[flutter-rattle—]
A noise like wingbeats flung by the wind, bursting from the [Night Veil Wing Cloak].
“Damn it, what time even is this? What the hell happened out here?”
It’s an excessively gorgeous, beautiful night.
Even though it’s unmistakably pitch-black night, the sky is grotesquely bright.
‘There are too many stars.’
The Milky Way—made of light at absurd density—
looks like tentacles ready to coil around the land and crush it, and the stars hammered across the sky look like hundreds of millions of eyes, staring down at me with colossal greed.
And—
that moon floating at the center of everything!
I’ve never seen a moon that big!
Ah— right.
So the story that a big rock orbits Earth was a lie after all!
The moon of this time—an unreal monster that gifts unbearable madness to every being on this land.
The only thing that changed isn’t the sky.
[Underground Bunker] used to be beneath the forest of [Tanhyeon].
But what’s spread out before my eyes now......
[Before your eyes lies the trace of a localized ruin. Everywhere, dazzlingly beautiful metal crystals have thrust up. The sight may remind you of bismuth crystals. Every object on the surface is trapped in angular square whirlpools, shedding a radiance so beautiful it defies language.]
“What the hell is bismuth supposed to be, you jerk.”
I snapped, wondering if “Bismuth” was some proper noun unique to [Cthulhu World], but my Intelligence stat flipped to the science section in my head and pulled up the periodic table.
Su-He-Li-Be... C-N-O... element 83, Bismuth (Bi).
Sure, it sparkles, but that can’t actually be bismuth crystals, can it.
[It appears this place is the future relative to the time you were in.]
“Yeah, you think I can’t tell? So when is ‘now’?”
[Realizing this shocks you greatly.]
“...I fail a Will check and the Abyssal Madness will protect me, right? We really gotta do this routine?”
In spite of my snark, whatever’s beyond the message window stuck to its script and wrapped up its job.
Bzzzzzt!
It still won’t tell me when.
I don’t know how much time has passed, but... this precarious, unstable world has clearly suffered some hideous change.
Well, not so surprising.
If this is the future, then the time between departure and now has, one way or another, been [time without Kim Sinhwa].
A few auto-trigger events would have run wild and caused something you could rightly call [Ruin].
“Anyway—those crystals. They aren’t going to latch onto human bodies or anything, right?”
Among events that can occur in [Cthulhu World] are things like that. Turning a person wholesale into a pillar of salt, turning skin into porcelain, making mushrooms sprout inside your body—et cetera, et cetera.
[Protection Circle]
[Gesture of Protection]
[Authority: Mountain Recedes]
[Beacon of Ibn Ghazi]
[Skin of Tindalos]
I stirred mana and fired off several protection spells, then spread my detection outward in all directions.
Metallic crystals covering everything.
They’re clinging everywhere, forming grotesque pillars—so much so that it’s hard to even verify soil, let alone plants.
‘So he didn’t run that far.’
The unreal sense of orientation granted by the [Spatial Dominion] trait still tells me this area used to be the forest at Tanhyeon.
Honestly, distance is meaningless.
Gong Isu can cross space and fly anywhere in an instant—and even if you tried to find a place he couldn’t reach......
“Damn it. If he can just rewind time, that’s that.”
Horrible.
No matter what tricks I pull, it’s all in the palm of Gong Isu’s hand, is it?
“At least it doesn’t look like hundreds or thousands of years have gone by, right?”
Muttering that, I approached a heap of metal crystals twisted into an incomprehensible form.
Amid the metallic, squared whirlpool crystals, the barely preserved outline of a car.
“Hm......”
Given the site of an outrageous anomaly, the state of preservation isn’t bad. At this rate... a few decades? A few years? If I’m lucky, a few months.
Well, I have a way to check properly.
[Insight]
Vrrrrrr—
A spell that provides basic info on an object or place—or on a different-species being.
[System: Object analysis complete.]
An immense volume of data prints out at once.
Left here for about half a year? That short?
Since when was it abandoned?
Read the rest and I’ll know—
—and among it, a short line snags my eyes.
[Final Owner: Jang Hyundeok (est.)]
[Remains are inside. Additional investigation required to identify the remains.]
As expected, it was Jang Hyundeok’s five-hundred-million-won used car.
Looks like it got swept up in a surreal anomaly en route to the [Underground Bunker].
“Well, that happens.”
No use in pointless thoughts.
I don’t know what that crazy senior Gong Isu wanted to do, but—if I handle this somehow and go back to the past, it all... more or less resolves, right?
[System: Heightened Vigilance activates.]
Crkk-crkk-crkk-crkk—
Space tears with a noise, and Gong Isu appears.
“You always stop right here.”
Thanks to [Spatial Dominion] and detection, I don’t need to turn my head, but I turn my body and look at Gong Isu.
[flutter-rattle—]
Gong Isu is flying by the power of the [Night Veil Wing Cloak]. And the [Golden Hairpin] is floating at his side.
“Ah, so I stopped here before too?”
Before my words even finish, the pre-set spell auto-triggers.
[Auto Cast: Lightning]
Bzzzzzt!
This isn’t lightning meant to sear my brain. Finely tuned current—independent of my conscious will—forces my arm and leg muscles to contract and completes the action I intended.
A named monster that goes for a zero-frame attack in mid-dialogue without a tell, malice, or wind-up? Mm~ anybody would hate that, right?
[Super Speed]
[Enlarge (Local Target: Left Hand)]
Shaaah!!
A gigantic tentacle lashes straight for Gong Isu.
