บท 82: Life in the Farm
As he opened his eyes, Edward saw the familiar ceiling of his bedroom in the X-Mansion. He rubbed his eyes to knock off the drowsiness and stretch his body. The experience of meeting the villagers last night, at the inn, was just too exhausting.
"Wait? The Inn?" muttered Edward.
He recalled that he was supposed to be in the Mineral Town, doing the task Charles gave him. If he was in the town, why did he still in here? And also, when he glanced through the window, the sky was still pitch black with no stars around, only a crescent moon that added to the eerieness of the night.
Before he could process what was happening, Sherry's bed which was at the opposite wall next to him shook as its owner started trembling and quivering with sweats drenching her body.
In reflex, Edward leaped out of his bed and grabbed her hand, to allow the Oni Gauntlet to suppress the Genma cells inside her. However, nothing happened as her trembling started to get even worse. When he looked at his right arm, the Oni Gauntlet wasn't there anymore.
"What...!?" exclaimed, Edward.
He looked around and tried to summon the gauntlet, but nothing happened. He started to panic. Without it, there's nothing that could stop the cells from awakening and turning Sherry into a Genma.
'What should I do?' thought Edward,
However, his short thought was quickly interrupted as a hand choked his neck in a flash, leaving no gap for him to evade. Once he looked at the owner of the hand, his eyes widened in shock.
"Kuaaakhh... Sh... Shee... rryy..."
Sherry stood in front of him, her eyes shone gold as her smile reached her ears, and her hair was floating as if she was underwater. Edward dropped on his knees, trying to push off the hand that was choking him, but it didn't budge at all no matter what he did. Instead, her sharp nails started digging into his neck, waking him up with the pain that pierced his brain.
"You're too late, Edward... where did you go...?" muttered Sherry, as he drew her face closer and closer toward him.
Suddenly, the room they were in withered as they turned into a sea of blood, slowly flowing and sinking Edward's knees.
"Why did you leave me? Why!?" inquired Sherry.
Tears of blood flowed from her eyes, down to her cheeks, and fell from her chin. Edward grabbed her arm with both hands and punching it over and over again, but she was far too strong.
"If only you stayed... If only you were stronger..." muttered Sherry.
Her back started to bulging up, like a hot air balloon. After reaching a certain height, it popped and thousands of hands with eyeballs on them towered on top of her body like a tree branching out to the night sky, toward the blood-red crescent moon.
"IT WAS ALL YOUR FAULT!! EVERYONE DIED BECAUSE OF YOU!! shouted Sherry.
Edward couldn't understand what she meant, as he was slowly losing consciousness once again. His eyes wandered under the sea of blood. He saw familiar faces, drowned underneath, trying to swim onto the surface. Chris, Claire, Nick Fury, Dante, Natasha, Clint, everyone he met in the Raccoon City, and everyone he met up until now.
They all shared one same feature, and that is, their faces and bodies were decaying, a sign of necrosis. Their bony hands pierced the calm surface as they reached here and there to find something to hang on to. Some found itself on Edward as they were reaching and scraping at him, tearing his flesh, and pulling him under. And finally... Sherry shouted...
"YOU ARE DESTINED TO FAIL!! EDWARD!!"
As she bites off his face.
CRRUNCHH!!!
======
"Guwaaaaakhh!!" exclaimed Edward, as he woke up on an unfamiliar bed, under an unfamiliar ceiling.
He tried to regain himself, but he couldn't even breathe properly as he gasped for air. He was fully drenched in sweat, even the bed was wet with it. He covered his neck and face with both of his hands, still recalling the scene that he just experienced.
"Edward..."
Hearing his name being called, Edward panicked and his heart beating so fast. Summoning both the Oni Gauntlet, Limbo, and the shotgun, Blackbeard, he aimed the latter at his right side, where the owner of the voice stood. He was a young man wearing a blue overall and white shirt. At any moment now, Edward would pull the trigger without an inch of hesitation.
"Edward! It's me, Harvey!" yelled the young man, holding his hand high up to show that he was not a threat. He added, "It's okay, it was all a bad dream."
