Chapter 188
Chapter 188
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 188
Chapter Title: S4. Succubus Camouflage / Pitch-Black Swamp -1
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In the pitch-black space, the two of us crouched side by side, just a fist's width apart. No matter where I looked, black tar oozed everywhere, and it was a creepy void where I couldn't even tell up from down.
Even breathing didn't feel like breathing. It was melting away in real time, so that was only natural.
This black stuff was breaking down tightly bound information into looser bits and absorbing it. If you figured it inflicted real-time defense reductions and DoT damage, you'd be spot on.
I was redirecting useless info through my skin for cosmic defense. So what about Pingbalrez?
Pingbalrez, the senior who'd been devoured before, was soft and squishy like well-fermented kimchi. The first time I saw her, she couldn't hold her shape at all—didn't even have a pair of legs.
So I reshaped her at least on the outside to look pretty. I bundled her info tight, gave her legs, optimized everything.
In reality, messing with someone else's info like that is next to impossible. But this was the mental world, and Pingbalrez was all gooey, so it worked.
Hell, I could probably force a gender swap on Pingbalrez right now if I wanted.
As I mulled over that pointless thought, Pingbalrez spat it out.
"Why'd you come to save me? You idiot."
"...If someone's rescuing you, you should be grateful. Why tack on that 'idiot' bit?"
"Being saved makes you look cool. But you got caught trying. And you showed me every embarrassing side of you... I mean, until now, I've never even known love."
"Say that one more time, and I'll hit you with a love confession attack—!!"
She'd poked my berserk button, so I rolled around threatening her.
I knew it too. Giving big reactions to teasers just eggs them on. The real defense is playing it cool and starving them out.
But that long tease was pure, unavoidable shame. I'd lost my mind.
Thankfully, at my love confession threat, Pingbalrez sucked in a sharp breath and turned her head away. Truce.
Normally, mentioning love confessions would've gotten a scoff at best, but right now, it was pulling double duty as my ultimate weapon against Pingbalrez.
Because we were linked.
The emotions the Queen stole from Pingbalrez still affected their original owner. She loved me. And so did I.
That fact filled me with pure joy. The moment our eyes met, I could feel our emotions tied by a red thread. Heartbeats syncing with fluttering excitement—
No, cut that out.
Smack smack. I slapped my cheeks. My inner romantic poet kept bucking wild.
Pingbalrez saw it and let out a slimy chuckle.
"That look in your eyes... like you're about to write me a poem, you mad wizard. Or maybe a long love letter."
"Damn it, stop teasing!"
"But... 'Mima'-nim? Aren't you in the position to beg me to tease you right now?"
What the hell?
Twisting in shame at the 'Mima' jab, I looked up at Pingbalrez. Her face... how to describe it? A bubbling pink volcano, maybe.
Masked as playfulness, barely held back by conviction. But that engine was revving hard. She growled.
"I'm a succubus enchanted by you, trapped alone with you in a room we can't leave till we melt, just waiting to die."
And any beast, right before death, gets a surge of breeding instinct. For a split second, I thought, Hey, doing it before dying might not be a total loss.
But snapping back to the brutal reality—if we wasted time on that, we'd really die here—I surrendered immediately.
"Please tease me, Pingbalrez-nim."
"Good boy. Mind your manners from now on... Got a plan?"
"Gotta hold out longer. See this black tar? If I play it right, I can hack it and turn it against them. They process info by devouring it, right? So I guide them with info, make them draw a magic circle..."
Spluuuurt, sploosh!
"Pfft."
A sticky black gush poured over my head.
No incantation, but the refilled black tar had ghosted my words and fixed them perfectly. Grimacing, I glared at the sky.
That fucking Queen. She's listening.
"It's inside the Queen's camouflage. She can sense prey mumbling."
"This means we can't even strategize... Hey, if that bitch is watching, let's give her a real show. Deep kiss."
"Pardon?"
Pingbalrez gave a subtle look, questioning.
Not Are you insane? or No way. Pure concern: You start this, we'll die—can you handle it?
But I had something to confirm.
When the Queen blindsided me and knocked me in here, I clearly saw sadness and pain from her. Weird, right?
That clue sparked a chain of thoughts—
I shoved them down. No thinking. No speaking. Inside the Queen's camouflage. Info leaks, she knows.
So I blurt without thinking.
"How's it feel for one dream demon to watch another dream demon eat?"
"Looks tasty..."
"Yeah. And the Queen just played fake-love with me. I'll stoke her hunger... lure her out for a midnight snack. That'll expose a gap."
"Just admit you wanted a kiss before dying, mad wizard. How pathetic."
I acted the mad wizard thrashing for an escape right before death. Like scratching wallpaper in an escape room when clues run dry—a desperate hail mary.
Did it get through?
Not self-abandonment, but testing something... Did Pingbalrez catch that I was forcing it a bit?
"Can't breathe? Say so."
"What?"
Pingbalrez grabbed my shoulders like a withering flower, gripping hard. It hurt a little. Her face was close.
She got it... right?
Breaths mingling. Heart pounding like mad. Should've picked another way. But nothing better for confirming.
"W-Wait, cancel... Mmph!"
So.
Swordplay boils down to slashes and thrusts. How you combo and unfold them separates Three Disasters Sword from Sky Palace Infinite Sword.
Atoms making the world? Protons, neutrons, electrons mixed right make different matter. Basics.
All skills start from fundamentals.
Who knew sucking, licking, nibbling—simple three moves—could bloom so wildly?
