Chapter 135 – (Honestly, No Clue)

He probably didn”t want to face me again, because without asking a single question, he immediately sent me back to my room.

*Thud—*

“Cough! Cough! Damn it!”

Landing on the mattress, my body scattered the dust that had accumulated while I was away, and naturally, as I breathed in without thinking, the dust clinging to my throat and mucous membranes burned painfully, forcing me to cough repeatedly and stoke my murderous rage toward Jeff.

“Kraaah!!!”

Forced back home as usual, I was at the brink of developing lung cancer from this dust pit, so after a thorough cleaning, I wiped the sweat from my brow with my sleeve, took a deep breath, and savored the K-air flowing through the window.

Returning from a dungeon crawling with foul, rotten-smelling monsters to my cozy, peaceful home already calmed my mind and body.

“They said the Fate Splitter is safe, and the others are all fine…”

Turning my gaze to the mattress, I saw a massive pile of gold stacked so high I worried the floor might collapse, shining brilliantly in the sunlight and radiating presence.

Just looking at it filled my chest with satisfaction.

“Let”s see… what”s the current gold price…”

I turned on my charged smartphone and checked the gold exchange—gold prices had risen significantly.

“Heh. A billionaire in my twenties. No, a ten-millionaire if counted in dollars.”

And that was just a rough calculation of gold; considering the large gemstones, it must be several times more.

Honestly, the amount was so vast it was hard to grasp.

Even thinking about buying a house and a car—the kind of big expenses ordinary people face—hardly reaches the hundred-million mark.

“Hmm… it”s nice, but…”

After playing with the gold for a few hours in that space, the thrill faded.

Besides, until I defeat the tentacle monster waiting on Floor 30, I won”t have time to spend money and will have to worry about survival, so even exchanging the gold is a hassle.

They say you need certificates when trading gold.

‘Maybe I should claim I found it and auction it off.’

The gold that was once a blessing had become a burden.

‘Well… it”s nice just having it…’

The more I thought about dealing with it, the more headache it caused, so I decided to stash all this gold out of sight.

But I didn”t want to bother sorting the scattered gold like putting away Lego blocks, so I rented out my precious mattress—bought for three million won—and even covered it with a warm blanket.

With the chilly autumn weather, the gold coins would surely be grateful.

Becoming a warm-hearted man who even cares for inanimate objects, I had finished my tasks and had no one to bother me, so I released my pets.

*Squirm—!*

The slime bounced up as if waiting, becoming the opposite of the squirrel wearing a fishbowl on its head living in the coral reef of a U.S. nuclear test site, but I just let it be.

When it pushed its wobbly body, complaining why I hadn”t taken it out sooner, my skin automatically moistened.

Well, this time there wasn”t much combat relying on specs, so there wasn”t much need to summon them.

“Bubblub-bubble—”

It”s suffocating, you little bastard.

The spider immediately went to finish building the house I had started, but having cleaned and demolished it, the white threads and gray dust tangled like a cocoon where the cradle once stood made it wail.

“Ahhh!”

It cried so mournfully that even the corpse collector in the afterlife would shed a tear.

But our spider, undeterred by the demolition crew, soon stood up and busily started rebuilding the house.

Of course, when I return, it”ll be a giant dust ball again, and I”ll have to tear it down once more.

The road to a home for our spider was long and arduous!

The slime clung to my head for a long time, moistening my skin thoroughly, then crawled away satisfied and began pouring soda from the fridge onto itself.

It seemed to really enjoy the fizzy sensation.

Its Inca-Cola-colored body turned Coca-Cola red, as if ready to switch allegiance from Latin America to Anglo-America.

*Glug-glug-glug—*

‘But can it even taste it?’

Since it especially reacts to my unique bodily fluids (probably the ones from below), it seemed to sense taste, but drinking while flattened like a chair slime cushion made it ambiguous.

Even teaching it to speak only results in bubbling sounds, so communication remains distant.

“Huu… still sensitive… aren”t you treating the girl too roughly?”

Kalri, still seemingly intoxicated by the taste of the meat flower spores, flinched several times while breathing and looked up at me reproachfully from the sofa.

“…No words.”

“Of course.”

After nearly ten days of neglecting her in the Mimic while impaled on the meat flower, I had forgotten about her.

