Chapter 124
Succubi are promiscuous.
They were a race that enjoyed today's pleasures even if they were going to die tomorrow, pursuing physical pleasure even when death was imminent.
‘Only pursues physical pleasure...’
Lillian hated that aspect of her birth.
They knew nothing of true love.
Succubi who chased only physical desires looked horrifying.
What was the difference between blindly satisfying sexual urges without any emotional connection and being a beast?
‘I will never let myself be ruled by mere instinct.’
She had certainly sworn that to herself.
“...Ah.”
She furtively raised her gaze.
There, she saw a man drinking cola in a shabby white T-shirt.
Seeing him made her head strangely hot, and her breathing grew labored as though she had been running.
Just then, their eyes met.
“Are you still feeling unwell?”
“Ah, umm... yes...”
Lillian pulled the blanket up over her face and avoided his gaze.
Even when he saw her, Head Mod neither pounced on her nor threatened or coveted her.
He was clearly friendly, but there was not the slightest trace of lecherousness in that kindness.
‘Is that possible?’
He didn't desire her despite seeing a succubus.
Was he a human who didn't know desire at all?
But from what she'd observed, that didn't seem to be the case.
“Oh my god!”
“Gasp, Malphite, what happened?”
Head Mod suddenly screamed.
When Penny came running out, Head Mod proudly showed her the gallery.
[Congratulations! You've been featured.]
[Featured Post: My skirt... it's so empty. How am I supposed to wear it...?]
(Meme of a robot holding its head)
We analyzed your interests and curiosities using big data and generated the title most likely to attract the highest number of views.
[Upvotes 1321] [Downvotes 2441]
- Ah, you fucking bastard
- This is Head Mod...?!
- What species is that picture? It looks fucking infuriating lol
- I really feel like smashing him with a hammer, ah lol
- (Isn't it boring? meme)
ㄴ Head Mod*) (Then die meme)
“Today's featured-post climb complete. No pictures, please.”
“Ah...”
Realizing soon afterward that it had been a joke, Penny's face crumpled.
At that sight, Lillian realized.
“You're not interested in me?”
No, he wasn't interested in anyone.
In other words, Head Mod didn't desire Lillian.
The only thing he cared about was the gallery.
He was simply a pure soul who felt joy in being a 24/7 gallery-addicted NEET making shitty posts and farming featured posts.
‘But he wasn't completely indifferent, either.’
If someone needed help, he helped them without asking for anything in return.
He also possessed overwhelming power that no one could even approach.
To possess that kind of power and still remain so pure, finding happiness in such small things...
Perhaps that was why she'd been interested in Head Mod for such a long time.
No, she'd thought it was interest.
“Ah.”
Her heart pounded hard once again.
In the mirror she had turned to face without thinking, Lillian looked more like a succubus than anyone.
Other people's desire and attention could no longer serve as her staple food.
Instead, merely touching Head Mod filled her with satisfaction and made her heart race.
“Wait, just a second?”
A single possibility flashed through Lillian's mind.
Succubi didn't know love.
But if, just if, they came to know it...
They might no longer be able to survive on ordinary people's desires, attention, or even physical contact.
It was a kind of punishment imposed on a mutant who went against their racial instincts.
“Oh, no way...”
A pure-love succubus could obtain energy only through the object of her unrequited love.
The moment Lillian realized this, she was left with her mouth slightly open, her face so red it looked ready to burst.
*
“No, absolutely not!”
Penny suddenly shouted.
It was right after Dryer, who had come out of the room, said that she wanted to stay here too.
“Penny?”
“Malphite, listen carefully. She's a succubus! You don't know what she'll do to you!”
“Hmm, that's true.”
I glanced at Dryer. She stared at me, then hurriedly looked away.
“See that!”
Penny shouted as she pointed at Dryer.
She was definitely seductive.
If people saw her, they might hand over their liver and gallbladder for her beauty.
But hadn't Penny also called herself lustful?
“Don't be so hard on her. She says she has nowhere to go.”
If she had nowhere to go, it felt wrong to turn her away.
Besides, she couldn't live in the city either.
If she were merely pretty, she could at least make use of that, but with looks like hers, even I would bring down a country.
The problem was that Dryer wasn't the sort of person who could make use of it.
“And if you're worried because of Dryer's race, you don't have to be.”
Penny's greatest concern was precisely the fact that Dryer was a succubus.
“Why?”
I went to the bookshelf and took out a book.
The title was ‘Healthy Ways to Date the Opposite Sex’.
It was a wholesome book with a picture of a man and woman sharing a scarf on a winter street on the cover.
“...Why this?”
It was a cute, lovey-dovey romance book.
There wasn't a hint of promiscuity in it.
Penny stared blankly at it, then looked up at me.
Of course, it was bound to seem strange since I'd brought it out so suddenly.
“Watch closely.”
I held out the book to Dryer, who had her head bowed.
“!!!”
At that moment, Dryer sprang up like a cat and scrambled backward.
Then she covered her face, which had turned visibly red, and cried out.
“H-Head Mod, why are you suddenly showing me such a lewd book?”
That explained everything.
“... ...A lewd book?”
Penny remained frozen for a long while at that reaction, then tilted her head and asked.
Dryer pointed at the book—more precisely, at the part where the couple shared a scarf—and screamed.
“Good heavens, a man and woman sharing a scarf outdoors under the open sky...!”
“...They're just a cute couple, aren't they?”
