Day five of vacation.
Rest today, rest tomorrow, rest one more day, and then I have to return to the fun, thrilling life of a mad mage inside [Cthulhu World].
During this period, nothing that could threaten me is supposed to happen. The problems lodged in my mind and soul have also paused for now.
In other words, it’s a chance to deal with issues I couldn’t address before.
“There’s no clear medication that can resolve dissociative identity disorder. Rather than alleviating or curing symptoms, this medicine will help regulate excessive emotional swings.”
This doctor is a person with a name, of course, but in [Cthulhu World] terms, he’s just a nameless NPC.
I visited a psychiatric clinic in southern Paju.
“I understand.”
“Hmm...”
At my mechanical reply, the doctor pulled a meaningful face for a moment.
“If you’re hoping for something else...”
“No. I didn’t come here for Nirvana or Heart Breaker.”
“Ah, I see.”
The doctor’s expression brightened visibly.
I was wearing a disguise mask, but my clothes were the usual: pitch-black hoodie, a flowing dorumagi. A huge backpack and artifacts dangling from my belt.
To anyone, I looked like a fixer prowling the darkness of Paju.
“Even though we’re a ‘real hospital’ that doesn’t deal with those things, some people still try to strong-arm us.”
“You have my sympathies.”
Nirvana and Heart Breaker are supra-real mental enhancers. Ordinary fixers who lack traits that block madness, like I have, end up taking illegal drugs little different from narcotics, wrecking their minds and bodies as they work.
As the doctor said, this is a truly ordinary, “real hospital.”
In the original game, you couldn’t even visit it—on the game map it was treated like background dressing.
Even so, this doctor had the traits [Psychoanalysis] and [Psychological Counseling], and through our session I was able to draw out the effect I wanted.
[System: Your Reason score recovers through psychiatric counseling.]
[System: ‘Comfortable Atmosphere’ +1, ‘Safe Environment’ +1, and the doctor’s ‘Psychological Counseling’ level grants a +4 modifier. Final recoverable Reason is 1–10+6.
Mind check... success. Recovery is 15 points.]
Ah, this doctor is excellent.
Unlike in the game, I can’t see how many points of Reason I currently have. But after all the recent chaos, I’d chewed through everything I’d recovered via Dreamwalks.
Until now, the [Shattered Mind] trait interfered, so ordinary counseling didn’t restore anything, but this time is different. Without supra-real methods, my Reason recovers peacefully.
My current estimated Reason... about 60? Since I lost some Reason while writing the journal (inevitable, given I was recalling mind-shattering events), it might be closer to 50.
For reference, maximum Reason is 100.
“Ahh, finally back in the safe zone.”
At this level, I can relax for a while.
For safety-first play, you sometimes push into the 80s, but if Reason gets too high, your capacity to use magic drops.
“Thank you for your time.”
“Not at all. Shall we schedule your next session...”
“No. It’ll be hard to come back for a while.”
Saying that, I left the hospital.
“Good. With this much recovered, even if I see something horrific, the immediate damage will be smaller.”
People with higher Reason go less mad upon seeing horrors. I can probably meet those who bathe in madness again.
With a calm expression, I walked toward the bus stop. Today is Jang Hyundeok’s day off too. He said he’s going to Ansan to see his younger siblings?
Emergency Minutes—20230610—3
Attendees: A, B, D, F
Personal data redaction complete (per Security Rule 2–8)
A: We hit the jackpot, huh?
B: Are you sure you want to open the minutes with that line?
A: Why not? It is a jackpot. Hey, ■■■. Write that ■■ said “We hit the jackpot” at the start.
D: Understood.
B: (lowers voice) ■■, he will actually write it like that!
A: I don’t care. Anyway, let’s get to the point.
B: Sigh, understood.
A: That crystal diagnostic device or whatever—■■■’s deranged hobby project. I told him not to use that insane thing, but he used it anyway, and it turns out... that device actually worked on IPE-4587, [Parasitic Worm]?
B: More than that. It’s showing limited but remarkable efficacy even for other patients with unrelated symptoms. It’s even yielding partial results for madness—that is, supra-real psychiatric conditions. We can’t deploy it indiscriminately without understanding the mechanism, but it’s a fact that ■■■ made something astounding.
A: Forget the rest—how does it cure the worms? I saw it, and that was a no-hope situation.
(A and B look at F.)
F: P-please keep in mind I don’t fully understand it either.
A: Make it quick; everyone here is busy.
F: Yes. The issue with IPE-4587—[Parasitic Worm]—is that it had eaten the patient’s body. Even if you removed the worms, the physical damage was too extensive to heal. ■■■ ■■ assumed that the [Parasitic Worms] retained the patients’ bodily information.
A: And?
F: ■■■ ■■ replaced all the crystals with high-purity mana stones. The energy from the mana stones converted the [Parasitic Worms] into mana, and by reabsorbing that mana into the patient, the missing body parts were reconstructed.
A: That works? With that machine? How do you even build a contraption like that?
