Chapter 38
Chapter 38
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 38
Chapter Title: Eyelids (11)
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Chapter 4 Eyelids (11)
***
Splash!
Deep in the night. In a half-ruined mansion somewhere in a city overrun by monsters, something massive rises from a deep well in the basement.
Crack! Crunch!
The figure that crawled out of the well started stretching out its body, which had bunched up while it slept inside. Its body was so large now that the well felt a bit snug lately.
"Urgh.... Still, no way I can give that up."
He personally harbored intense resentment toward the wizards who had locked him up here and run experiments on him, but credit where credit was due.
[Water Mana Affinity]. Thanks from the bottom of my heart for teaching me that.
Professor gazed down at the well he'd just emerged from. Those deep, blue ripples. Irresistible. He'd just climbed out, but he already wanted to dive back in! It looked so refreshing! Just a quick dip—
Splash!
"Ow, I really can't get my act together."
Yeah, let's be honest. I'm totally hooked on water. Worse than any drug. Drugs at least come with the fear of dying if you overdo it, but that? Pure, risk-free temptation.
Especially for someone scraping by in a wrecked existence, enduring body-shattering pain all day long, that well might as well have been the fountain of youth.
Slapping his cheeks to firm up his faltering resolve, Professor began packing his gear with care. It was past midnight, leaving him six days. Factoring in travel time to the next city, he couldn't afford any more delays.
Crunch!
Solid strength surged through his grip. Not quite hitting his target, but enough progress. Finally, a glimmer of dawn pierced the grim game life of this hopeless character.
Professor started loading up the bundle he'd made from torn curtains with his essentials.
[Count's Curtain / Durability 115]
+ Dried fish (salt + spices) x9
+ Bottles of blood x5
+ Dirty rags x2
+ Basic Water Magic Primer by Dormann Baldanis x1
+ Tarmalin anesthetic solution (1/2)
+ Small mana circuit (extremely unstable)
+ Lowest-grade mana stone fragment
+ 354 sil
"For the curtain to match my body's toughness. Durability stats are way too vague."
Sure, it was a count's curtain—top-quality, sturdy fabric. Tough enough to withstand normal impacts without tearing. But against something sharp as a blade, it'd slice right through.
'Glass Body's the same. Fragile as hell to impacts, but it holds up fine to tension. There's gotta be more to it I don't know yet.'
What they called matchup advantages. Leather armor resists blunts but folds to slashes—his Glass Body trait, now bundled with extreme regeneration, had to have its strengths too. It just had to. Please.
In case it was needed for regeneration, he wrapped the bottles of mutant blood in cloth and packed them securely, then picked up the book with its faint damp spots.
[Basic Water Magic Primer]
Found in Roman's room. The neat annotations and explanations scribbled all over suggested it was meant for him. It was perfect timing too—he'd been wondering what came after maxing his Water Mana Affinity at 100%.
Finally.... the mana circuit he'd dug out of the junk in Roman's room.
[Extremely unstable]
This thing was gonna blow.
A small groove in the center suggested slotting a mana stone there to activate it. Lack of research funds must've limited them to cheap crap like this. Even a lowest-grade fragment like his wouldn't pack much punch in a mana-backflow explosion, but as a throwable, it'd come in handy somewhere.
He carefully bundled and tied up his gear, then altered the count's ceremonial robes from his room to fit his frame as best he could and threw them on.
Riiip! Tear!
'Is this even "wearing" it....?'
The ornate nobleman's jacket with its fine embroidery had its sleeves ripped off and center torn out to make a vest. The baggy thigh breeches were shredded below the knees, leaving nothing but skin-tight shorts.
It reminded him of the rags he'd started in—maybe this character was cursed when it came to decent clothes....
[Do you really need clothes? You'll be fighting your kin on the way out anyway?]
"There's such a thing as basic human dignity, parasite."
Game character or not, this was live-streamed. He'd finally reached the point of showing real combat footage, but imagine something heavy flopping around down there mid-fight. Ugh, I'd log off and flood the community with hate right then.
After covering up the essentials as best he could, Professor took in the space he'd called home the past few days. The bathtub hauled over from his initial cell. The well that kept his sanity in check. And the crude exercise gear he'd rigged up thanks to his growing body demanding more from the infectious factors.
It left a strange feeling in his gut.
