Knowing the locations of organization members was a tremendous kind of ability. It was natural since one could know every detail of what organization members were doing. With just that ability, one could easily detect betrayal.
Looking at the treatment Din received, it was clear he had already caught several spies and traitors. Since it was nonsense to receive such treatment before having achievements, it was easy to guess.
“How… do you have such an ability…? Perhaps magic, a mage?”
“I’m not a mage. It’s just a minor skill. I don’t have the talent to formally become a mage, but I had a knack for handling mana better than ordinary people.”
I see, it’s a mediocre talent, but is the current Din the result of maximizing it? It was a more bland setting than I had expected. By the way, was this the end of Din’s hidden setting?
I glanced around the room once.
Din was so delighted that his face was flushed red. The corpses floated in the water tanks. Everything about this character who had been decadent with sunken eyes, acting lovestruck as if finding the muse he had been searching for his whole life and falling into first love, was here.
“I see.”
The fear of Jay that I had been fabricating until just now dissipated in an instant, and what took its place was boundless pleasure.
This appearance of mine wouldn’t be what Din wanted. He was a bizarre serial killer, and was born a hunter by nature. It was the prey trembling in fear and submitting that brought him joy.
Sensing something strange, Din tried to approach me. However, before he could get close to me, Belly burst out and struck the back of his neck to knock him out.
“Ack!”
Letting out a death cry and collapsing face-down on the floor, he didn’t look like a murderer who cruelly violated people. He just looked like an insignificant worthless thug.
In reality, his essence would be the same. Whatever past he had, he was trash who trampled on many lives recklessly, obsessed with people’s white skin. Well, to me he was attractive because he was a character.
“Master, are you okay?”
“Of course!”
The fear Jay felt was both real and false. The emotions felt as Jay were frightening. But ultimately, my own feelings as myself, as Jack, were not the same as Jay’s. I was just endlessly delighted.
My body slowly returned to Jack. The pale skin with visible blue veins returned to wheat-colored skin with a healthy complexion, and the ink-black hair became common and dry brown. The smooth skin that Din had so praised became dotted with freckles.
If that man hadn’t fainted and had seen this situation, it would have been a sight to make him scream.
Belly easily released the shackles that had bound my limbs. Though pressing a button would have been fine, I could indirectly feel the anger Belly felt by the way he cut them off like cutting radish.
“Ah, that was fun.”
“I’m glad it was fun, but…”
Belly draped clothes over me and stroked my lower abdomen where the tattoo was drawn. That tattoo, which would remain on my body for life unless I received other treatments, seemed quite displeasing to Belly.
In fact, even to people who liked tattoos, the location of the tattoo I received would be quite an unpleasant place. Normally, I too would have disliked this location.
But now it was different. This was evidence. Evidence that I, as Jay Doe, was involved in Din Telliano’s novel. So it was like a bookmark. It couldn’t be more fitting for me, a reader of this world.
“Haha, really… To think it’s this fun.”
While Belly briefly frowned at my appearance caressing the tattoo, he soon meticulously dressed me with his usual neat face. The tattoo became invisible, hidden by clothes.
But just because it wasn’t visible didn’t mean I could reduce the presence of the tattoo engraved on my body. Though I had applied potion and it had healed considerably, it asserted its presence as if burning instead. I kept rubbing my lower abdomen.
“To think it could be this fun…”
The more I repeated it, the more exhilaration thickly pervaded my voice. It was partly because I had directly participated in the story, and it also felt like being confirmed that I could live in this world. The depressed emotions I had felt for so long disappeared without a trace.
“Master…?”
The reason for possessing into this world. My value. My usefulness. Exhilaration. I wanted to feel this sensation again. I never wanted to sink into that swamp of depression again. Any ordinary person would feel the same.
Then I had an unexpected realization.
Din wasn’t the protagonist. He wasn’t even a main character. But his story was this enjoyable. It was thrilling enough to make my hands and feet tremble.
“Ha, hahaha…”
Then what about other characters? Other characters’ stories would also be interesting. Come to think of it, this world was a novel, and what overflowed were characters. Wasn’t it already a known fact that the other people around me were characters?
