The stranger's arms and legs are gradually consumed by a thick, viscous black resin. It silently erodes the skin, penetrating deeper and turning the flesh into dry bone or even reducing it to fine dust...
[Space]
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— Damn it, what a mess I'm writing! I only wanted to finish the Jonathan Keet detective story. I have to submit the outline and script tomorrow, and I can't seem to come up with an ending!
But you know, after I had a tantrum, a tiny burst of memory did come back. It was like stepping outside in the morning, feeling light and clear, ready to take a thousand steps forward, breaking the horizon.
Perhaps if I keep going like this, instead of writing about tar, I'll go outside and exercise, leaving this writing for later.
A flash, like a fleeting fragment of horror, flashed before his eyes as the dark-cloaked body began to be inexorably covered in black, viscous tar, as if it were being devoured by an unknown force.
"I can't take this anymore!"
I'm a writer, yes—at least I try to be one—but when fatigue and a sense of overload take over, my words become a pathetic parody of creativity. Everything seems hopeless.
The hatred for this state is so deeply ingrained that I have no choice: after saving the final edits on my laptop, I make a determined move towards my closet. Sports clothes and leggings? Perfect, just what I need right now.
As if preparing for a marathon, I quickly dressed, slammed the door as hard as I could, and went outside.
— Phew! Fresh air! Here it is, a life-saving breath of freedom. It's probably the only way to be outside the four walls, where fatigue and procrastination ooze out of me. No, I can't let myself succumb to this depression.
I walked forward, trying to find a rhythm, a silent order within myself. After walking a few hundred meters and looking at my sports watch, I saw the number "9899 steps left to the finish line."
— Ah! Okay, maybe I'll get an idea.
But instead of an idea, I heard a call through the headphones in my ears, and my sixth sense told me that I should not answer it, because when I saw the name on the phone, I felt goosebumps all over my body.
[ Keji Watanabi: Boss ]
— Damn, I really don't want to answer him. He's going to start pushing me to work on a new book, and I'm stuck right now... Okay!
My long finger quickly tapped on the green handset to answer the call, and I almost went deaf from the overwhelming male voice. My eardrums were about to burst.
— Hello, dear Vyatko Trikomi! How is our celebrity doing?
— Em- em.. I wouldn't say that...
— I can't hear you, my dear! Listen, our plans have changed, tonight you have to show the finished material of the next book! Can you?
— It's not that I can't, I'm em... I'm finishing the last pages and...
— Wonderful my dear celebrity! So agreed, today at 19:00 we are waiting for you with the group at "Scaipia Book Group" there and discuss everything! Bye.
"But I'm not ready yet!"
But of course, as always, he doesn't listen to me, that damned, always-all-about-himself Koji Watanabi. How infuriating he can be sometimes, with his fake smile! You really shouldn't be so negative about him, he's trying his best...
— Sure, the goat just wants to get more money with my help!
Again looking at the clock that measures the number of my steps, I saw 6999 remaining steps to the finish line. But it's a pity that instead of ideas, I had to think about how I'm laughing while turning on the grill my boss, who can't calm down and gives me more time to write a book.
After walking at a fast pace a little more than two kilometers, I heard the pitiful moans of the man in front, handing out strange leaflets and shouting.
— Long live your peaceful and fantastic online life! Try the new VR MMORPG game Log Apofis!
Oh, that's all I need, for someone to drag my writer's head into some virtual jar, where I'll be stupid and glitchy, I hate it. My younger brother, who now lives in Kyoto, loves such games, I'm the opposite, and I'd never sit in that procrastination chair, no way.
— Okay, I'll feel sorry for this poor guy...
If you look closely, this poor stranger has a bunch of flyers, and if he doesn't distribute them all, he won't get paid for distributing the ads. It's so sad, it makes me want to cry.
So I quickly approached him, grabbed a couple of flyers from his hands, hid them in the pockets of my sport jacket, and quickly walked home. The man waved his hand happily as I passed by.
— Thank you, stranger! Today, my children will finally be able to eat more than just ramen!
Ahhh! How can I stop these tears? This man just said that his children will be eating more than just ramen, don't upset me so much!
— Waa-waa!
After running two more kilometers in tears, I saw on my running watch that I still had 100 steps to go. So I gave up, because I could finish those last steps tonight at the Scaipia Book Group office, where a team of people was waiting to help me with my detective series.
— How annoying this all is! My deadline is today at 7 p.m., and the material seems gray and stale compared to what I've written before!
Your famous detective writer, Vyatko Trikomi, is falling into a pit of writer's despair, and she doesn't know how to get out!
In my heart, my eyes widened in surprise, and a significant smile appeared on my face, indicating that your dear writer has come up with the ending of her new detective story.
"At last! Eureka!"
Running out of the bathroom in my birthday suit, I hurriedly opened the slippery bathroom door and ran to write the ending of the story. But I didn't take into account that I hadn't wiped my feet, and I slipped and hit my head on the wall. I didn't give up or reborn.
— Ah, I'm invincible! Damn, it hurts, and I almost got into the issekai!
Joyfully standing up in my birthday suit, I ran to the book plan and started setting up a good ending for this book, smiling with all 35 teeth.
— Ahaaahaha! Finally! I have found what I have been looking for so long, this ending is a whole uncut diamond!
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The man's body was gradually corroded by the chemicals that had been poured on him. In the distance, our detective realized that although he had captured the notorious serial killer "Three Fingers," he had made a mistake that would haunt him for a long time – the death of a civilian, a devastating loss, and a stark reminder that not everyone can be saved.
— May peace be with you!
Jonathan Keith, with an emotional wound in his chest, knelt down, removed his straw hat, covered his chest, and bowed to the last ashes of the civilian.
— I swear! Your story will stay with me until the last case solved, and in the meantime, I give my word to protect the weak until my death!
The end of Volume 4 of the Adventures of Detective Jonathan Keith.
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— Ahaaha yes! My head is boiling, I'm a genius! I'm a Genius!
After a little convulsions, I saved the plan on my laptop and made a copy of paper just in case. Because it already happened that my works were not saved on the hard drive, it is important to protect yourself as they say.
— Yes, I still want to be naked around the house, I need to start preparing, in three hours I need to go to Kedzhi with my completed work.