Chapter 43
Black Queen.
A boss counted among the worst calamities in the original game's world.
It was also ■■■'s final awakening stage.
More precisely, it was the state of being completely devoured by her own nightmare.
An endless tide of numbers surged forth, and undying dreams poured into the world.
[Title: How on earth are you supposed to clear this?]
[Author: TheOppositeOfUrgentIsShortUrgent]
Currently playing the <■■■'s Nightmare> story on Impossible difficulty.
■■■ has hit 100% Nightmare Transformation and has already become the Black Queen.
What are you supposed to do here?
You literally can't do anything in the game.
The students I'd worked so hard to raise get slaughtered,
and even when the entire faculty turns out, they just get torn to shreds ;;
Even the host body doesn't step in, and everyone dies to the other trash queens.
<The apocalypse has begun.>
This message just keeps flashing on the screen,
and I've tried every method I can think of, but I can't figure out how to get past this section.
If there's a veteran who knows the strategy, please help me...
[You ruined the run lol Just start over from the beginning]
-> If ■■■ reaches 100% Nightmare Transformation, there's nothing you can do
-> Once the Black Queen appears, there's nothing left for you to do
[It was designed from the start as a boss you're not supposed to defeat...]
-> TheOppositeOfUrgentIsShortUrgent) Then what's the strategy for her? This can't just be the ending, right?
-> Start over from the beginning. Then kill ■■■ before she reaches 100% Nightmare Transformation
-> TheOppositeOfUrgentIsShortUrgent) Kill her??
-> Yeah, otherwise she'll eventually become the Black Queen and destroy the world
-> TheOppositeOfUrgentIsShortUrgent) Do you really have to kill her...? Is there no way to save her?
-> Not on Impossible difficulty. The other difficulties each have a side route, but on Impossible, if you leave her alive, she will always reach 100% Nightmare Transformation and destroy the world
[There's a reason her fanbase is unusually devoted]
-> Her character arc is damn bleak, and you can't even save her when playing on Impossible
-> She either gets tormented by nightmares until she's ultimately devoured, or she's murdered by the player...
-> There's always demand for kind, beautiful, and unfortunate characters
The [Black Queen] was never designed to be defeated.
What the game demanded of its players was prevention.
To act before ■■■ had finished transforming into a nightmare.
To kill ■■■ before she fell into corruption and became a queen.
‘Too late.’
Nightmare Transformation.
A status ailment that exists exclusively for ■■■.
‘It would be nice if I could shake it off with Imagination Parrying, but...’
Unfortunately, that was impossible.
As I had explained before, Imagination Parrying could not strip away every status ailment.
It only worked on minor, low-level status ailments.
Naturally, it did not work on status ailments of a higher order.
‘It won't work on Nightmare Transformation.’
Nightmare Transformation was the foundation from which the calamity was formed.
Unlike the previous Ghoul Transformation, it was unmistakably a high-order status ailment.
It possessed enough power to effortlessly destroy an entire world, after all.
As long as Imagination Parrying did not work, I couldn't rely on some bug that stripped it away.
‘Then... there's only one way.’
I straighten my disheveled sleeve.
Chess pieces shattered to bits lie scattered near my unhurried steps.
‘Smash it to pieces myself.’
Nightmare Transformation: 100%.
That percentage was divided among the manifested nightmares.
Jabberwock and the soldiers received 10%, the three queens 20% each, and the final Black Queen 30%.
The nightmares corresponding to each percentage manifested as the total accumulated.
‘It should be around 90% by now.’
Jabberwock and the soldiers had been summoned, and all three queens had appeared.
If the percentage continued to build at this rate, the [Black Queen] would manifest.
There was no need to check the status window.
The nightmares that had appeared so far were themselves indicators of the progress of the Nightmare Transformation.
‘Then...’
What would happen if I smashed all of these things to pieces?
Monsters that existed as percentages of the Nightmare Transformation.
The Heart Queen, the Red Queen, and the White Queen.
They accounted for a whopping 60% of the whole.
What would happen if I attacked them in the real world?
What would happen if I went beyond attacking them and erased them entirely?
‘The progress decreases.’
White Queen: 20%.
Red Queen: 20%.
Jabberwock: 10%.
I had already shaved off half the progress.
When I smashed the nightmares, the progress was forcibly lowered.
Like plucking out the pieces one by one from a puzzle that was nearly complete.
‘I just need to flip the whole puzzle board over.’
The three pillars supporting ■■■.
The Heart Queen.
The Red Queen.
The White Queen.
I would wreck these things and suppress the Nightmare Transformation.
If the progress did not accumulate, the Black Queen could not manifest either.
‘Of course.’
It was not a plan that could be carried out ordinarily.
