Deadline Is Raining in the Status Window - Chapter 196

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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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“Tada!”
Cha Cha revealed a cavern glowing with verdant light. Crystals and green ore interwove in perfect harmony, casting an ethereal glow without need of artificial illumination—but the moment I approached, blood streamed from my nose and I collapsed forward.
“Whoa! Evan, are you alright?!”
Something was wrong. Cha Cha’s shield was functioning properly, yet I felt that same unsettling sensation from after the warp.
Deep beneath the earth. A sensation of each individual cell being destroyed. The softly luminescent green substance. Synthesizing all these facts, I reached a single conclusion.
Could the radiation levels here possibly be insanely high?
Now that I thought about it, Sung King’s nosebleed the moment she approached the center of the Land of Death—that was a textbook symptom of radiation exposure. The signs of habitation were visible, yet not a single living creature remained, which made perfect sense. And Cha Cha had said she couldn’t leave the barrier, yet here she was, dressed in what amounted to a hazmat suit.
If the barrier had somehow ruptured and radioactive materials from the Underworld were seeping up to the Surface World through the warp, then the Land of Death was essentially a supercharged version of Chernobyl.
“Ugh.”
Damn it—even my insides had gone bad. Now I was coughing up blood. If I didn’t take immediate action, this would end catastrophically. Based on how Sung King had bled while Kanna and I remained unaffected, it seemed the Sabah Family’s secret poison immunity and my Absolute Toxin Immunity skill could block radiation exposure to some degree. Even without Apet, Kanna would have been in serious trouble. No matter how much immunity training one does at home, nobody trains specifically to withstand radiation.
I opened the status window for Evan Laef and poured experience into Absolute Toxin Immunity. My body eased, and good news arrived.

SR) Absolute Toxin Immunity has evolved into UR) Absolute Poison Immunity Lv.1.

I’d finally become immune to all poisons. And this Absolute Poison Immunity—it blocks radiation too. That’s incredible.
“Evaaaaaan! Don’t die, don’t you dare die now, I’m telling youuuu! Waaaah!”
“I’m not dying. Stop shaking me.”
My already-shattered organs couldn’t be helped—I continued bleeding steadily—but I’d at least prevented further deterioration. Recovery could wait until we returned to the surface and I asked Apet to use her skill, but I needed answers to my immediate questions first.
“Cha Cha. You said you couldn’t go to the Surface because of the barrier, didn’t you?”
“Huh? Uhhhhh?”
“Stop playing dumb and answer honestly.”
“N-no, I… well…”
Cha Cha hemmed and hawed until I threatened to eat her cheeks, at which point she reluctantly confessed the truth.
“Mother created the barrier a long time ago, right? So over time, certain sections of it weakened. I wanted to check on the results of releasing the plague, so I poked a small hole and went up in a hazmat suit.”
She’d gathered the dead to verify whether they’d died correctly according to her intentions, but it seemed they’d all succumbed to symptoms other than the plague.
Cha Cha’s eyes glistened with tears as she said she hadn’t intended this, and she couldn’t understand why not a single ant survived on the Surface where she’d ventured.
Well… in a radiation zone where you start bleeding from the nose the moment you approach, it would be stranger if even a single earthworm survived. Did Makina not realize the Underworld was a radiation paradise, despite looking like the epitome of science?
“Cha Cha. Have you ever heard the words uranium or radiation?”
“What’s that?”
I see… so that’s how it is… she truly didn’t know…
“Why did you bring me to this green zone? Were you trying to kill me?”
“No! The scenery here is beautiful, and when you get close, you feel energized somehow! In Surface terms, it’s like forest bathing, right? Don’t you feel the phytoncides?”
How does she know about phytoncides but not radiation?!
I was so exasperated that I grabbed Cha Cha’s face and stretched both her cheeks outward. Then, suddenly, the meaning of the propeller-mark symbols in her eyes struck me.
“Those eyes! Those damned eyes!”
“Aaaah! What about my eyes?!”
“That’s the radiation warning symbol, isn’t it?!”
She knew exactly what she was doing when she embedded it. There’s no way she didn’t know. The Underworld King has no knowledge of radiation, yet his eyes bear the radiation warning symbol? That means the Mother Goddess who created the Underworld King must have known about the existence of radiation.
Why did she turn the Starving Child’s residence into a radiation paradise? And why did she specifically create Cha Cha as a being that grows stronger when exposed to radiation?
Judging by the barrier she erected to prevent underground radiation from rising to the Surface World, it seems she intended to protect surface-dwelling life. Yet despite that, she created Demon Kings with the mission to annihilate humanity—what scheme is this?
I couldn’t possibly understand, and the more I thought about it, the less sense it made. Questions spiraled endlessly, driving me to the brink of madness, when a message descended from the heavens as if to finish the job.

