Chapter: 138
Five minutes before the middle-aged woman let out her blood-curdling scream.
‘Where should I go?’
Iris found herself lost once again. This wasn’t due to particularly poor sense of direction on her part. Just like Lian had accidentally crushed the Old Man’s heart, the villains of the Gag World, especially the ones with a fake madness, often ended up ruining themselves with their ordinary actions.
Iris’s inability to find her way was also influenced by the Gag Filter.
Wandering aimlessly without a single thought, she was practically destined to stumble into those secret spots the villains had hideaway.
‘Oh, a door! If I head there, I might be able to get out.’
Having roamed for a while, she quickened her pace. The moment she was about to open the door—
Zap!
“…!”
A sharp sting surged through her, as though the door had electricity running through it. The fact that the Magic Circle remained intact despite the existence of a Gag Filter indicated that something important was hidden inside. But Iris didn’t need to know or care about any of that.
She quietly tightened her fist and slammed it against the wall beside the door.
Boom!
The logic was straightforward: if there’s no door, just break through the wall.
‘…? This isn’t it either.’
She frowned as she surveyed the room, noticing unpleasant talismans plastered all over the walls. A red string hung down from the ceiling, suspending a creepy mask in mid-air.
Drip, drip.
Blood was dripping from the mask. It looked disgusting even at a glance, and feeling unwell made it all the more irritating.
Whack, clatter!
To vent her frustration, she grasped the string and yanked it with all her might. The thread, sturdier than a giant’s spider silk or chain, tore easily.
The mask that had been tangled in the string fell to the ground with a thud. Its grotesque design looked like it was made from human skin.
Haa… where is the door already?
With a blank expression, Iris lifted the mask. Suddenly, it began to glow softly.
[ Don’t you want to be beautiful? ]
[ Don’t you want to dominate the world as the most beautiful woman? ]
[ Every human in this world will praise and love you! ]
[ Come on, use me! And become the most beautiful person in the world! ]
The sticky voice sinking into her head felt like a muddy road on a rainy day, making Iris’s expression grimace even more.
“Are you seriously telling me to wear this filthy mask…?”
[ … ]
The devilish mask, which would swallow anyone with even a shred of desire for an improved appearance, fell silent.
“Do you know how to get out of here?”
[ No, I’m -.. ]
“If you don’t know, you’re useless.”
Crack!
[ Kyaaa! ]
Without a second thought, Iris squeezed the mask and split it in half. The one who bore the power of a hero shattered the devil’s object as easily as breaking a twig.
Clatter.
She carelessly tossed the mask aside and resumed her search for the door, passing through the unpleasant room.
‘Ah, found it.’
Before long, she discovered a door leading outside. The exit connected to a small house on the outskirts of the village. By the time Iris quickly exited the Dungeon, the sun was already rising, indicating how long she had been wandering and smashing things inside.
As soon as she got outside, Iris started running to find her brother.
*
At that moment, Noah and Jess had happened to run into each other while smashing their way through the dungeon. With Noah’s adaptability in various situations and Jess’s beastly instincts, tackling the dungeon became easier than eating cold soup.
“That way!”
With no immediate information available, Noah suggested heading toward a spot with a strange smell, and Jess relied on her nose to move forward.
The two discovered a different passage than the one Iris had taken. The passage, concealed behind the walls of the maze, led to a small space where a middle-aged woman had created a corridor to manage the dungeon. It was a route that could only be found by destroying the wall.
Without any hesitation, they stepped into the passage. Though it branched into several areas like an ant colony, they headed towards the place where they smelled humans.
“Jess, how can you differentiate and smell a stranger’s scent?”
“Hmm, just like rabbit and deer scents are different, humans also have their own unique smell. But with slight variations, you can generally tell when a strange human’s scent is around. Of course, this only holds true when there aren’t many people, or in situations where you can concentrate.”
Noah shivered slightly at her words. It felt as if Jess viewed humans as mere prey, like rabbits or deer.
“Yes, sir! Yes, ma’am!”
But looking at her bright smile, that didn’t seem to be quite the case.
‘Now that I think about it, Jess only brings out her ears and tail when she’s with Lian.’
