Genocide Reality

“Shinjo-kun! Shinjo-kun!”

I was shaken awake by Midori Seki.

I must have been deeply asleep until then, as I felt unusually refreshed.

Perhaps it was because Kumiko was sleeping next to me that I felt so at ease.

Sleeping peacefully in a world like this is a bad idea, but the town, including the inn, is supposed to be a safe zone.

“Sorry to wake you. I woke up first and went to check out the town, but there’s trouble!”

What do you mean there is trouble in town?

When Seki said there was trouble, he didn’t mean that there was something wrong with the town.

Shuichi Nanami’s battle group had found a safe town, and after getting their equipment ready, they went to rescue the remaining sixty students and teachers in the classrooms.

What came back was in tatters. It was certainly a difficult task, even though the location of the traps was already pretty well known and the monsters weren’t much of a threat.

Those who escaped said that an unbelievably powerful monster had appeared.

“Well, they say that a dragon appeared out of nowhere….”

“A dragon….”

Knowing the game, I knew immediately that an ‘invasion’ had occurred.

However, the group that stayed in the classrooms was not so lucky that the invasion happened suddenly at the beginning of the game.

GenoReal’s famous ‘invasion’ is an event in which a powerful monster climbs up from the lower floors.

The timing is random, but it happens regularly.

In GenoReal, each floor is usually inhabited by a certain type of monster.

For example, the first floor is inhabited by orcs and goblins, while the second floor is inhabited by kobolds.

Incidentally, orcs and kobolds form their own society, and the monsters are territorial, fighting each other when they meet.

For this reason, the orcs and kobolds live separately on the first and second floors.

The upper levels were like that, with monsters maintaining a balance of power, but occasionally, stronger monsters would “invade” from below, and the weaker monsters would be killed and eaten.

Beginner players caught up in these invasions had a tough time, and if they failed to escape, they’d be killed along with the monsters.

If there is a dragon in the invasion, it is likely to be a lesser dragon on the fifth floor or a Mustard Dragon on the sixth floor.

“Did you hear what color it was?”

“I heard it was a dirty reddish color.”

Seki is excellent at listening to information even in a flustered state, but we still can’t tell the difference with only that much information.

The Lesser Dragons are a dull reddish-red color, and the Mustard Dragons are a poisonous purple color.

The torches in the dungeon are not bright enough to illuminate the entire dungeon. It is probably a trap to make it difficult to distinguish the monsters in detail in the darkness.

A lesser dragon, which is simply a low-class dragon and can only attack with limited power, is fine, but a mustard dragon, which breathes poison, could wipe out the entire party that is attacked.

Needless to say, both are dangerous, but we can only hope it is a lesser dragon.

“Seki, you’re not seriously thinking of going to help, are you?”

“But everyone is asking for help….”

He’s a good-natured guy, he’ll go for it.

I shook him by his thin shoulders and told him

“Listen, Seki, if you go, you’ll die in an instant. You’ll be killed with a single hit, I can tell you that for sure. It’s like going to your death.”

“Then what should I do….”

Abandon them. They were unlucky to have the invasion come out of nowhere.

…I wish I could say that. But Seki wouldn’t accept that.

“I’ll go and help, so you, on the other hand… make potions for me. I don’t need Health Potions, just make as many Stamina Potions as you can, even if they’re basic. Do you know how to make them?”

“Yes, I do. I’ll do whatever I can do, but don’t do anything dangerous, Shinjo-kun.”

If I get hit by a dragon, I’ll die in a single blow.

In this case, health is completely useless. Whether you’re running or fighting, all you need is the stamina to keep moving.

“Of course, I always prioritize my own safety. I’ll scout and help if I can. Kumiko and the others, don’t follow me, you’ll just be a hindrance.”

I’m contradicting myself. I’m going to help them even though it’s dangerous.

But Seki and Kumiko seemed to agree with me.

They both know I’m not the kind of guy who would risk his own life to save someone.

I don’t know if they trust me or not. I can’t help but laugh.

“Seki, you’re a priest, so you’re going to have to practice making potions over and over until you can make one with a higher rank.”

