I suddenly thought… if the Manager were here, this would be easy…
Wait, right… I just need to get the Manager to come here!
Even if she’s not here, if I call her, the Manager will definitely come to help! Everyone else’s 20km is a long way, but the Manager can run for about an hour at 50km per hour.
If I can contact her, she’ll probably be here in less than 30 minutes! I’ll hold out here until then… that’s it!
“… Ms. Aage! I think reinforcements will come if we call for them… perhaps within 30 minutes!” Since Mr. Radcliff and Kirika are at the convenience store, as long as we can contact them, we can explain the situation and have the Manager sent as reinforcements. The Manager should be able to come here no matter what, even through the night forest! If the Manager is here, she’ll definitely handle it, even if a horde of Slime monsters is swarming!
“Is that true? But isn’t the distance to your convenience store a full day’s journey… to arrive in less than 30 minutes is hardly possible… Furthermore, even if we were to call for reinforcements, there’s no means of communication. Given how thorough this surprise attack is, they must have at least jammed long-range communications. By the time we realized we were surrounded, it was already too late… Although, this is also my failing… I apologize. In that case, I will do my utmost to ensure at least you escape, even at the cost of my own life…”
Ms. Aage bowed her head apologetically. Besides, this isn’t Ms. Aage’s fault at all… why is she thinking like that?
“So please, listen to me until the end! I have a friend named Manager, and she can get here from the convenience store in about 30 minutes. The Manager is an exceptionally powerful magic user, on par with Ms. Aage! I think she can probably defeat this kind of enemy with no trouble.”
“What is this you speak of? Who is she? … Though you claim she’s on par with me, you’re making quite a bold statement…”
“The Manager single-handedly performed a ritual magic called ‘Lightning Summon’ and brought down a Wyvern flying 1km above. She can even perform complex enchantments and rapid compressed incantations… She can do things like that so casually. Ms. Aage, you must understand how incredible that is, right?”
“I had heard rumors of you defeating a Wyvern… Is she truly human? Even for me, ritual magic is a half-day’s work… But indeed, if such a powerful user were to rush to our aid, we could somehow manage this situation… However, the problem remains the means of communication… While long-range communication is convenient, it can also be easily jammed or eavesdropped upon. In actual combat, long-range communication is useless, so it’s common sense not to rely on it from the start. That is precisely why, if we are to call for reinforcements, we must consider another method.”
“I see, so long-range communication has such drawbacks… It was so convenient, I had come to rely on it completely, but in war, it’s the very first thing to be disabled… that’s the usual strategy, isn’t it?”
“That’s correct. In any case, unless we convey our dire situation by some means, that person won’t be able to act. Do you understand? As a leader, the most important thing to avoid is making decisions based on optimism. One must always plan with the worst-case scenario in mind… although, this situation has far surpassed the worst-case scenario…”
It was a reasonable point. Unless we communicate our situation, they won’t know what’s happening on our end. While they might know something has happened, they might not make the best decision. The Manager, upon learning of my predicament, might also go berserk. There’s a possibility she could get lost or stranded if she rushes ahead alone on unfamiliar roads.
In any case, establishing contact with them, accurately conveying our situation, and discussing what we can both do. If we can achieve that, I feel like there’s still a way.
First and foremost, securing a communication method is the priority! Finding the people jamming the long-range communications… that’s also difficult, isn’t it? They’re probably with the enemy commander… likely with heavy escort, or something like that. More importantly, in the darkness of night, tracking down the enemy commander or support units is nearly impossible.
…If that’s the case, then striking at the source of the long-range communication jamming isn’t a realistic option. Contacting them via smartphone… that’s impossible too, isn’t it? I know the signal is out of range… as far as I could check, it becomes out of range if you move more than about 500m from the store. The antenna on the convenience store’s roof is only an auxiliary one, so it’s not that high-powered.
…A method to convey our crisis over a distance of 20km at night… Sending a messenger too… that would be akin to sending them to their death, so it’s out… More importantly, there’s no way it would reach in time.
