There was a ga called Vampire Surrounded.
A simple ga where the entire point was to run from enemies swarming in from every direction and take them down.
Its simple fun and controls made it such a massive hit that copycat gas flooded the market, spawning an entire genre people called “Vampire Survivors-likes”.
I’d played it too, of course.
The thing was insanely addictive. When I first tried it, I spent days completely glued to the screen.
The the of the third floor felt remarkably similar to that ga.
The Clear Condition for Floor 3 was survival.
In a wide-open plains field with no walls, staying alive against attacking undead until sunrise was all it took.
Naturally, the undead varied in strength depending on the difficulty.
On Hard, the undead were supposedly “fairly” strong and ca in “fairly” dense waves.
To be more specific, their combat capability was around level 3 to 4.
They had no special abilities beyond attacking with their rotting bodies.
That was Hard, though. As for Nightmare, I was about to find out.
If it was Nightmare, survival alone might not be the Clear Condition.
The the might be shared across difficulties, but Nightmare was the one that always pulled so fantastically deranged, batshit-crazy variation that existed on a completely different plane from the other tiers.
[You have entered Nightmare difficulty, Floor 3.]
As always, I stopped ti the instant I entered and surveyed my surroundings.
An endless plain stretching in every direction, scattered trees and rocks here and there.
On the ground right in front of , an assortnt of weapons stood planted in the earth.
And out across the field, countless undead.
As expected, they were crawling everywhere.
But then again, it wasn’t quite that overwhelming.
It wasn’t the kind of sight that made go, “Oh for fuck’s sake, here we go again,” the mont I laid eyes on it.
Sothing already felt off.
No way Nightmare was only this bad.
‘Are these undead just crazy strong or sothing?’
Or there was definitely sothing else going on.
Well, whatever. Let’s just do this. I’d find out soon enough.
The sky was dark, but a faint light was rising from below the horizon, like the edge of dawn.
I’d heard that on Easy, Normal, and Hard, sunrise ca in about ten minutes.
Maybe on this difficulty, the sun would rise much later than the others.
I finished steeling myself and released Ti Stop.
The mont ti resud, undead sward in from all sides.
I used Fla Strike imdiately.
Three fireballs, each launched in a different direction to form a triangle, then detonated.
BOOM!
Dozens of undead blew apart, chunks of rotten flesh scattering through the air.
I chose a mace from the weapons and picked it up.
Then I moved quickly toward the area where the undead were less densely packed.
The undead’s weak point was the head.
Less of a weak point and more that crushing the head was the only way to actually kill them. Otherwise they just kept moving.
I swung the mace at the undead clinging to .
Thwack! Crack!
Their heads burst apart easily.
They weren’t particularly sturdy.
After beating down a few, I got a rough estimate.
‘Their combat power isn’t all that high.’
From what I could gauge, the undead’s physical capabilities were roughly around level 10.
And their durability was even lower, probably because their bodies were so decayed.
They weren’t nearly enough to stop . None of them posed a threat individually.
Graaaagh…
The problem was the sheer number swarming in.
If I stopped moving for even a mont, I’d be surrounded on all sides in no ti.
I swung the mace, crushing undead skulls, while also firing off Fairy Light Bullets.
Ba-ba-ba-bang!
Five light projectiles traced arcs through the air and blew the heads off undead in their path.
I kept pushing toward areas where the undead were thinner, carving a path forward.
Smash them with the mace, fire off light bullets, blast Fla Strike into clusters of undead.
God, the stench, though.
Corpses in every direction ant the stink was absolutely unbearable.
The fact that I even had the ntal bandwidth to think about that ant I still had room to breathe.
I ran out of Willpower and stopped ti to recharge.
Having more magic skills definitely drained Willpower fast.
Still, I was clearing out undead that much more efficiently because of it.
My spells were blowing them apart far faster than they could swarm in.
On my end, if I wanted to, I could keep refilling Willpower and spam magic all day long.
And these undead were way dumber than I’d expected.
They’d co groaning after , but the mont I ducked behind a rock and broke their line of sight, they just stopped dead in their tracks.
Seed like they were operating on pure visual stimulus and nothing else.
Unfortunately, with undead closing in from every direction, hiding wasn’t a viable strategy.
I topped off my Willpower to full and set off again.
Crash! Ka-boom!
I pushed forward without pause, blowing undead apart with magic and mace.
Before long, an efficient combat strategy took shape on its own.
Fla Strike into the densest clusters.
Move into the thinned-out area, using light bullets for a second wave of culling.
The last few stragglers that got close got their heads caved in with the mace.
Then refill Willpower when it ran dry.
I didn’t even need Blade Storm.
Things were working fine as they were, so there was no reason to wait for the undead to pile up around just to use it.
While I was plowing through undead and moving forward, I stepped over a patch of bare ground where not a single blade of grass grew, unlike the terrain around it.
“…?”
The sensation underfoot felt subtly wrong, and I tilted my head as I passed over it.
Anyway, was this really all there was?
Even with the large number of undead, it didn’t feel particularly grueling.
‘This is… pretty manageable?’
The instant that thought reflexively crossed my mind, I flinched.
No, you idiot. Never let your guard down.
On Nightmare, feeling “oh shit, I’m screwed” was supposed to be normal.
Feeling “this is pretty manageable” was simply not possible. If it felt that way, it was a vicious trap.
There had to be sothing more. Definitely.
With that thought, I kept quietly clearing out undead.
But no matter how carefully I scanned my surroundings, there were still no signs of anything unusual.
Was it really just about surviving until sunrise? That couldn’t be right.
Paranoia crept in and my thoughts spiraled.
I crushed the head of an undead that had latched onto and was about to move on.
That was when Sixth Sense rang every alarm bell it had.
