Chapter 29
There is a game called Vampire Surrounded.
It is a simple game where all you have to do is run away from enemies swarming in from all sides and defeat them.
Because it was a massive hit thanks to its simple fun and controls, similar games popped up everywhere, earning them the name “Vampire Survivor-like Games”.
Of course, I had played it before too.
It was so addictive that when I first tried it, I was completely hooked for a few days.
The theme of the 3rd Floor felt quite similar to that of this Vampire Surrounded.
The Clear Condition for the 3rd Floor was survival.
In a wide-open Plains Field, you just had to survive against the attacking Undead until sunrise.
Of course, the level of the Undead varied by difficulty.
In the case of Hard difficulty, it was said that 'quite' strong Undead would swarm in 'quite' densely.
To be more specific, the combat power of the Undead was around Level 10. (Wait, the source says around Level 3 to 4. I will correct this in my mind: around Level 3 to 4.)
They had no special abilities other than attacking with their rotting bodies.
That was for Hard difficulty, and I was about to find out what Nightmare Difficulty would be like.
If it were Nightmare, simply surviving might not be the Clear Condition.
After all, it only shared the theme; our Nightmare Difficulty was known for showing a completely different dimension of fantastically bullshit variations compared to other difficulties.
\[You have entered the Nightmare Difficulty 3rd Floor.\]
As always, I used Stop Time as soon as I entered and looked around.
The endless Plains stretch out in all directions, with sparse trees and rocks.
Various weapons were stuck in the ground right in front of me.
And the countless Undead were on the Field.
As expected, they were swarming.
But then again, there weren't all that many.
It wasn't to the point where I looked at them and thought, sigh, here we go again with this bullshit.
Somehow, I already had a bad feeling.
There was no way Nightmare would only be at this level.
“Are the Undead just insanely strong?”
Or there must definitely be something else.
Anyway, let's give it a try. I'll find out once I do.
The sky was dark, but a faint light was rising from below the horizon like dawn.
It was said that all three difficulties—Easy, Normal, and Hard—took about 10 minutes until sunrise.
Maybe the sun rises much later than in the other difficulties.
I finished mentally preparing myself and used Time Release.
As soon as I used Time Release, the Undead swarmed in from all directions.
I immediately used Flame Strike first.
I launched three Fireballs in three directions forming a triangle and detonated them.
KABOOM!
Dozens of Undead were blown apart, their rotting flesh scattering into the air.
I chose a mace as my weapon and picked it up.
Then I quickly moved my body toward a place where the Undead were less densely packed.
The weakness of the Undead was their heads.
Rather than a weakness, it was said that you had to crush their heads to kill them for sure. Otherwise, they wouldn't die and would keep moving.
I swung the mace at the Undead clinging to me.
Smash! Crack!
The heads of the Undead burst easily.
They weren't very sturdy.
I made a rough estimate while beating a few of them to death.
“Their combat power isn”t that strong.'
From it, the Physical Ability of the Undead seemed to be around Level 10.
And perhaps because their bodies were rotting, their durability was even weaker.
They were woefully inadequate to stop me, so individually they posed no threat.
Guoooo-
However, the swarming numbers were the problem.
If I didn't keep moving, I would soon be blocked in all directions.
I used Fairy Light Bullet while swinging the mace and smashing the Undead's heads.
Pabababang!
The five Mana Bullets flew in an arc, leaving trails behind them, and burst the heads of the Undead.
I kept moving, carving a path toward where the Undead were less concentrated.
He was smashing with the mace, firing Mana Bullets, and blowing up the spots where the Undead were clustered with Flame Strike.
Ugh, by the way, the stench was real.
Maybe because there were corpses everywhere, the disgusting smell was no joke.
The fact that I had the time to think about this meant I still had room to breathe.
My willpower ran out, so I used Stop Time and replenished it.
Having more Magic Skills definitely made my willpower drain quickly.
