Chapter 12 – Apocalypse 6

“Where did the two of them go”

Haruka followed Reika, who had gone insane, in the direction Yunika had gone, but he didn’t hear any more sounds or voices.

He entered a suitable hospital room and set Ria down on a well-made bed without a single wrinkle.

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

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

He looks up at Haruka modestly and teasingly. His cuteness made his brain tremble.

“Let’s exchange contact information.”

He pulled out his phone. With a tap, he opens the phonebook. The phone book showed only his own number, but not that of his first partner, Ria.

With trembling hands, Ria takes out his phone from his pocket and operates it in the same way. It seems to display the numbers of nearby players, and he taps the number of Haruka that appears on the screen to register it.

He confirms that Ria’s number is displayed and the call button appears, and nods his head. He wonders if it has to be a number, since there is no screen for entering numbers.

“My room, please remember.”

“Room 404, I’ll remember.”

Haruka memorized the number that hung above the entrance of the room. Because there were many similar rooms in the same row, he would not know which room Ria was in if he did not remember the number.

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

When he went out into the hallway, an eerie wind, warm and cold, caresses his cheek. Unintentionally, he puts his hand on his cheek.

The lights on the ceiling flicker on and off, starting from the back of the room. While he was stunned, it became pitch-dark. The ward on the other side, which he can see from the window of the corridor, is dark as well.

“…… This looks bad.”

He turned around to go back to the room he left Ria in, but the room he just left is not there. Room 404 is missing.

“Eh, Ria…!?”

The rooms on both sides of the room are lined up in a regular pattern. Only Ria’s room suddenly and unnaturally disappeared.

Calmly, he reaches for the handle of the sliding door, but there is nothing there. It doesn’t look like the door to the room has become transparent.

He took out his phone from his pocket and turn on the light function. Haruka look to the right and to the left.

A tall woman with waist-length hair stands just twenty meters away from him.

She is wearing a tattered and dirty white dress, just as a dead person would wear. Her long, shaggy hair covered her face and back.

She walks slowly towards Haruka with her hands slouched down.

She makes an eerie sound, like the wind passing through a narrow opening.

Haruka runs silently away.

He realizes that Ria has not disappeared, but perhaps he himself has disappeared.

He opens the phone book as he runs. Ria’s number is displayed, but he is out of communication range. There is no way to alert him or report the current situation.

Running away to the room where there is no escape is a bad idea. Then, he should keep running down the corridor, trying to find a way to escape from this strange space.

After about 50 meters, Haruka turns around and check the speed of the ghost woman. He can’t see her within the range of the light.

“Is she gone?”

Relieved, Haruka turns around only to see ghost woman’s long black hair in front of him.

Before he even realized it, the woman was behind him.

“Uwaa!?”

Haruka involuntarily backed away. He took two or three steps back and kept his distance from her.

An eerie sound, like laughter, escapes from her lips.

She was not a fast runner. However, the ghost closes the distance with an unbelievable movement and speed, as if she were walking three times faster than normal.

She stretches out her thin arm, which is beyond pale and pure white, and puts it around the neck of Haruka, who has been unable to react. The ghost strangled and lifted him up with an unimaginable force.

“Ggh…. Ah…”

Haruka’s in pain, he can’t breathe. His mind goes blank, and he can’t think about anything.

He manages to gain momentum with the pendulum and throws a kick. Of course, the kick is not powerful enough to break her torso, and at this rate he’ll be running out of steam.

Contrary to his expectation, the kick does not hit anything. The kick cuts through the air.

Haruka falls on his buttocks. The ghost that had been choking him has vanished before he knew it.

“Gee… Ugh…”

This is the first time for him to be strangled by a ghost with real force, and to be lifted up. This is certainly a traumatic experience.

Haruka stood up, looking around carefully.

He wanted to know how to escape from this world.

Up until now, he had enjoyed this experience because Ria and Yunika were with him, but it was too painful to be alone.

At this rate, even Haruka would go insane.

He was afraid, but things won’t fix itself unless he took action. Suicide is not the way out.

Without a light, Haruka walks down the dark corridor, listening carefully. With one hand on the wall, he walk with good steadiness, using only the red emergency light as a landmark.

