Chapter 40: Not a Game

"They are tougher than before. If you're not careful, you can easily get overwhelmed." Maric commented as they walked around a boxing ring that in the middle had the altar above the bloody pentagram.

Floating above it was a tall, shirtless, rather muscular man with bandaged hands. Like the one before him, his pleas for help were ignored.

Behind them, a small horde of guards followed, not too fast and not too slow. But slow enough that they did not catch up with the quartet's brisk walk.

"I told you," Adryan said without looking at him, his gaze focused on his wrist, on the white and red numbers.

Points: 1,630

Round: 2

'When we complete the ritual, this will be enough to do the two laps on the tram and buy the shotgun. All that's missing is the points to upgrade it.' Nodding in satisfaction, the red-haired man lowered his arm, and the numbers disappeared.

"Before we do the last of the rituals we'll take a short trip, there's something we need to collect first."

"Oh? And what would that be, Princess?" Flora asked curiously, her hands clasped gracefully under her stomach.

"A code to obtain an egg," Adryan replied casually.

His answer earned stares from the group.

"Really? An egg?" Flora asked, not sure she heard him correctly.

What would they do with it? An omelet?

Adryan nodded without changing his expression. Suddenly, his eyes widened slightly, remembering something.

"We have to heat it, by the way. Could you play mother hen?"

Knowing that her partner just wanted to get on her nerves, the Jacob relaxed her expression and looked straight ahead. Her ears fell on deaf ears.

Laughing softly, Adryan said no more, already satisfied with teasing his favorite worm a little.

After a while, the ritual was complete, with the fighter's body explosion and the appearance of a new grub, this time grabbed by Sharron.

Leaving the abandoned gym, the group went up the way they came, with the redhead in the lead. They passed the last zombie, who had only a torso and was slowly crawling towards them.

Arriving at the small platform where Maric had used the basin stone to transform into the Beast, the group climbed up the ladder to the side of it.

Arriving at a much smaller train station, Adryan walked calmly to the control panel and pressed a green button.

"This will only take a few moments. Now, things will be quiet for a while, so if you have any questions, you can ask." Leaning against the wall with his shoulder, he crossed his arms, bored.

"Is there another way to complete the floor other than the ritual?" Maric asked, looking out the broken window at the slowly moving legless zombie.

"No. Without the ritual, we would just be left fighting ever-larger and stronger hordes of zombies until we are outnumbered. The only way to win is the ritual," Adryan replied, looking at the bloody map of the city in front of him, which had the ritual locations marked on it.

"Is there no end to them?" Sharron asked, her hands folded elegantly in her lap as she sat atop a crate, her posture not unlike a doll—the shotgun resting on her back.

Adryan nodded.

"The rounds are endless. That's why I said it's useless to kill as many zombies as appear; it'll be easiest just to kill the number needed to advance."

"Then we were lucky you're with us, Princess. I can't imagine anyone doing all this without knowing anything beforehand." Flora commented, standing at the man's side.

"Be thankful this is one of the easier ones. If it had been any other game, we'd have to worry about probability and luck." Snorting a little, the redhead barely held back the urge to click his tongue.

Completing Moon's Easter Egg on solo had been a headache he'd rather not remember.

The group looked at the man, curious at his sudden display of clear discomfort. They had an idea why. Everyone had an experience with it, some worse than others.

Whenever something depended on probability and luck, it was almost a given that it would fail.

At that moment, the rails at the side of the hut where they stood began to vibrate loudly; something was coming. Looking up from the zombie still crawling upwards, Maric saw something like a train coming from above the tracks.

'What's that?' The Werewolf narrowed his eyes in confusion but still alerted the group, who came over to look.

"Sigh. Finally," Adryan said in relief as the machine stopped at the side of the hut they were in. The previously closed doors opened, revealing a glass interior that allowed them to see everything below them.

Stepping through them, the red-haired man pulled a lever and pressed the green button on the side again.

-500

The doors closed, and followed by a hiss, the machine began to move at a decent speed over the abandoned and bloody streets of the city.

"Is this some kind of tram?" Flora asked, looking out of the window at the passing buildings.

"More or less, it's more like a monorail. A sort of flying train if you like." Adryan replied, looking out his window to the right.

Raising a hand, he pointed to the window of a building whose open window was giving off a soft crimson glow. "Keep an eye out for open windows that glow like that. Inside are some symbols we'll need later, so get them in your heads."

The group nodded, each taking one of the several windows in the place and peering intently outside.

"Mr. Adryan. Once you place that sphere on the altar, the people who appear keep mentioning a Shadow Man. Who is he?" Sharron consulted sideways, her gaze calmly scanning the city outside the monorail.

Adryan did not answer the question and only looked out the window. His silence was answer enough for those present.

Ever since they began moving through Morg City and completing the rituals, his mind had been thinking about that human-looking thing.

Normally, at the beginning of each round, he would have been on the fire escape in that alley watching them, but when they awoke, no one was there.

Adryan had a theory as to why.

'Considering that every protagonist we've sacrificed has mentioned his name, it's certain that they showed up at the beginning and explored a bit. They found out who he was, but before they could start with the rituals, we came along and replaced them...'

'It's certain he's watching us right now. But he's not doing anything because we are completing the rituals like he wants.'

It was implied several times and explicitly stated that these creatures could see humans without them noticing but could not interact with them. For that, they would have to manifest.

