[You.......]
A message window prints before my eyes. Is this where the irreversible delirium begins?
[......You have overcome your phobia and defeated the object of that fear.]
Huh? Does that count?
Ah, I did take down Mun Gyeongnam, a magic user.
And I somehow—yes, using a kind of trick—overcame my magic phobia and managed to use magic.
[The phobia you overcame heals naturally, and you gain bonus experience.]
[System : ‘Madness - Magic Phobia’ has disappeared.]
“We did it!”
“I don’t know what you did, but grab me!”
Gong Isu’s cry pours out like a scream.
I cast a spell and snatched the plummeting Gong Isu.
[Invisible Hand]
“Ugh! Rocks! Rocks!”
“Senior, just hold on a second!”
[Feather Fall]
[Spell Boost: Multi-Cast]
[Gravity Reversal]
[Spell Boost: Multi-Cast]
Bababababak!
I slowed the rocks within the danger zone or altered their fall so the fragments pouring in from all sides would ricochet away.
“Ugh, but I’ve burned through almost all my mana.......”
No time to be happy just because magic is back. I stacked a few more buffs on myself, then scooped Gong Isu up and attempted a complicated flight.
“Red!”
“Kiiiiiii!”
Kwarrrrrrrrk!
It would have been a lot worse if Red hadn’t helped.
Damn. I don’t have enough mana left to cast [Gate Creation].
Kwajik! Thud! Kwa-gwa-gwang!
The collapse is still ongoing.
We tucked ourselves for a moment into a crack we found in a corner of the underground chamber.
“Isn’t this spot dangerous too?”
Tick— tack—
The clock in place of Gong Isu’s head makes an anxious second hand sound.
“We should probably get out fast.”
“I knew it. Junior, you’re a wreck no matter which timeline I meet you in.”
“You feel a little different from the last time I saw you. Which timeline are you from, exactly, Senior?”
“Me? Which me did you see?”
“Mm.......”
What meaning does “when” even have for a time traveler who moves back and forth across before and after?
“The last time I saw you, you were barefoot in a hospital gown— and your tone was somehow much more serious and wistful.”
“Well, maybe I was in that mood then.”
And this Gong Isu now?
He’s wearing thick, tough leather boots and a poncho-like tattered rain cape. He’s also got a heavy metal pack on his back.
Do you even call that a pack? Looks like machinery is built into it.
“Junior, because of you I shifted to the future that day, and I met the future you. Maybe—”
“Maybe?”
“You changed the past, didn’t you? Because of that, the me you met last time and the me now must have experienced different futures.”
“A different future? Is that a guess?”
“It has to be. That ‘hospital-gown me’ you met before— by my standard he’s ‘future me.’ How about it? Complicated?”
“It is. But......”
“No— before that! Magic! Cast anything! A dog! The dogs are coming soon!”
“Ah, got it.”
[Matter Transmutation]
Uddddddddd—
I raised mana and rounded off everything within a certain range that could form a corner.
Gong Isu is a [Time Traveler] with the power to cross past and future. But the [Cthulhu World] imposes strict penalties on [Time Travelers] who disrupt the laws of space-time.
“Good. This should be fine for now.”
[Hounds of Tindalos] that hunt time travelers emerge through corners with angles of 120 degrees or less.
The whole underground chamber is unstable, so we can’t stay long, but this should buy enough time to talk with Gong Isu.
“What happens in the future for you to dress like that?”
Every time Gong Isu moves, sand spills from the gaps of his clothes.
Ominous sand steeped in miasma and mana. That alone suggests the future’s situation isn’t great.
“Haha— it’s the version of the future where you didn’t meet me here and escaped this Seoraksan on your own.”
“Ah, so it was possible to get out on my own?”
Thud! Kwa-gwa-gwa-gwang!
Impacts still drift faintly from above.
I did cause this, but I figured it was inescapable— and you escaped it?
My [Rapid Regeneration] trait sealed the wounds, but the damage is huge. I’ve lost most artifacts; Rollroll and Achilles are missing.
I also lost three fingers on my left hand— and my left leg, which was completely charred, still won’t move.
