Chapter 69: Serious level of browisng addiction.

Forming an alliance with Nat-chan to see Okeanos turned out to be a successful move in many ways.

After I ended my stream on the first day, Nat-chan continued to explore while communicating with the Eighth Stars, and by the time she logged off, the exploration progress had reached 51%, just as she had mentioned.

But the next day, after school, when I logged into Ashen City a bit early, I saw that Nat-chan was still online.

“U-Um, Natsune-senpai?”

[Ah, Izumi-chan! I’ll share the exploration data with you.]

As soon as Nat-chan shared the data, my exploration progress for the Desert of Ashes shot up to 97%.

“…D-Did you… keep exploring all by yourself?”

[Yeah! When I stayed behind yesterday and kept going, I found it pretty fun, you know? So, I just kept playing even after waking up today!]

“…Huh?”

She found exploration… fun?

I mean, sure, I get it. Exploring can be enjoyable.

One of the appeals of survival games is discovering new things through exploration, after all.

But what we were doing wasn’t that kind of exploration.

It wasn’t about finding new things—it was just repetitive work. The only reward was obtaining books on advanced smelting techniques, which we couldn’t even use yet.

And that… was fun?

[Izumi-chan, let’s hurry to the next area! I want to see what kind of resources we can find there!]

…This is a serious case of exploration addiction.

Anyway, thanks to forming an alliance with Nat-chan, in just three days, we were making rapid progress toward Okeanos.

[Beyond the Milky Way~ There’s a world where you and I belong~]

…and along the way, I was able to satisfy my own desires, too.

[[Ashen City] Heading to Okeanos! #KainoIzumi #StarsFlow #AshenCity]

It was a vast room.

Though it had deteriorated due to lack of maintenance, there was still an emergency power generator, so turning on the lights wasn’t an issue.

[Wow! This place is huge!]

Nat-chan looked around in amazement.

Well, yeah. Seeing a place like this in a post-apocalyptic game would be surprising for anyone.

Even I had been thrilled when I first saw it.

“A-And if we go through here…”

I lightly tapped my keyboard, and with a click, a massive door opened.

Inside, we found dusty decorations and various gaming machines.

[W-Wait, is this…?]

“It’s… a c-casino.”

That’s right.

This was a casino that the developers of Ashen City had created as a multiplayer feature, allowing players to enjoy various mini-games.

From poker and chess to roulette, blackjack, and slot machines—

Here, players could bet gathered materials on one of these games, and if they won, they could receive up to five times the amount in rewards.

[All these games… we can actually play them?]

“Yes.”

[L-Let’s try them out, Izumi-chan! Let’s call in the others too!]

“U-Um, should we…?”

Right now, we were technically here for exploration to reach Okeanos, but taking a short break to play shouldn’t be a problem.

It’s not like we were gambling with real money or anything.

…At least, that’s what I thought.

[No way! This has to be rigged! Suzuha, give me back my steel!]

[What are you talking about, Tsubaki-senpai? I played fair and square. Besides, the dealer is an AI, so rigging the game is impossible.]

[“No way! This roulette is definitely broken! There’s no way I haven’t won a single time!”]

ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

-Suzuha is way too strong!

-Tsuba-chan lost again, huh…

“…This is a disaster.”

There was no better word in my vocabulary to describe the current situation.

[…Yeah, seriously.]

Thankfully, Nat-chan agreed with me.

-Mai-chan and Nat-chan have unleashed hell

-The only thing they can do now is apologize for dragging everyone into this

What are they even talking about?

Nat-chan and I were just having some casual fun before we left.

Clearly, the real problem was the gambling addicts who showed up afterward.

[“Then let’s go again! This time, we each bet 200 steel!”]

[“Alright. But Tsubaki-senpai, you’re running low on funds, aren’t you?”]

[“I won’t give up! No matter what, I’ll make it big with this roulette!”]

Nat-chan and I tried to warn them not to get too carried away, but they just kept going.

The only silver lining was that Yuzuki-senpai, Aki, and Utsumi quickly lost interest and left.

Akabane didn’t even—

[“Akakatsu! So this is the casino Suzuha mentioned. This great one shall partake!”]

[“Ohohoho! Then let’s have our duel after I finish this round of roulette, Yukari!”]

[“No! How the hell did you get four of a kind?! Do you even know the odds of that happening, Suzuha?!”]

[“The cards have already been dealt, Tsubaki-senpai.”]

…And so, another gambling addict was born.

