Chapter 187

Chapter 185 – Fetch – 3

Agh!

Floating in mid-air, Fetch’s body slammed into the ancient wall. While she reflexively screamed, it didn’t hurt at all.

Regaining her composure while trembling, Fetch barely lifted her head. A woman with blue hair, wielding glowing blue daggers, was striding towards her, backlit like some kind of fantasy movie poster.

‘I can’t win. I absolutely cannot win.’

She had felt it instinctively for a long time. No matter what happened, she couldn’t beat that woman.

To avoid being scammed, one must know their place. Acting beyond one’s means only leads to getting stepped on. That was one of Fetch’s principles.

But right now, it was beyond getting stepped on; it was like her lower half had been completely torn off. She had messed with the wrong person. There was no way to smooth this over.

‘… I should’ve realized it earlier.’

The regret was biting. When that black-haired man called her real name, she should have just run away without looking back.

But it was too late now. She didn’t have the courage to bargain for her life by saying she would let the man out.

If he was still alive, she could pull the lever to let him out, but what if he was already dead? She shuddered at the thought of what the woman would say upon seeing the corpse of the man she called ‘my man.’

“Here, catch.”

The woman threw something. A slightly round object rolled towards Fetch. It was a potion bottle filled with a red liquid, the same one the black-haired man had bought from Fetch.

Seeing it, Fetch’s face turned pale.

‘I-I’m too full…’

It was because she was too full.

The woman had been ridiculously gentle with her. Even after taking a beating, not a bone was broken, let alone a bruise. Yet she kept tossing potions at her.

When there are injuries, potions absorb right away. So even if you drink them endlessly, you don’t feel full. But if you have no injuries, drinking them is just the same as drinking water.

With nothing but a few scratches to show for it, downing potion after potion was deadly in a different way. This was already her seventh bottle.

Uugh, gulp…

“Good, good. You’re eating well. The faster you drink, the quicker you’ll heal.”

Of course, that was a secondary issue. Fetch choked back her nausea while diligently swallowing down the potion. Ignoring the sloshing sensation in her painfully full stomach was tough.

If she decided not to drink anymore, who knows what that woman would do? The gap in strength was overwhelmingly vast; the option to resist was an impossible dream.

“Well done. Now, get up. You’re all healed, right?”

“…”

The blue-haired woman smiled with a mix of approval, and gestured with the tip of her dagger. Though it was a prompt to get up, Fetch didn’t want to. That would mean more potions to drink.

Fetch stayed flat on the ground, cautiously peeking to gauge the woman’s intentions. The woman tilted her head, seemingly curious.

“Huh? What are you waiting for? Weren’t you going to kill me?”

She had heard that line so many times that she couldn’t even remember how many it was. Every time Fetch hesitated to charge, the woman insisted she was ready to die.

“If you don’t come, I’ll go to you?”

The woman took a step forward. Thud, her footsteps echoed dramatically.

Fetch flinched. She had no desire to keep fighting at this rate. It was a fight she would certainly lose, and clearly a fight where she’d be forced to keep chugging potions.

So, Fetch decided to do what she did best after trickery.

“I’m sorry!”

She was begging for forgiveness.

“Huh?”

The unexpected response made the woman stop in her tracks.

“I’m truly sorry for underestimating my place and daring to challenge you! Please forgive me!”

Seizing her moment, Fetch knelt flat on the ground, curling her body tightly, slapping her forehead against the floor, her arms gathering near her head as she vigorously bowed.

Generally, this was when you’d distract your opponent and then ambush them. But right now, she didn’t even think of such a thing. There was too much of a gap between them to entertain that kind of thought.

And, she was way too full.

“What’s up? Someone’s going to think I’m about to kill you.”

The thought of dying from being too full was on the tip of her tongue. Fetch swallowed it back down. There was no point in voicing such nonsense. She wasn’t that foolish.

“Don’t worry, don’t worry. I won’t kill you, I promise.”

“…”

“That was Delta’s request. He told me not to be too harsh and to make sure you stay alive.”

‘Not a request to blow me up with potions?’

As that idea crossed her mind, Fetch stifled her rising nausea due to her posture.

“Well, you don’t have to worry too much. Everything that got you trapped was part of Delta’s plan.”

Part of his plan? The absurd statement made Fetch unconsciously lift her head.

Once their eyes met, she realized it was a bad idea, but the woman’s expression was calm. It didn’t seem like she was lying.

“And honestly, being trapped is probably better for you.”

The tip of the dagger pointed toward Fetch. Reflexively, she buried her head again. Above her, the woman’s voice rang out.

“If you really scammed my man, there are a lot of people besides me who would want to take you down. You might even have to wait in line.”

Fetch’s body trembled at the voice that conveyed a clear, underlying threat even without her face being visible.

‘Well, nothing changes.’

As she waved her Wingless Nightmare, she nodded at a secret passage revealed behind the largest treasure chest.

