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However, I also needed to minimise energy consumption as much as possible, so I only walked forward, eradicating all the Nightmares that suddenly appeared in my way.

As I went, I tried experimenting with my evolved power, which I dubbed the Measurement of Reality.

Truth was gone, but his essence remained, and with this new power I felt that I could achieve limitless, unfathomable things.

Currently, perhaps as a result of using artificial means to evolve Truth, the extent of what I could do was limited and there was still much I had yet to figure out about its many intricacies.

With time and practice, my strength will improve and my capabilities will grow.

With no natural barriers like trees or rocks to protect against sharp winds, the cold of the flat, barren wilderness was severe.

Fortunately, the smart suit and black overcoat I usually wore as part of my identity as Leander Herington, as well as the thick winter coat I wore on top of that, was enough to keep me warm.

I could use my new power to erase the uncomfortable feelings of extreme temperatures or of hunger and dehydration, but I didn\'t know if that got rid of my need for those things entirely or simply dulled my senses to it.

Depending on the answer, it could be dangerous, so I decided to hold off on it for now.

At some point, I tried to use Reality in a similar way to how Saburou uses his Measurement of Space in order to quickly travel large distances.

Like a word on the tip of my tongue, I felt that it was this close to working, but for some reason, it just didn\'t. Having spatial travel at my fingertips would be undeniably useful, especially in an unknown world like this, so I decided I would practise it more.

Eventually, after a straight day or so of travel with a few breaks in between, something in the distance gradually entered my view. As I got closer, I could see it more clearly, and it turned out to be a great stone wall with a wooden gate in the middle.

"Finally..."

It was the first settlement I found in the Otherworld.

❖─────❖─────❖

Arriving at the settlement and walking through the empty front gates, I felt the silent atmosphere to be unnerving, but that was only the beginning.

"Hm..."

Aside from the towering stone wall that no modern city would bother to maintain, the buildings themselves resembled the style of those seen in the Middle Ages.

Moreover, rather than the bustling city one would expect when looking at its size, the air was quiet.

Too quiet.

The place itself was large enough to easily be considered a city, but there was no one on the streets.

It shouldn\'t be surprising that no one would want to live here if there was no food or water, but the fact people had built a city here meant that something had to have happened to cause such a dramatic change.

It wasn\'t destroyed, but there was no one here, meaning the population had abandoned it.

However, what was more disconcerting was the fact that the city didn\'t seem as if it had been abandoned for a long time. It was relatively clean, in fact.

So, whatever happened, must have happened fairly recently.

"..."

Walking down the empty street, I thought I should look for a place to eat.

That\'s when it occurred to me that, without Truth, I might be wandering around a huge city like this for hours without finding anything.

"How inconvenient... I miss him."

It was regrettable, but just as I began to feel despondent at my long-time friend\'s departure, the front door of one of the buildings near me suddenly swung open.

"Oof...! Why am I the one who has to do it every time..." Grumbling to himself was a young boy dragging along a big sack of something across the ground with a frown.

Fortunately, it seems there would be no issues with communication.

"Seriously, everyone left and I still have to take out the trash. This sucks... Huh?"

Upon seeing me, he suddenly froze and his eyes widened.

"..."

Looking back at him as he stared at me as if looking at an alien, I briefly wondered if Yuu Shimura and the rest really went through the effort of creating a world with humans in it to make it as realistic as possible, but I realised that was wrong when I glanced at the clothes the boy was wearing.

A basic tunic and shorts tied with string.

I thought it was strange when I first arrived and saw the buildings, but his clothes made me certain.

The technology level here was definitely lacking in comparison to Earth, though perhaps that\'s due to the time period.

Hm?

But, isn\'t that strange?

This world should have only been created a day to maybe a week ago at most. There shouldn\'t have been time for history to have even developed yet.

Although... Since it is a dream world, it could have technically been created at whatever stage.

After all, if it has been manifested from a dream, there would be no limit to that sort of thing, but then again, you don\'t usually think about the in-depth history of the world when you dream... Huh.

...Wait.

This is troubling.

I thought that Yuu Shimura would have dreamt or imagined the perfect world to imprison me in, and thus would have modelled it exactly to his liking, but perhaps that isn\'t the case.

Indeed, even if it is a fake world, to have created an entire, functioning world is not something a human should be able to do.

Is it possible that something else had an influence in creating this world, and that is what is filling in the gaps of these additional factors, like history?

Because a world cannot just appear out of thin air, there must have been something...

"...-cuse me... Excuse me...!"

"Hm?"

I was lost deep in thought, and before I knew it, the boy had approached me with sparkling eyes. I looked down at him.

"What?"

"Mister, are you an adventurer?"

"...Adventurer?"

"Yeah! You\'re not from here, so you must be an adventurer, right?"

His words made it feel like something clicked in my head.

If what I\'m thinking is correct, and the three who created this world didn\'t meticulously design it as I first thought, then there must be some kind of outside force who helped to put everything together and fill in the gaps.

Yuu Shimura―that bastard didn\'t do any intricate worldbuilding. He just roughly dreamt of a world and haphazardly put it together with the assistance of the other two.

