End of the World Broadcast

The 21st century humanity can only access the future where Mori lives and breathes fragmentarily through the video captured by the drone.
Historically, when humans discovered unknown phenomena or objects, they examined them over a long time, from various angles, to derive an answer that as many people as possible could empathize with.
The basis for judgment was always technical and historical background. In cases without objective evidence, research utilizing individual experience or knowledge was used to find the cause.
Therefore, scholars and artisans who had honed their knowledge in one field for a lifetime were respected regardless of the era.
And because people in any era know that experts are exerting power in their positions, ordinary people could entrust judgment and solutions to experts and maintain an ordinary daily life when something happened.
Also, people are surprisingly dull to external changes.
Even if they hear that a massive tornado has formed on the opposite side of the Earth, destroying villages and causing several cities to cease functioning.
Or even if the sea turns white due to rising temperatures, or insects that weren’t previously visible become rampant in urban areas.
Unless it directly affects their daily life, like a pandemic that shook the entire world, or unless it’s a field they were initially interested in, people don’t try to know what’s happening in the world.
Even though they can quickly access various events happening in the world through news or newspapers, most people either don’t care in the first place or just glance at it when they come across the news and soon forget it in their minds.
Because it’s not my business, and I’m not in immediate danger.
Because I can’t see with my own eyes what the problem is and what happens because of it.
If I leave it to smart people, it will all be solved at some point. As it always has been.
──But this time, it was different.
All of humanity can only access the future through a single method, ‘video viewing.’
And regardless of their wealth or technology, everyone can only accept the unfamiliar world from the same perspective, that is, from the same position.
The biggest problem was that such videos continue to appear at the top of popular video sites whenever Mori activates the drone.
Just as in Mori’s life, the end of the world has become daily life for 21st century humanity.
Society instantly became chaotic, as if the peace until now had been an illusion.
“What are the experts doing?”
Moreover, the experts who should provide clear answers and future paths have, for some reason, refrained from speaking. There are rumors circulating secretly that a project for human salvation is underway, but there has not been a single official announcement even now, a month after the video appeared.
As a result, people couldn’t escape their anxiety and continued to talk about the end of the world and Mori through word of mouth or community posts.
Amid numerous analyses, predictions, superstitions, and lamentations piling up like snow falling on a ruined world.
If there was an analysis that, regardless of experts and non-experts, many people’s opinions rarely agreed upon.
It was the analysis that the cities and land Mori wanders through are very artificial.
“An ark for human salvation…”
And Eugene thought as he read the draft of the project that would be carried out over the next hundreds of years, which had arrived for him.
…What comes first, after all?

Addiction.

To say it again, walking in a snow field where your feet sink deep is extremely arduous.
With each step you take, you have to endlessly repeat lifting your foot to knee height and slowly putting it down, so it’s natural.
And since you can’t rest in a warm and safe place when you want to, your words naturally decrease to conserve energy as much as possible.
I wonder if people watching my broadcast would be surprised, saying, “Was she this quiet?”
“…………”
I heard that in the old days, people used to attach woven bushes or wood to their shoes to walk on snow. I’m just amazed at how they discovered it and how they made it.
With a hopeful heart, I once tried tying papers or metal plates lying on the floor to my shoes with cut wires, but far from walking on snow, I fell forward as soon as I took a bold step.
If I had those, I could have crossed this snow field a bit more easily, which is really a shame.

“Looking at the weather… I think I won’t be able to sleep for a few days.”
Buildings buried in snow that you can’t advance forward, or unfinished buildings.
I wish something would catch my eye, but all I can see is darkness and snow.
I’m not even sure if I’m properly moving forward.
“…Phew.”
When I open my mouth wanting to vent my frustration somehow, cold air penetrates even through the scarf covering my mouth and enters my body.
Perhaps because I was in relatively warm sunshine until just a few hours ago, the air feels colder and more painful than usual.
So when I walk with my mouth tightly closed and my scarf pulled up to my nose, frustration gradually builds up in my heart.
It’s painful.
For me, talking was an act of reducing loneliness and an escape to prevent falling into contemplation.
The longer the thoughts, perhaps because the environment is harsh, the more the thoughts are consumed by the environment.
Even if you start with positive thoughts, just as maintaining a white canvas is much harder than making a black canvas, they transform into negative thoughts before I know it.
Like how the sky that was clear just a while ago suddenly becomes a snowy night in an instant.

