[Starving Mansion] – the basement.
This basement was, from the start, a kind of protective facility the abyssal being built to shelter its own cultists.
Thanks to that, even in this timeline where everything outside the mansion had taken catastrophic damage, this basement alone could keep its former shape.
Come to think of it, Cheongho’s underground bunker was in relatively good condition too, wasn’t it?
Most facilities a player can use as a base will probably still be “alive” like this.
Not because there’s any special diegetic logic—more likely they’re protected for game-necessity.
That’s worth remembering as intel, but—right now that isn’t what matters.
A colossal silver structure placed in a corner of the basement.
A great hull made of pure silver.
Gold cords and talismans coiled around that hull.
Crosses and Buddha statues. A pendant etched with a pentagram. Masks and shields painted with strange iconography. The shed skin of a two-headed snake. Human body fragments holding the essence of necromancy. Bible verses written densely. Buddhist sutras. A mandala carved by shaving the silver surface.
Every kind of country, every kind of culture, every kind of religion’s magical letters, and on and on and on—
It looks to the point of seeming like a grotesque art piece made by a compulsive madman, but this is a barrier I made by combining every rite and artifact I can bring to bear.
Originally it imprisoned [The Laughing One], but right now someone else is confined inside.
A shining hourglass drifting in the barrier’s dark interior.
Is it because the presence is relatively faint? No other body parts are visible.
The hourglass trapped in the barrier—in other words, Gong Isu—said,
“Some time has passed.”
“Can you tell how long?”
“A week, plus 6 hours 33 minutes.”
Excessively exact. Well, he probably has a trait tied to time sense.
“So this is the barrier you used to confine a high intellect. I didn’t expect it could stop my ability too.”
It’s a barrier sustained by drawing in even the power housed in the ley lines around Jangmyeong Mountain. Of course, that alone wouldn’t yield performance like this.
“[Living Flame] helped make it.”
“Ah, so that’s why my head is this clear?”
“What do you mean?”
Gong Isu hesitated a little, then spoke in a voice tinged with a kind of resignation.
“The narration is gone. I’m not certain, but it seems the [Administrator]’s interference is temporarily blocked.”
I hadn’t expected a function like that—this barrier is more remarkable than I thought.
No—maybe I should say [Living Flame]’s temperament is nastier than I thought?
The so-called [Administrator] managing Gong Isu is, with high probability, Nyarlathotep itself—or one of his avatars.
And... though it’s a little funny, the [Living Flame] that helped craft this barrier doesn’t get along with Nyarlathotep (in truth, among abyssal beings [Living Flame] is singularly vicious—so there are almost none in the abyss who get along with him).
Well, trying to discuss their social circles from a human viewpoint is meaningless anyway.
In any case, there is justification for [Living Flame] to be uncooperative with Nyarlathotep.
“So you’re saying your message window is gone?”
The hourglass sways left and right. A motion like shaking his head.
“I told you the administrator managing you and me are different. The management style and system are different too. He’s been controlling me by inserting himself into my sight and cognition.”
With only these incidental explanations I couldn’t fully grasp Gong Isu’s perspective—but a rough inference was possible.
“It’s definitely more like derangement than a message window. It rewrites my thoughts and perceptions as it pleases.”
“That’s an explanation I’ve heard from Kim Sinhwa. I can ignore his narration through a separate sense, so it’s not exactly the same—but the feel is similar.”
“Well, if someone smarter than me, Kim Sinhwa, explained it, it’s probably about right.”
It was a throwaway line said as a joke, but the hourglass drifting inside the barrier trembled in a strangely subtle way.
“Sorry... I didn’t mean to ignore that you are Kim Sinhwa.”
“Hm? No. I didn’t mean it that way.”
“No—maybe that’s where my mistake began.”
What happened to him while he kept looping and fighting me?
A stance in stark contrast to when he attacked me with near-mad conviction.
It seems Gong Isu has lost both his confidence and his pride. His will is sinking into a bottomless swamp of aimless melancholy.
Troublesome...
I tried to gather the right words and comfort him—but it didn’t help much.
“......”
Ugh—this is going to drive me nuts.
What’s the best way to handle this... Ah, right.
In the end I decided to try a completely different approach.
“Senior. How about a drink?”
“A drink?”
“Yes. There’s a little left.”
Thanks to the Wriggler, which had grown into a powerful spirit beast and guarded the mansion.
Granted, the mansion itself was little better than a ruin, but there were still a few necromancy golems I could run.
Gong Isu sighed and shook his head.
“How can you drink in a situation like this? I don’t need it.”
“Oh, not just any alcohol—Captain Thousand-Gold gave me Dream Scent as a gift. Still not interested?”
“Dream Scent? Really?”
Ah, good—so he’s had it before.
If you’ve tasted it even once, you simply cannot refuse—a tremendous liquor.
Maybe it wasn’t a good choice.
“In the end I failed. No—worse than failed. I dragged a ridiculous number of people in, including you, junior—and they laughed at and mocked my clown’s getup. It’s like this every time. I thrashed for ages trying to get out of it, only to go round—and round—right back to the same place. Damn it. If I hadn’t met Kim Sinhwa, I could’ve just lived peacefully and quietly in the round room at the hospital. Kim Sinhwa ruined everything. Not that I mean Kim Sinhwa is bad. Did I tell you this? Once we refitted a big, gaudy armored truck and roamed the desert—and had an incredible fight with the [Black Pharaoh] who’d descended. Shantaks blanketed the sky, Mi-Go too. And grotesque mutant shapes bursting up from the sand. It was the absolute worst crisis. As always I was about to give up on everything. But do you know what Kim Sinhwa said then? Hey, junior, are you listening?”
