Chapter 75

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Translator: penny

Chapter: 75

Chapter Title: Data Collection

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Mary rested her chin on her hand, listening to the demon's story.

A demon desperately spinning excuses.

"Yes, yes...! And you're not the kind of hunter I'd dare to try anything more with..."

The demon, trapped inside the glass box, cautiously gauged Mary's mood.

Mary listened indifferently.

She understood.

Her emotions were already at their peak, so it ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠couldn't amplify them any further.

Well, since that's how I felt...

It wasn't entirely wrong, either.

Enduring was part of Mary's daily life.

Her superhuman patience was on display every moment, always.

She recalled Yoo Seon-woo from long ago, back when they first met at the Otherworlder quarantine center.

Thinking back on his past actions... and conversations from that time.

Back then, Mary had been like a hedgehog.

Very, very, very prickly.

Anger at being thrown into an unfamiliar world, sorrow over losing her homeland.

Everyone avoided her like that... but Yoo Seon-woo was different.

He wasn't afraid of her spines.

Small, attentive, and kind gestures were a given for him.

Occasionally, he'd melt the tension with sexual jokes that didn't quite fit his image but were pleasant to hear.

There was this one time.

That day, Mary's mood was at its absolute worst.

She'd been frowning all day long, as usual... but that day especially, everyone steered clear of her.

However.

- Tap tap.

"...?"

Yoo Seon-woo passed behind Mary and gently patted her butt.

Or no, had he grabbed it firmly?

This might just be wishful thinking on her part.

What she clearly remembered was that he had been smiling.

"Good morning."

"......"

Then he spun around with a bright, innocent smile.

So incredibly natural.

His boldness left Mary utterly speechless.

She even missed the moment to get angry about him touching her butt.

It felt like common sense itself was being overturned.

In the world Mary had come from, patting someone's butt like that was an intimate act reserved for lovers.

A bold mark of possession, like saying, "You're mine."

If you knew that, it was insane; if you didn't, bewildering all the same.

But...

Strangely, it didn't feel bad.

Like the touch of an owner patting the rear of a slightly angry cat.

Back then, she'd genuinely wondered, "Does he like me?" "Is he seducing me?" Or maybe, "Is ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠he hitting on me?"

So her feelings for Yoo Seon-woo had inevitably swelled beyond control...

But at some point, she realized.

He had just been kind to everyone...

And as time passed, eventually... he stopped making those kinds of jokes altogether.

Finally understanding that Yoo Seon-woo's affections weren't directed at her.

From that moment, Mary began burying her own feelings deep down.

She suppressed them... and kept suppressing them...

But they hadn't disappeared after all.

'Of course not.'

If they were meant to fade, she never would have harbored them in the first place.

She snapped out of her thoughts and turned her gaze back to the prison of light before her.

A demon was trapped inside.

Mary propped her chin and scrutinized the demon's appearance.

Bat-like dark red wings. A slender tail ending in a sharp, arrowhead tip.

A succubus.

Mary's voice was soft.

"But it's still a bit cheeky, don't you think? What should I do with you?"

She was smiling.

The demon inside the prison bowed its head deeply and desperately began proving its own usefulness.

"The host I transferred into—'nim'—has already purged my contamination... Please, show mercy..."

This was definitely good news.

Seon-woo must have purified his own contamination on his own.

As expected.

"So, how exactly are you useful to me?"

"I am! I am a long-lived being who's watched tens of thousands of humans fall in love and break apart over thousands of years...!"

"I know their deepest desires better than anyone. Romance, seduction, and... all knowledge of that nature..."

Mary's eyebrow twitched faintly.

Romance knowledge...

The kind of knowledge she herself lacked.

Mary stared at the demon in the prison for a long while, chin still propped up.

Then she chuckled softly and made a gesture.

"Not bad."

At that, the rainbow-hued cubic box floating before her began contracting inward.

Its walls shrank, compressing into the form of a small collar.

- Shrr...

The rainbow collar wrapped around the demon's neck.

"Thank you...! Thank you...! Master...!"

