Genocide Reality Chapter 7

Mustard Dragon Invasion

Translator: Rockgollem

Editors: Vysne, Gingery Klaus, Skythewood

Illustration: Shadowskyexe

“Shinjo-kun…. Shinjo-kun!”

When I opened my eyes, Seki Midori was shaking me, trying to wake me up. It felt really good after a deep sleep.

Perhaps I felt more relieved because Kumiko was sleeping beside me. The only place that I could sleep comfortably like this was probably the inn and the town.

“Sorry to wake you, but I was in the town and there’s an emergency there!”

“What do you mean an emergency?”

The emergency Seki mentioned could only be if something abnormal happened to the town. He said Nanami Shuichi’s battlegroup armed themselves and went off to rescue the sixty students and teachers left in the classrooms.

And they came back tattered. They should already knew where the traps are and monsters shouldn’t be a big problem now. What everybody who came back said was that there was an immensely powerful monster.

“They said a dragon appeared out of nowhere.”

“A dragon….”

I had the game knowledge, so I knew that an “invasion” had happened immediately. For an invasion to start almost as soon as we were teleported, the group who stayed behind at the classrooms was not lucky at all.

One of the hallmark event in Geno-Real was an “invasion”. It was a random, but regular event that had monsters from lower floors wander up to the upper floors.

Geno-Real had specific type of monsters that lived on each floor. For example, first floor was for pig faced orcs and tiny goblins. The second floor was populated by dog faced kobolds.

Furthermore, the orcs and kobolds had separate organization, and as if the monsters had rivalry between them, they fought every time they met each other. Thus the pigmen and dogmen lived separately on the first and second floor.

The upper floors maintained balanced between each monster factions like that, but stronger monsters come from lower floors via invasion to gobble up the weaker monsters. Any player who gets caught up in the invasion and couldn’t escape invariably died as well.

If it was a dragon invasion, I suspected it could be either a Lesser Dragon from the fifth floor or a Mustard Dragon from the sixth floor.

“Did you hear what colour they were?”

“They said it was dirty reddish-brown.”

I should praise Seki who brought back important information despite being flustered, but that was not enough to go on yet. Lesser Dragons were foggy rouge in colour and Mustard Dragons were poisonous purple.

The torches in the dungeon was insufficient source of light to properly illuminate the area. It would be hard to discern between monsters in the darkness. Lesser Dragons were low-end dragons that could only use weak physical attacks, but if it were Mustard Dragons which sprayed out poison, Nanami’s entire party could have been wiped out.

It was needless to say which one was more dangerous and I could only hope that it was the Lesser Dragon.

“Seki, you’re not going to say you’re going to help them?”

“But they asked everybody for help…”

A nice guy like him would definitely help. I shook Seki’s slender shoulders and reminded him.

“Seki, you will get killed immediately if you go. One hit and you will be dead. I can tell you for certain that you are just rushing to your death.”

“Then what should I do…”

You simply needed to abandon them. To run into an invasion from the get go, they were simply unlucky…… was what I was hoping to tell him, but Seki wouldn’t understand.

“I’ll go save them. So you… you can… make potions for me. I don’t need any health potions, but make as many stamina potions as possible. You know how to make it, right?”

“Of course. I’ll do anything to help you out, Shinjo-kun! But don’t do anything dangerous, alright?”

I would die with just a single strike from a dragon, too. There was no reason to have any health potions in situations like that. Whether I try to run or fight, what I needed was stamina potion to keep me going.

“Of course. I always keep my safety as a priority. I’m going to scout out and if I can help them, I’ll help them out. Kumiko and you three, don’t follow me. You guys will just slow me down.”

My words didn’t make sense. Helping them while it was dangerous. But, it seemed Kumiko and Seki understood.

They both knew that I was not the kind of person who’d risk my own life to save others. Did they really trust me or not? I couldn’t help but smile bitterly.

“Seki, you’re a priest, so keep making the potions. Remember to practice until you can make higher ranked ones.”

“Alright.”

Not only Seki, but Kumiko and the girls made the potion, too. I received ten bottles of beginner stamina potion, donned my hard leather armour, knee protectors and boots. Leather armour felt thin to be going up against a dragon, but lightness was the key. I wore my backpack and headed down to the dungeon with the samurai sword in my hand.

There were people already gathered by the staircase leading to the first underground floor. Several of the guys from Nanami’s group offered to go with me, but I rejected them all. It was admirable that they were willing to go back after running away, but a large crowd was only a hindrance.

“Nanami’s not here?”

“Nanami-kun’s still down there….”

Is that so. If it was Nanami, he probably wouldn’t have died yet… I didn’t need any hindrances, but I needed baits with me who would distract the monsters.

However, my calculation told me that there were plenty of baits already down below. If they weren’t already dead that is.

“Lo Light”

This was the spell for the simplest magic torch. In this game, you combined Moon Runes to invoke magic.

In the settings of Geno-Real, mana flowed via wind from the moon. The mana a body could receive and retain became the mana you could use.

