Are you sure you won't talk?

This was what he had wanted to do most over the past ten years.

He was absolutely going to make this Valkyrie experience exactly what it felt like to be skewered with a single stab like meat on a kebab!

And now, with his great vengeance fulfilled...

For the first time, Lin En felt a joy so overwhelming it almost brought him to tears.

He was about to go o(╥﹏╥)o.

Whoosh-

Black mist filled her mouth.

"You..."

Whoosh-

The black mist dispersed.

"You bastard, I'll definitely..."

Whoosh-

He plugged it up again.

"Aaaaargh!!"

[Ding! Valkyrie Shinsen Saya's anger toward you +10!]

[Ding! Valkyrie Shinsen Saya's anger toward you +20!]

As the system notifications rang out...

Fragments emitting faint halos visibly fell from the Valkyrie's body, then turned into wisps of ghostly light and surged into Lin En.

[Ding! You obtained emotional fragments (anger) x25. Absorbing them can increase your base attributes.]

"So they really can drop?"

Lin En was doubtful.

That was right.

When he had first transmigrated to this godforsaken place ten years ago, he had awakened some strange system.

But it wasn't until many years later that he truly understood what this system did.

He seemed to be able to collect fragments of emotions.

Then turn them into food.

But...

"You gave me a system! Couldn't you have put me in a normal human society, then?! You dumped me in this dead, godforsaken place-where am I supposed to find any emotions?! There are only mine!"

Lin En threw the fragment onto the ground and stomped on it repeatedly.

This system had screwed him over for far too long, too.

He vaguely remembered that the first time he had triggered this system was when he first looked in a mirror.

On his first scavenging trip, he had fumbled a reflective shard of glass out of the twisted void, seen his own appearance, and then heard a little clatter.

[Ding! You were frightened by your own appearance. Your sanity -10.]

[Ding! You obtained a sanity fragment. Absorbing it can increase your base attributes.]

And it was on that very day...

That Lin En had his first filling meal.

But how could he describe that feeling?

It was like a blood-starved vampire girl who, unable to get any blood, could only wait for those few days each month and mournfully lick up the tiny ration that flowed out of her own body. No matter how you put it, there was an indescribably tragic heroism to it.

If that had been all, he could have lived with it.

But as his threshold gradually rose, his own appearance stopped seeming frightening, and he even began to find it a little cute...

He could no longer get anything to eat.

Because he could no longer...

Produce his own food and consume it himself!

(｀皿´)ﾉ

Finally, after venting his emotions, Lin En looked at the fragments on the ground. He thought for a moment, then, glaring, obediently picked them back up and tossed them into his mouth.

Gulp-

[Ding! You absorbed anger fragments. Satiety +25.]

At the same time, a panel appeared before Lin En's eyes.

[Lin En]

[Age]: ???

[Species]: Self-mutated aberrant tadpole

[Authority]: ???

[Existence tier]: ???

[Status]: (Manic delight) (Prolonged hunger) (Growing happiness)

[Calamity rank]: 1

[Satiety]: -975/1000

[Ability]: Emotion devourer: Can use emotions as nourishment for advancement.

[Hobbies]: Little girls...

Snap-

Lin En immediately closed that damned panel.

This was also the panel that had appeared when the system first activated. He had studied it at first and more or less figured some things out: as long as he kept devouring enough emotional fragments, he could advance little by little as his satiety rose.

Although he had no idea what kind of freakish thing he would evolve into, it would definitely be better than his current appearance.

But just when he had figured things out and was ready to make his mark...

He soon discovered...

Aside from that goddess, who barely had any emotions at all, there was absolutely nothing in this godforsaken place for him to devour!

"But things are good now!"

Lin En stared with his dead-fish eye.

"With a long-term meal ticket like this, I finally won't have to worry about passing out from hunger again."

Whoosh-

He removed the black mist from her mouth.

The Valkyrie immediately glared at him in fury. If looks could kill, Lin En would probably have already been killed by her countless times by now.

"You demon! If you dare treat me like this again, I'll kill you! Not refining you away before was the greatest mistake of my life!! Don't give me a chance! Otherwise, I'll burn you alive!!"

Lin En floated in front of her, studying her closely, and couldn't resist teasing her.

"So even a goddess gets angry."

"What's wrong? Can't take it already? Then what about the ten years you spent hacking away at me?! I told you ages ago that I was a bona fide human, but you wouldn't listen! If you hadn't started slashing at me the moment you saw me, how would you have ended up in my hands?"

He extended a tentacle.

And waved it across her face.

*(*￣︶￣)

"Now, be good and talk. Just tell me what the hell this place is and how I can get to a normal world, and I'll let you go!"

The Valkyrie clenched her teeth, enduring the disgust of that strange sensation rubbing against her face.

"Get lost!"

Her tone was utterly icy.

Well, well.

Lin En was astonished.

She was already in his clutches, yet she still had that much attitude!

Apparently, unless he gave her a little taste of a real man's power, she clearly wasn't going to cooperate.

In that case...

Lin En closed his one and only eye and said:

"You really won't talk?"

The Valkyrie stared at him coldly.

Whoosh-

A tentacle shot straight out of Lin En's body, swaying like seaweed.

Lin En waved it with a (≖ᴗ≖)✧ expression. "If you won't talk, I'll leave it here to play with you! Don't worry, it definitely won't do anything to you right now. But once I leave, I have no idea what it might want to do."

[Ding! Shinsen Saya's anger toward you +10.]

"You pervert! Get away from me!"

Her face flushed red with rage. She was furious, her expression growing ever colder and harder, the murderous intent in her eyes almost spilling out.

Without a doubt, if she found an opening, she would erase him without mercy!

"You're not scared?"

Lin En froze.

The Valkyrie's expression was cold and unyielding, as holy as ever. Clearly, nothing could sway her.

Lin En tilted to one side and said:

"Then how about this?"

In an instant...

The Valkyrie's expression changed.

At some point, he had pulled something from behind his back that radiated billowing waves of heat-a certain warlock's signature artifact.

Th-this guy...

Lin En stared wide-eyed and said, "Don't worry, I only just took it out of your sun a little while ago. So, pick one?"

For the first time, her delicate cheeks trembled.

"Not choosing?"

Lin En was puzzled.

"Or do you want both at once?"