Five minutes is obviously a short time, but even that moment is subject to economic logic. For those who are in a hurry, 5 minutes is like gold, but for those who can afford it, it's not a waste to give it away.
Now, to me, 5 minutes was like gold.
because i'm asleep
stab, tuck.
The alarm went off before it even went off. I don't know what kind of angel did it, but I got 5 precious minutes with this. The five minutes before waking up in the morning cannot be exchanged for anything.
“Wake up… . Tried 3 times. Any further attempts will be futile. We will move on to the next phase.”
Something tapped my shoulder, but such a modest touch cannot disturb my sleep. I will protect these precious five more minutes from the evil invader.
I nodded, pulling up the blanket.
“Aww, five minutes.”
“… Tried 3 times. Any further attempts will be futile. We will move on to the next phase.”
what. What was this next?
for a moment. Perhaps.
“Why hey hey hey hey hey hey!”
“Ahhhhhhhh!”
A cry louder than any other alarm clock sounded in my ear. Rolling out of the soft bed, I threw the blanket away and got up.
“Today, too? It's this pattern today! Yesterday, no matter what I did, I didn’t wake up!”
I'm sorry. Why am I the only one? I want to wake you up like this too, but why can't you wake up?
I couldn't hold back my anger and cried.
“Did I say pat on the shoulder to wake you up? What a mess this morning!”
The captain, who was already in uniform, said calmly.
“I have already tried.”
“What are you trying to do! There's no way I can't wake up!”
“The main building does not make false reports. Also, why are you so proud when you wake up 10 minutes later than the time you wake up? It is negligence.”
“10 minutes?! Did I wake up ten minutes late?”
“Positive. Sleeping 10 minutes late is probably an act of negligence. so… .”
“Ah, what is it? It's been a while. I wake up after a little while. ha ha… .”
As I lay down on the bed again, the captain took my hand and pulled me in.
“Wake up! Has negligence taken over? How are you going to sleep here!”
“Oh, I am tired. I mean, I didn't sleep well because I met a friend last night.”
“Did you even sneak out in the middle of the night? There is no will to obey the rules in your words and deeds!”
“What did you say. You too fell asleep before bedtime yesterday.”
“wealth… denial! No, actually, it's not a denial, it's a denial of will! The main building was not meant to be! It is irresistible!”
Even though my face was blushing, the captain wouldn't let me sleep.
Oh, that's why it's inconvenient to have someone living with you. It is best to use the house alone.
“I don’t sleep like that today. The main building was relieved of excess poison, and I slept enough. It doesn’t look as ugly as yesterday!”
“Oh, yes.”
“Positive! Yesterday's incident was a coup! Today is different… .”
The captain, who cried so, tilted his head with a mysterious face.
“… ? question. Yesterday the main building must have slept in the bathroom, but how… .”
“ruler. Let's go have breakfast! I’m sorry, but it’s the beans Anna cooked this morning too!”
As I jumped up and sprinted out the door, the captain naively followed me, leaving my doubts behind.
“question. Why is that sorry? The bean dishes she made are enough… No, it was very tasty.”
“Can I have stir-fried beans again?”
“Positive. You can eat all day.”
Wow, people are less picky about food than dogs.
Today, the captain, who took a bite of Anna's stir-fried beans, dazzled his eyes and enjoyed the taste.
“… … !”
'Delicious… ! A different taste from yesterday! Obviously they look the same… !'
“Is it delicious? I used some special power today. Eat a lot.”
Anna smiled softly. The captain nodded his head and put the stir-fried japtang in his mouth.
'If you ask me to tell you this recipe… ! ね, impossible. A recipe of this size must be classified as confidential information! The main building will not find out… !'
what to follow Just remember this. High heat and enough oil.
No, wait. What else was mixed? This flickering scent that catches the stinky smell.
Wow. this?
“Anna. What do you do if you spray it here?”
I rebuked and said, but Anna responded calmly.
“I only sprayed a little. I just added a little bit enough to fit between my thumb and index finger. Don't worry, I didn't even spend 10% of my commission.”
“You just write as if you were your own.”
“Isn’t it a waste to go into that child’s mouth?”
“I didn’t mean to put gold dust in my mouth.”
As I grumbled, Anna grinned and grabbed the bag next to her. She then said sweetly as she set the soup down in front of the captain.
“Today, I will stop by another area for a while. The eatery is closed today, so eat lunch somewhere else.”
“… ?! emergency! Is the closing true?”
