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S-Class Nightmare Capturing Method.

“Any weapon, just hit it five times? Easy.”

No need to stab the vital spots.

Then, I just need to focus all my attention on dodging.

[Kagagagagaga!]

Fierce teeth charged at me.

‘The AI’s movements are generally predictable.’

I lightly hopped on my right foot.

Then stomped down hard with my left foot.

And I spun my body, narrowly dodging the monster’s charge.

Kwahaha-!

The Nightmare slammed into a solid wall.

The metal wall buckled under the impact.

I hit its body with a shovel, and the Nightmare shook its head and turned its hefty body back.

[Grurr]

“What if you’re big?”

The Nightmare swung three tails at me.

Shyaa-!

I skipped back and defended against the incoming ones with my shovel held horizontally.

This time, the Nightmare approached carefully in an S shape.

The monster’s reach is longer than mine.

Plus, even grazing the attack means instant death.

My head spun rapidly.

‘Looks like I need to attack from below.’

The Nightmare could never shake me off just by jumping over cliffs.

It seemed to float in the air as if there was ground beneath it.

Its movement was somewhat bug-like, but it had a fatal weakness.

Tap-tap-

I jumped over the barbed wire and hopped across the ventilation ducts.

While maintaining a safe distance, I lured the Nightmare to the cooling chamber.

A sewer came into view.

Shyaaah-

I immediately slid my feet and opened the sewer lid.

And as soon as I slipped inside—

[Kuuaaa! Kyaaah!]

The Nightmare thrust its sharp jaws inside.

– Kyaaaah!

– What the hell!

– I’m dead.

– This is terrifying!!!

Just as expected, my legs were blocked by the transparent floor, preventing me from coming down.

Calmly, I tightened my grip on the shovel and struck its jaw.

Donk donk donk donk-!

[Koook!]

After hitting it four more times, the Nightmare screamed and fell over.

It couldn’t be a more anticlimactic ending for an S-Class monster.

“Hmm, I get it. This is a horror game after all, not an action game.”

I nodded, giving leniency to the Phobia Museum.

[‘WestSunrise’ donated 100,000 won!]

– “Pomy? You have talent.” – Wearsoft CEO

– “Seriously, evaluating enemies even in horror games? LOL”

– “The physicality that aggro’d to the sewer is insane…”

– “That’s a catch technique; if you came up with it on the spot, your situational judgement is impressive.”

– “Na-me vs Na-me => Na-me wins!”

We returned to the reception desk with four treasures and one monster.

“Adella, Adella, come out.”

Weeeng—

[▶Adella – Revive]

“Hmph, I’ve emerged! Let’s go!”

“Haaah…”

– “Na-me can’t just abandon her like that!”

– “Earth is actually one of the least scary places.”

– “Really, LOL.”

– “Going for S-Class made it tough, but it wasn’t scary.”

– “Shut up, watching Na-me’s broadcast is terrifying!”

But the true merit of the Phobia Museum lay elsewhere.

It’s a game that is truly adept at evoking ‘fear’ rather than battling monsters.

[Mars]

It was a map where I had to descend endless stairs.

Somewhere, eerie background music continuously set the frightening atmosphere.

As three girls held each other’s hands descending in front, I continued my commentary from the back.

“The reason I laughed at the end… Ah, it’s a bit embarrassing to say, heh. I was just satisfied because it seemed like a great fight. Honestly, having come this far, we’ve pretty much won, right? But I think thanks to Loef’s hard work, we had a fantastic finish. We even had a dinner party afterward.”

“Fuhhh!”

“What now?”

Saetbyeol suddenly sat down.

Eyes of a glowing beast shone from the darkness.

Kieeeek—

When I shone my lantern, a swarm of one-eyed bats rushed out at high speed.

“Huuhuhuhu. We can do this.”

Saetbyeol took a deep breath.

“Kariri seems to have adjusted well to the combat game, though.”

“Kyaaah! Boss, my body won’t move! I think I logged out!”

– “Trash trio, LOL.”

– “This is maddening.”

– “I like Na-me’s radio… it’s relaxing… but sometimes strange sounds come up.”

– “Don’t worry~ It’s just the monster sounds~”

[Venus]

“I’ll do it right.”

[▶Main Custom – Unlocked]

[▶Custom 1 – Equipped]

– “Wow!!!”

– “Bread Na-me! Bread Na-me! Bread Na-me!”

– “This was unexpected, LOL.”

– “The balance of agriculture and bread must be maintained.”

– “If one cheek gets slapped by agriculture, slap the other cheek with bread.”

I changed my avatar.

The speed was calculated in proportion to my height; being too short was a disadvantage.

I slaughtered all 100 wasp monsters with a jackknife purchased at the shop and broke through the Venus sector.

[Neptune]

And the climax happened on the 8th day in the Neptune sector.

Unreasonable absurdity occurs frequently in games.

And I was no exception to that.

“Uh, my body won’t move.”

– “Wow, haha.”

– “Looks like you got paralyzed.”

– “It’s a status effect.”

– “The bread Na-me is Muwahahaha.”

– “?”

I had inhaled pollen for too long, causing my body to be paralyzed for 30 seconds.

I thought I could just let it pass like that.

[Kyuu?]

A little lizard with a horn on its head rolled over and began pecking at my leg.

– “Ahahaha, cute!”

– “When Na-me gets un-paralyzed, Na-me is dead.”

– “Huh? But is my health okay?”

“Ah, just a second.”

