Chapter 3. Express Loop Train Armand III
Episode 3.
The Express Loop Train Armand III
12 million.
It was obviously an enormous number, but.......
Honestly, I was underwhelmed.
Of course, achievement points are one of the core systems of <FoS>. A new-game-plus carryover system like you'd find in any game.
You could call it the only advantage for dealing with a difficulty that spikes even on Normal, let alone Hard.
The problem was.
"......Right now, this thing's useless."
In this game, everything before entering the forest is nothing more than a tutorial.
You could argue that no tutorial stage should have a game over, but that's exactly why <FoS> is a trash game.
What do I mean by that?
Even though I had achievement points, the <Shop> where I could spend them hadn't been unlocked yet.
'They make you stockpile a currency with no known use, then tell you where to spend it later.'
It's a common approach you run into in games, but in the current situation it was just irritating.
"......Huh?"
As I let out a sigh, I soon realized something was rolling around at my feet.
An object shaped like a glass marble.
Inside, an incomprehensible, metaphysical cluster of light churned and tangled violently.
"<Talent Stone>."
Shortened to just "stone," this item is one of the main growth mechanics in <FoS>.
To put it simply, using it raises your stats.
Not ordinary stats like Strength or Agility, but a somewhat special stat called <Talent>.
"......This drops now?"
I was surprised, but I also felt like I understood why.
This game, whatever else you could say about it, reliably rewards you for the suffering you endure.
It was probably a reward for killing the 'Man Who Greets and Embraces.'
'Since I started on the <Instant-Death Route>, my stats right now are probably.......'
Talent
Body: D- Mind: D
Art: F Intuition: E
Probably something like that.
As I said, the starting point was determined by the character's race, age, and initial stats, so I could infer my stats from it.
'Let's use it right away.'
Later, once I had various materials, I could use it more efficiently, but this was the Instant-Death Route.
I had no intention of wasting time on that.
The problem was.......
Lowest-Grade Talent Stone
Randomly raises one Talent of grade D or lower by one stage.
As written here, the Talent that increases is random.
'Fuck.'
The curse slipped out on its own, but honestly, this is both a defining trait and the charm of FoS.
Because random elements are scattered throughout character growth, you have to constantly build the optimal setup in response to an ever-changing situation.......
And that judgment is exactly what separates skilled players from the rest.
'Art and Intuition.'
Those are late-bloomer Talents.
On the other hand, Body and Mind are the most important stats in the early game, and each increase makes the biggest noticeable difference.
'Please, one of the two.'
The odds were one in two.
Not bad. A whole fifty percent, after all.
I forced myself to think positively and cupped the stone in both hands as if I were tossing a coin, just as my character had when I played.
Whoosh......!
Immediately after, a soft light leaked out between my fingers.......
[You have used <Lowest-Grade Talent Stone>.]
[Your Intuition becomes sharper.]
"......God damn it."
The coin came up tails.
* * *
Strictly speaking, I'd avoided the worst outcome.
Because Intuition was at least better than Art, which was completely useless for survival.
'If you ask me what difference it makes that an E became an E+, I don't have much to say.......'
Still, it had already happened, and thinking negatively about it wouldn't change anything.
That was when the announcement rang out.
-Cur, curren, currently...... ope...... ―tion...... ―evacuate.......
A mechanical voice mixed with noise rang out, then cut off abruptly.
-......A temporary issue has occurred in train operations, and restoration work is currently in progress. For your safety, passengers are asked to remain inside their cabins for the time being. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience. We repeat: train operations are currently.......
It sounded like an ordinary announcement, at least.
But right after being attacked by a monster, with people dead, anyone who took those words at face value would be a moron.
'Up to this point, it's following the script.'
After the announcement rang out, I waited exactly five minutes.
Why?
Because in the game, after this broadcast the screen faded to black, and then the situation progressed through text.
[After the broadcast, you hid quietly in the cabin, holding your breath.]
[From outside the door, you intermittently heard something being dragged, the howls of unknown beasts, and human screams.]
[......And before long, the train overturned.......]
My guess was that the developers weren't confident they could depict a train overturning with <FoS>'s crude graphics.
'Either way, the train wreck is inevitable.......'
The problem was that, afterward, the surviving NPCs had a conversation that included the following.
"A survivor? I don't recognize your face."
"What? You were in Car 13? Well, you're damn lucky."
"That's because you're the only one who survived from the rear cars."
Here, "rear cars" meant everything behind Car 4.
I was currently in Car 13....... Excluding Cars 14, 15, and 16, which were freight cars, that put me practically at the very end.
'If I just hole up here, will I survive like in the game?'
A hollow laugh escaped me.
