A Trash Novel's Only Reader-Chapter 8: Recovery

Shu forced down another bite, swallowed, then wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

’Honestly,’ he thought, breathing hard through the disgusting taste still stuck in his mouth. ’This is gross as hell, but it is not as bad as I thought.’

That thought barely lasted two seconds as something burst inside him without warning.

The pain hit so fast he folded forward on the stairs and coughed up blood all over the floor. His hand flew to his mouth on instinct, but another wave slammed through his chest, then his stomach, then everywhere else so violently that his whole body seized up.

"Ghhk-!"

He almost fell off the step right there, catching himself with one arm while his vision shook. The core did not feel like food anymore, and it definitely did not feel like poison, it felt alive, moving through him in pulses that made every part of him hurt at once.

His veins felt too tight, his bones felt like they were being crashed and something under his skin kept pushing and twisting until he wanted to tear himself open just to make it stop.

’What the fuck is this?!’ he thought, choking on another mouthful of blood. ’This is not what I was expecting, at this rate I will-’

The little girl stumbled back again and stared at him in horror, while across the room, the smile on the sword guy’s face twisted into open shock. He had expected Shu to die stupidly, maybe foam at the mouth or collapse on the stairs, but this looked disturbing even to him.

The system screen opened in front of him through the blur.

[Integration has begun.]

[Foreign energy detected.]

[Core Consumption in progress.]

He barely got to read it before another surge tore through him so hard his spine arched. A raw scream ripped out of him this time, there was no holding it back anymore when his whole body felt like it was being ripped apart from the inside. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

He experienced a lot of pain in his life, but this was worse than all of them put together, what really made it worse was that it was spread all over his body.

He gritted his teeth and endured it, even when his body kept jerking on the stairs every few seconds as the energy inside him tore through him again and again. Blood and sweat soaked his shirt while his fingers scraped against the step hard enough to make them ache.

’Don’t pass out,’ he thought, forcing his eyes open whenever they started closing. ’If I pass out during this, I am finished.’

Another wave came and made him nearly bite through his tongue, but he stayed upright somehow, breathing in broken pulls while his whole body shook. It felt endless while it was happening, one long stretch of pain that gave him just enough room to breathe before crashing into him again.

After that, time got weird. He could not tell if it had been thirty seconds or ten minutes, only that the pain slowly stopped climbing and finally started dropping little by little.

The twisting under his skin got weaker first, then the crushing feeling in his bones eased enough for him to unclench his jaw. His breathing was still a mess, but the next wave came weaker than the last, and when he realized that, he nearly laughed from relief.

’Oh thank god,’ he thought, slumping forward with his forehead almost touching the step. ’It is going down.’

He stayed there and endured the last of it, shaking less with each breath until his body finally stopped trying to fold in on itself. The silence after was so sudden it almost felt fake.

Then the system screen opened.

[Emergency Mission: Survive Integration]

[Status: Complete]

[Reward granted: Core Consumption]

[Additional Reward granted: Full Recovery]

He barely had time to read the last line before the reward kicked in.

The pain vanished so fast it made him freeze, and the weakness draining out of his arms and legs right after nearly felt even stranger. One second he was sitting there half dead on the stairs, and the next the bleeding, the stabbing pain, and the heavy fog in his head were just gone.

"...Huh?" he muttered, blinking at his own hands.

Relief hit him so hard he almost laughed. He sat there for another second just to make sure the pain was really gone, then let out a long breath and leaned back against the wall.

’Phew,’ he thought, staring at the system screen. ’That reward is cracked.’

"Core Consumption," he read under his breath, then opened the skill info.

[Core Consumption]

[Type: Special Skill]

[Effect: Allows the user to consume monster cores.]

[Effect: The user may absorb traits, abilities, or energy linked to the consumed core.]

[Note: Compatibility, quality, and survival are not guaranteed.]

He stared at the last line for a second, then clicked his tongue.

’Of course there is still scam wording in there,’ he thought. ’Couldn’t even say "congrats on surviving" first.’

Learning abilities from monster cores was insane, and the system had just dumped that in his lap right after nearly killing him.

He pushed himself up from the stairs, then looked down at his shirt and lifted it a little where the knife had gone in. The hole was still there, along with all the blood, but the wound itself had vanished so cleanly it almost looked fake.

The little girl was still watching from a safe distance, stiff and unsure, so he gave her a small smile and pointed at his side.

"See?" he said. "All fixed."

She looked from his face to the hole in his shirt, then to the blood still dried on his skin, her feet staying planted where they were.

"You are... really okay?" she asked quietly.

"Yeah," he said, lowering his shirt again. "I told you I would be fine."

That did not seem to fully convince her, though. She relaxed a little after seeing there was no wound anymore, but she still did not come closer, only stood there clutching the chocolate bar and watching him like she wanted to believe him but was not fully ready yet.

He let her be for now and turned his attention back to the man on the floor. As he started walking over, he rolled his shoulder once and said, "Actually, I just realized there are a few things I want to know."

The man stared at him in disbelief. A second ago Shu was half dead on the stairs, bleeding through his shirt and looking ready to collapse, but now he was walking over just fine with no wound left on him at all.

’How is he alive?’ the man thought, his face going paler the closer Shu got. ’No, forget alive, how is he standing there with no wound on him?’

Shu stopped right in front of him and looked down with a calm face. There was no rush in him now, no wild grin or blood-crazy look, just a flat stare that made the man want to crawl backwards.

"You are going to answer my questions," he said in a gentle tone. "And if you lie to me or waste my time, I will kill you, okay?"

The man swallowed so hard his throat clicked.

"I-I..." he stammered, eyes flicking toward the door before snapping back to Shu. "Y-you really won’t let me go?"

Shu’s expression did not change.

"No," he said. "So let’s save each other some time and do this properly."