8 New Game?

Hotaka blinked at the screen, it looked like the lights were out but there was something present vacating the darkness, he couldn't quite place what it was.

Had it all been a dream? The cat, and the letter from his Grand Kat. Hotaka stood and approached the wall for the switch only to find none. So his hand moved for the door. It was as if he had gone back to the first day he moved in, there was no light, only the dim light from the moon pouring in filtered through the window curtains in the hall, Hotaka studied the red moonlight that bathed the halls in red before slowly inching his way towards the window. It was supposed to be the afternoon, did he sleep for that long?

He drew open the curtain.

A pale face with bleeding red eyes gazed back at him.

". . ." Hotaka stared. His mind went blank, for a second he couldn't register at all what he was staring at.

". . ." The pale face also stared. It's hair was long, like a woman's with a body to match.

Hotaka's gaze couldn't help shifting to it's bosoms. It had two hairy mounds for breasts but they were nipple-less as they pressed against the screen.

CRK.

The girl's neck tilted at an unnatural angle.

Thinking it pissed because of his lack of manners, Hotaka closed the curtain and walked away.

Another hallucination, a dream, another specter of his imagination. He concluded as he speed-walked away from the window.

CRASH!

The sound of glass breaking convinced him otherwise. He stopped and slowly turned around to see the naked girl crawling through the window on all fours her limbs were unnaturally long and twisted backward and her butt wasn't like a human's at all, befitting that of a tarantula's only seemingly made from skin. Once she was inside, she stood on her two human feet.

". . ." Hotaka held his breath and waited.

". . ." The creature stared at the wall in front of her.

Hotaka stood rooted to the spot when her head suddenly whipped in his direction.

She spat something out and Hotaka dodged it just in time to make out the blackish thing that reminded him of a hairball.

Hotaka didn't stay to see what the blackish thing was or what the spider woman would do, he ran down the hall, locking the door behind him. It didn't occur to him he was holding keys until he looked down at his hands.

He paused for a second recalling that he had been holding a tablet, had he imagined it?

Hotaka shut himself inside a room and sat with his back pressed to the door, heart pounding.

He stared blankly at the window of the room across from him.

Would there be another one of those things waiting out there? He closed his eyes, he didn't even want to think about it. Because if he did, he would manifest it, that's how dreams worked.

Naturally, he thought this was all a nightmare. He must have fallen asleep. Hotaka had always been able to control his dreams willing himself to wake whenever he felt he was seconds away from death or experiencing something unpleasant. But this time nothing happened no matter how he tried to will himself awake.

"What's happening?"

[Welcome to Haven]

As Hotaka sat fiery white words suddenly appeared out of thin air

[An interactive LRMMORPG, that is, a Life reality multi mass online role playing game. Images will appear to seem more real as they are and unfortunately for you dear guest, the tutorial stage is nearly over. If you die now you will not be revived. But do not worry, as you are a special guest some accommodating arrangements have been made for you.]

[Your class is Host. In this world of Haven, there are uninvited guests that will come to invade your estate, the Subaru, which you must defend. These uninvited guests will try to summon a demon in the heart of your land. Employ defenses to keep them out. Have your wards engage in combat and share the experience you will both earn from killing the uninvited guests. The system planned on giving you a ward but it seems you already have one, When summoned for the first time it takes 1 Minute to appear and chase out the uninvited guests. Denizens awaken every night, at the end of every 2-3 months the blood moon will rise and these guests will become more... desperate. Good luck, dear host.]

My guide?

His tablet reappeared the second he thought about it. Hotaka's fear receded. So this was the game, how was it possible for him to be experiencing all this without a VR headset? Excitement swelled inside him. He scrolled through the game guide before coming upon class descriptions.

[Host: These players build buildings and establish strongholds within their territory. They can give shelter to fellow heroes and employ them as their wards, all the experience harvested by the host can be redistributed to the stronghold or wards to make them stronger and more resistant to enemy attacks. Hosts can learn the skills of other classes and use magic but are physically weak. Once they die, their territory goes with them.]

"In other words it's like a tower defense game, only instead of operating things from a third-person perspective, I have to do it in first person. Got it! I understand perfectly! It's similar to Five Nights at Becky's! So can I see what's going on or do I have to leave this room?"

His tablet showed the physical model of the estate, Goosebumps broke out on Hotaka's arms. There the spider creature he ran away from was now joined by more, they stood stationary but every ten seconds, they would twitch. According to the guide he needed to protect the heart of the estate. It didn't take him long to find the room, it was the ballroom, behind the piano, a glass pillar containing a crystal floated inside what seemed to be liquid.

Why was it that he needed to enter that room? He hadn't even entered it in real life…