21 : Taruwiveno – 4\n\n\n“Gijyaa…….”\n“Alright, it’s over.”\n“As expected, there’s not much difference in the strength of these enemies no matter which direction we head in, is there?”\nThe lizard with 6 legs and a rock-like body collapses in front of me, becoming a corpse as my accompanying members display rejoice.\nMy name was Zaria.\nA player of Curse Nightmare Party.\nThe curses that I’d obtained was one that made parts of my hair turn into the leaves of a succulent plant and one that grew cactus spines from my left shoulder. The total amount of my abnormalities was 3. In short, I’m a normal human avatar that looks a bit like a cactus.\n\n“Now then, what was left over?”\n“The fangs and bones would be good. They seem easy to use.”\n“Fur’s nice too isn’t it? It should be usable as armor.”\nThe monsters that weren’t taken down in a special way would have their bodies mostly disintegrated and then would disappear due to the curse that was generally present in CNP’s world.\nAnd so, after the usual disintegration phenomenon had occurred, what was left remaining was the lizard’s tail and bones which were distributed amongst the members in a way that was decided beforehand.\n\n“Still, we can’t seem to find any kind of minerals…….”\n“Well, it’s a game with no real obvious gathering points after all.”\n“Rather, should we demolish that building over there? It’s made of reinforced concrete, so we could probably take the steel frame.”\n“It feels like the building would just typically crumble and kill you though.”\n“That’s pretty scary since it seems like it could really happen.”\nIt’s only been a bit over a full day since CNP started.\nIn my bag with an inventory ability, I had vials of restorative medicine, a belt to carry them, and a full set of weapon and armor that I was fortunately able to gather.\nI’m singing my own praises here, but with all due respect, I was probably the player who’s progressed the most within this game.\nAnd because I’ve progressed through the game, I’m now headed towards the south building district in hopes of finding metal to create better equipment.\nI couldn’t find any metal in the east wetlands, north forest, or west grasslands.\n\n“Zaria, what do you think?”\n“Right…… If we’re seriously doing this, then I guess the correct choice would be to dismantle the building starting from the top of it. If not, then it was probably faster to just search for a building site that was already demolished.”\n“Certainly.”\nThen, my good luck continued and players gathered here today were all considered to be players that were quite skilled.\nWhile a PT system didn’t exist in CNP, FF did. Thus, it was best to have companions who you could trust.\nBut even if that’s not possible, you shouldn’t try to pry information out of the other person or try to close the distance. Instead, it’s preferable to have a relationship where you’re all wary of each other to some degree, so in the case that a betrayal occurs, it wouldn’t turn out to be a big deal.\nToday’s 5 players belonged to the latter group.\n\n“Well, the top of the building was covered in fog……”\n“Every one of the remaining buildings honestly all looked like skyscrapers as well.”\n“It’ll be annoying if an outsider who didn’t help happened to pass by and collect the items too, so if we’re doing this, we’ll probably have to gather around 100 people for a big collaboration.”\n“Who’s gonna be the one to organize it?”\n“Hmm……”\n“Well, that’s how it is.”\nOnga, a man who fought with his bare-hands and had 2 horns that grew out of his head.\nShirohowa, a woman who used a sword, similar to me, and had cat ears along with a tail.\nRokkuo, who was entirely clad in rock-like skin and carried a large shield in his hand.\nBurakuro, a wielder of twin daggers who had the appearance of a werewolf.\nOctohead, a man who had an octopus head and used a spear. \nThe rear view of those 5 people who were walking along the streets while staying vigilant of their surroundings was plenty reliable.\nThere were those who thought it’d be nice if we could all register as friends after everyone safely returned back to Sacribase as well.\n\n“Nevertheless, I’m in favor of Zaria’s plan to search for former building sites. Rather, it’s likely that the residents of Sacribase were doing that as well.”\n“Now that you mention it, the former site near the town had only concrete left over.”\n“I do want to demolish it too though.”\n“That should be done after we gather more people.”\nI tried to look up towards a building that was near me.\nHowever, midway through the building, an ominous fog mixed in red, black, and purple concealed what lied beyond that point.\nAccording to the information on the bulletin board, this fog drifting within the atmosphere was a curse and the distance in which players would be able to see past it was determined by their number of abnormalities.\nIn my case…… Judging by eye, it seemed to be around 200 meters.\nWell, it’s not really something to be concerned about.\n\n“Then, are there any building sites that look alright…… Ha?”\nOnga abruptly lets out a strange voice. Immediately after, he staggers a bit before taking a fighting pose.