The World Is Overflowing with Monster, I’m Taking a Liking to This Life

Chapter 168: Moment of Submission

TN: System announcements will henceforth be differentiated using <these>.

*****

A high school girl has suddenly begun begging me for her life.

What I just said might sound crazy, but thats how it is.

(I mean, why is she even here?)

The person trembling in front of me is Igarashi Touka, the former Student Council President of my alma mater.

Shes the biological daughter of Fujita-san.

Furthermore, she has this worrisome skill called Enchantment which Nishino-kun suffered from back when we were at the school.

She hasnt caused any problem since she arrived at the City Hall, and Ive been keeping a distance between us, hoping that I wouldnt get involved with her in any way

(Is she the one who was staring at me earlier?)

There arent any signs of other people or monsters.

The other Treants in this area arent acting up either, probably because they just witnessed the death of a Flowered Treant, their Superior Species.

She and I are alone in the truest sense.

(I should be fine. Her brainwashing skills should be ineffective against me because I have Mental Distress Tolerance.)

Since Nishino-kuns Command skill couldnt do anything against me, I should be safe facing her skills as well.

Her skills a pain in the butt, but shell be at a disadvantage if we were to fight one-on-one.

I glance at her.

Hiii.

Huh? I just glanced at you. Whats there to be scared about?

Am I that scary? Is this a side effect of Evolution?

No, it cant be. Nishino-kun and the others were fine in front of us.

Why are you so frightened?

Eh? No, t-thats

Its almost as if you have something that you wish to hide

!

She becomes visibly upset at my words.

I heard a strange announcement in my head just now. Something about the level of Appraisal Interruption having gone up.

Ahthats

I close up the distance between us.

For every step that I advance, she retreats, paralyzed with fear.

Ah.

Theres nowhere for her to retreat anymore.

Her back hits the wall.

I crouch down on the ground, thrust my face close enough that I can feel her breaths, and stare at her in the eyes.

Igarashi-san, do you perhaps have Appraisal.

She doesnt reply.

However, her behavior up to this point can only mean one thing.

She has it. Theres no other way to explain.

How did you get it? And why are you out here in the middle of the night?

She doesnt respond to my questions.

With her mouth shut, she turns to face another direction.

Irritated, I slam the portion of the wall that is near her face.

Hiii~

Shes terrified.

<Certain conditions have been met.>

<You have acquired the skill Coercion.>

<Skill proficiency has reached a certain threshold.>

<Coercion has increased from LV 1 to LV 2.>

<Skill proficiency has reached a certain threshold.>

<Coercion has increased from LV 2 to LV 3.>

Oh, I got a new skill.

Coercion its effects should be as its name implies.

I activate Coercion on the spot.

HiiAhA.

Shes around 30% more scared than before.

Interesting. Its a skill that literally scares its targets.

Its also nice to know that its an active skill instead of a passive one.

Why? Why isnt it working?

?.Ohhh. So youve been trying to cast your skill on me.

She most likely attempted to Enchant me during this time-frame.

I didnt notice because none of my skills have leveled up.

Simply put, the effect of her skill is so insignificant that my skills cannot gain any proficiency from it.

Theres no reason to be wary of her anymore.

To begin with, whats wrong with you, huh?

Eh?

I, for the time being, assumed that you were on our side.

!

Ive heard from Nishino-kun about her contribution in the battle against Alpha.

I was also told that she tried her best to restore the City Hall when everything was over.

Thats why I simply chose to stay away from her to this day.

But everything changesif she wants to do us harm.

(Ah, I might be more pissed than I thought)

Not only about her, but about myself as well.

It appears that Ive been acting too nicely.

If you are planning on harming us in any way

I pause for a moment there.

I wont hesitate to bury you.

I activate Coercion to its maximum as I say so.

Yes, I will not forgive her.

If she turns out to be our enemy, I will crush her there and then.

Ive resolved myself to that decision.

!

Realizing how serious I am, she rapidly nods her head multiple times.

(Then again, Im not nave enough to let things pass so easily)

She might be pretending to be afraid right now.

Thats why Ill be placing an insurance on her.

Great. Ill trust you for now.

R-really?

Why, of course!

I smile as I release her from Coercion.

