Chương 284: From One Problem To Another

Gilepre retrieved a flashlight from the desk and carefully stepped out of the security office, aiming the flashlight down so as to avoid the cone of light reaching too far and potentially alerting one of the automatons.

"Where are they…?" He couldn't help but mutter to himself. Everything was dead silent, and there were no signs of the clown gals anywhere. If they hadn't deactivated, then they should still be coming from him regardless, but if they had deactivated… What was this all about? Was the power cutting out a coincidence? It didn't seem likely. This was a nightmare. There were no coincidences like this here.

If the lights and everything else had gone out exactly as his shift came to an end, it had to be because the nightmare was not yet allowing him to leave… There had to be one last hurdle standing between him and the end of it all. The disgraced agent moved carefully through the darkness, but as he reached the main hall, the flashlight began to flicker until it gave one last gasp and completely turned off.

"Seriously? What are the odds…" This felt intentional, but Gilepre couldn't waste time thinking about this. He slowly and quietly walked forward. By now, he knew his way around this place like his own pocket, so reaching the exit without any light source wasn't too difficult, but it was at that exact time that he heard something moving near him. He could tell that it was getting closer, so he booked it, only to slam headfirst into what felt like a wall.

The lights suddenly went back on, blinding him as shadows fell over him. He slowly opened his eyes.

"Huh?"

"Congratulations, Mister Night Watcher!"

"For your hard work and dedication, you've become: Employee of the Month!"

"Let's celebrate!"

"You didn't think we would let you leave without a party, right?" The clown girls surrounded him, but they seemed to be the opposite of aggressive now. Purpurnita picked him off the ground as if he weighed absolutely nothing and sat him down at the end of one of the tables near the main stage, keeping her hands on his shoulders as if to stop him from running away–Which he was definitely considering as an option right now, but alas, he wasn't given any window of opportunity to make his escape.

Regardless of this, Gilepre eventually got out of Glown's Wonderland unharmed. They really just meant to throw him a party, so after he was stuffed with food and got squeezed into hugs that made his articulations pop, he was able to just walk out without any issue whatsoever. As he passed the door, he fell to his knees and raised his arms toward the sky of void. He had finally escaped this hell. Then, a system window appeared before him. Congratulations on completing the pre-final trial!

As the very first person to successfully survive one, you will be awarded with prizes Good luck, Gilepre! He didn't receive any rundown of what his prizes were–His vision cut to black as he woke up in the real world, and the nature of the prizes he received revealed themselves swiftly. His restraints crumbled to pieces, and he came crashing against the ground, finding all of his limbs present, and in general, his physical state was far from being as bad as it should be.

It seemed like his reward was being restored and freed. Unfortunately, the flow of his mana had not been restored, and after so long of having his inner mana prevented from moving, it had grown sluggish, akin to clogged blood vessels. He wouldn't be able to cast spells or do anything mana-related for a while. He gathered his bearings and looked at his surroundings. Something was off. The room he was kept in didn't look the same as he remembered.

The walls were covered with what looked like soot, and the few small lights had grown dim and flickery.

"What happened here-" He tried to mutter something to himself, but stopped as he noticed movement in one of the corners flanking the only exit to this room, and just as he noticed it, he heard it too. The sound of flesh being torn, of bones being crushed… The filthy sound of something drinking large quantities loudly. Somehow, Gilepre had been unable to hear any of it until his eyes noticed the motions in the darkness. He didn't know why, but Gilepre felt certain that whatever this was shouldn't be here.

As in, not even his captors knew of it. It dropped what it was holding, which produced a wet slam. It was a dead rat. It had been gutted and partly eaten. The being turned around and moved slightly forward, revealing its pale white face and impossibly thin, branch-like black body. Its too many teeth were tainted with red and brown fur from the rat, and its eyes spun inside their own sockets before focusing on Gilepre.

"A… Wake… Free… No… G… Ood" It tilted its head, producing the sound of loud bones snapping. Gilepre took a stance as he stepped back.

"Whom do I have the pleasure of, exactly?" Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings. Whether the creature actually understood his words was unclear, as it merely launched itself at the agent. Gilepre evaded the creature, leading it to smash headfirst into the wall. He might have no access to his mana, but he no longer had a wretched body, and he had the strength to move properly.

He made a run for the door, but as he slammed his shoulder into it, he found it locked tight. Of course, the door was locked. He narrowly ducked underneath an attack as the creature swiped one of its bizarrely long arms at him. Its claw-like fingers ground the door and wall as it screamed like someone being murdered. It charged again, for the same result. Gilepre frankly barely even knew what he was supposed to look at. The being's torso was just as thin as its arms and legs.

The only thing that could accurately be made out was its face, but it just swung it around uncontrollably half the time… The other half, it was only still because it was screaming. He let it smash into the walls a few more times before he managed to get it to slam into the door, sending it flying off its hinges. Without hesitation, he ran and slid underneath the creature as it turned around, taking off running through the surprisingly well-lit sewers.

