章 34: The Alien With 300 Points

"Over there. Hit enter. What's with the glasses and still being a klutz with tech?"

Upon reflection, the bespectacled man figured his current tormentor must be younger than him. Still, there were things to be grateful for in this bizarre situation.

Having been inexplicably transported out of the room and into the familiar Dotonbori area, he had felt a sense of relief wash over him. Some had already started trying to make their way back home.

But others remained, specifically the group clad in black suits from the very start. They had immediately set off, while the bespectacled man and his friend lingered, uncertainly discussing what to do next.

That's when the attack came - a massive bovine-headed creature suddenly emerged from the bridge, bellowing as it began discharging...something. They ran, but not unscathed – the friend's head exploding in a torrent of spiders still made the man's stomach churn.

He didn't recall how they eventually escaped and found cover before another assault, only that someone then came to their aid.

His name was Kyo, apparently.

The young man seemed remarkably unfazed, boasting that he was one of the senior veterans who had been dealing with "this kind of thing" for a while now.

"What's your score?"

"Uh, um..."

Kyo aimed the rifle-like weapon from the room at a small creature scurrying by, then tapped some keys on the connected laptop to scan it. It was over in a flash.

"One point..."

"Is that all?"

"Um, about that-"

"Yeah?"

Kyo's casual demeanor belied the intensity in his eyes. An almost arrogant confidence radiated from him, wildly disparate from the bespectacled man's sheer terror.

"Are we...going to chase after it?"

"Tch, you're supposed to be some smart guy but your brain's lagging, huh?" Kyo let out an annoyed breath before continuing, "If we tail that thing, we might just lure out some bigger game - maybe even find their hideout for this whole operation."

"But why are you...so gung-ho about this?"

"To rack up points, duh. Get to 100 and I can claim my prize."

"...Huh? For what?"

Kyo's mouth twisted into a wry grin. "Just shut up and focus."

It seemed rather unreasonable, but before the bespectacled man could protest further, Kyo had already moved on - explaining that this inexplicable "game" they were trapped in had a goal.

Reach 100 cumulative points, and you could select from a menu - be revived, acquire powerful weapons, or even, as Kyo dismissively put it, "bring back the dead - though only an idiot would choose that."

Listening to the cavalier young man's words, the bespectacled man revised his initial impression. Kyo wasn't calm and collected - he was unhinged, clearly obsessed with some deranged ambition. As the foul odor grew stronger, the man could only pray this madness didn't envelop him too.

Eventually they reached the riverbank in Dotonbori.

"Smells like it's close."

Kyo stopped his bike then, the bespectacled man pinching his nose at the putrid, rotting stench permeating the air. This was clearly abnormal - like being transported to another world entirely.

The small creature descended under the bridge, the two men dismounting to lie in wait above as it traced the water's path down to a plaza below.

"Oh man..."

"Holy shit..."

Even Kyo sounded tense now, the bespectacled man realizing this was an unprecedented scenario even for the supposed veteran.

The plaza and boat dock area fronting the river was utterly overrun - not just by humanoid monsters, but seemingly every conceivable nightmarish abomination packed together in staggering numbers. The thought of having to cut through all of them was overwhelming.

"Here, gimme that." Kyo snatched the laptop and rifle from his terrified companion, clearly intending to scan for point values again. He then forcibly shoved the rifle back. "Point it where I tell you to."

The bespectacled man had a sinking feeling he knew which targets Kyo wanted assessed. Because even at a glance, those ones clearly stood apart - giving off an altogether more menacing aura that even he, hopelessly inexperienced in actual combat, could perceive as utterly deadly.

Perched atop a fishing outpost on the far side of the plaza were several distinct figures.

"Start with that one."

Kyo indicated the dog-like faced creature in archaic Japanese robes - a white kimono and black hat, long black hair hanging down its sides. Most striking were its eyes: one a perfectly round, puppy-like orb...while the other was obscured, wrapped in bandages for reasons unknown.

Shakily, the bespectacled man aimed and initiated the scan, an ominous knot forming in his stomach as the loading process dragged on interminably.

Kyo actually held his breath as the number finally appeared:

85 Points

"So this is the boss monster..."

"That's...high?"

"Out of 100 total. Yeah, that's pretty damn rare."

"I see..."

