WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Haruto
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ A Gacha Addict's Life in Fusionpunk ◈
Chapter 54: Taming a True Progenitor (2)
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1.
Besides Arbel, who served as both diffuser and comfort cushion, I had a new family member!
A bunny-girl version of the fake Progenitor, no less.
“Boksun,[1] get over here!”
“...This concubine refuses.”
“Oh? Talking back again?”
“...”
Shion shuffled over like a cow being led to slaughter.
“...This concubine is... not Boksun. This concubine is Shion Tsukimiya, the sole Red Moon... the True Progenitor...”
“No. Your name is Boksun from now on.”
I had swiped something the Gold Carp Family treasured.
Under the circumstances, I could not carelessly call her Shion, True Progenitor, or fake Progenitor.
“Birds hear what is said at night, you know.”
“Then why... did you have to pick such a name...?”
“Really? Should I change it? How about Bokdol instead?”
“...”
With tears pooling in her eyes, Shion clamped her mouth shut.
Ha, that felt good.
Web novels were always full of stories where a manager treated someone like shit without knowing they had won the lottery, and I used to wonder what was so fun about that...
This was it!!!
The pure joy of throwing your weight around after the power dynamic reversed!!!
I had never held a job, so I had not understood it!!!
“Boksun, massage your master’s shoulders.”
“You would have this concubine wait on a man?!”
“Yep.”
“To treat this concubine so disgracefully. Are you not afraid? Show some respect, human...!”
Unable to contain her anger, Shion put her hands on her hips and stomped her heel.
Ha, this one still needed training.
“Hey.”
When I turned serious, Shion flinched, her fingertips trembling.
“Ah, fuck, this is making me feel weird. Who asked you to share my bed? I told you to massage my shoulders. Is that so hard?”
“...”
Twisting her lips and trembling, Shion finally placed her tiny hands on my shoulders.
“This concubine... sniff! Once this concubine regains her strength... then I will truly... ngh... you bastard...”
“Silence!”
“...Sniff.”
That was when I understood why damn cats had remained top-tier pets all this time.
Inner beauty? It was completely useless. You could not see it.
In the end, this world was all about appearances.
She looked cute, so I could not hate her completely.
Of course, an observant person might point something out here.
The fake Progenitor ran away at once in the last loop, so why was she stubbornly sticking around this time while wearing a bunny-girl outfit?
Back then, she may have stayed because I played along with her, but should she not have run the moment I left now?
Had I used some hypnosis app on her or something?
A fair question.
To explain it, we had to go back about five hours.
2.
After going through several loops, I had gained confidence in my own strength.
I could feel it after walking down the street for just five minutes.
Necropolis was fundamentally a city of savages.
Every citizen had an almost animalistic instinct for looking down on the weak.
What did I mean by that? When I first entered Necropolis and walked down the street, I constantly felt eyes looking me over.
The gazes of my neighbors endlessly followed me, wondering what loot would drop if they stabbed me in the side.
But now, nobody dared look at me like that on the street.
Instead, they avoided my eyes when we met.
The experience and confidence that naturally seeped out of me, even without walking around saying, “Come at me.”
My presence had become strong enough to work like mosquito repellent.
She was a fake Progenitor, but I was confident I could handle her.
Fwoooosh!
“Don’t die.”
I had just acquired this new technique.
I was about to pour the black flames blooming from my fingertips at Shion, but quickly redirected them.
“...What are you doing?”
Because Shion, whom I had naturally expected to fight back, was crouching down with her head covered by both hands.
Her eyes were even squeezed shut.
“L-Let us... let us talk this out, human...”
“...”
Was a Rank 0 fake Progenitor really this useless, even if the original was a True Progenitor?
I asked the True Progenitor, who slyly peeked through narrowed eyes, in a snide tone.
“What magic can you use?”
“I-Illusions... And this concubine knows a little Blood Alchemy. So no more violence...”
“Blood Alchemy? Show me.”
A drop of blood the size of a BB pellet formed at the tip of the True Progenitor’s finger.
Pew! Pew! Pew!
It shot through the air.
I watched blankly as the barrage of BB pellets disappeared into the darkness.
There was not even an explosion.
“That’s it?”
“Of course not...!”
“I’ll kill you if you lie.”
