As a Vending Machine Maniac
The sound of an explosion, so loud that it would have stunned my eardrums if I had them, fills the underground chamber. As we look up at the ceiling, it creaks, and we see crevices start to scatter out in all directions.
Ack, this is exactly what Hulemy was worried about!
“I-it’s caving in! Ahhhhhhhh!”
She’s cute when she screams—this isn’t the time to think about that! Force Field, activate!
At the last moment, blue walls surround me. It repels the collapsing ceiling, preventing it from entering the field. With an unidentifiable noise surrounding us, Hulemy clutches her ears and crouches, cowering.
When the sound finally subsides, we’re trapped in the rubble. It would normally be pitch-black with no light coming through, but with the light coming out of my vending machine body, we have a good view of our surroundings.
“Th-thanks for saving me, Boxxo. You’re a pretty reliable guy, y’know that?”
She bumps my metal body with a fist. The situation calls for more urgency, but for the moment, we’re okay. The problem is what to do now.
We can manage for food. The biggest issue is keeping this Force Field up. With a little over ten thousand points and that number decreasing by one per second, there’s a limit to how long I can maintain it. If it costs 3,600 points per hour, someone will have to dig us out within three hours or we’ll just get crushed to death.
If it was just me…I could withstand it by increasing my toughness. But that couldn’t be further from what I want to do. If I abandon this woman, it’ll haunt me for the rest of my life. Now that I’m not human anymore, I want my soul, at least, to be as human as possible.
And I don’t want to see Lammis cry, either.
“Boxxo, can you keep this Force Field up forever?”
“Too bad.”
No point lying to her now. I’ll tell her the situation in as much detail as I can, and then we should search for a way we’ll both be saved.
“Do we have less than an hour?”
“Too bad.”
“Is it a two-hour limit?”
“Too bad.”
“Around three hours?”
“Welcome.”
“I see. We might last three hours… That’s not much of a margin. What a pain.”
Yes, we don’t have time. We have to break out of this situation before it’s up. Unfortunately, no tool I can have as a vending machine product will let us get out of here.
It’s cruel, but I guess this is reality. I’m incredibly far from gaining another Blessing. Things would change if I could have an optional drill part as a feature, but obviously that doesn’t exist. Even if it did, it would probably take an immense number of points.
We’re in a bind, no matter how I look at it, but…not yet. I must be able to combine something to…
“Hey, Boxxo. Do you need money to maintain this Blessing? You said you had more ways to use money before.”
“Welcome.”
Ah yes, I did say that. Of course, if we got a lot of coins, I could change them into points and preserve the Force Field. But Hulemy said they took all her money and belongings. We don’t have the kind of money I need here.
“I thought so. Then we might be able to pull through. Boxxo, look up.”
Pull through how? I don’t believe her right off the bat, but I move my gaze toward the upper portion of the ceiling rubble. What does she want from—? Wait.
“Do you see it? That bag is full of coins. Remember how I said there’s a storeroom above us?”
Oh, I get it. I see. We’re right under a storeroom, which is what caused this huge mess. If the floor fell out, then obviously whatever was inside the storeroom would fall.
In that case, I’ll allow just that bag into the Force Field!
The bag falls to the floor. Its opening is large enough to fit an entire child inside, and it’s filled with gold, silver, and copper coins. This is great! With all this, I can keep the Force Field up for a long time. Just the coins that fell out of the bag upon its descent should let me maintain it for a whole day.
All I need to do now is set my item prices to cost at least one gold coin.
“Sweet. I’m buying whatever I want now!”
Gold, silver, and copper coins pour into me, and my points rise to unbelievable levels. I think this money is probably acquired illegally, but there’s no way to return it to the people who lost it, so I’ll put it to good use.
If their boss is safe out there somewhere and he realizes all the money they saved up is gone, he might slip a disk.
The Force Field is no longer a worry. If we can hold out for three days, Lammis will be able to clear the rubble and dig us out. And I have faith that if I keep calling out to her, she’ll find us before long.
With the threat to our lives at bay, we finally have time to think. Now we just have to wait for rescue.
Hulemy is in total relaxation mode; she’s been munching on her chips, bought for the premium price of more than one gold coin. She’s quiet now, though, so maybe she’s sleepy since she’s full.
“Hah, hah, hah-hah, what…? I can’t breathe…”
Wait, her face doesn’t look good. She’s not breathing smoothly. She has a hand to her forehead as though she’s in pain. What’s wrong? She was so energetic before, and yet… Oh, shoot, I’m an idiot!
I have a mechanical body, and I made a stupid mistake because of it. Right now, she’s suffocating. Unlike me, people need to breathe. The rubble has us totally buried, in an airtight space. People can’t last long like that.
Crap. A little bit of thought and I would have realized it. I slipped up, figuring I won’t die, and exposed her to danger without needing to.
“My head hurts…Hah, hah, hah…”
What should I do? I have even less time to think than before. If Hulemy suffocates and passes out, I’ll be powerless. If she needs oxygen… Oxygen… I got it!
I recall seeing that I had a feature for this. I thought I’d never get it, but I’ve never been so happy to have been a vending machine maniac before this moment.
The vending machine changes into a more retro shape. After switching forms into an archaic rectangular design, Japanese characters appear on my upper body:
OXYGEN VENDING MACHINE
In the middle of my body are masks that can cover your entire nose and mouth, as well as a thin tube outside me, connecting to my main body. When you hook it up, you can breathe oxygen from it.
“Hah, hah, wh-what do I do with this?”
Originally, the oxygen provision system cost fifty yen per three thousand cubic centimeters of oxygen, but this time, of course, it’s free. I make sure to output the oxygen so that even if she doesn’t figure it out, she’ll be fine. The important thing is to provide oxygen to this space.