Studying the regal-looking creature, the bespectacled man could see why - it radiated an intensity that made any thought of besting it seem laughable. He was done entertaining any delusions of heroic acts.

"There's, um, still more though."

"May as well check 'em all out."

Next was the hulking ogre seated before the dog creature, guzzling down a massive bowl of...something. Its reddened, drunken look was intimidating enough, but the single pronged horn extending from its head left no doubt as to its deadly nature. And its four enormously muscled arms looked capable of crushing a man's body in one slam.

The bespectacled man couldn't stop the tiny yelp of horror upon realizing what the ogre was drinking - a veritable bloodbath of hacked-up human remains, slurped down gleefully to raucous cheers from the leering lesser monsters surrounding it.

Trying not to vomit, he aimed and activated the scan again.

86 Points

His glasses nearly slipped off his face in shock.

"Oh...oh god..." Kyo was speechless too, finally shaking himself back to grim Reality.

"That's, uh, higher actually..."

"Yeah, the patterns can be weird like that sometimes."

"So...is this mission supposed to be incredibly difficult?"

"Just shut up."

With a terse hand gesture, Kyo indicated the next target - the long-nosed, winged creature standing beside the dog monster. While resembling a tengu goblin mythological figure, with its elaborate robes and necklace of psychic meditation beads, the massive metal rod it held was jarringly out-of-place. It looked more like the sort of crude bludgeoning weapon an ogre would wield.

Fighting back nausea, the bespectacled man aimed and scanned once more.

88 Points

He clasped a hand over his mouth, trembling as his body's panic response threatened to make him passing out or vomiting.

"Even higher..."

Kyo's own brow was beading with nervous sweat, clearly not anticipating these heightened threat levels even as a self-professed veteran.

There was only one target left to assess, the unmistakable dread growing as the bespectacled man turned towards her.

The elegant figure clad in an ornate red kimono, standing front and center before the roaring horde while fox-like ears protruded from her head. At first she appeared almost disarmingly human, if stunningly beautiful - petite and delicate amidst the colossal nightmares surrounding her.

As the abominations' roars reached a feverish crescendo, her tails just kept multiplying in rapid succession - from one, to five, to six...never ceasing until nine resplendent tails fanned out behind her, their radiant sway casting an incandescent, almost molten glow across her ethereal beauty.

A sickening realization crept over the bespectacled man - their enemies seemed bound by an overarching yokai theme. He was witnessing one of Japan's three legendary monsters manifest before his eyes.

The agonizing scan process, feeling like an eternity, finally terminated.

92 Points

"Well I'll be damned...she's the final boss." Kyo exhaled a long, tremulous breath, hands shaking as he produced a rifle-like weapon.

"Say what now?"

"I've never seen scores that high before. This has to be it."

"You mean...there aren't any 100 pointers?"

"Apparently one showed up right before I got roped into this shit. Killed a whole lotta people. But those are supposed to be crazy rare occurrences."

One kill and it would all be over - a wildly unbalanced prospect. Unleash such an enemy, and the entire system would crumble. Surely the orchestrators understood this, the bespectacled man theorized from manga he had read. This was some kind of game, the participants trapped in a virtual realm merely for the callous amusement of unseen observers.

Kyo raised the rifle, his lips quivering.

"So we're...actually doing this?"

"Well duh."

"Just...the two of us?"

"..."

The weapon lowered as Kyo stared at his bare hands, clenching them tightly until his knuckles turned white - sweat beading off as he took a deep, steadying breath and bowed his head.

"To be honest, this shit's crazy. I've never seen anything like these boss-level concentrations before. No beating around the bush - this has gotta be the absolute hardest difficulty if a 100 pointer only meant one tough guy last time."

"Then we should call for back-"

"No." His head snapped back up, eyes resolute. "We're doing this. And you're helping. These suits have a stealth camo feature. Use it to snipe from different angles without giving away our positions. If we both fire simultaneously, we improve the chances."

"Ugh..."

"Think about it the other way. Take down just one of those top tiers plus some small fry, and we're instantly cleared. I get a wicked weapon, you get to pick revival or something. Doesn't that sound amazing?"

The bespectacled man covered his mouth for a moment, surveying the plaza again. In truth, he was terrified they had already given away their position just by lingering here. But the monstrosities seemed utterly oblivious to their presence.