“Huhu. Don't worry, Hughes will guide you to a more delicious house. This guy has wide feet, so he must know where to eat.”
“denial… .”
'It's impossible to cook canned beans better than this!'
Why are you limited to beans? Have you ever thought of another dish?
Anna's smile at the dead captain was that of a mother looking at her daughter. Anna said with a smile full of her maternal love.
“If you can, wait until evening. I think I might come back then. Hughes. I'm taking good care of you. I will do what you asked me to do.”
It means that I come to sell the spices I have entrusted to me. I grumbled.
“Take care of what. He’s a person who can live on his own.”
“So you’re telling me to be your strength? We have no choice but to live courageously alone, but together we can be foolish for a while. I think you need it.”
“Why do you keep treating me like a child I put out on the water? If you're worried about her, don't worry about me.”
The captain is doing this because he doesn't know what's going on in the back alleys, but there are still a lot of people who salute first when they go to the army in uniform.
If you find out that you're a signal soldier, you might ignore it, but when you're in your real life, you're hiding your identity, so you'll think it's just a captain.
“… When you come back, I'll give you something more delicious with all the ingredients, so don't eat too much delicious food.”
Anna smiled like that and left the eatery.
She heads to the market in District 13. The gold dust sprinkled there will be turned into real gold. They also buy vegetables, and if there is money left, they may buy raw meat, a level 1 luxury that can only be bought by paying an additional fee.
hmmm. Pretty much looking forward to it. So, let's do a simple tour today.
“beep. Did you eat it all?”
The captain, who emptied the bowl, nodded.
“Positive. This is a very good workmanship. It's comparable to the best meal I've had in the main building.”
I know the taste is scary, but it's the best meal with canned soybean stir-fry. Questions cannot but be raised about the welfare of the military in the military.
I'm looking forward to seeing what happens when Anna comes back and eats the dish she's going to present. How will you react when you eat food that has been prepared with sufficient funds and the finest spices?
“question. Who is Anna? No one in the caregiver could cook like that. Were you even a former legendary feeder?”
“Where's the legend about the feeding sickness? I am just an ordinary level 0 citizen.”
“… Level 0, right? she?”
The captain widened his eyes as if in surprise. I did not miss the gap and poked in.
“Did you just think of that? How could only level 0 eat such delicious food! I'm sorry, I said!”
“wealth… !”
The captain, who was about to say no, swallowed his words and nodded frankly.
“denial… deny it. Maybe it is. Because the main building thought that all low-level citizens were living hard and miserable lives.”
A low-level citizen is a bit hard and miserable, but you, signalman, are weird. Compared to you, even low-level citizens are relatively noble.
… not. Even so, the captain's salary will be deposited steadily in the Ministry of Veterans Affairs. I don't know how the money will disappear, but it's better than level 0.
“Still, the life of a level 0 citizen, which is administratively treated as half-abandoned, is not so bad. The military authorities will be proud of this… .”
'It must mean that the main building's loyalty to the military was not meaningless.'
what. The way of thinking is strange.
I usually see life like this.
-Level 0 enjoys the same luxury and freedom, so why am I like this at the main building, no, I am level 3? dissatisfaction! rebellion! strike! revolution! I'm going to suspend the mission from today!
I thought this On the contrary, do you feel proud of being loyal to the military?
More than I thought. Is it pure or is it strong? This is enough to make the military that created what is called a signal soldier amazing.
“I cannot agree. Is that true? There is no problem when people live together. The troubles of those who can’t afford it happen when they face hardship.”
As the rush hour drew near, alarm bells rang throughout the living quarters. Unlike last night, no one complained about this noise.
If you're late because you can't get up, your work days may increase.
For ordinary citizens, the existence of an alarm clock is love and hate. It was a signal that kept the precious daily life while driving away painful sleep in the morning.
Most of the citizens who woke up like they were being kicked out didn't even eat breakfast and walked the streets like corpses, clutching their hungry stomachs. The direction they moved was mostly the same, so the procession of people became a huge stream.
Some young men stood in the hallway and banged hard on the door.
“hey! Philip! wake up!”
“Isn’t he dead? Damn, you looked tired, so I'll be leaving early yesterday.”
While the young men regretted it, the sharp alarm clock was still ringing loudly inside the tightly closed door.
the captain asked.
“Why are they knocking on other people’s houses?”
“We decided to wake each other up in case we couldn’t wake up even if we heard the alarm clock. Even if I was late, the work on that day could be nullified.”
