Chapter 45
“Tch, what a nuisance.”
Bianca clicked her tongue inwardly and smiled at Lian, who was looking at her with a puzzled expression.
“I never imagined someone would just walk away after seeing the top floor. That never crossed my mind.”
So far, every slave who had seen and experienced the top floor had been eager to become her disciple. The power of the top floor looked that delicious.
But Lian, without a second thought, declared he wanted to return to his place. Bianca quickly realized that if she let Lian go, she could never bring him to the top floor.
“The opportunity is now or never.”
If you stay here long enough, you’ll eventually hear nasty rumors about her. Like how none of her disciples had been seen again—poof, vanished!
Sure, there would be no risk of her secret being exposed until one got closer to the top floor, but once there, getting found out was just a matter of time.
Compared to someone like Iris, who was still a work in progress, Lian was already a completed strong man. Climbing near the top floor would be a piece of cake.
Bianca licked her lips and said, “How about we check out the armory one last time before you go? I have a weapon that could be useful for Iris, and I want to give it to her.”
“Oh, that would be great! Thank you!”
Just as she expected, Lian was easily persuaded when it came to his sister, Iris.
“Let’s hurry since you said you needed to get back.”
“Sure!”
As she walked ahead, Bianca thought to herself,
“Stupid. You’re showing your weaknesses left and right, and now you’re gonna get it.”
Bianca internally laughed at Lian while opening the armory door. On the floor inside, hidden from normal eyes was a magic circle. This magic circle was designed to amplify the power of shadows.
“Alright, let’s see…”
She twisted her mouth into a strange grin and turned. Lian was looking at her with an innocent face.
“Bon appétit!”
“Huh?”
Crack.
In an instant, the floor turned pitch black and split in half. The moment Lian looked down, a shadowy monster had already emerged from the ground.
“Yikes!”
Like a crocodile lunging for prey, Lian was swallowed by the shadows in a heartbeat.
“Kyahahaha, what a fool!”
Bianca cackled at the sight of Lian being helplessly devoured. She enjoyed this moment more than any; a powerful being vanishing and becoming part of her? Pure bliss.
“But hey, at least you’ll be a beautiful part of me, so don’t be too upset!”
Chomp!
With the sound of his head being devoured, Lian was gone without a trace.
“Ahh, what new abilities will I get this time?”
She looked at the sword dangling with an ecstatic expression.
“The last one was about the length of a dagger, wasn’t it?”
Grinning as she held the sword—short for a longsword, a bit long for a dagger—she thought,
“Maybe I should test it out in the training hall?”
Determined to stretch out after a long time, she planned to leave the room—but that’s when disaster struck.
Bang!
As she tried to step out, her pinky toe found itself brutally impacted against the door’s edge. Normally it’d just hurt a little, but today it was as if her toe had exploded, sending shockwaves of pain through her.
“Ugh, kyaah!”
Along with the pain came a fountain of blood from her mouth. Bianca’s eyes began to shake wildly.
“What the heck?! What is going on?!”
It was just a stubbed pinky toe, yet blood gushed out like a horror movie. This just wasn’t possible!
“What in the world…?”
Bianca paled, stumbling back from the absurd amount of blood spilling forth.
Clang!
“Ah!”
While backing away, she unwittingly knocked over a weapons rack. A cascade of weaponry spilled onto the floor. The chaos snapped her back to reality.
“Right! I must’ve swallowed a way stronger being!”
Trying to tame her rising panic, she started to pick up the fallen weapons. But as she stepped forward, she accidentally stepped on a sword’s tip, causing it to slide forward and send her tumbling backward.
“Uh…?”
Dangerously, weapons were sprawled all around in the direction she was headed.
Thump!
The hooked blade of a sword punched through the sole of Bianca’s foot and jutted out the top.
“Aghhh!”
She screamed, crashing sideways while the sword’s handle swayed and toppled another display. Just above her, something as hefty as an orc’s head came crashing down.
“Hmmph—gah!”
The heavy metal smashed onto her head, and blood flowed freely from her nose. Bianca scrambled to comprehend the madness unfolding.
“What is happening to me?!”
One incomprehensible moment after another—she was on the brink of losing her mind.
Thwack! Bang! Crash!
“Gack, gasp…aack!”
As if on some bizarre stage, Bianca was becoming a ragdoll, tripping and being hit by every weapon that fell her way. She tumbled out of the armory like she had been hurled.
“Huff, cough—”
She gasped for air, more injured now than she ever had been fighting a champion.
“If this keeps happening, I might actually die!”
Trying to right herself, she stood, swaying, feeling warm blood continuously oozing from her body.
“Wait…what is this…?”
Her gaze shifted from the pool of blood at her feet to the armory, which looked like a scene from a slasher flick. It was as though ten people had been butchered inside.
“What is going on…? What’s happening?!”
Bianca had swallowed not just Lian but also the “gag filter,” leaving her utterly lost in her predicament.
To Lian, accustomed to the silly complications of life, all this might seem trivial. But for Bianca, beset by the absurdity, nothing made sense. This bafflement was as terrifying as the chaotic reality around her.
“I need treatment… treatment first!”
She shouted, staggering toward the living room, which was still as a tomb.
But even this calm felt ominous to Bianca. It was as if something dreadful was about to happen at any moment.
“Before anything strange happens again, I have to get treated quickly—”
In a world ruled by gags, speaking something you worried about immediately causes that very thing to unfold.
Whooosh!
Before she could even finish her thought, a terrifying sound resonated.
Thwack!
“Ugh…”
A spear flew through the window, impaling her stomach. It all happened in a blink.
“Ugh, no… I don’t want to die!”
As Bianca screamed, clutching the blood and organs spilling out of her, something astonishing happened. One of the organs started to speak. Yes, the organs were talking!
“Hey, who the hell do you think you are, touching me without gloves?”
A piece of her organ, resembling her features, spat out curses. Bianca stood stock-still, stunned, staring at her own insides.
“Hey, pick up that piece over there! Aren’t you supposed to take care of us while we do all the life-sustaining work inside? How’d you end up with a hole in your stomach? I’m going to sue for damages!”
“If you’re going to bandage that up, can you please use the good stuff? I’m a bit sensitive!”
The voice dripped with arrogance, and Bianca’s mind started to unravel.
“What in the world? Why am I not dying? And why are my organs chatting? How? Shouldn’t they be dead outside? Isn’t this how it works?! Where are their mouths even?”
In a string of utterly nonsensical events, Bianca felt her brain going haywire. Instead of grasping the situation, it cleverly jumped to a conclusion.
“It must be a dream, right? That’s it, isn’t it?”
Because otherwise, how could her organs chat while she was free enough to breathe despite a gory gash in her stomach?
“Yeah, it has to be—”
Before she could finish her thought,
“Bianca?”
“…?!”
A familiar voice echoed. Bianca’s eyes darted around, searching.
“Bianca, when can I get out?”
“Where… where is that coming from?!”
Her voice started shaking as she looked, unable to find the source of the voice.
“Uh? Oh, you mean from inside of Bianca’s stomach.”
“What…?”
She glanced down at her stomach.
“Did you eat chicken yesterday? It’s melting in there.”
The voice was coming from her upper abdomen. And it was Lian, the very one she had consumed.
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