Chapter 811: The Hunt

Night deepened.

According to Selina, the first group of explorers who entered Sandbox One to inspect the situation were attacked shortly after dusk.

Gawain stood outside the house, gazing up at the crystal-clear desert night sky. His face was calm and composed, but beneath the surface, he was quietly sharpening his senses, activating various defensive measures.

So far, nothing unusual had occurred. No one had fallen victim to mental corruption. Duvalet and Nariel were resting in a nearby building, while Selina and two others remained alert inside, taking turns standing watch.

It seemed this night might pass peacefully.

The desert grew quite cold after dark, but the chill didn’t bother Gawain. He took a deep breath, letting the icy air clear his mind. He couldn’t help but marvel at the technology the Sleeper had used to create this world—

The wind felt so real, the cold so tangible, the vast land stretching endlessly beneath a sky full of twinkling stars. Everything was indistinguishable from reality. How long had it taken them to craft such a convincingly artificial world? And how long had the beings living within it taken to realize the boundaries of the box?

A flicker of awareness pulled Gawain back from his thoughts. He turned toward the door—

Nariel, the strange girl with white hair nearly reaching her ankles, quietly opened the door and stepped out. Barefoot, she moved without a sound, yet made no effort to conceal her presence.

“You’re awake?” Gawain asked casually, eyeing the odd girl.

Nariel glanced up briefly, nodded slightly, then settled down on the ground not far from the door. She hugged her knees and stared up at the sky, lost in thought.

Though Gawain suspected something off about her—wondering if she was a minion of the Higher Narrator or a dangerous mind wandering Sandbox One—he couldn’t help but ask out of curiosity, “What are you doing?”

“Looking at the stars,” the white-haired girl whispered.

“…Well, that’s obvious,” Gawain said, a bit speechless and awkward. “You don’t sleep at night just to come out and stare at stars?”

Nariel was silent for a moment, then hesitantly repeated, “Looking… at the stars.”

Gawain: “…”

He suspected some kind of communication barrier between them. After a pause, he moved to sit beside her and asked casually, “How do you know Duvalet? Are you just traveling companions?”

“…Travel companions,” Nariel answered slowly, her words sparse and hard to grasp, but at least she was responding. “Don’t remember.”

“Don’t remember how you met?” Gawain tried to guide her to say more. “How long have you been wandering here?”

“Many… many years,” she said.

“Do you believe in the Higher Narrator?”

“…Don’t know,” Nariel shook her head. “Don’t remember.”

“You’ve been wandering here all these years? Has Duvalet told you why? Do you have a purpose?”

Nariel was silent again, then shook her head: “Looking at the stars.”

Gawain was about to puzzle over her nonsensical answer when she added quietly, “You’re disturbing my star-gazing.”

Gawain: “…”

The conversation seemed to have hit a dead end. He sighed with regret, concluding that Nariel’s mind was likely impaired—her memory and reasoning clearly below normal.

Suddenly, a blaze of fire caught his eye.

In the distance, before the ancient temple guarded by countless pillars and statues—abandoned for who knew how many years—a large bonfire had erupted. Flames roared upward, illuminating the temple square that had been swallowed by darkness moments before. Then, more lights appeared atop the stone pillars, along the streets near and far, inside homes—

The entire city was waking up, bathed in light!

Gawain’s eyes widened as the flames spread rapidly through the city. He whipped his head toward Nariel—

The girl who had been sitting there, lost in the stars, was gone.

He hadn’t even sensed her presence shift, nor noticed when or how she left—or vanished.

But Gawain was prepared for strange occurrences. No surprise at all.

Just then, the door behind him burst open. Red-haired Archbishop Magnum stormed out, shouting, “That old man Duvalet is missing!”

“I know,” Gawain replied calmly. “Not just him—Nariel’s gone too.”

Magnum’s eyes bulged as he noticed the spreading lights across the city. He bellowed, “By all my ancestors! What’s going on?!”

Yuri and Selina emerged from the house, having overheard the exchange. The glow of the city’s lights reflected on their faces. Selina glanced once at Gawain and asked, “Is this what you were waiting for?”

“Looks like its patience is worse than I thought,” Gawain nodded. “Get ready—the Higher Narrator has arrived—”

Almost as soon as he finished speaking, countless eerie shadows materialized from the air along the streets, in the alleys, at the edges of flickering light—

At first, they looked like mist wavering at the boundary of the flames. But as some shadows drew closer, Gawain realized what they were—spiders. Countless spider-shaped shadows crawling across the ground!

The shadows shifted and stretched with the changing light, as if invisible “real” spiders skittered just beneath the surface, their bodies transparent but their shadows hauntingly clear.

At that moment, Gawain recalled something Duvalet had told him:

“There are many spiders at night here, but don’t worry—they’re gentle and harmless, and will avoid people…”

These things looked anything but harmless now.

Yuri immediately spread his arms, golden runes swirling protectively around them. Warm, gentle light bathed the area. Selina stepped forward, holding her lantern high. Under its glow, the crawling shadows quickly faded.

