Chapter 753: Setting Sun, Part 7

───Following my corpse, following the hole, I saw the sky for the first time. Ah, how beautiful it is... compared to that, how ugly I must be.

The scattered emotions of agonyus... how many escaped before me? Eight, or maybe nine people? All that remains inside me is disgust, despair, and............

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The best outcome, naturally, is nothing other than its master's safety. Since it could no longer fulfill that role itself, it had no choice but to entrust it to someone else.

Then, who could it entrust that role to............ Surely, it could only be those who had expanded its master's world.

The white snake's AI was one designed for monsters... while simultaneously, a certain percentage of NPC logic was applied to it. Though it did not possess the highly realistic emotional expressions or processing capabilities of a human NPC, it was capable of simple cost-benefit calculations and threat recognition.

"Wha—Sammy-chan-san!? What are you... hey, let me out!!"

The white snake knows.

This humanSunraku is certainly reliable, but he dies quickly.

The white snake knows.

The personSaina accompanying this human, who was like a person yet like a stone, was the one truly fit to let its master survive.

The white snake knows.

If this human dies, that stone-like human? would also disappear.

"Or rather, why are you here... no wait, where's Wimp? If I'm the only one in your mouth, that means Wimp was left behind somewhere, which means............"

Then what should it do? What must it do? What should it accomplish?

"Ah, jeez, so that's how it is, seriously, are you kidding me, shit!! Can you hear me, Saina!! It's an unforeseen scenario, Wimp failed to disengage!! Use whatever you want from inside the Inventoria, but grab Wimp who got left behind somewhere and evacuate immediately!!!!"

───Correct.

Feeling joy that the human shouting inside its mouth had reached the "best outcome" it desired, the white snake pushed forward recklessly.

"whaT, are you trYing to do, i wondeR?"

Something bit into the white snake's tail. When it shook it off with brute force, the sensation of its tail scattered away along with whatever it was.

It had to keep him alive; the longer this human lived, the more it would help its master. So that stone-like human could take its master and reach the place where humans gathered. So that the stone-like human wouldn't disappear and leave its master all alone.

Sniffing out the blood, poison that took the shape of something resembling its master, yet not its master, bit into its transparent scales. Every time it shook them off, flesh was gouged out, and pain stole its heat. But even so, even so, it moved forward. Dodging trees, simply to let the human inside its mouth survive even a second longer───!!

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"I don't really get it, but it's annoying if they escape, right? Right?"

"i doN't knoW."

"That's how it is, right? So... okay? Isuna-chan............. shoot."

"yeAh, yeAh............ the head is righT theRE, right?"

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───Its eyes could no longer see.

Immediately after, it crashed head-first into something.

◆

"Whoa!?"

Gagon! A tremendous impact slightly chipped away at my HP. Thinking there's no way I could afford to die inside Sammy-chan-san's mouth, I healed myself, only to suddenly be spat out.

"What the hell is... wait,"

What exactly was going on?

Sammy-chan-san, lying right before my eyes, was already reduced to a state so gruesomely mangled it left me speechless. Damage effects spewed from her entire body; it was harder to find a spot that wasn't injured.

It looked almost as if her body had shrunk, but the reality was simply that her tail and parts of her body were physically gone.

More than anything, her head... what the hell is this, exactly what has to be done to something to inflict such horrific damage? Getting beaten to a pulp by a mob would leave a cleaner pile of minced meat than this.

"Kh, hold on, Sammy-chan. I've got recovery items rotting away in my Inventoria...!"

Elixirs, that's right, I always keep a stock of Elixirs. Dammit, who the hell stuffed this many items into the Inventoria!!

"........."

"Wait, wait, wait, don't die yet, grit your teeth Sammy-chan. I fully healed 'Scar-dead' when he was reduced to a scorched lump of meat, so having both your eyes gouged out is just a margin of error, totally within the margin of error...!"

Found it! Mystic Soma! I love you, Elixir!!

"Alright, Sa───"

The moment I grabbed the item bottle—which felt agonizingly slow to materialize—with enough force to crush it, and the moment a cold scale brushed against my other hand happened almost simultaneously. That sensation halted my movements for just the briefest fraction of a second.

"~~~~~kh!"

Before even shifting my gaze, I hurled the recovery item gripped in my right hand toward Sammy-chan in a full swing.

But what my eyes saw as they caught up was two fangs and three pieces of skin dropping to the ground with a soft thud... and the recovery item, shattered upon the earth.

"........................"

.........Would I have made it if the thought acceleration skill's recast was finished in time?

"oH, already finisheD?"

Overlapping laughter echoed around me. Wearing twisted smiles and clacking their bladed teeth together, the Poison Maidens approached. Ruling over them, the voice of Boss-dunine—who should have been standing at the very back—reached my ears far too clearly.

"Yeah... you're right. I'm done running."

"i sEe."

Good grief, honestly. Even though NPCs can't be replaced once they die... haah, seriously, nothing can be done about it now, shit shit shit. And the shittiest thing of all isn't the system, it's me. I should have figured out how to clear the Reverse Position sooner.

"So what if you're a boss? How much HP do you have? Armor? Bring it on, I don't care if it takes three days and three nights, I'll whittle every single one of you down to zero HP!!"

No allies, the enemies are infinite, and I have a mountain of items that only get in the way when it matters most. Weapons? If I run out, I'll just beat them down with my bare hands. Alright, perfect, minimum objective: complete annihilation!

Equip the Brilliant Scorpion Gauntlets, punch every single one of them into the dirt, and slam a Reject straight into Boss-dunine's face—a simple enough job. If I get close before the Nagas can react, they're nothing more than a moving stage gimmick.

"Let's g───"

"I got him, okay?"

In this place, the only ones capable of speaking human words were just me and Boss-dunine... or so it should have been.

However, before I could even check behind me, where a voice had echoed without the slightest hint of presence...

Something—a thick, meaty blade—pierced halfway through my neck.

Author's Afterword

・ShanFro Trivia

Once a death judgment is finalized for an NPC or a monster registered as a specific individual, they will never revive again.