\nThere was an effect that had caused a dark green sphere to pop up above his head.\n\n“Onga!?”\n“What happened!?”\n“Don’t know…… I was just suddenly hit with a poison status condition.”\nAs Onga uttered those words, the rest of us instantly began preparations for battle and surveyed our surroundings.\nHowever, nothing else was found moving besides us.\n\n“Poison?”\n“Aah, it’s not just your average poison either. The stack count’s at 65, a number that makes it seem like a joke.”\n“””!?”””\nAll of us involuntarily turned towards Onga in response to what he had said.\nBut that reaction was only expected.\nSince some of the monsters in the forest or wetlands made use of the poison status condition, the existence of it was known since the start of the game.\nHowever, the parenthesized numbers…… They only stacked up to 10 at most.\nA number such as 65 for poison should’ve been impossible.\nNot to mention……\n\n“W-wait just a second. I’ve got abnormalities 5, so excluding the dungeon, I can see practically everything around this area, but there’s no enemies anywhere! No, it doesn’t even smell like there’s an enemy!! There’s no one else around here but us, you know!?”\n“I know, I don’t think you guys were the ones who did it either. Rather, this (65) wasn’t a number that a player could produce on the 2nd day of the game anyways right?”\nWe couldn’t imagine that we had nothing to go off of besides the results from an attack which none of us noticed.\n Therefore, what Burakuro had yelled out was only reasonable.\n\n“P-Poison (65), how much would the total damage…… Nn!?”\n“Wha!?”\n“Impossible!?”\n“……!?”\n“Just when did it happen!?”\n“This is genuinely getting bad……”\nIt took place during the moment that Shirohowa had tried to inquire about the damage of the poison.\nFor an instant, I felt a palpitation and no sooner than that, Poison (15) was displayed.\nThere was no direct damage.\nThere was no pain or impact.\nThe only thing that had absolutely occurred was the poison status condition.\nI couldn’t comprehend what just happened nor how this situation transpired.\nI don’t understand it but I can at least say this.\n\n“This is just a guess, but it’s probably a sniper! Everyone take cover!!”\nAs I shouted, we took off in pairs and broke off running towards the shadow of the closest debris we could find.\nHowever.\n\n“Ngu!?”\n“””Onga!?”””\nOnga had fallen.\nThen, Onga raises a single trembling hand in the direction of the others who were going to run up to him, telling them to cease.\n\n“Poison…… It exceeded…… 100…… Sorry…… It’s death for me……. “\nOnga’s words caused me to shiver in fear.\nThe likes of a stack value exceeding 100 wasn’t something that players below level 5 could even hope to manage.\nThe poison status condition dealt damage in proportion to the stack count. On top of that, if the stack count increased, the overall damage from the status condition would jump up as well.\nThere’s no way for us to endure it.\nAnd just from looking at Onga, you can see that there were other effects besides just the damage.\nOnce it’s been inflicted, you may no longer even be able to use recovery items with your own hands.\n\n“Sorry, Onga. We’re escaping.”\n“That’s fine…… Don’t worry about it……”\nThere’s no death penalty in CNP.\nIf I had to say one, then respawning back at the last safety area you visited and the time it’ll take for you to come back to where you were before was the penalty itself.\n\n“Alright, us too……”\n“Agu!?”\n“Shirohowa!?”\nShirohowa had fallen.\nAt this point in time, I’ve finally realized that we’ve made a fatal misstep.\n\n“Poison…… It’s over 40……”\n“Nn!?”\n“Before we even knew it!?”\nDuring the conversation with Onga, I was looking around while extremely tensed, so I had noticed it far too late.\nUnbeknownst to us, something had increased the stacks on the poison that we were afflicted with.\nThe move we should’ve made was not discussing with Onga, not hiding behind cover, but instead, at any rate, we should’ve left this area as fast as our legs could carry us.\n\n“Damn it! Exactly where was the enemy…… Ugu!?”\nBurakuro had fallen.\nHe’s not dead yet.\nHowever, if he’s down, that means the poison stack was likely over 100.\n\n“We’re retreating Octohead! Zaria!”\n“Got it……”\n“Y-Yeah……”\nRokkuo and Octohead began running in opposite directions.\nThen, I tried to evacuate as well.\n\n“Guu!?”\nDespite that, I could’ve sworn I’d seen something glimmering in a deep green from within the fog.\nAt the same time, my field of vision twisted violently and I had collapsed on the spot.\nThe displayed status condition was Poison (105).\n\n“Someday, I’ll return…… this favor……”\nI had a gut feeling.\nSomething was there, at the source of that dark green light, emitting poison.\nI vowed to take revenge on whatever it was and died.\n\nThat’s right. As I’d previously said, there was no death penalty in CNP.\nHowever, those were just systematic words.\nIt doesn’t mean that there was no humiliation in being defeated, nor does it account for the bitterness in being one-sidedly done in like this.\n\n