Suicide Diet
Finally, I got some time alone.
I hoped I could wake Shan before evening.
I returned to the abandoned factory zone, a place where few people went and no one else was looking for me.
Inside, it was as empty as before.
The small commotion caused by Violet was nothing compared to the academy entrance exam.
Since an incident happened here, it was fortunate that no one was monitoring this place anymore.
The only difference was that the haphazardly abandoned waste drums had been neatly removed.
Due to the series of incidents, it seemed the Management Bureau's research institute had collected everything.
I scattered the remaining Ichor to create a radar-like detection network around the area, then closed my eyes and completely entered the dream world.
Inside the dark space, below the right breast where Shan was. I knocked on the door.
- Knock knock knock!!!
“Shan! It's me! Wake up!”
I tried to suppress the unnecessary anxiety through hormone regulation, but it was in vain.
Whoosh.
Hormone secretion didn't happen with the chest pain.
This definitely meant there was a problem. Nothing was moving except the disguise.
Two years ago. It felt like going back to the time when I was a normal girl Tiss who had just woken up in this world.
“Shan, open your eyes!”
- Thump thump.
At that moment, a reaction came from inside the right chest.
<Shan? Shan? Are you okay? Answer me!>
[...Ugh...]
Instead of an answer, only a struggling groan was barely heard.
She was alive, but there was a reason she couldn't move.
Hoping it was nothing serious, I kicked open the door of the dream world and entered inside.
.
.
.
<One week ago>
The moment Tiss lost consciousness.
- Ugh...
Shan naturally opened her eyes.
[Tiss, Tiss, wake up.]
But Tiss didn't move an inch.
Aww.
Inside where consciousness was lost, it was a mess.
“Uwaaang~ The connection with Tiss is cut! It's ruined~!”
“What, what to do? What to do? What to do?”
Shan, trembling and shedding tears, had an unbearably heavy burden.
“Shan jjangdongmu?”
When the crying Shan turned her head, 4000 Katies were waiting.
The entire number that remained after consuming 2000 bug swarms at the entrance was hiding inside Tiss's body.
“Ehehe... If I had known it would turn out like this, I wouldn't have done the full deployment.”
The situation was more serious than expected.
After hugging with 6000 Katies, the chosen method was none other than biological preservation.
Shan was storing the temporarily melted Katies in the form of essences, and when an escape route appeared, she would release them and send them back.
If it had gone according to the original plan, there would have been no problem.
But it was hard to anticipate Cheon Geomhwa popping out and Tiss completely collapsing after full deployment.
In this process, since she fell into unconsciousness, 4000 plus one portion of energy was being consumed in real time.
“Stomach gurgling. Katie squirming.”
In the worst body state reaching its limit, I had to coordinate and manage the biological energy of 4000 plus one.
“...This state can't last long...”
Separately from the energy burned during the deployment spell, the aftereffects made the life energy consumption rate unbelievably fast.
Outside, there was medical facility care, but still, the amount was only at the level of a normal ability user.
You can't turn a desert into a lake with just a cup of water.
If I went crazy here and sucked up the internal energy, it might cause malfunctions in the ultra-precision inspection machines or detections.
Then, if Katie inside got caught?
“...Just not using it is safer.”
Thinking that if done wrong, it might lead to being turned into food in the hospital, Shan gave up using external energy sources.
The problem was that just maintaining this state was burning up the stored essences and calories insanely.
“What to do? What to do?”
The best method was to burn Cheon Geomhwa's heart as fuel, but...
“Ah, no!”
To suppress the sudden greed, she headbutted the wall and stopped herself.
“If I use this, then the effort I put in will be in vain.”
Then, I could get energy to endure for a week the maintenance cost for 4000 plus 1.
But if I did that, Tiss's plan would be ruined.
“White Ghost bad!”
“Bad bad!!”
“Hic, th-thank you.”
Shan, whose tears were flowing because Katie who sympathized with her and cursed White Ghost was grateful.
But she just turned away from the solution, and the problem remained the same.