If that\'s all they did, this would be a messy, broken world that wouldn\'t be able to hold itself together. This world was likely never designed to have a distinct history or culture to it, but judging by the things I\'ve seen so far, it clearly does have those things.

Therefore, for all the things that don\'t make sense in this world, something has come along and fixed all those problems by itself.

It\'s the only way a dream world like this would be able to fit and flow as naturally as any other, and it\'s most likely the reason why this world seems to have a long history despite being a few days old at most.

And, if that\'s the case, then I\'m going to need to gather information.

Without Truth, it\'ll be a bother, but I have no choice.

So, towards the kid whose sparkling eyes were glued to my face as if he had seen a celebrity, I opened my mouth.

"Do you need help with that?"

Leaning down, I took the sack of rubbish from his hands without waiting for an answer.

"Let me take it for you. Where does it go?"

I let him lead me towards the trash site before we returned to the building he exited from. On the way, I asked him some questions, but perhaps due to his age, he didn\'t know a whole lot.

In summary, it was because a sudden drought devastated the region that almost everyone evacuated the city, but he didn\'t know anything more.

I considered asking about the Nightmares but decided against it because there was no way a kid could know anything detailed about those monsters.

"By the way, do you know where I can get something to eat?"

There must\'ve been some kind of steady food supply since this boy and his family were living here, and as he had told me, they weren\'t the only ones. NovelFire-novel-source

He turned to me with a prideful smile. "Actually, my family runs an inn for adventurers like you! Here, come in!"

Opening the front door of the establishment with a creak, I followed the boy into what seemed like a mediaeval tavern, where I saw a woman cleaning the counter.

She seemed a similar age to me, meaning she was likely the boy\'s sibling.

"I\'m back! And look who I brought!"

"Hm...? Oh! Welcome! Those clothes... you must be a high-ranking adventurer."

I didn\'t know what an "adventurer" even was, but I felt no need to correct her. The reason I didn\'t ask the boy about it is because I didn\'t want to compromise my identity since it seems like being an adventurer here is very welcome.

I\'m sure I\'ll find out soon, anyway.

"You must have travelled a long way. Wait just a second and I\'ll get you something to eat!"

She spoke to me with a bright and cheerful smile. Perhaps it was the first time someone had visited in a while, as the inn felt completely empty.

"I don\'t have money on me. Is that okay?"

"Ahaha, it\'s fine. There\'s nothing to spend money on here, anyway..."

"..."

Telling her brother to go and do some chores, it looked like the brother and sister were the only two living here. As she was making some food just behind the counter, I decided to take a seat and ask some questions.

Since she was older, I\'m sure she knew a lot more about what was going on.

"The outside seems quite ruthless. How do you manage to survive here?"

"Ah..." Her face turned dispirited at my question. "Truthfully, ever since the mysterious drought occurred, we only survive on supplies sent to us by the surrounding towns and cities delivered by adventurers. Recently, though, we\'ve been receiving less and less..."

"Do you know what caused the drought?"

She shook her head. "No. It was very sudden, and I have no idea..."

Hm.

If adventurers are the ones always delivering their sole source of food, it makes sense why they seem so fond of them. Looking closely, I can definitely see by her sickly face and thin arms that she is probably malnourished.

It almost reminds me of the tw... No, never mind.

In any case, I felt curious about why the city was receiving less aid as time went by. If the core issue was something affecting an entire nation, then perhaps I could gain the favour of a king if I helped them out.

What I want is to find a way back to Earth, so having a king indebted to me would be a good start.

"Are the adventurers not coming as often?"

The reality was that there could be any number of motivations for the surrounding settlements to send less food, but the adventurers were the ones delivering it, so if there was less food, it had to either be because there were fewer trips of food being delivered, or the amount of food itself had decreased.

"Yes," The young inn owner nodded. "Due to the rising presence of Nightmare Beasts roaming the lands in between, the delivery jobs have become that much riskier."

Pausing, she glanced at me. "I thought you were an adventurer here on a delivery quest, but seeing as how you\'re asking me about it, I don\'t think that\'s the case..."

Well, she was correct about that.

"Were you expecting a food delivery?"

"There was a party expected to arrive today, but they\'re running late..."

The worry was visible on her face, and it was no surprise why.

"Me and my brother are here running our family\'s inn for the adventurers to stay at when they deliver the food, but if it doesn\'t arrive in time..."

If the food delivery doesn\'t get here soon, it\'s very likely that many of the people remaining in the city will starve.

"Didn\'t you say the adventurers delivering the food are required to be strong? The situation couldn\'t be so bad that they end up unable to deliver, could it?"

I asked, but the young woman simply stared at me. "You came from outside, didn\'t you? You should know the current state of the Nightmares better than me."

Honestly, I did feel like there were a large amount of them when I travelled here, but was it really that out of the ordinary?

"It\'s been the same adventurer party delivering food for the past few months now. Each of their members are B-rank, and they even have a mage who used to reside in the Magic Tower, so they\'re undoubtedly strong. I\'ve heard that the presence of magic energy is thin in the wilderness, though, so that could be the reason it\'s taking so long..."

"I see..."

...Hm?

This woman, what is she talking about?