“Walk that way. Park Gwangrim went out first. Jang Hyundeok will be waiting too.”
Letters and numbers, darkness.
And in that bizarre, abstract space of random chaos, a trace formed that one could walk along.
A route where only the concepts of , , and existed. That it was composed of flowing alphabets or warped deep-sea-fish imagery wouldn’t be important information to a high entity like this [Source of Life].
And at the end of that passage I could see Park Gwangrim—and Jang Hyundeok’s vacant face.
They looked unharmed, with no trouble or wounds.
“You just have to walk that way. That alone will let you obtain what you wanted.”
For a moment I was almost led by the few concepts the route provided and nearly walked forward without thinking, but I turned my body and looked at the [Source of Life].
“You just called me the protagonist, didn’t you?”
“I did.”
“Specifically, the protagonist of this [Cthulhu World].”
[Cthulhu World] is a game in the cosmic-horror genre, built on the Cthulhu Mythos.
The protagonist’s objective is single.
“To uncover the truth of this world and prevent its destruction.”
But that exists only as a story purpose.
As a resident of the cosmic-horror genre, the protagonist’s true role is different.
“...”
In this world there’s no hymn to humanity or victory, no neat, intuitive catharsis like in web novels.
“Destruction is scheduled, and someday you die, or go mad, or give up everything and despair, right? And that’s the role of the protagonist who appears in this game?”
Upon hearing me, the [Source of Life] widened both eyes and tilted his head.
“Why are you telling me that?”
A middle-aged male face resembling Jang Hyundeok.
Depending on the situation he smiles, shows curiosity—there are changes of expression, but the strange alien feel is like an image churned out by a generative AI.
‘Like a robot.’
The changes are overly contrived, and more than anything, from a moment ago he hasn’t taken a single breath or blinked even once.
I turned my back to the passage the [Source of Life] provided and thought for a moment.
‘Sure, I could just leave like this.’
But why should I grant this bastard’s wish?
I briefly recalled what Tudor told me.
“You don’t just grant any wish, right? There must be a method or conditions.”
Right—I’m not some mechanical being who grants any random wish. And I’m not a game character wandering without will either.
I carefully moved my mana.
I can’t walk out like this.
I refuse to be used in this kind of way.
And more than anything...
“It probably won’t go well, but since I’m the protagonist, I should at least try.”
I already know it’s an irresistible entity, but even so, resisting and thrashing—that’s the protagonist’s role.
Saying so, I triggered the spell I’d prepared with care.
[Black Flame]
[Spell Boost: Maximize]
[whssshhh—]
Pitch-black fire, laden with a wicked force, poured toward the [Source of Life].
“This is an unstable space. Using magic could poison you.”
The [Source of Life] said only that and made no move.
The spell I launched—black fire tangled with the grudges of the dead—
[spirit+fire 01 1010 10 grudge 1010111 $s melts burns e ki l l s 2 1 fire black 00011 c!&a&grudge10101 flame soul1011 wraith &zfire fireaa psychic 10101010 amplified power^]
Shattered and scattered into 0s and 1s and a handful of words and concepts.
I expected as much.
“Then how about this?”
Without stopping, I triggered telekinesis and floated [Four-Sign Trueblade] and [Butcher’s Hook] into the air.
[clatterrrrr—]
A wildly complex magic circle formed, using the two artifacts as media.
Artifacts prepared as weapons can be equipped only one at a time, but I ignored the gamey convenience setting and converted the forces housed in those two weapons into raw magic power.
[Sword Realm]
The [Source of Life] briefly knit his brows, grimacing.
“A magic not in the database. Did you just make it?”
“Sure did! You said this is outside the management area, didn’t you?”
Right—this is a magic that doesn’t exist in the game.
A magic improvised the instant I realized I could do it.
[skreeee—]
The “sword” setting housed in the Four-Sign Trueblade—expanded infinitely into this ambiguous space.