Enough of the details for now. Your mana and mage rank went up by successfully casting a spell. Even with my weak mana, there was enough to use simplest light spell once.

It was still dark, but I didn’t have to hold a torch, and it was a cake walk since I already knew everything about the dungeon layout. The first floor was like my own backyard. I could stroll along the floor and use the traps to kill the monsters.

There were no monsters that came out to attack in the first place, but only corpses with gigantic bite marks. The idiots probably managed to bring the dragon almost to the entrance of the stair while running away.

The orcs and goblins, which would only be a prey for the dragon, were probably shaking in the other end of the dungeon. After carefully sifting through the corpses, some were just an arm or an leg, I realized it was a mixture of human, orc and goblins remains.

It was devouring everything at a ravenous pace. Total annihilation was probably only a matter of time.

“Let’s go take a look at the classroom first!”

It was probably headed there or in the midst of attacking the classrooms. It was difficult to say whether they’d still be alive by the time we get there.

There were around sixty people left in the classrooms plus the people who split up and were going around on their own. If Nanami’s battle group added their force, we just might have enough people to take that thing down.

Lesser Dragons had several critical weakness which became apparent if you observed them carefully. If we respond calmly, we could figure them out. Worse comes to worse, I could run back to town while it was attacking others.

However, there was no way that an untrained bunch of people would work in sync with others. There were also students left in the classrooms who barely had the strength to move. There probably weren’t even that many people who could think about throwing rocks or slashing at the dragon with a sword while people around them were getting eaten.

That meant the chance of finding anyone alive was even grimmer..

They should have split up in all direction and ran. If they hid in the classroom thinking it was safe, they would have been massacred with nowhere to run to.

As we got closer to the classroom, the number of corpses increased. I feared for the worst. If they were being slowly killed one by one inside the classrooms, it would be the worst case scenario.

“Arrrrrrgggghhh, stop, sto- ku” “It’s burning! It’s burning! Guaraaaagh” “My eyes! Eyes!!”

Just around the bend where the classrooms were located, an absolute cacophony sounded. With these screams, I could confirm that it was indeed a Mustard Dragon and not a Lesser Dragon.

Burning and eye wounds…. Definitely a poison attack.

We had the worst luck.

To think that the day I decided to start adventuring, a monster worse than the one from the fifth floor, the one from the sixth floor, ‘invaded’. It wasn’t impossible, but we really were unlucky.

I ran into the hallways and found the poisonous, purplish-skinned Mustard Dragon occupying the middle of the tunnel with its huge body while spraying its poisonous breath everywhere.

The Mustard Dragon’s breath was modelled after mustard gas. It was a deadly chemical weapon which burned your skin and blinded you.

Fortunately, the gas flew in a straight trajectory like it did in the game. The fact that it could only attack an opponent in a straight line made it better compared to the real world chemical weapon. It could be compared to an arrow or fireball attack. You could dodge the attack by timing it right.

If poisonous gas really did pile up in underground dungeon, every single living thing would probably be wiped out. So this poisonous breath that could only attack forward, could be seen as a sort of a magic attack. I guess Dragons really were magical creatures after all.

Leaving that aside, should I take care of this? There seemed to be people who were alive and groaning on the ground even after being hit by the gas. There should have been at least 60 people in the classroom…. were they all killed?

I felt pity for the people who were just injured by the gas rather than those who were killed by it. It was a game-like attack, but the pain was real. It made me cringe to watch them writhe in pain.

The Mustard Dragon, which was the size of a small mountain, had its back towards me, but it was dangerous to just attack it without a plan. It used its long tail to attack when struck from behind.

Needless to say, for an apprentice-level warrior like me, it would only take one hit to kill me. The Dragon was shooting its gas left and right trying to catch anyone attempting to run away while heading deeper into the hallway.

I didn’t know what kind of logic process it worked on, but I could feel its malicious intent of trying to herd people into a dead end. This probably meant there were people from Class A hiding in their classroom.

Considering the Dragon’s size, it wouldn’t be able to fit more than its neck through the classroom, so they could technically escape if they plan things out correctly. That didn’t mean it was a simple task either and people were probably hosed down while trying to look for an opportunity to jump into the classroom.

I didn’t expect the Mustard Dragon to be so intelligent. It was killing a large number of people in an efficient manner. No, to praise this kind of thing would make me one twisted bastard.

The best thing I could do was to do a U-turn right here and go back. There was no need to risk my life just to save a bunch of idiots who couldn’t escape on their own. Plus, the Mustard Dragon was just too strong. Maybe if I just told Seki and his group it was too late by the time I got there….

“Everyone, the monster can’t get inside the room. Split up left and right.”

Nanami Shuichi’s shouts could be heard from the innermost classroom. That guy. He could have ran away, but probably couldn’t leave his friends behind.

I went into deep thought here. If I left Nanami to die here, annoying things would happen, simply because it was best for the surviving students to have a leader.

“I guess it can’t be helped. Time to try to kill it.”

My other reason was simply because it excited me to try to kill an actual dragon.. I set down all the unnecessary gear, took my samurai sword and slowly snuck towards the Mustard Dragon.

