Chapter 118
Chapter 118
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 118
Chapter Title: Haunted House - End
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Yoo Euisul had two reasons for being pissed off.
First, she was furious at the fact that she absolutely couldn't resolve this Anomalous Phenomenon on her own.
Yoo Euisul's ability, 'immunity to all mental attacks,' wasn't a counter to this phenomenon—it was its weakness.
This Anomalous Phenomenon was fundamentally impossible to destroy outright, so it was the type that required unraveling the gimmicks inside to solve.
Yoo Euisul, immune to mental attacks, never suffered the mental collapse from the phenomenon's assaults like Ahn Soohee had.
But precisely because of her immunity, her progress had ground to a halt midway.
This Anomalous Phenomenon had a fairly straightforward linear structure, in a way.
Every set distance traveled brought a new fear.
Overcome that fear, and you could advance to the next stage.
Fail to overcome it, and you couldn't move forward.
Ahn Soohee had retired at stage three.
Yoo Euisul, thanks to her 'immunity to all mental attacks,' never even confronted the fears in the first place.
But that also made it impossible for her to unravel the gimmick.
There was a massive door.
Judging by the travel distance, that huge door was likely the gateway and device for facing the fourth stage's fear.
But for Yoo Euisul, who hadn't faced any fears, she wasn't granted the qualification to open it.
Progress was blocked.
She couldn't move forward.
Nor could she turn back and escape.
All Yoo Euisul could do was sit there trapped until another Awakener reached this point.
But still.
She never imagined that 'other Awakener' would be Lee Jia.
That was Yoo Euisul's second reason for being pissed off.
Lee Jia had ignored her words and entered the Haunted House.
After Grand Magus Ahn Soohee encountered the third fear, Yoo Euisul had looked at her, on the verge of mental collapse, and let out a sigh—not of worry, but of relief.
It was because the person who'd entered the Haunted House with her was Ahn Soohee, not Lee Jia.
At least it was Ahn Soohee, who could choose to knock herself out. If it had been Lee Jia facing the third fear instead, she would've shattered completely.
Though Yoo Euisul wasn't particularly interested in other Awakeners besides herself.
She did know that Ahn Soohee was one of the strongest, someone you could count on one hand.
If even Ahn Soohee couldn't withstand the mental attack...
No matter how strong-minded Lee Jia was, she couldn't have handled it.
However.
Lee Jia had barged right into this Anomalous Phenomenon anyway, brazenly breaking through the third fear and reaching her like this.
From Yoo Euisul's perspective, it was a situation that could only make her blood boil from head to toe.
...That said.
Despite it being a mental attack so powerful even Ahn Soohee couldn't endure it.
"How am I supposed to solve this on my own!"
Lee Jia looked perfectly fine.
"Gyaahhh! It's out again! This time, your face melted off completely and you died. Fuck, my eyes!"
The third fear Lee Jia had faced was none other than her own death.
Lee Jia, afraid of her own death.
It felt good in a way, but bad in another.
Yoo Euisul felt a strange mix of emotions.
Separate from that, she knew better than anyone how agonizing and painful it was to witness a close acquaintance's death with your own eyes.
Ten years ago.
When Anomalous Phenomena first appeared in the world.
Yoo Euisul had been one of countless people who'd watched someone close die right in front of them.
Yoo Euisul had tried to overcome that trauma in her own way.
And that was hatred and revenge toward Anomalous Phenomena.
So, had she overcome the trauma with hatred and revenge?
Doesn't seem like it.
As long as this hatred doesn't fade, it'll be a trauma she can never truly overcome.
But in Lee Jia's case.
No matter how real the encounter felt.
Far from sinking into trauma, she seemed to have stopped the mental pain at the level of just squeezing out a bit of juice.
...This isn't the kind of trauma that ends after a single prayer.
Once again.
Yoo Euisul began to harbor doubts about the entity known as 'Reflecting Myriad Stars.'
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Contrary to her words about solving it alone.
Yoo Euisul walked forward with me for a few minutes.
Splatter.
Of course, meeting Yoo Euisul didn't stop the triple-threat fear gift set.
I was still paying the price for that fake blasphemy.
The fake community and chat plummeting into hell were still visible.
The fake Yoo Euisul's deaths kept coming.
Watching me like that, Yoo Euisul grumbled curtly.
"You okay?"
"What, this? Kissing these shitty chunks of flesh? No, not okay at all. Makes me wanna puke."
"...Forget I asked."
Blessed by Reflecting Myriad Stars and escorted by Yoo Euisul, I was invincible.
