Ch.12Participant, Rito (2)

I moved toward the source of the sound, and there I found a kid with a Japanese sword and a fairy.

It was probably this kid with the Japanese sword who cast the illusion magic on me. This little brat who fell over in surprise when my face got close was the one who put me in trouble.

Beside him, the fairy was waving her hand with a smile, greeting me. But she was saying, “Die, you monster!” with her mouth. What’s with her?

First, I reached out to deal with the most threatening one. Even if I got caught in another illusion, I could break it right away, but if he escaped, it would be annoying to catch him…

Whoosh—

Just reaching out my arm lightly created a sound of air being cut. I tried to grab him quickly, but he really must only know illusion magic because he ran away without looking back.

The fairy looked at me and him, then seemed to realize she should escape too and followed after the Japanese sword.

“Rito—!! Wait for me—!!”

The fairy spread her butterfly-like wings and flew away. With wings large enough to cover her body, she looked very much like a real butterfly as she flew.

Thud—! Thud—! Thud—!

I ran after him, shaking the ground. If someone with such a dangerous skill survived until the late game, he would become a tremendous threat. I had to kill him here, even if it meant taking some damage.

But the distance between us wasn’t closing. No, it was actually widening.

I couldn’t let this Japanese person named Rito, who seemed to have higher agility than me, escape. So I recalled the memory of moving like lightning in the illusion.

Surely… if I wrap lightning around my hooves and channel lightning energy toward my feet—

BOOM—!!!

With a thunderous sound, my body became a straight beam of light, crushing everything in my path as I moved forward. After instantly extending forward and narrowing the gap, I gathered lightning in my hooves once more.

BOOM—!!!

With another thunderous sound, I knocked down trees as I gradually approached. Seeing me, he panicked and increased his speed, but with each step I took, the distance kept closing until I was within arm’s reach.

Suddenly something went “ding!” in my head, but catching him was more urgent, so I ignored the notification sound and swung my hand at him.

WHOOSH—!!!

I swung my hand to slam him into a tree and take away his mobility, but he dodged again and widened the distance.

“Haha, you stupid cow! You think you can catch me?! If you’re from Earth, you should know this! Eat this middle finger, you idiot!”

Rito raised his hand and gave me the middle finger. But he seemed to forget how many trees there were in this Demon Forest.

THWACK—!!!

“Ugh!”

He hit his neck against a tree branch and fell to the ground. Having taken a strong blow to his neck, he was breathing rapidly as if suffocating, and I finally caught up with him.

* * * * *

“Huff-, huff-, huff-.”

I couldn’t gather my thoughts due to the sudden pain. Why am I lying on the ground? I was definitely outrunning him and running through places that would be difficult for him to enter.

Is it his unique trait? Seeing the lightning around his legs earlier, did he shoot lightning at me? But… if I had been struck by lightning, there would be no reason for me to have such intense pain in my neck and difficulty breathing.

Due to the strong blow to my neck, I couldn’t breathe properly or think clearly. The fairy beside me was making noise, but I couldn’t hear her properly.

Then, something grabbed me. The fairy flew over and attacked whatever was holding my suddenly floating body, but without proper means of attack, it was impossible for her.

After attacking, the fairy gave up. Her hand seemed to hurt as she was blowing on her reddened hand to cool it down.

Crack—!

“Nnngh—!”

Whatever grabbed me was strong enough to break my bones with just a little pressure. With that intense pain, my mind cleared and I could understand my current situation.

In front of my eyes was the giant face of a Minotaur.

Puff—!

He blew his dirty breath in my face, but trapped in his hand, all I could do was scream.

“Eek—! Eeeek———!!! Do you know who I am?! I’m Kinoshita Rito! The master of illusion magic! Killing me would be a loss for all humanity, and if I die, this world will disappear! Do you understand?! So let go of me now and kill yourself! Then I’ll become a god and save you!”

Does he even know what he’s saying? The Minotaur’s gentle face began to turn grim as he heard those words.

Did Rito think the Minotaur was taking him seriously? He continued his nonsense.

“Ha—! You finally understand, you dumb cow——! I am the protagonist of this game, the one watched over by the gods! If I die, do you think the gods will stay quiet!? They’ll immediately overturn this game board and find a new one! So right now, let me goaaaaargh-!!!!”

