Chapter 12 – Labyrinth Strategy 【4】

Even after descending to the fourth floor, Mel refused to leave my side.

Her current mental state was probably similar to that of a girl who watched a horror movie and couldn’t go to the bathroom alone afterward.

As I mentioned before, the only reason I could calmly press that switch was because I knew what that thing looked like beforehand. Mel had only heard about it, so her reaction was completely natural. It’s such a shame this dungeon doesn’t have a urination system. If it did, I could have followed her into the bathroom too.

Oops, I’m getting off track.

Anyway, that severed head was terrifying. However, what awaited us on the fourth floor was a completely different kind of horror.

In the original game, the fourth floor is basically a bonus stage—a service stage, if you will. All the monsters on this floor except the boss exist purely for fanservice, so the damage they deal to Hanako is set very low.

The monsters come in various forms, from rotor-like devices to chastity belts, but the most common are slime-like fluids. When the fluid gets close, it attacks Hanako and drives her to pleasure. According to interviews, this is because the monster’s body is composed of the same ingredients as an aphrodisiac. Incidentally, since this fluid is a cloudy white color, watching it cling to various parts of Hanako’s body or drip from her nose, vaginal opening, or anus was quite the visual treat.

But that was in the game, and it was Hanako being attacked. I absolutely cannot allow Mel to end up in such a state.

Making Mel look like that is my role. The cloudy white fluid coating her body and entering inside her should come from my bodily fluids, not some monster’s. I won’t yield to anyone else. Monsters are completely out of the question. If I could kill those things, I’d do absolutely anything to make it happen.

…

Let me get back on track. When attacked by the fluid, Hanako masturbates due to the aphrodisiac’s effects. This probably isn’t something willpower alone could resist. Hanako was alone, so she had to satisfy herself somehow, but there are two of us.

…We absolutely cannot get attacked, no matter what.

However, reaching the boss room without triggering a single event scene is quite difficult. Complete avoidance requires considerable player skill.

So Mel and I spent a long time synchronizing our breathing and practicing dodging imaginary monsters. However, what immobilized us wasn’t the difficulty of avoiding monsters, but the scenery of this floor.

In the original game—no, in reality too—this floor is surrounded by pitch-black darkness, and the floor is made of a transparent crystal-like substance. There are also no walls or ceiling.

Why did it turn out this way? It seems the background designer, who couldn’t handle the creator’s abnormality any longer, ended up quitting. Considering that the fifth and sixth floors have properly drawn backgrounds, they probably quit when trying to design the fourth floor’s background last after finishing everything else. …Of course, thinking about it the opposite way gives a completely different reason.

I tested stepping outside the floor’s boundary, but there was no invisible floor there. Since the original was a side-scrolling 2D game, there was no death scene from falling off the floor. Thinking about it, falling from here probably won’t kill us, but both reason and instinct are screaming maximum-level warnings that falling means death, so I have no intention of testing it.

Well, I think you understand by now. Yes, the truth is, the reason we couldn’t move was acrophobia.

We stayed at the starting position until we got used to the fourth floor’s background, then began the conquest. We avoided various monsters and traps, obtaining a potion and the boss room key via the shortest route.

This brought the number of potions in our item boxes to two each. At this rate, we should safely reach three. I have special feelings about potions, so I’m genuinely happy when they increase.

Having arrived at the boss room in this way, I recalled the boss’s patterns standing before the door. The fourth floor boss is also a slime, but this one wasn’t created for fanservice. No, in a sense this one is the ultimate fanservice, but…

When the player first enters the room, Hanako is attacked by the boss emerging from the floor and ends up completely naked. The reason the boss dissolved her clothes was, as I’ve explained before, “because food tastes worse when eaten with clothes on.” This is a forced event and cannot be avoided.

The boss’s color is yellow before dissolving clothes, but changes to transparent blue afterward. Apparently yellow dissolves clothing while transparent blue dissolves living tissue. I’m guessing transparent blue has difficulty dissolving clothes.

So what should we do? I want to see Mel naked, but I don’t want to see her caught by the boss.

But it’s a forced event. It can’t be avoided. Is there any way around it?

