Monster - Chapter 29
Chapter 29: The Aztec Tower World
A cheerful, melodious song echoed in her ears. The singer’s voice was a bit childish, as pleasant as a gentle breeze blowing over a ridge, and it made her relax involuntarily.
Lin Sandie’s body felt as if it were sinking into a ball of cotton. She wanted to turn over comfortably but found she couldn’t move. She had no choice but to open her eyes and see where she was.
The first thing she saw upon opening her eyes was a miserable face. The small, dark face was not only stained with dried snot and water marks but was also bruised black and blue. The left brow bone was swollen high, and beads of blood were seeping from the tail of the eyebrow. The eye below the swelling, which should have been bright, was squeezed into a tiny slit, and it was carefully studying her.
“Wa~~” With a cry of surprise, Lin Sandie’s perspective was suddenly lifted and tilted downward, still facing that pitiful face. The top-down view allowed Lin Sandie to see the owner of the small face clearly. It was a disheveled little savage, about six or seven years old, wearing only a brown animal hide. Many parts of its surface were worn bare, looking very old.
“Little Rabbit!” the little savage stared at her, crying out in pleasant surprise. Then, Lin Sandie’s perspective shifted as she was suddenly pulled into the little savage’s embrace.
The little savage shouted, and immediately after, Lin Sandie felt her vision bobbing up and down. She knew the little savage was running while holding her.
After running for an unknown amount of time, the little savage finally took Lin Sandie out of its embrace. She saw that she was at the edge of a forest. A fresh breeze blew against her. The little savage held her and walked toward a pool of water ahead.
Lin Sandie’s perspective shifted again. She saw a reflection in the water: a little savage holding a rabbit doll the size of an adult’s palm, with a pair of red eyes. The rabbit had a round, cute head with long ears. On its face, besides the two eyes, there was only an “×” stitched with thread where the mouth should be, representing the rabbit’s mouth.
Lin Sandie only managed a quick glance before she was pushed into the water and began to be washed.
I must be very dirty, Lin Sandie thought, because her vision in the water started to become murky. After a moment, the dirty water dispersed, and she could see swaying water plants beneath the clear pool.
This might be a dream. It was the only answer that could explain the bizarre situation before her.
Lin Sandie felt her body being kneaded and squeezed by the little savage, but she felt no pain. After all, in this dream, she was a rabbit doll whose mouth was just an “×”.
After a good while of washing, when the little savage felt that no more dirt was coming off the rabbit doll, Lin Sandie was dragged out of the water, soaking wet. The little savage used both hands to forcefully squeeze the water out of the rabbit doll’s body.
As someone with obsessive-compulsive tendencies, Lin Sandie felt a bit uncomfortable. She thought the little savage wasn’t wringing her out properly. To wring her dry, one had to grab her head and feet and twist her into a spiral. Otherwise, a cotton-stuffed doll like her would easily start to stink if the water wasn’t squeezed out and it wasn’t thoroughly dried in the sun!
But Lin Sandie had no way to remind the little savage. She only had a pair of eyes.
The little savage haphazardly squeezed some water out of the rabbit doll, then grabbed one of its pencil-thin arms and started walking in some direction. Lin Sandie felt her vision jolt with the little savage’s skipping and hopping. If she could vomit, she would have been utterly sick by now.
However, after the ordeal of this strange dream, her originally gloomy mood had actually eased a little.
Originally, Lin Sandie had thought she would feel fear, regret, and remorse for killing Qian Kun... But in fact, those emotions didn’t appear. They seemed to have transformed into something else, just like the feelings Yan Ting had given her, settling bit by bit into her soul and changing her.
The little savage carried her for a long distance, passing through layers of forest, until Lin Sandie, through her tumbling vision, saw a collapsed, moss-covered temple. Only then did the little savage slow down. The swinging of the rabbit doll became less violent, and she began to hum the song Lin Sandie had heard at the beginning.