Rito couldn’t finish his sentence. The Minotaur, thinking there was no need to listen anymore, squeezed his arm strongly, crushing all the bones in Rito’s body.

And when he opened his hand. In an instant, both arms and ribs were crushed together, making him look like a squeezed squid. The pain was so great that he lost consciousness.

Thinking there was no point in continuing, the Minotaur pulled out the sword embedded in Rito’s body with his finger and threw it on the ground.

And then… he swallowed the squid-like Rito in one bite.

* * * * *

Ugh, why was this guy such a chatterbox? Claiming he was the protagonist, asking if I wasn’t afraid of the gods’ wrath.

I questioned the gods’ intentions in randomly selecting such people. No, could such mentally unstable people survive in this world? Normal people probably couldn’t survive in a place where people kill each other.

The fact that all the participants I’d met so far were mentally ill made me wonder if the gods had deliberately gathered such people.

Wait, does that make me mentally ill too? Haha, no way. Who could be more normal than me? After eating him, a roulette descended from the sky with light, just like before.

Whoosh-

-Participant ‘Kinoshita Rito’s’ death by participant ‘Minotaur’ confirmed. Activating roulette for winner, ‘Minotaur’.

Once again, I saw this roulette that looked like a schedule a child might make during elementary school vacation. To see this garbage schedule again.

Last time it gave me the garbage trait of Sloth, let’s see what garbage it gives this time…

-The eliminated participant ‘Kinoshita Rito’ has eliminated more than 5 participants. As a result, participant ‘Minotaur’ will inherit two of the eliminated participant ‘Kinoshita Rito’s’ traits, abilities, or unique traits as determined by the roulette. However, for unique traits, only the probability increases; you won’t receive two.

Two abilities? With this new information that killing more than 5 participants doubles what you get, I pray that I don’t get a garbage trait like Sloth again.

Eliminated participant ‘Kinoshita Rito’s’ trait list

—Fancy Handwork

—Pressure

—Contract with the Devil

—Plunderer

—Delusion of Grandeur

—Narcissism

—Charm Magic

—Nimble Footwork

—Stealth

—Ambush

A total of 10 traits. And excluding what seemed like penalties—Delusion of Grandeur and Narcissism—the other 8 appeared to be good traits.

Of course, I didn’t need Charm Magic or Contract with the Devil, but Nimble Footwork was clearly agility-related, and with my size, using Stealth or Ambush would allow me to kill anyone in one hit.

-Ding!

-The eliminated participant ‘Kinoshita Rito’ has two unique traits.

—Reality Alteration

—Master of Weaponry

While examining the traits, a sudden notification sound rang in my head, and I found that he had two unique traits.

Reality Alteration must be what turns the illusion magic I experienced earlier into reality… and Master of Weaponry probably allows the use of all weapons.

Looking at Master of Weaponry, I hoped it would appear since Minotaurs are associated with axes, and the roulette began to spin.

The roulette spun rapidly with a buzzing sound. Again, I couldn’t see anything, but when I felt a sudden intuition and told it to stop…

-Ta-da-da-da!

-Congratulations! You’ve won a unique trait with a 2% probability! The eliminated participant ‘Kinoshita Rito’ currently has 2 unique traits. The roulette will spin once more.

I won a unique trait! I hope it’s Master of Weaponry rather than Reality Alteration…

Again, with a sudden intuition, I told it to stop…

-Ding!

-Congratulations. You have acquired the unique trait [Master of Weaponry].

God is with me. With reality suddenly going according to my thoughts, my belief in the existence of God surged. And as I knelt down to pray, a brilliantly shining silver orb was absorbed into my body.

-Ding!

-The unique trait ‘Master of Weaponry’ is being applied.

-Ding!

-The unique traits ‘Ratel’s Gene’ and ‘Master of Weaponry’ can be combined. Would you like to combine them?

I looked around to check if combining would be good, but there were no instructions. I didn’t know if this was good or bad, and losing a trait didn’t seem good…

But again, something struck my frontal lobe, and as if entranced, I pressed combine.

Then two silver orbs shot out from my body. As the two orbs merged… they turned into a brilliant golden light.