“Ahhh, it’s hot. Ugh, I have a headache. I feel sick…”
We headed to the quest location while pulling a trailer. The eyes of the workers who passed us on the overtaking lane were cold. There were better ways to get around, such as by cycling or walking, but we workers also had work tools. Baseball bats, man catchers, ladders, and nets. Many such civilised tools supported our work in the battle against functions.
To be honest, I think it would have been nice to have a sword like in an isekai fantasy, or a laser gun in a sci-fi setting, but that would probably be too extravagant. My job was to get the best possible result under the given conditions. We would usually arrive at the quest location in under 10 minutes, but today it took us about an hour. Part of the reason for the delay was because Inoue had to take the occasional break to drink some water. I thought that if she felt that bad, she should have taken paid leave, but I didn’t know if the concept of paid leave existed in this world.
When I collected the quest information, Inoue was barely able to move, but I was full of motivation. Today, we were going to be dealing with REGEX functions.
Ultimately, we didn’t know what kind of functions would appear in a quest. However, it seemed that it was possible to predict with certain degree of accuracy. Based on the prediction results, the clerks would assign quests to us workers. I don’t know if there are workers who can cover everything, but I can’t deal with functions outside of my specialty, such as finance, statistics, and advanced mathematics. Quests are assigned while assessing the worker’s ability and aptitude.
Today, I asked the clerk if there was a place where the REGEX function might appear. The clerk looked at Inoue’s pale face and wrinkled her eyebrows a little, but it seemed that Inoue was considered someone suitable for handling REGEX functions.
“This is a practice book quest for a science student who has just started studying regular expressions. Nothing too complicated here.”
The clerk said that and gave us two long, thin cardboard boxes and assigned the quest to us.
We should be fine. Last night was a terrible night, but I managed to learn something about regular expressions despite that. This was an opportunity for me to gain new achievements.
Opening the door, we started the quest. Perhaps because we were a bit late, there were already five Triffids in the sheet.
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When I asked Inoue about the REGEX functions last night, I honestly didn’t get it, but I now realised it couldn’t be helped. This is hard to explain.
It was true that their basic characteristics were that of plants, but they’re way too different from trees. I’m sorry, but there are almost no leaves. Their trunks are round and fat, as if they had swallowed a cow. It’s surface was so rough it looked like dragon scales. At the top of each 2-3 meter tall Triffid was an urn shaped organ about the size of a human head from which a vine of sorts, which Inoue had called a stinger, grew out. Above all, the most unusual thing about them was that even though they were a plant, they moved about on three thick, root like legs.
As I gripped my tall branch shears tightly, Inoue gave a yawn from behind me.