I have thought of something. The boss’s sprite size is perfect for consuming one Hanako. In other words, it cannot consume two or more people simultaneously. So if I get caught first and stripped naked, and the boss’s color changes because of that, Mel will be safe.

The reason is simple. When the boss turns blue, it will see me naked and Mel clothed. According to the creator, except for the “Mother” pattern, this thing consumes people regardless of age or gender. Who it will target is obvious.

There’s a small chance my clothes dissolving won’t change the boss’s color and it will try to dissolve Mel’s clothes. In that case, I’ll need to use another method.

I absolutely will not let it consume Mel. Even though I know it only dissolves clothes, I don’t want Mel touching the boss’s slime at all.

I explained to Mel the situations I could anticipate and countermeasures for each. However, all these strategies share one common problem. That is…

“I’ll definitely end up completely naked.”

“Huh?”

To clear this stage, we need to avoid the boss’s attacks while picking up five colored orbs and offering them to the altar. She’ll be seeing me naked—can she stay calm enough to do that task?

“Mel, can you calmly offer the orbs even after seeing me completely naked?”

Mel’s cheeks flushed red as she fidgeted. She said she’s inexperienced, and she’s still innocent.

Being able to color that innocent girl with my influence would be incredibly wonderful, but if she doesn’t do her best at the boss stage, clearing it will be extremely difficult. Furthermore, if Mel herself ends up naked because of the boss, she’ll probably freeze up too. So what should we do…

“I guess we just need to get used to it…”

“Huh? Get used to… you mean…”

“Of course, to nakedness.”

So I proposed to Mel that we show each other our naked bodies until we got used to it.

She hesitated, but when I convinced her that “this is necessary for conquering the dungeon,” she agreed while embarrassed. Easy.

“All right, I’m taking it off.”

“W-Wait!”

Just as I was about to remove my sailor uniform, Mel suddenly stopped me right before I could strip.

“In every pattern, Sugar-san, you… lose your clothes, right?”

“Well, yeah.”

“Is that okay?”

Of course it’s not okay. I have a sense of shame too.

I’m trying not to think about it now for survival’s sake, but there’s no doubt I’ll want to die when I remember this later. That’s exactly why I want to get some benefits now… ah, my true feelings slipped out.

“Um, like, in the fifth floor too… you’ll be progressing without clothes, right?”

“That’s what it’ll come to.”

I tried putting just my underwear in the item box earlier, but it wouldn’t go in. The sailor uniform was the same. Well, that makes sense though. After all, the clothes Hanako is wearing aren’t items in the first place.

When I nodded, Mel started thinking about something. Her face gradually turned redder. What on earth is she thinking?

As I watched silently, she said something in a small voice, then reached under her skirt and removed her panties. Then, with tears in her eyes from overwhelming embarrassment, she looked up at me and said:

“I want you to take these… and try… wearing them…”

The last words were almost inaudible, but I managed to catch them. However, I didn’t understand the meaning.

“What’s gotten into you all of a sudden?”

Mel explained with a red face in rapid speech:

“B-Because if Sugar-san doesn’t wear clothes the whole time I’ll be embarrassed too, and then it’ll interfere with conquering the dungeon, so I thought it’d be good if you at least had underwear, but I don’t know if you can even wear my underwear! So it’s a test! To see if Sugar-san can wear my clothes! Sugar-san, you like testing things, right? Hurry up and take them!”

I see… She was thinking deeply. Well, she thought so deeply that she missed something obvious, but…

However, I can’t pass up this opportunity. I received Mel’s panties from her and tried them on. The angelic divine garment that had just been touching Mel’s most precious place was still warm with the heat from her secret area, and mine instantly became erect (fortunately, the panties didn’t tear—amazing elasticity). I immediately crouched down so she wouldn’t notice and told her:

“Looks like I can wear them.”

“I-I see…”

Mel was covering her face with both hands. However, since her ears were red, imagining her expression wasn’t difficult. Suddenly feeling mischievous, I mentioned something she hadn’t thought of:

“But if you just wanted to know whether they’d fit, you could have tested with knee-high socks instead, right?”

