How a Nuisance Character Survives a Horror Game Chapter 49

I found some slippers in Room 201, put them on, and walked through the corridor.

Then I suddenly asked Cynthia,

“Want me to teach you how to survive a long time in places like this?”

Despite the abrupt question, Cynthia nodded repeatedly, desperate to hear my secret tip.

After nearly dying myself, I could understand her fear.

Especially remembering Cynthia lying there covered in blood and barely breathing……

I violently shook my head to erase the image.

Then continued.

“If you abandon curiosity, you’ll live longer.”

Just look at horror movies and novels.

Someone gets curious and does exactly what they were told not to do.

They watch a video they should never watch.

Open a box or door they should never open.

Then they either get possessed or die.

So look at me.

I try avoiding all of it.

Unfortunately, the system refuses to allow that.

“Don’t go entering random places just because you’re curious.”

But I have to.

I need to embark on an endless journey searching for escape gates and clues.

“And if you see something and think, ‘Huh, what’s this?’ don’t open it.”

But I have to open it.

Because I never know what might be inside, I have to rummage around like some attention-seeking lunatic.

Wait.

……I’m definitely going to die first.

“Very well. I’ll remember that.”

Cynthia obediently nodded.

Must be nice.

You get to move according to your own will.

This damned system forces me to perform every horror-movie action you’re never supposed to do.

I wasn’t exactly in a position to lecture anyone.

“Then why is big sis so curious?”

“Because curiosity defeated fear.”

“It doesn’t really look like fear lost.”

“Let the minor details go.”

“Why?”

Because I don’t have an excuse, that’s why.

Cynthia watched Holloway and me bicker.

Then she made a strange expression.

“I feel like I’m seeing an unexpected side of Evelyn.”

“Only now?”

I’ve been acting like an idiot consistently since entering this place.

“Now that I have a little breathing room……. Although it’s ridiculous to say I have breathing room here.”

Cynthia laughed bitterly.

But her eyes still trembled with fear.

Well.

I at least knew this was a horror game.

That meant I could mentally prepare and act based on calculations.

The others knew absolutely nothing.

Of course they would be terrified.

Then again—

maybe ignorance was better.

“Found you! Miss Evelyn!”

As we turned a corner, Moran spotted me and shouted happily.

Cletta approached with her.

The moment Holloway saw Cletta, he wrapped his arms tightly around my waist.

Cletta glanced at him and snickered.

Probably thinking—

Aww, what an adorable child.

[Holloway’s murderous intent toward Cletta strengthens.]

Cletta had managed to earn the easiest thing to gain from Holloway—

murderous intent.

[Be careful that it does not increase further.]

Why are you telling me to be careful?

“M-Miss Evelyn!”

Werner saw me and immediately bowed deeply.

“I’m sorry. In the infirmary, I attacked you without realizing……”

“It’s fine.”

Werner wasn’t the only one.

Alhulf timidly emerged from behind Moran.

His expression brightened when he saw Cynthia and me.

But apparently his conscience bothered him, because he hesitated and couldn’t greet us.

Cynthia and I cleanly ignored him.

Tears dampened Alhulf’s eyelashes.

I didn’t care.

To be fair, Alhulf had made an effort by his own standards.

Normally, he wouldn’t even have thought to call for me.

This time, he called me and told me where Cynthia was.

That was significant growth.

But if we judged it like that—

Cynthia had saved Alhulf.

So however Cynthia treated him now, Alhulf had no right to complain.

As for me—

I simply wanted to treat him this way.

If I wanted to avoid becoming disappointed again when he ran away without looking back, keeping this distance was probably better.

Especially because keeping someone like Alhulf beside me was terrible for my mental health.

And with that—

every member of our cursed group project was finally assembled.

It was the first time since entering the hotel that everyone had gathered together.

Everyone looked awkward around everyone else.

As the group’s leader—

though I have no idea who appointed him—

Cletta spoke first.