D: He claims he made it by contracting with a transcendent entity from offworld.
A: Aliens? No, hold on—are you telling me ■■■ made a pact with Black, an [Abyssal Entity]?
B: No. He’s been rambling for a while about communicating with a prince from Andromeda or some squid-star.
A: Squid-star? Where’s that? A prince from there?
B: It means you don’t have to take him seriously!
A: Right. Anyway—so it has supra-real therapeutic effects for supra-real symptoms and madness. The operation is “magical.”
F: Yes.
A: Side effects? Don’t hem and haw—short and direct. I told you no one here is free.
F: Understood. The problem is that it also absorbs the original mana and information the parasitic worms carried. Because of this, some patients have memory loss, some exhibit personalities or ideologies different from before... and some patients have awakened abilities they never had.
A: Are the abilities random? Or is there a trend?
F: Generally, combat-oriented abilities manifested. Details are in the report I gave you earlier.
B: The numbers are small, but some patients gained A-rank abilities. They’re the thugs people call the Bongilcheon Crew, right? If they’re discharged...
A: They could evolve from a mere gang into an armed group with superhuman abilities.
B: Exactly! That’s the problem! This isn’t a medical device... ■■■ may have created a machine that manufactures ability users.
A: Hah, (expletive redacted) interesting. So we can mint as many ability users as we want? Can the machine be mass-produced?
D: It cannot.
A: Cannot? What does that mean?
B: The rights situation is... tangled—
(A Rank A emergency occurred in the secure ward and the meeting was suspended.)
“So in any case, it worked?”
“Yees— that’s right! It reallly— had an amazing effect—”
Lee Haseo, cheeks flushed like a girl in love, energetically described the grotesque sight of worms being reabsorbed into human bodies, while I skimmed the report she had siphoned off to me.
“It seems the effect is stronger than I expected.”
The [Crystal Spiral Energy Emission Device] contains a first-run Incarnation Stone with a small amount of [Predator in the Mountains]’ mana.
Now that [Predator in the Mountains] has lost its tier, the mana stolen from it seems to have shed its former nature and begun functioning in a more general, encompassing way.
“El Geumja will love this.”
Minions he thought were lost will come back as ability users.
“No, the Bongilcheon Crew aren’t the real issue.”
Just as the minutes stated. It appears to have become a machine that can churn out ability users. I can’t grant desired ranks at will, like I did for Jang Hyundeok, but it’s become extremely dangerous.
Won’t this blow up later?
“On top of that, the hospital security is garbage.”
Even the minutes, which should be under strict protection, are in my hands right now.
When I voiced such concerns, Lee Haseo giggled and agreed.
“That’s truee— that day was a total circus—”
She said “that day,” pointing to part of the minutes—the entry noting a Rank A emergency in the secure ward.
“What happened? Come to think of it, the secure ward still looked wrecked.”
On my way in, I saw one side of the secure ward covered with a huge orange tarp.
“There was a mass unauthorized discharge under someone’s lead—”
A mass unauthorized discharge. Not good news. Ah, wait—the meeting date... June 10?
I can guess the gist.
The day [Predator in the Mountains] showed itself in Chentae-dong.
Because of its attack, not only Yangju but part of Paju were erased. Seems this hospital took some collateral as well.
The rollback restored things, but the fact that secure-ward patients escaped was not restored—reframed as a breakout due to ordinary unrest.
“But someone led it—who led it?”
“Uh— you might know? A patient transferred from the Foreigners Administration. IPE-3344, [Fish Man].”
“A Deep-Sea Folk?”
“Yees— that’s what they call them outside—?”
“No, Deep-Sea Folk are grouped and managed as [Fish People]. What is this [Fish Man]?”
“Woooow— how do you know that? Ahh— I get it. You hacked my brain with alien technology, didn’t you?”
“...I hacked Park Ruhyeon’s brain.”
Park Ruhyeon is B in the minutes.
“Aw, you should have hacked a better brain. When you have time, hack mine—”
“No thanks. Just °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° answer—what is [Fish Man]?”
“Uhh, he differed in many ways from other [Fish People], so we managed him separately. He had a very powerful ability, and his body type was quite different. Missing one hand—though that seemed like an injury.”
“...”
Could it be Yongsu?
Yongsu, the genius Deep-Sea Folk from Insu Village.
He was already talented by default, but because I forced him into the Priest class, his power became tremendous.
Anyway, Mr. Yongsu—so you escaped... It would be best if you just went home. Don’t come hunting me for revenge, please.
“Well, that’s the update. Shall we get to work?”
“Yees! Now, give me your left arm.”
Lee Haseo lifted a syringe and flashed a sinister smile. An ominous grin that made me feel my freshly restored Reason plummeting.
“Today we’re drawing bloood—”
“Go ahead.”
“Heeheehee—”
“...”
A moment ago I met a normal doctor in a normal hospital, and yet why am I now playing clinic in this bizarre, unreasonable hospital with a mad doctor?