Looks like this leg will be like this for life. My back is still bad. My health and strength were already the worst— totally screwed.
How did I get out like that in this body?
“You’re stubborn and awful by nature, right? As always, you somehow pulled it off.”
“Ah, I somehow pulled it off.”
Amazing.
Gong Isu shakes his head (the clock) with a weary air and continues.
“Yeah. The future you I met was truly incredible and fun. The future was horrible and sandy everywhere, but thanks to you I had lots of interesting adventures traveling together.”
The [hospital-gown Gong Isu] I met before had spoken of wistful, sad things while thinking of my future self, but the one before me now......
How do I label this Gong Isu? Call him [Gong Isu from the Desert]?
He talks like he has many happy memories with my future self.
“But something must have been wrong, right?”
The phrase [sandy everywhere] is the most ominous.
“Smart. Yeah.”
Of course.
If not, [future me] wouldn’t have bothered to send Gong Isu to this time.
Assuming it’s possible to pull Gong Isu into this moment, this place, in this way— that’s a conclusion reached by logic and calculation I can fully explain.
If [future me] thought the same as [present me], then the time to send him would be exactly now.
As if to supplement that thought, Gong Isu goes on.
“The future you I met was an amazing guy they called the [Savior of the Desert], but he was missing fingers on his right hand, and his right leg was gone altogether. And his mental state wasn’t great, either.”
“Aha?”
I was about to point out something odd in what Gong Isu said, but he immediately said something too important to care about trivialities.
“And he kept regretting something. That he’d lost any chance to ever find something called the [Lacrex Grimoire]?”
Right, I figured.
“You couldn’t find the [Lacrex Grimoire]? So what happens to the future now?”
“The future— ”
Although Kim Sinhwa prevented the [Great Origin]’s descent and canceled the activation of the annihilation trigger—
the descent of the [Source of Pollution] did not disappear.
Everything south of Gyeonggi Province and Gangwon Province in the Korean Peninsula was completely converted into a domain ruled by the [Source of Pollution]— and its influence caused horrific anomalies worldwide.
What Kim Sinhwa saw after belatedly escaping Seoraksan was a terrible world where everything had turned to desert.
Kim Sinhwa, who modified an armored truck left by Yeonam Construction, traveled across a Korean Peninsula transformed into a post-apocalyptic world—
and came to be called the [Savior of the Desert]......
“Stop, stop! I get the gist. That’s enough.”
“Right. The future you kept tempting me, saying there was something in this timeline, so I came to take a look— and it was a trap. To think he’d drag me out here......”
I see.
Well done, [Future Kim Sinhwa].
As I expected, future Kim Sinhwa sent Gong Isu to this exact time.
If we don’t roll it back at this point, it seems there’s no way to find the [Lacrex Grimoire].
“Yes. I don’t want that kind of future. Could you pass a message to my past self?”
The fix is simple.
Just pass a few keywords.
[There’s no time. Depart now], [Don’t send Park Gwangrim to Buyeo], [Stop Mun Gyeongnam].
Then my past self will completely change this miserable present, and that goofy future where I’m some desert king or ruler of the sands won’t ever come.
“No.”
“......What?”
“I don’t know which timeline you mean, but you— you didn’t meet any other me between [the hospital-gown me] and me-now, did you?”
“That’s...... right.”
“Then no. The number of times I can meet you is fixed. And between [last time] and [now], there isn’t one of those chances.”
What on earth......
“Number of times? Who decided that?”
“I can’t explain it to you, but it’s not that simple. To you my time may look bizarrely bent and tangled, but it’s the opposite. From my side my time is a straight, proper line. It’s you lot whose time is tangled.”
Headache. There must be some setting only a time traveler can understand.
Damn. I thought this would do it.
I flicked my gaze outward fast.
With a crackling roar, an enormous boulder pushes through the chamber ceiling. Is that— possibly Ulsanbawi from the summit?
How do I punch through that?
But even if I do, what awaits me is a horrific apocalyptic world.
Gong Isu talks like it’s a fond memory— but it’ll be truly awful.
And after wandering that awful world for years, my future self failed to escape— and chose to change the past.
Meaning there’s no solution as-is.
