The Forbidden Mushroom and the Android's Secret
Eating anything you find can lead to big trouble.
A Queen-class monster.
The subjugation of the Behimogigas.
Once its health bar hit absolute zero, the creature's entire body began to collapse, and with a loud pop!, it burst, scattering chunks of flesh in every direction.
Perhaps because the battle had ended, the third-person interface that had been floating before my eyes and the game controller in my hands vanished along with it.
"Does it... disappear when I'm not in combat?"
I couldn't be sure. It was such an out-of-the-blue ability that even I couldn't pin down exactly how it worked. But one thing was certain: thanks to this power, we had survived.
"Chanwoo!"
"Revi..."
"H-how on earth did you...! N-no, first of all, thank you for saving me!"
According to the lore of Star's Doll, the survival rate for an individual android encountering a Queen-class monster was less than 1%. Yet, realizing that the ordeal was over, Revi rushed toward me, safe and sound. She bowed her head to express her gratitude.
"I thought it was all over! I expected to be dragged into that mass of tentacles and meet a gruesome end... but this is all thanks to you, Chanwoo!"
"No, even if you say that, I didn't really do much..."
"What was that just now? My body moved on its own, performing maneuvers I could never normally execute, and we took down the Queen-class monster in one strike!"
"Yeah. I mean, I was the one controlling you, but..."
"Ohhh...! Does that mean you have the ability to pilot androids, Chanwoo?"
Revi looked at me with sparkling eyes, acting like a child who had just started elementary school. I wasn't sure how to answer those curious golden eyes. I pondered for a moment, then cleared my throat.
"Ahem. Well, you could say that?"
"Oh! That is truly amazing, Chanwoo!"
Honestly, while I wasn't sure about the 'superpower' part, the skill used to pilot Revi was entirely my own doing. So, in a way, it was true that I had saved her, right? Besides, I didn't want to be a 'useless character' who just gets protected in this apocalyptic world, so I decided to add a 'slight' lie, framing this mysterious ability as my own strength.
"As expected of a human! I never even dreamed that humans possessed such abilities!"
Yeah. Of course you didn't. Because I didn't know it either. I never dreamed I had this kind of power, either.
Just as I was laughing naturally in front of Revi, who was currently worshiping me, I heard a sound.
Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle.
"Hmm?"
"...Huh?!"
From the spot where the Behimogigas had exploded without a trace, we found an unexpected harvest.
"An Estus Kit?"
"Yeah, this is definitely an Estus Kit."
With no workshop available, there was no need to struggle to move the Behimogigas's corpse. We lacked the technology to dissect it for parts, and the monster had the drawback of rotting quickly once dead. Excessive greed invites disaster, as the saying goes, so I decided not to pine after a pie in the sky I couldn't eat.
I was about to turn back with a sense of regret, but this monster must have hunted many androids like Revi in the past. Scattered among the bits of Behimogigas flesh were the remains of other androids that had melted away, along with items presumed to have belonged to them. Specifically, we found a recovery item that automatically recharged whenever one reached a base—the 'Estus Kit' that one usually obtains during the tutorial.
"This... it looks like it was just issued; it says it only has three charges left."
"Then shouldn't we use it sparingly?"
"That's true, but it's a type that recharges on its own when you rest at a base, a save point, or a camp, so we don't need to be too stingy with it."
"Oh, is that so?"
According to the settings in Star's Doll, the only ones who fall to Earth equipped with an Estus Kit are those from the R.P.M. 5th Unit—the elite squad with the highest performance among all androids. Therefore, the android the player controls in the game usually finds this kit by chance during their adventures, unless they are from the 5th Unit. To think we'd obtain it this way.
"This is an Estus Kit... This is my first time seeing one in person!"
Revi, who had been sparkling like a child who found a new toy, was clearly excited. There had been so many surprising things today.
"I guess one of the members of the 5th Unit must have been caught and eaten by this Queen-class Behimogigas."
"Behimogigas? ...Was that the name of this monster?"
"Huh? Oh, well, yeah?"
"...! Not only did you grasp all of the opponent's movements, but you even saw through its true identity! As expected, Chanwoo is the human among humans! You are amazing!"
What is a 'human among humans' anyway? Is there a hierarchy of humanity even for androids? As we headed back to the motel base, Revi didn't spare any praise for me, acting like a loyal white puppy. Perhaps because I was the only human left and had saved her, I seemed to have become a god-like existence to her.
