#014 – I would like to report a murder… of physics
KaiEbikoOfficial: does your family know?
“I… don’t know? Probably not,” I replied with a shrug as I finished wiping off the last of my tears.
KaiEbikoOfficial: should I tell them?
I pursed my lips and thought about it for a mont.
Honestly, I wasn’t sure. My relationships with my family had always been strained, especially after coming out. My sister was a little better, but I still wasn’t particularly close to her…
“Probably not… It’s fine.”
KaiEbikoOfficial: Nana…
“I an… it’s not like you have contacts for them. And I can’t give them to you without giving it to the whole chat, right? Cuz I can’t turn off the stream,” I reasoned.
KaiEbikoOfficial: I guess that’s true
KaiEbikoOfficial: okay
KaiEbikoOfficial: how can I help then?
“I…” I frowned. “I don’t know?”
I genuinely had no idea what a fellow Vcuber could do to help in my situation. As colorful as our lore could be, Vcubers didn’t actually have magical powers to traverse dinsions and whatnot.
“I guess just emotional support is enough…”
KaiEbikoOfficial: if that’s enough for you…
KaiEbikoOfficial: okay
KaiEbikoOfficial: I’ll be your friendly fairy Ebiko on your isekai journey!
I snorted, my mouth finally curving into a smile again.
“Fairy? I thought you were a shrimp girl.”
KaiEbikoOfficial: shrimp fairy!
KaiEbikoOfficial: I’ll do my best!
I grinned.
“Alright… Alright! I know I keep getting distracted, but now for real – Dungeon ti…! Again…! Third ti’s the charm!”
KaiEbikoOfficial: woohoo!
KaiEbikoOfficial: wait dungeon?
“Yeah, I’ve been trying to beat this weird dungeon, but I keep getting overwheld by the zombies. Last ti, one even scratched and I don’t even know if I’m turning into a zombie too…” I briefly looked at my status and found out that my race still said Human, thankfully.
KaiEbikoOfficial: then why are you going back?!
“Because I’m starving! Look, I even have a death clock!” I opened up the ‘Don’t starve’ quest description.
‘Don’t starve’ Side quest
Ti left: 2d, 5h, 11m, 3s
Main objective:
Find sothing to eat.
Side objectives:
Find a source of food that will last you at least a week.
Rewards - 1SP
Penalty for failure - Death by starvation
KaiEbikoOfficial: what the falafel
KaiEbikoOfficial: that’s ssed up
“Mhmm, I know,” I dryly replied as I finally made it to the dungeon’s entrance again. “But yeah. There’s nothing out here besides the dungeons. I tried eating bush leaves and the goo… but none of them were real food.”
Which reminded … I needed to use appraisal on the trees too at so point. And the orange smoke inside them as well.
Not right now, though. I had distracted myself for long enough.
KaiEbikoOfficial: wait there’s no animals or fruits or anything?
“Nope… Nothing. As far as I can tell, there’s only fruitless plants and these weird dungeons in this world. And since the dungeon chests have random stuff in them, I’m hoping to find sothing edible at so point…”
KaiEbikoOfficial: right
KaiEbikoOfficial: still weird
KaiEbikoOfficial: where’s this dungeon then?
KaiEbikoOfficial: and what is this place?
I sighed. “This is the dungeon. I told you. The dungeons are weird,” I said as I stepped over the boundary and let the uncomfortable chill go down my spine again.
I was getting used to that feeling.
KaiEbikoOfficial: huh
“Yeah. Anywho, I gotta pay attention now. Don’t wanna get jumped by zombies.”
KaiEbikoOfficial: right
KaiEbikoOfficial: I’ll shut up now
I humd and advanced through the hallway, whilst switching my vision again.
I wasn’t really sure whether the heat vision was at all useful, to be honest. I couldn’t see through the concrete walls with it, and by the ti I could spot the zombies with it, they were close enough that I could also hear them or see them normally anyway.
I was probably going to replace it with Craftsman as soon as I could get another skill point. Although I wasn’t entirely sure how that worked. Would I need to buy it again if I wanted to use it? I sure hoped not. That would have been a massive waste of skill points.
That aside, the halls were suspiciously empty compared to last ti. I got a good way through, and even passed by the room where I’d looted the chest – it was still open and empty – before another zombie appeared.
Just a single one. It was very easy to deal with at this point. All I had to do was dodge its initial lunge and then smack it in the head with my sword. It disappeared in a mist a few seconds later.
KaiEbikoOfficial: wow that’s brutal
KaiEbikoOfficial: and gross
“Yeah… It feels even worse than it looks. I’m kind of used to it at this point, though. I’ve already killed ten of these things.” I didn’t ntion my concerns about becoming a psychopath. She didn’t need to know. Nor did chat.
Just like that, I kept advancing, much more confidently than yesterday. More zombies ca out to mingle, but whether it was experience or growing up overnight, I no longer had any issues dealing with even groups of four of them at once. It still left a little winded, but a few minutes of rest and I was good to go again.
“It’s weird that they only started appearing now…” I mused as I glanced at chat. A few keywords caught my eye and I blinked. “Huh. You think they didn’t respawn from my last delve? Hmm… That would explain it I guess. But does that an that the dungeons beco empty and pointless after one person clears them?”
KaiEbikoOfficial: maybe it all resets once you beat everything
I humd. “Maybe.”
With that in mind, I kept going, dealing with about a dozen more zombies on my way to the locked gate. I was getting pretty used to their behavior and none of them got a single scratch on anymore. After all, I’ve always been good at figuring out monster AI.
Maybe video ga skills did translate into real life situations. At least so of them.