“Ok.”

Not only Seki, but Kumiko and the other girls also make beginner-level stamina potions. I receive about ten beginner-level Stamina Potions and put on my hard leather armor, knee pads, and boots. Against a dragon, this paper-thin armor is better than being naked, prioritizing lightness.

Then I go down to the dungeon with a backpack on my back and a katana in hand.

At the stairs to the first underground floor, some of the guys from Nanami’s group who were hanging out offered to come with me, but I immediately declined.

I admired their willingness to go back, even though they had run away, but their presence would only be a distraction.

“Is Nanami here?”

“No, Nanami’s still downstairs….”

Well, Nanami’s not dead yet, is he?

I don’t want him to be a liability, but maybe it’s better to have a decoy to spread out the monster’s targets.

But my guess is there are still plenty of decoys down there.

Unless they’re all dead.

“Low Light…”

This is the simplest Magic Torch spell.

In this game, you recite combinations of moon runes to draw out and use magic power.

In the setting of Genoria, mana falls from the moon and rides on the wind.

By receiving that power, the maximum you can draw out becomes your mana amount.

Well, such fine details don’t really matter. If you recite the spell and have enough mana and magician rank proficiency, you can use magic.

Even with my weak mana, I managed to get enough for one light.

It’s still dim, but I’m glad I don’t have to carry a torch. I have most of the terrain and traps perfectly memorized.

The first floor is like my backyard. I can take a stroll while humming a tune, and if I turn traps into walls, I won’t be surrounded by monsters.

Actually, there are no monsters to attack me in the dungeon. In some places, there are only bodies lying around that look like they have been eaten with big fangs.

The escapees must have kited them to the entrance, where the dragon went on a rampage.

The goblins and orcs, who were nothing more than prey for the dragon, were probably running around in panic near the edge of the map.

When I examine the corpses, there are some from humans, as well as orcs and goblins.

It seems like they were devoured quite thoroughly.

It may be only a matter of time before they all die out.

“I think I’ll go to the classrooms for now.”

Maybe while on their way they must have been chased up to the classroom.

It’s uncertain if anyone is still alive there.

There were 60 people who stayed behind, and there must have been just as many who were moving on their own.

If the battle group of Nanami joined them and beat it together, even a dragon could be defeated.

A good observer will know that the lower dragons have a fatal weakness.

If they handle it calmly, it should work out just fine. Or maybe they can escape to the town while the dragon is focused on someone else.

But a man with no combat training cannot move efficiently. Even so, the students who stayed in the classrooms were already a bunch of lazy students with no motivation to move.

It’s hard to imagine that there are many among them who can throw stones or wield swords to confront the dragon, especially as they see people around them being devoured and dying.

It is hard to be optimistic that things might be all right now.

If they are running away in droves, that’s one thing.

In the worst-case scenario, even though it might seem safe to them, they may have been cornered in the dead-end classrooms and wiped out.

As I get closer to the classrooms, the increasing number of bodies paints a grim picture.

I can’t help but imagine that they might have taken refuge in the depths of the classroom, slowly being whittled down. If that’s the case, it’s the worst-case scenario.

“Uaaahhh, stop it, stop, ahhhh!””It’s hot, it’s hot, aghhhh!””My eyes, my eyes ahhhh!”

As I round this corner, I reach the point where the corridor leads to the classroom, and from the depths, I hear cries of agony.

From those voices, I realize that it’s not a lesser dragon, but a Mustard Dragon.

It’s hot, and their eyes are affected… It’s a poison attack.

I must have hit the jackpot.

I never would have expected that on the first day of the adventure, an ‘invasion’ would occur, and we’d face an enemy from the sixth floor instead of the fifth.

Not impossible, but too unlucky.

As I ran into the corridor, I found a huge Mustard Dragon, with poisonous purple skin, standing in the middle of the corridor, breathing poisonous breath.

The Mustard Dragon’s breath is modeled after mustard gas.

It is a chemical weapon that burns away the skin and blinds the eyes.

