NOVEL WEB Volume 3 – Chapter 28
There was an air of tension as we moved into the village. Myshka clung to me tightly. I could tell Jakub’s men felt a sense of dread as we moved through the empty streets. There was no sign of the villagers or any indication as to what had happened. The carts and belongings were left just lying around on the street and there was a feeling of abandonment and emptiness.
I scanned the surroundings and detected no signs of life. No people and no animals. But there was a feeling of unease. Like something was watching us. Or maybe it was more accurate to say that something was watching from within the village? It was like the whole place was filled with malice and hostility and it was directed right at me. My instincts were telling me that this was a hostile environment. There was a chill in the air and it felt like the very wind was carrying with it a sense of foreboding. It was a start contrast to the bright sunny day. This atmosphere belonged somewhere else, like a stormy night.
Suddenly there was a noise coming from one of the houses near us and the sound of footsteps could be heard moving towards the front door. Jakub motioned to his men, and they got ready for battle. The door opened and a young elf appeared. It was a woman with short golden hair and a serious expression on her face. She was wearing a white tunic and blue pants and was holding a dagger in her hands. I had not picked up on her presence in the village when initially scanning it.
If I had to put in in an unkind way, she didn’t even register as an insect.
“Zofia!!” Jakub exclaimed as he dismounted his horse and rushed forward and embraced the elf in a tight hug. The other elves relaxed and began talking amongst themselves. But not me. Something wasn’t right.
“Jakub, I’m so glad you are okay, and that you brought back our Hero”, Zofia said, as she broke the embrace and turned to look at me, her eyes widening when they fell on me, as if she hadn’t expected me to look so young, but there was something different about her that gave me pause. Her movements were too deliberate. Too careful.
“Zofia, we succeeded! I was able to convince Hero to come here with us and now she will save the village!” Jakub shouted excitedly, while still embracing Zofia and not noticing anything amiss, and his voice echoed throughout the deserted street. “Where are the others? We must prepare for the celebration!”
Jakub, what’s wrong with you? Did you not just tell me the Shadow has claimed your village? Everyone seemed to be acting unusually jovial for some reason. Something was off. It was almost like everyone was possessed or under a spell. They weren’t behaving like themselves at all. My senses were telling me something was very wrong here. My instincts were screaming danger and yet no one else was picking up on it. It was a frustrating experience. I didn’t feel fear or anything of the sort, somehow I knew instinctively that whatever was causing this couldn’t physically harm me or anything for that matter. I wasn’t sure how I knew, I just did. But it was clear everyone around me was affected. And I felt a strange sort of unease washing over me. What should I do?
“I’m so glad Jakub. It means a lot that you managed to persuade him. You did well and deserve praise for it!” Zofia answered him, stroking his hair gently, then she turned to me. “Welcome to our village hero. It is an honor to have you here. Please forgive us for our rude welcoming party and follow me. The elder is waiting for you inside.”
She led us to a large house located at the centre of the village, and we followed her in silence. The inside of the house was warm and inviting and smelled like lavender and mint. The walls were decorated with paintings of the forest and the furniture was made of polished wood. There were candles everywhere, and the light in the room was soft but bright enough to illuminate every corner. We were sitting in a large dining room that looked more like a ballroom with its high ceilings and polished wooden floors. We were surrounded by tables and chairs and there were bowls filled with food and drinks placed on each one. The room was spacious and spacious and it was filled with Jakub’s elves eating and drinking. Everyone looked happy and carefree and they were laughing and chatting merrily.
It was all very wrong. But I did not speak out or act on my instincts. Not yet. Instead, I remained silent, observing the scene before me, trying to understand what was happening. This village was empty except for Zofia, yet everyone had glossed over this fact and had forgotten everything which led up to our approach to the village.
Zofia was definitely using some sort of skill, and it was working on everyone but me. It seemed that so far she hadn’t realised this fact, or simply didn’t care.
Actually wasn’t wholly correct. Myshka was not acting like everyone else and she was standing next to me, acting as my retainer. She had gone along with everything as I had; it seemed. But there was the distinct lack of abandonment of caution, which was infecting all the male elves. Even Gustaf, normally so quick to point out anything he thought was wrong, had failed to notice anything amiss. In fact, everyone was acting strangely happy. As if the threat of “the Shadow” was nothing to worry about and had been dealt with already. Which couldn’t be further from the truth. But no one was saying anything.
Somehow, none of this seemed Tomiko’s style, even after her transformation. I wish I still had the ability to telepathically communicate with her, even if it was a one-sided conversation. It was hard for me to judge her motivations and her reasoning without an insight into her mind and her emotions, so I couldn’t rule out this was her doing.
There was the possibility this was the work of someone else entirely. Another powerful monster had taken the Sovic village as its lair. Though why would a monster do such a thing? Why would it pretend to be an elf? Was this some kind of trap? What was the purpose? Why was it affecting everyone but me and Myshka? Was the little girl really the only one who noticed something was amiss?
I formed a hypothesis. I had been enough of a lowlife anime, manga and light novel consumer in my previous life that I couldn’t see this as a simple case of a shape-shifting…
“Succubus!”, I called out.
Everyone suddenly stopped talking and stared at me.
