Strange Patterns

Under Hopp's touch, Karl could clearly feel that patch of skin was different from the rest.

But before this, he hadn't noticed anything off at all.

'No, that's not right either. This spot seems to be the same one that hurt several times before—I just didn't pay attention then. Judging by Hopp's reaction, could this injury be serious?'

In a place like this, short on food and clothing, if you caught some illness, you could only rely on your immune system to go god-mode.

They say after great disaster comes great fortune. After escaping the mind flayer base and gaining the physical cheat code that was the Mind Flayer Tadpole, even though Karl still couldn't see a way back to the surface, he held onto hope for the future.

Besides, they'd already weathered the hardest part. As long as they developed steadily, they could even carve out a rustic pastoral life in this underground city.

After overcoming so many obstacles, if Karl were to die here from some unknown disease, he really wouldn't be able to accept it.

So, he was a little panicked.

"Can you tell what this thing is? Maybe it's just a mark from bumping into something before."

Turning around, Karl did his best to show his back to Hopp.

"No, a bump wouldn't leave a mark like this. It looks more like scar tissue from repeated cuts that scabbed over, but you shouldn't have had that kind of injury recently."

Staring at the pattern on Karl's back, Hopp gave her assessment.

This answer naturally couldn't put Karl at ease; instead, it sent his mind spiraling.

Allergies, fungal infections, skin diseases—anything Karl could think of as a cause, he ran through in his head.

The more he let his thoughts run wild, the heavier his mood became.

Just like those people back in his past life who used search engines to look up symptoms—starting with a minor cold and ending up convinced they had some terminal illness.

Just as Karl was caught in this anxiety, Hopp suddenly slapped him hard on that scarred spot.

A crisp sound echoed through the wooden hut, followed by Hopp's vigorous voice:

"Stop overthinking, damn it. I shouldn't have brought this up in the first place. We're pretty much done with today's work—want to sleep? If you're scared, I can hold you."

With that, Hopp wrapped her arms around Karl from behind and tipped them both over onto the floor.

"This is how you comfort me?"

Honestly, it was pretty effective.

At least now Karl's attention was entirely on the pair of front-mounted armor pressing against his back.

All thoughts of injuries and illness—at this moment, Karl's mind was flooded with all kinds of trashy fantasies from his past life.

"This is how the mercenaries in Graywall City find comfort. Or... do you want to take it further?"

When she said "take it further," Hopp's arms had already looped around Karl's neck and were slowly tightening.

Karl had no doubt that if his lower brain took over right now, Hopp would knock him out without hesitation.

"Come on, you're the one who started this, and now you're threatening me? If you keep this up, I'll fight back!"

With that, Karl gave a token struggle.

Hopp, knowing when to quit, loosened her grip, though her body still pressed tightly against Karl's.

"Relax. If something really happens to you, before you die, you can do whatever you want to me. Consider it repayment for saving my life back then. Of course, that's only if you don't mind me being a tiefling."

Even without using psionics, Karl could feel the sincerity in Hopp's voice.

'Guess that's what you'd expect from a girl raised in the Underdark—blunt as hell.'

Cursing inwardly, Karl cleared his throat twice to cover his embarrassment.

"Ahem! While that's touching to hear, even if nothing's wrong with me, if we're stuck in this underground city forever, it's only a matter of time before we develop a physical relationship. Cases like ours... the outcome is always the same."

In that moment, Karl naturally projected himself and Hopp into the roles of Zhang Cuishan and Yin Susu.

"Hey! You're not seriously thinking that, are you? I'm a tiefling, you know."

Hearing Karl's words, Hopp pressed even closer.

"Emmm... and?"

As his mind wandered through various fetishistic illustrations from his past life, Karl didn't immediately grasp why Hopp cared so much about that point.

Instead of answering directly, Hopp began recounting her past.

"When I was little, I often went hungry... Back then, I hadn't become a barbarian yet. One time I was so starved I even thought about selling myself into slavery."

"I couldn't care about pride anymore. I just wanted something to eat."

Hearing this, Karl wanted to turn and look at Hopp.

But she held his head firmly in place, preventing him from moving.

"I still remember what that slave trader said: 'Nobody likes tieflings. Nobody would buy a tiefling as a slave. The only way a tiefling can survive in this world is to get strong.'"

Her deep red tail coiled around Karl's wrist, tightening as she mimicked the slave trader's words.

"I thought if I gave up my pride, I could get a meal. But I never expected my pride wasn't worth a damn. I fled from that slave market entrance like a stray dog with a broken spine."

"I ran into the wasteland outside the city, thinking I'd end my life there. But I couldn't even do suicide right. I just kept clinging on."

"I was furious at my own incompetence and the cowardice that made me want to beg for mercy, and then, at the brink of death, I felt the power of [Rage] and became a barbarian."

At these words, Karl finally grasped the Tiefling's place in this world.

He had known before that Tieflings faced discrimination in other regions, but he had no clear understanding of just how severe it was.

Hopp's heavy breathing sounded in Karl's ears, and the spot where the two pressed together began to gradually heat up.

Karl had no doubt that if some beast suddenly sprang out now, Hopp would activate her rage and hack it to death.

Little by little, the strength in Hopp's arms eased slightly.

Their breathing slowed in tandem, and accompanied by the rain that seemed as if it would never cease, each of them drifted off to sleep.

"Phew~, I need to hurry up and figure out how to make some spare clothes. If something like that happens again, there's no way I'm holding back."

The second layer of the Dream World.

Lying on the ground of the Dream World, Karl gazed up at the sky, embodying the literal meaning of the saying "a man's dick points skyward even in death."

If he didn't have psionic energy to rein in his thoughts now, this dreamscape would have long since started playing scenes forbidden to minors.

After calming his mind for a good while, Karl stood up from the ground and habitually summoned his status panel.

His eyes swept roughly over the panel, and he was about to close it when he felt that something somewhere on it had changed.

Starting over from the top and reading line by line, the moment he reached the race column, Karl spotted the difference.

"[Race]: Human (Scouting Dragon Mark)? Wait! That strange pattern on my back is a Dragon Mark?!"