Lin Sandie saw the little savage leading her make several twists and turns, then climb over various huge, collapsed steps before reaching a more hidden corner of the temple. That place was also in ruins, overgrown with weeds, and many areas had caved in. Not far away lay many toppled and shattered stone statues of gods. The statues were covered in green vines, their appearance ancient and rough, unlike modern, exquisite carvings. But this gave them a primitive, mysterious feeling, as if they carried a certain majesty from ancient times.
Lin Sandie’s perspective was lowered to face a toppled statue of a goddess. Compared to the other destroyed statues, this one was much more intact, with only a piece of its shoulder chipped off and one wrist severed.
Many patterns were carved on the goddess statue, depicting an ancient robe. The lines of her face were simple, but at a glance, it created the illusion that she was smiling and watching her.
“You little slob! Don’t just put something you just washed on the ground!” Lin Sandie shouted in her mind, because that would get more dust and dirt on the doll.
Lin Sandie felt that if she stayed with the little savage for too long, her obsessive-compulsive tendencies would get even worse.
The little savage had no idea what this rabbit doll she had just picked up was thinking. She knelt beside the goddess statue like a child returning home and gently kissed the statue’s cheek.
“Mom, I’m back,” the little savage called out softly, then pointed a finger at Lin Sandie.
“This is Little Rabbit.”
“Little Rabbit, this is Mom.” The little savage turned her face to Lin Sandie, introducing them very seriously. Then she leaned down and also gave Lin Sandie a gentle kiss on the cheek.
So dirty… Lin Sandie thought with disgust.
“Let’s eat.” There was no one else around, only the chirping of insects in the dilapidated temple. The little savage lowered her head, took out a dark, unidentifiable piece of food from her pocket, and broke it into three pieces. She placed one piece in front of the goddess statue and one in front of Lin Sandie.
“I’m eating~” The little savage happily stuffed the dark lump of food into her mouth in one bite.
Watching the little savage’s happy expression, Lin Sandie felt both heartbroken and helpless. She sighed deeply in her heart, hoping this bizarre dream would end soon.
“Heh…” Lin Sandie suddenly heard a soft chuckle in her ear. The voice was gentle and tinged with amusement, completely different from the little savage’s childish, clear voice. Startled, Lin Sandie quickly looked at the little savage, only to see her struggling to chew the food in her mouth. Because of the injuries on her face, chewing pulled at her wounds, and she would periodically stop and suck in a breath to ease the pain. There was no way that soft chuckle could have come from her.
“Welcome to the Tower World, Aztec!”
“Here, there are endless dangers, but also endless opportunities.”
A gentle female voice sounded in her mind, making Lin Sandie want to frown. Although she had no eyebrows, her current form was that of a filthy rabbit doll. Even if she got an opportunity, would it be to become a powerful rabbit doll? Leaving aside what would even count as a powerful rabbit doll, she didn’t even have a mouth or the ability to move. She only had a pair of eyes to see with. How was she supposed to face these so-called endless dangers?
Conservative and restrained, Lin Sandie remained silent, pretending she was really just a rabbit doll.
But the gentle, pleasant female voice didn’t seem to intend to let her go. Her voice echoed in Lin Sandie’s mind again, “You can call me ‘Pie’.”
“…Why am I here? Why have I become like this?”
Knowing she could no longer pretend, Lin Sandie responded in her mind to this person called “Pie.”
“Because you longed for change, longed to no longer be powerless. I have given you the chance to change.”
“…Can I refuse this ‘chance’?” Lin Sandie emphasized the word “chance” particularly heavily.
“Are you willing to pay with your life to refuse?” Pie’s voice was still gentle, without a hint of anger.
Hearing this, Lin Sandie suddenly realized that she might have lost her life in that frenzied, irrational fight. And this being called Pie, some unknown entity, had pulled her into this Tower World called “Aztec,” placing her soul inside a rabbit doll.
