With a sharp whistle of air, the brick flew in a straight line.
The man had somehow heard his voice and ducked forward. At the same instant, the mannequin — the brick lodged squarely into its temple — wobbled and toppled sideways with a thud.
He rushed over and grabbed the man’s forearm.
The first thing to reach him was a scent — bitter and heavy, like a smoldering cigar.
The forearm was firm, tendons standing out clearly beneath the skin. One wrong move and a hit from this person would be the end of me.
“Hah, ha—”
He hesitated for just a beat, but there was no time to linger. He seized the man without ceremony and rounded the bend, scanning for somewhere to hide.
Inside what appeared to be a clothing shop, he spotted a large wooden cabinet — big enough to fit two or three people.
He dashed straight into the shop. The man caught in his grip followed his movements without resistance and came inside.
He quickly shut the shop door and ran toward the cabinet. He yanked the cabinet door open, shoved the man inside, and squeezed in after him.
Thud — the door shut.
“Phew……”
He bowed his head and worked to steady his ragged breathing.
The man who’d been dragged in didn’t seem startled at all — he stood quietly behind Jun without a word.
Should I explain the situation? But right now he had no room to spare for anyone else.
He silently pressed his fingertips together and flicked twice. The menu bar appeared. He tapped [Status] to check the remaining penalty time.
[Time Remaining: 4 minutes 51 seconds]
It seems I managed to evade them for quite a while.
Just five more minutes like this and it’ll be over.
He was just barely catching his breath when —
The status window suddenly began to ripple like a heat haze, and slowly started to flush red.
[Updating status window…]
“……?”
[Error detected.]
[※ You cannot hide during an active penalty.]
From inside the cabinet came a tick — the sound of metal misaligning.
On instinct he turned, grabbed the man, and burst out of the cabinet.
At the same moment —
Boom——!
A tremendous explosion rang out. Splinters of wood erupted in every direction along with acrid smoke.
He shielded the man behind his back and took the fragments with his own body. Flames surged up instantly from the exploded cabinet.
[Special entities regrouping…]
[3 seconds]
From outside came the sound of something scraping against the ground, followed by a clatter of plastic-like footsteps — tap, tap, tap.
From sound alone he estimated at least ten. Roughly… thirteen.
They’re here already.
He’d already drawn far too much aggro to safely go back outside. There was also the risk of drawing even more of them — and above all, continuing to run like before would only drain him physically, putting him at a growing disadvantage as the human in this equation.
Fighting in the confined space of this shop would be marginally more favorable.
Where’s the safest spot. He swept a quick look around, and a fitting room in the corner opposite the cabinet came into his line of sight.
[2 seconds]
He quickly grabbed the man’s arm and guided him into the fitting room.
He touched the fitting room’s curtain and checked the texture. Flame-retardant. Even if a stray ember were to fly over, it would be safe from fire for a while.
“Wait here.”
He yanked the curtain from the adjacent stall and tore it free. He draped it over the man inside the fitting room, then turned around.
[1 second]
[Time Remaining: 3 minutes 48 seconds]
Crash——!!
The moment the countdown window went dark, mannequins began swarming in.
He counted with his eyes. One. Two. Exactly thirteen, just as he’d estimated.
One mannequin charged at lightning speed. The ones that had been fast even at a walk turned terrifyingly quick when they broke into a full run — fast enough that an ordinary person would struggle to track them with their eyes.
He inhaled a short breath and stepped back on his toes. He dropped low and grabbed the lead mannequin charging at him by the thigh.
He tried to lift and throw it, but it didn’t budge so much as a hair — as if packed with iron. In that case, if he controlled the direction instead…
I can break it.
Now.
Using the mannequin’s joints — which only moved in one direction — as a lever, he wrenched them the opposite way.
With a crunch of warping material, its leg twisted out of alignment. The speed it moved at had actually been its own undoing. It had essentially destroyed itself by carrying its own momentum against its structure.
[Time Remaining: 3 minutes 13 seconds]
The mannequin with a ripped-off leg swayed, then crumpled entirely to the floor and stopped moving. The ones that got up fine with their skulls half-caved in — apparently the answer was to remove a body part outright.
…Of course, that was easier said than done. Judging from the sheer weight he’d just felt, it was going to be significantly harder to pull off.
Before he could even catch his breath, the remaining mob of mannequins descended on him. He scrambled up onto a display table piled with clothes, and the mannequins immediately swarmed toward his ankles like a hive of bees, reaching up with their hands. He grabbed the leg of the mannequin he’d just broken off with both hands.
“Ugh.”
Even just one leg was heavy. Nearly the weight of an adult man. He gritted his teeth, hefted it up, and swung it in a wide horizontal arc.
The swinging leg struck the heads of the mannequins charging at him side by side, one after another. Tang, tang — with dull, heavy sounds, six mannequins smashed into each other like dominoes and came crashing down.
[Time Remaining: 2 minutes 41 seconds]
He couldn’t let his guard down. These things got back up even after being destroyed.
