Horror Game Developer: My games aren't that scary!

Chapter 479: The Butcher [5]

Swoosh!

The first thing the team noticed upon entering the Gate was the heavy stench of blood. It clung to the air and soaked into the silence, filling the entire area until the faces of a few scrunched up as a result of the smell.

”...Ugh.”

Marcus was no different, holding onto his nose while looking towards the two other people standing next to him.

”I’ve been to my fair share of Gates, but I’ve never been in one that has ever smelled this bad.”

”You’re not the only one.”

Elias replied, quietly retrieving his square-framed glasses and wiping them with a cloth before slipping them away and replacing them with a circular-framed pair. The new glasses had gold rims, giving him a more scholarly air than before.

Of course, he didn’t have to change glasses just for a style change.

”So? Did you find anything?”

”Give me a moment. Don’t rush me.”

Holding onto the rims, Elias scanned the surroundings as he took a close look at his surroundings. He took in the dangling chains, the flickering overhead lights, and the blood splatters throughout.

For the next couple of minutes, everyone stood in silence, quietly waiting for him to speak.

And then—

”There are numerous anomalies located on both paths that we take. I do not feel the presence of a boss just yet, but he’ll eventually show up once we manage to defeat all the little minions.”

”Any abnormalities?”

Catherine spoke, her emerald-green eyes scanning the surroundings as she wore a nice, bubbly smile that seemed to ease the tension.

”...If there are no abnormalities, let’s go ahead and start. The faster we get this done, the faster we can go back to the Guild.”

”Alright.”

Putting on a pair of gauntlets, Andreas took a step forward, his enormous body towering over the rest as he moved toward one of the doors positioned at each end of the room.

”It’s been a while since I’ve entered a Gate. I’ve just about gotten quite tired of waiting at the Guild. Now that I’m finally back, I’m planning on stretching my body a bit.”

Smacking the two gauntlets, he laughed.

”That said,” Andreas said, chuckling as he spared Elias and the others a glance, ”I really like the sound of going back earlier. Since time inside of the Gate flows much faster than the real world, its best if we do this quickly. Let’s do the usual. I’ll take the lead, and ya’ll follow me from behind. How about it?”

”That sounds fine with me.”

Elias replied sternly, his gaze flickering in all directions as he studied everything around them.

”I’ll take care of the scouting while everyone else takes care of the rest. The standard time for the gate clearance is three hours and forty six minutes. I expect us to be able to clear this faster than the record.”

”Don’t take this lightly.”

Catherine cut in, her lips pulling into a thin smile.

”This is a trial, not a random gate excursion. We’re all going to be graded on our performances. not how long it takes for us to clear the gate. The gate isn’t going to be like one that everyone is used to. Furthermore, given everything that’s happened recently, there’s no guarantee the Gate will act normally. I’d even argue that the chances of something going wrong are quite high. If I were you... I’d all be careful.”

Catherine gave everyone a meaningful look before interlocking her hands behind her back and making her way toward the far end of the room.

Her words stirred a sharp tension through the room as they all glanced at one another, their smiles fading while their expressions shifted into something far more serious. If the fact that this was a trial wasn’t enough to make them treat the Gate with caution, then the second part of her statement was what truly added the cherry to the cake.

Everyone’s mind went back to the Malovia incident a few weeks back. From the anomaly that brought despair to the world, to everything else that happened in between.

The images remained vivid in the minds of all those present, and as they all thought back to those moments, they realized that they really couldn’t take the situation lightly.

Who knew if they’d end up being the next victim?

”Let’s go.”

As Catherine’s words faded, everyone followed along in silence.

***

Drip! Drip...!

Blood dripped from the body of my blade, staining the ground beneath it.

”Haa...”

Breathing was a little difficult beneath the mask, sweat dripping down the side of my face as I looked around. Carcasses littered the place, severed limbs appearing in all directions as some twitched while others still tried to crawl towards me.

’So this is a hoarding gate?’

By now, I had already understood what sort of Gate I was in.

This was no normal gate.

It was no doubt a hoarding gate.

There was no real scenario to speak of. There were just endless anomalies that appeared with each room that passed. The goal of the Gate was to find the ’boss’ and kill it. In that regard, Hoarding Gates were relatively simple in their structure.

But that was the issue.

Because of their simple structure, everything else was a lot more difficult. The anomalies were less tricky, but they were without a doubt more powerful.

Furthermore, finding the boss was no easy task.

Like endless mazes, Hoarding Gates were designed to make it as hard as possible to find the boss. There were a few exceptions, but that was just about it.

”Hmm.”

Standing still, I stared at the compass.

It was no longer pointng at a single direction. It was now spinning in all sorts of directions.

’This makes the situation a little troublesome.’

Kicking a limb to the side, I tightened my grip on the knife and closed my eyes. Several dots appeared within my darkened vision, each one relatively far away from me. Fixing my attention on the dots, I soon opened my eyes and shook my head.

’None of them appear to be the boss.’

Although I wasn’t certain, a gut feeling told me.

But more than that..

”Why is such an ’anomaly’ haunting me?”

This was the thing that I was trying to understand the most. I wasn’t quite familiar with this anomaly, nor had any interactions with it.

It was different compared to the Conductor.

’No, but now that I think about it, I also did get haunted before. I’m still not quite sure about that one either. I’ve only got a couple of guesses, but no real certainty.’

”Could it be the system?”

This felt like the most probable scenario.

Thinking about the system potentially being the one responsible for the entire situation, my grip over the knife tightened as I wiped some of the blood that had stained the pig mask.

”...I don’t like this.”

Yet again, the system was trying to control me.

”I really don’t like this.”

I had already given it a warning, but it didn’t seem to have paid much attention to it.

Wiping the mask once more, I looked ahead and proceeded to the next room.

’I hope I’m just overthinking things.’

Otherwise...

”I really don’t want to resort to extreme measures like before.”

I really didn’t.