Ah, Mel exploded.

After Mel calmed down and my penis returned to normal, we began training to get used to each other’s nakedness for survival.

Right now, Mel is looking down with her face bright red from embarrassment. She’s saying in a small voice things like “Kyah! W-Why does it transform!?” and “I-It got bigger than before…” and “Wait, isn’t that thicker than my arm…” and “I-Impossible, impossible! That thing won’t fit! Absolutely impossible…” Apparently she’s not just looking down from simple embarrassment. What on earth is she looking at?

Of course, since this is training to get used to each other’s nakedness, I’m also thoroughly savoring Mel’s entire body. While making her walk around naked.

Wait, when I express it this way, it feels like I’m doing something forbidden. That’s strange. I’m just walking together to avoid penalties.

This is bad. I was about to lose consciousness from the sheer preciousness.

I gaze at the angel’s naked body. Her budding breasts and the smooth curves of her body tell me she exists on the boundary between girl and maiden.

Moving my gaze down from her chest, I see her cute navel, slender waist, pure white hairless smooth completely bare mound, and tightly closed small slit.

Ah, I want to make love with Mel right now. I want to gradually develop that small body that doesn’t yet know sexual pleasure. While sucking the pink unripe fruit budding at her chest tips and rolling it around in my mouth, if I stimulate her hidden undeveloped clitoris through its hood, Mel will surely cry out in a wonderful voice.

However, I endured with superhuman patience. There are various reasons for this, but the biggest reason is that this is the world of a ryona game.

In the original, if a monster ejaculates inside Hanako even once, she will definitely get pregnant. She ends up giving birth, but what’s born is a monster. Sometimes a monster of the same species as the one that violated Hanako is born, and sometimes a completely different species is born.

Meanwhile, this dungeon faithfully recreates the original. Therefore, if I ejaculate inside Mel, she might get pregnant in one shot. And in that case, what would be born is…

Just thinking about it won’t stop the chills. So I focused on savoring Mel’s nakedness.

How much time passed? Mel still blushes when seeing me naked or having me see her naked, but she no longer gets flustered. Judging that she wouldn’t panic even if I danced around completely naked, we decided to challenge the fourth floor boss.

“Hey, Sugar-san. No matter what, that would make me panic, right?”

You’re right.

Right now, I’ve entered the boss room and am walking toward the spot where the capture event will trigger. I had Mel wait at the altar for the strategy.

The fourth floor boss stage has extremely high difficulty, but if things go according to my predictions, we can clear it without problems. It’s just a matter of whether the prediction is correct, but considering the boss’s patterns, I think the probability of being right is quite high.

As I walk, I recall information about this stage.

To clear the fourth floor boss stage, you need to offer five different colored orbs to the altar on the left side of the screen in a specific order. The five colored orbs appear when the boss spawns, but Hanako can only carry one orb at a time. Even if you try to pick up another orb while already holding one, you can’t.

Also, if the color doesn’t match the sequence, the orb won’t disappear even when offered to the altar. In this case, you must discard that orb on the floor and find the correct one, but orbs can only be discarded at their original locations.

For us, the color sequence isn’t a problem. We already know it’s yellow, blue, purple, green, red. The problem is that we must pick up orbs and offer them to the altar while avoiding the boss’s attacks.

The fourth floor boss uses ranged attacks. The third floor boss also used ranged attacks with whips and chains, but that one’s attacks had a fixed reach, so distance kept you safe.

But this one is different. The basic attack projectile of slime bullets has a range from one end of the map to the other. In other words, being far away doesn’t keep you safe.

Bullets are fired once every three seconds, but can be dodged by crouching. In the game, watching the entire screen and controlling Hanako made avoiding them not too difficult.

However, in reality, I don’t have eyes on the back of my head, and there’s no motion set in this world for turning only your neck backward. Therefore, unless I turn my body completely around, I can’t confirm attacks.

Crawling along the floor lets you avoid bullets, but the boss’s movement speed is even faster than Hanako’s crawling speed. And touching the boss means being consumed and gradually losing HP. This is a forced event, so there’s no way to avoid consumption.

