Chapter 50
Chapter 50
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 50
Chapter Title: Eyelid (23)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
***
[Wake up.]
Drip. Drip.
The sound of water falling somewhere. A black space devoid of any sensation. Amid his faint consciousness, the Professor sensed that this was the same place he had visited before.
‘Parasite... So you’ve dragged me back here after all?’
As he growled into the void, a face made of black smoke—like the Parasite resting its chin on nothing—materialized in the empty air. Unlike its usual mocking grin, it wore an expression of pure exasperation.
[Goddamn it. This is why they say you shouldn’t take in dark-haired beasts.]
‘Cut the bullshit and tell me why you brought me back here.’
[What? Me? Call you?]
Swish—
The thing floating in midair descended to the floor. As it sauntered closer, its black smoke-like hand bore two flesh-colored fingers that stood out from the rest. In his consciousness, they matched the index and middle fingers missing from his left hand. The parts of his body fully under the Parasite’s control.
Thud.
The right hand with those alien fingers landed on his shoulder.
[Quit yapping and wake the hell up. Things outside don’t look like they’re gonna wait around.]
Outside? What the hell was this thing talking about?
He tried to swat away the hand irritably, but one of the Parasite’s black fingers vanished, replaced by a growing flesh-colored one.
[Oh, taking this back.]
The Professor startled and looked at his left hand. It was gone. His ring finger, which had been there moments ago, had transferred to the Parasite’s hand.
‘W-what the...!’
[Don’t make a fuss. This is a steal, even with the friends-and-family discount. Once you’re out and see what I set up, you’ll be kowtowing in gratitude.]
Crack—
A fissure split the black void, light seeping through the cracks.
[Jeez, finally waking up. You’re one slow-ass shell.]
‘H-hey! Wait! Explain what the hell is going on!’
The Parasite ignored the Professor’s shout, digging at its ear with the new finger.
[You’ll figure it out outside. And if you’re that grateful, lend me the body one day a week.]
‘Damn it! Speak so I can understand...!’
Flash!
The rift widened, flooding the black space with light, and the Professor snapped awake.
***
The first thing he felt upon opening his eyes was, predictably, pain.
A pounding headache and dizziness. Agony that wrung his body from the inside out.
‘What was I doing when I blacked out?’
The first thing that came to mind: soft lips. Uh, um... and after that? Nothing else memorable, it seemed...
‘Know your place, beast! You’re not even worthy of touching me!’
“Isaac!”
Snap!
The Professor’s hazy mind cleared instantly. Only then did he take in his surroundings. Not a single piece of furniture remained intact, as if a bomb had gone off. His status window blinked with endless red alerts, the chat log scrolled upward like mad, and in one corner, Isaac clutched his arm, muttering frantically.
To the Professor, it looked like a perfectly fine arm with just some soot and a minor tear, but Isaac kept clawing at it as if trying to rip something out, then grabbing his head and screaming again.
“Kwaaaagh! No, no! Get off my body, please! The nightmare, the nightmare will engulf the world! I have to stop it, I have to, I haaaave to!!!”
Thwack!
With a death-rattle scream from Isaac, a bulge erupted from the back of his neck. A fat, centipede-like thing burst out and crawled up over his head.
“What the fuck! An Insomnia Crab? You get every freak mutant variant?!”
Insomnia Crab. Like the Tunnel Worm or Pale Face from last time, it was one of those rare special specimens. Classified as 6th to 5th-tier, but palm-sized with zero combat ability. And since the queen had to birth them personally, they weren’t even cost-effective—practically trash.
They had just two abilities: burrow into a host to weaken their mind and implant the queen’s desired images, and when the host lost consciousness or couldn’t fight—
Kiriririk, kirik! Kiririk!
Pffbt, stab! Stab!
They’d burst out like that, jam tentacles straight into the head, and puppet the host.
“Aaah, aaaah! Aaaaaah!!!”
As the tentacles fully burrowed into his brain, Isaac—now under control—let out wails like a damned soul. Water surged toward him from all around. Unlike regular mutant-infected, Insomnia Crabs could somewhat access the host’s knowledge!
