I Run the Protagonist’s Favorite Café in a Hopelessly Depressing Game World - V1 Chapter 15

Endless Slaughter

I hunt monsters.

The moment they enter my sight, I cut them down.

I stomp them, crush them, twist them apart.

In the shattered mirror, I look like I’m soaked in blood.

Like a ripe tomato standing on its feet.

“The… world’s strongest witch…?”

A man who had his legs give out after nearly getting attacked by a monster sits helplessly on the ground and looks up at me, muttering.

I feel really awkward and let out a sigh as I grab his hand and pull him to his feet.

“Could you stop calling me by that name? I don’t really like it.”

“O-Oh… sorry.”

I guide the man toward the barrier, telling him it’s safe that way, then head back into the battlefield.

—Two hours have passed since Sophia’s end.

I’ve been hunting and hunting and hunting monsters.

But the end is still nowhere in sight.

“It hurts… it hurts…”

“Someone help me!?”

“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”

Witches and citizens alike are suffering.

In the face of overwhelming numbers, things like learning how to fight at the academy or having decent combat experience in the dungeon don’t mean anything.

Everyone is equally powerless.

Lives are scattered equally and fairly.

I only save the lives that can still be saved.

The ones that can still be helped.

If I judge it’s already too late, I’m sorry, but I have to leave them.

—That’s when it happens.

“Goro… goroji deee…”

It sounds like a voice crawling up from the bottom of hell.

When I look, there’s a lump of flesh rolling among the rubble.

“A witch?”

“It huuurts…”

It was a witch. Or something that used to be a witch.

Now her skin is rotten, bones are exposed, and she’s lost all her limbs, turned into something like a daruma doll.

Her vocal cords barely work, but everything else is gone.

Blood tears flow from her empty eye sockets as her body trembles, saying things like “help me” or “it hurts.”

“At least make it quick.”

I drive the hatchet into her brainstem.

She twitches once and stops moving.

Her blood-soaked face is hard to read, but… it feels like the corners of her mouth relaxed a little.

“If this girl has a next life, I hope she finds happiness.”

I was reincarnated too. After fighting until the very end, this girl deserves a really happy next life.

—Well, in Aoi Komeiji’s case it might be a bit different.

Either way, I pray that her soul finds salvation.

“Haa…”

“The things offered have not been received. Therefore they have been received. Receiving is rejection, and rejection is blessing.”

As I put my hands together, a monster with no sense of timing attacks.

I slice it in half with the hatchet and stomp it flat.

Thoroughly, so it can’t play dead.

“Let’s go.”

I dash off again to find new enemies and people who still need saving.

◇

The scene in the royal capital is a total mess.

Historic buildings have collapsed into piles of rubble.

Under the rocks, there’s an arm that looks like tomato ketchup.

A picture of hell has manifested in reality.

I’ve killed hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of monsters, but they keep pouring in endlessly from the hole in the barrier, so there’s no end to it.

In fact, the longer time passes, the more they increase. We’re slowly losing ground.

“This—”

But when I stomp on the head of a human-faced frog monster, I feel a massive torrent of magic power.

The source seems to be the academy.

The magic power is so strong it makes the space itself creak.

Any normal human who got close would probably faint, and in the worst case, it could kill them.

“Uh, Aoi Komeiji?”

A woman calls out to me.

When I turn around, I see a witch fully armed.

But her right arm is dangling weakly in the wind.

“You’re…”

“I’m Hostia, I teach at the academy. We met in the dungeon before.”

“Oh, I remember.”

No wonder she looked familiar.

I had gone along on the extracurricular dungeon exploration to prevent Tamaki Omuta’s death bad end.

…Wait, that wording makes me sound like a stalker.

Anyway, let’s set that aside.

She was the one leading the group back then.

I had only called her “teacher,” but her name was Hostia.

“What’s up?”

“I have another favor to ask…”

Hostia mutters apologetically.

“There’s a plan to seal the hole in the barrier. We’d like you to join us, Aoi.”

“Heh.”

In the game, the dungeon would reappear if you defended the capital for a certain amount of time, but I see, in reality it’s for this kind of reason.

I nod without hesitation.

If there’s something I can do, I’m ready to do anything.

“Thank you.”

Hostia bows deeply.

She’s still as polite as ever.

It feels awkward, so I hold up my palm and motion for her to raise her head.

“So? What do I need to do?”

“We’ll take several dozen witches to the hole in the barrier.”

“By using magic to create the dungeon.”

“I’m glad you understand so quickly.”

“My job is to escort them along the way, right?”

Until now I’ve been fighting monsters without a clear goal. I knew the dungeon would come back after a certain amount of time, but game knowledge is unreliable, so I couldn’t feel absolute confidence.

But this is different. Escort the witches to the hole in the barrier and it’s clear. Simple and straightforward. Reality is often complicated and bizarre, but sometimes it’s nice when things are this easy.

I nod lightly and agree to the escort.