How dare some fake blasphemy price or fake Yoo Euisul deaths try to shake my mental fortitude.
With my mentality restored after meeting Yoo Euisul, I mustered my courage and reached out to the 'fake Yoo Euisul's' corpse to check its info.
Hmm.
Yeah.
I see.
I'd obtained some pretty meaningful information.
Yoo Euisul and I moved forward while discussing the 'info' I'd gained.
At some point.
I felt a sense of incongruity and spoke up.
"Euisul unnie, how many minutes ago was the last time I shoved my head into the flesh chunks?"
"Three minutes twenty seconds ago."
"You were counting that annoyingly precisely?"
"Now you're just bitching even when I tell you."
The Anomalous Phenomenon's mental attacks had stopped.
The fake blasphemy price.
The fake abyss.
The fake Yoo Euisul's deaths.
They were no longer visible to my eyes.
Why?
I had no idea.
I asked Yoo Euisul.
"Any guesses?"
Yoo Euisul was an Anomalous Phenomenon resolution specialist with hundreds of times more experience than me.
She had to have some inkling.
Then, Yoo Euisul pointed ahead and said.
"Obviously that."
It was.
A massive door.
The door, easily three meters tall, had such an ornate design it clashed completely with the flesh-covered surroundings.
Even if a medieval sculptor poured his soul into it stitch by stitch, it probably wouldn't match this level of perfection.
If it were outside, it'd be jaw-droppingly luxurious.
But plopped in this twisted, horrific space, it felt more eerie and unsettling than majestic.
This is straight out of a horror movie cliché.
In films, the one who opens a creepy door like this out of curiosity always dies first.
"Did you try opening it?"
"Yeah."
What?
The cliché's broken.
Yoo Euisul was still alive.
"But I couldn't open it with my power."
...Nope.
The cliché holds.
Yoo Euisul continued.
"So you open it."
"Why me!"
Of course, I rebelled against Yoo Euisul's words.
"I don't wanna be the side character who bites it first in a horror flick."
"I don't care what bullshit you're spouting, just open it without the chatter."
"If even you couldn't..."
"It'll open. Probably."
"...Reason?"
Then Yoo Euisul began explaining her theory about this Haunted House.
"Think of it like a game to make it simple. Stages. The fears you've faced so far were stage 1, 2, and 3. Three stages total, and no matter how, you overcame the fears and cleared the stages head-on. So what’s this door?"
"...Boss stage?"
"Bingo."
It was a plausible guess.
This Anomalous Phenomenon—no, wait.
Can't call it that anymore.
Anyway, the mental attacks divided into three stages, growing stronger each time.
"Why did those three fears suddenly vanish?"
"You suck so bad at games you wouldn't get it, but providing a campfire and save point right before the boss stage is standard practice."
"H-hey, I'm just physically challenged, my game IQ's decent enough!"
"Doesn't seem like it."
"Argh... Th-then why can't you open that door, unnie?"
"Using the game analogy again: I'm a cheater. Unlike you who cleared the three stages legit, I skipped straight to the boss door. No qualification to challenge the boss."
"...Devs blocked it."
"Something like that. Could be wrong, so take it with a grain of salt."
"Hmm."
If Yoo Euisul's theory was right, then I, having overcome the three fears, probably had the qualification to open that door.
Boiling it down.
"So opening this door means a mental attack so intense it'll knock me out cold hits me."
"Pretty much."
"...Won't I just drop dead from shock?"
"I thought so too, but seems I misjudged. Hey, Lee Jia."
"Yes."
"Straight talk. If you can't solve this, no one can."
"...Huh?"
Yoo Euisul pondered something.
Then continued.
"Anomalous Phenomena with mental attacks stronger than this Haunted House have appeared countless times before. Who solved them?"
"You, obviously."
"Right. Me every time. Why? Other Awakeners hit their limit enduring mental attacks, even with item help."
It hit me anew.
How crucial Yoo Euisul's role was in resolving these phenomena.
"But I can't solve this. So someone has to do it for me. You know how strong that auntie is?"
"Uh... Top ten, right? Her mental fortitude seems a bit weak, though."
"Wrong."
At Yoo Euisul's follow-up.
"Ahn Soohee's mental strength is top five in the Awakener Association. She's the reason she barely made it that far."
I swallowed hard.
"That tough-minded Awakener crashed at stage three. You breezed through all three like nothing. Get what that means now?"
"...In short, if I can't solve it, we're totally fucked."
"Correct this time. So I'll say it again: solve it yourself. Or none of us get out—not me, not you, nobody."
Damn.
Feels like I've been left holding the bag all alone.