The Golden Experience Point [Part 1]

Chapter 29: "Reincarnation"

Some minutes later, Blanc started getting the impression that the number of zombies was decreasing, meaning she was finally close to clearing out the entrance to the ruins.

She had no idea how many she had killed. The zombies ate all the dead bodies, so the only things left were the remains of the final zombie and the one it had been eating.

"Hm? I wonder what happens to the ones that get eaten."

Anyway, she could finally start exploring the ruins. Her original goal had been to kill off all the enemies, then try to claim the zone as her own base.

She carefully stepped over the zombie bodies and peeked into the hallway. Nothing was there. She went in all the way. She didn't hear any sounds.

"Did I really get 'em all?"

Even if there were any zombies left, Blanc should be able to outrun them. Fortunately, this hallway was easier to traverse than the cave was. The zombies wouldn't be able to chase her all the way out to the cave. If she ever got surrounded, as long as she could take down one zombie, that should redirect all the others to the corpse. If she only had to worry about zombies, she didn't think she would have any trouble.

"I've been at it for a while now... Whoa, it's already been eight hours!!! Hnn, well, whatever. I don't got anything to do tomorrow anyway."

She didn't know what era these ruins were from, but being able to explore them was an experience she'd never have in the real world, or even in other VR games. Blanc felt touched at the idea. In a full reversal from the literal hell she had experienced earlier, she completely morphed into a tourist now.

A more experienced gamer would have mapped out the place while proceeding, but Blanc just blithely wandered around. It was basically impossible for her to return to the first cave from this one, after all.

Eventually, she came upon a massive door covered in elaborate carvings.

"Ooh, this feels a lot like a final area! But nah, I have no idea where I am in the ruins, so I have no clue if this is the deepest room or anything. Or like actually, am I lost...?"

At least in terms of returning to the first room where she spawned in this cave, Blanc was definitely lost. That meant she had nowhere to go but onward. Although she wasn't actually sure if she was strong enough to open the door, she still resolved herself and tried anyway.

The door rumbled heavily as it opened, but it was much lighter than she expected it to be. And actually, it opened on its own partway through.

In the room beyond the door, there was a throne all the way in the back upon which sat a beautiful man with blond hair.

"A trespasser... How long has it been since the previous one? I have not seen my servants for some time now. Did you defeat them, trespasser?"

"Whoa, he talked to me! Or like, it's a person! It's my first random villager!"

It was the first time since starting the game that she had come across an NPC capable of communication. Blanc was super excited.

"How dare some skeleton call me a 'villager'... Answer my question. I would hear if you defeated my servants."

He sure sounded pompous. At least he wasn't referring to himself with the royal-we or something. Looking at the room's decor and the extravagance of his clothes, that style of speech wasn't out of place per se, but under normal circumstances, it was pretty cringey. It made Blanc feel pretty embarrassed herself—an empathetic shame response. Not that a scientific-sounding term mattered right now.

"What servants are you talking about...? The only things I ran into in these ruins (is that what they are?) were zombies."

"Those very zombies were my servants! And what 'ruins' do you speak of? This is my castle! Are you mocking me?!"