Time Stop was released.
[crash!]
That was the sound of me smashing into the floor.
A shock like my body was shattering.
Ceiling, walls, and floor spun at random and pounded me.
No—maybe I just couldn’t handle the recoil and rolled over and over?
Dizzy viewpoint switches, and dizzy pain.
“Ugh... damn.”
Where am I? Who am I?
“Mr. Kim Sinhwa!”
Park Gwangrim’s voice.
Right. My name is Kim Sinhwa. And I...
“Huh? That guy is the wizard?!”
Jang Hyundeok’s vacant voice.
Right, I’m also the wizard who fell into this grotesque world.
I failed.
From the start I figured I couldn’t actually hurt it.
But I wanted to jolt it enough to cancel the influence it was projecting around here.
I failed, and that bastard will now begin the demented stunt it pre-announced.
“Are you really the wizard?”
“Yeah—and are you intact?”
“Well, I’m fine.”
Jang Hyundeok was unscathed.
Almost enough to make all that trouble feel unfair.
“Park Gwangrim, you?”
“I’m—now all right.”
At that moment, a message window filled my vision.
[The Jang Hyundeok you were looking for has returned. We inform you that some events were skipped due to an unstable play environment.]
“Ah, yeah?”
What got skipped?
No idea. That’s not the priority right now.
“It’s your neglect of management, so pay compensation and beat it!”
I waved my hand and swatted the message aside, but to the other two it must have looked like the flailing of a madman in delirium.
“Wizard?”
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine! So get ready to run, right now!”
“Run?” “Wizard?”
“I tried to block it and failed! We have to get out of here, now!”
This layout—this is the third floor I stepped into earlier.
A space so wide it felt desolate.
A few cabinets and desks placed against the walls. A handful of chairs had lost their places and rolled around.
The cabinet-and-desk arrangement that practically begged me to search them caught my eye, but this wasn’t the time.
“Move! You idiots!”
I yanked up mana in a rush to secure sensing range.
[keee—]
Damn, I’ve burned through almost all my mana.
The price of rampaging in an unstable space, spamming absurd, improvised magic. I’d spent so much I could barely even form a proper spell.
[System: ‘Heightened Vigilance’ is activated.]
“Mr. Kim Sinhwa! Outside!”
Looking out the window, I saw shadows swarming in the dark, encircling Hope Ward.
“Damn. They got out.”
Jang Hyundeok’s extended family, whom I’d buried along with Healing Ward. They were converging.
“Wizard, it’s okay! They’re not coming to fight!”
Jang Hyundeok’s guileless voice.
Goddamn it.
As he said, the faces that resembled Jang Hyundeok’s wore utterly placid expressions.
“Mr. Kim Sinhwa. I just met someone called the Director and had a conversation.”
Park Gwangrim grabbed my arm.
“And?”
“He said he’d let us go. I don’t completely believe him, but maybe... maybe...”
You think it’ll be fine?
Sure, it will be fine.
[While you were outside the management area, achievement data and rewards could not be delivered. They will now be delivered retroactively.]
A message window suddenly popped up again to block my view.
“Ah—what now...”
[Legendary Achievement unlocked! You inflicted a small wound on the ‘Abyssal Being – Source of Life.’
You have obtained ‘Legendary Achievement: Wound of Life.’
As an achievement reward, your relationship with the ‘Abyssal Being – Source of Life’ advances, and you gain additional EXP.]
I couldn’t help but grimace at the absurd text.
Relationship advances?
With an abyssal being?
[System: Relationship with ‘Abyssal Being – Source of Life’ has changed to ‘Affection.’]
Goosebumps.
“What!? Keep it! You insane freak!”
I stumbled back and shouted.
[System: Penalty trait ‘Feast’s Offering’ is activated.]
Then, I sensed presence on the stairs.
“Wait a second!”
A cute voice from the stairwell.
Footfalls far too light to be an adult.
“Huh? Hyeonji? And you kids?”
Jang Hyundeok’s vacant voice.
Hyeonji.
And the kids who were in this Hope Ward—those tiny, cute children he called his younger siblings.
Bounding up the stairs, the children each wore happy, bright smiles, and Hyeonji at the front spoke to me.
“I understand now why the others went that far with you, wizard.”
“Hyeonji? The others?”
Jang Hyundeok’s question.
Hyeonji nodded, her smile grotesquely warped.
[kiiiiiiiiiing—]
A terrible mana swelled from all sides.
[kee-gee-gee-gee-geek—]
A perilous tearing noise rose from the whole building—no, from the space itself.
That isn’t Hyeonji.
Right now the [Source of Life] was borrowing the children’s bodies to speak to me.
“Yellow, darkness, flame. And even the hunger that’s gone now. No wonder those little ones like you so much, wizard—”
He called the abyssal beings—the [King in Yellow], the [One Who Comes from the Dark], the [Living Flame], and the [Predator in the Mountains]—“little ones,” and went on.
“Guys? What are you doing?”
Still unable to grasp the situation, Jang Hyundeok kept questioning the children.
But ignoring him, the children approached me.
Just like in the frozen time earlier, they smiled at me, danced, and—almost singing—began to speak.
“Yeah, seeing you again here, I definitely like you.” “Yes, that’s right.” “I love it.” “Adorable.” “Come to think of it, you’ve got a pretty cute face.” “Wizard. We like you after all.”
“So let’s do something fun.”
Hyeonji said it with a smile.
I carefully scraped together mana and answered.
“Something fun?”
“It’s the most fun part of this game, right?”
“Stopping destruction.”
“I’m going to destroy this world now.”