If consumed by the boss, you can escape by mashing directional keys. This pattern deals damage proportional to consumption time, so escaping quickly isn’t too dangerous. Skilled players can escape within one second. I have absolutely no idea why anyone mastered this game to that extent, but skilled players for any game are just like that.

But needless to say, now that this has become reality, there are no directional keys. What should I do? Will desperately flailing around be the same as mashing directional keys… I’ll need to test this.

While thinking, I could see the point where I’d be consumed by the boss. I sent a signal to Mel, who was waiting far away, and stepped onto the event point—at that moment. The forced event suddenly activated and I was consumed by the boss emerging from beneath my feet.

My entire body was covered in slimy fluid, my vision dyed yellow. There’s no pain, but the fluid’s texture is disgusting. My clothes are dissolving rapidly.

Suddenly, I noticed Mel watching me intently with flushed cheeks. If I’m not mistaken, her breathing seems ragged too. Could there actually be demand for a scene of a high school boy being consumed by slime?

No, must be my imagination. I can’t feel her breathing from this distance while covered in slime, and there’s no way demand exists for such a scene. Her flushed cheeks are probably because she’s watching me naked.

Furthermore, seeing someone naked from the start versus watching them gradually become naked are completely different categories. Mel getting excited is a natural reaction. Ah, I was rationalizing so well and then I said “excited.”

Soon, the boss separated from me, changed its body color, and began approaching me. Since this thing targets individual players, I predicted this development might happen. However, I wasn’t certain it would definitely go this way, so I prepared several other strategies, but I’m glad it turned out like this.

Now we can clear this easily. After that, I just need to obtain the final orb and dodge attacks appropriately while Mel offers the colored orbs to the altar, getting consumed a few times.

I waited for the boss to approach while counting in my mind. When I counted to three, a bullet came flying.

There’s no reason to get hit on purpose. I crouched to dodge, ran to distance myself from the boss while counting to two, then crouched again. Counting to three, a slime bullet passed over my head.

So it does fire once every roughly three seconds. Avoiding bullets is no longer a problem.

Next is obtaining the red orb. Currently explaining the room situation simply from left to right: left wall—entrance—altar—Mel—blue orb (2nd)—red orb (5th)—green orb (4th)—boss—me—yellow orb (1st)—purple orb (3rd)—right wall.

Therefore, to obtain the red orb as planned, I need to get past the boss. When escaping from being consumed, you emerge facing the direction you were facing before consumption, which is why this sequence occurred.

Since the original was a side-scrolling game faithfully recreated, this dungeon’s room width is quite narrow. Until now, we conquered easily without considering room width, but this time the room is narrow while the boss is wide. Ultimately, getting past it seems to require being consumed no matter what.

But let’s try everything possible. Maybe I can get past without being consumed.

I counted in my mind while casually dodging bullets and tried to pass beside the boss. However, the moment I did, the boss attacked and I was instantly consumed.

Even passing beside it without contact, the instant I intersected with the boss I was consumed—same as the game. Forced events really can’t be avoided.

Still, what the hell is this reaction speed? Don’t tell me it’s a spinal reflex? But you don’t even have a spine. Makes no sense at all.

My thinking stopped there. Immediately after, pain as if my body was melting shot through my entire being.

Desperately flailing, fortunately I escaped quickly. So in reality, flailing is the same as mashing directional keys in the game.

By the way, when consumed, although there was pain, my HP only decreased slightly—my body didn’t actually dissolve. I found this strange for a moment, but remembering the game, I immediately understood with “well, that makes sense.” In the original, Hanako only dissolves after HP reaches zero. In that case, her skin gradually dissolves first, then muscles become visible, then organs, until finally only bones remain.

Whether bones can’t be dissolved originally, or they just don’t taste good so they don’t dissolve them—I don’t know. Normally thinking, the former is more likely, but considering things like dissolving clothes to prevent taste degradation and not attacking clothed targets, the latter possibility can’t be ruled out. This thing is unexpectedly a gourmet.

The boss doesn’t change size or color at all even after eating Hanako. Where that mass goes is something I’m quite curious about as a high school student who chose science, but thinking about physics in this dungeon is probably pointless.

