Chapter 8

Acknowledgment.

Four days have passed since I was appointed to my team, and in those few days, we´ve been getting to know each other bit by bit.

It has been the same work every day. Going out, mapping and hunting, returning to base and resting for a bit. It was quite hard, but my men managed. However, the one I was worried about was Zero. Really young to be doing things like this, I approached him more than the others.

"So Zero, may I ask you something? How did you get here? I mean how was your life before this?"

"Well, I was starting upper secondary school, and I had plans to study civil engineering, you know; the normal stuff. I was the one of the few lucky ones to get a copy of the game, and today, here I am. But now, I guess it will be really hard getting back to normal once we get out"

"…."

"However, we can't just give up like that. Once we get out, we´ll be famous right? I mean, maybe they´ll even give us medals and stuff for getting thru this!"

Man, he really thinks we´ll get out, huh? I sure hope he´s right.

"Ha, yeah of course! You´ll see, we´ll be out in no time"

The kid was living a normal life in the real world. Normal is the word to describe him, yet he seemed a bit lonely. He was after all the youngest member in the whole ALS.

But I still wonder, what drives him to be fighting? And way up on the front?

The answer came from the most unexpected place. It was quite a surprise, coming from someone whom I thought to be pretty tough.

"That kid has gone thru a lot. He lost his friends in battle once. He was cowering in Starting City when I found him and decided to care of him, yet sometimes, he took care of me. We´ve been like this pretty much since the start"

"Ooh, I had no idea, I'm sorry"

"…"

"But what about Tak, what's his story?"

"Well, we then met Tak, who´s really a pretty smart guy, but he doesn't really talk a lot. We were all scared of dying, but we kept on fighting. It was then that we decided to join the ALS, and now here we are"

"So you guys knew each other already, huh? But why not form a guild? I mean, you did have the minimum amount of members to make one"

"It´s probably the same reason you're here; relying on many members to fight many enemies. The more there are, the easier it is"

It was the first time I heard Kato speak so… naturally. I realized that he wasn't just some grumpy old man; he also cared for others and kept them safe. It was so that I felt that I wasn't fit to lead such strong companions, but this guy seemed to differ from my thoughts.

"I can see you're having a hard time leading the group. You shouldn't show that weakness to your soldiers because they're counting on you; and so am I. leading is really not my thing, besides, someone has to make the tough decisions!"

It's like that then? Very well, I'll just have to live up to that!

"Come on, we have work to do. And plus, we don't want to get too soft, now do we? Tonight´s dinner is on me!"

As we chuckled for a bit, we went to find the others and headed for the first floor. It was about to get dark and we couldn't stay inside the dungeon.

Many thoughts ran thru my mind, but they were things that couldn't be answered just yet. I should just focus on what a good day it was for me, and hopefully for the others too.

The current frontline and the extensive dungeon we were on was the twelfth floor. The clearing group passed thru the tenth and eleventh floor recently, and we were lucky enough to participate. We were going quite at it; still conquering floors at a 2 or 3 day rate. It was probably due to everyone´s contribution and enthusiasm to get to the one-hundredth floor and beat the game.

And we will make it to the top, of that I'm sure!