Claudette's Resolve
Claudette's Resolve
Aria stood motionless in the middle of the clearing in the Rotten Orchard, right above the basement she had just escaped. Or rather, it was me controlling Aria who sharply caught the faint traces of mist warping at the edge of my vision.
'Here he comes. That perverted frog bastard.'
Ding. Ding. Ding.
Three chilling metallic sounds rang out right in front of us, and Jong-gu-reu's grotesque form slithered out of thin air.
"Krahaha! Where do you think you're running—"
The moment Seven Calamities, piloting Jong-gu-reu, let out that perverse laugh and raised his bone club, I clicked the mouse.
Click.
With a flick of my finger on the mouse button, I pressed the switch on the flashlight imbued with Lumen's authority that Aria held.
Fwoooosh—!
In the middle of the mist-shrouded orchard, an overwhelming, brilliant white beam erupted like a supernova. The light struck Jong-gu-reu's grotesque face dead-on, the assassin still half-disoriented from just dropping stealth.
"Gwaaaaaaaaah!"
Jong-gu-reu dropped his bone club and let out a horrific scream. It was the perfect counter—blinding the killer whose greatest weakness was intense light. He clutched both eyes with his hands, thrashing in agony as his vision failed.
The gallery comment window on my monitor exploded in real time.
I smirked at the flood of mocking comments.
"It's still too early to be surprised. Blinding him with light was just the appetizer."
I rhythmically worked the keyboard and mouse, turning Aria's body.
"Whoa… this really feels exactly like playing with a keyboard and mouse. The system sync is insane."
Aria's body responded to my finger movements with zero delay, perfectly in sync.
But there was no time to marvel. Before Jong-gu-reu could recover his sight and start rampaging, I made Aria sprint toward the old, broken-down warehouse at the edge of the orchard—the perfect "asshole zone" I had marked on the map.
Its collapsed walls and gaping window frames created an absolute defensive area where a survivor could endlessly tangle the killer's path just by hopping through the frames.
"Time to show you the full flavor of the asshole zone. You're gonna be spinning in circles with me forever~ You took the bait perfectly~"
Once his vision returned, Jong-gu-reu came charging after me toward the warehouse, huffing furiously. Too enraged to bother with stealth, he simply raised his bone club and ran straight at us.
"Slow."
I casually approached a window frame and hit the spacebar.
Whoosh!
Aria's body slipped nimbly through the broken frame.
Crash—!
Jong-gu-reu's club smashed the frame a second too late. Aria had already landed safely on the other side.
"Grrrk! Don't you dare run!"
The furious Jong-gu-reu clambered awkwardly over the frame.
But by then I had already circled Aria around the inside of the warehouse and thrown her through the opposite window.
Whoosh! Crash! Whoosh! Crash!
Every time he climbed through one frame, I was already out the other side. When he turned toward the entrance, I slipped out behind him. His club swung so close it brushed her hair, but the perfect pathing and infinite looping never once allowed a hit.
The Outer Gods began spamming advice in the comments, but I snorted.
"That won't work. There's a perfect drug that paralyzes reason in a tilted player."
The classic side effect of survival horror games: the magic taunt that makes the killer abandon all rational play and fixate on murdering one specific target, even if it means letting everyone else escape.
My fingers danced across the keyboard. Like a dancing puppet, Aria began spamming the infamous teabagging emote.
Standing beyond the frame, Aria rapidly crouched and stood, shaking her hips mockingly. The sight of that insulting dance sent Seven Calamities' bloodshot eyes bulging in Jong-gu-reu's sockets.
"You filthy bug whore, how dare you—!"
Completely humiliated and mentally shattered by Aria's brazen display, the killer ignored the other survivors entirely and fixated on murdering her alone, desperately trying to climb through the frame.
"Not happening!"
I made Aria dash out of the warehouse while laughing at him. The instant he cleared the frame and swung his club at her back—
I had her brush past a massive wooden plank leaning against the wall and deliver a powerful kick.
BOOOOM—!
"Gwaaaargh!"
The heavy plank toppled forward and smashed mercilessly into Jong-gu-reu's face and chest. He collapsed to the ground with a grotesque scream.
I positioned Aria right in front of his fallen head and spammed the teabagging emote once more.
"Gwaaaah! I'll kill you!"
Enraged beyond reason, Jong-gu-reu began furiously kicking and smashing the plank pinning him. I used the opening to flashbang him again, then sprinted toward the next asshole zone while humming.
The comment section on the right monitor had descended into pure chaos.
While the Outer Gods showered us with shock and praise, Seven Calamities' hellish looping session had only just finished the tutorial.