…The far-talking crystal that transmits voice to distant locations using paired crystals. It was much more convenient than a mobile phone, so I used it casually, but just by it being disabled, we’ve been completely isolated and have fallen into a critical situation. If only we had decided on multiple emergency communication methods like signal flares, fireworks, or a radio… Military headset radios from Ms. Kashima and the others were also sent, but I had an aversion to the word “military” and didn’t use them, just stashed them in the warehouse. If only I had that… I truly regret my lack of realistic assessment and foresight, even now.
“If only we knew the enemy’s location and disposition, we could do something… With their camouflage abilities, even flying won’t help us distinguish them… They’ve evolved through battles with us, you see… Their camouflage ability seems to have been enhanced more skillfully than before, and I can’t grasp their location… However, the idea of calling for reinforcements is not bad… We can’t do anything with our current forces anyway. But when it comes to communication, I can’t think of anything either… Did you not establish any pre-arranged signals to convey an emergency?”
“We never imagined something like this would happen, so we didn’t set up emergency communication methods… Mr. Santos, what about the far-talking crystal? I think we can’t say anything until we try it first.”
“I apologize… but the far-talking crystal doesn’t seem very useful either… I’ve been trying to call them for quite some time, but it’s been silent. Today, there was a lot of static and the voice kept cutting out, so I thought something was wrong… Now that I think about it, that was probably a precursor to the long-range communication jamming… I should have reported it to the Owner sooner. Powerful interference is likely being applied in this entire area. However, we are supposed to have scheduled check-ins, so when communication is lost, they should realize something is wrong… and perhaps the flashy magic just now made them realize something happened, too.”
I had also felt something was off when I spoke with Mr. Santos via far-talking crystal at the convenience store yesterday… There’s no reason for noise, yet the voice kept cutting out or becoming echoey… Hearing everyone else’s stories about them being consumables and breaking often, I hadn’t paid it much mind.
But that other piece of information… I forgot about the scheduled check-ins! Mr. Radcliff and the others dispatch small security teams to each campsite… and they’ve decided to send a scheduled report to the security team headquarters every three hours… Usually, it’s just a word or two, but if communication is lost, they judge that something has happened… I believe that’s how it works. The scheduled report itself is at 6 PM for three-hour intervals at night… It’s a little past midnight now, so the 12 AM scheduled communication time has long since passed… If that’s lost, they’ll likely be moving already.
“Then we have a good chance of receiving reinforcements! Instead of trying to escape now, shouldn’t we just hold our ground here and buy time? I don’t think we should move rashly.”
“No, wait, wait… Even if they noticed our predicament at this point and arranged for reinforcements, they wouldn’t be able to depart until morning, no matter how quickly they tried… Arrival would be around noon at the earliest. Perhaps we should just set the forest ablaze? However, this area is quite dry… it might spread uncontrollably, so I can’t really recommend it.”
I can accept the explanation that even if Mr. Radcliff and the others acted immediately upon noticing the disruption in scheduled communications, reinforcements would arrive around noon tomorrow. First, they would form a reinforcement unit… Given the unknown situation at night, they would first send out the Meow Tribe’s scouting party, with the main Wolf Tribe force advancing at about 5 km per hour. This is how they explained how reinforcements are dispatched during attacks by Goblins and others on other campsites. At that speed, even a non-stop forced march would take at least 4-5 hours… Even if Mr. Radcliff made an immediate decision to move the unit, anticipating the worst-case scenario, it would definitely be past dawn.
