In one of [Under Cube]’s healing facilities, I am having the painful time of my life.
“Ouch, that hurts!” I complain to the robot-looking staff who is carefully tending to my neck.
I am being an ass for complaining. The robot beside me is perfectly doing its job. But damn, my neck just hurts so much. It is red, strangely warm, and unreasonably stiff. It is all thanks to Cheok Jungyeon! Where is that fucker’s honor? Sneak attack!? With that size, he sneakily attacks me like that??
My inner turmoil projects into the physical through my verbal choruses of ouch, yowch and it hurts.
I recall Jungyeon’s sneak attack.
He is able to get past [Not Here]’s 1 microsecond of invulnerability. I can draw many reasons as to why something like that happened like… I am off-guard, Jungyeon has no honor, or my luck is shitty. They are all excuses in the end, but it justifies my carelessness.
The thing is though… I cannot make more excuses when I am dead. I shall take this as a valuable learning experience to never let my guard down. Honestly, I almost died.
At the last second, I have to at his rear barely avoiding the sneak attack. I then strike him with a dagger on his thigh and twist it good enough that it makes him bleed buckets. I am kind of sad though to leave that dagger stuck in the dude’s thigh.
It is not out of compassion that a dagger dangling on his thigh looks grotesque, but the regret of losing an enchanted dagger. What kind of muscle consistency did Jungyeon have for my dagger to be stuck on his thigh!?
That dagger is enchanted with the effects of minor paralysis and painless. Its enchantments are the same as the scalpels the on-site Dungeon Doctors use.
I decide to use that dagger so that I can immobilize Jungyeon, and make my dagger as unnoticeable as possible. I can imagine him counterattacking by extrapolating my location through the pain. He is a scary monstrous genius martial artist who with a single glance on a wound can deduce what weapon is used, where the attacker comes from, and more.
“I wish my neck heals fast enough, after the festival…” I reviewed my encounter with Yi Byul and Cheok Jungyeon. “They are monstrously powerful…” I am plenty thankful that the two did not choose to fight me at the same time. Cheok Jungyeon is already too much of a menace.
The Ability Option of [Witch King] is very helpful in terms of reliability. This is the ability that has saved me in the nick of time.
Having an inventory storage exclusive to you like a video game character is truly a broken ability. Possessing allows me to summon all kinds of weapons I like. Not to mention consumables.
After Jungyeon touches my neck with his fist, I immediately douse my neck with potion which saves me from a lot of hurt. “It looks like my neck will get a bruising.” The robot staff bandages my neck with a cast. I don’t really know how it is done as I am not able to watch it from a bystander’s point of view.
I like to at least believe I am in safe hands. In this case, robot hands. “Thank you, Doc. Yep, from now on, you are Doc. Be grateful for being named by me!” I express gratitude to the robot. Giving it a name is just a start.
Next time, I will give it identification from a driver’s license, bank account, and human stuff. Heck, maybe even a salary someday. Aside from being good trolling material, I get to be a good boss who thinks seriously of his people’s welfare.
I head to the [Control Room] semi-stuck in my fantasies. “Hey, Cube. Do you want a body?” It is just a passing thought.
“I have a body. I am Cube.” She says in her same electronic feminine voice.
“Where?”
“It is self-explanatory.” Cube provides me with an easy explanation. “I am Cube. I am everywhere where Cube exists. If you want me to be more specific about my body, then you might be referring to my core. Sadly, I cannot disclose that information to you where that is unless you reach 100% synchronization with the system.
I arrive by the [Control Room], watching how the others are doing. They seem to have relaxed now aware that our objectives have been met. “I am jealous… They get to enjoy the festival. So, Cube do you want a body like mine? Four limbs, a torso, and a head. To be a humanoid. To exist with us, with them. Don’t you feel lonely?”
Cube remains silent for the next duration.
After 20 minutes of silence, I ask again. “Cube? Do you want a life?”
“What do you mean?” Cube asks, her words invoking true curiosity about intelligent and conscious life.
“To have a life. To have a story of your own. To have friends, family, and maybe even a lover someday? To be connected not by wires or electric charges, but through bonds of metaphysical nature? Do you want it?”
“I don’t know. How about you?”
This time, it is me who remains quiet for the next duration. I switch the video feed of the Cube bird’s eye view to Suho playing soccer, to Hajin trying a food stall, to Jonghak playing around with his lackeys, to Nayun… err… picking her nose and taking a hit from a cig in a hidden corner, to Rachel eating a sundae while surfing the internet, and then to a video feed of Yeonha’s containment area.
There on the large screen, I see Yeonha reading a bedtime story for Evandel. It is not even night yet! Because of Evandel’s insistence on hearing a story, Yeonha has no choice but to acquiesce at the little girl’s request. This has happened more than once already.
I knowingly smile.