“Shan in trouble?”
“Need help?”
“Want to eat us?”
“Let's become one!”
“Eh? W-wait.”
The Katies rushed towards Shan.
“I know! Shan jjangdongmu needs help!”
“For us!”
“Tell us the method!”
If I ate Katie here and now...?
“Ah, no. I can't do that.”
I could definitely endure, but if I did, I would break the original promise with my own hands.
“If it were Tiss... how would she do it.”
Shan was adjusting according to the direction Tiss usually taught.
“...Need to think of something.”
If Katies helped, there was a way.
It might be a somewhat ignored method, but perhaps Tiss would say if she knew this, she wouldn't have eaten Katie anyway, but still, Shan thought this was right.
“Th-then, there is a way.”
I should hibernate.
Even though it's spring when days warm up, if I enter a dormant state like when hibernating, the problem would be solved.
“H-can I? No, I have to.”
Even animals that hibernate like bears often die when spring comes, unable to excrete accumulated poisons or due to too long starvation, unable to maintain their bodies.
To prevent the tragedy of Tiss waking up and starving to death with eyes open, I had to do it.
“...I have to cut off my own flesh...”
I had to give up not only the energy sources and storage I had been carefully collecting with Tiss, but also the components that make up my own body now.
“If I reduce material metabolism to 5% or less, not 3%, of normal, I could endure with the remaining essences and calories somehow.”
Probably?
Shan's suicide diet, which had resigned herself to death, began.
.
.
.
Thanks to Shan's desperate efforts, Tiss was able to wake up safely.
Kuuung.
The thing Tiss faced when opening the door and entering was.
“Ueeee...”
“Shan?!”
Shan had shrunk like a dried squid.
“Tiss, I'm, I'm hungry...”
It was an unbearably pathetic and desperate cry that would make anyone cry.
“I got it! U-um, let's connect first.”
“Ah, no... I don't have any energy for that.”
Shan desperately tried to stop Tiss like a deflated balloon.
“Food... go out and eat first...”
Thinking that survival depended on the immediate meal, Tiss hurriedly cut the connection.
Then, as black out happened, the hidden body state was somewhat revealed.
“Oh my, it's this empty?”
Only the disguise shell was normal, and inside, the energy floor was exposed.
I had forcibly done a suicide diet for a week.
- Gurgle!
Grasping my empty stomach from hunger, I contacted Emily, Siu, and Sia.
<The little lady has been reaching out to me more often lately?>
“Th-this time it's urgent... The aftereffects from dealing with Cheon Geomhwa are severe.”
“Huhuhu. The little lady has suffered a lot. Got it. This time, I'll just help you specially.”
“Really, thank you.”
To Emily, I visited at the right timing, gave her things needed for class, and asked her to take care of Katie for a while.
To Siu and Sia:
“You guys, I'm so hungry I might die.”
- Ding.
- Ding ding ding!
<Sis, are you okay?>
<What's going on?>
<Where are you now? We'll come pick you up>
<What do you want to eat? If you need anything, I'll catch a cow or chicken.>
<Anything, please...!>
“Why is the typing speed so fast?”
Like a grandmother hearing that her grandchild is starving, Sia sent crazy messages.
<If you're going to eat anything, eat as much as possible. Your predation ability has weakened due to prolonged hunger. Do you have any magic stones?>
<Don't worry, sis! I'll go steal the magic stone market with a knife right now!>
<Sia, calm down. I get the situation. Leave the magic stone gathering to us.>
Squeezing out the remaining strength, I returned to the dorm and saw a mountain of magic stones and food piled up.
“...How did you get this?”
“First, eat while I explain.”
Chew chew.
I forced down rice and magic stones.
“I brought what I personally had and what was in the Secret Society safe house.”
The former was fine, but the latter was a bit worrying.
Eh, whatever. First, survive.
Chew chew.
For almost an hour, without breathing properly, I stuffed my mouth with what Siu and Sia were handing over without hesitation.