When I think about it, the Manager I’m relying on, she works at the store almost every day, and on her days off, she just lounges in her room, so she has absolutely no sense of direction. Of course, she’s never been here before, and she’s barely ever left the vicinity of the convenience store. Even when she was a cat, she didn’t try to leave the convenience store grounds, and cats are animals that can adapt to being kept indoors and confined to the house. That indoor disposition is pretty much intact. If she has to run through unknown roads at night, she’s highly likely to get lost and go in the wrong direction if she’s alone. In that case, a guide is needed, but I don’t know anyone who can run continuously at the Manager’s incredible speed. Mr. Radcliff and the others are tough enough to boast they can run for half a day, but their running speed is at most around 10-20 km… in other words, they’re long-distance runners. On the other hand, the Meow Tribe children are short-distance runners, and their weakness is getting tired quickly. The Manager is quite overpowered, but despite everything, she lacks experience in many things, so when acting alone, she can be quite unreliable. It’s highly likely that Lansia might have noticed the flare, as it was quite showy and lit up the sky quite brightly… Regardless, they wouldn’t make the decision to send the Manager alone to scout without knowing the situation. Mr. Radcliff is cautious, for better or worse, and in my absence, their policy would likely be to fortify the convenience store…
In any case, as Ms. Aage said, making decisions based on wishful thinking is wrong. Setting fires, as Mr. Santos says, is reckless… if it spreads, it will be a disaster. A wildfire in a jungle area, once it starts spreading, becomes unmanageable… Even in other countries, wildfires have spread and burned down forests the size of Tokyo…
Ultimately, if we could just manage a direct communication method to the convenience store, we could issue specific instructions… But before that, there’s the physical distance of 20km… there’s no way to bridge that. We’re only operating one Infinite Crawler Vehicle because it seemed shady, and we didn’t need more… Ms. Kashima and the others said they’d send about 10 more, but I declined, saying we don’t need that many.
The more I think about it, the more I’m reminded of our own carelessness and the inescapable reality… After thinking about it, I realized that there are almost no options available to us right now. … Maybe this is really hopeless. I started to feel a sense of despair, but then… “U-um! Owner! I think Bun-chan has a proposal!” Everyone’s attention turned to Momo when she suddenly spoke. Bun-chan… is it the Infinite Crawler Vehicle’s AI? A proposal? But, what could it be… Could it be that the vehicle AI overheard our conversation, understood the situation, and came up with a solution?
“… I don’t really understand, but can it be relied on? And anyway, does a car understand current situations?” When I asked doubtfully like that, Momo sat in the driver’s seat of the Infinite Crawler Vehicle and occasionally made strange noises like “kyuru kyuru” while nodding with “uhn un.”
“Um! Yes! So, um… It seems that Bun-chan is connected via the internet in Japan… by relaying the radio beacons we left behind? It’s currently connected to the internet… Could we perhaps contact people in Japan with this? Yes? Um, um… It should be able to use Wi-Fi, and maybe we can manage with smartphone mail… I’m sorry, I don’t even understand what I’m saying myself… Bun-chan says that if it’s the Owner, they’ll understand if I just convey that…”
Momo haltingly relayed Bun-chan’s message, looking back and forth between Bun-chan and me… Bun-chan, seriously? Hurriedly, I took out my watch, compass, and the smartphone I had brought for killing time during the journey, and tried to connect to Wi-Fi. Sure enough, an access point was displayed. The one displayed, ‘AP: BUN-6601,’ seemed to be it… I recall seeing a similar number written on the vehicle’s body. BUN must be an abbreviation for something, but “Bun-chan” makes sense now… I understood. When I tried to connect, the out-of-range icon on my smartphone switched to a Wi-Fi connected icon… Still… I never knew it had this function, and it’s been constantly connected to the internet in Japan all this time! Furthermore, many radio wave beacons were installed everywhere by Mimimomo and the others to acquire location information, and if those also served as relays, it means a wireless internet connection network with Japan had been established without my knowledge… It’s… my head is spinning from this terrifying fact. Ms. Kashima and the others’ continued secrecy is so annoying… What do they want us to do… But right now, this is incredibly helpful. In such a desperate situation, being able to contact Japan and potentially receive support… this is more than just a blessing! If we can contact Japan, they’ll probably contact the convenience store too, and maybe offer some advice… This… might be a glimmer of hope! Mimi Momo GJ!! I ended up fiddling with it for too long, so I plan to split it.
