Chapter 180
Chapter 180
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 180
Chapter Title: Red
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A quiet basement.
After several deep breaths, I finally managed to speak.
“Blood.”
“Blood.”
“……Hemorrhage.”
It was definitely different from last time.
Simply saying the word or associating with it didn’t trigger the full mania.
And that wasn’t all.
I recalled what I’d seen while saving Jang Hyun-deok.
‘They talked about no killing or whatever, but there were injuries and bleeding.’
No matter how careful I was, I couldn’t prevent him from slipping and scraping himself.
But the blood loss wasn’t much, and most of it got washed away by the rain anyway.
‘Looks like seeing a small amount briefly won’t set it off.’
Probably thanks to my精神力 stat hitting around 20.
In the original game, crossing 20 in精神力 granted resistance to phobias. No doubt that’s the effect.
That said, it wasn’t perfect immunity. If a mere stat increase could block it completely, it wouldn’t be a penalty.
I still hated blood.
It was scary, ominous, horrifying.
Thinking about it kept bringing on a light dizziness, itchiness, and irritation.
‘It’s tickling.’
I scratched my head absentmindedly as I thought.
My skin itched underneath. My fingertips stung, my eyes burned. I wanted to scratch inside my brow, the back of my eyeball, about ten centimeters inside my ear, the inside of my ribs.
‘If I infused mana into my fingers and jammed them in, I could scratch it.’
Sure, but I’d die doing that.
Calm down.
My body and mind were showing mild symptoms, but it was different from the irrational mania forced by the [Cthulhu World] system. I could endure this much.
“Anyway, I can pull off being a fixer for the time being.”
As long as no one dumps a bucket of it on me or throws me into a B-grade slasher flick scene, I should hold up.
‘The problem is this world’s a game where that shit happens way too often.’
But no choice.
I didn’t have the luxury to halt operations long-term right now.
I didn’t have confidence for more serious tests, but up to a certain point, I could tough it out like those pitiful male leads from old comics.
Vomiting or passing out—something like that?
But cross that line, and the lunatic behind the game’s message windows would unleash whatever gift he’d prepared.
“What symptoms will hit this time?”
I knew phobias and mental illnesses in reality didn’t work this way.
‘Reality’s reality, and my situation’s an irrational game by some narrow-minded dev.’
In [Cthulhu World], phobias were just triggers.
You fear and avoid and try to forget a specific element, but when you can’t escape it anymore.
Delirium kicks in.
Hallucinations, amnesia, violence, or your mind splitting into two or three pieces.
Like how triskaidekaphobia caused random hallucinations and aggression, or ichthyophobia brought on amnesia-style delirium.
Following the pattern so far, hemophobia would bring something new in its own way.
“Well, whatever. I can make it work.”
I placed the large red orb on the table.
“Red here ate way too much…….”
It started as blood spewed from a magic backlash, infused with mana, but in those few days, Red had devoured too much.
Whole artifacts, stuff from the sea well, even remnants from defeating Dagon’s avatar.
“It’s closer to a lump of Dagon’s mana than blood now.”
Extremely unstable.
The orb’s surface vibrated faintly. Sometimes it looked like two or four orbs.
An insane amount of mana trapped in this little thing.
“This isn’t Red’s problem—it might just blow up if handled wrong.”
If it did, a massive lake would form here. And that lake would spawn a ton of deep-sea folk looking just like me.
“First, let’s take a look.”
I reached out and released mana.
Contact with the subject first, then understanding and recognizing its components.
Horribly churning waves of mana, sea mana, abyssal mana, sticky churning rage. Singing voices. Chaos, chaos, chaos.
Amid it, the part I could handle was that small, faint, red—
“Urk—”
I felt like puking.
I clamped one hand over my mouth (or rather, my mask) and waved the other.
Crash—
Stuff on the table spilled with a racket.
‘No good. Can’t do it like this.’
Seeing blood was one thing. Contacting blood to analyze its makeup and channel magic through it was a whole other level.
Now I saw it wasn’t the blood.
Controlling this was impossible.
To control it, I’d need power on Dagon’s avatar level myself.
‘On the flip side, siphoning off Dagon’s mana would spike the blood density too high.’
A true dilemma.
Useless now?
I closed my eyes, sinking into thought.
How and where to use this?
Thankfully, my 30 Intelligence stat let me come up with a few ideas.
‘First method: I eat it.’
It’d be a health food containing a whole ocean. I’d eaten similar before—
‘Other methods…….’
I pulled a high-purity mana stone from the drawer and carved a complex ritual into it.
‘This should do.’
I turned and reached in another direction.
A massive magic circle in the basement corner, surrounded by seals from all ages. The barrier sealing the high intellect [The Smiling One].
I raised mana and opened the barrier’s door.
Screeeech—
“Help me, DoraXmong.”
From the darkness inside, Cheongho’s illusion wearing the [Faceless One’s Mask] appeared.
“What’ll you give me?”
