The Latest Game Is Too Amazing

“You █████!”

Their faces were wracked with fear of the being in front of them. Not just one, but several adults’ faces were adorned with identical expressions of terror. The cause of this was a one-sided torrent of abuse and violence. This scene repeated itself time and time again.

She had already grown tired of it.

As her idle mind begins to awaken, Elizabeth slowly opens her eyes. She gets up, gets dressed, brushes her short hair, and leaves the room. As usual, she stations herself in front of the window so she can see outside the mansion. This could be said to be her one and only daily routine.

Her pale blue eyes observe the world outside the mansion, staring vacantly at a view that never changes. Although it would be more accurate to say that it does change colors with the seasons, that too is a change that she has grown tired of. That’s just how long she’s stared at this view.

The inside of the mansion is an even more boring, unchanging world, so she started staring outside out of a faint hope that she might make a new discovery, even if she wasn’t able to experience it in person. However, she’s already given up on that. Thus, this action has lost its meaning and become something she does out of mere habit.

If she went outside, she wouldn’t have to spend her days in this place doing nothing but staring outside, but her body has always been weak and she’s never once gone outside. Even now, she still can’t leave the mansion. Therefore, she spends all day doing the only thing she’s allowed to.

‘It’ll be the same view as always yet again today,’ she thinks to herself.

However, she sees a change in that view. The ever-unchanging scenery has a single new element added to it.

There’s a young man standing there.

A man? Elizabeth ducks in reflex. She has no memories of ever receiving anything but cruel treatment from anyone except her father. She stands up from her chair and hides in the window’s shadows so she won’t be seen as she keeps an eye on the man.

The man seems to be fighting monsters. The monster is a zombie, a type of undead with a rotten corpse for a body. There are a lot of undead in this region and they’re hostile to travellers, as if they have a grudge against the living. Then, the killed travellers generally join the ranks of the undead. Travellers seem to avoid this region for that reason, so she rarely sees people, but maybe the man doesn’t know that.

However, to all appearances, the man’s physique doesn’t look muscular. If anything, he can easily be called slender. At this rate, he may meet the same end as the undead. But since she can’t leave the mansion, she’s powerless to help him in any way. All she can do is watch.

The zombie’s mouth opens wide as it charges at the man, and she’s sure that he’ll get eaten. But at that moment, he shoots arrows of fire from the staff in his hand.

As the arrows are hurled into the zombie’s mouth, its face bursts into flames and it collapses. It writhes in agony as if it can feel pain, but apparently, it’s still able to move, as it crawls towards the man. Paying no heed to this, the man fired several bolts of purple lightning at the zombie.

So he’s a mage? She gasps at the unexpected strength of the frail-looking man. Her father was also a mage, but she never saw him fight. Are mages really that strong?

However, the man doesn’t stop there. When the zombie stops moving, he touches its corpse and makes it disappear. It’s as if he’s taking revenge on it, not even allowing a single speck of dust to remain.

Oh no. Alarm bells ring in her mind. She doesn’t mind him defeating monsters. However, this man is dangerous. What if he finds her? She hasn’t done anything to hurt him, but he might consider her to have neglected him in his time of need. What will he do if he interprets it that way? The mere thought of it terrifies her.

In desperation, she prays that he won’t approach the mansion. However, the man slowly walks towards it.

Oh no, oh no, oh no! He saw her. She has to hurry and hide. She leaves the room and tries to think of a hiding place. The basement and the first floor are too risky, since there’s a chance she might run into him. On the second floor, consisting of her room, her father’s room, and the study, the only places to hide are places where things are stored. Her father’s room is no good. There’s not enough storage there to hide in. The only place she can think of that she can hide inside is the closet in her room.

With no choice but to hide out in her room, she enters the closet. At about the same time, she hears a distant knocking sound that seems to be coming from downstairs.

Trembling, she prays as if waiting for a storm to pass. She hears the creak of a door opening, followed by the sound of footsteps. Despite her hopes that he’ll pick the first floor or the basement to search, it seems that he did see her after all. She hears him start climbing the stairs to the second floor.

In that case, he might be heading for the room where she was staring out the window a little while ago, or possibly a different room. Please, pick any room but this one, she silently pleads. Then, she would have time to escape to the first floor or the basement.

The footsteps get closer. Don’t come in, don’t come in!

Suddenly, they stop.

Then, the closet door opens. Before the open door stands a much taller man in a cloak, looking down at Elizabeth with eyes as black as his hair.