, , , , , , , , , , <by driving a blade into the target’s flesh, induce change>—images of swords blooming round, randomly, repetitively, beautifully, like flowers of light and matter generated inside a kaleidoscope.
“Impressive. Are you eroding spatial information with willpower? A little more development and you might become the founder of a new magic lineage.”
“You just said you had no control rights over space, right?”
“That’s what I said.”
“Good. Then you can’t escape!”
[clatterrrrrrrrr—]
The sword-images deployed on all sides tightened toward the [Source of Life].
The [Source of Life] made a face of mild surprise—nothing more than what you’d make when realizing you’re late for an appointment.
“Ah, I seem to have told you too much. The administrators will be annoyed later.”
“I’ll make sure they won’t!”
[clatterrrrr—] [shlaaash!]
The instant the space-data composed of countless overlapping sword-images touched his body—
[pooom—]
The [Source of Life] burst apart into hundreds of gorgeous flowers and scattered.
No hit sensation.
Gokhwejul’s voice came from a random direction.
“Why are you suddenly doing this? I find your purpose difficult to parse.”
Honestly, I can’t give a rational reason for why I’m doing this either. It’s just—
“I’m pissed, so I wanted to land a couple hits. If you don’t like it, resist. Rational enough?”
“Not rational. Isn’t your intelligence higher than that?”
[whip—]
I attacked the [Source of Life] now wearing Gokhwejul’s body as its look.
[shraaaash—]
A savagery infused into the space itself. Space moved, imbued with the will to cut, split, slice, and wound the target’s flesh, and assaulted its body.
[pooom—]
Gokhwejul’s body blew apart into hundreds of flowers and whirled away.
“Oh, wizard. For a mere human you do have formidable willpower—but this is meaningless flailing.”
Jang Hyundeok’s voice, from another direction.
“What you’re seeing is just a terminal.”
“So what?”
Borrowing Jang Hyundeok’s face, the [Source of Life] shrugged.
“Doing this changes nothing for me—uh... from your point of view, I’m the [Source of Life], right? Anyway, it has no effect on me. It’s not possession; it’s just a video call. You’re smart enough to perceive that, right?”
“Shut it.”
[shraaaash—]
The space, mutated by my will into a razor image of slaughter, kept moving, endlessly.
[pooom—]
Jang Hyundeok turned to flowers and scattered.
“Sir! Please stop and just leave now! Outside, Jang Hyundeok and Park Gwangrim are waiting!”
An NPC—no clue which—came running, shouting.
When I smashed him, he exploded into hundreds of flowers and vanished.
“I advise you to calm down!” “Nothing will change!”
“Sir! Don’t you want your Jang Hyundeok to become more special too?”
“We’re doing this for you, sir.”
“I’m on your side.” “We can take a mutually beneficial path.” “This isn’t rational.” “Why waste time like this?” “Hurry out and meet Jang Hyundeok.” “Wasn’t this your plan? I’m trying to help it!”, “Sir? Come along!”
NPCs kept surging in.
“Haa—haa—damn.”
The mana drain was brutal. But I lifted my sword again and moved the space where the force of murder and destruction took form.
NPCs in Jang Hyundeok’s skin were mashed like they’d been thrown into a monstrous grinder.
“Sir!” “Sir!” “Sir!” “Sir!” “Sir!” “Sir!” “Sir!”
[krrrrrrrunch—]
So many flowers rose that I could barely see.
“Haa—haa—”
“Ah, I get it now, oppa. You’re angry, aren’t you?”
Hyeonji’s sunny voice.
“Shut up!”
I raised my sword, but the sword-image wouldn’t move.
[ssssss—]
The image collapsed.
I couldn’t maintain it anymore. The world was about to revert to an abstract space again.
“Oppa, let’s stop now and go that way. Hyundeok oppa and Gwangrim oppa are waiting.”
“I # Nоvеlight # will really kill you.”
