With a good night's sleep and a hotel breakfast, the trio sat in the living room with empty plates on the table. The day was August eighth, Kimsung decided to go over the plan once again, so they'd be clear on it.
"Alright, so first, we need to find a good place to find weapons here. Second, we find Achilles and convince him to join us. Third, we stay only for the winter and spring season, before making our way to Chicago in whatever vehicle we find. Personally, we should go for an R.V., because those are meant for living in."
He says, both of them nodding in agreement. Heidi peers out the window, looking at the city outside with excitement.
"Hey, um, maybe before that, can we go sightseeing? Just at least before the city gets destroyed or whatever? It is still summer, after all…"
She asks, taking out her phone and showing a list of places to visit, such as the Brooklyn Bridge, the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, and even the High Line.
"We can go to these places, if you guys want. Oh, we can even go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art! We have to make sure we've got weapons, right? There's bound to be good ones there!"
She continues, giggling and looking up places to go. Kimsung looks at Keido, sighing before nodding.
"I guess we can go, but we'll have to be ready by the twentieth at the latest. Not to mention, we have to find Achilles around that time. But sure, we're tourists anyway. Might as well do the part."
He says, leaning back on the couch. Surely it wouldn't take that long to go to all the places Heidi wanted to go to, right?
How wrong he was, several days later on August twenty-first, staring at the ceiling in the same position as before, but with a baseball cap saying "I ♥ NY", and a multitude of other souvenirs on the coffee table. They really had gone to most of the tourist places to go, even taking long walks in Central Park until it was late. The only good thing that had come out of it was their trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which had a vast amount of weapons from ancient history, ranging from swords to guns.
It'd be their first stop when the First Disaster happened, and also a safe place where they could stay until the first few waves of monsters calmed down. Still, to think the days went by so quickly. Not to mention a bit funny that the first disaster would begin on the first day of the new month of some Korean calendars. He was ready for this, in his mind. However, he couldn't forget that fear, the fear he had ever since the first time he went through this.
Trauma is not an easy thing to forget. It does not matter whether you have faced such a fear once or a thousand times. However, even if it has happened once, it teaches you a lesson that has been ingrained into your mind, to prevent you from repeating it. Such a thing is obvious, yet always overcomplicated with needless meaning. Kimsung knew this, not having been much of a fan of philosophers who always made a big deal out of anything they thought had a "meaning".
In his eyes, the only correct philosophy is your own. The opinions of others had long become boring, worthless, and annoying to him. He began to understand Achilles' words, that every life was different, and was meant to be different by default. No one was meant to agree with anyone. He groaned and rubbed his eyes, taking off the baseball cap from his head. He truly hated admitting that Achilles was right, especially on many things he himself had to unfortunately experience.
"Hey, Keido, Heidi! Are you two almost done over there?"
He called out, wondering what the siblings had been doing for the past half hour since they'd returned from their tours through the city. Keido himself was busy reading the description of his skill, while Heidi was reading the book of recipes she had been given by the system.
'It says here I'll need lamb's blood, dried dove feathers, a…loaf of bread? Plus some wine to make a purification potion? I guess it makes sense? For a strength potion, I'll need crushed dragon scale of any kind, phosphorus, and chicken bone. Why does it have to be so…random? This doesn't make any sense.'
She wondered, skimming through the recipe book, while Keido was watching the news. The current news for the time was the beautiful weather that the entire world would experience the next day. The heat wouldn't be overbearing, the skies would have some clouds, and a great day for the beach. For some reason, he felt that no matter what, tomorrow would indeed be a good day. Despite a world-ruining event about to happen, he felt as if nothing could stop him now, as if all of his doubts about tomorrow suddenly went away.
'I should probably check out my system now, just so I know how it works. The novel explained it well enough, but I just want to double-check.'
The blue system screen appeared, with his stats on the left side and his items on the right. His stats were average for a human, so he paid no attention to them, but he looked at the part of the screen that showed his items. The only item in it was the banana he had placed in his inventory two weeks ago. He took it out of his inventory, and as he had hoped, it was still in perfect condition. No changes happened to it while it was inside his inventory.
'Holy shit! It really does work!'
He thought about the advantage this would mean for their supplies. In the novel, there were some skills that also as a side effect, had storage, but they were quite rare. However, having a complete inventory with his own skill was already better than he could have hoped for. They wouldn't need to worry about being robbed or having anything stolen at all with his inventory. Kimsung knocked on the door, and once the siblings allowed him to enter, he came in, holding a half-empty bottle of water.
"So let's go over this plan one last time. Ok?"
He asks, sitting down on the bed closest to the door.
"We're going to go back to the Metropolitan Museum tomorrow, at 5:30 in the evening, the First Disaster will begin, and we'll have to fight off a bunch of monsters in Central Park. After that, we need to locate Achilles and somehow persuade him to work with us, and then we can proceed from there. Is that it?"
He asks, a bit disappointed by the short but complicated plan. But he had to trust these two, as they clearly knew as much as he did about this whole mess. Keido nodded before speaking.
"I know it sounds difficult, but surely if he was able to survive all on his own before meeting this David guy, he should be fine until we find him, right?"
He explains, not at all easing Kimsung's concerns, but it was at least a response. This part of their plan would, by all accounts, be the most difficult thing ever, because neither of them knew what the feared Achilles of America was like in the first place. Jamal, again, wasn't very open about his former comrade, and even when he did, it was only on important things, like any abilities the man displayed or possible weaknesses. They'd be meeting this man blind, so they didn't know if he was a good person or not.
Kimsung closed his eyes, remembering his last reset, which ended in his death after he tried to make peace with the Demon Queen, and Achilles didn't tolerate the action. How that man knew was beyond Kimsung, but his gut told him he didn't want to find out. All it took from the man in translucent armor was a single attack to wipe out both Kimsung's and the Demon Queen's armada, and a single more to kill both of them.