Walking out of the forest was pretty easy. We face a few goblins on the way, but it's easily taken care of.

  While others keep their merry ways, I keep my quiet on the way.

  I'm speechless.

  I don't know what to say....

  Ogres, a creature that has been haunting me...

  Locked me in that house...

  Makes me go through that pain....

  It fell just like that...

  Looking at the monster's corpse that teenagers carry, I still can't let any sound out of my mouth. I can't help but think, "If I had that kind of power, would she be alive?"

  The fear of this monster that has been haunting me is gone, but new kinds of things have haunted me instead. The big "if" that can only be "if" forever.

  "Yo, you've been quiet.

  Said Maya nonchalantly.

  "Nothing"

  I said defensively.

  "If you say so"

  She replied.

  She does become friendly fast. She's quite talkative, too. Now then, while she's being talkative.

  "Did your camp get any lead in what's actually going on?"

  I asked while probing about things that she might have leaked out accidentally.

  "Nope, if you talked about who, how, and why, we are just as clueless as you are. Though we do understand a little bit about our country state, can it be called a country at this point? Hahaha"

  She said jokingly

  "You must have realized, right? These creatures only appear in open space areas, So we gather on skyscrapers, superstructures, malls, and any robust closed space we find. Thank god capitalists are building all these malls and skyscrapers, don't you think? Thought quite a lot of unstable skyscrapers fell so far. Don't you feel any earthquakes?"

  She explains further.

  "I don't know. Why do you speak like you know the state of other survivors' camps? Do you have a communication method? And from your explanation, doesn't that mean Jakarta is doing well? It's the most well-built city in our country, after all."

  I ask some more.

  "You do ask a lot."

  She sneers at me.

  "Sorry"

  I said meekly. It seems I was still affected by her performance while hunting the ogre.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  "Well, to be honest, we lost contact with people in Jakarta after this giant forest showed up. They're probably dead by now."

  She answered gloomily.

  She then added

  "Method of communication tho, you do know that internet is still on, right?"

  "What?"

  "Yes, hahaha. While the surface of the earth fucked up, the satellites up above are actually doing just fine. Just with a few dudes with technology and creation kind of talent, radio transmitter and receiver, and voila, every Indonesian wet dream come true. A fast and free internet was born. Thought it was pretty much useless since most of the internet servers are down already, probably blown into smattering or unattended. So the satellites are mostly used for radio signals instead. So sad, don't you think? But well, it does work pretty well. We can maintain pretty decent communication with other survivors on other islands. Did you know there is an orangutan that is as smart as sages in Kotawaringin? Not really a surprise in this fucked up world, but still incredible nonetheless.

  Furthermore, those geeks are optimistic about creating their own server or even bringing back the dead one. Just saying, but I don't know how. Even if they do succeed, would it be any useful in this situation?"

  She keeps blabbering.

  "Then how do you get your electricity to run all that?"

  Ignoring her blabbering, I interrogate her some more.

  "You're really clueless, aren't you? Nowadays, people can create electricity with just mana if they learn the skill and have the aptitude for it."

  She explains some more.

  "Aptitude?"

  I ask Cluelesly.

  "Yeah, it's something we deduct ourselves, things like how good are you in increasing the proficiency of your skills. The higher your aptitude is, the easier you are to learn certain skills thus, your proficiency increases easily, too."

  "Proficiency?"

  I am really clueless.

  "It's that percentage thingy on your skills windows. Don't you have one? It shows how skilled you are in that skill."

  She wondered about my question, too.

  "I actually haven't acquired any skill yet."

  I explained to her reluctantly.

  "Really? Now that is really a surprise. How did you survive all this time? "

  She flabbergasted.

  "Fine, I'll teach you some skills that I have when we reach our camp. I can't promise you anything tho, it all depends on your aptitude and your willingness to learn it."

  She promises to teach me later, kindly.

  "Thanks"

  Don't know what else to do. I can only thank her.

  I don't get it. Is she really that kind? Just a pushover? Or does she have other motives? Well, whatever it is, it benefits me in the end, so I'll just be glad to accept it fully.

  We walked for a few more minutes, probably hours we encountered goblins here and there. We also encountered creatures that I was unfamiliar with that looked like tiny bipedal gecko-like monsters with dog-like snouts whose height fell short of goblins at 110 cm. Maya called them kobolds like the one in DND. I mean, they do look like one. She also said there are other kinds of weird creatures. She explains one of them, called gnolls, as examples that look like bipedal tiny furry mammals, which look like rabid dogs or hyenas with sharps fangs. It is not really understandable, but I can accept it. Long story short, we finally saw the Silhouette of Giants building complex. It's one of the malls in Karawaci with a few apartment complexes beside it.