Though it was a belated realization, I now realized the value of the characters scattered around me. I didn’t need to anxiously search for protagonists.
A pleasure that seemed to melt my body rippled inside me. I didn’t know what the total population of this world was. Before possession, the world’s population exceeded 7.7 billion. This world disguised as medieval fantasy would be less than that, but even if it was half, it would easily exceed 3 billion.
That meant there were over 3 billion character stories worth enjoying. Even if interesting stories were only half of that, it would exceed 1 billion. That could be considered almost infinite.
A never-ending story. Never-ending pleasure.
“This is it! Yes, this is it!”
“Master? Master??”
Belly called me desperately, but his voice didn’t reach me, at least for now. Unable to contain my excitement, I bounced around dancing frivolously. In step with the emotions I felt, the skill Glutton existing inside me squirmed.
[System is updating.]
[Thank you for using the prototype so far.]
[Updating….]
A familiar system window appeared before my eyes. It was the growth of my one and only skill that had had no proper development for six years.
[Update complete.]
With the notification as the end, a reader appeared in my hand. The black reader was a familiar design no different from before the update. But the contents were different from before. Unlike when there had been only two novels, now countless novels were packed in, too many to count.
As I read each of those novel titles one by one, I felt a strange buoyancy, as if floating up from the ground I was standing on.
“Master!!”
Belly called me in a voice close to a scream. At the terribly cracked voice, only then could I clearly recognize Belly.
His eyes, filled with moisture, trembled mercilessly, and his mouth was tightly shut. He looked like someone hanging from the edge of a cliff. That appearance, as if cornered, came to me as puzzling.
“Why are you suddenly like this?”
“Master…”
He hugged me tightly, unable to calm down. The touch that bound me tightly enough to be suffocating was only bewildering.
Why is he suddenly like this? The appearance of Belly, not knowing what to do like a child who lost his parents, came to me as unfamiliar since I didn’t understand the situation. It was worlds apart from Belly who always looked after me with a smile as gentle as a painting.
“Master, you…”
He moved his lips several times as if trying to say something to me, but ultimately couldn’t utter any words. He just repeatedly called me like something broken.
Seeing my bewildered appearance, Belly remained silent for quite a while, then spoke with a hollow laugh.
“Let’s go back, home.”
“Yeah!”
Between Belly, who looked somewhat depressed, and me, who was thoroughly excited, a strange distance could be felt. But that was only for a moment, as Belly returned to his usual appearance.
“Master. What should we do with that man?”
“Hm? What do you mean, what should we do?”
“Should we report him to the guard?”
Din, who had been neglected on the cold floor while I was absorbed in my own world for a moment, still hadn’t regained consciousness. He was a cruel person who had taken the lives of many people for his own pleasure. It was right to report him to the guard as Belly said.
“No. Just leave him.”
But why should I do that? There was no reason for his story to stop because of a mere extra like me.
Moreover, I was curious about his reaction when the muse he had wanted his whole life disappeared. I was looking forward to how that disappearance would approach him as an element, what kind of character he would develop into through this incident.
Who knows? This man might grow to become a villain who would continue the main story of this world. Thinking that, the tattoo engraved on my stomach throbbed. It tingled at my toes with pleasure.
* * *
“Jack!”
Rose ran over with a cheer and hugged me tightly. Her face was flushed red, and she seemed quite excited. The force of her embrace was so strong that my body felt like it would be crushed. Belly wasn’t one to just watch that action. He frowned and separated Rose from me.
“Back off.”
“Why are you acting so stiff?”
Rose laughed playfully and hugged me again, even tighter. The better Rose’s mood became, the more proportionally Belly’s mood fell to rock bottom.
Though Belly usually treated Rose sharply, he didn’t cross the line. Even if he didn’t like Rose, she was my guardian. It was admirable that he maintained courtesy thinking of me.
Anyway, fortunately Rose let me go before Belly’s nerves wore out. Belly’s sharpened gaze turned to Rose, but she didn’t budge and patted my shoulder.