As if. That's the kind of thought only someone with a flower garden blooming in their head would have.
For reference, the flower garden in my head had completely withered when I encountered those two shadow bastards.
"Hoo......."
After exactly one deep breath.......
I opened the door and stepped out of the cabin.
Clunk.......
The cold train corridor greeted me.
Contrary to the announcement about a problem, the train seemed to be running perfectly fine.
'What I patrolled earlier was the freight section, including Car 13.'
In other words, from here on I was heading into completely unknown territory, even to me.
Just as a faint unease began to creep in, I happened to spot a mop rolling around nearby.
Snap.
I grabbed it, kicked the end until it snapped off, and turned it into a passable makeshift spear.
"......That actually worked."
If this were the game, a trick like this would have been impossible.
Even if there had been a mop, it would've been a non-interactive background object.
As such, the early section of the <Instant-Death Route> resembled a horror game, and the ways to respond were limited.
'When it was a game, that is.'
In reality, the possibilities are virtually endless.
Ridiculously enough, just holding a hastily made spear calmed my nerves a little.
I moved slowly but with urgency, and pulled the handle of the door leading to Car 12.......
"Ugh."
The moment the door opened, the stench of blood hit me.
The textures I'd seen in the game were spread out before me in crimson. Corpses and blood, chunks of flesh, eyeballs rolling around....... I forced my gaze away without looking closely.
Was Car 12 completely wiped out? Or.......
"Ah. A, a person......!"
As expected, I heard a voice.
How had she ended up in such a state?
I saw a girl pinned beneath an overturned seat.
And a face smeared with blood and tears.
"M-Mister! P-please save me....... My legs, hnngh....... My legs hurt so much......."
"......."
I looked at the seat crushing the girl.
The overturned seat was crushing the girl's lower body.
It was a two-person seat, so it would be fairly heavy, but with a Player's initial stats, it could be moved without much effort.
"M-Mister......?"
"......."
"You're...... a person, right?"
Maybe she grew anxious because I said nothing.
The girl's voice began to tremble faintly—
But I still didn't move.
It wasn't simply because I was a cold-blooded bastard, a selfish piece of shit who cared only about saving my own hide no matter who died in front of me.
"......."
I observed the girl carefully.
Her tearful face, uneven breathing, and wildly trembling eyes were no different from a human's.
At least, judging by physical reactions alone.
"You seem to have lost a lot of blood."
"Y, yes......! M, my legs are going numb. My right arm hurts a lot too, but......."
"That's not what I meant."
I pointed at the pool of blood spreading out around the girl.
"I said you seem to have lost too much blood."
"Huh......?"
"For someone who's spilled that much blood, you talk awfully well."
I couldn't be sure, but that much blood loss should have been close to fatal.
It reached all the way to my feet, several steps away.
"......."
The girl closed her mouth, and in an instant, all expression vanished from her face.
'Shit.'
It was creepy as hell.
Could human facial muscles even change that abruptly?
It looked like some creature that didn't understand emotion was kneading its facial muscles into an expression.
The moment I instinctively stepped back, the girl smiled faintly.
"Hey. Help me."
The girl flailed both arms in jerky, creaking motions.
"I said help me, you fucking bastard....... Huh? You selfish piece of shit. You're just trying to survive alone, all by yourself?"
I raised my spear.
I could see my fingers, white from gripping too hard.
A different kind of tension than when I'd encountered the <Shadow>.
'Damn it.......'
What if, what if.
What if I was wrong about this?
Of course, no human could survive that much blood loss, but this was a fantasy world.
She might have survived through some method I didn't know about.
In other words, if the girl was still alive and had simply lost her mind from the desperate situation—
Then what I was about to do would clearly be murder.
Gulp.
It was terrifying.
So this was how terrifying it was to kill someone—how much resolve it took.
It was an obvious truth, but one I'd never wanted to learn. And in that moment—
I.......
realized something strange.
Clunk!
Behind me, I heard a door open and sensed a presence.
The moment I spun around, a familiar face came into view.
"Derek?"
"Hik, hihik!"
What the hell.
Derek, the one-eyed man who was definitely dead, was charging at me with his tongue hanging down to his chest.
"Ke. Keee, kek, ke, kei! Kaindel! Ihihihihik!"
Oh, fuck.
Why had I forgotten this possibility?
The fact that a freshly killed corpse is the ideal host for a Shadow.
In the actual game, about one time in thirty, Derek ended up like this.
The moment I reflexively thrust my spear at Derek as he closed in, his body crumpled.
"......!"
Of course, my spear hadn't even touched him, so this bastard had ducked on his own.
Derek dropped flat to the floor and crawled on all fours.
Skitter!
