Hessien’s face twisted with a mix of disgust and confusion as he fully processed what she had just done.

  With my finger on my chin, I asked, “You think she’ll take a shit in you too? But in the form of energy?”

  Hessien’s expression only grew more repulsed, and he collapsed to the ground, coughing violently. I think he was even trying to… pull her out by shoving his hand down his throat.

  Of course, he was failing miserably and looked like he was trying to suffocate himself.

  What was wrong with this guy?

  “Get… out!” he cried, his voice strained.

  “Get out of my damn body! Why does she need to sleep there?!”

  But she didn’t budge.

  Vacinay, looking exhausted, muttered, “Worry about that tomorrow.”

  “Tomorrow?! Do you know how far away that is? What if she… does something disgusting in my body before then?”

  I pretended to hold a sword in my hand. “We shall protect your chastity.”

  “I don’t mean that kind of disgusting stuff! I’m still talking about taking dumps in me! What if every time I use a skill, it smells like doodoo?”

  “Hahaha… That would be funny,” Ghomas said, clearly amused.

  I had to admit, it would be pretty funny.

  “Dude, I just want to sleep. Get on the freaking bed,” Vacinay snapped, throwing a pillow at him.

  “How can you expect me to sleep in this condition?”

  “Good question. No idea. I want to help, but if she’s not listening to you… Just hope Lumine was messing with you,” she replied.

  I was definitely just messing around… BUT! It was something worth worrying about. Hessien, though, didn’t seem convinced.

  I got off the bed, trying to think of ways to comfort him.

  “Okay, cozo, rest assured, your super strong cousin will beat the evil manifestation senseless if she takes a piss in you. That sounds so weird to say. Damn, your luck sucks. I mean, imagine if it’s not just your skills that smell—it’s everything that comes from your body. Hah! Even your breath is going to stink like shit and piss.”

  Hessien’s face turned bright red, and he glared at me.

  “That’s it. I’m getting her out by any means necessary!”

  Eh?

  He stormed out of the room. I didn’t want to follow him, but I had no idea what that crazy bastard would've done to himself. I lazily trailed behind him, noticing he was heading for the kitchen.

  He grabbed a knife, clearly about to stab himself in the shoulder. Normally, I’d panic and stop him, but…

  Time froze.

  The blade halted just shy of his shoulder.

  I also recently discovered it took about an hour for my energy points to fully recover.

  Anyway, I made my way to Hessien and grabbed the knife. The moment I did, the time freeze ended. He was confused when he saw me suddenly appear by his side, holding the knife.

  When he realized what happened, I froze time again. Hah… this power was so broken. I threw the knife.

  I wasn’t sure how effective neck chops were, but I knew firsthand how devastating a well-placed punch could be—Dad’s boxing matches had shown me that.

  Once time started moving again, I sucker-punched Hessien in the jaw, knocking him out.

  Wow… it really worked. I caught him just in time!

  “Sorry about that,” I mumbled. It was the only way I knew to put him to sleep. I carried him back to the room and tossed him on the bed.

  Vacinay asked, “Did you kill him?”

  “Yep. I wanted the level-up,” I replied casually.

  “Niceeeee.”

  I dove back onto the bed like a dolphin, relishing in its comfort.

  Yeah... hug me like that.

  Ghomas, nearly asleep, muttered, “You know… I almost thought you two were serious.”

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  None of us responded. I just wanted to sleep.

  I woke up to a sharp pain twisting in my stomach. Right—since coming to this world, I hadn’t eaten a thing. I groaned and pushed myself up. I really didn’t want to leave the bed, but the hunger was unbearable.

  To my surprise, I was the only one in it. That was... weird. I hoped nothing strange had happened while I was asleep. Sliding off the bed, I crept to the door and peeked into the hallway. Empty. But I could hear movement coming from the dining room near the kitchen.

  Guess they were even hungrier than me.

  I made my way over and stepped inside. Ghomas, Vacinay, and Hessien were all gathered around a plate of food, staring at it like it might bite them first. On the plate sat a huge green fish, its scales glistening under a thick coat of white grease.

  Vacinay muttered, “What’s the chance it’s not poisonous?”

  Ghomas responded, “0.1%.”

  Hessien noticed me and glared. He clearly remembered what I had done to him last night, or maybe he’d pieced it together.

  I greeted him awkwardly, “Sup, big cozo?”

  “You punched me square in the jaw,” he immediately said.

  I glanced around nervously. “I mean, did you really see me do it?”

  Normally, I’d be smug about it. But knocking someone out felt messed up—unless, of course, that someone was Vacinay.

  Hessien shrugged. “To be honest, I’m just acting like I’m angry at you.”

  He rubbed his chin. “Nice punch. I never thought you’d actually learn how to throw a proper one.”

  I looked at him. Hah… Sometimes I felt like a jerk for the way I treated him. No matter what, he was always there—proud of me, happy for me. Like an older brother. And I guessed that’s how he’d always seen himself.

  “Yeah… Though I think I just punched really hard at your jaw. It’s supposed to make your brain hit your skull or something, right?”

  “Yup. I’m also glad because now I can punch you with all my force without worrying about actually hurting you. We can box for real!”