“Since we’re all together, we should talk. We don’t know when we’ll be separated again.”

Everyone silently agreed.

**

After moving somewhere safer, we sat in a circle.

No one spoke at first.

Then Alhulf said in a nasal voice,

“This hotel is dangerous!”

“Everyone here already knows that.”

Indeed.

Absolutely.

I naturally shot him down.

Alhulf’s lips trembled downward.

But he couldn’t argue.

“There’s no way out. There are many monsters. Most importantly, we’ve confirmed there are others here besides us.”

At Werner’s words, everyone became quiet.

Sellir had been the one who injected Werner.

We had met Suriel too.

So it was already proven that at least those two suspicious figures existed.

Then Cynthia abruptly grabbed my hand.

I tried pulling free.

But when I felt how badly she was trembling, I stopped.

“……That man wearing strange clothes. No. He wasn’t human. I think he’s some kind of monster living in this hotel while pretending to be human.”

She tried sounding calm.

But Cynthia’s voice was filled with fear.

Alhulf violently agreed.

“Y-Yes! I saw him too! That horrifying appearance……”

Alhulf described Suriel.

Horns on either side of his head.

Black sclera.

His actions and appearance.

His inhuman strength, speed, and aura.

“He looked almost exactly like a d-demon!”

After shouting the word, Alhulf trembled violently.

Apparently he didn’t even want to remember it.

At the word demon, everyone’s expression became grave.

Only Holloway remained completely relaxed.

To be honest, I wanted to stop them from discussing and deducing things.

But Suriel had already exposed enough hints that pretending nothing happened would be even more suspicious.

The fact that he appeared in demonic form meant he wanted Cynthia dead badly enough that he no longer cared about concealing his identity.

One wrong move, and Cynthia could be targeted again by Suriel—

or another demon.

There was a high chance she might become the second casualty.

So much time had passed and only one person had died.

That was probably unexpected for the demons too.

They might become far more aggressive now.

“A demon……. No matter what the reason, it makes no sense for demons to settle here when the Demon Realm exists. Why would they?”

Cletta rejected the idea immediately.

Sorry.

Something that ‘makes no sense’ is currently happening.

Still, I understood why Cletta sounded so certain.

Demons weren’t creatures that normally went out of their way to enter the human world.

Especially not without conditions.

And extremely powerful demons would face even greater restrictions.

From everyone else’s perspective, the very idea that demons lived inside an abandoned hotel was impossible.

So they rejected the conclusion itself.

Werner agreed.

“I agree. A demon? More likely it’s simply some monster that lives in this hotel and resembles one.”

There’s a demon right here.

Hello?!

The demon is right beside me!

Obviously none of them could hear me internally screaming.

Apparently remembering the monsters she had already encountered, Moran’s fingertips trembled.

“Lord Cletta is right. Why would demons that should be in the Demon Realm……? And the monsters are strange too. Some say incomprehensible things, and their appearances are very different from monsters we know, aren’t they?”

My mouth practically itched because I wanted to reveal the secrets of the hotel that only I knew.

Cletta rubbed his chin and thought.

Then he suggested,

“That man seemed intelligent enough to think like a person……. What if we try speaking to him?”

Cynthia immediately recoiled.

“Absolutely not! That monster tried to kill me! If something displeases him, he’ll try killing me again. There’s no way he’ll answer honestly.”

“What about the woman? She didn’t kill me, at least. Perhaps she can communicate. Since she used that syringe on me, she definitely knows something about this abandoned hotel.”

I object to Werner’s suggestion.

That woman is even harder to communicate with than Suriel.

At the time, she seemed to use Werner as bait to lure me out.

Now, if I appeared in front of her, I felt like she’d start by carving up my face.

Cletta gave a low thoughtful hum.

“Then perhaps that woman and that monster trapped us inside?”

Half right.

Half wrong.