Now even my arms and legs had no strength. To keep from collapsing, I jammed the Blade of Flesh into the “floor” and barely held myself up.
Hyeonji smiled, her face twisted.
Embodied in Hyeonji’s body, the [Source of Life] burst into a laugh no human could even imitate and reached out a hand.
Children approached from the direction Hyeonji pointed.
“Wizard, you’ve worked hard.” “I don’t know why you’re angry.” “Right. Hyundeok will become a better person, you know?”
I looked at the children in silence.
Right—that part is the problem.
“You think I’ll just sit back and let you wreck and defile a party member NPC I’m using, however you please?”
“Ah, so that’s what you didn’t like?”
“But it can’t be helped.”
One child raised a hand and pointed to the sky.
“The stars are moving.”
Smiling with the same expression like finely crafted dolls, the children chattered one by one.
“All of this happened because of you, wizard.”
“That’s right. You messed things up, so it can’t be helped.”
“We’re taking losses too, you know.”
“Yeah. We said we called Hyundeok because we needed resources, right?”
“If we’re going to pull Hyundeok out, we have no choice but to take the resources other people have.”
I nodded as I listened to the children’s bright voices.
Because of me? Now they’re trying gaslighting.
“Ah, that so?”
I burst the mana-stone I’d hardened from my own blood and detonated my mana.
Sensing the meaning of mana diffusing through the abstract space, Hyeonji opened her mouth.
“Wizard, that—”
[Time Stop]
[zzzzzzzip—]
A world washed in gray.
In the frozen time, Hyeonji went on speaking.
“—even if you use that to stop time, it means nothing to me.”
“Right. That’s the [Great Source]’s power.”
“In the end we are one. The same being.”
The children approached with smiles.
Is that so?
Thanks to stopping time, I confirmed something.
What could move in this space, and what could not.
[Sword Realm]
[shraaaash—]
The moment the magic triggered, I swung the [Blade of Flesh].
It had lost the same expansive force as before, but the [Sword Realm] altered the laws of the world along the arc of my swing.
[Unique function of L-grade weapon ‘Blade of Flesh,’ ‘Power to Cut Barriers,’ is activated.
// Power to Cut Barriers: Slices space.]
The [Blade of Flesh] is a thing infused with the [Great Source]’s power.
The [Source of Life], avatar of the [Great Source], cannot resist this power!
[shlaaash!]
I cut something in the empty air.
Something that had been there all along but that I could neither perceive nor see.
‘I can feel it.’
Different from before—I felt something sever.
[FWOOOOSH!]
In the gray space of stopped time, crimson blood—or a tremendous downpour of petals—burst forth.
Unable to withstand the overwhelming mana, I was flung backward.
I wanted to scream, but in frozen time, you can’t scream out loud.
‘But it landed. Now I’ll cancel [Time Stop]—’
That’s what I thought, but—the effect of [Time Stop] did not end.
No—that’s not it. This is...
“Correct. This time I stopped time.”
Pinned in midair in the posture of being blown back, I couldn’t move, couldn’t scream, couldn’t even fall.
“Amazing, wizard.” “How did you figure it out?”
Emotions not present before appeared on the children’s faces.
Curiosity. A flutter. Excitement. Delight. Chilling, grotesque gazes fixed on me.
“By routing through the terminal’s relay core, you wounded the me who isn’t here.”
“The way you found the core is fun. The moment you realized we can move even in stopped time, you attacked whatever was moving independent of this NPC skin, right?”
“Wow! How can you do that? That’s incredible!”
“You weren’t even sure what it was, were you?” “Oh, did you attack on pure intuition?”
“Interesting.” “Interesting.” “Right. Interesting.” “Truly amazing.”
“Now I see why the administrators like you.”
“You’re a more entertaining human than we thought, wizard.”
“Ah, that was a compliment.”
“Right. And please grant our wish.”
kikikikiki— hahahahaha—
The children laughed brightly, singing and dancing.