'A... dream?' thought Edward.
How can it be a dream? It was far too real for him. Noticing that Edward was starting to get depressed, Harvey tried to console him. He walked to the fridge and took out a jar of Apple jam to make jam buns, before heating it in the oven. Edward took a whiff of the delicious smell and glanced at Harvey.
He recalled the time when he met him. Last night, this young man introduced himself as Harvey, the owner of the big farm near the foot of Mother's Hill.
What made him shocked was not because he finally met with the main character from the game, but the name 'Harvey' itself. It was because that was the name that he always gave his character whenever he played the game.
'Did this world was made based on my playthrough?' thought Edward, but he still needs to do more research about it.
After sending the drunkards home, it was decided that Edward would be living with Harvey for time being, because except for the Pastor, he was the only one that was living alone at the moment.
With a tray of Jam buns places in front of him, Edward snapped out of his thoughts.
"Thank you," said Edward.
"You're welcome. Are you okay now?" asked Harvey, hiding his right hand from Edward's view.
Of course, it didn't go unnoticed. Actually, Edward already saw his bruised right hand when he was holding the tray.
"Is that... because of me?" asked Edward, pointing at Harvey's hand. Before he could answer, Edward added, "Last night, it was clearly fine, and the color hasn't darkened at all, which means it happened a few minutes ago."
The latter just chuckled awkwardly, realizing that Edward didn't leave him any gap to make an excuse. He replied, "It's just a light bruise, nothing to worry about."
It's not light at all. When Harvey saw that Edward was having a nightmare and talking in his sleep, he tried to wake him up. However, the latter just swatted his hand and twisted it. If it wasn't for his good physique, he would have broken his hand.
Edward saw through the lie of the MC in front of him. He could see that the young man in front of him was a kind and naive man, which was normal because this game was just a farm-simulator game with no fight or conflict at all.
Harvey smiled said, "If you really are okay, then it's fine. I'm going to work for a bit. You can find me outside if you need anything."
With Harvey gone, now Edward was all alone. It was time to find out something. "Regina, are you there?"
[Yes, Sir. You don't look good, are you really okay?] replied Regina.
"Forget about me. That guy, why did he have the same name as the one I used in the game?"
[I'm sorry, Sir. I can't answer that question as it was locked by the admin.]
While munching the jam bun, Edward cursed, "Damn it. Is there any way to access it?"
[Sir, you can use one charge from the bonus reward you got after perfectly clearing a Quest, where you were given one chance to ask anything to the system. At the moment, you have none.]
'That's too much of an expense.' thought Edward. The only time he got that chance was when he cleared the Quest in Paris. He couldn't afford it yet, but the curiosity still gnawed on him.
Edward reached for another bun, but the tray was empty. His eyes widen in shock and
"Where's my bun!? There were three of them laid there, where did it go!?" yelled Edward. "Did you take them all, Regina?"
[*sigh... how can I eat, Sir? I have no stomach or mouth.]
"But you can still speak without a mouth."
[A radio didn't have any mouth, and it could still produce a sound.]
"Fair enough," replied Edward, deciding to stop to tease her. He wanted to say 'but the one speaking through the radio has a mouth', but he decided to shut up and asked the most important question right now. "Then, where did they go?"
[Look under your bed, Sir.] replied Regina.
'Under the bed?'
Edward closed his eyes and used his Radar Sense, his brain started to gather information, and he could see the outline of the farm's landscape. He focused himself to see under the bed, but there was nothing underneath except for the three buns that were slowly vanishing. Edward opened his eyes and peeked, what he saw was three cone-head sitting in a row while munching on the bun. The cone was yellow, orange, and green in the respective order.
"This is delicious, budum. I wonder if Harvey has more, budum." said the yellow cone, swallowing the last bite.
The green cone timidly reminded the yellow cone, "Lower your voice, budum. We don't want Harvey to find out budum."
"It's fine, he left earlier, and the small human won't hear us either, budum." said the yellow cone, rather confident.
