Due to an accident, Goki entered Yharnam, a place full of beasts and blood, and joined the endless night of hunting.
After all, this wasn't a game; playing with a controller was different from truly wielding a blade or gun. Just on the way out of the beginner's hospital, Goki was bitten by a beastly werewolf and directly pulled into the Hunter's Dream.
Forget swinging a Saw Cleaver; even just wielding a Hunter's Axe would almost make Goki lose his balance. Adapting to this process cost him several more deaths.
Not to mention the pistol, which no longer had auto-aim, and its recoil was so strong it could almost shake it out of his hand.
One could say that while Goki had chosen the lowest-level 'Nameless Pawn' in terms of stats, if he were to face his past self who had just arrived in Yharnam, a hundred of them wouldn't be enough for him to kill.
All these painful experiences made Goki desperately want to find a way to leave Yharnam immediately, to rush straight to the ending. For a time, he almost became a ruthless killing machine.
It was also thanks to the Doll's companionship that he didn't completely descend into madness—of course, Gehrman, that old bastard, didn't count; he stayed in his house all day and rarely spoke.
The prolonged slaughter made Goki feel himself gradually becoming numb. If he continued, he would surely go completely insane.
So, he slowed his pace and began to enjoy this mad yet real world.
To maintain his humanity, Goki slowed down the plot progression and started doing some meaningless but interesting small tasks.
How did that old saying go—if you rush towards the end, you're more likely to miss the good scenery along the way?
Thus, Goki began to enrich his leisure life, diligently learning some other skills—
Considering that Yharnam's time was frozen by Rom just before the Blood Moon, Goki could be said to have activated a "I'm trapped in Yharnam for a thousand years" Golden Finger.
Although he wasn't truly trapped for a thousand years, this considerable amount of time was enough for Goki to refine some of his skills.
For example, this man, whose work and life depended entirely on takeout, learned how to cook food.
Sizzle—
Inside the stove, several pieces of firewood salvaged from the ruins burned, heating the pot that had been cleaned of rust.
Although he was slapped against the wall by a groggy Titi when he first woke up, even breaking an arm, Goki didn't make a fuss, quickly drank blood vials to recover, and disposed of the bloody scene—what's a mere fatal injury to be afraid of!
Several pieces of fatty meat were placed in the pot, quickly sautéed to render some oil, and a few pieces of smoked wild boar meat were then added.
"This place certainly doesn't lack seasonings."
Sprinkling a few green leafy plants that resembled green onions or chives, scraped coconut meat, and a pinch of coarse sea salt into the pot, Goki quickly cooked the last remaining ingredients in just a short while.
"Sigh, after this, I'll have to go further afield to find ingredients. Everything nearby has been eaten by the citizens. In another two years, I'm afraid there won't be any living animals left."
Soon, Goki plated the wild boar meat, then lifted the lid of another pot, taking out several slightly softened brown lumps.
This was the main source of carbohydrates for the people of Saltwind City, similar to cassava on Earth, but it was more troublesome to eat. It had to be cooked over high heat and gnawed on, or its starch extracted for further processing.
Although it could grow in coastal environments, it contained a lot of woody fiber, making it not only troublesome to eat but also containing trace toxins. Even Super Terrans could easily get poisoned and suffer diarrhea if they ate too much. During famine, eating this stuff was even more likely to be fatal.
However, Skadi was an ultimate Terran, and Goki himself was a Super Yharnamite, so they certainly weren't afraid of such trace toxins.
Goki had even sliced and stir-fried the Great One's third umbilical cord four times—if worst came to worst, he could just exchange blood echoes for an antidote.
"Dinner's ready. Ingredients are limited, so I certainly can't make something as delicious as Aegir cuisine, but it's not bad. Want to eat?"
Placing the dishes on the small round table in the room, Goki smiled as he looked at Titi opposite him.
Unaware of how much damage her slap during sleep had caused, Skadi still wore her usual indifferent expression, sitting quietly at the table, her crimson eyes calm.
However, combining Skadi's perfectly straight back, her two small hands placed on the table, and the knife and fork tightly clutched in her hands, Goki felt that Skadi was actually quite looking forward to his cooking.
After all, a 'three-no' character and a 'cute-and-clueless' character weren't really that far apart.
Whether Little Orca was truly simple-minded or extremely simple-minded still required more observation.
Soon, the two began to slowly eat their breakfast.
Aegir people still ate with knives and forks, while Goki had carved two chopsticks for himself from branches—the Saw Cleaver was quite inconvenient for whittling wood.
Although Skadi was initially very curious about the use of these two wooden sticks, after successfully snapping three pairs of chopsticks without picking up any food, she completely gave up.
"Mmm… delicious."
Skadi really liked Goki's cooking. Even the roasted meat from before, without seasonings, had a taste different from Aegir cuisine that she found especially novel.
Moreover, compared to the food from Aegir, mass-produced in factories and meticulously packaged in metal boxes, Skadi felt that this "crude" food had something she liked even more.
However, she couldn't quite put her finger on what it was.
Perhaps it was a taste of home?
"Phew… so fragrant—who!"
However, just as Skadi was putting the roasted meat into her mouth, she suddenly sensed something. With the greasy strip of meat still in her mouth, she turned her head with a serious expression, looking directly outside the door.
[Ah, this is truly simple-minded. How long has that child been standing there? Titi probably had all her attention on the food.]
Goki also turned his head, smiling as he looked at the little one he had already noticed.
"Ah—I, I'm sorry, it smelled too good in here!"
Noticing two gazes sweeping towards her, a little girl who had been quietly peeking over the window frame with half her head since Goki started cooking, suddenly jumped in fright, explaining in a fluster.
