Quota 0/270: 2 days remaining
'Not good!' Victor screamed internally.
He was trapped. The Jester refused to move, and the room he was in was a dead end. Victor could only hope the Jester would be kind and that the others would have time to escape.
But he quickly noticed a crucial problem: the others were likely already deep in the labyrinth. There was a chance none of them were close enough to hear any warning signs.
'This is going to be a massacre…' Victor thought, clutching his head in despair.
No matter how hard he thought, he couldn't find a solution to their situation. His phone didn't work in these underground tunnels. He could try shouting to warn the others and save himself. However, his cries would be drowned out by the increasingly loud and sinister melody coming from the music box. It now played a mix of its basic tune and a dissonant sound that spelled trouble.
Victor had only one option left: to hide.
And, of course, the system's voice was always there to reassure him.
There is no escape, host! The Jester doesn't need to see or hear you; it knows where you are.
'Why do you seem so happy at the idea of me dying? If I die, don't you die as well?' Victor asked, searching the room for any possible hiding spot.
Don't worry, host! Death is not the end of your journey, and for your information, I am a system, so I cannot die. At worst, or perhaps at best, I will be assigned a new host.
'You sound like a prophet preaching the benefits of your cult,' Victor muttered, standing still in the middle of the room.
He had a dark look, and his back was hunched under the weight of the inevitable.
'No matter what the system says, I'm going to die.'
This feeling left a bitter, metallic taste in Victor's mouth. He clenched his teeth, and his saliva now tasted like blood. Yet, he wasn't ready to die.
'At least let me have time to pay off my father's debts,' he grumbled, climbing the stairs.
He had a shaky plan in mind. Audacious and simple with slim chances of survival: when the Jester climbed the stairs to catch him, he would
jump over the railing, fall to the ground without breaking his legs, and run the fastest 50 meters of his life.
'I just hope this bastard isn't as fast as Usain Bolt,' Victor muttered, getting ready.
The melody grew faster and more ominous until it suddenly stopped.
And just a fraction of a second later…
CLANG ding ding dong
Victor knew without even looking: the Jester had activated. Now it was time to see if his plan would work.
A loud crackling noise filled the room.
THUMP
The floorboards creaked under the Jester's step. Victor still couldn't see it, but the sound he heard didn't bode well. It was only then that Victor realized something very important: he was about to see the Jester's true form, and his instincts told him he'd rather not.
THUMP THUMP
The Jester took two steps forward and…
THUMP THUMP THUMP
'It's too fast!' Victor screamed internally.
His plan had one slight flaw: the Jester was much faster than Usain Bolt.
It took only a second to reach the bottom of the stairs and seemed to be accelerating.
Victor jumped over the railing but didn't land on the ground.
He landed on top of one of the room's shelves, and the Jester was right behind him.
Only a few centimeters separated them now, but Victor knew he couldn't outrun it. In a desperate move, he made a leap of faith.
He didn't jump towards the exit or another shelf but towards a thin wooden ledge. This ledge was 4 meters away and at the same height as
Victor, making it extremely attractive to his eyes.
Victor jumped with all his might. While in mid-air, he felt a hot, humid breath behind his head.
CHOMP
Victor was intact. He had just felt death's jaws close right behind him, but he had survived.
His jump, however, hadn't been as successful. He had slammed his torso against the edge. Now he could feel his entire rib cage protesting from the impact, but he managed to cling to the edge.
In one final effort, Victor pulled himself up onto the ledge.
He barely stood on its narrow width. He turned around to finally see what he was dealing with.
"You're not so cute anymore, my little Jester," he exclaimed, seeing the nightmarish creature just a few meters away.
The music box was still there at the base, but it had opened to let something out.
Something slimy, organic, and downright disgusting.
This mass of flesh looked like a neck, and the creature's head was a skull made of bone. The skull measured at least 1 meter in height. The lower half was occupied by a gaping maw that had been inches from catching Victor. The upper half had two empty eye sockets, revealing the flesh within.
The whole thing now stood nearly 3 meters tall.
But there was more than 4 meters between the man and the creature. The Jester was quick on its feet, but it didn't seem as comfortable with long jumps.
'It must suck for you not to be able to reach me, big guy,' thought Victor as he watched his enemy.
