Kevin has lost his consciousness for who knows how long. Not like he has the luxury of checking the time as he was out of it, all he is sure is that he rather not wake up. Because waking up means he has to face the nightmares that his life is now.
By no means he is brave nor he wanted to be dauntless. He is a coward in all ways he defines it. And like all cowards he likes to run away from their problems if they could.
The first thing he did when he woke up was to call out his system to do a quick scan of what was around him. He is experienced enough to know that nothing good happens whenever he faints on a game world. Wasn't he asleep when he was targeted by Kathrine? He shivers when the system has told him that the girl has graced the dorm he was in before.
But his system was silent. Meaning it was currently unreachable and unable to help him this time. Not that he is expecting it to be helpful in critical moments.
It was often missing whenever he needed it. He has grown used to it now. At least it was considerate enough to allow him to access the system space where his purchases were stored. If not, he'll really give it a mouthful when it returns to him.
So he cautiously opened his eyes to at least survey his immediate surroundings.
The first thing he saw were the empty halls he remembered seeing before passing out. There are no glowing eyes or anything relatively gleaming as he is positively sure to have seen before he passed out. Seeing that what he saw back then might be just a trick of his eyes, he put it in the back of his mind.
He then tried to get up, but his body is strangely weak to even stand straight. He could feel his legs shaking like the jelly his second sister stumped back on Valentine's day. He wonders if his fate is the same as that jelly now? Everything seems to be so bleak.
Pulling out the knife from the system space, he slowly wandered around the area as his legs were finally stable enough to make a few steps forward. It was not an easy thing to do as he is still feeling too sluggish. Once in a while, he stumbles upon his feet. Thankfully his survival instincts are particularly strong at the moment so that he could easily bounce back from falling.
"Where the hell am I?" Kevin murmured as he seems to be only going in loops now. The hall seems to be too similar for him not to be sure of his conjuncture.
All of a sudden he saw a small child in the distance. It has her back on him, silently staring motionlessly on the wall's paintings. In his experience in watching and playing horror theme paraphernalia, that child is an obvious trap of sorts. Better avoid that one as he still can.
Quietly he went to the farthest side of the way so that he would not be entangled with the girl. But who told him to be the only living person here? That just attracted the girl to him for many both obvious and not obvious reasons!
He felt a tug on his shirt as cold sweat ran down his back. It was an ominous situation that he wanted to bolt away from where he was. But he refrained from doing so. Running blindly does no good like how he ended up in this place.
So he did his best not to pay attention to the girl and moved on. But the more he did so, the more the child tightened her hold on his shirt. It seriously annoys him and scares him.
Just as he was thinking of removing the hand on his shirt, the child suddenly giggled then disappeared from where he knew she should be. If he had not experienced some terrifying scenes before, he might start running the moment he heard the soft laughters.
For now the disappearance of the child was a relief to him. Still he did not dare to turn back to see what was behind him. Who knows what he perceives is not what it seems?
He continued on with a knife on his hand on his wandering to the almost identical areas he saw. And by some miracle he finally saw a marking that indicates the location of their temporary resting place. He is finally at a rather safer place now.
"Where have you been, Wilson?" Afred asked him as everyone has been vigilant of the sudden decrease of their numbers.
"I was in a loop." Kevin simply says a portion of his experience. "I was going in circles the whole time wherever that place was. Thankfully there was nothing dangerous in there other than making me exhausted from all the walking."
Eyeing the others who are obviously distraught, he asked what had happened to her before he arrived.
"Like you. Several people on guard duty were missing for a while now. The NPCs did not mind their disappearance other than being annoyed at the prospect of being late for treasures. They are thinking that those who are missing are only going ahead to claim some credit and additional findings." Alfred said as he brought him to the players side.
"Well their logic has no flaws though." Kevin said as he asked if he could have some water. He is very thirsty for some reason. His heart was strangely beating strongly against his chest.
Alfred gave him some water and remarked that ignorance is indeed bliss. If these NPC were to know what the real situation is, no doubt they would be running the first abnormality they noticed. Too bad there is only them being paranoid of what may come due to their knowledge of what could happen.
"Did you see Angelica here?" Kevin asked as he remembered Kathrine possessing her body. A fact he wanted to conveniently forget if possible. Too bad his need for survival tells him to constantly monitor this person to be aware of what she could do to him.
It does not help that his system is not around to do this job. So he has to be resourceful of what is available.
"Oh that girl." Alfred said a little darkly at the end of his sentence. "She was also missing a while ago. But a little earlier before you appeared, she returned with a nasty snake bite on her ankles. I don't know what she encountered, but I know something is very off with her."
If Kevin wanted others to get into a panic attack, he might share the fact that the Angelica they have now is indeed more than odd. She is not the person they were with before and is a boss type creature of another world that has followed him through space and time. He really doesn't want to be outcast now because of the additional danger he had brought to their already dangerous game world.
So he could only laugh dryly as Alfred continuously reminded him that nothing comes good being in a relationship in a game world. He felt like biting his tongue in frustration of his situation.
"Where did you get this?" Alfred said as he noticed the military knife he had with him. "I don't remember you having it before."
"It is a weapon I got from another game world. Kevin glossed over the details, but Alfred was understanding enough not to ask. Everyone is entitled to have some secrets, so he is not breaching what he should not touch. Especially so if it is something that helps their lives in the face of danger.
"Anyway I hope that other than the loop you are in, there is nothing else that happens to our fellow players. The lesser we are, the lower the chances we can live in this tomb. The murals on the ceiling were telling enough of what will happen to us." Alfred said as he bid farewell to him and went to the others to get more info.
Kevin only absently waved at him and gripped the cup he was given. His heart is beating so hard that it is about to jump out of his chest. He wanted to calm his heart in fear of his abnormality. But it only continued on with him thinking in fear that this might be a kind of effect from whatever Katherine has done to him.
"...why now of all times!" Kevin murmured as he lamente the absence of the system. He may have amassed various medicine on him, he cannot carelessly take any of them currently. Careless consumption of medicine is bad, so he needs the system to scan what is wrong with him first before he can administer a cure to himself. An oversight both the system and he has overlooked.