It’s Not Easy Making Money In The Apocalypse

There was a brief moment where I feared it wouldn’t work. Either the spell would start and fizzle out, or I’d transfer and leave the monster behind. My greatest fear was that it would work too well and that I would take the monster with me and appear in my world with this invincible weapon monster. It didn’t appear to be unstoppable, but how would our world react to a real-like monster appearing on the streets? I wouldn’t likely be able to see it, as I would be dead a short moment later.

The spell took nearly a second to work. Usually, it was instantaneous, so that delay chilled my spine. Every eye looked down on me, and I completely expected a blade-like claw to come down and cut off my head. A moment later, the lighting completely changed. From the old, dilapidated lab with bright, blinding lights to the dimly lit and slightly chilly warehouse. As I glanced up, I felt fear as the monster came forward at me.

It wasn’t until he fell over with a resounding thud that I finally was able to move. Since I was between his legs, he had fallen to my side, landing on what would have been his stomach with gross, squishy noise. As he started to leak disgusting fluids, I immediately jumped to my feet. I was covered in filth already from this little adventure of mine, but I didn’t want to touch this creature’s fluids at all. For all I knew, they were acidic and deadly. I had to scan it twice just to make sure it wasn’t radioactive.

“That was an extremely dangerous risk.” Cecelia declared.

I had tested such a transport once before using the mirror. I had taken a mouse to the apocalyptic world, and he had died. I found this could have happened for two different reasons. The first was that the mouse didn’t have any sorcery ability in him. The second was that he wasn’t wearing a Perco. I didn’t know if this monster contained any magical ability. I’d rather hope that such a frightening creature didn’t. However, he also wasn’t wearing a Perco, so I hoped that if I tried to teleport him, he’d come back dead.

“Cecelia?” I asked nervously, walking around the massive monster.

“The sensors in this warehouse don’t detect any living organism.” Cecelia sighed.

“And the virus?”

“If that could be transferred, then you would have brought it over months ago.”

I let out a long breath. My biggest fear from going back and forth was accidentally bringing that virus over, the one that had caused the epidemic that ended up destroying their world. If even they with their advanced technology and nearly authoritarian government couldn’t manage, then what chance did my world. For whatever reason though, while I could bring over all kinds of things, the virus didn’t seem to be one of them.

Although I didn’t know that much about biology, I had asked one of my science teachers casually before I had left a couple of questions. It seemed like human bodies had all kinds of bacteria on us. If I were truly losing all of that bacteria on or in myself, then I would get somewhat sick every time I transferred. That didn’t happen though, so I didn’t understand it all.

My only conclusion was that the virus was no longer spreading actively. I hadn’t gotten exposed to it. On the other hand, this monster might have the virus. A single scratch from it could have infected me. Wait, that girl was a mutant too! I kissed her! Did that mean I was infectious?

“Ahhh, damn it!” I grabbed my head.

This entire thing was giving me a headache. I decided it was better not to think about it too hard. This technology was built by people smarter than me, and their goal had been to flee this planet to one not infected by the virus. They had to have placed some kind of failsafe that would kill anything dangerous, right? Either way, we needed to get rid of this quickly. I looked over at it with narrowed eyes.

“We won’t be able to return the monster.” Cecelia suddenly spoke up, seeming to read my mind.

“What?” I blinked.

“Transporting something this large required a lot of crystals. I had to push the spell to its limit and it barely worked.” Cecelia explained. “You’ve used up all of the crystals.”

“All of them?” My voice increased in pitch.

“There is just enough for a single return journey. After that, you must find more crystals or be trapped.”

“S-seriously…”

I hadn’t realized just how close this had come to a one-way trip. Even then, my trip returning there was one way. If I returned and couldn’t find that valve, wouldn’t we be stuck in that base forever? More than that, Zara could turn on me after we escaped, and I could end up becoming her lunch. The safety net I had always had which allowed me to take such risks was now gone. If I returned to the apocalypse, I would be completely vulnerable.

“You could return to Kiera and get the coordinates to return directly to your base.” Cecelia offered.

That was right. I had completely forgotten about that. Kiera was still in this world, and her Perco held the coordinates for the base. As long as I met up with her, my next world travel could return me to the Ascension base. However, if I did that, I’d lose a day of travel. Tom and his mercantile group would have no clue where I went, and neither would Raven and her gang. I’d have no chance to get those slaves and buy them. I’d also be leaving Zara for dead.

There were far too many things I couldn’t accept in that scenario. I realized that I had to return. Regardless of the risk, I would need to go back to that place. Looking down at the monster though, I also knew I couldn’t leave him like that.

“We need to burn this.” I declared.

There was a small convenience store not too far away. I left the factory, heading in that direction. The walk was a bit comforting. After being in an unfamiliar place and running for my life for so long, walking outside without the threat of death was a relaxing feeling.

“Since you’ve asked me to report such things, you’ve received a message from Mizuki since you’ve been gone.”

“Oh?” My eyes opened. “What did she say?”

“Um… Daniel.” A message started playing, which I realized was my phone’s message machine, extracted by Cecelia and played from the Perco. “I just wanted to let you know that I’m sorry about earlier. I didn’t expect… my father. Um… whatever you did earlier, it’s working. Father will not send me overseas. Um… actually, he’s decided to stay in town for a while. He wants to meet with you. It might be a good idea if you disappear for a while. Ah… that… I didn’t mean it like that! Ah, I just… thank you! I wanted to thank you, okay?”

The call ended with a click just like that. I was a bit clueless. That barely sounded like the Mizuki I spoke to. She was usually calm, collected, and quiet. However, this girl didn’t seem to have any confidence. She sounded nervous and very emotional. Plus, she had already thanked me, so why was she doing it again? What had happened with her?

“Is that it?” I asked.

“You have also received a message from your mom. It was mostly weeping.”

“I’ll pass.”

“And a message from Gabriella, telling her that if you don’t call your mom, she’s going to tell her that you were spying on Gabriella in the shower.”

“I mean, please let me listen to my mother’s message!”

As Cecelia had revealed, it was mostly Mom acting melodramatic and lonely. I listened to it while buying the lighter fluid and lighter. The weeping and crying coming from my wrist earned a few strange looks. Maybe, it was the fact I was covered in filth that got the looks. I didn’t care either way. The message ended just in time for me to come up to the clerk.

The guy looked me up and down with a raised eyebrow. “Been busy?”

“Just taking care of loose ends,” I responded flatly.

He gave an awkward look as he bagged up my stuff and handed it to me. I left the convenience store and returned to the warehouse. While I was pouring the entire contents of the lighter fluid over the monster, I had Cecelia give my mother a ring. Thankfully, mom wasn’t crying at that moment, so I soothed her as much as I could. After all, I had only been gone a single day, and she was already a wreck. Of course, if she saw me currently, there was probably nothing that would have been able to calm her down.

“Ok, mom. Yes, mom. Yes. Yes. I love you too. Yes. I’ll call soon. I promise. Yes, I’m okay. Okay? Okay. Bye. Bye… love you, bye.” Cecelia finally hung up just to end it.

With a flick of the lighter, I set the mound on fire. It went up with a woosh. It was just another day trying to make money in the apocalypse.