Chapter 207
Chapter 207
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 207
Chapter Title: The Second Kim Shin-hwa Conference
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I scooped up Jang Hyun-deok, who still hadn’t come to his senses, and leaped down to where Heo Sang-hyun was.
“Shin-hwa-nim.”
“How’s your body holding up, Sang-hyun-ssi?”
“I’m fine now. My aunt really trashed the estate.”
The windows were shattered, parts of the outer walls and rooftop had collapsed.
Furniture smashed, thorns and vines sprouting from the inner courtyard’s soil, spider corpses, mountains of ash, pits dug by wraiths, and so on...
Trashed didn’t even begin to cover it. Ruins was more like it.
“Ah, my head hurts.”
One look at the wrecked estate and a sigh escaped me.
What to tackle first? I just wanted to smash it all and be done.
“Well, no helping it.”
Who was there to blame? It all came down to me in the end. I shook my head for a moment before turning to Heo Sang-hyun.
“For now, I’ll leave the cleanup to you. You can’t handle it alone, so I’ll lend you control of a few necro golems temporarily.”
The sensation of manipulating puppets—that’s why I didn’t want to control the necro golems myself.
“Understood.”
Leaving the cleanup to Heo Sang-hyun eased my tension. My eyes drifted shut on their own. Come to think of it, it’d been nearly thirty hours since I last slept?
My body was frail enough as it was.
The Kim Shin-hwa Conference wasn’t the issue; if I didn’t rest soon, I might drop dead from exhaustion.
“Bit awkward saying this after dumping work on you, but I need to crash. Too much happened today.”
“Sleep well.”
* * *
A white space filled with hazy mist.
My voice echoed from within it.
“We should drop the talk about that guy.”
“Got it. Got it. I’m done with it anyway.”
My voice answered my voice. Both were mine, but neither came from my mouth.
“Hm.”
My throat clearing.
Like most dreams, it took a while before I realized I was dreaming.
“Sorry, but could you start over from the beginning? What were we talking about?”
“...Huh? What the hell are you saying, you bastard?”
“...Looks like Kim Shin-hwa’s finally come to his senses?”
“Then what about the conversation so far?”
“You probably won’t remember it.”
“Ah, fuck! Screw this! I’m out!”
It was those two from last time. Hm, if I had to differentiate...
“Calm down. Think about why we decided to meet and talk like this.”
The calm Kim Shin-hwa who’d controlled the necro golem.
“Ha! You forgot more than half of last time’s talk anyway? This idiot’ll forget again!”
“I’ll try hard not to forget this time, so let’s go over it again.”
And me.
That made three.
I glanced at the two Kim Shin-hwas standing before me and spoke.
“By the way, you both look different from last time.”
Previously, they’d been vague shadow forms.
But now, they had clear forms and distinct personalities.
“We think you look pretty different from last time too.”
“Different? How so?”
“We gotta start from the beginning again? You look like that homunculus we were just arguing with.”
Ugh, I’d figured as much.
The one controlling Reddie wore a fox mask, the necro golem controller a crow mask.
Which meant I was probably wearing the three-eyed mask.
“It’s probably because the homunculus left an impression. Don’t read too much into the appearances. Odds are we’ll look different next time.”
“Yeah! Forget the rest and let’s talk about that!”
The fox mask spoke in an angry tone.
“That?”
“Yeah, that! Stop making those homunculuses or whatever!”
Right.
I’d expected this kind of talk. I pondered various strategies involving homunculuses for a moment before replying.
“Hm— We can’t make them? I thought it was a solid strategy.”
“What? You idiot!”
“We did it in the game too. I checked the side effects, and they were within acceptable limits.”
“Ah, seriously! When someone talks, just get the gist!”
“Get the gist of what? You have to explain properly for me to understand.”
The fox mask couldn’t hold back its temper and started squawking. In the end, the crow mask stepped in to sort things out.
“It’s true. We did something similar in the game, so it’s not a terrible strategy. The problem is our situation.”
“Situation?”
“Be honest—you had some inkling, right? We didn’t need to make them look so much like us.”
So the appearance was the issue after all?
“Hm. Fair enough. But making them resemble me makes them more versatile—”
“You’re being manipulated. Got it?”
The fox mask jabbed a finger at me as it butted in. Was that really part of my personality? Thinking back, I’d yelled at Jang Hyun-deok pretty much like that. Sorry, Hyun-deok.
“Manipulated, huh?”
“Yeah, manipulated! The other guys in your head made you do it. You didn’t even realize and just went ahead.”
A sigh escaped me.
I let out a breath and said to the fox mask,
“Talking like that won’t advance the discussion, so explain it slowly and properly from the start. You idiot.”
“Ah, this fucking idiot!”
The fox mask lunged at me like it wanted to grab my collar.
“Cut it out, you idiots!”
Only after the crow mask yelled did we finally calm down.
“I’ll explain, so don’t interrupt.”
“Hmph, do whatever.”
“...Anyway, Kim Shin-hwa. Listen up. Our plan’s only half successful so far. You already know that, right?”
“Roughly. Looks like curing the phobias won’t cleanly fix the split mind.”
I’d thought resolving the blood phobia would mend the fractured psyche, but with these Kim Shin-hwas right in front of me, it was clear phobia treatment wasn’t the solution.
