Chapter 72

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Translator: penny

Chapter: 72

Chapter Title: Please Write One Item to Escape This Place. (3)

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I hadn't set any alarm, but about four hours after falling asleep...

The nagging anxiety lingering in a corner of my mind woke me up without me realizing it.

Sigh... Guess I can't sleep peacefully.

There were several reasons why my mind was uneasy right now, but the biggest problem was undoubtedly...

Uwaaaah!!!

It had to be because of this scrap of paper that I could no longer use.

I swear I won't be greedy...! Just three...! Only three!!

Immortal elixir.

About 200 pages of unfair hospital surgery records.

The gift that the wife monster from the RY ghost story loves most in the world...

No, four... four!

Forty to fifty items that increase total Sanity to sell to the Japanese survivors.

Agh... no...! Five...!

Uwaaaah!!!!

The more I thought about it, the more wronged I felt.

No... If it's a ghost story, it should be something like obtaining items through inexplicable supernatural phenomena that humans can't explain.

To think it was a ghost story where you honestly had to pay capital to buy things...!

...

How could I sleep like this...

From my position, knowing full well how massive an opportunity I'd missed by teasing the ghost story's main body...

Is this... divine punishment? Is this why people have to live kindly...?

I got up from the chair and shuffled to the corner of the room where I'd gathered the skeletal remains.

Sigh... Yeah, it's my fault... My fault...

Dwelling on regrets over past ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠events wouldn't do when my current situation wasn't all that great.

To survive in this capitalist ghost story until the main body died.

I need to get out before 48 hours are up... Guess I should prepare a bit more.

As I headed to the pile of bones in the corner, intending to make more weapons to protect myself here using the bones...

First, a good thigh bone... Hmm?

Separate from the hefty thigh bone I'd set aside earlier.

The thigh bone from some unknown someone that I picked up this time... felt alarmingly light.

What is this, osteoporosis or something?

I didn't know whose thigh bone it was.

But at a weight under 0.5kg, it was a bit...

Hm?

The one next to it from someone else.

The one next to that one too...

All the thigh bones from the skeletal remains here... were around 40-50cm long, but none exceeded 500g...

...Why is only this person's bone so heavy...?

It didn't quite make sense—

...No way?

The owner of the first skeletal remains whose thigh bone I picked up...

Seemed to be something else masquerading as human.

Ooh...

I didn't know what weapon to make, but...

I'll make a weapon out of this.

The bone to use as a weapon was decided.

Not sure if this is fortunate or unfortunate.

The bones of whatever was shaped like a human had one pro and one con.

First, the advantage.

Compared to normal human bones, these were about 20 times heavier for the same volume and boasted far greater hardness.

And the disadvantage...

Compared to normal human bones, these were about 20 times heavier for the same volume and boasted far greater hardness.

Whoa...

Yeah.

Hard... too hard.

Give up.

No matter how much I tried to sharpen the bone.

Even giving it impacts from various angles to break it.

Even searing it with the flame thrower wondering if fire would yield different results.

Even soaking it in water thinking maybe that would work...

No method works.

This unidentified being's bone... was almost impossible to process as I wished.

How impossible? ...

No, shouldn't one of you break when you hit each other?

Even using identical bones from the same being to smash each other, they didn't break at all.

...Who the hell killed this thing?

Seriously...

How did anyone manage to kill a being with bones like this?

If only I had a scalpel...

It was a bit regrettable.

If I could process this being's bones myself... I could've made an incredibly efficient weapon.

But no matter how I racked my brain here, no way to process the bone—

Boil it like bone broth and drink it, will my bones get this tough too?!

The bear stew would be mind-blowing—

About 40 hours had passed since arriving here.

With only 8 hours left before I had to leave this safe zone...

How is this the latest model?

This damn latest smartphone... not only couldn't be used while downloading the program from the USB,

whether the phone was slow or the file size overwhelmingly large...

After 34 hours, only 60% downloaded... simple math said another 18 hours to use the phone.

Should've started the download a bit later...

Who would've known?

That starting a file download from USB would lock the phone...

Because of this unexpected situation, I hadn't gotten proper info on this place...

But... good thing I glanced at it then.

Fortunately, I remembered some info on floors 1, 2, and 3 from the night before.

To proceed with conquering an escape from here.

Time to head out once.

It was about time to step out of the safe zone.

Truly.

Nothing stupider than relying on luck.

There was no guarantee clearing the ghost story when the main body died from 0th financial tier debt.

Like in the Lying Ghost Story where the suited guide monster died but it didn't clear...

This might require completely deleting the building itself.

For now, poke around 1F and 2F.