“For now, this is all of this concubine’s strength...”
I had nearly fucked up for real.
If I had casually used Death Sentence, this loop would have ended right there.
Once I fully realized that fact...
“Wow, Cedric’s instincts are completely shot.”
A hollow laugh escaped me.
So the only magic she knew was the “True Progenitor Fear” she had shown last loop.
Was that blood shot, powerful enough to slightly tear the tip of my ear, really all she had?
All she could do was posture?
I had fallen for that bullshit and gone through all that?
“Hey, come here.”
“D-Do not bully this concubine...! This concubine is... the sole Red Moon, Shion Tsukimiya.... S-Show some respect!”
As I strode closer, Shion curled herself up and made strange noises.
The hands covering her head were shaking convulsively.
“No, fuck...”
What was with this overacting?
I had not even given her a single knuckle rap on the head.
Then a passage crossed my mind.
<Case 61. ██ Year, ██ Month, ██ Day.>
Submission orders and surrender procedures implemented. Subject uncooperative with all commands. Subject resisted torture procedures. Died of cardiac arrest and cerebral hemorrhage after ██ days.
<Case 66. ██ Year, ██ Month, ██ Day.>
Subject displayed extreme fear and hatred upon seeing an experimenter. Confirmed that the subject retained Case 65’s personality and memories. Reset failed. Subject disposed of.
<Case 82. ██ Year, ██ Month, ██ Day.>
Memory erasure procedure performed first. However, after factor injection, observed “memory continuity,” in which the subject’s consciousness data was overlaid. It is estimated that the doll inherits memories the moment it receives the factor.
“...Ooh, I don’t want it to hurt.... I-I will behave, so... please stop hurting me....”
“No... No, fuck.”
This was seriously fucked up.
Now I looked like the bad guy.
Was this my fault?
When her bluff worked, she sucked people dry to the marrow, but now that she had been exposed, she was immediately playing the pity card?
Not a chance.
“Hey, do you think the world is that easy? You think pretending to be pitiful makes everything okay? This is Necropolis, bitch.”
Naturally, I would collect every last debt from her with interest.
I had a good idea, after all.
“Fine, I won’t hurt you.”
“Truly...?”
“Take it off.”
“...W-What did you say...?”
“I said take it off.”
Her red eyes filled with shame and fear.
But she eventually lowered her head as though she had given up.
“Th-This concubine’s first time... in a place like this...”
As Shion shed her straitjacket with pearl-like tears rolling down her face...
“Now put this on.”
I handed her the bunny-girl outfit I had just pulled specifically for Shion.
A moment later.
The rustling stopped, and Shion timidly walked out.
A pink suit clung tightly to her body. Fishnet stockings squeezed her thighs, and a rabbit-ear headband stood proudly atop her head.
“Ha! I knew it would look good!”
The quality was seriously incredible!
“T-This disgusting outfit...! Who do you think this concubine is?!”
“Wow, your resilience is amazing.”
As if her earlier sobbing had been a lie, Shion jumped around and protested fiercely.
Anyway, after that, I roughly explained the situation and shared information.
“The Gold Carp Family is after you. Twilight Resource Development is after you too. They were originally keeping you locked up while itching to rough you up, but I secretly took you out.”
“Is that true...?”
“If you don’t believe me, try running away. You’ll become a test rat again.”
Perhaps remembering her trauma, Shion stopped breathing.
“Th-Then... what should this concubine do...?”
“I’ll raise you.”
“Raise...?”
“I’ll give you a place to sleep, feed you, clothe you, everything.”
Shion’s eyes rolled around nervously before she asked,
“W-What do you want from this concubine?”
.
.
.
Returning to the present.
“C-Could you let this concubine suck a little more?”
“Hey, watch your tone.”
“Ngh... Ngh...!”
I lightly flicked the forehead of the pleading Shion twice.
Tap. Tap.
Though she flinched, Shion did not run away. She only looked up at me desperately.
“What do you say when asking for something?”
“Ghh...!”
“Say it.”
“M-Master.... Please let this concubine suck a little more....”
“Good.”
When I held out my fingertip...
As though she had never had any pride at all, she carefully wrapped her hands around my finger.
“Hap...”
Then she stuck out her tongue and sucked the wounded tip of my finger.
