00:25:47 Remaining
77/50 Monsters Killed
After going over everyone’s skills and general capabilities, I didn’t
exactly explain the full extent of my plan. Following Orion's advice, I instead handed out
extremely vague yet specific instructions that revealed just enough for
them to perform their roles without exposing my true objective.
As a result of that, all five of us were now walking along an empty road that should have been crawling with wolves.
My [Beast Attractor] was also intentionally active at the moment, too. It served two purposes.
The first was simple: if any fleshwolves were nearby, they would
converge on us, allowing Yuna and Arthur to eliminate them and raise
their kill counts in case we failed to locate the boss in time.
The second purpose was the more important one, and that was to lure in the Shadowflesh Cerberus to our position.
I made a deduction that regular fleshwolves avoided the Cerberus.
That was the most likely reason why the wolves disappeared after our
staged confrontation with the direwolf earlier, and also why Orion’s
team experienced a sudden drought of enemies near the library just
before the Cerberus approached.
If there were no wolves coming to us despite my [Beast Attractor]
being active, it meant that the Cerberus was still in the vicinity of
the library that was suppressing their presence. And since our walk was
relatively peaceful up to to this point, I assumed that’s what was
happening right now.
“No matter how much I think about it, I still can’t understand your
plan, mister,” Orion said as he walked beside me at the front of the
group, scanning the streets for signs of destruction or claw marks. He
had insisted on staying near me. “Why do I need to get carried by Sir
Arthur after we encounter the boss? I’m not weak. I can fight too.”
I placed a hand on his head and ruffled his hair lightly. “I know
you’re strong. Arthur and Luah following someone your age is proof
enough of that.”
“I’m not a kid anymore, Mister Devon. I’m eleven,” Orion corrected
seriously. “They’re only following me because Sir Arthur and I talked
about our favorite video games during the last wave. And Miss Luah only
did so because she’s Sir Arthur’s sister.”
“Hey,” Luah muttered from behind us, though she didn’t press the issue.
Orion looked forward again and spoke more quietly. “Also, thank you
for saving me mister Devon.… But please don’t blame my mom for what
happened. She was scared of the car and forgot I was still on the road.”
I frowned. “She was yelling at you, Orion. It’s not good for a parent to treat you like that.”
He shook his head. “It was my fault. She says I stress her out and
take all her money to feed me. Whenever I try to ask how I can help, she
just scolds me for bothering her.”
Fuck. Listening to him explaining this as if it was entirely normal
was making me feel like shit. It wasn’t just because I felt sympathy for
him, but because I could mildly relate to his experiences.
Despite everything, Orion continued in a steady voice, “I still want
to go back to Earth. I want to earn enough money here so my mom and I
can live happily. Maybe if I become successful, my dad will come back
too. Maybe they’ll both be proud of me someday.”
I looked at him. I didn’t say what I was thinking. From what I saw,
his mother wasn’t just “stressed.” She looked like someone who had
already given up on her own child. I didn’t want to tell him the harsh
truth yet—that we might not be able to go back to our world. So, as to
not waste his misguided ambition, I patted his head again and reassured
him with a half-truth, “Don’t worry, Orion. I’ll help you return to our
world.”
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
He looked up at me and seized the chance to ask, “What do you remember after the crash?”
“I tried to pull you out of the red car,” he said. “Then there was a
white flash and a loud explosion. After that, I was here. I think
someone protected me and transported me into this world.”
White flash? A loud noise? I
gulped. The car must’ve exploded. It was unfortunate that Orion was
caught into the accident as well, but my conviction still remains. The
kid was better off in this world than on Earth. At least in here, he has
a chance to live a normal life away from the abuse of his parents—but
that’s only if we survive this EVENT.
After our conversation, I turned my head around to look at Yuna. The
silver-haired girl was trailing behind the group, eyes drooped down the
ground, as if she was contemplating something. “Yuna, how’s your leg?”
She didn’t respond.
“Yuna?”
