Future Diary Survival Game-Chapter 78 : Resource Battle - 2

Chapter 78: Resource Battle - 2
Armelia tilted her head slightly.
“Why, what’s wrong?”
“Something feels off. No, maybe I just remembered wrong.”
“That might be the least funny joke I’ve ever heard in my life.”
“……Honestly, I think so too.”
Her face looked pale.
I asked carefully.
“What’s going on?”
“When the game first began, there were 315 monsters.”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“And we’ve killed 120 of them so far.”
“Uh…… I didn’t count exactly, but that sounds about right.”
Armelia spoke again, taking a deep breath.
“I just counted the remaining monsters. There are 191.”
……?
There should have been 195 left.
The next moment, despite the temperature being moderate here, a chill ran down my spine.
What did that mean?
“Four have disappeared?”
“Yes.”
“Why? Last time we checked, they were all still there……”
“I don’t know either. But the numbers don’t lie.”
I unconsciously looked up at the sky.
As always, Magireta was up there, looking down with that nauseating smile on her face.
Her words from the day the game began came to mind.
When I thanked her for the winter gear she gave us.
—Thanks? That kind of preparation won’t make any difference in the grand scheme of things.
I had thought she meant ‘winter gear alone won’t keep you from freezing.’
But that wasn’t what she meant.
Damn it!
I bit my lip and said,
“In the future I saw, our group couldn’t find enough monsters.”
“Hmm.”
“Of course, not having the compass was a big factor. But there was another reason.”
Because the monsters had decreased.
Which meant the chance of encountering them dropped too, and in the end, we couldn’t gather enough firewood before the flames died out.
Everyone’s expressions turned grim.
Sienne asked in a trembling voice,
“Why? Why is the number decreasing?”
“There’s something more important we need to ask first.”
“Yes?”
“How many monsters will remain over the next two weeks? If they all disappear…”
Then we’d run out of fuel.
The fire would die down.
And…… we’d freeze to death.
Our group’s faces suddenly turned anxious.
Benjamin said,
“W-We should head out right now, shouldn’t we? If the monsters are disappearing, we need to stock up while we can.”
“You’re right, but please calm down for now.”
“But—”
“What you said is correct. We must secure as many monsters as possible. But before that, let’s sort things out.”
Let’s calculate.
When the game started, there were a total of 315 monsters.
We needed 216 of them.
We’ve already hunted 120 in the past two weeks.
That means we need to secure 96 more to safely clear the quest.
Since 191 remain, it’s not time to panic yet.
So then……
“Identifying the cause comes first.”
“Huh?”
“No matter how much we rush, we can’t go far beyond our pace of three monsters every two hours. The cold limits us physically.”
“That’s true.”
“So the first priority is to find out why this is happening. If we can figure out what’s making the monsters disappear and stop it, then we’ll be fine.”
Everyone nodded quietly.
Sienne murmured,
“What could the cause be?”
“I have no idea, honestly.”
“I wondered if they were eating each other, but they all keep to themselves, far apart.”
“Maybe they’re freezing to death? That’s… actually a reasonable theory.”
We put our heads together for a while, but there was no way we’d reach an answer that way.
I turned to Armelia.
“Sorry, Your Highness. From now on, please keep checking the compass map without pause.”
“Huh?”
“The monsters are marked as red dots, right? If you notice any of them moving strangely, let us know. Like Aina said, there might be a monster that eats other monsters.”
“Understood.”
She nodded.
Then she fixed her eyes on the air before her, gaze intense and unblinking.
Did I look that focused when I stared into the Diary Book?
Even when Aina twirled her finger in circles, I couldn’t bring myself to say anything.
How much time had passed like that?
Armelia spoke in a firm voice.
“A monster 500 meters away just started moving—toward another one, 800 meters away.”
“That’s it. Let’s go, now.”
“Yes. Everyone, move!”
We pushed forward again, fighting against the cold.
We were almost running at this point.
The wind slapping against my face was unbearable.
Even with all our effort, trudging through a blizzard took time.
After a while, Armelia let out a frustrated sigh.
“Ah…… One of the monsters just got eaten by the other.”
“What?”
“The two dots merged, and then one vanished.”
“We’re too late.”
“Yes. The predator monster is moving away from us now. What should we do? Chase it?”
I shook my head.
“At this pace, we’ll never catch up, will we?”
“Probably not.”
“Then let’s go to where the devoured monster was.”
“Huh?”
“There might be a clue—signs of a fight or something. Maybe we can deduce what kind of monster it was from that.”
Everyone nodded.
Then we set off again, moving quickly through the snow.
After some time—
“Here. This is the spot.”
Armelia stopped.
I carefully scanned the surroundings.
As expected, there wasn’t a single monster in sight.
But at the same time, there were no traces of battle either.
“It looks like it was eaten too cleanly.”
“Indeed. Though, it’s not like each monster was all that strong.”
“Who knows. The predator might’ve been overwhelmingly powerful.”
Was it swallowed in one bite?
To gulp down a monster roughly the size of a human in one go, the predator must have been enormous.