Slurp... Sip... Sluurp...
A soft, warm sensation.
Shion drank my blood like a cat licking a tube treat.
Why had I ever been afraid of this pathetic little thing?
Looking at her again, there was not even a speck of dignity to be found.
This was why first impressions were important.
“Enough.”
If she drank too much, I would become anemic.
When I tried to pull my finger out...
Slurp! Sluuuurp!!!
Shion followed, sucking hard on my finger.
“Hey! Hey! Hey! This bitch is doing it again!”
Anyway, as you could see, the negotiation had been successful.
I guaranteed Shion safety, food, clothing, and shelter.
The terms of the contract were that Shion would handle Arbel’s servant conversion, serve as a robot vacuum, bunny-girl display stand, massage chair, comfort cushion, and emotional garbage bin.
However, one crucial point remained unresolved.
<It has been confirmed that servants can be created by bypassing ██ of the main body, but the subject’s life force is rapidly consumed in the process.>
That was the issue.
In the previous loop, I had only seen it in the documents, so I had been unsure.
The fake Progenitor used up life force when performing servant conversion?
I understood that.
So what happened when her life force ran out?
According to her...
‘If this concubine creates a servant in this state, this concubine will die anyway...!’
...That was what happened.
To make up for this, Twilight Resource Development had intended to develop a “Ruby.”
Simply put, it was an external battery for life force.
With one of those, the fake Progenitor could create servants without dying.
“But the project was scrapped while they were trying to make the Ruby?”
“That is what this concubine knows. That is why this concubine also fell into a long sleep.”
In that case, it was practically checkmate.
There was no way I could make a Ruby that even Twilight Resource Development had given up on developing.
In the end, I would have to make Shion give up her own life to perform servant conversion....
“Boksun, can’t you just close your eyes and die for me?”
“Hiiiyaaaak!!!”
I probably would not agree to that either.
No, if it were me, I would turn the recipient into a ghoul, then die after causing as much trouble as possible.
There was no point in gaining her cooperation through threats, coercion, or force.
“Hmm....”
“D-Do not abandon this concubine. This concubine is very useful.”
As I stared at her, Shion cautiously watched my expression.
Of course, I had no intention of abandoning her.
It was not because I believed that if you rescued a cat, you should raise it to the end.
The fake Progenitor alone could not convert Arbel into a servant, but without Shion, I could not even begin.
If I could get help from a Mage specializing in life-aligned magic, there might be a breakthrough.
But there was a problem.
The moment I told someone else about the fake Progenitor, a risk would arise.
My goal of saving Arbel through DIY servant conversion could end up meaning nothing.
I had no choice but to find someone who could keep their mouth really, really shut, while also not being on the radar of Twilight Resource Development or Overnus Pharmaceuticals.
And I had someone in mind.
.
.
.
For the first time in what felt like ages, I visited Isis Clinic on Aquarium Street.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
“Ms. Isis! Please open the door!”
“Business is over for today.”
“When are your business hours, exactly?”
“From 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.”
“What, are you a French bank or something?”
Today, Isis appeared at the peephole beyond the steel door with her usual impassive expression.
She said that, but she often opened the door for me.
“There’s an emergency patient. I brought money too.”
“Come in.”
True to her money-fiend nature, Isis opened the door once she saw the jingling money pouch.
“Where does it hurt?”
“She says her stomach hurts.”
Without much suspicion, Isis palpated the abdomen of the patient with her hood pulled low.
Just as planned.
“...!!!!”
Her eyes widened like oil lamps.
She sharply turned her head and glared at me, the patient’s guardian.
“You... What did you bring here?”
Just as I thought.
Isis was a Mage specializing in life-aligned magic.
She was a mysterious person who worked as an unlicensed doctor despite that.
She might be a money fiend, but her skills were unquestionable.
And more importantly, I had confirmed this information before.
‘The unlicensed doctor Isis has a Commandment not to disclose patient information.’
[‘Isis Yozora’s statement is true.’]
[「Coin Toss of Truth」 Uses Remaining (2/3)]
If things went well, she might become the key to clearing this Premium Route.
Footnotes:
[1] Boksun: a folksy, old-fashioned Korean female name often used for pets. Bokdol is a similarly rustic male name, making the threat to rename Shion especially demeaning.
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