Non-Human Seeking Re-employment

(Part 2 – Strange Talk City)

Edited by Silver Wind

This chapter is also sponsored by sleepymango123, thank you for your Ko-Fis!

Once Otaku 2 heard those words, an unnatural emotion flickered past his face. "He's just a monster who knows nothing apart from hurting people."

Shen Dongqing remarked, "You said he hurts people but who has he harmed?"

Wasn't Otaku 1 a weak chicken and an absolute recluse? He could carry him with one hand, and not to mention that he only knew how to plaster himself to the computer and type away, dazed, and he was utterly devoid of the desire to attack anyone.

That question stumped Otaku 2. After fumbling for a while, he said decisively. "He's just abnormal, it's very likely that he can hurt someone at any time!"

When his words landed, a faint voice sounded in the room.

"Weren't you  the one who killed someone?"

Shen Dongqing lowered his head and saw that the fallen Otaku 1 had opened his eyes to stare at Otaku 2 unwaveringly.

Otaku 2 shuddered under his gaze and refuted sharply: "What nonsense are you saying? How could I have killed someone!"

This was the first time that Otaku 1 did not rush to get back to his seat after waking up. Instead, he stopped in front of Otaku 2 and the two identical people faced each other off.

Otaku 1 revealed a slight smile on his ashen pale face: "Whether you killed someone or not, you're well-aware of it in your heart."

Forced to take a step back, Otaku 2 stammered, "You, you… Even if someone was killed, you were the one who did the killing!"

"That's right, I killed," Otaku 1 answered without any hesitation and the expression on his face became stranger, "But, am I not you?"

Having suffered a fright, Otaku 2 leapt up and pushed Otaku 1 away before he ran for the door. Otaku 1 did not try and stop him, only standing still as he watched him expressionlessly.

However, when Otaku 2 just opened the door, his entire body shook and he retreated back into the room as if he had seen a horrifying image.

Shen Dongqing poked his head out to take a look.

"It turns out the both of you are here." Blueberry greeted them after she pushed open the door. Then, she looked over her shoulder to call out to the person behind her, "Auntie, is this your house?"

The person trailing behind Blueberry was a middle-aged woman wearing an apron and her hair was meticulously combed and tied up, but  because of her labour, she looked older than her actual age in appearance.

"Thank you," the middle-aged woman said with absolute sincerity, "If it wasn't for your good heart, I wouldn't have found my way home."

Blueberry: "It's nothing, it's good that you managed to reach home."

She walked into the room and gathered with her two teammates before she started lamenting, "We were just climbing the stairs and both of you disappeared. Thankfully, I met this Auntie or else I would have been scared to death."

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Saying that, Blueberry smiled with some embarrassment. "At the start, I even assumed that Auntie was a ghost and I even ran away in fear."

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Panic-stricken, Otaku 2 screamed: "No! Get out, get out!" He was akin to a frightened rabbit as he burrowed behind the curtains and covered himself stringently.

Instead, it was Otaku 1 who called out to her peacefully, "Mom."

Auntie patted Otaku 1's head: "Good child, how have you been recently?"

Otaku 1 replied, "My book is about to be published."

With tears in her eyes, Auntie uttered, "That's really great, Mom is very happy for you."

Otaku 1 pulled Auntie towards the computer: "Mom, there are so many people who like the novel I wrote, look."

Auntie: "Okay, okay."

Step by step, the Auntie walked over, but as she grew closer and closer to the computer, her appearance continuously changed.

Her hair became a scattered mess that fell down her back, her face was splattered with freckles of bloodstains, her shoulder took a cut from a vegetable knife, and softly, it drooped to the side of her body. When she was halfway there, her legs buckled and she half knelt on the ground.

By the time she reached the front of the computer, the originally well-kempt and tidy middle-aged woman became a meat blob that was beyond recognition.

However, Otaku 1 did not find that anything was wrong with it as he opened the webpage and said: "Mom, look."

That meat blob issued Auntie's voice. "You wrote really well, son, you are Mom's pride."

Hearing that sentence, Otaku 2 pulled open the curtains violently and shouted hysterically, "Didn't you guys want to get out? If you kill those two, I'll let you leave this place!"

【 Player Shen Dongqing, Zhou Wenyan, and Blueberry have solved 10% of the World Outlook, 70% of the total World Outlook 】

Shen Dongqing was at a loss: "But we didn't do anything?"

Zhou Wenyan said meaningfully, "'Letting' us out implies that he's admitting to the fact that this room or perhaps this entire building is under his control, and it's even possible that this is his subconsciousness."

Shen Dongqing: "His subconsciousness?"

Zhou Wenyan sat down on the sofa, not even acknowledging the dangers surrounding him. His left leg crossed over his right and he explained to him unhurriedly, "Let me guess, you constructed the endless stairs to trap this…." He gestured at the meat blob, "Auntie. As to why you're unwilling to see her…"

Shen Dongqing interrupted him with his answer, "It's because he killed this Auntie."

As Otaku 2 listened to them speak, expression went through a constant change before it finally settled on a strange mania.

"That's right, I killed her, what of it?" Otaku 2 seemed to become a different person as he jumped off the window ledge. "She felt that I was shameful and regretted giving birth to me. She would nag at me daily, just like an old woman in her menopause, it was annoying to death! Everyday she told me to go out to find a job, constantly, incessantly! She nagged at me so much that I even lost my inspiration and all I could write was trash."

