Rumble rumble-
What is this place?
I don’t know where I am, but it’s vast.
A sky heavy with blood-red storm clouds and an endless expanse of silvery, metallic ground.
Rumble rumble-
Between the crimson clouds, chilling lightning dances along a long trail. It feels as though blood will pour down instead of rain.
All across the plain, faceless dolls stand sentinel. Each is enormous. Even looking at the giant doll head placed on the horizon where a mountain should be twists my mind.
“Crackle–shree!”
Thirteen rats dart through a gorge built of stacked dolls. Though called rats, each is a grotesque monster—a rat monster.
Now that I think about it, the metallic floor is made of fish scales.
It looks like a deranged painter’s surreal masterpiece.
For some reason, I’m walking through this bizarre space.
Wait—why am I walking? Since when?
“What is this? Where am I?”
“Huh?”
“Ugh.”
My voice echoes back to me as two other voices.
No, that sounds odd. But I understand what’s happening.
I speak to the two who issued “my voice” around me.
“You two appearing means this must be a dream, right?”
“.......”
Kim Sinhwa in the fox mask, always hot-tempered, gestures “I’m angry” and writhes. Ready to shout.
Fortunately, Kim Sinhwa in the crow mask intervenes quickly.
“Hey, calm down.”
“No—really—”
Why is that one so angry? The crow mask alternates glances between fox mask and me. When fox mask seems to calm, crow mask speaks again.
“Iha Seo outside tried every method to wake you. Thanks to that, this lucid dream began.”
“I don’t fully grasp the situation, but at least there’s something fortunate.”
“Fortunate?”
Fox-mask Kim Sinhwa tilts their head at my words.
“Anyway, I’m glad there’s a Kim Sinhwa in my head who likes explanations. Not just impatient or insane types like that one.”
“Oh? You picking a fight now?”
Fox-mask lunges to grab my collar, but crow-mask blocks again.
“Ah! Kim Sinhwa, what’s wrong with you! Could you just listen politely?”
“Hey, let go! Let go, you bastard! Come here, you son of a—”
“All right, don’t stop them—let’s see what happens.”
Smack—
Fox-mask’s fist hits my shoulder, and we (including crow-mask) begin a pointless, stupid scuffle.
But we can’t keep this up long.
“Ha, shit.”
“Phew—damn.”
“These idiots......”
My stamina is low even in the dream, and unsurprisingly, the other two share this.
We collapse, half-sprawled on the ground, and the crow mask asks us:
“You cooled off now?”
“Yeah.”
“Then I’d like an apology.”
“Sorry.”
“To them too.”
“Sorry.”
“Fuck off.”
“Sigh.”
Crow-mask sighs.
“I’m sorry about what you went through outside, but enough venting. While you were out, we cleaned up and protected you.”
“Got it.”
I recall what crow-mask told me before our stupid tussle.
“So I woke up because Iha Seo did something for me? But where is this place?”
“This is the imaginal world reflecting your consciousness.”
My consciousness?
This desolate world is my mind?
A blood-filled sky, massive dolls on the horizon, fish-scale ground, rat monsters patrolling—
And objects clustered in groups of thirteen.
My doppelgängers and I walk this space, wearing masks.
“Right. These are all the insanities I’ve experienced.”
But why was I wandering here?
I look at both Kim Sinhwas and ask:
“So... where did the room go?”
Fox-mask Kim Sinhwa looks up.
“It’s off-limits now.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re still delirious.”
“Delirious? Earlier... I don’t know how much time passed, but when that insane bastard stole control of my body and destroyed those dolls, didn’t that release the madness?”
“Release, yes. You can comfortably call them dolls—that’s proof.”
“Ah, I get it. The madness triggered by the dolls is gone, but I lack enough sanity points to free myself?”
Sanity points.
In Cthulhu World, characters don’t just go mad—they have a gauge based on Mental Strength. It decreases with shock or derangement.
“Exactly. We think so. In the game there was a UI to check Sanity, but here we can only estimate.”
No sooner does crow-mask finish than fox-mask springs up.
“From what I see, we’re screwed. Sanity is zero. Game over.”
Characters with zero Sanity can’t be controlled. They’re irretrievably deranged—game over.
“No, no. That can’t be.”
Crow-mask interjects.
“Probably not zero. Your defensive magic is working. And you managed to send messages into others’ minds, however limited.”
“Then I’m recovering? It hasn’t been ages, has it?”
Sanity recovers slowly, requiring months of rest. There are artificial accelerants but with risky side effects...
“You know Iha Seo? That weird woman shot some crystal spiral energy at your head.”
“Oh, that? She... shot that beam at my head....”
