“What a rotten civil servant.”
Just when I thought things were wrapped up, Yang Seho said, “We don’t need your help anymore,” and launched an indiscriminate attack.
It’s not like I didn’t wonder if he was only saying that and might let us off.
Like Kid said, we did fight side by side against the same enemy, didn’t we?
But after sweeping up the ninjas, Yang Seho started attacking me without a moment’s hesitation.
“Ah, seriously, how can you even do that?”
If I bend over backward—way, way over—to read it kindly, maybe Yang Seho cut me some slack.
If he’d really meant to arrest me, he would have gone for me first.
“Ugh, my whole body aches......”
Or maybe he was just attacking in whatever order his eyes found—easiest targets first.
If he’d started chasing me, he’d have let all the others slip—and I would’ve had some way to escape, too.
“I don’t know. Either way, I honestly almost died.”
Somehow I dodged and scraped and managed to run from Yang Seho—then shove the household into a [Dimensional Gate] created with [Gate Creation] and return to the hungry mansion.
“What?! Mr. Sinhwa, are you all right?”
“Ah, I’m fi—”
“Mr. Sinhwa!! What happened to that hand!?”
Heo Sanghyun shouted in shock at the state we came back in—wrecked again—and when he saw my left hand, stitched together rag by rag, he nearly screamed.
“You forced a severed hand back on with necromancy. What on earth—”
“L-look, calm down. I have something a little urgent to do first......”
“What could possibly be more urgent than that hand?”
I want to wash up, eat, and dive into bed, fast.
And yes, like Sanghyun says, I need to do something about my left hand, and I want to peek into that idiot Jang Hyundeok’s head, and I should check on Park Gwangrim staggering around high on meds—but—
There’s one administrative procedure I have to handle first, so I headed into ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) the basement.
[You have evicted the Abyssal Being – Life Source. Experience gained.]
[You have evicted the Abyssal Being – Source of Pollution. Experience gained.]
[You have evicted the Abyssal Being – Great Source. Experience gained.]
[You have defeated numerous cultists (Cure Medical Care). Your understanding of the Cult of the Life Source increases.]
[You have defeated the Shoggoth (Akiyama). Your understanding of divine servitors as a whole increases.]
[You have defeated numerous “Descendants of the Source.” Your understanding of divine servitors as a whole increases.]
Etc., etc., etc......
I felled a lot of them.
This time, all kinds came pouring in from every direction.
[You have gained sufficient experience to reach the next tier. Level increases by 5.]
There were many, and varied, and each one was anything but ordinary in size.
“Still, five levels at once—no joke.”
[Legendary Achievement unlocked! You have evicted the Abyssal Being – Source of Pollution.
You have obtained “Legendary Achievement: Dissolution of Pollution.”
As an achievement reward, you receive the “Mirror of Wisdom” and bonus experience.]
“Receive what. I brought that myself.”
And the [Soul Seal] the [Life Source] had swallowed vanished beyond the Abyss as-is.
‘Well, even if I had it, the only usable function is an instant-kill.’
“Instant-kill” sounds nice; since it requires the user’s life to activate, it’s closer to a self-detonation device.
It’s not something I’d use with my real-life neck on the block, not a game avatar’s, so I don’t mind losing it.
[Legendary Achievement unlocked! You have evicted the Abyssal Being – Great Source.
You have obtained “Legendary Achievement: Great Ruin.”
As an achievement reward, you receive a “Shoggoth Crystal” and bonus experience.]
“Hm. That’s a vague one.”
A Shoggoth Crystal is an artifact for creating and controlling a shoggoth.
It causes madness as a side effect, but that kind of penalty isn’t a big problem for me.
If planting a Shoggoth Crystal in the ground and waiting would sprout a shoggoth tree that bears shoggoth fruit, I might try it......
“But you have to feed it people, don’t you?”
It’s awkward enough to handle that I don’t even like bringing out the [Child of Darkness]. What am I supposed to do with a shoggoth?
Still, it’s a rare artifact, so I can’t say I’m displeased.
And the last achievement......
[Legendary Achievement unlocked! You have evicted the Abyssal Being – Life Source.
You have obtained “Legendary Achievement: Extinction of Life.”
As an achievement reward, your relationship with the “Abyssal Being – Life Source” advances, and you receive bonus experience.]
[System: Relationship with “Abyssal Being – Life Source” changes to “Mad Love.”]
“What?”
A headache rushes in.
I sat still for a moment and thought it over, but there’s no answer.
How do you even form a relationship with something you’ve just evicted?
I’ve never seen “Mad Love” before. Isn’t [Firm Alliance] the highest?
Sure, between people there are words beyond an alliance—but the relationships this system implements didn’t include anything like that.
“What, just a bug?”
As always.
Granted, it’s not like it’s gone for good like the [Predator in the Mountains]—it’s merely been driven back to the Abyss, so it could return someday—but barring special variables, that takes on the order of centuries or millennia.
“I wiped out the cultists and erased their footholds for exerting influence...... Nothing should happen.”
Thinking so, I waited for the next messages.
More little messages and achievements followed, about what I had discovered and obtained.
The bonus experience from those achievements was—obviously—numbers beyond imagination—
[You have gained sufficient experience to reach the next tier. Level increases by 3.]
My level jumped straight to 80.
[As a level reward, you gain (2) bonus attributes to allocate freely.]
[With your accumulated experience, 8th-circle magic is now unlocked. Note that to properly employ 8th-circle magic, you must obtain or study a grimoire containing 8th-circle spells.]
I assigned the extra bonus stats to Willpower and Strength. I’ve been neglecting Strength all this time, but that’s because of how [Cthulhu World]’s data formulas are built; in practice, you want attributes in even numbers.
Each time you hit an even number, hidden little bonuses kick in. It’s not a big boost, but still......
Kim Sinhwa
Class: Mage Who Gazes into the Abyss
Level: 80
Magic Tier: 8th Circle
Madness: [Mask Fixation (latent)]
Strength 6 + 4 (Residual Heat of Bukrak Sect)
Constitution 8 + 3 (Four-Seal Execution Sword (Green Presence))
Dexterity 8 + 2 (Night Cloak Wing-Garment)
Intelligence 30
Willpower 22 + 2 (Necklace of the Body-Snatcher)
Charisma 20 + 2 (Blade of Flesh)
Ah, clean!
There’s this thing that’s unbearable as a gamer, you know? I’ve been staring at my Strength and feeling suffocated; this is better.
Constitution is still odd, but—well—that’s artifact modifiers; I’ll adjust later after I get a different artifact.
Anyway, I took every reward I could.
[......You not only foiled the “Life Source” preparing a descent. You also wiped out the “Source of Pollution” and “Great Source,” each of which was preparing separate schemes at different locations. Thanks to you, their unprecedented cataclysm plans could not even begin and were forced to halt.]
“Ugh, so it really was almost a disaster.”
The [Great Source]’s avatar isn’t just the [Life Source].
Buyeo had the [Source of Pollution].
I wondered why it stayed quiet and did nothing—looks like that one was hatching its own plot.
“Well, I smashed them all at once anyway.”
Whatever the event was, it all got canceled.
[System: The penalty trait “Shattered Mind” activates. Since you currently hold 1 Madness, a random Madness manifests.]
Ah, and the most important administrative procedure begins.
Honestly, more than levels or rewards, this is why I came down to the basement instead of doing anything else.
If I suddenly developed corpse phobia, xenophobia, or idiot phobia up there in the living room with everyone gathered, I wouldn’t have the bandwidth to cope.
[System: “Madness – Ophidiophobia” is bestowed upon your mind.]
“Snakes?”
If snakes—wait!
I hastily roused my mana and wrote in a notebook, the sentences formed with thaumic heat instead of ink.
The content came together at near-print speed, not handwriting.
Thanks to that, I logged several pages in one go—but before I could finish the last sentence, a violent revulsion hit me and I had no choice but to shove the notebook away.
“Ugh—”
Chwarararak—
It feels like a scaly, horrible thing is crawling through my head.
Information linked to the newly gained phobia—snaking off into the deep, dark places of my mind to hide.
“Nnngh.”
Still, I wrote a bit this time.
Truth is, I record every time, and I always keep a journal.
The problems are when I have no time to read—or when I forget I even wrote anything at all.
“And honestly, what good is a record.”
I can’t bring myself to open a notebook containing information tied to a phobia in my own head.
In the end, I’ll grit my teeth and not look this time, too—and it’ll spiral into a glorious fiasco.
“Damn it. At least this one isn’t something you see often downtown. Good.”
Shirrrrrrr—
No.
From somewhere dark and damp in a basement corner, I get the ominous feeling those cold, awful things are crawling.
No.
It’s just your imagination.
There’s nothing there.
Calm down.
“Hoo—”
[It was thanks to your remarkable magical talent and the comrades who fought for you. People had thought of you as merely suspicious and dangerous, but more and more are recognizing your true worth now. Precious friends. Trustworthy companions. Followers who look up to you. People who love you. And people you love. There are more such special souls in your life. This is truly delightful.]
“Not special, not precious, not trustworthy. Stop shilling your meds and shut up.”
[Cthulhu World] is not a normal game.
The moment I start valuing something as precious and special, it takes it, defiles it, breaks it, and hands it back proudly.
Even to avoid that kind of humiliation, I......
[You say you have no friends in order to protect those you cherish. It is a gallant, admirable, beautiful stance. And there is one more thing. You have finally found the ‘clue’ you sought so long.]
“Yeah.”
While fighting the [Life Source], I learned the secret of the [Lacrex Tome].
And how Akiyama managed to craft the [Golden Hairpin].
[Using the “Mirror of Wisdom,” you will soon be able to reconstruct the “Lacrex Tome.” You will soon find a method to abandon this crumbling, fragile world and depart for another. You will be able to leave behind every bond you have made here, discard everything precious, make all of this as if it never happened, and escape this world.]
“......”
[Now, a new event will begin. The abyssal beings have realized what you hold dear and what you regard as important.]
Truly.
[They will help you leave this world with an easy mind.]
This world is a dreadful place.
