How a Nuisance Character Survives a Horror Game Chapter 7

Before I could receive an answer to my question, the monster suddenly lifted Friedel high into the air.

Before Friedel even had time to resist, the monster swung him like a whip and smashed him into the ground.

Thud!

The floor caved in around Friedel.

“Ghk……!”

A short scream burst from him, followed by blood spilling between his lips.

His body twitched weakly.

Red slowly seeped between the cracks in the broken marble.

“…….”

The unfamiliar air of the hotel wrapped around my body.

After thinking of everything as a game for so long, the metallic stench of blood brushing against my nose reminded me brutally that this was reality.

My body froze.

No matter how gruesome the illustrations had been, seeing it happen in reality was completely different.

Blood.

A scream filled with agony.

A body bent unnaturally.

It was so gruesome I felt nauseous.

I couldn’t tear my eyes away from Friedel.

My heart pounded with fear.

‘It’s still the beginning.’

There’s no way he’d die…… right?

As though mocking that thought, Friedel’s movements weakened.

Then stopped completely.

I had no affection for him, so I wasn’t sad.

Still, the sudden silence chilled me so deeply that every hair on my body stood on end.

I didn’t know what I could possibly say while looking at that.

The monster slowly turned toward us.

I met its abyss-like eyes, which seemed capable of sucking me in.

“Hic!”

Fuck!

Have I lost my mind?!

I was apparently so terrified that I began hiccupping without realizing it.

Covering my mouth didn’t help.

“Big sis…….”

“H-Hk!”

The hiccups continued escaping between the fingers covering my mouth.

The monster pricked up its ears and began walking toward us.

I grabbed Holloway’s hand and backed away while desperately trying to suppress the hiccups.

As long as I don’t make noise……

“Mm!”

―Kieek?

…….

I’m going to die.

I’m going to fucking die right at the beginning.

One hiccup is going to send me straight to the afterlife.

My hands were growing cold and my face was going pale when—

[Ah! You’ve discovered a weapon that can be used against the monster!]

What?

My eyes lit up, and another window appeared.

[Pointy Spear

Feature: It is pointy.]

Wow.

What an incredible description!

I swung my fist at the system window in irritation.

You need to tell me where the damn thing is!

As though reading my mind, a holographic arrow appeared and pointed under a table in the corridor.

A long spear lay there.

The instant I spotted it, I quickly grabbed it.

[Obtained ‘Pointy Spear’!]

[Find the monster’s weak point and stab it.]

[Attempts remaining: 5]

……There are limited attempts?

What happens if I fail all five?

No further explanation appeared.

The monster was already targeting me next.

Friedel was visible beside it.

My body trembled involuntarily at the gruesome sight, but fear consumed me at the thought that I would end up exactly like him if I couldn’t deal with the monster in front of me.

Suppressing the nausea rising in my throat, I forced myself to examine the monster calmly.

I couldn’t see anything resembling a weak point.

The area where a heart or solar plexus should have been was completely hollow, and its eyes were deeply sunken.

The philtrum was too small a target……

No, wait.

Do human weak points even work on monsters in the first place?!

I gripped the spear tightly and stepped backward while shielding Holloway.

“Big sis, are you going to be okay?”

“With what? Hic!”

“That spear……. What happens if you miss the monster?”

“Then I’ll probably die? I think.”

“…….”

Fortunately, despite my insane answer, Holloway didn’t say anything.

I didn’t take my eyes off the monster.

No matter how hard I looked, I had absolutely no idea where I was supposed to stab.

There was no guarantee I could defeat it even if I fought, so instead of stabbing it with the spear, I tried to escape like this.

Then Holloway, who was backing up, suddenly stopped.

“What are you doing? Keep mov—”

“We can’t, big sis.”

“What?”

“B-Behind us…….”

Don’t tell me…….

I hurriedly looked behind us and fell into despair.

An identical monster stood there.

Both our routes of escape were blocked.

“…….”

The final boss is right here.

Then why are these things even here?!

My internal scream never reached them.

I realized the only way to escape was to break through one of the monsters.

Without relaxing my guard, I tightened my grip on the spear.

I was about to target the monster on the side without Friedel, but then the roar of another monster echoed from farther down that corridor.

