Priest and Morning Buff (1)
Priest and Morning Buff (1)
#
We were just sipping tea in silence because of some pointless comment I'd made. Th-this awkward, quiet atmosphere...
I needed to change the mood.
At times like this, it had to be,
'The Point Shop!'
Well, it wasn't like I had anything else to buy. Since just drinking tea felt lacking, I figured I'd get us some snacks to go with it. It'd change the mood too. Food, especially stuff like cake, always made for good conversation.
This was perfect for breaking an awkward silence.
[Point Shop Ver. 1.5]
[Dimensional Shop: Click to open ▶]
What would happen if I selected the Dimensional Shop from the Point Shop?
[Dimensional Shop]
[Enter a search term.]
I could search and place an order just like that. Payment was in points, naturally.
The reason they made this was supposedly to soothe the heroes' nostalgia for Earth? Something along those lines. Well, I'd only been in this other world for a short while, so I didn't really feel homesick.
Of course, it wasn't just food you could buy. You could buy books, and in theory, guns, tanks—basically anything was possible.
But that was only "in theory." If you tried to buy anything really impressive, the required points would increase exponentially, making it practically the same as blocking the purchase.
The reason was... what was it again? The more an item could influence this world, the greater the price you had to pay? Anyway, that was the gist.
So people usually just bought fried chicken or something once in a while. It wasn't like fried chicken spreading to this world a bit would cause any major problems.
If that were all, it would have been a standard other-world national-pride cash-in system. But the Dimensional Shop had an amusing feature.
[Purchased Item: Lotteria Big Mac Set]
[Order Request: Please hold the ice in the cola.]
I could add detailed requests like this.
I didn't know whether it was a bug or a setting mistake, but the feature was absurdly versatile.
Shrimp tempura without shrimp, chicken without chicken meat, cola without carbonation. Apparently, things like that were possible.
This was insane. It had actually produced shrimp tempura without shrimp. What were they thinking...?
Wait.
Could something like this work too?
[Purchased Item: 1 slice of Mint Chocolate Cake]
[Order Request: Please give me two forks and make sure it doesn't taste like mint ^o^]
I placed the order for now. Would this really work?
-Ding!
[1 piece of Mint Chocolate Cake that doesn't taste like mint]
[Price: 10p]
[Would you like to purchase?]
[▶Yes / No]
A fluorescent mint cake appeared before me. This actually worked?
Let's see... I steeled myself and carefully cut a very tiny piece, then put it in my mouth.
'This can't be! It really doesn't taste like mint at all...!'
Reni watched in confusion as I took a bite and recoiled in shock.
"Yoo-jin? That's...?"
"Ah. This is an Awakened ability too. I can do things like this sometimes. Try it."
I offered the remaining cake to Reni. She carefully cut a piece and put it in her mouth, then,
"It's delicious...!"
Her eyes sparkled and a smile bloomed across her face. To be this happy over just a piece of cake...
Reni, I would make sure you lived in luxury...
'It's good, it's so good!'
Reni expressed happiness with her whole body as she hurriedly stuffed the cake into her mouth. It didn't even seem to take a minute... no, not even thirty seconds. As I watched with a satisfied smile, Reni blushed and averted her eyes.
"Ah... I-I'm so sorry... I ate it all..."
"No. Don't worry about something like that. I'm not that fond of it anyway."
When I chuckled, Reni became flustered again.
After the cake was finished, the remaining wrapper vanished on its own. Trash disappeared automatically like that. Was it the Goddess's will not to leave plastic waste in this other world? Did it go back to Earth?
Fair enough.
Trash belonged in the trash can, after all.
Reni licked her lips with a slightly wistful look. Alright, alright, I got it. Let's order one more...
...Should I tease her a little? This time, I would leave the mint flavor in the mint-chocolate cake!
[Purchased Item: 1 slice of Mint Chocolate Cake]
[Order Request: It's okay even if you don't remove the mint flavor!]
-Ting!
[1 piece of Mint Chocolate Cake]
[Price: 10p]
[Would you like to purchase?]
[▶Yes / No]
...Right... mint choco cake without removing the mint flavor was just ordinary mint choco cake.
Now, how would she react?
