“Next up, a base?”

Once we finished our water break, Chiyu said it, wiping her glossy, water-wet lips with a finger.

“Yeah. Though we don’t necessarily need to go hunting for a cave.”

“...Oh. With your ability, So-kun—can you make a house too?”

“Exactly! Same as the barrels—once we got a ton of lumber, I wanted to make a base.”

“Did a Recipe unlock?”

I opened the Recipes screen.

“Uh... yeah. Looks like... ‘Hut.’”

For now, the conditions to unlock Recipes seemed to be: discovering a certain amount of materials, and while having those materials discovered, imagining something you could make from them.

Even when I tried to picture a log cabin or other wooden buildings, nothing showed up, so something was probably missing.

If I wanted to create a log cabin, maybe it would unlock once I had enough logs.

When I drooped in disappointment, Chiyu thrust her thumb up.

“No need to be disappointed. Getting a base that can block wind and rain on day one after washing up on a deserted island is way too amazing.”

“S-So you’re saying... yeah. You’re right. One step at a time.”

It was encouragement, but it was also just true.

“Yeah. If you cut down dozens of trees, you might be able to make a nicer house. If you do one a day, you could probably manage it in... about a month.”

“A... month...”

A whole month on a deserted island was a long, long story.

I felt like there used to be TV shows like that when I was a kid...

“Until then, we’ll live huddled together in a tiny hut.”

As she said it, Chiyu bumped her shoulder lightly against mine.

“...Yeah. Um, Chiyu—are you okay with that? If you want, I can cut down another tree and—”

“No problem.”

“Seriously?”

“...Oblivious man.”

“S-Sorry.”

Hrm...

Was my childhood friend’s affection level higher than I’d assumed?

If it was, then as a healthy high school boy, that made me extremely happy.

At least, it seemed like she didn’t hate the idea of sleeping together in the hut.

“Fine. Across time and culture, childhood-friend heroines are doomed to suffer.”

With a good grief sort of vibe, my childhood friend shrugged.

“Heroine? Seriously?”

She kept dropping lines that made it way too easy for me to misunderstand.

“Is it bad?”

“...It’s not bad, but...”

“So-kun finally noticed my charm.”

If I could’ve said something suave right there, it would’ve been perfect—but this was about as far as I could go.

“Okay, yeah, sure...! More importantly, it’s time to go find food.”

“You’re blushing.”

“I can make a harpoon too, but... a total amateur diving to fish isn’t exactly...”

I forced the subject change hard enough that Chiyu finally went along with it.

“The ocean here looks clear, but I’m against diving too. Breath-hold diving is dangerous.”

“Yeah.”

In a situation like this, risk was unavoidable—but that was exactly why we had to choose carefully.

“For now... exploring the forest?”

“Yeah. I’ll take point. If you find anything, don’t touch it—just tell me.”

There might be things that were ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) dangerous just to handle.

If I got hurt, Chiyu could heal me. But if she got exhausted enough that she couldn’t cast, or worse, lost consciousness, we’d be in trouble.

And honestly... I just didn’t want her getting hurt.

“Got it. As expected of you, So-kun. You’re reliable.”

“If you praise a guy that much, all he does is get cocky.”

Still, it made me a little happy. I was simple like that.

And then we entered the forest.

To make sure we could get back to the ocean—and not get lost—I carved marks into tree trunks with my stone knife as we went.

“Ooh, another classic.”

“I’m doing it so we don’t get lost, but it bugs me that other people might see it...”

It was basically advertising where we’d gone.

“You want it to be just the two of us?”

“People who were decent at school might turn into bad people in a situation like this. You don’t want to run into someone like that.”

“Or maybe So-kun’s beast side awakens?”

“...And what would you do if it did?”

“I’m weak, so I’d have no choice but to get eaten. Tragic. Extremely tragic.”

She said it like it was the least tragic thing in the world, so all I could do was shut up.

Anyway—our classmates.

Sure, I got the impulse to gather numbers in a crisis.

But Chiyu and I... we weren’t exactly lacking what we needed to survive with just the two of us.

Okay, that might be exaggerating, but the only big thing we lacked was a stable way to secure food.

Other than that...

Combat power?

Clothes and gear could probably be crafted.

I was thinking that as we walked in silence for a while, when—

“Chiyu. Doesn’t this feel... off?”

“Yeah. We entered the forest, but So-kun hasn’t started playing pretend Holy Sword with a stick.”

“Don’t bring up elementary school.”

Childhood friends knew each other too well.

Which meant they also knew your immaturity and your darkest black history.

“Joking. What I’m wondering is... aren’t there no bugs?”

“Yeah. In Japan it’s like, worst case you get itchy, but mosquitoes are dangerous, right?”

They spread disease.

It didn’t feel like there were zero insects, but...

“And this forest is cool.”

“And more than that, it’s insanely easy to walk through.”

A forest untouched by humans should be full of uneven ground, raised roots, poor visibility—everything that tries to stop you from entering.

But this forest was comfortable. Easy to move through. Easy to exist in.

“Like... an artificial environment?”

A classic story setup.

Maybe the mystery blackboard had placed us on a deserted island it created.

If the environment was too harsh, high schoolers wouldn’t be able to survive.

Even a normal forest was dangerous—trip, twist an ankle, get cut by branches or brush.

“This makes me start wondering about the mystery blackboard’s purpose and the scale of its power, so... I’m going to stop thinking about it there.”

I’d literally just decided to leave it for later.

“Mhm. So-kun, I found mushrooms.”

“Oh! As expected of you, Chiyu! Leave picking them to me.”

Once she showed me where they were, I harvested one.

According to the Inventory, it was edible.

“Looks like we can eat this.”

Since it was safe, I tore off about half of the cluster.

I wasn’t an expert, but I’d heard you shouldn’t take everything when harvesting mushrooms.

If you strip it clean and nothing grows back, it’s the people who come after who suffer.

Well... maybe we weren’t in a situation where we could afford to be that patient.

After that, we managed to find edible mushrooms, poisonous mushrooms, edible wild plants, medicinal herbs, edible nuts—things like that.

Nothing that felt like a real meal, but it was still a huge win.

After Chiyu used Purify to clean our hands, we sat there chewing on nuts together.

“This is insanely good. Hunger is the ultimate seasoning.”

As Chiyu walked, her huge chest bounced—boing... boing...

“A little later, we’ll roast mushrooms and eat them.”

“How are we doing fire?”

“We’ve got wood and vines. After that, I can craft a fire-starting tool with the Crafting Ability.”

“So-kun, you’re broken.”

“Haha... can’t deny it.”

Even if I’d mistaken it for a dream, I’m glad I answered without reading the room.

“Hm? That is...”

As we continued exploring, what we found was—.