It spoke through Cheongho’s form, but it wasn’t Cheongho. And it looked way different from before.
Complex mana rituals tattooed across Cheongho’s entire body.
‘Eating Nyarlathotep’s mana from the [Faceless One’s Mask] and growing stronger.’
“I’ll share Dagon’s mana.”
“Mixing it’ll just give me a headache later.”
“I’ll mix it tasty for you.”
I used telekinesis to lift Red’s orb.
The masked Cheongho flinched.
‘Second method: use it for a deal with the devil.’
“What do you want to know?”
“Guess what I want.”
Cheongho raised a hand to scratch his chin and answered.
“Attitude like testing a fortune teller. The future’s chaos of trillions of possibilities. I just whisper one path. And you’re from outside possibilities. Predicting your future’s impossible.”
“I get it. So you don’t know how I escape this world either.”
“Nope.”
Fuck, useless.
On a whim, I asked something else.
“The Great Race know?”
“Yithians, yeah, they know.”
Even [The Smiling One], a high intellect nearing abyssal existence, couldn’t foresee it, but they could?
“How do they know?”
“They came from outside this world too.”
“How to meet them?”
“Dunno.”
“Why?”
“Same reason I can’t foresee you.”
“Got it.”
“Now give it?”
“You gave nothing.”
“Brat, knew it. Nothing else you’re curious about?”
“Nothing right now.”
“No, you are. You know much but aren’t omniscient. Unlike the ignorant, you’re half-full glass—thirsty for what the empty can’t crave.”
This guy’s spouting nonsense again.
“Then guess what I crave.”
“Can’t foresee, but can guess. I can tell what the Feast’s Offering means. What abyssals want. What they aim through you.”
“That’s definitely interesting.”
“And one more. Telling you’ll spark new curiosity.”
“What?”
“Was the Feast’s Offering really you first?”
“Hmm, intriguing.”
“And if you truly want future foresight, I’ve got a special offer.”
Yeah, there was a way for [The Smiling One] to foresee my future. I’d gotten the offer before.
“I can guess. Eat you, become one?”
“Right. Become my kin, truly join this world. From cosmic drifter, gain your spot to sit, sleep. Simple.”
And it’d mean my doom. I shrugged.
“Big contract like this, better discuss with parents. Can I think a few more days and come back?”
‘Third method: pretend to give, then don’t.’
“Tricking me with false promises again!”
“No, I’ll seriously consider. And I’m not total trash. I’ll pay for the info you gave.”
I pulled out the prepped mana stone. High-purity. Top-tier for its size. But pocket change for a high intellect like [The Smiling One].
“That’s all—?”
“Wait, not giving this.”
I separated some of Dagon’s mana from Red’s orb and transferred it to the stone.
Considering the orb’s volume, still “just” a bit, but a decent amount.
“Still not enough.”
“Bullshit. You gave nothing formal.”
“If you want, I can—”
I chucked the stone and said,
“Then see you tomorrow, bye!”
Slam!
I shut the barrier door.
“Hmm, won’t work like that next time.”
Teased too hard?
Anyway, fourth method.
Too much mana? Just skim some off.
And not wasted. I sent mana toward the barrier interior.
[System: Gate medium placed. Use Gate Creation spell anytime to open a gate to the medium’s location.]
‘The malice from the [Faceless One’s Mask] is mostly gone.’
Didn’t entrust the mask to [The Smiling One] for nothing.
Like boiling bracken to remove poison. Now I could swap to the mask anytime needed.
“That’s done. Now where?”
I checked the orb again. Manageable size now.
“Good.”
I reached toward another basement spot.
“Your turn now. Come here.”
Squish—squelch—
From the basement shadows, fleshy lumps crawled out. Byproducts from making Shadow Children.
They moved like bland slime mimicking human skin tones, but some sprouted eyeballs, teeth, hair.
No names.
Just flesh lumps.
Could become anything, hold anything. In a way, primordial clay kids.
Some became contract parasites in cultists, others mindless tentacle guardians against intruders.
These were waiting, purposes and growth undecided.
“Left you too long. Sorry.”
I kissed each and breathed my breath into them.
“All merge. I’ll make you a bird to fly the skies.”
I tossed Red’s orb to the flesh lumps.
Squelch—slurch—
Flesh lumps merged around the orb.
‘This is the fifth method.’
No way to tune mana via blood medium.
‘So wrap and reshape instead.’
I cast magic on the writhing merged mass.
[Recognition]
Massive mana surged.
For current Red, bigger body better?
As is, it’d form a bird bigger than a person.
Wings not reptilian membrane—feathers better.
At that thought, twin pairs of wings sprouted from the twitching mass.
Delicate blooming pure white feathers.
Long tail split like a swallow’s.
And three legs.
Red reborn in new flesh slowly opened its eyes.
A pair of ruby eyes gleaming seductively red met mine.
“Good, how’s it feel?”
“Kreeee—”
Cry’s the same as ever.