Once we reached the parking lot, we returned the borrowed filming equipment to Yuta-san. I'd checked the footage when we swapped the batteries halfway through, and luckily, there were no mistakes—no forgetting to hit the record button or anything like that.
Even if the filming itself was fine, the resulting footage looked "glitched." Trees whipping past at insane speeds, shortcuts taken by leaping off cliffs... Yeah, seeing raw footage without a single bit of CG that was achieved through pure human power definitely felt like a bug in reality.
"Well, it looks like it recorded correctly. Even if the footage itself is hard to believe..."
"Haha, please do your best to keep that from leaking to the general public."
"Oh, of course. We'll only use it for property introductions at the office or as reference material for analysis. Unless something completely unexpected happens, I don't think it'll ever be leaked intentionally."
I doubted it was anything a high-level explorer couldn't replicate, but the visuals were still... a bit much. I really didn't want this ending up on video-sharing sites or going viral as some kind of "superhuman" prank video.
But wait... what did he mean by "unexpected"?
"Yuta-san, what kind of unexpected situation are you talking about?"
"I mean things like the computer storing the data getting a virus and leaking info externally. We have decent cybersecurity, but technology moves so fast these days that you never know. Oh, but don't worry—we've never had a breach before. I'm just talking about a one-in-a-million scenario."
"Understood. Just... please make sure the management is tight."
"Certainly. I'll make sure the rest of the staff knows as well."
As long as information was managed digitally, the risk Yuta-san mentioned wasn't zero. Even major corporations with proprietary security tech occasionally made headlines for being hacked. A company that only used off-the-shelf security software would have a hard time defending against a serious attack.
Still, a data leak would be a direct blow to the company's credibility. Even a loose-lipped employee wouldn't intentionally leak internal info if it meant the company might go under... or so I hoped.
"Alright! I think we're done cleaning up. Everyone, get in the car. We'll head back to the station we saw when we first arrived."
"Yes!"
At Yuta-san's urging, we piled into the car. My heart sank a bit at the thought of traveling that unmaintained forest road again, but there was no other way back to civilization. Bracing myself for the inevitable shaking, I clicked my seatbelt into place and gripped the overhead handle and the door frame to steady my body.
Bring it on!
Somehow, we made it through the forest road safely and returned to the station. Since it was our second time, it wasn't as grueling as the trip in, but it still wasn't a road I'd drive for fun. If we ended up buying this place, the first order of business would be fixing the path to the parking lot. According to Yuta-san, the mountain in front belonged to the same owner, but because its access was better—or at least, less terrible—it was priced far above our budget.
If we did buy the property, I'd probably have to negotiate with the owner for permission to pass through the front mountain and use the parking lot. We'd also have to ask if we could maintain the road out of our own pockets. Though if we were the only ones using it, maybe just permission to pass would be enough.
"Hmm, what should we do for lunch? It's just before 1:00 PM, so it's prime lunch ti—wait, huh? Why are we back by 1:00 PM? That doesn't make sense. We went all the way up there and back, so why is the sun still so high...?"
Yuta-san checked his watch and started clutching his head, slipping into reality denial. I mean, I get why he thought it was weird. Crossing a whole mountain on foot and coming back in that time is physically impossible for a normal person.
However, if he was going to keep doing business with explorers, he'd just have to get used to it. Though granted, this pace was probably limited to high-level explorers. I should probably mention that to him later, otherwise he might get the wrong idea about what an average explorer could do.
"Calm down, Yuta-san. Getting back early is a good thing—we'll actually make it before lunch service ends. Come on, let's find a family restaurant or something."
"He's right, Yuta-san. There's no point worrying about it. Let's just go. There aren't any shops around here, anyway..."
"Let's get going, Yuta-san," Hiiragi-san added.
"Ah... right. Yeah..."
Whether our persuasion worked or he just gave up on logic, Yuta-san shook his head and regained his composure. Or maybe he just resigned himself to his fate.
We nudged him toward the car and climbed in. We had more on the schedule, so we couldn't afford to waste time.
"Alright, let's head out. Is a family restaurant okay for everyone?"
"Yes, please."
With that, Yuta-san pulled away.
After finishing lunch, we were back on the road with Yuta-san driving toward our next viewing. Last time we managed to see two properties, so we were aiming for a double-header today as well. It was faster to go directly from where we were than to head back to the office first.
Still, it was nearly 2:00 PM, so we were going to have to hustle.
"Everyone, we're almost there. The destination is upstream. We'll be following the river you see out the window."
"Ah, so we're heading upriver. Seeing it in person, it looks wider than it sounded in the description," I remarked.
"Yeah, the water volume is a bit high today. It rained a few days ago, after all. But even when it's not swollen, it's deep enough near the center for a motorized boat."
"I see. So this time..."
Hearing that a motorized boat was an option, I looked at Yuta-san with expectation. I assumed he had one ready for the viewing.
But that hope was immediately crushed.
"Ah, sorry. I don't have one ready today. Most importantly, I don't have a boating license."
