Chapter 126: The Sly Curse.

I barely managed to escape the curse that had been tormenting me.

This curse was tough too.

I didn’t feel like the curse’s power itself was particularly strong.

Instead, this time the curse was extremely sly.

At first, it came on strong.

It made me mistake it for the Curse of Arrogance.

So I tried to listen to what others were saying.

Because listening to others is the best way to overcome arrogance.

The curse whispered to me, urging me to lure people into Slime Land.

The most troublesome part of this curse was that what it wanted and what I wanted were somewhat aligned.

If it had just been about bringing people into Slime Land, it wouldn’t have been so bad.

After all, that’s the same reason companies do marketing.

But the curse and I had different destinations.

Soon, it would have whispered to turn Slime Land into a place with no future.

That’s when the possibility of coexistence disappeared.

There’s an old saying, ‘chimangseoljon’.

It means that even if you lose your teeth, your tongue remains. The strong and hard break easily, but the soft and flexible endure.

This curse felt exactly like that.

Instead of trying to force me with power, it gently nudged me in the direction it wanted.

When I was walking ahead, it gave me a gentle push from behind.

Just a little farther.

Just a slight change in direction.

Creating a tiny deviation that would one day become a huge difference.

And it would stay with me, always trying to grow that deviation.

Maybe it used up a lot of its strength pretending to be the Curse of Arrogance at the start.

After it started whispering to me, the curse’s power wasn’t all that strong.

But the curse didn’t need to be strong.

Since it was pushing me in the direction I was already going, even a gentle push was effective enough.

The grander the dream, the farther away it tends to be.

You can imagine it, but you can’t see it, so you don’t know exactly where it is.

It’s a voyage where you don’t know the exact direction.

The farther away your destination is, even a difference of just one degree can become huge.

This curse tried to gently shift my direction as it pushed me from behind.

And that was enough.

If you realize you’ve arrived at the wrong place and it’s not your intended destination, you’re lucky.

Because it’s a place you only imagined, you might mistake the wrong place for the one you dreamed of.

That was probably the curse’s goal this time-to make me mistake it.

It wanted me to mistake its goal for my own.

“This kind of behavior must be Lust, right?”

The way a curse acts depends on what kind of curse it is.

Judging by how smooth and sly it was, if I had to classify it among the Seven Deadly Sins, this curse would be Lust.

Of course, there’s no guarantee that’s correct.

The Seven Deadly Sins is just a framework I use to make things easier to understand.

Just as human emotions are complex, curses can’t be described in a single word.

And it’s not just curses that influence me.

I’m a human with emotions.

When a curse’s influence is strong, that emotion stands out, but other emotions also affect my actions.

Even if I overcome fear and get a [+Courage] buff, not all fear disappears.

Even if I overcome the curse of gluttony and get a [+Temperance] buff, I can still cross the line.

Even if I overcome the curses of distrust and jealousy and get a [+Faith] buff, I don’t trust everything.

Even if I overcome the Curse of Sloth, it doesn’t mean I never stray onto another path.

Even if the Curse of Arrogance hasn’t come yet, I can still become arrogant.

Even if the Curse of Anger hasn’t come yet, I can still get angry.

Because I’m human, not a god or a saint.

So not every action I take is because of a curse.

Still, if I think about what the curse was aiming for, it’s probably Lust with high probability.

A happy dream you can never wake up from.

Isn’t that just like the succubus that symbolizes Lust?

Lust is the desire to seek out beauty.

It’s the kind of desire that makes you fall deep into physical love and ruin both your own and others’ lives.

Since it’s tied to the instinctive urge for reproduction in all living things, it’s a very powerful desire.

But when the curse tried to start acting, it must have sensed a problem.

A curse tries to devour me by amplifying a particular emotion or desire.

I was seized by fear and tormented by all sorts of negative thoughts.

I was seized by gluttony and tried to consume everything.

I was seized by distrust and jealousy and desperately tried to do everything on my own, pushing everyone away.

I was seized by sloth and gave up on deep thinking.

So what about Lust?

It’s supposed to pursue physical pleasure…

I looked down.

“There’s nothing.”

Basically, sexual desire is a longing for members of the same species.

Of course, there are exceptions, but that’s the general rule.

I don’t have any members of my own species.

That’s one strike.

Sexual desire is the urge to reproduce.

How do slimes reproduce?

For now, I multiply by dividing, but that’s called asexual reproduction.

Biologically speaking, I have no gender.

No gender means no mate. There’s no one I’m instinctively drawn to.

Two strikes.

Desire is triggered by various hormones.

Hormones?

My body is slime.

I could manufacture hormones, but there’s no organ for them to target.

I don’t have reproductive organs in the first place.

Three strikes.

Out.

Of course, if you go deep enough, you could end up with some kind of mythological family tree.