I really had a bad habit of saying everything which was on my mind in this new body…
“Excuse me?” Zofia said, with a confused look on her face. Then she looked at Jakub, as if expecting him to explain what I had just said. The silence that had filled the room was deafening. The mood shifted from celebratory to something else entirely. To be honest I didn’t care. I have a feeling if it wasn’t for this new body I’d already have killed Zofia on the mere suspicious she was the enemy. But murder was the last thing on my mind as I… pitied the creature.
“I’m sorry I called you a succubus.” I replied to Zofia’s query. “I was simply curious about your name. Zofia, You see in my language your name means “to suck a dick”, and I couldn’t help but think such a vulgar word didn’t suit someone as beautiful as you," I explained. “Please forgive me for my rudeness.”
Myshka‘s face turned beet red, and she was covering her mouth with her hands. Jakub and the rest of the elves looked shocked and confused by what was happening. They were staring at me with wide eyes, as if seeing me for the first time. My words had broken the illusion. The spell was broken. They were all awake now. About time.
Let me explain.
This entire situation was a trap set by the enemy to lure us into the village and keep us occupied. We had fallen right into it and it was thanks to a monster pretending to be one of their own. If this wasn’t a case of a succubus, a creature with the ability to control the minds of the men around it and create illusions.
Illusions are founded upon the simple principle of “going along with it”. As someone well versed in the world of gacha, the whole premise of the gacha illusion is to trick you into thinking that the things you get are valuable. In the same way that a lottery or a prize box tricks the mind into thinking it’s a great deal. When really, they’re all just random numbers with astronomically small chances of any return. And even though the player knows deep down it’s all random, they assume they’ll win. Because everyone wins at least once. It’s just a question of time. Time. A finite resource that the game takes from you without giving back. So, in reality, the player is giving money and time and getting nothing in return. That’s what an illusion is. And that’s what’s happening here. I knew this because I’d fallen for them in my past life.
The only way to break out from an illusion, or a dream of sorts, is discordancy.
Let me explain further.
Have you ever heard of lucid dreams? Lucid dreams are dreams in which you are aware that you are dreaming. This awareness allows you to interact with your dream and sometimes even influence its events. Lucid dreaming requires a high degree of concentration and self-awareness. In other words, you have to be consciously thinking about your dreams and then actively try to control them. Most people who attempt this fail, but those who do succeed find that they can not only manipulate their own dreams but also change their dreams’ events to a certain extent. Some lucid dreamers have even learned how to create objects and fly. Lucid dreams can be both terrifying and exhilarating. But they are not easy to achieve. The trick to achieving lucid dreaming is to become aware that you’re dreaming. This is where the dicordancy comes in. Something needs to be ‘off’ for you to realise it’s a dream.
And the illusion of a succubus is no different to a dream. The key to breaking free from the control of a succubus was to call her out on her deception. But this had to be done in a way that would not only shatter the illusion itself, but would also break the minds of those under its control and return them to their senses.
The problem with doing this simply is that those under the spell somewhere deep down inside consent to the illusion. It satisfies a need. An innate desire to be deceived and fooled. It feeds into the ego and gives a false sense of control and agency. This is why people who fall for Ponzi schemes can’t seem to understand how they’ve been fooled. They are not being fooled because they believe in the scheme itself, rather it’s because they are willing to deceive themselves and are unwilling to accept that they are being duped. The truth is painful and difficult to swallow. But once the illusion is broken, they can finally see the truth. Once you acknowledge that you are being tricked and accept it, the power of the succubus will vanish and her hold over your mind will be shattered.
And what does all of this have to do with sucking a dick? Well, that’s what separates the male mind from the female mind. Men have a much greater tendency to focus on the physical world and women are more inclined towards abstract concepts. A man is more likely to think in terms of concrete actions and objects, and a woman is more likely to dwell on feelings and ideas. This difference becomes particularly noticeable when it comes to sexual attraction. The male brain is wired to respond to visual stimuli while the female brain is wired to respond to non-visual stimuli, such as voice pitch or smell. The result is that a man is more likely to be aroused by a pretty face, while a woman is more likely to be aroused by an attractive voice. It seems a little silly, but this difference can be quite significant in certain circumstances. For example, a man might become excited when watching a movie with lots of pretty women in it while a woman might become aroused by a sexy voice in an audiobook. Of course, there are many exceptions and variations, and no single rule can be applied universally, but the general pattern remains the same. A woman is more likely to enjoy erotic stories or poetry, while a man is more likely to enjoy pornography. And I knew exactly which kind of words were needed here. Something that would arouse the lust in their hearts. Something to point out the folly of men and confront them with the simple truth: you’re being all made fools of.
Yes, the mind of a veteran gacha player is twisted enough to come up with such a strategy.
“I guess you saw through me even though you’re a boy, tee-hee!!”, Zofia giggled and laughed and suddenly the appearance of the golden-haired beauty before me was replaced by something completely different.
Her skin warped and contorted in a gruesome display until a short and slender humanoid creature stood in front of me. It was feminine in appearance but its features were that of a child. Its skin was a sickly pale colour and its hair was like slicked back tentacles. Its eyes were hollow and black and its mouth was a wide open maw filled with razor-sharp teeth.
“I hope mommy doesn’t punish me too hard!”, the alien-like girl before me exclaimed while licking her lips and winking at me seductively. Her body was covered in a black rubbery material and her flat chest was exposed. There was a long thin tail coming out of her lower back and her legs were bent backwards.
“Mommy’s bound to be here anytime now… daddy”, she said with a wicked smile.
