Ch 90 – Nightmare and Nightmarish Reality

(The Next Day)

As Honda and Bella stared intensely at a pair of cards within their grip, Honda gulped nervously as he stretched his hand out towards Bella's cards.

'Don't be the Old Maid, don't be the Old Maid!' Honda desperately shouts in his mind as his hand grasped one of Bella's cards. The weight of losing pressured his mind but either he wins, or loses, it was a 50-50 gamble of life and death.

"ORYAAAA!" Honda shouts as he swiftly pulled the card out, at that moment, time seemed to have frozen as their faces became stagnant. But from what Honda saw, he watched an ecstatic grin slowly form on Bella's face which made his heart drop. And as the card of fate showed itself to him, he fell down to his knees as he got the Old Maid.

"Kakakaka!" Bella cackles while Honda slammed his fist to the ground, resenting the fate he was given.

'Shit, it means that I have to!' Honda thought desperately as he saw Bella's feet, gulping his saliva as sweat trickled down his forehead and back.

Instantly, the atmosphere in the room became tense as a malicious grin formed over Bella's face. Sliding the table away with one arm, Bella unfurled her toes as she uttered two dangerous words that made him suffer a fate comparable to death: "Lick it."

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the fate Honda was subjected to was that he is now going to lick Bella's feet like a mad dog in heat. Honda thought, 'I could just run away! Fuck my pride and dignity, licking someone's feet is just humiliating!'

But the more he thought, the hotter his face became as saliva formed inside his mouth. The forbidden fruit, the sin of man, lust, started to take hold of his mind as he crawled forward. To suck toes, or to never experience the true delight of life.

'This is just a one-time thing, that's all! Besides, I'm going to loop later so I'll just act like this never happened!' Honda thought as he arrived at Bella's feet who slyly smiled at him. And so, Honda grabs ahold of her dainty feet and took out his tongue, for a man of sin was born.

"AHHH!" Honda shouts as he opened his eyes wide in shock. Sweat trickled down his forehead as his chest heaved up and down, the nightmare he just experienced made his heart beat faster while Bella who just entered his room was shocked to say the least when Honda just shouted out of nowhere.

"What happened?!" Bella asked as she walked up beside him. It was already noon and she was about to ask if he wants to go to Greg's restaurant and get lunch.

Upon seeing Bella's face, Honda's face flushed red as he remembered the heinous acts he committed in his dreams. He was a dog in heat, licking her toes like tasty candies. He shuddered at the mere thought of that turning into reality. "it's nothing, it was just a nightmare."

Nodding her head, Bella asked what she wanted to say from before: "It's already time for lunch so I was about to ask if you want to get lunch already at Greg's place?"

"Sure, sure," Honda said as he stood up and felt his Mount Tai turning into floppy Tai and wiped the cold sweat over his forehead. And so, the duo got out of the house they are currently residing in and went to Greg's restaurant.

Upon arrival, they saw quite a few customers were already there eating as they went to the counter and sat down on one of the seats that were beside it.

"Oh, you two are back for food so soon? It's already the third time you guys ate here," Greg said as the duo saw him. He was a bald man wearing a chef outfit consisting of a white suit and a white chef hat. An amicable smile was over his face as the duo chuckled.

"The usual please," Honda ordered.

"Me too," Bella said as Greg nods his head, quickly listing down their orders, and went to turn his body around to prepare the food. The counter behind Greg was the kitchen part of the restaurant so they can see the cooking process in full view.

"Hey, Yuuya-san, if you don't mind me asking, what was your nightmare like?" Upon hearing her questions, Honda's mind instantly replayed the scenes from his nightmare.

"Good boy!" Bella moaned as she looks at Honda below her who desperately sucked at her toes, his tongue swiveled around like a fleshy massager.

'Oh god, why does her feet taste so good! It's so sweet, so savory!' Honda thought as he continued to suck her toes like a man thirsting for water. He was so madly in heat the whole world around him was ignored, from toe sucking to feet licking, he desperately covered Bella's feet in her saliva.

