Last man on earth when there is no earth?

Ch 02.2

Gwabara star cluster, Sector twenty-one, planet Gorgola, Lilia’s spaceship.

By the time we sat down around the campfire, the sun was on its way out. A few minutes earlier my stomach started roaring. Surprised by the loud noise, Lilia proposed we eat first.

I didn't know what to expect from alien cuisine but my famished self didn't seem to care. We were having the same rations as before along with some leftover soup Ms. Alien cooked the day before. Going by the color, smell, and taste, I decided to name it tomato soup.

We sat around the campfire eating silently, but when we were done it was back to the awkwardness we experienced on the way here.

I looked back at her ship. It was clear from the crater beneath it that it had a rough landing. Its body shell and windshield don’t look to be in the best condition and even someone with no experience like me could tell it’s incapable of flight. When I asked Ms. Alien about it as an attempt to trigger a conversation, she told me the engine was damaged and it was impossible to take off.

We were inside a forest, surrounded by gigantic trees. Besides the underground structure I woke up in, no sign of civilization could be found in the route we took. I guessed that she happened upon it while looking for a way out, but that made me wonder if she had no way to call or help.

“… six months?”

Turns out she was trapped on this planet for the past six months.

It’s hard to say how long that is in human time. Wherever this Zesion planet is, I highly doubt it has the same calendar, which means six months by their time could be more than a year in ours, or the other way around. Still, going by her expression as she revealed that information, it seems that it is quite a long period.

Ms. Alien, Lilia, was hesitant to tell me about the way she ended up here, but when the silence grew unbearable she seemed to relent. As someone who had always dreamed of going out on a journey, she jumped at the chance to leave the moment she was of age. There was an entire galaxy for her to explore so the idea of staying in her home world seemed uninteresting, to say the least.

Unfortunately, reality was a cruel mistress. Thinking she was taking a shortcut, she ended up getting caught in this planet’s, in Gorgola’s gravitational field. The ship she got her hands on was lacking in a few aspects so it failed to free itself and crash-landed on the planet's surface.

Though she was lucky enough to survive, Ms. Alien found herself trapped with no hope of escape. She tried sending out emergency signals but no response came back.

According to her, Gorgola is an uncharted planet. It’s surrounded by a barrier-like force field that shields its surface from outside eyes, and thanks to its powerful gravitational force, nothing that goes in comes out. It was for that exact reason that it was assumed to be unsuitable for life. No one could have expected its surface to be the exact opposite.

“The efforts to study it were abandoned after all the scouts failed to return or send info back, or so I read in one of the books…”

“You like reading, Lilia?” I asked, doing my best to sound casual.

Not the best choice of words, it seems. Lilia smiled for the first time since we met, but it wasn’t the smile you would expect from a hopeful girl whose life had just begun. It was captivating nonetheless, but as I held her with my eyes, I felt that I lacked the emotions needed to understand her pain.

Being stranded on a deserted island would bring a normal human to the border of insanity, and that’s with the chance of being found still present. It’s a whole different story if it’s an entire planet and one that’s impossible to get in or out of as well.

I have to commend her willpower. Ms. Alien is still able to speak even after six months in isolation. I for one would degenerate into a caveman after two days without my anime and games.

… anime, huh…

I know I played a lot back then. I feel like I’m really attached to the topic, but no clear image comes to mind right now. I remember a few titles, however I can’t tell how I felt about them. It’s a rather strange feeling.

Since this is a more technologically advanced setting I wonder if it has something like its own version of the medium.

Space video games huh… that’s one thing to look forward to.

We definitely need to find a way out of this godforsaken planet as soon as possible.

Ms. Alien suffered from loneliness for a long time. If it's true that I have been transferred into this world then it should be my role as the protagonist to fill the emptiness in her heart, earning myself affection points along the way. That is how I believed things should develop going forward, but the more I look at her clouded expression the more I feel conflicted myself.

How am I even supposed to do that?

Ms. Alien is keeping her guard up, weapon always by her side as she sits directly facing me. She’s a lone girl in this situation with a guy who’s naked under a cloak, I guess that’s enough reason for her to ensure there is some distance between the two of us.

I can tell she's conflicted about how to approach this situation as well. After all, she’s stuck with me whether she likes it or not. And since we’re on our own we don’t have a choice other than to keep each other company.

Ms. Alien was probably a bright and cheerful young girl before the incident with a captivating smile that never left her lips. That smile was crushed under the heavy feeling of loneliness, and just by seeing it, I got the message loud and clear.

All of this is real, and I don’t think I’m a big fan of it. There are no dialogue choices or save and load options. Everything I say will have a lasting effect and the wrong combination of words could lead me to a very bad end.

This is a serious situation; handling it requires a lot of patience and care. The problem is I’m not the kind of person suited to deal with it. I’m just a coward who would rather isolate himself than deal with other people. I might have a chance at a new start, but some things were simply too difficult to change.

Damn it… Isn’t this too high of a difficulty right off the bat?

I’m on a strange planet, all alone with an ultra-high-class gorgeous alien girl. I should be having some fantasies and expectations, planning how to get into her bed. Nevertheless, seeing this state she was in, I couldn’t even bring myself to see any of the delusions I should be seeing right now.