Chapter 29: Nightmare Floor 3 (1)

There is a game called Vampire Surrounded.

It’s a simple game where all you have to do is defeat enemies while running away from the swarms closing in on you. Because it became such a massive hit due to its simple fun and controls, similar games began popping up like mushrooms, eventually being categorized under the genre name “Vampire-like.”

Of course, I had played it before. It was so addictive that when I first tried it, I was completely hooked for a few days. The theme of Floor 3 felt remarkably similar to that game.

The clearing condition for Floor 3 is survival. On an open plain, you simply have to survive against attacking Undead until the sun rises.

Naturally, the quality of the Undead varied by difficulty. For Hard difficulty, it was said that “fairly” strong Undead swarmed in “fairly” dense packs. To be more specific, the combat power of those Undead was around Level 3 or 4. They had no special abilities other than attacking with their rotting bodies.

That was the case for Hard; I was about to find out what Nightmare was like. If it was Nightmare, survival might not be the only condition for clearing the floor. After all, while it might share a theme, our Nightmare Difficulty was famous for showing off a dimension-shifting, absolute clusterfuck of a variation compared to other difficulties.

As always, I stopped time the moment I entered and scanned my surroundings. An endless plain stretched out in all directions, dotted with occasional trees and rocks. Various weapons were thrust into the ground right in front of me. And then, there were the countless Undead on the field.

As expected, they were swarming. But then again, there weren’t that many. It wasn’t at the level where I immediately thought, Here we go with this bullshit again.

For some reason, I already felt uneasy. There’s no way Nightmare is only this much.

Are the Undead insanely strong?

If not, there was bound to be something else. Let’s just give it a go. I’d find out soon enough.

The sky was dark, but a faint light was rising from below the horizon, like dawn. On Easy, Normal, and Hard, it was said to take about 10 minutes for the sun to rise. Perhaps the sun rises much later here than in other difficulties.

After finishing my mental preparations, I resumed time. The moment time began to flow, Undead swarmed from all directions. I immediately used Flame Strike. I fired three Fireballs in a triangular pattern and detonated them.

Kwahhhhhh!

Dozens of Undead were blown apart, their rotting flesh scattering into the air. I reached down and picked up a Mace as my weapon. Then, I quickly moved toward an area where the Undead were less dense.

The weakness of the Undead is the head. Rather than just a weakness, it was said that you had to destroy the head to ensure they were truly dead; otherwise, they would keep moving. I swung the Mace at the Undead clinging to me.

Thwack! Crack!

The heads of the Undead burst easily. They weren’t particularly durable. After taking down a few, I made a rough estimate.

Their combat power isn’t that high.

From what I could tell, the physical abilities of these Undead were roughly around Level 10. And perhaps because their bodies were rotting, their durability was even lower. They were far from enough to stop me, so individuals weren’t a threat.

Gwaaaaaar—

However, the number of them swarming was the problem. If I didn’t keep moving, I would be surrounded in an instant. I swung my Mace, crushing heads while also using Fairy Bullets.

Bang-bang-bang-bang-bang!

Five Bullets streaked through the air, trailing light, and detonated the heads of the Undead. I kept moving, clearing a path toward wherever the density was lower. Crushing with the Mace, firing Bullets, and blasting clustered groups with Flame Strike.

Ugh, man, the stench. Since there were corpses everywhere, the nauseating smell was no joke. The fact that I even had the mental capacity to think about the smell meant I was still relatively comfortable.

My Willpower ran low, so I stopped time and refilled it. With more magic skills, my Willpower certainly depleted quickly. Still, I was disposing of the Undead easily enough. My magic was blowing them up much faster than the rate at which they swarmed. If I put my mind to it, I could refill my Willpower and spam magic all day long.

And these Undead were much stupider than I thought. While they chased me with low growls, they would stop dead the moment I disappeared behind a rock earlier. It seemed their intelligence only allowed them to react to what was right in front of their eyes.

Unfortunately, since they were swarming from all directions, I couldn’t use cheap tricks like hiding. I refueled my Willpower to the max and set off again.

Boom! Bam!

I advanced, relentlessly exploding Undead with magic and my Mace. As I did, an efficient combat strategy naturally formed. Flame Strike for large clusters. Move toward the thinned-out area while using Bullets for a second clearing. Finally, crush the heads of the few that managed to get close with the Mace. And refill Willpower when it runs out.

I didn’t even need to use Blade Vortex. There was no reason to wait for them to crowd around me when I could handle them like this.

While I was breaking through and moving, I stepped on a patch of ground that, unlike the surroundings, didn’t have a single blade of grass.

“…?”

For a moment, the sensation under my foot felt subtly strange, so I tilted my head as I passed by. Anyway, was this it? Even though there were many Undead, it didn’t feel particularly taxing.

This is actually manageable…?

The moment that thought occurred to me reflexively, I flinched. No, you crazy bastard, do not let your guard down. In Nightmare, it’s only normal to instinctively think, I’m screwed. Thinking it’s “manageable” shouldn’t be possible. If it is, it’s a wicked trap.

There’s definitely something more to this. With that thought, I silently continued clearing out the Undead. But even as I looked around, there were still no particular signs of anything unusual. Was I really just supposed to survive until sunrise? That couldn’t be right.

