Future Diary Survival Game-Chapter 80 : Refueling - 1

Chapter 80: Refueling - 1
After that, we desperately went out to secure monsters.
The ordinary participants did their share splendidly.
All nineteen teams that had gone hunting for the first time each brought back a monster.
However, their physical and mental states upon return were completely ruined.
“Uweeek.”
“I can’t. I can’t do this anymore.”
“Ughh. Cold, it’s so cold.”
Those who were severely injured by the monsters’ attacks.
Those who had gotten frostbite from the cold.
And those whose minds were corrupted simply from seeing the monsters and had gone blank.
Armelia and Aina treated each of them.
And though it might have seemed a bit heartless, we pushed them out again, telling them to quickly go find more firewood.
It wasn’t much of a consolation, but we too were doing everything we could.
At first, our limit had been three monsters every two hours. Now, we had increased it to four.
From time to time, I asked Armelia to assess the situation.
“Your Highness, what’s the status of the remaining monsters?”
“We’ve secured thirty-five. Sixty-one more need to be hunted.”
“What about the ones left out there?”
“Ninety-three. The Hellfire caught twenty-five in the meantime.”
Although we’d hunted more monsters purely through our own strength than the Hellfire had, there was no time to take comfort in that.
Out of the remaining ninety-three monsters, we needed to catch sixty-one first.
But at this pace, was that even possible?
I could feel anxiety creeping up in my chest.
After that, we completely gave up on rest and sleep.
Even meals were replaced by chewing jerky as we walked.
That wasn’t only us — all the participants were doing the same.
Yet, instead of increasing, the number of captured monsters began to drop, and time started dragging on.
“There aren’t any monsters left.”
Literally, the monsters were going extinct, so a lot of our routes to find them were being wasted.
Besides, while we could use teleportation beads to return to the campsite, ordinary participants couldn’t even do that.
How many more days passed like that?
One morning—
I felt a chill more dreadful than the cold that froze down to my bones.
It was when I tossed the monster we’d captured onto the altar and checked the small bulletin board.
–121:10:10
The time remaining: about five days’ worth of fuel.
And the number of days left until the quest ended: seven.
Two days short.
Forty-eight hours missing.
We needed sixteen more monsters.
“Your Highness.”
“Mason……”
“How many ordinary monsters are left right now?”
“……”
Armelia answered in a trembling voice.
“Five.”
Even if we caught them all, it would only extend the time by fifteen hours.
That left a gap of thirty-three hours.
A whole day and nine hours short.
Endure thirty-three hours? In this cold?
I was at a loss for words when Berseum spoke up.
“Hurry. We must take those remaining five, at least.”
“……Yes. I’m sorry. Let’s move.”
“Good.”
“This time, we’ll capture all five at once. It’ll be quite a forced march, so prepare thoroughly.”
We set out to hunt again under a gloomy atmosphere.
And we succeeded in securing four out of the five.
The last one had been devoured by a Hellfire monster.
That left us with only thirty-six hours to endure.
Was that even possible?
The contents of the future diary flashed through my mind.
The companions freezing to death one by one—
And the future where only Sienne survived, forced to cut off her leg.
Now that things had come to this, the ordinary participants were in near panic.
They too had gone out hunting, leaving the warmth of the Hellfire behind.
That was why they could already feel how terrifying the cold would be once the flames vanished.
“Ughh. It’s all over now.”
“We worked so hard…”
“Honey, I miss you.”
“I don’t want to die. What happens if you die in Hell anyway?”
“Please… save us.”
They clutched at their hair, tormented.
Aina tried to calm them with necromancy, but then just dropped her hand with a sigh.
“What’s wrong?”
“There aren’t any monsters left to hunt anyway.”
“……”
“And honestly, I don’t really feel like comforting anyone right now.”
Their death by freezing—it was already a confirmed outcome.
And the shock of that didn’t just hit the ordinary participants.
Benjamin spoke.
“……Let’s at least prepare some warming potions. As many as we can.”
“We’ve already proven over and over that those don’t work. The cold of Hell can’t be stopped by something like that.”
“Aina.”
“Whew. Sorry. I guess I lost my composure a bit.”
She quietly began preparing the potions.
But she didn’t look particularly motivated.
Sienne, too, spoke with a gloomy expression.
“So this is how it ends. We didn’t last as long as I thought we would. In the last batch, I survived up to the ninth quest.”
“We don’t know that yet.”
“But……”
“There must be a way. Let’s not give up until the very end.”
She smiled and nodded.
Berseum opened his mouth.
“Good words. I’m glad you’re not giving up.”
“I have to do whatever I can to keep you all alive until the end.”
“Heh. I suppose you wouldn’t tell me why, even if I asked?”
Because that’s how my lifespan extends.
……
Was that really the only reason?
Of course, it might have been the biggest one.
But not the only one.
I spoke firmly.
“Because you’re my companions.”
Their eyes widened at my words.
Then gentle smiles appeared on their faces.
“Hearing that makes me truly happy, Mason.”
“Well, I don’t plan on dying either. We’ll just have to come up with a way to escape this cold somehow.”
“Funny to hear that from a young man like you.”
“This isn’t about age. I’m glad too.”
“I wish we’d met sooner.”
I smiled back at them.
And then I thought—
The monsters were already gone.
There would be no more refueling.
Surviving thirty-six hours in this cold was impossible from the start.
We must not let the flames die out. That’s the only answer.
‘Hm? Wait a second.’
Just then, an idea crossed my mind.