Relieved, she sighs out loud.

In that instant, I throw something into her mouth.

Muguw-what!?

Then, I close her mouth and force her to swallow.

I let go only when Ive confirmed that she has swallowed the content.

Gahwhat did you make me swallow?

An insurance. Im not kind enough to believe in empty words.

I snap my fingers.

! Og.Agawwhatis.this.

She holds her stomach and begins crying out in pain.

Tears and snot stream down her face as she spasms on the ground in agony.

I snap my fingers once more.

The pain it has subsided?

Covered in her bodily fluids, she looks up at me with a messy face.

Do you understand now? I can take your life whenever I desire.

Impossible youre lying

Oh, you dont believe me? Why not try it out again?

I snap my fingers.

W-wait! I believe you! I believe you, so doooooooooooont! P-please.s-stopthisplease

I stare down coldly at the girl who begs me beside my feet.

At the same time, a feeling of guilt rises within me.

Obviously, its not about what Im doing to this girl.

(Sorry, Aka. Ive made you play an unpleasant role.)

(Furu furu.)

Dont mind it.

Aka, who is disguised as my jacket, shakes.

Yes, Ive injected a marble-sized clone of Aka into her body.

By having it expand inside her stomach, Im making her experience a hellish pain.

But thats all there is to it.

Over time, Akas clone will disappear inside her.

The statement about killing her at a moments notice was complete gibberish, but it should be sufficient as a threat.

Since she cant see my status or my skills, shell just think that its the effect of one of my skills.

That misconception alone will be enough to limit her activities.

(The fact that I deem this to be enough goes to prove how Im still a bit nave)

The best course of action wouldve been to make her spit out all the information that she has before killing her or feeding her to the monsters.

Alternatively, I couldve locked her up in a Shadow Cage, just like Ono-kun.

I didnt take such drastic measures, which means that Im still quite nave.

At the same time, however, theres a certain part of me thats telling me to never cast aside this naivety.

My heart remains unperturbed after all that Ive done to the Student Council President.

I know that I would sound very selfish saying this, but if I were to throw away what little naivety I have left, Im afraid that I would change into a different kind of person

Ready to talk? First, why are you here so late at night?

Y-yes actually

To summarize what she says, she was investigating the reason behind the Self Defense Forces annihilation and the disappearance of numerous citizens.

Fed up by the SDF members unwillingness to cooperate, she Enchanted one of them and forcibly extracted information from him.

Just as she arrived at the possibility that the monsters in the neighboring town had something to do with the citizens disappearing left and right

You heard a loud noise and rushed over to find out where it was from.

Y-yes and

And? And what?

I threaten to snap my fingers.

P-please forgive me! Ill say it! Please dont do this to me!

Seeing me lower my hand, she becomes evidently relieved.

Then speak.

Y-yes um, I havent explored this region yet, so I was thinking Id be able to find some undiscovered Treasure Chests

.Treasure Chests, you say?

I-Im telling you the truth! Im not screwing around!

Fearful that I wont trust her, she babbles on in desperation.

Treasure Chests? As in those ornamental wooden boxes hidden in various corners?

E-exactly. Inside those chests, you can find recovery potions, weapons, and items that allow you to acquire skills. Some of them can be a miss, though

Ichinose-san and I have found something similar in the past

The chest that we discovered contained a [Ring of Agility] which, as its name suggests, raises its owners agility, and a [Healing Jewel] with unknown functions.

According to the Student Council President, Treasure Chests can be classified as either hits or misses.

UmIs something wrong?

No, its nothing. I see, Treasure ChestsDid you say some items can give you skills?

Yes, theyre known as Skill Orbs, and theyre essentially transparent glass orbs around the size of baseball balls.

Theyre about as big as the [Healing Jewel] that I have in my possession.

Ho~u and youre saying that anyone can acquire skills by using these Skill Orbs?

Yes. Red orbs give you skills, black orbs give you occupations, and white orbs raise your status.

Theyre categorized into three types, huh?

As I thought, there are other ways beside Ichionse-sans Gatcha to acquire skills and occupations.

Is that how you got Appraisal?

Yes, I came across the skill through sheer luck.

Is that so

Apparently, she can adjust the range of Appraisal to a certain extent.