[Ah, that's my fault. Looking at this place, it feels like leaving my hometown.]
'Huh? Parasite, isn't your hometown up north with the Mutation Queen?'
[I gained self-awareness in this lab. I was born here.]
Got it. Useless trivia acquired.
With the bundle lashed tight to his back, Professor silently cracked open the exit from the underground lab.
Finally, time to put his hard work to the test.
***
Stepping out, a serene hush hung in the air, broken only by the lonely glow of a full moon bathing the city.
"Grroooo—"
"Ughhhh—"
'Rank 8s. Multiple humanoids. Nothing standout. Didn't spot many infiltrated mutants.... So most of the ones prowling the city are basic types like these.'
Ragged torn shirts and filthy pants on the mutants. Probably civilians who hadn't escaped when the city fell. The swarms filling these streets were innocents turned victims.
Tick tick, tick.
Creeping up from behind nice and quiet, when a faint tapping echoed in his head like Morse code. The black-smoke figure materialized in the air.
[Shell. That one—or what used to be a person—is it someone you knew?]
'This asshole's about to spout nonsense again.'
The black smoke blob floated ahead and perched on the shoulder of his target mutant. Intangible, existing only in his mind, but picking this hyper-focus moment to butt in and throw him off? Infuriating as ever.
[Think about it. Not someone you knew. Not alive enough to help you. Why get mad? Just 'cause it's kin? Hmm. I never got pissed when you ripped out kin throats and drained their blood.]
'Well.....'
How the hell do you explain this? Past few days dealing with the thing taught him one thing: when it popped up, humor it with an answer. Ignore it, and it'd nag endlessly with the same crap until he wanted to rip his own brain out. Why?
'Dunno.'
[Dunno? You just swore to kill the bastard who turned people into these things, and you don't know why?]
'Argh, I dunno! They had it coming anyway! And do you need a reason to get pissed when someone slaps you? It just sucks, so you rage!'
[Oh, so anger doesn't need a special reason? Convinced.]
"Gruk? Grrruk!"
'Damn it! Your yapping got us spotted!'
He had to shut it down. One yell from that thing, and it'd be all-out war!
The thought took time. The action didn't. He lunged from behind at the turning mutant, locking one arm around its neck in a chokehold while clamping the other over its mouth, then yanked hard the opposite way to induce asphyxiation—
Splurt!
[....Asphyxiation?]
'Uh.... Out in the open, this usually chokes 'em out....'
Moving so quietly at night, he'd fallen into old outdoor habits without thinking. Except he hadn't just choked it—he'd yanked the head clean off. Like plucking a grape. No resistance.
- Soy Sauce Gaybar: Trying assassinations with specs like that is the weird part anyway.
- Jokasss: Balance issue in the workshop. Normal training growth would've shown a strength stat, but that freaky method buried it in variant traits or something—no strength value displayed.
- Mukaba: Saw a mana-user knight shoulder-smashing houses in an escape mission once.
- Heung An Mandu: Those were dirt-and-wood shacks. Dude pulverized a stone wall from an underground lab built to support a surface building's weight. Pure vitality, no mana.
- Speed Wagon: Best we can do now is gauge off enemy levels. Guessing upper-tier knight barehanded combat power.
'In the end, nobody knows jack.'
Professor chucked the spurting mutant corpse into a corner and scoped the alley mouth. Lucky he finished it before any racket—others still quiet.
'Count's mansion, so city center. Turan layout: narrow tangled alleys everywhere except the central avenue to the lord's castle. Stay sharp, I can slip to the outskirts undetected.'
"Ugh?!"
Splurt!
Professor grimaced as he separated a spotted mutant's body from its head. Silent movement was fine, but this hulking frame was impossible to hide.
***
"Screeeeech!"
"Eek! Damn it! Just die already!"
"Screeeeech! Kweeeee!"
Thirty minutes of sniping alley-patrolling goons the same way, and he finally tripped the wire.
'Looked off, alright. Chicken-snake hybrid?'
The closer to the outskirts, the tougher the spawns got. Probably positioned like this to brace for humans reclaiming the city.
The one he ran into in this market-like alley was one such. Human body, chicken head. He closed in to twist its neck like always—and the damn thing stretched.
"Screeeeech! Kweeeee!!!"
"Shit! Come on..... die already!"