He opens every door he sees, making as little noise as possible.

He does it in every room that may contain rare items, such as operating rooms and radiation therapy rooms. Haruka found only food, water, and medical kits. No weapons.

Haruka wasn’t feeling any thirst nor hunger, even though three hours have elapsed inside the game. However, he consumed water and food on the spot because he was afraid that he would get some kind of bad status if he didn’t eat anything.

He picked up the medical kit and held it in one hand, thinking that it’s for Ria.

Leaving the room, Haruka is about to continue his search when he suddenly stops moving.

He could her footsteps.

The owner of the sound was coming toward him, making an eerie crying sound like a wind blowing. It was definitely the ghost woman.

His ears start ringing and he couldn’t hear the sound anymore. Haruka wondered if he had gone insane. But his mind and vision are unaffected.

After the ringing in his ears, his body stops moving. This was bad, he thought. He couldn’t stand it if he were to be strangled again in such a state.

Haruka sweats profusely and pray that he can move again.

Right in front of him, in the middle of the hallway, the ghost woman passes. He was placing his hands on the wall, so that he wouldn’t come into contact with her. The question is whether she will notice him or not.

Haruka did not turn on the light and did not make any noise. If his hunch was correct, he may be able to get away from her.

His heart is palpitating so hard that he was afraid that the sound of his heartbeat will alert the ghost woman. He tried hard to hold his breath.

The shadow of the ghost woman passes by you without changing her speed. The moment she disappears from sight, Haruka remained still.

Thinking that relief or looking back was the most likely trigger for the surprise attack, he kept his body still for a minute or so, keeping a sense of tension, and then resumed his task at hand.

“So, at least, I’ll make it through.”

After a few minutes, he finally takes a breath. he wiped my sweaty forehead.

Walking a little faster, he speeds up his search. If Ria gets up and acts alone, he might be dragged into the same world as Haruka. It’s difficult to say whether Ria can resist after how badly damaged he is.

In order to help Ria, Haruka has to go back soon.

Haruka finishes his search in one ward and moves across the corridor to another ward. There are too many places to search. It would take hours to search alone, while avoiding the interference of the ghost woman.

Without turning on the light as usual, He enters the medical record room at the end of the examination room on the second floor.

Soon after, a dull sound echoes through the room.

Haruka took a few beats before he realized that it is the sound of him being hit.

It seems to have been a very strong impact, and his vision shakes and his ears ring. A strong pain runs through his head.

Because he had been in the dark for a long time, he was able to detect the second blow coming. He throws down the first-aid kit in his left hand and raises both arms to cover his head.

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

Could it be a player is in front of him? Maybe the opponent also thought that Haruka was a monster.

The figure raised their pipe chair again. At that moment, Haruka kicks the floor and plunges head first. Though he was not sure of their height, he moved forward as if he is going to plunge into their abdomen.

“Kyaa!?”

Haruka successfully caught his opponent before they can swing the chair down on him again.

Something in front of him screamed in a high-pitched voice. It was a woman’s voice. She tries to swing the chair down in a panic, but her center of gravity becomes strange due to her impatience, and she was pushed down by the force of the chair.

“Let go of me!”

“Calm down, I’m a Player-!”

He talked to her in a very quiet voice. She seems to regain her composure and stops resisting.

The woman asks back, breathing hard.

“…… Player?”

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

Haruka stood up while supporting the woman, and pulls out the phone from his pocket.

He used the light function, thinking it would not be a problem in the small room.

Suddenly the woman’s face is illuminated, and she held out her hand to cover her eyes. Haruka felt rude, so he quickly turned the light off. He put the mobile terminal against a thick file on the desk at random.

In the brightness, Haruka can vaguely make out the woman’s outline.

“I think you were in my class…”

“Uh, Claudia-san?”

A girl with platinum blonde hair that seems to reflect the light, and reaches her back. Her big, strong blue eyes were red from crying.

She was wearing a pure white dress stained with dust and blood, as if she had gone through a fierce battle to get to this point.

There was Claudia, who was in the same class as Haruka, and who often went with Shun.