Reality Quest: How I Accidentally Made a Harem of Villainesses

Chapter 42: Survive The Night

"Survive the night." That was all Dante said as he looked at Nellie. She blinked, clearly confused by the phrase, her lips parting slightly as if to ask what he meant. But even Dante looked unsure of himself this time, as he read the available games on the spot. He then looked at Nellie and said. "Before you asked me anything else, give me a minute.""Ah sure!?" She said, just waiting for Dante orders. With that he turned his gaze back to the glowing monitor before him, a frown slowly forming across his face. "Virgil... he said, typing his response rapidly into the chat group between him and his guide. "What the hell kind of games are these?"

The screen flickered the moment he pressed enter to send the message, an a moment after, an answer came almost instantly.

[Available Game:aking on a smooth, almost teacher-like calm. "The game you’ll be playing is...

From there he began explaining the details of Survive the Night. The more he spoke, the more her eyes widened, until beads of sweat began to roll down her forehead. Every word out of his mouth only made it worse, as he explains more and more, the haunted asylum, the monsters, the eight-hour time limit.

When he finally finished, Nellie stood up so suddenly that her chair screeched against the stone of the floating astroid. "And where do you think you’re going?" Dante asked, his eyebrow raised, as he was suprise by her course of action, as she didn’t even give him a proper reply to the game he was explaining to her.

"Anywhere but here." Nellie shot back with a forced grin. "You can keep your horror show. The world of darkness I was in before this? Yeah, that is sounding like a five-star vacation compared to this. No way in hell I am playing your sick twisted games."

She turned to leave, but then Dante sighed. His voice lowered, deep and sharp enough to cut through the air. "Human!" He said commandingly. The single word hit her like a mental bus at full speed. A surge of black energy flared behind her, so heavy it made the air vibrate. Nellie froze where she stood. Then his voice came again, darker now, layered with something primal and ancient. "We had a deal." He said, and the stars around them seemed to blaze all at once reacting to his anger, this horrified Nellie to no end, but she was too scared to do anything, as she was force to hear Dante speak his mind. "Do you truly wish to break our contract?"

"W-What... what is this!?" she gasped, dropping to her knees as an invisible pressure bore down on her chest. Her heart hammered so hard it hurt. Then she felt his hand, cold, and weightless as it rest on her shoulder. His voice lowered to a whisper, close enough that she could feel the words against her ear.

"You either play." Dante said softly. "Or I take your existence and convert your life into Negativity. That is the punishment for breaking a contract with me. And trust me... I really don’t want to hurt you, human."

"I...I don’t want to die!" Nellie cried out as she continued her speech. "There is no way I can play a game like that!" Just like that, the pressure vanished. The aura faded, and Dante snapped his fingers. In an instant, Nellie found herself sitting back in the chair she had stood up from earlier, trembling and pale.

Dante sat opposite her, calm as ever, tapping his finger against the armrest. "Look, human." He said finally, his tone lighter again. "You’re not going to die if you lose. But losing does mean punishment. If you win, though... He leaned forward, eyes glinting faintly with amusement. "You’ll get something in return. And I assure you this something isn’t something you want just casually turn down."