[System: Reason recovers through ‘Spend a Pleasant Time with Cats.’]
[System: Due to ‘Repeat Action Penalty,’ a −9 modifier is applied. Recoverable Reason is 1–10−9 (values ≤ 0 are treated as 0).
Willpower check... success. Recovery is 1.]
Scraped right down to the floor.
I can’t recover any further with this method.
These bastards—full of every bug under the sun—are absurdly meticulous when it comes to Reason and Madness management.
For the record, it doesn’t trigger once per cat either. Roughly once per seven to thirteen cats.
“Are you done?”
“That was ninety-nine.”
Jang Hyundeok sighed.
“Mmm...”
Thanks to that recovery, it seems my Reason crossed a ridge.
My head cleared. I even have room to think about other things.
“You said it’s been two days?”
I vanished for two days without a word, so worry is natural, but...
Isn’t the intensity of the worry a bit much?
I’m not a child. And I’m a fixer, aren’t I? If I get tangled in something weird, I can be gone more than a week—and in fact, I often have been.
“Ah. This time’s a little different from usual.”
Heo Sanghyun sensed the shoggoth waking and must have thought I was in trouble.
Flustered, he would have sent Jang Hyundeok to check things out—
Two days is enough to confirm I got mixed up with Jeokdu and that a disaster hit Cheongho’s mansion.
I don’t know how Hyuna is, but since the phobia hasn’t changed, she should be alive.
But there’s a time limit on Hyuna’s survival.
[! Time Limit: Jeokdu will die in (1) day. !]
[! Time Limit: Jung Hyuna will cease to exist in (1) day. !]
Unlike Jeokdu, who is slated to “die,” Jung Hyuna is marked “will cease to exist.”
Which means something tremendous will happen by tomorrow.
Banished to another timespace? Or perhaps turned into something even worse than now.
“Ugh...”
Just picturing Jung Hyuna makes fear surge so hard my body trembles.
Hyuna screaming with mad howls in the collapsing mansion.
“Hyundeok. Did you stop by Cheongho’s place too?”
Before my question even ended, Jang Hyundeok went pale and shivered.
“Th-there was a gigantic pyramid...”
A pyramid?
I don’t know what plan they’re building, but at least they didn’t run far. Good.
Anyway—
“Guess it makes sense that Jang Hyundeok and Heo Sanghyun were worried.”
Judging from the exposed information, it would’ve looked like I got eaten by a shoggoth.
Patting the rump of a calico crawling into my arms, I spoke to Jang Hyundeok.
“Were you worried?”
“Yes.”
“Sorry.”
“Mm...”
He scratched his head with an awkward face.
“I had a problem and couldn’t call. I also lost my phone. And... hey.”
Must’ve dropped it at Cheongho’s place.
“Huh?”
“Quit scratching your head. Do you not remember why you’re wearing those bandages?”
He’d scratched so much that washed-out blond hairs stuck out in tufts through the sloppy wraps.
“Ah. Right.”
Raising a touch of mana, I readjusted the bandages around his head.
“Give me your phone.”
“Why?”
“I should call Sanghyun too.”
“Ah.”
I called Heo Sanghyun and checked in.
“I’m fine. Yes. Ah, I lost that. Yes. Mm. It happens. No, it’s the opposite. I survived thanks to the spell you set. It was brilliant work. It triggered with perfect precision. What? No, wait, what are you even... c-calm down. Breathe. Yes. I’m really okay.”
[sfx: meow— meow—]
Yeah, yeah.
I soothed the cats urging me to pet them faster and kept talking.
“Yes. Since I’m out, I’ll finish the job before I come back. I’ll probably return near dawn. Yes. Jang Hyundeok is right beside me—what? No. Don’t expect that level of intellect from him. Mm, so you know too. Understood. Yes.”
I ended the check-in at a sensible point and handed the phone back.
“Hold on, Wizard! What about my intellect?”
“Mm, not important.”
“No, what does Sanghyun know?”
“Nothing. Nothing.”