In the game, it vanished like a hologram, and she was curious as to what would happen here, but it seemed the passage was just as it appeared in the game.

‘I’ll have to tell Lize to catch those when we get out. No, maybe it’s better to have Nix if it’s a one vs many fight?’

Glancing back at the abandoned treasure chests, lined up in rows of six, and the much larger one that had remained untouched, her stomach churned.

After getting tricked by Fetch and paying a million gold, the behavior patterns of the trapped users usually went like this:

First, they would eagerly open the largest treasure chest or the one without blood stains, only to get devoured by a mimic.

Resurrecting and returning, they would think they were unlucky and pick another chest, only to again get devoured by a mimic.

After dying and coming back a third time, they would be feeling frustrated and would try to smack the chest before touching it.

Then, as if waiting for this moment, all 13 mimics would awaken simultaneously, dropping them into a gang-initiation sequence where they’d die again.

It was only after this series of unfortunate events that they’d learn all treasure chests here were mimics. It was a truly insidious trap.

‘I must absolutely avoid being ganged up on.’

Mimics aren’t that hard to take down; it’s just their looks are a little bizarre. But when it multiplies to 13, it becomes a different story altogether.

In open fields, maybe it’d be doable, but in this cramped space, fighting 13 mimics when rolling a few times felt impossible.

Without even glancing back at the mimics, she walked down the secret passage.

The passage was quite short. After only a few steps, a square room appeared. The room was about twice her height in width and length.

In the center was a treasure chest that looked a bit different from the others outside. Ignoring it completely, she walked past.

That one was a mimic too.

She swung her Wingless Nightmare against the wall at the opposite end of the passage. The illusory wall dissipated, revealing yet another secret room behind it. This square room was also about twice her height in width and length.

And, again, a shiny treasure chest was placed in the center. Once more, she passed by without a thought.

That one was a mimic too.

Again, she swung her sword against the wall on the opposite side of the passage. The illusory wall vanished once more, another secret room appeared, and yet another ornate treasure chest awaited.

That chest was also a mimic.

‘What kind of crazy designer are these people?’

Illusory walls hiding mimics on top of each other? It was driving her insane. This cramped location alone held 16 mimics.

Moreover, if even one of these 16 mimics woke up, they all did simultaneously, making it nearly impossible to take them down one by one.

It was obvious that Fetch was being used as a scapegoat to give players a hard time. Otherwise, there’d be no sense in creating such a cruel structure.

‘And there’s still two more left.’

She passed by the final mimic and stood in front of the wall to the right, instead of the entrance directly across. Then she hit the wall precisely five times.

With some suspicion that there might be another illusory wall, she struck, but it was a design that continued mocking those players who only hit once or twice.

Many users would grab their necks in frustration after learning this fact later. The hints regarding these illusory walls could only be found in the late-game fields.

Kugugugung!

After striking the wall five times, it rose, revealing yet another secret passage. In the middle of the passage was a treasure chest, looking just like the one from the first room. This was the only genuine treasure chest in the ruins, and it was also the final trap set by the designers.

This thing would shatter with just one hit from any weapon. Even using a broken sword with single-digit damage would break it.

‘Wait, how can players not check this out?’

For a player who had just navigated through the 16 consecutive mimics, it was only natural to doubt whether this chest was a mimic the moment they saw it.

But what if they swung down to check if it’s a mimic? They would destroy the entire chest, leaving the player stunned.

This quest costing a million gold for an entry ticket likely accounted for about 30% of the hatred directed toward Fetch.

‘Dirty bastards.’

As she cursed out the developers internally, she opened the chest. Inside was a beautifully adorned vial made of gold and silver.

If consumed, it cures all status ailments, grants immunity to them for a period, fully replenishes HP and mana, and rapidly increases stamina recharge speed for a set duration.

It was the ‘Blessing of the Sun.’

There was also the ‘Blessing of the Moon’ as a counterpart. Its effects are exactly the same, and given its apparent power, it is a consumable that can only be obtained once per round.

Why something related to the sun and moon was found in the Holy Kingdom and not in ruins like this was a mystery.

‘This one is for me to use.’

She stuffed the Blessing of the Sun into her uniform’s pocket. Other options didn’t really matter right now, but one in particular—immunity to status ailments—was going to be incredibly useful in an upcoming boss fight.

She stepped further into the passage. If this were a game, there might be an option to die and respawn at a statue, but since that wasn’t an option now, she needed to clear the dungeon to get out.

In fact, she could ask Lize to open the iron bars, but since she had come this far, she intended to defeat the dungeon boss. It wouldn’t hurt to take him down.

Moreover, there was a route that allowed her to skip the entire middle section, so it wouldn’t take much time. This was still untouched in the Darkest Light Mod.

The reason was that these were skills only hardcore players could handle. The idea that one could skip the entire middle section would lead even the most skilled players to experience multiple “Oh snap!” moments.

‘Should take around 30 minutes.’

It might even be shorter than that.