Point Exchanges Dungeon Collector - Chapter 4

Chapter 4: My First Points

Well, now it's just dinner and home—. That's what I was thinking as I set off down my usual route home, when it happened.

Something silver, lying at the edge of the road, caught the corner of my eye.

An empty can. A crushed can of coffee, its brand-name lettering almost entirely worn away. It had rolled to a stop wedged in a crack in the asphalt, catching just the faintest glint of the reflected sunlight.

"...Hm."

A small sound slipped out of me without meaning to. Such a trivial sight — the kind I'd never normally give a second thought. No, more accurately, I probably couldn't have. Back then, chased by work, worn down to exhaustion, I hadn't even had the spare capacity to register the scenery around me as scenery.

But today was different.

Convenience store bag still dangling from one hand, I stood there for a while, looking at the empty can. Honestly, part of me just wanted to get home, microwave the bento, and wash it down with cold tea as fast as possible. My stomach had been complaining nonstop since a while ago, too.

Even so, something caught in my chest — a hard-to-name haze that welled up, damp and heavy.

(...Should I pick it up?)

It wasn't like anyone had asked me to. It wasn't quite self-conscious enough to call hypocrisy, either. It was just that, right now, I happened to have the room to reach out a hand. That was all there was to it.

"If I remember right... there should be a vending machine and a trash can just around that corner."

I muttered that to myself, as if convincing myself, and crouched down. Heat radiated up off the sun-baked asphalt in a slow, steam-like haze. The instant I reached out to pick up the can —

— it happened, like something out of a fantasy.

The can gave off a faint, sudden glow. The air seemed to shimmer for just an instant — and then the can was simply gone, vanished without a trace.

"—Huh?"

Reflexively, the convenience store bag in my hand tilted, and I scrambled to steady my grip. My head couldn't keep up. Something that had been right in front of me a second ago had, in the next instant, simply "never existed" at all.

It was an illusion, like the sense of reality I'd had just moments ago had slipped clean out of my hands. I swallowed, hard, without meaning to.

"Wh— what... was that... just now...?"

I strained my eyes, scanning my surroundings. But apart from the can having vanished, nothing else seemed out of place. The cicadas still shrieked away, and the sky bore down without mercy, same as ever.

I stared hard at my own palm. There wasn't a trace left — no lingering feel of the can, no hint that anything foreign had ever been there at all.

"...Am I just tired?"

The words slipped out on their own, and a dry laugh shook in my throat. Even so, this was far too vivid to be a hallucination, or some kind of auditory trick. That instant of light, the shimmer in the air, the sensation right as it vanished — every part of it had felt far too real.

The convenience store bag rustled faintly in my hand. I turned my gaze back, looking once more at the spot where the can had been.

"I definitely just... picked up that can, didn't I..."

I muttered it like I was confirming it to myself. The memory was clear enough — a silver, half-crushed can, glinting faintly under the sunlight. I'd definitely picked that up — and right after, that faint glow, and then that unnaturally abrupt end, as it melted away into empty air.

The heat rising off the ground slowly scorched my knees, and sweat began trailing down my forehead again. The convenience store bag rustled softly in my hand. Just moments ago I'd been walking for the sole reason that I was hungry — but now even that feeling had gone hazy and distant.

That's when it happened.

Space itself blurred, suddenly. Like a mirage, a membrane of air rippled in front of me. My legs, halfway to standing, froze — and in the next instant, something appeared before my eyes.

"...Wha—?!"

It was a "panel," hovering in midair, connected to nothing at all. I couldn't tell its thickness, or what it was made of. The only thing that was unnaturally clear was that it was there — and that very clarity made it feel all the more wrong.

The translucent panel carried a faint, pale-blue glow. It floated gently in the air, swaying slowly back and forth.

"What now... what the hell is this...!"

The voice that slipped from my mouth was shaking. My thoughts couldn't keep pace with a phenomenon that made no logical sense whatsoever. A hallucination? Heatstroke? A dream?

