Chapter 190: Incident at the Tent Village 5
TL/Editor: Raei
Schedule: 5/Week Mon-Fri
Illustrations: Posted in discord.
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Human desire is the same, whether in the asphalt jungle of a city or a fantasy world brimming with monsters.
"...What on earth are they doing?"
"No, I mean, uh..."
While meticulously searching the 36th floor, Grace stumbled upon something that made her face flush red.
Katie, noticing Grace's reaction, also looks in the same direction, sparking Han Se-ah and Irene to catch on.
Grace's embarrassed gaze lands on an adventurer party, just after a battle.
Their opponents, not undead but doppelganger robbers, have no divine energy engravings, while the adventurer party had them plastered to their side.
The issue is their behavior.
"Why would they do that to monsters? Especially ones created by the Demon King."
"What? Are they really... doing that to creatures made by the Demon King?"
Han Se-ah, who hurriedly sent a camera drone, whispers in shock, startling Katie.
Understandably, as the adventurers were channeling the thrill of battle into an R-rated direction.
The adventurer party, a blend of intermediate and senior adventurers, had overpowered a larger gang of robbers without a scratch.
It seemed they had a policy of killing men and violating women, as one of them, visibly aroused, was stripping a female adventurer without the holy engravings.
Han Se-ah's stream revealed that they had mimicked a character enhanced by gacha buffs, given the extraordinary beauty of the female robber pinned to the ground.
She was so beautiful that even if she were a monster, it would feel natural to harbor dark thoughts.
"They are quite bold inside the tower."
"There is a reason the brothers at the temple are concerned. Such troublesome creations of the Demon King. Perhaps they were made to stir human desire..."
"But are those really the Demon King's creations?"
"It doesn't look like they attacked innocent adventurers. Despite being pinned down, with all her comrades dead, her eyes look like they only care about killing."
Despite her blushing, Grace's says they are attacking an adventurer that hasn't received a holy engraving.
As she mentioned, even as the woman is stripped and thrown to the ground, her eyes are filled only with the desire to kill.
Unlike outside monsters, those in the tower lack a survival instinct.
Even goblins in the tower charge at senior adventurers, teeth bared.
It seems even doppelgangers, perfectly mimicking human bodies, can't escape their monstrous nature.
Proof of this was the woman, unconcerned with the shame of being stripped of armor and underwear, the grief of her comrades' annihilation, or the fear of suffering a terrible fate and ultimately losing her life.
Her flailing hands, struggling to strangle the man who overpowered her, spoke volumes.
"Let's just move on. It's none of our business whether those guys are getting aroused by monsters or not."
"Yeah, it's gross, but we have no reason to intervene. Irene, is there anything in the temple that forbids this kind of behavior?"
"Well, um, there's no specific mention of brothers harboring sexual desires towards monsters..."
-If it's a perfect replication of the face and body, isn't it no longer a monster?
-Does getting attracted to a transformed doppelganger make it a monmusu (monster girl)?
-If multiplayer was possible, Id be the first to start collecting a doppelganger harem, what a tease.
-Ugh, the chat is full of weird fetishes.
-There's a lot of interest in these unusual fetishes
But capturing it on camera would be documenting a rape crime.
Whether it's a doppelganger or a creation of the Demon King doesn't matter.
Startled, Han Se-ah quickly turns the camera 180 degrees to focus on our group's faces.
"Damn, that was close, almost got the stream banned. At this rate, I might get a three-day suspension before we even reach the 41st floor. If I get suspended, should I rush to the 40th floor's boss in that time?"
-Isn't the first offense just a warning?
-Warnings are for minor exposures, but streaming a rape would be a real mess, lol.
-Might have to turn off the stream and go ahead off stream.
-This is what virtual reality gaming is about, really gets your chest going.
-If it goes any more, that's gynecomastia*, lose some weight before watching the stream.
Han Se-ah, chatting with the viewers, and the rest of our group, all frowning, seemed sick from what they were seeing, but they had no intention of intervening.
After all, what could we say to the adventurers indulging their lower desires with a doppelganger?
Whether they continue their adventure after satisfying themselves or get ambushed and killed by the undead, it's all for their party leader to deal with.
"But aren't there too many of the Demon King's creations?"
"Definitely. There was a reason the brothers at the temple were concerned."
After dealing with a doppelganger gang, capturing skeleton lizardmen, encountering another gang, following Grace's lead to a distasteful scene, and meeting yet another gang...