Maybe they actually could pull this off. That fleeting hope was dashed when he noticed a shift in the horde's behavior.

"Oh...oh wait, hold on a second!"

"What is it?"

"Lower your gun. Over there, on that roof..."

Even among the gathered behemoths, the rooftop housed an elite cadre of awe-inspiring figures.

And the nine-tailed woman was ascending to join them. As she reached the apex, the raucous cheering fell into an eerie, painfully silent hush. She seemed to address them, regally genuflecting in deference.

Like a vassal bowing before their sovereign ruler, the bespectacled man realized with a sickly jolt of recognition.

He had witnessed this before, hazily recalling the same phenomena when he and his now-deceased friend were first transported by those strange orbs - their physical bodies gradually dissipating into trails of energy. What was happening now was the exact same teleportation process, only in reverse.

And taking shape in that same ethereal fashion was a solitary human figure.

His plain, rustic attire - a simple hempen kimono robe - only accentuated the wizened old man's face as he brushed his long, wispy beard aside and rose before the nine-tailed fox.

Dwarfed by the towering monsters surrounding him, he looked frailer than any feeble elder on death's door.

Yet the sheer, palpable aura of awe and reverence they all radiated towards this unassuming old man filled the bespectacled man with primal, indescribable dread.

"Um, we should probably scan that..."

"Where? That old guy?"

"Y-Yeah, let's at least check him too..."

"...Right."

Once more the rifle was aimed, sights trained on the diminutive figure as the laptop's maw hungrily devoured more data.

The bespectacled man's own ragged breaths seemed deafening, a twisting ache blossoming in the back of his skull - a pounding reminder that he was physically and mentally drained after being swept from the mundane into this nightmarish gauntlet immediately following a long school day.

Finally, the number appeared, and it was like all vigor drained out of him at once.

"...Wha...?"

"What the...?"

He might have even laughed if he weren't so utterly aghast. As jarring as the result seemed, given that innocuous-looking woman's modest stature, the staggering point value only underscored the futility of their situation.

"That's...surprisingly low, isn't it?"

"..."

"I mean, she's clearly being guarded, right? The most dangerous one has to be that fox lady. I know about her - the nine-tailed fox is legendary and-"

"Heh...heheh...ha...HAHAHAHA!"

Kyo practically exploded backwards away from the laptop, collapsing into a breathless, spluttering heap as he clawed at his face.

314 Points

"Is...is it a misprint? Maybe it forgot the decimal?"

"H-h-hah...hi...hiiiii..."

Faster than expected, Kyo scrambled back to his feet, flinging the rifle aside as he staggered in blind panic towards his bike. He almost looked like he was going fetal, barely able to keep upright.

"Hey, wait!"

But the bespectacled man's shout fell on deaf ears, Kyo letting out an unearthly shriek as he powered up the circular bike - face drained of all color, eyes wild and bulging as he twisted the throttle and peeled away in the opposite direction.

He could only watch dumbly, realization dawning with horrible certainty. He had been left behind. It took about ten numb seconds for the simple fact to fully sink in.

"But...why? It's just a decimal...out of 100 total, right? So, uh, eh...?"

Shakily, he checked the laptop screen again - and felt the blood freeze in his veins upon seeing the display unaltered.

"Three...hundred...fourteen..."

Kyo's words rang hauntingly: that previous incident, when the 100-point target first appeared, had resulted in mass casualties.

It was supposed to be the strongest enemy possible. And this...this was over three times that.

He hadn't grasped the implication at first, some protective mechanism in his brain unable to conceive of something so overwhelmingly beyond their capabilities. But his body's visceral reaction of sheer primal terror told a different story.

In a daze, he found himself hoping this was just a software glitch as the laptop's screen abruptly split in two.

"Ah..."

On the top half, tracking data confirmed the target had descended from its perch. The impact made the bespectacled man stumble and fall, the suit's protection was the only thing saving him from grievous harm.

Not that it mattered anymore, he realized with dull acceptance. He had already soiled himself.

It might have been better, a part of him bleakly lamented, if he had simply taken his own life from the start.

The towering tengu monster barely paid the cowering wretch any mind. He was just another meaningless insect to be crushed underfoot eventually.