[“S-Should we just leave them to it?”]

“I-I think we’ve done our best….”

We already stopped Kurokami-senpai from betting all her materials on the roulette.

We prevented Namikawa-senpai from going all-in against Koga in poker.

We even explained the rules of blackjack to Akabane, since she had no idea how to play.

With all that done, surely we were free to go, right?

At least our viewers seemed to be enjoying it.

-That place is a madhouse now

-Mai-chan and Nat-chan should apologize

I did feel a little guilty, but in the end, they chose this content themselves.

I didn’t do anything wrong.

…Probably.

“This… This is the last area….”

From the Desert of Ashes to the Ashen River, the Ruined City, and the Corroded Shopping District—

Now, Nat-chan and I had finally arrived at our last destination: the Ashen Village.

[Yeah, we finally made it.]

Starting on Tuesday and now arriving here on Saturday.

Four days—long if you think about it, short if you don’t.

The journey to Okeanos that Nat-chan and I had taken together was about to come to an end.

Technically, there were still special conditions we needed to meet before reaching Okeanos, but in terms of simply exploring the different regions of Ashen City, this would be the final step.

[“Alright, let’s start exploring Ashen Village!”]

“Yes!”

As I reflected on that, we began our final search.

The exploration progress in Ashen City was divided into two categories:

Overall Exploration and Regional Exploration.

Overall Exploration accounted for universally shared elements across regions, such as gathering materials and unlocking technologies (excluding craftable player-made items), as well as completing the world map.

Regional Exploration, on the other hand, tracked how much of a specific area had been explored.

And right now, both our Overall and Regional Exploration rates stood at 99.99%.

“This is… finally it…”

[Wow. I still can’t believe it’s almost over. What do we do now?]

Nat-chan and I stood before the final location in Ashen Village—the Collapsed Government Office.

Once we mapped this place, our exploration would be complete, and the special conditions for reaching Okeanos would be revealed.

[“Izumi-chan.”]

“…Yeah.”

[We’ve been allies for the past four days, haven’t we?]

“Y-Yeah, that’s right.”

[This might sound funny, saying this now, but… why don’t we start calling each other more casually?]

“…Huh?”

[I’ll call you Izumi from now on, so I’d like it if you called me by my name too. Ah, no, wait. Since you’re the Eighth Star, is it easier to just call me Nat-chan?]

“Uh? U-Um, th-that’s…”

What… what is Nat-chan even talking about right now?

Me, calling Nat-chan Nat-chan? That’s impossible.

“A-Are you after my internal organs, after all?”

[Pfft!]

-So that’s where this is going again, huh?

-People’s brains shut down when pushed to the limit.

-That’s the limit?

[Puhuhuhu… Izumi, you’re seriously adorable.]

This has to be a dream.

Otherwise, there’s no way to explain what’s happening right now—so yes, this must be a dream.

[So, do you not want to?]

“U-Um, well….”

If you ask me whether I like it or not, of course, I like it.

When I got confirmed for debuting as a Stars Flow 2nd Gen, one of the things I was most excited about was getting closer to Nat-chan.

But as much as I looked forward to it, there was also a part of me that was afraid.

What if we got close, and Nat-chan found out what kind of person Kayano Mina really is… and got disappointed?

I knew it was a pointless worry, but still… the thought of what if? kept making me anxious.

[I want to get even closer to you, Izumi…]

“Hhk.”

My heart almost stopped.

Foul. That’s a foul, Nat-chan. I almost died of cardiac arrest.

How am I supposed to say no when you ask me like that…?

“Th-Then, I-I’ll call you N-N-Nat-chan….”

[And talk casually too, Izumi! We’re friends now!]

Hearing Nat-chan’s cheerful voice, my eyelids slowly grew heavier.

A world I had always thought was cruel… suddenly felt beautiful.

Did she die?

-Kayano Izumi, may she rest here.

-Mai-chan has stopped thinking.

[Alright, Izumi, you do the final mapping.]

“U-Um, m-me…?”

[Yeah! This journey started because of your idea, so you should be the one to finish it. And seriously, just talk normally, okay?]

“A-Ah, o-okay….”

Hearing Nat-chan say that, I entered the mapping command.

After waiting for ten seconds, the map was completed, and the two exploration gauges that had been stuck at 99.99% finally reached 100%.

Then—ding!—a quest notification rang out.

And there, on the screen—

[The Path to Okeanos]
[Eliminate all your allied party members.]

“…Huh?”