Trapped in a Game That Flopped

Chapter 84

Episode 84

GM Ari: The children in the capital's slums starve every time the Temple doesn't distribute bread. ㅠ It was the same for Liv, the Saintess. Right before starving to death, she found a mushroom growing on the street and...

Me: Three-line summary, please.

Ari, who always just hit '(Typing)' and ran off whenever things got difficult, was, for some reason, explaining the Saintess's background at length.

To summarize, during her poor childhood, the Saintess survived by picking and eating mushrooms off the street.

But, perhaps because she'd eaten so many she was sick of them, she developed a mushroom allergy after becoming the Saintess.

'What a crazy game. How the hell is a user supposed to know about a hidden setting like that and react?!'

Of course, users who played the game by the book had an extremely rare chance of encountering this kind of unexpected situation.

But I, who was thoroughly sick and tired of the game's variables changing wildly and randomly every time, couldn't hold back my irritation.

If I hadn't even had the 'developer's lifeline', clearing the ending alone would have been impossible.

"C, can't... breathe... Keoheuk!"

"Saintess! Cover your face!"

"You must evacuate immediately!"

Fortunately, just as they had informed me, the Saintess, whose allergic reaction was flaring up, urgently evacuated.

If things went according to plan, a situation would arise where a red rash, accompanied by itchiness, would appear for a while, making her forced to seek a remedy.

'Let them think it's a terrifying poison that can't be cured even with holy water or potions.'

I did well to choose the pitch-black inky cap mushroom from among the many types.

It was easy to get, and its small, light spores were also black.

Seeing the ominous black smoke endlessly pouring from the monster's corpse, I smiled in satisfaction, like a real villain.

Finally, the Saintess's party quickly left the field, as if fleeing, and moved into the village.

Having confirmed that, I immediately severed the Soul-Connecting Thread with both hands.

Tududuk!

'HP -50'

HP 949

Unlike when I had severed Ballakk's thought-form before, the HP hit was much smaller.

Back then, it was a puppet that Ballakk had poured his heart and soul into making, even grinding in his comrades' lives, but this time, it seemed it was because it was just something roughly improvised.

"W, what on earth are you... I've been wanting to ask since last time, aren't you afraid of black magic's curse?!"

Ballakk asked in astonishment, as if I seemed quite bizarre to him.

Perhaps because I had broken the black magic, even if it was improvised, a system window popped up just in time.

Due to the black magic's curse, a health reduction penalty will occur every one hour.

'HP -1'

HP 948

'That's it?'

I let out a snort of laughter at the mouse-sized penalty reduction.

At that, Ballakk, his face strangely pale, quietly lowered his gaze.

With a reduction of this size, I didn't even need to feel it as a penalty.

Of course, if it kept decreasing, I might be forcibly summoned at some point, but...

'I'll just go and come back for a bit, then.'

I, who had thought this placidly, immediately chanted a skill.

"Annihilate."

Lv.999 Annihilate skill has been activated.

Hwareureuk!

The soaring flames engulfed the doll, which was completely covered in inky cap mushrooms, and the gargoyle's decapitated corpse.

"Euaaak! Please warn me before you do it!"

Perhaps because of the blast of heat, the bastard Ballakk freaked out and scrambled away from the gargoyle's corpse.

Tadak, tadak.

Whether he did or not, I watched the inky cap mushrooms burn for a moment, then turned my gaze out of the alley.

It was to check the situation one last time.

But, through the gradually fading black smoke, I saw a familiar hair color.

"...Huh. Why is she over there?"

Long, silver hair, shining brilliantly even in the pandemonium.

[The One Forsaken by God]

The Saintess's twin, the last main character.

I had definitely seen the Saintess and the party from the Temple urgently evacuating just a moment ago.

It seemed she hadn't been swept along with them.

'What is she doing just standing there?'

Besides, for some reason, she just stood there blankly in the midst of the fleeing people, showing no sign of moving.

'But... if the Saintess has an allergy, doesn't she have one too?'

That thought suddenly flashed through my mind.

Since the two of them are twins, there's no way only one of them would have experienced a past of eating mushrooms off the street due to poverty.

As if to prove it, the brilliant silver hair suddenly started to heave. It seemed a coughing reaction had started.

Allergies were the kind of thing where you could die from shock if you encountered the wrong antigen.

Moreover, the last main character was a sunfish who might just die if things went wrong.

"Agh, ssi. This is driving me crazy!"

In the end, I hastily stuffed the cursed items I was holding into my pocket and started running.

"H, hey! Where are you going!"

I heard Ballakk shouting in a panic from behind, but I paid no attention.

Even if he ran away, as long as he had the restraint on his head, he'd be the only one at a loss.