“Ugh, I almost fell again….”
Although I said all I can see is snow, this is still a path where people lived and passed through.
In the darkness, under the snow, my feet keep catching on invisible ledges or objects.
Thanks to the walking stick, there’s no need to fall greatly.
Even if I fall greatly, everything I’m carrying is in my bag, so I can just get up and walk.

“…It’s irritating.”
Being constantly threatened by invisible dangers in an environment where you can’t see an inch ahead is nerve-wracking in itself.
Already difficult enough, it takes away energy mentally too. Curses keep circling in my mouth.
But in a place like this, turning on a flashlight doesn’t really change anything.
Snow, which makes everything look pure and peaceful, is like a clown’s mask.
Because you can never know whether there’s really a smiling face underneath, or a crying face, or an angry face, until you take it off yourself.

“How much time has passed since I last smoked…?”
There’s no way to escape this terrible darkness and cold.
The only thing that can make me feel like I’m escaping… for me, it was smoking.
Burning paper, burning the body, and burning depressing thoughts together.
I know it’s not good for health. Cigarettes are still drugs, just mainstream ones.
Relying on such substances doesn’t bring peace, it only sends the body and mind to hell.
I know it very well in my head. How much is burned away for a moment’s comfort. How unsightly and pathetic this appearance looks to others. I used to look at people who drank and smoked with contempt, wondering why they lived like that.

But God. There is no salvation here. For me not to die now. Not to go crazy. I need a little heat and light.
People don’t call it addiction when someone who’s about to collapse from iron deficiency takes supplements.
I’m in a similar situation. In this world without a single doctor, this is the only prescription I can give myself who is suffering.
So, just for now, it’s not addiction. It’s unavoidable.
I put another cigarette in my mouth, one that I’ve put in my mouth several times today, while laying out exceedingly pathetic excuses.
And just as I’m about to light the end of the paper in my mouth, longing for light.

[Hey Mori. I’ve been wondering something for the past few days, why are there fences around the cities?]
“…Ah.”
─A blue light bloomed in the darkness.
A message rose from the controller in my trembling hand holding the torch.
The cigarette slips from my mouth, entranced by the suddenly appearing light.
But I didn’t care whether it fell to the ground or not.
The light I had been longing for appeared before my eyes, and loneliness also disappeared.
There was no need to rely on such objects in this situation.

“Ahem, ahem. Fences… fences. Since I’m neither the person who built this city nor a person who lived inside, I can’t give you a clear answer.”
The more I think about the situation I’m in and about myself, the more I sink into darker places.
This is because it’s not so easy for humans to create new emotions or thoughts on their own.
The vicious cycle of becoming depressed because I’m alone, and not being able to escape that depression because I’m alone… is truly terrible, and that’s the only way to describe it.
But that’s a suffering that comes only because I’m alone.
Just by someone coming and saying a word to me when I’m in such pain and difficulty, I can soon smile.

“But─ since you’re curious, I’ll tell you a bit. About a special experience I had regarding cities and fences.”
Cities and fences.
And designated entrances and exits.
It was a suspicious combination that looked artificial any way you looked at it, and I, like the people watching the video, had questions about it.

“At that time, I really… thought I was going to die. Yes.”
And as the saying goes, curiosity killed the cat.
I too almost lost my life due to curiosity I had without knowing my place.
It’s a bit embarrassing, but I can tell it to the kind people who saved me as much as they want.
I started to continue speaking with a broad smile.