How did he find her so fast?! There’s no end to her confusion as the man stares at her. His expression is unreadable, but it doesn’t look very friendly, which only intensifies her fear that he’s furious on the inside. Remembering the ruthlessness that he displayed towards the zombie, her face freezes in terror at the thought of that ruthlessness being directed at her. In an effort to escape from that terror, she shuts her eyes.

“Sorry for scaring you,” the man says with a straightforward tone of voice.

When she fearfully opens her eyes and looks up at him, he looks uncomfortable. …What in the world is going on here? The young man now has an expression befitting of his age, completely different from her earlier impression of him. Maybe he isn’t as scary as I thought, Elizabeth thinks to herself.

“Um… You won’t do anything?”

“No, I won’t,” the man replies.

Apparently, he really doesn’t have any intention to harm her. Her tension unravels and she breathes a sigh of relief.

…It seems that the man is more reasonable than she thought. In that case, this is incredibly convenient. He might be able to help her accomplish what she’s been planning for all these years.

“You monster!”

The moment that hope crosses her mind, she remembers those words. This man might be the same as all those other adults. She isn’t like other people; she’s an anomaly. Anyone who looks at her can see right away that she’s not normal. And so, she wonders, won’t this person also be afraid of her if he notices?

Overcome with worry, she stares at the man, but he doesn’t look particularly frightened.

“Um! …Aren’t you scared of me?”

Silence fills the room. Elizabeth bites her lip.

“No, I’m not really scared.”

“But… but why?!” she shouts. Every human who’s known about her has been afraid of her. They’ve yelled at her, swung swords at her, ran away from her, and every single one of them was terrified as they did it.

After all, she’s—

“I’m already dead. I’m a genuine ghost, you know. I’m a monster. My body is even see-through, and–”

After all, she’s a ghost. Ghosts are despised by humans. Ghosts are inhuman and heretical.

But she’s not the only one who’s different from other people.

“Even if you’re a ghost, you’re not going to attack me, right? There’s no problem, then,” the man replies casually. His values are different from the rest of the world’s.

The words stun her, but as soon as she understands their meaning, tears stream down her face. Once the tears start flowing, she can’t stop them, and soon, she’s bawling.

“I’m sorry,” Elizabeth apologizes, her face red. His affectionate gaze turns her even redder.

“Don’t worry about it,” he says, waving it off like it’s no big deal.

“My name is Elizabeth. What’s your name?”

“It’s Chaos.”

“Chaos, then? By the way, what are you doing all the way out here?”

Chaos explains that he’s on his way from Maeldia to the capital. He was passing through a mountain road, and after a while, the zombie attacks suddenly increased, so he kept moving while he fought and then happened upon an abandoned house. Then, he noticed Elizabeth and came to see if there was something inside it.

Elizabeth has never been outside, so she doesn’t know anything about Maeldia or the capital. She asks Chaos what they’re like. Chaos says that he hasn’t been to the capital yet so he doesn’t know much about it, but in Maeldia, he worked as an adventurer. He tells stories about it, like his first quest and the quest he did in a party. Occasionally, there are words that she doesn’t understand, but it’s all new to Elizabeth, who knows nothing of the world, so she’s riveted.

How long has it been since it was this lively here? She hasn’t talked this much since her father died. She feels like her dull world is full of color again.

“That’s pretty much what Maeldia was like.”

“Thank you, Chaos,” Elizabeth says, expressing her gratitude after he’s done. “I had lots of fun hearing about it!”

“…You did, huh?”

She thought he was scary at first, but while she listened to his story, she really felt what a good person he is. If it’s him, he might be able to do it.

“Chaos, I have something to ask of you. Could you destroy the jewel in the basement?”

The mansion’s basement was her father’s lab, where her father spent a lot of time making magic items. She didn’t come here often, neither when she was alive nor in her current circumstances. She has clear memories from when her father was still alive of the basement being clean and the books, specimens, and magic items being neat and organized. But now, after being neglected for all these years, the basement is covered in dust and spider webs, a mere shadow of its former glory. On a pedestal in this room, a single spherical jewel is enshrined, the jewel she wants destroyed.

“This is it?” Chaos asks Elizabeth for confirmation.

“Yes, as long as this is here, I can’t leave this mansion. If it’s destroyed, that should free me. I can interact with everything else inside the mansion, but I can’t touch this jewel.” When Elizabeth approaches it, a barrier prevents her from getting any closer, as if there’s an invisible wall. “That’s why I need your help. Please, destroy it.”

