Chapter 7 – Encounter 【4】

If I had to describe the first floor in one word, it would be: typical dungeon.

Stone walls and floors, dark corridors, barren rooms, grotesque monsters, ceiling tentacles, and all sorts of traps.

But when you descend to the second floor, it becomes a completely different field.

The second floor resembles the interior of a giant organism.

The walls and floor, composed of something cell-like, pulse as if alive, and there’s a faint scent of blood.

The game never had information like smell, but I suppose that’s the effect of this becoming reality.

Strange sound effects echo from somewhere.

Occasionally, a transparent liquid drips from the ceiling, and touching it deals damage.

Based on this information, the liquid is stomach acid, and this place is presumably inside some creature’s stomach. But suspiciously, the monsters patrol without suffering any harm.

Are those things Helicobacter pylori or something?

No wait, the monsters’ true identity doesn’t matter. The problem is these disgusting walls and floor.

When I made my game, I used organ-like blocks too, but seeing them directly is this revolting…

For verification purposes, I touched the wall with my hand.

The wall was slimy with mucus and extremely unpleasant.

To vent my frustration, I rubbed the wall with my palm. The wall squirmed.

I rubbed a different spot. The wall’s reaction changed.

After that, I continued rubbing various parts of the wall, searching for the spot that produced the most intense reaction.

It was a small protrusion in a crevice of the wall, hidden and covered by something skin-like.

When I peeled back the skin and rubbed it teasingly, the wall twitched violently while secreting a large amount of mucus.

…Well, this is that, you know. The stomach cells secreted gastric mucus to protect the stomach lining.

Nothing indecent about it. A natural physiological phenomenon. I haven’t done anything wrong.

As I told myself that, I suddenly noticed I’d been stopped in the same place and moved forward a bit.

That was close. I almost died.

I can’t believe such a trap was set up… I’m repeatedly amazed by the creator’s malice.

Anyway, now that I’m used to the wall’s texture, I can proceed to the next stage.

To conquer the second floor, I retrieved the earplugs I obtained on the first floor from my item box.

The earplugs made from tentacles are slimy with mucus, and their texture is quite similar to the wall I was just touching.

I tried wiping the surface mucus with my skirt, but new mucus immediately oozed out, so I had to give up on removing it.

…Do I really have to put these in my ears?

I don’t even want to touch them, let alone insert them. Actually, I want to throw them away.

But without these, I can’t clear the second floor.

Monsters that suddenly burst from the floor and scream appear here.

Hearing the scream means instant death. To avoid dying, I need to equip these earplugs.

Well, I’ve gotten pretty used to the earplugs’ texture now, so maybe I should put them in.

I tried to insert the tentacle-like, mucus-slimed earplugs into my ears.

However, the moment they touched my ears, goosebumps covered my entire body, and I couldn’t help but throw them.

This is impossible. Physiologically impossible. Absolutely impossible.

But I can’t progress without the earplugs. Reluctantly, I crushed them to make them smaller—mucus overflowed—squeezed my eyes shut tight, and inserted them into my ears.

The slimy earplugs gradually grew larger inside my ears.

I feel defiled.

I might be done for. No, just kidding.

But the feeling of being defiled isn’t a joke.

Let’s hurry to the boss room entrance and throw away these earplugs.

An event occurs there where the fifth floor boss suddenly appears and attacks the player, but the screaming monsters don’t appear, so there’s no problem discarding them once I get there.

However, right now I’ve lost about half my HP because the first floor boss strangled me.

In the original game, when Hanako’s HP drops below half, she can’t run. The same applies to me now.

But without running, I can’t survive the fifth floor boss’s attack.

First, let’s try to get a potion.

If it follows the original, the second floor potion should be beyond the “Door That Won’t Open.”

I headed toward the room with the “Door That Won’t Open.”

Occasionally monsters burst out screaming, but I was safe thanks to the earplugs.

The other thing I need to watch out for is the stomach acid-like liquid falling from the ceiling, but since the drop locations and timing are predetermined, avoiding them isn’t too difficult.

I walked for what felt like about 10 minutes and eventually arrived at the room with the “Door That Won’t Open.”

◆　◆　◆

The “Door That Won’t Open.”

That’s not its official name, but a nickname given by a certain player during their playthrough.

When you enter the room, escape becomes impossible. A door appears from a blank wall and asks the player three questions.

Answer incorrectly even once: instant death. Let the time limit expire: also instant death.

The last question is an instant death trap. And you don’t actually need to clear it to progress.

For these reasons, no one cleared it—or rather, couldn’t clear it.

Since the question order and correct answers are fixed, clearing it is no problem if you memorize the answers.

Well, to learn those answers, Hanako probably died tens of thousands of times worldwide.

Players solved the first and second questions on their own.

But no one could solve the third question.

When told to “listen carefully,” if you actually listen carefully, a monster bursts from the floor and you die from its scream.

However, if you wear earplugs to avoid dying, then you can’t hear the question.

Of course, in the game the questions appear as text rather than audio, but that text becomes invisible.

This is probably because the conditional branching was set so the question text only appears when you’re not wearing earplugs.

Eventually, the third question’s content and answer were revealed when a certain player extracted the game data with an extraction program.

The third question was “Say the name of the first floor boss,” and the correct answer was “Savior.”

That’s how players learned the first floor boss’s name.

In a subsequent interview with the creator, when asked “Why is the boss’s name Savior?” they responded: “Because among the bosses, it kills Hanako most gently, so to Hanako it’s a ‘Savior.'”

