BXBX NOVEL — (226) Smartphone charger
Chapter: (226) Smartphone charger
Translator: Tseirp
I was on guard against the unknown strength of the Death Warrior Great Master. He had drawn his sword and it looked like it would hurt if he cut me with something like that, so I performed a flying kick in hope of disarming just his sword but when I returned to my original spot, the Death Warrior Great Master was already embedded in the wall.
I didn’t raise my level so I probably did not murder him but I felt a little apologetic.
Even if he had a criminal job, it was possible that he had to commit the crime due to circumstances beyond his control.
However, thinking about it carefully, anybody who has been hired to be the guard for a smuggling crew would naturally be a villain too… so I relegated the responsibility and looked at the smuggling crew leader.
He started calling me ‘Great Master’ and passed me a pouch packed with silver coins as the contract fee.
Each of the pouch contents was a hundred silver coins, or in other words, one gold coin worth — ten thousand sense. In that case, I thought to myself that wouldn’t it be better to just pass two gold coins to me? But gold coins could not be used in regular shops and it might be traceable if they went to a moneychanger to change them to silver coins, so silver coins were probably the better choice.
In fact, I had many pieces of gold coins but apart from Carol using them when she purchases goods from the trading store and when I used them to purchase Haru, most of them lay untouched at the bottom of my item bag.
Speaking of gold coins, it was equivalent to a million yen, right? Even in Japan fast-food restaurants, just paying with a ten thousand yen note would warrant a special confirmation call saying ‘Received ten thousand yen’, so it would lead to panic if you pass them a million yen — Ah no, the cashier would just take out the topmost ten thousand yen note and return the remaining 99 pieces of ten thousand yen notes and the change. In a past commercial, there was a scene where the person said something along the lines of ‘Manager, received a million yen’ but something as silly as that has probably never happened before. (Note: In Japan, a million yen is just a bundle of 100 pieces of ten thousand yen notes.)
Ah, I kind of derailed there a little but nevertheless, I would get twenty thousand sense just by acting as the guard for a single smuggling round-trip — two million yen huh?
Smuggling sure is profitable after all. (Well, they smuggle precisely because it is profitable.)
“So, where is the ship?”
“Yes, the ship is even further underground. The loading of the goods will be completed shortly so Great Master Ichinojo and Master Suzuki please relax here for now.”
The smuggling group leader said to me before he addressed his subordinates.
“Oi, bastards! Rest time is over! Hurry up and move the goods!”
“””Yes, boss!”””
“Don’t call me boss! That makes it sound like we are criminals! Call me Director!”
The leader man shouted angrily. Incidentally, his job was Thief so he was undeniably a criminal.
“Man, that was brilliant work, Kusunoki-kun. Perhaps you are actually stronger than I am?”
“Hmm, no idea? We’re free for now so what do we do?”
“Shall we read some comics? You still have more right?”
“I have 『This is Shibu』 if you want to read it.”
“『This is Shibuya district’s police box in front of Yoyogi Park』!? Wah, I read that. How many volumes do you have?”
“I have everything until the last volume.”
“Until the last volume!? Eh, 『This is Shibu』 ended? You’re kidding, I thought that it would have lasted forever.”
Suzuki was extremely shocked. Well, 『This is Shibu』 was still serializing when this guy came to this world so there’s no wonder that he was surprised.
“The broadcasting for 『It might be okay to smile』ended too.”
“Heh, I see.”
It seemed that he wasn’t really interested in that as he had begun quietly reading the 198 volumes of 『This is Shibu』 that I lent to him.
I was bored so I took out my smartphone.
“Smartphone!?”
He showed the most amount of surprise until now.
“Eh, why — don’t tell me, you made a stable battery using magic —”
“No way no way. But Miri that girl brought a generator over.”
“Generator!? Your younger sister does amazing things as usual… was she planning to go camping or something before her transfer?”
“Nope, apparently she was climbing Mount Fuji.”
“She climbed Mount Fuji while carrying a generator!?”
Well, in Japan without an item bag, that was something impossible for a single person.
Although it seemed that Miri was capable of using Space-Time Magic so that was easy for her.
“Hey, Kusunoki-kun. Could you charge my smartphone too?”
“What’s the model?”
“Lphone 4S.”
“It’s the same model as my previous phone. I have a spare battery.”
I handed the spare battery to Suzuki as he thanked me and I took out a solar panel battery from my item bag.
“A solar panel battery too… was this from your younger sister too?”
“She brought three over.”
“Why was she holding so many… forget it, that’s a great help. Are you sure I can borrow this?”
“I’ll give it to you. My current smartphone is an Anbroid so I can’t use that. I have five solar panel batteries for Anbroid anyway.”
“Thanks.”
Suzuki thanked me and directly connected the spare battery.
After a while, he pressed the power button.
“It works… thank god.”
“Did the battery run flat?”
“Yup, it ran flat just as I came to this world. I forgot to charge it the day before.”
“I see —”
With the nostalgic startup sound, the smartphone booted up.
“Out of service as expected.”
Suzuki said the given fact.
“Well, we’re underground after all.”
I replied with the appropriate reply.
Then, Suzuki looked at a picture.
I thought he saved some doujinshi but he was actually looking at a photo of a man that looked like a doctor.
“Is that —”
“My father. It’s been three years since I last saw him.”
“I see —”
My smartphone didn’t have a photo of my father. I changed the phone a year ago and didn’t transfer the data.
Father’s photo huh — while thinking that there was probably a funeral portrait of father in the item bag Miri left behind, I started reading the electronic books I downloaded onto my smartphone when I was in Japan.
※※※
Suzuki and I both ate the chicken brand instant ramen together. The surrounding people were drooling from the smell but after spectating my fight with the Death Warrior Great Master, they didn’t dare to approach us for fear of stepping on the tiger’s tail.
“Whew, it’s delicious. The chicken brand instant ramen is the tastiest after all.”
“Agreed, it is extraordinary once you crack an egg over it.”
Pavlov approached as we both ate.
“That smells amazing.”
He stared into the contents of the bowl without displaying any fear toward the two of us.
“Hey, Pavlov. Want to eat together?”
“Is it okay?”
“Sure, right? Kusunoki-kun.”
“You are seriously a good-looking guy down to your character — sure, Pavlov. Let’s eat together.”
He didn’t smell bad anymore and I felt guilty with just the two of us eating good food.
I placed chicken ramen into Pavlov’s bowl and poured boiling water in.
“Digging in!”
“Ah, wait…”
“Delicious!”
The chicken ramen didn’t even boil for a second before Pavlov took it out from the boiling water with his bare hands and ate it in a single bite.
It was my bad that I didn’t explain it beforehand but — wasn’t it hot?
After that, Pavlov drank up all the chicken ramen soup… or rather, the hot water.
“Hey, Pavlov! The preparations are done! It’s your turn now! Great Master Ichinojo and Master Suzuki please come over too! It’s time to set off!”
It seemed that it was time to go.
The two of us were led by the leader man, with Pavlov following behind, as we descended the stairs leading underground.
That was when I saw a huge ship there.
But —
What’s the meaning of this? There was a ship but no water at all.