Chapter 216
Chapter 216
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 216
Chapter Title: A Moment of Distraction
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Clop-clop-clop-clop-
“Ugh, Professor, get back!”
Bang! Rat-tat-tat!
Bullets fired in a frenzy.
A bizarre horse-like creature—though calling it a horse felt ambiguous—with four joints per leg was approaching. Whatever it was, it had skin tough enough to deflect bullets.
“Pain! Pain! Pain!”
It even spoke. What the hell was that thing?
“Argh! Stay back!”
Rat-tat-tat-tat!
The security guards began screaming at the grotesque beast's approach.
Their mental fortitude must be reaching its limit. The real combat force at Paju Central Hospital was the suppression unit centered around the nurses.
These security guards' role was to buy time until the suppression unit arrived.
‘Explaining all this feels a bit much, but...’
The game's designers had probably placed these NPCs here as cannon fodder to be mercilessly slaughtered by patients. Otherwise, there was no reason for security weaker than the nurses managing the outer wards to be in charge here.
‘Ah, what a hassle.’
I extended my hand from outside the security guards' line of sight and quietly drew up my mana.
[Demon's Grasp]
Crack-crunch-crunch—
A massive hand burst from the wall and crushed the monster in an instant.
“Argh!”
“W-what was that?!”
It was my spell, but this wasn't the time for honesty.
“Uh, IPE-34, [Mad Sorcerer]? Maybe something like that's nearby?”
“Y-yeah, could be.”
“Then we need to run! Let's move! Hurry!”
“Y-yeah, okay.”
They thought they were protecting me, but really, I was protecting them. The safe zone was getting close—time to bail?
“Everyone, stop! Duck your heads!”
Thud-thud-thud—
IPE-273, [Reckless Destruction].
A buffalo skull floated through the air, slamming into the walls.
Thud-thud-crack-crunch—
It looked like light impacts, but the force was immense. The walls it grazed shattered like sugar sculptures. No wonder patients were escaping in droves with that thing roaming around.
“W-we can't handle that patient.”
“That thing deflects bullets!!”
“Shh, stay still. If we don't provoke it, it'll pass by.”
Thud-thud-thud—
As the leader said, the buffalo skull headbutted a random wall a few times before veering off in another direction.
“Good, it's gone. Let's move. Professor, you okay?”
“Y-yeah, I'm fine...”
Huh, but what's that—
****
Item Number: IPE-273
Alias: Reckless Destruction
Classification: Red 3rd Grade
Special Notes: Artifact S-Grade
A mask made from a buffalo skull.
IPE-273 moves independently and poses a danger by attacking random targets.
When worn on the head, pitch-black shadows emanate from IPE-273 and envelop the wearer.
At the same time, the wearer enters a state of extreme frenzy, with their strength surging dramatically. However, it has been confirmed that IPE-273 cannot be removed unless the wearer dies, so caution is advised in replication experiments.
****
Right, it's a mask.
By Paju Central Hospital's standards, it's an eldritch entity beyond full comprehension, but anyway—it's an S-Grade artifact. And again, a mask.
Tempting.
No, hold back. Why bother with that? The penalty for wearing it is hefty, and all it gives the wearer is temporary +5 Strength and +5 Vitality—wait, I mean... it's a mask.
“Professor? Professor?”
“The professor's gone?”
The security guards scanned around in panic. Ah, sorry. I've heard everything I needed from you guys anyway... Time to part ways.
They seemed to exchange a few more words after that, but nothing important. Ignoring them, I headed toward [Reckless Destruction]—that awesome buffalo skull mask.
* * *
“Damn it, the professor vanished—did an escaped patient drag him off?”
“Squad leader, staying here is dangerous.”
“Yeah. We could die looking for him.”
“And... I've been smelling rotting corpses from somewhere since earlier.”
“Rotting corpses? Yeah... Got it. Let's pull out.”
* * *
“Hey there?”
Thud-thud-thud-thud—
Reacting to my voice, it turned its head—no, skull, since that's all it was—toward me. [Reckless Destruction].
No eyeballs, not even flesh. An inorganic object incapable of emotional exchange.
[Somewhere, the smell of rotting corpses...]
A message window popped up in front of me. Ugh, what? Go away.
Fizzle—
Ignoring the message, I looked back at [Reckless Destruction].
“Hey, you. You're kinda cute.”
Thud-thud-thud.
As I took a few more steps closer, [Reckless Destruction] stopped headbutting the wall.
“Good, good. Come here. Let's start as friends. Friends, yeah?”
Shrieeeek!
Whether it disliked my flirting or just didn't know how to express emotions, [Reckless Destruction] charged at me with tremendous force.
[Protection Barrier]
Boom!
A solid impact. In the old days, my barrier might have shattered, but I'm not that weak Kim Shin-hwa anymore.
[Binding]
[Thunderbolt]
[Spell Enhancement: Multi-Cast]
Crack-crunch!! Crack-crunch! Boooom!
