Chapter 392: King of Popularity
Minamoto Tamako endured eight hours in Heart Acupoint, and Fushimi Roku did the same—if he ignored the pain in his limbs, he actually found this dreamscape bearable. All he had to do was turn in assignments on time, obey, not be picky about food, and not intervene during arguments; as long as he did this, Kujo Yua wouldn't go berserk.
Surviving was too easy.
But the question was: how do you wake up?
Fushimi Roku was confounded, thinking the crux of the problem might lie with little Tamako. The thing on her head wasn't a health bar, because it rose when Tamako was happy—it might be something like an emotional value.
What would happen if the emotional value ran out?
Could it be that he just needed to deplete little Tamako's emotional value, causing this nightmare to shatter, and then he'd wake up?
Fushimi Roku thought it was worth trying, considering he didn't have any other options—he had to treat the dead horse as though it were alive.
As for the option of cheering up little Tamako to raise her mood value, he didn't even consider it and directly passed it over… If what he was creating were sweet dreams, wouldn't Tamako be even less willing to wake up?
At first, Fushimi Roku tried to mock little Tamako, using extreme foul language to lower her mood value. But after just two sentences, Tamako couldn't take it anymore and locked him in the cupboard, completely ignoring him and not caring whether he lived or died.
In reality, he might starve to death in that cupboard; but this was a dream, dreams didn't abide by logic. Kujo Yua had no objection to family teachers being paralyzed, even allowing Teacher Fushimi to reside permanently in her cupboard, creating a sense of everyday sadism.
Fushimi Roku's foul mouth attack failed, and with no hands or feet, he couldn't do anything but linger for eight hours to see if his limbs would heal on their own—obviously, they wouldn't, leaving him with only one choice.
Restart through suicide.
Suicide for the second time would result in losing two months of memories, which Fushimi Roku thought he could handle. He had known Minamoto Tamako for more than two months, and Taira Sakurako for over two months as well, allowing for error correction.
But finding a way to kill himself was a tough problem. Fushimi Roku pondered with no good ideas and chose to bite his tongue to death.
It's worth mentioning that tongue-biting suicide isn't due to pain from a severed tongue, but rather using the severed tongue and blood to block the windpipe, causing oneself to suffocate painfully to death.
After his death, Fushimi Roku's resentment was immense. Even though he didn't care, it didn't mean he wouldn't feel pain. The first time when he stabbed a pencil in his ear, perhaps it could be called self-inflicted; the second time biting his tongue to death was more out of hopelessness.
As the saying goes, settle grudges if there are grudges and repay hatred if there is hatred. Unable to confront Kujo Yua, Fushimi Roku decided to take it out on little Tamako instead, striving to zero out her mood value!
"Wake up… wake up…"
Fushimi Roku opened his eyes at the save point, sat up, and as expected was still in Tamako's room. She was anxious, asking if he finished his assignments, to which Fushimi Roku smiled and gave a thumbs up, saying, "Don't worry! It's all done!"
"Great! Teacher Fushimi, you're the best!" Tamako was delighted, completely unaware of Fushimi Roku's sinister intentions.
"Alright, let's watch some TV before Miss Kujo gets home." Fushimi Roku waved her off, planning to hide in the cupboard in advance to avoid collateral damage.
Last time he finished his assignments, Kujo Yua still broke his limbs; this time if he slipped away early, Kujo couldn't possibly chase him down to kill, right?
"No, no, Mom will be back soon, I better review my lessons." Tamako felt a bit guilty, worried her lie would be exposed, so she intended to put on a show in front of Kujo to let her mother know her obedient daughter had been studying all along.
Fushimi Roku surveyed the room, finding no place to hide, stood up, and said, "Okay, suit yourself. I'll go to the bathroom."
Saying this, he didn't care how Tamako reacted, quickly left the room, glanced around, walked along the corridor by the door, and walked straight into the bathroom, pulling the bolt.
Hmm, not bad, looks safe.
About ten minutes later, Kujo Yua arrived home on time, and the first thing she did upon opening the door was to ask Tamako if her assignments were done. Tamako unsuspectingly stammered that she had finished them.
Fushimi Roku mourned for her for five seconds.
Five seconds later, the room resounded with Kujo's ghostly roar as she shouted, "Why is it all blank?! How dare you not do your homework! Who taught you to lie?!!"
Even listening to it gave Fushimi Roku a chill down his spine. He thought hiding in the bathroom might not be safe and proceeded to pull down his pants and sit on the toilet, creating an absolute zone.
Usually in horror movies, you wouldn't get attacked while pooping; the danger usually comes after defecation… By this logic, as long as he kept pooping, he'd remain in a safe state.
No matter how furious Kujo's specter became, she wouldn't storm into a feces-filled bathroom, right?
Fushimi Roku clasped his fingers, elbows resting on his knees, his expression like Ikari Gendo's if his wife had died, and he clenched his anal sphincter, preparing to create an anti-magic tool—he suddenly realized something and abruptly tightened his sphincter, stopping in time.
If he defecated in the dream, would he poop in reality too?
Cold sweat broke out on Fushimi Roku's forehead, thinking: lucky, lucky, he almost pooped his pants… If Minamoto Tamako found out, how would he live? Minamoto Tamako had only wet the bed as a child, whereas as a twenty-five-year-old adult, if he soiled his underwear, his life would be over!
Even if the chance was one in ten thousand, he wouldn't dare gamble, not to mention the chance was ninety-nine percent; he dared not take the risk.