He closed the organization chat and lay down on the tatami, biting the Lifesaving Straw and waiting for the terrible penalty of Extreme Cold.
The minute hand hit twelve. His displayed lifespan changed immediately.
[Lifespan: 1 hour 30 minutes]
"It's here."
A huge wave of cold slammed into him from the top of his skull. His whole body froze solid in a single instant. Violent tremors ripped through him like the shakes of a Parkinson's patient.
Crack.
The air leaving his mouth turned into frost crystals before it even left his lips.
His lungs felt like they'd been carved out into ice, barely able to expand. Forcing breath only made them tear, and the ice crystals he exhaled were stained with red.
Soon, his skin couldn't endure the cold anymore and began to peel away, revealing frozen blue-purple flesh underneath. The flesh itself cracked apart with each shiver, scattering onto the floor.
His fingers, toes, wrists, ankles, collarbones, nose, ears, eyelids — every area with little fat or flesh — fell away until only bone remained.
Rage roared through his mind. To keep from passing out, he cursed the Freezing Point Devil and every ancestor it ever had.
Forty minutes later, darkness swallowed his sight. His eyeballs shattered in their sockets and slid out of the torn remains of his undead-looking face.
At one hour fifteen minutes, he finally passed out.
At one hour twenty, the cold vanished abruptly, leaving him a shredded wreck, like a corpse left to rot for days.
Twenty minutes after that, the devil's intense regeneration dragged him back from the edge again.
[Lifespan: 14 days]
"Bought another day."
"Half an hour more than yesterday. Tomorrow I'll know if I'm living or dying."
But surviving didn't make him happy. He didn't even turn the lights back on. He just slumped against the wall, blank and exhausted.
"Tonight I'll head to Sagae City and try again."
[Freezing Point Devil: Yamagata Prefecture, Sagae City, Mitsumi Village]
Knock, knock.
Suddenly, someone knocked on the door.
"The landlord?"
Hoshino shuffled over to the entrance and opened it. No one was there. He leaned out, looked left and right. Nothing.
"Perfect. I'm hallucinating now."
He let out a bitter laugh and was about to close the door when something bumped his shin.
A sleek, glossy black cat sat there.
It tilted its small head up at him, its expression saying clearly: Move. Let the great king enter.
"You wanna come in?"
The black cat didn't answer. Its pitch-black tail flicked against his leg again.
"Give me one meow," Hoshino said.
The cat turned its head away as if he wasn't worth acknowledging.
He shut the door with a loud thud.
"Meow! Meow! Meow!" Furious screaming erupted immediately.
The night was getting deeper. The sound echoed way too far. Hoshino knew this was bad.
He cracked the door open. The cat stopped instantly. Man and cat stared at each other for ten full seconds. Hoshino spoke the truth.
"I'm a dog person."
Thud.
"Meow! Meow meow! Meow meow meow!" The black cat shrieked even louder.
"Turning someone down means giving a reason. That's basic male–succubus courtesy." Feeling oddly proud of himself, Hoshino flopped back down on his futon.
[Island Descent Group 7]
Chopper of a Thousand: Huh~ you actually talked!
Hoshino hesitated. He didn't know how to respond. Normally, they shouldn't know who he was. But nothing was normal now.
Love-Sick Prince: Used to practice silent meditation. Don't anymore.
Naoto answered instantly: You practiced Buddhism?
Love-Sick Prince: Yeah. I got interested for a while. Didn't go well. Then I went to India and trained for three years.
Naoto perked up: Makes sense. Ever since my sect left India, there hasn't been any real Buddhism there. Which temple were you at? You look pretty young.
He saw me in that consciousness space? That explains it. Probably saw me in Okura Village too. If I claimed I escaped, they'd start questioning it.
Hoshino quickly searched. The biggest temple in India was called Mahabodhi Temple. Without thinking too much, he typed it.
Naoto: Not bad. Do you know Master Ananda Viveka?
Love-Sick Prince: Saw him from a distance.
Naoto: Yeah, he's at festivals a lot. What about Master Atmasandar?
Love-Sick Prince: A very respectable figure.
Naoto: Of course! His name means "one awakened to the beauty of the soul," focusing on inner cultivation and purification. Naturally he inspires respect.
Their conversation went on and on. Hoshino always answered vaguely enough to avoid suspicion, but sharp enough to keep Naoto interested.
Naoto kept probing about the group, trying to figure out how they heard about "the other group's success."
Hoshino checked the other two groups. Nothing.
With Naoto's hints, he realized the platform worked almost exactly like a messaging app from his previous life.
You could add friends. You could create private groups.
Every group came with its own warning rules. Agreeing formed a new Contract.
Contracts took effect slowly and faded slowly too. Since their mission failed, a lot of mission-based rules had already faded.
"Why give villains setups this complicated?" Hoshino complained internally.
'Naoto' has sent you a friend request.
"Got him. Tailoring yourself to someone's preferences works every time."
He accepted and slipped into private chat, not noticing the sudden silence outside his door.
Half a minute later, the door burst open and someone stumbled inside.