Chapter: 182
After somehow calming down the Demon King, Lian slipped through little gaps and started wandering around the Demon King’s Castle.
“Hmm… that won’t do… that’s way too big…”
Lian primarily hovered around the slave prison. For meals, experiments, and so on… humans were a resource that was consumed at an alarming rate in the Demon King’s Castle. Because of that, dozens, even hundreds of slaves were sold to the Demon King’s Castle every day.
There being so many slaves, excitement bubbled up within him.
“I’ve found the escape route. I just need to find a body. Just a body…!”
With chocolate ball-like eyes sparkling, Lian couldn’t tear his gaze away from the slaves.
For several days, he rolled his eyes around diligently, checking out the newly arrived slaves, but he couldn’t find a body that would be suitable for his soul.
“Not again…”
With a sulky expression, he crawled toward a small hole in the ceiling. Just as he was about to squeeze his body into the tight space…
“I heard there’s a slave that got assigned to Zone 0 right after coming in.”
“Gah! Zone 0!?”
A strange voice grabbed Lian by the ankle. Peeking out of the half-entered hole, he saw a highly intelligent orc and a corrupted knight clad in black armor chatting below.
“Yeah, they’re supposed to transfer him by this afternoon, so you better get your act together. If you keep yawning like that, your head might end up on the floor.”
“Ugh… don’t scare me!”
Lian lost interest in their conversation. What rang clearly in his head was the word “Zone 0.”
“Zone 0, Zero Zone.”
It sounded like it had something incredible there!
“Maybe I can find the perfect body for my soul there!”
Anticipation surged as his body quivered with excitement. With a clear goal in mind, his squishy form began to move rapidly.
Lian started darting around the castle looking for information about “Zone 0.”
“I heard a new slave is coming to Zone 0?”
“It should be perfect for my experiment… I might just submit an application.”
The arrival of a new slave in Zone 0 seemed to be quite a buzz, as many were talking about it.
Lian learned that Zone 0 was a place for “powerful individuals or slaves with equivalent abilities,” and that a former Zone 0 slave once escaped and turned the castle upside down, ensuring the security was tight.
After roaming around for quite a while, Lian finally got the information he wanted.
“It’s deep underground? Let’s go right away!”
As soon as he learned the location of Zone 0, he quickly propelled himself forward.
*
Reaching Zone 0 wasn’t too difficult. His soft slime body was able to slip through small gaps and even locks without a hitch.
“Hmph…”
It was great that he arrived, but a minor problem arose.
“It’s too dark.”
The hallway outside the prison was wrapped in pitch-black darkness, like thick blackout curtains.
Wandering through the darkness seemed tricky with those ominous magic circles all over the place.
“Ugh… it’s like an ancient ruin…”
The traps that typically shouldn’t be visible felt extremely clear, as the structure of Zone 0’s corridor resembled that of a trap-filled ruin.
In these ruins, one could easily find themselves crushed by giant rocks or falling into pits full of sharp spikes; such places were full of unexpected dangers.
Usually, if one gets trapped in a ruin, they’d be caught off guard by sudden traps and either end up panicking or fleeing with arms flailing. But sometimes, as it was now, one could see all the traps clearly.
“So many traps…”
Whether it was to squash the spirits of comedic residents or to hint at the dire future of “evil characters,” an overwhelming number of traps were used for a variety of reasons.
Though Lian needed to run away without looking back to survive, he couldn’t turn back just yet; he wanted to check on the slaves stuck in the prison.
“At times like this…”
Lian stretched part of his body and swiped at some of the magic circles, erasing portions of them. It was as if he had wiped them clean with a magic sponge.
Whoosh…
The magic circles lost their power in an instant.
“…! It works!”
Ecstatic, Lian eagerly began erasing the magic circles.
…The security magic of Zone 0 began to falter.
“Phew… I guess it’s been a while since I did some cleaning, and I might have overdone it.”
Lian stood in the shimmering hallway and pretended to wipe sweat off his brow. Because the corridor sparkled, the once pitch-black area was now bright.