“Shall we try putting the Hellfire into the altar?”
“Hmm? There’s already a flame in the altar.”
“No. I mean the wild Hellfire that prowls around the mountain.”
“……?”
“Hellfire is classified as a monster too. And the rules say three hours per monster.”
At that, everyone’s expressions changed.
Sienne asked.
“But aren’t the two of them… no, however you look at it, wouldn’t they just be of the same kind?”
“Is there a law that says the same kind can’t eat each other? Again, this is Hell. Don’t expect common sense.”
“That’s true, but…”
“Let’s just think about what’s written in the rules. Three hours per monster. Hellfire is a monster. So if we can lure the Hellfire outside and throw it into the altar’s Hellfire, the time will increase.”
Everyone gaped.
They seemed to think it was a plausible idea.
But Benjamin spoke cautiously.
“By what means would we lure them? They won’t understand speech, will they?”
“Their food.”
“Huh? Ah!”
“Yes. Just as we freeze to death without firewood, they starve without monsters. Let’s disassemble the monsters we brought, sling them on our backs, and walk around.”
And deliberately let the Hellfire discover us.
Lead the pursuing Hellfire to the campsite altar.
And make them dive onto the altar.
Ta-ak.
I slapped my knee and said,
“There’s no other way in this situation. Let’s try every possible method.”
Everyone’s faces hardened.
Then we immediately went to work.
I called Darhen and explained the operation.
As before, I organized teams, told them the current locations of the Hellfire, and asked them to lure them.
“Unlike before, you don’t need to fight the Hellfire. Just run back to the camp when you’re spotted. That’s all you need to do.”
“We will. We have to do something now.”
“Thank you. Let’s start right away.”
Thus the operation began.
Participants slung the carcasses of monsters onto their backs and headed outside.
At first I wondered whether it would work, but surprisingly the plan succeeded.
“Waaah.”
“They’re coming. We brought the Hellfire!”
“Us too. Damn, we’re saved.”
From a distance I could see some teams of participants dragging Hellfire toward us.
Three teams returned at once, and three Hellfire followed them.
I shouted at the top of my lungs.
“Good. Carefully move to the back of the altar. At the moment they lunge, throw the firewood into the altar.”
“Ah, understood.”
Good, good.
If the opponent were human, they’d never fall for this.
But the Hellfire probably had no intelligence.
If we did it well somehow… huh?
“What, what’s this?”
Something was odd.
The Hellfire had been chasing the participants, but then it stopped.
They stopped exactly at the boundary of the light from the altar’s flame.
The line where the temperature remained at normal room level.
They lingered outside that boundary and simply watched us from there.
“Why aren’t they coming in, Mason?”
“I have no idea.”
“Maybe our operation was discovered?”
“If they’d discovered it they’d at least flee. The fact they just won’t come closer is strange.”
Meanwhile other teams of participants began returning from afar.
I cried out to them loudly.
“Circle around! The Hellfire is guarding from outside the boundary.”
“Ugh!”
“Don’t hand over the monsters you’re carrying.”
“Aaah.”
“Turn to the opposite side… no, we’ll help. Everyone, please.”
Then the party members began to move.
They didn’t draw weapons.
We’d already confirmed human weapons couldn’t harm Hellfire.
The party simply moved nimbly and guided the participants safely back inside the boundary.
The Hellfire drifted toward the monsters the participants carried like eerie ghosts.
But thanks to the party’s efforts and the participants’ life-or-death sprints, everyone made it safely inside the boundary.
When all the work finished, fifteen Hellfire were patrolling outside the boundary.
‘Why? Why aren’t they coming in?’
As I muttered that, Sienne caught her breath and said,
“Whew. Whew. Lately it feels like we’ve been running nonstop.”
“Good work.”
“No. Oh right, I’ll return the brooch now.”
She returned the brooches to everyone except me.
By the way, I decided to give my brooch to Benjamin. It would probably be more useful on him than on me.
Something fluttered at the edge of my mind.
Aina murmured.
“Is there some restriction preventing Hellfire from getting close to each other?”
“They seem perfectly fine clinging to each other already.”
“That’s true too. Damn. This is maddening. The Hellfire outside the altar don’t give warmth, so they’re useless.”
That was it.
The Hellfire outside didn’t have the ‘remaining time’ displayed on the small bulletin board.
The altar’s Hellfire really had been special.
I checked the small bulletin board beside the altar.
–108:45:12
Of course the time had decreased.
“……First, let’s throw all the remaining monsters into the altar.”
“Ugh. Well, we should do that for now.”
We began tossing the monsters we had captured onto the altar one by one.
Three hours per monster, and the total time increased considerably.
Just as Benjamin was about to throw the final monster onto the altar, I felt an inexplicable intuition and stopped him.
“Wait a moment. Let’s hold back the last one.”
“Huh?”
“The Hellfire outside the boundary are still circling and watching us. They’re waiting for a chance to eat the monsters we brought.”
“…….”
“If we throw the last monster into the altar, they’ll have no reason to stay here.”
Aina tilted her head.
“Does it matter? They’re not trying to come in anyway.”
“That may be, but the Hellfire outside are our only hope right now. They might come up with another way to lure them, so it’s better to keep them pinned out there for the time being.”
“Hmm. That’s true.”
So we postponed throwing the last monster into the altar.
Originally we were short by 36 hours, but since we left one monster, we were now short by 39 hours.
Now the last firewood left to us was those Hellfire monsters out there.
We had to capture those creatures somehow.