Unwilling Eldritch Horror of Fortune

“We should let him come with us.” I heard Yoona whisper, “You said yourself that you needed strong people to help you in the future.”

“I know, and perhaps he can help us, but right now we need to prioritize ourselves. I can’t risk our plans failing because of a stranger, especially one who didn’t appear in the first round.”

“Brother, is it really that important for your plan to work? Even if it puts someone else in danger?”

“I know you don’t like it, but this is important. If things go wrong now then nothing will go as planned later. And if he’s truly as skilled as he appears, then we will see him again after this. We can work together then.”

“I just don’t want to leave someone alone out there.”

”Yoona, you’re a good person, but sometimes we have to make compromises. Just… trust me on this one, we’ll have a chance to see Walter again.”

The two siblings returned, and I noticed that Yoona was visibly uncomfortable. Alright, time to show myself out.

“Alright.” I said, “I think it’s about time I headed out.”

“Pardon?” Yoona asked, not expecting me to volunteer to leave.

“I don’t want to overstay my welcome, and I can tell that you two don’t trust me completely. Not that I blame you, of course.”

I drank the last of my tea and collected my stuff.

“Are you sure?” she said.

“Yup, and I want to smash a few more zombies before this trial ends. Levelling up’s pretty addicting.”

The Regressor hesitated for a second, because he spoke up, “Thank you for understanding. And… be careful. I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but the zombies get stronger each day.”

I nodded, “Yeah, saw them running after the first 24 hours.”

“You should be fine up until the 5^th day, but if you get overwhelmed, then head towards the tall building over there.”

He pointed at the tallest skyscraper in the distance.

“Head up to the 32nd floor, room 105. You’ll be safe there.”

Well, at least he's showing the first signs of sincerity here. Good to know that I made a little bit of a positive impression on him, although it was clear that I needed to do a lot more to fully gain his trust.

“Thanks, will do.” I smiled, heading out the door, “And for the tea. I’ll be seeing you two around! Don’t be strangers!”

Leaving the comforts of the campfire, I headed back towards the city. My first plan was mostly a success, although I think I made a better impression on the Regressor's sister than I did the guy himself. Then again, I don't think it'll be easy to earn the trust of someone who's died once already; I bet he's all kinds of fucked up if he had to endure all of these trials by himself.

So that just left me with my secondary objective, which was to find that huge guy and the unassuming girl. I did the same thing I did to track the Regressor, and quickly realized that only the girl’s location was recognizable. She was fending off zombies right next to that huge building the Regressor pointed out so tracking her shouldn't be an issue. The big guy, on the other hand, was last seen smashing zombies in an unassuming street that could have been anywhere in this rainy city. I doubt I could find him even if I tried.

Still, to be able to find one out of the two was still good, and I wanted to check out that big skyscraper in any case.

It took me a good 5 hours, according to Noe, to make it to the building. I spent most of that time hunting more zombies, and I was able to get another level out of the trip. The same tactic for finding the Regressor seemed to work pretty well, and I followed the trail of dismembered zombies.

Unlike the neat way the Regressor and his sister dispatched the zombies, this woman seemed to go out of her way to slice up the zombies into small pieces. Was she making sure that they didn’t get up again? But even then, blending them to this extent seemed like overkill.

It didn’t take long to find her either, but the girl in question wasn’t killing zombies when I saw her. She was practically on top of another Aspirant, lopping off his limbs. The screams from her victim were terrifying.

Ok, she’s insane.

I was about to back out of there as fast as I could, but she must have noticed me because she turned her head in my direction. Moving faster than even the Regressor, she dashed towards me, twin swords glistening in the rain.

I hurriedly turned on the Absolute Luck Skill and blindly swung my spear her way.

Luck Charges: 233/241

I felt my spear impact something, and the recoil of that hit made me stagger backward a step.

Luck Charges: 210/241

A woosh and a flash of movement blurred past where my head was just moments ago, had I not stepped back, and I jerkily brought my spear up to guard against any more attacks.

Luck Charges: 203/241

Somehow I felt the shaft of my spear hit something hard. I turned my head, looking at what my spear had hit, and saw that I had blocked a low kick aimed to trip me.

Luck Charges: 199/241

Another woosh and I knew that the girl had missed her next strike aimed at my head. I felt a sharp pain and felt a trickle of blood pour down the side of my cheek. That strike would have probably taken my head off had I not turned to look at my spear.

Luck Charges: 183/241

I felt a muscle twitch randomly in my arm, which caused me to thrust the tip of my spear wide to the left. Somehow, that thrust grazed off the side of the girl’s arm and caused her to back off.