I slowly shifted my spear toward the monster near Friedel.

Because going the other way meant there was a greater chance we would run into even more monsters.

“Holloway, when I hit that monster, run straight ahead. Understand?”

Keep running without stopping and go back to your house.

I wanted to add that last part, but I did possess at least a little tact.

“What about you?”

“I’ll follow right behind you.”

When I said something completely contrary to what I was thinking, Holloway reluctantly nodded.

“When I count one, two, three, I’m going to run and throw the spear.”

“Yes, big sis.”

The distance was considerable, and I wasn’t confident I could hit it, so I needed to close the gap a little.

I exhaled slowly to steady my trembling breathing, then gradually increased my running speed.

I gained momentum and pulled my arm back as far as I could, aiming to throw the spear straight at its head—

Tap.

My foot landed on rubble from the wall the monster had destroyed, and I slipped.

“You’ve got to be kidding me……!”

I even lost hold of the spear and fell flat on the floor.

The spear flew from my hand……

―Kieeeeek!

And struck the exact center of the monster’s leg.

“……Ah, my beloved has gone.”

I muttered without realizing it.

Holloway stopped and burst into loud laughter.

A window appeared over the writhing monster.

[Weak point hit! The monster will be incapacitated for approximately 5 minutes.]

Five minutes?

That’s plenty!

Forgetting the pain, I jumped up and held out my hand to Holloway.

“Holloway!”

Stop fucking laughing and get over here!

Only then did Holloway run over and grab my hand.

We immediately sprinted past the monster.

It would have been wonderful if we could have simply escaped its sight like that……

Something suddenly grabbed my ankle.

I fell face-first into Friedel’s pool of blood.

“Big sis!”

“Ugh!”

Splat!

The metallic smell of blood overwhelmed me.

Madness filled Friedel’s eyes as he clutched my ankle.

“Ghk…… I can’t be the only one who dies……!”

Still gripping my ankle, Friedel forced himself upright and began dragging me.

He was awfully strong for an injured man.

“Big—”

“Shh!”

We still had a chance.

There were five minutes, and shaking off an injured person shouldn’t be difficult.

“Holloway, you run first!”

“B-But!”

With every second precious, I forced Holloway to face reality.

“Your legs are short, so you need to run first! That way you can at least put some distance between yourself and the monster!”

“…….”

Holloway looked at his legs, then at me.

His eyebrows twitched unhappily.

Then he whipped around so sharply I could practically hear it and ran.

[Holloway is upset.]

Is that seriously the problem right now?!

“Let go!”

“H-Ha……. Fuck. I begged you to save me, and you didn’t even help. Hah.”

“I said let go!”

When I struggled, Friedel looked down at me with a grin.

With blood dripping from his lips while he smiled, he looked incredibly grotesque.

“Why should I?”

“You…….”

“Goddamn it, hah…….”

Unable to contain his rage, Friedel ground his teeth.

“Even if I die, I’m taking you with me. How dare you refuse to help me?”

I snapped back in disbelief.

“Do you remember that you were the one who tried to use Holloway and me as bait first?”

“That couldn’t be helped……!”

“Then the same goes for me!”

“You bitch!”

Apparently enraged that I kept talking back, he punched me across the cheek.

Thud!

The blow was hard enough to rattle my skull, and all the strength left my body.

“Heh, heh……!”

For some reason, Friedel curled his lips upward with a vile smile.

“You son of a bitch…….”

“Go on, keep talking! Let’s see if you can still run your mouth after the monster gets a hit in too!”

He had been badly injured by the monster and could no longer run.

It was obvious he intended to use me as bait and buy himself time.

Either that, or he genuinely planned to die together.

Ignoring the burning pain in my left cheek, I bit my lip.

I can’t die because of a bastard like this.

“Can’t you see the monster isn’t moving?! If you run, you can survive!”

“You think I don’t know that?!”

Friedel’s face twisted viciously.

“I can’t stand being wronged. I need to kill you before I’ll feel satisfied.”

Muttering through clenched teeth, Friedel staggered while dragging me toward the monster.

‘His eyes are already completely gone.’

There’s no reasoning with him.

“Fuck. I should’ve followed Sir Werner back then……. I shouldn’t have pushed Moran…….”

