If there was one advantage for the rookies who had just arrived in the Ghouls 'n Ghosts dungeon, it was the specific geography of their spawn point, a five meter elevation above the rest of the graveyard.
Because the hill served as a raised, private burial ground, it only contained a dozen or so tombstones. While zombies had indeed crawled out from beneath each one, they left behind only empty pits. No more zombies were spawning from the void on the hill itself.
Evidently, the resurrection of the undead followed a logic: one grave, one corpse. This simple rule served as a limit on the number of zombies that could spawn at once.
Ghouls 'n Ghosts was undeniably a high-difficulty dungeon for beginners, but the Heaven's Selection Space had a core principle that the rookies had yet to discover.
The system would never design a "zero-win" scenario. No matter how dangerous or impossible a mission appeared, there was always a path to victory if the players were clever enough to find it.
Chris had already noticed that the empty graves wouldn't spawn more monsters. He abandoned his initial plan of using the other "unlucky bastards" as a distraction to make a break for it.
The current situation was a "test of strength" from the dungeon, what gamers would call a "Monster Tide." In plain terms, the monsters would swarm the players in waves, attempting to overwhelm them.
Anyone who had played Left 4 Dead, Vermintide, or Darktide would immediately grasp the concept.
But a tide, by definition, has an ebb and a flow. This meant that if they could survive this first violent surge, they would likely be granted a moment of respite.
Therefore, the hill, easy to defend and difficult to assault, was their best bet.
Currently, only Chris and the awakened "one-eared" student possessed any real combat capability. The others were either wounded or dead.
Even those who had panicked and fled into the lower graveyard hadn't even managed to fulfill the role of "bait." After their screams were silenced by the horde, the zombies they had triggered turned their attention toward Chris and the others, the ones who were currently shouting about "killing for a profit."
The intense combat had made the energy and blood of the two fighters surge, which, to the zombies filled with dark magic, was as visible as a flaming torch in the night. They followed the scent with single-minded hunger.
This was where the elevation of the hill proved its worth.
The zombies of Ghouls 'n Ghosts were fast in a straight line, but their stiff, unyielding joints made it difficult for them to handle obstacles, slopes, or ladders.
They were incapable of the "zombie pyramid" tactics seen in World War Z. Even if one managed to haul itself up the slope by stepping on the bodies of its kin, all that awaited it was a single snap of Chris's whip from a safe distance.
A single strike was all it took for the holy power to strike down and purify the undead.
While the Vampire Killer was a melee weapon, its reach far exceeded that of any sword or axe. It allowed Chris to strike down his foes while remaining well beyond their grasp.
Furthermore, the latent enhancements provided by the Simon template made his aim practically unerring.
There was also a counter intuitive detail to his success: Chris was only able to one shot the zombies because he hadn't equipped any other weapons. He was using only the whip provided by the template.
In a sense, the template's equipment functioned more like a "skin" or "costume" from an online game, it provided additional stats on top of anything the player was already wearing. The real power of the Vampire Killer didn't come from its base 1-1 damage, but from the additional 10 points of Holy damage.
If Chris were to equip the one-eared student's axe, the whip's "bonus Holy damage" would carry over to the axe. However, because the weapon types were so different, that 10-point bonus might be reduced to a miserable one or two points. If he then rolled the axe's minimum weapon damage, it might take two or even three strikes to kill a single zombie.
By sticking to the "skin" whip, the 10 points of Holy damage were applied without penalty. This was just enough to kill a full-health zombie with a slight overkill margin, saving him a tremendous amount of stamina and eliminating the risk of a second swing.
The zombies struggling up the slope, the high efficiency "point defense" kills, the one eared student filling the gaps, and their calculated movement, one by one, the graves were cleared and the numbers of the "Monster Tide" began to dwindle.
But this perfect rhythm didn't last. An unexpected element entered the fray.
Chris, dripping with sweat, snapped his whip once more. A zombie's head exploded predictably, but then, a metallic chest with a dark iron sheen and a faint glow popped out of the headless corpse and rolled down the hill.
'A drop?!'
In a game where death was real, there would naturally be a rule for monsters dropping loot. As the weakest and most numerous foes in Ghouls 'n Ghosts, the zombie horde had finally coughed up its first treasure chest, one of the basic manifestations of the Heaven's Selection Space's loot rules.
However, this low level Black Iron Treasure Box didn't come with any "loot protection."
This was one of the many ways the Heaven's Selection Space subtly encouraged conflict between players.
The "Trial for Newcomers" modifier forbade players from killing one another, but in reality, doing so only reduced one's rewards, it didn't actually remove the ability to kill.
And as their strength grew and they evolved, the question of when a player would decide that "the rules don't apply to me"... well, that was a matter of individual character.
Chris was patient. He only cast a single glance at the rolling chest before turning his attention back to the fight. For him, safety was the absolute priority. He would only open a chest once the area was entirely clear.
Furthermore, a specific memory from Ghouls 'n Ghosts flashed through his mind, keeping him on high alert.
The one eared student also saw the chest roll to the edge of the remaining zombies, a place where it could be snatched up with just a little effort. But he didn't even consider it. His line of reasoning was simple: Chris had earned the chest, so it belonged to him. It had nothing to do with anyone else.
But at that exact moment, someone else slid down the slope!
It was the one-eared student's roommate. He had no weapon, but because he'd made the smart choice to stay close to Chris and the student, he'd managed to survive.
Driven by his fear of the zombies, his shame at being a useless burden, and his envy of the two fighters, and seeing that neither of them seemed interested in the chest, he'd hesitated for five seconds before making his move.
He wanted to be like Chris. He wanted to be a hero.
The zombies were still focused on the hill, and the crows had been wiped out by the whip, so he managed to reach the chest without being intercepted. He reached out and touched the Black Iron Treasure Box, but then...
With a sudden POOF, the lid of the chest burst open, and a cloud of grey black smoke billowed out.
As the smoke cleared, a humanoid figure emerged. He wore a blue tuxedo, a blue top hat, and a red cape. He clutched a gentleman's cane, and his face was twisted into the hook nosed visage of a stereotypical vampire. The sight of him frozen the student in place, his entire body trembling.
The man in the tuxedo didn't hesitate. He spread his cape and leveled his cane, firing a magical missile formed from a hexagram.
The student failed to dodge. The spell hit him square in the chest.
In an instant, thick smoke enveloped him.
By the time it cleared, the student was gone. In his place stood a white duck with a very human-looking expression.
"Quack!?"
The "Phone wielding Duck" was officially in a panic.
[Translated and Rewritten by Shika_Kagura]