  Eh. I rubbed my chin, considering it. I guessed that made sense. Yeah, yeah!

  I grinned. “When you get stronger, of course! I’ll lower my standards and give you the privilege of fighting me.”

  He rolled his eyes. “Okay, you didn’t have to make it so damn corny.”

  “I’ll make it as corny as I want. Because there’s nothing you can do about it!”

  “Whatever, come here. Some maids brought us plates of this fish.”

  I walked over to them and looked at the fish. Seeing it up close made me acutely aware of how big, ugly, and smelly it was. It reeked like it had been pulled straight out of the damn sea.

  I held my nose in disgust. “Why does it smell so much—”

  Before I could finish, Hessien shoved a spoonful of fish meat into my mouth.

  With a sorry expression, he said, “We have to make a sacrifice.”

  What?!

  I spat it out immediately, the horrid taste stinging my tongue, and I scrubbed at it with my fingernails like a wild animal.

  While doing that, I screamed curses at him. “You tricked me!”

  He examined me. “So it’s not poisonous. Good to know.”

  Vacinay said, “Not sure yet. Give it thirty more seconds.”

  I shouted at them. “Poisonous?! What the hell? You two tried to kill me?”

  Hessien shook his head. “Technically no.”

  “What the hell does that mean?”

  Ghomas snapped his fingers. “You rewind time. If you died from poison, you’d react with something like, ‘You assholes poisoned me!’ and then we’d go, ‘Ah, so it’s poison!’”

  … “So you did try to kill me!” I shouted, now even angrier.

  Hessien responded, “A worthy sacrifice.”

  “Worthy sacrifice my ass…”

  I was just about to trigger time freeze when one of the maids—looking awkward—suddenly spoke.

  “You should remove the skin of the fish before eating it.”

  Eh?

  Ghomas was the first to do it, slicing through with a knife. The moment the skin peeled away, I froze. Underneath wasn’t fish at all—it was some kind of cake.

  Why the hell did they cover a cake with fish skin?

  Weird.

  Ghomas sniffed it, then glanced at me. I met his eyes and slowly dragged a finger across my neck—no way was I about to deliberately eat poison.

  He looked at the other two, and they pretended not to notice.

  “Fine! I’ll do it,” he shouted before taking a small piece of the cake and tasting it.

  He licked his lips multiple times, making various expressions.

  Vacinay and Hessien saluted him. “We will remember your noble sacrifice.”

  If he dies from it, I’m going to force them to eat it.

  Ghomas furrowed his brow and took a bigger piece. His eyes widened, and he slammed both hands down on the table like a mad king.

  His mouth trembled as he said, “This thing… it’s poison.”

  Oh shit.

  The maids were shocked. “No way! T-that’s impossible!”

  I pointed at them. “You all got orders from the damn president, didn’t you?”

  “N-no! We’ll take the food away!”

  They tried to take the plate from Ghomas, but he shoved them away.

  “No.” He shook his head. “I shall endure this great poison.”

  I know he’s stupid, but I was confused.

  He took the plate and ate everything on it, then robotically moved to another, eating it too.

  Finally, he reached the last one.

  Everyone in the room, me included, stared at him.

  This bastard…

  I grumbled, “You… are just a greedy bastard, aren’t you?”

  Vacinay pointed at him and asked Hessien, “He tricked us...?”

  “Yes, yes, he just did.”

  Ghomas shook his head, as though ashamed of our reaction. “I just made the biggest sacrifice and this is your thanks?”

  He took the last plate and was about to remove the fish skin, but Vacinay hurled forks and dining knives at him.

  “I’m going to kill you!” She dashed at him.

  Immediately, he ran out of the dining room with the plate of food.

  Time freeze.

  The moment the time freeze ended, I had the plate in my hand.

  With a cocky smile, I said, “Maybe don’t try to outrun the time freeze weild—”

  His foot slammed into my crutch.

  No way he just did that…

  I fell to my knees and screamed at him, “I’m going to kill you. I will kill you for that!”

  With utter determination, he grabbed the plate before it hit the ground.

  He looked at me. “It seems you don’t know, but my Sharingan allowed me to copy your technique.”

  You don’t steal food from me and think you can get away with it!

  “Time freeeeeeeee—”

  My internal chant was interrupted when I was struck in the head with a naked Ghomas clone.

  Why did they all have to be naked?!

  I stood up, but he was so far away… Damn it.

  With time freeze, I caught up to him.

  He was running away from Vacinay and Hessien—they refused to give up.

  Hessien leaped at him and grabbed his leg, tripping him.

  I shouted in a panic, “The plate!”

  By some miracle, Ghomas stretched his neck and caught it with his teeth.

  Oh, thank god.

  I moved quickly to take it from him. I was out of energy points for time freeze.

  Hessien had Ghomas’s legs pinned down, and Vacinay held his arms, which meant I had to be the hero. I couldn’t afford to mess up.

  I leaped forward. My feet launched off the floor with all of my force— I thought my feet had touched the ground.

  The bastard made a damn clone. Because he was on the floor, the clone also manifested on the floor.

  So I accidentally stepped on it, slid, tumbled, and fell headfirst into the plate...