Twilight has been renewed. Death if you fail to receive the Mother Goddess’s approval. D-365.

How am I supposed to earn a god’s approval?!
Until now, these time-limit notifications at least gave me clear, specific instructions—do this, do that—so I could solve them. But when it’s vague like this, I have no idea where to even start.
Ugh, this is exhausting. I can’t do this. Maybe I should just die.
The moment my thoughts turned toward that extreme, the notification window rushed to provide examples, as if desperately trying to talk me out of my own death.

Examples of Mother Goddess’s Approval
1. Be recognized as humanity’s savior.
2. Be recognized as the King of Ten Thousand Demons.
3. Be recognized as a daughter-in-law.

Damn it, notification window—I’m letting this slide just this once. Next time you pull this kind of nonsense, know that I’ll die cursing you.
I can only struggle against death so many times. If you keep throwing impossible tasks at me like this, even I will break.
For now, the easiest one seems to be… being recognized as a daughter-in-law? Since Gerth is the Mother Goddess’s son, if I become his wife, I’d become the goddess’s daughter-in-law.
Wow, thinking about it that way makes marrying Gerth sound incredibly grand. Am I really going to be a god’s daughter-in-law? That’s insane.
But even if I force through the marriage, how do I report it to the goddess and get her approval? Do I really need to go through the Priesthood?
“Cha Cha.”
“Yeah?”
“Do the Demon Kings have any means of contacting the goddess?”
I asked, half-hoping that since she created them herself, there might be some kind of hotline. But Cha Cha’s eyes welled with tears and he started crying. Since he was upset, I quickly picked him up and bounced him gently to comfort him, but Cha Cha clutched at my chest as if deeply wronged, sobbing that he couldn’t reach his mother.
“Humanity multiplied like cockroaches, so Mother can’t answer all their prayers, and my connection doesn’t go through!”
Ah, so this is how Wenri’s mention of a DDoS attack in relation to the Mother Goddess connects. She cherishes Cha Cha, whom she created with her own hands, but humanity on the Surface World is equally her children, so she listens to their prayers—that’s why Cha Cha’s communications don’t get through. Since she apparently guides all status windows and skills, managing that must be quite the workload.
Well, if the goddess is busy, that’s inconvenient. Can I even get her approval within a year? I doubt I can reach her within a year even if I marry Gerth right now and try to establish a hotline with her.
“Then I’ll head up before Kanna destroys everything.”
“Huh, huh? You’re leaving already?”
“I’ll be back soon. After I get healed, I’ll bring Makina too.”
“Why him?”
I want to verify whether this radiation is real. And I’m deeply curious about what kind of being you are.
I promised Cha Cha I’d return quickly, linking our pinky fingers together, then climbed the Staircase I’d used before and passed through the warp.
The moment I appeared, bleeding profusely, Apet gasped in shock and cast a healing spell on me.

“So you’re saying the Land of Death was created because the Underworld’s toxins seeped up to the Surface World?”
Unable to explain radiation without breaking immersion, I had no choice but to summarize the events in such fantastical terms. Yet both Apet and Sung King accepted my explanation without question.
“I was already aware that there are entrances connecting to the Underworld scattered across the world. However, only those of High Priestess rank or above are privy to such secrets of the Sungkuk Kingdom.”
“I see… so the barrier has weakened.”
They accept such a casual explanation without hesitation. How fortunate that you are inhabitants of a fantasy world.
“Only the Goddess who created the barrier can repair it. We must conduct a grand Divine Altar ceremony.”
While priests specialized in receiving divine will, a grand ritual would surely draw the Goddess’s attention. Sung King, who had ventured out with a light heart hoping to ensnare either Seian or Apet, but instead found herself burdened with work, questioned me pointedly.
“Duke Neftis’s daughter, how much longer do you intend to play house with the old man? Haven’t you had enough of this game?”
“You haven’t heard Seian renounce his claim on me. And don’t obsess over Apet either. If you guarantee his freedom, I’ll grant the divorce.”
Since Apet remained my husband regardless, I had to ensure proper aftercare. When I demanded not only the abandonment of marriage to Seian but also guarantees for Apet’s wellbeing, the old man seemed deeply moved and offered me words of praise.
“You’re quite mad, but you have a good heart.”
“I hear that compliment fairly often.”
“W-well, yes. Evan is, um, kind!”
“But quite mad, nonetheless.”
If you’re going to praise someone, just praise them. When I said this, the old man laughed heartily and kept calling me kind. I was satisfied.
“For now, let’s return to Sungkuk and rest.”
Now that I’d uncovered the cause, I needed to recuperate before rushing about to solve it. My proposal was accepted by all, and I rested at Sung King’s residence in Sungkuk while sending a telegram to Ilam.
I assumed the telegram bound for Ilam would naturally flow to Serpent King’s Tower, as Machine King Makina monitored it twenty-four hours a day.

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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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