How a Nuisance Character Survives a Horror Game Chapter 34

6. I Know What You Did During Our Last Swim (1)

Broken glass jars and human body parts were tangled messily across the waterlogged floor.

Fresh blood covered everything.

Nearby lay the flamethrower, smashed beyond recognition.

The revolver had been dismantled as well.

Chunks of flesh from the giant eye monster were scattered everywhere.

Roll……

A piranha monster rolled to Suriel’s feet.

He crushed it beneath his shoe.

Crunch!

Beginning with his foot, Suriel’s entire body began trembling.

His eyes were bloodshot.

His jaw clenched tightly.

Murderous energy poured from him.

The nearby monsters, which had gathered after smelling blood, immediately scattered in panic.

“Who dared touch my collection……”

Suriel’s voice echoed coldly through the drained pool.

“There was only one person carrying that gun, wasn’t there?”

A woman approached from behind the enraged Suriel.

Click, click.

Suriel turned and instinctively frowned.

Long gray hair floated around her despite the absence of wind.

When she raised eyelids framed by long lashes, faded gray eyes rolled toward him.

“Seriously……”

A thoroughly irritated voice slipped through red lips.

“How long are you all planning to drag this out over one insignificant human?”

Suriel furrowed his brow as though offended.

But Dilaf answered instead.

“Hey! She isn’t just some insignificant human! She’s a fucking crazy pervert.”

The vivid memory of being slapped by Evelyn resurfaced.

Dilaf rubbed his cheek.

The corner of his mouth rose slightly.

The demon Sellir watched him with obvious displeasure.

By now, normally three or four people would already have died.

They had agreed to enjoy things slowly.

Still, none of their patience had ever lasted longer than three days.

And yet more than three days had already passed.

The humans had been inside the hotel for quite some time now.

Worse—

apparently they were growing accustomed to it.

They slept on their own.

Woke up.

Ate.

Washed.

“They’re acting like they own the place. Right, Extenron?”

The man standing quietly behind Sellir nodded.

Messy black hair covered his eyes.

A metal muzzle covered his mouth.

His enormous body was nearly twice Sellir’s size.

“That woman did all this? How?”

Suriel stared across the pool in disbelief.

Of course, while being beaten with nunchaku, he had briefly wondered whether she might be the strongest human alive……

‘Was this where she got transported? What the hell is she……?’

Sellir snapped her fingers in front of Suriel’s face.

“She’s tearing this place apart however she likes. Are you seriously going to do nothing?”

“But Holloway……”

Dilaf hesitated.

Sellir responded as though she saw no problem.

“So what? Did he order us not to kill her? Or is it that you don’t want her dead? Did that woman catch your pretty little eye?”

The instant she mentioned his eyes, Dilaf’s aura turned vicious.

“Fuck. I told you not to talk about me like that.”

Anything involving his eyes made it difficult for Dilaf to control his emotions.

The atmosphere distorted between the two.

They looked ready to clash.

Extenron fidgeted anxiously and waved his hands, silently telling them to stop.

Neither paid him any attention.

“If you don’t want that, then don’t interfere with whatever I do. Holloway won’t care just because one human dies. More importantly, she might be someone sent by the Empress.”

If that were true, Holloway would never become angry over her death.

A razor-sharp madness appeared within Sellir’s gray eyes.

“If none of you intend to kill her, then I’ll handle it myself. Stay out of my way.”

“…….”

Dilaf silently lifted one eyebrow.

“Extenron, you agree, don’t you? You’ll come with me?”

“Yeah.”

“Suriel?”

“As long as you give me her corpse intact.”

“Fine.”

Sellir didn’t care about the corpse.

Among all the humans who had entered this hotel, Evelyn was the first in a very long time to grate this intensely on her nerves.

If she could kill that woman—

‘……She reminds me of that man. How irritating.’

Sellir shoved Dilaf’s shoulder out of her way.

Dilaf then blocked Suriel, who was following Sellir.

“You’re really going along with her?”

“You know exactly what this is.”

“I mean, yeah……. But honestly, it’s disgus—”

“Finish that sentence. What about my beautiful collection?”

“Disgusting.”

STOMP!

“Agh!”

Suriel mercilessly brought his heel down on Dilaf’s foot and walked past him.

“Hey! Did you seriously step on me?! You’re even wearing heels!”

Suriel ignored Dilaf raging behind him.

Sellir thought about Dilaf and Holloway.

Dilaf had gone as far as blocking Suriel.

Without any of them even noticing, Evelyn had somehow become interesting to both Dilaf and Holloway.

Which meant—

before they realized it themselves—

‘I need to kill the woman who’s disturbing Holloway’s heart.’

Whether she belonged to the Empress or not.

Sellir’s heels struck and released the marble with every step.

Extenron followed behind her, then looked back toward Dilaf.

The silent look asked why he wasn’t coming.

Dilaf shrugged.

“If you ask me, none of you will even manage to lay a finger on that crazy woman.”

“Looks like you’ve taken a liking to her.”

Ridiculous.

Sellir’s contemptuous gaze swept over Dilaf.

He didn’t care.

“Humans are the ones who deserve complete extinction.”

Sellir ground her teeth.

Within her gray eyes, an unknowably deep hatred flickered from somewhere buried far beneath the surface.

[To adjust the hotel difficulty, either raise Holloway’s Affection or calm the anger of the demon attempting to kill you.]