***
Describing every detail of that breathless chase would only result in tedious, overly technical exposition. In any case, I maneuvered Aria's body across the entire Rotten Orchard.
We vaulted frames and kicked planks without mercy. Eventually, while I kept the aggro, the other seven survivors managed to turn all eight water wheels. The massive steel gate groaned open.
But even the most dedicated basement dweller couldn't overcome the physical limits of a mortal body. Aria's stamina finally ran dry, and a single misinput created the fatal opening.
Thud—!
"Kyaaah!"
Jong-gu-reu's bone club finally slammed into Aria's back. She screamed and collapsed face-first into the mud like a worm.
"Grrrk… Khaha… Finally caught you."
Panting, the killer planted his club in the ground and let out a sickening laugh. Outside the monitor, I slammed my forehead onto the keyboard.
"Haa… Please, guys. I literally pulled aggro for five—no, eight people by myself. Come save her already. After I carried you this hard, you're not really gonna abandon our poor Aria and run as a group of seven, right?"
I desperately checked the minimap. But my pleas were in vain. The seven survivors gathered at the open gate only glanced nervously at one another, hesitating.
Not a single one turned back toward the orchard.
"You selfish bastards! I did everything! You're really not gonna save her?!"
I slammed the monitor and screamed. Meanwhile, on screen, Jong-gu-reu grabbed the fallen Aria by the nape and lifted her into the air.
"I finally got you. Haa… You feisty little thing…"
His blood-red pupils licked greedily over her limp face.
"How the hell do you keep messing with my head like this… I won't lose you again. From now on, we're one forever… Hehehehe!"
***
"N-Now, everyone, let's get out of here!"
The mage shouted with a trembling voice. But neither he nor the other six survivors could bring themselves to cross the threshold. Even though they knew that just a few more steps would mean safe escape from this nightmare, they hesitated as if blocked by an invisible wall.
The reason was obvious.
It was because of the silver-haired saintess who had been pulling insane aggro inside the orchard. Without her deranged chase, their clumsy group would never have finished the wheels and would have been picked off one by one. The heavy debt weighed on them.
The silence was broken by the most selfish and survival-driven among them—the dark elf, Claudette.
"Haa… This stupid bitch…"
Claudette kicked a pebble on the ground and let out a deep sigh, as if scolding herself. Gripping the hem of her cloak tightly, she bit her lip and spoke.
"Let's go save her."
Ralof recoiled in shock.
"Are you insane? We're grateful the saintess sacrificed herself as bait for us, but she's already been caught! How are you planning to get through that monster's club? Give it up! Escaping alive is how we honor her sacrifice!"
Claudette hesitated for a moment, then fixed Ralof with a cold stare and confessed the truth.
"I was originally planning to hide and wait for all of you to die. Then I'd find an escape route and leave alone."
The survivors' faces hardened at the shocking admission.
"Hah! I knew it, you pointy-eared deceiver."
The mage sneered, pointing accusingly.
"Thanks for saving me, but I noticed your clothes didn't have a speck of dust. I figured you never touched a single wheel. And now this selfish survivalist suddenly has a change of heart? What a noble saint you've become!"
Claudette didn't flinch at the mockery. She replied calmly.
"That's not the only reason."
She pointed toward the darkness beyond the open gate.
"Even if we escape through this gate, we'll only end up back at that cursed campfire clearing. And every time the next sacrifice begins, we'll be dragged back into this slaughter festival to be hunted and die like dogs. Forever."
The survivors' breathing grew ragged.
"But I think… you all saw that glowing rod the saintess was carrying, right? That's a holy relic infused with Lumen's power. Maybe… with the overwhelming light of that sacred object, we could tear apart this endless cycle of slaughter and find our way home."
Claudette's pragmatic yet desperate persuasion made Ralof and the others swallow hard and nod.
"Damn it… She's not wrong. Better to risk our lives for that light than go back to the campfire and tremble in fear."
The mage crossed his arms and glared at Claudette.
"Fine. Your words make sense. So the one who made the suggestion should take the lead. If you're going to talk big, you should take responsibility for the danger, shouldn't you?"
Claudette fell silent for a moment at the mage's petty deflection. It was bitter that the one who had fought so selfishly to survive now had to be the first to throw herself into mortal danger to save someone else.
But soon she nodded with a resolute expression.
[Line of ancient text / runes]
[Line of ancient text / runes]
Translation: [Translated meaning]
"I know."
With that short, heavy reply, Claudette's cloak fluttered.
"Then let's go. Toward our comrade."
