religious character.

Despite hundreds of years passing, these religious facilities still felt familiar to the broadcast viewers.

Watching Mori pick locks or break them open with the fire axe she called Maximus, uncovering items that could be considered human vices, evoked peculiar emotions in the audience.

“Wow, isn’t that a donation box? She’s smashing it without hesitation.”

“If she were an ordinary broadcaster, this would cause a huge controversy, right?”

Compared to the buildings they’d seen so far, this one was relatively ordinary, but to people from the 21st century, entering such a large facility and essentially committing theft was shocking.

If Mori had been just one of many broadcasters living in the 21st century, she would have faced public backlash and been arrested by police.

“Haha, if she were an ordinary broadcaster, the stream would have been shut down from the moment it started.”

“That’s true.”

As everyone knew, Mori lived in a world where the laws and ethics humanity had built up over time had become meaningless.

The value of religion and the purpose of buildings are ultimately determined by those who visit them.

The cross with no one to pray before it and the religious facility with its unfamiliar appearance were no different from any other abandoned building to Mori, who didn’t believe in God.

Most viewers who had been watching the broadcast understood Mori’s situation, so apart from a few who distorted religious values, no one took issue with her actions.

“But who would even think of enjoying… that sort of thing in a church?”

“Given the times, I suppose they wanted to have fun before dying. I bet this happens more often in reality than we know, just not publicly.”

Instead, an unexpected problem arose—objects symbolizing moral corruption were found throughout the religious facility.

The fact that items like alcohol and sexual paraphernalia were found in places that showed no signs of forced entry, as Mori had discovered, suggested they were likely placed there by someone associated with the facility.

With the state of the ruined world, plus such items appearing in buildings that should have been more virtuous than any other, public opinion toward religion grew cold, and even believers began to feel doubtful.

“Ugh! Is it really okay for her to drink alcohol that could be who knows how old?”

“She’s certainly got guts, must be because she’s young!”

“I don’t think that has anything to do with being young…”

But that was just a small minority.

Most people were watching the broadcast with fascination, witnessing things they rarely experienced in their daily lives.

“Wow, she’s going to kick off the blankets when she sobers up.”

“I’ve never seen her face turn so red before. Is the alcohol strong?”

“I don’t know, to me she just looks like she can’t handle alcohol at all.”

“Those were the days… the good old days…”

Drunk Mori resembled a sensitive young boy who had secretly stolen wine from his parents’ refrigerator, in both good and bad ways.

With her face flushed red all the way to her earlobes, she made no attempt to hide that she’d been drinking, yet insisted she was perfectly fine—just like an immature boy.

Staggering and leaning against a wall where moonlight filtered through, waving her hand while unable to maintain balance—it was so funny and cute that it brought smiles to even the most stoic adults’ faces.

“You’ve got it rough too.”

“Puhah!”

Even the researchers known for their stoicism burst into laughter when she put down her drink for the Jesus figure on the cross, saying it had it rough.

“Whoa, isn’t she going too far?!”

After several months of Mori’s broadcast, people who had watched without missing a day began to see Mori as an acquaintance, just as Mori thought of the person behind the drone as a friend.

“Sigh…”

The drone, always a few steps ahead of Mori, captured her staggering toward the edge of the roof. The usually bustling chat momentarily froze, fearing she might fall.

Though it was a strange relationship where they could only communicate one-way, they had become friends despite the barriers of communication and time.

“You know, even if everything works out well and we manage to escape the apocalypse… Mori will still be left behind there, right?”

And as they became friends, people began to care about Mori as a living being, not just about her world.

Many viewers felt sad listening to her drunken ramblings as she gazed up at the moon.

“I suppose so.”

“Even if history changes and time passes, the chances of the Mori we know being born… are non-existent.”

But the humans of the past had no way to save a life hundreds of years away.

The relationship formed through the drone was unequal. As long as it involved the apocalypse—something that had to be avoided—it couldn’t be helped.

“I know I agreed to this topic, but it still feels inhumane to talk about it.”

“What can we do? Humans are so powerless against the flow of time.”

Mori didn’t know that the various events that had come her way—the snowmobile, AI robots, the puppy, the food factory—were merely milestones set up by humans from the past.

What Mori considered miracles and luck were all part of a plan by Eugene and others from the past to guide future humans to the Ark, where hundreds of years of knowledge and history were recorded, in an attempt to distort time that should have flowed naturally.

Over hundreds of years, there was no way to verify whether what was happening to Mori was truly the successful implementation of a plan just beginning to be formulated by 21st century humanity, but at least so far, things had gone according to plan.

“Soon Mori will reach Paradise. What matters now is what choice she makes after arriving there and learning the whole truth. That’s something we can’t interfere with, so all we can do is pray to heaven.”

At the end of Mori’s journey following hope lies only eternal despair.