That meat blob sobbed out: "I was doing it for your own good ah, why don't you understand Mom's pains?"

"For my own good?" Otaku 2 twisted his head, "Then you really deserve to die."

"Do you see this? Look at how successful I am after you died, my novel has been published and it's slated for film and television. I was born to be a great writer, but I was burdened by you!"

"After seeing my successes, you ought to leave gratified and reincarnate, but you chose to pester me and refuse to let me go!"

The meat blob no longer spoke as she sobbed lowly.

Otaku 1 comforted her at the side: "Mom, that's not what I think."

Otaku 2 spoke with a peculiar tone: "What are you pretending to be a big good person for, aren't you me? I killed her, you had a hand in this as well!"

Otaku 1 did not refute.

Otaku 2 turned his body and spoke to Zhou Wenyan: "As long as you kill both of them, you'll immediately clear this instance."

Shen Dongqing stroked his chin, "What should we do?"

"I can't shake off the feeling that it isn't good to help him," whispered Blueberry.

Otaku 2 became increasingly demented as he shrieked: "Don't you want to clear the instance? Hurry up and act!"

At this moment, Otaku 1 spoke: "It's useless, he's trapped in this world and unable to go out as well."

Shen Dongqing glanced at Zhou Wenyan.

Similarly, Zhou Wenyan was deep in contemplation as he habitually rapped his fingers on the sofa's armrest, unspeaking.

Shen Dongqing looked left and right. "If this world is this person's subconsciousness, then wouldn't we be able to get out once we resolve him?"

Once the person died, his consciousness over the world would naturally disappear.

Zhou Wenyan hummed in agreement and he had no choice but to admit that Shen Dongqing made a solid argument.

Simple and crude, but it could directly crack this puzzle.

Shen Dongqing: "Should I do it?"

Resolutely, Zhou Wenyan said: "Do it."

Otaku 2 said in a sombre tone: "It's not a wise choice to act against me."

He raised his hand and the originally peaceful ghosts and monsters in the room readied themselves to make trouble as they revealed a bloodthirsty appearance.

Hungry Ghost, Hanged Ghost, the Flower Vase Beauty… each and every one of them prowled closer, stopping them from moving closer to Otaku 2.

Shen Dongqing kicked the Hungry Ghost away with one foot before he directly reached for Otaku 2 to press him down.

Otaku 2 was frail and his strength was worse than a chicken to begin with, thus he could only shout: "You can't get out even if you kill me! Let go of me, ah—"

Truth to be told, Shen Dongqing had yet to do anything when Otaku 2 vanished alongside Otaku 1 and the meat blob.

Confused, Shen Dongqing blinked owlishly, only to notice that another card had appeared in his hands.

【 Name:《Strange Talk City》Male Protagonist 】

【 Ability: Capable of making a replica of himself and anything he writes will become real, this card can also be employed to cross into reality 】

【 Disadvantages: Afraid of his Mother 】

"The male protagonist of Strange Talk City?" Shen Dongqing wondered as he raised the card, "Isn't he a web novel writer? How did he become the male protagonist?"

Zhou Wenyan took the card to examine it before he said: "It seems like it's not the ghosts and monsters written inside the book which become reality; rather, we are existing in a world inside of a book."

【 Player Zhou Wenyan has solved 20% of the World Outlook, 90% of the total World Outlook solved 】

"There's still 10% left."

Zhou Wenyan used the "Male Protagonist" card.

Soon after, rays of excessively bright lights flashed past their eyes, which was only made worse by the fact that they were in a dim room, causing the inhabitants to subconsciously close their eyes.

Shen Dongqing slowly opened his eyes after he was done adjusting.

The world before him took on an entirely new look.

It was a room that was roughly ten square metres in size and the green curtains were pulled back to reveal a well-lit window. Outside, the sun was shining down brightly on a beautiful landscape, which was a huge contrast from the gloomy and horrifying style of the previous room.

The room full of ghosts and monsters had disappeared.

But there was not much difference in how the room was furnished and decorated; an operating computer was placed in the corner and an open document was visible on its screen. And perhaps because something had happened to the owner as he was writing, the story inside of the document was not complete.

Zhou Wenyan wandered towards a bookshelf and picked out one of the books that was titled with the three scarlet words "Strange Talk City" along its spine.

The opening of the first chapter described an otaku who had accomplished nothing after he graduated and his ambition was to become a writer with a book of instant success. However, he did not have such  capability and he could only live off his parents at home. His mother could not watch this go on and she would constantly urge him to go out to find a job, but on a certain day, the constantly disdained otaku could no longer take it, thus he went into the kitchen, picked up a vegetable knife and chopped it in the direction of his still nagging mother…

The otaku did not confess to his crime and he continued to shut himself at home like he always had. Hanging onto his previous aspirations, he continued to cohabit with a corpse. However, when he woke up one day, he suddenly discovered that another replica of himself had appeared and he was sitting in front of the computer typing endlessly. The things he wrote were unexpectedly well-received and the corpse inside the house had vanished into thin air…

A book within a book.

The author outside the book had created a writer inside the book, and borrowing the pen of the writer inside the book, he wrote its following contents. However, in reality, these ghosts and monsters were still written by the author outside the book. As a natural consequence, the final conclusion that Zhou Wenyan made Otaku 2 write was of no use because these things were not written by him at all.

Shen Dongqing gave his own verdict: "My mind is reeling."