178. Jukai Forest (3)
178. Jukai Forest (3)
"First, Ga-eul sunbae. Take out everything Shin Se-hee gave you separately."
"Huh? Uh...? Me!? Ah, okay! I-I got it!"
Im Ga-eul, apparently not expecting Lee Yu-ri to suddenly single her out, panicked and hastily dumped out the contents of her Subspace Tattoo.
Thud-thud-thud-thud─
And what came out were: a 'roll-on water poultice,' 'pepper spray,' a 'self-defense stun gun,' and a 'suspicious-looking ornament.'
The party members couldn't help but frown at the sight. No matter how they looked, they could find no common thread among the items.
"...The only thing that sort of makes sense is this water poultice."
Kang Do-hee massaged her chin and picked up the roll-on water poultice.
"But isn't that a bit weird? This isn't even a hunter-exclusive item... And we all basically carry much more effective muscle-relaxing sprays, don't we?"
"And this stun gun and pepper spray are usually what guys carry around for self-defense. Is there maybe a monster in there with a keen sense of smell or one that's weak to electric shocks...?"
"...Mm, those two I can at least figure out what they are, but I can't even begin to guess what this one is."
Lee Yu-ri lifted the suspicious-looking ornament and frowned.
It was an object with a round hoop crisscrossed with a net, decorated with beads and feathers. It looked like something a goblin shaman might carry around.
"Is it some kind of object used for rituals...?"
"I don't know. I've never seen it before."
"...Me neither."
That was when everyone was looking uncomfortable at the bizarre ornament.
"Huh? This... Isn't that...?"
The voice came from the most unexpected person.
"I have something like this. In my room?"
It was Im Ga-eul.
"You have... something like this in your room?"
As everyone looked at her like she was a suspicious character, Im Ga-eul panicked and waved her hands wildly.
"No, no, no! Guys, this isn't anything weird! Don't look at me like that!!"
"So, what is it?"
"Mm, this thing is called a dreamcatcher."
"A dreamcatcher?"
"Yeah, it's, uh, it catches nightmares if you hang it in your room... It's supposed to help you have good dreams... I told you not to look at me like that!! I-It's definitely just superstition! B-But it's still p-pretty famous!!!"
"Nightmares...?"
Anyway, thanks to Im Ga-eul's contribution, they managed to identify the ornament. And the moment she heard that, Sofia looked over the other items with serious eyes. Suddenly, a spark of understanding flashed through her gaze.
Clap!
"Ah-ha! I get it!"
Then she pointed at the other items and said.
"All of these! They're all things related to sleep!!!"
"...Sleep?"
Kang Do-hee tilted her head, unable to understand how these were related to sleep.
"Yes! This water poultice! It was really famous even when I was modeling! It's super strong, so quite a few people put it under their eyes. And the pepper spray, and the stun gun! They're not really dangerous to us who've awakened Mana, but they're effective for driving away sleep!"
It was plausible. Kang Do-hee touched her lips and recalled Jin Yu-ha's words.
"Yellow Dog said this place is a dungeon that confuses your senses and destroys common sense. If all of that is causing confusion between dreams and reality... an enemy that uses dreams... Yeah, that definitely makes sense."
"Yeah, I think you're right. It seems the theme of this Jukai Forest is nightmares."
Lee Yu-ri nodded seriously.
"...Now that we have the theme, we need to come up with countermeasures. If there's a device that forcibly pulls you into a dream deeper inside, we also have to think about how to deal with falling into a dream."
"U-Um, then, guys, what about something like this?"
It was Im Ga-eul again.
She looked a bit burdened the moment everyone's eyes turned to her again, but she firmly continued.
"So, it's from this movie I saw before... In it, the main character spins a top when he checks if this is a dream or not?"
"...A top?"
"Uh-huh, so. When you spin a top, if it keeps spinning without stopping, that means the current situation is a dream. If it stops in the middle, it's reality."
"Ooh, that makes sense! No matter how elaborately crafted the dream world is, it's still an illusion in the end. So the expectation that 'the top keeps spinning' carries its own inertia!?"
"Y-Yeah, th-that's right! As expected of Sofia hoobae. You caught exactly what I wanted to say!"
Im Ga-eul nodded her head repeatedly and struck a confident pose.
"So, are we going to spin a top too?"
Kang Do-hee spoke, her patience apparently wearing thin.