The more it butted me, the faster the monster’s butting speed became.

[Kyuu kyuu guu!]

[77/100] [-1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1]

[35/100] [-1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1]

[3/100] [-1 -1 -1]

[0/100]

[NoName – Death]

In an instant, I became a ghost and floated up.

“Eh? Did I die…? I’m dead, right?”

The responses in the chat window were extremely heated.

– “Wahhhhh!!!!”

– “How did this happen? LOL.”

– “A King Lizard defeated NoName, whoa.”

– “It’s crazy, it’s crazy, it’s crazy, LOL.”

– “Never underestimate the unicorn lizard again!”

– “Phobia Museum’s first crown champion.”

– “They say it was eaten by a lizard~ eaten~”

“Ugh, please don’t joke around…! People can die, you know.”

Upon thinking, wasn’t the main reason I started Pomy to see the members’ reactions?

I became a ghost and searched for people.

It seemed everyone still didn’t know about my death.

“Oh, there’s Kariri.”

The types of fear were varied.

“Fuhahahaha!”

Thud—

“Kyaaaah!”

Thud—

– “Please move forward a bit, LOL.”

– “Ugh, it’s frustrating.”

– “How long are you going to be here?”

Kariri, always plopping down anywhere.

Thanks to this, Kariri was closest to the place where we first separated.

“Over there, Yudi is there too.”

In contrast, U-Dex was quite the daring type.

Thud thud thud thud thud-

– “No, that’s not the way, LOL.”

– “It just keeps returning and returning again.”

– “Can’t hear a thing.”

“Why does it keep being the same place…? How long do I have to walk?!”

It wasn’t daring; they were just walking while blocking their eyes and ears.

The hallway seemed wide but was curved, making it painful to always come back to the same place.

And then Cheon Saetbyeol.

“Save meeeee!”

Swish—

“Nyaaaaaaaah!”

Swish—

A rare scene where the Doppler effect was created.

Running everywhere in the sector, she was filming a chase on her own.

Thud—

In the chaos, she accidentally bumped into someone.

That someone was none other than ‘me.’

“Huh? I died here.”

– “?????”

– “What?!”

– “Doppelganger?”

– “Whoa.”

– “Wait a second, LOL.”

– “That’s actually a monster, yep.”

Doppelganger.

Cheon Saetbyeol seemed overjoyed to meet ‘me,’ hugging me tightly.

[Girls, you know it’s a bit ugly, right?]

“Ugh! They all come chasing me when they see me. I got caught by one earlier and just fell for a whole minute.”

Having stumbled upon the portal monster, Saetbyeol looked like she was about to cry.

[Did you find many treasures?]

“Uh-huh. I found two; I wonder if that’s enough to meet the quota.”

[Adella died.]

“Uh? No, I’m alive and kicking. I ran really hard! Hehe.”

I figured it out.

This monster was mimicking exactly what I had said in the past.

And conveniently, the conversation with Saetbyeol continued.

The doppelganger caught Adella’s face with both hands.

And slowly brought it towards its mouth as if…

“W-wait, what are you doing during the broadcast? Huh? Wha?! Aaaah…!”

– “Kyaaaa!”

– “It’s getting crazy, LOL.”

– “Na-me Della finally!”

– “Kya~~~~~”

– “Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!”

– “The Arctic bear massacre!!!”

– “Nooooo, keep the cat’s purity safe!”

At that moment.

[…]

“Sister?”

The monster’s mouth opened impossibly wide.

[Keaaahhh!]

“Kyaaaaaaaah!”

[Geuyaeok-]

The doppelganger swallowed Adella whole.

[Adella – Death]

“Whoa.”

In an instant, a death sentence was pronounced, and the monster disappeared as if it had done its job.

“That’s scary. Saetbyeol must be a bit flustered.”

– “Just a bit?”

– “Eeeeeek!”

– “If I were in that situation, I would have a heart attack.”

– “What happened to Adella?”

– “That’s seriously terrifying, crazy, LOL.”

– “But why isn’t she showing up as a ghost?”

[Adella: Currently offline.]

I quickly opened Discord and informed the members.

“Looks like Saetbyeol disconnected for a moment; I’ll check if she’s okay.”

[Huh? They both died?]

[NoName is gone…? I need to be quick and get back!]

I instantly logged out of virtual reality.

These new capsules are so safe that there’s no worry, but…

It’s said that forced logouts can cause slight headaches depending on the person.

I ran to the room where Saetbyeol’s capsule was.

“What’s wrong?”

Cheon Saetbyeol was lying inside the capsule, just blinking her eyes.

“Sister…”

“Does your head feel dizzy?”

“Nope. Haaaah, the doppelganger was super scary…!”

“Can you do it again? If it’s hard, it’s okay to stop.”

“No, what are you talking about? We’re almost done, hehe.”

“Alright, then let’s go.”

Tap tap tap—

“Sister.”

The moment I was about to turn around, Saetbyeol hit the capsule window, calling me back again.

“Was that really a doppelganger…? While getting eaten, the doppelganger said something to me, but for some reason, it sounded too familiar.”

“What did it say?”

“What did it say…? ‘Hello, kitty.’”

I paused for a moment to gather my thoughts.

“Did I say something like that to myself today? Hm, I don’t remember anything like that.”

“And then what else? ‘If you want to meet me, defeat Mephisto.’ What’s this…? Why am I suddenly feeling so creeped out?”

Saetbyeol kept rubbing her arms as if she had goosebumps.

Mephisto?

Wagal?

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