I steamrolled over him and lifted the last cat.
“Ah— number one hundred? Right?”
Jang Hyundeok’s attention jumped elsewhere at once.
Truly scatterbrained.
“Right.”
“Now can we go home?”
“No. You didn’t really listen to me, did you?”
He drew his chin in and frowned.
“You said it was some kind of challenge, right? Didn’t you just finish it?”
I didn’t gather a hundred cats just to recover Reason. If that were the only goal, there are many faster, simpler ways.
“I told you—it’s a rite. Now it starts.”
Saying so, I touched a light kiss to the nose of the hundredth cat—and breathed onto it.
Right.
This is a rite to meet a god.
An outrageous rite that only works because this world is a game.
The moment the condition is met, a message window veils my sight.
[Achievement Unlocked! You have earned the favor of 100 cats.
You have acquired ‘Rare Achievement: Cat Fancier of Madness.’
A hidden event occurs as the achievement’s reward.]
An achievement you can’t receive by just petting cats in passing.
A hidden event discoverable only by a cat maniac who painstakingly repeats the work of earning feline favor a hundred times.
[sfx: meow— meeyow—]
The hundred cats I’ve befriended over two days began to circle me and Jang Hyundeok.
“Uh— uh?”
He spun, flustered, peering around.
[sfx: weoong— eu-woong— meow—]
They stared at us, eyes throwing off an ominous light.
Completely different from before. Deep, uncanny eyes holding a wisdom beyond human.
An alien mood so strong it triggers instinctive fear in the onlooker.
[System: Trait ‘Madness of the Abyss’ activates. Nullifies surreal fear and awe.]
[sfx: crackle!]
“Uh— Wizard? What is happening right now?”
Jang Hyundeok edged toward me in a motion meant to back away from the cats boxing him in.
What good would that do? I was already holding an armful of cats myself.
“Wizard? Um, hey— Wizard?”
“Wait. I’ll stand.”
So far, they’d been cats. Now they’re Cat-lords.
I gently set down the ones in my arms, one by one so they wouldn’t be uncomfortable—and only then managed to rise.
“And take this.”
I pulled a mask from my coat and tossed it to him.
“Huh? This is the mask you wear when you eat.”
“Right. That level suits a beginner. Full-face masks are hard to breathe in.”
“Uh... you want me to wear this? I’m entering Mask 101 too?”
He didn’t say it out loud, but the face screamed no thanks.
I sighed short and spoke.
“Remember how I said it’s dangerous without a mask? Not a joke. If you don’t want your face bitten off, put it on. Now.”
“Yech!?”
He scrambled to strap the mask on.
“What’s going to happen?”
“Mm. A mask suits you better than I thought.”
“Wizard?”
Ah— the mask isn’t the point.
I shook my head and answered again.
“Ever hear you mustn’t say names in Cheongeumdang?”
“Uh... they say never let the King of Ten Thousand Gold learn your name, right?”
“Right. The one we’re about to meet—must not see our faces.”
“Who are we meeting?”
“[The King of the Cat Country].”
“Wizard... are you sure you’re better?”
He leaned in, suspicious. I pushed his face back and answered.
“I’m not telling a fairy tale, so relax.”
[Cat Goddess], [Elder of Cats].
Or [Bastet].
If [Scales’ Stratagem]—that is, [Sebek]—is an Abyssal Being modeled on an Egyptian god, then [Bastet] is an Old God modeled on an Egyptian god.
In short, like [King of Ten Thousand Gold], a transcendent who opposes the Abyssal Beings.
[sfx: meow—]
The cats encircling us all moved at once. Their direction—the deeper pocket of this little wood.
I am about to meet [Bastet].
“Something’s off.”
Wearing a stylish mask, Jang Hyundeok asked from behind me.
“What’s off?”
“Here—was the forest ever this big?”
We were in a small grove built along one side of Unjeong Lake Park.
Paju City had neglected upkeep, so trees and grass had grown thick, but it wasn’t a forest this dense and nasty.
