(Looks like it's finally over.)
"Great! We're going home!" Zhao Gao jumped excitedly onto Li Ming's back. Li Ming's face showed an expression of pure happiness.
He could already imagine himself going back, proposing to his girlfriend, and living a blissful life.
Li Ming [It must be because I made a sincere vow in my heart earlier. My girlfriend's spirit in heaven has been protecting me. When I get back, I have to thank her properly.]
(She's still alive and well. Don't just casually kill her off, okay?)
(And please don't mention that death flag of yours. Isn't it possible that if you hadn't set that flag, you wouldn't have died in the hospital in the first place?)
"Young people, are you really going back to your own world?" The old village chief's eyes flashed with a strange light—perhaps surprise, or something else.
[Yeah, we're preparing to leave.]
"Won't you stay for a meal?"
[No thanks.]
The old village chief sighed. "What a shame. I quite admire you all. If only you had been people from our world from the beginning."
Li Qing, standing beside Su Sheng, heard this and tightly gripped Su Sheng's hand. Her eyes grew moist as she said, "Big Brother Su, are you leaving too? Are you going to leave me?"
"I…"
Su Sheng hesitated for a moment, then firmly held Li Qing's hands with both of his own and said resolutely, "I won't leave you. I've decided. I'm staying here to live with you."
"Really? That's wonderful, Big Brother Su!"
Li Qing's eyes filled with tears as she tightly embraced Su Sheng.
Su Sheng's face was full of happiness. He shouted loudly, "I swear I will only love you for the rest of my life!"
(Yare yare, don't say things like that so soon.)
Zhao Gao and Li Ming exchanged a glance. They didn't want to stop him, but they still felt they should remind him.
"Su Sheng, are you sure? What about your family back in the real world?"
"Even though mutual love is great, isn't Li Qing still underage?"
(Last I heard, she was 16.)
Su Sheng: "It doesn't matter. As long as there's love, nothing else is a problem."
(That's not something you should say in front of the police.)
"Then can I leave this monster to you to handle?" The village chief said as he reached out to grab Medusa, but Saiki stopped him.
"What's wrong, young man?"
Saiki stood in front, his eyes deep and faintly smiling as he looked at the village chief and asked,
[Village chief, not long ago in the hospital I saw a strange mural. I'd like you to explain it to me.]
[That mural depicted the past of this village. It was the same story you told earlier: the village was invaded by the bizarre, then sealed by people from inside the village who left afterward.]
The village chief's eyes flashed with a trace of coldness. He lowered his head, and when he raised it again, his expression was once more kind and amiable. "Is there a problem with that?"
[But the key point is that I also saw many people in the village turning into monsters and being sent to the hospital for treatment. But this Medusa is from your village, right? You never mentioned that.]
[She seemed strongly opposed to going to the hospital. In the end she even tried to take someone who accidentally entered the village and lead them to escape. Although they were eventually caught, that person was sent to the hospital, and Medusa was locked up by you before escaping later. So, won't you explain?]
"What! There was something like that?"
Hearing their conversation, the people behind them looked at the village chief in confusion. They had never heard any of this from him before.
Akiyuki subtly slipped her hand into her pocket, seemingly searching for something.
The village chief's expression grew strange. Emotions flickered in his eyes—fear, hatred, confusion—before he finally sighed and said, "Sigh~ I didn't want to tell you originally, but yes, this Medusa really is from our village."
"She used to be a girl in our village named Little Flower. As for the hospital, I already told you before—only that hospital can treat us and keep us from turning into those monsters."
"But Little Flower refused no matter what. Her mind had probably already completely turned monstrous. In the end she tried to drag someone else outside the barrier—probably to devour them."
"When we arrived and rescued the person, we locked her up too. But she escaped and began taking revenge on us."
The village chief lowered his head in apparent sorrow, looking as if he had aged several years.
"So please, leave her to me. This is a matter for our village. I want to personally see her off. After all, I watched this child grow up."
Hearing this, Medusa clenched her teeth. Her voice grew intense as she hissed lowly, "You're lying, you're lying…"
"You see, her mind is already unstable."
After hearing the village chief's explanation, Zhao Gao and the others relaxed. They even started speaking up for him.
"So he really is a good village chief."
"He has to personally send off someone from his own village, someone he watched grow up. It must be hard on him."
The village chief continued to keep his head lowered, but the corners of his mouth couldn't help but curl upward slightly.
Until he felt something wet on his head. Only then did the village chief slowly raise his head and realize it really was water.
Who poured the water?
He soon found out. What he saw was Saiki holding a bottle of mineral water and pouring it over his head.
[Sorry, I was taking too long. This is quicker.]
"Saiki-sama!"
"Saiki-sama, what are you doing?"
Zhao Gao and the others looked on in panic. Even if the old man had never mentioned it before, there was no need to pour water on an old man's head. He was just an ordinary elder.
The old village chief still hadn't reacted, but suddenly clutched his chest. His pupils shrank as he stared at Saiki. "You… what did you do? What is this water?"
[This is holy water.]
"What!" The old village chief staggered backward step by step, finally dropping to his knees. Black aura emanated from his body.
