Chapter 877: What Will You Trade?

Inside a dim room filled with a strange odor.

A girl whose head was covered in long, suction-cup-lined tentacles like an octopus was being pinned to the floor with one hand by Lynn.

Even Zuo Zuo was left staring blankly at the sight. She could never have imagined that her big-brained partner would turn the extremely depraved monster that had just crawled out of his eye socket into a little loli like this.

Th-this...

Was this really something he’d done on instinct because he was frightened...

No matter how you looked at it, there was no way anyone would believe that...

What on earth went through his head all day?! Even by the standards of the most abnormal creatures, the instinctive reaction to seeing something like this should at least be to punch it and send it flying!!

And you instinctively turned it into a little loli...

Are you sure you’re actually normal?!

Waaah! (ΩДΩ)!

At last, Lynn managed to rein in his rapidly beating heart as his SAN plummeted. He fixed a stern gaze on the Eye Loli he had subdued on the floor, then reached out, grasped one of her long, head-covered tentacles, and lifted her up with one hand to inspect her closely.

“So if I roll a ‘1,’ the Cursed Eye turns into this monster, crawls out of my eye socket, and makes a deal with me?”

【Consume one portion of sustenance to cast one curse.】

And there wouldn’t be any backlash or side effects?

Lynn pondered.

Taken at face value, this result was actually a very beneficial bonus. Ordinary curses wouldn’t have much of an effect on him, but a Root-level curse was another matter entirely. Take Big Brother Titan’s undead curse, for example. If it lasted even a little longer, he could go completely mad and berserk.

If he rolled this number, did that mean that if the creature cast the curse in his place, he wouldn’t go mad?

If so...

That actually sounded pretty nice!

He just had no idea what the other three numbers represented...

While Lynn was pondering, the Eye Loli dangling from his hand seemed to come around and began struggling instinctively, blankly. If she had still been in her original form as an eyestalk monster, those writhing tentacles and eyeballs would have made for an absolutely indescribable, terrifying sight.

But since Lynn had transformed her into this utterly harmless-looking form, when she reached out her little hands to scratch at him with an angry, scrunched-up expression, she didn’t look scary at all. Instead, she seemed kind of cute because she was so weak.

The logic was actually very simple.

For example, imagine a lump of squirming excrement in front of you.

Under normal circumstances, you’d avoid it at all costs. But if you turned it into a little poop loli, it would still give off a strange odor, but at least it wouldn’t look so disgusting that you couldn’t get close. Some incredibly powerful creatures might even hold their noses and take it home.

After all...

It could still be used to help you catch a cold...

Lynn came back to his senses, then gave the tentacled Eye Loli before him a stern once-over and set her on the table opposite him, holding her like a doll.

“You can communicate, right? So, what do you have to tell me?”

He asked.

Although he had temporarily transformed her into this more pleasing form, one he could bully as he pleased, and although she hadn’t been very big to begin with, so her transformed shape was about the size of a rag doll, Lynn hadn’t forgotten that she was the writhing, indescribable thing.

The Eye Loli watched him without a trace of emotion. She crawled there as if guided only by instinct and repeated coldly:

【Consume one portion of sustenance to release one curse.】

Before, its voice had been a terrifying, raspy sound like static. But now that it had been turned into something so harmless-looking, its voice had become soft and babyish, all tiny babbling sounds.

Zuo Zuo stared at the scene in a daze.

Then she abruptly raised her hand and looked at Lynn’s solemn expression in shock.

“Hey! Didn’t your hormones and adrenaline suddenly spike just now?! Something’s not right! That’s a terrifying eyestalk monster! An indescribable monster!! You idiot!!”

Lynn held a stern expression as he pressed his left hand back down, adjusted his Monocle, and stared at her with Dead-Fish Eyes.

“Zuo Zuo, don’t go around saying strange things. Otherwise, even though you’re my hand, I’ll sue you for slander and bully you mercilessly!”

Zuo Zuo cried, “What strange things did I say?! We’re one and the same. How could I not know when something changes in your body?! ...Mmph... Mmph!”

He forcefully sat on his left hand, pinning her down and silencing her slander.

Ignoring Zuo Zuo, Lynn watched the Eye Loli sternly, pinched his Monocle, and narrowed his eyes.

“Is that the only thing you can do?”

But since Lynn had transformed her into this utterly harmless-looking form, when she reached out her little hands to scratch at him with an angry expression, she didn’t look scary at all. Instead, she seemed kind of cute because she was so weak.

【Provide one portion of sustenance to release one curse.】

It really seemed to be a creature driven only by instinct, with little sense of self. That was more or less common among these indescribable beings. After all, if they could communicate normally, they wouldn’t be very frightening. It was an eyeball, after all. It didn’t have a brain.

Lynn pondered.

Then he asked hesitantly, “What kind of sustenance do you want? If you don’t explain, how am I supposed to make a deal with you?”

The Eye Loli watched him indifferently. Like a little wriggling beast, it crawled with the tentacles on its head and all four limbs, staring at him mechanically and woodenly.

【Blood, bone marrow, brain tissue, souls, anything that sustains your existence.】

Lynn pondered once more. Got it.

Then he raised an eyebrow and asked, “Can I choose which curse to cast?”

【You have made your choice: One Hundred Percent Miss. The choice cannot be changed.】

Understood.

Since he had used the curse first and only afterward rolled the dice, that meant the curse to be cast had already been determined. The roll had merely given him a different way to pay the cost. It seemed this ability wasn’t as all-powerful as he’d imagined. He still had to rely on probability.

Which brought him to the question of what kind of sustenance he should trade...