One minute later, Khrx was jumping up and down, trying to claw at the smiling face on the ceiling. Every time he was about to scratch the ceiling, it would recede by a few meters, forcing him to jump even higher the next time. Khrx panted as he shook his fist at the ceiling. “This is cheating!”

“Nice try! But I don’t want to play with you anymore,” the smiling face said.

[Quest failed.]

[You failed to catch Stairster. The path to the second floor has been blocked. How unfortunate.]

The staircase receded into the ceiling as Stairster stuck out his tongue one last time at Khrx before disappearing completely. Khrx frowned at the ceiling before snorting and turning his head away. “Be glad this isn’t reality or I’d have burned you down.”

A single step from a staircase fell out of the ceiling and struck Khrx on the head with a thud. It bounced off and dropped to the floor, merging with it once it made contact. Khrx crouched down and clutched his ears, tears springing to his eyes. “That hurt!” His nose wrinkled as he muttered, “I’m supposed to trigger tenderness and affection because of my charm. I didn’t lose it somehow, right?” It had been a while since he last checked his status.

[Sometimes, people see something cute and the first thing they want to do is tease it. Other people may fly into irrational envy and try to destroy you and everything you stand for. As with anything, having too much may not necessarily be a good thing.]

Khrx furrowed his brow and dismissed the screen. “That was weird. Since when did notifications pop up to answer my questions?” He blinked away the tears in his eyes and rubbed his head, smearing his cheek with his bloody onesie in the process.

[This is Big Brother Bongle. While you were sleeping on the horse, you enabled voice activation. Though I am monitoring you 24/7, I can only respond to your words when you enable voice activation to maintain the illusion of privacy. Would you like to disable voice activation?]

“Yes, the floating boxes are distracting.”

[I am sorry you feel that way. Voice activation has been disabled.]

Khrx shook his head and sighed. He really wished his abilities from reality transferred over to [Resolution]. How come Theda was equally strong in both worlds? Speaking of Theda, he never had a chance to use his Co-owner of the Underworld skill, huh? How did it work? Khrx raised his hands into the air. “Portal to the underworld, open!”

[Select a sacrifice.]

“Right,” Khrx said. “There was that.” He glanced around and picked up a fruit bowl on top of a nearby table. “How about this?”

[Analyzing sacrifice. Man-eating Mimic confirmed. You may summon one human-sized being from the underworld.]

Khrx scratched his nose, but winced because it still hadn’t healed from the flowerpot’s cruel method of bestowing skills. “I can summon anyone from the underworld?”

[Understood. Random selection activated.]

“Huh? Wait! Summon someone I know!”

[…Fine.]

“Don’t seem so reluctant!”

A portal opened in front of Khrx. The sounds of wailing and sobbing filled the room as the portal expanded, opening like an eye. Without warning, a person dressed in blue robes was tossed out of the underworld like a baseball, barreling into Khrx and knocking him over. The person dressed in blue tumbled until she crashed into the wall, causing a mimic to scream as the portal closed.

“This game is always abusing me,” Khrx said with a sigh as he picked himself up, sitting on his butt with his legs in front of him. “Why would anyone even want to play this crappy game?”

“Khrx?”

Khrx looked up. Monika was staring at him with her mouth wide open. Behind her, the wall-mimic was twitching with smoke coming out of its eyes, nose, and mouth. Monika glanced around before narrowing her eyes at Khrx. “This is my personal hell, huh?” She pointed her palm at Khrx. “Don’t think an illusion of such low caliber can fool me! Chain Lightning!”

“Fu—!” Khrx didn’t have a chance to finish his statement before a blue lightning bolt struck his chest. His vision went white as his limbs convulsed. A high-pitched whine filled his ears accompanied by the sound of screaming mimics and booms of thunder.

“As I thought,” Monika said, stepping towards Khrx. “You’re not Khrx. You think I don’t know that Khrx only has one constitution? He would’ve died in a single hit! Chain Li—”

“Stop!” Khrx shouted.

Monika froze, choking on her own words. She trembled as she tried to move her body, but she remained motionless. Beads of sweat formed on her forehead as her face turned red.

Khrx blinked. Telling her to stop actually worked? He was ready to be struck by another bolt of lightning. Then he remembered the passive part of his skill, Co-owner of the Underworld. All residents of the underworld unconditionally obeyed his commands. “Monika,” Khrx said, brushing at his hair with his hands. Each individual strand had straightened and stuck out like cactus needles because of the lightning. “I’m actually Khrx. Here, look at my status and you’ll understand. You can move, but don’t shoot me with lightning.”

Monika frowned as she read Khrx’s status, her gaze lingering on the description of his Co-owner of the Underworld skill. “How do I know this isn’t part of the illusion as well?”

Khrx stared at her. “You’re thinking too hard about it,” he said. “Even if it is an illusion, you should enjoy it anyway.”

“Couldn’t I have been illusioned to some place not involving mimics? I literally can’t see anything that isn’t a mimic in here other than you. How am I supposed to enjoy this?” Monika asked. “And you’re wearing mimics on your feet. You know that, right? They’ll eat your toes in your sleep.”

“You can enjoy it because you’re not stuck in the underworld anymore,” Khrx said with a nod. “I heard not being dead is preferable to being dead.”

“I’m pretty sure I’m experiencing this illusion in death though,” Monika said, her brow furrowing.

“If you have time to think about unnecessary things, you have time to help me find a tracking skill,” Khrx said. “According to my sources, there should be one somewhere in this dungeon.”

“Is this the only reason why you summoned me?” Monika asked. “It seems like you could’ve let me out of the underworld a long time ago. You couldn’t summon me out before just to say hi? I feel like I’m being used. And what about Nelson?” She sighed at Khrx’s awkward expression. “Alright, I understand. The sacrifice must’ve been pretty big. Please tell me you offered that fallen angel as the sacrifice. She killed me. Did you know that? You should really do your best to stay away from her. She’s insane. Absolutely nutty.” She sighed again. “It’s been a while since I could last speak. They don’t let you talk while you’re waiting on line in the underworld. I never realized how much a person needed words. Speaking of which, did your sources tell you where to locate the tracking skill?”

Khrx wasn’t sure which question he should answer first. So he just shook his head in response. “Nope.”