Seeing that Lin Sandie didn’t speak, Pie continued, “Complete the missions I issue and accumulate points. Points can be exchanged for items and abilities you desire. When you are awake, you will still be in your world, with your original identity and status. When you sleep, your consciousness will come to the Tower World. Injuries you sustain in reality will not endanger your consciousness in the Tower World, unless it is instant death. However, if your consciousness dies in the Tower World, you will also die in reality.”
“And the items and abilities you obtain in this world will return to the real world with you when you completely break free from this world.”
“So, you’re saying that as long as I don’t suffer an instantly fatal injury in reality, I can escape to this Tower World by falling asleep. But if I’m killed instantly in reality, like being shot in the head, then I’ll die for good. And in the Tower World, as long as I don’t die instantly, I can wake up and return to reality?”
Lin Sandie seriously analyzed Pie’s words. Although she couldn’t quite accept what was happening, her meticulous personality made her subconsciously ponder these questions.
“So if I just don’t sleep, I won’t come here?”
“Ugh… that’s impossible. I’ll die if I don’t sleep.” Lin Sandie immediately rejected this coping mechanism in her mind. Her sleep schedule had always been healthy. She was the type who would eat breakfast even if the sky was falling and would go to sleep no later than midnight, usually getting into bed before 10:30.
One question after another popped into Lin Sandie’s mind. Of course, she wasn’t asking Pie, so the latter didn’t answer her. From this, Lin Sandie discovered that the mental conversation had to be based on her own will. This made her relax a little. At least there was no evidence that this being called Pie could spy on her thoughts.
“Then to what extent must I complete the missions you issue to be able to break free from this Tower World?”
“Until you possess the ability to completely leave the Tower World,” Pie answered vaguely.
“What counts as having the ability?” Lin Sandie pressed.
Pie didn’t speak again, but a blue screen of light appeared before Lin Sandie’s eyes. At the very top were the words “Divine Weapons,” and the first line read:
Fate’s Spear, the Spear of Longinus, exchange price: one million points.
Zeus’s Shield, the Aegis Shield, exchange price: one million points.
…
Whether it was “Aztec” or these other terms, Lin Sandie recognized none of them. She casually let her gaze rest on “Zeus’s Shield,” and the entry immediately opened.
Name: Aegis Shield
Rank: S-Class
The shield of Zeus, king of the gods. Its surface is entwined with many golden patterns and lightning, forged by Hephaestus from the hide of a sacred goat.
Positive Effects:
1. Can have a strong intimidating effect on enemies.
2. Using this shield increases combat power by 200% and grants the ability to track and petrify enemies.
【Special Effect】When the shield’s surface is struck, there is an 80% chance of generating black lightning.
Negative Effects:
Frequent use of this shield will cause the user to be dominated by sudden sexual desire. The object of this desire is not limited by race or species.
When Lin Sandie read that the object of sexual desire was not limited by race or species, she was momentarily at a loss for words. The list on the light screen before her scrolled down again, and soon, Lin Sandie saw another list.
Morning Star, exchange price: 100,000 points.
Positive Effects: None
Negative Effects: None
【Special Effect】Grasp it to return to the Main World.
Hole, exchange price: 50,000 points.
Positive Effects: None
Negative Effects: None
【Special Effect】Step into it to jump to another Tower World.
…
“So, if I complete Pie’s missions and get 100,000 points, I can exchange them for this ‘Morning Star’ and return to reality completely…” Lin Sandie muttered, looking at the simple description of the Morning Star on the screen. But when she saw the next item, she froze, feeling her non-existent heart begin to pound.
“Pie,” Lin Sandie began, “is Leviathan in the Main World or a Tower World?”
“Leviathan. Tower World. Code: A2-67ER.” Pie’s gentle but emotionless voice rang in Lin Sandie’s ear.
Author's Notes
There is no evidence that everything Pie says is the truth.
The background setting for Aztec is based on the 16th-century Spanish invasion of the Aztec Empire in Mesoamerica. The Aztec civilization is one of the three great ancient civilizations of the Americas, an Indian civilization.
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