Escape - Chapter 29.2
Chapter 29.2
Eric asked, nervously wiping his face. Gato, dazed, kept glancing between Adeline, the ongoing battle, 12 on his throne, and the enraged Shade. Adeline smiled at them. She’d learned in the few days they’d spent together that they weren’t bad people. Not at all.
“I don’t know. Not really.”
“Huh?”
“But I can tell you one thing: I’m human. Just like you. I feel emotions. I have free will.”
Confusion flickered across Eric’s composed features. A sharp laugh cut through the air.
“This game is incredibly well-made. Isn’t it, Lion? A realist like you, falling for a female character in a game.”
Shade roared with laughter, Eric’s ears flushing crimson. Then, the laughter abruptly ceased. A sharp voice followed.
“Get out. I don’t make deals with things that aren’t human. I won’t run, even if my head explodes from overheating.”
The most dangerous people are those with nothing to lose. Shade was one of them now. Adeline bit her lip.
“I understand you’re grieving for your comrades. I… I’ll apologize on Damian’s behalf. I’ll do anything to atone. But as you said, this is a ‘game’ to you, isn’t it? They’re alive in your reality.”
“You understand grief? This is getting ridiculous.”
The last vestiges of amusement vanished from Shade’s face.
“Dixit autem serpens ad mulierem. ‘Nequaquam morte moriemini!’”
Unfamiliar words, Latin, flowed from his lips.
“That’s what the snake monster said before it attacked. Do you know what it means?”
Eric frowned and shook his head. Escape, a global game, boasted a flawless translation system, rendering foreign languages in the player’s native tongue. Latin, however, wasn’t included.
“Latin? Do they speak Latin in Korea?”
Gato asked, bewildered. Shade chuckled coldly, taking a step toward Adeline.
“Even if I don’t understand it, my bony friends do.”
“What did it mean?”
Adeline asked calmly, watching Shade’s relentless approach. He answered.
“‘And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die!’”
The original sin from the scriptures. Eating the forbidden fruit of knowledge, which God had commanded them not to touch. To the hesitant humans, the serpent had said, “For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”
Ye shall not surely die.
“You, with your immortality, claim to understand the death of mortals. You stupid AI.”
Skill: Hellfire Pit (Max) activated.
Stopping before Adeline, Shade smirked, one corner of his mouth lifting. Simultaneously, Adeline swung her scythe.
Item: Curse of the Forbidden Fruit (2) buff applies ACTUAL DAMAGE.
The coppery tang of blood filled the air as it sprayed across the hall. Before Adeline could comprehend the message, heat surged from the ground. Through the haze of smoke, Shade’s face, his robe torn open, was exposed. Half of it was covered in burn scars, past and present wounds as grotesque as a god’s envious wrath against beauty. He wiped his cheek, a manic grin spreading across his face.
“Ha, fvck. You know something?”
Hellfire Pit. A horrific skill that brought the fires of hell to earth. Even as he spoke, a sea of lava was forming, consuming the floor, leaving only the raised platform beneath their feet untouched.
“I’ve only bled three times in this game. This is the first time I’ve wanted to kill something so badly I don’t care if I die doing it.”
The fiery pit expanded, encroaching on the battlefield. The army of darkness dissolved into the ground, leaving only the Serpientes to shriek as they fell into the inferno.
“You said you understand grief? Now I understand the uncanny valley. It’s disgusting. Stop pretending to be human, you fake. Be more like ‘it,’ and show your machine side.”
He jerked his head toward 12, emphasizing “it.” Everyone present sensed his excessive rage, his hatred for 12, who had killed his comrades, now transferred to Adeline. Eric felt that Shade’s fury wasn’t solely due to this incident; it was the culmination of long-simmering resentment, a single drop overflowing an already full cup. He knew this kind of emotion well; it was common among the people in his life. Humanity’s ugliest motive and its most beautiful flaw.
“Don’t you dare talk about understanding death when you can’t die.”
Envy. He envied Adeline’s immortality.
“Crazy b*stard.”
Shade was out of his mind. She had flipped a switch in him, whatever it was. Eric groaned, watching the ever-expanding inferno. He knew this skill. It was the same one that had reduced the Orc District, District 9, to a fiery wasteland overnight. An indiscriminate attack that spared neither friend nor foe, forcing every player except Shade to evacuate the zone. When they returned, only a few thousand monsters remained in what had once been a thriving Orcish civilization of millions.
“That’s unfortunate. I don’t want to kill you.”
Adeline said, looking down at the scythe in her hand. ‘ACTUAL DAMAGE’? What did that even mean?
“You could have killed him if you wanted to?”
Eric murmured. That’s certainly how her words sounded. And it was true that Adeline had the opportunity to strike before Shade’s skill activated. Was taking only an eye a show of mercy or a demonstration of skill? Perhaps she was far more powerful than he realized. If so, what exactly was she?
Forgaai
shade is so annoying ugh. Adeline should just off him
Juvyyy
What if… “ACTUAL DAMAGE” meant actually damaging their physical body outside the game. Would Adeline feel guilty or not? Since for her this is reality. Would the players fear her? Would they be on her side? Would she be an antagonist in their story? Oohhhhh im so excited I’ve reread this a lot of times already.