Chapter 90

Game Category [Post][Casual Chat]

Title: Only speedrun maniacs allowed in here❗❗ ㅎㅅㅎ (Bragging post)

You guys saw the speedrun in the Prologue Labyrinth, right?

Well, your boy Sayver is here to tell you… I’ve found yet another god-tier cheat ㅇㅅㅇ

Who wants to try mid-escape from ‘Project: Shadow Host’?

New strategy guide. Public release!

But if you screw up your controls and hit a bad ending, that’s on you.

↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓
(Click it!)
(§Oh§☎So☎Spicy♨Exp☞erience)
(Link)

❤️ Likes: 783

Comments

👤 Savior 1
What the hell, why does that link make me not wanna click it at all?

└ Savior 2: Clicked it yet?
└ Savior 1: kek…..

👤 Savior 3
How the hell does this guy come up with guides like this? What kind of life does he even live????

└ Savior 4: Don’t bother trying to understand him lol There’s a rumor he’s an ex-dev who quit.
└ Savior 6: Nah, he’s just your average lunatic, I think?

👤 Savior 5
Wait, why’s nobody talking about the actual guide??? That thing’s insane, isn’t it?? Using the Shadow Host’s own traits?? You can actually escape mid-way like that?? For real?????? That glitch is wild.

└ Savior 8: Newbie here~ What’s a glitch?
└ Savior 5: It’s like a legal bug.

* * *

“You’re saying… we can escape from here right away?”

A short while later, instead of heading to the wide-open door into the next room, the kids were all standing in the middle of the empty chamber.

After that unexpected battle, everyone was either exhausted or looking a bit grimy.

Gidehme—who’d done the most running—was in the worst shape, and the boy scowled deeply.

“If you had a way to do this, why didn’t you say so earlier?!”

When Gidehme shouted, all eyes turned to him.

“Y-yeah. Why did you wait until now? If you knew, you should’ve said something earlier…”

“Seriously.”

The kids backed him up. I didn’t feel offended—in fact, I was kinda proud.

‘Oh, so now they’re all looking at me with trust, huh?’

Gidehme, on the other hand, seemed like he hadn’t expected this reaction. His face went red.

“Sorry.”

I pretended not to notice and hunched my shoulders.

“I-it’s my first time here too, y’know…”

When I answered meekly, Gidehme twitched his shoulders.

“I-it’s not like I was yelling at you, okay?!”

Out of all the story changes I’d seen so far, Gidehme was probably the biggest one.

Just now, he’d fought harder than anyone else to protect the kids.

It wasn’t an exaggeration. One of the kids had actually glued themselves to his side afterward.

“Hey, why do you keep clinging to me? Just back off a little!”

“Sorry…!”

“I’m not asking you to apologize, just back off a bit!”

After barking at them for no reason and clearing his throat, Gidehme was interrupted by Emmet stepping forward.

His glasses were cracked from the Shadow Host encounter earlier.

“So what’s this method you’re talking about?”

“It’s not a sure thi—”

Of course it was a sure thing. But you had to throw out a little uncertainty, or you’d look suspicious.

Before I could answer, someone grabbed my hand.

Flora.

“It’s fine! Tell us. We all survived just now thanks to you, Nemesia! You even stayed behind in that room all alone… you have no idea how worried we were.”

Her big, pretty eyes sparkled way too brightly.

“You really are a hero! So righteous!”

…Okay, this is getting a bit much.

“Right, Lucy?”

The black-haired girl beside her flinched, then gave the smallest nod imaginable.

“Y-yeah.”

When did those two get close? They’d just gone to solve a quiz together…

From the look on Lucy’s face, she was clearly overwhelmed, but Flora had already taken her hand and was swinging it.

I glanced at Lucy with mixed feelings, then turned away.

“Since we don’t have much time, I’ll explain quick.”

Honestly, if it hadn’t been Emmet who got caught by the Shadow Host earlier, but some other kid, Emmet probably would’ve made a great leader.

He just got unlucky.

“If we solve each room’s puzzle or quiz, or—like just now—someone overcomes their fear… I think we can shake off the Host.”

“I agree.”

Not just Emmet, several other kids nodded too.

“My guess is, we’ve shaken it for now, but if we stay in one room too long, the Host will definitely come back.”

“And?”

“Gidehme, stop cutting me off!”

“What? You said we don’t have much time, so I’m just asking!”

Flora scolded him, and Gidehme looked offended. I jumped in before it turned into a fight.

“So I was thinking… what if we perform the ritual here?”

“Ritual?”

Emmet frowned.

“The one we all did to enter this place.”

By now, everyone had nearly all their memories back—it was possible.

“And what’s that got to do with escaping from here?”

A fair question.

“Think about it. We’ve still got a bunch more rooms to get through, right?”

Everyone fell silent.

“When the rules dropped from the ceiling at the start, they said: the more fear we feel, the stronger the Host becomes. And if the Host catches us, it’s over.”

“…”

In the game, people were so focused on escaping that one or two kids always got caught or killed along the way.

“But if we have to keep fighting like this? Keep running? How long do you think we can hold out?”

Unlike the game, I’d decided I was going to keep all these kids alive.

“So let’s try something. And luckily, this room’s perfect for it.”

“Perfect how?”

It was the first time one of the quieter kids had raised a hand to ask. Hope was shining in their eyes.

“Because—ta-da!”

I threw my arms out dramatically.

“We’ve got a hero in the room!”

Every head turned toward Daddy. His eyes went wide.

Then the tips of his ears went red.

“M-me?”

He looked completely flustered. Weird—when we were surrounded by the Holy Knights before, he didn’t bat an eye. Guess kids’ stares hit different.

“We’ve gotta try it while we’ve at least got one guardian here.”

I kept going, since we were short on time.

“So? What do you think?”

“…It’s worth trying.”

“I’m in!”

Right after Emmet and Flora spoke, a girl who’d been silent the whole time raised her hand.

“I-I just wanna get out of here already!”

“Same here.”

Even Gidehme agreed—then raised a skeptical brow.

“But what if it doesn’t work?”

“If it doesn’t…”

I turned to point at the door.

“…then we just head to the next room.”

With even failure accounted for, everyone’s faces lit up.

I looked to Daddy.

“Daddy, you heard all that, right? While we’re setting up the ritual, if the Host comes, you hold it off.”

“…Understood.”

“Uh, Nemesia…!”

It was Mel, of all people, who spoke up next. She looked anxious.

“When we leave, the guardian comes with us, right?”

“Yeah… I think so. Since they came in with us.”

“Okay! A-and, what if in the next room, the guardian ends up stuck in there with a monster?”

“I think it’s fine.”

I glanced toward the door I’d come from.

“I escaped one room alone before, and there was a guardian there… a guy named Usher. I left him in there with the Host, and it didn’t seem like a problem.”

Mel looked relieved.

“…Usher?”

Daddy’s face darkened, but I brushed past it. No time for that now.

I’ll tell you later, Daddy!

“Alright, let’s start!”

A few minutes later.

We’d all torn small strips from our clothes to make makeshift dolls.

We bundled the cloth tightly, smudged faces on them with soot lying around—it actually looked decent.

“Anyone not remember the ritual?”

“I-I think I do.”

“Me too!”

“I… don’t.”

Once the plan was set, the kids split into roles and got to work.

Emmet was the most serious of the bunch.

Just as we were finishing up—

“You’re really sure about this?”

Emmet looked at me with a conflicted expression. I nodded.

“Yeah, it’s fine. Because I escaped a room by my—”

That was when it happened.

>Warning!<