At last I reached the locked gate. Looking at it up close, it looked incredibly video-gay. The golden lock was suspended right in the middle of the gate by four golden chains that were attached to each of the gate’s corners. The lock was also as big as my head and the gate itself was made out of simple golden tallic bars connected to the gate’s rim at the top and bottom.
Beyond the gate, I could see the actual water park. Pools of water, waterslides, fast food vendors to the side –
“Chat… There’s fast food vendors.” I gripped the tal bars with my hands and glared beyond the gate. “I bet there’s gonna be food in there!”
Or there could be zombie vendors waiting to make food out of .
KaiEbikoOfficial: blow up the gate!
I backed off, checked my surroundings for zombies again, and then breathed in and covered the damn gate in as much fire as I could muster without collapsing.
Once the fire dissipated, I was greeted with the locked golden gate without a hint of damage.
Dammit.
I pulled out my sword and swung at the lock as hard as I could… Only to yelp as I was deflected by so kind of forcefield around the thing. I flew back on my butt and even let go of my sword for a second before quickly retrieving it.
“Ughhh… Of course it has anti-cheat protection… Has anyone seen a massive golden key around here?” I grumbled.
KaiEbikoOfficial: it’s a dungeon
KaiEbikoOfficial: so probably in one of the chests around here
“Probably, yeah,” I agreed as I peeked into so of the windows. Unfortunately, there were no imdiately visible chests nearby. Just rooms of various shapes and sizes filled with empty tables and chairs.
I grumbled to myself but grudgingly climbed into the first window to start exploring.
Right as I did, a zombie jumped out from behind sohow and only my reflexes saved from getting scratched as I threw myself to the side and covered the jerk in fire. I swiftly recovered and drove my sword through its skull as it tried jumping again.
My eyes darted around, looking for more potential danger as the zombie vanished.
KaiEbikoOfficial: NANA?!
I let out a calming sigh.
“I’m fine. This happens all the ti.”
KaiEbikoOfficial: that doesn’t sound like a good thing
I shrugged. “What can I do? It’s either this or slowly starving to death out there. And if I have to die anyway, I’ll go out in a blaze of glory!”
KaiEbikoOfficial: Nana… ;_;
KaiEbikoOfficial: are we sure that’s not your kidnapper’s plan?
KaiEbikoOfficial: like…
KaiEbikoOfficial: he wants you to beco this super soldier
I frowned.
“You think this is so kind of ssed up experint…? Like… I’m being conditioned? Getting used to fighting vaguely human-shaped enemies?”
Sothing about that thought made feel cold. Of course, I had been concerned about turning into a psychopath, but what if that was the whole point of this?
KaiEbikoOfficial: yeah it’s like he’s trying to slowly convert you to the dark side
KaiEbikoOfficial: you have to fight it!
KaiEbikoOfficial: don’t lose yourself!
KaiEbikoOfficial: don’t beco the villain!
I stared for a second before taking a slow breath and sighing.
“Right… Yeah…” I shook my head. “Who do you take for, Ebi?! I’m not gonna lose myself! I am Aoto Nana, the chira of seven races! Sothing like this isn’t enough to break !” I confidently proclaid. “...Although I’m back to being just human now… Whatever! I’m Aoto Nana, the tiny human! Here to ss up all the evil phoenix plans!”
KaiEbikoOfficial: heck yeah!
KaiEbikoOfficial: and I’m Kai Ebiko, your guardian shrimp fairy!
“Yeah! Now let’s keep going!”
I finally looked around to properly survey the room I was in and then stopped.
“Hold on… How does this even work?”
I walked back to the window and to the left of it, where the room stretched beyond what should be possible without expanding into the hallway outside. Sure, it explained how a zombie had gotten behind , but…
“This is nonsense! Stupid non-euclidian rooms!”
KaiEbikoOfficial: hey that ans there could be secret chests hidden around the corners
I groaned and rubbed my face.
“You’re right… I’ll have to search every single room for the key.” I sighed. “Well, I guess I have my work cut out for . I better get started then…”
I began by exploring the extended part that defied the fabric of space-ti and found out that the room kept going around and behind the wall where the window existed and looped all the way around in a vague donut shape back to the window… or more likely, a different window, since it didn’t keep wrapping around and this was clearly a different room.
My eye twitched and I cautiously looked out of that window, only to see that I was looking out of a completely different window, far away from the locked gate, on the opposite side from where I’d entered the other window.
I let out a pained groan and slid a hand down my face.
“It’s a non-eudlician maze! This is going to be such a pain!”
KaiEbikoOfficial: oh my god
KaiEbikoOfficial: okay don’t worry
KaiEbikoOfficial: I gotchu
KaiEbikoOfficial: I’m gonna draw a map
I blinked. “How are you gonna draw a map?”
KaiEbikoOfficial: I dunno but I’m gonna try!
“Okay… thanks, Ebi.” I briefly glanced above Ebi’s ssages, but it had sohow gotten even worse. It was all flashing by way too quickly for to read anything.
“...I gotta get that strear skill upgrade next. The one with group chats. It feels a bit la, but I literally can’t read anything but Ebi’s ssages right now.” I huffed. “Anyway! Let’s keep exploring, I guess.”
I climbed out of the window into the hallway again and briefly glanced around.
“Actually… If I’m gonna go through every room anyway, I might as well start at the beginning,” I said as I made my way to the entrance of the dungeon again without anything attacking . But this ti, rather than leaving, I randomly picked the left wall and began eyeing the room beyond the first window.
KaiEbikoOfficial: okay!
KaiEbikoOfficial: I’m gonna take notes
KaiEbikoOfficial: write down where every window leads
I grinned.
“Aweso! Thanks, Ebi!”
And with that, the thorough dungeon exploration began.
Reviews
All reviews (0)