As I heard that explanation, I could barely dredge up from the fog of memory the information related to the munyoeo.
There was a fish with a madness-healing effect. But that effect...
‘Did it only trigger with a 1% chance in the game system?’
And even then, it did nothing against madness beyond a certain threshold.
I also vaguely recalled that with medical traits, one could make a more potent medicine.
Having gathered my thoughts to that point, I offered her a polite smile and greeting.
“Is that so? Thank you for the clear explanation.”
“Oh, not at all—”
She laughed sheepishly and scratched her head. Glasses, a long mop of unkempt curly hair, a shabby tracksuit under a loosely worn doctor’s coat.
‘So this is Lee Haseo. Looks like she’s still employed here.’
Lee Haseo is one of the hospital’s doctors. She was one reason I detoured to the North Wing—I wanted to confirm whether she was still on staff.
‘Like most NPCs, she can provide quite useful services depending on the route.’
However, if certain events or probabilities unfold, she might be expelled from the hospital—and then become a villain, unleashing surreal disasters.
‘Fortunately, I met her before she became a villain.’
If I can build rapport with her, I’ll gain significant benefits—because she possesses the ability to heal diseases and wounds.
She can even cure mental illnesses under certain conditions.
“......”
Well, she is a doctor, after all.
But this is the Cthulhu World. The normal is never normal and the impossible becomes routine. Lee Haseo’s treatments are fundamentally different from any real-world medical service.
Still, today I’m not here to befriend Lee Haseo... I was about to make my exit when she stepped forward energetically and asked:
“But—how did you do that earlier?”
“Do what?”
“Psychic power? Magic? Sorcery? Illusion magic? It wasn’t just applied to a single person—it was visible to everyone, even those possessed by surreal entities reacted—”
Lee Haseo loomed so close I could barely see anything but her face.
“Hmm~ I considered whether you’d released a hallucinogenic gas in the waiting area, but it didn’t seem like that—”
Her words trailed off as she pondered. I stepped back and replied:
“I’m not sure what you mean.”
“Is that so? How odd—”
She folded her arms and swiveled her head restlessly. To have deduced true goblin-style illusion magic is no small feat.
‘Now’s my chance to slip away.’
Before she could come up with another method, someone came to my aid.
“Doctor! Doctor!”
A nurse came running from a distance.
“The condition of the patient in Room 308 you saw earlier....”
The nurse glanced at me in embarrassment. The patient’s condition must have changed drastically.
“Oh—really? I was sure that the spiral energy emitted from the crystal would have a beneficial effect, but it’s not that easy.”
“P-Professor, please don’t say that—”
The nurse glanced at me again, as if to say, “Please discuss that where others can’t hear.”
“I truly believed that passing the radiation through the crystal’s spiral structure to reforge it would exponentially boost regeneration—but it had no effect? What a pity.”
“No, it’s not that it had no effect...”
The nurse fidgeted. It seemed not that there was zero effect, but rather that the effect was too strong or unexpected side effects occurred.
“Ah! I see—! Then let’s hurry and check!”
Lee Haseo’s eyes sparkled as she and the nurse ran off—then she paused and looked back at me.
“Oh, you handsome—um, solver?”
Who? Me?
“You are indeed a solver.”
“Ah, I knew it! If anything strange enters your body or your limbs get severed, come see me anytime. Just go to the reception—over there—and ask for Lee Haseo.”
The ‘over there’ she pointed to was simply the reception desk.
“All right.”
“Hehe, I’m really good at removing or inserting things into the body. Anyway, see you again—”
Lee Haseo is a singular presence even in this extraordinary hospital. Among those comfortable with surreal medical methods, she favors the most radical approaches—a mad doctor, indeed.
Judging by her tone, if left unchecked she’ll cause a major incident soon.
“Ah, doctor! Please—”
Pulled away by the nurse, Lee Haseo disappeared amid calls of “You were warned about this before!” and her giggly “Eheh, but you’re really handsome—” trailing behind.
I touched my face for a moment.
‘Huh, I sculpted a bland appearance—’
Being told I’m handsome is hardly a compliment in my current situation. It only makes me stand out—but no, that’s not it. It’s because I’ve already invested 20 points in Charisma.
Facial looks are not the priority. I let my hand drop and fumbled in my pocket.
I found something I hadn’t had before: a rigid rectangular object. The ID card of Lee Haseo, which I’d slipped away with during our conversation.
Thanks to Lee Haseo’s unexpected approach, I’d achieved most of my North Wing objectives.
‘It wouldn’t have to be hers, but this is the best option.’
Lee Haseo has a high security-clearance level. I can now infiltrate most areas without issue.
