T-1019
The dishes I'd ordered were laid out in front of me, but I wasn't in any state to eat right now.
I'd minimized the chat window, but notifications kept popping up that the other person was still sending messages.
The relentless stream of alerts ratcheted up the pressure, and cold sweat started beading on my skin.
"No way I can play it off as a misunderstanding now..."
They'd already put their full trust in me and spilled their lifelong secret fetish...
I was terrified to check the contents.
But no matter how scared I was, I couldn't keep dodging reality forever.
'Just accept it... I've watched tentacle stuff a few times already. No need to act all prim now.'
So what if it's a weird kink? Tentacles... I don't hate them. Hell, I might even like them... at least watching.
'...Though doujinshi tentacles and real-life ones are probably a whole different vibe.'
Kinks are something you respect.
I took a deep breath and reopened the chat window.
......
......
......
'Joodak sis... save me...'
My sanity was slowly melting away in the torrent of information that shattered all common sense.
And then, it finally crossed a critical threshold.
Amid the increasingly dizzying chat from 'StickyLover,'
I decided to accept it.
Accept what?
Becoming her 'tentacle friend.'
It was way too late to back out now. 'StickyLover' had already bared her soul to me.
I was already her 'Soul Tentacle Friend,' the only one in her world who understood.
'...Oh, right.'
The fact that my existence could be a shelter for someone else was a blessing. Being needed by another person proved I had value too.
Once I realized that, I looked back at the chat, and suddenly saw it anew. This wasn't just a dizzying wall of text. It was the pent-up frustration she'd accumulated all her life. The loneliness, the despair from never being understood.
I could see it in her words.
She was crying right now.
The text she kept pouring out was her tears—everything she'd bottled up, finally spilling onto the page.
I'll accept her. So what if it's a weird kink?
Once I took off the colored glasses, a new world opened up.
In response to my resolute message, 'StickyLover' went silent for a long, agonizing moment.
Then, she finally replied with a short sentence.
It was too short for an answer spat out after that silence, but it transparently reflected her heart.
All I'd done was listen. I didn't think I deserved repayment.
'She must be really touched...'
'If it's a gift between friends... guess I have no choice.'
StickyThingLover★ has requested a trade.
I accepted the trade.
The name of the item 'StickyLover' offered was...
'Hm...? No clue from the name alone.'
But a similar name popped into my head.
The robot from that old movie sent from the future to kill the protagonist.
'Watched the sequel and it was hilarious.'
I hit accept without a second thought.
A swirl of light appeared in front of me, drawing the eyes of every diner in the restaurant.
'Oh... right.'
I'd forgotten about this flashy effect.
Gotta apologize to everyone else.
The light coalesced into a single form.
It was... about the size of a human head, with three thick, long tails. And those tails had crater-like suckers...
'No fucking way, this is a tentacle!!!'
I lunged forward with explosive speed, grabbing the tentacle.
Judging by the look, it was probably made from dungeon monster parts, so it'd go into my 'Dungeon Inventory'...! No, it had to!!!!
But the tentacle's body was oozing faint slime, and my hand slipped, pressing hard on what looked like its eye?
The moment I did, the model-like tentacle came alive and started wriggling. Two of the three tentacles shot out and latched onto my chest, while the third whipped upward, relentlessly smacking everything in sight. Specifically, my face.
Smack—slurp—smack—slurp—slurp-slurp—smack-slurp—
A rhythmic tentacle slapping my cheeks while sucking in split seconds.
A bizarre silence fell over the restaurant—sluuuurp—smack—
The only sounds were the tentacle colliding with my flesh, filling the place.
The waitstaff and customers' faces turned icy, their gazes filled with contempt.
Fuck,
I'm out.
Three days passed.
At the first restaurant... I had to bail without properly tasting the food due to that unfortunate incident,
but since there were plenty of other eateries, I successfully sampled various ingredients without issue.
'Phew... Now I know T-series don't just come from the future.'
I died once in that restaurant.
Socially.
No more dumb mistakes like that.
"Hoo... Just forget it."
I'll be kicking the blanket for a while, but what can you do? Wait for time to heal it.
Anyway, referencing the foods I'd eaten, I picked new monster candidates while another thought struck me.
"Definitely... way tastier than street stall grub."
Sorry, Luna... but of course? Restaurants use herbs and seasonings to kill off gamey smells. Real 'cooking.'
"Though it's still subpar by my standards."
To my tongue, accustomed to MSG-drenched modern food, the seasoning felt bland, and I could still detect some gaminess.
Plus, prices were at least ten times street stalls. Minimum ten times.
"Hm... Come to think of it, street food might be dirt cheap."
Makes sense—they just buy monster parts from the market with coins and grill or boil them raw.
Cheap monster bits mostly. Feels like they add just a cooking fee to the material cost.
They sprinkle Magic Tower elixir, but from what I'd looked into, that's super cheap.
Reflecting on that, a sense of wrongness hit me.
Since transmigration, I'd only used street stalls, so I'd assumed their prices were standard—about 100 won per coin.
Early on, slime jelly sold for 100 coins per piece, enough for 4-5 servings of slime noodles.
Average street stall slime noodles: 4-50 coins.
So in modern terms, I figured a meal was 4-5,000 won. But no.
Not 4-500 won food...
"...It was 400-500 won food."
Obviously, street food is for the shelter's bottom rung.
Er... wait a sec...
Suddenly, Luna's stall came to mind.
Slime noodles cheaper than others at 35 coins, with way more portions.
After paying for ingredients and nutrients... how much does Luna actually make?
How's she gonna pay taxes...?
I started worrying about Luna out of nowhere.