“Huh? Oh—um, yeah. I’m fine,” she absentmindedly responded as she
looked at me. She must’ve still been hurting on her thigh wound. “My
sneakers and the talisman are helping me curb the pain. I can walk or
run properly now… I think. It still aches a little bit, though.”
“Don’t forget that I get one of those later,” I reminded. “I did all
the work and killed the direwolf for us, if you conveniently forgot.”
“I’m going to conveniently forget you just said that,” she retorted. “Also, why would you make me the runner? I’m literally injured! I could’ve just lent these to you if you needed it!”
“You said your leg isn’t hurting that much in the first place,” I
said. “I need your power but I can’t keep carrying around, Yuna.
Remember what I told you earlier?”
“Right, right. You need my puppets to distract the Cerberus, some shit I don’t really get.”
Before Yuna and I could argue further, Orion suddenly spoke, “Mister
Devon?” he said. “If I return to Earth, will you come with me? My mom
would like to thank you for saving me.”
I forced myself to smile and nodded, “Of course! But only after I fulfill my dream in this world.”
“A dream?”
“It’s a bit silly, but…” I smiled at him genuinely. “ I want to
become rich in this world. And if I become rich, it means becoming
strong too, right? I’ll be able to live a life without worry for the
first time.”
Orion laughed, and for a moment he sounded like a normal kid who was
having fun. “Then I’ll help you! I’ll become strong so I can protect you
too, mister!”
But then the ground trembled beneath us. A translucent blue panel appeared in front of my vision.
[You are now in a combat encounter.]
Arthur stiffened immediately. “Devon—what’s happening?”
“I don’t see anything,” Yuna said. “My puppets aren’t picking up anything.”
Despite the alert, there was no apparent sign of the Cerberus other than that increasingly mini-quake that had just stopped.
I wasn’t surprised. In fact, this was exactly what I had anticipated.
If they really had any power to influence the course of the EVENT,
they’d instruct the boss monster to our location to “ambush” us. It’s
why I explicitly said that all five of us needed to engage the boss
monster. It was also to lure the viewers into a lull sense of
premonition that I was planning to attack the Cerberus head-on with this
group.
That Cerberus had now arrived, but we weren’t fighting it here, no.
I only lured it because of one thing. And now, that thing presented itself to me—or to us, rather.
[Elimination Quest]
Participants: Devon, Orion, Arthur, Luah, Yuna
Eliminate the monster inside the Elimination Stage to get a special reward!
- (A-Tier Talisman) Bug Repellant Talisman
- (B-Tier Potion) Potion of Lesser Healing x5
- (C-Tier Weapon) Golden Crusader Shield
- (D-Tier Weapon Augment) Explosion Journal
- (E-Tier Skill Scroll) Ethereal Restraint
- (F-Tier Artifact) Vision Cape of Shadowflesh Cerberus
Expiration: 00:15:00
[Preparation time has now begun. The Elimination Quest will start in approximately one minute.]
Getting this Elimination Quest was inarguably the most important step to my plan.
If we don’t have this quest and one of us kills the boss monster… Only one will get the kill count.
I got this idea from when Yuna and I battled the direwolf. She
mentioned that because she was the “slayer” of the direwolf, there was
another tick to her kill count. I didn’t tell her, but I also got
another tick to my kill count. That could mean one thing: that kill
counts are shared between each participant of an Elimination Quest.
As we were all frozen on the ground with the preparation time ticking
down, I told them, “Don’t forget your roles. We can kill it if nothing
goes wrong.”
“That’s a terrifying margin, Devon,” Arthur commented.
With the timer nearing its end, I addressed Yuna, “Are your puppets ready?”
“I’ll have them in place once the preparation’s over!”
As the final seconds ticked away, I didn’t waste any more time. My
voice cut through the tense silence in our frozen state. “The second the
timer ends, scatter! Don’t cluster up. Stay light on your feet and keep
your eyes on the walls and the ground. It can move through the shadows,
so keep yourself on the light.”
[3… 2… 1…]
[START!]