"No, we don't have one of those right now. Instead..."
Lee Yu-ri proposed an idea that suddenly came to her, and everyone nodded in agreement within an instant.
After they set up the countermeasures like that, everyone finished their preparations quickly.
Lee Yu-ri looked back at the party members one last time.
"From now on, we'll begin the Jukai Forest raid. Our primary objective is locating and rescuing Jin Yu-ha. And as I've stressed several times, never make any assumptions about anything inside here. Alright, let's move out."
And so, the Utopia Party without Jin Yu-ha set out to raid Jukai Forest.
* * *
The scenery was mystical.
Black shadows flickered around a single spot as if guarding it.
And in the center of them all.
There was one person.
Pale skin. Dark circles deeply etched under her eyes.
A girl lying curled on her side, long blue hair draped over her like a blanket.
Haaah─ Haaah─
The breaths she let out were so weak they seemed about to stop at any moment.
It was a familiar face. Because she was a character who always greeted Players already dead in the Jukai Forest request.
In the original game, if you found her lying in this state and approached her,
[ 'Suspicious Girl' ─ She doesn't appear to have been dead long. ]
a text like that would appear.
Here, the veteran Velvetsra Players took note of the phrase 'hasn't been dead long.' So, for a while, the community burned with heated activity, aiming to save the girl by completing a speedrun as fast as possible.
But it didn't even last a month, because every single attempt ended in failure.
No matter how much you enhanced a speed-specialized character's speed with gacha full-upgrades, ignored monsters, and shaved the route down over and over, she was always already dead when you arrived.
In the end, the consensus that this character was 'impossible to keep alive' was firmly established.
'And she also serves the role of helping the Player in the form of a ghost at a critical moment when fighting the forest boss.'
But to think I'd skip that entire process and meet the client alive, all because my Charm stat exceeded 100.
More thoughts flickered through my head, but there was no time to waste here.
'Yeah, she really is about to die soon...'
There was a reason you couldn't save her no matter how much you shaved the route. Because even though I had the luck to ride the easter egg in, she looked critically ill right now.
First, I had to save this woman.
'It would've been simple if Sofia were here...'
But what could I do? I came here alone, separated from my party members.
I took out an emergency medical kit from my Subspace Tattoo. And from it, I pulled out a red, blood-like potion.
'A potion.'
In the world of Velvetsra, there are potions that recover health. However, perhaps as a device to emphasize the importance of Healers, it works in a slightly different format than in other games.
Using this doesn't immediately heal wounds or instantly restore your stamina. It feels solely focused on prolonging life.
I rested the collapsed woman's head on my lap and brought the recovery potion to her lips.
"..."
But being unconscious, she just broke out in a cold sweat and couldn't open her mouth.
'If I pour liquid into an unconscious person's mouth in a hurry, it could block their airway. Well, no choice...'
Slide—
I put my finger into her mouth and forced her jaw open.
Then, I took my time and poured the recovery potion very slowly. The potion trickled down my finger and flowed into her mouth.
After some time passed like that.
"...Urgh."
The woman frowned as if in agony. Slowly, her eyes opened. Her hollow, grey eyes reflected my face.
The moment she saw my face,
Grinning─ She pulled up the corners of her mouth.
Nibble, nibble.
She chewed on my finger in her mouth, nibbling it,
Ptooey—
And spat it out.
"How dare you touch me."
She spoke in a monotone voice.
"Ah, you looked so critical, I had no choice─."
"Give it up already. No matter what you do, you will never be able to seduce me."
"...Excuse me?"
"Don't play dumb. It's about time you got tired of it too."
"U-Um, are you not the client? The one who posted the request to cure your insomnia..."
"Ah, I get it now. An adventurer who came to find me after accepting my request. This concept is a bit fresh, I'll give you that. You must have put some effort into your looks too. Better than usual. Dream Demon."
"No... That's not it. First of all, I'm not a Dream Demon?"
"At the very least, if you wanted to trick me, you should do something with a little plausibility. Does it make any sense for a hunter who accepted my request to have a face like this?"
She shook her head slowly as if dumbfounded.
"Hmph, it's gotten boring now. Just get lost. Or do the usual, take off your clothes and dance or something. Who knows. Maybe if you put on a striptease with that face, my heart might actually waver and I'll give myself to you?"
At her words, Jin Yu-ha's face was colored with bewilderment.