If past humanity escapes the apocalypse through Mori’s sacrifice, the distorted past and future will truly leave Mori alone.

It’s an incredibly cruel fate, but they couldn’t let billions of people follow the same path just to give false hope to a single person.

“May she make the choice that benefits humanity.”

If one person’s sacrifice can save many more, then sacrifice is the right choice.

Human society has always existed this way and will continue to make the same choices to survive.

* * *

“If we’re this far away, it should be safe, right?”

“…How would I know?”

“I thought an advanced AI would be able to calculate this.”

“Mori, I may be an advanced AI, but I’m not a model specialized in calculations!”

The robot kept shaking its head at my suggestion to blow a hole in the outer wall with explosives, but in the end, it had no choice but to follow human orders.

The expression on the robot’s face while I was stacking explosives against the outer wall—explosives I had securely tied down in the cargo compartment to prevent them from shifting—was truly demonic.

Anyway, despite being nervous about accidental detonation, we successfully stacked the explosives and retreated a considerable distance.

Given how powerful these explosives were—enough to blow a hole in the factory’s thick outer wall—we wanted to leave no room for accidents.

“By the way, how exactly are you planning to detonate them from here?”

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out.”

The problem was that I had no easy way to detonate the explosives piled up in the distance.

All I had picked up from the snowfield was a rectangular explosive and a detonator with wires attached to the end.

It wasn’t something I could ignite with a fuse, and I didn’t have a switch to activate the detonator, so it was quite a predicament.

“Even if I could draw electricity from somewhere and connect it, I couldn’t guarantee it wouldn’t explode the moment I made the connection.”

Typically, devices like these explode immediately when electricity is connected.

I could try connecting it to my small solar generator or wires lying around near the artificial sun, but since there was no guarantee I wouldn’t die in the process, I couldn’t attempt it.

*Click*

“I wonder if this would work?”

After a moment’s thought, I pulled out the handgun from my bag.

A detonator only needs heat or electricity to start working, but the explosive material is already inside.

As such, if a strong impact is applied from the outside, there’s a possibility it could explode without needing to apply fire or electricity.

“It’s worth trying… but can you hit it from this distance?”

“We’ll have to find out.”

I’d never fired a gun before. But I vaguely knew how to shoot and aim well.

I gripped the gun, drawing on my experience of hitting targets in virtual reality games.

The weight of the gun, which I hadn’t noticed when just carrying it around, suddenly felt significant. No, what I was feeling now was the weight of life itself.

The distance was about 100 meters, and the detonator in the distance looked tiny. Setting aside whether I could actually hit it—I couldn’t be certain we’d be safe even if I did, which made my fingertips tremble.

Naturally, accurate shooting was impossible in this state.

*Bang!*

“…Ugh!”

I pulled the heavy trigger. Something shot out from the end of the handgun I was holding. But no explosion occurred. I had missed completely.

“T-this is really nerve-wracking.”

I winced at the pain and weakness coming from my startled muscles. The thought of giving up crept in, but this was our only way into the Tower right now. We couldn’t just wait for another method to appear.

I steeled myself once more and aimed the gun. The distant detonator was as small as an ant, but the silver canister with its yellow markings stood out clearly against the black Tower and white snow.

*Bang!* I pulled the trigger again. But again, no explosion occurred.

Once more, I steadied my breathing and pulled the trigger. The result was the same.

“…Mori, you may be good at picking locks, but you have no talent for shooting.”

“If you think I’m pathetic, why don’t you shoot instead!”

“I’d like to, but unfortunately my hands are built this way, so I can’t shoot.”

I missed more than ten shots. As I kept firing, I managed to kick up snow right next to the pile of explosives, getting closer to the target, but still with zero successes.

I barely listened to the robot’s smooth-talking attempt to ease my tension as I aimed at the target once more.

*Clang!* But I missed again. The harsh metallic sound of the bullet hitting the Tower wall seemed to mock me.

Damn it. How many shots do I have left? There’s no spare magazine. Why would a last resort carried for emergencies need extra magazines?

Telling myself I needed to hit the target before running out of bullets, since things would get really difficult once I did, I placed my finger on the trigger again.

And I focused.

As if my life depended on this shot.

I held my breath and concentrated all my attention on the small target.

The wind that had been blowing freely with no buildings to obstruct it suddenly stopped.

Now. My finger moved faster than my thought.

*BOOOOOOM!*

“Oh my god!”

“Save the robot!”

“Woof! Woof woof!”

The speed of sound is 340 meters per second.

Before I could even register that I had hit the target, the thunderous boom and vibration made me instinctively flatten myself to the ground.

Just as the robot had warned, I thought the Tower might collapse from the enormous sound as I lay flat behind the pile of snow. After some time, as the vibrations gradually subsided, I got up and looked around.

“…It worked.”

A large crack had formed in the wall that had been blocking our way to Paradise.