Chapter 4: Is doomed

Before I could react, my body suddenly lost all sense of weight, and I plummeted downward.

“Mm mm mm…”

I opened my Mouth on the Stomach wide, but all that filled it was rushing wind.

“Ulu ulu ulu? (Seaweed Ball, where are you?)”

No one answered me; the world remained pitch black.

The only thing I could truly feel was the coin clenched tightly in my hand, radiating a faint warmth.

“Pu-ye—”

The Mouth on the Stomach suddenly opened wide and spat out its long tongue.

I immediately grabbed one end, letting the Mouth on the Stomach devour all the flesh within, leaving behind only an extremely tough Elastic Membrane.

The speed of my fall suddenly slowed, turning into a gentle drift.

“Hehe, you can’t kill me with a fall.”

Sticking my tongue out at the darkness, I swayed downwards, not knowing where I was heading—perhaps to a deeper level of hell.

Falling, falling.

A long, unending journey.

I started to think about my “life.”

Bound, imprisoned, waking up to find myself trapped in a cage.

The cage was white, a void of pure white, and here, it was black, an endless, sunless darkness.

I didn’t know where I had come from; my memories were vague and fragmented.

But I faintly remembered—I was a person.

A good person.

Plop.

My foot landed on solid ground, surrounded by darkness.

I pulled the long tongue back into the Mouth on the Stomach and wandered forward aimlessly.

I kept walking.

When I took the six hundred sixty-sixth step, the world changed completely.

A thick layer of coins suddenly surged upward, flooding past my ankles, but my body kept sinking as if I were being swallowed by a silver swamp.

The clattering sound was noisy and chaotic, as if I could hear people talking.

“Just this one coin will decide if I go or stay.”

“O great Coin God, please show me the path ahead.”

“Master of Probability, King of Exchange, please cast the dice of fate for this lost sheep.”

What the heck is all this?

“So noisy.” I covered my ears, but the voices kept drilling into my head.

“I pray to you…”

Pray to your mother.

“Tell me! Tell me! Please, just tell me the right answer and I can become the richest person! Daydreaming, huh, what a fantasy.”

“Coin, oh coin, what should I eat today?”

Might as well ask me.

After listening for a while, it was clear they were all making impossible wishes.

Half my body was already submerged in the sea of coins, only my upper half able to move.

I spat out a coin that had fallen into my mouth, staring bitterly at the restraints on my hands.

If it weren’t for these things, I would’ve escaped long ago.

Now look, no food left, and I’m about to be buried alive in coins.

No way, if I die, I’ll die stuffed.

Since there’s nothing to eat, I’ll eat these coins—anything to not starve to death.

I opened my mouth and swallowed more and more coins as if drinking water. The Mouth on the Stomach became a gluttonous monster, frantically sucking them in.

“Ugh…so sour, so nasty…”

Mixed in with all sorts of desires, they tasted spicy and pungent.

But I didn’t stop, continuing to devour.

I didn’t even notice that as I devoured, the surrounding voices grew quieter and quieter, almost fading to silence—only the clatter of coins remained, but even that began to slow.

Eat, eat, eat—eat myself to death.

***

In the end, I grew greedy and started diving deeper into the sea of coins, searching for more “food.”

But it was that very action that sent the entire ocean into a frenzy. I could feel waves of metal-laden force crashing over me, nearly shattering my bones, but I wasn’t swept away.

Instead, I swam even deeper, heading toward the very bottom.

Eat, eat, eat—eat you to death.

Crunch, crunch—

More and more coins filled my stomach, yet I still didn’t feel full.

Finally, when I refused to stop, the entire space suddenly shuddered. A mighty force hurled me, along with the whole sea, outward, smashing through the edge of darkness.

In an instant, a blinding light forced me to close my eyes.

Boom!

The world turned upside down again; everything spun.

“Ugh—”

I couldn’t help but vomit, but all that came out was air—as if I’d eaten nothing at all.

The next second, another jolt hit.

Only then did I realize—I was being carried over someone’s shoulder.

It was already near dusk.

So dizzy.

“Tch, I thought you’d sleep yourself to death…”

From below—meaning, the one carrying me—Lu Xiu grumbled irritably.

“Uh…what happened—”

Boom, boom——

Explosions instantly drowned out his words.

From within the endless smoke, a black shadow burst through the fog, rushing past flames and shattered buildings, darting toward the corner.

“And you still have the nerve to ask! If you hadn’t touched that coin, we wouldn’t have been exposed.”

Exposed?

I looked behind us—someone in Tight-fitting Black Clothes and a mask was hot on our heels.

Further back, an accomplice was crouched on the ground, shouldering a rocket launcher—the pitch-black barrel pointed straight at our backs.

Our eyes met.

Click.

A flaming projectile burst forth, trailing a blazing red tail like a raging bull charging at us.

We’re doomed!

Terrified, I twisted, throwing Lu Xiu off-balance. Just as he was about to yell, a strong pull yanked us both aside.

By a hair’s breadth, the rocket screamed past his head and crashed into the convenience store at the end of the street, exploding violently, fire lighting up the sky.

I retracted the long tongue wound around the streetlamp and wiped my sweat.

Good thing the Mouth on the Stomach kicked in at the crucial moment—otherwise, we’d be the ones blowing up right now.

“Ha……”

Lu Xiu was still sitting on the ground, his butt bruised by a few chunks of debris.

Seeing the enemy closing in, he didn’t have time to rest. He grabbed me up again and dashed into a side alley.

“Mm mm mm……stop bouncing me around, I’m gonna die.”

“And you still have the heart to complain?! Run yourself if you can, I’m not carrying you.”

“Mmm… ugh—”

I threw up again.

Each time he moved, my stomach got slammed, squeezing my gut—pure torture.

“Can’t you carry me another way? I’m really suffering here.”

“Let’s survive this attack first, then you can worry about being comfortable!”

Lu Xiu snapped.

“Who are they anyway? Why are they chasing us?”

“Either cultists worshipping oddities or demons, or bounty hunters after our heads.”

“Eh…I didn’t do anything wrong, so it must be you! You’ve offended too many people—now you’re doomed.”

“If I die, you won’t survive either.”

I froze. “Why?”

He didn’t even look back, just rounded another corner. “My life is tied to the restraints—if I die, the restraints explode. Get it?”

“You’re so mean!”

I raised my fist and punched him.

“Tch…”

He suddenly stopped—just ahead, a black-clad figure was blocking the intersection, and behind me—meaning, behind his back—another black-clad figure was closing in.

Now we’re wrapped up like dumplings.