“…!”
Don’t hit it.
But the recognition ca a beat too late. The mace had already caved in the undead’s skull.
The headless body suddenly swelled, turning a violent, glowing red.
I stopped ti imdiately.
ntal Concentration. Teleportation, as far away as possible.
BOOOOOM!
A massive explosion tore through the air.
Even bigger than a Fla Strike.
Having barely dodged with Teleportation, I pressed a hand to my chest, exhaling hard.
“What the hell.”
An undead that blows up when you touch it? What was this, a Creeper?
I knew it. I knew there had to be sothing else.
Now aware of the Explosion Undead, I sharpened my focus and honed my senses to a razor edge.
I’d only triggered it because my mind had been wandering, but if I concentrated, Sixth Sense would be able to filter them out.
I was about to crush another undead’s head when Sixth Sense flagged it. I stopped.
‘Ah, these ones have redder eyes.’
On closer look, I realized the Explosion Undead had a far more intense red glow in their eyes compared to the regular ones.
I put distance between myself and the Explosion Undead, then picked it off with a light bullet.
It had been chasing but detonated spectacularly mid-stride, taking out the regular undead around it for the ride.
The Explosion Undead started appearing mixed in among the regular ones like landmines, but it wasn’t a big deal.
The scary part was getting blindsided. Once I knew about them, what was the problem?
I systematically picked them off from a distance with light bullets, never letting a single one get close.
That was fine and all, but sothing else was bothering …
‘…They’re increasing?’
The Explosion Undead weren’t the only change.
The number of undead swarming in was growing at a rate I could tangibly feel.
I used magic more aggressively and refilled Willpower more frequently.
That was when I started using Blade Storm too.
KRAASH!
I jumped with Leap, then dropped into a packed cluster of undead with a Blade Storm.
Undead were shredded and flung away en masse, knocking back even the ones behind them.
The knockback power on this thing was no joke. If only the cooldown were shorter.
‘Now this is starting to feel like Nightmare difficulty.’
Things were beginning to get intense.
Which was almost a relief, since until just now it had been so easy it was making nervous.
I kept cutting through the ever-growing tide of undead, carving out an escape route.
Ruff! Ruff!
And what the hell were those.
Now beast-type undead were showing up too.
I crushed the skull of a Wolf Undead lunging at my face with Swing.
Then I picked off the nutria-looking undead trailing behind it with individual light bullets.
These things were far faster and more powerful than the standard humanoid undead.
The difficulty had just jumped another 1.2 tis or so.
…Yeah, fuck. This was the kind of thing that made it Nightmare.
I’d anticipated this much.
But it wasn’t going to get any harder than this, right?
Things were starting to push my limits.
Swing, kill, blast, push through.
Locked in a lonely war against the dead, I checked the sky.
‘When is the sun coming up…’
…Huh?
Only then did I register sothing was wrong.
It had been nearly as dark as pre-dawn from the start.
But now that I looked, the sky wasn’t getting brighter. It was getting darker.
Even the faint glow along the horizon had faded further than when I’d first arrived.
Ah… what the fuck? Hold on.
Was the sun not rising? Was it setting this whole ti?
‘Then what the hell does that an.’
On the other difficulties, holding out until dawn was all it took. If it was the opposite, then this was…
Graaaagh…
There was no ti for shock. The undead kept coming and I had to keep fighting.
Grimacing, I moved without rest, body and magic working nonstop.
In real ti, barely five minutes had passed since I’d entered, but I’d already refilled Willpower over ten tis. Subjectively, the battle felt like it had been going on forever.
Before long, the sky was swallowed by total darkness.
At the sa mont, Sixth Sense scread its warnings like it was losing its mind.
The source of danger was everywhere.
Nightmare. Right, Nightmare.
This much was… to be expected…
“…”
Nightmare, you absolute lunatic.
Black dots lined the horizon in every direction.
As they drew closer, they transford into what looked like a black tidal wave.
Every single one of them was undead.
Without exaggeration, tens of thousands of undead were converging from every direction.
I stopped ti.
No, no, wait, hold on…
This didn’t make any sense.
They needed to give sothing physically possible to survive. How was anyone supposed to live through this?
‘Fuck, seriously.’
Right.
This was exactly what Nightmare was.
Now, finally, I felt well and truly screwed.
Even as the crushing weight of despair bore down on , I racked my brain for a way to survive.
Was I… missing sothing?
There was no way the Clear Condition was just to survive against that locust swarm of undead bearing down on . No matter how I looked at it.
The sun had even turned against , doing the opposite of the other difficulties.
It was disorienting, but in a way, that reversal was proof that simply holding out wasn’t how this floor was ant to be cleared.
The mory of the iron ball rolling toward on Floor 1 flashed through my mind.
Back then, I’d been just as sure I was dead. But there had been a way out.
‘…!’
What flashed through my mind in that instant was that patch of ground, conspicuously barren and out of place compared to the surrounding terrain.
The spot where the ground had felt strange underfoot when I’d stepped on it earlier.
It had resonated as if it were hollow underneath.
‘Where was it?’
I released ti and quickly scanned the area.
I was pretty sure it was over that way… Found it!
I sprinted toward the anomalous patch of ground.
Magic flew in every direction as I blasted apart the undead blocking my path.
The massive undead wave was closing in fast, and urgency clawed at .
I reached the strange patch of ground.
The mont I saw it, I fired off a Fla Strike.
BOOM!
The surface shattered apart.
When the dust and flas cleared, a large opening opened in the earth. Just as I’d thought, it was a passage!
Without a mont’s hesitation, I threw myself into the passage, leaving the swarming undead behind.
Read more chapters on my Patreon: /DDTL
User Comments
0 comments from readers