What do I do?
Tick— tack—
“Hmmm......”
I feel Gong Isu pat his head (the clock) and look at me.
“Junior, you’re really something.”
“What am I?”
“I thought you’d whine longer, but you’re already looking for the next solution? Quick pivots in dangerous moments really are your nature.”
Gong Isu speaks in a voice that sounds like he’s recalling memories with [Future Kim Sinhwa]. Whatever happened, this Gong Isu must have had some thrilling action and killer adventures with my future self.
“I can use a different method for you instead.”
“A different method?”
“Yeah. The one who wants to change the future isn’t me— it’s you, right? And if this present changes, all the fun future I experienced disappears. And I’m supposed to shoulder the risks too?”
Tick— tack—
From the clock floating where his head should be comes a deeply grim, ominous sound.
“That— is that by any chance.......”
“Yeah. That by any chance. It’s your wish, right? And I have the power to grant your wish.”
Tick— tack—
Gong Isu soon made a certain proposal.
After deep deliberation, I accepted it.
“There’s no clear drug that can resolve dissociative identity disorder. This medication is not so much for alleviating or curing the condition as for helping regulate excessive mood swings.”
This doctor is a person and surely has a name, but in [Cthulhu World] terms he’s just a nameless NPC.
I came to in a psychiatric clinic in southern Paju.
“H—?”
“Mm, are you all right?”
The doctor looks at me with a worried expression.
“Ah, yes. Yes, yes. I’m fine. Mm, really fine.”
At my mechanical reply, the doctor shows a meaningful expression for a moment.
“If you were hoping for something else.......”
“No. I don’t need things like Nirvana or Heart Breaker.”
“Ahh, °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° I see.”
The doctor’s face brightens noticeably.
“Even though we’re a ‘real hospital’ that doesn’t deal in those, we sometimes get people who make a big fuss.”
“Yes. I’m sure. I understand.”
I want to wrap up and stand, but I’ll hold out a bit longer. There’s a necessary step.
[System : Through psychiatric counseling, your Sanity score recovers.]
[System : +1 for a ‘comfortable atmosphere,’ +1 for a ‘safe environment,’ and +4 from the doctor’s ‘psychological counseling’ level. The final range of recoverable Sanity is 1–10+6.
Mental Strength check...... Success. Recovery amount is 13.]
Good. Recovered quite a lot.
Confirming the amount, I hurried out of the clinic. The sky is clear and blue.
And then a message window blocks my eyes.
[Legendary Achievement Unlocked!
You have crossed the barrier of time and returned to the past.
You have obtained ‘Legendary Achievement: Regressor.’
As a reward for the achievement, you inherit all experience earned prior to the return and gain an additional trait.]
[System : A penalty trait ‘Prey of Tindalos’ is bestowed.]
[System : ‘Prey of Tindalos’ activates. You hear footsteps pursuing you from beyond space-time.]
“No time.”
Not immediately. It’s not a situation like Gong Isu’s, chased by dozens of hounds. No hound will appear in the next ten minutes. According to Gong Isu—
‘At first it takes a while for them to show. With your magic you can probably scramble their trail or slow the pursuit, right? But even so, it’s not good to stay in one place more than six hours.’
Right, so that’s it.
It’s come to this. I’ve decided to shoulder the risk and change the future.
And there’s something I need to wrap up as fast as possible before anything else.
The place I reached by security taxi is the apartment in Munsan-eup that Yeonam Construction sold last time.
The one where a ghoul appeared in the underground parking lot, and where from a high floor you can see beyond the great wall— an awesome apartment.
I reached that apartment and broke in through a balcony into a certain home.
“Hello.”
“Who are you!? H-how did you get in?”
“Ah, the wards you set on the balcony? They were nothing, so I dispelled them all. Next time, instead of doing it yourself, ask someone more skilled to put them up again.”
“What are you......?”
“Anyway. Enough talk. Just take two shots first.”
[Lightning Strike]
[Ice Prison]
Kzzzzzzzzzt! Kwoaaaaaang!
“Aaaaaaaagh!”
Mun Gyeongnam’s scream rings through the elegant apartment interior.
