Chapter 36: Punishment

[Punishment: Failure to complete the quest will result in uncontrollable laughter for five minutes!]

The moment the quest was abandoned, the punishment activated.

Gopuro’s face immediately twisted in pure horror.

His eyes widened as he seemed to realize exactly what was about to happen.

Then his stomach clenched.

He doubled over, clutching his belly, and suddenly burst into uncontrollable laughter. His entire body shook as he rolled around in the dirt, kicking his legs and squirming helplessly as though some invisible magical feathers were tickling him relentlessly.

"HAHAHAHAHA!"

"AHAHAHAHAAH!

The laughter came out in loud, breathless bursts. Tears quickly streamed down his flushed cheeks as he laughed so hard that he could barely catch his breath.

The poor guy tried covering his mouth.

It didn’t help.

He tried forcing himself to stop.

That didn’t work either.

The more he struggled against it, the harder he seemed to laugh.

The sight was so absurd that even Gopuran couldn’t hold herself back.

She burst into laughter as well, pointing at her suffering brother and cackling with what could only be described as gleeful revenge.

And so, Gopuro’s face grew redder and redder as tears continued streaming from his eyes, but there was absolutely nothing he could do about it.

For a full five minutes, no matter how desperately he tried to regain control, the laughter simply kept pouring out.

"Haha, sorry, Gopuro."

I watched him suffer with barely contained amusement.

"That’s what you get for not reading the fine print. Be more careful next time, okay?"

With that little prank, I hoped the two of them had learned a valuable lesson about accepting quests too hastily.

But jokes aside, I’d also confirmed another important hypothesis.

Punishments were absolute. Once a citizen accepted a quest, the System could impose the punishment on them upon quest failure without requiring their consent.

That raised some rather unsettling possibilities.

If the System could force someone to laugh uncontrollably, then perhaps it could impose much more severe consequences as well.

Pain.

Weakness.

Temporary debuffs.

Or even something conditions like limitless diarrhea or itching. Maybe even effects that could seriously endanger someone’s life.

The possibilities were honestly a little frightening.

Could it even interfere with something as complicated as a person’s memories?

I had no idea.

And frankly, I wasn’t eager to find out by experimenting on my own citizens.

Yes, I wanted to understand the limits of [Quest Creation], but I would never turn my citizens into guinea pigs for increasingly dangerous experiments.

I had no intention of deliberately causing them serious harm.

I wasn’t that much of an evil tyrant.

Still, understanding the System’s punishment mechanics could prove extremely useful in the future, especially if I ever needed to deal with hostile enemies rather than my own citizens.

For now, though, five minutes of uncontrollable laughter was more than enough.

Eventually, after what felt like an eternity, the punishment finally ended.

The laughter stopped as abruptly as it had begun.

Gopuro lay sprawled on the ground, completely exhausted. His chest heaved as he desperately sucked in air, as though he’d just run a marathon. Sweat covered his body, his face was still bright red, and his limbs looked utterly limp.

He didn’t even seem to have the energy to stand up anymore.

The poor guy looked completely wrecked.

*****

After that, I gave Gopuro a few quiet minutes to recover from his laughter marathon.

He eventually sat up, wiping the tears from his eyes and taking several deep, shaky breaths. His face was still flushed, and his chest rose and fell rapidly as he tried to get his breathing under control.

For a few moments, he simply sat there, staring blankly ahead as though his soul had temporarily left his body.

Then he shook his head, slapped his cheeks a couple of times, and slowly got back on his feet.

He was still breathing a little heavily, but the determined look in his eyes told me he was ready to continue.

Time for the next test.

This time, it wouldn’t be a solo challenge.

Both goblins could participate.

I materialized two identical quest scrolls and let them read through the contents together.

[Quest: Strength Demonstration #4!]

Quest Info: Your ruler wishes to evaluate your strength. Mighty followers, perform push-ups to prove your worth!

Objective: Complete 100 push-ups with perfect form as quickly as possible.

Time Limit: None

Reward: 1 Chicken Drumstick if completed in under 1 minute. 2 Chicken Drumsticks if completed in under 30 seconds!

"YAAHHH!!!"

Both goblins shouted with excitement and immediately accepted the challenge!

They dropped to the ground without hesitation.

A moment later, they began pumping out push-ups.

Their movements were remarkably synchronized, arms rising and falling with smooth, controlled motions. Despite the incredible speed, neither seemed to have any trouble maintaining proper form.

One.

Two.

Three.

The numbers climbed rapidly.

Ten.

Twenty.

Thirty...

Their pace barely slowed.

Thanks to their impressive physical prowess, they tore through the quest at an absurd pace, their bodies moving with the efficiency of machines.

Gopuran finished in a blazing 24 seconds.

Gopuro, despite still being slightly fatigued from the earlier stone-lifting challenge and his five-minute laughter punishment, managed to complete his set in just 29 seconds.

Not bad at all.

In fact, that was considerably faster than I’d expected.

Both had earned the full reward of two Chicken Drumsticks each.

The System immediately delivered their rewards, and the two goblins wasted no time devouring them.

However, this was only the warm-up.

The real fun was about to begin.

I let them quickly finish their drumsticks, giving them a short moment to catch their breath and savor the meat. Gopuro even stretched his arms and rolled his shoulders, while Gopuran shook out her limbs in preparation for whatever ridiculous challenge I had planned next.

They had no idea what was coming.

"Now then... which one of you is ready for the ultimate challenge?"

I materialized two more quest scrolls.

[Quest: Strength Demonstration #5!]

Quest Info: Your ruler wishes to evaluate your strength. Mighty followers, perform push-ups to prove your worth!

Objective: Complete 300 push-ups with perfect form as quickly as possible.

Time Limit: 1 minute

Reward: 5 Chicken Drumsticks

Punishment: Failure will result in being forced to complete 500 push-ups immediately afterward!