WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Haruto
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ A Gacha Addict's Life in Fusionpunk ◈
Chapter 56: Taming a True Progenitor (4)
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1.
Made it home safely, at least.
“Quickly! Quickly, offer this concubine the glutinous rice cakes!”
The moment we got home, Shion rushed at me with drool streaming from her mouth.
“Go change into the Bunny Girl outfit first.”
She dashed into the corner of the room and, huffing and puffing, even put on the Bunny Girl outfit she had sworn she would never wear.
For reference, Shion’s everyday clothes had been replaced with Arbel’s spare outfits.
They were about the same size.
We must never forget this.
Once something becomes familiar and expected, the magic fades.
If I let her wear the Bunny Girl outfit as everyday clothing, it would lose that much of its appeal.
Look at Shion.
Whenever I offered her glutinous rice cakes, she scarfed them down as though it were only natural, but now that she could only get to eat them with difficulty, she was this happy.
“I-I have put it on...! Hurry! Hurry!”
“Now, now. You have to ask.”
“Master...! Please offer this concubine the glutinous rice cakes...!”
“Here!”
Shion reverently received the glutinous rice cakes in both hands and happily munched away.
They must have tasted incredible, because tears even welled in her eyes.
Last loop, I had badly wanted to slap her silly.
But looking at her like this, she was kind of cute.
“Is it that good? Let me have a taste too.”
I pulled out a rice cake dusted with white glutinous rice flour from the paper wrapping and put it in my mouth.
Soft, chewy, sweet.
Nothing special.
The taste everyone knew.
Three of these cost five thousand Bios? Suddenly, I felt ripped off.
“What are you doing?!”
Shion, white powder around her mouth, suddenly flared up.
“Human! Why are you touching this concubine’s offering?!”
“...”
Never mind. She wasn’t cute.
I immediately put her in a headlock.
“Hey, bitch. Is your mouth the only mouth that matters?”
“Th-this concubine was wrong.... Y-you may have one, but please leave the last one for this concubine....”
“You still haven’t come to your senses.”
“Ghk...!”
As I held Shion in a headlock, I thought about it.
I still lacked information.
Why was Isis being so cooperative?
Was she really going to make a Ruby for me?
Was her offer of 125 million Bios even serious when the amount itself was so absurd?
If she had only said it casually, why had she lent me a stealth necklace and given me advice?
There were too many things I didn’t know.
“Can’t be helped.”
Was I supposed to go to a casino, see every card in my opponent’s hand, and then play poker?
Of course not.
You only learned your opponent’s hand after the betting was over.
Betting when your own hand and the table showed promise was a skill too.
Even if I failed, I had another chance to try again.
“Whatever. I’ll give it a shot.”
“Master... this concubine understands... This concubine will give up the mochi... Please stop... Let this concubine go....”
The problem had become much simpler than before, and what I needed to do was clear.
Avoid the complicated power struggle, gather the money, then go to Isis. That was all.
Of course, that didn’t make it easy.
Ten Universal Coins, or 125 million Bios.
I had only nineteen days.
Considering the twenty-five percent Necropolis premium on Universal Coins, it seemed obtaining the coins would be difficult.
“So I have to prepare Bios in the end....”
It was enough to make me laugh bitterly.
My entire fortune was five hundred thousand Bios.
I had to multiply it by 250 in nineteen days?
Even Kim Jeong-hwan in his prime had never achieved a return rate like that.
“Ugh, I’ll think about it tomorrow.”
Today had been fucking long too.
If I thought any more, I’d be exhausted.
“Hey, you eat the last one.”
“...Really?”
I released her from the headlock and gave the annoying brat another rice cake.
After brushing my teeth, taking a cold shower, and changing clothes, I dove into bed.
Just as I was about to get some sleep...
“Boksun, what are you doing?”
“What do you mean?”
“Why aren’t you sleeping? Turn off the lights and come over.”
Shion, now wearing the pajamas I had given her, was fidgeting some distance away.
“Th-this concubine is not sleepy yet. It is fine, so this concubine permits you to sleep first.”
“...?”
Shion slowly backed away and pressed herself into a corner by the wall.
She had happily eaten glutinous rice cakes and washed up, but now she was suddenly shrinking back in fear.
“A man and woman sharing the same bed...! Such a thing is impossible! Prepare separate bedding for this concubine!”
I spread the blanket wide.
“Quit talking nonsense and get in here.”
“...Urgh.”
“Get over here!”
I grabbed Shion, who reluctantly walked over, blanket and all, and hugged her.
She had whined about there being no hot water while showering, and now she smelled like fragrant body wash.
“Heh heh... This little thing is so soft!”
