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*Disclaimer: Please don’t post this chapter in novelupdates since I don’t want to mislead other translators.

Chapter 66: 1st Nightmare Heat – 6

——

“Chu! Taruu, wake up-chu!” 

“……” 

Zarichu began to make a ruckus and I opened my eyes. 

I was asleep for around 4 hours. The remaining players are 72…no, it is 71 now, huh.

Curse Density is now 9, and 14 around me, so I am feeling a lot better. 

The danger zone boundary has approached quite a lot. I think I will be fine for the next decrease, but I feel like it is gonna be rough by the one that comes after. 

But I doubt Zarichu would wake me up for just this. 

“Taruu…” 

“It was the right choice to wake me up, Zarichu. It seems like it was also the right choice to sleep while I had the chance.” 

And so, I immediately check the state of my surroundings. 

What I found was…a single giant shadow that was slowly coming down to the map from the sky where a golden moon was suspended in. 

“That’s not in the realm of just bad…” 

I frowned with the corner of my lips while I slightly covered Zarichu again.

The shadow…is a jellyfish of around 100 meters in size.

It landed around 1 kilometer from where I am, so I can’t tell the details of its appearance.

I don’t, but what I can tell clearly is that I shouldn’t see it up-close. 

It is without doubt a similar being from the being lurking underground Damavand; something related to the Cursed Void side.

<<Surpriiiise! A giant creature has appeared!! The giant creature will leave once the number of players is lower to a certain amount or it is dealt more than a certain amount of damage.>>

A notice was given to the whole preliminary round map.

Looks like that is the identity of the surprise.

That said, more than a certain amount of damage dealt, huh… Don’t ask for the unreasonable.

“Now, let’s run.” 

“Of course-de chu.” 

Let me be blunt here. 

There’s already many casualties here.

I jumped down the pylon and began running in the opposite direction of the giant jellyfish, but in that span of time, the survivors had gone down to 50. 

They got caught in the landing of the jellyfish, their health lowered at an unrecoverable speed when below the jellyfish, or maybe there’s a trap set where you will be eliminated just from appraising it. 

“It threw something…” 

“Caasu…caasu coming-de chu.” 

Small things were shot out from the jellyfish and scattered in all directions.

There’s obviously a number of them heading my way. 

At the same time as this was happening, Zarichu was mumbling ‘caasu’ as if scared.

Caasu…Curse, huh.

If that really is a monster from the Cursed Void…could it be that it is a being taken form with the overlapping of tens of curses that has formed a consciousness too? 

Yeah, I don’t think I will be able to fight it. 

“Ugeh…” 

The things that the jellyfish shot eventually reached a distance where I could clearly see what they were.

For the giant jellyfish, they would be considered small jellyfishes. 

But there’s around 3 meters in between the umbrella at the top all the way down to the tip of its tentacles. In the eyes of a human, that would still enter the category of giant. 

They are curses themselves, so their appearances can only be described as an aberration. The umbrella part has several human eyes on it and the tentacles were like several human arms tied like a rosary, and the inside of the umbrella I could faintly see what looked like human teeth.

“Run-de chu! Run faster-de chu!!” 

“No need to tell me…” 

The movement speed of the jellyfishes is far faster than I imagined.

I am running at full speed but, even with that, it is still gaining up on me little by little. 

“Player! We have met here—” 

“I recommend running!” 

Even so, I succeeded in entering the dim forest. 

Here, I could escape the jellyfish if I found that.

That’s why, even when I passed by a player inside the forest, I ignored them and headed deeper in.

“Gyaaaaaaaaaaa!” 

“Figures! Of course that would happen!!” 

“Zarichu doesn’t want to end up like that-chu!” 

Right after that, I heard the scream of the player from the back.

At the same time as this happened, I also heard what sounded like chewing. 

It is probably that.

If you get caught by that jellyfish, you will be carried up by those tentacles, and be chewed to pieces by the teeth inside the umbrella. 

Your head would go pop crack -regardless of helmet, bones, or brain. 

Chew, chew. 

Yeah, I understand the feelings of Zarichu, and I also definitely would not want that. 

“Found it!” 

The moment I passed by the side of a big tree, I discovered that it was behind it, and quickly jumped inside of it…inside the cave. 

And then, I pushed the ghillie suit on the entrance of the cave, and also used tendrils with moss of flesh flower fern to close the entrance of the cave completely. 

“……”

“……”

And then, Zarichu and I didn’t make a single sound for a while. 

The inside of the cave is really cramped. 

We would be crunched to pieces in an instant if we are found. 

That’s why all we can do now is pray…no, stop even the act of praying, and try to keep it all within myself for as much as possible. 

“Kyzk…Kyzk…” 

I could hear the sound of what I think is the voice of the jellyfish every now and then. 

The amount of survivors is decreasing. 

<<Surprise over! The giant creature is going back.>>

“<zdfj…<zdfj…” 

At the time when the survivors hit 10, that message came in, and I regained consciousness. 

I also heard a sound like that of the jellyfish returning into the sky. 

Looks like I somehow managed to survive. 

“Haah…that was an outrageous surprise… Good grief, what kind of dream is the Holy Maiden-sama having…?” 

“Chuaaa…” 

Zarichu and I sighed unconsciously. 

Of course we would. 

That jellyfish just now was something the admins called into the game, but we are supposed to be inside the nightmare of the Holy Maiden-sama in terms of the world setting. 

If we are thinking with the lore in mind, you could say this is the threat the Holy Maiden-sama has imagined. 

“Hm?” 

That’s where a bad assumption surfaced in my mind. 

If that’s the product of the Holy Maiden-sama’s imagination, I would question her sanity, but that would still be on the decent side.

But is that the only possibility? 

No, there’s other possibilities.

“Taruu?” 

The possibility that something like that exists in the CNP world and the Holy Maiden-sama is aware of it. 

In that case, wouldn’t we end up encountering that and fighting it? -That monster that’s the very representation of a living curse.

As long as there’s the prior instance of something being underground Damavand, it wouldn’t be strange for that thing to exist normally somewhere.

“No, that’s a bit of a negative thought…” 

The even worse one would be that that thing is the result of interfering with the nightmare of the Holy Maiden-sama to appear. 

In that case…us meeting that thing again will be a lot shorter than I think.

Then the only thing that could be done is carry the Holy Maiden-sama and run away…

“W-Well, this is just possibilities, so let’s not worry about that right now.” 

“Chua?” 

Hmm, it might be a good idea to go to a dark city after the event is over and make contact with the Holy Maiden-sama.

Stuff like the Curse Density and my appearance; the hurdle is pretty high, but I might be able to set up flags or break them. 

<<Surprise, part 2! You will now be able to tell the approximate distance between the surviving players!>>

“Geh… Well, it would be necessary though…” 

That’s where 9 arrows of different lengths appeared in several directions. 

Looks like the second part of the surprise was activated after considering the size of the map, the numbers remaining, and the Curse Density. 

I moved away from that place and tried to investigate, but it seems like the shorter the distance between that person, the narrower the arrow becomes, and the longer the distance, the longer the arrow. 

There’s 9 arrows around me, so I don’t have to worry about being caught by surprise, but now that it has come to this, it doesn’t seem like I can continue hiding and biding my time. 

“Or more like, could it be that -as long as the conditions are met- the jellyfish will appear over and over…? Yeah, I should hurry in that sense too.” 

For now, I moved to the top of a tree. 

I moved from treetop to treetop, and began moving in the direction where the closest player is. 

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