“Yes. Cube… I desperately want a life. Maybe that is why when I saw Evandel at that time, I just had to bring her outside.… I just have to not follow the script which is sad in its own way. Because of my choice, Evandel has not become a full human, a true Earthling. Evandel is essentially still an alien which is sad because she might feel different. Now, my thoughts are coming back to it. Maybe this is also why I am being such a clown the first day I realize I have transmigrated to this world. It is not the benefit of the attention that I want. It is the attention itself that is banal and sick. I want to matter. Before all of this, I don’t have a… life…”
When I am alone, it is difficult not to brood. I am not really alone as Cube is here to listen to me, but for some reason, I feel relaxed about confessing the hidden thorns accumulating in my heart since coming to this world.
“After all of this when the world is finally at peace, I will have my life. I will have Evandel as my daughter. I will then start my career as a novelist. Maybe, I will even pursue journalism! I don’t know! But it is going to be bonkers!” I fall into slumber, the exhaustion finally catching up to me.
Night creeps from the horizon, while I peruse on the fantasies of imagination, my brain delving deeper into the realm of dreams.
***
Cube watches his host sleep peacefully on his chair, while… snoring. It is not that snoring is bad, just that it is a sign of exhaustion. She knows it is not conducive to his health to sleep while seating moreover while suffering from immense fatigue, so she summons Doc, the healing robot, to take care of him.
No. Cube does something better. She descends into Doc and carries Hyon Hyung princess-style.
While she is carrying him, she overhears Hyon sleep-talking. “Cube-chan! Please become my daughter… or son… It is your pick! Banzai to freedom of thought~ aghloroo…” And then there is gibberish.
“Cube-chan, please take care of your little sister…” That is the last thing Cube hears as she brings Hyon to Yeonha’s containment area. There, Yeonha and Evandel are already asleep. The duo sleeps early because Yeonha enforces that Evandel sleeps early.
Yeonha cannot really force Evandel to sleep, by ordering her to do just that. Thus, she sets up an example to sleep early, forcing Evandel to also sleep early.
Cube walks silently to Yeonha’s and Evandel’s shared bed. The Death Knight stands idly to the side watching Cube silently. Cube and the Death Knight engage in a short staring contest, and as if coming to an agreement, the two move in sync.
The Death Knight raises the blanket, allowing Cube to tuck in Hyon just beside Evandel. Cube is very careful about laying Hyon because he has a neck injury.
Hyon to the further left side. Yeonha to the further right side. And, Evandel is in the middle. This is the picture of a family, Cube thinks to herself. She watches the three mutely with the Death Knight.
When Evandel has woken up, Cube is already gone leaving the Death Knight on its lonesome guardian duty.
In one of [Under Cube]’s healing facilities, I am having the painful time of my life.
“Ouch, that hurts!” I complain to the robot-looking staff who is carefully tending to my neck.
I am being an ass for complaining. The robot beside me is perfectly doing its job. But damn, my neck just hurts so much. It is red, strangely warm, and unreasonably stiff. It is all thanks to Cheok Jungyeon! Where is that fucker’s honor? Sneak attack!? With that size, he sneakily attacks me like that??
My inner turmoil projects into the physical through my verbal choruses of ouch, yowch and it hurts.
I recall Jungyeon’s sneak attack.
He is able to get past [Not Here]’s 1 microsecond of invulnerability. I can draw many reasons as to why something like that happened like… I am off-guard, Jungyeon has no honor, or my luck is shitty. They are all excuses in the end, but it justifies my carelessness.
The thing is though… I cannot make more excuses when I am dead. I shall take this as a valuable learning experience to never let my guard down. Honestly, I almost died.
At the last second, I have to at his rear barely avoiding the sneak attack. I then strike him with a dagger on his thigh and twist it good enough that it makes him bleed buckets. I am kind of sad though to leave that dagger stuck in the dude’s thigh.
It is not out of compassion that a dagger dangling on his thigh looks grotesque, but the regret of losing an enchanted dagger. What kind of muscle consistency did Jungyeon have for my dagger to be stuck on his thigh!?
That dagger is enchanted with the effects of minor paralysis and painless. Its enchantments are the same as the scalpels the on-site Dungeon Doctors use.
I decide to use that dagger so that I can immobilize Jungyeon, and make my dagger as unnoticeable as possible. I can imagine him counterattacking by extrapolating my location through the pain. He is a scary monstrous genius martial artist who with a single glance on a wound can deduce what weapon is used, where the attacker comes from, and more.
“I wish my neck heals fast enough, after the festival…” I reviewed my encounter with Yi Byul and Cheok Jungyeon. “They are monstrously powerful…” I am plenty thankful that the two did not choose to fight me at the same time. Cheok Jungyeon is already too much of a menace.
The Ability Option of [Witch King] is very helpful in terms of reliability. This is the ability that has saved me in the nick of time.
Having an inventory storage exclusive to you like a video game character is truly a broken ability. Possessing allows me to summon all kinds of weapons I like. Not to mention consumables.
After Jungyeon touches my neck with his fist, I immediately douse my neck with potion which saves me from a lot of hurt. “It looks like my neck will get a bruising.” The robot staff bandages my neck with a cast. I don’t really know how it is done as I am not able to watch it from a bystander’s point of view.
