Chapter 251
Chapter 251
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 251
Chapter Title: Adapting to the Female Undertaker
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The confusion was brief, and the execution was decisive.
'...First, I need to get used to being the female undertaker.'
The sensation of the slime clinging to me and altering my appearance was horrific.
But so what? Life had always been horrific anyway.
The cold rationality of a regressor dismissed this mere grotesque phenomenon and urged me to adapt quickly.
'Right. Let's immerse myself. What was the female undertaker's speech pattern like? How did she handle eye contact? What was her emotional arc?'
It wasn't bragging—okay, actually it was bragging—but when it came to acting, I, the Undertaker, was unmatched.
Thanks to my Perfect Memory ability collecting every gesture and mannerism of countless people, I possessed acting skills powerful enough to make even Teacher Chigusa of the Glass Mask weep.
Naturally, I remembered every detail about the female undertaker from the 664th cycle.
"First... the voice. Right, start with the voice."
I muttered to myself on purpose while adjusting my vocal cords. Using aura.
Even though my aura reserves were nearly depleted, I could still pull off this level of trick. However, combat was practically impossible, so I urgently needed to replenish with elixirs.
"Good. Perfect."
Fortunately, the female undertaker wasn't all that different from me, the original Undertaker.
There was nothing particular to fix, aside from appearance and voice.
"Aside from the fact that she was dating Dang Seo-rin."
Hmm.
Was that part important? Was there a monster in this great void assigned the role of Dang Seo-rin? Or Sim A-ryeon?
...Who knew. The great void defied human logic entirely.
[Announcement to A-Block researchers.]
I flinched.
Looking up at the cornered ceiling, a speaker had appeared where there had been nothing moments ago. A mechanical voice emanated from it.
When did that happen?
[It is mealtime. A-Block researchers, please cease work and gather in the cafeteria.]
[Repeating. A-Block researchers, immediately cease work and gather in the cafeteria. End of announcement.]
I tapped my forearm. I was drumming the thinly spread slime—Fairy Lord—on my skin.
"Explain. What's happening right now?"
-Explanation: As I just mentioned, the great void is currently in the midst of a fierce battle between Mugan and the enemy alien god.
-Supplement: Mugan is injecting NPC data, map data, and such into this space to seize control. You can think of it as 'setting' the environment.
In other words.
"This barren secret room actually belonging to an A-Block research area, or the speaker that suddenly appeared over there. All of that is the result of Mugan 'setting' things in real-time?"
-Affirmative: Exactly.
-Warning: Conversely, the enemy monster is attempting to reclaim control of the great void after Mugan's ambush. Settings could be negated at any moment.
-Supplement: If it's discovered that you're not an 'NPC created by Mugan' but truly 'the Undertaker who popped out of reality,' the enemy monster will immediately try to eliminate you.
-Conclusion: Be careful.
"......"
In short, it meant I had to perfectly role-play as 'Researcher Female Undertaker.' So no one would notice I was the real deal from reality.
"...Fine. If it's acting, I've got this."
-Warning: The speaker commanded you to immediately stop work and head to the cafeteria. Disobeying could flag you as an 'anomaly' and risk exposing your identity.
"Understood. Let's go out."
Tap, tap.
I knocked on the wall just like the Fairy Lord had. A hole exactly my size opened up automatically once more.
Right after exiting through the door, I was slightly startled.
'The scenery... changed while I was in there?'
To be precise, it was changing.
Just moments ago, there had only been an 'endlessly stretching corridor' lined with 'hundreds of tightly packed secret rooms' on both sides.
Not anymore.
'Potted plants, something like a water cooler. Even a lounge area to sit and rest.'
At this point, it looked reasonably like a proper 'company.'
Of course, true to the great void, the interior design was vastly different from a real-world company.
-Tzzzzzt.
-Zzt, tzzzzzt.
Noise crackled sporadically from spots in the otherwise normal-looking corridor.
Whenever it did, spaces resembling 'outer space' or 'the Milky Way' would flicker into existence around them before vanishing. Endlessly.
It was as if someone was repeatedly spilling paint onto the world as a canvas and then taking it back.
-Warning: That's the enemy alien god's territory. Don't observe it more than necessary.
'I know.'
The slime whispered very softly right by my ear. I responded by tapping my body in Morse code.
'Where's this place we're supposed to eat?'
-Navigation Mode: Beginning guidance.
I walked along the corridor.
Swoosh—suwooooosh—.
Dozens, hundreds of researchers besides me poured out into the corridor through 'automatically opening holes.' They naturally grouped up in twos and threes, chatting.
"How's your world going?"
"Ugh, don't ask. The Saintess is suspicious of the Undertaker again, isolating him."
"That Saintess specimen is kinda weird, isn't she? How does she expect someone to be perfect 24/7 while spying on them nonstop?"
"Her standards are sky-high. Ridiculous."
Murmur, murmur.
The researchers' appearances varied wildly. There were some resembling the Undertaker like me, and others who looked just like Dang Seo-rin or O Dok-seo.
"...As a former Saintess, that's hard to hear."
"Oh. Sorry! The Saintess we meant was obviously the one from Simulation 431. Right?"
"Of course. She's on a whole other level from our Saintess who successfully ascended!"
"I'll take it that way."
[767], [766], [431].
Instead of name tags, the researchers' lab coats bore numbers.
Those numbers likely indicated their respective simulation universes.
My own lab coat naturally had a number too.
[107].
'...Same number as when I went to the Uyuni Salt Flats.'
At this point, I was certain. The parallel world monster belonged to some unidentified shadowy alien god.
Zzzzzzt—.
The researchers stepped into the 'space' and 'Milky Way' pits dug into the corridor here and there.
