Over the years, the rate of gunmen appearances had decreased slowly. At first, it wasn't noticeable, since it was every hour or so, but around 10 years in, it was only three or four a day. Enough to keep us on our toes, but not enough to actually threaten our populations anymore, like they had in the beginning. Our death rate, with people actually getting proper training, had also steadily decreased to well under 5%. Rather than being expected that at least one person would die, as it was in the beginning, it was rare and a not small event if someone died.

  Bows and arrows also got developed somewhere around proper year 13. They were really bad compared to anything we have in real life and had to compete against full steel melee weapons, so they took a while to catch on. Once they became reliable and people had the training, they took over quickly, but that was around proper year 28 or so, and many people still clung on to their tried and true weapons even beyond that. It's funny how, even in another world, people will stick to what they have instead of move on to better advancements just because of their familiarity with the old stuff.

  Some things are just in human nature, I guess.

  I'm not really sure if anyone ever knew where we got our original weapons, honestly. We never crafted them, we just kinda had them. They were just around the island, especially in a few different clearings where people tended to be isekaied into. Sometimes, they'd just be in some random spot in the forest. They never seemed intentionally placed, just randomly dropped behind a bush or next to some random tree with no distinguishing features to indicate why a weapon would be there, or wherever other random place.

  Sometimes it was obvious how a weapon got there, as a lone wolf's body would be found alongside it. Some random teen who thought it would be better to go on their own than join the established and working system that dealt with gunmen. Those were always the saddest. Most of the time, though, the weapon was just there, no blood or disturbed vegetation or anything to indicate why.

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  The last few decades were very uneventful. Our kids had moved out, patrols were in place that dealt with gunmen as they appeared, I was old. I don't remember what we did to pass the time, but my wife and I stayed together pretty much all day in our advanced age. I must have spent a lot of the time in a wooden rocking chair because that's the thing I remember best from our time in retirement: Us sitting together, looking out over the town from our elevated position on the hill, rocking together in our chairs.

  I couldn't draw her elderly face if I tried, even if my art skills weren't in the single digits (1k being average artist,) but I remember the love I felt for her above anything. Above all the friends I know I lost along the way, above my own children, above even the first three days on the island, I remember just how happy my wife made me. Not even by doing anything, simply by being together.

  I don't remember the date, but I remember it was proper year 60 when I died in my bed. I don't remember who was around, but I did have people around when I died. My wife, certainly. Probably my kids and grandkids. I wasn't exactly surrounded, but people were around. Ultimately, I spent over 65 years in that world. I'd lived to at least 80 before old age took me, and I hope my wife wasn't too sad when I passed.

  I was very surprised to have returned to earth. Not only did I return, a single night had passed. My life after having returned is for me to know, along with the hundreds of data brokers that have an unreasonable amount of data on me, but I won't write it here. That's not exactly the point.

  Overall, my time on the island was negative with a few major points of light, or at least, that's how I remember it. I'm sure I had some fun nights around campfires I don't remember and I wish I could remember my kids pretty much at all beyond their existence and the order to not die. I'm sure they would be a significant point of pride and happiness if I could remember them. But, in total, I only have a couple happy memories of the island.

  I would never replace the experience, though. Living a happy life with my wife, the memory of whom still grants me great joy, was worth the constant fear of death in those first few years.