If I tried to deny it now, I”d become irredeemable trash!

“Pretending to repent but doing the same thing again…?”

Those eyes staring at me in disbelief slowly rolled toward a chest in the corner, clearly an inanimate object holding treasure.

They were definitely talking about the Mimic”s contents.

Having devised a real-time strategy based on Kalri”s incident as precedent, it was hard to say more.

“I needed to! I became evil for the greater good!”

She passionately defended herself, but the gaze she received seemed to say, ‘Ugh—trash.’

The guilt stabbing my heart made me realize my conscience engine hadn”t completely worn out yet.

I wished my conscience was all worn away so there”d be no sharp edges to prick me.

Hoping the conscience engine, vibrating intensely in my chest, would someday wear out and need replacement, I shifted my gaze to the table.

The two dolls sat quietly as if in deep sleep.

Severa, now pale white like porcelain rather than just pale, with black evening-glove-like arms and legs, was a vessel swallowing the entire Life Vessel, containing over a million souls.

Alraune, wrapped in vines that seemed to bloom flowers yet felt somehow different, also showed signs of transformation.

Unlike the others, these two showed no intention of rising.

“Why aren”t they waking up? Are they even sleeping in this state?”

“Hmm… dolls can perceive some outside stimuli and ‘feel’ to a degree, but they don”t need to sleep.”

Kalri, who had quietly approached, answered my muttering.

She emphasized the word ‘stimulus’ with sticky emphasis right next to my ear, but I ignored the blood rushing to a certain area and pondered deeply.

‘Come to think of it, I never knew how onaholes perceive the outside world.’

I never wanted to become an onahole, but sometimes you have to hear the subject”s impressions to gain information.

That made it even more puzzling.

If their cognition was intact and they didn”t need rest, there should be no reason they couldn”t respond to my call.

“Severa… maybe that”s possible.”

Though a former hero, Severa was once a normal wraith who, after absorbing a million souls, devoured artifacts and drank elemental tears, greatly increasing her rank and reaching level 30—the level cap.

Even Kalri, who regained full heroic power after escaping the parasite”s influence, and Blue Tongue, who ruled a region at level 25 after swallowing a spirit, were on par with her.

Level isn”t everything, but it”s a recognized measure, so Severa had reclaimed her spot as my strongest ally.

‘Still, life isn”t a joke…’

Though most were ordinary people, absorbing a million souls must have been an immense burden even for Severa.

In fact, the elemental tears only prolonged her decay delay.

“Are you worried?”

“Of course. If something happens, I”m ready to collapse and cry on the floor.”

“Same as always.”

“I didn”t!”

Perhaps because I stared silently at Severa for a while, Kalri poked my side with her finger.

She didn”t quite stab me, but it was enough to make my muscles twitch.

“That”s right. Our master is reckless but kind-hearted.”

“Well… we”re close, so it”s natural…”

“Close? You changed me into a body that can”t live without you, then draw a line like this? How can I not cry in sadness?”

Kalri even started pretending to cry, and I couldn”t help but feel awkward.

Why all of a sudden?

Feeling suddenly alert, trapped in the trap of the previous passage where a wrong answer would make me irredeemable trash, I looked around the house to see if anyone else was there.

Of course, no one else was home.

Relieved, I sighed, and Kalri continued.

“I know it”s almost a miracle we”ve come this far, and so does Severa. We”re grateful to our master for walking that deadly path once more on our behalf. Both of us.”

Unexpectedly, her words made me blink and stare blankly at her face.

“Even if you fall again on that path, we won”t blame you. And if you cry for us, we”d be thankful.”

“…I don”t like that.”

Kalri”s eyes curved as she smiled gently at my selfish reply.

“That”s fine. But maybe let her rest for a while?”

“I have no other choice. I can only watch.”

Scratching my head with slight irritation, I shifted my gaze back to Severa, peacefully asleep with her eyes closed.

Though unreadable, I somehow felt she wasn”t in danger.

“Severa”s one thing, but why isn”t this one waking up?”

“…I don”t know either…”

Despite pooling our brains—IQ combined 530,120 (I”m 530,000)—we couldn”t find why Alraune wouldn”t wake.

So, why isn”t she waking up?