Before the hospital chaos, Iha Seo was researching a regeneration beam.
“Your protective magic recognized it as beneficial and let it through.”
It heals and restores sanity, but did she succeed? Success rate was... 11%?
“So I beat the 11% chance?”
“No, it failed.”
“......”
“Iha Seo was banned from the closed ward for shooting that beam at you without permission. But her beam triggered your [Abyssal Madness] trait.”
“So that’s why I came to.”
Not recovered—just a slight awakening with maybe 3–5 sanity points remaining.
“An incomplete awakening. You need a stronger catalyst.”
Situation mostly clear.
A catalyst... I carry something for just such situations.
“What about a wedge stone?”
Fox-mask laughs derisively.
“That was our first thought.”
Ugh.
Crow-mask slowly shakes their head.
“When the bag tore, we lost the wedge stone.”
“If we still had it, we’d force-activate it.”
“I’m trying to sense it everywhere with my mind, but it’s not easy.”
“Even if found, hospital staff would treat it as a patient’s item and hide it.”
So...
“The one who could wake us— Iha Seo— got banned, and the only artifact to wake us is lost?”
“Yeah. We’re screwed.”
“Right. It’s dire.”
I ponder the bleak verdict. Am I utterly trapped?
It’s possible to escape delirium on my own, but it takes time.
“My location is Paju Central Hospital’s closed ward.”
If you stay too long locked there, a hidden event triggers—not great. You’re trapped forever, like Gong Isu. Game over.
“But there is someone who can help.”
“Who? Heo Sanghyun? Or Red? I tried contacting, but without bodily control, we can’t break the ward’s barrier.”
“No, someone inside this hospital.”
“...that loser?”
Fox-mask clearly dislikes Gong Isu.
“I tried approaching Gong Isu, but his mental barrier repelled me.”
Crow-mask even tried approach—diligent.
“Even if you break the barrier, talking to him now is impossible.”
“Yeah, what good could that loser do us?”
I wave at them.
“No, no. I’m not seeking help from current Gong Isu.”
“Not current Gong Isu?”
“Are you crazy? Trying time travel in delirium?”
Hmm, everyone’s impatient.
“No, I’m not time-traveling. Gong Isu will.”
“You’re saying Gong Isu will time-travel?”
“I will be extraordinarily kind to Gong Isu later. So much so that he’ll risk time travel to help me.”
“Am I hearing things?”
“Listen. Someday Gong Isu will come back through time out of curiosity about what happened to me.”
Yes. Gong Isu will cross time to help me.
All signs point that way.
“So I declare now—”
I stand on this uncanny plain and shout:
“Someday Gong Isu will decide to help me, no matter what!”
“How exactly?”
Fox-mask Kim Sinhwa’s gruff voice.
“Yeah, the causality—”
Crow-mask’s embarrassed voice.
“Forget methods or causality!”
I admonish them both.
“How many absurd events have abyssal entities caused without cause? This time I’ll do the same! I decide it, so it will happen!”
— —
From a direction no one can observe:
“All right. All right. I got it.”
Gong Isu finally raises both hands and says:
“Fine. Just once. Kim Sinhwa, was it? That junior or whatever. That guy.”
Gong Isu feels his hands trembling, rubs them together.
“I don’t know what that guy does for me later, but he’d risk so much—fine, I agree.”
— —
“No, I’ll decide. I’ll see for myself. I’ll judge whether he’s worth it, then decide.”
Gong Isu, compulsively rubbing his hands, reaches up to the metal helmet on his head.
Whiiiiiing—
As his trait activates, the hallucinations he’d dismissed form in his vision.
[System: Unique Trait “Left Hand of the God of Destruction” activates.]
“Heh heh, I can see it. Yes, I can.”
Now his second ability.
[System: Unique Trait “Right Hand of the God of Creation” activates.]
Kkiriririck–chaarrrrk—
Paju Central Hospital’s mad scientists called it [irreproducible surreal mechanical engineering ability], right? Idiots.
His helmet morphs completely differently.
Floating where his head should be is a round disc.
White background, black border, sixty marks around the rim.
Three spikes radiate from the center.
Tick-tock–tick-tock–
[You have rejoined us. Welcome. ⌚, or rather, Watch Head. May your dreams come true this time.]
“No—no! No! No! No! I’m not joining!”
He screams convulsively. As if to trigger delirium again, but his third ability activates anyway.
[System: Unique Trait “Time Traveler” activates.]
Tick-tock–tick-tock–
The clock floating where his head was begins spinning backward.
Gong Isu’s body moves left, left—further left than we can see, into a direction no one can observe.
