Automata (1)
Automata (1)
"......Beast."
"Sorry, I told you."
"Master is a beast."
Huljjeok, gulping down cheap soup, Emilia glared at Dojin with sharp eyes.
She had lost her reason overnight and devoured each other just like him...... But if the woman insisted she was the victim, the man had no excuse to make, right?
In front of Emilia, who was insisting she was the victim, even Dojin had no real counter.
"I can't get married now......"
"......Can't get married?"
Huljjeok- "Master made me such a mess... Who would accept a body this dirty?"
Emilia said that and hung her head with a gloomy expression.
That fragile, delicate look was the epitome of an ideal woman, so Dojin was convinced that just showing it off would hook any decent guy......
"If you have nowhere to go, marry me."
"......To Master?"
"Yeah, if no one else takes you, I will."
He grinned and said that to her. A beauty like her would have suitors lining up even without her virginity, or missing an arm or leg.
So he figured she'd never have trouble getting married—that's what he meant. But for whatever reason, Emilia blushed and modestly opened her mouth.
"—Master will really take me? As your bride?"
"Yeah, yeah, I said I'd take you."
"Then—fine."
Dojin smiled back at the beaming Emilia, oblivious to the shady scheme she was hiding behind that smile.
Truth be told, he couldn't help it.
'A power like this......'
Dojin was too distracted by the ability he'd gained from having sex with Emilia.
[Lucky Star]
『Luck follows you.
Don't scratch lottery tickets.
You might get suspected of rigging it.
There are no lottery tickets in the Otherworld, though.』
'Luck......'
What does a Hero need most? Luck.
Thanks to her own incredible luck, she'd met Dojin, grown stronger, and learned about men.
And now, Dojin had that luck too.
'It's not showing any immediate changes.'
Luck always shines brighter the longer time passes.
Normally, Dojin would've headed straight to the Dungeon today too, but after losing several kilograms overnight, he had no choice but to head back to the mansion.
It was a major injury requiring days of rest to slowly rebuild his muscles. Upon arriving at the mansion, Dojin spotted Seoyun heading to her room and froze.
"Wow—adulterer."
"......Adulterer?"
"Then what do you call a guy who goes out with some other woman and doesn't come back all night?"
"I'm not married to anyone......"
"Dojin, I'm seriously worried. Say that in front of the others and you'll get stabbed?"
"......Even if I do, I won't die."
"Wanna test it?"
Seoyun scanned Dojin up and down as she said that. Same outfit as last night, but something was off.
Having seen him up close every day, Seoyun noticed the change: Dojin's body was slimmer than yesterday.
"Eek-."
"What? Why are you so scrawny?"
Tuk- Approaching and lightly kicking his shin, Seoyun realized he didn't even react to that weak hit.
Normally, she'd think he just chose not to react...... but seeing him genuinely wince in pain said otherwise.
Using her ability right away to check his total body heat, Seoyun frowned and calculated the mass he'd lost last night.
"......Looks like about ten kilos gone."
"Huh, wha?"
"No way you burned ten kilos having sex... You'd die if you did."
Seoyun looked at Dojin with worry. No matter how superhuman he was, she couldn't imagine losing nearly 10% of his body mass in one night—through sex, no less.
Yeah, superhuman or not, ejaculating that much semen would kill you from exhaustion. So this wasn't from last night's affair—it had to be some other issue.
"A disease......? Some special Otherworld illness? No reason for it to hit suddenly......"
"S-Seoyun?"
"Poison maybe......? Then a potion quick......"
"Hey, Seoyun."
Grabbing Seoyun's shoulders as her worry exploded, Dojin reluctantly spilled the awkward truth.
"......I'm fine."
"Fine? You lost that much weight overnight......"
"No, this is...... yeah, it is."
"......It is? What is?"
"It's from sex, yeah......"
"......Okay?"
Compared to what he expected, Seoyun was eerily calm. But a silent storm is scarier than a roaring gale.
Dojin got scared preemptively and gauged her reaction. Was it the luck? Fortunately, Seoyun didn't make a big deal of it.
Still, she could terrify him.
"Even losing ten kilos won't kill you, right?"
"H-Huh?"
"Looking forward to it."
"No, wait......"
Ignoring Dojin, Seoyun headed straight to her room. He tried to chase after her too late, but in his current state, catching Seoyun was damn near impossible.
In the end—Dojin faced the disaster he'd brought on himself and just prayed a meteor would crash and end the world.
After that, Dojin prioritized regaining his muscles with a strict routine.
At mealtimes, he shoveled in absurd amounts of protein, then pushed his muscles right to the brink of tearing.
Thanks to muscle memory, they recovered to normal in no time.
But Dojin felt it wasn't enough.
'Body feels empty.'
In that short time, so much Yang Energy had drained out, so even rebuilding through intense training left his body like an empty vessel.
If the vessel's broken, you remake it—and fill it with what it held before.
So Dojin went to see Noah.
"Ah, Dojin-ssi......"
She'd been pulling all-nighters in a research trance, but greeted him happily when he entered her room.
Before, she'd had to do unwanted jobs and make unwanted stuff, but not anymore.
Why? Dojin paid her. Make a few things he requested, and she could craft whatever she wanted without complaints.
In fact, despite her massive reagent costs, Dojin's fortune didn't budge an inch.
"You okay?"
"Hm? Oh—that?"
Dojin recalled their sex and worried about her.
The memory of that time when her Aphrodisiac Slime pickling turned him into a sex-obsessed idiot.
Noah burst out laughing like, what ancient history?
"That's all sorted. Who do you think I am?"
But she was the Otherworld's top genius Alchemist, skilled enough to turn a narcotics addict into a narc-phobe in one go.
A mere aphrodisiac addiction? In her hands, it was just a cold.
Noah wondered why he'd come, then. Dojin finally explained his visit.
"......Lately, my body feels drained."
"Drained? Why...... Oh."
Hearing him out, Noah pondered briefly, then nodded as she realized why he'd feel empty.
Well, yeah—with all the women he'd hooked up with.
Satisfying that many, he'd need a dick on each limb and still fall short.
She opened the door wider, inviting him in. Making a vitality potion wouldn't take long.
"Sit anywhere. Room's a bit messy......"
Noah said to wait and she'd whip it up quick, then hurried to her alchemy setup.
Watching her dump ingredients into the giant cauldron from behind—Dojin tilted his head at the dolls scattered around the room.
"What're these?"
"Hm? Oh... those? Motifs from the computer you told me about, Dojin-ssi."
"......Motifs from the computer?"
Around then, Dojin started getting a sense of what those rolling dolls on the floor were.
To confirm his hunch, Noah talked about the completion level of her research dolls.
"Dolls that think, move, and speak on their own...... I'm trying to make Automata!"
If Deokgu heard, he'd scream [Beautiful girl maid robot has landed────!] and freak out.
It was AI robot development.
"Really? That sounds tough."
"Yeah, it is."
But even with magic, one person like Noah couldn't complete what Earth's geniuses and institutions poured astronomical money into and failed at.
The gap in funding and manpower was insurmountable.
"What's the biggest issue......?"
"Hmm...... Right now...... muscles."
"Muscles?"
"Yeah. They can't do fine human-like movements—so to brute-force standing up, you need Super Strength...... but implementing that is tricky."
"......Needs Super Strength, huh."
At those words, one person flashed through Dojin's mind. Someone with Super Strength who'd help wholeheartedly if he asked.
And above all, someone who wouldn't mind a little dissection.