For reasons unknown, it had always been that way. Their personalities differed significantly as well. When with Lian, she had a bouncy child-like energy; but when he was absent, she was much calmer and slyer. In battle, she became unnervingly composed.
‘Really… she must have feelings for Lian, right?’
Having managed a massive organization like Nest, Noah had picked up on such nuances. She wore a contemplative expression, tangling her thoughts before shaking her head lightly.
‘Right now, I need to focus on finding Pia and the others first.’
Before she could finish her thoughts, Jess suddenly halted in front of a damp corridor that led further into the Underground Prison. She approached the door and sniffed the air.
“It’s here!”
“Good.”
Noah took a stance, swiftly unsheathing his sword.
Click.
With the sound of the sword returning to its sheath, the door splintered into exactly 16 pieces, tumbling noisily to the ground. It was an impressive display of skill.
“…? Who’s that?”
“Is that…?”
The two stumbled upon a man who seemed to have succeeded in a heartwarming marriage but was now caught in an NTR scenario with a witch-like woman.
“Let’s wake him up first.”
As they began to rouse the man, the middle-aged woman was rapidly aging.
“Huff, huff… this can’t be… this can’t be happening.”
Her hair turned white and fell out in clumps as facial spots began to sprout. Her eyes grew dull, clouded in a milky glaze. The jewelry weighing her down felt like shackles, dragging her—no, the old woman—down to the floor.
“I can’t… I can’t end like this…”
The old woman muttered as she staggeringly moved forward, desperately searching for the mask Iris had broken.
Her cloudy vision blurred her sight as she stumbled onward. Yet, she had no idea where she was headed.
Tap.
How long had she walked? Something that felt like a door brushed against her fingertips. She quickly smiled brightly, pushing it open.
‘Beyond this door, ‘that’ must be waiting!’
The mask that promised her eternal beauty. If she had that mask, she would regain her youth. Of course, she’d lose her mind until she drank the blood of a hundred maidens, but as long as she could find her youth, she didn’t care.
“Huff, huff… if I could just find my youth, I’d kill that bitch… and then, ah, I’ll taste that delicious man…”
With a burning will to survive, her carnal eyes gleamed wickedly in that moment.
Clang!
“Ugh…!”
A wok, firmly intended for cooking but used without mercy, struck the old woman’s head. With only 1 durability point left, her body crumpled forward in an instant. Judging by the way the back of her head was indented, she likely met her end from the blow.
Chill air swept over her lifeless form. The door the old woman had opened led to one of the exits. Standing before it, a woman exhaled deeply, breathlessly.
“Huff… huff…”
A woman wielding a massive wok glared down at the old woman, her eyes puffy as if she had just been crying.
With a heavy wok in one hand, she grabbed the old woman’s collar with the other.
“Where’s my husband? Tell me now!”
Indeed, she was the wife of the man who had been kidnapped by the old woman. Following the Gag World clichés, having succeeded in the childhood friends-to-first love-to-dating-to-marriage path, she should have been the happiest person alive.
With the old woman dispatched, the Gag Filter kicked into high gear to uphold the purity tropes.
“Tell me right now!”
“Uh… a, r…”
The woman forcibly pulled the soul from the body of the old woman to make her answer.
Wham!
Just as the old woman’s words finished, the woman hurled her body behind her. The old woman’s body fell limply to the floor, like a newspaper blown out on a windy day.
She was currently in a state akin to being invulnerable.
Boom! Crash!
She didn’t stop until her husband returned to her embrace.
*
In just one night, it was revealed that the Substitute Priest was kidnapped children seeking human flesh, and the Priestess turned out to be a witch who kidnapped maidens for blood.
With both incidents being so huge, the Captain of the Guards’ story was buried beneath it all. But that didn’t mean the Captain’s end was a happy one.
“What… what did you say?!”
“Unfortunately…”
“I… I… can’t…”
“Both sides collapsed, and it was too late for action.”
“Ugh…!”
*
Author’s Note: A huge thanks to Ilham Senjaya for reading today! Have a happy day! :3
I’d like to write about pure love someday—a truly, deeply obsessive kind (almost to madness…)
Recommendations and support are love! See you next chapter!
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