The following days weren't as bleak as Jerry thought they'd be. After that incident, the siblings seemed to have gotten too busy to humor them, leaving a momentary peace with a hanging saboteur that could fall at any time.
"Jack~," Jerry strolled in cheerfully, "I managed to get more rations—excess, in fact!"
Jack, who sat on the verandah in a chair, looked up.
"That's good," he murmured.
Ever since that incident, perhaps out of sympathy or a nagging sense of guilt, the teen had been more amiable with Jerry.
Dina, who had suffered pain for days, and Zero, who had been hurled all kinds of insults along with the Bureau, breathed a sigh of relief. Though the meter was still as stagnant as ever, visible progress was still quite consolatory.
After the two demons' visit, some of their rations had been absolutely devastated, and thus, after a whole night of planning, Jerry ended up using his smarts and pretty privilege to embezzle a few.
The only problem was that now some delusional idiot truly believed they had something going on—but that was an issue Dina was confident she could easily eradicate.
"Is there any egg dish you're craving, Jack?" Jerry dangled a bag before the lounging teen. "I brought a lot~."
Jack pondered for a bit, then answered, "Any chocolate dish will be fine."
Jerry sighed. At least he liked something. Apart from chocolate and salty snacks, this kid didn't seem to like anything else.
"Alright, then I'll make an assorted amount of dishes~. Chocolate dishes, of course."
Jack glanced at the male leaving and leaned into his chair even more.
It shouldn't come as a surprise that, with how pretty Jerry was, he would pull off a feminine look.
However… How could he be that pretty?
"No wonder those buffoons fell helplessly into his trap."
"Huh?!" Jerry yelled from inside, "Did you say something, Jack?"
Jack flinched. Damn those sensitive ears of his!
"No!"
"Okay…?"
Jerry grumbled. Why so mad about it though…
***
[Days later]
Jerry coughed, followed by a harsh wheeze that knocked out all the air within his lungs. Blood trailed down his lips. Damn, they were really pissed.
Were they so eager to humiliate their already ruined older brother just for fun? Impossible. This was beyond "fun." This was obsession!
"You stupid buffoon!" Jessica kicked him hard in his stomach, leaving him curled up, only for a hard cane to land on his back.
He wriggled like an earthworm that had salt sprayed on it, and heavy gasps echoed through his lips like a dying man's groan.
"I see why even Jennifer was spooked! Crazy asshole!"
After their last infiltration, Dina came to understand that she wasn't the only one who had a master key.
And after much consideration, it hit her that she could simply change the keys if she wanted! But changing everything might be going too far, and these crazy kids might actually kill someone if they managed to break in… So she decided to change Jack's lock!
It was the perfect strategy. Not only would she get on the good grace of the target and maybe finally move that damn meter and leave this fucked-up place, but she would also protect that annoying brat.
He had suffered so much… wasn't it sensible to alleviate a bit of his pain as much as he could as his only reliable senior?
Who would have thought Jack's siblings were too damn obsessed with him—obsessed with bullying him, that is!
As soon as they threw him out, they went to get Jack and found out the lock had been changed. Being the prime suspect, he denied it for a long time before he ended up owning up to it while in a daze from being slammed face-first against the wall repeatedly.
He thought he had seen the cruelty of these kids to the very end, but boy was he wrong.
'It's almost as if they don't care if I die!'
Jerry shivered. Perhaps it was true. Although the contract swore to protect him from death, what would happen if it didn't?
Suing? Someone as insignificant as him suing the Jacksons was beyond laughable. These little monsters truly could kill Jerry and bury him like it's another Tuesday.
This feeling intensified when he ended up bleeding from all orifices and they still didn't stop beating him, even picking up items to spice up the "fun."
"Just give me the key, you stupid fool!" Jason's punch, with the heaviness of iron, hit Jerry, sending him to the wall.
His back slammed roughly, and he slid down the wall, a crimson path painting it as he did.
His head lulled and his hands draped down. His consciousness trembled and then fizzled out completely.
"Hey! Wake up, you madman!" Jessica slapped the unmoving body of Jerry, which was completely still—and then she stopped.
Her hand froze, and her big green eyes widened. "J-Jason?"
Jason also paused before approaching the unconscious Jerry. He placed his fingers under his nostrils, and his complexion fell.
"S-sis… He's…" He touched his pulse—Gone!? He quickly crouched to his heart—silent!
"He's dead!"
"Eek!" Jessica stumbled to the floor in horror. "What… how… UghUgh…"
She doubled over and vomited, and in the second it took her to recover, Jason had vanished from her view.
"J—J-j-j—Jason! Heik! What did you—ugh!"
Perhaps because she was in a panic and her eyes were filled with tears, she stumbled as she stood up to run.
On her forehead lay a nasty bruise, and her eyes watered even more. It hurt so much… she could only imagine how much it hurt for the now-dead Jerry!
"I'm s-s—sorry," she stood up with trembling legs, her knees also bruised. She glanced at the corpse beside her and, shrieking, fell to her knees yet again.
Like that, she ran off along with her cunning brother, wobbling and sniffling with teary eyes and a shaky gaze.
The two were gone, and the only person who remained was the dead Jerry, who lay before the house silently.
***
Dina watched all this from the system space, howling in laughter. This wasn't the system space per se, rather it was an imitation that was usually written into the Transmigrator's mind which they could only access on passing out.
Within it was also the AIT—or rather, an ultra-realistic holograph of the AIT. Dina had guilt-tripped Zero into letting her touch it and marveled to see that it gave the feeling of flesh!
At this point, wasn't this just a clone?!
"I need to be heavily compensated after this. I was nearly beaten to death! You had to stimulate my identity's death just for those demons to let me go! It hurt so so much—UWAAA."
Zero watched Dina cradle her arms while giving her all to creating a pity show before him and sighed heavily.
Usually, for beginners, the pain reduction function was disabled, not only because most beginner worlds wouldn't place them in situations needing such functions...
But also to have them master pain to some extent. To put it simply, pain was something to be expected even during beginner missions, but never to a near-critical extent, let alone a critical extent.
It was necessary, as certain roles may require the Transmigrator to face pain, and thus exposing them to milder situations slowly but surely until a certain stage—after which they would be more accustomed to it.
Thus, when the pain reduction function was eventually activated, they wouldn't end up over-relying on it to an extent that could cripple their endurance.
However, Dina's situation had truly exceeded normalcy. Not to mention near critical—this had crossed a critical threshold. But even more marveling was her endurance.
Perhaps he should look into her past. But he was hesitant, and after some speculations, decided not to. It'd be much better to have her reveal it herself.
Not only would that strengthen their relationship as partners, but it would also be more interesting to hear from her perspective.
"Alright," Zero surrendered, prompting the playfully dramatic Dina to cease her "tears," "I'll file a complaint. With how odd your situation is, although you still might not be getting the pain reduction function but at least you'll be adequately compensated for your trauma."
Dina huffed in satisfaction, "That's good."
Silence returned as Zero quickly got to it. Dina watched from the screen what was happening and came to appreciate the POV from the system space once more.
It was within the range of the identity's presence, but wasn't from their POV, or the screen would have gone blank by now with a passed-out Jerry; but with an omniscient movie-streaming type of POV which viewed everything from an extremely clear point.
"Can I have some pasta with chicken?"
That's right, this place even had this function.
"You have to pay—"
"You said before that it's free."
"...."
"( ╹▽╹ )"
"Fine."
"Yeah~ (≧▽≦)."
Looking at the cheerful Dina, Zero couldn't help but find it extremely odd.
How could someone who was nearly beaten to death be so nonchalant? This partner of his was… Interesting.