Chapter 96 Briefing
"Okay, let's talk about what we need to do tomorrow," I said, looking at the girls who seemed a little bit surprised to see me waking up.
From the look of it, it seemed like Liu informed Zax about the situation so I didn't have to explain everything from the beginning again.
However, it seemed like they wanted to ask me some questions, that much I could tell, just by looking at Zax's face who looked at me as if I was the one who came back from the gate of death. 'It seemed like their discussion made it obvious that I did something to save them while they were unconscious and now they wanted to know my secret.'
Still, I couldn't possibly tell them about the tree fragments because I knew that it would make things difficult later on, so as long as it wasn't an absolute necessity, I would continue to keep them ignorant about what happened. 'But how should I explain about Liu's power… It looks like she is already aware of the changes that are happening inside of her body.' I thought, looking at Liu who avoided my eyes.
When everyone's attention was focused on me, I continued to inform them about my plan. "There is a chance that we will find a repairable floating vehicle or a spaceship tomorrow based on what I saw during my exploration, however, there are some problems that we need to solve whether we find a ship or a vehicle. I will explain the problems now and you can suggest solutions if you can think of something." I said, trying to begin our sort of meeting.
"…" Blanca nodded at my words without saying anything but she took a glance at Liu and Zax as she did.
"I will help with the reparations," Zax announced. She looked like she felt a little bit better after talking to Liu but I could tell that there was this lingering fear in her voice. In other words, she was putting up a brave face but I knew that she was traumatized by what happened. I just hoped that she didn't pass out again after seeing the gigantic monster outside, along with the countless monsters roaming around.
Liu didn't say anything and just looked like she had something on her mind but I couldn't guess what she was thinking about at that moment so I just continued talking.
"First of all, let's talk about the first possibility and imagine that we find a spaceship," I went on with my explanation, "in this case, it might take a while to repair it and we need to do it inside of the city so it could be dangerous. Moreover, if we want to take off, we need to fight the flying monsters that might hinder the process."
The girls looked like they understood what I was talking about but they didn't seem to be convinced about something.
Blanca was the first one who commented. "You talk like it's easy, but can we even make it inside the city, I mean all of us?" She said, looking at Zax. "Moreover, isn't it easier to travel by foot, because from the look of it, we are all strong enough to handle a few hundred kilometers while fighting monsters?" She said, insinuating that we didn't need to find a spaceship.
"…" Liu didn't say anything and looked at me as if she was waiting to see how I would deal with Blanca since she certainly had a point.
"That might be true, but because we don't know about the state of things around the planet, it would be bad if the number of monsters exceeds our capabilities. Moreover, we will need to worry about food, about a place to sleep when night comes, and also about other factors like our mental state and physical state if we continue without resting, all of these things cannot be predicted which will lower the probability of success." I explained, "And so you know it, Zax doesn't have any power, so even if we don't have the choice but to do that, leaving her behind is out of the question, or do you have any problem with that?" I said, knowing that Cristal could help with all of that but there was something that I didn't like about her suggestion and it wasn't like I didn't consider it to begin with.
"No, I understand," Bianca answered and closed her eyes, looking like she was thinking about something.
Without considering Zax, Blanca's suggestion was the most realistic choice, because the three of us, Liu, Blanca, and I were strong enough to travel at a very quick pace, taking advantage of Cristal's help we could avoid monsters, but with Zax added into the equation, there were a lot of things that could happen and I didn't like the sound of it because this one time, I was the one who agreed to bring Zax her and so I needed to take the responsibility and keep her safe. 'Only this time though… I will never make this mistake again.'
"Okay. So as I said, it would be dangerous, but the advantage of this scenario is that we can directly leave the planet and meet up with the others. Of course, the success of this plan depends on our luck and two deciding factors: One, we find a spaceship, and two, we can repair it. I know that it is dangerous, but you need to understand that we wouldn't be able to get out of this situation if we don't take some risks. Do you have any questions or suggestions?" I said.
"No, but I think your plan requires a lot of lucky occurrences which makes it uncertain," Liu said and she had a point.
"I know, but almost everything that seems doable to get us out of this situation depends on luck. We need the luck to find a spaceship, but we also need luck if we traveled on foot." I said, and I even thought about the possibility of going to the meeting point alone and then returning here to pick up the girls with the others but it was even more dangerous.
Moreover, the possibility of them sending people to pick us up from here was unlikely because for a while now, I was a little suspicious about the identity of the person who sent us those messages.
'If it was Timothy and the others, they would put their life on the line to save Liu and would probably ask about our situation constantly because they should be worried about her, but they didn't, and that made me think twice so I prioritized finding a spaceship. After all, It's probable that it's not because they don't want to, but because they can't… And if that was the case, then something happened." I thought, looking back at the conclusion that I reached while thinking about a way to get everyone out of this situation.
Still, I decided to keep this theory to myself.
"Moreover," I continued, "if things don't go as planned, we can hide from the monsters as long as we are inside the city. Earlier, I found a room that could potentially lead to a safe location underground, which brings me to the next scene. If we can't find a spaceship and find a floating vehicle instead, then this is what we should do..."
I proceeded to explain the next possibility. "First, repairing a vehicle should be easier than repairing a ship we should be able to finish the reparations quickly, but in this scenario, we need to obtain more water and food. And when we ride it, the three of us need to take the monsters out of the way until we get out of the city. However, even though it's not as advantageous as having a spaceship, traveling a floating vehicle would be more effective than on foot, if we consider the factors that I mentioned earlier."
After hearing my explanation, the girls didn't even look like they thought that my plans could work and they just looked at me with odd eyes, mostly Liu.
I know why they had such reactions but as far as I was concerned, I was more troubled about the thought that the people who came to fetch us would change their minds or fail to reach the meeting point, so I couldn't discard the thought of finding a spaceship even if the chances were low. 'When it comes to it, we could at least travel to another city on the floating vehicle and search for ships there if we couldn't find one here…'
"Don't worry," I said, looking at Liu and Zax, "I will be the one to explore the city and find these things, so for tomorrow, you can try to recover your strength."
"Well, we don't have much of a choice," Liu said, looking like she was also thinking about the situation as much as I did.
However, I wondered if she reached the same conclusion as me.
I didn't say it to the girls but from the look of it, we didn't have that much time. The gigantic monster looked like it was about to do something and I couldn't tell when it would make its move, making it dangerous to travel on foot, or to be precise, to stay on this planet any longer.
'In any case, this planet is doomed…' I thought, accepting the harsh reality.