Chương 39: Reborn as the Dragon: — Chapter 39 - He Must Be Hungry

[Author's Note: This chapter is strongly flavored but deeply meaningful. Do not read while eating. Friendly advice from the Penguin. Mwah~ ^3^]"He died from overeating?" Su Nian raised his dragon claw and slapped the stone steps in irritation.

"How did I teach you all?"

"Do you know what recycling is?"

"Do you understand sustainable development?"

"Couldn't you just let him absorb while you keep producing? Even if he couldn't take it all at once, a few more rounds would've done it eventually. Honestly, " He sighed, looking at the huddle of trembling Gnolls with the weary disappointment of a teacher whose students have failed him spectacularly.

"Master, we did as you instructed."

"But he... suddenly got very proactive about it. On his own." Gray Brother glanced up at the Black Dragon, then clumsily mimed with his wolf claws, a man frantically shoveling Origi-Splat into his own mouth. Then he lowered his head. There had been reasons. He still felt guilty. His master had given him a task, and he hadn't delivered. To finally serve such a magnificently evil master, he absolutely had to do better!

"So what you're telling me," Su Nian said slowly, "is that in order to die by overeating, he waited until you weren't watching and just... went to town."

"Yes."

"Holy — that's committed." Su Nian went blank. He pulled the little loli against him and leaned back, a full tactical recline. The dragon tail that had been swaying freely behind him froze mid-swing. He rested his dragon head gently on top of the little loli's head, expression slowly going vacant. He'd known Mori Yama Yaren would look for a way out. That was obvious from the start. Bite his own tongue off. Drown himself in the cesspool. Fine. Sure. But bursting his own stomach? That one he hadn't seen coming.

"It seems the floor for Sakura Island players is even lower than I estimated..." Su Nian rubbed his chin idly against the little loli's head, breathing in the faint warm scent of milk that clung to her hair, thinking.

"Clearly, the current level of torment isn't enough. We need to escalate."

"Gray Brother, which monster's metabolic byproducts hit the hardest?" I really do need to learn how to draw hands........ Meanwhile. Sakura Island, Starter Village No. 1. Sakura Revival Point. Mori Yama Yaren crawled out of the revival point shaking, retching as he went. His stomach had nothing left in it. What came up now was pure stomach acid. Revival had reset his body. The fifty pounds were gone. His belly was empty. The memory, however, was not. You could be reading stolen content.

Head to the original site for the genuine story. Origi-Splat. Every corner of his mind was Origi-Splat. Every color, every smell, fermented, rotted, maggot-riddled, and after they'd crammed it all in, they'd used urine to wash down the gaps. Who in any world could endure that? He sniffed. No matter what direction, all he could smell was shit. His entire body had been violated by it. His senses had collapsed inward, until everything, taste, smell, thought, had taken the shape of shit.

"Ngh... wuh..." Surrounding Sakura Island players stared in confusion as this once cold and ruthless man crumpled on the ground and wept.

"Yaren-kun, you okay? What did those terrible monsters do to you?" Yamaguchi Mura Chicken came rushing over the moment Mori Yama Yaren appeared, two bodyguards in tow.

"Yaren-kun, pull yourself together! We are proud warriors of the Emperor. We do not break so easily!" He put on a firm, encouraging face. In his estimation, his bodyguard was tougher than this. Unless... had those monsters subjected Yaren-kun to some kind of philosophical ordeal? Faced with his young master's mildly reproachful concern, Mori Yama Yaren did not respond. He only cried harder. Between sobs, his empty stomach let out a long, hollow gurgle.

"Young Master, I believe Yaren-san is hungry," Kikawa Koji said, smiling pleasantly at the sound.

"I knew it. Nothing seriously wrong with Yaren-san. He was probably just held captive too long. Of course he's hungry."

"Yoshi!" Yamaguchi Mura Chicken nodded, turning to Kikawa Koji with an approving look.

"You speak well. I will personally exchange a proper meal for our Yaren-san right now."

"Everyone eat together. You have all worked hard today!" Say what you would about Yamaguchi Mura Chicken, he was a decent young master. They'd come back empty-handed, taken heavy losses, not a single treasure chest to show for it. And he was still willing to spend what remained of his Invasion Points feeding his people. He opened the Invasion Point exchange shop. Food of every kind filled the display.

He looked at his remaining two-hundred-something Invasion Points, then looked at Mori Yama Yaren face-down on the ground, skin gone sallow, looking half-starved. He gritted his teeth. One hundred Invasion Points. One whole roasted suckling pig. No one else would spend Invasion Points this way. At this moment, in Yaren-kun's eyes, I must look like a truly wise and glorious young master. As expected of me. I have a gift for this.

Yamaguchi Mura Chicken let himself smile, warm, magnanimous, the smile of a leader who had earned it. He was fully prepared for Mori Yama Yaren's tearful, grateful oath of loyalty. But when Mori Yama Yaren looked at the gleaming, oil-slicked, golden-brown roasted suckling pig on the platter, He saw a pile of shit. His nose caught no roasting aroma whatsoever.

The moment his mind even considered putting any part of that pig into his mouth, it replayed every second of the experience from five minutes ago in full, lurid detail. His young master was trying to kill him.

"Wuh... ngh..." Mori Yama Yaren felt worse. He cried louder. Then he started dry-heaving.

"This..." Yamaguchi Mura Chicken and the two bodyguards exchanged glances. They could only conclude: Yaren-kun was so moved he had lost control entirely.

"Yaren-kun, there is no need for such emotion. As your young master, this is simply what I should do!" Yamaguchi Mura Chicken patted his shoulder, then tore off a generous chunk of the best part, a thick, glistening leg, and held it directly under Mori Yama Yaren's nose.

"Eat, Yaren-kun! This is the succulent leg meat! I remember, this is your favorite part." The pig leg, inches from his face, made Mori Yama Yaren look as though he had just received word of his parents' simultaneous deaths. Trembling, he looked up at his young master. He couldn't hold it. A mouthful of stomach acid he'd been fighting back for the last ten minutes came surging up all at once.

"Blergh, "... Half an hour later, Mori Yama Yaren sat on a stone with an ashen face, having barely clawed his way back to functional. He burped in a steady, miserable rhythm. Every few seconds the urge to retch crept back up. Everything he looked at resembled shit. Including his young master.

"A Black Dragon. Gnolls. Snake-chicken beasts."

"So what you're telling me is those monsters force-fed you dozens of pounds of... waste."

"Blergh, yes. Cough... If it's at all possible, Young Master, please don't bring this up again. I really can't — blergh — I'm going to vomit myself hollow..." Yamaguchi Mura Chicken watched Mori Yama Yaren's health bar tick slowly downward and said nothing. He stopped pushing. But the hatred had settled deep in his chest, cold and quiet. Hatred for those monsters and the humiliation they had brought down on all of them. He wasn't alone in that.

Many of the Sakura Island players who had left the starter safe zone felt exactly the same. They'd either died to the traps inside treasure chests, or taken a massive open-palmed slap to the face from a monster that appeared out of nowhere. Before they could even process what had happened, they were buried under a swarm, fists, boots, more slaps, a relentless hammering, until they blinked back into existence at the revival point, dazed and empty-handed. The cocky rabbit with a cigarette dangling from its lips.

The Gnoll spinning nunchucks. The Snake-chicken beast that cracked stone with a single claw. The Kobolds who materialized out of thin air on their lance boars and went straight for the groin every single time. All of it was feeding something. In the chests of the Sakura Island players, a fire was beginning to grow. ➤ Next: We Must Unite