Surprised by her sudden retreat, I tried to move back as well but managed to trip instead. This caused me to make a huge lunging attack as I tried desperately to regain balance. She managed to block my inadvertent strike in time, but the sheer strength of the attack coupled with the momentum of my fall caused her to skid backwards.

Luck Charges: 169/241

“Alright. I give up.” She said, putting her hands up. “We can share the loot.”

“The loot?” I asked, unsure what the hell was going on.

“Yeah, the loot.” She said, this time pointing one of her swords at the half-mangled man on the ground, “I saw him first, but you can have some of his stuff since you fought me fair and square. I mean, we can go at it to the death if you want.”

What the absolute fuck was she talking about? This was the first time I was genuinely stumped as to what someone else was thinking, and that’s after meeting literal trans-dimensional monsters.

“Right.” I said, still unsure what the girl was thinking, “Probably not worth fighting to the death over some loot.”

She smiled and plunged her swords into the poor guy still lying on the ground, one sword for each leg. Thankfully the blood loss and shock were setting in for the man, and his screams were mostly muffled by the rain. She nodded in satisfaction, and after checking to make sure that the other individual couldn’t move, she walked up to me and patted me on the back.

“Great fight back there, eh!”

“Yeah.” I said, unsure as to how to deal with this psychopath, “You were quite good as well.”

“Still, it’s not very good manners to try to steal someone else’s prey.”

“Uh, sorry about that.” I answered, “I didn’t mean to.”

She put her arms around my shoulders, like she was a close friend, “I know. It’s slim pickings out here, so I’ll forgive you. I only found one dude after searching this stupid city for two days. A lot of zombies to chop up though, so I can’t complain.”

She pointed at the “prey” and said, “Alright, do you want to finish him up, or should I do it?”

Sorry random stranger. I thought, But I don’t think you’ll meet with a happy ending here. Wish I could help.

“Um, he was originally your target, so you can have the honours.”

She hopped off, and whistling a happy tune, she removed the swords still impaled into the half-conscious man and proceeded to “finish” him.

She took her time.

“Oh right,” she said, raising her voice so that she could be heard over the screams, “I’m Noel by the way. What’re you called, little bro?”

“I’m Walter,” I said, doing my best to not throw up.

“Nice to meet ya!” she replied, her voice eerily cheery, “Sorry, just give me a sec, I’ll get you your share in a bit.”

“Oh, no worries. Please, take your time.”

She finished her work a short while later, the bloodstains and other viscera staining her body was thankfully already washing away in the rain. She handed me a few ration bars and a little canteen.

“You can have those.” She said, stuffing her half of the things she pilfered from the poor man into her own bag. “Should last you a while. I have no idea how that devil person expects us to survive for seven days when I can’t even find more than two people after this long. But I guess that’s why it’s a trial.”

“Wait, you knew that Raffiel is a Demon?”

“Well duh.” She said, rolling her eyes, “He’s covered in Sin.”

“Pardon?”

“Oh, right.” Noel answered, “Sorry, forgot most people don’t view the world like this. My eyes are special, so I can see the sin in people, the more depraved and sinful they’ve lived, the darker they appear. That Raffiel was as dark as they come!”

I nodded slowly.

“Anyway,” she continued, as if telling me that she could see the literal Sin on people was completely normal, “How can it be fair to expect us to search every corner of this huge city for loot? There’s like, 200 of us in total, so only 199 – well, 197 minus you and Phil over there – people to hunt for. I think I’ll starve if this continues.”

“Wait, are you only hunting other Aspirants for their food?”

Noel looked at me as if I was the idiot, “No, of course not! I need their water as well; how else would I have enough supplies to last a week out here?”

I could not understand this lunatic’s point of view.

“I mean, have you not tried to scavenge for supplies? I saw some canned food and bottled water in the abandoned supermarkets.”

Noel’s eyes lit up as if I told her the secrets to the universe themselves.

“Oh my god, you’re right!” she exclaimed, “The prey would scavenge and gather where the canned food is, so all I have to do is find a supermarket and wait for them to come to me! You’re a genius, little bro.”

That was definitely not what I meant, but I wasn’t about to correct her.

“You know, you’re alright, Walter. You’re helpful, and you got a relaxing voice. I like you!” She said, patting my back again, “Anywho, I think I’ll go find one of those supermarkets and stock up on supplies! You should probably do the same.”

With that, she sprinted off into the distance, “I’ll be seeing ya!”

Ok, what the hell just happened?