His house looks like a little run-down shack, only barely fitting in this clearing of trees.
"Humble place you got here."
"Yeah."
We step inside, to see that the inside is much more technologically advanced. Sure, it's not mind blowing or anything, but it looks distinctly modern on the inside.
"Maybe humble isn't the right word though." Oh ha ha.
"So electricity still works? How is the internet down then?"
"Actually, I got my own generator, electricity is actually quite rare." Guess he was dedicated to living off the grid, huh? Nowadays that must be a lot easier.
I move into another room, and lie down on the first couch I see. There's still a TV, despite the inability to actually... watch it.
"You got any games?"
"Had to sell most of them for food. But I still got my favorites."
"No idea why they bought them though. Since most of them don't have electricity."
"Oh, are there other people nearby?"
"Yeah. A place called Setup: Dirpending."
"Maybe I should head there soon." Despite the awful name.
"Speaking of which... I'm not letting you live here rent free."
"Wait, people still use money?"
"No, but you need to give me something."
Great, and I thought I was able to settle down.
"Look, the people at Dirpending will likely give you a place to stay, their main hub is a giant hotel, the rest of their little town is pretty destroyed."
"Okay, but I've already done a lot of walking, you mind if I stay at least an hour?"
"For a little bit, yeah since the place is about another half-hour walk. I'm not cruel, probably." Good.
I feel something on my ass, preventing me from relaxing. Actually, I seem to have all sorts of bags and bottles across the belt I seem to be wearing. I start to open each bag to see what's inside. Okay, it's not food it's...
I don't know what this is. One's filled with clay, one has cement, I open a bottle assuming it's some form of drink, but after I took a whiff of it, I quickly realised that it was alcohol. On that note, is this drinkable? Because it smells very strong. Either way, I shouldn't drink it because I'm... 16...
Or at least... I was. I guess I'm 21 now. Still not drinking it though, with all the other weird shit I have on my belt, I can't trust it. The last thing I check is a box attached to the base of my leg. I pop it open to find...
...a flower? It looks like an Orchid, but the stem is red, and the petals are peach colored. It feels weird too, it's definitely something that I've touched before, but I can't put my finger on what it feels like. Regardless, I trust myself enough to keep this flower safe, it has to be important somehow.
After about 30 minutes of resting, the guy sent me off to Setup: Dirpending along with a few supplies. A wave and a (hopefully) friendly smile later, I was off.
It was about 7 or so minutes of silence until...
...I showed up again. I imagine it's a lot to realize that 5 years of your life have been taken away from you...
Yeah... now I know what it's like to be you.
Ehhhh... I didn't do anything important in those 3 years anyway. But you? It looks like you missed a lot, huh?
Yeah... I just hope everyone's okay...
That's our number one priority, I guess.
To find my family, yeah.
If only I could use my alchemy to locate the position of everyone... But, that's not even something alchemists can do, sooo...
-and even if you could, it's not like you're real.
Yep! So it looks like you're on your own!
...Check out the town! It's...
-fucked up! The hell happened to this place?
I can see crushed, charred, even sliced up buildings all across the horizon...
Of course, the hotel seems to be doing fine.
That's not the only building that seems to be intact. I can't see much from here, but it looks like there are about 2 other buildings that are still intact, both of them are only a story tall though.
You want to hurry up? Seems like the town is pretty close.
Yeah, let's go for it!