Humanity.
Once the strongest in the surface world's food chain.
But that world no longer exists anywhere.
The cause wasn't a natural disaster or nuclear war, but monsters that suddenly appeared.
The kind of monsters you'd expect to see only in a game.
With all kinds of modern weapons proving useless against them, humanity eventually fled underground.
And there, humans built a paradise of their own.
To some, it was nothing more than a stifling prison.
But to me, it was my precious and only home.
And yet.
'Damn it! What the hell is that?!'
A species of monster I'd never seen before in my life.
A gigantic humanoid monster was trampling over my home—our paradise.
"Ha, haha......."
I let out a hollow laugh as I watched 'Paradise,' humanity's last bastion, crumble into ruins.
We'd easily held off monster waves numbering in the thousands, only to be wiped out by a single creature.
"This makes no sense."
I denied reality as I fell into the monster's maw.
CRUNCH—!
And just like that, my 1,000 days came to an end in an instant.
[Survival Period : 1,000 Days]
[Miraculous achievement accomplished!]
[Achievement Name : One Who Survived 1,000 Days.]
[First 1,000-Day Achievement Perk acquired!]
[Paradise has fallen.]
[Game Over]
***
"Fucking garbage game."
I hurled my mouse away and tore at my hair.
The game was brutally unforgiving—if you died, everything reset back to the beginning.
That was why it was so damn unpopular.
It made you wonder whether the game developer was even sane.
But there was someone just as bad.
Me, the guy who still couldn't quit this game, 'The Darkest Abyss.'
'Darker' for short.
'Sigh, damn game.'
Just as I sighed while staring at the monitor.
Chirp, chirp—.
Birdsong came from beyond the window.
I'd definitely started playing as soon as I got home from work, but it was already morning.
"I pulled another all-nighter."
When I looked up at the clock, it was about time to start getting ready for work.
'I'll just write this up quickly and head to work.'
The game community nobody visited anymore.
I began writing my Day 1,000 log on 'Abyss Exploration Team.'
[Title : P's Day 1,000 Survival Log.]
[This character's survival period is 1,000 days.]
[Attached Files : 60 Images]
TAP—.
I hit Enter and uploaded the post to the site.
RRRT—.
Then I scrolled down and looked through the posts I'd written.
[Must-Read for Newbies! Tips for Choosing a Starting Character in Darker!]
[Stats or Equipment—which matters more?]
[The Effects of Specific Stats.]
[How to Duplicate Money in Paradise.]
[The Seven Major Corporations of Paradise......]
[......]
12,354 posts written.
Two comments on those posts, with around ten views.
From me in elementary school all the way to twenty-nine-year-old me now.
I really had played this game diligently.
If someone asked, 'Is it really that amazing of a game?' I'd answer 'No' more confidently than anyone.
Amazing graphics. Incredible action.
And even ridiculously beautiful female characters.
'Yeah, none of that.'
It was trash that didn't have a single one of those things.
This was the very definition of a garbage game by Fourth Industrial Revolution standards.
Yep. Absolutely.
"Sigh......."
It was a game that made me sigh automatically.
DING—.
Anyway, the game's opening screen flashed and made a sound.
As if asking me to look at it.
[The Darkest Abyss]
[There is an unchecked Perk.]
[Check it?]
[Y / N]
'Should I just look at this one thing?'
Half expectant and half excited, I selected 'Y.'
[The First 1,000-Day Achievement Perk activates!]
"Huh?"
My fingertips suddenly tingled.
"Whoa, what's happening?!"
The tingling hand could no longer move at all.
The numbness that started in my hand spread throughout my body.
My body stiffened in an instant, as though I'd been hit with a Taser.
Because of that, I noticed it too late.
The words flashing on the monitor.
[You are invited deeper into the abyss.]
FLASH—!
A brilliant light stabbed into my eyes, and I closed them without even realizing it.
And when I opened them again.
"What the hell?!"
I had arrived somewhere I'd never seen before.
***
"W-Where am I?"
If I'd died, this didn't seem like any heaven or hell I knew.
There were blue monsters about my size, except their arms were unusually long.
SWISH—.
For some reason, the situation felt strangely familiar, and I looked around.
"D-Damn it!"
Terrified people stood all around me.
THUD.......
As one, they set their sacks on the ground and raised both hands.