My awkward butterfly flaps at first turned storm as I got the hang.
Pingbalrez practicing cherry-stem knots and such? Effort paid off. Good for her.
And she doesn't close her eyes kissing. Every time I squinted check, they were open.
Like a wildcat staring: No running. So I froze like a rabbit facing Medusa...
The rest omitted for my dignity.
The 5-minute deep kiss that felt like an hour ended with a jealous Queen's tar refill. Yeah, jealousy. Crystal clear. That's what I wanted to confirm.
The Queen still held Yuri's affections.
I'd snagged a key piece to victory here... while losing something like innocence. Shredded.
Pingbalrez, soaked in black tar, dabbed her saliva-smeared lips with her suit sleeve. Then fixed me with bright, sparkling eyes.
"Thanks for the meal. Rain interrupted, but mains are ready—shall we resume?"
"...Hey! Don't toy with people like that, you perv!"
"You begged me to. How was it? Good?"
"You don't ask that without mood!"
She watched me backpedal, all disheveled, then decided on her own.
"Liked it, then. Got it. We'll do it again outside."
"......"
Couldn't deny. Couldn't refuse.
"I'd love to go to the next step, but time's up."
"Time for what?"
"This camouflage. Beyond the black, there's a digestion system. It drags up past nightmares."
Pingbalrez's eyes had lost their earlier spark. Nightmares.
When lively prey enters the gut, better to digest aggressively than slow-melt. Watching her prep for battle, I hauled up my dull, creaky body.
That 'Key' hit wrecked my condition.
Stats felt halved—halved again. Surviving the surprise blow was lucky, but bitter.
Bubble bubble.
Bubbles popped from the black tar, swelling. Then shadowy figures spilled out one by one.
Elderly, kids, youth with sickles—by clothes and tools, like a mountain village folk.
Pingbalrez smiled nostalgically, introducing the stained shadows.
"Folks from my hometown."
"...Hometown."
The one the Queen erased.
"Yes. The succubus faction opposing the Queen fled her kingdom into the human world. Mom said we wandered a lot at first."
No human world would easily accept succubi saying 'We wanna coexist.' Even if they did, not from pure goodwill.
Eventually, they reached a remote rural village.
"Nameless little place. Self-sufficient, high in the mountains—rare visitors."
At first, villagers wary of succubi, succubi sick of persecution and distrustful of humans.
But one succubus fell for the village chief's son at first sight, and somehow, they started coexisting.
"Romeo and Juliet...? Something like that. But our ending differed. Their intense love won over humans and succubi to live together."
And it went well. Succubi stopped seeing humans as prey; humans stopped seeing succubi as monsters.
"I still remember it. The uncle giving me an apple, friends playing together. In those memories, I was accepted."
Until the Queen came...
Grrrk. Splatsplat.
Unsettling noises snapped us back. The blackened villagers shambled toward us.
No killing intent, but hostile. Necromancy via info—reforming Pingbalrez's digested data as soldiers.
Pingbalrez, like she'd done this dozens of times, smashed hometown folk with fists, no big emotion.
"Hide-and-seek with sticks was big. Nicole, Elliot, Senia—we three hung out most."
She kicked apart ten-year-old-looking kids barely to her waist. Splat—head rips off.
"That guy's blacksmith. Blunt whetstone work—got chewed out."
A bushy-bearded middle-aged swung a dull sickle. Pingbalrez dodged, smashed.
"......"
She acted fine, but no way she was. Reliving killing family, friends, neighbors over and over... horrific.
Probably hesitated first few times.
While I was enchanted by young Yuri up top, Pingbalrez fought endlessly reviving memories in this dark gut.
Had to destroy attackers. But her doing it...
Too sad. I clapped and stepped forward.
"Step back."
"......"
"I'll handle this fight. Leave the add mobs to the genius wizard and rest."
"You don't look peak condition. Sure I can trust you?"
Of course. Who do you think I am? I charged in, brimming confidence.
"Huff... huff..."
I barely smashed the last shadow human. Nearly died...!
Stat drop worse than thought. This space hated me—scarce resources to scavenge.
Process my info for spells? Devoured faster—net loss.
Tweak the tar for spells? Queen bugsquashes instantly—loss.
So I thrashed loss-free: barehand village brawl.
Mage fighting warrior-style? Death wish. Panting, I muttered.
"Shoulda... exercised... more...?"
"Full-body workout outside. In bed."
"Training grounds. Please... training grounds..."
Pingbalrez patted my slumped head. Her hand said: This suffices. Thanks for caring—no need more.
"...Nah, I managed. I'll take the villagers from now on."
"Guys always show off for girls they like. Love's power or something?"
"Yeah. Rather me suffer than you hurt."
Thwack. Pingbalrez smacked my back. Counter hit landed.
"Not showoff time. Next wave coming."
"Nah, I got three... no, two... this wave easy."
"Not villagers, mad wizard. Camouflage ate two people."
"......"
Right. Village from Pingbalrez's data. Mine too—processed into foes.
Bubble bubble.
Bubble swelled huge. Pop.
Out came pitch-black, hyper-awakened dual-blade Bennett.
"...Why's that got twin blades?"
"Thought... useful for session. Tweaked Bennett data... 10 years extra training. Custom implant."
Pingbalrez's neck vein bulged. She raised her voice.
"Why bring that data rescuing me?!"
"For folded magic bullets! Duck—blades incoming. First pattern's flurry!!"
My karma hurled blades.