Curse Nightmare Party – Jagan Yousei ga Yuku VRMMO - Chapter 6

6 : First Battle – 1

“Nice! It’s opeeenn!!”
The Tower of Mice’s door was a tough opponent, provoking a struggle that lasted 10 minutes.
But at last, the door was fully open. The strangely thin elastic wall of white fog was cleared and I was able to pass through to the other side.

“How should I say this, my extra eyes were useful and I consider my insect wings to be my messiah, but this levitation is hindering me terribly. I’d like to find some sort of merit to it soon…”
I started to move to the other side of the door.
Then, the moment my entire body passed through, the door promptly slides and shuts.

“Also, I should think of a better way to open doors…..”
It seems like it won’t even spare me the benefit of leaving the door open.
Well, looking back at the appraisal results, you could just run to the safety area if you were being chased by an enemy, so it’s wasn’t too far fetched for the door to be a bit difficult to open.

“Hence, let’s start exploring shall we.”
Without having to turn my body, I look in all directions simultaneously.
The place I was in as of the moment was within the middle of a T intersection. (⊥)
At a glance, the pathways, the walls, and just the overall atmosphere of this place felt less like a dungeon and more like an abandoned building.
Behind me was the safety area and the Tower of Mice’s metal door that connected to it.
The path on the right was broken off with a collapsed floor. Beyond that, an office-like room could be seen.
As for the front passageway, accumulated debris from the upper floor completely blocked the way.
To the left was just a normal pathway. Like the right side, an office-like room was located further in.

“Should I go left?”

If you used the insect wings, you were able to fly for a short period of time, but thanks to my 8 hours of training, my flight duration was longer than normal.
Because of that, the right path was also an option. Though, those kinds of irregular routes were usually for when you at least have some minimal equipment prepared right?
The current me has no weapons, nothing even.
On that account, I’ll take the left route first.

“Was this an office from a big company somewhere?”
The bare concrete walls came to an end. The room I stepped into likely spanned dozens of meters wide and over 100 meters in length.
I assumed this to be an office since there were desks and chairs made out of plastic and metal placed around the area, as well as bookshelves that were scattered about.
Also, if you look closely, dispersed on top of the desks were pens, books and other various office supplies.
Only, a majority of those items were all broken in some form or another. They weren’t items that were going to be used any time soon.

“Hm?”
I saw something move in my field of vision.
Within the initial shadow of a desk, another shadow shifted around. Gradually, it draws closer to me.
If you take into consideration that this was a dungeon, that was definitely an enemy.
Thus, in order to not lose my balance, I carefully bend my knees and prepare to be able to leap and take off at any time.

“A rat….”
“JyuuJyuu….”
Before long, a rodent emerges out from the desk’s shadow.
Yet, the size of it was akin to a common large-breed dog. It was obvious that it was looking at me like I was prey.
Then, it shows me its massive front teeth which looks to be as big as my face.

“JYUAAAAAaaaaaa”
“Whoa!?”

The rat throws itself at me.
I panic and jumped out of the way, managing to avoid the rat’s attack.

“Appraisal….”
As I was positioned on both my hands and feet and slipping across the floor, I use the『Appraisal Loupe』on the rat.

“JYUA!”
“-Ah!?”
However, before I could, the rat jumps towards me again. Those enormous front teeth come snapping at my head.
I use all the strength in my body to defend against the attack, keeping the rat’s jaw from biting down. However……

“Jyuujyuujuaa!”
“Wait-, I, I can’t brace my legs…”
Yeah, this was no good.
My words didn’t give up, but deep down, I already noticed.
I couldn’t plant my feet to the ground because of levitation and even if I could stop the rat from biting down, I couldn’t suppress the force behind its rush.
And behind me, was a frosted glass window which concealed the outside.
The rat’s charge smoothly propelled me.

“Gobu-!?”
I was slammed into the glass window and the impact caused the strength in my arms to slacken.
I knew I was going to crash into it, but there was nothing I could do to withstand it.

“Jyuaa!”

Then abruptly, the large teeth crush down on my head, resulting in instant death.
My vision is engulfed in darkness.

———-

“Rejoice, my first respawn.”
My field of view spread and my vision returned. It was the sight of the safety area.
Well, it was only natural since it’s not like there was anywhere else to respawn.

“Haa, I would’ve never imagined that it would only take me 3 minutes to return to this place after leaving to explore.”
For the time being, I prostrate myself.
After thinking of solutions for my levitation, I came up with this posture which was a lot more comfortable than standing or sitting.

“It’s a relief that there’s no death penalty so you can freely die.”
Fortunately, death penalties didn’t exist in CNP.
It wasn’t because of low levels or playtime either. There really was just no death penalty.
This was CNP’s difficulty, method, and outlook. To create a tense atmosphere, you had to create a calming one as well. I wonder if it was something like that maybe? It seems like the administrators decided it would be fun to design an experience where you had to relentlessly challenge and relentlessly die.
In any case, no matter how much HP you have, if your brain is done in, it’s an instant kill. If it’s the heart, it takes a few seconds, so I’m rather grateful there’s no death penalty.

“Anyways, what should I do about that rat……”
I leave the death penalty discussion at that. The problem now was how to go about defeating the rat.

“Nn-…… First of all, I really want a weapon. It doesn’t have to be anything spectacular, just something solid to hit things with.”

First I want a weapon.
No matter how you look at it, beating a large dog-sized rat with just my bare hands was impossible.
As for armor….. It too, was impossible in this situation huh.
There was also no way I was going to not get hit. Meaning, I had no choice but to just do what I can.

“Hard objects, hard objects huh…… Iron, rock, concrete, glass……. Hm?”
I pondered, remembering what objects there were between where the safety area was and the rat.
A certain object came into mind.

“There was something…. There was a object with weight to it.”
And finally, what I recalled was, near the main pathway, after leaving the safety area, there was a large amount of debris.
A majority of them were hefty stones or sand that I couldn’t carry, but there should be a reasonably sized rock mixed in amongst them.
Depending on the situation, there might even be a stone impaled by a steel beam, creating a perfect hammer.

“Alright, let’s go search for it.”
In CNP, item creating was quite convenient. It seemed like every object on the field was available to use.
If that’s the case, then what I was imagining wasn’t too inconceivable at all.

“Time to get going-, aah, I forgot……”
I shifted my wings to stand up, an action that was familiar to me now. I began to move out of the room.
Then I remembered.
In front of my eyes, standing in my way, was the metal door and its weight.
It ended up taking 5 minutes to open the second time around.