How a Nuisance Character Survives a Horror Game Chapter 27

5. Stay Strong, Evelyn (2)

[Holloway cannot find you.]

[Holloway cannot smell your scent.]

My scent?

What scent, you bastard?

[Holloway is displeased.]

What?

He finds my smell unpleasant?

[Hidden function ‘Anxiety’ has been activated!]

How badly do I smell for Anxiety to activate?!

Does my scent make you that uncomfortable?

I cautiously raised one arm and sniffed it.

No……

I don’t smell bad enough to be unpleasant……

That window is making me depressed.

[Current Holloway Anxiety: 0.5%.]

[Anxiety: The longer Holloway remains separated from you, the less predictable his actions become.

The higher Anxiety becomes, the more his Possessiveness toward you increases!

Stay close to poor, beautiful Holloway and reduce his Anxiety!]

[Possessiveness increased by 0.2%.]

[Jealousy: 13%

Anxiety: 0.5%]

If you look at it objectively, this thing talks more than I do.

I didn’t even have time to focus on the monsters closing in from both sides because I was too busy reading message after message about smells—

No.

Status windows.

“But Anxiety?”

As if Jealousy weren’t enough, now Anxiety?

Why not just unlock every negative emotion at once?

I had only grumbled casually.

But the system, possessing eyes like a hawk that missed nothing, graciously displayed another window.

[Would you like to activate Holloway’s ‘Stress’?]

“No.”

Go away.

I repeatedly clicked ‘No.’

[Holloway’s ‘Stress’ activation has been canceled.]

Stress exists too?!

I only said one thing.

Now I can’t even speak freely.

The world is too cruel.

Someone please save me……

[‘Future Conqueror of This World’ Holloway’s Emotional Values!

Affection: 10.5%

Attachment: 11%

Possessiveness: 12.2%]

[‘Future Conqueror of This World’ Holloway’s ★★!

Jealousy: 13%

Anxiety: 0.5%

(=Linked Emotion: Possessiveness)

????

????

.

.

.]

Tears welled as I stared at the long list of question marks.

Those are all going to unlock eventually too, aren’t they……?

Managing one child was fucking exhausting.

And what are those stars supposed to mean?

Wouldn’t I actually be better off without Holloway?

I desperately prayed that it was only my imagination that the difficulty kept increasing over time.

I rubbed both hands over my face and focused on the approaching sounds.

Creak, creeeak……

I gripped the nunchaku tightly.

Escaping the monsters here was more important than worrying about Holloway somewhere else.

In the end, the only thing I could rely on was my own body.

I just needed to survive like I always had.

―Grrrk, grrrr……

First……

Should I test something?

Being transported together with the nunchaku was incredibly fortunate.

At least I still had a semi-reliable weapon.

Worried the monsters might hear me, I muttered quietly,

“A-Ah-byoh……”

[You lack confidence. Buff effects will not activate.]

Excuse me.

These monsters snatch people based on sound.

If I enthusiastically scream ‘AH-BYOH,’ won’t the monsters enthusiastically chase me?!

Give me another weapon!

More importantly, earlier I had other people around.

That made it easier not to constantly think about death, so my confidence had suddenly surged.

But now that I was alone in a place that smelled like death, my confidence had vanished.

The small sounds the monsters made and the corridor flooded with red light made my knees tremble.

……Was this game always this terrifying?

The monsters’ sounds drew steadily closer.

Yet I still couldn’t see them.

If they were approaching from both directions to trap me, then my only option was to hide inside a guest room.

I forced strength into my trembling legs and grabbed the nearest doorknob.

Squelch.

Something sticky clung to my palm.

When I released the handle, a string of liquid stretched before snapping.

Dark red blood covered my hand.

“…….”

Every hair on my body stood upright.

Panicking, I scrubbed the blood from my hand against the wall.

This much is nothing.

I tried acting tough, but apparently the body really was honest.

Cold sweat soaked my forehead and dampened my bangs.