‘Now, the next task is—’
The North Wing isn’t just the giant aquarium.
As a place offering surreal medical services, the patients waiting for treatment here are truly outlandish.
A massive horned man, a four-armed woman, a solver clutching a menacing weapon from anxiety, a sorcerer with a strange shadow cast across his face by a curse, and so on.
Scenes you wouldn’t see even in the back alleys of Geumchon-dong, where criminals, solvers, eccentrics, and other races converge.
‘It’s like Vasiliisa during its heyday.’
Even a short woman I recognized, wielding a thick magical blade that must stand nearly two meters tall—Curtain Call.
‘Well, Seotin’s illness makes sense, but why is Curtain Call here?’
In addition to her blade, she carried an enormous bundle—oh, that’s a person.
“All done? Get well soon and come back.”
Curtain Call tossed her injured charge into the hospital lobby with a curt gesture.
“Ugh—Kolli, please....”
“Ugh—what on earth am I supposed to do?”
“If it’s someone I beat up, I’d leave them to their fate, but I guess he’s a colleague of Tudor’s?”
I spotted other familiar faces, but no one recognized me with my altered appearance.
Amid this assembly of distinctive figures, my gaze was drawn to a group...
“......”
They wore monk-like attire, scattered here and there in the lobby, muttering bizarre nonsense.
“...All beings decay by themselves, all beings suffer by themselves, all beings are tormented by themselves, all beings shed their blood by themselves, all beings fall into corruption by themselves, all beings seek death by themselves. Thus all phenomena inevitably end in emptiness. In accordance with the teachings of गजशिरः बुद्धः, I shall decay by myself, suffer by myself, be tormented by myself—”
They were not the only ones babbling madness, but their words carried special power.
[System: ‘Banquet Sacrifice’ trait is activated.]
This was a prayer offered to an abyssal entity.
A few onlookers showed discomfort, but in a place packed with so many weird costumes and mutterings, that level of strangeness barely registered.
Am I the only one who noticed the problem?
‘Why does the Elephant-Head Buddha suddenly appear?’
Like the Hwanglim Church, these monks are impostors—they do not worship Buddha, but rather गजशिरः बुद्धः, the Elephant-Head Buddha. Problem is, that is an alias of the Predator of the Mountains, a powerful avatar.
“Wait—thinking back...”
The ones subdued by the nurses earlier were created by a sorcery seldom used by the Gourmet Expedition or the Elephant-Head sect. It’s the style favored by the race called Māra nighara, worshippers of the Predator of the Mountains’ other alias, the Silent Waiter.
“Damn, could it be they mobilized all the avatars just to get me?”
Even avatars vary in rituals and temperaments—they often dislike each other. And yet they’ve united solely to capture me?
[System: ‘Banquet Sacrifice’ trait is activated.]
Ah... So that’s why they charged the hospital entrance so bluntly.
It’s no mere speculation—they intend to wage all-out war.
I noticed larvae of strange forms oozing from cracks and hidden corners of the hospital walls.
They look like maggot shapes but are far too large—some over a hand’s length already.
Likely remnants of the Gourmet Expedition are waiting somewhere too.
At least three, possibly four... Fortunately, the Predator of the Mountains doesn’t have many avatar bodies—at most five.
All its forces will converge to capture me.
‘But is it really to capture me?’
Might they be causing this chaos to prevent me from contacting other Banquet Sacrifices?
To be honest, I'd have doubted that meeting another sacrifice would yield any solution... but now I’m compelled to meet them.
‘It’s about time they arrived...’
I hadn’t expected this exact scenario, but I suspected trouble would erupt.
Yet I have no desire to waste my power tussling with them.
There are plenty here to fight in my stead.
Moreover...
[System: Enhanced Vigilance activated.]
They’re here. They’ve arrived.
[Fading Identity]
[Phantom Step]
[Shadow Veil]
I cast several stealth spells simultaneously and slipped into a corner of the lobby.
Suddenly, the hospital’s main doors flew open, and an enormous number of men in black suits poured in with military precision.
“What... what is this?”
The patients—solvers—madmen—cultists—other races—who had been murmuring in the hospital all backed away and stared at the unexpected guests.
“U-uhhh!”
Those who recognized the newcomers screamed.
“I-it’s the Management Bureau!”
“What?! The Management Bureau?!”
Leading the charge into the hospital as if to seal it off, a woman strode forward.
A super-official who seems more suited to be a maniacal killer than a bureaucrat.
She lifted a large megaphone to her mouth and announced:
“A-a-listen up! The man named Kim Sinhwa is inside this building!”
