Chapter 60
***
Something’s wrong.
That was the first thought that crossed Cynthia’s mind the moment she opened her eyes again.
It was a quest worth 10 Luven, so she’d been worried about how many traps or puzzles she’d have to overcome along the way. But the place she’d been transported to—supposedly ‘for smooth progress’—was right in front of the door to the Spring Blossom Garden.
Staring at the large door engraved with beautiful floral patterns, Cynthia simply blinked in confusion.
“…What on earth is going on?”
There were supposed to be more traps and puzzles to clear before she could reach this point, but she’d been moved here so easily. Even if people complained that the game was too hard, wasn’t this making it far too easy now?
Of course, that was the perspective of someone playing the game, but right now she was inside the game itself. Even if this wasn’t what she wanted, at the very least she should be grateful to have arrived here in one piece… but she wasn’t.
‘If they were going to do this, they could’ve at least given a notice about what exactly changed!’
Cynthia cursed at the developers as she took out the key from her inventory.
“Fine, whatever. Let’s go!”
As she fitted the key, also carved with a floral pattern, into the keyhole on the door, the door immediately opened.
Click!
A fragrant breeze swept in.
Her vision cleared as a dazzling, bright light streamed in, stinging her eyes. Cool air opened up her lungs, which she hadn’t even realized had grown stuffy, filling her with a fresh breath. Cynthia’s eyes, which had been narrowed, widened in wonder.
“Wow.”
Beyond the door was a garden so beautiful that the exclamation slipped out on its own.
A fresh scent was carried on the wind, along with a flurry of flower petals. The massive garden, painted in all the colors of spring, was capped by a clear, watery blue sky. While the outside world viewed through the mansion’s windows was always pitch-black night regardless of the time, here, as if by magic, it was a bright and refreshing morning.
Cynthia passed beneath a branch heavy with yellow flower buds and layers of pink petals, stepping inside. At the entrance, there was a music box, so she saved her progress again. When she looked up, a winding path lined with neatly arranged flowerpots stretched off into the distance.
It was so dazzlingly picturesque that she wanted to stand and admire it forever, but she needed to stay alert.
‘The second floor is much more dangerous than the first.’
The only creatures on the second floor inside the mansion were the packs of Ghost Rats. Of course, there was rat bait, but the aggression and agility of the Ghost Rats in packs was nothing to take lightly. Still, there was something far scarier.
The master of the Spring Blossom Garden and the boss creature of the second floor—the Scarecrow Gardener.
If you were caught by the Scarecrow Gardener, the death scene showed you being dismembered with giant shears and dragged away with a wooden stake rammed through your torso. The brutality of that scene was notorious, rivaling even the death scenes from the Butcher Chef brothers on the first floor.
What’s more, the Scarecrow Gardener displayed incredible speed during chase sequences. One wrong move and you’d be dead instantly. So for Cynthia, who had to use her real legs to get through these dangers rather than just controlling a keyboard with her fingers, there was no way not to be tense.
However, as she crept carefully along the path, Cynthia soon discovered the corpse of the Scarecrow Gardener scattered beneath a neatly trimmed ornamental tree.
“What, what is this…”
It was a sight that could only be described as ‘dead’. Straw was scattered everywhere, the limbs were all torn to pieces, and the torso had been ripped open with bright red flower petals spilling out in place of entrails. Even the Gardener’s weapon, a giant pair of shears, was broken to pieces.
But that wasn’t the only incomprehensible sight she found.
At the end of the path, in a clearing, she came across the bodies of the other creatures that inhabited the Spring Blossom Garden. Nymphs, the second most prominent chasers…
They’re all dead.
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