I bit the soft flesh inside my mouth to suppress a scream.

Being alone made it painfully obvious that this truly was a horror game.

But I couldn’t stand around forever.

I wanted to grab the handle again, but hesitated in front of it.

I don’t want to touch it barehanded……

I pulled my cardigan sleeve down over my hand and grasped the doorknob.

The wet, mushy sensation felt even more vivid through the thin fabric.

Gritting my teeth, I turned it.

Click.

Click, click.

The door wouldn’t open.

Click-click-click!

“Damn it.”

The other doors were the same.

With the monsters steadily closing in, I eventually decided to press myself beside one of the decorative pedestals placed throughout the hall and pretend to be an ornament.

I stepped toward it.

Squish.

“……Ah, please.”

Let’s not do this.

The horrifying softness beneath my foot informed me very clearly that I had stepped on something squishy.

And worse……

“I’m barefoot……”

Wriggle, wriggle.

Whatever was under my foot made its presence vividly known against my sole.

Not one.

Several.

My entire body froze.

Every hair stood straight up.

I couldn’t even scream.

They were insects whose name I didn’t even want to say aloud.

My hands and feet curled from disgust, and my entire body shuddered.

Still, I exercised every ounce of patience I possessed and lifted my foot.

When I planted it back onto the bare floor—

squish.

The insects stuck to my sole burst one after another.

I curled my toes so hard all the blood drained from them.

“I’m going to kill it. That system that sent me here is dead. Seriously. I mean it.”

Cursing wasn’t enough to vent my rage.

So I decided to offer a short prayer of gratitude to the system that had bestowed this trial upon me.

I prayed that one day it would obtain one of those prestigious professions everyone envied.

Mysterious death.

Sudden death.

Death away from home.

Things like that……

While I prayed, a sound came from below.

―Squeak.

“Hm?”

―Squeak!

“No, don’t. Don’t do that. Stop squeaking. Be quiet.”

I hate rats.

Don’t.

Apparently the rat became extremely offended that I had told it to shut up.

It suddenly shrieked like it was having a fit.

―SQUEEEEEAK!

“Aaaaaagh!”

I covered my ears and screamed at the ultrasonic cry.

[You were struck by the Murder Rat’s ‘Ultrasonic Wave’ while defenseless.]

[Your semicircular canals have suffered impact, causing dizziness.]

The semicircular canals responsible for balance went berserk without my permission.

My body staggered helplessly.

[The attack has reached your brain, preventing you from maintaining consciousness.]

[Vision darkening.]

With that final system message—

I fainted.

***

My eyes snapped open.

“…….”

I bolted upright.

The corridor still looked like a butcher shop illuminated in red.

When I moved my toes, dried blood flakes cracked and fell away.

Goosebumps covered me.

At this point, I almost wished the game would simply make me fight monsters.

No.

I wished it would just leave me alone.

Even though the horrible sensation remained vividly imprinted on my sole, I still had to survive.

Ignoring my foot as much as possible, I listened carefully.

The monsters that had been closing in before I fainted—

and the rat—

were both completely silent now.

“The rat……. Where’s that murder rat?”

Where did that bastard who destroyed my semicircular canals go?

Don’t tell me it ate part of my body while I was unconscious?

I hurriedly felt myself all over.

Nothing seemed particularly wrong.

I had been lying in the middle of the corridor as casually as if it were my own bedroom.

So why wasn’t I injured?

If those monsters attacked me, shouldn’t they have done something?

I couldn’t possibly understand their thoughts no matter how much I wondered.

Whatever the reason, this worked in my favor.

So I decided to hurry and complete the quest.

Now……

Where had Suriel kept his collection in the original horror game?

I didn’t know.

I always died before reaching this point.

I had absolutely no useful information.

Fuck!

What a horribly balanced trash game!

Even after I cursed and insulted it, the system gave no particular response.

Then I noticed something.

A strange smell.

The rotten stench that had appeared when I first arrived on the fifth floor was especially strong near the water.