"It's… Nothing serious, it was just me falling down a cliff onto the ocean," Honda said nonchalantly, but he could slowly feel his floppy Tai turning into Mount Tai once more. And when he glanced down at her feet, he felt his mouth salivating upon a single glance.

"Oh, those dreams really does make one shout, huh?" Bella said with a smile as Honda turned his focus away from her to prevent further escalation of the situation. But when he turned his attention towards Greg intensely cooking, he noticed something that he didn't like.

'Why isn't he snapping his fingers?' Upon noticing Greg's tick not happening, he could feel his heart dropping. And as he craned his neck to look over the counter and down on the ground, he already knew his conjecture was true when Greg's shadow stayed stagnant even though the bursting flames over his stove illuminated his body wildly, meaning Greg was already a Shadow.

Closing his eyes and praying for Greg a better life next loop, Honda took a tissue and wrote down on it, passing it to Bella discretely as she read what was written on it.

'Greg's a Shadow?!' Bella thought as her heart dropped. Slowly but surely, they noticed more and more signs that many of the customers in his restaurant were Shadows after having their minds become alert.

"Is there anything wrong, you two?" Greg asked while passing them their respective bowls of rice and food.

"It's nothing, we were just looking around," Honda said as Greg nods his head. Quickly after that, they chowed down on the food and got out of the restaurant after paying the bill. And so, with their mind alerted, they noticed more and more Shadows disguised as humans around them. It was so severe compared to yesterday which made their hearts skip a beat.

By the time they finished walking around the whole town, they estimated more than a hundred Shadows have replaced humans. And as the setting sun slowly disappeared, the two knew what they needed to do.

"We need to run away!" Honda whispered as he slammed the door shut. Bella nods in response as she realized the severity of the situation. They can't alert other humans in fear of the Shadows preemptively attacking. And they can't fight them directly with the difference in numbers and strength. So they can only run away and hope for a chance at survival.

So they went to gather materials, supplies, and such and packed them all into a big sack as rations.

"Where are Lute and Kira anyway?" Honda muttered as they stood at the outer edges of the town as it was already night. It was a good time for them to run away as they would have higher stealth in the darkness. But as Bella looked up, she alerted Honda of the clouds that started to form.

"Is it going to rain?" Honda muttered and it seems like his hypothesis was true when the dark clouds rumbled and the first raindrop fell to the ground. And a strong downpour appeared incessantly as their bodies and clothes became dripping wet.

"With this rain, we can better hide our… Tracks," Honda muttered as their eyes widen in shock when they heard an explosion in the distance and saw a pool of blood forming in the distance. Soon, they heard the shrill screams of other adventurers screaming for help as more and more adventurers suddenly become Shadows.

And for the first time, Honda and Bella saw three new abilities that the Shadows displayed. One was that they flashed a burst of white light from their bodies, and Honda with his observant mind noticed them becoming paralyzed for a few seconds on average. The next was that after, the Shadow that shot the white light transformed into a new human appearance. The last one was the mysterious reason for having humanoid scorch marks on the ground, when the Shadow that became human touched the dead body of the human it copied, the body suddenly disappeared and what remained was scorch marks on the ground.

"W-what is happening?" Bella said with a trembling place. The carnage that suddenly happened out of nowhere just when the rain started to happen shocked their minds.

"Wait…. The bodies of the Shadows are the shadow on the ground, but what if their shadows are below water? Or worse, in the sea? Won't they effectively be immortal as their shadows would be dispersed? So that's why they suddenly recklessly attacked! It's because they're all technically immortal right now!" Honda shouted as he felt his stomach drop, this must mean that he has a three-day time limit to save everyone and find a way for everyone to survive.

"Watch out!" Bella's shrill scream was then heard beside him and he felt his body being pushed to the ground, and plunge, a black, shadowy arm pierces through her chest, killing her instantly as Honda felt everything falling down. But he remained calm as he has a trump card that can fix all of this, so he hastily rolled forward and slammed the head of his shotgun to the Shadow that killed Bella and saw it bursting into a black gas instantly.

"Yuuya-san…" Bella's weak voice entered his ear as he grabbed her and lie her down on the ground, preventing her from falling and damaging herself.

"B-Bella-san, I promise everything would be okay!" Honda gripped her hand tightly as he felt guilt well up inside him because of his carelessness.

