Chapter 14 – Tutorial (Survivor) - 14
*CLICK*
Opening the door, Vesper slips in. The hair follows him.
*BADAM*
Vesper closes the door behind him, accidentally snapping the hair strings and getting them stuck to the door frame. The entity screeches in frustration and dashes toward the door to pull her hair out.
Navigating his way with his hand, he reaches the washroom. Vesper begins sweeping the walls with his hands, searching for the keyhole.
The keyhole is still there in the same spot. Vesper grins and inserts the key.
*CLICK*
Once again, a part of the wall descends, revealing a square plate inside. Vesper picks it up and bitterly laughs.
'Ha! Am I beating this stage BLIND? So much for the terror difficulty.'
Vesper turns around and makes his way out of the washroom. As he leaves, he hears the same archaic voice.
Not much time remains. Vesper sighs and retraces his steps to the corridor door.
Upon opening the door, countless strings of hair swarm him like a tidal wave, pressing him against the garage door. The eight-legged lady crawls into the corridor and screeches in anger. The hair wraps around him and ties him like a mummy.
Vesper clenches the square plate with dear life while the eight-legged spider lady crawls toward him. Her neck extends and shows her face to him. Unfortunately, he has no eyes to admire her eyeless face.
"KRRR?"
The entity tilts her head and unwraps her hair from around Vesper's head. Then, she notices that Vesper doesn't have eyeballs like her.
The entity grins, then drags him along the corridor and brings him to her nest, aka the kitchen. She puts his body on the island table. While her hair still wraps around Vesper, she crawls onto the table and licks his face.
"…"
Vesper shuts his mouth and eyelids in disgust, wishing that the entity would be done with him already.
Unfortunately, the monster starts doing something nasty. She pries his eyelids open with her hair and starts licking his eyebrows. Her saliva drips, but they miss his eye holes by a few centimeters.
'Just kill me already, you sick freak!' Vesper complains in his mind. He clenches the square plate, preparing to use it.
As if the monster can hear Vesper's thoughts, she sneers and leans closer to his face. Then, she licks his lips while her hair slips into his mouth.
*TOK* *TOK*
Light footsteps nearby interrupt their sexy time. The eight-legged spider lady turns around to see the third wheel, only to find a knife stabbing into her forehead and piercing her skull.
Walking into the kitchen is a cloaked faceless woman with thorn clothes. She still carries a knife as usual. Grabbing the spider's head, the faceless entity pulls it and tears the monster's head from its neck.
The hairy monster dissipates into ash and drops another blue monster rune ball. The faceless woman catches it and tosses it into the dishwashing sink. Turning her attention to Vesper, she glances at the square plate. She also notices that Vesper has lost his eyes.
"You're quite unlucky. Normally, they don't take eyeballs from candidates unless they fail more than five times. I guess they knew I was cheating. They even summoned those guardians against my will."
Vesper has no idea what happened. He hears the familiar cold voice of the faceless woman and realizes that he can move again. He sits up and raises the square plate rune to show her.
'I did what you asked me to. What now?'
The cloaked woman waves her left arm and extends her long sleeves. The clothes coil around the plate and pull it from Vesper's hands. Upon retrieving the rune, the faceless woman presses it against her chest.
RUMBLE
A voice enters Vesper's mind, warning him of his actions.
Vesper is taken aback. He opens his mouth, attempting to argue. However, without vocal cords, he utters unintelligible words.
Before Vesper can go berserk, the faceless lady's clothes wrap around him. She then drags him across the house to the baby room and throws him on a nanny's bed.
Upon landing on the bed, the faceless lady releases him. She proceeds to sit on top of him.
"Relax. I'm not going to kill you yet."
'Yet?' Vesper bitterly laughs in his mind. 'What do you want from me? You already scammed me!'
The boss monster giggles and taps his forehead with her knife, drawing a line with the blade. Blood seeps from the two-inch wound and drips to the side.
"We don't have much time left, so I'll keep it short. Listen carefully."
'…'
Vesper has so many things to complain about, but he stops acting like a grade schooler and listens.
"There are some hidden rules in the tutorials and the real trials. Firstly, there is always at least one hidden rune in every stage. Taking a hidden rune will automatically summon the stage boss. In this case, I'm a stage boss."
'…'
"Secondly, stage bosses have the obligation to hunt down the item owner. If the rune has already been consumed, stage bosses would be forced to kill the survivor who consumed the rune."
Vesper nods as he understands the reason. Still, he has so many questions to ask, but he waits for the woman to finish.
"Thirdly, in case a stage boss manages to retrieve the rune, that boss can freely apply an extra penalty to the captured survivor, depending on their wishes. In this case, I'm free to do anything I want with you in the next 24 hours."
That rule is predictable as the mysterious gods have already informed him about the penalty. However, Vesper is curious why she is telling him all this.
'Why are you telling me this?'
The entity elaborates, "That brings us to the important hidden rules. Any stage boss that manages to kill, capture, or fail a survivor can receive credits and rewards from those hypocritical liars. Oh, did you know that all hunters, I mean, stage bosses here used to be human like you? We are trying our best to return to Earth, you know?"
'W-What?'
"Fifth rule! Most survivors cannot die more than three times regardless of the chosen difficulty! Every survivor who dies three times in one stage will be automatically brainwashed and mutated into one of the local monsters, with one exception. Listen closely."
Vesper gulps. He wonders how the woman is retaining her senses despite the rules.
"Before you die the third time, you can voluntarily submit and join the monster's side by surrendering yourself to any stage boss."
'WHAT?!' Vesper is shocked.
"However!"
The entity tosses her knife behind her.
*PU*
The knife pierces through an invisible old man ghost. It turns into ash like other dead entities.
"Once surrendered, you will replace the stage's boss monster. As for the previous boss monster, which is me in this case, I can either choose to retire from this realm or resume my duty as a hunter. Of course, staying in this rotten place is not my choice."
Finally, Vesper understands why the entity hasn't killed him yet. It turns out that she needs a replacement.
'That's why you need me alive.'
"Yes. Now, you have two choices. First, I'll kill you here, and you will become one of the mindless monsters in this house. Or two, you submit to me and allow me to retire. You will replace me as the house's boss monster."
Vesper bitterly laughs. It doesn't sound like he has a choice.
'What about the extra penalty? I'm curious. What about them?'
"I'll tell you if you surrender."
'…'
Vesper thinks about his past misfortune and lets out a long sigh. He knows that he is about to be scammed again. But as fate has been cruel to him, he might as well give up humanity and live as a monster.
'I surrender. Turn me into whatever you want.'
The cloaked lady laughs and glances at the sky. She commands the stage.
"Stop the timer. It's penalty time. I get to do whatever I want!"
*TIK*
[5:06]
[24:00:00]
The timer changes from five minutes to 24 hours. The lady adjusts her sitting position and whispers into his ear.
"I'll be giving you the penalty now. Don't worry though. I'm not the type who bullies my benefactor. Instead, I'll give you something nice… By the way, didn't you ask for a SPECIFIC service?"
She takes off her cloak and torn clothes, revealing her sexy figure, which is still hidden in the black mist. She leans closer to Vesper's face and kisses him.
*DING*
Vesper no longer cares about the messages and warnings. Consumed by lust and desperation, he throws himself at the mysterious grim reaper.
Unlike the zombies and ghosts, her warmth is the same as humans. In addition, he doesn't feel tired at all.
This is the longest day Vesper has ever experienced in his life.
.
.