“Right. Just like the amnesia isn’t fully cured, the split consciousnesses don’t seem to merge back.”
“Instead, that ‘guy’ who was taking on the madness and stress from your blood phobia in your place has quieted down a bit.”
Hence the half success.
Prioritizing the blood phobia had been the right call.
But the fractured mind seemed separate from the phobia.
“But it’s just quieted, not gone.”
“And unlike its random rampages before, it now has clear goals and desires.”
“In some ways, it’s more dangerous than before.”
“We think it’s because you’ve gone through certain experiences and your personality shifted, or...”
“Maybe new personalities with the same mindset as that guy emerged.”
“Other personalities?”
What a mess.
“Yeah, other personalities. Giving them individuality is fine, but we need names soon.”
“Let’s call them the ‘Domination Faction’ for now.”
“Domination Faction?”
“Yeah. We’re the ‘Fusion Faction’ that wants to merge with you.”
Childish names, but intuitive enough.
“So my head’s got the Fusion Faction and Domination Faction duking it out? Ways to go mad really are endless.”
“Heh heh, not done yet. Like I said, the Domination Faction’s been quiet lately.”
“...What else?”
One body, yet why so many Kim Shin-hwas?
“There are ones who want to break free from your body and become independent personalities.”
“They cropped up with the new doll phobia.”
Guys.
Multiple of them too?
Assuming two per faction, that’d make six other Kim Shin-hwas inside me besides myself.
‘Six—a suspicious number.’
Same as the fake Kim Shin-hwas Park Kwang-rim made at my request.
No need for exactly six... Maybe it was my subconscious.
“Well, if we’re naming, Fission Faction? Nah, ‘Escape Faction’ fits better.”
“Escape how?”
“You invented the escape method.”
The fox mask had told me to stop making homunculuses.
Using a homunculus body to escape my mind?
“Ah. Is that actually possible?”
“You did something similar before.”
I’d used magic to send their consciousnesses to Reddie and the necro golem.
“But that was like remote control.”
This was about splitting souls to become fully separate entities.
“Hm. You’re right. It wasn’t a complete split at the root.”
“We don’t think it’ll work, but they do.”
“There were hints in that Dream-Logic Endless Delusion Scripture you’ve been reading lately.”
“In short, perfectly replicate the body and shove a split soul into it.”
This was what it meant to go mad from reading grimoires.
“What happens then?”
“Right now, no one can deny you’re the real Kim Shin-hwa. But if they succeed, they’ll try to kill you.”
“Kill me?”
“Yeah. Gotta eliminate the original to become real.”
The fox mask said it with a serious expression.
“Who’d want to be a mere replica? We chose fusion with you as the way to become ‘real.’”
“And the ‘Domination Faction’ wants to take over your body to become real in their way.”
Hearing that, even these guys—who’d seemed friendly—now felt eerie in appearance and voice.
What if.
What if.
If there’s truly no way to merge, what would they choose?
“Why’d this happen?”
Mind splitting didn’t matter anymore.
The issue was why the doll phobia birthed personalities desperate to escape my body.
“Not sure exactly, but we can guess. Phobias and obsessions aren’t strictly separate.”
“Get it? That creepy thing you avert your eyes from but can’t stop staring at?”
“It’s when fear turns into excessive obsession or fascination.”
So...
“The doll phobia’s acting like an obsession?”
Obsessed with dolls to the point of turning oneself into one or shoving your soul into a doll. A classic madman trope from horror.
And part of my personality had become that madman.
“Not certain.”
“But probably close? You have any idea how batshit crazy you looked making those homunculuses?”
“...Anyway, better leave homunculuses alone for a while.”
“Hmph, don’t be so sure.”
The fox mask replied to me sharply.
“Why?”
“This is just an extension of the madness.”
“Every time you get swayed by a phobia or obsession, other personalities can interfere with your actions or thoughts more easily.”
“That’s why you kept making dolls, saying they looked like dolls or whatever, or did weird shit despite knowing the risks.”
“Ah, damn it. So what the hell do I do?”
“Honestly, no clue. But we gotta gather as much info as possible and find countermeasures.”
“That sacrificial offering locked in Paju Central Hospital’s closed ward might know something.”
“High chance he’s our senior.”
Sound logic, but not a real answer.
Paju Central’s closed ward was for the mentally ill.
“Doubt he’s in a talking state.”
“Agree. But we have to try.”
“Ugh.”
As I groaned, the fox mask sneered.
“More importantly, find a way to take down that elephant bastard the second you wake up.”
Elephant bastard.
Not referring to the senior with the elephant head.
[The Predator of the Mountains] usually manifested as a massive monster with an elephant head.
The senior must’ve chased that form and ended up like that.
The crow mask spoke gravely.
“Yeah. [The Predator of the Mountains] will probably...”
* * *
I woke from the dream.
Memory cut off at a vague point again, but I could guess what he’d been about to say.
“Yeah. It’ll probably show up again soon.”
And it might interfere with us—no, me—meeting the other sacrificial offering at Paju Central Hospital.
Still lying in bed, I pondered ways to counter its attacks.
Several ideas came to mind. No clue if they’d work, but prep wouldn’t take long.
“Guess it’s finally time for that long-delayed hospital trip.”