Surviving as an Idiot in a Horror Game

Yeniel, smoothly passing over my question, speaks slowly.

"...Let's say we're exchanging and we take taste as the value standard, then a green sour apple would be worth less than a red sweet apple of the same weight. So to make the values equal, you'd need to bring more green apples, or the green apples would need to become equally sweet. That's how you match the equivalent exchange."

It was a kind and easy explanation that would suit a kindergarten teacher well.

"Wow, I understand!"

I smiled brightly.

Of course, no one here seemed to think I had really understood this story.

"So we are inferior to our ancestors, and this hidden world was created to kill them. Therefore, to match the law of equivalent exchange, the hidden world itself takes on a penalty, or gives us something advantageous?"

The Crown Prince spat out the conclusion.

"That's exactly right, Your Highness."

As he smiled, the Crown Prince pressed his handkerchief tightly against his neck, as if the wound hurt.

"In other words, because our abilities are lacking, there's rather hope."

Cyan began explaining again with a brightened face.

I feel like I've vaguely read this dialogue while skipping. Probably.

"We can't be sure if the first Emperor and the founding contributors really killed the Archmage, but they must have had at least comparable abilities. And rather than tweaking the monsters and rules that have persisted for over a thousand years, it's quicker to give us something."

"That...!"

The Crown Prince's eyes widened.

Only after hearing this far did I realize this was the 'awakening system tutorial'.

'Is it already time for traits to appear?'

Traits.

Simply put, it was like an attribute where the character's specs improve on their own.

"Yes. We might have been granted something equivalent to the abilities the founders had."

The awakening of abilities possessed by the first Emperor and the 4 founding ancestors.

What abilities would emerge was random, but the possibilities were endless.

In my personal assessment, traits that dealt damage to monsters or increased speed seemed the best. Since it's a horror game, there wasn't much use for other traits.

'The problem is I can't remember well who had what trait.'

The only one I could barely recall was a trait possessed by Yurel, the slave knight in the villainess Evelyn's faction.

Ah, I know Yeniel's too. It was like the function on a phone.

Cyan, having finished his explanation, asked the people with expectant eyes.

"Has anything changed since coming here? Even something trivial is fine."

No one answered.

'Why is Yeniel silent?'

I became puzzled.

The reason I remembered Yeniel's ability as something like was because screenshots were saved from the early game.

From the very beginning, Yeniel would carefully observe and remember anything that caught her attention while passing by, or anything that might become a clue later.

[Yeniel: This seems important. Let's remember it.]

[Yeniel: I might need this later.]

So she couldn't not know.

Anyway, Yeniel shook her head.

"I'm not sure either. I didn't have any special symptoms."

I glanced at her profile, which remained calm as if nothing had happened.

Is this an anomaly too?

Or... did she awaken a trait but isn't saying anything?

"I don't know either. I don't feel anything special. It might be because of the pain. My neck hurts quite a bit."

The Crown Prince said with a bitter smile.

"Max would tell me if he had something, so it's probably not him. As for Lady April... let's skip her."

This bastard?

"So conclusively, no one has gained anything yet."

Cyan swallowed. But he soon collected his emotions.

"It's alright. It's too early to conclude. Anyone is fine, so please be sure to tell me if you notice any unusual symptoms. Now let's go up to the second floor."

All members of the group moved to the second floor of the temple.

The stone stairs that had come down from the ceiling were still connecting the first and second floors of the temple without moving.

I thought it was marble because it was white, but somehow the color turned black as we went up.

"From now on, the monster that will appear is the demon worshipper who sacrificed 99 people. And there will probably be a demon too."

At Yeniel's quiet words, Max swallowed dryly as if tense.

Actually, there's no need to be so tense. The mid-boss was a pushover, and the boss wasn't a monster made to be fought in the first place.

And so, the second floor.

While the first floor was a desolate space with nothing, the second floor looked similar to the interior of a noble's mansion.

As we stepped up completely, we could see several rooms lined up on both sides. Where we came up seemed to be a kind of wide corridor.

"Why are there so many rooms?"

The Crown Prince muttered, looking closely at the doors.

"Six on the left and six on the right... from 201 to 212. What was this place used for? Ah, they said people were sacrificed here."

As if he had come up with a horrifying answer himself, the Crown Prince's complexion worsened. He looked like he regretted thinking about it.

At the end of this corridor, there was a short lobby. At the very end of the lobby, there was one huge door.

It was a door leading to the temple's back garden.

"It looks like we can go to the next area or other rooms through this door."

We were walking towards the lobby when, at Cyan's words, we moved towards the big door.

"It's locked? How are we supposed to get out?"

Max grumbled after trying to push and open the door. Cyan ignored him.

Meanwhile, I glanced at the bottom of the door.

'Didn't my brother pick up a master key here?'

That item that opens all the doors on the second floor of the temple.

However, although I looked around for a small shining metal, nothing like that was visible. The floor with very faint dust accumulated. There wasn't even a trace of a key being placed, let alone dragged.

As if a master key had never existed from the start.

If it really never existed from the beginning?

This means not only have the monsters become stronger, but some conveniences have also disappeared.

'I hope a trait appears soon. I wish I could become stronger... Trait window. Awakening window.'

At that moment when I said it randomly in my mind knowing it wouldn't work, a window popped up in front of my eyes with a cheerful sound.

April Sharon: Awakening…... (76/100)%

'Awakening? Me?'

Looking closely, the decimal points of the translucent window that appeared in front of me were continuously rising.

[April Sharon: Awakening...... (76.1713941.../100)%]

[April Sharon: Awakening...... (76.226137.../100)%]

■■■■ Patching....

The text covered by black squares was unreadable.

'What is it patching?'