Ch.8Ill-Fated NPCs (3)

As I’ve mentioned before, the main setting of the online game Eight is dark fantasy.

Episode 1 flows along with a relatively ordinary story, but from Episode 2 onward, things change dramatically.

“Ira. Close your eyes, tight.”

“Okay!”

The moment Ira entered hide-and-seek mode, I immediately handed her over to the mime golem and ran forward.

Goddamn it, this smell.

“……”

A mountain road.

What should have been a well-paved path, cleaner than its surroundings and filled with the scent of grass, had transformed into a serious garbage dump right before my eyes.

No. Should I call it a war zone?

All sorts of carriage fragments, various fruits that could now only be called food waste, and—what I didn’t want Ira to see—pools of blood and chunks of meat.

Combining my previous life and this one, I’ve only encountered such grotesque situations in movies.

At least in this life, I’ve spent time defeating monsters, so I’m somewhat okay. But even just looking at this nauseating scene made me click my tongue softly.

“…A merchant caravan, no. Peddlers, perhaps.”

Dead bodies.

Horribly torn apart with arms and legs switched in position, and heads hanging from trees like fruit for all to see.

It seems the heads were forcibly ripped off, as pieces of what appear to be spine are still attached underneath.

Three such corpses are strewn about.

The reason I could immediately tell there were three wasn’t because there were three human bodies.

It’s because there are three heads scattered around. One even appears to be a woman’s face, though her body seems to be missing.

“…This is seriously fucked up.”

In Eight, interbreeding—that is, monsters violating humans—appears frequently. Even in quests where someone says “My mother, my father, my sister, my brother has disappeared,” the conclusion is almost always fixed.

Either they’re dead, or the player miraculously saves them.

But people questioned what difference there really was between these two outcomes.

You understand what I’m getting at, right? If they die, they’re just dead, but even if they return alive, they can’t live a normal life anymore.

Humans who’ve been violated by monsters like dogs.

Moreover, cases where limbs disappear in the process are common. There were quite a few NPC stories where, despite being rescued through quests, they committed suicide after a certain amount of time had passed in the story.

In other words, encountering monsters and being dragged away means heading straight for a bad ending.

“…The traces suggest… trolls.”

Trolls, designated as high-level monsters occasionally found in mountains.

In reality, there would be level differences depending on their color, but even the weakest green troll wouldn’t die from a single hit of my attack. And above all, they’re incomparably faster than goblins or orcs.

Of course, that doesn’t mean they’re my enemies.

“…It would be best to just move on.”

The isekai reincarnation, attacked by monsters, “Oh my! Thank you for saving me!” story has already gone out the window.

If I had been lucky, I might have rescued people from monsters and hitched a ride on their carriage.

A bit unfortunate.

I deliberately erased these thoughts as I took a detour around the area.

*

—The village where the Ponia mountain keeper disappeared.

“Wh-what?! What on earth happened?!”

“D-damn it… the goblins…”

“No!! There were five people from the guard, how many goblins could there have been?!”

“Cough… th-three.”

“What?!”

Looking as if he might die at any moment, his face covered in blood, the man who had returned alone—one of those who had ambushed Jack in the village—sat down trembling.

“Hack… th-the three goblins were incredibly fast. It was an impossible speed.”

“…N-no. S-someone help move this guy! He needs immediate treatment!!”

After the mountain keeper Jack caused a disturbance in the village and left, the residents of Poria village established their own guard, claiming they could manage the mountain themselves.

Having looked down on Jack for taking 10,000 cans just to manage a single mountain, they decided they could patrol the mountain and deal with monsters without him.

Indeed, there were no problems for the first few days. Without Jack, who had also served as a mountain guide, they simply followed the paths they knew, and the mountain only had about one goblin appearing every 2-3 days.

Of course, even a single goblin was unusually strong, but it wasn’t difficult to defeat one when three sturdy men went together.

Thus, they quickly became complacent, claiming that the mountain keeper’s job was simple, and they only followed the paths they had been shown before. Today, five men climbed the mountain together, talking about taking a break from patrol tomorrow, carelessly ascending the mountain.

And then…

“…An ambush… the goblins were waiting in ambush.”

“What?! Goblins ambushing?! Are you saying monsters have intelligence?! This is serious trouble!!”

“T-tell the village chief. Quickly… we need to request military assistance…”

The collapsed man spoke as if he had discovered something significant, but the reality was different.

To reiterate, they only patrolled the paths they knew, and unlike Jack who hunted 2-3 goblins daily, only one or two goblins were eliminated every 2-3 days.

In other words, the goblins that survived, seeing their fallen comrades, instinctively understood that going to those places was ‘dangerous’ and began moving in groups.

It wasn’t an ambush or anything of the sort—just a straightforward 3 vs 5 confrontation.

And the result was…

“Huh?!! Where’s our Billy?!”

“My husband!! Where’s my husband?!!”