'Could this be a dream?'
I'd definitely lost consciousness while checking the Perk.
I couldn't understand what was happening now.
Then an old man grabbed me with a trembling hand and pulled me.
"Young man! Put your load down quickly!"
"Pardon?"
While I stood there flustered.
"Ah, fuck!"
CLATTER—.
A gaunt man beside me kicked his sack away.
"I've got to make a living too! You fucking bastards!"
He seemed out of his mind.
After all, with a monster like that right in front of him, no sane person could say something like that.
"You craaazy?"
The monster walked toward us, speaking clumsily.
The man drew a dagger with a trembling hand.
"Go X yourself! The world's crazy, not me!"
Then the man charged at the monster.
"Aaaagh! Diiie!"
It was a brave charge, but it went beyond bravery into recklessness.
CRACK—.
"Aaaaargh!"
The monster avoided the obvious charge and snapped the man's wrist with brute strength.
As easily as if it were playing with a child.
THUD— THUUD—.
Its heavy fists immediately pummeled the man again and again.
The monster's blue fists gradually turned red with human blood.
CRUNCH— CRACK—!
Flesh burst, bones broke, and blood sprayed.
When that blood soaked the ground all around us.
'A-A person died?'
The man, his skull caved in, collapsed limply like a rotten log.
DRIP—.
Sweat ran down my cheek.
'Th-This is a dream, right?'
"What the hell is......."
I opened my mouth to ask the old man a question, but.
WHOOSH—.
At that moment, the monster that had killed the man turned its head.
"You there...... want end up like thiiis?"
It grabbed the dead man's hair and shook his head in front of my eyes.
His eyes were open, their light dulled by death.
When those eyes met mine, my body instinctively shrank back.
THUD—.
Before I knew it, I set my sack on the ground and raised both hands over my head.
"G-Good....... listen well."
The monster that had approached me grinned, baring yellow teeth right in front of my face.
The rank, gamey stench of a beast stabbed at my nose.
"Goods, this the laaast?"
Another monster rummaging wildly through the surrounding sacks rolled its huge eyes as it looked over the people.
"That truly is everything!"
"Understooood!"
The creature kicked a sack aside and rose to its feet.
It walked toward a little girl who had gone pale with terror and shouted.
"Goods...... all ours!"
I calmly forced myself to face the situation.
Then my mind, painted over with confusion and fear, slowly began working again.
'I've definitely seen this somewhere before......?'
I frowned at the memory that refused to come clearly.
I felt like I was just about to remember something.
"Aaaah—!"
The monster that had shouted grabbed the hair of the girl at its feet and yelled again.
"This ours too!"
Ah, I remembered.
That distinctive, stupid drawl, the blue skin, and those unusually long arms.
'Don't tell me... a Pillager from Darker?'
No. 11, Pillager.
A creature that prowled around the entrance to Paradise, robbing humans and taking their belongings.
If I was still sane, then that had to be what it was.
'And as for this situation.'
I carefully examined the area around their necks.
The bone necklace worn by the leader of a pack.
Not one of them had it.
Which meant.
'Every one of them was expelled from the pack.'
There were times in the game when you'd encounter banished Pillagers.
Specifically, as a fixed event during the first expedition if you started the game as the 'Miner.'
'Does that make any sense?'
I'd definitely lost consciousness while checking the Perk.
I must've been tired.
After that, I'd come to my senses in a world I couldn't tell was a game or reality.
I reached a clean conclusion.
'This is all a dream.'
I wasn't the protagonist of some novel, so there was no way I'd actually get sucked into a game.
Thinking that made me feel at ease.
"Move goods—!"
"N-Next one!"
The terrified people all began piling the sacks in one place.
"P-Please save me......."
The girl whose hair was being held begged for help.
"Shut...... up!"
THUD—!
The price was horrific.
"Ghk, cough!"
"Stay stiiill!"
Everyone else ignored her, as if relieved it wasn't them.
Meanwhile, the pile of sacks grew higher and higher until it towered well above my height.
"Last one...... you—!"
The only baggage left was mine and the dead man's.
Every person and every monster looked at me.
Even the girl lying on the ground.
"Please......."
"I-I said shut up!"
THUD— CRACK—!
I heard the girl's ribs shatter from a single punch driven into her body.