Yet there wasn’t a single trace to suggest something that massive had been here.
It was as if the thing had been a ghost.
A ghost…… huh?
“Ah…… ahah!”
“What’s wrong?”
“I know who the culprit is.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s the Hellfire Monster.”
Everyone tilted their heads.
“Hellfire? The one at the altar in our campsite?”
“Yes.”
“But that’s just fire.”
“Right. It’s both fire—and a monster.”
I turned toward Armelia.
“Your Highness. There was a red dot at our campsite too, wasn’t there?”
“Y-Yes. There still is. You said it represented Magireta.”
“It wasn’t her. Magireta has been floating above the altar ever since the game started. I just assumed she was marked as a monster because of that.”
But the red dot hadn’t been pointing to Magireta.
It was below her.
It had been signaling that the Hellfire at the altar was a monster.
Benjamin asked,
“Something that’s just a flame… is considered a monster?”
“This is Hell. Trying to make sense of it by our world’s standards is meaningless.”
“Well, that’s true, but still.”
I added an explanation.
“Do you remember when I tried to make a torch using a monster’s limb?”
“Of course.”
“It burned up in less than a second. The monster’s arm melted away completely without a trace.”
“Just like how there’s no trace of battle here……”
“Exactly.”
It was only a theory, but I was certain of it.
Aina asked,
“But the Hellfire is bound to the altar, isn’t it?”
“If Hellfire truly is a monster, there’s no rule saying there has to be only one. Just as there are many ordinary monsters, there can be many Hellfire monsters too.”
“……”
“Magireta must have captured one of the Hellfire monsters and bound it to the altar for this game. Monsters can’t disobey her orders.”
Then Berseum interjected.
“Wait. If a Hellfire really had been here, this area should’ve been at room temperature. The rule says any area lit by Hellfire remains warm.”
“……”
“Then there should be melted snow somewhere……”
“The exact rule is that ‘the area within the light of the Hellfire blazing at the altar in the center of the clearing’ remains at room temperature. Only the Hellfire chained to the altar can raise the temperature.”
If warmth could come from every wild Hellfire, the game would’ve been far too easy.
There’s no way Magireta would’ve allowed such a lenient rule.
Everyone nodded for now.
But even if they understood it logically, their faces showed they couldn’t accept it emotionally.
The idea that mere fire could be considered a living creature—it was too far removed from reason.
Of course, there was no need to argue further.
Because there was a simple way to prove it.
“Your Highness.”
“Yes?”
“Let’s change the compass’s search setting. It’s currently set to ‘monsters,’ right?”
“Yes—ah!”
“Right. Change the setting to ‘Hellfire.’ Then, if the red dots that appear overlap with the ones marked under ‘monsters’…”
“That would mean Hellfire is also classified as a monster. Understood. Wait just a moment.”
She gripped the compass and stared into the air.
Soon, her face turned pale.
Just from that expression, I knew my assumption had been correct.
“……?”
No, actually—her reaction didn’t match the situation.
Her lips were trembling, and her eyes widened in horror.
Was it really that shocking to learn that Hellfire was a monster?
“Your Highness?”
“Mason. This is bad.”
“Y-Yes. I’d say it’s not exactly a small issue, either.”
“No, that’s not it.”
She swallowed hard before continuing.
“When I changed the search to Hellfire… thirty-eight red dots appeared.”
“……!”
“And all thirty-eight of them started moving—at the same time.”
“That means…”
Before I could finish, Berseum spoke for me.
“They’ve started hunting too.”
Hellfire gradually fades with time.
To prevent that, we’ve been feeding ordinary monsters to the altar’s flame as fuel.
But wild Hellfire scattered through the mountains would have to seek out their own prey.
They had been dormant for two weeks because they were still full.
Magireta must have fed them well before the game began.
But now their hunger had returned… and they were all moving at once—to hunt.
Armelia said,
“The Hellfire’s movement speed is very fast. Even as we speak, more fuel sources are vanishing.”
“……Then we should hunt the Hellfire monsters.”
“Huh?”
“It’s simple. If it’s too hard to secure firewood, we should deal with the enemies that are consuming it first.”
It was a natural conclusion, and everyone nodded.
Whether we could actually kill flames was another question.
“But the Hellfire is moving, right? The other monsters stayed in place, which made them easier to find.”
“Hmm…… Your Highness, where’s the Hellfire that devoured the monster here heading now?”
“About four hundred meters in that direction. But it’s still getting farther.”
“Let’s go after it. Even if we can’t kill it, we should at least find out if it’s possible.”
There was no need for more discussion after that.
We ran, putting everything we had into following Armelia’s guidance.
But the biting cold made our bodies sluggish.
The deep snow that came up to our calves made moving excruciatingly difficult.
At some point, Armelia spoke as if giving up.
“We’re not closing the distance at all. No—it's actually widening.”
“Damn it.”
“There has to be another way.”
“Don’t forget the time limit. If we wander in these mountains for over two hours, we’ll freeze to death.”
Then, quietly, Sienne spoke up.
“I’ll go after it first.”