"By the way, we didn't end up finding any solar panels today..."
"Haha... but thanks to that, we were able to take down the biggest enemy in the Villa District."
"And I still feel bad that I couldn't feed you any venison, Chanwoo."
"Ah, right. Come to think of it, we haven't eaten anything today..."
Grrrrumble.
Now that I thought about it, it had been a day where we hadn't even secured proper food, let alone the solar panels that were our original goal. Of course, we had gained an Estus Kit that could restore an android's body three times, but it was still a shame. Moreover, the grumbling sound of hunger that echoed between us wasn't mine.
Perhaps because she had consumed so many calories while encountering the Queen-class monster, it seemed that even Revi, who had claimed she could go without food for over three days, was now starving.
"...! I-I'm sorry..."
"Haha. It's fine. It would be stranger if you were fine after moving that much."
"Is that so?"
"Yeah. Androids are ultimately based on humans, right? I think it's a very natural physiological phenomenon."
"Physiological phenomenon..."
Still, would it be okay to go back to the base like this? We had starved yesterday and today. If we went into the next day like this, let alone Revi, I would likely lose all my energy and fall into a slump. I really wished there was something to eat on the way back to the motel...
Nom, nom, nom.
...Nom, nom?
That was when it happened. I heard a chewing sound coming from beside me. I turned my head.
"...Revi, what are you eating?"
"It's a mushroom, Chanwoo."
Revi was already picking and eating mushrooms. I didn't know when she had picked so many while walking, but she was savoring them with a pile of mushrooms stacked over her breasts.
"Even so, eating them raw is a bit... couldn't you have waited until we got to the motel to clean them?"
Does she not care about microbes since she's an android? Come to think of it, in the game, if you didn't cook the mushrooms, your hunger gauge just wouldn't fill up as much. As long as it wasn't a poisonous mushroom, you didn't really get food poisoning.
Nom, nom. Munch, munch. Nom, nom.
She sure is eating them deliciously. If I had met our Revi in the real world, she could have been a mukbang YouTuber. I don't know if it was because I was particularly hungry, but seeing Revi eating raw mushrooms made my mouth water, too. So, I thought, maybe one wouldn't hurt. Since she seemed to have picked a lot anyway, I thought it would be okay to take one from between her voluptuous breasts...
Smack!
"?!?"
"......."
I had just reached out my hand?
"R-Revi?"
"You must not eat it."
Revi had heartlessly smacked my hand away as it crept toward her chest. It wasn't much damage, but for some reason, it was a huge mental shock. It was as if my daughter, who always followed me well, had told me for the first time in her life that she didn't want to take a bath with her dad.
'Is it because I tried to take it without asking?'
I felt like I was in the wrong, so I tried to apologize to Revi, who wouldn't give me the mushroom. But then, she said something that made me wish the situation had just ended there.
"I don't know yet if these mushrooms are poisonous."
"...Eh?"
"So, I was acting as the 'taster' you mentioned, Chanwoo, and checking the taste."
What. On. Earth.
Is she talking about? No, to summarize Revi's words, she didn't even know if the mushrooms she was currently stuffing into her mouth by the handful were safe. She was testing them herself with her own body.
"R-Re-Revi! What are you doing?!"
I had heard something incredible. She was eating them so naturally, like she was snacking on chips, that I thought they were edible mushrooms. But looking closely, among the ones that had already gone into her mouth, there were mushrooms with colorful patterns that looked poisonous at a glance.
"What are you going to do if you die from that?!"
"Don't worry. Isn't that what the Estus Kit is for?"
"No, even so...!"
The Estus Kit was merely for rebooting an android whose functions were about to stop. In other words, even if the toxins were removed, the pain—like stomachaches or headaches—would remain. 'Does she really have no fear?!' Just as I was agonizing over how to fix this, she suddenly...
"...Ugh! Ughhh!"
"Revi!"
Revi dropped all the mushrooms she was holding and began to suffer. "M-my chest... my chest...!" She gasped for air and began to squeeze her voluptuous breasts tightly. She kneaded her breasts with such fierce movements that her bodysuit began to tear. Then, as if she had reached her limit, she pulled her hands away!
Gush, gush.
"I-it's a big problem! Chanwoo. Strange liquid... it's starting to flow out from around my areolas!"
"Oh."
Food that could solve both hunger and thirst at once. She began to spray a generous amount of pure white android breast milk.