WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Haruto
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ A Gacha Addict's Life in Fusionpunk ◈
Chapter 59: The Old Sewers
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1.
“Wake up, Cedric.”
Tap, tap.
“Cedric. I said wake up.”
“Mmm, no. Cedric wants to sleep. Just five more minutes...”
I was about to bury my head in the pillow again when my eyes shot open.
The voice ringing in my ears was far too familiar.
“Huh?”
I bolted upright and saw rich golden hair that seemed to drip with honey, along with lovely golden eyes.
Delicate, cute features that still carried a noble elegance.
The person who woke me was Arbel, dressed in a school uniform.
“We have first period today. We’ll be late at this rate.”
“First period?”
Ah, right.
This was Crowley Academy.
A place of learning where children of nobles and capable commoners gathered to awaken their talents.
Aden’s finest educational institution, nurturing the Ark City’s future.
Why were adults wearing school uniforms when they were not even high school students?
There was no point questioning it.
By the conventions of the genre, especially R-rated genres, even adult students somehow showed up in uniforms.
There were even cases where the world ended at the hands of an unstoppable ████ if this rule was not observed.
Truly terrifying.
“Cedric, are you listening to me?”
With one hand on her hip, Arbel struck a light-novel-style “Hmph!” pose.
“...”
Okay. I understood the situation.
This was one painfully sad stupid dream.
In reality, I was currently rolling around in fucking Necropolis.
“Haah... fuck...”
Why did I have to be so sharp and smart?
If I had been just a little dumber, I could have enjoyed this peace for a while.
Ahh.
Beyond the dormitory window, I could see a clear, sunny sky and the sun.
Birds chirped, and fresh green leaves swayed in the wind.
There was nothing like this anywhere in Necropolis.
So this was the view I could have seen if I had only picked the right Choices in my first loop.
There would not have been an Arbel, though.
Of course, since this was a dream, Arbel was here too.
“Arbel.”
“What?”
An Arbel who made sounds without even being pressed.
Ever since my save point changed, it had been a very long time since I had seen a healthy Arbel.
Cedric. This was truly moving.
“Come here for a second.”
“Eek!”
“I missed you, Arbel!”
I grabbed Arbel as she approached with her head tilted, pulling her onto the bed.
This was a dream anyway, right?!
It was a lucid dream, right?
“W-What are you doing, mmph?!”
“Hehe. You’re feisty, aren’t you?”
Then it was fine if I did all kinds of naughty things to Arbel, right?
“Mmph...! Mmmph!!! Mmph...!!!”
Holding the struggling Arbel close, I continued giving her a long, deep kiss.
Ahh, this feeling.
It had been so long...!
Moist, soft lips.
A soft, slightly timid tongue.
At first, Arbel trembled in surprise as she tried to push me away, but the strength gradually left her body.
Her resisting hands lost their destination, tightly clutching at my clothes before...
Slowly relaxing.
I could feel Arbel, squirming in my arms, grow a little calmer.
Smooch... Smooch...
Why was this dream so realistic?
I could even feel the clumsy movements of her tongue as she sucked at the tip of mine like a baby nursing.
It was vividly rendered, right down to Arbel pressing herself close and clinging to me.
Smoooch... Smack...
Could dreams normally have interactions this detailed?
Was my imagination really that good?
Well, whatever.
It was not a bad dream.
2.
After that sweet but stupid dream from last night.
I opened my eyes.
Every morning was hell whenever I woke up.
What I did after getting up was always the same.
Wash my face, kiss Arbel on the cheek, buy dumplings for breakfast.
Then consider which spot to dig at today.
“Is this thing really here...?”
I was starting to get impatient.
I had already torn through the predicted spots in C Sector like a ground mole, yet there was not even a trace of treasure.
I liked gacha, but real-life gacha was not fun.
“Boksun, don’t you have any better spots? Somewhere especially promising. You should know better than me.”
“...”
“Boksun?”
“...”
Shion had finished her blood pack for breakfast.
She did not even notice me calling her and just stared blankly ahead.
“Boksun. If you’re not asleep, answer me.”
“...”
