Josh gasped for breath, his eyes darting wildly around the room.

  He fumbled with his pants, trying to pull them up, but they were tangled around his knees. To my absolute horror, a strange purple fluid slowly dripped down his backside.

  For a moment, I genuinely wondered if the worst thing imaginable had just happened to him.

  My voice trembled as I cautiously asked, “Did you… get fluids up your ass?”

  I didn’t even want to say the words.

  “Huh? No. No! Nothing went in my ass!” Josh shouted, his denial so aggressive it almost sounded violent.

  That was… a relief. Sort of.

  Josh’s gaze fell on a metal spear mounted on the wall.

  Without hesitation, he lunged for it, ripped it free, and spun around like a man possessed. With terrifying determination in his eyes, he declared:

  “I’m going to kill whatever was in there.”

  Naturally, I followed, though I kept myself pressed against the wall and as far from the toilet as physically possible. I also made sure to stand near the door.

  Just in case.

  “Show yourself, you little shit!” Josh bellowed as he thrust the spear into the toilet.

  I heard the sound of loud footsteps approaching. I assumed Yasin and Valina had heard the commotion and rushed over.

  Instead, it was the guards from earlier, minus the spider one.

  One of them stepped forward.

  “What happened? We heard a scream.”

  I was a bit baffled. Earlier, when we were screaming to be let out, no one showed up. But they had arrived quickly because of the toilet situation? It made me think this toilet monster was a bigger issue than I had originally thought.

  And trust me, it already ranked number one on my issue list.

  I wanted to go off on them, but that wasn’t the right time.

  “There’s some weird pervert vine monster inside that toilet,” I explained.

  The guard raised an eyebrow and glanced toward the half-naked Josh.

  “He…?” he asked.

  The other guard muttered, “Sure looks like it.”

  “No,” I groaned. “It’s in the toilet. It spat some weird fluid on him.”

  At the mention of fluids, Josh’s rage flared all over again.

  “Oh! You mean the shit cleaner?” one of the guards asked.

  “What?” I said. It wasn’t really a question.

  The guard shrugged. “You guys are talking like it’s some kind of monster. It’s just the regular sewage tree. It lives deep underground and has tens of thousands of branches connected to toilets.”

  That was disgusting.

  “Why is it in the toilet?” I demanded. “Shouldn’t it be deeper in the pipes? Maybe not even in the pipes at all?”

  Josh shouted, “Forget that! That thing sprayed some weird crap on my ass and you’re telling me that’s normal? Are you insane?”

  The guard simply shook his head, like Josh was the unreasonable one.

  “It ejects an antibacterial fluid and pushes solids down the pipes,” he explained. “How else do you think people clean themselves? Sure, it stinks for a bit, but the smell clears quickly.”

  I stared at him in silent horror.

  Valina and Yasin finally arrived, both looking worried.

  Yasin glanced at Josh. “What’s going on?”

  Josh practically screamed, “Some weird shit in that shitter did this!”

  Valina crossed her arms, clearly confused. “I’m lost.”

  Josh ignored her. “I don’t have time for this.”

  He went back to stabbing the tree inside the toilet. I silently prayed for his success.

  One of the guards suddenly panicked. “Are you insane? Stop!”

  “Why would you do that?!” the other shouted.

  I quickly stepped between them and raised a threatening hand.

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Then I began shouting nonsense, pretending it was some lost ancient language.

  They froze and glared at me. It probably sounded like I was chanting some ominous spell.

  And it worked.

  “You have to stop him!” one of the guards shouted.

  Josh’s smile grew wider by the moment. But judging by the guards’ reactions, stabbing that tree came with consequences.

  “What happens if he kills it?” I asked.

  One of the guards opened his mouth to answer before deciding running was the better option. The other immediately followed.

  My heart went cold.

  Was it about to crawl out of the toilet and attack us? That sounded terrifying.

  “Josh, stop. We have to go,” I tried to convince him.

  He refused to acknowledge me.

  I wanted to drag him away, but I didn’t have the strength or the time.

  He must have noticed me backing away, because he looked at me and said,

  “Grow a backbone, Lumine—”

  Josh didn’t get to finish the sentence.

  A pressurized stream of softened brown solids and liquid erupted out of the toilet mid-sentence and slammed directly into him.

  It hit his entire upper body.

  The waste splattered across the wall before cascading onto the floor, creating a flood of filth that surged toward us like a tidal wave.

  “What the—” Valina gagged.

  Yasin sprinted away.

  I grabbed the doorknob and slammed the bathroom door shut.

  I was expecting a tree monster boss fight. Not… that.

  The door rattled violently under the pressure of the flood, but thankfully the gap beneath it was sealed tight.

  I didn't know how Josh could survive inside that. God, the thought of him drowning in a flood of shit was so pathetic it made me want to cry.

  I turned toward the guards. Both of them were struggling not to vomit.

  “What are you waiting for? Call whoever you need to call to stop this,” I said.

  One of them replied, “The waste will be sucked back into the system in a minute or two. After that we’ll send janitors to clean the room.”

  I stared at them, processing what he’d just said.

  Sucked back into the system…

  My vivid imagination was both a curse and a blessing. But it was definitely a curse at that moment.

  My stomach twisted, and I vomited. Instinctively, I covered my mouth.