He didn't say it out loud, not knowing if the Jester could understand him. Already in a dead end, he didn't want to provoke it.
Victor saw a glimmer of hope for himself and his teammates and wasn't about to squander it.
For now, the Jester remained still on top of the bookshelf. It had stopped staring at Victor and seemed to be searching for another way to reach him.
Fortunately for Victor, it found a route to climb up to the ledge. In fact, it could be reached from the upper floor after a jump of a few centimeters, but the problem had never been that.
How was the Jester supposed to walk along a ledge only a few centimeters wide to reach its target?
Yet, as Victor began to sigh in relief, the Jester jumped off the wardrobe.
It hadn't tried the long jump event but had simply descended to the floor.
Victor's ledge was more than 5 meters above the ground, but it seemed to have found a solution.
Victor watched in horror as the Jester took a few steps back before launching itself towards the base of the wall on which he stood.
The impact was rough, and the entire wall shook. Victor couldn't see the direct result of the Jester's charge, but he saw it in its gaping maw.
There were pieces of wallpaper and plaster among its teeth.
The Jester never took its eyes off Victor.
It launched itself again.
Foreign language detected - Complete more quotas for translation
The sound of the impact never came.
Or maybe it did, but Victor couldn't hear it.
A tremor came from the depths of the earth, accompanied by a rumbling noise. Victor would never have guessed it was a language if not for the system's voice.
The rumbling noise enveloped the entire room with such intensity that Victor lost his balance.
He toppled over and managed to grab the ledge with one of his hands at the last moment. However, he couldn't hold on for long. He could feel his consciousness fading under the pain.
Then, there was laughter, and Victor fell into unconsciousness, his body crashing to the ground.
Victor woke up in an unknown place. He thought he was seeing his inner self again, but the setting was completely different.
'Maybe it took my advice, but this isn't what I imagined,' thought Victor, curiously looking around.
In fact, there was nothing around him. He was in a white, empty room with no windows or doors.
'I hope I'm not in a coma,' Victor murmured, sitting cross-legged in the middle of the room.
You are not in a coma, host, just unconscious!
'That's something, I guess,' Victor sighed, twiddling his thumbs.
He just had to wake up, and it would happen at any moment, right?
You won't be here for long.
A voice rang in his ears. It was the same language Victor had heard just before losing consciousness, but now he could understand it.
We will meet when you're ready.
Victor stood up and said with utmost seriousness, "I'm ready."
The voice burst into laughter. It was a genuine, kind laugh without a hint of malice.
You're far from ready, little one.
"And how am I supposed to know when I'm ready? And where should I go? And how much money is there to earn?"
The voice laughed again.
I'll send someone to fetch you after the update.
"After the update? What update? And my money?"
You ask too many questions. We'll meet again. In the meantime, good luck, Victor.
"How do you know my na—"
Victor woke up.
He had fallen from a height of 5 meters. He could feel all the bones in his body, but nothing seemed broken. As he tried to get up, he saw a horrifying sight.
He must still be in shock because it took him several seconds to notice something beneath him.
It was something slimy and organic, a mass of flesh serving as a neck to a nightmarish head.
The Jester's body had cushioned his fall.
Victor scrambled away as far as he could without even standing up. He crawled for more than 5 meters before glancing back.
The Jester hadn't moved an inch.
Its body blocked the only exit, so Victor approached it after getting up.
Still no movement.
Victor stepped over the body and left the room without looking back.
Returning to the entrance hall, he saw Olivia and the others rushing down the stairs.
Shirley frowned at him.
"Why do I feel like there are bits of flesh in your hair?"
Victor ran a hand through his hair.
By touch and smell, he could tell it must belong to the Jester. He was about to respond when the mysterious man spoke.
"Let's go first. We'll talk outside."
He cast a quick glance behind him.
With its legs and single cute arm, a small music box was following them.
When it was just two meters away from the group, it stopped and began to play a gentle melody.
Dan dan dan daaaaan, daaaaan dan dan da-da-da!
Victor could feel his heart pounding faster after each note.
'I just hope the company will pay for a psychiatrist because I feel like this is going to turn into a trauma really quickly,' he grumbled internally, exiting through the door with the others.