Becoming an Extra in a Trash Game

Chapter 43

“This makes it the sixth one.”

After Kane beheaded the dungeon hunter who offered his neck without resistance, I quickly put the corpse into my subspace to avoid getting blood on it, then looked at Zero.

“If… If I don’t return to the core and die completely, please bury them in a good place…”

I looked at Zero’s face as I received the doppelganger’s core he handed over.

Although it was the sixth one I received, the core was about the size of a baby’s fist, soft and warm to the touch.

Like a heart.

“Don’t worry. Are you mentally prepared now?”

“I have been since earlier…”

“It’ll be fine… Kane is really good at killing.”

Luna hesitated, seemingly concerned about the sorrowful face that had let go of everything, then overcame her shyness and tried to comfort him in her own way.

‘No, that’s not it.’

Of course, Kane’s nickname in the Innocent Saga minor gallery was ‘The Butcher,’ so he is indeed a specialist in slaughter.

Zero slowly closed his eyes, kneeling down and offering his neck. Was it a coincidence? Kane brought the blade to his shoulder once, then lifted it and cut off his breath in one stroke.

I slowly took a deep breath and counted numbers in my mind.

About 30 seconds might have passed.

A grayish-white light swirled under Zero’s collapsed body, then a milky white liquid seemed to seep out from under the body, coalescing into a core about the size of an adult male’s fist.

It flickered a few times as if it would go out at any moment, then started to fade away as if it would disappear. I quickly grabbed it and put it into my subspace.

“That was close.”

The place of death is dangerous, so it might have been randomly teleported or something.

If the doppelgangers had known this, they might have killed Zero just to help him escape.

I looked at the common room with only bloodstains remaining, then opened my Codex and cast purification and Clean on Luna and Kane before stretching.

“Shall we go out now?”

“I’m hungry…”

Of course. We originally went down the stairs and were talking about having some snacks with Luna before we got separated.

We had some snacks while talking with the doppelgangers in between, but that’s not the same as a meal.

“When we get out now, let’s have a real meal and rest after leaving the Labyrinth.”

“I hope you won’t go back on your word this time.”

For now, even if those two have energy to spare, I’m too tired to continue.

I nodded once, then patted my shoulders which had become stiff from all the tension and thinking, and walked into the portal.

* * *

Since our lodging in the Labyrinth City was a house-type room on the top floor of an inn, after having a meal, we each washed up with hot water in our rooms and then gathered in the living room to relax comfortably.

I lay down on the long sofa, Kane sat on the windowsill looking outside, and Luna sat on a single-seater sofa with her knees up, yawning.

It’s drowsy. But before going to sleep, it would be better to give a rough outline of our future schedule.

Splash―

I put the potion with ground magic stones and Zero’s core together in a round bowl, dipped my finger in and swirled it around as I sprawled on the sofa and opened my mouth.

“We’re stopping the Labyrinth. Some suspicious points have come up, and seeing your skills, there’s not much to gain unless we’re speed-running to the deep levels.”

The Master of the Labyrinth, that’s really bothersome.

But the fact that they didn’t appear to us directly as an enemy, but instead trapped and plotted against the powerless doppelganger in a room…

‘For now, whatever the case, they’re currently immobile and have almost no information about us.’

If they had just spent even one day gathering information about Kane and Luna, they would have known that those clumsy seven doppelgangers were no match for us.

“Then are we going to the border region now, Young Master?”

“Wherever we go, I want to go somewhere we can get stronger.”

Splash― Slosh―

I smiled as I squeezed and released Zero’s soft core.

“Kane, you should live considering others too.”

Where do you think you’re going? You’ve done everything you wanted in your hometown, so now you’re trying to run away?

“What do you mean…”

“You’ve been to your hometown once, so don’t you think your Senior would want to go too?”

“What? I’ve never thought of myself as a Senior…”

Luna, you should attack Kane together with me.

Pretending not to hear, I answered while kneading Zero’s core as if marinating it in the magic stone potion.

“The border region is good too, but if we get into trouble there, we could really suffer. Before that, let’s go to Luna’s hometown once.”

Also to take a look at the childhood of the one who will achieve the great unification of the Suin race in the future.

In the original work, she only appears as an adult in the middle to late parts, so she should still be young at this time.

Well, it doesn’t matter if we can’t meet her. The primary goal this time is Luna’s healing.

Crack―

“…?”

I lifted Zero’s core where a strange sound came from.

Did I knead it too much? No. It was probably just the friction sound from touching something wet and soft.

Somehow, the core looked like it was crying with the flowing potion. I quickly put it back in the potion and smiled at Luna, who looked happy with her cheeks flushed red even though she wasn’t showing it openly.

“When we visit Luna’s hometown, you’ll make us something delicious, right?”

“O-Of course, Young Master!”

Right. It’s good if you like it.

I wiped my hands wet with potion, then stretched big on the long sofa before staggering to my feet.

Now I’m really tired.

“Let’s all sleep well and move out when we wake up. Make sure you’re prepared.”

My body feels heavy now after relaxing in hot water after moving around so much.

As I went into my room, Luna and Kane also went into their respective rooms and fell fast asleep in the early dawn.

“Is anyone there? Anyone. Please, some clothes… No, not the Rabbit Senior… Please…”

I didn’t know that Zero had been revived naked without a corpse after absorbing all the magic stone potion to fill his magic.

Apparently, Kane heard crying sounds in the middle of the night and came out to give him clothes.

‘No wonder Zero was wearing Kane’s clothes.’

When I woke up and came out, Zero was curled up sleeping on the sofa looking utterly pitiful.

