Chapter 6 Strategy through memories
I quickly close the door and sit down with my back against the door, putting my little hands over my mouth to avoid making any noise and holding my breath. The room I've entered is not far from the corner, so I'm afraid of making any noise and drawing attention.
I don't have the courage to walk around the room, fearing a trap, along with my fear making me not even look at where I've entered.
Scrape Scrape Scrape
I hear a crawling sound coming from behind the door.
'They're here, what do I do, what do I do?' I think of all the ways I can save myself, if this plant knows I'm here, it'll break down the door.
My mind is racing, the adrenaline rush and fear make my mind think of all the means of saving myself that I can come up with.
'It's all my fault, if I had paid more attention to the game, I would know what to do.' My lack of interest has made me know almost nothing useful now.
'No...' The crawling sound is getting louder and louder, it's slowly looking for me.
'Think, think, this is an initial trap, there has to be something I can do' I try to remember more about the [Killer Lotus] to try to remember how I can get past it.
My mind frantically searches for information, with every second the sound gets closer.
I can come up with 3 methods that can help me.
'I can get the plant to activate a trap...I can find one of the 7 and they would help me...what else, what else...I remembered a [Mana Stone]'
[Mana Stone] A stone formed by natural mana, it accumulates magic and when it reaches a critical state, it explodes.
'I can't ask anyone for help without leaving the room...that's impossible'
Scrape Scrape Scrape
The sound is now extremely close. My body trembles, the instinctive fear of being devoured leaves me terrified.
'I don't know if this room has a , so that's a maybe'
Scrape Scrape
The sound stops in front of the door I'm in.
'Have I been caught?' my mind spins frantically. I hear the sound start again and it moves away. I sigh in relief.
The [Killer Lotus] doesn't give up on prey easily, so it will be looking for me for a long time, even if it doesn't find me now, sooner or later it will come back to look for me here.
'Trap...I need to get it to fall into a trap' Now that it's moved away, I start looking around the room. It seems ordinary, but you can't tell what it hides. Compared to mine, it's simpler.
I get up and walk slowly, being careful not to step on anything by accident. I reach the desk and slowly open the drawer, wait 5 seconds, and quickly look and close it again. If there had been a trap, I would have seen it, some simple traps are in the drawers, so it's not that hard to avoid.
Nothing was triggered, so I open the drawer confidently.
'NOTHING...I can't believe it.' I took all this care for nothing.
I do the same thing with the last two drawers. I only got a candle.
'What am I going to use a candle for? That thing is huge, I can't do anything with it.' I start looking under the bed.
Although I could go back to my room if I lie on the floor for 1 minute with my eyes closed...or that's what I'd like, but if you found a trap or a monster, you can only use that trick after getting completely out of danger.
'FUCKING GAME...trash mechanics'
If I could do that now, I could be safe in my room, even if something, I could find my room can't enter or break it, basically a safe point as long as I don't open the door.
There's nothing under the bed. I go to the table in the corner of the room.
'...this table should be like this?' I notice that the table is very close to the wall.
"Better not touch it." I whisper to nothing.
"I wonder if..." I take the candle I thought was useless and throw it on the table.
"...nothing..." Nothing seems to happen, I watch, a few seconds pass and I go to pick up the candle.
"There's something wrong...but what?" I back away and try to think.
'Trap...trap...trap' I keep repeating the word in my mind as if it would give me some enlightenment.
"...Curse?" I think about curses, in general they are not classified as traps, although some are in objects, food, and even some monsters.
"I'm sure...it has to be a curse." In the game, things are always very organized, so an error in the object's position can indicate something.
The adrenaline and fear are slowly subsiding as I think about what kind of curse the table could have.
"It must be something that activates on contact." There are many types of curses, although I only remember the basics, I know that some are problematic to deal with.
'I can use this' I decide to use this cursed table to try something with the plant, I know it will come to this room at some point.
I walk to the bed and pull the sheets, start forming a kind of rope with them. My body still trembles with fear from the near-death experience, making it difficult to tie the sheets.
I approach the table with my improvised rope and carefully pass it through the table leg without touching. I keep passing it and then tie it to form a noose, when I pull the rope, it will become smaller and tie to the table leg.
'Please, let it work.'
I pray that I won't be affected by the curse as I pull the sheet. The knot quickly closes around the chair leg, and I close my eyes, afraid it will go wrong.
'...!'
'It worked, phew.' I let out a sigh of relief for not having been cursed.
'I couldn't do that in the game...I guess I can't treat this as a game anymore.'
Treating this world as a game was just a way for my mind to deny that I'm here, but doing so will only make my life more difficult in the future.
I start pulling the table.
Creeeek Creeeek
The sound of the table dragging on the wood is loud and will certainly attract the plant. I pull it with haste.
'GO, GO, GO' My low physical strength makes this much harder than I expected.