I threw a rock with all my strength.

“Get over here, you oversized lizard.”

Its mouth was far away enough from me, but a poisonous breath attack would be coming soon, so I ran towards the large clearing as fast as possible. If it was somewhere big like the clearing, I could at least dodge the breath, even if the dragon was large.

Also, my target was not its back. But its sides!

“Roooaaarrr!!!”

Even when I slashed at its stomach, its hardened scales barely took any damage. However, it was probably getting annoyed at me prickling away at its stomach and turned its heavy body towards me.

“Take that!”

I matched the dragon’s movement to its side. These lower class dragons were slow. Plus, either because it was inflexible or it was too big, the Mustard Dragon couldn’t attack at its sides.

If I was wearing heavier armour, I probably wouldn’t be fast enough to dodge, but what I had on was light leather armour. I also left behind anything I didn’t need, so hit-and-run was the perfect strategy.

Every time I attacked, the dragon would turn to face me. I simply circled it to keep attacking its sides.

“Sides again!”

I slowly chipped away at its HP. This was the technique they called “Circling”. I only needed to repeat the process, but since my attack was so low, it would take inordinate amount of time. Stamina potions were vital in recovering my tiredness

While I was circling it, Nanami must have noticed me fighting the dragon and came to help. He seemed eager to help.

“Oi, if you can, imitate me and attack with me. This thing can only attack from its tail and the head.”

“Is that Shinjo Wataru-kun? Alright.”

Nanami Shuichi and bunch of other guys came to help. It was a welcoming help since the time it takes to kill that thing would decrease significantly.

“I’ll keep aggroing the dragon. If you get tired, hide in the tunnel and rest for a bit, though best case scenario would be if you could make Stamina potions.”

“We don’t know how to make them.”

“It’s a spell. Take a flask and chant “Lo Den”.”

“Right, Mikagami Ryuji-kun said something like that, too.”

I tossed the empty flask I already drank from to him. You could buy new ones from the shop, but flasks were re-usable. It didn’t break when you threw it either. (There was a magic that made a bomb with the flask and it would break the flask in that case.)

It was an indirect kiss with me though. I was hoping that a girl who wasn’t fighting would be making the potions, but there was no time to explain all the details. If Nanami Shuichi was smart enough, he would give the order.

After ganging up on that scaly and hardened Mustard Dragon for a while, it finally started trying to escape. Killing an enemy that was running away was fun, but with this dragon, even attacking from the rear was dangerous.

“This is the real deal from now on! It’s going to try to run away since it’s weakened now, but the tail will still kill you with one hit!”

“Alright!”

Humans tended to get careless towards the end. I calmed myself down with a deep breath and kept up with the dragon that was trying to run away to keep attacking its sides.

I wanted to kill it since we got this far. Whether it was due to Nanami’s leadership or not, we succeeded in bringing down the Mustard Dragon without any casualties.

“Phew, I just ran out of stamina potions, too.”

“Did... did we kill it?”

None of the potions that Seki’s group made for me were left. We refilled the bottle as much as possible so Nanami’s group was probably out of mana as well.

“Ah we did it…. Nice work everybody.”

“Shinjo Wataru-kun, thank you for helping us! You’re a brave man.”

Nanami held my hand while barely holding back his tears chock full of emotion. Yea, yea, I wasn’t going to fall for one of this tricks so I replied as cordially as possible.

Leaving that aside, the people who survived on Nanami’s side were ten guys and four, no, five girls. Anyone who was heavily injured probably won’t survive due to the poison. I wanted to believe that there were others who made it out alive…

Just with a single Mustard Dragon invasion, classrooms filled with 60 people were wiped out. It would have made me feel better if some managed to survive. I felt the despair once again. I didn’t really think about it when I was playing it on the console, but Genocide Reality really was a grim game befitting its name.

Originally, the game was designed for co-op party play between 4-6 people. So why was the title overblown as “genocide”?

I wondered why at the time, but looking at the hellish scene ahead of me now, I could feel the reason. This was the true genocide. The reality that the game could not convey was in front of me now.

Perhaps this was what the genius creator, Road Knight had in his mind when he created Geno-Real. Was the game from 1981 simply a prophecy for our fate?

I might be trying to avoid the reality by sinking into these kind of thoughts. After every battle, which our lives depended on, was the reality that we could barely stomach.

Nanami Shuichi’s group praised me as a hero, but I’m not a hero. I taught them how to make health potions and stamina potions, but Mustard Dragon’s poison was too strong for the potions we could make with our current rank.

I had also run out of mana a long time ago, and couldn’t do anything. The only thing I could do was watch helplessly as other students writhe around in pain and die one by one. Defeating that dragon didn’t make me one bit happy.

Including the injured we couldn’t save, over half the people that stayed in the classrooms died. In military terms, it was irrecoverable decimation. Total casualties were over sixty people so far. From that strange teleportation, ⅓ of the class died in a single day.

The teachers weren’t very trustworthy, but they were the point of mental and emotional support for many students. However, they were all killed as well.

Can we really survive in this place?

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