Although it was some time from dusk, the mercenaries were already setting up camp because they had already reached the abandoned house by which Saul had build a checkpoint.

The house was about average in size and was situated in the middle of a clearing with walls that were painted white but which were now peeling from age. The once beautiful building showed signs of damage from long-ago attacks and the door was barely hanging on its hinges.

One could still sense that it had once been a fine building, but it was slowly growing shabby. The area surrounding the house was completely devoid of plants, likely having been burnt down at some point. It was built about 40-50 years ago, making it look old and somewhat run down. There were several cracks in the stone-walling, which had only grown larger since the house's creation. The windows had become discolored, but one could still see through them clearly enough.

However, it was far too old and no one had bothered to repair it as time had gone by, so it was now a ramshackle-looking abode. A thick layer of dust covered everything, but it definitely provided shelter, which was a lot better than nothing.

Any normal person would've stayed in the house but instead, the mercenaries were making camp outside.

This was because the inside of the abandoned house was filled with a large amount supplies.

From rice, beans, barley, potatoes and other things to even medical kits, there was a variety of items, all of which were supplies left behind by Saul. The plan was to switch gears then they will set out for the factory tomorrow.

Lucifer took the wooden poles handed to him by others and erected them around the campsite. Because they had to shelter right people in total, the campsite in question was around ten meters on each side and covered a fairly large area.

The poles went into four points around the campsite, and then thin, blackened ropes were tied around the poles, forming a perimeter. Finally, they tied a knot in one of the ropes and pulled it over to their tents, where they attached device with a speaker to it. This was their alarm system.

As Lucifer was driving the poles into the ground, oxy came around.

"…Oxy should have some work to do… maybe he's finished. But if that women (Nomi) made him mad again, all I can do is gently reprimand him."

With those thoughts in mind, Lucifer turned around. As he did, oxy spoke, in a low voice that suggested that he was holding back feelings of anger:

"…They should not be troubling you with work like this, Sato-san."

Lucifer sighed in relief as he learned the reason for hid anger. He looked around, and then quietly replied:

"No, it's fine. I want to help them, and it's a good way to earn their trust and It would be odd if I was the only one not doing anything, no?"

Lucifer said as he drove another pole into the earth with a swift motion.

"Have they not seen your extraordinary fighting skill? People should do what they are suited for, so this sort of work should be left to weaklings like them."

"Don't say that. Listen, we need to establish ourselves as powerful individuals. But we mustn't project an image of arrogance while we do it. You need to check yourself a little too."

There was nothing more that oxy could say to that. He knew that Lucifer was right and that he himself needed to be a little more humble. Oxy nodded to show that he understood, but his displeasure was undeniable.

He was only going along with this because it was an express order from Lucifer — his supreme master — himself.

Lucifer could tell that his loyalty was enough to overcome his unhappiness. On the other hand, the thought that this might cause a slip-up at an inopportune time made Lucifer feel uneasy.

The truth was that Lucifer was having a lot of fun with these outdoor activities.

He did not think he would ever get to build a tent or camp outside, and he enjoyed the simplicity of camp life. He wanted to enjoy this moment, without looking beyond tomorrow.

Back when he was a human, he didn't do outdoor activities that much.

This was also something he could not experience in the virtual world of Hollow. And, thus it was filled with novelty. Although the whole thing had taken too much time, it also reminded Lucifer' of the adventures he had exploring unknown places in Hollow and also that one time he went hiking with his dad, in real life.

He wasnt a loser who never touched grass after all.

"Fun times.."

He muttered to himself silently.

"If I hadn't been transported alone and all of my friends had came with me, we all would've no doubt went travelling around the world."

Most non-humanoid races or atleast players who were at level 100 and we're non-humanoid did not need to eat, drink, or breathe. That being the case, they could climb high mountains with their own two legs, or walk into the ocean depths.

They could have enjoyed themselves by witnessing the unknown vistas of the world.

However, if they had come along... Lucifer could not help but think that they would stand out, and would probably cause quite a stir if the truth were revealed.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

However, that was just wishful thinking. Such things could only be dreams, and dreams were never real. Since he — The human — Hayate Sato — was transported alone, such a thing was not possible. Atleast, not now.

He had many goals.

Find his friends, build graves for his parents, if possible try to find his extended family and then, maybe heal this world.

He had the magic capacity to do it.

Items which could create thousands of trees in a massive AOE, spells which would change the weather, bring forth sunlight, heal the ozone, remove the pollution and many such things.

That's right, this world was polluted and the air was terrible. He could tell just by simply smelling the air which made his lungs burn.

He wanted it to go back to how it used to be in the past.

Where there were birds chirping, the clouds were white, and the rivers were clear.

This world was far from that.

That's right. His comrades' treasures — all within him — were here, and it would be a shame to keep them in such a dirty world. They themselves and their families probably were still alive so he wanted to make sure they lived a good life.

He is the only one in the world with enough power to do so.

This is his responsibility, his way to pay them back for everything they did for him.

"Well, no matter..."

Lucifer turned around again.

Lucifer cast his thoughts aside and calmly returned to his work. After hammering the four wooden poles into the ground, he tied the rope around them and then raised the tent over it.

"Thanks for your hard work."

"Think nothing of it."

Taguchi was inside the tent, and he thanked Lucifer without looking at him. It was kind of rude, but it was not as though he was slacking off either. He had been digging a hole for a fire-pit since just now.

