Melting Shampoo (9)

Sssiiiiik-

Kikikikikikik-

Sssik- Sssiiiiik-

Kikikik- Kikik!- Kikikik..

Sssiiiiik- Sssiiiiiiik-

Kiiiiiiiik!!- Kik-

I sprayed insecticide and shoved aside the anomalies as they fell.

I sprayed insecticide, kicked the fallen anomalies out of the way, and repeated this process about fifteen times.

So.. the march of the six-legged anomalies, which had been advancing as though they would surge in endlessly, came to a halt.

There were roughly fourteen or fifteen six-legged anomaly corpses sprawled around inside the house where I was.

“Phew..”

Whether fortunately or unfortunately.

The six-legged anomalies were no longer coming inside the house.

There were probably more anomalies than just that many, but perhaps they couldn't come because they had already starved to death.

Or perhaps the elevator—the only entrance through which they could reach this place—had broken down..

Whatever the reason, I was finally beginning to regain a little peace of mind knowing that no more anomalies were coming here.

“..Huh?”

The corpse of an anomaly that had clearly been lying at about the height of my thigh.. was now down below my knees.

‘..What is this?’

I was puzzled for a moment by the sight of the anomaly, which seemed to have suddenly become shorter.

Then, suddenly.. I remembered how Melting Shampoo had dripped from the melting ceiling on my first day here.

‘Could it be.. melting?’

I found myself thinking that the parts of this house's floor touched by Melting Shampoo seemed to be melting away.

‘..It would be a little wasteful to throw them away like this.’

I began dragging every anomaly corpse I could reach as far in front of me as possible and gathering them together.

Of course..

‘Is this my limit..?’

If I walked all the way to the kitchen, I might be able to make use of all ten-odd anomaly corpses..

But if I went that far, my feet would inevitably touch the water in which the Melting Shampoo had dissolved.

I had no intention of taking that risk, so I did everything I possibly could with my hands.

‘I suppose I'll have to be satisfied with this.’

I was able to pile three anomaly corpses in front of me.

‘I wonder if three of them will raise my Mentality by 60.’

As I looked at the three anomaly corpses and wondered what kind of item they would produce if I crafted with them.

Thud!

“!..”

When I looked toward the place where the sudden falling sound had come from..

‘..Why did that start melting so quickly?’

I saw that the floor in front of the sink where the water had fallen had already melted away, and the anomaly there had begun to fall through.

‘I should hurry and craft before these guys fall too.’

I wanted to craft the anomaly corpses in front of me before they fell to the floor below as well.

With my hand resting on top of a corpse, I pressed the one remaining Craft button on the status window.

Thud!.. Thud!.. Thud-thud!..

The fairly heavy anomaly corpses began falling downstairs one by one.

If someone was living in the apartment below, I felt terribly sorry for them, but what could I do?

It would be a little much to call it my fault for overlooking the fact that anomalies were intelligent enough to mix shampoo into water.. I had done my best to kill them.

Couldn't the downstairs resident make some armor too?

‘..That is scary too..’

Fortunately, the melted floor soon began repairing itself, so I realized I no longer had to worry about anything falling to the floor below.

With a little more breathing room, I opened the status window.

--

Mentality: 46 / 100

[Available Return Attempts] : 1

[Available Crafting Attempts] : 0

Input:

--

‘..What the hell happened to my Mentality?’

Seeing my Mentality, which had definitely been filled to 103, drop to 46 after only about twenty minutes of brief combat gave me chills.

That meant that if I had fought for just ten minutes longer, my Mentality would have reached 0.

‘I really need to check the status window from time to time..’

Once the Mentality in the status window reached 0, I couldn't open the status window again until my Mentality recovered.

I decided to make a habit of checking the status window every now and then.

Now then..

‘I should see what was made.’

Hadn't it become time to check the most important thing?

--

[■] [■] [■] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]

--

I couldn't help but feel extremely curious about what kind of item had been made from the three corpses of six-legged anomalies.

‘Please.. please..! An SSR grade..! SSR grade!’

Like I was playing a gacha game, I pressed the third slot with a slightly playful thought.

--

[Compressed Flesh Ring]

A ring crafted by compressing flesh.

Raises the user's maximum Mentality by 72.

The user can expend 80 Mentality to use the [Apathy] mental attack.

--

“..Wow.”

There was an even more amazing item inside than I had expected.

‘If it's a ring.. it's convenient to wear, too, and it can even let me use a mental attack?’