“This isn’t the same grove.”
A ghost road.
Or, if you prefer another term—Dream Land. Not deep—more like the outer rim.
The cats guiding us had already blurred into abstract, uncanny silhouettes, wisping and wobbling.
They merged and split among themselves—deformed heavily, yes, but still held enough features to evoke cats.
“How much farther?”
He was very uneasy.
Jang Hyundeok kept hunching and darting glances everywhere.
“It feels like something’s watching us. A crawling gaze—tons of them...”
Truth is, that’s the normal reaction. If not for [Madness of the Abyss], I’d be feeling that anxiety too.
This area is an Old God’s demesne.
And despite the fairy-tale alias [King of the Cat Country], the being isn’t exactly kind.
Not that it’s evil either.
“It’s fine. As long as you don’t harm cats, it won’t do anything.”
More precisely, it has no interest in anything unrelated to cats.
“Then why did it call us?”
“It didn’t call you. It called me. I’m the one tied to a hundred.”
“Ah— aaah! So that’s why!”
Only now you get it? Incredible.
At some point, the cats stopped moving, and naturally we had to stop too.
“We’re here.”
“Huh? Didn’t they just stop?”
It was just a forest, no different from before.
Nothing that looked the part.
No altar, no symbol, no shrine. Not even an object that invites interaction.
Only the middle of a forest packed with grim trees.
But that’s merely the human point of view.
I eased Jang Hyundeok back a few steps, then spoke toward no particular direction.
“Your vassals guided me here. If you are not hungry, would you hear me for a moment?”
If you are not hungry—
Realizing that meant “if you are hungry,” we might get eaten, Jang Hyundeok yanked my sleeve in panic, but I spoke again.
“A full hundred of your vassals vouch for my identity. If you’re not absorbed in something more amusing, would you hear me for a moment?”
Srrrrrrrrk—
[System: ‘Old God – King of the Cat Country’ reveals interest in you.]
From endless darkness. Eleven, twenty-two.
Across a forest stretched vast beyond all sense. Thirty-three, forty-four.
Fifty-five, sixty-six. Uncanny lights began to kindle.
Seventy-seven, eighty-eight. A strange radiance—star or gemstone, impossible to tell.
Ninety-six, ninety-seven, ninety-eight, ninety-nine.
Things that resembled cats, but were never cats.
One hundred, two hundred, three hundred, four hundred, five hundred, six hundred.
A dreadful gaze kindled from every direction, without end.
One thousand, two thousand, three thousand, four thousand, five thousand...
No. Best to stop counting.
There were too many eyes to count to the end, all staring at us.
The gaze of a capricious, bored predator.
Abstract forms impossible to describe—barely enough to evoke cats.
A bizarre sight as if the souls of hundreds and thousands of cats had been gathered in one place and unfurled.
Soon every cat looking at us opened its mouth at once—
Speak.
Greetings. I am Kim Sinhwa.
No interest.
Some call me Feast’s Offering.
No interest.
I am fighting the Abyssal Beings. I would be glad if someone aided that fight.
No interest.
One of the Abyssal Beings forcibly turned a child into its vassal. I would be glad if someone told me how to bring that human back.
No interest.
One Abyssal Being’s power makes me extremely uncomfortable. I would be glad if someone shared strength to guard my mind and body.
No interest.
Against my will, I was trapped in a strange world. I would be glad if someone taught me how to return to the world I came from.
No interest.
One Abyssal Being planted an unjust curse in my mind. I would be glad if someone unraveled it.
Boring. Withdraw.
There is a truly astonishing, magnificent tiger at my side. For a long time this tiger and I have fought the Abyssal Beings together.
Sain-geom?
Some seem to call this tiger Sain-geom. Though born in the form of a sword, it was forged in the Year of the Tiger, Month of the Tiger, Day of the Tiger, and Hour of the Tiger, so the soul of a strong and beautiful tiger dwells in it.
I know it.
If someone helped me, this tiger would be delighted as well.
Show it.
