The Pain of an Inferior: A Blistering Love Comedy That Begins After a Broken Heart - Chapter 12

Chapter 12 – Apocalypse 6

“Where did the two of them go.”

Haruka tried to follow Yunika to the direction where Reika who was in an insane state had ran off to, but no more sounds or any voices could be heard.

He decided to take care of Ria first. He entered a suitable patient room and laid him on a well-made bed that was free from any wrinkles.

“Wait here. I’ll look for something to heal you.”

“Okay… But I’m scared, so please come back soon.”

Ria looked up at Haruka in a shy and endearing way. He couldn’t help but shiver at the cuteness that Ria was exuding.

“Let’s exchange contact information.”

Haruka pulled out his terminal and opened the phonebook with a tap. The phonebook only displayed his own number, his first partner Ria’s number was not saved.

With trembling hands, Ria took out his terminal from his pocket and operated it in a similar manner. It seemed that nearby players were displayed on his end, he tapped on Haruka’s number which had popped out on this screen and saved it.

Haruka nodded in confirmation at seeing Ria’s number being displayed and tested out the call function. He wondered why there was a need for a number when there was no number input displayed on his screen.

“Please remember my room number.”

“Room 404, okay.”

Haruka memorized the number that was labeled at the entrance of the room. Getting back to Ria would’ve been troublesome if he somehow forgets, since all the rooms in the same row were practically identical.

He opened the door and looked back at Ria once. With a wave of his hand, he walked away.

When he went out into the hallway, he could feel an eerie wind caressing him. He couldn’t help but put his hand on his cheek.

The lights on the ceiling began flickering starting from the back of the hallway. While he was stunned, the lights abruptly turned off. The ward on the other side, which he could see from the window, was dark as well.

“…. This is looking bad.”

He turned his heel to back to the room where he left Ria in, but the room he just left was not there. Room 404 had disappeared.

“Eh, Ria…!?”

The rooms on both sides of hallway were lined up in a regular pattern. Only the door from Ria’s room had suddenly gone missing.

Haruka tried to regain his calm by reaching for the handle of the door. Unfortunately, it looked like the room had really disappeared and not just become merely invisible.

He took out his termianl from his pocket and turned on the light function. Haruka looked over to his sides.

There he could spot a tall woman with waist-length hair standing roughly twenty meters away from him.

She was wearing a tattered and dirty white dress, akin to that of a dead person. Her long, shaggy hair covered her face and back.

She slowly walked towards Haruka with her hands slouched down.

She made an eerie sound comparable to that of a wind passing through a narrow opening.

Haruka attempted to flee in silence.

He then realized that it was not Ria that disappeared, but him.

He opened the phone book on his terminal as he ran. Ria’s number way displayed, but he was out of communication range. There was no way to tell Ria about his current situation.

Running inside one of the rooms was a bad idea, it would only end up with him being cornered. He decided to just keep running down the hallway, hoping that there was some kind of escape from the strange space he was in.

After around 50 meters of distance, Haruka turned around to check the ghost woman. He couldn’t see her within the range of his light.

“Is she gone?”

Patting himself in relief, Haruka turned around only to see the ghost woman’s long black hair dangling down in front of him.

Before he even realized it, the woman was at standing behind his back.

“Uwaa!?”

Haruka reflexively backed away. He took two or three steps back to keep his distance from the woman.

An eerie sound, like laughter, escaped from the woman’s lips.

The ghost woman was not a fast runner. However, she could close distance without making a sound, as if she had teleported.

She stretched out her thin hands, which was beyond pale, and wrapped it around Haruka’s neck, who had failed to react. The ghost woman then started strangling Haruka and lifted him up with an unimaginable force.

“Ggh…. Ah…”

Haruka writhed in pain, as he struggled in breathing. His mind went blank, rendering him from doing anything.

After a little while, he gained momentum by swinging his body and fired a kick on the ghost woman. Of course, his kick was not strong enough to break the woman’s torso, but at this rate, doing nothing would only end badly for him.

Contrary to Haruka’s expectation, his kick did not hit anything, it only sliced through the air.

But then, Haruka fell on his behind. The ghost woman that had been choking him had suddenly vanished before he knew it.

“Gee… Ugh…”

It was the first time for him to get lifted and strangled by a ghost woman. It was certainly a traumatic experience.

Haruka stood up, and checked around is surroundings carefully.

He wanted to find out on how to escape the world he’s in.

Up until now, he had enjoyed his time inside the game because Ria and Yunika were with him, but he found it too painful at his lonesome.

At the rate things were going, even the likes of Haruka would turn insane.

He was afraid, but the situation won’t turn for the better unless he took action. Ending his life was not an option.

Refraining from turning the light this time, Haruka walked down the dark hallway, as he listened carefully in his surroundings. With one hand on the wall, he walked in a steady fashion, using only the red emergency light as a landmark.