I could use the mental attacks that had been abilities of the anomalies, despite being human..?

Ohhh..

‘Using 80 Mentality seems a little dangerous, but if things ever got truly hopeless, it might be worth trying once, right?’

Of course, using as much as 80 Mentality was a fairly dangerous requirement.

But depending on what the ability did, this was clearly an item worth trying at least once.

‘I should put it on.’

I immediately took the item out of the inventory in the status window and checked the ring's appearance first.

‘..Ugh, it looks kind of.. a little gross..’

As if to prove that it had been made from the anomalies' flesh and organs..

Flesh-colored threads and red threads were tangled together into the shape of a ring.

But just because it looked disgusting was no reason not to use an item with such good performance.

I was just about to put the ring on my finger when—

‘Hmm..’

As I wondered where it would be best to wear the ring…

…

--

Mentality: 163 / 195

[Available Return Attempts] : 1

[Available Crafting Attempts] : 1

Input:

--

I had equipped every item I possessed, nearly doubling my total Mentality, but my stomach was twice as hollow.

‘Uuugh.. I'm hungry.. I'm thirsty.. I'm hungry.. I'm thirsty..’

It was already lunchtime on my fourth day since coming here.

Now that I had no drinkable water or edible food left, I was just lying weakly on the floor and browsing the community aimlessly when.

--

[Daebung Prediction]

(Photo)

This is a prediction of Daebung that I drew myself based on scientific evidence.

For starters, he's about 2 meters 19 centimeters tall and weighs 160 kilograms.

Naturally, everything on his body is pure muscle.

Because of all those muscles, even if an anomaly attacks, the attack gets caught in the muscles and can't reach his organs.

And even in this situation, his head circumference is a tiny 50 centimeters, so he dodges all the anomalies' attempts at a headshot, yeah.

Mental attacks?

Our Daebung has attained enlightenment, so mental attacks don't work on him.

Even if an anomaly stuffed all sorts of lewd thoughts into his head, he would counter every mental attack with a single “Namu Amitabha.”

How's that?

[Comments - 18]

Anonymous 1 : And his lower half is 25 centimeters.

ㄴ Anonymous 2 : This is probably actually true.

ㄴ Anonymous 4 : What do you mean, true, you lunatics? ㅋㅋㅋ

Anonymous 3 : Looking at how he killed that anomaly yesterday despite it attacking him like crazy and survived.. this scientific guess is correct, yeah.

ㄴ Anonymous 5 : For real, otherwise there's no explaining it.

Poster : Ah, I forgot to mention that he's a former U.S. Marine special forces operator.

ㄴ Anonymous 3 : Kaha!! Everything fits perfectly now?!

ㄴ Anonymous 6 : Daebung also learned black magic. How else could he have killed the note anomaly that was in the community?

ㄴ Poster : This is true too.

ㄴ Anonymous 4 : What do you mean, true? ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ You called it scientific ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

Anonymous 7 : We all write these posts as jokes, but there really is no other way to explain Daebung ㅋㅋ Seriously ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

ㄴ Anonymous 1 : Our Daebung is returning today! Toot toot~

ㄴ Anonymous 2 : I'm thinking of running to see Daebung's face during interaction time ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

ㄴ Anonymous 1 : Me too ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

ㄴ Anonymous 3 : Ahh.. When is interaction time coming around again ㅠㅠㅠ We have to go welcome our Daebung ㅠㅠ

Anonymous 8 : A hardcore macho guy, a high-testosterone man, and someone who can use mental attacks, and Daebung is a newbie?!

ㄴ Anonymous 4 : Macho guy (O) High-testosterone man (O) Mental attack (X). Why do you keep turning our Daebung into something nonhuman? ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

ㄴ Anonymous 2 : He's not human ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

--

‘I can use mental attacks—’

Knock knock knock

“..!!”

I heard someone.. knocking on the front door.

‘..What is it? Who is it?’

There had never been anything like an anomaly knocking on my front door before.

I forgot all about being hungry and thirsty,

I immediately got up and focused on the sound coming from outside the house.

Creak.. Creak..

“...”

I realized that a very familiar sound, one that should never be heard.. was coming from outside the front door.

Creak.. Creak.. Creak..

Knock.. knock knock..

Knock knock.. knock…

Knock.. knock..

Thud..

Thud.. thud.. thud..

Thud.. thud-thud..

Thud-thud-thud..

Thud-thud-thud-thud-

Thud-thud

Bang-

Bang- Bang!- Bang!