Seeing that the orange cone hasn't finished his bun, the two tried to shake him, but he didn't even budge.
"Oh no, Nappy fell asleep again, budum. I don't want to carry him again, budum." said the green cone.
Edward knew these three, they were called the harvest sprites. They mainly helped with farming matters or tending cattle and chicken. Although their height was small, not even reaching any adult's knees, they proved to be an effective set of sla... workers.
"Excuse me," said Edward, startling the two as they jumped back. Nappy who was sleeping soundly also snapped awake as he instantly devours the bun and hides behind the two.
Recalling that the sprites didn't take a liking to strangers, or basically afraid of strangers, Edward apologized and tried to calm the three.
"I'm sorry if I scared you. You don't have to be afraid, I'm Harvey's friend," said Edward.
"F... friend? P... prove it, budum." muttered Timid, the green sprites.
Edward sighed, and replied, "didn't you see I was talking with him earlier?"
"Just because you were talking, didn't mean you're his friend, budum," said Hoggy, the yellow cone. The other two, hearing their brother's words, nodded in agreement.
"Fine, then let's go out. It's getting boring in here too," said Edward, walking toward the entrance's door. The other three followed him from a pretty far distance, as well as using the furniture to hide.
Once outside, the bright sun greeted Edward's face as he breathed in the fresh air. The countryside was so much different than the busy body city like New York.
'It wasn't bad to live as a farmer if I ever retire in the future.' thought Edward.
In front of the chicken coop, Harvey was busy trimming the weed as he saw Edward stood in front of his house. It had been a year since he took over his grandfather's old farm. It was the first time that he lived with another person on the same roof, causing him to feel excited about it. However, his instinct was saying that the kid was very burdened with something. There was also that nightmare stuff. He was curious about what, or who, that made a kid his age to have that kind of nightmare.
But now wasn't the time to lament on the kid's problem. While waving his hand, Harvey yelled, "Edward! Over here!"
======
"It's pretty much broken." said the doctor.
"Ahh, are you sure!?" exclaimed Harvey. He couldn't believe what he just heard. He added, "C... Could you restore it?"
"No, the only thing that I could do is cut it off, before it gets even worse." replied the Doctor, coldly.
Harvey wanted to cry, but he couldn't do anything about it. Time couldn't be turned back. By his side, Edward was waiting with a bored expression.
"Can we just go now? I want to make a call at the Inn," said Edward.
Harvey gave him a cold look as if saying, 'you're the one that caused it! Shouldn't you have more conscience!?'
As if knowing what Harvey was thinking, Edward sighed and said, "Why is it my fault? The door was very old in the first place, who knows it would just snap like that."
They were talking about the door. When they arrived at the clinic to check on Harvey's bruised arm, Edward was so impatient because he wanted to call Charles to check up on Sherry. He could've gone alone, but as the one that caused the bruised arm, his conscience was telling him to take a bit of responsibility.
'Wait a minute, since when did I start to feel conscious of my surrounding?' wondered Edward. If it was the usual him, he would've done anything he wanted without minding the odd look of everyone. Even if he made a mistake, like this time.
Edward was in a hurry, that he forced to push the door open, not knowing that the door should be pulled instead of pushing. The result? The glass smashed into pieces leaving only the handle and the frame standing alone.
"Okay fine, I'll pay for it. You happy?" said Edward, shoving his hand inside his pocket to take out some cash.
"No! I'll pay for it! There's no way I would let you spent that much cash," replied Harvey, taking out a stack of cash from inside his round bag.
"It's $500, including your treatment." said the doctor.
"F... five hundred..." murmured Harvey, holding out exactly $700 in his hands.
There was a small tug of war between him and the doctor as the former was having a mental crisis over spending that much money in a single day.
'You're really making it hard for yourself.' thought Edward while clicking his tongue shamelessly.
ความคิดของผู้สร้าง 
NightHowl
NightHowl I don't about the place you're currently living at, but the temperature at my place started to get colder and colder.
Don't get sick everyone, and wear thicker clothes, or lesser if it was hot.
See you in the next chapter!!!
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