There were several possible reasons why he would not have manifested to them.

Distrust of these new arrivals and analyzing them to know what to do, finding the right moment to attack them...

But there was something else!

Adryan also noticed several things missing. One of them was almost all the perks. Only Quick Revive was there, and all the rocket shield parts were missing.

'It's like there's a bug on the floor...' Shuddering slightly at the mention of the bug, the redhead went into cogitation.

It was no time to think about crows that had nothing to do with it now; it was better to leave those things to their games.

There could be several things that could go wrong, so Adryan had never separated them apart to transform into the Beast to open the map.

While he knew what he had to do and everything was going on just like in the game, at least the parts that still worked, he wasn't stupid.

This was real life, not some stupid game he played with his brother on a school night when they had a test the next day.

One mistake, one oversight, one miscalculation would mean they all died.

What did it matter that he could revive? He had no idea of the actual requirements of that, only that he had to die and he shouldn't die often.

And he also didn't know what would happen to his body once he died in the tower. Did dying mean failing the floor? And if so, what would happen next?

For him this was never a game, this new life never was.

A few moments later, the monorail took them back to the canal district. After waiting a while for it to load, the red-haired man pulled the lever again and paid 500 points for another trip.

With the last trip over and the last symbol obtained, the group got off the monorail and found themselves in another hut like the ones they had been in. Descending the stairs of this one, the group found themselves amid disaster.

Carriages lay all over the square, making it difficult to move around. Dead and half-decayed horses gave off a putrid smell of decay.

In one corner of the area was a long, mysterious box made of what appeared to be sea stone, with a mold to accompany it.

It emitted a watery, greenish glow. Tentacles covered its entire body, and a shadowy octopus rested in the middle, its eyes glowing malevolently.

Adryan glanced at it and moved along with his party, who didn't even blink at it. With Maric paying for the door and Flora being the one to transform this time, the last unique item was acquired: a Hairpiece.

With everything ready, the group returned to the shattered and bloody square. They made their way around the edges, avoiding the wrecked carriages, to the theatre at the back of the square.

...

"No! NO! IT WAS NOT SUPPOSED TO END LIKE THIS!!! I WOULD BE A STAR!!! ARGH-" A beautiful blonde woman wearing a red corset cried out in pain before exploding in a torrent of blood.

With the ritual over and Flora grabbing the last worm they needed. Sharron quickly dealt with the Margwa that appeared.

With the extra points and on the redhead's recommendation, the rest bought the same shotgun. That done, the group returned to the canal district.

Descending the stairs to the water, they continued a little further until they came to the false wall from before. This revealed a small empty room; the only thing in it was a yellow crack in the air that hovered ominously.

Without wasting any time, Adryan touched this crack, which in a second contracted into a ball before expanding further than before and opening up, revealing a black sky with hints of blue and full of stars.

The red-haired man looked at this with some discomfort.

Thinking a little, he turned to his group. "I want to try something. Come on."

...

After a while, the group returned. Between his hands and well away from his body, Adryan was carrying the torso-less zombie.

With his hunting skills, it had been no problem to find the slippery bastard.

"Okay, dear, you have no idea how much I appreciate you doing this for me," Adryan whispered to the zombie, who was whipping his arms around and trying to grab him.

"Hyaa!"

"Ah, right. Don't worry, it's safe." He paused a bit. "I think... But that's what you're here for!" he finished happily, earning another scream from the zombie.

"URGHHAGA!"

Taking that as a yes, Adryan laughed some more and threw the legless torso; he didn't do it hard enough to avoid killing it.

The zombie twisted in the air for a moment before colliding with the portal. Its body barely made contact and disappeared in a small orange flash.

"Will it even work? It's a Zombie. It's dead." Flora consulted, looking sideways, ignoring how he had spoken to it while it tried to eat his face.

"They may be dead, but in theory, they're also 'alive'. Him going in is the same as us going in." Adryan replied, his hands lighting on fire to clean off the grime.

He may have been wearing gloves, but touching something dead and rotting didn't feel right. Of course, speaking through his left hand, his right was mute.

"Is there any danger?" Sharron consulted, staring deeply into him with her blue eyes.

"Depending on whether our second favorite undead friend returns or not." He hoped his new friend would return. Otherwise, he would have to try the other portals.

The conversation between the companions was interrupted when the portal gave off a small orange-yellow flash. Out of it came the zombie, crawling with screams of hatred and leaving a snail-like trail.

Smiling, Adryan grabbed the remains of the zombie's shirt collar and stared at it. Finding no mutation or exaggerated belly, the red-haired man chuckled a little.

"I'd kiss you if you had lips." Mustering a little more strength, he threw the flailing zombie over his shoulder, whose mangled body fell into the dirty water.

Turning to his team, he smiled at them and winked, "Let's go."

Following his instructions, and to the displeasure of some, they grabbed each other's hands with their eyes closed. Adryan led the way, followed by Maric and Sharron.

The Werewolf extended a hand to the woman in the purple dress.

Flora watched this before snorting slightly and ignoring the outstretched hand completely, she walked to the front.

"I'll go first." She said, grabbing Adryan's only free hand, who only gave an apologetic look to the expressionless Sharron.

After four short flashes, the canal district was empty once more, with only the zombie slowly crawling to the portal.

"Hyaa!"