However, the moment the four women's mouthparts connected with Amamiya Rin, their whole bodies trembled. Their pupils instantly dilated and lost focus, and expressions of shock and pain emerged on their faces.
The next moment, the large patch of tentacles drooped limply, and the light in the four women's eyes completely extinguished. Like puppets with their strings cut, they collapsed stiffly onto Amamiya Rin's bed.
Amamiya Rin knew nothing of what was happening inside the Hospital Ward. Almost the instant he fell asleep, his consciousness abruptly "woke up."
However, the scenery presented before his eyes was not the study room from last night, but a Dark Forest emitting a rotting stench.
(What's going on? The dream changed?)
Amamiya Rin looked dumbfounded. He wanted to speak, but what came out was a sharp and unpleasant screech: "Gau!"
He struggled to glance downward—rough green skin covered in bumps coated his short arms, and his fingernails were sharp and filthy.
(I turned into... a Goblin?)
Amamiya Rin was even more confused.
In his past life, although he mocked himself as a goblin, that definitely didn't mean he actually wanted to turn into this kind of ugly, weak monster that served as experience points in countless fantasy works!
(This dream is a bit ridiculous. What can I learn by becoming a Goblin?)
Looking around, there were over twenty similarly short and ugly green-skinned creatures.
They held rough wooden clubs or rusty short knives, emitting meaningless "Gaga" sounds. Their eyes were turbid, filled with primitive greed and stupidity.
Amamiya Rin felt like he was sitting inside an out-of-control robot, only able to watch helplessly as "he" wandered aimlessly through the gloomy forest with this pack of Goblins.
They attacked lone wild beasts, beating them indiscriminately with crude weapons, then swarmed up to share the raw meat.
The smell of blood and the fishy stench of raw meat made Amamiya Rin want to vomit, but the body sent back an instinctive reaction of satisfaction. This sense of fragmentation between consciousness and body nearly drove him mad.
For a long time, Amamiya Rin was forced to experience the miserable life of a bottom-tier Goblin.
In dark and damp caves, squeezed together with his stinking kind, eating carrion or raw food, constantly guarding against attacks from stronger monsters and subjugation by Adventurers.
To him, every minute was torture.
For nearly half a month, he gained nothing but pain and nausea.
As a monster at the bottom of the food chain, the Goblin had no skills for Amamiya Rin to learn.
On the evening of the twentieth day, when Amamiya Rin and the other Goblins left the cave to forage, he suddenly heard hurried footsteps and human shouts coming from ahead.
"Right ahead! Goblins spotted! Prepare for battle!"
A clear young male voice came from the woods.
Immediately after, several figures rushed out. It was human Adventurers!
They wore shiny leather armor or simple chainmail, holding longswords, battle axes, and wooden staves. They looked young too, like novices who had just left the thatched cottage.
"For justice!"
"Die, monsters!"
The battle—or rather, the one-sided slaughter—erupted immediately.
The Goblins let out howls of terror or anger, waving their crude weapons to charge, only to be easily cut down by the Adventurers.
Green blood and unidentified organs splashed out, smelling foul and fishy.
The death of their compatriots scared the wits out of the remaining Goblins. Amamiya Rin's body started running, scattering in flight with the other Goblins.
Behind them were the Adventurers' righteous roars and the sound of weapons breaking the wind. A cold sword edge slashed Amamiya Rin's shoulder, bringing indescribable intense pain.
Suddenly, the light in the forest underwent a bizarre change.
Four tall, graceful figures appeared without warning in this gloomy scene.
Hashimoto Ayaka, Mikami Yui, Hatano Yua, Momonogi Kana. The four women he had only met once actually appeared in Amamiya Rin's Dream World!
(No way? Am I that sexually repressed? Dreaming of enemies I've only met once, this is too ridiculous!)
Amamiya Rin screamed inwardly.
He saw the four of them: one holding a gorgeous longsword, wearing metal bikini breastplate and war skirt; one gripping a crystal staff, the neckline of her robe as low as it could go; one holding a glowing holy book, wearing pitifully little fabric; and one wearing boxing gloves and only a sports bikini, showing off a fit physique.
Their equipment... was extremely sparing with fabric, as if they had run out from the Reverse World.
However, even more bizarre than their attire were their mouths.
Dozens of infusion-tube-like tentacles extended from their mouths, connecting to each other, entangled and bundled, twisting like living things, linking the four people together.
Furthermore, they had no pupils; their eyes were completely white, giving people a hair-raising feeling.
(Such strong déjà vu... Whenever a character in a Junji Ito manga has a problem, their eyes turn white... Wait! Those tentacles, those four people, the car accident... It's "Group Sickroom"!)
Suddenly, Amamiya Rin remembered where exactly his déjà vu came from.
The Junji Ito Collection—"Group Sickroom."
The story opens with two female drivers hospitalized due to a car accident. In the same Hospital Ward, there were four other women. Those four walked, sat, and lay down in perfect sync. They were together no matter what they did, and they even dreamed the same dream!
Later, one of the female drivers discovered that a nerve-like substance was parasitic in their brains. The four were connected by bundles of nerves, their spirits becoming one, equivalent to four bodies using a single consciousness.
Let's tentatively name it the [Khala].
Because the sacred Khala connects us.
The [Khala] has an instinct to develop itself. It will extend nerves into the target's oral cavity, turning the target into its new body.
The end of the manga saw the female driver being chased after discovering the truth, and she successfully severed the nerve line of one body, causing that body to die.
However, Junji Ito's manga basically never have complete endings; the plot ended there.
Now it seems the female driver was eventually connected by the [Khala].
Currently, it must be because they don't have money to compensate him, so they want to connect him to the [Khala] too—several people connected by the [Khala] always hang around together. It seems that because they cannot be too far apart, they don't even eat meals, surviving on IV drips, and don't go out to work every day. No wonder they don't have enough savings to pay his emotional distress damages.
Before Amamiya Rin could think more, the four women connected by the [Khala] had already taken action, chasing down Amamiya Rin simultaneously.
"Holy Slash!"
"Fireball!"
"Light of Punishment!"
"Hundred Crack Kick!"
The sword edge grazed his back, bringing tearing pain.
The fireball exploded nearby, the scorching heat wave lifting Amamiya Rin into the air.
The holy light beam burned his skin.
The wind from the fighter's legs scraped his cheeks painfully.
Every hit brought fresh pain to Amamiya Rin.
___
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