Furthermore, where Hanako’s mass went isn’t very important to me right now. What’s important is that if my HP reaches zero, I’ll also dissolve leaving only bones. Let’s work hard to avoid that.

I ran toward the red orb while counting to three, warned Mel while crouching to dodge the bullet (Mel also crouched and dodged). Then I dodged two more bullets and obtained the red orb. This completes the first objective.

Next is luring the boss to the opposite side of the altar so Mel can safely obtain the yellow orb. I turned my body backward to wait for the boss and got consumed once more. Then I flailed to escape and walked to the wall while dodging bullets.

Eventually Mel obtained the yellow orb, and the room situation became: altar—blue orb—green orb—Mel—purple orb—boss—me—right wall. From now on, I just need to be bait until she offers the third orb—that is, the purple orb—to the altar.

While watching the boss approach me at the right wall and continuing to dodge bullets, Mel offered the second orb. This changed the boss’s pattern, adding tentacle attacks and summoning attacks.

Tentacle attack is literally transforming part of its body into tentacles to strike Hanako. When HP reaches zero from tentacles, the tentacle takes Hanako’s virginity that she carefully protected for 13 years and enters her body. Looking at this, it seems similar to the second floor boss’s attack.

However, the second floor boss’s tentacle just enters there and exits through the mouth, but the fourth floor boss’s tentacle doesn’t exit. It dissolves Hanako’s insides, leaving only bones and skin while absorbing everything. From this death scene, we learn this thing’s favorite food isn’t skin, but muscles and organs.

I’m male and not a virgin, so I haven’t carefully protected anything. Therefore there’s no problem—no wait, thinking about it, there is!

That side—namely, my anus—has no experience yet. In industry terminology, I’m an anal virgin. …Okay, let’s absolutely avoid the tentacles.

The tentacle’s attack power is so strong that getting hit three times triggers the death scene, so I must avoid them as much as possible. However, since tentacles attack aiming for the center of the body, I can only escape the attack range by running. But in a situation like mine where I’m cornered against the wall, I can’t flee backward.

However, there’s no particular problem. I can avoid it by running toward the boss and getting consumed on purpose. Since consumption is a forced event, it has higher priority than the boss’s attacks. In other words, it can be used to cancel attacks. Well, after offering the fourth orb when all patterns change to instant death patterns, this trick becomes unusable.

Meanwhile, the summoning attack is a pattern that summons purple slime monsters. Summoned monsters bounce off floors, ceilings, walls, etc., and stick to the body when touching Hanako. In this case, no damage is taken, but movement speed decreases. The only ways to remove these are mashing left-right directional keys or being consumed by the boss.

The problem is that when one sticks to the body, a new one is summoned. With monsters already stuck, the next one becomes even harder to dodge. And when these stack up, movement becomes impossible and you end up consumed by the boss.

When consumed by the boss while covered in purple slime to the limit, your entire body is violated by slime, and you see Hanako making an expression—or rather, a human making an expression—they shouldn’t make. Incidentally, “entire body” here doesn’t just mean the body’s exterior. It literally means everything. For example, inside the brain, uterus, ovaries, etc. In other words, Hanako’s state is…

While pondering a bit, purple slime flying toward me entered my view. Looking at the boss’s form, it’s also attacking with tentacles. And behind me is a wall with no space to dodge. Yeah, getting consumed is better.

I ran toward the boss and deliberately got consumed. While feeling pain as if my whole body was melting, I desperately flailed and quickly escaped. At that moment, Mel informed me she offered the third orb. So only the fourth green orb and the red orb I’m holding remain?

When Mel started running to obtain the green orb, a pattern was added and the boss summoned green slime. When this monster sticks, you get a status abnormality where directional keys are recognized in reverse.

Huh? Speaking of which, what happens with this in reality? Will trying to walk left make me walk right?

…

I don’t really understand, but if I had to choose between purple and green in a situation where I could only pick one, choosing purple seems better.

When I’d been consumed by the boss two more times, Mel finally reached the altar with the fourth orb and signaled that preparations were complete. Now we can clear this.