If the strategy for Nightmare Transformation were this easy, someone would have succeeded in my previous life as well.
There was a reason the <■■■'s Nightmare> story was considered brutally difficult.
The nightmares summoned by the girl.
They were invincible by nature.
It wasn't a matter of whether they were strong; the game simply ruled that the player's attacks could not touch them.
They were literally [nightmares], so the logic was that physical force could not be applied to dreams.
Neither the three queens nor even their subordinate soldiers could be scratched.
‘There is only one strategy.’
Kill the nightmare's host body before the progress reaches 100%.
But even that method stopped working once the [Black Queen] manifested.
From that point onward, ■■■ was classified not as a character but as a nightmare herself.
The host body became invincible as well.
‘The end.’
Undying soldiers and nightmares gradually spreading across the continent.
The player could do nothing but watch the world be ravaged.
Then the ending credits would appear.
The calamity, <Wonderland>, would be complete.
The world would enter an unstoppable descent into ruin.
Thus, hunting the nightmares to reduce the progress was an impossible strategy.
If attacks could not hit them in the first place, how could you hunt them?
‘But.’
Things were different in my case.
Hadn't I already experienced this before?
How to deal with an enemy designed to be impossible to kill.
‘The Reader.’
Jangbung, the Apostle of the Evil God.
The one I had swept away with a single tree branch.
Under normal circumstances, he too should have been a mob that could not be defeated.
His armor stat had been set to infinity, so no matter how much I struck him, my attacks did not work.
‘They're similar to the nightmares.’
Strictly speaking, Jangbung had an infinite armor stat, while the nightmares felt more like they had an infinite evasion stat, but...
Their basic mechanisms were the same.
So I would use the same bug I had used on Jangbung.
A bug that could inflict exactly 3 damage on any target.
Like Jangbung, the nightmares' HP was fixed at 1.
‘In other words.’
To me, they were mobs even more pathetic than the goblins in the students' hunting grounds.
That was how it had been in the original game as well.
The <Alice's Nightmare> story had originally been notoriously difficult.
But after I discovered that bug, its clear difficulty dropped considerably.
“Hmm...”
Fwoooosh-.
I roughly brushed back the hair tousled by the wind.
While I organized my thoughts, the surrounding area had been reduced to a wasteland.
Only the soldiers' remains lay scattered around me.
Amid the annihilated nightmares, the only thing left was a scarlet mannequin wearing a red crown.
“This is the last one.”
<[◆◆◆◆◆◆]>
It was the Red Queen.
I took one step after another toward the creature backing away.
The queen tried to fire a scarlet sword aura, as if making one last desperate stand.
A moment later, brilliant red flooded my vision, but...
“You're slow. Even falling takes you that long.”
I was already standing behind the nightmare.
Shk-.
The sound of the cut rang out belatedly.
The queen's cleanly severed head dropped to the floor.
The corpse melted into a limp mass, then scattered like mist.
“Whew... this is tough. Really tough.”
I rubbed my stiff shoulder.
As expected, moving around in a body with an overall stat grade of E was difficult.
“Ignition. Gauntlet.”
Creeeak-.
The scythe crawled up my palm and equipped itself as a gauntlet.
Meanwhile, I straightened my disheveled clothes.
“...Ah, Miss ■■■.”
I turned toward the gaze I felt and saw a girl sitting there in a daze.
It seemed she had been watching the whole time.
I approached ■■■.
“...”
Pale-blue eyes.
Blood still flowed down her cheeks, but there was no longer any sign of despair.
The shadow writhing across her entire body had lost its momentum as well.
The black crown floating above her head was the same.
I stopped in front of ■■■ and carefully crouched down.
“Are you all right?”
A light question.
It was about time to wrap up this incident.
***
■■■.
She stared blankly at the boy.
The clown had finally slaughtered the nightmares, then knelt before the girl.
“Are you all right?”
A short question.
For some reason, the boy's voice was gentle.
No—perhaps it was simply what she had wanted to hear.
She felt that some inexplicable warmth had mingled with the resonance of him pronouncing her name.
‘I don't know...’
She was dizzy.
Perhaps because she had not yet fully awakened from the nightmare.
■■■ remained frozen, unable to give any answer.
Even so, the boy smiled as though he understood.
‘This is strange.’
Hearing that smile made her stomach churn.
Unlike when the nightmare whispered, it felt as though her heart were being gently kneaded.
“Miss ■■■.”
“...”
Tap-.
In the meantime, a hand settled on the girl's shoulder.
Was it meant to tell her not to be frightened?
The boy was meeting her pale-blue gaze.
Just as the warmth of his hand on her shoulder began to feel familiar.
Rip-!