I took a sip of the fragrant morning tea while looking at Zero sitting in front of me, drinking soup straight from the bowl saying this is the most delicious thing he’s ever eaten.

“You, how do you have a body without a corpse?”

“Um, do you have to talk about corpses while I’m eating…”

What are you saying? Weren’t you guys originally eating humans?

I pushed my soup bowl towards Zero, who was making statements completely denying what I heard yesterday. Seeing this, Luna gave her soup to me. I took Kane’s soup and gave it to Luna.

Thud―

He clearly could have stopped it with his reflexes, but ignoring Kane who was tapping his spoon on the table in protest as if his soup bowl had disappeared, I rested my chin on my hand and smiled.

“Ah, this is really delicious. In the Labyrinth, we always got what seemed to be dried rations stolen from adventurers… Well, I’m not sure myself. It’s my first time dying.”

Is that so? Then do the other doppelgangers know?

“What’s the name of this food?”

“It’s bread.”

“This is bread? I’ve never had bread like this before. It’s incomparable to dried bread.”

I want to revive the other doppelgangers right away and ask them various things, but… When he’s so happy over a single piece of bread, it’s not right for a person to nag at the dinner table.

I held back my Korean ‘hurry hurry’ mindset and ate some salad.

‘Come to think of it, he had the Cooking (S) hidden trait. A good case of both interest and talent.’

I looked at Zero, whose expressions changed diversely with each bite of food.

But I feel like that guy’s face has changed slightly.

I discreetly reached under the table and took out only Zero’s head that Kane had cut off from my subspace to check.

‘It is a bit different?’

His face had turned blue from the loss of blood, so it looked different from his original ordinary impression.

But the face of Zero in front of me now, who just took a bite of steak and shed a single tear, has much more balanced features.

‘I’ll ask about this later too.’

I quickly put Zero’s severed head back into my subspace before blood could drip on the floor, and as I raised my head again, I suddenly met eyes with Kane and Luna.

“What, why what.”

“Nothing.”

“Hmm… Try the juice too.”

“I-I’ve never had anything like this before. Rabbit Senior…”

Luna seems to feel sorry for Zero and gives him juice, while Kane shakes his head once.

I sat up straight with a brazen face and waited until Zero finished eating before opening my mouth.

“Shall we revive your comrades now?”

At my words, a bit of guilt seeps into Zero’s face.

“I guess I should have saved some food… It was delicious.”

His voice sounds gloomy, perhaps feeling conscious about eating alone.

He might have been confused after just reviving without clothes and got carried away with tasting food for the first time.

No, is he feeling guilty for eating delicious food alone?

I recalled Zero’s kindness trait once before resting my chin on my hand and opening my mouth.

“Don’t worry. I’ll order all the food again if you want. But is there any cost or something to reviving them?”

I take a sip of the fruit tea Luna brought for dessert, and eat a cookie as if to erase that sour taste. Zero looks at me and follows suit.

“I’ve never revived more than two at once, so I’m not sure. But I felt extremely tired and like something inside me was being drained.”

There were no special stats other than magic and health in Innocent Saga, so. Let’s try giving him magic stones first.

I waved my hand in the air, pouring small magic stones onto the table, then met Zero’s eyes.

“Who should we bring out first?”

“First… Please bring out Derek.”

“Who’s Derek?”

At my question, Zero made an ‘ah’ expression before speaking again.

“The one wearing Archer clothes…”

Ah, that Archer without a bow.

I put my hand on the fairly spacious table, habitually twirling Kruger’s ring once, then took out Derek’s head and body.

The traces of my magic are too visible in the bright place.

I felt a bit guilty, but it’s okay because they’re doppelgangers.

Besides, although human corpses are used in the process of raising them, that can be solved with the siren we secured this time.

If we can research that and produce low-grade homunculi, we can smoothly get past the human rights issues that my inner Korean sensibilities find uncomfortable.

“I don’t know which core belongs to who, so I’ll give you all of them for now.”

I placed 6 soft cores the size of a baby’s fist in Zero’s hands, and Zero looked at them with a loving and apologetic face before picking up one of them.

Then he touched the severed neck and body to make it as whole as possible and placed the doppelganger’s core on the chest. The round core spread out sluggishly like slime before seeping into the clothes.

Then suddenly the clothes deflated and a naked man popped out.

“Uh… Kane. Why are you suddenly covering my eyes…?”

I was really so surprised I thought my heart would jump out.

Moreover, since he popped out as if from thin air and crouched on the table, that unnecessary something in his crotch polluted my eyes.

Kane covered Luna’s eyes with his crazy fast reflexes.

Why don’t you protect me too? Huh? Is it okay to treat my eyes roughly?

“So this really is the outside.”

“First, clothes… No, those clothes are tattered, so I’ll give you new ones.”

For now, since he’s taller than me or Kane, I roughly searched my subspace and threw him a blanket, then sent Luna out shopping.

“How about it, want to bring out one more?”

For now, I put the Archer Derek in an empty room with just a blanket and food to eat first, then spoke to Zero, who was holding magic stones in his hand, and nodded.

“Yes, I think it’s possible. But if it’s not too much trouble… Could you perhaps get a female body as well?”

“Why’s that?”

“We doppelgangers ourselves don’t have a gender, but we do have preferred bodies. Actually, Trau who was holding the axe prefers a female body… But there wasn’t a suitable one available.”

The dwarf warrior?

I thought for a moment while scratching my cheek, then said:

“I’ll get you one later.”

When homunculus production becomes possible…

At my words, Zero smiled brightly and started reviving the doppelgangers one by one again.