"Wait, what? Then how are we going to see it? Are we going to climb over another mountain like last time?"
"Well, yeah. I'd like you to verify that route as well, but for the way there, I want to go up the river. I've prepared a means of transport, of course."
"A means of transport...?"
Transport, huh... Come to think of it, there was a large box in the trunk. Was he talking about that?
His words reminded me of a large, black bundle that looked like a storage bag sitting in the back. I had a pretty good guess what was inside.
"You kids will be able to handle it no problem."
"Uh... okay."
"Handle it," huh? Well, fine.
After another five minutes of driving, we turned away from the river and headed toward the mountains. Yuta-san pulled into a small, cleared space just big enough for one or two cars.
"We're here. We'll park here and head down."
"Down? You mean to the riverbank?"
"Exactly. This is as far upstream as a car can go. From here, your only options are the river or the mountain paths."
I see. If that was the case, we just had to follow him. We hopped out of the car and strapped on our filming gear again. But this time, we were handed extra equipment.
"Alright, everyone, put these on."
"Are these... helmets, life jackets, and waders?"
"Yep. We're going to be on the water, so safety first. I'd prefer if you had full life vests, but... well, let's just try not to get soaked."
Even if it was just for travel, we were definitely heading onto the water. We listened to Yuta-san's explanation as we struggled into the life jackets and the waterproof overall-style pants. I felt like a comedian on a variety show about to do a boat stunt.
Once we were all geared up, Yuta-san pulled the big box out of the trunk.
"Heave-ho! Everyone, this is our ride for today."
"This is... a boat, right?"
"Correct. An inflatable six-person rubber boat. We just need to pump it up."
"A pump... You don't mean we're doing it by hand, right?"
"Don't worry, I brought an electric pump. But it runs off the cigarette lighter, so we have to inflate it here before we carry it down."
Yuta-san rummaged through the trunk and showed us the pumps. An electric one and a... manual one? Wait, seriously?
"Yuta-san... don't tell me..."
"Yeah. It'll take forever with just one pump, so I'm going to need you guys to help out."
"Ah... sure."
So we took the manual pumps and started inflating the boat. It went exactly how you'd expect: Yuta-san used the electric pump, and we were assigned the manual ones.
I wanted to complain about why he didn't have electric pumps for everyone, but we were short on time. We pulled the boat out of the box and spread it out.
"It's pretty big."
"It's rated for six to eight people, so it's got some size to it. Anyway, the manual says to inflate the outer chambers first and the floor last. It's partitioned so that if one part gets a hole, the whole thing doesn't sink."
"Huh. I didn't know they were partitioned. I thought you just filled the whole thing at once."
"Boats this size are built for safety. The ones you're thinking of are probably just cheap leisure boats."
I see. Serious boats for sea or river fishing were built differently. I'm glad I found that out now. If I hadn't known, I might have prioritized price and bought a leisure boat, which could have ended in a disaster.
"Alright, let's split the work. I'll take this chamber. Hirose-kun, you take the other side. Kokonoe-kun and Hiiragi-san, take the floor."
"Understood!"
"Alright, let's get to it."
And so, we began.
Five minutes after we started, a fully inflated rubber boat sat before us.
The moment we finished, Yuta-san started clutching his head again.
"Why? How is it finished already? When I did a test run before, it took nearly fifteen minutes even with the electric pump..."
"Come on, Yuta-san. It's only fast because we all helped. Your test run was just one pump, right? If everyone does their part, it's bound to be this quick."
"...Is it? Yeah, I guess so. Even if every one of you was pumping as fast as an electric motor, there's nothing weird about that. Right. Yeah. That has to be it."
Yuta-san looked down and muttered something to himself, but when he took a deep breath and looked up, he had a bright, clear smile on his face. It was the look of a man who had attained enlightenment and left his common sense behind.
Once the boat was ready, we followed Yuta-san down a narrow, packed-dirt path toward the riverbank. Yuji and I carried the boat between us. It wasn't heavy, but the sheer size made it awkward to move. After seeing how fast we could do it manually, I decided that if there was a next time, I was definitely carrying the deflated boat to the destination before pumping it up.
"Everyone, we're almost at the bank... Wait, what?"
Yuta-san, who was leading the way, let out a voice of pure shock.
I had a really bad feeling about this.
"What's wrong, Yuta-san? Did something happen?"
"No, it's not that something happened... but... the water's much higher than I expected."
"The water level? You did say it was swollen from the—whoa!"
Yuji's voice rose in surprise as he looked past Yuta-san. I peered over Yuji's shoulder to see what was going on, and there it was—a river swollen with a terrifyingly fast current.
"Yuta-san... does this river always look like this when it's high?"
"Well, no. I heard that the width expands and covers most of the bank, but..."
He clearly hadn't expected the flow to be this violent. Yuta-san looked like his soul was leaving his body.
Seriously? Are we really supposed to go up this river in a rowboat?
A swollen river is dangerous. This wasn't going to be "white-water rafting." This was "white-water climbing."