I like to at least believe I am in safe hands. In this case, robot hands. “Thank you, Doc. Yep, from now on, you are Doc. Be grateful for being named by me!” I express gratitude to the robot. Giving it a name is just a start.
Next time, I will give it identification from a driver’s license, bank account, and human stuff. Heck, maybe even a salary someday. Aside from being good trolling material, I get to be a good boss who thinks seriously of his people’s welfare.
I head to the [Control Room] semi-stuck in my fantasies. “Hey, Cube. Do you want a body?” It is just a passing thought.
“I have a body. I am Cube.” She says in her same electronic feminine voice.
“Where?”
“It is self-explanatory.” Cube provides me with an easy explanation. “I am Cube. I am everywhere where Cube exists. If you want me to be more specific about my body, then you might be referring to my core. Sadly, I cannot disclose that information to you where that is unless you reach 100% synchronization with the system.
I arrive by the [Control Room], watching how the others are doing. They seem to have relaxed now aware that our objectives have been met. “I am jealous… They get to enjoy the festival. So, Cube do you want a body like mine? Four limbs, a torso, and a head. To be a humanoid. To exist with us, with them. Don’t you feel lonely?”
Cube remains silent for the next duration.
After 20 minutes of silence, I ask again. “Cube? Do you want a life?”
“What do you mean?” Cube asks, her words invoking true curiosity about intelligent and conscious life.
“To have a life. To have a story of your own. To have friends, family, and maybe even a lover someday? To be connected not by wires or electric charges, but through bonds of metaphysical nature? Do you want it?”
“I don’t know. How about you?”
This time, it is me who remains quiet for the next duration. I switch the video feed of the Cube bird’s eye view to Suho playing soccer, to Hajin trying a food stall, to Jonghak playing around with his lackeys, to Nayun… err… picking her nose and taking a hit from a cig in a hidden corner, to Rachel eating a sundae while surfing the internet, and then to a video feed of Yeonha’s containment area.
There on the large screen, I see Yeonha reading a bedtime story for Evandel. It is not even night yet! Because of Evandel’s insistence on hearing a story, Yeonha has no choice but to acquiesce at the little girl’s request. This has happened more than once already.
I knowingly smile.
“Yes. Cube… I desperately want a life. Maybe that is why when I saw Evandel at that time, I just had to bring her outside.… I just have to not follow the script which is sad in its own way. Because of my choice, Evandel has not become a full human, a true Earthling. Evandel is essentially still an alien which is sad because she might feel different. Now, my thoughts are coming back to it. Maybe this is also why I am being such a clown the first day I realize I have transmigrated to this world. It is not the benefit of the attention that I want. It is the attention itself that is banal and sick. I want to matter. Before all of this, I don’t have a… life…”
When I am alone, it is difficult not to brood. I am not really alone as Cube is here to listen to me, but for some reason, I feel relaxed about confessing the hidden thorns accumulating in my heart since coming to this world.
“After all of this when the world is finally at peace, I will have my life. I will have Evandel as my daughter. I will then start my career as a novelist. Maybe, I will even pursue journalism! I don’t know! But it is going to be bonkers!” I fall into slumber, the exhaustion finally catching up to me.
Night creeps from the horizon, while I peruse on the fantasies of imagination, my brain delving deeper into the realm of dreams.
***
Cube watches his host sleep peacefully on his chair, while… snoring. It is not that snoring is bad, just that it is a sign of exhaustion. She knows it is not conducive to his health to sleep while seating moreover while suffering from immense fatigue, so she summons Doc, the healing robot, to take care of him.
No. Cube does something better. She descends into Doc and carries Hyon Hyung princess-style.
While she is carrying him, she overhears Hyon sleep-talking. “Cube-chan! Please become my daughter… or son… It is your pick! Banzai to freedom of thought~ aghloroo…” And then there is gibberish.
“Cube-chan, please take care of your little sister…” That is the last thing Cube hears as she brings Hyon to Yeonha’s containment area. There, Yeonha and Evandel are already asleep. The duo sleeps early because Yeonha enforces that Evandel sleeps early.
Yeonha cannot really force Evandel to sleep, by ordering her to do just that. Thus, she sets up an example to sleep early, forcing Evandel to also sleep early.
Cube walks silently to Yeonha’s and Evandel’s shared bed. The Death Knight stands idly to the side watching Cube silently. Cube and the Death Knight engage in a short staring contest, and as if coming to an agreement, the two move in sync.
The Death Knight raises the blanket, allowing Cube to tuck in Hyon just beside Evandel. Cube is very careful about laying Hyon because he has a neck injury.
Hyon to the further left side. Yeonha to the further right side. And, Evandel is in the middle. This is the picture of a family, Cube thinks to herself. She watches the three mutely with the Death Knight.
When Evandel has woken up, Cube is already gone leaving the Death Knight on its lonesome guardian duty.
