Chapter 2. Express Loop Train Armand II
Episode 2.
The Express Loop Train Armand II
I remembered the first event in <FoS>.
The first enemy you encounter, too.
Since it was quarter-view from the start, and the graphics were cruder than you'd expect, it wasn't scary at all.
'What about now?'
I'd forgotten even to breathe.
-Hey.
Oh, fuck.
Swish!
The moment I yanked the curtain shut, the moonlight vanished and the cabin sank into darkness.
That made the atmosphere much eerier, but I was certain I'd made the right call.
......Or was it already too late?
-Hey.
The voice came again.
-The scenery outside is lovely.
It wasn't a human voice. It was hoarse, as if clogged with phlegm, twisted, and somehow cold.
'This is insane.'
Calling a voice 'cold' sounded absurdly literary, and I couldn't argue with anyone who mocked me for it. But that was honestly how it felt.
-Hey. Are you listening?
-There, why don't you open the curtain a bit.
Of course, I couldn't draw the curtain.
I couldn't let myself get curious about the presence behind the curtain.
At that point, I had no abilities at all.
Until I had at least some way to deal with them, I had to avoid facing a <Shadow>.
'In other words.......'
<FoS> is no different from a horror game during its tutorial stage.
Against enemies you can't deal with, "attack" is impossible, and "evasion" is the only means of coping.
-Hey.
-Hey. Hey.
-Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey.
'Fuck.......'
My fist clenched on its own.
Listening longer did no good, but on the other hand, plugging my ears wouldn't make any difference either.
[You have encountered the Shadow, "White Woman Tapping the Window."]
[Your stress level is rising sharply.]
[Mental Contamination: 6%]
It was a dangerous situation, but I stayed silent without moving a muscle.
I had absolutely no intention of leaving this room.
'Because that's the first trap of this route.'
If you get fooled by the Mental Contamination message and rush out of the cabin, you'll run into another <Shadow> roaming outside.
Unlike the "White Woman Tapping the Window," there was no way for me to deal with that one.
An absurd enemy that meant instant death the moment I encountered it.
I recalled the setting of the <Armand> I was aboard.
Armand
Kingdom operating route: Express Loop Train
Route: Royal Capital (starting station) → Cornfield Plains → Horizon Lake → Eternal Forest → Fairy City Pendal (stopover station) → Royal Capital (terminal station)
That was the information known at the starting point.......
There was information unlocked by progressing further in the game, or by clearing it on another difficulty.
By the time the Player boarded, a <Shadow> had already infiltrated the train.
That's right.
A Shadow had already infiltrated the Armand, and the train's overturning was effectively a foregone conclusion.
In other words, if you don't escape before the train flips, that's also game over. This is why the <Armand Route>'s difficulty is so fucked.
Knock, knock, knock.
The voice, which had vanished before I knew it, was replaced by knocking.
Each time, my stress level spiked, and my Mental Contamination rose steeply as well.
Had the moon emerged from behind the clouds?
Beyond the rippling curtain, finger shadows wavered.
Screeee, eee.......
Grotesquely elongated, withered like a rotten old tree.
-Are you watching......?
......Stay calm.
When the situation is chaotic, you have to sort out and accept the priority information first.
First, I fell into <FoS>—
Second, I became the Player character.
Once I forced the two propositions I'd repeated throughout the patrol—the facts I found hardest to accept—into my head, my thoughts finally moved on.
'So, what do I do from here?'
Shadow, tutorial, time attack.......
After obsessively repeating a few words, I was finally able to think of the most rational action to take in this situation.
"Hoo......."
Damn it. My hands were still shaking, but from then on, it was a race against time.
I got up from my seat, then carefully searched Derek's corpse.
So-called corpse looting.
In the game, it was as simple as pressing a button, but reality was another matter.
Actually rummaging with my own hands made me feel filthy.
'Goddamn it.'
My fingers were trembling, I had to hide my presence as much as possible, and on top of that, guilt crept in from the fact that I was looting a corpse.......
I felt like my head was going to explode, but I kept searching.
And then.
[You have obtained <Cheap Hand Mirror>.]
I finally found what I wanted.
Cheap Hand Mirror
It was a cheap hand mirror made from low-quality materials, but it still worked as a mirror.
It was surprising that a rough-looking one-eyed thug carried around a hand mirror like this.
There seemed to be some backstory to it, but since I couldn't remember it, it probably hadn't been relevant to progressing through the game.
With the hand mirror secured, I pulled a pocket watch from inside my clothes.
The time had just passed 11:57:51 p.m.
'......About two minutes left?'
My hand tightened around the watch.
Old Pocket Watch
It's working. For now.
The only item the Player possesses at the start of the <Instant-Death Route>.
At the time, I found it strange.
Why this item, of all things?
Was it simply a gift from the developers to tell day from night?
'No way.'
I'll say it outright.
The developers of <FoS> are not that kind.
I knew that better than anyone. No one had immersed himself in this game more deeply than I had.
'Light.'
Moonlight, to be precise.
The softly shining moonlight is the weakness of those Shadow bastards.
And midnight is when moonlight is strongest. In other words, the only way to kill that thing is to draw the curtain at exactly that moment and reflect the moonlight with the hand mirror.
"......."
Meanwhile, the cabin had fallen into silence.
