Abilities that defy common sense naturally give a person confidence.
When Arato Sora began reshaping the environment, he had a hazy feeling that he could do anything.
That illusion lasted—right up until he'd dug for a while and tried to lift the rocks he'd excavated.
He reached forward with both hands, grabbed a stone, and tried to heave it up.
And then…
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Arato Sora quickly realized something was wrong.
Compared to real life, his strength felt weaker by orders of magnitude.
He wasn't guessing, either—back in reality, he was someone who often went out into the wild to mine ore. He knew exactly what his body could handle.
A rock like this—something he could wrap his arms around—should absolutely have been within the range of what he could move.
He tried again, putting more and more force into it.
A sharp, unmistakable soreness flared through his muscles. The stone slipped from his grip, dropped, and scraped harshly across his palm.
At the top of his vision, he saw the HP frame flash—-1.
Meaning his attempt had already caused damage to his body.
He raised his hand. A clear abrasion marked his palm, and a burning, stinging pain surged up in waves.
Arato Sora: "..."
He suddenly remembered something from the character creation screen—when he had chosen the Maker class.
[You selected the class "Maker (Ore). You gained the ability "Rapid Crafting." Your Constitution and Strength have been greatly reduced.]
Normally, Arato Sora wouldn't have cared much.
But right now, there was a girl watching him.
Not being able to lift something at all was… honestly humiliating.
"Want me to try?"
Fujino's voice came from the side.
By now, enough time had passed that the ghost-form Asagami Fujino had revived.
The purple-haired chibi girl walked up beside him and casually lifted the rock one-handed—the same rock he'd been unable to budge.
"When I picked my class, I got a prompt that my Constitution and Strength would increase dramatically. In popular terms… my class is the 'fighter' type, and yours is more like a 'mage.' So it's normal that our physical stats are different."
With a gentle, almost "good wife" warmth, she said it to Arato Sora as though she were soothing him.
"…You saying it like that just makes it more awkward."
That was what he muttered to the girl beside him.
After that, he simply stopped trying to move rocks himself and tossed the whole job to Fujino, focusing instead on constructing the trap.
The pain in his palm only made him more certain that pain here was real.
And once that was confirmed—
Perhaps because time had passed and the two of them had grown more familiar, or because people working together naturally try to make conversation so boredom doesn't creep in…
Arato Sora asked Fujino something again.
"Next, you'll be the bait. Even if I set up plenty of bunker-like hideouts for you along the route, you're definitely going to get hurt. Even if it doesn't hurt… the experience of being covered in wounds still feels awful, right?"
Fujino stood beside him and spoke softly.
"What do you think about pain, Mr. Arato? Most people say pain is a bad thing. In many people's eyes, being unable to feel pain is a good thing."
"Pain?" Arato Sora thought for a moment. "To me, it's like a measuring stick. Without pain, you lose your wariness toward the outside world. You'd probably be tense all the time, and never truly feel safe."
Would a blind person feel "safe" because they can't see anything?
Of course not.
Because they can't see, they're more anxious than normal people—and they pay even closer attention to everything around them.
"Yeah… that's probably exactly it. Being tense all the time, never knowing what 'safe' feels like."
Fujino nodded, affirming his words.
"And if I can be 'used' by you, Mr. Arato, I'd feel very safe. Because everything is within your plans—so I can feel at ease. Please don't worry about me. You can do whatever you want with me."
Her words were calm, but there was something strangely intense in the seriousness behind them—like she'd already decided she would do whatever Arato Sora said.
Arato Sora turned to her with a helpless look.
This kid… why does she say everything out loud?
At that moment, he could finally see what her abnormality was pointing toward.
Fujino didn't value herself.
Living without pain meant she couldn't grasp the proper "distance" from harm.
Just like now—she could say, without hesitation, that she wanted Arato Sora to "use" her, to keep her constantly in a wounded state.
Even if the system claimed this was "just a game," could a normal person truly ignore danger in a near-100%-real VR environment and choose to die once on purpose?
As first-time players, they didn't actually know what consequences death inside the game might carry.
And yet Fujino, after dying once, still sat in a state that resembled anticipation.
It was obvious what such a state would lead to—
In the end, Fujino would either fail to control the distance and be destroyed by others without ever understanding what was being done to her… or, in an endless hollow, slowly fall into self-destruction.
More likely, it would be both.
"You should still cherish yourself a little," Arato Sora murmured.
"Hm? What did you say, Mr. Arato?"
Fujino turned her head toward him, as if she hadn't heard clearly.
"No. Nothing."
Arato Sora shook his head.
He didn't want to involve himself in—or interfere with—someone else's condition.
Perhaps because of his past life, Arato Sora in this life carried a detached coldness toward the world around him.
He didn't want to form too many connections.
Relationships between people could twist the direction of a person's life.
There were some people he'd willingly let do that to him.
But for most others… he'd rather not.
"The trap's basically done. Next is the part where we lure the giant bees into it. Miss Asagami, let's discuss the details—I need you to survive as much as possible."
He dragged the conversation back onto the track.
Fujino nodded.
Then she lifted her head and looked toward the distant mountain peak, her thoughts unreadable as she stared.
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