For gaming purposes, the gas flies straight ahead. This may be better than poison gas in real life, as it only affects opponents in a straight line.

Think of it like a bow and arrow or a fireball spell. You can dodge them if you avoid them to the side at the right time.

In a dungeon, a real chemical poison gas will wipe out all living creatures.

The straight-line, forward-only, poisonous breath that only affects what’s in front of it seems to be a kind of poison gas magic. Well, dragons themselves are fantasy creatures.

Setting that aside, what should I do here?

While some people seem to survive while groaning in pain after inhaling the poison gas, most of the sixty students who should have been in the classroom are either wiped out or… what is this?

The ones who are still struggling to survive after partially inhaling the poison gas seem more pitiable than the lifeless bodies.

Even though it’s a game attack, the pain is real. It is hard to look directly at it.

A Mustard Dragon the size of a small hill, facing away from me, is also dangerous to slash at carelessly.

When you attack its back, it attacks with its long tail.

Of course, if I am blown away by the tail, I will die instantly, even at the warrior rank of Apprentice.

The dragon turns to the right or left at random, checks for any that try to escape with its poison gas breath, and seems to be moving toward the back of the classroom corridor.

I don’t know what kind of thinking process it is following, but I sense a sinister intent skillfully trying to corner the human group further inside.

At this point, the survivors of Class A are probably holed up at the far end of the classroom.

Given the dragon’s size, its body won’t fit into the classroom, except for its head, so with some clever maneuvering, they should be able to escape.

But that’s not going to be easy. The people who are dead or on the brink of death in the hallway probably tried to escape from the classroom but were hit by the breath as it turned around.

I didn’t think that Mustard Dragons were this intelligent in their thought processes. It is a pretty efficient way to kill a large group of people.

No, it’s in bad taste to be impressed by this.

The best thing I could do was just make a U-turn and run away. There’s no reason to risk my life to save those idiots who can’t even run away.

The Mustard Dragon was too powerful. I can tell Seki and the others that I tried to help but couldn’t.

“Guys, the monster can’t get into the classroom. Run left and right!”

I can hear Shuichi Nanami’s taut scolding from the far end of the classroom.

He could have escaped, but he didn’t dare abandon his companions.

I think, if I let Nanami die here, it will be even more troublesome.

It would be less troublesome for me if the surviving students were in a somewhat controlled state.

“Well, I guess I’ll give it a shot.”

And then there’s the fact that the sight of a huge dragon makes my blood boil.

I threw away my excess baggage, grabbed my katana, and quietly approached the Mustard Dragon.

I picked up a pebble and threw it as hard as I could.

“Come here, you big bastard!”

I may sound confident, but I quickly flee to the large hall since the breath attack is a straight shot.

In a spacious hall like this, even against a massive dragon, I can avoid the straight-line breath attack.

And the target I should be aiming for is not its back.

It’s the sides!

“Rrraaaagh!”

My slash to the belly will hardly damage the dragon’s hard scales.

However, it seems annoyed by my repeated slashes from the side, so it turns its heavy body towards me.

“There you go, sideways!”

I move to the side to match the dragon’s movements.

Yes, these lower-class dragons are slow. Mustard Dragons are sad creatures that can’t attack sideways, either because of their hard bodies or because they are too big.

If I were heavily armored, I wouldn’t be able to evade its attacks, but for now, I’m wearing lightweight hardened leather armor.

I’ve lightened my load as much as possible, so I can fight effectively with a hit-and-run strategy.

When I slash from the side, the dragon still turns its face toward me.

I circle around it.

“There you go, sideways!”

This is how I gradually chip away at it. It’s a combat technique known as ‘flanking’.

All I have to do is repeat it over and over again. My attack power is still weak and it takes a long time, but I can recover from fatigue with a stamina potion.

As I continued to circle and attack, it seemed that Shuichi Nanami noticed me fighting alone and came to the large hall.

He seemed to be willing to help me.

“Hey, if you can, attack like me. This guy can’t attack except with its head and tail.”

“Wataru Shinjo-kun, I’m helping you now!”