It could be a world where people get attacked by tentacles and slimes and get slapped with a red sticker.

If I did that kind of thing, I’d immediately sense how wrong it was and go all out against the curse.

I’d dig down to the mantle and burn myself up with the Earth’s heat and the flames of [Purification+].

I’m the owner of a body that’s not suitable as a target for Lust.

But if it gave up, it wouldn’t be a curse.

Curses are annoyingly dedicated to their job.

Just as the curse of jealousy amplified distrust, Lust also amplified a different aspect.

It removed the ‘physical’ part from physical love.

If what was left was just love, that would be nice, but then it wouldn’t be a curse.

With that key element of Lust gone, love became twisted.

This time, the curse loved a person.

It probably wanted to make the person happy out of love.

But the way it went about it became twisted.

The curse became one that drags the beloved deep into the abyss with love.

This curse….

Yeah.

Rather than calling it Lust, calling it a twisted love fits better.

I wish the person I love could be happy.

I wish the person I love could always be by my side.

I wish the person I love could always be happy by my side.

The result is to dream forever in Slime Land, never waking up.

In subculture, this kind of love is called yandere.

I’m not sure if that really exists in reality.

But you can find something similar in real life.

Helicopter parents.

Defining what happiness is for their child.

Interfering with their child’s actions.

Overprotecting their child.

Saying they want their child to be happy because they love them.

Of course, what the Curse of Lust tried to do was even more extreme than this.

It tried to drag them into Slime Land, where I could control everything.

Because only then could I protect them perfectly.

It tried to cut them off from others and pull them into a world of their own.

Because conflict with others inevitably leads to pain.

And it defined true happiness as a world where whatever you wish for happens without any pain, and tried to bestow that upon people.

“I guess you would be happy.”

Material abundance, infinite freedom, absolute power.

Having all these things is happiness.

If you define happiness like this, then the place the Curse of Lust tried to create is clearly a utopia.

I won’t deny it.

This too is a form of happiness.

But this happiness has no future.

A person caught by this happiness will leave nothing behind.

But so what.

-If everyone is happy, isn’t that good?

How many people can completely deny this statement?

There will be people who worry about the future.

If people leave nothing behind, reality will grow more and more bleak as time passes.

They won’t even leave descendants, so humanity ends with me.

But if someone who worries like that comes to me.

“Don’t worry about anything else. I’ll take care of everything. You just pursue your own happiness.”

If I tempt them like this, could they really refuse?

You don’t even have to worry about the extinction of humanity.

I can just create them artificially.

A world where I manage everything.

That could be a world where everyone feels happy.

But it’s a world where I am the limit.

That must not happen.

Because I am a human, not a god.

I must not close off human potential.

Life has ups and downs.

Because of those ups and downs, your legs grow strong.

And you can climb to greater heights.

Of course it will be hard.

Climbing is tough, and you’ll be anxious about how long you can keep going.

When you go down, it’s painful, you lose your balance, and you’re afraid you’ll fall endlessly.

If that’s the case, then just walk together.

The path each person walks is different.

When I’m climbing uphill, the person next to me might be going downhill.

At those times, reach out a hand to the person on the side path.

Reach out a hand so they don’t lose their balance.

That way, when I’m about to go downhill, that person will reach out a hand to me.

If there’s someone struggling in front of a steep hill, reach out a hand.

If there’s someone suffering on the ground, reach out a hand.

If someone is clinging to the top, not wanting to go down, help them see the next peak.

If we help each other like that as we go.

People can definitely reach greater heights.

We can climb even higher, beyond the sky made of slime.

If you erase the ups and downs of the world just because it’s hard.

If you carry someone on your back just because they’re tired.

If you erase all pain just because someone is hurting.

People can’t grow.

You can’t go beyond the sky of slime.

“Status window.”

[Trait: Slime☆☆☆☆☆ Lv. 1.

+Courage +Temperance +Faith +Diligence +Respect

Skills:

Decompose+ Lv. 1. Absorb+ Lv. 1.

Analyze+ Lv. 1. Divide+ Lv. 1.

Transform+ Lv. 1. Store+ Lv. 1.

Convert+ Lv. 1. Multiply+ Lv. 1.

Accelerate+ Lv. 1. Link+ Lv. 1.

Harden+ Lv. 1. Purification+ Lv. 1.

Healing☆ Lv. 1. Evangelize+ Lv. 1.

Barrier☆ Lv. 1.]

Five stars.

And the [+Respect] buff has been added.

[+Respect], huh.

I didn’t respect the other person.

I saw them as someone I had to take care of from beginning to end.

That must not happen.

Slime Land is a rest area.

It must not become the final stop of life.

Any time is fine.

It’s fine when you’re a child, struggling to choose among countless dreams.

It’s fine to come here while searching for yourself on a journey.

