Ch.216Putri’s Stage (20)

# 216. Futri’s Stage (20)

Suddenly, lightning struck. And quite unexpectedly, it struck nearby.

There were no dark clouds, and it wasn’t raining. Lightning just struck from a clear sky.

In the original story, lightning was a plot device to punish the clearly evil stepmother. As she barely escaped from the enraged dwarfs, lightning struck near her, collapsing the ground beneath her feet and causing her to fall to her death… We needed to use that here too.

Dodging lightning after seeing it was impossible.

In the game, the strike point would briefly turn red before lightning struck. In other words, it was a game of physical skill.

This applied to both users and the stepmother—anyone hit would die all the same. Users had to avoid the lightning while herding the stepmother toward a strike point or an area where the ground would collapse.

I wondered how that would be implemented here.

It was almost identical.

Except the warning wasn’t red but a blinding white that could make you go blind.

“Scatter!”

It was the precursor to a lightning strike. Unlike the rockslide area, we didn’t need to move as a group. And lightning was much faster than rolling boulders. Even with the fastest orders, there would be a delay, so it was better for everyone to dodge individually.

That’s how it worked in the game, and that’s how it would work now.

I trusted my raid members’ physical abilities.

*KRRRAACK-!*

The first lightning bolt struck just as we dodged. The flash was so intense I had to close my eyes, but I needed to open them again quickly. I had to watch for signs of the next strike.

‘Am I going to go deaf too?’

It was chaos. Even if I had decided to give orders, I probably couldn’t have. Speaking was useless with our ears ringing, and hand signals were useless with our vision compromised. Even though we had run simulations together in the dwarfs’ house, one slip-up could get us killed. The tension was no joke.

*KRRACK-! KRRACK-!*

The second and third lightning bolts passed. Squinting, I could see all six dwarfs were still intact.

‘The stepmother, where’s the stepmother?’

It would have been nice if she’d been struck by lightning, but this was the final phase—it wouldn’t end that easily. Sure enough, the stepmother was crouched in a corner, trembling. She was crouching but had avoided three lightning strikes?

No. That must be a temporary safe zone.

Now someone needed to either lure the lightning toward her or drag her out.

The important thing was that both options required approaching her first.

I saw the warning for the fourth lightning strike.

‘Well, shit.’

I got lucky. I subtly dodged toward where the stepmother was hiding. And I wasn’t the only one. All our raid members were experienced players who knew exactly when and how to act, and only the two closest to me followed my lead.

Too many people clustered in one spot could cause a disaster with lightning striking the whole area, or it could drastically raise the stepmother’s alert level…

*KRRACK-! KRRRRAACK-!*

After the fifth lightning strike, the bolts became more powerful and faster. They were still at a reasonable speed, but if they got any faster, we’d be struggling just to avoid them.

So we needed to end this before then.

“RUN!”

My ears were probably temporarily deafened, but I shouted as loudly as I could during a moment without lightning. Even if they couldn’t make out my exact words, it would be fine if they understood the meaning.

“N-no… this can’t be… no…!”

The trembling stepmother finally noticed us. I couldn’t make out what she was muttering, but when she saw us, her face contorted and she jumped to her feet.

“This can’t be happening… to end here, that’s impossible…!”

*KRRRRAACK–!!*

As soon as the sixth lightning strike ended, the stepmother started running. Whether she made a bold decision after realizing she was headed for a lightning-fried ending, or she’d gone half-mad from the absurdity of the situation, she was recklessly crossing through the lightning zone.

The problem was that, befitting a boss, she was mysteriously avoiding the predicted strike points.

‘This is fucking insane.’

In game terms, her alert level had instantly exceeded 100, breaking our ability to guide her. We were trying to be careful, but perhaps because she now had the queen’s form rather than an old woman’s, not only had her physical abilities improved, but she’d become more difficult to deal with in other ways too.

Three people approaching had failed, so…

“TWO! TWO PEOPLE!!!”

Only two people should approach the stepmother; everyone else should keep their distance and fend for themselves.

Teammates in the stepmother’s escape path lunged to grab her. But whether due to the crisis or some secret trick she’d employed, she narrowly avoided them. Though her arms and legs were grabbed a few times, the grips weren’t firm enough, and she broke free.

Such was the plight of dwarfs—strong but with short limbs.

“DON’T LET HER ESCAPE!!!”

In the original story, the stepmother always died, but not here. If we lost her, it was over.

Fortunately, the seventh lightning bolt struck in front of the stepmother, blocking her advance, and we ran like hell to close the gap.

“Persistent vermin!”

We surrounded her widely, avoiding getting too close where we might be struck together.

The lightning had strengthened once after the 5th strike, so the second power-up would likely come after the 10th strike—only two more to go.