“…Alright.”

Chaos slowly raises his staff and smashes the jewel. Although Chaos probably doesn’t feel anything, Elizabeth feels something that she’s felt inside herself for a long time disappearing. The sensation is similar to being released from the chains that have bound her.

“…Now, I’m finally… Thank you, Chaos.”

Ahh, finally free. Her dream coming true after all these years, her heart trembles with joy.

Standing in the entrance to the mansion, Elizabeth lets out a hum. The place that always looked like the iron bars of a jail cell before only looks like a door to her now. Steeling herself, she opens the door. Dazzling sunlight shines down on her through the open door. Closing her eyes, she takes a few steps forward…

…And, at last, she’s able to leave the mansion.

“Thank you, Chaos. Now, I have no more regrets,” Elizabeth says, smiling brightly. “In return, I offer you everything that’s in this house. I’m not sure if it’ll be useful, though.” As she warns him of this, her smile turns strained.

Chaos doesn’t react strongly, only looking up a bit in interest. His expression is–

“You really are a kind person, Chaos. I’m glad I met you in my final moments.” He’s the only person other than her father who didn’t treat her like a monster. Just how much was her heart healed by that alone? “Please don’t make that face. Thanks to you, I can finally pass on. This is what I wanted, so could you see me off with a smile?”

She brushes her long hair out of her face to show Chaos her smile, which he returns stiffly.

Thank you, Chaos.

Chff chff chff.

The quest is complete.

On my way to the capital, I happened to find an abandoned house with a little girl in it, so I checked it out just out of curiosity.

When I saw Elizabeth and her pink hair, she was semi-transparent, so I was on guard thinking that she might be a monster. But then, when she wasn’t recognized as an enemy on the map, I guessed that she was probably an NPC. Maybe the fact that I had my guard up is why she was so scared at first.

Chff chff chff.

Then, while I was talking to her, I got a new quest. The name of the quest was “Free the Captive Soul”.

I only learned this when I looked through it afterwards, but apparently, Elizabeth was suffering from an illness and had a weak body, and her father tried everything he could to do something about it. However, he couldn’t cure her illness. In the end, the solution he found was a method to keep her soul in this world like the undead.

Although she was a ghost, she could interact with physical objects and move freely within the mansion. At first, the experiment seemed to have worked.

But it didn’t end there.

Perhaps it was a side effect of forcefully keeping her soul trapped here, or a punishment for pointlessly interfering with life itself. Within a single day, she was born, grew up, became old, and turned to dust; that was the punishment he had to bear.

Actually, when I first met her, she looked like a little girl with short hair wearing long, tattered clothes, but when she passed on in the end, she had transformed into a long-haired woman, well into adulthood.

Her father made every effort to save her from having her life and death repeat every day, but in the end, he found no solution and drew his last breath in anguish. In the second floor, in the bedroom that wasn’t the one Chaos met her in, there was something that looked like a mummy on the bed that seemed to be her father’s remains.

That’s her backstory. Then, after the jewel that cursed the dead was destroyed, she was free. The reward for the quest was the staff her dad used.

Chff chff chff.

It’s a classic tragedy-type quest, they’re pretty common. A few hours later, it’ll reset, she’ll be back here, and other players will be able to take the quest again.

Chff chff.

I know that, but…

Chff chff.

Why am I so sad? Was I always this sensitive and sentimental of a person? If I was watching it on a monitor as a spectator the traditional way, I’m sure I’d only think, “What a sad event.” Maybe it’s because they made this VR world way too real. Maybe I’m just being sentimental about a chance meeting.

Chff chff.

I just can’t help but think, what if there was another way to save her? But in the end, this quest could only be completed by destroying the jewel.

It’s almost like she was created to be trapped in the cage that is this game. She’s only an event for players to experience over and over again. So, was she ever really given the peace in death that she wanted?

That’s why…

Chff.

Just now, I used my staff as a shovel to bury the remains of Elizabeth and her dad. I stuck the mage’s staff I used until now into the ground to use as a grave marker.

Before, I thought that I was only able to make holes back then because the giant moles had already hollowed out the earth, but considering I was able to do it again, I think the developers of this game are geniuses.

There’s probably no point in doing this. Elizabeth should be back in a few hours. So, this is only for my own satisfaction.

Even so, is it presumptuous to think there should be at least one player like me?