As if brushing aside that wave of doubt, text began to surface on the panel in front of me.

——【Juice (Empty Can): 1P】

——【Total Points: 1P】

——【Exchangeable Item List】

The text was clearly structured as "information" of some kind, rendered in a simple, faintly mechanical-looking font. The dimly glowing letters wavered gently in the air.

I blinked, and read it again. Then, as if to confirm it, I read it aloud slowly.

"An empty can, wor— worth one point...?"

There was no hiding the surprise and confusion in my own voice. The can I'd just picked up a moment ago — it had been converted into "points"? And on top of that, an "Exchangeable Item List"? What was that supposed to mean?

"No, this makes no sense... what is even..."

It felt exactly like being shown the UI of some video game. There shouldn't have been any room in my life for something this "unreal." And yet, here it was, undeniably in front of me, presenting information right before my eyes.

More than anything — some part of me understood, on a purely instinctive level, that this phenomenon was no mere hallucination.

Sweat beaded, damp, on the fingers gripping the convenience store bag. A tepid breeze blew past, slowly dampening the back of my shirt. And yet, opposite to the sweat, a chill ran down my spine — a sensation like the core of my body was going cold.

"...Could it be..."

The words slipped out and dissolved into the summer air. I slowly looked around at my surroundings. The sunlight still bore down as mercilessly as ever, but even the heat had, for the moment, been pushed to the edge of my awareness.

As my eyes wandered, searching for something, they landed on an object lying at the edge of the sidewalk.

"...There."

My throat made a sound without meaning to — a dry gulp. It was an ordinary work glove, the kind everyone's seen at least once in their life. Just the right-hand one, faded and a little dirty. For some reason, only one side lying there at the roadside, as if it had simply outlived its use — the kind of sight you sometimes come across in everyday life.

(...What happens if I pick this up?)

Slowly, I reached out a hand. The instant my fingertips touched the fabric — the glove vanished from my grip, gone like a puff of wind.

Again. A faintly glowing panel rose up in front of me.

——【Work Glove (Right Hand): 1P】

——【Total Points: 2P】

——【Exchangeable Item List】

"I knew it...!"

A voice mixing conviction and astonishment slipped out of me. But that was only the opening chapter.

"Then what about this...?"

On impulse, I reached into the convenience store bag I'd bought just a while ago. What I pulled out was the bottled tea, still unopened. Its surface was covered in beads of condensation, the damp label sticking cold against my fingertips. Completely brand-new — not half-drunk, not empty.

(If this isn't "trash," what happens then?)

I tried holding onto it tight for a while, just to see. "Disappear." "Convert." "Turn into points"... I tried willing a few different phrases in my head, but nothing happened. No light, no shimmer, no sign of anything at all.

"...Guess that's a no, then."

Muttering that, I put the bottle back in the bag. Then I looked around once more. A few steps away, near the base of a utility pole, I spotted a crushed, empty plastic bottle lying on the ground.

(...Once you actually start looking, there's more of this stuff lying around than you'd think.)

Thinking that, I casually picked it up. Sure enough — just as I'd expected, it vanished cleanly from my hand again. And once more, a panel rose up in front of me.

——【Juice (Empty Plastic Bottle): 1P】

——【Total Points: 3P】

——【Exchangeable Item List】

Every time the text lined up like that, something clicked into place a little more. I was starting to see the rule. Whatever this "ability to convert things" was, it clearly operated on a set standard.

Brand-new wouldn't work. Something merely owned wouldn't work either. Something discarded, something forgotten — yes, unless it counted as "trash," it wouldn't disappear.

(So it has to be trash, huh...)

The instant I muttered that to myself, something stirred faintly, deep in my chest.

What in the world was this power? Why did a rule like this even exist? And what was waiting for me, once I learned to master it—

There were no answers yet, anywhere. But right now, I could feel it, clear as day.

This wasn't just some coincidence. This was a beginning.