Reincarnated Jester: Taming Players-Chapter 109: Familiar Girl

Two months had passed since Jung crossed the first trial.

The most noticeable change in his journey was the diet.

Food quickly ran out of his inventory, leaving him and the players in the same boat as they had to dissect and eat monsters they encountered.

He could handle meat easily, but feeding 78 players would have been a huge headache if not for Ori.

Enjoying the cooking process, the sage god took this responsibility upon himself.

Though Jung, Nero, and Ori barely ate.

The latter had no cravings for food.

The cat despised fat—only devoured lean meat, and Jung was content with persona and could last without a single bite for weeks.

This peculiar trio only ate for the taste.

"You are such a superb cook!" the female wizard player said.

"No need to repeat it. You have already said it hundreds of times," grumbled the caregiver boy jealously.

"And I will say it for hundreds to come!"

Ori smiled at their remarks but rarely added anything.

Jung was his sole conversation partner, as he barely interacted with others.

"What’s wrong with your brother?" he asked the system.

[I have no idea. Let him be, he is a god, after all. He should be able to handle himself,] she answered.

Nodding, Jung went back to the business.

His reserve was filled with Goated and Max Goated pills, but it was finally time for him to devour them.

««Archetype System V6.0»»

<Name: Jung (Balatro)

<Archetypes: [Rebel] [Hero] [Wizard] [Keeper] [Explorer]

<Archetype Tier: VII

<Archetype Progress: 43%

<Arcs: [Shifting Cloud]; [Heroic Barrier]; [White Beard]; [Keeping Mask]; [Deep Merge]; [Keep Corpse]

<Archetype Monsters In Your Care: Nero the Shadowpaw

<Quest I: Save Elara and bring her back

<Quest II: Slay the Ruler god, help Nero unite with her beloved family, and save cats from going extinct across the universe

<Quest III: Create your personal, completely new archetype

<Quest IV: Torture and eliminate Walt

<Quest V: Unleash those merged archetypes by killing humans with the same archetype.

<Quest VI: Get back to the Maskera before the apocalypse hits.

«Rewards: Unknown; Unknown; Finding yourself; Ruler Archetype and Three Arcs; Unlocking everyman, caregiver, and innocent archetypes and gaining their boost to your capabilities; My final evolution.

It was his current system panel.

Jung highly doubted he could reach Tier VIII with just his low-tier pills, but his merging process heightened how much each pill would aid his progress.

He didn’t forget about Nero either, giving her wizard pills, while her percentage never moved.

She didn’t need taming pills anymore, yet she was stuck at her current progress, and she didn’t explain to Jung or show him her status window.

Vex acted in the same manner, hiding Nero’s secrets.

Shaking his head after thinking about them, Jung swallowed his magical drugs, waiting for the effect.

One by one, his tummy was furnished with pills.

The numbers went up, giving him strength with warmth in his being.

As players were feasting, he absorbed another meal in peace until Ori saw him.

"You are doing that again?" he asked, accustomed to Jung’s actions.

"Not everyone is a god. I have to start somewhere."

"I never thought someone would discover this method, especially not a mortal man."

"I tend to go beyond expectations," Jung answered, swallowing the last piece.

<Archetype Tier: VII

<Archetype Progress: 69%

’It’s too slow,’ he thought.

It was his entire month’s worth of pills, only granting him measly intensity.

The low-tier opponents dropped low-quality products, and no matter how many of them were dropped, the progress was still too low.

His every attempt to merge Max Goated pills met failure.

As if the world was against it.

It wasn’t about his understanding, but universal laws that forbid anything more than that.

At least his leading Arc didn’t disappoint, steadily developing.

<Shifting Cloud Stage: 2/5

Progress: 73%

The foes he had to overcome were Tier VIII at most—the same level as him.

However, not once did he feel like he faced strong opponents who could challenge him or endanger his life.

Of course, Ori never moved his finger.

He only cooked for them, having no intention of fighting.

As for the players, the higher they went, the more they struggled, even though Jung let them use pills.

Their skills couldn’t keep up, and their strength fell short.

Yet none of them died.

Jung kept them safe while the cat aided him, not repeating the same fumble.

But the trust was broken, meaning he was always ready for Nero’s other schemes.

He didn’t want to always carry the burden.

So after seeing how little his progress moved, Jung merged their share of pills as well.

Cursed pills already proved themselves.

Every subsequent use made players crave more, dropping them into a rabbit hole they could never escape from.

They had to consume it at least once a week.

Otherwise, the uncontrollable hunger overwhelmed them, making them act like a thirsty vampire and even drop their stats until the cursed pill was ingested.

Players realized the side effects.

It was too late for them to go back, and who would dare to confront Balatro for it?

Truthfully, they didn’t really care about this as long as they spent time with Balatro, as the gains outweighed the potential risks.

Now their average Tier was between Tier V and VI, confirming their results.

If it wasn’t enough, players also discovered the average tier outside this realm, which was only Tier VI, almost on a par with theirs even though they were four years behind.

Meanwhile, after the meal was done, and Ori took the lead, the team encountered a new barrier.

Finally, they reached the second trial.

According to the sage god, there were only three trials on this mountain.

It was almost the halfway point and an important spot.

The path ahead was blocked by this unbroken, transparent block of walls that towered over the sky and stretched through the horizon.

But there was something off about it—not the barrier itself, but the person who stood in front of it.

Jung, with his superior eyesight, saw the girl and exclaimed,

"What the fuck is she doing here?"

It was a girl he knew fairly well, someone he wanted to kill but left alone because of the system’s interference.

Leora, the twin sister of the Chosen One, stood there all alone, as if waiting for someone.