C36:House of Horrors. Im fucked
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["Due to the random modifiers and difficulty. Some of the current modifiers have merged into a new state:]
"I'm sorry what?" I ask as I am clearly inside a building and the walls begin to warp around me. I don't actually move as I choose to see what is given to me.
[1: Arch-tempered & Evolution of mind have merged into Ascendent of Body and Mind.
2: Caster has evolved into Grand Caster.
3: Arena buff: Nightmare House & Guardian of Sealed Summons has evolved through merging into Arena Buff: Anomalous House of Horror]
As the warping walls finally simmer down, I find myself in a hallway. A menagerie of paintings line the walls. Attempting to get some sort of understanding of the situation. I activate the tracking and it has me focus on a specific painting.
"Oh ... .no no no no please no" I gaze at it but it's actually one of the few ones in the hallway, just next to me that is…simple. It's a four cut photo frame. The first frame in the top left has a single line in the middle The second frame in the top right has the same line in the middle but the position of the new line is a little bit shorter than the first.
The third photo is the same as the 2nd but both lines are now equal in height. The final photo has one of the lines the same height but the second line is now sideways.
I soon find myself bursting through a door panicked. A room covered in tiles with a clean white counter before me. A man stands behind said counter wearing a navy blue uniform. The man looks up at me and as if following a script, he looks down the hall to a specific room. I originally stop at the counter to trace his gaze before rushing forward and the man gets up after me. I burst through the second set of doors. She's on the other side. She's waiting for me. I have to be there for her.
Breaking through the door allows me to find a woman lying in a bed on her side. I see their body trembling every so often as if whimpering in pain.
"Mar" I whisper out like a sigh of relief to know that she is fine. Yet I feel there is something missing in this scenario. Something more that feels distant to me but yet so close.
'Wait, why am I calling them Mar?" I frown in confusion as I approach the unknown woman, turning her around. I do in fact find Mar but also not. That can't be described as human. Or living for that matter.
As if a baseball bat was taken to a glass painting. Her face is broken, fractured, Rearranged in a format that was as if a child was told to put a puzzle together with no clue of what it should look like. Causing her eyes to be on her cheeks and the slight edge to her chin on her forehead instead.
In the center of this so called face is just a pit of darkness. A small pin sized hole yet as I stare into it, I feel it expanding in my vision, swallowing the surroundings as I find myself back in the horror house on my knees.
"AGHHHH" I roar in pain, yelling into the palms of my hands, as I know the context of 'loss'. The painting on the wall is Loss and how I was forced to experience that same loss but made to fit my situation. The loss in this situation was not of some unknown child that never happened but rather that of my partner's death itself.
[Congrats on escaping the anomaly: +5 insight gained. Nugget man titles doubles insight gain = +10]
"Hah hah hah, I see now what it means by anomalous. I thought it would be some scp shit that is trying to kill me and it still might but it will likely drive me insane first." I breathe heavily before the pain finally stops and I regain some clarity to the situation. I fall backwards on my ass from the kneeling position as i try the tracking skill a few more times and they all lead to different paintings.
"Is it just telling me of hostile species or are they something that can be killed?" I question as with my eyes closed, I slash at the Loss painting, cutting it in half.
I gaze down at the broken painting of stick figures and soon find myself inside it again. Yet this time, I feel like I have blurry vision as I'm seeing doubles. Minor changes between the two but the general situation is the same in both. I step into the hospital, talk to someone and get directed to a room.
There are a few differences in both versions. The first I had seen was a navy blue uniform on the nurse but one of two new scenarios had a pink uniform while the other had a dull green. Another difference is Mar's appearance herself. On some of them, their faces were misaligned like in the first while others just outright have a void for her face and the last had her actually pregnant before she began giving birth to a darkness before it swallowed me whole again.
With each iteration, I felt pain flowing through my head, no insight gained in subsequent 'adventures' but the pain is still there. Though as I lift my head again, I keep being attracted back to the painting. It's almost as if I was completely enclosed in a room filled with broken cutouts of this painting, constantly luring me into new iterations.
Fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth. With each iteration, I gradually regain control of my mind and body inside the actual illusion. As I enter my 11th variation. I stop at the desk, not proceeding to the room anymore as I stare at the nurse. Are they even a nurse? Why would I trust their eyes so much? I question this as I take in all their current details. In previous iterations, they were asian, european, mexican, english, and now currently female american. This is the first time the nurse had been female.
"Youre the core arent you?" i question and for the first proper time. The nurse looks at me, carefully studying me as if trying to see what makes me tick.
"I don't want it damaged any more than it already is. You pass" I feel the floor beneath me drop, my positioning awkward as I was about to throw hands at this woman until I found myself back on the floor where I was sitting. The painting is back on the wall in one piece but it looks faded.
"Hah" I sigh in relief as I now get a proper system message.
[Greater Sense has leveled up]
[host has escaped the anomaly: loop of loss. All previous system messages the host had seen were fabricated by the anomaly affecting your mind. Distributing proper rewards now: 22 insights. This reward has already been affected by extra stats]
Well, my insight is now level three and im also at 98 insight now so thats cool….is 100 the limit or is there something even further beyond?
I'm relatively nervous in actually continuing as i don't know what I could encounter next. As such, I shall beat every anomaly I can encounter to not only train my sense skill but also for free insight. If it does get capped at 100 then ill just spend some on items from the system.
The next nearest painting is that of a forest. I feel myself get sucked in and looking around, Im actually not in an exact forest though the trees i can see in the distance does seem like a forest. I'm actually in a maze like it's the harry potter and the goblet of fire. That living maze that tried to eat the contestants.
