A Trash Novel's Only Reader-Chapter 9: Back Home

Shu carried the little girl in both arms while heading back home, moving slower this time now that the building had finally gone quiet. He already got everything he needed from that man, and since it was getting late, the only thing left on his mind was resting up for tomorrow.

’What a day,’ he thought, shifting her weight a little. ’I got isekai’d, killed monsters, got stabbed, ate a monster heart, and now I am carrying a kid home in the dark.’

She stayed quiet at first, hands lightly gripping his shirt while her head rested against his shoulder. By the time he stepped inside his apartment, her body had loosened a little, which told him she was finally starting to calm down.

He nudged the door shut with his foot, then glanced down at her. "By the way," he said, lowering his voice a little, "what’s your name?"

She looked up at him, hesitated, then answered in a small voice, "Nari."

"Nari, huh," he muttered, nodding once. "I am Shu."

She looked around the room after that, at the dark ceiling, the dark walls, the dark everything, and her fingers tightened around his shirt again. He noticed it right away and scratched his cheek with the back of one finger.

’Yeah, staying in a pitch-black apartment after the apocalypse is probably not helping,’ he thought. ’This has to be creepy as hell for a kid.’

"Sit here for a second," he said, setting her down gently on the bed.

She obeyed at once, though she still looked a little tense while clutching the blanket around herself. He was about to think of something else to say when the system screen suddenly opened in front of him.

[Core integration complete.]

[The energy from the consumed core has been fully absorbed.]

His eyes sharpened right away.

[Acquired Energy: Feral Pig Core Energy]

[Energy Attribute: Endurance]

[Frame: +3]

[Core: +1]

[Acquired Skill]

[Iron Stomach Lv.1]

[Effect: Improves digestion, poison resistance, and tolerance against corruption-type substances.]

"Oh," he said, staring at the screen. "That is actually pretty good."

He kept reading as more lines started appearing under it.

[Domain has leveled up.]

[Domain Lv.1 -> Domain Lv.2]

[New Domain Function unlocked.]

He straightened up.

[Domain Function: Basic Utilities]

[Allows the owner to restore electricity and water within the Domain.]

[Cost: 300 Credits per day]

He read that twice, then a third time just to make sure he was not hallucinating. ’No way,’ he thought, then looked around the dark room one more time, ’Haha, no fucking way.’

Nari noticed his expression and blinked at him. "Mister Shu?" she asked softly. "What happened?"

He turned to her with a smile he was trying very hard to keep under control. "Something amazing," he said, already pulling up the domain menu.

[Domain Menu]

[Level: 2]

[Credits: 4,900]

[Available Functions]

[ - Safe Entry Control]

[ - Basic Utilities]

[Would you like to activate Basic Utilities?]

[Cost: 300 Credits]

[Yes / No]

He pressed [Yes] without even pretending to hesitate.

[300 Credits deducted.]

[Credits Remaining: 4,600]

[Basic Utilities activated.]

The lights blinked once, then the whole apartment lit up.

Nari flinched and looked up, eyes widening as the room suddenly stopped feeling so oppressive. A second later, the pipes groaned somewhere in the apartment, and he heard the sink give a short cough before water finally started running again.

For a few seconds, he just stood there and stared at the ceiling light. ’This is it,’ he thought, feeling a grin spread across his face before he could stop it. ’This is the good stuff.’

"Well," he said, clearing his throat a little as he turned back to Nari. "Would you look at that, the electricity is back."

She did not answer right away. Her eyes moved from the light above them to the door, then back to him, and the small crease between her brows told him she found this whole thing suspicious.

"Why..." she started quietly, still looking around. "Why is your house the only one with power?"

He froze for a second, then pointed at her knees before that question could get any more dangerous.

"You know what we should do first?" he said. "Treat your wounds before they get worse."

The topic shift was so shameless that even he felt it, but Nari only looked down at her scrapes and hesitated. A second later, she gave a small nod.

He guided her to the sink first and washed the blood and dirt off her cuts as gently as he could, then grabbed a small first-aid box from one of the drawers.

"This might sting a little," he said, crouching in front of her.

She flinched when the disinfectant touched her skin, but she did not pull away. He worked quietly after that, cleaning the cuts on her arms and knees while keeping his movements slow enough not to scare her again.

"Nari," he said after a while, sticking a bandage over one scrape on her leg, "do you know where your parents are?"

Her fingers tightened around the blanket in her lap.

"No," she said, voice dropping right away. "They left me in that building and said they would come back."

She looked down and swallowed once before finishing, "but... it has been days now."

His hand paused for a second over the bandage roll, ’yeah,’ he thought, keeping his face steady. ’That means one of two things. They left her, or they died.’

"We’ll look for them," he said instead, pressing the last bandage down properly. "Not tonight, but we will check."

She looked up at him, and even though she still seemed tense, some of the panic in her face eased a little. He noticed it, then his eyes drifted to the system for a second as a different thought hit him.

’I almost got this kid killed earlier,’ he thought, his jaw tightening. ’If I didn’t register her right before bringing her in...’

He really did not want to picture what might have happened if he had tried to bring her into the Domain without authorizing her first.

"Alright," he said, getting back to his feet and heading for the closet. "You should wash up too."

He pulled out one of his shirts and held it out to her, "wear this after you take a bath," he said. "It will be huge on you, but it’s better than what you have on right now."

She took the shirt with both hands and held it against herself, "what about you?"

"I am going to make something to eat," he said, already turning toward the kitchen. "Nearly dying twice in one day burned a lot of calories."

She held the shirt tighter and looked down for a second, "thank you," she said quietly.

He waved it off without turning around. "It’s no biggie," he said. "Go wash up and let’s have a feast."

The second he stepped into the kitchen, another thought hit him, ’good thing I dragged those goblin bodies out earlier,’ he thought, opening the fridge.

’If Nari walked in and saw dead monsters all over the apartment, that would have been a horrible first impression.’

’Now then, I talked about a feast, but is there even anything in here?’ He pulled the door open and blinked in surprise, because there was.

Leftover chicken sat on one shelf, and beside it was basically everything he used to have back on Earth, eggs, drinks, sauces, half-used containers, random snacks, all of it still sitting exactly where he left them.

He stared at everything for a second, then let out a short laugh, running a hand through his hair.

’This really is insane,’ he thought, reaching in for the chicken. ’The being actually took my whole apartment and dumped it into this world, or cloned it somehow. Whatever it did, I am actually grateful this time.’

He set the food on the counter and rolled up his sleeves a little, "alright," he muttered, reaching to a knife. "Time to make dinner."

The system screen opened before he could do anything else.

[Alert]

[Unauthorized individual is attempting to enter the Domain.]