“Come to think of it, Evelyn, you were kidnapped by that woman, weren’t you?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you have any idea why she specifically took you?”

“No idea. She just tried killing me.”

I added that talking hadn’t worked either.

If these idiots wandered up to Sellir trying to negotiate, we’d all be wiped out.

“Then perhaps communication with her is impossible too……. Still, if she understands language, we can’t simply do nothing.”

Cletta looked burdened by all the possibilities.

Then suddenly he asked me,

“What does Evelyn think?”

“About what?”

“About all of our theories.”

At last.

Genius Evelyn’s opinion!

I was preparing to open my mouth—

when Holloway answered for me.

“Big sis is too busy playing around to know about things like that.”

“What do you mean, playing? I figured out this hotel was terrifying ages ago and have been running around all over the place working harder than anyone.”

“…….”

No one believed me.

Then Cynthia patted the back of my hand and defended me.

“Evelyn risked her life to protect me. She’s more trustworthy than anyone else here.”

Exactly.

Cynthia understands that I haven’t merely been playing around.

“No, she isn’t.”

What do you know?

“Children should stay quiet, Holloway. If an adult says it, then it’s true.”

“Are you an old-fashioned authoritarian?”

“Yes.”

I agreed immediately.

Holloway closed his mouth.

Today should become a national holiday.

I finally shut that annoying mouth.

“So what do we do? We can’t keep avoiding everything forever……”

Moran asked carefully.

Cletta thought for a while.

Then decided to take action himself.

“If I meet that man or woman, I’ll ask them directly. We can’t keep running away forever.”

Then he continued with a determined expression,

“We need to find some kind of clue if we want to escape.”

“Y-Yes. I’ll help too!”

Moran strongly agreed.

Werner followed.

“I’ll look for a weapon first. If they attack us, we need something to fight back with.”

Before anyone acted, Cletta briefly summarized everything they knew.

“First: We can’t leave the hotel, and aura doesn’t work.

Second: Monsters live here, and they’re sensitive to sound.

Third: The human-shaped monsters capable of speech are, for some reason, trying to kill us.

That’s everything we know so far.”

He looked around as though asking if anyone knew more.

Everyone shook their heads.

“Still, I think we can work with this somehow.”

Werner sounded hopeful.

Unfortunately—

no.

Didn’t I already say it?

We’re inside a horror game.

This hotel is a space created for slaughter.

The demons have absolutely no intention of letting us escape.

Monsters?

The current monsters are probably still the cute ones.

Judging by the progression, we were probably approaching the middle portion of the story.

Once the game entered the midgame, you ended up participating in endless involuntary running competitions.

To put it simply—

the monsters became much stronger.

Early on, monsters didn’t appear particularly often.

But entering the midgame awakened those that had been sleeping.

And there was always a sign warning that the danger was beginning.

RUMBLE!

BANG!

“Aaaaaagh!”

“E-Earthquake?”

“What is this?”

“E-Evelyn!”

A massive earthquake.

Decorations crashed down.

Cracks formed in the floor.

The violent shaking lasted nearly one full minute.

Then stopped.

[<The Child’s Secret> has entered the midgame.]

[From this point onward, Hotel Difficulty will remain fixed until further notice.]

[Current Hotel Difficulty: ‘Try to Survive Well.’]

―Grrrrrk.

―Kikikik……

Howls from countless different monsters echoed throughout the hotel.

[We wish you the best of luck surviving.]

[Because Holloway merely won’t kill you!]

[If your body gets mutilated…… we don’t know!]

[٩(´ ) ▽ ۶ ٩(´ ) ▽ ۶ ٩(´ `) ▽ ۶]

[٩(´ ) ▽ ۶ ٩(´ ) ▽ ۶ ٩(´ `) ▽ ۶]

[٩(´ ) ▽ ۶ ٩(´ ) ▽ ۶ ٩(´ `) ▽ ۶]

If I mutilate you……

I don’t know either!