He was eerily fast, and with the surroundings so dark, I couldn't properly track his movements.
Crunch, crunch.......
Even in the midst of that, I could hear bones and muscles twisting as his body gradually transformed into something inhuman.
'Shit!'
As I frantically scanned around, Derek's body shot up toward the ceiling.
Stuck upside down to the ceiling, he scuttled at cockroach-like speed to a spot directly above me, then dropped in an instant.
I hurriedly braced the spear shaft horizontally and thrust it out to block him.
Crack!
"......!"
My knees stung and my spine throbbed.
I didn't throw out my back, did I?
If I pulled a muscle in my back in this situation, there'd be no crueler joke.
While that thought flashed through my mind, Derek, who had dropped from above, chewed on the spear shaft, drool running from his mouth.
"Be, before sle, sleeping! Pa, patrol......! Don't forget it......!"
He spouted insane nonsense with pitch-black eyes.
A seizure commonly seen when a Shadow manipulated a host's body and mind.
Saliva dripped from his gaping maw, giving off an oddly foul stench.
"Urp......!"
The moment nausea hit, I lost my balance, and Derek's hand slipped through the opening.
Shhk!
"Gaaah!"
A pain I'd never experienced in my life shot up from my side, and I nearly lost the strength in my hands gripping the spear shaft.
"Fuck......!"
Absolutely not.
If I lose my weapon here, it's truly over!
"Uhik, hik, hiik......! Keeeii......!"
My vision went white.
Even as I felt the searing pain in my side, I barely managed to shove Derek away.
At the same time, I realized one fact.
This bastard's raw strength isn't that high.
Because the <Shadow> had only recently parasitized him, its physical binding was still weak.
"You, bastard!"
In other words, I didn't know about speed, but in pure strength, he was below me.
I shouted and thrust the spear shaft forward with force.
Crash—Derek rolled across the floor, bared his teeth, and charged again.
"Hi, hihikhik......!"
I leveled the spear straight at Derek.
It wasn't a calculated move, but it wasn't mindless either.
I was staring straight at Derek's throat, so naturally, that was where the spearpoint aimed.
Shnk.
After the sensation of piercing soft rubber, I felt something catch.
Could there be a filthier sensation than this?
"Ghk, gurrgh......."
Derek thrashed. Even then, his bloodshot eyes stayed fixed on me.
"Ke, iiiii......."
Cold sweat soaked my back.
He was making sounds even with his throat pierced.
The tenacity of shadows was beyond imagination. If I left him like this, Derek would stay alive for quite a while, and might even recover soon.
Crunch!
That was reason enough to twist the embedded spear shaft once more.
"Ghk."
With a death rattle, Derek's movements stopped.
[You have defeated the Shadow, 'Man Who Scratches and Bites'.]
"Huff, hoo......!"
My breathing was ragged.
My head spun and nausea rose, but the pain in my side stood out with terrible clarity.
...It hurt.
It hurt so damn much I felt like tears would pour out. If I could, I'd roll on the ground and scream.
But ironically, that horrible pain was giving me a vivid sense of being alive.
"Huff, hoo, hooo......."
My breathing gradually steadied.
While the world spun around me, my fingers alone felt strangely cold.
The moment the chill spread from my fingers to my head, I finally felt as though what I needed to do had become clear.
Shhk.......
I pulled the spear out of Derek's throat, then walked over to the girl.
The girl, who had been watching the entire situation, didn't seem particularly surprised or flustered.
"Mister."
"......."
"Please save me. I don't want to die yet."
A calm expression, unlike her frail voice.
Those words were probably the last words the girl—not the <Shadow>—had left behind.
One of a Shadow's traits was to habitually repeat the dead's final words, just as Derek had charged at me babbling about patrol.
"Ha......."
On the floor, a long trail stretched out, as if someone had wiped up blood with a rag—
And the distance to the girl had shrunk compared with before. That wasn't my imagination.
While I was fighting Derek, this thing had crawled closer to me.
'How the hell did something pinned under a seat manage that?'
Simple.
This thing had abandoned its lower body.
It had twisted its body until everything below the waist tore off, then crawled as stealthily as possible to where I was.
'If the fight had gone on just a little longer.'
And if, at the decisive moment, this girl had grabbed my ankle.
Then who would be lying here as a corpse right now?
"......."
The pain in my side seemed to be urging my choice.
Clench.
My grip tightened around the spear shaft.
Yes, the situation was clear now, and I had already made my decision.
The reflexive action I'd taken the moment Derek attacked was probably my most honest answer.
'......Kill, or be killed.'
If given those two choices.
I—
Shnk.
[You have defeated the Shadow, 'Tempting Black Shadow'.]
I would gladly raise my spear.