“Hydro—grrrk, orb—!”
Rumble—
“That’s a Hydro Orb? The same spell I used?!”
Even under the crab’s control, it couldn’t fully grasp a 6th-tier mage’s enlightenment, so it resorted to the most basic Hydro Orb. But the scale and power were on another level. A massive sphere of water gathered from the surrounding flow onto its hand.
`I blacked out, so no clue what went down, but my body’s wrecked.`
He’d taken plenty of bad injuries before, even been on death’s door more than once. But he’d never been this debilitated. Even now, moving made powder flake off his skin like he’d crumble any second. This body couldn’t fight anymore.
`Raksha... Can’t count on much from her either.`
She was covered in red welts, her threads nearly spent as she faced off with a dagger. Her wounds weren’t light.
`Something, anything to attack with. Something that can hit the enemy even with minimal strength...`
Mental Fragility swept nearby debris toward him like a broom. All shattered fragments. His trembling arms couldn’t even throw them.
He desperately wished for a gun. If he could just move his fingers, it’d deliver a lethal strike—a modern weapon.
Splash.
In that moment, a trickle of water leaking through the ruined building touched his fingertips, sparking a lightning bolt of insight.
Incantation. Voicing the meaning of the spell based on one’s enlightenment.
Mudra. Imprinting an image onto one’s fingers to structure and solidify intent.
As if entranced, the Professor slowly raised his right arm. Thumb, index, and middle fingers extended straight, index and middle pressed together while folding the rest. He’d never imprinted it, but as a modern man, anyone seeing the shape would instantly picture the same thing—a strong, ingrained image.
A gun shape.
Water leaking from the mage tower’s mana source flowed along the Professor’s body, slowly into his hand.
Gunpowder, as mana.
Barrel, following the imprinted mental image, as his fingers.
Finally, the bullet.
Gulp—
A single drop of blood, laboriously pulled up by his heart, sluggishly flowed through his parched veins toward his fingertips.
[Water-affinity Mana - 1st Tier: Water’s Embrace]
Why hadn’t he realized? Ever since becoming like this, he’d instinctively used this enlightenment. He’d wielded mutant blood like water dominance because it flowed into his body at his will.
Water embraced everything, even blood.
The slow, heavy droplet reached his fingers. A click echoed in his mind.
`Aim.`
Kneeling on one knee, left hand bracing under the barrel. Inhale, hold breath to steady the aim. He was no longer the in-game Professor but fully Professor Park of the wasteland.
The gun barrel aimed at the enemy’s head: the Insomnia Crab.
1st-tier Origin Spell.
“[Blood Shot]”
“Bang.”
A two-syllable incantation left the Professor’s lips,
Pfft!
And the mana-accelerated blood bullet pierced from his fingertips toward Isaac’s head.
No loud bang, no dying scream.
Isaac’s body slowly crumpled. The Hydro Orb on his hand dispersed, splashing to the floor.
The Crab, pierced dead center, flailed briefly before sinking into the water.
***
`We did it.`
The realization of victory drained the strength from his body. The hand that cast the spell hung limp, unable to even clench fingers, and for some reason, his regeneration showed no sign of kicking in.
`Come to think of it, escaping Turan left me wiped out too.`
Back then, he’d fully recovered before finishing the fight, so exhaustion was all. Mutation Berserk temporarily slashed regeneration post-use.
As the Professor slumped, Raksha approached. A faint smile tugged at his lips.
`She’s gonna help me up.`
No need to refuse. As he reached for her, Raksha thrust her sharp dagger at his nape.
“Name?”
“...Pardon?”
“Say your name.”
“I... uh, what’s going on here...”
Slice—
The dagger nicked his skin, as if to say no more questions.
“Eeeeek! Fine! I got it! Professor! Your name’s Raksha! Happy now? Put the knife away!”
Hearing his own name and hers from his mouth, Raksha exhaled held breath and withdrew the dagger.
“Good to have you back? I was pretty sure it was you once you cast that spell.”
“Back? What’re you talking about? And what makes you so sure it was me?”
“...You really remember nothing?”
