“Mr. Kim Sinhwa? Mr. Kim Sinhwa?”
“Hm?”
“Do you happen to need these?”
Park Gwangrim took out a few pills.
[Nirvana], which blocks mania; [Brain Cooler], which blocks brainwashing; [Heart Breaker], which stirs courage; [Illusion], which forcibly induces delirium to boost abilities; [Soma], which suppresses delirium.
All of them illegal psychotropic enhancers used by back-alley fixers.
“I don’t need that stuff.”
“Psychotropic enhancer” sounds nice.
There’s a two-letter word those drugs are usually called, isn’t there?
Despite my refusal, Park Gwangrim cocked his left eyebrow high.
“Weren’t you just looking some strange direction and saying strange things?”
“...”
Yeah—talking about game characters and such must’ve sounded insane.
“Either way, I don’t need it. Put it away. More importantly, we’re here.”
We reached the barbed-wire fence blocking off [Healing Block] and Ansan.
“Hmph.”
[Giant’s Grip]
rrrrip—r-r-rip!
The wire tore away with ease.
“We’re going in this rough?”
“Then what?”
“Slip in with magic, perhaps...”
“Thanks to your hard work, I know what’s placed where in there. Don’t worry.”
And if we’re measuring commotion—how could anything top picking up and moving an entire building?
More than that, there’s one headache here.
Nodding lightly, I said to Park Gwangrim:
“Sorry, but would you go first? If anything happens I’ll respond immediately—don’t worry.”
“Mm... understood.”
He looked uneasy for a moment, but in the end he moved forward with professional footwork, careful and quiet.
“Is this far enough?”
Without a single footfall, Park Gwangrim slipped inside the fence.
“Good. My turn.”
“Understood.”
I couldn’t mimic his dainty steps, so I just trudged in—
[System : Feast’s Offering effect]
whoooosh—
The world spun a hundred eighty degrees the moment I crossed the fence.
“Tch. Annoying.”
So it only blocks me.
A barrier keyed to targets of [Feast’s Offering], most likely.
“What did you just do?”
Park Gwangrim wore that “is your mind okay?” face again. To him, I must’ve looked like I suddenly turned around and walked back out.
“There’s a barrier here.”
“A barrier? Truly?”
“I’m not crazy—drop that look. It’s a barrier that blocks a mage.”
If it were Jang Hyundeok, he’d nitpick me to insanity here—but Park Gwangrim just nodded, cautious.
“Well? Can you break it?”
Worried, yes—but with clear trust in his eyes.
“There is a spell that can.”
If I use [Recognition], I’ll be defenseless for a bit.
Before, I’d never have used that in front of him... but he won’t betray me now.
I pointed at the pendulum in his hand.
“Block anything hostile that approaches.”
“Understood.”
vvvvvmmm—
Scarlet mana gathered in his pendulum.
With a whirr, the thin silver string suspending it danced like a snake.
“Alright. Let’s begin.”
I poured mana into my four eyes and invoked the spell.
[Recognition]
vvvvvvvvvmmm—
Searing yellow light tore the dark as abstract data I couldn’t see before surged into my head.
What is this?
A thin membrane of surreal energy.
Careful not to touch that barrier, I extended a hand.
A transparent force with no particular attribute or intent—odd for something an abyssal being would make.
It only carries the effect of turning back targets of [Feast’s Offering].
Less magic or sorcery than...
“It really does feel like an unimplemented region.”
It’s similar to the [Never-Opening Box] that appeared back in [Masquerade].
A space that is for game flow and administration.
Ordinarily, finding a way through would be impossible—but widening [Recognition]’s effect, I began to hunt for the barrier’s weak point.
chiiiiiiik—
Is that my brain cells burning?
Surely not—but the pain made it feel possible. Hot, dizzy.
“Mr. Kim Sinhwa, are you alright?”
His voice thundered in my skull. Through it, [Recognition] analyzed his emotions and thoughts and jammed ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) them straight into my head.
Shut up. Shut your mouth! I don’t need this info! I don’t care about your family makeup! Don’t think about your sister! Don’t look at me and think of your sister! You maniac! I wanted to open my mouth and snap, but if I did, it felt like my brain would spill out through it.
In the flood of data, I barely found the space’s frailty. I rammed the [Blade of Flesh] into the thinnest seam and triggered the effect dwelling in the blade.
[L-grade weapon ‘Blade of Flesh’ unique function, ‘Power to Sever Barriers,’ activates.
// Power to Sever Barriers: Slices space.]
Simple description.
A power that only works in specific conditions.
ssssssk—
But once the weak point shattered, the barrier lost its function and meaning in an instant—pazzzzzzzzzzzzz—
The barrier sheathing the whole of [Healing Block] collapsed at once.
Colors erupted in all directions—blinding noise like a broken monitor would spew.
But only for a moment.
Some will that seeks to balance the world swept in, and even that noise vanished.
whooooo—
Wind.
Visually nothing had changed, but the sense that something was gone was undeniable.
The air was rearranging.
“Wh-what did you do?”
