Something I Never Want to Experience Again
After sprawling flat on my back in the Predator Species' pool of blood for roughly several dozen minutes just to catch my breath, I finally recovered enough strength to force myself upright…
I barely managed to push my throbbing body up and sank down into the pitch-black darkness where I couldn't even see an inch in front of my face, muttering blankly to myself.
"How the hell am I supposed to get home like this?"
It was a thoroughly miserable situation. Because I had exited the Delic through a completely different door from the one I had entered, I had been dumped in an unfamiliar place with no flashlight whatsoever.
If there had been even a little light, or if I had come out through the original door, I might have found some way to manage. But right now I had neither.
"Ow! Ugh… What kind of muscle pain is this…"
On top of everything, my body felt like I had spent dozens of hours straight loading and unloading cargo without rest. Forcing my full power against a Predator Species had left me with a full-body muscle ache so intense it made me dizzy.
If I ran into a Virtual Beast wandering nearby in this state…?
As I was now, unable to even activate the Scissors Blade, I wouldn't be able to put up a proper fight. Honestly, I didn't even have the confidence to run away.
"Nngh… Awaah! Hup."
But I couldn't just keep lying in this horrible pool of blood forever.
I wasn't shivering from the cold, yet the chill was far from pleasant. The sticky, foul-smelling mess was simply disgusting.
So I gritted my teeth against the crackling, ringing muscle pain in my head, grabbed my knees, and somehow forced myself to stand.
My legs nearly gave out mid-motion and I almost slipped, but I managed to catch my balance just in time and avoid planting my face in the blood pool.
"I'm dying… Haa…"
A sigh slipped out between my lips without any conscious effort. I peeled the blood-soaked hair that had plastered itself to my cheek, then staggered out of the pool on unsteady feet.
A sudden wave of dizziness hit me. I flailed my arms wildly to keep from falling and, by pure luck, grabbed hold of a nearby scrap-metal pile, barely avoiding a full tumble across the ground.
This is the worst. Body in tatters, no idea where I am, and I left all my gear behind…
Tears pricked at the corners of my eyes at the sheer pitifulness of my situation.
But who was there to blame? I was the one who had decided to go check out the Delic in the first place.
Stepping into the Abyss Forest had been my choice too. Reaching out to that Virtual Spirit in the middle of that bizarre situation had also been a decision I made myself.
"I wanna go home… Noise…"
Leaning against the scrap pile in an awkward half-crouch, I whined under my breath.
Of course there was no sign of anything nearby, so my voice simply vanished into the empty air.
"…Huh? Whoa?!"
But in that moment I had overlooked one crucial fact: I hadn't been the only one to escape the Abyss Forest safely.
And when I had gotten out, it hadn't been under my own power either.
When the surroundings suddenly brighten in an instant after total darkness, a person instinctively winces and screws up their face in pain.
The pupils expand to take in more light in the dark; if light hits them again before they can contract, of course it hurts.
This is commonly called light adaptation, and if the light is strong enough it can even cause temporary blindness—a genuinely dangerous phenomenon.
…So why bring that up all of a sudden? Simple. Because a cluster of green light had just flared out from my chest with a sudden whoosh!
If I thought about it calmly, though, there was nothing to be shocked about. I had already seen this same light cluster several times back in the Abyss Forest.
It had even guided me to the exit door of the Delic, so while the abrupt appearance might startle me, it wasn't enough to send me into a full panic.
"Ah—you're the Spirit who promised to help me. Thanks for earlier. You saved my life."
Shalalang.
With a soft, fluttering motion that somehow matched that onomatopoeia perfectly, the Virtual Spirit drifted busily around me.
Watching its somehow cheerful movements with a fond little smile, I finally noticed something I had completely missed before.
…It's bright.
In the Abyss Forest the sun had been blazing down in broad daylight, so I had just taken the sparkling light cluster for granted.
But seeing it glow in a place this dark, its brightness was surprisingly intense—enough to light up the surroundings like a decent commercial flashlight.
Thinking about it, of course it had to shine this brightly. Otherwise the sunlight would have completely washed it out and I never would have noticed it floating nearby. Light is always hidden by light, after all.
Anyway, as I blankly watched the Spirit's gentle swaying that lit up the whole area, I belatedly realized its movements looked like it was trying to lead me somewhere.
Almost as if it were saying, What are you just standing there for? Aren't you coming?