Surprisingly, I have my gear and don't feel any restriction on me either. I progress forward and reach the end of the current 'hallway' of bushes to find a new path, taking a step or two reveals another new path. I choose to follow the classic rule of holding onto one side of the wall to eventually get to the end.
Doing so, I explored that new left side path and every option gave me a dead end, having me return to where I just was before all that wasted time. Continuing forward, I find a mask on the floor. It's a ceramic mask of what looks like a bird. Closer to a toucan style as it has the long curved schnoz that toucan's typically have. I originally bump the mask with my foot to make sure nothing happens.
When nothing does happen, I pick it up and only then does a strange call echo throughout the maze. I store the mask away as I make my way forward. Yet soon I tense as I feel a foreign presence closing in, unfortunately I can't see whatever it is and upon feeling an impact on my stomach, seemingly seeing a knife stabbed into my gut. I soon find myself back at the start of the maze with the mask in my inventory gone.
"Are the masks a trap or is there something more to it?" I say as I restart my walk and this time I skip past the mask, not even bothering to touch it. I get quite a bit further before suddenly finding a new mask around a corner. This one is akin to a hummingbird beak, thin needle-like as the even smaller tongue would shoot out to take a sip of sap or nectar to eat.
I bypass this mask and continue on, long hallways, side routes that end in immediate dead ends while others lead on for a while. I soon find a third mask. This one is a skull, "very edgy ma boy. Good job" I say to no one in particular as my mood slightly rises but I don't forget my purpose here. I finally arrive at a small clearing yet at the center of said clearing is an elevated house. A staircase leading upwards to a door.
Climbing up said steps, I find myself face to face with a worn out door with various imprints on it like someone had their head bashed into the door over and over again. I try the door handle but find it does not turn as if locked.
Frowning, I don't spot anything for me to 'track', I look around for any sort of key but not finding anything. I take another look at the door. The hinges, the handle, the frame of the door.
Naturally I try to kick it down but it doesnt work. I also notice that there is an opening on the side as if making it an 'open' view home. I use my jump skill to reach the railing around the edge and am just able to pull myself off and get a look inside before something hits my hands and makes me fall back down.
I shake my hands, slightly relieving the pain as I had at the very least, gotten a look inside.
It was akin to an office space. Cabinets, a desk, chair, even a bottle of wine on the table. Yet the thing that stood out the most was the imprints in the door. Only three spots amongst them were more imprinted than others. As if keys to a lock.
"Guess I'm going mask hunting." "huh?" I say with some finality before my vision goes dark as I feel something fall on me, crushing me to death.
I find myself back at the beginning of the maze with a groan. I rub my head in confusion. "What the hell sat on me?" I can only question but regardless this works to my favor as now I can begin investigating the closest mask to me.
Running towards it, i find the mask on the floor, the toucan mask which I pick up. From the small sight I saw of the door, this one should be placed somewhere on the bottom of the door but the exact position is hard to tell without actually testing.
I tentatively pick up the mask and immediately hear the rustling in the surroundings again like the first time I entered here and tried to store the mask away.
Instead I put on the mask. I sense how my vision changes to essentially copy my night vision ability but more conventional as it's closer to a greenish blue in tint. The atmosphere of the forest darkened as if in response to me putting on the mask.
Unlike before, this time I notice the figure approaching me, it's like a man crawling on all fours but with a similar toucan mask on his head backwards, staring at me. Except of course this creature has every one of its fingers akin to daggers with its crusty ass black nails. I use my saw cleaver to parry the attack as I run past him.
As for why I don't go for the kill, I'm sure this painting is following some sort of rules which prevent me from permanently doing so, as such it's better to save my energy to just run.
Clang clang clang
I deflect the approaching claws of the toucan creature before rushing forward and collecting the second mask. The hummingbird mask. I hear a second rustling sound as I pick this one up.
Overlaying the two masks on my face, I find they strangely click together even though the toucan beak should make that impossible. Yet rather than think about the composure of the two masks, I'm more worried by the creature I find blocking my way.
"Buff shiba Inu, what are you doing here and wearing a bird mask of all things?" I am absolutely baffled by the sight before me as I slow my pace, he is blocking my way so I can only try to parry him to get around.
We approach each other, afterall, I cant beat the shit out of him without getting closer. The buff bird man instead takes slow heavy steps forward, akin to a tank but slow and heavy.
As we get in range of each other, the bird lifts its swole arm and begins to move it forward towards my face. I shoot at this moment which does parry it as Doge drops to his knees. I am about to get around it's massive bulk when the creepy crawly comes crawling up and slashes at me. I get cut on my arm but just barely make it through as the bird gets up again.
I originally thought the toucan man would get stuck but instead he just crawls underneath the pants of buff bird and continues the chase.
We restart the run sequence as I keep parrying the buff man. Bird can actually fly, or maybe teleport when outside a certain range because I have to parry him again but his attack was faster this time around.
I finally get the third mask, the skull mask and attach that one too as I come face to face with the final perpetrator.
Blacksmith Vamos.
The skeleton smith crashes a hammer down on me but I dash away in time to get away from the hammer when I notice that it's not actually Vamos, just looks like him but it's a humanoid skull on a giant spider that can crawl around on the hedge wall.
"Aw, im fucked" The three give chase to me and I still have a few minutes to go before reaching the cabin.
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Word Count = 2859
Entering the boss arena and being exposed to the new anomalies I can come up with. Fun fact, the forest one is based on a maze game I made in school when studying game design. The original design was to be a type of speedrun maze as you can compete with other players to see what high scores you can get. I just adapted that to be a bit more horror genre. This was part of my introduction to unity so I couldn't actually program any sort of chase sequence or anything.
Enjoy
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