Chapter 49
Chapter 49
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 49
Chapter Title: Archenemy
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-Somehow get her to leave. If she goes berserk, I'll handle blocking her somehow.
Just as you'd expect from an Awakener praised as having "sharp eyes," she read my lip movements perfectly without any lip-reading training, relying purely on her instincts and eyesight.
"D-Doggy! St-Stop it!"
Grind, crunch, grind, craaunch
Drip
Blood streamed from the nose of Puppy, who was grinding her molars so hard they might shatter, her sunken dead-fish eyes glaring upward.
Was it a backlash from overusing her ability in a frenzy? Or the price of clashing for dominance with my own Awakener power? Or maybe just from getting too excited.
Even I, who's used to exhaustion, felt an inexplicable drain and insane fatigue from that power struggle just moments ago. So Puppy couldn't have come out completely unscathed either. My own legs were still trembling right now.
"Can't you see Shin Nari's condition? I get that you want to take her, but if this keeps up, she'll die or break completely. Why force someone who clearly hates it..."
"Shut up, shut up! Shut up! Who the hell are you to act close to my sister? Shut up!!"
But that "request" didn't work on Aurora, who had never been altered by common sense manipulation and wasn't in skin contact.
"Shin Nari and I have gotten close again recently. We arranged to meet privately, so how did you know to come here?"
"Bullshit. You and my sister got close? Ha, I know everything about her. Ev-everything. All of it. Finding out where she is is nothing. So don't get cocky. I'm... I'm closer to her... closer than you."
"...Aren't you the same age as us to begin with? Why call Shin Nari 'sister'?"
Crunch. She's my sister, so that's what I call her, you fucking bitch. What do you know? She's mine. She's... *sob*, *hic*, *whimper*."
True to her psycho nature, she exploded in rage only to suddenly burst into tears.
"L-Look, I'll take good care of Shin Nari, so please just go home for today. You want to let her die?"
Craaack
"Her condition will only get worse with you here. Why did Shin Nari suddenly end up like..."
Aurora glanced briefly in my direction mid-sentence but quickly averted her eyes so Puppy wouldn't notice.
"...I don't know why she ended up like that, but you pushed her too far, didn't you?"
"Ugh... uuuugh... F-Fuck... sh-shut up..."
She spat curses, but anyone could see she was shaken.
'She's insanely obsessed with Shin Nari's well-being.'
Her fixation on Shin Nari was obvious enough for even a three-year-old to see.
"Why... It worked perfectly before? I changed everything perfectly, so why is she like that? What the..."
Crack, craaack
"Fuck... f-fuck..."
Puppy gnawed her thumbnail so viciously that blood trickled from under her nailbed,
then finally turned away.
"...I'll figure out a way and come back. Take good care of my sister until then. If you lay a finger on her, I'll grind you up in a blender and feed you to the pigs."
She probably wouldn't find a way easily. She couldn't even acknowledge my existence right now... She'd likely go home and rack her brain with every possible theory about why her ability was driving Shin Nari to death, until her head split open.
"Don't worry."
Puppy glared at Aurora with her piss-yellow eyes like she wanted to rip her apart, then headed back to her car. Her obsession with Shin Nari was beyond imagination.
I waited until Puppy's car fully left the village, then collapsed right there.
"Hoo... hoo..."
My heart was still pounding wildly.
Questions everywhere. How she found this place. Why she's so obsessed with Shin Nari.
And how she could interfere with this world's absolute rule, the System...
I recalled the system message from moments ago.
It clearly said "peer authority." At the very least, in terms of dominating and subjugating someone, my Awakener ability and Puppy's mental manipulation were on equal footing.
Puppy's mental manipulation wins overwhelmingly in ease of use.
The absurd ability to control an entire school's hundreds of people with a single skin contact. Universal applicability that even tames non-human monsters.
In comparison, my ability is pure inconvenience.
I have to first discern the target's psychological weaknesses, then go through a so-called buildup process with groundwork over a set period.
And that's not the end. Even after Oath Compulsion, according to the System's description, exploiting low-stage slaves incurs penalties based on the subjugation level.
If the drooling, vacant-eyed girl over there had been Aurora instead of Shin Nari, Aurora would've turned into an idiot and followed Puppy by now.
So to raise the subjugation level, I have to invest even more time than the initial groundwork stage just to own a fully dominated slave.
This is only possible because of my background knowledge in training and my skill at reading human psychology.
If an average person clueless about training got this ability and tried dominating someone, it wouldn't take days or weeks like me—it'd take years to enslave even one.
But my ability isn't without strengths.
After all, fully dominated Shin Nari resisted that insane ability—even after years of consistent application—right to the end. A defense that ignored first-mover advantage.
Even when I was fumbling like an idiot and missed the timing to bolster her Mental Power with Empathy, she held out until just before her ego collapsed.
Resistance to Puppy's ability!
I felt it instinctively.
Puppy and I... we're archenemies.
Like a spider and a scorpion.
Mutual predators where either can devour the other depending on the terrain.
She wins with quantity, I win with quality...
A fight worth having.
Which means if I get stronger, I can share my ability via Empathy with my possessions and crush her half-baked hordes.
But always assume the worst.
Like bacteria evolving antibiotic resistance, that monster bitch will evolve too. In our clash just now, she couldn't even perceive me, so sharing Mental Power via Empathy repelled her.
But I can't rule out her finding some trick to break through my Oath Compulsion faster, disrupt Empathy, lower Mental Power stats, or whatever.
Let my guard down, and I'm done. I just learned that—won't repeat the same idiot mistake.
Then a system message appeared.
Purification.
Limited to owned slaves. Removes debuffs imposed on the target's mind by humans other than the Exploiter.
"Oh..."
A perfectly timed reward.
It fit the antibiotic-bacteria analogy I just thought of so well for the current situation.
This would boost stability and reliability when enslaving someone in the future.
Plus, I could start physical training on Aurora right away, now that the block was cleared temporarily.
Just then, Aurora staggered in, supporting the wobbly Shin Nari.
"Shin Nari."
"U..uuu..."
"Snap out of it."
Pat pat
I gently tapped her cheeks, but Nari's mind didn't return.
Damn... I should've boosted her Mental Power sooner...
Better check the status window.
(Current Arousal 1/100)
♥ Orgasms: 55
※ Subjugation Level (5/5)
‘You have completely dominated the target.’
※ Abnormal Status: Mind Breakdown - Idiotization
※ Imminent Collapse State
The Wear at 99 has triggered the Imminent Collapse abnormal status.
"Nari."
"Uuu... abubu..."
Like a baby unable to do anything on her own...
Yet the full domination status hadn't broken. Even in this state, our master-slave bond held firm.
Wait... if that's the case...
'I can revise my plan much more efficiently.'
I'd planned to torture Jin Kyung-pil slowly over a long time, but time to change strategy.
Now that I knew master-slave bonds persist even through idiotization, it wouldn't matter if I forced him to submit as fast as possible and slapped on Oath Compulsion.
But while I'd gained this useful hint, seeing Shin Nari reduced to a baby stirred an inexplicable rage bubbling inside me.
My thing got broken.
She dared touch what's mine.
"Even in this state, you gave me a hint—good girl, Nari. I'll fix you for sure."
I combed her hair with my fingers, and she smiled blissfully, seemingly pleased.
[Affection 92 (+1)]
...Stats rise even in idiotized state?
Even better news. No telling when Puppy might return, so we need to move fast.
But first...
"Aurora, go to the basement and prepare for surgery."
"S-Surgery...?"