Only I Know That This World Will Eventually Perish

For your own sake

　Silently, he stared at the screen, trying to remember the stats of the goblins he was comparing from in order to determine who would be his next leveling partner.

　Then, when he had memorized most of the entries, he suddenly remembered what was in his pocket.

(I mean, why not just take a picture of it without bothering to remember?)

　He immediately decided to act on the idea.

　Akira pulled out his phone, pointed the camera at the Analysis screen that appeared on the display, and then snapped a picture.

“…………It’s not showing.”

　Apparently, this screen couldn’t be captured in a photo.

　Just to be sure, Akira turned the camera to his status screen, but as he expected, that screen was not visible on the camera either.

(Do I have to really memorize it then?)

　Letting out a sigh, he now remembered about the thing in his backpack.

(Oh, that reminds me, I had a notebook in there for taking notes.)

　It was something he had packed up just in case during his initial preparations because he didn’t know what the future would bring.

　This screen, which could not be captured by a camera, was indeed not a problem if it was kept in analog form.

　Akira quickly wrote down the goblin’s status in his notebook.

(There we go. Okay…… For now, let’s just use my Analysis skill as I search for the next monster I can fight after the goblins.)

　The problem was the time this world had left.

　Akira left the office a little after 3:00 a.m. At that time, the swarming blue of the night enclosed the city in darkness, but before long, the sky had turned white, and the city was beginning to be enveloped in the light of dawn.

　Some hours have passed since the monster first appeared in this world. The sirens were still blaring, and the gunshots heard throughout the city were becoming more and more intense. Thus, while he was repeatedly leveling against monsters, Akira saw several times the police, riot police, and Self-Defense Forces engaged in combat against monsters.

　Each time, Akira would secretly hide himself and leave the scene, turning around so that they would not see him. It was because he could somehow imagine a future in which, if they found him, they would mistake him for a resident who had failed to escape and take him under their protection.

(……Well, just because you are protected doesn’t mean you are safe there.)

　Akira let out a sigh and blurted out the words in his mind.

　Once during the leveling process, Akira had gone to check on a school gymnasium that had become a refuge for residents who had taken shelter from the monsters that had overflowed into the city.

　Using binoculars, he could not see into it from a distance, but he could see that the entrance to the gymnasium, which served as an evacuation center, and its surrounding area were fortified with many armored vehicles and armed Self-Defense Forces personnel.

　At that time, they were in the midst of a shoot-out against a wild boar-shaped monster prowling in the area and were not using heavy artillery fire――perhaps because they were fighting in an urban area where there might be residents who had not yet evacuated. They were struggling against the boar-shaped monster, which did not collapse even after being hit by hundreds of bullets, and which repeatedly rushed forward in anger, easily destroying the surrounding houses and barricaded fences.

　Akira didn’t know what happened to them after that.

　Because he left the place without seeing how it all ended.

　Akira, who possessed the skill of 『Return from Hell,』 had died and come back to life many times before. He knew that death was more terrifying than anything else in this world because he had experienced the pain, the hardship, and the bitterness that he savored of it so many times.

　Thus, all the leveling so far was done only for his own sake. Not for the sake of “someone” whose name he didn’t know, but so that he himself would not die. To safely survive in this world where everything had been destroyed.

　To never again experience the fear of dying, Akira threw himself into the battles of this world.

“Right now…… it’s just past 5:00 a.m., huh?”

　He pulled his phone out of his pocket and mumbled to himself. Operating his smartphone, he opened social media sites, news sites, and even bulletin board sites to gather information about the current situation on the web.

(Apparently, there are other people who are leveling up beside me.)

　Seeing what was written in a thread on a major bulletin board site, Akira let out a murmur in his mind.

　Upon further reading, the bulletin board stated that those pale blue screens, such as the status and level-up screens, were not visible to anyone other than the person displaying them.

(……Ah, I see. That’s why Nao-san couldn’t see it when I showed her the screen at that time.)

　That time when he was killed by the Minotaur and woke up again.

　The screen that Akira showed Nao was the one showing the trophies earned, but it, like the status and level-up screens, was probably not visible to others.

　With that in mind, Akira agreed with what was written on the board.

　Akira then looked through the posts on the bulletin board and, after confirming that there was no further information of interest, he turned off the screen of his phone and put it away in his pocket.

(There was no info on quests or trophies at all.)

　Perhaps this has only appeared to me?

　For a moment, Akira considered this possibility but quickly shook his head.

　And even if so, he wasn’t in a position to say for sure just yet. Maybe people haven’t yet done things that would show quests and trophies earned. Or some people might have known about the quests and trophies, as did Akira, but did not post them on the Internet.

(Anyway, I guess we’ll see how it goes for a while longer. I need to gather some more information.)

　Akira took a deep breath and switched his thoughts.

(I’m just about to finish up my quest, and once I’m done, I’ll head back to the office.)

　The company where he had accumulated his supplies in advance was now as good as Akira’s base of operations.

　Although he had plenty of Stamina to spare, he still felt tired.

　Fatigue slowed thinking and decreased concentration. As a result, it caused one to make mistakes that one would normally never expect. Because he understood this well from his corporate career, he chose to withdraw without forcing himself further.

(The company is…… over here.)

　Wary of his surroundings, he continued on his way to the office.

　In the meantime, all goblins encountered were converted into quest progress and experience, and boar and bee-type monsters were checked for their status using Analysis.

　So, by the time Akira reached the company, he was able to analyze most of the monsters he had previously seen.