Ch.215Putri’s Stage (19)

# 215. Putri’s Stage (19)

We thought we’d catch up to the stepmother quickly, but we had to run about three times longer than expected.

But the stepmother wasn’t the old woman we saw earlier.

Glaring at us was a beautiful woman who embodied decadence, seduction, and mature charm—the same one whose single character illustration in the patch notes had generated countless “OMG” comments and created the “Stepmother Faction.”

And she was standing there with her clothes clinging to her body due to sweat, revealing her provocative figure.

I couldn’t help but stare at her appearance that so easily stimulated male instinct. She was incredibly beautiful. If the stepmother had been Korean, she probably could have made enough money to never worry about retirement just by posting photos of herself walking in a white t-shirt and jeans.

That’s how stunning her beauty and aura were.

Belatedly realizing my party members were beside me, I averted my gaze. How fortunate they were ahead of me and couldn’t notice where I was looking.

“Hmph…”

The stepmother’s voice was as sticky as her appearance. Just that single syllable made my eardrums and heart flutter. In game terms, it might have had some kind of charm effect.

If I had been a virgin, if I had little experience with women… I might have been momentarily distracted by that stepmother.

“Do you know who I am to treat me with such disrespect?”

“Sniff, sniff sniff. Everyone, don’t you smell something?”

“What smell all of a sudden?”

“Like an old… chicken coop? Ugh, my nose is going to rot!”

Ayuri, you crazy girl.

I could see everyone was taken aback, not just me. They were trying to maintain their expressions, but it was an unexpected diss.

“Chicken coop… smell?”

“Geez, lady. Take a bath once in a while. Body odor gets worse with age, and you’re dripping with sweat too. My nose is going to rot.”

“…”

The stepmother couldn’t possibly know about the chicken coop meme. Instead, several of us were staggering from splash damage or glaring at the back of Yuri’s head.

Honestly, considering how exaggerated that meme is, it was somewhat inappropriate to call the stepmother a “chicken coop.” I didn’t know her exact age, but at least judging by appearance alone.

But the nuance couldn’t be missed, and Yuri’s tone was so blatantly annoyed and irritated that the stepmother’s mood changed drastically.

It seemed like she had somehow managed to return to her original form and was trying to welcome us with a pretense of composure while plotting something, but it was only natural that someone who was obsessed with “beauty” enough to try poisoning an innocent person couldn’t tolerate Yuri’s appearance-based insult.

“I’ll tear that insolent mouth and rip out your tongue!”

“Lady, do you even have the strength for that? Oh, I’m really sorry, but could you not raise your arms any higher? The smell is already bad enough, and it’s getting worse.”

“How dare you… How dare you!”

The stepmother trembled with rage, threw something, and started running away again.

“Oh come on! Stop running! Fight us!”

“Be careful!”

We kept our distance just in case. Since she could change her appearance and create thick fog, we weren’t optimistic enough to think she had no means of attack.

But nothing happened. Even after 5 seconds.

We cautiously approached.

Seyeon poked it with her toe, but there was no reaction.

“It seems to be just an empty bottle.”

“Sigh…”

“We don’t have time for this. Hurry!”

“That fucking bitch!”

We had always dealt with the stepmother in her old woman form. This was our first time seeing her in her queen form, and naturally, it was our first time experiencing her various dirty tricks.

We had the impression that her direct combat power wasn’t that strong, so we just needed to not lose her, but we weren’t being careless… which ironically led to us falling for this ridiculous deception.

“You said you’d tear my mouth! Come and tear it!! Stop!! Running!! Away!!!”

Yuri’s enraged roar was thunderous. Of course, despite the volume, her short legs didn’t make it look very impressive.

Then, with a loud noise, a large cloud of dust rose ahead of us. We hurriedly covered our noses and mouths, squinting to see inside the dust cloud, where trees had fallen in all directions. Since animals couldn’t and wouldn’t do such a thing, it had to be the stepmother’s doing.

For the already short dwarves, going around or climbing over each one was no easy task.

“How did she even knock them down?”

“Ugh, give me a hand!”

“One, two, three!”

Every time we were about to catch up, the obstacles widened the gap. After this happened several times, our stamina rapidly depleted.

“This is a full-on chase scene.”

“The difficulty actually increased. She’s not an old lady anymore but a middle-aged woman.”

