Chapter 39
Totogen was a man who had lived as a prisoner for a very long time. He had been stalking a woman he liked when her husband caught him, and he narrowly escaped from being beaten to death.
Enraged, he decided to unleash sleeping incense in the couple’s house on a full moon night, putting them all to sleep before murdering them.
Afterward, he began a spree of serial killings, targeting newlywed couples or women who met his taste.
Eventually, he got caught and was dragged to what was called the worst prison. However, the prison crumbled during the Demon King’s invasion, giving him a taste of freedom.
But sweet freedom didn’t last long. He was captured by a slave trader and ended up as a slave himself.
Living day by day like a half-dead corpse and unable to even eat properly, one day a child approached him.
“Mister, eat this…”
The child smiled sweetly and offered him half of their food. Seeing such pure kindness in this filthy, vile world, Totogen felt an uncontrollable surge of murderous intent.
Totogen killed the child. He reveled in watching the child’s eyes fill with shock, fear, and despair.
‘Oh, I want to kill more, even purer and more beautiful children.’
Having already been on the path of corruption, in that moment he was completely consumed by darkness. He killed the slave trader and started pretending to be one himself.
In the Demon King’s land, where crazy trash ruled the day, Totogen thrived and started handling truckloads of cash.
‘How should I torment them this time?’
Unable to contain his excitement, Totogen repeatedly clasped and unclasped his wrinkled hands. The dizzying thrill wouldn’t leave his mind.
‘There are two of them, so it might be fun to break one at a time. The other will tremble in fear.’
Thinking of the two slaves he spotted, who looked like siblings, Totogen grinned a chilling grin.
‘Or maybe – make them fight against a stronger monster. Oh! Getting them to commit murder sounds fun too!’
Totogen relaxed his clasped hands and slowly touched the tips of his fingers together, separating them again. How much time had passed?
Knock knock.
With a cautious knock, the door opened, and the two eagerly awaited slaves entered the room.
The first thing that caught his eye was a girl with flowing snow-white hair, her face utterly expressionless. She looked beautiful from a distance, but up close, she was strikingly gorgeous.
But there was one flaw. Her eyes were hollow, as if she were a corpse.
He was all about watching sweet, innocent kids end up as crushed dirt or completely corrupted, disgusting beings – he wasn’t interested in owning a living doll.
“Oh…”
Unlike the girl, the boy holding her hand had eyes that sparkled with innocence. Those eyes seemed untouched by any trauma – so clear!
Totogen, unaware that those were the eyes of a mentally unstable person, was ecstatic.
‘Ah! I want to see those eyes get snuffed out!’
His hands shook with excitement as he thought back to all the children he’d killed.
“I’ll take this one.”
“Huh? Y-yes! Of course!”
The hunchback nodded eagerly, stuffing a manual full of absurd product descriptions into his pocket. Lian, the chosen one, blinked and stared at the man wearing the robe.
‘What the heck? Am I being sold?!’
Lian broke into a cold sweat, his eyes darting around.
‘Just when I finally met Iris, now I’m getting sold off? Argh! I was told it would be a full course meal!’
While Lian screamed internally, Totogen pointed at him and said,
“Bring him here. I want a closer look.”
“Ah, yes!”
The hunchback hurried over to Lian, moving like a noblewoman running silently.
“Be rude in front of that guy, and you can kiss your head goodbye. This isn’t a warning.”
The hunchback whispered as he shoved Lian’s back. Reflexively, Lian thought back to a time when his head fell off and he had the unfortunate experience of attaching it back wrong.
‘If it falls off, I’ll have to make sure I put it back on properly.’
It was quite the challenge to try and reattach your head while trying to look at the ground.
“I just want to have a little chat, so everyone else get out.”
“Huh?”
Clink!
Totogen pulled out a heavy money pouch from his robe and tossed it. The hunchback bowed deeply, snatched the pouch, and hurried out of the room. The attendants and secretaries also made a quick exit.
Iris didn’t want to leave Lian behind, but seeing Lian passionately signaling he would return soon through some serious body language, she reluctantly left.