I could no longer hear the eerie voice or the knocking, and the Shadow's silhouette beyond the curtain had vanished.
Creeeeak—
Instead, a chilling sound came from the window.
Frost seemed to be forming on the glass, and that wasn't my imagination. I could actually feel the temperature inside the room dropping sharply.
In other words, the situation had advanced to the next stage.
'59 minutes, 30 seconds.'
The breath I suddenly exhaled turned into white vapor and scattered.
I needed to start preparing.
I was wiggling my fingers and toes to keep from freezing when I took a step—
Bang!
The door suddenly opened. Not the window—the cabin door.
'What?'
Why did that suddenly open?
The moment my head and body froze simultaneously, the man standing beyond the door tilted his head.
"You—it's patrol time. What are you doing?"
I looked above the man's head.
[Train Manager, "Duron"]
A train manager is the person responsible for one or more train cars.
Duron, who'd been glaring at me, spotted the one-eyed bastard's corpse, and his expression hardened.
"What the......? Don't tell me you—"
"Close the door!"
I shouted urgently, but it was already too late.
[You have opened the cabin door.]
[You encounter the Shadow, "Man Who Greets and Embraces."]
At some point, the thing was simply standing behind Duron.
I couldn't see its face.
I had no idea how tall it was; from inside the cabin, I could only see up to its chest.
"Huh......?"
It wasn't Duron.
The thing standing outside the door tilted its head and looked behind, then slowly raised its head upward.
-Hello?
"Wh-what are you?"
The moment Duron answered the nonchalant greeting—
Its body shot upward abruptly.
A gray hand wrapped around his waist and lifted him.
"L-let go of me!"
Duron thrashed.
He couldn't keep it up for long.
Crack.
Then came the sickening crack of breaking bone, and a wetness crept into his panicked voice.
"Ghk, gghk...... hack! S-save......!"
Then, with the sound of something snapping, the voice stopped.
Thud.
Duron, folded in half at the waist, fell to the floor.
Blood slowly spread from the corpse.
-Hello?
The man's voice came again.
'Fuck.'
I'd run into it. If I'd opened the door after midnight, I never would've encountered this bastard.
'What do I do?'
Should I just keep holding out inside?
But.......
Creeeeak.
At that moment, the window slowly opened, and fingers as gaunt as an old tree began to pull back the curtain.
It was the "White Woman Tapping the Window."
-......So you're there?
The moment I flinched, a white, elongated hand shot out and wrapped around my neck in an instant.
"Gah......!"
My breath caught.
Fuck. How could a hand that looked like it'd snap with a tap have such a strong grip? It was cold as ice, too.
'Come on.......'
Let's do this, you son of a bitch.
I thrust the hand mirror I was holding forward.
-Huh......?
This thing had opened the window with its own hand and pulled back the curtain.
Naturally, the brightest moonlight was now seeping into the cabin.
Moonlight struck the hand mirror and reflected off it as a stronger beam that hit the White Woman.
-Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh—!
This thing is a low-grade Shadow.
It was weak enough to be destroyed by moonlight concentrated through a cheap hand mirror.
Normally, that would've ended the crisis, but.......
-Hello?
The one outside was a higher grade.
I probably couldn't defeat this one so easily with moonlight, but.......
Still, I had no other option.
-He-llo......!
The voice of the thing bathed in moonlight rose.
As if angry, the thing shoved its body through the door without any regard for its own bulk.
'Fuck.'
Look at that ugly mug.
Its face was so pale it looked powdered white, its eyes were unnaturally huge, and bloody tears streamed from them.
-Hello!
A Shadow greeting me with a face that would literally haunt my dreams.
Immediately after, an outstretched hand grabbed my shoulder.
Crack......!
A scream tore out of me at the pain of what felt like my shoulder dislocating.
I wanted to praise myself for not dropping the hand mirror even then, but no matter how long I kept the moonlight on it, it wasn't enough to defeat the thing.
'Then......!'
It was all or nothing.
Clenching my teeth, I hurled the hand mirror to the floor.
Crash!
-Hello!
Did it think I'd given up?
The moment the Shadow shouted in an excited voice—
Whoooosh!
Countless beams of light shot up and filled the cabin.
-H-hello?!
Broken glass.
The glass shards scattered across the floor formed a kaleidoscope, each catching its own moonlight.
If one wasn't enough, use many. A battle of sheer numbers.
-H-hiik, hik......!
The embracing man made a sound other than a greeting for the first time, then let out a long scream.
-Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh—!
The strength gripping my shoulder slowly loosened.
'Just die already.......'
The wailing that had died down in an instant in the game stretched on long enough to drain all my energy in reality.
The scream that went on and on was cut off at some point, as if snipped with scissors.......
[You have defeated the Shadow, "White Woman Tapping the Window."]
[You have defeated the Shadow, "Man Who Greets and Embraces."]
[You have achieved an unbelievable feat in the tutorial stage.]
[Achievement unlocked: 「This Much in a Section with No Equipment?」]
⁝
[Duplicate achievement confirmed.]
[This achievement was completed in another playthrough.]
[Achievement points will not be awarded.]
⁝
[Updating Player "Kaindel" information.]
[Multiple playthrough records confirmed.]
[Achievement points will be inherited.]
[......Updating point data.......]
⁝
[Update complete.]
[Achievement Points Held: 12,615,151]