「Nightfall is approaching. Locate the nearest safezone immediately.」
'Huh?' Aire's eyes strained open, the chime from his notifications barely registering as distant echoes.
「Nightfall is approaching. Locating and evacuating to a safezone is advised.」
Aire rolled over, groaning as he massaged his back. 'What's going. Where am I—'
Memories rushed back in a flood: 'the candle, the book, the pain. He'd passed out.'
"Right. I'm still trapped here," he muttered, reaching for his cane. As he got up, his eyes landed on the book.
"That candle… it said my freedom depended on this," he whispered to himself, picking the book up.
「Nightfall sequence will begin shortly. Evacuate to a safezone immediately.」
Aire turned his attention to the notification, tapping on his chain interface to open the full description.
「Viewers have called for a Nightfall event. A chain quest protocol has been offered to all surviving contestants.」
"Fuck. So even more bullshit?" Aire scoffed.
'If I can't even get a moment to collect my thoughts, how the fuck am I going to escape this place?'
He continued reading, hoping for a bit more information. However the rest of the message was just the Southern Witch Nation's insignia, along with their motto; In the light we trust. In the light we see all.
"Fucking witches put their ugly poems but not where to find the zones," he grunted.
He swiped through his other unread notifications, searching for something that would help.
「Congratulations on advancing into the top 10 local rankings. Your chain interface has been provided level 2 clearance.」
'Okay, this might help.'
━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━
「New features」
[Rank Recognition: Contestant ranks float overhead.]
[Viewer Quests: Special viewers may now offer quests for rewards.]
'Or not.'
Aire quickly digested the new changes. To him, rank recognition seemed like a double edged sword, one that he wished didn't exist alltogether as it drew unnecessary attention.
And viewer quests were just the witches being their usual sadistic selves. He didn't even want to imagine what sorts of horrors the viewers would have them do.
He continued swiping through. Only one notification remained.
「You have slain a first-stage Changed. Three level 2 clearance rewards have been presented. Only one will be offered.」
━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━
「Rewards」
[Viewer Shout: Attracts more viewers. Several creatures will also be summoned to your location.]
[Change Bane: A herb proven to ward of the changed. Lasts 1 cycle unit.]
[Zone Map: A map showing nearby areas of interest and special rooms.]
Aire considered choosing [Change Bane], however he didn't like the wording the witches had given. "Proven", somehow felt like a scam.
He selected Zone Map, and a sharp pinch bit at his neck. The chain interface lodged into his nape, began glowing bright blue, lighting the entire room.
Aire ignored all the corpses, focusing instead on the porcelain walls, where he could see his reflection.
An instant later a rolled parchment of paper materialised on the floor infront of him.
'I wonder if I'll be able to use magic like this,' He thought, picking up the paper. He was tempted to start reading the leather book instead, however time was running out.
He quickly opened the paper, and a blotch of black ink bubbled at its centre.
'How do I—'
The ink moved, slithering and morphing into lines and icons… pathways and marked rooms.
Aire looked to the legend on the side. A green snake rune, meant safezone. Suspicious, but perhaps that's what the witches wanted him to think.
He scanned the map for the nearest snake rune, and found one just a few rooms ahead. The path seemed straight forward, except for a red rune at the centre.
'Red rune means…' The legend gave a single phrasw as the description.
'Mini Game Start Point.'
Aire shook his head. 'Smells like a trap,' he thought. 'But do I have a choice? This Nightfall event sounds bad enough on its own.'
He looked at the map again. There was a large blue rune at the centre, which all the pathways seemed to lead to.
'The exit.' His chance at escape… freedom.
'The safe point is on the way. So it's not a completely bad idea,' he thought, stuffing the map inside his cloak.
He scanned the room, eyes landing on Crass. "I need to borrow this," he whispered, reaching for something in Crass's pockets.
It was a miniature lamp, made from bronze, powered by blood.
He bit into his tongue, drawing blood before licking the side of the lamp.
It flickered red, and then slowly brightened to a yellow hum.
"Eden would probably start whining about mana poisoning if he saw that," he mumbled himself. He'd never taken himself as the type to be home sick.
*
Aire walked with the lamp right in front of his eyes, but still the darkness of the halls clung closely to his body.
It was the best he could do to use the map and get a sense of where he was going, but even then he feared he was getting lost.
'Was I supposed to go right at the last one?'
He stood at a crossroads, a narrow hallway with two doors at the end.
He looked back at the map. 'No. This is the right place.'
He twisted the knob on the right door and it creaked open.
Warm rot punched his nose; the hallway ahead was so thick with it, that he could taste foul meat in his throat.
"Of course," he whispered under his breath, covering his nose as he entered.
Each step he took was accompanied by a soft squelch. The walls and floors were lined in flesh. He tried not to think too much about who the flesh belonged to.
'It should be coming up... the mini game.'
「A viewer has sent a super chat!」
「Wait, is he going to the mini game? XD. 500 credits says the mongrel dies in the first hour.」
「An open bet has commenced on your station...」
"What the hell is the mini game?" he whispered into the darkness. Even though he couldn't see a camera drone, he knew that the witches were watching... listening. They always were.
「1000 credits says he dies by Nightfall.」
'These bast—'
A loud hiss broke from the walls, and red liquid began to flood the hallways.
"Whats going."
The water levels began rising drastically. They were going to drown him.
He increased his pace, practically stumbling over himself as he dragged his bad leg behind him.
「Nightfall has descended.」
'Fuck.'
「May Licht have mercy on your souls.」