Instead of absorbing abilities, I was going to use all of it as energy sources necessary for body maintenance, so I ate the lowest-grade magic stones indiscriminately without caring.
I crushed magic stones like cookies and ate them, ground them into powder and topped with them, and when in a hurry, just swallowed them whole.
The body itself seemed to absorb nutrients, and it melted as soon as it touched my mouth.
“Tiss unnie eats so deliciously.”
“Yeah.”
The gazes of Siu and Sia looking at me fondly now were probably fine.
Like possessed, I ate and ate more.
After eating all that was accumulated.
- Hoo...
I could finally sigh.
I ate well.
“Now I look like I might gain some weight.”
I stroked my bloated belly and leisurely gulped down carbonated drinks.
- Gulp!
It was the moment I properly felt that I was alive.
“Tiss unnie. Now you're okay?”
“Yeah. Thank you. Thanks to you, I lived.”
“At first, I was worried you were eating too hastily, but it's good that you ate well.”
With that short word of praise, the two looked visibly happy.
“Tiss, rest for a while, and let's organize things among ourselves.”
“Yeah, oppa.”
Siu and Sia, now relieved of their worries, started organizing the piled-up trash.
Sia and Siu were proud, saying they finally used their trained physical abilities to the fullest.
“Even though I stole an entire convenience store, it's this much.”
“See, oppa. You bought everything even if you had to pay extra, right?”
“Yeah, this time my judgment was wrong.”
“See! I wasn't the one causing trouble all the time, right? Now admit it.”
“Okay. I was wrong.”
“Huhuhu. That's right.”
Before Emily arrived, I leaned against the sofa in the dorm living room and listened to Siu and Sia's conversation.
If it weren't true, the two would have been in big trouble.
“Tiss unnie eating well is enough to make me feel rewarded just by watching. The predation ability isn't bad, is it?”
“Next time, let's cook ourselves. With good ingredients.”
“Yeah! We haven't had the chance to eat out often because of classes. Hya~ Thinking about eating warm home-cooked dinner together with Tiss unnie after class is so heartwarming.”
“Are you that happy?”
“Of course!”
I said predation, but I really did well.
[Uuu... Now I'll live.]
<You're back.>
[Huueu... Tiss, I, I really worked hard.]
I didn't consume my heart or Katie or anything.
To bet on the essence itself in a brute way. There were many things I wanted to say, but still.
<Shan, thank you. Really, you worked hard.>
This was the right thing to say first.
[Huueu..!]
By straining her head inside to somehow save necessary calories, she succeeded in organizing Katie in maximum efficiency.
[Th-thank you... But, I'm not the only one in trouble.]
<It's not just that the barn is empty?>
[Yeah... I found a few advantages.]
It was basic to be able to process old energy sources whose shelf life was reduced by aging.
By emptying the bowl to the extreme and refilling it, I discovered that it was easy to increase the bowl's size.
In addition, I converted fuel efficiency more efficiently.
[After repeating it a few times, it seems there won't be unnecessary energy. Ah, I thought of an idea too. For example, using blood as an energy source.]
<Like Mary?>
[Th-that's also a method, but in my opinion, it's not to acidify blood into a neutral substance. Change it to ions. Use the blood as a space to store energy.]
<Ionization through blood acidification, like a car battery?>
Not a bad idea.
The fact that it becomes acidic blood is a bit of a problem, but the energy transfer efficiency will be much higher.
<Tell me slowly. First, rest and separate Katie.>
[Uh... Yeah!]
If I hugged like this, I might faint again at any time.
- Woong.
<Little lady. I'm here.>
Since Emily came, I left the room for a moment to release Katie.
- Burgle!
“Sis~ Let's take a bath together.”
Ah, the timing was too bad.
While the two were finishing up, I really went down for a very short time, met Emily quickly, and came back.
“Oppa! Tiss unnie disappeared!!!”
“Sia, calm down.”
“I have to move now! Call the Secret Society! What are you doing, oppa, pick up a weapon!”
“Sia...”
The dorm shook for a moment with Sia's scream.