Deadline Is Raining in the Status Window - Chapter 120

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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When I forced the brilliantly glowing sphere down Reina Letem’s throat as she hurled insults at me, calling me a pervert, she gagged and choked before finally swallowing it whole.
She was making death sounds, yet she managed to gulp it down just fine.
“Ugh, hack!”
After swallowing the sphere, blood streamed from Reina Letem’s mouth as she clutched her throat. And then came the good news for me.

The scenario has changed slightly. Granting 10,000 experience points.

Well, it was worth force-feeding that eternal flame fish to the protagonist. Why are they giving me 10,000 experience points at once? I wanted to open my status window immediately to settle accounts, but Reina Letem collapsed forward, so I decided to deal with that first.
“Is she… dead?”
“She’s alive.”
“Tch.”
Kanna shouldn’t be clicking her tongue just because her friend didn’t die. I warned Kanna before picking up Reina Letem.
“Just in case, we should eat the edible parts as a late-night snack.”
“A sound idea.”
The Department Head Professor would be cooking in the kitchen, so I was told to leave Reina Letem in the bedroom.

I ran into Professor Ha in the Hotel Lobby and got an earful of nagging. He’d been making rounds for roll call, found us missing, and was about to go search for us. Professor Ha said that since Reina Letem’s recovery seemed to be the priority, he’d give us our punishment tomorrow and let us go.
We used the key card to open Reina Letem’s hotel room and tossed her onto the bed, then wiped away the blood with a handkerchief. Her condition looked the same as when my ice-binding skill had leveled up before, so there didn’t seem to be anything to worry about.
After a quick wash, Kanna and I headed down to the Dining Hall to meet the dishes the Department Head Professor had prepared. The eternal flame fish (presumed) had become something like tom yum soup after meeting the Common Professor, a master of spices. The broth was red, aromatic herbs floated on top, and a tangy aroma pricked my nose.
“Let’s dig in.”
“Thank you for the meal!”
“Yes, thank you for the meal!”
Delicious! Spicy, salty, tangy, and absolutely perfect!
“It’s amazing! This is the best thing Professor has ever made!”
“Eat slowly.”
This is seriously insane—it’s so delicious! I crunched through the fish meat and vegetables, then mixed the remaining broth with pasta noodles and stir-fried it all together.
It’s strange. Why are all the adults around me so good at cooking?
“Evan Laef, you have excellent taste.”
The Department Head Professor spoke while gazing into empty space, so I understood his meaning and opened my status window. Even after deducting the scenario change points I’d received earlier, another 10,000 experience points had been added.
“Wow, 10,000 points at once?”
“I don’t have anywhere to invest it, though.”
What skills do you even have? If 10,000 points can’t solve anything, are all your skills ultra-rare or higher? Are you even human?
“Hmm…”
I was pondering which skill to invest in when the Department Head Professor let slip a subtle remark.
“Reina Letem surely obtained a high-tier fire magic skill.”
This man knows how to provoke people. Seeing Reina Letem coughing blood and collapsing, it was certain she’d obtained a skill higher than Inferno. To narrow the gap, I had no choice but to invest in magic as well.
I raised Evan Laef’s skill, Hundred Poison Invulnerability, to level 8, and Mitchell Neftis’s skill, Guided Ice Binding, to level 3. Reina Letem must have obtained a new skill, but I haven’t changed much, which is quite frustrating. Maybe I should have just eaten that thing myself, whatever it became.
“Eating the same element won’t help you.”
“Tch.”
My disappointment must have shown. The man patted my back with a grin and offered what was hardly consolation—saying it was good that I’d found my master, as if that made everything right.
“Still, when I think about how much I’ll brag about this…”
“That’s the spirit of youth.”
Ugh, his youth complex. If he loves youth so much, why doesn’t he try aging backwards instead?
“Have you squeezed out all the sesame oil?”
“Well then, I should be heading inside.”
The moment I brought up Gerth, the Department Head Professor’s tail drooped and he bolted. The next morning, exactly as I’d feared, Reina strutted around the entire hotel bragging about her new skill.
“You hear that, you brats? This right here is the ultra-rare skill, Blazing Inferno!”
I’d suspected as much, but she really did get Blazing Inferno. In the original story, she didn’t acquire it until near graduation, so she’s pulled it forward by nearly three years. After last break, she’d climbed fifty floors of the Beast King’s Tower solo, and her growth rate was nothing short of monstrous.
“Lady Reina Letem!”
Just then, an absolutely furious Professor Ha appeared. Reina had used the skill to show off to her friends, and it had melted the Tuxedo Bunny statue—the symbol of Bunny Land—and reduced the surrounding ornamental trees to ash. Professor Ha grabbed Reina’s ear and dragged her off to apologize to the manager. Needless to say, she’d have to pay for damages too. She’s done for when her mother finds out.
“P-Professor Ha, y-you’re still the same as ever.”
“Mm.”
Even when dealing with nobility, he puts on gloves and handles them like contaminated specimens—Professor Ha truly is a man of unwavering fastidiousness. If the Magic Department students in the original story had known about this, they wouldn’t have tormented him. Though he does suffer from a severe condition where touching commoners causes him to convulse, he treats all people equally like a plague.
