HideLand

🟠 Chapter 16 :

We were finally out of prison.

Fresh air at last after spending over a month in there myself, and Ren having been there for several.

We're starting from zero now.

Actually, no from below zero.

What we had before didn't even count as a life.

We decided to head to the address the officer gave us the job was at the city's bank construction site.

On the way there, Ren asked me something unexpected.

"Takero-dono, what is your skill?"

He had never asked that question before. Not even once while we were in prison.

Why now?

"My skill's called Factory."

"Factory?"

"Nuul named it. It's a skill that allows me to create anything I want. But I need experience points to do that."

"So your skill works with experience points… But why didn't you use it before?"

"I didn't have anything to use it on. It was basically useless in prison."

"Still, it sounds like it has great potential—maybe even more than mine."

"It might be. In the long run, at least. But I'm not really interested in leveling it up. I'm not into adventuring or any of that."

"Huh? Then why are you here in the first place? Why did you come to this world at all if you weren't interested?"

"Uncontrollable circumstances."

"Uncontrollable circumstances?"

"It's a long story."

Actually, it's not that long. I'm just not interested in explaining it.

"Look, we're here."

We arrived at the worksite. The laborers had already started.

From what I heard, construction had begun a week ago, but things were going slowly.

Seems the workers are kind of lazy.

I wondered if the skill would come in handy.

I hadn't spoken with the skill system in a while.

[Detected: user self-insult. Possibly degrading himself again.]

Still as negative as ever.

"Listen, if I work here, I'll earn experience points, right?"

[Yes, obviously. Try not to ask dumb questions, if that's possible for you.]

If you were a real person, I'd punch you until you died.

Ren noticed the irritated wrinkles on my forehead.

"Takero-dono, is something wrong?"

"No… just some unwanted communication."

Come to think of it shouldn't cleaning toilets count as work?

Didn't I gain experience from that?

[User still asking dumb questions. When has toilet cleaning ever been a proper job? You still have zero points. Don't get your hopes up.]

But they were filthy. Overflowing. Disgusting.

And we cleaned them for eight straight hours!

[Still toilets. Blame the lazy guards for letting them get that bad.]

As we stepped further into the site, a man approached us.

He wore an orange helmet and a dirt-stained vest.

His face looked like it hadn't known rest in years.

His half-closed eyes locked on us.

"You two the new guys?"

I nodded.

He spoke in a tired monotone.

"The job's simple. Help with moving materials. Wood, stones—whatever they tell you. You don't need brains for this. Just follow instructions."

He pointed at a nearly empty space on the side.

"That corner's for sorting. Start there. Don't talk too much. And don't touch any tools without permission. Got it?"

I nodded again.

"Also, if you see a huge guy with a gray beard and a face like carved stone, don't mess with him. That's Bark—the foreman. One wrong look and you'll be digging the bank's foundations with your bare hands."

The phrase "with your bare hands" echoed in my head in the worst way possible.

[He sounds like a fun guy. Maybe he'll be your new best friend.]

"Please stop talking."

My first day at the worksite began—surrounded by hammers, saws, and foremen yelling like we were in the middle of a national emergency.

The workers were divided into three teams:

1. Leveling Team: Prepares the ground beneath the wooden frame.

2. Transport Team: Moves stones and wood to the assembly areas.

3. Carpentry Team: Builds the frames for the concrete to be poured later.

Ren and I were placed in the Transport Team, because we were "new."

Nice way of saying cheap and inexperienced.

The tasks were straightforward:

Move a two-meter wooden plank from the curb to the shaded area, where it'd be measured and installed.

Line up stones around the foundation, to be placed according to later designs.

Ren, of course, didn't complain. He was actually excited as if we were on a covert mission.

"Takero-dono, I carried this plank all by myself! Isn't that amazing?"

"I'm not sure what's so amazing about it… but good job."

There was solid supervision and the tasks were well organized… but exhausting.

After two hours, I was drenched in sweat and couldn't tell the difference between the wood I carried and my ribs.

[Congratulations! You've earned 3 experience points.]

A small step… but I finally felt like I was moving forward.

During a short break, I watched the carpentry team.

One guy was using a miter square to mark a precise 45-degree angle.

Everything looked so exact.

Someone said:

"If we don't get this corner right, the whole first floor's gonna be crooked."

That detail stuck in my mind.

Not because I liked engineering...

But because I felt like "Factory" might need that kind of precision in the future.

That evening, we all gathered in a corner of the site, where temporary wooden tables had been set up.

Dinner was a bowl of gray soup and flavorless bread.

But despite the bland food, there was something lively about the atmosphere.

Laughter, chatter, and banter between tired but content workers.

"Ren, your work today was excellent!"

One of them said, patting Ren on the shoulder.

"Yeah, it's rare to see a newbie get the hang of things so fast."

Another added, mouth still full of bread.

As always, Ren remained humble.

"Thank you, but I couldn't have done it without Takero-dono's help."

There was a pause.

The workers exchanged awkward glances…

Like they were searching their memories for a name that didn't exist.

"Takero? Who's that?"

"That kid who was with him today?"

One of them raised his finger after a moment of thought:

"Ah! I think I saw him around noon… standing next to the water leveler, staring at it really hard."

"Yeah, I thought he was trying to calculate slope or something super technical."

"No, no... He was just pretending. I remember he stood there for half an hour without moving. We passed by and laughed."

The whole table erupted in laughter.

I buried my head in my hands.

I didn't know whether to laugh or die from embarrassment.

[Looks like they've figured you out. This is quite humiliating.]

"Shut up. I don't need the reminder."

And so, my first day of work ended 

Surrounded by cement, exhaustion… and coworkers' mockery.