Now, only Lian and Totogen remained in the room. Totogen pulled Lian close and chuckled while flipping back his robe.
“Ehehe, now – how will you react?”
Burn scars, cuts, and not just empty eye sockets but also gruesome skin grafts were visible. Revolting smiles lingered around the lumpy bumps on his face, chin, and neck.
Children who saw his face typically had one of two reactions: they either fainted from sheer terror or were filled with pity.
Totogen gazed at Lian, who also was gazing right back.
Tension filled the room –
‘Come on! Shiver in fear already!’
Evil chuckle –
‘Hehehe, frozen in fear? Ready to wet yourself and collapse.’
Tension again –
‘…Why are you not reacting? Did you faint?’
Not a trace of fear or pity crossed Lian’s face. Just pure indifference.
He looked at Lian as if he were merely someone who brushed past him in the street. Sweat started dripping down Totogen’s face.
‘T-this can’t be happening. If I pull a more grotesque expression…!’
Totogen displayed his jagged teeth in a creepy grin. This time he was sure Lian would either burst into tears or drop to the floor.
Grin –
“…?!”
But the response returned to him was a wide, cheerful smile.
‘What’s this? Is he actually a nice person?’
In Lian’s world, not just ghosts but also zombies appeared frequently, especially since Halloween rolled around once a year.
They usually hung out near graveyards, working part-time during Halloween or dreaming of world domination.
One of Lian’s fondest memories involved zombies scheming to take out all the couples. He turned his gaze to Totogen, recalling a zombie friend he once had.
‘This guy is pretty decent.’
Is his guts spilling out? No.
Is his head squashed with brains showing? No.
Is he sticking his tongue out like over a meter long? No.
Yep, from Lian’s point of view, Totogen looked like a pretty normal zombie, which is why he exchanged smiles with Totogen.
Seeing Lian’s demeanor, Totogen started to tremble.
The reason Totogen loved children’s despair was that they acted like toys responding to his actions.
Kids who hadn’t been sheltered from adults could never handle the horrors dished out by the ruthless Totogen. At least, until now.
‘Am I not frightening? Am I… a laughingstock to you?!’
True to a cowardly criminal’s nature, who always hunted the weak, he figured Lian’s laughter was pure mockery.
“Squeal…!”
He clenched his teeth, pulling a surgical knife from a hidden space in his robe.
“How dare you look at me like that!”
He stabbed the knife into Lian’s belly, then dragged it downward. Red blood splattered his face.
He never should have done that.
“What’s this nonsense, another one?”
Totogen, expecting to see fear on Lian’s face, was frozen in place at the sudden strange voice.
“Is this your private chamber or what? Can’t you keep it down?”
“Whoa, take it easy, buddy. How would that guy even know? Can’t even wield a knife—probably lacking upstairs, right?”
“What’s going on? Aren’t you going to say hello?”
“Gak gak! Is there a virus? Are you also a virus?”
Totogen stared blankly at Lian’s stomach.
“What… the heck is this?”
Determined to scare Lian witless, Totogen turned ghostly pale and began to tremble.
He took pride in his monster-like appearance. Once people saw it, they’d freeze up in fear.
But now, as if nothing was happening, his organs with eyes and mouths babbled at him.
“A, abomination…”
They say when you’re startled beyond belief, you can’t string two words together, and that was precisely where Totogen found himself.
‘Is this a dream? Yeah, it’s a dream. Just a leftover side effect from the drugs I took recently!’
With fleeting hope, Totogen shifted his gaze back to Lian’s face.
‘Surely this kid must be already dead—’
“Sorry for our kids. They can get a bit rude with frail ones nearby. But, you really shouldn’t just go poking into someone else’s belly like that.”
Lian calmly apologized for the behavior of his organs and gently informed the clueless zombie about basic common sense.
“The belly’s getting chilly, so the organs might catch a cold -… Oh?”
“Gurgle…”
Totogen fainted from the shock.
“Hm, maybe the kids were a bit too harsh.”
As Lian muttered, the organs cursed in outrage. Ignoring them, he pulled the knife from his abdomen and closed up the wound.
With a quick rub, his stomach healed as if nothing had ever happened.
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