He opened the door to every room he passed, making as little noise as possible.

Haruka was doing it since the rooms may contain some rare items. He specially searched more carefully inside operating rooms and radiation therapy rooms. Haruka ended up finding only food, water, and medical kits. He didn’t find any weapons.

He didn’t feel thirsty nor was he hungry, even though three hours had elapsed inside the game. However, he consumed some regardless since he was afraid that he would get some kind of bad status effect if he doesn’t eat anything.

Haruka procured one medical kit and held it in his hand, thinking that it was for Ria.

He left the room and planned to continue in searching some more until something had made him freeze up.

He could hear footsteps in the distance.

The owner of the sounds was steadily coming towards him, it was making an eerie crying sound like a blowing wind. Most likely it was the ghost woman.

Haruka’s ears started ringing, rendering him unable to hear anything. He wondered if he was hit with an insanity inducing status effect, but fortunately his mind and vision were unaffected.

But then, he realized that he could only barely move his body. This was bad, he though. He wouldn’t be able to bear it if he was strangled again in his current state.

Haruka sweated profusely and prayed that he could move again.

He could see the ghost woman walking in the middle of the hallway. He placed his hands on the walls, hoping that wouldn’t come into contact with her.

This time, Haruka did not turn his lights on nor did he made any noise. If his hunch was correct, this may be enough for the woman to ignore him.

His heart was beating so fast that he was afraid that the sound of his heartbeat would alert the ghost woman. He tried his best in holding his breath.

The shadow of the ghost woman passed by him in a steady manner. Haruka remained still even after the woman was out of his sight.

Thinking that feeling relief or looking back would a trigger for a surprise attack, Haruka kept his body still for a minute. He kept a sense of tension just to be on the safe side. After a while, he resumed his task at hand.

“Can I go through this, I wonder.”

Haruka wiped his sweaty forehead finally sighed in relief after a few minutes had passed.

He walked at a much faster pace than usual. Since Ria was alone, there was a chance that he would get dragged into the same world as him. Considering his injuries, it would be hard for him to cope.

In order to help Ria, Haruka resolved to go back son.

Haruka finished his search on one ward and moved across the hallway to another. There were too many places to search. It would take hours to search alone, considering he had to deal with the interference of the ghost woman as well.

Without turning on his light just as usual, Haruka entered the medical record room right next of the examination room on the second floor.

Not soon after, a dull sound had echoed through the room.

Haruka took a few beats to realize that it was the sound of him being hit.

It seemed that he was hit by a strong impact, his vision shook and his ears rang. He could feel pain surging through his head.

Because Haruka had been scouring in the dark for a while now, he could somewhat see the second blow coming. He threw the medical kit in his hand and raised both his arms to cover his head.

He received the impact with his arms. For a moment, the silhouette in front of him was clearly visible. The weapon used on him looked like a folded up pipe chair. Haruka, who had thought that he was attack by a monster, was surprised see the pipe chair as a weapon.

Could it a player that was attacking him? Haruka thought. Maybe his opponent also thought that Haruka was a monster as well.

The figure raise their pipe chair once again. At the moment, Haruka kicked the floor and plunged into them head first. Though he was not sure of their height, he charged in spite of that, hoping to plunge into their abdomen.

“Kyaa!?”

Haruka successfully caught his opponent before they could swing their chair on him agian.

The figure screamed in a high-pitched voice. It was a woman’s voice. She tried to swing the chair down in a panic, but her center of gravity was disturbed due to her impatience. She ended up falling down due to the force of the chair.

“Let go of me!”

“Calm down, I’m a Player-!”

Haruka tried to reason with her in a hushed voice. The girl ended up regaining her composure and stopped resisting.

The girl asked back, her breathing ragged.

“…… Player?”

“Yes, I’m a player… So please calm down.”

Haruka stood up while supporting the girl and pulled out his terminal from his pocket.

He decided to use the light function, thinking that it wouldn’t cause a problem this time since they were currently inside a small room.

The girl’s face was flashed by the light, which made her cover her eyes with her hands. Haruka felt that he was being rude, so he quickly placed his terminal on a desk at random in order point the light upwards.

Haruka could vaguely make out the woman’s outline in the brightened room.

“I think you were in my class…”

“Uh, Claudia-san?”

Inside the room was a girl with lustrous platinum blonde hair that extended down to her back, reflecting the light. Her large, blue eyes which usually conveyed a strong will, were reddened from crying.

She was wearing a pure white one piece dress that was dirtied with filth and blood, suggesting that she had gone through a harrowing ordeal before she had taken refuge at their current location.

There was Claudia Shinku, who was in the same class as Haruka, a girl he had often seen hanging out with Shun.