Blood dripped through his fingers, but the young man slumped on the ground, clutching his ear in terror, bit his lip and didn't dare make another sound.
The others, who had been on the verge of speaking, also fell into a fearful silence.
Only Chris narrowed his eyes as he stared at the barrel of the blue skinned man's gun. His mind was already elsewhere, pondering a different question, 'Has this gun bypassed the 'Ancient Fantasy' modifier's restriction on technological weapons, or is it actually a magical weapon disguised as a firearm?'
"Listen, kid. You don't have what it takes. Next time you open your mouth, I'm aiming for the head."
The blue skinned man spoke seriously to the "one eared" boy before standing up from the tombstone. After a moment of suffocating silence, he spoke again.
"This is a dungeon within the Heaven's Selection Space. You are all players chosen by the system. If you survive and complete the main mission, you can return to reality and earn the right to meet other veteran players like me in the Plaza.
As for those who die... they're just dead. In the real world, your death will be written off in some 'reasonable' way.
But honestly, you rookies have some truly rotten luck. The Ghouls 'n Ghosts dungeons are notorious for causing even players with a few successful missions under their belts to face plant. In the player community, we generally agree that even the lowest difficulty of a Ghouls 'n Ghosts origin should be ranked at least Level D."
"As your Guide, my only job is to help you accept reality as quickly as possible and understand your current situation. Once that's done, I'm out of here.
I originally planned to offer some paid assistance, something you could settle later, but considering the high probability that you'll all be wiped out, let's do this: if you're willing to show me the full details of your Talent Skills, I'll lend you some equipment for self defense. However, I'm only helping the five people whose talents I find most valuable."
The blue-skinned man paused and glanced at his watch.
"Three minutes left. After that, the offer's gone."
He looked up to find the group of rookies still staring at him, hardly daring to breathe.
"Oh, right. You can talk now."
As soon as the words left his mouth, he was swarmed. No one questioned their reality anymore; they were all frantic, asking how to show their talent skills and begging for help.
It was clear they were terrified. Even if they still didn't fully understand what was happening, it didn't stop them from scrambling for an edge.
Chris, who was still clutching his bare midriff to keep the chill away, had a slightly different perspective.
He felt that this blue skinned man might be far more benevolent than he seemed. His words were harsh, but they were grounded in hard truth.
Ghouls 'n Ghosts held the reputation of being one of the most difficult side scrolling action games in history. If the dungeon truly stayed faithful to its source material, a "total wipeout" for a group of rookies was almost guaranteed.
Thinking of this, Chris instinctively moved toward the edge of the hill and looked down at the spot where Arthur was lying. To his surprise, the knight, who should have been a corpse by now, was struggling to prop himself up. Their eyes met.
There was a final, mysterious glint in Arthur's eyes, though Chris couldn't quite decipher it. A moment later, Arthur collapsed completely. His flesh began to dissolve at an incredible speed, leaving behind a pristine, white skeleton.
It was exactly the death effect from the game!
Witnessing this gruesome scene, one that would have looked right at home in a low budget horror flick, Chris didn't feel fear. Instead, he took a deep breath of the graveyard air, which was tinged with the faint, copper scent of decay.
For a moment, he felt the thrill of having discovered a rare in-game Easter egg!
This intense excitement was enough to drown out the terror of watching a living person's skin, muscles, and organs dissolve into nothingness before his very eyes.
Chris loved video games. He loved them more than anything, and his taste was decidedly retro. He had a particular fondness for the old games from consoles that had long since been retired.
There was just something about the way those 8 bit pixels were stacked that felt more "authentic" than the most intricate Unreal Engine 5 textures.
And now, those scenes that should have been confined to a pixelated screen were manifesting as a reality before him. It was enough to make him cast everything else aside. He was more than willing to spend the rest of his life exploring this Heaven's Selection Space that used video games as its blueprint.
After quickly calming himself, Chris turned back to the crowd. Under the blue skinned man's guidance, people were opening their personal status panels. Chris noticed a pattern: everyone was using their phones.
He hated to admit it, but in the modern society he came from, a phone had become indispensable. It was a camera, a communication device, a wallet, and a source of entertainment. It had practically become an external organ for the human race.
Chris was no exception. He followed suit, pressing the power button on the phone he'd been holding. He found a completely new app icon on his home screen.
It was a circular frame containing the character "Heaven" written in a bold, sweeping calligraphy--the kind of style that looked like it had been ripped straight from the back of Akuma's gi after an Instant Hell Murder.
For some reason, even though the app icon was black, Chris felt like he could see a "multicolored brilliance" within it.
This was the Heaven's Mark, the universal interface for players--or perhaps the Mark had simply chosen the form that was most familiar to them. Of course, it wasn't the same for everyone.
The older man who'd thought he was hallucinating saw his stats reflected in his AR glasses. A woman wearing a "divorced and happyist" ring saw a projection from her jewelry, and a foul mouthed college student who was bandaging his "one eared" friend had a tattoo interface, even though he had a phone in his pocket.
The app opened as smoothly as an old NES cartridge, zero frame expansion, instant response, and no loading screens whatsoever.
Then, a character panel with a heavy ARPG style was projected before Chris's eyes, using his phone as the medium.
[Name: Chris / Player No: DX233180 (One rename available)]
[Race: Earth Human]
[Attributes: Strength 10, Agility 10, Spirit 12, Charisma 9 (Average value for a healthy adult male is 10; average for a female is 8)]
[Status: HP: 100, MP: 120, No Buffs]
[Talent: Game Expert]
[Skills: None]
[Equipment: None]
[Items: None]
[Wealth: None]
'Wait... I'm the Game Expert?'
Before Chris could tap for more details on his talent, a series of claps rang out from the crowd.
It was the blue skinned man, signaling for attention.
Chris noticed that five people had already received "paid sponsorship" from the man--blades, axes, swords, hammers, and clubs. They were all melee weapons.
Chris's eyes darted around as several thoughts crossed his mind.
First, the blue skinned man had a storage space large enough to hold at least five full sized melee weapons. Whether it was an innate ability or a specialized item like a spatial backpack was unclear.
Second, combined with what the man had said earlier, he might not have known this was a Ghouls 'n Ghosts dungeon before entering, but he almost certainly knew about the "Ancient Fantasy" modifier. That was why everything he'd brought as "loans" were cold weapons.
Finally, the information about a player's talent was valuable, but not excessively so--or rather, low-level talents were practically worthless. Since most players' talents likely wouldn't be very high, the blue-skinned man was probably just "shaking the tree to see what falls out." There was a high chance most of these loans would never be repaid.
Of course, it was also possible that the man was just a "cold faced, warm hearted" sort who was using the Talent Skill check as an excuse to provide some extra help to a group of people who were likely to die.
"Time's up. I hope some of you lucky bastards make it back alive. That's all."
The blue skinned man scanned the crowd one last time. Then, amidst the gasps of the onlookers, he vanished into a pillar of light that descended from the sky, just like the stage transition in a Mega Man game.
At the same time, the tombstone that had hosted the introduction earlier began to tremble. Dust and decay shifted, and then--
A human hand, rotted until only three relatively intact fingers remained, burst through the earth!
The rising mound, the rotting hand, and the occasional flash of lightning against the dark sky combined to create a terrifying image of pure horror.
As the other rookies began to scream in terror at the sight, Chris seized a precious opportunity--
He moved with lightning speed, snapping a photo of the scene. It was a perfect shot, one that looked like it could have been the cover for Left 4 Dead!
[Translated and Rewritten by Shika_Kagura]