**Episode 017: Whereabouts of Those Wishing for Survival**

After escorting Yuna and Kana to school, I was left in a daze due to the lingering feeling of their kisses. I mean, who would have thought that I, who was just a fan, would experience such an event of getting kissed on the cheek by my favorite characters?

Shaking off my dazed state, I realized it was not the time for such thoughts and immediately started running towards Satoshi’s house, leaping over rooftops with the fantasy-like physical abilities granted by the cheat of multiple statuses. It took me only a few minutes to reach Satoshi’s house.

Satoshi’s house, belonging to a reasonably well-off family, was a single-family home surrounded by a large outer wall. There was a sizable garden inside, indicating the wealth to afford such a house in the urban area. From my observations, there didn’t seem to be any signs of damage inside.

However, the lights were off. It seemed Satoshi’s parents hadn’t returned yet; perhaps they were still at work. I checked inside the premises just to be sure, peeking through windows and attempting to detect any signs of people.

“Tch, no luck.”

Since I couldn’t find Satoshi, I clicked my tongue and kicked the ground in frustration.

—Bam!

What I intended to be a normal kick turned into a significant groove in the ground, thanks to my enhanced physical abilities from the six statuses.

“Oh no…”

Realizing that I had unintentionally torn up someone’s yard, I panicked.

“Guess I should fix this.”

Though no one told me to, leaving it as it was didn’t sit right with me. I smoothed out the grooved area, checked that no one was around, sighed in relief, and left Satoshi’s house.

Next on the list was Shuji’s house. Shuji lived in an apartment towards the station. There might be a swarm of Shadows there, given the circumstances.

I hurriedly ran through the city.

—Ding dong!

Having knocked down Shadows and arrived at the apartment, I went upstairs and rang the doorbell at Shuji’s place.

“…”

However, even after waiting for a while, there was no response.

No answer after a few more doorbell rings prompted me to move to the back of the building. I jumped as high as I could.

“Oops!”

Easily clearing the height of the second floor, I adjusted and jumped, peeking through the window. Yet, like Satoshi’s house, Shuji’s home was dark inside, suggesting no one was there.

While there was a possibility that the power was out, I lightly tapped the window with a small stone as a signal. Despite this, there was no indication of anyone coming out from inside, so they were probably not home.

With no one in sight outside and considering that survivors were either evacuated or barricaded themselves, it was a natural conclusion.

“Damn, it’s getting dark.”

Although I started searching for Satoshi and Shuji, the incident occurred at a time where it was turning dark.

“This is bad…”

What’s bad is that it’s difficult to see Shadows in the dark, and visibility is low.

The first night after Shadows appeared.

Despite becoming stronger, I wanted to avoid being caught off guard. It was wise to hide in a safe place without moving too much.

“Well, can’t be helped. I’ll give up on searching for today.”

Deciding to abandon further search for the day, I ran through the city where all sounds had vanished. Shadows appeared several times on the way, but I swiftly cut them down with my drawn sword, ignoring any treasure chests that might have appeared. Of course, unless they were silver or gold chests, or rainbow chests, in which case, exceptions were made.

“Their numbers are decreasing…”

As I approached my house on top of the mountain, a bit away from the urban area, encounters with Shadows dwindled. Now, I couldn’t find any at all.

It couldn’t be concluded, but it seemed like they stayed closer to areas with more people, perhaps because they ate humans.

I believed in the safety of my home and continued running.

“Oh!”

Climbing the stairs leading to the shrine, my eyes, accustomed to the darkness, caught sight of my usual home.

To confirm the safety of the surroundings, I conducted a search. As a result, there didn’t seem to be any Shadows around.

” I have been searching for so long, it should be safe to rest. If something happens, I can set up traps to find out.”

With the safety of the surroundings confirmed, I slowly made my way back home.

“Phew, I didn’t have much time to verify today, but I’d like to test magic and skills once I find those two.”

Honestly, at this stage, I don’t feel the need to understand my skills since my stats are high. However, there’s a possibility that enemies will appear in the future that can’t be defeated with stats alone. It’s better to grasp the skills I can use on myself before that happens.

In a world like this, the more cards you have in your hand, the better. Magic is intriguing too.

“Now, I should also check inside the house…”

Muttering to myself, I inserted the key into the house door and turned it.

“…”

I fell silent. Why? Because I didn’t feel the sensation of the door unlocking. That meant the door was already open before I inserted the key.

“Is someone inside…?”

Reaching that conclusion, I heightened my vigilance and slowly opened the door. In the next moment, two shadows leaped out from inside. I jumped backward to dodge their attacks and focused on their figures.

The moonlight, hidden behind clouds, precisely illuminated the spot where we were, revealing the true identity of the shadows.