I see…

A thought process incomprehensible to ordinary people like us. No wonder my work couldn’t take first place.

Is that creator doing okay in daily life?

Ah, these are Eri’s words. I miss Eri.

…Well then, shall I try the questions?

I removed the earplugs and entered the room.

The entrance disappeared, and a door appeared on the opposite side.

Soon, a question was presented.

“The first question: answer by piling up your deaths. In this world, how many death scenes are there?”

A countdown hourglass appeared.

I answered without hesitation.

“344”

“Correct”

This question was truly solved by piling up Hanako’s deaths.

Starting from 10, after dying 334 times, I learned there were 344 total locations.

To think there are 344 death scenes. The creator must be insane.

Incidentally, it’s important to answer “344” rather than “344 locations.”

That’s because in the game, you could only input numbers for the first question’s answer.

To survive, you must pay attention to such fine details.

“The second question: think ordinarily. What being has 10 eyes in the morning, 10 legs at noon, 10 arms at night, 10 brains the next day, and 10 hearts on the final day?”

When many players were pondering, one player answered “company employee.”

According to him:

“When you join a company, you must understand surrounding operations by observation. In other words, you need many eyes. Once you get somewhat used to it, you must go directly to work sites and clients. ’10 legs’ is a metaphor for this. When you rise to a certain position, you handle many tasks. ’10 arms’ indicates this. And when you rise to positions like department head or section chief, managing subordinates and proper instructions become important. ’10 brains’ means that. Finally, when you rise to the highest position, you become a very important person. Precisely, you become a person worth ’10 hearts.'”

I see…

Everyone except me was convinced, and he confidently answered.

Then, after observing Hanako’s exploded head, her exposed esophagus, and the clearly visible stomach interior in graphic detail, he never returned to the message board again.

In the first place, he overthought it. I solved this question on the first try.

Well then, time to answer.

“Monster”

“Correct”

That’s right. Thinking ordinarily, a being with 10 eyes, 10 arms, 10 legs, 10 brains, and 10 hearts could only be a monster.

But the reason this question is easy to solve is because the next question is an instant death trap.

“The third question: listen carefully”

I put in the earplugs.

After waiting a bit, a monster suddenly burst from the floor and screamed, but I was safe thanks to the earplugs.

I waited for the hourglass to appear, and after it appeared, I answered “Savior.”

The door disappeared, and the entrance that vanished earlier and the hidden room appeared.

I obtained a potion in the hidden room and returned to the starting point of the second floor.

Then, to get the key to the boss room, I headed toward the passage on the opposite side.

◆　◆　◆

If the right passage connected to the “Door That Won’t Open” evokes an empty stomach, the left passage evokes a stomach immediately after drinking something.

The reason is the “Lake of Death” that comes into view when you proceed to the next field.

The “Lake of Death” is a green lake that looks like acid or poison to anyone.

Initially, many players considered this an acid zone or poison zone and went to the right passage.

Then they entered the “Door That Won’t Open” room and were annihilated.

After that, when a certain player tried crossing it and nothing abnormal happened, they concluded it wasn’t acid or poison.

Of course, among industrial acids that dissolve substances, not many are green from the start.

Hydrochloric acid, nitric acid, sulfuric acid, hydrofluoric acid, and aqua regia are all initially colorless, and picric acid, which has color, is yellow—clearly different from green.

One could consider the possibility that some substance or organism dissolved and turned it green, but it’s somehow strange to think organisms dissolved enough to make such a wide area this deep green.

However, in games, green or purple lakes are usually acid or poison. Therefore, a question arises.

If this isn’t acid or poison, then what exactly is it?

The only green liquids I can think of are ponds with too much plankton or tea.

Could this thing have drunk tea or something?

The creator said nothing about this liquid’s true identity.

If I took a sip, I might understand what this liquid is. No, I won’t drink it though.

Actually, this field also has a death scene.

If you press the “↓” direction key to make Hanako crouch, a little later you’ll see her drowned and bobbing on the water surface.

What on earth happened to her?

I don’t really understand, but it’s clear this water is the cause.

However, this isn’t why this lake is called the “Lake of Death.”

When you dive here and then stand up, the underwear inside Hanako’s blouse becomes visible through the fabric.

The visibility level is proportional to dive time, and eventually you can see the breasts hidden beneath the underwear and even their tips.

So many players dove to see the forbidden fruit, but because they missed the timing to stand up, many Hanakos drowned.

And after that, this field came to be called the “Lake of Death.”

Of course, I didn’t do such a foolish thing.

I nailed the optimal timing on the first try where everything becomes transparent but Hanako doesn’t die. You can do it by holding slightly longer than 5 seconds, by feel.

Incidentally, Hanako’s breasts were quite impressive for a middle schooler.

Oops, I digressed. Hanako’s underwear, chest, skin, and such don’t matter.

Let’s just think about clearing now.

I entered the “Lake of Death,” avoided various traps, and obtained the key to the boss room.

Then, with the earplugs in, closing my eyes and mouth to prevent water from entering, I dove at a certain spot and pressed a switch.

This should make the passage connecting to the boss room appear.

Standing up like that, I suddenly realized I was wearing a bra.

I feel like I’ve lost something important as a male.

“Let’s go…”

What? Dive until the underwear becomes transparent?

Of course not. There’s no demand in this industry for a high school boy’s chest.

Well, even if there were demand, I wouldn’t do it anyway.