“Oh, looks like there are more prisons than I expected? Is each of them a solitary cell?”
Lian tilted his head while looking around at the doors spaced at regular intervals. Soon, he approached the nearest door and slipped beneath it.
“Ugh…”
Zoom!
To get inside, he had to flatten himself to the size of a slice of cheese, the gap being the narrowest he had encountered.
“Wow, it’s brighter in here than I thought.”
Inside, the scenery was surprisingly cozy for a prison. Lanterns illuminated the area, and there were plush beds in each corner. Beside them were fairly spacious desks and chairs.
There was even a four-person dining table with chairs set up for simple meals, with a pretty teapot and tea cups on the table.
It felt less like a prison and more like a guesthouse or dormitory.
“More importantly, where are the slaves…!”
Lian wiggled his body, spinning around, and his eyes caught one of the four beds. Someone seemed to be slightly puffed up inside the blankets. Lian immediately crawled up the wall and onto the ceiling.
“If I suddenly pop up in front of their face, it might scare them, so let’s check from above first.”
With that thought, he slinked along the ceiling until he found himself right above the strange figure.
“I found it!”
Though it didn’t seem like it perfectly matched his original body, he instinctively sensed it was a usable form. Lian swiftly crawled down to approach the sleeping slave.
“…Huh?”
As he got closer, what had been invisible became clear. Sunken cheeks, dark circles under the eyes, coal-black hair, and dry, cracked lips.
The slave lying in bed looked like they could drop dead at any moment. But that wasn’t what surprised Lian the most.
“…There’s no soul…?”
Despite the body in front of him breathing, it lacked a soul, leaving it completely empty. He was momentarily at a loss for words, wondering how that was even possible… but then,
“What does it matter! It’s perfect timing since I need an empty body!”
Not one to nitpick, Lian swiftly pushed complicated thoughts aside and popped out of his slime form, diving straight into the body of the slave before him.
His vision blurred white then faded to black repeatedly, until finally, his mind snapped back to reality.
“Ah…”
A low, gravelly voice rumbled from his newly split throat. Charismatically deep, or eerily creepy, depending on how you looked at it.
Lian barely managed to sit up in the weak body.
“Finally… cough, cough!”
He wanted to cheer about having a body, but a stinging pain shot through his throat, forcing him to bow down and cough dryly.
“Water…”
He rolled off the bed and headed toward the table. Grabbing the teapot, he tilted it to serve himself.
Glug, glug.
He drank water like a man dying of thirst in the desert discovering a pristine oasis. As he did, his sunken cheeks plumped up, and his parched hair regained some vitality.
Filling out in a way that made skeletons exclaim, “Hey there, buddy!” his gaunt body looked healthier. The dark circles under his eyes shrank significantly, and the dull ache that had tormented him faded away in an instant.
Once his body returned somewhat to its original state, Lian pulled the teapot away and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.
“Ah!”
If he had acted this way in his true form, he might have looked like a refreshing advertisement model for ion drinks, but with that coal-black hair and slightly sagging dark circles, his new body exuded a dangerous vibe as if he had been on a perilous drug spree.
Unaware of this, Lian busily looked over his new body with a nonchalant expression.
“Ugh… hands definitely need to have five fingers!”
Overjoyed to be back in a human body, he flexed and bent his fingers repeatedly before eventually regaining his senses.
“Getting a body is great and all, but… am I the only one here?”
From the unused, hollow desk and bed, it seemed that this room had been used solely by the man with black hair.
“It’s a relief I don’t have to pretend to be the body’s owner…”
With a sigh of relief internally, he surveyed the room. He skimmed through several books piled on the desk and checked inside the wardrobe. There were an astonishing ten identical outfits hanging.
Just as he was about to finish exploring the room…
Clang!
“…?”
The previously tightly shut prison door suddenly rattled violently and slowly began to open. Stunned by the unexpected situation, Lian froze, staring blankly at the door.
Creeeak.
Familiar-colored hair became visible through the opening door.
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