Then Magnum raised his hands and roared thunderously:

“Mindstorm!!”

A surge of powerful magic coalesced into a dull-hued halo that spread in all directions. Wherever the halo passed, the spider shadows paused briefly, and a calm, peaceful atmosphere filled the neighborhood—

An extremely potent calming aura, a high-level psychic spell capable of soothing all mental entities, friend or foe.

But it couldn’t calm the shocked Yuri. The refined, bespectacled archbishop nearly shouted in disbelief, “Where’s your Mindstorm?!”

“Damn! I forgot I switched it to Calming Aura!” Magnum yelled back.

Yuri, losing his usual composure for the first time, snapped, “You barbarian! Do you always cast spells subconsciously?!”

“I used to be a war god’s priest—I’m used to casting subconsciously! What choice do I have?!”

“Don’t use that as an excuse—I know plenty of normal war god priests!”

The bickering archbishops behind Gawain left him momentarily stunned. He never expected such personalities in the Dark Cult. They reminded him of Philip and Byron. He even thought if Yuri and Magnum went to Cecil, they’d become the nation’s top comedy duo within a year…

But a warm, clear light cut through the chaos. Selina’s lantern blazed brightly, and her voice rang out with a power that seemed to pierce endless veils:

“Quiet! Yuri, Magnum, you’re being influenced!

“The night here amplifies your flaws and negative thoughts, clouding your judgment!”

Just as the two were about to argue again, Selina’s light and words snapped them awake. Their eyes widened as they realized the subtle corruption creeping in.

The next moment, a surge of psychic energy burst from Magnum, sweeping through the building and a wide radius, unleashing a true “storm.”

Meanwhile, more shadows gathered from all directions. More lights flickered on in the streets and alleys of Nim Sandro. Light and shadow wove together like a web, centered on the temple district, spreading through the city—and eerily, beyond its borders, across the desert itself…

From above, Nim Sandro and a vast surrounding area were ensnared in this glowing web, like a giant spider’s trap. Magnum’s small psychic storm sat at its center, like a struggling insect caught in the strands…

Far from Nim Sandro, in the darkness, atop a bizarre, arthropod-like mountain jutting from the desert, a tattered paper lantern suddenly pierced the gloom. Its dim light revealed Duvalet and Nariel.

Duvalet held the lantern, quietly watching the city now fully ensnared in the massive spider web, with huge spider shadows prowling its edges. Nariel sat on the ground, hugging her knees, still gazing dreamily at the starry sky simulated by the sandbox.

“The final hunt begins, Nariel,” Duvalet said softly, his voice low and gentle. “Won’t you come see?”

Nariel remained unmoved, stubborn as if sulking: “I want to watch the stars.”

Duvalet frowned. “They’re all fake. What’s so interesting about them?”

“But to me… they’re real…”

Duvalet gave her a long look, then slowly shook his head. “It doesn’t matter—after the hunt, the real stars will be waiting for us.”

Nariel was silent for a long while beneath the night sky, then suddenly muttered softly, “Cake is delicious. Wine is not good.”

Duvalet didn’t catch it at first. “What did you say?”

Nariel said nothing more.

Duvalet looked down at her for a long moment, then sighed helplessly. “…It doesn’t matter.”

Then he withdrew his gaze and looked once more toward Nim Sandro’s direction—the final hunting ground after the world’s end.

The web woven by the higher narrators would eventually trap that faint glimmer of reality…

The shockwaves of the psychic storm ravaged the streets, mercilessly tearing apart this world propped up by dreams. Countless spider shadows were obliterated in the surging energy, and even the nearby houses and cobblestones shattered into fragments after several storms.

Yet the shadows were endless. The city lights of Nim Sandro illuminated vast stretches of the night sky, and beneath the dim starlight, even larger, more abstract shapes gathered—like some colossal predator closing in on the temple district.

“These things are unnatural—they just won’t die!” Magnum shouted over the storm’s roar. “They must have a source, hidden somewhere we can’t see!”

Yuri maintained the golden rune shield and raised his voice as well: “We need to find a way out of this city. I’m afraid the whole place is a trap!”

As they struggled to fend off the spider shadows and the pervasive psychic corruption, Yuri and Magnum both turned instinctively toward Gawain’s direction—

The higher narrator had already begun to act. The Outer Wanderer… wasn’t it time to do something?!

“Shouldn’t you take action?!” Magnum yelled, unable to hold back. “We can’t hold out much longer—”

Gawain stood not far from Magnum and Yuri, beside Selina Gervin. From start to finish, he made no move—just quietly watching the shadows advance, watching Magnum and the others fight back, as if this chaotic scene was none of his concern.

His silence unsettled Selina, and only heightened the tension in Yuri and Magnum.

What was the Outer Wanderer waiting for? Why hadn’t it acted yet?

As this question swelled, nearly shaking Magnum’s resolve, Gawain finally exhaled softly.

“I see now…”

(Holy hell!!!)

(End of chapter)