“It's obscene. It's lewd! H-how can a book like that exist? My goodness.”
That wasn't an act to secure permission to stay in the house.
It was one hundred percent genuine.
Penny watched her, then turned her gaze to me.
“What?”
“I was thinking about it, you know?”
This wasn't the first time Dryer had acted like that.
She'd reacted the same way when the back of my hand touched her forehead as I checked her fever, and when my fingers accidentally brushed her.
It was several times more intense than her reaction when she posted her own lewd pictures.
“Succubi are basically lewd by nature.”
“Right?”
Succubus trait: lewd.
If you don't know, memorize it. This was canon.
Even mutant Dryer couldn't deviate from that.
However, judging from Dryer's behavior so far, she hated the behavior of ordinary succubi.
Instead, her face turned bright red over the emotional connection between couples and fresh romance.
“Here.”
“Gasp.”
It was when I experimentally pinched and lightly tugged Dryer's cheek between my index finger and thumb.
“H, haaah, hrrrgh, heeeek.”
Dryer began showing signs of respiratory distress, then fainted on the spot.
Penny studied her closely, then eventually looked back at me with a strange expression.
“She's not dangerous, right?”
“...Yeah, I guess not.”
Her utterly unsuccubus-like behavior actually inspired trust.
With Penny's agreement, Dryer was permitted to stay in the bunker for the time being.
“The succubi in my memories definitely weren't like that...”
Leaving Penny to her troubled thoughts, I carried Dryer to the bed and tossed her onto it.
The problem was that there was no room for her to stay in the bunker.
“Should I upgrade the bunker again?”
Actually, there were plenty of rooms.
But after receiving gifts from gallerybros of various races, even our living space was running short.
All we had was a living room doubling as a kitchen, Penny's room, and my room.
“It's too expensive.”
In practice, upgrading was more about durability than expanding the available space.
The sharp jump in price was a factor too.
“Or should I build an outbuilding in the front yard?”
It seemed like a good idea to make a bunker that could serve as a second refuge and storage facility in case of emergency.
Of course, I still hadn't decided how we would get there if we were ever in danger.
“I'll build the second bunker somewhere completely separate from the city.”
It was just as I was working out a rough plan.
[Featured Post: Found the Arachne!!!]
(Picture of an arachne taken near the entrance to a cave in the forest)
I'm going to catch the arachne and make a fortune!
(Come here! hunter meme)
[Upvotes 1451] [Downvotes 201]
- Damn, I was going to find it first
- Ah lol, I was looking in the desert, this fucking sucks
- Share the location
ㄴ Author) lol Sure!
“Oh, they already found it?”
A post had gone up reporting the discovery of the mutant magical beast suspected of using mind control.
*
The Kellierton Tuna Queen hostage incident.
It had been resolved quickly because the hunter ran out of bullets, but it wasn't something to take lightly.
The man had been an elite ranked first in the bounty listings.
Since even such a man had been mind-controlled, it was only natural that the hunters were afraid to catch the arachne.
- I'll catch it with you, share the location pls^^
ㄴ Author) I sent it by DM!
ㄴ ? There's a DM system too?
ㄴ No, dumbass, he means he isn't giving it out
ㄴ Fuck
- That's a doctored picture. Arachnes never come out in forests like that, yeah
ㄴ Really?
ㄴ There's no such thing. Quit spewing your headcanon
ㄴ Actually, arachnes do live in forests. I thought poking him would make him angry and reveal the location, but nope
ㄴ ?
ㄴ Oh
No, they had been afraid.
That was until the bounty was tripled and support with flashbangs was promised.
“An arachne is half human and half spider, right?”
So far, a single flashbang had easily dealt with most magical beasts.
Besides, an arachne's upper body was human.
In the end, I expected it to be helpless against a flashbang.
[Title: lol I'm graduating first]
(Picture of an encounter with an arachne inside a cave)
(Picture of a flashbang being thrown and detonated)
I'm going to make a lot of money catching this thing and retire lol
And then I'll confess to the girl I've liked since I was little
[Upvotes 1344] [Downvotes 303]
- Fuck, I'm jealous. Just die
- Once the flashbang goes off, it's game over...
- (Then die meme)
And soon, the hunter who had received the flashbang entered the cave at once.
-Aaaaaah!
After the flashbang went off, a woman's piercing scream rang out from inside the cave.
“He got it.”
The arachne in the picture had been unable to put up any resistance and quickly allowed the hunter to close the distance.
It was just as the hunter easily stepped on its spider legs and reached the humanoid upper body.
“...Hmm?”
Something was strange.
The boss-type mutant magical beast was on the verge of death.
Then why wasn't any magical beast inside the cave struggling or moving?
It was as if they were clearing a path for him and waiting.
It was just as I began to think that the whole thing seemed deliberately staged.
- Uh
- Why doesn't that thing have any eyes?
The arachne suddenly twisted its body.
At that moment, as the blade cut through the air, the arachne's form was briefly revealed.
“It doesn't have any eyes?”
Everything above the bridge of its nose was protected by something resembling armor.
Naturally, the flashbang couldn't work either.
- Wait, did the magical beast set a trap?
There were magical beasts that appeared to possess intelligence.
Fishmen who traveled in groups and knew how to retreat were one example.
But this was the first time there had been a mutant that could use curses and even set a trap to wait for its prey.
-Thwack!
At the same time that the arachne's hand pierced through the hunter's body.
[This post has been deleted.]
The post everyone had been watching was deleted.