I hear a loud sound.
'Lies, it's already noticed me.' I was hoping for more time, the desperation of the situation hits me hard. I try my best to pull the table to the center of the room. The candle that was on the table falls with the movement, I pick it up in case it's useful.
Bam Bam Bam
Something is hitting the door with light force.
BAM BAM BAM
Now the knocks have become more violent. I managed to pull the table to the center of the room and stand next to it.
Crack BOOOM
The door breaks, wooden splinters fly everywhere. One of them hits me, cutting the weak skin and making a small scratch that quickly heals.
The plant notices me and rushes forward, but stops and backs away.
'Why? Just a little more...touch the table.' The plant is slightly uneasy with the table.
'Does it know? How...curses are not easily perceptible...and instinct?' Although curses are not easy to distinguish, they emanate malice, causing instinct to help find them.
It starts moving back and forth, suddenly it stretches several vines in my direction, which surprises me.
I quickly grab part of the bed when a vine grabs my foot.
"Ow" I feel the thorns of the vine digging into my flesh.
The Plant starts pulling hard while I hold onto the bed and shake my feet to try to loosen it, which only causes me more pain.
'It hurts, it hurts a lot' my body seems to be very sensitive to any form of stimuli, so the vines dug into my flesh end up being very painful.
"Kyaa" It starts pulling me with a lot of force, my ankle hurts as it pulls.
I hold on to the bed with all the strength I can muster.
Although the table is not large, this monster is not stupid, it avoids going around just to not get near the table.
I feel my weak strength giving in, the plant monster seems to have the strength to pull me in all at once, but it's deliberately making me suffer.
'YOU BASTARD' I give the plant a look of hatred while cursing it mentally.
In the end, I let go of the bed and end up lying face down on the floor. I try to hold onto the floor as it drags me, I feel the wooden floor scraping my nails as the blood flows between my fingers.
'No, no, no, I can't be caught' The fear and adrenaline make me ignore the pain in my hands. I continue trying to crawl forward as this monster continues to pull me.
'What can I do, there has to be something' I think about how to get this monster to touch the table.
Its flexible vines with thorns piercing my flesh dig deeper and deeper.
Tears of pain stream down my eyes as I search for something to help me.
'I think it might work.' I think of a risky solution that, if it goes wrong, I'll become plant food.
I let myself be pulled, while changing my position and picking up the candle, when its vines pass with my body close to the table, I use the candle to push its vines towards the table, its flexible vines are pushed and touch the table.
'THIS, I DID IT' I get excited with the fact that it worked.
'...and that. Nothing's going to happen?' Nothing happens, it continues to pull me closer.
"No..." I whisper in despair, all my planning was useless, the curse did nothing.
Now I'm getting closer and closer, my ankles hurt a lot and the tips of my fingers are bloody, forming a trail of blood where I was dragged.
'I can't believe I'm going to be devoured like this.'
"Please...someone save me." I say in a low voice as tears flow, I don't think anyone will come to save me, but I can't help but ask for help.
Now I'm just a few inches from the monster and it lifts me upside down.
"Help!" I say hopelessly, without even having the strength to scream. The [Killer Lotus] opens its mouth, I see a large amount of teeth in its huge mouth, it will devour me in a single bite and then grind me in its stomach.
I close my eyes in fear, I don't have the courage to look. Even if I don't die, I'll feel hellish pain in this carnivorous plant's stomach.
Raaawwwr!
I hear the plant let out a scream. The sound is horrible, I put my hands over my ears to avoid hearing the blood-curdling scream.
"Ow" I fall head-first to the ground when the plant let me go.
'What...'
Raaawwwr!
"..." I see the plant slowly turning purple.
'The curse'
A curse that has now activated is rapidly rotting its body, the plant screams in pain as it trembles in despair.
After seeing the effect, I remember what curse was on that table.
'This is... Purple Twilight Blight' I remember the name, it's a considerably rare curse, but I remember it because in the game I ate an apple that had it and ended up losing a lot of time having to restart in the initial room after I was already far, which really annoyed me.
Since curses can be in anything, too much caution is never enough.
[Purple Twilight Blight] A duration-type curse, after being caught by it, a rot-causing poison will begin to devour the affected being, turning their skin purple, with an effect duration of 1 hour, it only works on living beings.
'Now it makes sense why it avoided...' Although curses emanate malice, it's not easy for instincts to perceive them unless the curse is strong.
The plant has now stopped all movement, its body is almost completely purple as the curse consumes it.
I feel relief at the situation while the fatigue hits my body.
I run my hands over my face to wipe away the tears. My fingers and ankle have already healed. But the fact is that even if I can regenerate, I still get tired. This risky situation has put a great burden on my already weary mind.
I lie on the floor and close my eyes, just wanting to go back to my room to sleep and forget this crazy world.