Reni looked at it with eager eyes, cut off a piece, placed it in her mouth, and moaned.
"Ah...!"
Urk, had I been too cruel? Mint choco wasn't it after all, right? Maybe I was tormenting her too much today...
"H-How is it?"
"I-itsh sho gooood...!"
"What?!"
Whether I was aghast or not, Reni was staring at the ghastly fluorescent toxic substance with sparkling eyes. That ominous-looking object was delicious?!
"R-Reni. You find that delicious?!"
An ecstatic face. Reni even had her hand on her cheek. I felt like her pupils had turned into heart shapes.
"Yes! It is sweet at first, and the aftertaste is refreshing! H-how can a cake like this exist...? It's delicious! Ngh!"
"!!!"
This couldn't be happening...! R-Reni was one of the mint-chocolate faithful!!! How could this be real?! How could this be real?!!!!! Give me back my sweet little Reni!!!!!!!!!!!
-Rumble! Crash! Boom!
"Hah!"
Reni snapped to her senses at the sound of thunder. In front of her was the half-devoured cake. Her eyes were rolling around. It was obvious she wanted to finish it but was gauging my reaction.
"I don't like that stuff. Finish it."
Reni grinned goofily and brought her fork to the remaining mint chocolate cake. Reni was now savoring the cake slowly, as if handling something small and precious.
She seemed to like it more than I did. I shouldn't order it next time. Reni's palate needed to be "correctly" reformed.
While Reni ate the cake, I ordered some corn silk tea to settle my mind.
With this, I had four chances left to order food this week. The food I could order from the Dimensional Shop was limited to 7 times per week.
Only one delivery meal per day. That had to be part of the balance adjustment or whatever.
Reni looked at me with sparkling eyes again this time.
"Want to try some?"
She nodded eagerly.
"Just a moment."
First, I took a sip myself.
Whew... it tasted nostalgic: earthy, nutty, sweet, and somehow hollow.
I took one more sip and handed it over. A taste I missed.
Reni took a sip, lowered her head, and fell silent. Had she been moved again? I could understand why people cashed in on national-pride gimmicks. Once you got addicted to that fast, immediate catharsis, there was no escaping it.
"Yoo-jin... what is this?"
Reni's voice was slightly choked. Why was she acting like this all of a sudden? They say that when people eat something too delicious, they go past laughing and start crying.
Earth's culture shock must have been too much for Reni. She had been moved to tears. My poor Reni... I had to take good care of her... I'd become successful and treat her right...
"It's a traditional tea from where I lived. They dry corn silk and boil it. To me, it tastes something like a memory. I drank a lot of it in the old days. How is it?"
Hearing that, Reni suddenly bit her lip hard.
"Hic...!"
"What's wrong?"
"I-I never knew... that you had lived through such hardship, Yoo-jin..."
No, what now?
"Wha-what? What are you talking about?"
"I-I know about this... During famines, people boiled grass roots and tree bark to eat... Sniff..."
"Wh-wh-what?"
"Yoo-jin!!!"
Reni shot to her feet and looked at me with truly pitying eyes.
"I don't know what you think of our world, but... we don't lack for food!"
Huh?
"E-eating something so bleak that it barely feels like you've eaten at all... There's no need for you to consume such things anymore!"
That was going too far! Corn-silk tea did taste a little hollow, but did she have to take it that far? One cup of tea had sent this priest spiraling into delusion.
I was so taken aback that I could not speak, but Reni suddenly came over, knelt down, and clasped my hand tight.
"Yoo-jin... I-I, someday... I'll definitely... treat you right...!"
For one brief moment, our intentions were perfectly aligned.
...
"...Let's just sleep..."
"Yes..."
I was completely drained. We shared the same bed, but I had absolutely no desire for anything lewd.
#
-Ting!
[Time until Heat State onset: 00:02:19]
"Ah, come on,"
'I get it!!!!'
Reni was sleeping beside me, so I barely swallowed the rest of the sentence. Not one day passed without this system tormenting me.
Waking from sleep to have to jerk off. And it was mandatory. It was beyond awful.
Yoo-jin went into the bathroom.
…
After that miserable little happy time...
Yoo-jin lay in bed, thinking.