"Village chief!"
A group of people surged in from outside, holding farm tools, knives, and forks, pointing them at Saiki. Others supported the village chief.
"Ugh! Ah… urk"
From the old village chief's body emerged two illusory figures. One looked exactly like the village chief; the other was an even older elder.
The two figures lingered for a moment before merging back into the village chief's body. But the village chief remained collapsed on the ground, unable to recover for a long time.
"You… you knew everything."
[Yeah, pretty much everything. There probably isn't a single normal person in this village, right!]
"Saiki-sama, what does this mean?"
"Saiki." Akiyuki and the others slowly walked over.
[Don't move.]
Saiki looked at Su Sheng, who was still tightly embracing Li Qing, and said,
[Su Sheng, let her go. She's very dangerous.]
"Wh… what!" Su Sheng froze in place, completely at a loss.
[Even at this point, you're still being an idiot.]
"Drink!"
"Take him down!"
"You've brought this on yourself!"
"Die!"
A group of villagers charged at Saiki with knives and forks. Saiki merely gave them a cold glare, and they froze in place, unable to move.
[Forget it, too much hassle.]
Saiki crooked his finger. Dozens of mineral water bottles filled with holy water emerged from the ground.
Saiki opened his palm. The holy water in the sky automatically opened and gathered into a massive sphere floating above.
[Yare yare, this is simpler.]
Saiki clenched his open palm. The holy water sphere in the sky burst apart, turning into countless small raindrops that fell precisely onto the villagers.
Not a single drop was wasted on anywhere else.
Anyone touched by the holy water let out miserable screams.
"Ah!"
"Urk!"
"Mmph ah!"
The villagers cried out in agony, but the screams mixed two different voices.
Soon, many people's bodies simultaneously produced illusory figures that didn't match their own, slowly fading away. Others screamed and collapsed on the spot, never rising again.
[That should do it.]
Saiki looked up. The dark clouds that had covered the moon had dispersed. Moonlight poured down onto him.
"…"
After that, many villagers gradually woke up. They explained why they had been in the village.
Because their bodies had been taken over.
Yes—the ones controlling their original bodies were the people from this very village.
It was said that at first the village chief had deceived them into staying peacefully in the village. But when strange symptoms appeared in the bodies of the villagers,
their own bodies began showing bizarre symptoms at the same time.
Then they were tricked by the village chief into going to the hospital. There they were forcibly strapped to operating tables and given strange drugs. Later, they personally witnessed strange doctors performing surgery on them.
The villagers who entered the hospital with them died. But they walked out.
Yet they discovered they could no longer control their own bodies. They were trapped in a tiny room, watching like it was television as someone else used their bodies.
They also learned that the few people who had left the village earlier had understood the village chief's true nature and refused to go along with it—so they had sealed the village and departed.
Later, following his principle of not helping others casually but helping thoroughly when he did, Saiki sent them out of the village without breaking the barrier.
After restoring Medusa's body to a normal human appearance, he let her leave.
The girl who had been called Li Qing at the beginning kept kowtowing in gratitude to Saiki.
Saiki simply nodded and said "You're welcome." Actually, from the very first time they met, this girl had been silently pleading for help from him.
Su Sheng and the others gave Saiki a grateful look, then silently recited in their hearts. A beam of golden light descended from the sky and carried them away.
Akiyuki also came over, handed Saiki a business card, and said that after they got out he could contact her—and she invited him to come find her—before leaving with the golden light as well.
Saiki casually agreed.
After the last person, Akiyuki, left, Saiki casually tossed the business card aside and started chatting with the system.
[Task complete. Send me back.]
"Fine fine fine, got it. What's with the attitude!"
[I'm not being cocky. It was such a simple game—I just casually played and cleared it.]
"Yeah yeah, it's a game, you play it however you want. Who could possibly beat you!"
The system grumbled under its breath as it opened a portal and said to Saiki, "Come on. Remember not to resist once you're inside. I'll take you back."
Saiki gave a faint smile and elegantly stepped inside. Once in, it was the familiar colorful, psychedelic space.
The system took control of Saiki and wandered through the space.
Although its control speed wasn't as fast as when Saiki flew himself, Saiki didn't mind. In his mind he was already picturing returning to his own world, holding coffee jelly, and watching TV.
(This is great. Finally going home. I'm going to eat five boxes of coffee jelly, hehe ( ˝ᗢ̈˝ ))
"Saiki, speaking of which, these past few days haven't actually had that many events. How did you figure out so much?"
[Why ask so many questions? Just focus on guiding the way. Hurry up and get me home, okay?]
Crack crack!
A crisp yet piercing sound of bones cracking rang out in that instant.
The system glared at Saiki in annoyance, clenching its tiny fists, looking very angry.
But when the system—currently in the form of a blue-haired twin-tailed girl—made that gesture, it looked especially hilarious.
System image →
"Tch, you heartless jerk. Can't even answer one question? Going back won't be that fast anyway. Can't we just chat a little? Hmph, fine, I'm ignoring you." The system huffed coldly.
Saiki looked somewhat helpless and said casually,
[Fine. Then what do you want to ask?]