"I just heard Uncle Hearth say that new neighbors moved in nearby. Since I was born, only people have moved out, no one has moved in."
This was a little girl with short black hair, seemingly only seven or eight years old, swaying by the window, as if she was standing on her tiptoes.
The girl had a small braid on her head. Although she was also a bit thin, she wasn't excessively unhealthy or emaciated. Her face was fair and clean, as if she had just washed it.
"Is this, roasted meat? It's like what Uncle Hearth gave me yesterday. No one here has roasted meat for a long time—are you the Hunter everyone talks about?"
Finding that the "Hunter" Uncle Hearth spoke of, who had single-handedly beaten ten of them, didn't seem as terrifying as she imagined, the little girl grew bolder.
She spoke with a slight stutter, but much more clearly than Hearth.
"Yes, but it has nothing to do with being an adult, just an ordinary Hunter—you must be Wooden Frame, right? Want to eat something? Come in."
Goki smiled and waved to the little girl, then pulled over another stool.
Next, Goki looked at Skadi beside him. Her eyes were also wide, curiously looking at the little girl outside the door, her lips rapidly opening and closing as she swallowed the strip of meat she had been holding in her mouth.
And upon hearing that Goki wanted to share the meat with the little girl, Skadi even picked up her fork and quickly speared several pieces of steak, putting them on her own plate, as if afraid someone would snatch her food.
So cute~~
"Wooden Frame? Yes, but I also have another name, Anita. I found it myself in Grandma Petra's book. Doesn't it sound nice?"
Hearing Goki's invitation, the girl who called herself Anita immediately smiled, cautiously opening the door a crack and squeezing inside.
She was wearing a long black sundress, carrying a small bag, and was barefoot, her smile so bright it seemed to illuminate the gloomy weather.
[Ah, so this is what this little girl was like when she was young. So cute.]
It came to him without effort; before Goki even went out to look for her, Anita delivered herself to his doorstep.
This girl was not simple. In Arknights, where supporting characters almost always die, she was one of the rare few who survived until the end of the story!
No, in the 'Hunter and Knight' event, it seemed neither the little village chief nor Big Bob had any accidents—events featuring Skadi always seemed to have perfect endings.
Thinking of this, Goki looked up at Skadi and saw that Little Orca was burying her head in her food, occasionally glancing at Anita warily, as if still cautious that the other girl would steal her meat—simple-minded as she was, Little Orca was still very reliable.
Compared to the story, the two of them met much earlier.
"Eat, eat. Children should eat more to grow tall. Anita, how old are you?"
Handing a fork to Anita and watching her heartily eat the strips of meat, Goki was especially happy, and at the same time, he subtly probed with some prepared questions.
"Hmm, let me think, seven, eight? We don't keep track of that. I even forgot my birthday."
Anita's words carried a slight accent, sounding especially playful, making Goki unable to resist ruffling her little head, which made her giggle.
If Anita was seven or eight, Goki could roughly guess that there were only about seven or eight years until the main storyline, when the Doctor would awaken from his coffin. However, he didn't know how old the older Anita in the story was, so he could only make a rough inference.
[I should still try to find a calendar. Hearth and the others don't keep track of days, and I can't ask the Inquisitor. It would be good if there were others I could ask.]
Thinking of this, Goki continued to inquire.
"Besides the Inquisitor and us, are there any other new guests in town recently?"
"Let me think, there's the Priest. He's very kind. He brought us a lot of food. After breakfast, in a little while, the adults will go to worship—they always bring back delicious things, like fish, clams, crabs. We rarely get to eat things from the sea."
[Priest, huh… I'll have to go check out the Abyssal Church later.]
Hearing the keywords "Priest" and "seafood," Goki frowned. Could it be someone from the Abyssal Church?
Nodding, Goki's expression grew much more serious as he asked Anita his last question.
"In your Saltwind City, are there any very, very large machines that sound like a ringing bell when they're activated? Ones that can heal wounds?"
In Iberia, such emergency treatment facilities were everywhere. They were technology left behind by some Aegir people after coming ashore, used to deal with mental damage caused by Seaborn attacks near the coast, and also had medical functions—Skadi was precisely looking for these things.
Although Saltwind City was gradually abandoned, from the Inquisitors' words, they were still constantly maintaining these devices.
Clearly, the Iberians at least knew there were terrible monsters in the sea.
"Bells, machines? We don't have many machines here… Ah, I know! Those thumping things. There are several in the city, but they were all broken before. On the side near the sea, at Researcher Miss's place, there's one like that—hmm."
But halfway through her sentence, Anita suddenly covered her mouth. She remembered that the big sister had once told her not to tell the Inquisitor about her existence.
Seeing Anita's strange behavior, Goki also raised an eyebrow.
"Well then, little sister Anita, Saltwind City is accustomed to bartering. Since you know where this machine is, would you mind taking us there—after the next hunt, I can give you a portion of the most prime meat."
Looking at Anita, whose mouth was greasy from eating, Goki gently coaxed her.
Anita's eyebrows furrowed, and she began a fierce internal struggle… which lasted only a second.
[But, Hunter isn't the Inquisitor… it probably doesn't matter, right?]
"Okay, okay! Let's go in a little while—but it's not for me, it's for Uncle Hearth, Iron Skin, and Grandma Petra!"
For the residents of Saltwind City, eating was still more important.
At this moment, Goki did not know that he was being drawn into the turmoil of Terra earlier than he imagined.
Navel!.jpg
Friendly reminder: The website is about to be revised, which may result in loss of reading progress. Please save your "Bookshelf" and "Reading History" in time (screenshot recommended). We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause!