[The One Who Tears the Veil] is known as an abyssal being indifferent to humans and the human world.
His territory lies in that vague, abstract space between time and time, or between dimension and dimension—and he simply wanders it according to policies and schedules no one can comprehend.
“Strictly speaking, this guy almost never causes ruin himself.”
Normally—unless someone forcibly summons him or trespasses into his territory—there’s no reason to get entangled with him at all.
Of course, that doesn’t mean he’s truly indifferent or thoughtless.
It only means he follows a different policy from those other abyssal beings who, no matter what, wriggle their way into this world to increase worshipers or to cause destruction.
“I didn’t have many run-ins with [The One Who Tears the Veil] even while playing [Cthulhu World]...”
But that applies only while you’ve got your feet planted in a stable spacetime.
For people like Gong Isu, who drift between moments of time, [The One Who Tears the Veil] would be a deadly threat.
You never know when you might trespass into his territory, and ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) you never know where you might run into him.
On top of that, [The One Who Tears the Veil] has multiple aspects.
Whether each avatar has a different personality like other abyssal beings, or whether he shows different attitudes according to that “policy of action,” I don’t know—
but depending on how you encounter him, you can experience completely different kinds of events.
“[Ruler of Tindalos].”
That’s what Gong Isu called [The One Who Tears the Veil].
To those who attempt time travel, [The One Who Tears the Veil] reveals the aspect of the [Ruler of Tindalos] and sends [Hound of Tindalos] to hunt them.
Why?
No one knows.
Even in [Cthulhu World], not much detail about [Tindalos] was ever made public.
Gong Isu didn’t seem to know the specific reason either.
“Anyway, he definitely sends the hounds.”
Fine, that’s how he treats time travelers—but what about dimension walkers?
According to Gong Isu, the moment a future Kim Sinhwa used the [Golden Hairpin], [The One Who Tears the Veil] descended under the name [Seventeen Corners] and triggered a horrific megablast.
Supposedly, it was powerful enough to wreck everything from Incheon all the way to the Grand Seawall?
“Of all ranges, it had to be that.”
It bugged me a little that the blast radius matched what [Scaled Stratagem] had tried to cause, but more important was—
the fact that the bastard was blocking my return home.
“Unless we clear this thing out, you can’t go home, junior.”
“And once we clear it, you’ll have it easier too, senior.”
“Right. Win-win.”
If you attempt a particular rite, [The One Who Tears the Veil] becomes the [Radiant Brilliance] who answers the questioner.
When he appears as [Radiant Brilliance], [The One Who Tears the Veil] is a relatively safe abyssal being who offers surmountable trials to the one performing the rite and grants [Power] and [Wisdom] to those who pass.
Ah—“relatively safe” needs careful reading here.
A knife is safer than a gun and can be used for human benefit, but a person stabbed by a knife dies.
“Anyway.”
The reason I don’t classify these various aspects of [The One Who Tears the Veil] as separate avatars is—those aspects may simply be [The One Who Tears the Veil] from different timelines.
Because he exists in the seams of time, we can meet versions of [The One Who Tears the Veil] from various times at any time.
“Somehow that’s similar to Gong Isu. Well, settings tied to people who handle time tend to work like this.”
“The one we’re dealing with is [Radiant Brilliance]. Easy to summon with a simple rite, and if you meet the conditions, he’ll give gifts even if you don’t worship him.”
“I don’t need gifts.”
“Me neither. The point is, this version is the most reasonable to talk to.”
The rite Gong Isu and I performed was a modified rite to borrow his [Power] and [Wisdom].
We’ve spent plenty of time ejecting abyssal beings that were trying to descend, right?
This time I’d join the descent from the start and kick him out in a way that favors us more.
We replaced [Power] with [Pasta] and [Wisdom] with [Answer to the Question], and all of it was carried out between dream and reality.
“Normally impossible, but in a dream you can do anything, right? And you don’t have to be afraid of what happens in a dream.”
Thus we didn’t have to worry about the people dragged in falling into delirium.
Plus, because it was in a dream, we could invert or skip certain physical laws and logic, causality, and sequence.
Not only that... we used magical, spacetime-dynamics, and abstract-physics knowledge and techniques. We deployed sorceries that existed only in theory, and spells that were adventurous or experimental.
And minor ad-libs to break through surprises, and aggressive stopgaps.
Et cetera and so on—by a method too messy to summarize briefly, we managed to assign the persona of a [Guest] to “[The One Who Tears the Veil]’s influence.”
The effect?
As I’ve said ad nauseam, the pre-agreed wish comes true.
“All guests eat pasta and go home.”
It was a wish set with three purposes.
Items 1 and 2, which had higher priority, succeeded for sure—but
as for number 3...
Yeah, honestly, I wasn’t expecting that much.
I opened my eyes “at home.”
The time was 6:34.
From outside the building came a dreadful presence I could feel.
Something huge that prods my brand-new phobia—seems it sank near the horizon.
“At least it’s evening, so it’s not enough to trigger a manic break.”
My head only tickled a little.
I scratched at my scalp for no reason and looked around.
“I knew it. There was no way it would let me go that easily.”
This was my room.
To be precise—
[The place you opened your eyes was your base, the “Hungry Mansion.”]
Apparently, I’d subconsciously recognized the [Hungry Mansion] as “home.”
“Or the bastard just pulled a trick.”
[Had someone interfered to work a wicked stratagem, or had your calculations been even slightly off—you might have opened your eyes in a place far more horrible than this. It was that dangerous a gamble. You feel deep relief that you woke up safely in a secure location.]
“Deep relief, my ass.”
What welled up from my gut was deep, boiling fury.
[Of course, you know that nothing so bad likely happened. You lacked the output to travel to an entirely different dimension.]
That’s true.
I never had the power to fling myself into another dimension anyway.
Most of the mana secured through the rite had been spent on sending [The One Who Tears the Veil] back to the abyss.
[Achievement unlocked! You escaped from “Beyond the Veil.”
You obtained “Achievement: From the Far Side of the Veil.”
As a reward, you received a “small keepsake” and bonus experience.]
Since it wasn’t a quest, it got processed as an achievement reward.
[clatter]
Something fell out of my line of sight.
“Hm.”
A big gift box—sparkling red wrapping paper, even a green ribbon.
Just about the size to fit a single cake.
[System : Thump, thump! Open the gift box and check your reward! It contains an item related to your dilemma.]
“Thump, thump, my foot.”
The guests who escaped with me probably got keepsakes as well.
I hope everyone received something to solve their problems—
but this is just a random gacha box with a random artifact inside, so I honestly can’t guarantee what’s in it.
“Hey, slow down on the other achievements. Let’s open this first.”
Whether that was the plan from the start or not, no other message intruded.
As I reached for the gift—I suddenly thought of something.
“Ah—wait.”
If I don’t open this box, will the game’s progression stall?
Like leaving a button labeled “Press this to start the next event” and wandering off somewhere else.
Most so-called open-world games let you ignore it and go do side quests, but [Cthulhu World] is a truly sloppy game.
Not always, but sometimes, a bug occurs where all events in the game stop functioning “because you didn’t press that button.”
“Hard to believe I kept playing a game that shipped with a bug that basic.”
Even if events and quests stop functioning, you can still interact with NPCs.
And the “events” of [Cthulhu World] are, in the end, seeds of ruin.
Meaning, if I do nothing here—then I’ll just keep... in this Hungry Mansion...
The message window still didn’t respond.
I also said nothing, just staring in the direction of the gift box.
“...”
This is unrelated, but there’s a wall beyond the gift box—and beyond that wall, the moon will be rising.
Which means I’m facing east, and if I keep sending my gaze that way... I’d reach Paju Central Hospital.
And Gong Isu is there.
My senior, the Feast’s Offering, who decided to abandon the game’s progression and do nothing.
“Ehh.”
In the end, I let out a short sigh, then stretched out mana and tore the gift box to shreds.
[shraaaak!]
Did you think I’d stop?
I’ll get home no matter what it takes.
No, I get it—this is an artifact with pretty amazing capabilities.
The functions are great.
I can accept that.
But of all things—
What lay in the box was small enough to sit on my palm...
“A house.”
A tiny “house” model with a little door and windows.
[System : You obtained “Model Mansion Lv.1.”]
“Wow! You trash. This is how you make fun of people?”
I almost hurled the artifact—no, hold it, hold it...
It’s an artifact that creates a kind of subspace.
Call it a portable shelter you can carry in your pocket.
It’s bound with powerful seals and defensive sorcery, so you can enter and rest inside no matter how dangerous the environment.
If you maintain it, the inner space expands; you can store items; in a pinch you can even use it as a medium for sealing sorcery.
In the game, its most useful feature is that you can use it like a portable inventory—
“Which overlaps with Doldol! Swap it for something else!”
Regardless of my cursing, the message window blithely printed the next achievement.
[Achievement unlocked! You banished the abyssal being—The One Who Tears the Veil.
You obtained “High-Tier Achievement: Rounded Corners.”
As a reward, your understanding of space and dimension increases, and you gain an additional trait.]
[System : The rare trait “Spatial Domination” is bestowed.]
[System : “Spatial Domination” activates. You committed four unique spells of the space school to memory.]
That’s more like it.
The spells I just got are [Phasing], [Absolute Space], [Dimensional Compass], and [Dimensional Severance].
All good spells.
[Legendary achievement unlocked! You ■■ the ■■■■ of Watch Head.
You obtained “Legendary Achievement: The ■■■ of Time.”
As a reward, Watch Head becomes “”.]
[You have gained enough experience to reach the next stage. Your level increases by 1.]
“Hold on, what? What did I do?”
A similar error message popped up before, related to Gong Isu.
“Back then it said we’d become firm allies, if I recall.”
What happened to Gong Isu? Did our relationship change?
Or maybe Gong Isu himself changed.
“Come to think of it, where is Gong Isu’s house...?”
