Underworld Player-Novel

As the body which was missing all its internal organs sat up with a smile, the three Players cautiously backed away from it while moving toward the exit.

Whether or not the body had really been Traveler, there was no question that the thing they were facing now was a supernatural entity.

"Why are you guys so far away? Aren't we on the same team?"

The corpse, now wearing Traveler's gold-rimmed glasses and his characteristic smile, slowly removed the metal playing cards from where they were lodged inside its body, then gracefully got to its feet.

"How I envy you, with your intact bodies. Won't you spare me a h—"

The animated corpse calmly extricated the card which had suddenly embedded itself into its skull, spilling some brain matter in the process. It tilted its head as it inspected the would-be deadly projectile.

"—a heart?"

Seeing that the cards could not hurt it, Iron Blood changed tactics. He said, flatly, "Cover me." then immediately burst forward in a powerful rush.

A Player's level may not always reflect their competence, but a skilled Player was rarely low-leveled.

Unlike Temperance Gentleheart, Iron Blood had not relied on extreme luck to get his levels. He had painstakingly fought and won against many a supernatural entity to reach his level—the highest out of all seven Players, and talking corpses were far from the strangest thing he had ever encountered.

Man-eating sweaters, hives of bugs that gorged on flesh and blood, people in a vegetative state that were overgrown with fungi... Any one of these entities that he had put down in the past were just as, if not more terrifying than this walking, talking cadaver.

As soon as he realized that the playing cards were ineffective against the enemy, Iron Blood instantly switched to a melee weapon—a set of steel knuckles—and leaped toward the corpse. Closing the distance between himself and his target in a flash, he readied a punch aimed directly at the monster's face.

As he swung his right fist, a streak of intense, red flame flared up along the path of his attack. There was a sickening crunch as the burning fist connected, then a raging fire engulfed the body. It even flew backward from the impact, crashing into the far wall so hard that a spiderweb of cracks radiated outward from where it landed, before collapsing in a charred heap.

"Is it over?"

Daoloth breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing Iron Blood's mighty punch. Too soon, it turned out, as Iron Blood soon staggered backward, his face pale and his right hand trembling.

Upon taking a closer look, Daoloth realized that Iron Blood's right arm had shrunk considerably, as if a chunk of his muscle had been removed without breaking the skin. The creepy sight struck renewed fear into her heart.

"Just as I thought... Delicious."

A creaking and groaning sound came from the far wall as the charred heap rose to its feet, revealing that its head was now twisted 180 degrees out of alignment with its body, but it seemed unfazed, and merely reached its hands up to screw its head back the right way round.

The gold-rimmed glasses had been sent flying and were nowhere to be seen, but it was clear that the animated corpse was looking directly at the Players, somehow, through its hollow eye sockets—its eyeballs were presumably wherever its guts had gone.

Iron Blood and Daoloth had the same idea as they scanned the body, and they found what they were looking for in the left arm. As expected, parts of the left arm now looked normal, where once they had looked dry and dead.

"It consumes the attacker's flesh to regenerate its own on contact..."

Daoloth sucked air through her teeth as she realized what had happened.

"It didn't take damage from my attack, either."

Iron Blood followed the corpse with his eyes, then nodded and returned his steel knuckles to the Inventory. With his left hand, he retrieved a sharp axe and hurled it at the enemy.

The axe whirled powerfully through the air, instantly separating the legs from the body, but to Iron Blood's frustration, the legs simply recombined with the torso as soon as the axe passed through.

Obviously, the usual rules did not apply to this supernatural entity. Every entity followed its own rules, after all.

The axe may have failed, but Iron Blood had more up his sleeve. He quickly ushered Daoloth out of the room and closed the door. A large container of gasoline had appeared in his hands, which he proceeded to pour all over the entrance.

Inside, the thing roared as it rushed toward the door at an impossible speed, its intestines flying behind it.

With only moments to spare, Iron Blood tossed a lit lighter at the fuel and escaped with Daoloth to the safety of the stairwell. As for Douchey,SoWhat, he had been the first to flee as soon as he saw the aftermath of Iron Blood's failed punch, and was already anxiously hiding in the stairwell when the other two joined him, the entire room burning behind them.

As Iron Blood turned to watch the fire, Douchey eagerly huddled behind him for safety, embodying the spirit of cowardice to the utmost degree. However, the fire and the door did not seem to hold the monster for long.

As the raging corpse burst out and rushed at them, Iron Blood barked, "Down a floor!"

"But there's nothing below..." Douchey,SoWhat whined, but the other two quickly scrambled downward, completely ignoring him.

Douchey was sure his chances of survival would increase if he took the high road. As he watched them leave, he grit his teeth and sprinted for the third floor instead.

In the blink of an eye, the fast-moving corpse had made it to the stairwell, where it looked toward the upper floors, then to the lower floors as it weighed its options. Finally, just as Douchey,SoWhat had expected, it chose to pursue the Players who had gone downstairs.

He had no intention of entering the third floor, since he knew that was where Traveler, be he man or monster, was. Instead, Douchey had set his sights on the sixth floor. As long as he could rendezvous with Black&White's squad, his safety would be assured.

While he gleefully congratulated himself for outsmarting his former teammates, Douchey,SoWhat failed to notice that he was walking faster and faster just to stay in place, as the steps he climbed got wider and taller...

By the time he realized something fishy going on, the steps had grown to well over half a meter in height and showed no signs of stopping.

As he watched the step, now looking more like a wall, grow by another few meters in the span of seconds, Douchey,SoWhat wore an expression of terror and despair.

Just as he was panicking, a glass jar swooped down from the sky, trapping him inside...