Chapter 14: Come here!

Just as Bulanni was about to leave, Duya stopped her.

“It’s fine. Let’s not disturb your grandfather while he’s sleeping. We’ll just squeeze into your bedroom together.”

“Eh?”

To be clear, Duya didn’t consider himself a lolicon.

He was doing this for Bulanni’s safety, of course.

After all, no one knew what was inside that bedroom.

It was even possible that Bulanni had never actually gone in there herself.

She was just clinging to her own wishful thinking, believing that the so-called grandfather wouldn’t hurt her.

But… who could say for sure when it came to grotesque entities?

No matter what, even if he had to sleep in the living room, he wouldn’t let this little one go into that bedroom.

“It’s getting late. Time to sleep.”

“B-but…”

Bulanni’s cheeks flushed slightly.

Her hands fidgeted with the hem of her skirt.

After hesitating for a moment, she finally blurted out,

“But Mom said… sleeping in the same bed as a boy will make you have a baby!”

“?”

Duya clearly hadn’t expected Bulanni to be worrying about that.

He also deeply understood that she had truly never received any education on such matters.

But for safety’s sake, Duya still showed a gentle smile.

He crouched down and patted Bulanni’s little head.

“I have a tough body. I’ll sleep on the floor.”

After all, sharing a bed with a child who looked only fourteen years old was far too criminal.

“Well… okay.”

Seeing that Duya had said that, Bulanni hesitated for a moment longer, then finally agreed.

The two entered Bulanni’s bedroom.

Compared to the room next door, although this one was just as simple, the fresh flowers by the window and on the bedside added a touch of girlishness.

A large stuffed bear doll sat on the bed, though it looked a bit worn, with a few crooked patches sewn onto it.

Bulanni blew out the candle by the bed, plunging the room into complete darkness.

She lay down, hugging the big stuffed bear.

Though a little nervous, she was still just a child.

After a long day of running around, she soon fell asleep.

Listening to the soft, steady breathing in the room, Duya did not drift off.

He kept his ear to the sounds outside while glancing at the quest on his system interface.

“Survive the night.”

After an unknown amount of time, Duya, with his ear pressed to the floor, finally heard movement from outside.

And then the sound of the next room’s door opening…

Just one door away, Duya could clearly hear the beast-like panting from the hallway.

That was definitely not a sound a human could make!

Duya certainly wasn’t going to burst out the door.

He stood up softly and cracked the door open just a sliver.

By constantly adjusting the angle, he finally caught a glimpse of half a face hidden in the darkness—a wrinkled, aged face.

Just looking at that face gave off a feeling of madness, terror, and gloom.

Because of the lighting and angle, Duya couldn’t see the old man’s full form.

He could only vaguely make out many bulges on his body, though he couldn’t tell what they were.

Duya’s pupils shrank.

If his guess was correct, this person was Bulanni’s grandfather.

But the old man didn’t head to the kitchen.

Instead, he stayed in a blind spot, standing guard right outside Bulanni’s bedroom door.

To make matters worse, the angle he had chosen was extremely tricky.

If Duya went out directly, he wouldn’t be able to strike first and might even get tackled to the ground.

The feeling this old man gave Duya was utterly horrifying.

More horrifying, in fact, than those indescribable grotesque entities.

Just as Duya was considering his next move,

A strange sound came from the living room.

The old man’s attention seemed drawn to it.

Then that eerie face slowly disappeared back into the darkness.

….

“That damn lolicon.”

The moment Duya entered Bulanni’s bedroom, the white-haired girl who had been watching from the shadows—Bubble Shadow—emerged from the darkness.

Why hadn’t she transformed into her sprite form?

Because that form was inconvenient for fighting.

Besides, she knew that this place harbored a terrifying presence…

One far stronger than herself—a tiger-skinned cat, a bargain-bin evil god with nothing but pressure and almost no real power.

In fact, with the help of the phone, she had been following Duya the whole time.

And that large-scale sacrificial magic circle from before had actually been aimed at her.

Recalling that moment, Bubble Shadow remembered watching that man grab a piece of meat and shove it into his mouth.

She was completely stunned.

She wanted to stop him, but by the time she reacted, the guy had already eaten everything that had been offered in the sacrifice.

Especially seeing the look of pure enjoyment on his face, and then looking at the chaos creatures in his hands…

Was he the real evil god?

Or some even more terrifying existence?

Sure, she had given him a tiny bit of protection, but that didn’t mean he could just raw-dog a grotesque entity, did it?

Was he even human?

Compared to that chaotic flesh, the bowl of dead-man mushroom soup from earlier almost seemed like nothing.

Just as Bubble Shadow was thinking, she heard heavy footsteps.

She turned her head, but there was no one behind her.

The empty living room was lit only by the warm glow of the lamp.

But as she looked toward the deep darkness deeper in the house, unease crept into Bubble Shadow’s heart.

That thing’s strength seemed greater than hers…

After all, she was too weak right now, lacking real power.

Her pressure could scare off grotesques with little intelligence, but if she ran into something stronger—or a human driven mad—that pressure might not work at all.

Thump… thump… thump…

The footsteps in the darkness were slowly approaching the living room, and they sounded very close.

Bubble Shadow looked around frantically, then finally chose to hide under the table.

Her body was small, so it was easy to tuck herself away in inconspicuous places.

Time passed.

Bubble Shadow peered out from under the table.

Under the lamplight, she could clearly see an old man’s feet.

But those feet… were densely covered with unknown mushrooms.

The mushrooms spread from the top of his feet all the way up his legs.

Beyond that, Bubble Shadow couldn’t see.

As she watched, the old man walked into the kitchen and took the pot of mushroom soup off the stove.

But just as he approached the living room table, he suddenly let out a series of low growls.

It seemed he was afraid to get near the lamp?

The old man stood in the darkness, and Bubble Shadow finally got a clear look at what she was dealing with.

Seeing his body covered entirely in mushrooms, Bubble Shadow knew he wasn’t a grotesque entity.

He was probably still human, but already completely corrupted and infected by the mushrooms… likely beyond saving.

Just as Bubble Shadow was studying him, the old man seemed to sense her gaze.

He raised his head and locked eyes with her under the table.

At that moment, Bubble Shadow realized that the infected person seemed afraid of the light bulb on the table.

He could only stare at her from the darkness with angry, greedy eyes.

Realizing this, Bubble Shadow crawled out from under the table, leisurely brushed the dust off her clothes, then extended a finger and curled it in a “come here” gesture.

“You want some? Come get it~”