Look at this bitch. Was meeting time a joke to her?
Her master was racking his brain, and she was sleeping with her eyes open.
This would not do.
“I shall administer the Belly-Raspberry Punishment to a bad girl.”
Huh? She still was not answering?
“Hey, hey.”
I snapped my fingers in front of her eyes, and Shion flinched.
Focus returned to her red eyes.
“Gah...! W-What is it?”
“You just made a serious mistake.”
“I did?”
“You ignored your master three times. Your punishment is three belly raspberries.”
“W-When did I ignore you?! Do not lie!”
“You made excuses, so one more. Four times. Lift it up.”
Shion’s brows and lips twitched with displeasure.
But the education I had drilled into her had paid off.
“Ugh... I-I am ready.”
After hesitating for a moment, Shion lifted her pajamas and exposed her pale belly.
“Hehe.”
As I was about to blow raspberries like usual, I noticed something strange.
Why was she so...
Something about her felt off?
I could not put my finger on it, but the atmosphere was strange.
Even now, while she waited for the belly raspberries.
Her head was turned sharply the other way.
The fingers gripping her clothes were stiff with tension.
Her stomach flinched whenever my lips came close.
“Eep...”
There were even tears pooling at the corners of her tightly shut eyes.
Like mochi right before it got eaten.
Ah, come to think of it...
There had been that issue with Shion getting all damp yesterday.
The same action could be interpreted differently.
“...No.”
No, fuck. That was so unfair!
She was the one who charged at me first, and now she was taking away my happy belly raspberries too?
Smack!
“Ah?! W-Why did you hit me?!”
“Because you pissed me off.”
“?????”
I gave her a knuckle rap on the head and forgave her.
3.
Once Shion had calmed down a little, I took her along for another chaotic treasure hunt through Necropolis.
However, there was a change in strategy.
“Thinking about it, I’ve been way too shameless.”
I kept telling myself there were no easy wins in Necropolis, yet I could not abandon the easy-win mindset.
Until now, I had focused on the spots the fake Progenitor pointed out that were easy to access and seemed somewhat comfortable.
But now, I needed innovation.
Everything had to change except Arbel and Shion.
Places no one in their right mind would ever want to visit.
Places that even fixers, who never shied away from unpleasant jobs, would gradually avoid.
Would treasures in places like that not have survived two hundred years?
With that mindset, I grabbed a gas mask and boots and set off with grand ambitions.
“Wow, fuck...”
But seeing the real thing made my resolve crumble a little.
I stood before a massive drainage pipe on the outskirts of D Sector.
Calling it a drainage pipe was misleading. It was more like a tunnel over ten meters in diameter.
The difference from a tunnel was that green liquid streamed out of it.
And an odor I did not want to describe in detail pierced right through the gas mask’s filter.
“...I-In here...”
Shion’s pupils shook at the smell flowing out of the sewer.
I understood.
I felt the same way.
Did we really have to go this far?
“Master.”
“What?”
“My stomach suddenly hurts... You should go in alone, Master. I shall return home and massage my belly.”
“Cut the bullshit.”
“You wretch! How dare you make a noble being such as myself enter a place like this? Have you gone mad?”
“THEN WHY DID YOU HIDE THE TREASURE IN A PLACE LIKE THIS!!!!”
“I-I did not hide it myself! Mmmph!!!”
I forcibly put a gas mask and boots on the struggling Shion.
As for where this was...
Ding!
======
::: New Area Entered (NEW!) :::
A wastewater treatment system that runs without stopping, twenty-four hours a day!
The hidden hero responsible for Necropolis’s sanitation!
A foul-smelling maze that devours all of the city’s filth!
This is the surfaced rift, “Depth 2: Old Sewers.”
You may throw anything away here.
Whether it is trash or corpses.
TIP
- The first rule here is, “What sinks belongs to the sewer.”
- Never let yourself become submerged in wastewater.
- Beware of the Cleaners. In their eyes, you are organic matter clogging the pipes.
- Sometimes shiny things gather in sedimentation tanks. Of course, they are ownerless items.
- Sewer crabs are a delicacy among delicacies.