Looks like I’m not the only victim of this bastard.

No wonder he managed to reach this floor alone so quickly…….

I looked around desperately for anything that could help me get free of Friedel, but there was nothing.

We were approaching the monster, and the remaining time appeared.

[2 minutes remaining.]

Friedel, who was preparing to throw me at the monster, suddenly clutched his chest.

“Ghk!”

I knew it when he kept moving around like nothing happened after being attacked by that monster.

Of course he had reached his limit!

Still clutching his chest, Friedel coughed up a mouthful of blood.

“Cough!”

The instant he staggered, I struck his ankle with my free foot.

“Agh!”

Friedel lost his balance and crashed to the floor.

The impact made him finally release my ankle.

Now!

I jumped up and ran with everything I had.

A desperate voice caught at my heels from behind.

“W-Wait……! Don’t leave me……! I-I was wrong!”

“Shut up! I’m not kind enough to show mercy to a bastard who just tried to kill me.”

There was still time left.

If he wanted to survive badly enough, he could crawl away if he had to.

I knew perfectly well that saving a bastard like that wouldn’t make him treat me like his benefactor.

More importantly, he had genuinely tried to kill me.

‘He’s full of thoughts of revenge against me.’

If he survives, he’ll somehow throw me to another monster.

Ignoring Friedel, I looked straight ahead and kept running.

This would have been the perfect chance to naturally separate from Holloway.

I planned to pretend I was heading toward Holloway and then slip away somewhere else, but he was faster.

“Big sis! Over here!”

No, I’m pretty sure over there is the correct way.

There wasn’t much time left.

Having no choice, I took Holloway with me, put as much distance as possible between us and that place, then entered a guest room and locked the door.

Rather than continuing to run, hiding was the correct decision for now.

Holloway and I pressed ourselves together and held our breath.

Several minutes later, the sounds of the monsters disappeared.

***

Was it because of the affection level?

That was the only thing I could think of.

No matter how many playthroughs I had completed, the early story of the horror game had never changed before.

The only things that were different in this game were me—

and Holloway’s affection level.

Could the story at the very beginning really have changed completely just because it went up by 0.1%?

Otherwise, none of this made sense.

Originally, monsters appeared because the Evelyn in the game screamed at absolutely everything and woke up the sleeping creatures.

But I hadn’t screamed.

I had tried to behave as quietly as possible.

And yet Holloway, the ‘cleaner,’ suddenly decided there were too many people and began his cleaning.

Then monsters appeared.

On top of that, at the very beginning, all of us had already been scattered apart.

A weak force tapped the back of my hand.

“Big sis, is your cheek okay?”

“It throbs, but I’ll survive.”

I didn’t need a mirror to know it must have swollen badly.

Holloway reached toward my cheek, but I tilted my head away.

“It hurts if you touch it.”

“Sorry. Did that man hit you earlier?”

“No.”

Of course, that was a lie.

There was no reason to tell him the truth.

“Then what happened?”

“I landed on my cheek when I fell.”

Holloway gave me a peculiar look.

I didn’t avoid his gaze.

“Really?”

He stared into empty space for a moment, then slowly smiled.

“I see.”

Why is he acting like that?

Scary.

Snap!

Somewhere, I heard the sound of fingers snapping.

[Friedel Acrotic has died.]

[Remaining survivors, including you: 6.]

So he ended up dying after all.

I felt absolutely no sympathy.

He was the one who shoved me first because he wanted me dead.

[Sub Quest Generated!]

Can’t I get a break?

[Sub Quest <Friends, Gather Round!>]

[Objective: Find at least 2 members of your group. Once at least 3 people, including yourself, are gathered, this will continue into a linked cooperative quest!]

[However, Holloway does not count as a ‘companion.’]

[Time Limit: Until your death

Clear Reward: Sword

There is no penalty for failure.]

My eyes went dizzy from the windows appearing one after another.

A cooperative quest?

Did I really need to do it?

My eyes were drawn to the sword listed as the reward.

But I can’t even use a sword……

Do I really have to clear this quest?

I hesitated, since there were still villains like Friedel among the group.

[Tutorial complete.]

[The survival horror game <The Child’s Secret> will now begin in earnest.]

That was only the tutorial……?