“Told you. I’d break the barrier—kugh!”
charruruk—
A torrent of blood spilled from my mouth.
The [Mask of Carcosa] hid me, so the blood ran down my face and neck and soaked my front black.
Ah, hell.
My head spun; the ground heaved up to meet the sky.
Another barrier? No—right, I’m collapsing.
“Mr. Kim Sinhwa!”
Park Gwangrim rushed over, aghast.
“No—koff. Hh—got it all out. I’m fine.”
I barely steadied myself.
I held him off from getting closer, invoked magic, and gathered all the spilled blood.
tzuzuzuzuzuz—
I meant to form the same [Blood Bead] I used back when I made Red—but what crystallized, completed, was a tier above any “blood bead.”
This—this jet-black, gleaming gem is...
“Damn. That’s a mana stone.”
Because the mana density in my blood is too high?
Well, would you look at that—Kim Sinhwa, you’ve grown into a full monster. If I made a bomb with this, how big would it blow?
“Are you alright?”
He looked at me, worried.
I tucked the black mana stone I’d made from my blood into my coat and stood.
“I’m fine. Spotless, see?”
“At least you don’t have laundry to worry about.”
“If you’re jealous, learn magic too.”
“I prefer to live long.”
Magic is convenient and powerful, but not free.
Among the [Cthulhu World] spells, some ruin reason and warp the mind just by being used.
Thus mages go mad faster, break faster, than others.
Well, I’m exempt thanks to [Madness of the Abyss].
Thinking that, I palmed the mana stone hidden at my chest.
A mana stone made from my blood—a thing found only inside monsters’ bodies or where supernatural events occurred.
It really is fine, right? I’m fine, right?
“Anyway—the Hope Block administrators are spilling out.”
Mana surged from Hope Block and scattered. That looked very much like...
“Abandoning the kids and running?”
“They may have a separate ritual anchor outside the building.”
A good point from Park Gwangrim.
If it were Jang Hyundeok, we’d get, “Huh? Running?” and that’d be it. In any case, a fair observation.
“No. I don’t sense that. Hm—maybe trying to join the others? In some ways, that makes things easier.”
This place was never designed with player intrusion in mind to begin with. Looks like they have no special response system.
Thanks to that, we entered Hope Block without much resistance or interference.
The lack of resistance continued inside.
I felt other people’s mana in the building, but no notable movement.
Probably the kids of Hope Block, or administrators with abilities too weak to slip away.
Or...
“There’ll be others getting that sleep therapy besides Jang Hyundeok.”
Finding where he was wasn’t hard.
skreee—
A door creaked in Hope Block’s dark hall.
Like Healing Block, the ward was abnormally broad and dark.
“This is where they triggered the delirium, right?”
“Y-yes...”
Shuddering, Park Gwangrim trailed slowly behind me.
It was indeed foul and unpleasant enough to trigger delirium.
The space felt like a standard multi-bed ward stretched by force.
Beds lined left and right.
Shelves for personal effects. Trash cans.
Then bed again.
Shelf.
Trash can.
Bed. Shelf. Trash can.
Identical furnishings repeating at identical intervals.
A ward of compulsive geometry smothered by flowers of a grotesque color.
Petals of crimson that cannot exist in reality.
Even in the ward’s sullen dark, they blazed with brightness.
“Urgh—”
A groan as Park Gwangrim fought his gag reflex.
He had a lot in his notebook.
The cloying, nauseating sweetness those uncanny flowers exuded filled the ward.
A perfume so thick you feared to breathe.
Those baleful flowers, with haughty poise, dominated everything.
And the people sleeping as seedbeds for that excessive bloom.
Their peaceful faces were as eerie as corpses prepared for a funeral.
Anyone who stepped in by mistake would be struck dumb with dizzying terror.
Worse—every face lying there looked the same. Like a lunatic’s nightmare made flesh.
[System : Exclusive trait ‘Madness of the Abyss’ activates. Removes the surreal disgust pressing on your mind.]
bzzzzzt—
Sparks snapped at my temples.
Maybe the flash and noise helped him steady himself; breathing rough, Park Gwangrim edged closer.
“Which one is Jang Hyundeok? Can you tell among them?”
Fourteen people lay there.
“They really do all look alike.”
I walked down the center, glancing left and right.
Truth is, I didn’t need to try hard.
Ears riddled with piercings. Cheap, washed-out blond.
The most Jang-Hyundeok-looking face among the Jang Hyundeoks.
To the eye, the flowers around his body were the same crimson as the others...
“They said these flowers extract a person’s talent, right?”
Is that why?
To my mana-sight, the flowers blooming on his body shone a surreal golden radiance.
I scratched my head, grimacing.
“What are you, a super rare pull?”
Most likely the residual influence of the [King in Yellow] lingering in his body was being reflected.
Ringed by those golden-glowing flowers, he stood out as something singular even here.
“How did this punk end up in this position?”
I didn’t come just to save him, though.
There are still secrets here—I came to confirm them.
I shook him and said:
“Hey, Jang Hyundeok. Get up, bastard. I need a driver.”