::: Challenges (NEW!) :::
- Enter the Old Sewers. +2pt
======
It had been a while since I last saw a new-area entry message.
Still, this needed a little more explanation.
As the message said, this sewer was a surfaced rift.
And it was a massive rift encompassing all of Necropolis’s underground areas.
When these Old Sewers first appeared, even the rulers of the city had struggled with the problem.
‘What the hell are we supposed to do with that surfaced sewer? Come up with a solution.’
‘Uh...’
‘Hmm...’
‘Why don’t we just leave it there and use it?’
And so, Necropolis eagerly adopted the Employee of the Month’s idea.
They had been using it efficiently as a wastewater treatment system ever since.
Sunming, whom I had turned into toxic marinated crab, might have sunk somewhere in here.
Anyway.
No matter how much this city was crawling with hyenas, petty thieves, and criminals...
Surely nobody had found something hidden deep inside the sewers?
“I don’t want to, I don’t want to, I don’t want to, I don’t want to! I will not go in!”
“Fuck! I don’t want to go either, bitch!”
I slung the struggling fake Progenitor over my shoulder and entered the sewer.
The passages formed a complicated, tangled maze.
They were like especially winding underground train tracks.
“Urk...! Urk...!”
“Boksun, you’re fucked if you throw up. You have a gas mask on.”
Instead of tracks, bubbling wastewater flowed through the middle.
We had to walk along the narrow paths on either side.
The paths widened and narrowed, and the moisture made them slippery.
Naturally, if we slipped, we would become fondue immediately.
Light poured in through occasional openings that connected to the surface, so we could see well enough, but...
“Haah... Should we just leave while we can?”
Honestly, I was starting to desperately want to turn back.
How long had we walked?
Splash!
Something dropped from the ceiling into the wastewater.
The sound echoed through the wide cavern.
Judging by how far the shitwater splashed, it was a fairly heavy object.
“Eek...!”
“Fuck, I hate jump scares.”
If we had been even a little farther ahead, that shitwater would have splashed onto us.
I cautiously went over to look.
It was the corpse of a man whose face had been beaten beyond recognition.
“Damn. What a waste.”
I could have sold that to an ossuary for money.
Then came the surprising twist.
“Ugh.”
The man who had been thrown from the surface into the sewer was alive.
Half-submerged in wastewater, he saw me and spoke in a dying metallic rasp.
He desperately stretched an arm toward me.
“S-Save me...”
But it was already too late.
In this rift, what sank belonged to the sewer.
Whoosh!
A sticky shadow rose from the boiling black wastewater.
Was it a toad’s tongue? Or the tentacle of some enormous cephalopod?
A strange mass of slime wrapped around the man’s body.
“Uh, agh?!”
He did not even have time to scream.
The man’s floating body was dragged beneath the surface in an instant.
Even the blood that rose with bubbling foam was quickly diluted into the black water and vanished.
“Wow...”
Yeah, yeah. I had forgotten lately.
This was the kind of city it was.
Things had gotten a little livable recently, and I had forgotten.
I threw away the cumbersome gas mask without hesitation.
I had brought it just in case, but it could not block the smell anyway.
Besides, toxic gas? The narrowed vision from the gas mask was more dangerous.
“I’ve been living too much like a girl lately.”
A hollow laugh escaped me.
Wearing a gas mask in Necropolis was no different from wearing a face mask because of fine dust and applying lip balm because your lips were chapped.
Sizzle, sizzle.
As I lit a cigarette, the acrid smoke stabbed into my lungs.
My nausea eased a little, and it felt as though a blade had been sharpened in my rusted mind.
“Phew...”
The long stream of smoke scattered meaninglessly.
“Shall we go?”
I gathered my resolve.
No matter how shitty things were, I had to keep moving forward.
So this city would not swallow and digest me.
“Why are you suddenly striking such a dramatic pose?”
“Ugh...”
I gave Shion a solid thump on the head.
“W-Why did you hit me?!”
It seemed to be because of this bitch.
Footnotes:
The narrator’s “fucking Necropolis” is an obscene Korean pun on the city’s name.
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