“Hah, hah, there’s something, hah-hah-hah…coming out… You want me…hah-hah…to breathe it?”
“Welcome.”
She puts the mask firmly over her mouth. She begins to greedily inhale the oxygen, her pained look gradually relaxing. Great—I think she’s okay now.
Phew. That scared me. It was worth being a part of the vending machine enthusiast community—whenever I find a vending machine museum, I jump in without a second thought.
This oxygen vending machine was something that actually existed around 1965. At the time, air pollution was a problem in Japan, and apparently, they placed some of these in Ginza as an attempted countermeasure.
Based purely on what I’ve seen, it’s one of the strangest vending machines I’ve ever come across.
I have more than enough points to keep both the Force Field and the oxygen going without issue. Now we just have to wait for Lammis to rescue us. Only after giving some thought as to whether I’m forgetting something again, of course.
I can provide food whenever she needs it, and all the items she bought litter the floor now, so we’ll be fine for a while. I’ve got points to spare, as well. I’ll be on alert for a while, without rest or sleep, to prepare for anything unexpected. I should be good. I don’t think I’ve overlooked anything.
It saddens me that I can’t say that for sure, since it’s been pretty bad until now, but if I fail, we should manage as long as I back her up. I swear to myself that I won’t make a mistake until we’re rescued.
“Thanks, Boxxo. You know, if you were human, that might have been really bad.”
Sitting, she looks up at me with a blush, almost making my heart—er, my circuitry—start to pound. But Lammis is the one who has my back, metaphorically and physically.
I wonder if she’s crying right now, worried that I might’ve been crushed. She knows about my Force Field and my toughness, so I think she’ll be fine. I just hope she’s not acting crazy.
As if to interrupt my thoughts, a strange sound comes from overhead. A scraping noise mixed with a low-pitched sound, reverberating through my body. Did something heavy fall to the ground?
The noise is quickly canceled out—by a certain girl’s shouting.
“Boxxo! Where are you?! Even if you’re not safe, answer me!”
That wailing… Is she crying? I swear, crying over a vending machine… Even a maniac like me would go pale.
“Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha. Lammis is calling, Boxxo. Give her an answer,” says Hulemy, standing up and hitting me on the back.
The rubble overhead blows away, and Lammis, lit by the magical lamps, peers in at us. Her face is smeared with snot and tears, and the area around her eyes is swollen from bawling; her eyes themselves are bloodshot. I can tell at a glance how much she was worried about me.
“Boxxooooooo!”
Without hesitating, she leaps at me from above. I allow her through the Force Field, and she slips through its blue walls and crashes into me.
[25 damage. Durability decreased by 25.]
Ow, argh. That was more damage than I thought. Still, I wish this damage indicator would read the mood.
“I’m sorry—I’m sorry. This all happened because I took my eyes off you.”
You don’t need to worry about that so much. And I’m happy for the hug, but I hear some unpleasant groans from my body.
[10 damage. Durability decreased by 10.]
…I’m going to recover my durability. If this goes on, I could lose the life she just saved. Please calm down, Lammis.
“Thank you.”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry—I’m just so happy you’re okay!”
I have no arms to hold her as she sobs, and I don’t have a mouth to give her words of comfort—but from the bottom of my heart, I’m glad I met you. And I’m happy I could meet you again, Lammis.
Boxxo, eh…? A strange magic item but full of too many mysteries.
A magic item with its own mind. It seems like a human soul is in there, but what is this box, anyway? It’s a container made of materials I’ve never seen or heard of before, and the things inside taste like nothing I’ve ever experienced—and they’re even tasty.
I was pretty confident in my intelligence, but there was nothing like this recorded in anything I could find. If someone could make a magic item with the same capabilities as Boxxo’s, they’d be swimming in money for sure.
And the human soul trapped inside it—it’s a pain that it can only say yes or no, but I can still feel the human goodness in it.
Lammis has always been a good judge of people, and if she’s that attached to him, then he probably isn’t a bad person.
She’s still hugging him, making creaking noises, but the box is taking it all without so much as a complaint. This mysterious magic item—it protected me from the falling rubble, and did its damnedest to save me.
Seriously, what in the world is Boxxo? I’m pretty sure it can convert money into power, but…to have a Blessing to top it all off. Plus, it’s the absolute wall Force Field, which I’ve only ever heard about in legends.
It’s a heap of mysteries piled atop mysteries, with some more mysteries thrown into the mix.
It’s such an incredible research specimen that my magic-item engineer’s soul can’t suppress its giddiness.
With Boxxo, I wouldn’t need to worry about food or drink; I could always get delicious stuff right away. And I wouldn’t have to worry about being hurt, since there would be Force Field for when things go sour.
It’s pretty hefty, so normally it would be hard to even carry, but with Lammis’s Might, everything is solved. The day might come in the future where this pair gets far more famous.
I think I’m right in assuming that the hunters find him pretty necessary. It’s probably only a matter of time before the major hunter teams come knocking. That Force Field’s impenetrable defense and not having to worry about food must be really hard to overlook.
The world around Lammis looks like it’s about to change completely from now on. I suppose I’ll help her out as her childhood friend. I have a debt to Boxxo, after all.
I have to uncover the secret of his abilities and save the soul trapped in that magic item of a box.
“Lammis, give him some room. His body is crying out in pain.”
“If I let go, he might go away somewhere again, Hulemy… Wait, what are you doing here?”
She didn’t notice me until now? You’re such a single-minded, dazzling person.
But her honesty is cause for concern. I’ll stick with her for a while again. And because I’m curious about Boxxo, who she’s so attached to.
“Well, I guess I’m looking forward to seeing more from you, Boxxo,” I say, giving his metal body a poke. He drops a sweet drink into his compartment.
I wasn’t exactly trying to demand more, you know…