By narrowing down her target to specific individuals, she can look at the details of their skills and status.

On the other hand, if she selects multiple targets at once, she will only get information about the targets names.

As such, ever since she acquired the skill, she has set Appraisal at default, allowing her to see the names of everything in her sight whenever she is outdoors.

Thanks to that, she has been able to find multiple Treasure Chests that were hidden in discrete locations where people would have normally overlooked.

Based on how her Appraisal is at LV 6, I can tell that she has been using it continuously to grind levels.

(My Appraisal Interruption was originally at LV 6 as well. That means the skills offset each other when theyre at the same level.)

In other words, if I hadnt faced the Intelligent Zombie in advance, my status would have been revealed to her.

I dont know whether to describe the timing of the Zombies appearance as impeccable or not.

Anyway, Ive now figured out how she has Appraisal and why she is here.

(Treasure ChestsConsidering what might happen in the future, I want to secure as many of them as possible.)

Although there may be some Mimics mixed in, Treasure Chests are exceedingly valuable as they have weapons, occupations, and skills inside them.

Ichinose-san and I have multiple occupations and skills owing to the fact that we can get bonus points from Gatcha and Precocious, but the same cannot be said for Nishino-kun and Rikka-chan.

If they can obtain some new powers through looting Treasure Chests, our overall power would shoot up considerably.

(Itll be a breeze as long as we use her Appraisal to our advantage)

Shell act as our truffle hog no, a truffle dog.

Well force that role upon her.

She was the one to provoke us first, so she shouldnt have any qualms about this treatment.

Rather, she should be grateful that Im not killing her.

(If it was a few days ago, I never would have thought in this manner.)

Its rather unpleasant.

To protect my loved ones such as Ichinose-san and Momo, Im willing to walk down a cruel path.

Its to the extent where I dont think Ill blink an eye even if I were to exploit the Student Council President and the others before discarding them like trash.

Fair enough. Let us depart from

this place.

The Treants around us start to buzz as Im about to finish my sentence.

.W-what?

This is?

Then, we start to hear unsettling sounds that are too creepy to describe as a simple buzz.

Theyreterrified?

The Treants are terrified?

The Treants around us are shaking as if theyre screaming, Scary! Scary!

Whatcould this mean?

Their behaviors clearly deviate from the norm.

The answer reveals itself soon enough.

My skills ring a warning bell.

The very next instant, cracks appear on the ground in front of us.

W-what!?

Dodge it!

I instinctively grab onto Igarashi-san and jump backwards.

Countless vines explode out from the cracks that have just formed.

Vines as thick as a persons body sprout up like a geyser.

Each of them is dozens, if not tens of dozens, of meters long.

(Are these vines from a Treant? No, but)

Theyre too long.

Arent they all over a hundred meters in length?

No, thats not important right now.

Those are dangerous. Those vines are definitely something dangerous.

Both my skills and my instinct are ringing the alarm like never before.

(This presence Could it be that this monster is as overwhelming as that Dragon from the morning? No, is it even stronger?)

Impossible.

No matter what, that would be

Before I could finish my thoughts, the vines move into action.

They swell up like tentacles and wrap themselves around the Treants that are near them.

What the?

~~~~~~~~~~~!!

The Treants that have been restrained make some creaking noises before being snapped in halves.

The vines nonchalantly pick up the magic stones of the deceased Treants and slowly slither back into the ground.

(Wait? Arent these vines a Treants?)

Is it a different monster?

But why did the vines attack the Treants instead of us?

Oh, right.

Appraisal.

Wont we be able to figure out the true identities of these vines through Igarashi-sans Appraisal?

I look towards Igarashi-san who Im carrying on my left.

Igarashi-san, can you Appraise those creatures?

Eh? Ah, yes! Ill try it out!

She turns to look at the vines.

A moment later

Eh? Strangeit doesnt seem like I can Appraise them?

Could they be!

Suddenly, the vines which have been targeting the Treants until now turn toward us.

Although they dont have any eyes, it feels like were being stared at.

(No way. Youre telling me that these vines have Appraisal Interruption like I do?)

Its quite clear that theyre hostile to us.

These unidentifiable vines have recognized us as their enemies.

Not good. This might not have been a wise decision