Still, I was taking care of the Undead that much more easily.
Because the speed at which my magic blew them up was much faster than the speed at which the Undead swarmed in.
If I put my mind to it, I could keep refilling my willpower and spam magic all day long.
And these Undead bastards were much stupider than I thought.
Even as they chased me while groaning, they stopped dead in their tracks the moment my figure was hidden behind a rock.
It seemed their intelligence only allowed them to react to what they could see.
Unfortunately, since the Undead were swarming from all directions, I wouldn't be able to use any tricks like hiding my body somewhere.
I fueled my willpower to the max and set off again.
Bang! Kaboom!
I advanced, relentlessly blowing up the Undead with magic and my mace.
As I did, an efficient combat strategy naturally fell into place.
Flame Strike on the spots where the Undead were heavily clustered.
Move to the thinned-out areas while using Mana Bullets for a secondary culling.
He was smashing with the mace the heads of the few remaining ones that got close.
And I was refilling my willpower because it ran out.
There was no need to even use Blade Storm.
I could just do what I am doing now, and there was no reason to wait until the Undead swarmed all around me.
While I was in the middle of breaking through the Undead and moving, I stepped on a patch of ground that, unlike the surroundings, didn't have a single blade of grass.
"...?"
For a moment, the feeling of my foot stepping on it was subtly strange, so I tilted my head as I passed by.
Anyway, is this all?
Even though there were a lot of Undead, it didn't exactly feel tough.
'It's somewhat manageable...?'
As soon as that thought reflexively crossed my mind, I flinched.
No, you crazy bastard, absolutely do not let your guard down.
In Nightmare, it was only normal to automatically think, 'I'm fucked,' right?
Thinking “This is manageable?” was something that shouldn't be possible. If it was, then it was a wicked trap.
There was definitely something more to this.
Thinking that, I silently continued to clear away the Undead.
But even as I looked around, there were still no particular signs of anything unusual.
Did I really just have to survive like this until sunrise? There was no way, right?
My paranoia flared up, and my thoughts raced.
I was about to smash the head of an Undead clinging to me and pass by.
*At that moment, my Sixth Sense sounded an alarm.*
"...!"
I shouldn't hit it.
But my realization was a step too late, and my mace was already crushing the Undead's head.
The body of the one whose head burst suddenly swelled up bright red.
I immediately used Time Stop.
I gathered my Mental Concentration and used Teleportation as far away as possible.
KABOOM!
A massive explosion occurred.
An explosive power even greater than Flame Strike.
Having barely evaded it with Teleportation, I swept a hand over my chest in relief.
"That crazy..."
An Undead that explodes when touched? What is this, a Creeper?
I knew it would be like this. There was something more.
Having recognized the existence of the Exploding Undead, I snapped to attention and sharpened my senses even further.
I accidentally touched it just now because I was distracted, but as long as I had focused, I would have been able to filter them out with my Sixth Sense.
I was about to smash another Undead's head, but I stopped when my Sixth Sense gave a signal.
“Ah, these guys have redder eyes.”
Looking closely, I noticed that the eye glow of the Exploding Undead was much redder than that of the regular Undead.
I distanced myself from the Exploding Undead and intercepted it by firing a Mana Bullet.
It stopped chasing me and exploded spectacularly, dragging the surrounding Undead down with it as companions in death.
The landmines known as Exploding Undead began to appear mixed in among the Undead, but it was no big deal.
It was only scary when you suffered from it without knowing; once you knew, it was whatever.
I took them out from a distance with Mana Bullets one by one, not allowing them to approach.
That was that, but somehow...
“...Are there more of them?”
The subsequent changes weren't just the Exploding Undead.
The number of swarming Undead was gradually increasing to a noticeable degree.
I used magic more intensely and refilled my willpower more frequently.
From then on, I also used Blade Storm.
Whoooosh!