Deciding to scout floors 1 and 2, which weren't too dangerous if careful.

As I prepared to inject myself with the syringe from here to wear the body enhancement suit requested by record 15...

...Wait, is the vaccination kit supposed to look like this...?

Suddenly, it hit me that the vaccination kit from the phone video yesterday... and the liquid color inside the syringe were different.

...

Now that I thought about it, something was off.

Record 17 clearly requested meds to maximally prevent multiple organ failure.

And this ghost story provided record 17 a vaccination kit.

Yeah... kit.

For vaccination, you'd take a new syringe and vaccine liquid from the kit, right?

But this syringe was pre-filled with unidentified liquid, unpackaged.

...Whatever, can't be helped.

Abandoning the body enhancement suit, I layered my handmade water bottle armor over my clothes.

Slowly opening the securely shut door that had seen no incidents.

...It's there.

Right as I opened the door, a massive cockroach walking on two legs came into view.

That giant bug ignored anyone in the same space as long as they stayed out of 1m range.

Let's do it.

To hunt the monster.

I threw a spear made from normal human bone at the bug and planned to repeat returning to the safe zone...

Whoa, that was close.

Remembering records 1, 2, 4 died from immediate skull depression.

I immediately went back inside, grabbed the super heavy unidentified monster's rib bone, and hurled it out the door.

Thud!

The bone's weight caused a loud crash right in front of the door.

Bang!!

A massive hydraulic press-like machine dropped from above, striking the rib.

How powerful the impact...

Whoa... it broke that...

I could see the trap's motor part broken from hitting the hard rib.

...What will it take to break you...?

Of course.

The giant rib was perfectly fine.

Good. From now on, you're Trap Destroyer No. 1.

Instead of minding every trap here.

I'd smash or neutralize all traps using that rib.

Avoiding the broken trap, I stepped out and confirmed the two-legged cockroach.

Phew... please let this be the trigger.

I hurled the sharpened bone spear at the bug with all my might.

Stab—

As confirmed on the phone, the bug's back was hard, but the front was as vulnerable as any normal ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠bug.

Even with the bone spear piercing its chest, it wouldn't attack unless approached.

Whoosh— whoosh— whoosh—

I kept throwing spears I held, embedding them in the giant bug's body.

Thud...

The massive bug collapsed dead.

Right after killing the bug monster, it spat out the status window.

Status window.

Like in the Two-Person Night Guard Ghost Story where satisfying conditions reactivated the status window.

Checking if killing a monster here reactivated it...

As expected...

No dice.

One isn't enough, huh.

Seemed killing one monster didn't reactivate the status window.

Per phone records, 1F bugs respawn new ones upon death.

I killed exactly 10 more respawns, planning to head to 2F if still no status window...

Hm?

Unlike phone videos where new bugs appeared immediately after killing 1F bugs...

...What?

No new monster respawned.

...Playing dead?

Feeling monster intelligence rising lately, to confirm-kill the pretending bug.

I fetched all bone spears from the room and hurled them full force at the downed monster.

Even after running out of spears to throw...

Still playing dead? Tough bastard.

No respawn still, so I threw the prepped NN-01 water bomb at it...

...Hm?

Yet it lay motionless.

Not playing dead... actually dead?

Reasonable suspicion it was truly dead.

However...

...Rules changed suddenly? Why?

Phone records showed record 27 killed 1F bug 7 times, new ones appearing each time to eat the corpse.

Why no respawn when I killed it?

...No way?

A hypothesis flashed through my mind.

That...

Mercenaries?

What if the monsters here were like mercenaries hired with stones.

Truly...

This ghost story had the most capitalistic structure of any.

Couldn't help thinking the hypothesis held water.

No stones, so no new monsters coming in?

Of course.

Time to confirm-kill and dispose of the body.

Roar—

Sniff... why does it smell like grilled squid...

No good.

Before finishing 1F cleanup, gotta grab some grilled squid.

Thud! Bang!

Thud! Boom!

Thud! Whoosh—

Lucky ones once, tougher traps up to 4 times.

After throwing the rib at every trap on 1F.

Good.

I succeeded in smashing all 1F traps, turning this capitalist ghost story's 1F into a quasi-safe zone.

Of course.

When will this thing break.

The unidentified rib still intact.

Do well on 2F too.

Planning to use the rib for trap destruction on 2F as well.

After 1F done, rest a day then head up.

Heading back to safe zone to wash and sleep...

Huh?

The phone on the desk... screen lit normally.

The app name is Status Window.

What... the phone only has 10 Sanity...? No... should I be weirded out it has Sanity at all...?

Kuhuhuhu!! This is why I do Gallery! Legs straight out today, time to sleep~.