She was almost as soft as Arbel!
I really wanted to dote on her!
“Uh... ngh...!”
“Relax. Relax, okay? Why are you so scared? Who said I was going to eat you?”
As I hugged Shion, brushed back her hair, and whispered in her ear, I felt her shoulders stiffen.
I knew exactly what she was thinking.
But I had no particular intention of touching Shion.
Think about it.
Two grown adults catching each other’s eye and spending a hot night together? Nice.
If the woman was as pretty as Shion? Twice as nice.
But I couldn’t forget.
Even if every condition was met, Shion was still the final piece of the Premium Route.
What if I raised hell demanding sexual service from the stray fake Progenitor, she got pissed off, and ruined everything at the last moment?
Then Undead Arbel would be born.
I couldn’t go through this bullshit twice.
Managing her favorability to a reasonable degree was essential.
“Heh heh, warm.”
“Uh... ngh...!”
Still, I couldn’t resist using her as a body pillow!
Arbel on my left, fake Progenitor on my right.
My bed life had become quite luxurious.
“Human...! Th-this concubine has a proposal. Aren’t you planning to do indecent things to this concubine anyway?”
“I’m not.”
“Do not lie! No man could look upon a being as beautiful as this concubine and not become aroused!”
“I said I’m not.”
“Th-then... this concubine has a proposal...!”
A proposal?
Hmm. That caught my interest.
I, Cedric, might look prickly on the outside, but I was a soft-hearted man who couldn’t easily reject a proposal from a pretty woman.
“What proposal?”
Shion pulled herself out of my arms and spoke.
“Do not touch this concubine... Why not touch that one instead? She is unconscious, so she cannot resist anyway.”
The fake Progenitor pointed at Arbel.
Thwack!
I gave her an incredibly hard knuckle rap on the head.
“Owwwww.... It hurts... It hurts, I say....”
Shion rubbed her head with both hands like a squirrel grooming itself.
“How dare you, how dare you strike this concubine... Oww....”
“Sleep.”
Damn it, getting my hopes up for nothing.
Still, having warmth on both sides felt nice....
Without question, it was the most luxurious sleeping arrangement I’d had since entering Necropolis.
2.
Five in the morning.
‘Proud workers of Necropolis, good morning. Another spirited morning has dawned. The current time is 5:00 a.m.’
“Ah... no... fuck....”
As usual, I got up to the shitty public-address broadcast.
The first thing I’d do after becoming a first-tier mage was kill the bastard who wrote that announcement.
It felt like I had only just closed my eyes, but it was already morning.
I wanted to sleep more....
“What?”
Feeling more cramped than usual, I nervously lifted the blanket.
“Mmnya....”
The fake Progenitor had curled into a fetal position and clung to me like chewing gum.
“No wonder I slept so badly....”
She had liked cramped places before too.
She seemed to have a habit of squeezing herself into corners.
“Arbel, good morning. Mwah!”
“...Mm, mmm....”
I wanted to sleep more, but I had no time.
After giving Arbel my routine kisses on the cheek, I got up and stretched.
I bought meat dumplings for breakfast from the dumpling shop on the first floor, then sat at my desk.
It was time to revisit the worry I had put off.
A simple but desperate concern that every modern person could relate to.
“So how am I supposed to make money?”
I had hoped that after sleeping, brilliant ideas would bubble up one after another, but of course that didn’t happen.
Considering prices and everything else...
One hundred million Bios was worth roughly one billion won.
The problem was that I had to make this 1.25 billion won not in Korea, but in Necropolis, a place even more infamous than Cambodia.
“Why doesn’t Necropolis have shitty meme-coin futures and options...?”
The more I thought about it, the more hopeless it seemed.
“Should I ask Yiming for a loan?”
I thought about it for a while.
No matter how loyal a man Yiming was, he wouldn’t casually lend me more than one hundred million Bios without knowing why.
If he were that much of an idiot, I wouldn’t call him my big brother.
It was only worth trying after every other option had failed.
The same went for Ceres Mama.
Especially her. She was suspicious by nature, so I didn’t want to ask her for money carelessly.
“Should I borrow as much as possible, then multiply it at a casino?”
Now that was tempting.
I could clear the Route while playing games at the casino?
If it worked, there was no easier strategy.
Fine, let’s go with that.
“Focus!!!”
I got a grip on myself.
Part of me wanted to choose that option whether it worked or not.
If I was going to clear it anyway, I wanted to choose the fun and easy route.
But this was Necropolis, not Aden.
The betting limits were much lower than in Aden.
Even Shion, sprawled out asleep, would know that the more games were played, the more the casino benefited.
