Apocalypse Descends: I Win Effortlessly by Turning Trash into Treasure

”Yes, and no,” Perry Yates said. ”The cards I fused aren’t that invincible. I just feel that fusing these two attributes would make for a much greater threat in the future. Besides, they aren’t from Drakonia.”

At her last words, Sylas Sawyer looked up at Perry Yates.

”Oh, right. The things you asked for are ready. They’ll be delivered this afternoon.”

At Perry Yates’s request, a group of experts from the Survival Game Administration spent a long time researching to identify the right kind of ore—no, gemstone. Since Perry Yates had demanded the highest purity, it took them considerable time to gather everything she needed.

Hearing this, Perry Yates’s eyes lit up. ”Thanks!”

...

In the blink of an eye, it was time for the game to start again. Perry Yates was already prepared.

She wore a black windbreaker and sneakers, her hair tied back and a baseball cap on her head.

With a familiar system chime, Perry Yates vanished on the spot.

[Player Perry Yates

Welcome back to the Survival Game.

This round’s game is Hide-and-Seek.

Each round has ten participants. You will be randomly disguised as an object in your surroundings and must hide. When time is up, the Hunters will begin their search.

Surviving a round will earn you a reward from the system. The game consists of ten rounds. A player who wins five consecutive rounds will earn the right to leave the game, and their accumulated rewards will not be lost.]

After hearing the game’s introduction, Perry Yates froze for a moment. She had just heard Amber Sheridan mention a ten-player game, and now she was in one.

’A hide-and-seek game, though?’

She remembered seeing a hide-and-seek game on the Survival Game website before; the rules seemed similar to this one.

[Round one begins. You have ten minutes to hide. After you’ve found your spot, try not to move. The Hunters have extremely sensitive hearing and are experts at detecting their prey’s slightest movements.

Successfully hide for one hour to end the game.]

The system’s voice faded. Perry Yates looked around; the nine other players, all dressed differently, wore grim expressions.

The next second, with a POP, Perry Yates perceived that everything around her had suddenly gotten much larger. Then it hit her: her surroundings hadn’t grown bigger—she had grown smaller.

She looked down at herself. She had turned into a pot of devil’s ivy.

Perry Yates quickly scanned her surroundings. On the windowsill of a nearby house, she spotted several pots of thriving devil’s ivy.

Without hesitation, Perry Yates hopped over, pot and all.

What Perry Yates failed to notice was that as she started toward the windowsill, the other players behind her were giving her scornful looks.

”Looks like this one’s a newbie.”

”That’s good news. One less competitor.”

Unaware that she had already been written off as a failure, Perry Yates finally reached the base of the windowsill. But instead of jumping up, she hid herself in the nearby tall grass.

’I’m not an idiot,’ she thought. ’A potted devil’s ivy is way too obvious a target. I’m not actually going to hide there. What’s the difference between that and just handing myself over?’

’Still, there’s pitifully little vegetation around here. A potted devil’s ivy is definitely not easy to hide.’

Perry Yates wiggled her leaves. The next moment, the devil’s ivy vanished, replaced by a diamond of about two carats.

’Looks like I can still use my card’s abilities.’

’Even though I’ve changed my shape, everyone just saw me head in this direction. This spot isn’t safe at all, so I have to move.’

Her small size as a diamond allowed her to move without attracting the other players’ attention. Or perhaps, they were simply too preoccupied to notice her.

Compared to being turned into a potted plant, their transformations had been far more unfortunate.

Perry Yates returned to where she first appeared. There was a patch of tall grass nearby. She dove straight into it, then melded into the earth below.

’Heh heh, let’s see who can find me now.’

After finishing, she checked the time—five minutes had passed. Perry Yates turned her attention to the other players.

Some had turned into small, easily hidden objects. Others had become enormous things that were impossible to conceal.

But as they say, everyone has their own tricks.

Perry Yates had no idea how they did it, but somehow, they all managed to hide.

There was one other thing that concerned Perry Yates: these people didn’t seem to be from her world.

The most obvious evidence was their familiarity with the game.

She had sensed it through the plants when she realized someone was exploiting a game bug, hiding in an alcove between the second and third-floor exteriors.

’These people are probably players from other planets.’

Just as Perry Yates’s mind was racing, time was up.

An alarm blared, and the Hunters made their entrance.

Being very close to the entrance, Perry Yates was the first to sense the Hunters’ presence—a faint, oppressive feeling.

Remembering the system’s warning, Perry Yates remained motionless underground, terrified of being discovered.

’Luckily, I’m just a small diamond buried deep underground. My small size makes it easy to remain still.’

Just then, a screen that only she could see appeared before her, displaying the boundaries of the hiding area.

She hadn’t noticed before. The hiding area was a full five kilometers across.

On the map, there were fourteen dots in total: one yellow and thirteen red.

Obviously, the thirteen red dots represented the Hunters.

Perry Yates thought to herself, ’A five-kilometer area, and only one hour... I wonder if they can search the whole thing in time.’

Perry Yates glanced at the timer on the screen; the countdown had begun the moment the Hunters entered.

She was intensely curious about what was happening outside, but the system’s warning kept her from moving rashly, lest she be discovered.

Then, a line of text appeared on the screen.

[Enable God’s-Eye View? This will allow you to easily observe any part of the map, but it comes with the risk of exposing your position.]

Perry Yates was very tempted by the God’s-Eye View, but she abandoned the idea as soon as she saw the risk of exposure.

’Never mind,’ she decided. ’It’s better to play it safe.’

’There might be very few plants in this game, but it’s not like there are none at all.’

With that in mind, Perry Yates began to connect to the outside world through the root systems of the nearby plants.

Meanwhile, twelve fully-armed Hunters appeared at the game’s entrance.

That’s right, there were only twelve Hunters. The reason Perry Yates saw thirteen red dots was that one of them was holding a dog on a leash.