The Consequences Of Being A Tyrant Chapter 17
byLin Yu’s room still held plenty of leftover food, but no one responded to his murmurs anymore, and the space had fallen completely silent.
It was morning again, and Lin Yu opened his eyes.
His eyes were shadowed with dark circles. Last night’s dream had been chaotic. Lin Yu once again dreamed of the small Pet he raised—specifically, the first time it entered its estrus period. Lin Yu still remembered the tension and anxiety he felt when he discovered the Pet refusing to eat. At the end of the dream, that slender body swelled up, and several bursts of white light erupted from within, leaving only a faint blue mist suspended in the air.
It was like a physical body being extinguished, leaving behind only a soul with nowhere to go.
Lin Yu’s heart twisted. He stepped forward, wanting to offer comfort, but a cold voice suddenly sounded in his ear.
“That’s not me.”
Lin Yu turned around in shock, but all he saw was a cloud of mist.
Red light points, like embers, ignited the darkness in the distance, piercing through the chaotic fog. In the firelight, the huge, pristine white Palace turned into flat cardboard. Only the raging flames, carrying gray smoke, shot up into the sky.
Shadows transformed into intense grief.
“No.”
Lin Yu murmured, but he couldn’t stop it, until the blazing white light of reality pierced the illusory dream.
He let out a soft sigh under the dazzling sun.
When the caretaker was here, he had never been woken up by the sun.
Lin Yu felt he couldn’t wait any longer.
He should first apologize to the other party, and then thank them.
These days, Lin Yu had searched almost the entire Palace.
Except for the room carved with the grand background bas-relief, he dared not step inside.
That nightmarish sea of blood had been buried, but he still remembered it clearly. And in the days since the caretaker disappeared, those briefly vanished scenes showed signs of resurgence. Lin Yu was afraid that dried bloodstains might still linger in that room, and he worried that seeing that place would make him uncontrollably dream again.
So he had hesitated to enter.
But another thought circled in his mind: What if?
What if his caretaker was right there?
Lin Yu took a bite of bread, his mind heavy with worry, and said, “Mr. Caretaker?”
The familiar silence returned.
Lin Yu lowered his gaze and, when the sun was high, finally arrived at the door of that room.
From the doorway, he could vaguely glimpse a corner of the bas-relief. The slanted sunlight fell on his feet, but Lin Yu suddenly took a large step back, as if he had seen something terrifying.
Everything related to this room felt like a signpost guiding him back to that nightmare.
He looked down at the light flowing across the floor, and the atmosphere grew even more deathly silent.
It was like a set of scales, with two versions of himself fighting for control of his body.
Finally, a small figure stepped into the bright light covering the floor. What reached him before his sight was the warm sunlight, like being immersed in still, hot water, bringing an indescribable sense of comfort, without any of the previous sticky, fishy smell.
Lin Yu opened his eyes in alarm, his clenched jaw slowly relaxing.
He was slightly stunned.
The massive bas-relief had disappeared for some unknown reason. The remnants were exposed, but there was no trace of dust, only a deep, pitch-black hole remaining.
The sunlight was leaking in from the side where the wall had vanished. The brilliant golden light on the floor slowly flowed toward the hole, like an ocean rushing forward.
This strange yet magnificent sight captured Lin Yu’s attention.
He also needed something to distract himself, to prevent him from recalling the sight of blood when he saw familiar scenes, even though the current view was completely different.
The scent was dry, warm, and belonged to the sun.
Not the sticky, crimson smell of wet blood.
Lin Yu observed the black hole for a few seconds before slowly walking closer.
But he maintained a certain distance.
He called out softly, “Mr. Caretaker?”
As expected, there was no response.
Lin Yu didn’t turn to leave immediately, because at that moment, he saw several Beastfolk faces emerge from the asphalt-like black hole! Their curved horns looked as if they were about to pierce the barrier at any second.
Muffled and chaotic sounds came from the mouths of these strange creatures, like some kind of frenzied ritual.
Lin Yu took another step back.
The faces instantly became more crowded, their empty mouths wide open. “Such a small creature. Is he a native of this planet?”
“I could crush him with one toe.”
“No armor, no sharp teeth. If we could get out of here, this planet would have been ours long ago.”
“He has a familiar scent on him. Too bad the ones with sensitive noses are mostly dead.”
“Me, me, me! I’m still alive.”
One mouth squeezed forward, facing Lin Yu.
“I said it before, he smells like a Core Fragment.”
“Core… Core!”
“Then if we lure him over and eat him, won’t we be able to break the seal left by the God of Slaughter?”
“Since he’s the Core, he must be able to enter.”
Lin Yu listened to their words, struggling to analyze the useful information. Perhaps because of the Core they mentioned, Lin Yu found that he could understand most of what they were saying, almost as if he had a built-in translator.
He did not advance further out of curiosity, but spoke calmly, “I heard you.”
After a moment of silence, the faces became even more ferocious and agitated, and they began to accuse each other.
“It’s all your fault! Couldn’t you have come back and spoken properly?”
“Now he knows everything! How are we supposed to trick him into coming over?”
“A bunch of idiots! We should have let Wute eat all of you back then!”
“If Wute were to eat anyone, he’d eat you first, you useless thing! You’re good for nothing but that long nose!”
“But Wute was already eaten by the God of Slaughter.”
“I know that, of course! Do I need you to remind me? You brainless fools.”