And right beside him, the exploded cabinet was blazing away. It was fine for now — but if the fire spread to the entire shop —
…Wait.
Why isn’t there any heat?
His eyes finally caught the shape of the flames.
Strangely, it wasn’t spreading beyond the cabinet at all — burning intensely but only within that one contained area. Despite more than enough time having passed to reduce an entire wall to ash.
Why wasn’t the fire spreading outward? Was the game system interfering?
It certainly wasn’t out of any intention to help him. There was no way this wretched system was going to thoughtfully worry about his wellbeing.
…Wait. Could it be.
He kicked off the display table and dropped down.
He ran toward the blazing fire. The mannequins’ heads cranked around with a grinding screech, locking onto him without fail. Two mannequins instantly blocked his path.
“Of all the—”
He struck them both at once with the mannequin leg like ringing a bell. The mannequins, thrown off balance, staggered.
“Get out of the — way!”
As a mannequin fell, its flailing arm swept past his face by a hair. The sharp fingertips grazed his cheek in a thin slice — he flinched hard at the sensation and threw his arm out with everything he had.
[Time Remaining: 1 minute 21 seconds]
Bang — he drove the mannequin leg he was holding straight into the flames.
The fire caught instantly. Vivid flames wrapped around the mannequin leg in one breath, flicking like a great tongue.
His lips curved into a wide grin at the sight of it burning like a torch.
So it is flammable. And very much so.
He gripped the end of the burning leg opposite the flames and spun it once in a full rotation. What had felt so heavy just moments ago felt somehow lighter now — whether from the high or the weight actually shifting, it felt as if it had been halved.
He brought the fire-enhanced mannequin leg down in a succession of strikes against three mannequins charging toward him.
In the blink of an eye, flames caught across their upper bodies. They stopped mid-charge and swayed in the fire like reeds, then came crashing down with a crunch.
So that’s why they worked to keep it from spreading — can’t have the monsters just burning to death on their own.
“Ha, haha—”
Conveniently, this was a clothing shop. More than enough kindling to go around.
All dead. You shameless little shits, making me run laps like some game of tag. Let me show you what playing with fire really looks like.
He burst out of the shop, now a sea of flames, behind him.
[Time Remaining: 0 minutes 1 second]
[Time Remaining: 0 minutes 0 seconds]
[Penalty ended. Automatic return to play area in 30 minutes.]
The sun was rising in the distance. He finally felt the tension that had been locking his shoulders slowly release.
He’d brought the man out of the shop with him as he left. The man was standing still, waiting, the curtain Jun had draped over him still worn over his head like a hood.
He hadn’t been able to get a proper look at the man’s face earlier — too busy in the chaos — and the curtain still hid it now. All he knew was that this was someone who’d been dragged into a terrible ordeal through no fault of their own, and that made him feel sorry.
“Are, um — are you alright?”
“…….”
“Strange things happen in life sometimes. Don’t they?”
“…….”
“Ha ha… ha.”
He ventured a light check-in, but no answer came back. He trailed off with an awkward smile.
Having just gone through such a sudden commotion, maybe the words just won’t come. That was entirely understandable.
He glanced back toward the shop that had been set thoroughly ablaze. Now that the penalty was over, it had returned to its perfectly intact state as if under some kind of spell.
I’ll be sent back to the manor soon too. Automatic return… damn it.
In the end, his grand escape attempt had come to nothing. This arbitrary game system had gone to every length to drag him back to the banquet.
And ‘automatic return,’ at that. Would he vanish like a teleport? In that case, he should wait somewhere with no one around.
He gave a farewell wave to the man still standing with the curtain over his head. He’d be safe enough on his own now.
“I’ll be heading off then.”
“…….”
“Take care….”
The man gave no response, as before.
No reaction from the start. He was starting to seem like a rather peculiar person.
Well, that’s none of my business. He shrugged and turned around. He needed to find somewhere without anyone around.
“…….”
“…….”
Perhaps because of the early morning hour, almost no pedestrians were in sight.
He walked through the gaps between alleyways, looking for a reasonably secluded spot to tuck himself away. Somewhere with nobody at all. Where would be good.
“…….”
“…….”
Trudge, trudge.
Overlapping his own footsteps from behind came another set in perfect rhythm. The shadow of a curtain swaying behind him came into view.
“…….”
“…….”
“…Did you need something from me?”
He asked with the most amiable smile he could manage.
But the man who had been trailing doggedly behind him came to an abrupt halt the moment Jun turned to look at him — and once again, said nothing. With the curtain still draped over him, reading his expression was impossible.
Am I imagining things? Could just be heading the same direction.
He faced forward again and kept walking.
“…….”
“…….”
Through the alleyways, one after another. The path was quite complex.
“…….”
“…….”
He turned in a random direction. He was beyond caring at this point. The footsteps pursued him with relentless persistence.
“…….”
“…….”
“…….”
“…….”
“No, seriously—”
Why do you keep following me?