It is the human spirit of cooperation to survive in this urban jungle. union by necessity.
However, the Captain of the Upright Living, which happens before the alarm clock rings, did not agree with this.
“question. Why do you need someone else's help to wake you up? It’s just a matter of going to bed on time and waking up on time.”
“Don’t think of everyone as you are. Like I did last night, there were people who went to bed late for unavoidable reasons.”
“Isn’t that your fault!”
The captain was quite curious, so I decided to go along with her once in a while. The people who were trudging along the boulevard were divided into several groups.
Get on the big wagon that came rushing around like a load of luggage.
Line up in front of a large building in the center.
Or go into a factory that looks like a large warehouse, as if swallowed.
“Some in factories, some in warehouses, some in staging areas, some in engineers or supply corps… I go to work that day.”
The only thing that the lower classes of the military have with no land for farming is their bodies. Therefore, all they do is fill them with their bodies.
Most of the money that ordinary people earn comes from the labor camps, and they earn a living day by day. Of course, all the salaries come from the military, and the military collects the products from the labor camps.
In fact, it is safe to assume that all places where laborers are employed are under the control of the military.
“The main building knows about that.”
“But you knew very little about the type and intensity of labor, did you? What kind of work is mostly preferred.”
“… Positive.”
“haha. As a captain, I don’t even know.”
The captain kept his mouth shut as if his pride had been hurt. I suggested it before the captain got any more pissed off.
“Now that we’ve talked about it, shall we go to work today?”
“Is that the kind of thing you could experience?”
“What in the world can’t be done? If we talk about it well, it will break through.”
“… warning. Your remarks carry a very high risk. There are things that are prohibited by law in the military, and if you break them, you will be severely punished depending on the level of the ban.”
Even with that said, the captain followed me and joined the procession as if he wanted to see the inside of the factory.
It may be a little daunting for Capt. Indian Fine, but it's okay to realize the drudgery of hard work here. Maybe this could be a bigger stimulus.
That was then.
A shout was heard in the middle of the crowd.
“You thief bastard!”
Pak, a strong kick hit the little boy. The boy waved his hand as he rolled over.
“Oh, I didn’t!”
It was the pickpocket boy who touched my body yesterday.
Perhaps he had not yet reached the level of a pickpocket, and he was facing the man who was raging with anger.
“I saw all the pickpockets! Where are you going to hide?”
Everyone passing by looked at them at least once.
But that's it.
The citizens who were walking looked at the boy and the man once, and then went back on their own way. Their attitude was indifference.
“Help! That person made me… Ouch!”
The one who is stolen, or the one who steals and is beaten. Because it wasn't their interest.
In fact, even after seeing the child caught by me yesterday, there was no one who intervened or interfered with me. He simply looked at him with hostility as the military captain was by his side.
There are at least a few people in this area who are relaxed enough to engage in other people's work.
“… Pickpocketing is a crime. It is said that the crime is not that serious, but it is clearly a big problem to have committed such a crime yesterday and calmly committed the same sin.”
And the captain wouldn't have that kind of leeway.
However, the girl, who strangely identifies herself with others, tried to help the child who cries out in pain.
“but. Private sanctions are not permitted. He has no right to condemn sinners at will.”
He would have been the first to be destroyed if he had left it to the military. Even if he can't afford it, he gives himself up and creates a gap.
Did the military protect the signalmen or did they use them?
“… Do not dry it.”
“no. I have to dry it. Because you wouldn't want a child to intervene.”
I adjusted my pace leisurely in the flow of people. The man, who was about to be late for work, kicked her child one last time before disappearing into the crowd.
The boy lay as if dead, then opened his eyes, looked at the man's back, and jumped up. A strange smile hung from his mouth as his moans flowed out of his mouth.
“… Hehe, even if it takes time for work… After all, I wasn't taken to an orphanage… worth doing… .”
No income, no loss.
The boy considered it lucky and disappeared back into the street.
Just then, the captain, who happened to pass by the boy at that time, heard the sound and kept his mouth shut.
“… .”
'I don't want it. They did not want a military ruling. If the main building had intervened, it would have been an undesirable outcome for both of them.'
Having become soldiers, from that point of view, they are neglecting their duty. Because the boy who committed the crime should go to the orphanage, and the man forgot his duty to report the crime instead of private sanctions.
But the captain was genuinely glad he hadn't intervened before.
I pretended to comfort the captain who was in agony, and said quietly.
“haha. Don't be sad. Because this is everyday.”
There was no answer.