"I… I know, just… run away, quickly," Bella said weakly as he nodded his head. So without hesitation, he turned tail and run, leaving her alone to die but she didn't feel a hint of resentment, because her death was already set in stone, it was better to have somebody to remember her by after death.

So he ran, he ran and ran through the forest to survive longer and see if he can gather any more information he can bring back to the next loop.

'Maybe there's something back at the cave! Why would a Shadow just be there all of a sudden! Coincidence? I think not!' Honda thought, grasping at straws to test his luck at finding a clue to this mystery and find the source of Shadows.

And so, as he ran for a few minutes straight, he finally arrived near the cave entrance when he saw something shocking.

'L-Lute?' Honda muttered in his mind as he saw Lute and Kira bursting out from the cave bathed in blood while a shadowy figure followed them in the air.

"Die you piece of shit! [Haste!]" instantly, Honda saw something shocking as Lute's staff glowed a white light and he instantly knew Lute somehow managed to cast a spell inside the dungeon with no mana.

And on the other hand, Honda saw Kira's body that was covered in white armor have his limbs suddenly etched in a pitch black color similar to those of the Shadow's body, which made him all the more intrigued.

Instantly, Kira appeared right in front of the Shadow and killed it with one swift swing. And so, the fight ended near instantly as Lute and Kira dropped down to the ground.

"Lute-san! Kira-san!" Honda shouts which caught their attention as Lute's eyes widened in surprise.

"Why are you here, Yuuya-san?" Lute said as Honda rushed forward to them.

"There's no time to explain, but the Shadows back in the town went berserk! We don't have that much time left, so can you please explain to me everything!" Honda desperately said as Lute lets out a calm sigh.

"So it seems like Yami's plan came to fruition. Okay, I'll explain what happened," Lute calmly responded which was far from what Honda thought would happen, that unexplained calmness unnerving him but he has to gather as much information for now.

From what Lute said, it seems like they went to the cave yesterday as Lute had a hunch that something was wrong with it. And he was right as the whole underground part of the island was actually a gigantic cavern where the Shadows reside and gain more power. The leader was a gigantic Shadow named Yami who is shown to have the capability to make more Shadows, meaning he was probably the one who created all the Shadows. Lute theorized that to kill all Shadows, they must kill Yami. But their initial assault failed and they ran away, which lead to this moment.

"So, you have any secrets to tell us before we all die?" Lute said with a calm smile.

Gulping, Honda decided to spill the beans now that they were dying, "My full name is Honda Yuuya, the Looper!"

But unexpectedly, instead of the shocked faces, Lute only chuckled as he groaned, "I guess I was right, Honda-sama~"

"Huh?" Honda said, dumbfounded at Lute's response.

"Didn't I tell you? I'm a genius. I just had to connect the dots like your name and I already kinda knew you were Honda from the get-go. Listen closely, hero, once you go back to the start in the dungeon, say that you are Honda Yuuya, the Looper. Just do that, and I will instantly trust you," Lute said as Honda nodded his head, he knew that he needs to believe in Lute as this might be the only way to solve this problem, his last shining beacon of hope.

"Well, goodbye, I guess," Lute said and as Honda was confused, he felt a black blade plunged through his chest and saw a Shadow behind. Chuckling, his vision turned blank as Loop 2 is about to start.

And so, the last bit of lifeforce within Honda's body flew away as he took his last breath within this loop. Opening his eyes, Honda calmly found himself floating within an endless expanse of darkness, the area that he named Purgatory, the area where he will find himself after being killed and spinning the Gacha of Death.

"So, what ability would I get from you, mister Shadow?" Honda muttered as he looks at the machine in the distance that was just a large white screen with a button beside it, his second hidden cheat has activated as one of the Shadow's abilities is going to be randomly given to him. The ability to harness the ability of those who killed him, a fitting ability for someone who constantly dies.

AN: This is 2569 words, you're welcome.

That's what happens when I'm particularly horny and is about to write a chapter.

Writing allows me to vent my sexual frustrations, send me your power stones.

(July 15, 2022 – 233rd day of writing)