The technician of the team — Luna — was pacing about the surroundings, placing small black circular devices around the tents alongside with one big one. This ware portable heater's and alarm's, and as the name suggested, for the latter, it was a device of warning that would trigger if anything trespassed on their camp. Though it had a small area of effect, it was still useful just in case while the other one heated up the area around the tents, casing a warm glow over the area which was greatly appreciated by everyone except for him.

Lucifer was staring at these devices, as he had never seen them before and was curious to learn more.

As Luna realized Lucifer was staring at her, she smiled and drew closer to Lucifer.

"Ah, there's no need to watch me so intently. It must be pretty boring, right?"

"well, I'm curious about technology, and I'm interested in what you're doing, Luna-san."

"No way… I'm probably far below Ox-san, aren't I?"

"It's because you know things that ox doesn't."

Oxy nodded slightly, but Lucifer noticed from the corner of his eye that the look on his face was more of jealousy than regret.

"I'd like to do stuff like you, Luna-san."

"You're greedy, Sato-san. To think you'd want the hacking ability even though your swordsmanship is so amazing… no, I should say that you're being an mercenary, right?"

"hacking doesn't seem like the sort of thing you can learn in one or two days. Well, you need to connect to the world, but only people with the appropriate talent can do it. If not, you'll need to take a long time to experience it."

Those words came from Taguchi, who had cut in without turning to look from where se was setting up the campfire.

Luna's face turned serious:

"Mm. Sato-san, I think you have that talent. You're different from other people… kind of like you're not human at all…"

Lucifer's heart seemed to lurch in his chest. Lucifer wondered if she had sensed that he was a demon.

Although he had already veiled himself in illusions and counter-detection spells, Luna might have seen through Lucifer with an unknown technology or some other special device. Therefore, Lucifer asked Luna:

"…Is that so? I feel that I am strong, but not inhumanly so. You've seen my face as well, so wouldn't you think that as well?"

"I'm not talking about appearances… it's just that after seeing you fight, you're clearly beyond the realm of humanity. Taking out an werebear in one blow… as I thought, a real man gets by on strength, not looks. And you've got a equal like Ox-san with you."

The word "Equal" had a clear and hidden meaning behind it. But, before Lucifer could reply, Saul suddenly spoke without warning:

"Appearances aside, Luna has a point. You looked like someone who surpasses the realm of human possibility, like a hero."

"No, that's too much… I wouldn't dare claim to be any sort of hero, even if it was to be polite."

As Lucifer feigned embarrassment while answering Saul, he resisted the urge to sigh in relief.

"If it's convenient for you… would you like to meet my master? He's quite talented in detecting an individual's limits."

"i see then. Maybe one day."

Lucifer had no intention of trusting anyone, and the less people who knew of his true nature, the better. However, he feigned interest to maintain his cover. If this master of Luna's was as good as she said he was, maybe he will visit him one day.

"He's not in Japan right now."

Lucifer immediately suppressed the quiet surprise in his tone, and in order to cover it up, promptly responded in a more normal tone.

"Oh, Umu. And, how does your master gather students?"

"Basically went around, asked anyone who seemed to have potential to be his student and gave them money. This was how he gathered up talented children and trained them in hacking. I was recruited by Master in that way," Luna continued.

"Then, if I wanted to learn how to hack, where should I begin?"

"For starters, you'd need a proper teacher."

"…And how about becoming your disciple, Luna-san?"

When Lucifer proposed this, Luna looked at him in surprised bewilderment,

And her cheeks turned slightly red.

"M.. Master? Me… I've never even been given responsibility to train someone else, much less been a teacher."

She then had a fake cough and composed herself.

"Hm… you should probably find someone more skilled than myself. However, schools in Japan are very exclusive and people without connections can't join the companies that handle hacking. Even if you could join, most of the recruits would be immature kids. It would be very difficult for someone of your age to get in without some kind of special networking, Sato-san. On that note, China has a full-fledged academy, and Korea has a very high standard of network hacking as well, though that's for military purposes."

"I see, so if I entered China's academy, I could learn hacking?"

"That would be pretty difficult. The academy is an educational institution run by the government, so I think you'd have to be a citizen of China to study there."

"Is that so…"

"But China and Korea aren't the only options for you. I think that there should be a school in any of the high-tech countries — which, for the current era, are many. But, I guess the problem would be that you're too old to enter a school… but you could still get into a university, as long you have a suitable excuse to cover up for why you'd take this path all of sudden."

She took a pause and then continued:

"And as for becoming my disciple, though I apologize for it, I must refuse. I have something I want to do, and I don't have the free time to train people."

"I see, no it's completely fine."

Just as Lucifer came to that conclusion, Nomi interrupted his train of thought with casual words:

"Oi~ sorry to interrupt your conversation, but dinner's ready. Do you mind calling those three back here?"

While she said that, she walked over to where oxy was, trying to hug him.

"Let me go."

"Ehhhh~ ox-chan, you're going off? Why not stay with me and make a dinner filled with love?"

"Die, inferior being (centipede). Unless you want me to pour boiling oil down your throat so you can't utter such nonsense again?"

"Enough, ox. Let's go together."

"Yes! Understood!"

"Phew. Those guys are as noisy as usual."

Saul sighed tiredly, but his tone was filled with affection.

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