“Seeing her stop over there, I think the stepmother is getting tired too…”

The dwarves had committed the major deviation of hiding at home instead of going to work and beating up the old woman, Snow White hadn’t eaten the poisoned apple, and the old woman had returned to her queen form, but at least one thing remained unchanged—the dwarves were chasing the stepmother.

I wasn’t sure whether to call it fortunate or frustrating and annoying.

At the moment, it was the latter. Something that could have been easily resolved had gone awry due to unexpected variables.

“It’s still game over if we lose her. If we can’t close this distance… that gimmick will probably appear.”

“Ah. That’s not good.”

We continued the pursuit without stopping once, but we ultimately failed to overtake the stepmother before reaching that gimmick point—where lightning and boulders would appear.

The stepmother stood on the uphill path looking down at us. Though she too was panting and sweating from running like hell, her chest heaving, her face wore the smile of a villainess.

“Lowly, foolish creatures. You shall pay for the sin of insulting me, so die quietly. Ah-hahahahaha!”

And before we could approach, she scattered something small in all directions and fled again.

Rumble…

“Boulder! Left!”

“Break through!”

The gimmick—lightning and boulders.

As the final feature of the stepmother raid, we had to avoid the boulders she dropped while chasing her. After avoiding the rockfall area, in the final section, lightning would strike as if the heavens were angry, and we needed to guide the stepmother to align with the lightning strike point and timing.

When playing the game, it was annoying at first but quickly became familiar after a few attempts. Doing it in reality, however, was terrifying.

The presence of a huge boulder rolling menacingly behind us less than a second after breaking through was absolutely overwhelming.

If we got caught under it, we’d be crushed to death.

There was no room for debate on that.

“Left!”

“To that tree ahead!”

Rumble—

“Right!”

“Stop!”

“Left! Back!”

“Hug the wall at 1 o’clock!”

There was no time to rest. As soon as we avoided one boulder, another came rolling. Yuri would shout the exact direction, and I would suggest the optimal route, and we moved as one.

There was somewhat of a pattern, but the difference between controlling from a quarter-view and directly running and dodging in first-person was as vast as heaven and earth…

“Left! Back! Right!”

“Oh shit.”

“Here it comes!”

“This way!”

The boulders that had been rolling one by one in sequence started coming with shorter intervals or from multiple directions simultaneously as we progressed.

Setting aside how there could be so many boulders this size, how the hell was that stepmother bitch able to make all these boulders roll toward us?

I couldn’t help but curse.

If Putri wasn’t involved, then the stepmother was the boss of this stage, so if she had such adjustments for the sake of the story progression, it wasn’t incomprehensible, but…

“Left! Front! Right! Back!”

“Follow me!”

Seeing boulders rolling from all directions in sequence like in a shooting game, I almost lost my mind for a moment.

Still, there was an end. It was possible because it didn’t reach the pattern from the game. That would have been impossible to dodge physically even if you knew the pattern.

Even so, what we were doing was no small feat.

The stepmother, who had been sitting on a boulder looking down at us arrogantly, was grinding her teeth in shock as she watched us approach.

Though she tried to compose herself belatedly, she had nowhere to retreat.

“You’re good at running. But this is the end.”

“Ha… Even lowly creatures have talent for rolling, I see.”

“And noble ones excel at running away.”

“Why you!”

“‘Why you’ my ass.”

Yuri’s already harsh words had become even harsher after passing through the treacherous rockfall area.

“You came all the way to our home where we were living quietly in the forest to pull some stunt, and you have the audacity to act proud?”

“How insolent! Do you know who I am!”

“If I know who you are, does your scheme disappear? Does your intention change? Listen, chicken coop lady, I’m a dwarf, so I don’t give a fuck who you are.”

“Y-you unreasonable, insolent creature…!”

Well done!

In truth, Yuri’s behavior wasn’t planned and wasn’t particularly necessary. It could even end up just replenishing the stepmother’s health. But I didn’t stop her.

The stepmother was the boss of this stage, and we had been stressed in this stage for a long time. Since Putri had created the stage, we couldn’t direct our anger at that bastard right now, so the stepmother was perfect.

Plus, we wanted a moment to catch our breath.

“Those who try to harm others should know they can be harmed in return, right?”

“Nonsense… Don’t come any closer! You insolent… Aaaagh!”

“Aaaagh! My fucking ears!!!”

CRASH—!

The stepmother raid’s final phase, the lightning phase, had begun.