  Warm soup and chunks of bread clung to my sleeve.

  I headed toward the nearest faucet, vaguely remembering it was in the kitchen. We had to wait a minute or two before opening the bathroom door anyway.

  After walking for what felt like a very long time, I reached the kitchen and turned on the faucet.

  It was pleasant to see it looked similar to Earth's. The differences were too minor to care about. Not to mention, the swirling symbols on it were most likely just decorative.

  The water was purple.

  Purple. Purple.

  I felt sick to my stomach at the idea that the same tree thing might be producing water for this house. For every house.

  At least it didn’t smell like a pigpen.

  I marched back to the guards.

  “Why is the water purple?” I asked.

  One of them frowned.

  “That’s just the color of water. What else would it be? Green?”

  I seriously began questioning why we had even been summoned to this world.

  I pressed further.

  “Where does the water come from?”

  “Underground, obviously.”

  I couldn’t shake the feeling that the water was secretly some creature’s bodily secretion instead of a natural reservoir.

  As much as I wanted to confirm the source before washing the vomit off my arm, Josh’s situation was a bigger priority.

  More than two minutes had passed.

  Yasin pressed his ear against the bathroom door.

  “Hey! You still alive?”

  I didn’t doubt he was alive for a second, but the lack of an answer was odd.

  “Answer, Josh!” I shouted.

  Valina kicked the door. “Oi! Oi! Oi!”

  Silence.

  I kicked the bathroom door open in a panic, hoping I wouldn’t be splashed with shit.

  Fortunately, the pool of filth was gone.

  Unfortunately, the room still looked like a… I didn’t even know how to describe it. A horror show? A scat fetishist’s paradise?

  Brown stains were smeared across the floor and walls like someone had tried to paint the place with a shit hose.

  Josh lay on the ground in the middle of it, completely covered. His eyes were wide open and unblinking.

  I kept my distance and blocked my nose with my arm.

  “Are you alive?”

  He looked at me but didn’t answer.

  Yasin didn’t even step inside the bathroom. He stayed at the doorway and asked, “You okay?”

  Josh barely nodded.

  Valina pinched her nose while staring at him.

  “You don’t look okay.”

  Josh didn’t acknowledge her.

  There was a tub-shower nearby, so cleaning him up became the immediate priority.

  I moved toward it, but the walls around it were annoyingly high. I had to grab the edge and hoist myself inside.

  Once I was in, I twisted the tap.

  Purple water poured from the showerhead. I suppressed the urge to run away from it.

  Gross. Gross. Gross.

  “Get him over here,” I told Valina.

  She grimaced.

  “He’s covered in shit…” she said. “And heavy.”

  After a long sigh she muttered, “Damn it.”

  Grumbling, she lifted her red sleeveless shirt over her head, revealing a black bra that barely held her slightly above-average chest in place.

  I glanced down at my own underwhelming chest. It was closer in volume to enhanced bodybuilder pecs.

  I wasn’t vain or envious. I was already perfect in every way.

  Actually, it added to my charm.

  Valina wrapped her shirt around her hand like a makeshift glove and dragged Josh toward the tub-shower.

  However, the moment he caught a glimpse of the water’s color, he panicked and grabbed Valina’s leg.

  With his shit-covered hands.

  “Oh my god! Oh my god—” she shrieked.

  She jerked backward and slipped on the filthy floor, crashing down hard.

  She scrambled back to her feet and stared at the shit smeared across her skin like she wanted to peel it off.

  Valina glared at Josh.

  Grumbling, she yanked him up, took a deep breath, and threw him into the tub-shower.

  The instant the water touched him, Josh screamed.

  “Get me out of here! Get me out!”

  He reached for me so I could be his human shield, but I dodged. He quickly gave up and climbed out of the tub.

  I turned to the guards, who had been standing around doing absolutely nothing.

  “Is there a river nearby?” I asked. “Or a lake or something?”

  One of the guards frowned.

  “I don’t know what a ‘river’ is, but there are springs.”

  “Good enough,” I said. “Take us to the nearest one.”

  We left the city wrapped in large sheets so no one would recognize us.

  I didn’t even bother looking at the city’s infrastructure while we walked. My eyes stayed glued to the ground the entire time.

  It was night, anyway.

  After about an hour of walking under the guards’ escort, we entered a forest and finally reached a spring.

  Honestly, it looked more like a river since the water flowed steadily.

  Valina crouched and cautiously dipped a finger into it.

  “It’s purple too…” she sighed. “Honestly, I don’t care anymore. I just want this shit off me.”

  She dove straight in.

  She disappeared beneath the surface for a few seconds before resurfacing and slicking her hair back with one hand.

  “It’s deep,” she said, turning to Josh. “There’s nothing weird in here. Come in.”

  Josh shook his head stubbornly.

  “That’s what it wants you to think.”

  “Dude, trust me.”

  He still refused.

  “I’ll be right there with you,” she said.

  Josh didn’t budge.

  She looked like she was about to argue, but gave up.

  I watched her float around for a bit before asking, “Were you scared of the shower water too? You could’ve just taken a bath in the bathroom.”

  “Not really,” she said. “I wanted to convince Josh that where we're going is safe. It sounded like a smart plan to me.”