Crack! Crunnnch—Splash!
By the time he body-slammed the thrashing freak and tore out its elongated neck, the surrounding mutants had already heard the death screech.
"Goddamn it! Knew it wouldn't go smooth!"
Spotted now, no point staying quiet. Professor broke into a full sprint. Soles burning like hell, but no time to care.
"Gyaaaa!"
"Kreeee! Kreeeek! Keeerrr!"
"Fuck! Filthy numbers!"
The stalls marked it as a market. From fly-buzzing rotting fruit, amid blood-crusted cheap baubles, the former vendors charged as monsters.
Professor yanked a sleek pouch from his belt and swung it full-force at the oncoming mutant.
Thwack!
Direct temple hit—head explodes. Pouch intact.
"It works! This'll handle brawls just fine!"
The pouch's secret: mutant-hide-and-sinew sack packed with corroded sawblade grit he'd secretly gathered as a test subject. A blackjack.
[Item: `meat` my black Jack!: Weapon made by stuffing finely ground metal shavings and stone chips into a pouch woven from mutant hide and tendons. Tough, springy material holds up to hard swings, but somehow feels wrong to use in public. / One-Handed Bludgeon / Attack Power 38 / Durability 168 / Bonus: 40% chance to stun target]
Quality piece after endless fails and flops. To seal the metal dust, he'd gutted a mutant stomach for the liner, tied front and back, wrapped in more hide, bound tight with tendons. Made so well, it even got a unique name.
- takealook: So who's the monster here?
- Deer Drug Please: ???: This is insane! I'm outta here!
+ Player `Holy` has left the chat room!
- Soy Sauce Gaybar: Prof's stream ain't rated for everyone.
- Jokasss: Uh.... couldn't you make it.... prettier? It's so hyper-functional it's scary just to look at.
- Speed Wagon: Peak iron-balls nation energy.
- Heung An Mandu: Basically whipping around a strung-up stomach. Even psycho gangs would drop trou and bolt.
- takealook: When he was making it, Prof was grinning ear-to-ear gutting mutants—picked non-humanoids, but still looked like a total psycho.
"Shut it! You think I've got time for that?"
Professor eyed the weapon in his grip. Patchwork half-dried hide stitched to a bundle of tendons. Blood dripping from the twitching cords between—grotesque as hell.
"Graaaaa!"
Thwack!
"Grooo! Feels so good in the hand! Yeah! Who cares what it looks like! This hits perfect! Would've been ideal for its original purpose!"
He smacked his lips at the exploding mutant skulls, a twinge of regret. He'd planned to cave in those wizards' skulls with a corroded-sawdust blackjack for his escape.
Thwack!
Processing chargers, he periodically checked the blackjack's status.
+[`meat` my black Jack!: Attack Power 38 / Durability 78]
'Dropping fast.'
Flexible-link weapons like blackjacks or flails shone not just for centrifugal force, but because most recoil shock bled off into empty air on impact.
That's why he stuck with his handmade over the spears and swords littering the streets—but as a no-skill improv job, wearing out quick was inevitable.
"Kyaaaa!"
Splat!
'Almost there. Just vault the wall, and I'm gone!'
The hit sound shifted—outer tendons snapped, guts spilling. Professor tucked the wrecked blackjack into his back bundle and cleared the alley. He'd stuck to backstreets so far, but escaping meant crossing the avenue at the gate.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
"Groooooooo!!!!!"
"Yeah.... there you are."
The hulking brute that had trashed the mansion. Dozens of Rank 7 mutants clustered around it near the half-smashed gate. Professor steadied his ragged breaths. Decent threats crawled the wall tops too—climbing rashly could go south fast. No choice: punch through.
[Scared?]
"Heh heh.... Yeah. Terrified. This squishy bod against those meat mountains."
[Then.... why the grin?]
His smile deepened at the words. Professor's tensed frame coiled like a spring, primed to unleash. Had to math it perfect. Consumable body. Full send would shred like that arm before, but sometimes you just commit.
"Like I said before...."
Crack, creak!
Rrrrrumble!
Thighs ballooned to the limit, seams popping as uncontainable power set his body vibrating.
"Dunno, dude."
Boom!
Legs pistoned off the ground full-tilt, blood fountaining as his body rocketed out like a cannonball.
***
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