…Wait a second. Come to think of it, how did it find the Delic door so easily earlier? Don't tell me…
An almost unbelievable hope suddenly bloomed in my mind, leaving me dazed for a moment. Then I looked down at my strangely light hands and spoke toward the Spirit floating in the air.
"Do you happen to know where the Scissors Blade is? That big half-scissors thing I was carrying around earlier… you know the one."
It felt a little like talking to empty space, but that didn't matter.
I had already tried several times before and knew that even in this light-cluster form it could communicate just fine.
Whether it truly understood me or not, the Virtual Spirit paused for a moment as if thinking, then began bobbing purposefully in a clear direction.
I dragged my exhausted body after the light cluster, staggering along. The Spirit stopped right in the middle of the blood pool where red shoe prints still remained and started spinning busily around that spot.
Apparently I had absentmindedly left it behind while I was lying there earlier. The Scissors Blade was half-buried in the Predator Species' blood, dyed a vivid crimson.
"…Ah, so that's where it was."
Slurrrp.
When I lifted the Scissors Blade, thick, foul-smelling blood ran down the blade and dripped onto the ground.
Yet aside from being completely coated in blood, it still looked perfectly intact—not so much as a dent—despite having taken a Predator Species' attack head-on just a little while ago. That was genuinely impressive.
…What even is this thing? It doesn't corrode, it doesn't break, and it works against a Predator Species.
On top of that it had functioned as a key to open the Delic door. No matter how you looked at it, the Scissors Blade was no ordinary object.
It might even be something extremely rare and important in this virtual world…
The truly strange part, though, was that no one seemed to know anything detailed about it.
Even when I asked Noise, who knew a lot about the Abyss, or dug through every scrap of data from the salvagers exploring the upper virtual world… I couldn't find a single object that even felt similar to this Scissors Blade.
And with my Creation ability that could make anything as long as I had CP, I still had no idea how enormous a cost it would take to produce something like this.
Maybe finding this Scissors Blade in the Data Trash Heap had been the greatest stroke of luck of all. The thought crossed my mind unbidden.
Well, I'll figure it out someday. More importantly right now…
I tore my gaze away from the blood-soaked black Scissors Blade and looked at the Virtual Spirit still drifting gently around me.
When it had found the Delic door I had only harbored a vague suspicion, but now that it had located the Scissors Blade buried in the blood pool, I was certain.
This Virtual Spirit… very clearly possessed the ability to find things!
"Hey, can you guide me home? My house is the place completely covered in glowing light bulbs…"
And it seemed determined not to let my hopes down.
The Spirit floated quietly in the air as if carefully listening to my detailed explanation, then bobbed cheerfully this way and that once it fully understood… and began slowly moving in one particular direction.
It even adjusted its speed to match my stride, as if fully aware of how battered my body was.
I clenched my teeth and followed the light cluster for about four hours in a half-dazed march, almost completely out of my mind.
"Huff… huff… heh… I… I can see it…"
By the time my stamina had dropped so low that I could only keep moving by using the Scissors Blade like a cane, something white finally came into view far ahead.
An unmistakably artificial light. In this Data Trash Heap, where no man-made light sources existed, that glow could only be my own handiwork—my own trail.
I was almost there. Just a little more. As I kept lurching forward on pure inertia, completely drained, a familiar small figure approached.
It was a tiny silhouette wearing a thick helmet that completely hid the face. Yes—Noise in her hazard suit.
"Nia!"
"Noise…? Why are you out here…"
"You were taking too long, so I came looking nearby. But these wounds…"
Apparently I had been gone so long without word that she had put on the suit and been searching the area diligently.
Come to think of it, I had been wandering the Abyss Forest for quite a while. I must have been late past the time we agreed on. I made her worry.
"I ran into a Predator Species on the way… managed to get away somehow… but the haul wasn't much… Ngh?"
"…I'm glad you're alive."
Fwoomp.
Speaking in that flat, textbook-reading tone of hers, Noise pulled my bloodstained body into a hug without the slightest hesitation.
Because of the thick suit it felt more like being buried in something than a proper embrace… yet even so, the feelings of this emotionally awkward Noise came through clearly.
I… I really survived.
And at last I could truly feel it. I had survived the absurd strength of a Predator Species.
It was something I never wanted to experience again—a truly horrible ordeal.