“…L-lost to the goblins… taken away…”

The voice of the man who wasn’t actually seriously injured and had fled as soon as the situation turned unfavorable was drowned out.

It was completely overwhelmed by the screams of mothers and wives who heard that their husbands and sons had been taken by goblins.

The name of this continent is Eight. A world where monsters, humans, and other races coexist.

And it’s a terrifying dark fantasy world where both males and females can be violated by monsters.

*

“Our master cannot speak.”

“…Hmm. Um, your face looks very young…”

“He naturally has a youthful appearance.”

“Ahem. I see. Then, your identification…?! Eek!! W-what is this hand?!”

“He’s an alchemist. Having lost his limbs, he uses stone limbs animated by magic.”

“…P-put your hand away. I’ll just check your identification.”

Wait, this actually works?

What kind of security level does this world have?

I had the mime golem give Ira a piggyback ride, covered her with a large hood, and told her to stay quiet and just look at the other person’s eyes, while I spoke on behalf of the mute Ira.

And to finish it off, we passed through using the identification of Mr. “Porter” that I had taken from the carriage we encountered earlier.

I can’t believe this works. This country truly deserves to perish.

“Oppa-ha.”

“Hm?”

Since I told her not to speak if possible, my cute little sister puts extra effort into her pronunciation, making a deflating sound, which makes me tilt my head unconsciously.

“Can I talk now?”

“Yes. Just bear with it a little longer. Until we get a room at an inn.”

After being chased out (?) of the previous village, I ended up making my sister sleep outdoors.

She’s small and weak, so I had planned to keep her sleeping indoors all the time, at least until we could get a carriage, but thanks to that damn Baron Denpura who put us on the wanted list, it turned out this way.

‘I won’t let that happen again.’

I’m willing to put on embarrassing acts and performances for my sister’s sake. Thanks to my memories from my previous life, I can easily handle manipulation and fabrication if needed.

With that in mind, I first went to the nearby market to buy skewers, then secured a small inn.

Fortunately, there were no wanted posters at this inn.

“Hmm. Maybe we should take a carriage from here.”

Originally, I had planned to take a carriage from the previous city, but the wanted posters disrupted that plan.

And even if we take a carriage, there’s still a problem.

“Hey, status window. Can that golem follow the carriage separately?”

[It can follow if it mimics a horse using the “Imitation” skill.]

“…You mean running on all fours?”

[Yes.]

I imagined it briefly. Telling the coachman we’re only paying for two people and the golem will follow on its own. Then the carriage starts moving.

And next to it, a blank-faced golem starts running, imitating a horse.

…What kind of horror game is this?

“Sigh. I really need to earn some money.”

“Nom nom nom… Oppa? No money?”

“Uh, no? Our princess doesn’t need to worry about that. Just eat a lot. Ah! Ira?”

“Yes?”

“I’m going out for a bit. Stay here with the golem lady and watch the room. I’ll be right back.”

“Okay!!”

When I tell her I need to go out because something came to mind, our obedient little lady answers energetically while holding her skewer.

She’s so cute I could just bite her.

“Status window.”

[I will protect Ira.]

I nod at the status window’s immediate response without me saying anything. It’s quite intelligent, isn’t it? It’s a golem with an intelligence of 22.

With that, I left the inn.

*

In games, it’s good to gather information by clicking on NPCs you pass by.

Of course, now that this is reality, I could “click” on any human, but as a wanted person, if I click wrongly, I might literally have to click the other person’s head off, so I moved cautiously.

After sunset, at the village tavern. Even in the Eight game, nighttime taverns were places where information gathered, and it was a good place to order a drink from the counter master and ask various questions.

Of course, it was just repeating information that users already knew, but occasionally, gathering information at taverns would trigger rare quests.

This action stemmed from my desire to earn money. If I’m lucky enough to trigger a rare quest, I could probably earn 20,000-30,000 cans more.

I naturally ordered a beer at the counter and paid 300 cans. Considering that a beer costs at most 100 cans, it’s quite a lot of money. And in the game, when you do this…

“Customer, it seems you have something you’d like to ask?”

The proprietor takes the money and shares various stories. I asked about the current situation in Ponia and money-making opportunities in the area.

And…

“Well, if you’re looking to make big money in a short time, monster subjugation would be the way to go, wouldn’t it?”

“…Sigh. I’m not an adventurer. Is there anything else?”

“I’m sorry. Apart from the escort missions or subjugation I mentioned earlier, there aren’t many profitable opportunities these days.”

The escort mission is in the opposite direction from where we’re going. And subjugation is difficult for me as a wanted person, as selling the magic stones afterward would be challenging.

Ah well, no luck.

“No, thank you for the information.”

Although there’s no law against underage drinking in Eight, it feels wrong to drink alcohol in a 15-year-old body, so I was about to leave it and stand up when…

-CRASH!!

“Put that money down right now!! I said I saw you stealing it!!”

After what sounded like a table being overturned, a sharp voice echoed throughout the tavern.