My suspicion flared, and my thoughts raced. I was about to pass an Undead after crushing its head when my Sense suddenly rang an alarm bell.

“…!”

Don’t hit it.

But my perception was a step too late; the Mace was already crushing the Undead’s head. The body of the headless creature suddenly bloated a bright red. I stopped time immediately. I focused my mind and teleported as far away as possible.

Kwahhhhhh!

A massive explosion occurred. Its explosive force was even greater than Flame Strike. Having narrowly escaped with teleportation, I let out a sigh of relief.

“That’s insane.”

An Undead that explodes when touched? What is this, a Creeper? I knew it. There was something else.

Now aware of the explosive Undead, I pulled myself together and sharpened my senses. I had touched one just now because I was distracted, but if I focused, I could filter them out with my Sense. I was about to crush another Undead’s head when my Sense signaled me, so I stopped.

Ah, these ones have redder eyes.

Looking closer, I realized the glow in the eyes of the explosive Undead was much redder than the regular ones. I kept my distance and intercepted it with a Bullet. It exploded spectacularly before it could reach me, taking the surrounding Undead with it as collateral damage.

The explosive Undead started appearing as mines hidden among the ranks, but it wasn’t a huge deal. Being caught off guard is what’s scary; once you know, it’s fine. I took them out from a distance with Bullets every time, never letting them get close.

That was all well and good, but…

…Are there more of them?

The ensuing change wasn’t just the explosive Undead. The number of swarming enemies was noticeably increasing. I used magic more aggressively and refilled my Willpower more frequently. From that point, I began using Blade Vortex.

Kwahhhhhh!

I used the Leap skill to Jump, then dropped into a cluster of Undead and unleashed a Blade Vortex. The Undead were shredded and sent flying, pushing back the ones behind them. The knockback power was definitely no joke. I only wish the cooldown were shorter.

Now it finally feels like Nightmare Difficulty.

I was starting to feel the strain. In fact, it had been so easy until just now that I had been anxious. I carved out a path, dealing with the ever-increasing swarms.

Bark! Bark!

What were those now? Even beast-type Undead were starting to appear. I used my Swing skill to crush the head of a wolf Undead that lunged at my throat. I intercepted the following nutria-like Undead with individual Bullets.

These were much faster and stronger than the usual Human-type Undead. It felt like the difficulty had spiked by another 20%.

…Fine, damn it. It wouldn’t be Nightmare otherwise. I had fully expected this much. But surely it wouldn’t get any harder? I was starting to reach my limit.

Swinging, killing, exploding, breaking through. While fighting this lonely battle against the corpses, I checked the sky.

When is the sun going to—

…Huh? Only then did I realize something was wrong. It had been dark like pre-dawn from the start, but looking at it now, the day wasn’t getting brighter—it was getting darker. Even the faint light on the horizon had vanished more than before.

Ah… are you kidding me? Wait a minute. Don’t tell me the sun wasn’t rising, but was actually setting?

Then what happens now?

In other difficulties, you just had to hold out until dawn. If it’s the opposite, then this…

Gwaaaaaar—

I didn’t even have time to be bewildered; I had to keep fighting the swarming Undead. Frowning, I moved my body and spammed magic without a moment’s rest. Only about five minutes had passed since I entered, but having refilled my Willpower over ten times already, I felt as though I had been in a very long battle.

Eventually, the sky was dyed in complete darkness. Simultaneously, my Sense sent out warnings like crazy. The source of the danger was everywhere.

Nightmare. Right, Nightmare. It has to be… at least… this much…

“…”

Nightmare, you crazy son of a bitch. Black dots appeared all over the horizon. As they got closer, they turned into a black tidal wave. They were all Undead. Without exaggeration, tens of thousands of Undead were swarming from all directions.

I stopped time. No, no, wait a minute… This makes no sense. You have to give me something physically possible. How am I supposed to survive this?

God damn it.

Right. This was exactly what Nightmare was. Now I finally feel like I’m screwed.

Even as I felt overwhelming despair, I racked my brain to stay alive. Am I… missing something? There’s no way the clearing condition is to survive against those Undead swarming like locusts. No matter how I look at it.

Unlike other difficulties, the sun even set. It was confusing, but it was also proof that this wasn’t going to be cleared just by holding out. Suddenly, the situation from Floor 1 with the rolling iron balls came to mind. Back then, I thought I was dead for sure, but there was a way out.

…!

At that moment, what flashed through my mind was the anomalous patch of ground with no grass—the one that had felt strange when I stepped on it earlier. It had a hollow, ringing sensation, as if it were empty underneath.

Where was it?

I resumed time and quickly scanned the area. I’m sure it was over there… Found it! I immediately ran toward the spot with the strange floor. I spammed magic, exploding the Undead blocking my path.

The massive Undead wave was closing in, and my heart was racing. I arrived at the strange floor. As soon as I saw it, I fired a Flame Strike.

Kwahhhhhh!

The ground shattered into pieces. As the dust and flames cleared, a large hole was visible in the ground. As I thought, it was a passage! I threw myself into the tunnel without hesitation to escape the swarming Undead.