Wow, I shouldn’t have fed him.
His drunk habits are truly the worst.
“Yes, uncle, I’m listening. I bet Kim Sinhwa said something unbearably embarrassing.”
“Uncle? Why am I an uncle?”
“I mean you’re like an uncle who gets drunk and rambles.”
“Ah, a joke. That was a joke? Hahaha—right, Kim Sinhwa was exactly like that. Junior, you’re just like Kim Sinhwa.”
Of course I am. I’m Kim Sinhwa too.
Rambling about the past while drunk is common enough, but of all things, the recent “Kim Sinhwa” left the deepest impression in Gong Isu’s past.
So Gong Isu has become like “the uncle who goes on about childhood memories I don’t remember,” slurring, “Do you know how hard it was carrying you around when you were a baby—don’t you remember?”
“That bastard was really out of his mind. The worse things got, the more outrageous the things he said. Well, a personality that doesn’t lose humor at the worst moment is probably why he could do something that incredible. If only I’d been able to do that—but I couldn’t. Right. I’m a failure. I kept repeating only failure. I go round—and round—and round—in place. I don’t have the power to break out of this loop. Hey, junior. How am I different from Kim Sinhwa? Junior, are you listening? Answer me.”
“Maybe Kim Sinhwa was just a crazy bastard?”
“Ha—! Right! He was a crazy bastard! Not just crazy—horribly, unbelievably—hahaha!”
A moment ago he said he wouldn’t ignore the fact that I am “Kim Sinhwa,” and yet...
Gong Isu talks to me about “Kim Sinhwa” like he’s talking about some total stranger.
Well, to Gong Isu, I must look like someone who resembles his old friend “Kim Sinhwa”—what, like Kim Sinhwa’s snot-nosed kid.
I am “Kim Sinhwa,” but I’m not continuous with the “Kim Sinhwa” he remembers.
And there are three of those Kim Sinhwas, for that matter.
“In short, when you sent me to the past back in Sokcho, that was when you’d first met [Kim Sinhwa], right?”
“No. I first met you at the hospital.”
“Ah, sure, that’s true.”
I thought you’d forgotten that I and [Kim Sinhwa] are the same person.
Anyway.
Hiding out at Paju Central Hospital, Gong Isu met me—and restarted time travel.
The goal was to verify what kind of punk this [Kim Sinhwa] was, but he somehow botched that first jump and, in a desertified world, met a [future Kim Sinhwa].
That was Gong Isu’s ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) first meeting with a [future Kim Sinhwa] not continuous with me.
The two of them went on a truly killer adventure with a [Kim Sinhwa] called the [Savior of the Desert] or whatever—and...
To solve a certain problem, Gong Isu returned to the past and helped me.
That was the Gong Isu I met in Sokcho. Hence the breezy “hahaha—it was fun~ what a shame~” attitude.
If the time travel had ended there, a different story would have followed—but for some reason Gong Isu went to the future again and met a new [future Kim Sinhwa].
That was his second meeting with a [future Kim Sinhwa].
This Gong Isu also, for some reason, went back to the past and turned time—
And I don’t think I’ve met that version of Gong Isu yet.
And the Gong Isu right in front of me now is the one who met a [future Kim Sinhwa] for the third time.
He spent about half a year with a [future Kim Sinhwa] who’d lost sixty percent of his body—gained a certain realization, came to me, and kicked off this commotion.
So even after this, will Gong Isu meet me again and turn time?
Who knows what will happen—but it may mean that for Gong Isu, this level of failure and fall is scheduled going forward.
Twice more, at that.
And maybe that’s because I dragged Gong Isu in—
“Kim Sinhwa.”
That wasn’t him calling a [future Kim Sinhwa] not continuous with me.
He was calling the Kim Sinhwa right in front of him—me—so I answered.
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry I dragged you into my failure and despair.”
“No—that’s...”
“Pour me a drink.”
I stopped what I was about to say and poured Dream Scent into Gong Isu’s cup.
“Thanks.”
After another cup of Dream Scent, Gong Isu let out a self-mocking laugh.
“This is pleasant.”
“I’m glad you’re enjoying it.”
The hourglass swayed in a way that signaled affirmation.
“I thought I’d ignored the fetters of space-time and gained true freedom—but it was all a delusion. This moment, with my body’s freedom taken and myself detained, is the freest I’ve ever been.”
“You don’t have to put it in such a squalid way, do you?”
“No. My life was extremely squalid. It was paved with attachment, regret, and disappointment...”
Gong Isu cut in before I could answer.
“No—I’m not being pessimistic right now. Thanks to you, junior, I’ve gotten a new perspective. For the first time I’m free of his interference. If we search, there’ll be an even better way than this.”
He was trying to sound hopeful, but there was far too much wetness in his voice.
After he drank for a long while more, Gong Isu spoke slowly, a drowsiness in his tone.
“Kim Sinhwa. You must not go back.”
“So we finally arrive at this point. Why? What did you see?”
“Phew...”
He paused, asked for one more cup, and I poured it for him.
“I absorbed the power of the Golden Hairpin and a singularity—and gained the ability to transcend space-time. I tried to send you back to where you were.”
“Astonishing. Then why did you turn time?”
“Because in any space-time, there was no such place as ‘where you were.’”
“No such place?”
“Right. You did not come from another world.”
Gong Isu declared it flatly.
“This world is not a game. Just as I originate from this world—so do you.”