Incidentally, our current positions simply put: altar—Mel (green orb)————me (red orb)—boss—right wall.

The reason I obtained the red orb first is that the moment the green orb is offered, all of the boss’s patterns except slime bullet projectiles—that is, all patterns involving contact with the boss—become instant death patterns.

In this case, getting hit by any pattern even once gives the worst death scene where Hanako becomes a mother at age 13. The creator called this scene “Mother.”

I’m male so I don’t think I can become a “Mother,” but I’m worried about Mel. That can only happen to girls, and the creator said the boss prefers females in this pattern.

Of course, they only said “prefers females,” so it doesn’t necessarily mean “males don’t become mothers.” In the worst case, I might be TS’d and forcibly become a mother. I absolutely must avoid getting caught no matter what.

In the game, there’s only one way to clear without getting caught by the boss. First, wait for the fourth orb to go to the opposite side of the altar—that is, to the right wall—and lure the boss. Next, pass the boss—getting consumed once at this stage—and run to the altar without stopping. At this time, you must use a potion to maximize HP and run while ignoring being hit by bullets.

However, you must not touch purple or green monsters. The only thing you can get hit by is slime bullets.

Well, skilled players say they can operate normally even when touched by green monsters, but according to them, as a skilled player, being touched by those should never happen. What a dilemma.

When the fourth orb is offered to the altar, the boss’s patterns change to instant death patterns and movement speed increases. At this point, simply explaining positions: altar—Hanako——red orb——boss—right wall. Therefore, control Hanako to run where the red orb is, obtain the orb, return to the altar and offer it to clear.

However, if timing is even slightly off, you’ll get caught by the boss while going for the orb. And if you touch a purple monster, the order becomes altar——Hanako—boss—red orb———right wall, so in this case you inevitably become a mother.

Furthermore, even if you safely obtain the red orb, afterward you must run to the altar while dodging tentacles, bullets, and monsters. Because of this insane difficulty, I also reset more than 10 times after offering the fourth orb.

However, the reason we had to do it that way was the constraint “Hanako can only carry one orb.” Since there are two of us, if I secure the red orb then rendezvous with Mel at the altar, and immediately after Mel offers the fourth orb I offer the fifth, we can clear easily.

Since the fourth orb hasn’t been offered yet, the boss’s movement speed is roughly the same as my walking speed. HP is still more than half remaining and I’m in a runnable state. And the boss is in the place furthest from the altar—that is, at the right wall.

Well, naturally. I lured the boss here to create this situation.

Now then, shall we clear this?

I ran while crouching once every three seconds to dodge the boss’s bullets. Then I crawled and ran to dodge purple and green monsters too, eventually arriving at the altar.

“All right Mel, I’m counting on you.”

“Okay, leave it to me!”

Mel offered the green orb. And the moment that orb disappeared, I offered the red orb. Then the altar, boss, and monsters vanished, and the door descending to the next floor appeared.

“We did it! Sugar-san, you’re really amaz—!”

Mel hugged my chest with a smile but suddenly froze with flushed cheeks. That’s because my hardened member struck Mel’s solar plexus. The sensation of her against naked me was too stimulating.

Well, Mel just praised me. I should respond.

With my erect magnum still pressed against Mel, I seriously gave my thanks.

“No, it’s thanks to your hard work, Mel. Thank you. If it weren’t for you, I might have almost become a mother.”

However, no matter how seriously I answer, being naked makes it feel hopeless already. Compared to complete nakedness, the hole-riddled sailor uniform I wore until being consumed is still better. Sailor uniforms really are divine garments.

“Mother? What’s that?”

Embarrassment and curiosity battled within her, and curiosity won. Having gotten somewhat used to the sensation of penis transmitted through her skin probably helped too. Mel recovered from her frozen state and asked me.

Come to think of it, I hadn’t explained that yet since the content is what it is.

“Um… it’s a scene even worse than the final death scene from the third floor boss, but do you want to know?”

Mel’s face turned pale and she shook her head. Well, that’s the expected reaction.

Anyway, we cleared the fourth floor like this and descended to the fifth floor.