Chương 5: Chapter 1: The Last Ordinary Day(Part 4)

The room wasn't particularly large. Maybe six or seven meters across. Other than the stone walls, the only thing inside was a cube-shaped container sitting in the center of the floor. Roughly sixty centimeters on each side. It looked almost like a storage crate. Almost. I approached carefully and crouched beside it. A few taps produced a hollow sound. Not metal. Not wood. At least, not any kind I recognized.

"... Well, that's not suspicious at all." I considered opening it. Then immediately decided against it. I was trapped in an unknown location after being teleported through a giant stone ring. Opening mysterious boxes felt like exactly the sort of thing that got people killed. I'd save that option for later. Preferably much later. After a quick inspection, I returned to the intersection. My cigarette butt was still exactly where I'd left it. Good. At least reality hadn't completely abandoned me.

I bent down to pick it up. Then paused.

"... Huh?" Something was wrong. The filter looked translucent. Not slightly faded. Actually translucent. When I held it in my palm, I could see my skin through it. That shouldn't have been possible. Cigarette filters didn't just become transparent. A disturbing thought crossed my mind. If objects left here slowly disappeared... If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. What would happen to me?

"Nope." I immediately rejected that train of thought. The answer was unlikely to improve my mood. Whatever was happening, standing around worrying wouldn't help. I needed to find a way out. Food was nonexistent. Water was nonexistent. And based on everything I'd seen so far, rescue wasn't coming anytime soon. Three days. Maybe less. That was probably how long I had before dehydration became a serious problem. With that cheerful estimate in mind, I continued forward. At a brisk walk. Running would only waste energy.

A little while later, I heard something. Tap. Tap. Tap. I froze. That wasn't my footsteps. The safety boots I wore made a distinct sound against the stone floor. Heavy. Solid. This was different. Lighter. Almost barefoot. I held my breath and listened. The sound continued. Slowly getting closer. Someone else? In a place like this? No. That seemed unlikely. I quietly retreated toward the room with the container and positioned myself beside the entrance. Hidden. Waiting. Watching.

If it was a person, I could ask questions. If it wasn't... Well. I'd figure something out. Possibly involving throwing the container. The footsteps grew louder. Closer. Then I saw it. At first, all I noticed were three red vertical lines moving through the darkness. They glowed brightly enough to stand out against the dim corridor. As the figure approached, the rest of it became visible. And my hopes of finding another human immediately died. The creature was roughly the size of a child.

Around one hundred forty centimeters tall. Its head was oversized compared to its body. Three glowing crimson slits ran vertically down its face, like claw marks left by some giant beast. The body itself was thin. Far too thin. Its dark green skin gleamed wetly under the faint light, as though covered in slime. And in its right hand— It carried a spear. A very large spear. Longer than the creature was tall. Wonderful. Exactly what every trapped middle-aged man wanted to see.

A mysterious monster armed with a stabbing implement. The creature slowly scanned the corridor while approaching. I held my breath. Please don't see me. Please don't see me. Please— The three red slits suddenly flared. A burst of light flooded the corridor.

"!" I jerked my head back behind the wall. Even so, my vision blurred instantly. Like someone had shined a high-powered flashlight directly into my eyes. Great. Now I was half blind. I risked a quick glance around the corner. The creature was already charging. Straight toward me. Its spear thrust forward. It wasn't guessing. It knew exactly where I was.

"Oh, come on!" I threw myself backward. The spear stabbed into the stone wall where my head had been a fraction of a second earlier. Had I reacted any slower, that would have gone straight through my face. Retreating with my back turned felt suicidal, but standing still seemed even worse. The creature rushed after me. Fast. Far faster than I wanted it to be.

"Can you at least talk!?" A strange noise emerged from the creature.

"1/t5iw1--l1@:? yn4h."

"... Thanks for the reply. Now try that again in a language spoken by living beings!" No luck. The thing either couldn't understand me or had no interest in trying. The room with the container was just ahead. Unfortunately, it was also a dead end. I glanced back. The distance between us was shrinking. Rapidly. Think. Think. The container. It looked sturdy. Maybe I could use it as a shield. Better than nothing. I sprinted into the room. My lungs immediately protested. Years of cigarettes were not helping.

Ignoring them, I grabbed the container with both hands and spun around. Success. I had the container. Failure. The creature had reached me. Its long fingers had already clamped onto the box. And behind it— Something moved. Several tentacle-like limbs unfolded from its back. One of them held the spear. The spear whose tip was now only centimeters from my face. I stared at it. The spear stared back.

"... Ah." A sudden feeling of clarity washed over me.

"This is bad."