My Refrigerator Turned Into A Dungeon

Chapter 424

Emergency

Dodododododo...

I can feel everyone holding their breath under the weight of my intense gaze.

"W-well, sorry for laughing, okay? Don't be so mad, Jung..."

Fufu, so that's how Shark perceived it.

"I'm not angry in the slightest, Shark. I merely thought it a bit of a waste that, with so many dungeon users gathered here who have even overcome the Stampede, we would settle for mere ghost stories."

"Eh, a waste...?"

Shark tilts her head, and the others exchange glances.

"Indeed. However, this story is also frightening, it's a serious matter, and it's by no means a pleasant tale... That's why I, too, have refrained from telling everyone until now. But I want you to remember it as a lesson, and I thought there would be no other chance to speak of it but a time like this, so I decided to tell it. What will you do? If you wish to spend tonight as a fun summer evening, I can still switch to a casual ghost story now...?"

"Eeh~? When you put it like that, Egetsu-san, we have no choice but to listen, don't we...?""Fufu, that's right, 'ey. If we end it here, Kocchi probably won't ever tell us, right?"

"Understood. I will also listen to this story."

"...Okay. Then I'll listen too."

It seems all four of them have decided to hear my story.

"Is that so... Then I shall tell it. As I said before, my Luck is 3. I myself think it's no wonder such low luck invites laughter. However, this isn't about things like bird droppings always falling on my head, or frequently stepping in dog waste—unfortunately, it's not that kind of amusing story."

"S-so then, what kind of bad luck is it!?"

"Right. Everyone, when you've felt unlucky, have you ever thought, 'Why did this have to happen at this very moment!'? The so-called bad timing... My streak of bad luck is precisely that; since I was young, I have often encountered the very moment people die."

"""Eh...?"""

"Of course, if it were just once or twice, one could dismiss it as 'life is full of various things.' But I've encountered such scenes so many times—traffic accidents, jumpers—to the point where I feel uneasy about whether it can simply be brushed off with a comment about having a bit of bad luck."

"Whoa, for real...?"

"That's right. I wish it were just a case of mistaken identity or something like that... But once, right after I descended the station stairs onto the platform, a young woman jumped in front of an express train. I even made eye contact with her... just her head, her body having been torn apart."

"Ugeh...!"

"""......"""

"...And, at times like that, when you become intensely aware of death, all the pores on your body open, you're assaulted by chills, and you can't breathe. Then, for some reason, the surrounding sounds fade away, and the scenery loses its color or seems to move in slow motion. Stunned and bewildered. It's truly a state of being captivated by the god of death. I was so shocked that I staggered and nearly fell off the platform myself."

"W-were you okay!?"

"Yes. Someone nearby happened to notice me staggering and grabbed my arm just before I fell. When I snapped back to reality and looked at their face, it was a station employee with a pale face... I must have been pale too from seeing someone die up close, but that employee's complexion was terrible as well. Yet, while I was captivated by death and staggered, that employee, who must have seen the same thing, was able to move firmly by their own will."

"""......"""

"That person, as a station employee, must have been mentally prepared for what to do in an emergency, always keeping that mindset. But I, at that time, had no such preparation. So, when I became strongly conscious of death, I didn't know how to process it and became dazed. Later, thinking about why I ended up like that, I realized. Ah... It was because the gears of my mind and body weren't meshing together..."

"Gears?"

"Correct. The moment the body strongly perceives death, it switches to an emergency mode ingrained by survival instinct: 'It's dangerous here! Run away at full speed, now!' Part of that is opening all the body's pores to prevent heat from building up even during a full sprint, and holding one's breath. When humans try to exert their full strength, they naturally hold their breath, you see."

"Muu, a state of bodily emergency..."

"Exactly. However, even if the body switches over like that, if the consciousness doesn't switch as well, a discrepancy arises. The brain is running at high speed in emergency mode, but the consciousness is left behind. That creates the stunned, dazed state."

"Haa... There were plenty of people like that during the Stampede, weren't there..."

Perhaps recalling events from the Stampede, Nina-san lets out those words with a deep sigh.

"So, if any of you encounter a situation where you become intensely aware of a violent death and end up like that, don't panic. Focus your awareness on something else. Check the time. Look at your own hands—direct your consciousness elsewhere. Firmly recognize that the death has absolutely nothing to do with you, and mesh the gears of your mind and body. If you do that, you won't become stunned and bewildered, and you'll be able to display that 'firefighter's fool strength'."

"Ah... So that's why, Egetsu-san, you kept asking us for the time so much during the Stampede? Geez, if you wanted to know the time that badly, you should just get your own watch! I kept thinking that all the time, you know?"

"My apologies. But at that time, I thought that explaining it on the spot might make you focus on it too much and it wouldn't work well."

"Meshing the gears of the mind and body... is it? That seems very important."

"Whoa, now that you mention it, that's true. When monsters appeared and it was time to fight, there were plenty of guys who suddenly lost their nerve, even when we were protecting the school."

"...But well, this is completely different from a scary ghost story, and I thought that since everyone has become stronger, it might be an unnecessary tale now. But still, I wanted it to remain in your hearts, which is why I had you listen to it just now. It was quite a mood-killer, my apologies."

"No, not at all, Egetsu-san."

"Right. We need to know that stuff properly too, don't we?"

I'm glad.

I'm not really the type to talk about such things, so I was agonizing over how to say it. But having everyone listen properly like this, it was probably worth telling after all.