"Shit…" One glance over his shoulder was enough to make him curse. This entire time, the creature had been unable to unfurl in full to the smallness of the room, but now, it was actually able to stretch much more of its arms, revealing them to be longer than several Gilepres stacked on top of one another. Its limbs looked frail, but judging by how quickly it was managing to drag itself after him, they were clearly stronger than they looked. Also, it wouldn't stop screaming.

It had definitely already given away Gilepre's position by now. The agent needed to hurry and find a way out of here.

"Co… Me… Back! You… Can… Not… Leave! YOUCANNOTESCAPEDIVINEPUNISHMENT!" The only reason Gilepre hadn't been caught was thanks to the turns. The creature was awful at making quick turns and would constantly slow down immensely, from losing balance and crashing into the wall, but the fact was that it was nonetheless still managing to stay on Gilepre's tail despite that. The two of them ran like this for a while.

Without access to his mana, Gilepre's stamina was far from great enough to win a battle of attrition with the malformed creature. This thing didn't seem to get tired at all, or at least, it wasn't showing it. Nonetheless, it was time for Gilepre to make a decision. He had passed by a few ladders, but had decided against trying to climb them due to his pursuer, but as he felt himself tire and his breath shorten, he had no other choice but to go ahead and take the risk.

So as he approached another ladder, he leapt as high as he possibly could, firmly grasping the ladder, and pulling himself upward with all of the strength he could muster. He felt the monster's hand swipe past his foot as he climbed.

It seemed to rush past the ladder due to being unable to control its own momentum, but it didn't take long until it came back and tried to grab Gilepre, but the ladder soon went through stone, and the tight space bothered the monster as it missed its chance, allowing Gilepre to get out of reach and soon lift a steel lid. He dragged himself out, seeing the sun again after so long.

"Huh… Are you alright, sir? What were you doing in the sewers?"

"Just… Just a routine check" Gilepre quickly shut the lid and proceeded to walk away, whilst sweating and panting. His story made no sense, considering that he was only wearing pants torn to shreds around the knees. No one actively stopped him, however–But they did report the suspicious man to the guards. Gilepre was a professional, though. He slipped out of sight on the first occasion. He hid for a while, but eventually reached a cache he had made inside an abandoned workshop while going on his sabotage mission.

He retrieved what looked like an owl's feather, his chest still heaving as he felt a strong dizziness wash over him. His body might have been restored, but he had been running on an empty stomach and very little hydration. His escape might have been successful at a glance, but if he lost consciousness, it was likely that he wouldn't wake up, as there was still one more nightmare left in stock for him.

"If only this damned monster hadn't been there…" He had seen his captor controlling ghosts, but that thing had not been a spectre at all. It had been a very physical entity, and he couldn't shake off the feeling that something was wrong with its appearance.

"Divine punishment, it said? Punishment from whom? Is… Is she its god or something?" Considering that it was doing everything in its power to keep him there just as she would have wanted, it seemed likely that the entity was trying to work in favour of Gilepre's captor.

"Shit… I won't be able to stay awake for much longer…" He snapped the feather, producing a pulse of mana just before he slumped up against a dusty wall and lost consciousness. Immediately, his eyes opened somewhere else.

He was now wearing a much nicer set of clothes, bright lights were blinding him, and as his vision peered through it all, he realised that he was behind a podium on some sort of stage, the audience was composed of faceless people, and for some reason, he was unable to move away from where he was standing. To his left was a bigger podium without anyone behind it–But only at first. Someone stepped out from behind the stage curtains, wearing a black suit and tie.

It was a tall, somewhat gaunt woman with eyes of a colour that ignited primal fear inside his body… He recognised this particular shade of dark purple. He had seen it before… The audience welcomed her with a round of applause, right as a system panel appeared in front of Gilepre's sight. Welcome to your final trial To survive, you must answer correctly more times than your opponent That is all. Good luck!

"Well, well, well… If it isn't Mister Agent! I have to say, I wasn't expecting the reward to give you back your legs and to restore you like this. I was certain that you would just get a little system skill… Oh well""I suppose rewards are a thing of the past. Both final and pre-final trials have been beaten at least once now" The woman dusted her shoulders and adjusted her suit.

"Weird form this time. I am all lanky, but still as sexy as usual… But anyway, you didn't make it very far, huh?"

"I would have done better if you hadn't had a guard dog""That's for sure, and by the way… Any idea when this guy showed up? I would have asked him, but he ran away in terror when I tried to speak to him. I think he was a bit nervous""You don't even know what that was?"

"I have some ideas" A large screen lowered itself from the ceiling, a question appearing upon it as keyboards manifested on their respective podiums alongside buttons with letters upon them. Which has more discovered species? A - Goblins B - Humans C - Beastfolks D - Elves"What the hell kind of trial is this?!" The woman rubbed her palms together.

"A fun one, obviously… Try to be quick, though. A bear and coyote are currently trying to sniff out where you are in the real world–But hey, no pressure!"

"Damn it…"