Then what about PKing low-level fixers and playing Tarkov with their gear?
“Hmm, rejected.”
Killing low-grade fixer bastards and stealing their equipment was a decent way to make money.
But I had seen it in the last loop.
If I acted too brutally, they would band together and come stab me.
Besides, once you made enemies in Necropolis, there was no escaping them.
“...Hmm. Is there not some brilliant method...?”
I folded my arms and thought, then thought some more.
One hour, two hours.
Until the fake Progenitor woke up and sucked down a blood pack.
“Ah, fuck! The more I think about it, the more pissed off I get!”
“W-why are you suddenly having a fit?!”
It was suddenly so damn painful to think about the two hundred million Bios I had left in the Aden casino.
Would I even be able to get it back if I returned?
“Gah...! What a waste! I’m crying blood...!”
With that alone, I could have cleared this in one loop.
Or if only the bag full of Universal Coins had remained!
I would’ve taken the fake Progenitor and Arbel to a resort long ago for apple-mango shaved ice!
“That fucking Kisara....”
I took a moment for my customary hate session.
“Die, Kisara. Fucking Kisara. Bitch with a surname that sounds like a beef breed. Your mom can’t make kimchi stew.”
Thinking back, all my misfortune began with that bitch.
If not for her, I might have been spending happy times with Arbel at Count Montraven’s House by now.
Shion, who had been wandering around with a blood pack in her mouth like a Capri Sun because she was bored, hesitantly approached.
“Human.”
“Go away. Master is busy.”
“That is not it....”
“Hey! I said I’m busy! If you’re bored, go clean or something!”
“Do you know Kisara?”
Huh?
“Wait. What? What did you say?”
“I asked whether you know Kisara Yagyu, that loathsome woman.”
I was flustered.
For one thing, I had never told anyone, “Kisara Yagyu comes after me when I touch Universal Coins.”
People would cut ties with you if you merely attracted loan sharks.
I had decided that saying, “An Executor from the Paradise Administration Bureau is relentlessly pursuing me,” would do absolutely nothing good for my relationships.
That didn’t mean I had done nothing.
I had conducted my own investigation.
I needed to find out who the crazy bitch chasing me was.
But neither the black-market information brokers...
Nor Ceres or Yiming, whom I had subtly sounded out...
Knew anything about Kisara Yagyu.
“But how do you know Wagyu?”
“How could this concubine not know her? She is the mortal enemy who dragged this concubine down from the throne.”
Something felt off.
This was strange.
Shion was a fake Progenitor.
That was a firm truth confirmed from multiple angles.
In other words, she was a test subject Twilight Resource Development had created in a laboratory.
There should be no such thing as a past for her.
<Case 82. █ Year, █ Month, █ Day.>
It is presumed that the doll inherits memories immediately upon receiving the genetic factors.
One hypothesis flashed through my mind.
What if the memories she had inherited were not limited to her time as a test subject?
“Don’t tell me. Do you have memories from your time as a True Progenitor too?”
“How impudent! This concubine is the True Progenitor herself! This concubine has merely lost her power for the moment!”
“Quit talking shit and answer properly.”
“Eek...!”
When I gripped her shoulders, Shion’s words faltered.
“Y-yes. This concubine does. N-not everything, but bits and pieces....”
“Hey, bitch! Why are you only telling me now?”
“Y-you never asked! Ah, that hurts! Let go!”
“Sorry, got a little excited.”
I let Shion go for now.
But I couldn’t help getting excited.
There was one thing she had said that I couldn’t simply overlook.
“What did Kisara Yagyu do?”
“D-did this concubine not tell you? She is the loathsome woman who dragged this concubine down from the throne!”
“So you lost?”
“...”
“You lost one-on-one?”
“I-I fell into a treacherous trap.”
So she had lost one-on-one.
“Ah, fuck... Does nothing ever go easily...?”
I scratched my head.
It was a distant prospect for now, but...
I had planned to try killing Kisara someday.
I had thought that if I gathered Ceres Mama, Jokers, and a few other things, I could run a raid.
But if I applied the hypothesis that Shion had inherited even fragments of the True Progenitor’s memories...
The apex predator that had ruled the RCD Foundation two hundred years ago.
The seventh-rank wielder of life-aligned magic Twilight Resource Development was still desperately trying to control.
That was Shion Tsukimiya, the one and only Red Moon.
And Kisara Yagyu had dragged that monster down from the throne?
“Ah... I’m getting dizzy....”
The Death Constant...
Was a far bigger player than I had thought.
Footnotes:
“Wagyu” is a joking mispronunciation of Yagyu, making Kisara’s surname sound like Japanese beef.
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