Calm Suriel down?

How the hell am I supposed to calm that picky bastard?

This system keeps giving me impossible quests.

I’m going insane.

I’ve barely been awake, and I’m already in danger of dying again.

Stop……

At this rate I’m the only one who’s going to die……!

Maybe if I just avoid him……

No.

That wouldn’t work.

The hotel’s overall danger level had increased.

Meaning wherever I went, my life would be threatened.

……Should I rest for a little while and think?

I’m low on blood.

Just as I started lying down again—

something sharp flashed above me.

Instinctively, I grabbed Holloway and dodged left.

A huge axe crashed into the exact spot where I had been.

CRACK!

It destroyed the bed.

“…….”

“…….”

Apparently everyone was too stunned by the enormous axe to speak.

“Big sis.”

“Y-Yeah…… You’re not hurt, right?”

“……No.”

[Holloway’s feelings become complicated when he sees you think about his safety first even now.]

[Attachment increased by 0.1%.]

Oh, fuck off!

That stingy 0.1% increase made me swear automatically.

Cletta was the first to recover.

He grabbed me and pulled me upright.

“Evelyn, are you hurt?!”

“For now, no.”

Even guest rooms were no longer safe.

Everywhere I stepped had basically become a land mine.

I hugged Holloway tightly.

The system had said he protected me unconsciously.

I didn’t care if he unconsciously pushed me away too.

Just protect me.

As the hotel’s danger level changed, the atmosphere became even darker and more sinister.

Moran noticed the change and sounded close to tears.

“Doesn’t this place seem dangerous? Let’s find another room.”

“First, Evelyn, eat some porridge. Your complexion……”

Before Cletta could finish, Moran hurriedly brought the porridge and handed it to me.

“Eat quickly. Miss Evelyn, your face looks terrible.”

Why does Moran always subtly insult my face?

Even before my dance, she saw my determined expression and asked what was wrong with my face.

Still, she was giving me food.

So I should eat.

I poured half the porridge into my mouth.

Then I fed half of what remained to Holloway.

I fed the rest to Moran.

Finally, I carefully placed the empty bowl into Cletta’s hands.

Cletta stared at the perfectly empty bowl.

“……What about me?”

“Come on. Let’s go, Moran.”

It was time for us to leave.

I held Holloway and spoke solemnly.

Holloway remained comfortably in my arms while giving Cletta a deliberately mocking smile.

“That little brat is getting on my nerves.”

He isn’t some dwarf-sized runt you can do anything about just because you’re angry, so leave him alone.

My entire body ached.

Every step made my butt hurt too.

Still, I had to walk.

“Miss Evelyn, you look like you’re in pain. I’ll carry Holloway for you.”

“Would you? Then can I link arms with you, Moran?”

As long as I stayed close to Holloway, I probably wouldn’t die.

“I’ll walk myself and hold big sis’s hand.”

“Would you?”

You could’ve said that from the beginning.

Granted, I was the one who picked him up first.

But I love myself far too much to blame myself for things.

I put Holloway down and held his hand.

I had no weapons left.

But I had Holloway.

Taking my new lifeline with me, I quietly walked through the corridor.

Moran pressed close beside me and lowered her voice.

“……Doesn’t it seem darker somehow?”

“Are your eyes getting bad?”

“No!”

Even in the game, whenever the hotel difficulty increased or danger approached, the hotel’s atmosphere changed first.

The one consolation was that there was no maddening BGM here.

[Would you like to play BGM?]

Oh.

No.

[Playing BGM.]

I said no!

[Creeeeak……. Creak……♬♪]

Someone please explain to this socially deficient system—

adding musical notes doesn’t turn monster noises into music.

Because of one careless thought, I was now walking through a horror game accompanied by stereotypical creepy background music.

The music steadily intensified.

W-With this kind of melody, something is definitely about to appear.

I stared forward in fear.

Ding, ding, ding―.

“Gah!”

M-My heart fell out!

Someone check the floor!

The sudden alarm-clock sound made my heart drop.

“W-What was that?”

“An alarm clock, big sis.”

“Thanks for the helpful explanation……”

That wasn’t what I meant.

Click, click.

What now?

Is it that fucking Suriel?

The corridor was too dark to see what lay ahead.

I hugged Holloway tightly.

“I can’t breathe.”

Sorry.

Still not letting go.

Cletta spread his arms toward me.

“Evelyn, come here.”

Apparently thinking I might actually enter Cletta’s arms, Holloway immediately tightened his grip around my waist and changed his answer.

“I can breathe.”

“…….”

What are you doing?

I wasn’t going to him anyway.

Moran rolled her eyes around nervously before genuinely asking,

“……Um, why aren’t we running?”

“Because there are sounds coming from both sides.”

“Ah……”

Instead of merely holding my arm now, Moran wrapped both arms around my body.

A voice echoed from the end of the corridor.

―Gue…… gue……

“Moo. Cows go moo.”

“Pfft.”

I could hear Cletta and Holloway desperately suppressing their laughter.

Moran buried her face in my shoulder and trembled violently.

I’ve never met people who laugh this easily.

―Gue…… est……

Ah.

Guest!

Are the hotel employees coming……?

Step.

Step……

Steady footsteps continued.

Shadows emerged from the darkness.

I tried opening a nearby guest-room door.

[Guest room door has been locked.]