Their ordinary chatting forms twisted grotesquely.
Faces vanished, eyes turned into twin suns, and mechanical noises poured from black hole-like gaping maws.
"So, did you kill the Saintess?"
"Yeah. She was annoying. Set it up so an earthquake buried her under buildings."
"I killed the Undertaker. Told him point by point, time-stopping, whispering lullabies every time he slept, how hated and harmful he was to the world. Didn't take long before he sealed himself with Time Seal. Idiot."
"You should've seen that Saintess's corpse crushed under the rubble! She kept using Time Seal over and over to escape the quake! Filthy bug."
"Bugs remind me—heard there's an escapee."
"Escapee?"
"Yeah. An escapee. Among us."
"Apparently pretty weakened now."
"Guts would taste delicious."
Step.
The increasingly bizarre forms of the researchers restored themselves like a lie the moment they crossed the space and entered the 'corridor.'
"—What's today's menu?"
"Dunno. Haven't checked in ages. Gotta eat whatever they give us."
"No idea when we'll finish running these simulations. Thought ascension meant riches and glory, but this?"
Chatter, chatter.
The researchers entered the cafeteria, continuing their mundane conversation as if nothing had happened.
At the cafeteria entrance, among the hundreds of backs, Sim A-ryeon's green hair swayed.
"......"
"Hm? Not going in? No. 107?"
One of the researchers turned around. It was a monster wearing O Dok-seo's face.
Suspicious gaze.
Whether it was my imagination or not, it felt like her eyes had scanned me from head to toe in an instant.
I immediately acted out an expression.
"What do you care if I go in or not? You my friend? I'll do what I want, so mind your own business."
"...Ah, yeah."
The researcher turned away upon hearing my response. The licking gaze evaporated in a flash.
"Same ascender, yet always so prickly. Thinks he's the best in the world. Just an ascender born sucking on a regressor's teat..."
The researcher grumbled and disappeared.
Entering the cafeteria, lab-coated researchers sat at long rows of tables.
Their trays were messily piled with chunks of meat that unmistakably resembled human organs no matter how you looked.
[Every side dish and soup you researchers consume contains the heartfelt labor of farmers sweating under the blazing sun.]
The speaker buzzed loudly.
The irregularly expanding 'space' territory momentarily encroached on one corner of the cafeteria. The speaker morphed into a human mouth.
[Today, as a special treat, we've prepared dishes harvested from survivors who lasted until the final moments of world destruction.]
[Ingredients provided by 1101, 332, and 89.]
[Savor their hope, despair, and survival instincts one by one.]
[Let us eat with gratitude. End of announcement.]
"Thank you!"
"Thank you."
The researchers used their suddenly multiplied five or six arms to wolf down the organ meat from their trays. Their hands were smeared with grease and blood.
"Hm."
I steadied my breathing.
As expected, I was the only human here.
5
After finishing the meal and returning to Lab 107, a researcher with an orange ponytail was waiting there as if it were natural.
"Hey~ Hi, senior? How special was that feast from the alien god's territory? Total honey flavor, right?"
"......"
"Ah. Come in first. I've neutralized surveillance in this secret room, so it's safe."
I subtly tapped the slime.
-Affirmative: The entity before you is indeed the terminal used by the alien god Mugan. An ally.
Only then did I exhale.
"Mugan, huh."
"Yeah! Man~ Back when you forced me into that unwanted human life, I hated everything in the world. But who knew it'd be this helpful one day? Everything's experience, huh. Up we go."
Hop.
Mugan hopped onto the table (which had also appeared sometime) and swung her legs.
She looked extremely pleased.
"Without the human life you made me live, I couldn't act this convincingly as an NPC now. Thanks, senior!"
"I have no idea how things are progressing. Please share information."
"With just words?"
"......"
"Hehe."
Mugan grinned with her eyes.
"Senior wants to subjugate the alien god here... Ah, too annoying. Let's just roughly call it the Black Curtain? It commands that pitch-black space of universe, y'know. Anyway, you want to take it down, right?"
"Yeah."
"Then my cooperation is essential! If I stop now, this table, the simulation holograms, the researchers, the corridor—everything distorts and slips from your perception?"
"You're bragging, but if I regress right now, you lose all your progress."
"True. Spot on. Not spot on enough to get hit for it, though—thaaat's why! We're in the perfect cooperative relationship!"
Mugan giggled merrily.
"I'll keep 'setting' this great void so you can move freely. Meanwhile, senior, wipe out the other simulation universes!"
"Why not do it yourself?"
"Ah- no can do. You probably noticed going to and from the cafeteria, but my fight with the Black Curtain is at a deadlock right now."
Shrug. Mugan exaggeratedly shrugged her shoulders.
"One slip here, and all the settings get swallowed by those universe-like areas? Summoning the Fairy Lord and sticking her on you was a huge strain too?"
"......"
"You gotta be my sword, senior. I'll lure the Black Curtain's attention when I see an opening, and you strike—deep stab! Like dividing roles in a group project."
I rested my chin on my hand.
'...Letting Mugan have openings feels off. But this immediate cooperation seems rational.'
I'd used Mugan this way from the start precisely for such collaboration.
She was the only alien god who responded to 'human conversation.'
I should hear what she wants first, but as long as it wasn't too outrageous, I was willing to agree.
"My goal is to subjugate the Black Curtain and establish a攻略 method."
"Yeah, I know!"
"If I complete the攻略 method to a certain extent, I can acknowledge your contributions and grant some minor benefits. Of course, demands like handing over Cheon Yo-hwa's body completely will be rejected outright."
"That too, I know!"
I nodded.
"Then state your conditions."
"Wanna have a baby with me? Senior?"
"......"
Alright. Let's subjugate this one first.