Isn't this too much?
In terms of ratio, it felt like 4:5:1 for skeletons, zombie crocodiles, and troll bombs, but now it seems doppelgangers make up over 70%.
This led Han Se-ah, the party leader and streamer, to suggest a break and seek the viewers' opinions.
"Hey, should we just rush to the 40th floor instead of scouring the 36th? If the doppelgangers aren't regenerating out of thin air, there must be some kind of hatchery producing them. But then, if we blindly rush through like with the golems, we might miss quests and mess up the order, which would be a headache."
Clearly, she believes doppelgangers are different from regular monsters.
Just as there are rideable golems and places to repair them, she firmly believes there must be a place producing doppelgangers.
It would indeed be strange if doppelgangers, perfectly mimicking humans, just popped into existence out of nowhere.
In fantasy, aren't undead often spawned from something like a nest?
Like a massive, corrupted mass of flesh, squirming and churning out zombies.
With this in mind, Han Se-ah was convinced that locating the origin of the doppelgangers was crucial.
"But why are there more of them than undead? Is something else going on?"
"Maybe there are simply more of them. Remember, Roland destroyed that horrific tree on the 35th floor."
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"That huge tree was producing tentacles. Maybe there are trees that create undead and others that have monsters that replicate humans."
"Ah, so you mean the ratio of monsters imitating humans increased because Roland destroyed the tree that produced tentacles?"
"It's just a theory, of course, with no evidence. What do you think, Roland?"
In the flat clearing created by Earth Control, Han Se-ah and the viewers, along with Grace and Irene, started speculating about the doppelgangers.
The only hypothesis I could offer was:
"Regardless of anything else, we should eradicate the source of these human-mimicking monsters as soon as possible."
"Obviously. But why the sudden urgency?"
"Well, if adventurers capture replicas of beautiful women like the Saint or high-ranking mages from the Magic Tower and smuggle them out of the tower, it could lead to chaos."
"You're right. It's not about monsters escaping, but about the brothers who can't resist their desires."
It might be an exaggerated concern, but it's a possibility.
The moment a brothel full of saint doppelgangers is established, the city could be swept into turmoil.
The party, having already witnessed adventurers indulging with doppelgangers, couldn't refute this.
With nothing left to counter, an awkward silence swept over us, soon replaced by a renewed fervor to conquer the tower.
When a standard RPG becomes a virtual reality game, the added realism brings a slew of irritating issues.
For instance, consider an MMORPG quest going, 'There's a gang of thieves beyond the mountain, hero, please defeat them!'
In a computer RPG, whether you immediately hunt the thieves or leave them forever and quit the game doesn't really matter.
Even with some interaction, a few NPC deaths wouldn't significantly affect the game.
However, in the virtual reality game 'Heroes Chronicle', the story is different.
Going hunting could entangle you with a knight order on a punitive expedition.
Ignoring the thieves could lead to them growing stronger and wiping out other villages.
The scent of corpses might attract wandering monsters, and the infamy of the gang could give nobles a pretext for political fights.
"The mages at the Magic Tower must have started researching, right? It'll difficult for us to find it on our own."
"Still, since we're on our way up, we shouldn't leave it all to the brothers at the Magic Tower. We should do everything we can."
"After all, ignoring such creatures after receiving the Goddess's oracle would tarnish the name of the North."
So, it's only natural for the party to accelerate our progress.
For faith and honor, and various other reasons, the human-imitating doppelgangers must be dealt with.
The party has become quite serious, perhaps because they encountered an adventurer revealing his lust for a doppelganger.
Honestly, it's not a pleasant sight, so it's understandable that the women feel anger and seriousness.
The viewers didnt see it as the camera was hastily put away, but the sight of human-like monsters desperately trying to kill and men overpowering and assaulting them was quite revolting, even from a third-person perspective.
"So, I want to ask for your opinion. Should we head straight to the 40th floor, like we did with the rideable golem on the 30th, or should we thoroughly search floors 36 to 39 for something like a secret area where we found a golem mana stone?"
Since a boss monster appears every ten floors, there's bound to be something significant on the 40th floor.
The mana stone for the rideable golem wasn't found on the 30th floor but below it, so there might be something here as well.
Both opinions are valid, so the party delves deep into contemplation.
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*Gynecomastia is an overdevelopment or enlargement of the breast tissue in men or boys. -> google
I hope the author doesn't go much farther than what was in this chap. I looked at his reading list some time back... it goes deep down...
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