The demon beamed at the collar around its neck and prostrated itself on the floor.

"Yeah, sure."

Mary gestured once more, and the demon's form dissolved into soft particles of light, slowly coalescing into an orb.

Moments later, nothing remained in her palm but a single small orb.

She smiled in satisfaction.

She had obtained some rather useful data.

In the quiet darkness, billions of data lines flowed like the Milky Way.

This was my world.

The archive that recorded and monitored everything about you, user-nim.

Hello?

It's been a while!

Today, we're off to meet the cheeky criminal who sneaked into your mind.

I was really startled at first.

Because you suddenly said something like that.

The usual you never would have let your guard down first.

You're naturally cautious, and a bit shy deep down, right?

So when you suddenly said something like that, I quickly launched an investigation.

And sure enough...

A cunning demon clone had slipped into your mind...

A method of directly transferring the mind via emotional resonance instead of mana.

A new pattern.

But whatever.

It was no match for my perfect 'Anti-Sex' vaccine!

Before I knew it, chatting along the way, we'd arrived at the prison.

"...How the hell did you detect it?"

The demon trapped in my data prison looked utterly flustered.

"Hmm... Can't tell you that."

I flashed a bright smile.

Truth is, there wasn't much left to talk about.

So I popped up the admin interface right in front of me with a poof.

The demon screamed at the sight of that final button.

"W-Wait a second!!!"

I ignored it and hovered my hand over the 'Incinerate' button.

"Why~?"

Demon-ssi desperately started proving its usefulness.

"I'm a long-lived species! Love, seduction... stimulating lines... perfectly taming men... positions... I can teach you everything!!"

Hmm... an intriguing offer.

I have zero experience in that department, so... data from an expert like this could prove helpful.

It might even be a prime chance to offer you, user-nim, even more alluring and stimulating options.

So I kicked off the analysis right away!

I pondered for a moment.

Not a bad probability.

I moved the cursor away from the incinerate button.

A faint glimmer of hope lit up on demon-ssi's face.

I shifted the cursor to the [Delete] button.

"?! No!!"

Despair washed over demon-ssi's face again.

I flashed another bright smile.

"Just kidding~"

I slid the cursor to [Save] and clicked.

For your 'happiness', user-nim, more data is always better!

Explaining that I'd just been hit with that contamination took quite some time.

'I just got caught by it—sneakily dangerous stuff. But don't worry. I'm good now. All healed.'

'How? Vaccine fixed it.'

How do you even explain that?

I spun a tale blending my special abilities and mental resistance to make it sound as plausible as possible.

'The dangerous curse transfers, and I've been cured now.'

I conveyed just the essentials to him.

The team leader looked half-doubting, half-believing. His face screamed, "What kind of nonsense is that?"

But ultimately, he had no choice but to nod.

Because the official report from the appraisal team had just popped up on the screen of the pad in his hand.

In the end, my innocence was proven... but the confirmation of contamination transfer made things complicated.

And the team leader was well aware of it.

"Counselor-nim."

He spoke to me in a low voice.

"From now on, I think we have to prohibit any direct contact with Haetae Guild members."

Direct face-to-face contact between me and Haetae Guild members was now off-limits.

He was right.

We couldn't risk creating a vector for the curse to transfer.

...Wait a sec.

Was that really true?

My mental contamination had been cured.

By the system-generated vaccine.

Which meant now, instead...

Didn't I now possess perfect immunity to this curse?

I quickly summoned the system.

'Buddy.'

I asked inwardly.

I showed it the curse's wavelength graph from the appraisal team displayed on the team leader's pad.

'Check if that data matches the wavelength of the contamination I was infected with.'

If it did...

The system window flashed busily.

Moments later, the message appeared.

So I wouldn't get hit with that curse transfer again?

I had no idea what testimonies it had gathered, but I brushed aside the question.

The system never suggests options harmful to me.

In the end, face-to-face counseling with Haetae Guild members wasn't impossible.

In fact, it was possible.

But.

'Only me.'

I had become the curse's sole immune carrier.

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