Taming the Beast World with a Frying Pan-Chapter 60: A Very Loud System Update
Ren woke up to the sound of silence and a skull-splitting headache.
She groaned, reaching out blindly for a glass of water, a bottle of ibuprofen, or a time machine. Her hand met only cold, empty silk.
She cracked one eye open.
The King’s Nest was empty. The spot beside her was cool to the touch. Syris was gone.
"Ugh," Ren croaked. Her throat felt like she had swallowed a handful of dessert sand. "Water. Need water."
She tried to sit up and immediately regretted it. The room spun. Her right leg felt stiff and sore, like she had run a marathon after being kicked by a horse.
She looked down. The ugly purple veins were gone, replaced by a healing scab on her inner thigh.
Memories of the previous night came flooding back in a disjointed, feverish rush.
The fish bite. The paralysis. Syris carrying her.
And then...
Ren’s face went from pale to nuclear red in 0.5 seconds.
"Oh my god," Ren whispered, burying her face in her hands. "I told the King of the Snakes to ’make me wet.’ I told him to... oh no."
She peeked through her fingers, horrified, as a vivid memory of a cold tongue and very specific, vibrating suction flashed through her mind.
"No," Ren shook her head frantically. "That was a dream. A very, very weird, vivid, high-definition dream."
She squeezed her eyes shut, desperate to scrub the image from her brain.
"It was the poison," she reasoned, her voice pitching up. "That fish venom made me hallucinate. I probably just fell asleep and dreamt about... stuff. Yes. That’s exactly what happened."
She nodded firmly, deciding that this was the truth she would live with until the day she died. She could never look Viper in the eye again regardless, but at least she could pretend she hadn’t just had the most scandalous night of her life.
Suddenly, she remembered why she was in that situation in the first place.
"The eggs!" Ren sat up straight, ignoring the throb in her head. "Where is my Imperial Red Caviar?"
She scanned the room. But the woven basket of salty, expensive red rubies was gone.
"System," she whispered. "Is the Imperial Red Caviar in my inventory?"
[System: Inventory contains current tools and basic supplies only. No S-Class ingredients detected.]
"You have got to be kidding me," Ren groaned, slumping back against the pillows. "I risked my leg! A vampire fish literally munched on my thigh! I went through Hell! And for what? For nothing?"
Thirst overtook her frustration. She needed water before she could launch a full investigation into the theft.
She slid off the bed, wincing as her stiff leg hit the floor. Her clothes were a disaster—the snake-skin skirt was torn and riding high, and the halter top was hanging on by a thread. With her face still flushed from the "dream," she hastily retied the knots, trying to look somewhat decent, though she mostly looked like she’d just barely survived a swamp rave.
She limped toward the heavy stone doors. They pushed open easily.
"Hello?" Ren called out into the corridor.
Silence.
Usually, the palace was full of sounds—the hiss of guards, the slap of tails on stone, the annoying, high-pitched gossip of the harem plotting her demise.
Today? Nothing.
It was eerie. It was the kind of silence that happens right before the jump scare in a horror movie.
Ren limped down the hallway toward the scullery.
"Did they move?" she muttered, peeking into an empty guard post. "Did they go on a group vacation? Is it National Snake Day?"
She reached the Royal Scullery.
Empty. The fire pit was cold.
"Okay, this is spooky," Ren admitted, a chill running down her spine. "Did they abandon me? Did they just leave me here with the crocodiles and the mosquitoes?"
She found a clay pitcher of water and drank greedily, the cool liquid soothing her parched throat. She wiped her mouth, feeling a bit more alive.
Ding!
The sound rang inside her head, loud and sharp.
Ren winced, clutching her temples. "Ow! Volume down!"
Ding! Ding! Ding!
The notifications started coming in rapid succession, flashing blue text across her vision faster than she could read.
[System Update Complete.] 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦
"Update? Now?" Ren blinked, confused. "Update for what?"
[Event Triggered: The Clash of Kings.]
"Clash of Kings?" Ren mumbled, turning in a circle as if the answer was written on the kitchen walls.
[New Feature Unlocked: Harem Manager (Beta Version)]
"Harem... excuse me?" Ren sputtered. "I don’t have a harem!’
The System didn’t explain. It just kept pinging.
Ding!
[Would you like to view the stats of your current Husbands?]
Ren waved her hand at the air, feeling like she was trying to swat away flies. "What is going on?"
Ding!
[Quest Alert: Prevent the Bloodbath.]
"Bloodbath?!" Ren’s eyes widened. "System, stop! You’re not making any sense!"
Ding!
[Task: Stop your husbands from killing each other.]
"Husbands? Plural?" Ren clutched the edge of the stone table to steady herself.
Ding!
[Reward: Shop Expansion Upgrade — ’The Provider of Two’.]
Ren stared blankly at the floating text. "What does that even mean? Why won’t you answer me?"
She rubbed her temples. The notifications were just piling up, a wall of blue text that offered zero context and a hundred percent anxiety. She was annoyed, she was confused, and the unrelenting dinging was making her regret ever waking up.
"Just tell me where everyone went!" Ren shouted at the empty air.
The System didn’t answer.
CRASH.
It sounded like the front gates of the palace had just been imploded. The heavy stone floor beneath Ren’s feet shook violently, rattling the clay pots on the shelves. Dust drifted down from the ceiling.
Ren froze.
Then came the sound.
ROAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!
It was a deep, guttural, thunderous vibration that she felt in the soles of her feet and the center of her chest. It was a roar of pure, unadulterated fury.
Ren’s heart hammered against her ribs with an intensity that took her breath away.
Her eyes went wide.
She knew that sound.
She whipped her head toward the direction of the sound, staring at the solid stone walls as if she could see right through them to the chaos unfolding outside.
"Kael?"