For the sake of smoothly controlling the gargoyle puppet, we had been hiding in a place not very far away from the start.

Because of that, I was able to snatch the back of the white hood quite quickly.

"Why aren't you dodging?"

"Euht!"

I dragged the staggering woman and quickly escaped the field, which was filled with hazy smoke.

"Keoheuk! Heuk!"

As expected, it seemed to be an allergic reaction, as she continued to cough violently even after we escaped.

In the end, I had no choice but to bring her all the way to the alleyway where Ballakk and I had been hiding.

I belatedly felt sorry, thinking I had dragged her by the scruff of the neck too roughly.

'Still, she's basically this game's Female Lead...'

As I hurriedly let her go, the silver-haired woman, who had been coughing nonstop, collapsed to the ground like a piece of paper.

Anyone who saw would think I had thrown her down.

I was startled to see her left all alone and had brought her here recklessly, but it wasn't time for us to meet yet.

'Since I've already brought her here, I should just give her an allergy potion and send her off.'

Just as I was comforting myself by thinking of it as scoring points in advance.

Ballakk, who had somehow managed not to run away, shouted.

"Heek! This isn't part of the plan! I refuse to associate with a human cursed by God...!"

"Shut up."

Having lightly shut the bastard up, I hurriedly crouched down and supported the silver-haired woman.

"You're making me embarrassed, why are you falling over? Are you in a lot of pain?"

I asked quite gently, to appeal that I wasn't the one who had pushed her.

At that, the silver-haired woman slowly raised her head and looked at me.

It was a face identical to the beautiful Saintess I had seen just a moment ago.

However, her unkempt, haphazardly grown hair and dirty appearance gave off a completely different atmosphere.

Nevertheless, blinking her mysterious silver eyes, which drew one's gaze, she muttered desperately.

"Th, that wasn't me. It, it wasn't the monster I revived."

"That's right. It wasn't you."

She looked like she would stop breathing if I said no, so I meekly told her the truth.

"I did it."

At that, her eyes flew open wide, and she asked back in a small voice.

"Wh, who are... a, a heretic? O, or a black mage...?"

"No."

"Th, then..."

"I'm an apothecary?"

Since things had come to this, I was just thinking of introducing myself, but was the word 'apothecary' some kind of forbidden word?

The woman's face suddenly turned deathly pale, she shivered, and then just keeled over.

"Hey!"

I was startled and reached out, catching her.

At the same time.

[The One Forsaken by God is currently unable to move due to a status abnormality.]

A system window popped up.

Perhaps because of the allergic shock reaction, a 'status abnormality' had finally popped up.

The plan to just give her a remedy and leave was scrapped.

I stared with a troubled face at the collapsed final main character, Nise.

"I mean, your sister ran off just fine, so why are you like this, you sunfish..."

"Because she's the one forsaken by God, even if it's the same illness, it's much more...!"

"Just shut up, please."

I was the one who had sown the seeds, so in the end, I had no choice but to return to the hotel with Nise.

⚜ ⚜ ⚜

"Tch. Noona gets to go out and work, and you even took that bastard Ballakk! Why didn't you take me?"

"I had something nefarious to use him for."

"I told you I'm good at assassination, too!"

"I told you, I wasn't out doing an assassination."

"Then... Teacher Apothecary-noona gets to go do espionage! I told you I'm good at espionage, toooo..."

As soon as I returned to the hotel, I had to be tormented by this crazy bastard whining that he was bored.

[Elaine Griselda now feels disappointment toward you.]

[Elaine Griselda now voices a strong complaint toward you.]

System windows notifying me of the bastard's feelings popped up one after another.

Elaine seemed extremely dissatisfied that I had only taken Ballakk out with me.

Honestly, he wasn't very useful for the operation to rain on the Saintess's parade.

So, no matter how much I explained that it couldn't be helped, the bastard's mouth wouldn't rest.

My ears were hurting, so I finally shouted and shooed him away.

"Hey, aren't you going to your room?! I told you not to come looking for me unless you had to!"

"I ordered food here. And that bastard Ballakk stinks, so I don't want to be with him."

The bastard pouted and flopped spread-eagle onto the sofa across from me.

Thinking of Ballakk, completely covered in gargoyle blood, I felt a little solemn.

It was just as I was staring blankly at the poor door, unable to bring myself to tell Elaine to go back.

"...Huh? She's awake."

Elaine, who had been hanging his head upside down off the end of the sofa, suddenly muttered.

I snapped my head around at the sound and saw messy silver hair sticking up over the bed.

"Wh, where is this..."

Our delicate Female Lead, who had been unconscious, had finally opened her eyes.