Now that our vision had somewhat returned, we quickly communicated with our eyes.

This was where our long experience as a raid team and our deep relationships truly shined.

Instinctively, the two dwarfs closest to the stepmother (sorry, but I couldn’t tell them apart without hearing them speak) rushed her simultaneously.

“Got her!”

“Nice!”

“Let go! Release me! How dare you touch me with those filthy hands!”

“Shut up!”

Unlike before when she was running at full speed, she was now stationary and couldn’t avoid attacks from both sides.

*KRRRRAACK-!*

The two who had grabbed the stepmother practically threw her aside as they dodged the lightning. Seemingly experiencing such humiliation for the first time, the stepmother lay face-down on the ground, momentarily stunned, while the two grabbed her arms from both sides and forcibly lifted her.

Then they started running straight for the cliff.

After failing to guide her once and sensing imminent failure, we had unanimously decided on a gamble—not to lure lightning to her, but to throw her off the cliff entirely.

Lure lightning to fry her?

Lure lightning to collapse the ground near the cliff?

Unless this was a perfect game world, there had to be other options.

“Let go! I said let go!”

“How dare you touch me, you filthy dwarfs!”

“L-let me go. If you release me, I promise wealth and women! Can’t you hear me? Anything! I’ll give you anything!”

From the stepmother’s perspective—having her wrist chopped with a wooden axe the moment she knocked on the door, then being hunted down to this point—it must have felt terribly unfair, but we were sick of it too.

“AAAAAAHHHHHHH—–!!!!!”

Just before the ninth lightning strike, the two dwarfs lifted the stepmother like a sack and hurled her off the cliff. Her scream was completely drowned out by the thunderous bolt that struck immediately after.

“Haa, haa, haa…”

There was no tenth lightning strike.

We couldn’t confirm the body, but the stepmother was certainly dead.

Soon, the dwarfs erupted in triumphant cheers, joyful curses, and sighs of relief.

It was the end of this insufferable stage.

**

The original plot where a prince who had met Snow White just once came to find her after she’d been asleep for a year, gave her a “love” kiss, and woke her up was gone. That was because I never fell asleep in the first place. Thank goodness.

If we had followed the original story…

‘Ugh. I don’t even want to imagine it.’

With the stepmother raid over, there were no more life-threatening crises. Of course, there was a different type of crisis with the prince whispering sweet nothings, singing serenades, and trying to kiss me at every opportunity, but I managed to get through it somehow.

*Clap, clap, clap-!*

Then came faint applause, and a bizarre floating white mask with a smile greeted us.

I immediately looked down to check my body.

The shallow hills were gone. And below… it felt heavy!

Without thinking, I fell to my knees, clasped my hands together, and closed my eyes.

I was grateful for clearing the stage and for being alive. Grateful for returning to my original body. No, I was just grateful for everything.

“Hahaha! That was a MOST excellent performance!”

My moment of gratitude was shattered by Futri’s frivolous tone, which I hadn’t heard in a while. When I opened my eyes, I saw my raid members either sprawled or sitting down, apparently still adjusting to their original bodies.

Ah, that was another relief. No longer dwarfs, but back to their beautiful original appearances.

“From MY perspective, how entertaining it was! And entertaining doesn’t even begin to describe it! Bold yet ingenious decisions! Cleverness that preserved the essential elements! And the COURAGE to back it all up! You were, without a doubt, the finest stage actors!”

The white mask circled around us frantically, praising us and applauding as it pleased. I wasn’t happy at all. It was frustrating that our suffering had been merely this creature’s entertainment, and that this wasn’t the end—we still had to deal with it.

“Well~ there were some minor issues, but they were within acceptable limits, and since I enjoyed it, I’ll overlook such trivial matters! How was it for all of you? Did you enjoy yourselves?”

“Enjoy my ass. If this had been a real performance, it would have bombed, gotten terrible reviews, run at a loss, and the production company would have dissolved.”

That was Yuri’s sharp tongue. Had her voice always been this sweet?

“Ha! Ha! Ha! That’s rather unfortunate. Well, I enjoyed it, so that’s what matters. Anyway!”

Suddenly the white mask disappeared, and Futri’s projection appeared.

– Let’s see… By the Tower’s standards, A! I’ll give you an A grade! Of course, there’s no reward! But since you worked so hard on stage, you’ll need some rest, right?

The projection said its piece and promptly vanished. Then an hourglass dropped from thin air.

“…Everyone, you did great. Really, great job.”

“Oppa.”

“Huh?”

“Let’s start with a kiss.”

“Mmph!”

And so for a while, I was pinned down by my raid members, touched all over, and kissed.

Half of our rest period disappeared just like that.