Chapter 66

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Translator: penny

Chapter: 66

Chapter Title: O, God (1)

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Limits come sooner than you think.

"Uh..."

A day after wrapping up the parcel terrorism.

As usual, I'd been using the camera to max out my sanity when...

My sanity was dropping normally, but the max wasn't budging. That's when I realized.

'1000 is the cap, huh.'

I didn't know about other races, but for humans, the sanity max is 1000, period.

Still, taking off the items let me recover sanity again.

So I unequipped the gear that boosted sanity by a total of 144.

"That should leave me with 858... Hm?"

It should've been 858 total sanity left, but after unequipping, only 856 remained.

'...Huh?'

Back when my total hit 1000,

I'd used one more correction on myself, pushing it to an invisible 1002 total.

Right now...

"Mina."

"Yes?"

"Could you give me a correction?"

"Sure."

On a hunch, I asked Mina for a correction.

Total sanity increased by 1 normally.

So I re-equipped everything to hit 1000 total again,

then unequipped it all once more...

Sure enough.

Unequipping dropped the max from 857 to 856.

Once total sanity caps at 1000, no amount of corrections will push it higher.

'...Well, shit.'

Now it made sense why daily regen stopped at 1000...

I should've caught on sooner.

'Sigh...'

I fired up DL to check remaining stones.

My account had about 560k stones.

Simple math: buying sanity from others could've added a whopping 1704 more.

But human limits—or system limits—cap it.

"This is seriously bad..."

"What's wrong?"

"Sanity maxes at 1000..."

"Pardon?"

"...I needed to use Delete on the camera at least 5 times a day..."

My original plan:

Boost total sanity to around 2100 first.

Then tackle ghost stories with enough for 5 free kills a day.

"Turns out it's max 2 per day..."

"That's... pretty disappointing."

Disappointment flooded my mind.

If the camera truly erased everything in a photo, even 2 uses a day would've been fine.

But experiments on tons of monsters in the Gallery showed otherwise.

'Things don't go as smoothly as hoped.'

The camera wasn't the cheat ability I thought.

"Hm... This is really tricky..."

First issue:

If a photo has two or more lifeforms, the camera can't target them.

It still reveals true forms, but no correction or tracking.

Two Japanese guys? No functions.

Two monsters? Delete does nothing.

To use it right, one lifeform per photo.

Second:

Delete insta-kills only below 400 sanity.

Above? Needs two Deletes.

Still alive after two? Run.

No human beats an 800-sanity tank.

Finally:

Delete costs 400 sanity, so max 2/day at 1000.

Great 1v1, but monsters don't queue fair fights.

In sanity-draining ghost stories, 400 is too precious to waste.

"Ha..."

No more ways to strengthen up here.

Forced options: inventory parcel bombs or weaponize Unfair Hospital scalpels.

"I can't get any stronger..."

"Just exercise."

"Sigh... Fine."

"Gonna work out? Let's home train together starting today—"

"From today, I'll correct you, Mina."

"No no... Exercise makes you stronger."

"Hey!! How dare a human try body mods...!"

"It's just exercise...!"

"I sweat a lot, so you'd hate me. Better not—for consideration."

"You just hate exercising...!"

If I can't grow, strengthen reliable allies.

"From now on, sell corrections to others here."

"You're not a kid who ignores advice..."

"Except Exchange Days, I'll focus on you, Mina."

"Yeah... Let's do that."

"Ajaja! Fighting!"

"Sure..."

"But I do exercise sometimes."

"Like 30 minutes a day."

"That's 30 minutes!"

"Uh..."

"The world's wrong! Exercise is boring and no fun!"

"...Pardon?"

"If there was fun exercise that builds strength and feels good, I'd do it daily!"

"No such thing... Hya...!"

"?"

As I whined,

Mina's face suddenly flushed bright red.

'...What? Did I say something wrong?'

I pondered briefly,

'Well, whatever. To survive here, gotta stay fit. Can't rely on items forever.'

Whining aside, time to get serious about strength training.

"Sigh... No choice. From today, exercise with me, Mina."

"Huh?!?! What?! J-Just now... what did you... say...?!"

"...Exercise?"

"Uuu... I-I... not ready... p-prepare... my heart... y'know..."

"...?"

"H-How many... h-hours... a day...?"

"Hm... 3-4 hours minimum?"

"...Monster."

"???"

"...Gonna wash up."

"Uh... Sure. After you're done, I'll go."

"I-I... think not washing is... fine too..."

"Oh? Then I wouldn't mind if you skip."

"No way...!"

What...?

Afraid of her sweat smell now that we're exercising together?