The pitiful light in the girl's eyes gradually faded.
Just like the man who had died earlier.
'Even if this is a dream, this is a bit.......'
The rest of us could do nothing but watch.
The strong preying on the weak was an immutable rule of this game.
If you're weak, it's only natural to be eaten.
"......."
No one stepped forward for the girl.
One person was dead, and another was dying.
'But this is a dream, right?'
GRIP—!
I seized the mouth of the sack at my feet.
'Then there's nothing to be afraid of.'
After all, who am I?
I'm a veteran who knows more about this world than anyone else.
'Banished Pillagers are nothing but early-game trash mobs!'
I immediately swung the sack and smashed it into the jaw of the creature trampling the girl.
CRACK—!
The monster's jaw broke, and it staggered before collapsing backward.
THUD—.
The vivid sensation traveled through my hands.
A clean hit.
"K-Kill! Crazy humaaaan—!"
The creatures were thrown into confusion because they hadn't expected me to attack suddenly.
SWISH—.
I quickly turned my head and counted them.
Eight Pillagers were still alive.
Everyone else had already run away.
I'd have to deal with all of them myself, but that was fine.
These were all weakened Pillagers.
And I'd fought even normal Pillagers so many times in the game that I was sick of them.
Thanks to that, I knew their weaknesses in detail.
'The Pillager's first weakness: bipedal movement and center of gravity.'
Their arms were extremely long, while their legs were very short by comparison.
That meant their upper bodies accounted for more of their mass than a human's.
And they walked on two legs?
TAP, TAP—.
I quickly ran up the mountain of sacks.
"Come up here if you can!"
In other words, climbing a slope like this would be as difficult for them as climbing Mount Everest.
GRAB—!
I pulled a rock out of an open sack and threw it.
Along with the rough sound of it cutting through the air.
"Kyeeeek!"
It buried itself squarely in one creature's eye.
'Second weakness: big eyes.'
Their eyes were far too large for their bodies.
Large enough that if I focused and threw carefully, I could hit them.
WHOOOSH—!
I threw whatever I could get my hands on.
The monsters had no choice but to dodge or get hit.
And if they tried to crawl up the sacks while taking the hits?
I only had to create obstacles.
THUD—.
When I kicked a sack, chunks of wood spilled out in a clattering heap.
The creatures stepped on them, fell, and couldn't withstand the endless barrage of rocks.
"R-Run awaaay—!"
In the end, the Pillagers fled empty-handed.
I watched their retreating backs and dusted off my hands.
'Easy, just like you'd expect from the first event.'
Breathing hard, I slid down the mountain of sacks.
Then the people who had fled earlier cautiously approached.
For the record, not toward me.
Toward the sacks.
'Well, it's a dream anyway, so I should mind my own business.'
Just as I was about to turn my head away, I sensed someone nearby and looked over.
"Thank you for saving us."
It was the old man who had grabbed me earlier.
He was holding the injured girl in his arms.
"What about the girl?"
"......She is not doing well."
I could hear the girl's faint breathing.
TAP—.
When my hand touched the girl's cheek, I couldn't help but flinch.
The sensation of skin growing cold.
It was telling me something.
Telling me to wake up.
Telling me this wasn't a dream.
SHIVER—.
As the excitement clouding my head slowly faded and my mind returned to normal, goosebumps erupted across my skin.
I stared blankly around me.
Blood scattered across the ground.
The blazing sun beating down.
And in contrast, the girl growing colder.
'I-Is this really a dream?'
The sensations were far too realistic for a dream.
I shouted at myself as I stood there unable to decide what to do.
'Dream or reality, saving her comes first!'
I immediately said to the old man.
"L-Let's go back to Paradise!"
"All right."
The moment we turned to find the sacks that had been taken from us, shouting erupted.
"Th-That's mine!"
"What bullshit are you talking about? Did you put your name on it?"
"What do you mean......."
"Fuck, if you don't want to die, just fuck off!"
People were threatening one another and fighting.
And then there was this.
"Touch the sacks and you're dead!"
A lunatic appeared, brandishing the dead man's knife.
"Enough."
I flicked a metal pipe lying nearby up with my foot and caught it, and every eye turned toward me.
I pointed the metal pipe at them and said.
"All of that is mine, so you lot fuck off."
Otherwise, I'll crack your skulls open.