As expected, that alone won’t do.
[Desperate Blow]
[Touch of Death]
Buffs to correct the hit—and an instant-death effect that kills on contact.
I have now become the lunatic monster ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) who fires an instant-kill at zero frames during a conversation event.
Crunch!
“Ghhk—”
The feel of a heart beyond his ribs.
Didn’t he say “don’t kill”? He’ll have some ability that triggers on death. So instead, toward his heart I wove seals and control, and necromantic rites—
“Ah, so I stopped here before too?”
[Auto Cast: Lightning]
Bzzzzzt!
This isn’t lightning meant to sear my brain. Finely tuned current—independent of my conscious will—forces my arm and leg muscles to—
Crunch!
A hideous pain in my left arm. My body executed the exact designated motion, but the crucial left hand was already gone.
What sliced it?
Bright-red mana stones gush from below the elbow, clinking with a clear chiming as they scatter against the metal crystals sprouted from the ground.
[System: Trait Rapid Regeneration activates.]
[Euphoria]
I triggered a spell that forces adrenaline, easing the pain, and spoke.
“Ah, damn. Why cut my short arm even shorter? Senior, do you not feel sorry that the adorable Kim Sinhwa is shrinking in size?”
“Forty percent.”
“...What?”
“The Kim Sinhwa I lived with had only forty percent of your body. I’m a frugal man, and Kim Sinhwa doesn’t need more than that.”
Wow. I’m plenty insane, but that is genuinely deranged.
“You lunatic! So you just hack me up? That’s not frugality, that’s waste! Kim Sinhwa belongs to all of us!”
At the same time, I used the mana stones spilled on the floor as a medium and cast a spell.
[Dimensional Shear]
A spell that flings the target into a random other-space—
“You lunatic! So you just hack me up? That’s not frugality, that’s waste! Kim Sinhwa belongs to all of— Aagh!”
The [Golden Hairpin] at Gong Isu’s side comes screaming in.
[Rapid Retreat]
[Leap]
Because it was an attack with zero wind-up, I had no choice but to abandon the carefully readied spell and jump back.
“My mana stones!”
“Do you find this fun, junior?”
“Do you find this fun, senior? Ow, that hurts— don’t cut my arms. The arms.”
Grinding my teeth, I shot back—and Gong Isu, after a curious pause, answered.
“I admit it makes me want to try. Of all the enemies I fought through that long, long time, you are the most—”
“The most intelligent, kind, and diligent, right?”
Gong Isu chuckled lightly and answered at his leisure.
“No, the most insane bastard.”
“‘Most’— how cruel. Look in a mirror. Why are you doing this, really? Have you actually lost it?”
“Rather than that, answer a different question.”
“A different question?”
While I said that, I overclocked the prosthetic hand lying on the ground. A thing fused with the necromancy Heo Sanghyun injected and the [Scaled Stratagem]’s [Guts]—
It’s not a technique you can block easily......
“You always stop right here.”
Thanks to [Spatial Dominion] and detection, I don’t need to turn my head, but I turn my body and look at Gong Isu.
[flutter-rattle—]
Gong Isu is flying by the power of the [Night Veil Wing Cloak]. And the [Golden Hairpin] floats at his side.
“Ah, so I stopped he— urk!”
BZZZZZT!!
A sudden bolt of lightning from Gong Isu.
Damn, he read it.
Forced-action via [Lightning] malfunctions if a different current intrudes. This is— ah, no time to dodge.
[Blink]
Tspap!
I pop into being behind Gong Isu—
[Blink]
Tspap!
I pop into being behind Gong Isu, but—
Vwooooom!
As if it were waiting, the massive [Golden Hairpin] swings in.
“Tch—”
[Protection Circle]
[Rapid Retreat]
[Leap]
I conjure a protection circle in midair to block the strike and at the same time use it as a foothold to spring away, opening distance.
At once, I quickly lay magical traps. Subtle enough that average perception won’t pick them up.
If Gong Isu doesn’t pursue here—
“You stubborn bastard.”
He doesn’t.
Instead, while shaking off the [Living Flesh] still clinging to his body, Gong Isu speaks.
“What is this made of? Even if I disassemble it, it keeps regenerating.”
“You can figure that out with repeated playthroughs.”
“Good. I’ve got time.”
In the end I perched on the object that used to be Jang Hyundeok’s car and asked:
“Anyway, you keep telling me you’re rewinding time. Isn’t it more advantageous to hide a premium bit of intel like that?”
“Telling it seems to make people give up a little faster.”
Fair point.
Honestly, I’m feeling a light despair.
“So what are you even trying to do by doing this?”
“Answer a different question first.”
“A different question?”
“I told you earlier. You were curious where my home is, remember?”
“Did I say that?”
“Maybe not? I’ve rewound so much I don’t know if the you here is continuous with the you who asked it. Anyway—this is my home.”
“Here?”
“Yeah. About half a year into the future. Ah, but the situation’s a bit different from the period I was in. It’s just a metaphor.”
Half a year?
“Wow, that was fast.”
I’ve heard instant noodles six months past expiration are still edible. What’s wrong with this world that it collapses this quickly?
“Magnificent, isn’t it? The scenery’s similar, so thankfully there aren’t huge differences. If you go a little south, you’ll probably meet sentient beings you can talk to.”
“Delightful. I’d like a list of key attractions too. How many days is the package?”
With a voice tinged with pity, Gong Isu tells me:
“Sorry, but this isn’t sightseeing. It’s a one-way trip.”