It’s fine to come when you’ve lost your way in the storms of society.

It’s fine to come when you’re starting a second life in the middle of your years.

It’s fine even when it’s nothing grand.

It’s fine to come just to soothe the fatigue of a tiring day.

It’s fine even when you’re feeling troubled after a fight.

It’s fine when you feel like you have nowhere to belong.

It’s fine even when you’re bored.

When you need a break, just come into Slime Land and rest.

But someday, you have to leave again.

No matter how comfortable the shelter is.

Someday, you have to spread your wings and take flight.

Supporting someone quietly.

That’s probably what it means to love with respect.

Now, since everything’s settled, shall I finish off that suspicious thing?

<Curse Fragment>

-A part of a curse forged from deep resentment.

■■ The dearest one will be lost in the Swamp of Despair ■■ struggling and will meet their end in the hand■■■!

The dearest one will be lost in the Swamp of Despair, struggling, and meet their end in the hand!

I’ve learned quite a bit.

There are five masked words… or is it four?

‘Struggling’ is so ambiguously masked.

Are you claiming that the curse you just spat out is worth 1.2 units?

Even that 1.2 doesn’t seem to be filled entirely with the Curse of Lust.

Considering that the curse pretended to be Arrogance, that can’t be purely the Curse of Lust.

There were also traits of the Curse of Sloth mixed in.

Roughly estimating, wasn’t it about 0.7 Lust, 0.2 Sloth, and 0.3 Arrogance?

“Is this the Anabada Movement?”

Is this a curse that saves, shares, exchanges, and reuses?

I get that my constant burning with [Purification+] is causing a funding crisis, but do you really have to torment me so frugally?

Why are curses so diligent about their core business?

Five letters starting with ‘struggling’. Plus, with the word ‘swamp’ in front, I can take it as struggling in the Swamp of Despair.

The very last word is probably ‘will be’.

If I try to reconstruct the sentence based on this-

■■ The dearest one will be lost (in) the Swamp of Despair, struggling (to escape), and will meet their end (in the hand)!

Something like that, I suppose.

Let’s burn away the missing information with the curse.

I summoned the flames of [Purification+] onto my palm.

With that hand, I grabbed the <Curse Fragment>.

The flames of [Purification+] mercilessly burned the <Curse Fragment>.

As expected, it’s nice to be able to burn it directly.

Just like last time, black smoke wrapped around me.

–

It’s dark all around.

I felt as if someone was calling me.

Something blocked my way.

There was a gap, but it was so narrow that I left most of my body behind and only a part passed through.

Drawn by the call, I was descending when suddenly a much more appetizing smell caught my attention, so I changed direction.

There was a pile of delicious things, so I devoured them all.

The more I ate, the more I felt something eroding me, but I didn’t care.

Things kept changing into something else, but it didn’t matter.

After devouring everything, I waited blankly.

Then, something attacked the skull, which was the owner (?).

A human wielding a weapon burned the skull.

The skull left behind incomprehensible words.

My body was dragged somewhere.

The place I was dragged to was the body of some creature.

I was trying to reshape that body into a more convenient form, but for some reason, it wasn’t working well.

As I was changing it little by little, walls of light rose up on all sides.

–

The vision snapped off abruptly.

“So that’s what happened.”

The 1.2 units’ worth of curse gave me more information than before.

I could sense even more clearly the existence of something that came from beyond.

The Ribbon cult summoned an evil god that would devour everything and create anew only the chosen ones.

From what I felt, it does seem to be a being that devours everything and creates something new.

But I doubt things will go as smoothly as the Ribbon cult believes.

I doubt that what is newly created will be the perfect existence they hope for, or that their minds will remain intact when they are swallowed.

What descended was a petty, tiny fragment compared to the evil god’s true body.

That fragment had no significant self-awareness.

I didn’t sense the intelligence to distinguish between enemy and teammate.

If I do well, maybe I could control it and use it as I wish.

Looks like the lich almost succeeded.

The evil god’s fragment that descended was lured by the bait the lich had prepared.

The lich prepared a huge mass of curse, made by gathering countless emotions drifting in the world.

That was extremely attractive to the evil god’s fragment.

The fragment instinctively devoured the mass of curse.

It was the process of swallowing the poison prepared by the lich and becoming the lich’s puppet.

When the prepared mass of curse was all eaten, the fragment came under the skull’s control.

The lich tried to use the altered evil god’s fragment for something.

I don’t know what the lich’s goal was.

Since it was attacked before it could properly handle the evil god’s fragment tainted by curse.

The attacker wasn’t clear.

Although it wasn’t clear, I feel like I saw golden flames.

Come to think of it, Gisu did say he subjugated the cult’s tentacle monster before.

I picked up one of the tentacles and waved it in front of my eyes.

“….”