There was a difference in treatment, though. With commoners, he refuses to speak and either faints or pretends he might faint at touch, but with nobility, he converses pleasantly, exchanges handshakes, then meticulously washes and disinfects his hands, using disposable handkerchiefs that he throws away.
Honestly, I think the latter is more hurtful.
In any case, I was saved by Reina’s blunder. Professor Ha had been planning to punish us for being outside past curfew last night, but with Reina’s accident drawing his attention, we could slip away in the chaos.
“Kanna. Let’s go to the Appraisal Shop.”
“O-okay!”
We’d agreed to do the stamp rally in the afternoon, so I had time to get the ring appraised. Appraisal shops typically line up next to the Adventurer’s Guild to secure customers, but Bunny Land, which gives out many unappraised items as prizes, operates its own appraisal shop.
Entering a shop shaped like a giant rabbit’s head, I was greeted curtly by the proprietor, whose body emitted faint mechanical sounds. Since this appraisal shop is Bunny Land’s direct operation, the employee must be under the Machine King’s command.
“Here for a ring appraisal? Put it over there.”
“Why are you being so rude?”
We’re meeting for the first time, you’re the shop owner, and I’m the customer—yet you’re being unnecessarily curt. Even other customers would flee. I didn’t ask for kindness, just basic courtesy, and the mechanical man in human form relayed some petty grievance from the Machine King.
“The boss gave orders. You’re a cowardly human, so there’s no need to treat you like a customer.”
So I’m supposed to keep receiving this treatment just because I called the Department Head Professor to use an attraction? How petty. The Machine King is truly petty.
“Your boss is petty.”
“I just relayed that, and he said that’s not something he wants to hear from a cowardly human.”
“He’s tattling about that too? You’re petty as well.”
“Can’t help it. I’m a creation of the boss, so I’m bound to be equally petty.”
The man made a fair point, but suddenly he clutched both ears as if in pain and grimaced. When I asked what was wrong, he explained that the boss had shouted so loudly his head was throbbing.
“For a machine, you’re far too emotional. A great boss can’t be one who can’t tolerate a single word of honest criticism from his employee.”
“The boss says don’t say the same things as Gerth, human.”
“That’s exactly why, even with a thousand years, he’ll never exterminate a single human species.”
“Once the attraction repairs are done, he’ll come find you, so wash your neck and wait, he says.”
Hmm. I have no chance of winning a direct fight with the Machine King. Since attraction repairs seem to be his priority over slitting my throat, I should probably go around breaking the attractions I’ve already cleared.
“Just do the appraisal.”
“You really don’t value your own life, do you?”
“You’ve got some nerve yourself.”
You’d need considerable courage to curse like that in front of the boss. We shook hands to commemorate this budding friendship, then waited for the appraisal results.
Normally, someone with an appraisal skill would evaluate the item and write down the results by hand, but since this was the Machine King’s mechanical kingdom, the results came spitting out of a printer.
“Well, for a purple-tier item, it’s… nothing special.”
“Right?”
An Ultra Rare ring’s description reduced to a single line: “Recover once from near-death state.” The lack of effort was astounding. The stingy Machine King clearly cherry-picked this to avoid losing his fortune.
“Stingy, boss. Truly unmatched in stinginess.”
“You’d do well to hold your tongue, human. The boss is furious.”
Wait, if the Machine King hears everything through his appendages, does that mean all of Bunny Land is under his surveillance? This feels like Big Brother watching. How unsettling.
“Appraisal Shop Employee, I have a question.”
“Whatever it is, you shouldn’t ask.”
“Does your boss happen to have voyeuristic tendencies?”
「Switching to combat mode.」
Wow, even though he’s mechanical, arbitrarily stripping away someone’s individuality and reducing them to a combat machine is genuinely vicious. Of all the Demon Kings I’ve encountered, the Machine King seems to be the most textbook bastard.
“Kanna, let’s run.”
“Y-yes!”
Fortunately, either the Machine King didn’t intend to actually kill me, or the employee’s operational range was limited—the moment we hid ourselves in a distant tree, combat mode disengaged and the Appraisal Shop Employee returned to his post.
This is supposedly an amusement park, yet it’s more brutal than the battlefields of Serpent King’s Tower or Dragon King’s Territory.
“S-scary.”
“Yeah.”
The Machine King’s temperament is foul. His impatience is precisely why he’s never properly destroyed a nation. If I possessed his technology, I’d infiltrate the courts of various kingdoms and spark wars without hesitation. But the Machine King, unable to master his own nature, could never employ such methods.
Come to think of it, I’ve never seen the Demon Kings actually succeed at their supposed instinct and mission to annihilate humanity. The Machine King is a hothead who can’t tolerate insults, Gerth is a pacifist, and the Dragon King is mentally immature and individualistic.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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