Story time

"Manager, here's the coffee you asked for." Angela carried the steaming coffee over and opened the door to the Manager's office.

As she approached, however, she discovered that the Manager had fallen asleep at his desk, his arms beneath his head and his eyes tightly shut.

"Asleep?" After confirming that his vital signs were stable, Angela carefully set the coffee aside, pulled up a chair, and sat beside him.

Then she propped her head on her left hand and watched his sleeping face. A few strands of her sky-blue hair fell forward, and a faint smile touched her lips.

"Perhaps you're dreaming, too. Unfortunately, I've never dreamed, so I don't know what that experience is like. But judging by how soundly you're sleeping, it must be a good dream."

"Fucking hell!" Shen Yu ran with a powerful flashlight in hand. The three people he had rescued followed close behind.

Behind them flowed a river made up of countless spiders.

Who wrote [Spider Nest]'s file? You call this THTE? I knew it. Anything with an instant-kill mechanic was bound to be trouble.

Shen Yu sliced through the web ahead with his scythe, then spun it to cut apart several more spiders lunging at him.

As his Attunement Rate with [Old Lady] rose, Shen Yu found his E.G.O. increasingly easy to wield, far beyond what it had been before.

The employee wearing Crying Baby aimed his left gauntlet behind him. As the enormous mouth opened, it released a faint sound wave, knocking down a spider that had leaped toward them.

Ayla swung her clawed gauntlets, while another employee kept pulling the trigger, firing pitch-black Lonesome bullets. Against an ocean of spiders, however, their efforts were nothing but a drop in the bucket.

"Damn it, if only we had some way to hit them all at once," the middle-aged man said fearfully, watching the swarm behind them.

"Goddammit, is even dying in peace too much to ask now?!" the blond man in the rear cursed.

"I want to go home." Ayla sobbed, wiping away her tears with the white fur on her right claw.

Listening to the three of them, Shen Yu's expression grew grim. As far as area attacks went, the second ability of his E.G.O. manifestation-Story-could do the job.

But even restoring his health had come with such a nasty catch. Who knew what this Story would do? He might drop dead on the spot and turn into a puddle.

With the terrain obstructing them, compounded by countless spider threads, the gap between the four of them and the spiders kept shrinking. Their fear and despair deepened with every step.

Finally, when they discovered a thick wall of rock ahead, their despair erupted.

Ayla curled up in a corner, covering her face with both hands as she trembled and sobbed.

The middle-aged man panted rapidly, his heart pounding. He closed his eyes, raised a shaking hand, shoved the revolver into his mouth, and pulled the trigger.

Bang! The black bullet bored into his brain, then dispersed into mental energy. His wristwatch lit up with his employee information.

Sanity: 60 → 62

Only then did the middle-aged man remember. E.G.O. was the shell of the mind, and because of the survival instinct, it generally could not harm its wielder.

"Goddammit!" He slammed EGO Solitude onto the ground and crouched down, hugging his arms.

"Idiot." The man wearing Crying Baby snorted, picked up a rock, and smashed it against his own head. With a thud, he toppled to the ground.

Stars swam before his eyes, and the whole world seemed to spin. His right hand trembled as he reached for the rock, intending to finish himself off.

But a foot kicked away the rock that could have spared him the fate of being eaten by spiders.

"You!" He glared furiously at Shen Yu, his teeth grinding audibly.

Shen Yu ignored him and simply glanced at his name badge.

Ayla and the middle-aged man are both level III employees. The guy on the ground is a little higher, level IV. They should be able to withstand it, right?

"Cover your ears in a moment. Whatever you do, don't listen to what I say," Shen Yu warned them, turning toward the ocean of spiders.

At his words, Ayla lifted her head and sniffled. Through her blurred, tear-filled eyes, she saw Shen Yu's imposing back as he walked alone toward the sea of spiders.

"Ah, another one panicking." The middle-aged man slumped onto the ground. If only his Sanity were lower and he could go mad, too. Then he wouldn't have to endure the agony of being eaten alive by spiders.

Time to take a gamble. Shen Yu drew a deep breath and tightened his grip on his E.G.O.

E.G.O. manifestation: Story

At Shen Yu's mental command, the E.G.O. on his body suddenly began to pulse. Black dust emerged, writhing and churning as it transformed into a purple outer garment, a black hooded robe, and a gray-blue skirt.

E.G.O. [Lonesome] manifestation:

Stat increase:

Resistances: physical 1.2, mental 0.4, corrosion 0.6, soul 1.5

At the same time, the scythe in Shen Yu's hand contracted into a yellowed book, its tattered cover inscribed with strange symbols.

Then the skin all over Shen Yu's body aged rapidly, breaking out in wrinkles. His straight back hunched, and he began coughing violently. His eyeballs shriveled until they vanished, leaving empty sockets.

Shen Yu then felt around in the darkness, found a rock to sit on, opened the battered book, and gazed ahead with his empty eye sockets.

"Little spiders, it's story time." Shen Yu chuckled softly and began to tell his tale in a hoarse, gentle voice:

In the forest lived a big spider, with a belly round and plump.

It spun a great big spiderweb, beautiful and lovely.

The spider caught bugs to eat, eating and eating, flies first, then butterflies.

Its belly grew big and round, like a balloon swaying in the wind.

"I'm going to eat the whole world!" said the spider.

The little spider crawled and crawled, and the tender insects had nowhere to flee.

Oh dear, three poor flying bugs were caught.

Just as the spider was about to feast,

Sunlight suddenly shone down, and its entire body melted.

Its eight legs first became eight puddles of bloody water,

Dripping and trickling everywhere.

Then its body burst open with a hiss,

Sending multicolored spider innards spraying everywhere.

At last, its belly exploded with a bang,

Splashing wave after wave of green slime all around.

The spider was dead, reduced to a puddle of rotten muck,

Never again would it hurt the little animals.

As Shen Yu told the story, all the spiders stopped moving. They let out low hisses, their bodies trembling violently as their crimson eyes slowly began to melt.

Black dust fell from above, passing through their shells and burrowing into their bodies. It left behind a void of loneliness that kept expanding.

Behind him, Ayla and the other two covered their ears, but they could still hear that eerie narration. The black dust blanketed them all the same.

Then an indescribable loneliness swept over them, eating away at their brains as if trying to melt them.

The employee watches on their wrists flashed, warning that their Sanity was steadily dropping.

At last, the little spiders could bear it no longer. Their legs splayed out, and thick black liquid flowed from their openings, pooling into a truly liquid ocean.

Then Shen Yu closed the book and slowly turned his head to look behind him.

Ayla had already fainted. The employee wearing Crying Baby had hidden behind a huge boulder, clutching his E.G.O. weapon and panting rapidly.

The middle-aged man's teeth chattered as he slid down the wall. With trembling hands, he picked up a rock and held it against his chest, staring in horror at those empty, eyeless sockets.

Then he saw that being's withered lips part, releasing a hoarse voice:

"Holy shit, do any of you have a conscience? I went to all that trouble to save you, and not one of you comes over to help me up. Ah... people just aren't what they used to be."

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