'This is seriously way too inconvenient. Isn't there any way to fix it?'
But whether I looked through my skills or my traits, I saw no way to remove this 「Heat」 penalty.
Just in case, I'd tried masturbating before the heat onset, but the count didn't reset.
Masturbation only allowed Heat Release, and even that felt like the system knew it was a loophole but was turning a blind eye. I was suspicious how long they'd keep looking the other way. The system had also clearly warned me before.
And one more thing. Suppose I had sex before I entered heat. If the count still didn't reset then?
...Thinking about it again, this wasn't just a level of inconvenience; it was a pretty big problem. Of course, I'd be dodging danger, but still, you never knew what'd happen with people. What if I suddenly got hit with a stat debuff in the middle of battle and went mad with lust? Something horrible would happen.
I had to get rid of this penalty. If I couldn't get rid of it, I at least needed a way to control it.
'Was there really nothing...?'
...
Wait.
Come to think of it, there was something I had skipped earlier without checking.
[Point Shop Ver. 1.5]
[Skill Proposals: Click to open ▶] NEW!
Skill Proposals? I had never seen this system in the novel. Was it what I thought it was?
When I opened it, an intriguing form appeared.
[Specialized Skill Proposal Form]
[Skill Name: Enter here.]
[Skill Effect: Enter here.]
[Skill Intent: Enter here.]
[Additional Notes: Enter here.]
A specialized skill proposal form, huh... Aha.
'...So it's telling me to design smut-fantasy skills myself.'
The author had some sense after all. If they couldn't do it themselves, they outsourced it to someone else. Yes, if they lacked confidence, this was the right approach.
'As expected of you, Author! I knew I could trust you! Damn it!'
Plenty of erotic smut-fantasy skills came to mind, but...
'First, I needed to find a way to deal with the Heat penalty.'
First, the name... something straightforward like 'Anti Heat'...
Skill effect... 'Release of Heat State.'
As for the intent: 'Preparation is necessary because dangerous situations may arise.'
Good.
[Would you like to submit?]
[▶Yes / No]
[Under Review...]
.
.
.
.
.
[The 「Anti Heat」 skill has been rejected.]
[Rejection Reason: Do not try to escape through such a cheap trick.]
"...You filthy, cheap, petty, underhanded, cowardly, despicable son of a—"
-Flash!
-Rumble! KRA-KOOOM!
"Aghh..."
The lightning must have struck nearby, because Reni stirred at the thunder.
...What was I doing beside a sleeping girl? I should stop arguing with the system and get some sleep. I could examine the Skill Proposals feature properly after I woke up.
"Mm..."
But as Reni tossed and turned, she flung out an arm and—
"..."
—dropped it across my chest.
"Nnnh... chhillly..."
Curled like a shrimp, Reni burrowed against me.
Ghk.
'Th-this can't be. What was I supposed to do if you attacked me out of nowhere like this?!'
Come to think of it, Kate had said Reni got cold easily. No wonder her skin was cool...
Reni wriggled into the crook of my arm. Even through our clothes, I could feel the softness of her breasts...
M-maybe I could touch her just a little...
...
But was it truly the right thing to do, touching a sleeping girl?
Hold back. I had to restrain myself. I was a sensible citizen of modern civilization.
If I touched a sleeping girl, I wouldn't be human. I'd be a fucking bastard.
.
.
.
.
Woof woof! Woof! Woorongorawoof! Wuphperwupherwuppererkrr! Grrr! Rrr! Rrr!
[Trait: 「Creepy Dog Persona (B)」 has been imprinted.]
Grrrrrr...
[Beginning settlement.]
[Weak Pleasure: 10p]
[Sexual acts performed while the target is in an Unaware State do not award points: -10p]
[Total Points: 0p]
Grrr! Rrr rrr rrr! Woof woof woof! Kyarrrrgh!!!!!
[System: Please stop making that dog-barking noise.]
Grrr! Gurrghrrrgh! Rrr! Rrr rrr!
-Flashflashflash!
-Rumble... CRASH! BANG!!!!
-Whoosh! Crackle! Crackle!
-Pssshhhh...
Grrrng... whine... whiiiiine...