“So try stopping this world’s destruction, wizard.”
“Mm, your condition doesn’t look great right now, so I’ll give you about a week. Get a little readier and come to Busan.”
“Wizard, you can do it! We believe in you!”
la-la-la-la— ha-ha-ha-ha— kikikiki—
Ah, hell.
This isn’t the same abstract, ambiguous space from before, and the children’s bodies aren’t arbitrary illusions.
And those kids don’t have a medium’s traits.
That maniac descended into their bodies on a whim just to say that much—
‘I launched that reckless attack specifically to stop this sort of situation.’
My prediction came true in the worst possible way.
“Park Gwangrim! Hit Jang Hyundeok!”
“Pardon? Mr. Kim Sinhwa, what did you say?”
“Knock that bastard out!”
[Lightning]
[bzzzzzap!]
I fired a bolt at Jang Hyundeok—but Hyeonji, dancing with a grotesquely warped smile, caught it in one hand—
A ten-year-old kid caught a flying thunderbolt and twisted it apart.
“Uwaah! Hyeonji!?”
“Wizard, that’s cute. It might be an opportunity, you know. But you’re using it to cover your friend’s eyes?”
“Shut up! If you’ve said your piece, get lost quietly!”
I felt black blood pour from my mouth. I’d spent too much mana.
In the cosmic-horror genre [Cthulhu World], the protagonist’s role?
‘To resist, resist, and resist the power of an absolute, irresistible being—only to end in frustration or destruction.’
That is the protagonist’s role in cosmic horror.
In other words, resist—and finally be crushed and ruined.
“Okay! Then I’ll go! Bye! For real, bye! Take good care of our Hyundeok!”
Hyeonji smiled and waved at me.
“Bye! Bye! Bye, Hyundeok oppa!”
And to Jang Hyundeok, too.
“Bye! Hyundeok hyung! Let’s go abroad together later!”
“Bye-bye! Hyundeok! Become someone even more special!”
“Bye! Hyundeok hyung, bye!”
“Bye!”
“Bye-bye!”
“Bye-bye!”
“Bye!”
“Let’s play again!”
“I love you!”
“See you later!”
“Bye-bye!”
The children’s bright, sunny farewells.
“Kids? Kids? What are you saying? Wizard? Wizard?”
“Jang Hyundeok, you idiot! Shut your eyes and cover your ears! Run!”
Outside the window, the people who looked like Jang Hyundeok all raised one hand and waved it side to side with the same placid, happy expression.
A synchronized motion.
Bye-bye.
[System: Penalty trait ‘Feast’s Offering’ is activated.]
[POOOOOOOM—]
With an immense blast—
The children’s bodies all at once became thousands of gorgeous—
Flowers of every color, scattering in all directions.
“Ah.”
A short sigh from Jang Hyundeok.
Everywhere my gaze fell, petals drifted beautifully.
The clothes the children had been wearing lay strewn on the floor with those multicolored flowers.
A cloying, nauseating scent filled the air.
[pop-pop-pop-pop—]
Explosions sounded outside too.
The sound of the gathered people bursting.
Flowers shot up to the third-floor height and clung to the windows in a dense layer like sticky brain matter and viscera.
Now there was no danger.
Everything that could have posed a danger had burst and become flowers.
Plenty of time was provided to search the cabinets and desks, and I was able to leave the building with the documents inside.
The documents I found there contained various records and data, but by and large they only supplemented what I had already seen, heard, and experienced in this House of Healing.
That the [House of Healing] operated with support from Cure Medical Care.
That they ran this facility to cultivate artificial superhumans—in other words, ability users.
And the personal data of those who had stayed in this [House of Healing].
“What does it say about me?”
In a drained voice, Jang Hyundeok asked me.
On the list they compiled, I found information about Jang Hyundeok too.
<Failure.>
What was on Jang Hyundeok wasn’t even conditioning worthy of the name.
It wasn’t magical or ritualistic brainwashing. If it were, I would’ve noticed long ago.
What they did to Jang Hyundeok was love and education.
“We love you.” “Your younger siblings love you.” “Your teachers love you.” “The volunteers love you.” “Your friends love you.” “Your older brothers love you.” “The Director loves you.”
Kind, warm, gentle love.
“You love us too, right?”
“As much as we cherish and love you, you should love us too.”
Sticky, clinging. Sickeningly sweet whispers.
“So it isn’t strange.” “So there’s no problem.” “Someday let’s make money and go abroad.” “Don’t worry; other countries are safe.” “Let’s go abroad with your younger siblings.” “Let’s live happily in a safe foreign country.” “It’s okay; you’ll manage someday.”
“So earn money for us.”
“So put yourself in danger.”
“So work in places where dying at any time wouldn’t be strange.”
Like the other brothers who were here, Jang Hyundeok loved the House of Healing.
He loved the younger ones, and he loved those who looked eerily like himself.
Because they loved one another, Jang Hyundeok and the other brothers and sisters could clearly distinguish each other.
Because they loved, they felt nothing amiss in this grotesque place.
“Wizard, what did I do wrong?”
Holding a tiny shoe that could fit a child—or a god—Jang Hyundeok asked me that.
“No. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Then why did this happen to me?”
I briefly recalled what the [Source of Life] told me.
[“You changed Jang Hyundeok into a special being.”]
I could see the sun rising outside the window.
And in that quietly rising sunlight, the thousands of flowers covering the House of Healing.
I looked at the sight for a moment, then changed masks.
A mask with four eyes emitting golden light.
With a face incapable of expressing emotion, I said to Jang Hyundeok,
“First, let’s go home and eat.”