Raksha pointed incredulously at the room with her chin. Everything—wood, stone, metal—smashed and shredded like it’d been run through a press. The common thread: all soaked in water.
‘Traces of magic. This must’ve happened before I came to. So Raksha alone blocked a spell that wrecked the whole room? But before I passed out, she was barely holding Isaac off?’
The Isaac he’d seen upon waking had been terrified of something. Hallucinating, barely clinging to sanity.
“No way... Mage Panic?”
Mages were sensitive creatures who manifested their psyche into the world. If trauma or negative imagery slipped into that fragile mind, it reflected into reality, trapping them in endless panic.
`But... Isaac isn’t some 1st or 2nd-tier practitioner, is he? Who could instill that much terror into an ironclad 6th-tier mage’s psyche?`
“Raksha. Did you do that to him before the Crab took over?”
Shake shake.
“Then... someone else helped us?”
Shake shake.
“Who the hell could shock a 6th-tier mage’s fortress of a mind that badly...”
Tap tap—
“Huh?”
Raksha cut him off, poking his cheek with her finger, staring intently. When he pointed at himself, she nodded.
“Me?”
Nod nod.
“I did?”
Nod nod.
“How?”
[Well, even a 6th-tier’s just a research mage who’s spent life buried in books. Sure, that consciousness towers to the heavens, but it’s a frog in a well building its tower. Lack of real-world experience made him more of a coward than expected.]
While Raksha gave him a ‘how should I know?’ look, an answer welled up from within.
‘...Me?’
Shake shake.
‘Then... you?’
Nod nod.
His shocked self was roused by three left fingers tapping rhythmically.
[That’s why I said take it easy on the body. We nearly died for real, you know? Even with great regen, what happens if the brain carrying your consciousness gets blown away? Sure, it’d regrow. But as an empty husk with infection factors going uuuugh without a soul. I held back as long as I could, but when it got suffocating, I borrowed the body while you slept.]
‘You... moved my body?’
[Yeah. What’s the big deal? Think of it as slotting a backup consciousness into an ‘unconscious’ body. Without me, you and that girl would’ve been nicely compacted by the old mage and turned into jerky already, dumbass!]
That wasn’t the issue. This was far graver.
Realistic Mode projected the player’s consciousness directly into the game. No input lag—essentially transplanting the soul to this world.
‘But an in-game persona moved my character?’
Which meant, conversely, an in-game persona could affect his real body outside?
[Hey, why so serious? I used it well and gave it back! You should be praising me, not looking like someone died!]
‘Shut up, Parasite.’
He had to confirm exactly what happened while he was out. Luckily, he knew plenty of people who’d been watching his every move.
- Professor: Gangge, Jokasss, Nacho, Speed Wagon.
- Soy Sauce Gaybar: Come to Dome.
- Professor: Figure you all saw what happened, so anyone wanna explain?
- Soy Sauce Gaybar: We all know you hate crowds since forever, but whatever? Drop the game bullshit and crawl to Dome for a hospital already!
The chat overflowed with viewers. Amid the cheers of ‘awesome’ and ‘brilliant,’ highlighting familiar IDs revealed worried messages from friends.
- Professor: Gangge, calm down. I’m asking ‘cause shit’s weird, you know? What the hell happened?
- Soy Sauce Gaybar: You think I can fucking calm down! You, that thing! You know!
- Speed Wagon: I’ll explain. That cool?
- Soy Sauce Gaybar: ....
- Speed Wagon: You look confused, so three-line summary.
You blacked out,
came back to,
and acted like someone else, calling yourself ‘Hyde.’
‘...Hyde?’
[Why? Heh heh heh, pretty good name, right? Dr. Jekyll?]
- Jokasss: We explain, you’ll get it. In the game just now, it wasn’t ‘Professor’—some other self named ‘Hyde’ moved your character. Like all those Realistic Mode players who died ‘infected.’ You got ‘assimilated.’ You know what that means?
- Professor: .....Yeah.
Staring at his three playfully twitching left fingers, the Professor muttered.
“The game self starting to affect reality, right?”
[Shell, been meaning to ask— who do you talk to like that sometimes?]
In his case, something other than the in-game Professor had broken out into the real world.
***