Chapter 15: So Annoying

The next place to visit was anything but simple.

It could be called the most avoided spot in Anvil City, a place almost no one willingly approached.

That was the underground area of Anvil City, known as the Dungeon.

The Dungeon wasn’t very large, having been transformed from the city’s old, abandoned drainage system and underground defensive structures. Now, it had become the only refuge for those cursed within Anvil City.

From the moment the Abyss surged up from the depths, the curse had lingered like a shadow, erupting without warning on some people. Later, these people came to be called the Cursed.

As time passed, people gradually discovered that those bearing the curse attracted the attention and threat of the Abyss.

Since then, the Cursed were regarded as harbingers of disaster.

They endured the world’s rejection, fear, and condemnation.

Some, unable to accept the fact of being cursed, chose to end themselves. Others couldn’t bear the cold stares and left their homes to flee, only to find they could not escape the doom of the Abyss.

Most chose to hide their identities and continue to live as usual. But once exposed, what awaited them was either exile or execution.

At first, the scale of the curse’s outbreak was not large; only a few Cursed appeared.

But as the power of the Abyss grew, the number of Cursed increased as well. The curse would erupt without warning among the people, like an invisible plague.

To deal with the rapidly emerging Cursed, different towns adopted different methods.

Some towns ruthlessly executed the discovered Cursed, while most maintained a policy of exile. As for Anvil City, it transformed its underground facilities and drove all the city’s Cursed into the Dungeon.

Thus, the Dungeon became the only shelter for the Cursed.

Those living underground no longer had to face cold eyes and rejection, but they also lost their freedom and hope.

This was no refuge, but a cage of despair breeding in the depths below.

Like sewer rats, they huddled together in the Dungeon, barely clinging to life in the foul-smelling, hopeless darkness, numbly awaiting the end of death.

Entering the Dungeon—though called a “dungeon,” it was actually just a relatively open space, filled with makeshift shacks cobbled together from broken planks and scraps of cloth.

Here, one could see hunched, hollow-eyed figures everywhere. Most were dressed in rags and emaciated to the bone.

But they all shared one thing in common: somewhere on their bodies was a black flame mark, symbolizing the curse. In the corners of the Dungeon, one could occasionally spot a corpse covered by rags or simply exposed, left unattended to slowly rot and blend into the underground filth.

The people imprisoned here had long lost the light in their eyes, leaving only numb resignation.

Perhaps, some among them had once struggled, but it was all in vain.

The curse was like an incurable terminal disease. Once it appeared, only death awaited them, often coming cruelly in excruciating pain.

Yuuri walked through the despair-filled Dungeon, the suffocating heaviness pressing down to the point of being unbearable.

Everything before her pierced deep into her heart like a sharp thorn. She too had once been trapped in such a cage of despair, unable to see any hope of life, left only with numbness and despair.

Before she was completely swallowed, Yuuri made a different choice.

She fought her way out, clawing her way from that shadowy, despair-ridden place, struggling desperately to escape.

When her fingertips finally touched the sunlight outside, she looked back at the darkness that nearly consumed her, and without hesitation, threw herself further into the light. After that, following the path she chose, Yuuri had been struggling ever since.

And she would continue to struggle.

“Ugh… I really don’t get it, why would anyone crawl into a place like this.”

Iris’s voice sounded in her ear. Ever since they entered the Dungeon, the little Evil God had been frowning, pinching her nose—even though, being a projection, she couldn’t actually touch it.

Strangely, though she was just a projection, this little one seemed able to smell the place.

If she really couldn’t stand it, she could just cut off the projection and return to Yuuri’s body, shutting out all outside sensation—but she didn’t.

Perhaps curiosity had overcome her disgust, and Iris wanted to see for herself just why Yuuri had come here.

“Yuuri-chan, you’re not seriously looking for someone here, are you? Everyone here’s just waiting to die. Are you sure the person you want is here?”

Iris let out a huffy, exasperated sound.

“You’ve got a great deity right behind you, you know! Leave it to me and it’ll be settled in no time, so why won’t you trust me?”

She just couldn’t understand it. She was a deity, for goodness’ sake! Not only did Yuuri not trust her, but she even came to this rat’s nest to look for someone. So annoying.

If she’d known it would turn out like this, she shouldn’t have been so careless before and given Yuuri a chance to turn the tables and kill her.

“I am looking for someone, but not here.”

“Huh?”

Iris lifted her tiny fist and swung it at Yuuri’s head, only for it to pass right through as expected.

“Not here, then what are we doing here?

Hmm… Yuuri-chan, don’t tell me you have some weird fetish and like to crawl around in dirty, gloomy places like this?”

As she spoke, the little Evil God’s expression changed, and her body instinctively shrank back, giving Yuuri a suspicious look.

“There’s a shortcut here that leads to where I want to go,” Yuuri explained. “There are other entrances too, but they’re all guarded, so it’s hard to get in.”

“Oh? So where are we going?”

For a moment, Iris seemed interested.

“It’s also underground,” Yuuri paused for a beat, “it’s called the Underground Black Market.”

Crossing the oppressive Dungeon, Yuuri knew there was a little-known shortcut that led directly to the Underground Black Market.

She didn’t know who had created that shortcut, or what had become of them, but it had certainly provided her with a lot of convenience.

Once she found the hidden path, Yuuri took out a black mask from the cloth pouch tied at her waist and put it on, hiding her face.

The moment she passed through the shortcut and entered the Black Market, Iris immediately began her commentary.

“This place isn’t half bad.”

It was completely different from the land of despair they’d just left. Although still underground, it was like a whole other world.

Before them, the Black Market looked like a fairly bustling bazaar. On either side of the road were shops not much different from those aboveground, but most of the vendors simply spread a blanket on the ground, set out their goods, and started hawking their wares.

Though it couldn’t compare to the market above, the flow of people here was still quite decent.

What set it apart from the aboveground market was that here, one could buy many prohibited and dangerous items banned on the surface. Besides illegal trade, there were also plenty of shady businesses hidden from the light.

Of course, the reason these operations continued unimpeded was naturally due to tacit approval from the big shots above. After all, they needed these industries to generate income—not just from Anvil City, but to attract outside investments as well.

Yuuri’s purpose in coming was not for these things. Ignoring the strange and curious items on display at the stalls, she walked through the bustling crowd, paying no attention to the endless shouts or the people trying to grab her attention and sell her all sorts of novel experiences.

She headed straight for a quiet corner of the Black Market, where she found a somewhat deserted shop selling all kinds of materials.