“Based on the classification of our species, your brain is clearly the smallest, alright?”
Lin Yu looked at the Beastfolk, who were practically about to fight, and asked, “Where is the God of Slaughter you speak of now?”
Based on the combined information, the deduction that the “God of Slaughter” they mentioned was his caretaker was not difficult to make. After all, there were no other living beings here besides the caretaker and himself, and he didn’t know what these strange things were.
Thinking of the bloody maw that had opened toward him that day, Lin Yu’s face paled slightly.
These creatures harbored a direct and pure malice toward him.
And what was the Core?
Could this be related to the caretaker’s condition?
Hearing his question, the Beastfolk clamored, “Why should we tell you?”
“We won’t tell you, nah nah nah.”
“You want to know? Then come over here.”
“If you let us eat you obediently, we’ll tell you the answer before you die.”
“What a fair trade.”
“Yes, yes. You look so tender and soft. You must be delicious.”
Lin Yu’s expression didn’t change at all in response to these malicious words. His gaze shifted in his eyes for a few moments, and Lin Yu slowly pulled out a smile.
“Let’s make a deal.”
“I’ll take one step forward, and you answer one question. How about that?”
The air was silent for a few seconds, then erupted into an even more intense argument. Words like ‘closer’ and ‘approach’ made the Beastfolk’s sanity verge on losing control. Their minds were filled with the rich, meaty scent of the small person.
The other party was fair and tender—they must have an excellent texture.
Some of them worried about being tricked, while others were anxious about how to prevent the bird in their hand from flying away.
In the midst of the silence, several impatient Beastfolk hastily shouted, “I’ll tell you! I can tell you!”
It made an indistinct sound, like some sticky liquid bubbling in its mouth. “As long as you come over…”
Under their watchful eyes, Lin Yu took the first step forward. He suppressed the tremor in his heart and said softly, “Is this enough sincerity?”
“Now, my first question is: Where is the God of Slaughter you speak of now?”
This time, the silence was much shorter. They chirped, “How would we know?”
Lin Yu nodded and took a step back. His expression was calm. “This is a question-and-answer game. There is no such thing as an unknown answer. If you are unwilling to give me any information, then the deal must be considered void.”
As he spoke, he actually took another step back, as if he were about to turn and leave!
In the asphalt-like, viscous black hole, the noisy voices desperately tried to keep Lin Yu there. They didn’t have a chance to communicate properly with their own kind, speaking over each other and spilling all the information they had.
“We really don’t know! No Beastfolk cares about him.”
“Based on the time I shed my shell, he should have come yesterday afternoon to pick a Beastfolk to eat, but the God of Slaughter didn’t show up, eh.”
“He must be in trouble.”
Something as important as feeding would certainly not be forgotten, so only one possibility remained.
That God of Slaughter must be in trouble.
The Beastfolk cheered wildly, having found the most satisfying answer to the small person’s question, and gradually convinced themselves that this was the truth.
Now that the most annoying guy was dead, dealing with this small person would be a matter of minutes.
Their gazes were almost solid, filled with greed and desire.
Although Lin Yu was prepared, he couldn’t help but worry. Indeed, if a creature that feeds regularly suddenly changes its physiological habits, it inherently indicates a problem.
This could be divided into physiological or pathological issues.
He continued to ask, “Has he, has he ever been like this before?”
The Beastfolk dared not answer ‘I don’t know’ again. They looked at the small person’s position and tried to answer in more detail. “No, he ate a lot.”
The subtext was that the Beastfolk who knew more had already been eliminated.
If he continued to ask, they wouldn’t know.
But Lin Yu guessed that they had been inside for a long time. Such a long, regular feeding habit suddenly changing suggested that his caretaker might really be sick.
Was it because of him?
Did his caretaker get injured protecting him from the attack of that ferocious Beastfolk, in a corner he didn’t know about?
Lin Yu couldn’t stop himself from imagining the worst possible outcome.
He thought back to the burning Palace in his dream. Was it a prophecy?
Did it mean that his peaceful life, like those burning pieces of paper, was about to turn to ashes? Did it foreshadow that he was about to lose his first and only bond in this foreign world?
He didn’t want that.
He didn’t want to experience the pain of loss again.
This wasn’t just a one-sided severance, because the other party would surely be sad too.
They knew each other, understood each other, and were the only companions they had in this vast Palace.
Lin Yu knew that asking further would yield no answers, so he changed the subject. “What is the Core you mentioned?”
They immediately began fighting for the right to answer again, seemingly believing that the more they answered, the more meat they would get during the division of the spoils.
But some of the more intelligent Beastfolk spoke up. “The Core is just the Core.”
They watched the small person with ill intent, having already seen through the cunning mind beneath his white skin, which was as black as the Dark Sea.
They had answered so many questions, yet the distance between them and him was even greater than before!
The remaining, slowly awakening voices also chimed in, “We won’t answer you.”
“Unless you come over.”
Lin Yu calmly took a step forward.
“Not enough, not enough. That’s clearly where you were standing initially.”
Lin Yu moved his leg and took another step forward.
“We answered several of your questions. Not enough, still not enough.”
Lin Yu chuckled, this time taking several steps, stopping just one step away from touching the shadow of the black hole.
In the black abyss he couldn’t see, various Beastfolk drooled transparent saliva, watching him with greedy fervor.
Just a little bit more!
But Lin Yu stopped. He looked up at the abyss.
“Tell me, what is the Core?”