He was jumping with the Leap Skill, then dropping into a spot where the Undead were clustered and unleashing a single Blade Storm.
The Undead were shredded and sent flying in droves, pushing back even the ones behind them.
Its knockback power was definitely no joke. It would have been better if the cooldown had been shorter, though.
“Now it finally feels a bit like Nightmare Difficulty.”
I slowly started to feel like it was getting tough.
Even so, I was actually anxious because it was too easy up until just now.
I carved out a path of survival while dealing with the increasingly swarming Undead.
Bark bark!
But what were those things now?
Now, some beast-type Undead were even appearing.
I burst the head of a Wolf Undead thrusting its maw at me with the Swing Skill.
I intercepted the Nutria-like Undead, following behind it, shooting Mana Bullets one by one.
These guys were much faster and stronger than the normal humanoid Undead.
It felt like the difficulty had spiked by another 1.2 times.
...Yeah, fuck. It had to be at least this much to be Nightmare.
I had fully expected it to get to this point.
But it wouldn't get any harder than this, right?
It was slowly starting to get overwhelming.
Swinging, killing, exploding, piercing.
While fighting a lonely desperate struggle against the corpses, I checked the sky.
“When is the sun rising...”
...Huh?
Only then did I realize something was wrong.
It was already dusk.
But when I looked at it now, the day wasn't breaking; it was getting darker.
Even the faint light on the horizon had vanished since I first started.
Ah... what the fuck? Wait a minute.
Don't tell me the sun wasn't rising, but was setting?
“Then what the hell is going to happen?”
In the other difficulties, you just had to hold out until dawn. If it was the opposite, then this...
Guoooo-
I had to keep fighting the swarming Undead without even a moment to be bewildered.
Frowning, I moved my body without a moment's rest and spammed magic.
In reality, it had only been a little over 5 minutes since I entered, but having already refilled my willpower more than ten times, I felt like I was continuing an incredibly long battle.
Soon, the sky was dyed in complete darkness.
*At the same time, my Sixth Sense sent out frantic warnings.*
The source of the danger was everywhere.
Nightmare, yeah, Nightmare.
It had to be... at least this much...
"..."
Nightmare, you crazy son of a bitch.
Black dots dotted the entire horizon.
As they got closer, they turned into a black tidal wave.
They were all Undead.
Without exaggeration, tens of thousands of Undead were swarming in from all directions.
I used Time Stop.
No, no, wait a minute...
This makes no sense.
You have to make me do something physically possible. How am I supposed to survive this?
“Fuck, seriously.”
Right.
This was exactly what Nightmare was.
Now I finally feel like I'm fucked.
Even while feeling an overwhelming sense of despair, I racked my brain to survive.
Am I... missing something?
There was no way the Clear Condition was to survive against those Undead swarming like a plague of locusts, no matter how I looked at it.
In addition to the other difficulties, the sun had even set.
I was confused, but that was actually proof that just holding out wouldn't clear it.
Suddenly, I remembered the situation on the 1st Floor when the iron ball came rolling.
Even then, I thought I was dead for sure, but there was a way out.
'...!'
*At that moment, what flashed through my mind was the patch of ground that, unlike the surroundings, was completely devoid of grass and felt out of place.*
The one that felt strange to step on earlier.
It had a hollow, echoing feeling, as if it were empty inside.
“Where was it?”
I used Time Release and quickly scanned my surroundings.
I'm pretty sure it was over there... Found it!
I immediately ran toward the spot with the strange ground.
I spammed magic, blowing up the Undead blocking my path.
The massive Undead Wave was gradually closing in, and my mind grew urgent.
I arrived at the strange ground.
As soon as I saw it, I fired a Flame Strike at it.
KABOOM!
The ground was blown to pieces.
When the dust and flames cleared, there was a large hole in the ground. It was a Passage, just as I thought!
Avoiding the swarming Undead, I threw my body into the Passage without hesitation.