Shuichi Nanami and a few of his men came to my help.

It’ll save us a lot of time.

“I’ll keep the dragon’s attention on me. If you get tired, hide in the corridor and rest. It would be best if you could make a stamina potion.

“I don’t really understand this Stamina Potion thing.”

“It’s a spell. Hold a flask and chant ‘Low Stamina (Den)’.”

“I see, come to think of it, Ryuji Mikagami said something like that.”

I toss him an empty flask.

You can buy them in stores, but flasks are typically reusable. They don’t break easily when thrown (unless you use a flask-bomb spell, which would shatter it into pieces).

You, go ahead and have an indirect kiss with me, handsome Shuichi Nanami.

Ideally, I’d like some of the girls who aren’t participating in the fight to make these potions, but I don’t have the time to explain. If Shuichi Nanami realizes this, he’ll tell them what to do.

I continued to slash away at the enemy’s health, beating the rock-hard, burly mustard dragon to a pulp, and finally, the enemy began to back away.

Slaying a fleeing enemy is a pleasure, but this one is dangerous from behind.

“The real challenge starts here, be careful. The enemy is getting weaker and will retreat, but watch out for its tail at the back; it can kill you!”

“Got it!”

People let their guard down when they’re almost there.

I take a deep breath and calm myself. Then, I keep my position to the side, matching the slow movements of the retreating Mustard Dragon, continuing to chip away at it.

I’ve come this far; I want to defeat it.

Perhaps because of Shuichi Nanami’s skillful command, we succeeded in making the Mustard Dragon scream its last cry without taking any casualties.

“Phew, I barely had any Stamina Potions left.”

“Did… did you beat it?

Not a single one of the potions made by Seki and the others was left.

I had been drinking it, but the rest of Shuichi Nanami’s friends must have been running out of mana too.

“Yeah, we defeated it… Thanks for your help.”

“Wataru Shinjo-kun, thank you so much for helping us! You’re such a brave man!”

A tearful Nanami shakes my hand.

I’m afraid that if I let his words get the better of me, he’ll control me, so I just let it go.

Nevertheless, the fact that only ten boys and maybe four or five girls survived is striking.

Those who are critically injured, having taken in the potent poison, are likely beyond saving. I want to believe that there are other students who managed to escape somewhere else, but….

The classroom group of 60 people was almost wiped out by the ‘invasion’ of a single Mustard Dragon. I hope a lot of them were able to flee.

I feel again how miserable it is. I had never thought of it when I was playing the video game, but ‘Genocide Reality’ is a gruesome game that truly deserves the name of genocide.

The game was originally designed to be played by a party of four to six players.

So why did they give it such an exaggerated title, “Genocide”?

I had my doubts, but after seeing this hellish spectacle, I understood.

This was genocide in the true sense of the word. The reality that could not be conveyed in the game is right in front of you.

Maybe this is what the genius game designer who developed GenoReal, Lord Knight, had in mind when he created GenoReal.

Was the game of 1989 hinting at our destiny?

Thinking about such things aimlessly might also be a form of escaping from reality.

Once the life-and-death battle ends, there is an unbearable harsh reality ahead.

Shuichi Nanami and the others praised me as a hero for coming to their aid, but that was outrageous.

I tried to teach them how to make health potions and antidotes, but their crafting ranks were too low to counter the powerful poison of the Mustard Dragon.

I was out of mana and helpless.

I can only watch helplessly as the students pass out one after another, flailing around from the poison. I can’t feel happy that we have defeated a powerful enemy.

More than half of those who remained in the classroom died, including the seriously wounded who could not be saved.

In terms of an army, we would be wiped out. The total death toll exceeds sixty, a third of the total in just one day of the mysterious transfer.

And the fact that all the teachers and adults, the ones that the children had relied on for emotional support, had died here, made my heart grow colder.

Can we really survive here?

____________________________________________________________________________

Dragon’s invasion, eight members of the combat group, thirty-two of the remaining group, and nine from the independent group have died.

Total deaths: sixty-three, survivors: one hundred and twenty-three.