The shadow flickering from ■■■'s shoulder blade.
The boy seized it and tore it away as though stripping off wrapping paper.
Perhaps because it had lost its strength, the shadow tore away in ragged strips.
“Miss Ali■■.”
“Ngh...”
“Did it hurt? If it did, please tell me.”
Ali■■ staggered from the recoil.
It didn't hurt, but she felt as though her center of gravity had shifted.
The boy gently extended his arms and took the girl into his embrace.
‘...Warm.’
Her consciousness was hazy.
Ali■■ could only form such a childish thought.
Meanwhile, after confirming that the girl was unharmed, the boy reached out again.
Grip-.
This time, it was the crown floating above her head.
The boy gripped the blackness tightly and yanked it out roughly, just as before.
Shraaak-!
“Miss Alic■.”
“Aaah...”
“We're almost done.”
Her vision spun once more.
The neatly detached crown wobbled, then soon scattered like the other nightmares.
‘It doesn't hurt...’
The process was not painful at all.
If anything, she felt as though her body had grown lighter.
The sensation pressing down on her shoulders disappeared.
The stabbing pain in her chest subsided, and even the everyday headache fell silent.
‘Ah...’
Breathing was no longer difficult.
The churning misery was gone, leaving only a faint sense of buoyancy.
The noisy voices at her ears could no longer be heard either.
That alone nearly made her burst into tears.
‘How am I...’
Blue pupils.
Water-like ripples danced across them.
Waveforms rose in the blue light filling her eyes, and each one made the girl's world tremble.
Just as a wretched sound began to escape between her lips, the boy reached out one last time.
“You endured so well.”
Sss-.
A palm settled gently against Alic■'s cheek.
Kind warmth touched her, and the cold girl began to melt.
His thumb brushed past the corner of her eye and wiped away the blood tears gathered there.
“It must have been hard for a long time.”
“...”
Carefully.
Very carefully.
As though he were handling a fragile glass vessel.
As though she were so precious that he feared even leaving a blemish.
“I know everything.”
“...”
“You did well. You really did.”
Soft words coloring her ears.
The touch she had never been able to hope for from anyone in her life.
Words telling her she had worked hard, and comfort that did not feel false.
The warmth, touch, and voice of another person... she felt as though she might melt into all of it.
“Hic...”
By then, there was no blood left on her cheeks.
Only the handkerchief in the boy's hand was stained with dark-red marks.
Even that became part of the nightmare and scattered away with a whisper.
A sense of emptiness lingered.
And before she could grow accustomed to that feeling, he whispered.
“Miss Alice.”
“...”
Her name.
A name someone called out to her.
-Alice.
The girl recovered her name.
At the same time, her sister's voice rang out in her mind.
“Hic, ngh...”
Only then could the girl shed transparent tears.
Only then did the streaks running down her face cease to be dark red.
Her crying overflowed and colored the world.
They were only a few drops, but to Alice, they were an ocean reaching the very roots of the sky.
“Hoo, hic... hic...”
She tried to hold her breath, but she couldn't.
Something far too hot was lodged in her throat.
‘It's gone, the nightmare... I can't feel the nightmare inside me anymore...’
It did not feel real.
So she cried even harder.
The long time.
The time that had lasted far too long.
The girl who had trembled like that finally collapsed against the boy.
“Miss Alice.”
The boy did not say much.
He merely whispered a short, very short sentence.
“You worked so hard.”
“Huuuh... hic, hu...”
Alice cried for a long time.
Thus, the calamity came to an end.
Ding-!
[You have cleared the main quest!]
-Title: Chil-ya (漆夜)
-Description: Defeat the boss monster ‘The Red Knight (The Red Knight).’
[You have stopped one of the Seven Calamities!]
-A special reward will be provided. Please check your inventory.
Ding-!
[You have cleared the emergency quest!]
-Title: Welcome to Wonderland.
-Description: Prevent the Nightmare Transformation of the rampaging ‘Alice.’
[Astonishingly, you completed the quest without killing the host body!]
-A special reward will be provided. Please check your inventory.
Ding-!
[You have completed the hidden quest.]
-Title: Queen Slayer
-Description: Defeat the boss monsters ruling Wonderland: ‘Heart Queen,’ ‘Red Queen,’ and ‘White Queen.’
[Through your astonishing performance, you slaughtered all the queens!]
-A special reward will be provided. Please check your status window.
Ding-!
[You have cleared the sub quest!]
-Title: If you're going to do it, do it properly!
-Description: Place third or higher in the practical exam.
[Through your astonishing performance, you took first place in the practical exam!]
-In addition to the existing reward, an additional reward will be provided.
The apocalypse came to a halt. At the same time, the practical exam ended as well.