I bound it and zapped it repeatedly with lightning. Not even seconds passed before [Reckless Destruction] stopped moving and dropped to the floor.
“Now for the easy part.”
I extended my mana, forcibly embedding it into [Reckless Destruction]'s body.
Craaaackle—
Intricate magic circles formed densely on its pale surface, like hundreds of insects crawling over it.
[System: Hidden trait 'Inheritor of the Corpse Pile' activates.]
****
[Inheritor of the Corpse Pile]: You can turn aberrant beings that submit to you into subordinates.
/The minions who follow the Leader of Asphyxiation shall obey you.
****
['S-Grade Artifact – Reckless Destruction' resists your trait with its mental strength.]
[Determining submission...]
[Somewhere, the smell of rotting corpses...]
[Submission successful! 'S-Grade Artifact – Reckless Destruction' recognizes the 'Echo of Asphyxiation' within you and submits to your power.]
Flash—
The magic circles that had flared up temporarily seeped into [Reckless Destruction] like melting away, and now this artifact was mine.
“Hmm, not bad. But it's too big.”
A mask crafted from the buffalo skull itself. More like something to carry on your back than wear on your face.
[Shrink]
I cast the spell to reduce [Reckless Destruction] to palm-sized and put it in my backpack—
Backpack?
Huh?
“Where's my backpack?”
What the—!?
My bag!
I hastily released [Shape Absorption] to return to my original form and focused my mind.
I expanded my detection range, sending out mana. My senses stretched dramatically.
A long, winding corridor. Repetitive, monotonous walls. The chaos from escaped closed-ward patients.
Distant roars, sporadic explosions, security guards who'd given up on finding Lee Ha-seo and were moving on, grotesque patients, filthy debris on the floor, cracked walls, flickering lights from excessive mana reactions, wide-open patient room doors, Lee Ha-seo approaching C-section with the suppression unit, pitch-black steam rising here and there in the halls, destroyed equipment, rumbling monsters, clicking monsters, a silent black shadow walking the corridor, a monster made of eight arms alone, [Hungry Old Man] devouring a monster, graffiti in blood: “The One Who Drinks Fear has descended.” And on the floor... the backpack.
Ah, there it is. How'd I drop it there?
“Weird. Even if I was distracted by the mask, was I that out of it?”
...
Yeah, I was. But this hospital has a few more things I recognize as masks.
“Ah, what am I doing? Kim Shin-hwa, get it together!”
Masks aren't the issue. My memory's fuzzy, but somewhere in this closed ward, there's another of my madness triggers—patients shaped to provoke my puppet phobia.
Just seeing humans controlled could almost set it off, so wandering into the wrong spot might end badly.
“Anyway, something weird near the backpack—”
I shifted my detection toward the wall graffiti.
“The One Who Drinks Fear has descended.”
[The One Who Drinks Fear].
Like [Blood Demon King], [Undefeated General], and [The Patiently Waiting One], it's one of the incarnations of [Predator of the Mountains].
The identity of the 'external problem element' the security guards mentioned was confirmed. I'd hoped it was a misunderstanding...
“Damn. Jackpot.”
If it was just a patient escape event, I'd grab what I want and bail.
But now it's serious. Time to move for real.
“Whatever happens to me, I can't let them go after Gong Isu.”
Swish—
The glasses and doctor's coat draped over my body and face shrank into my pocket.
Flutter-flap—
The Night Mantle robe hidden beneath the coat billowed out like it was stretching lazily.
“Yeah, yeah. You were feeling cooped up too, huh?”
And from my pocket popped a finger-sized skateboard.
“Stuffed the backpack full, so I pocketed it. Lucky.”
Releasing the shrink spell returned it to full size.
[Fox's Agility]
[Eagle's Eyes]
After adding a few enchantments, I poured mana into the skateboard and shot down the corridor. Flutter-flap—my robe trailed like a long afterimage.
‘Hmm. Even so, that distance is off.’
No way it fell that far. Did someone stealthily steal it without me noticing and drop it there?
Or did my dropped backpack move there on its own?
“...”
With confined patients loose, this closed ward was practically a haunted house—anything could happen.
Craaackle-craaackle-scraaape-scraaape-crunch-crunch—
Next to the backpack, something—I didn't know the IPE number, but alias [Hungry Old Man]—chewed on a monster corpse. The most recent admission, so not in the files Tudor prepared.
After finishing its meal, [Hungry Old Man] sniffed around before moving down the corridor.
It reached the spot with my backpack.
[Hungry Old Man] wore a thoughtful expression before speaking.
“That... devil bastard's bag...”
A gravelly, raspy voice. Its wrinkled face had eyes that spun wetly.
“Why is just the bag here?”
It slowly reached out to open the bag. I couldn't hold back.
“Hey! Don't open that bag!”
“Kekeke—yes, this is a revelation! A revelation! The great Captain has gifted me that bastard's stuff!”
“You idiot! I said don't open it!”
Ziiiip—
The zipper sound.
“This is...”
Swish-swish—
As the bag opened, a glittering gem floated out.
“This, a magic stone?”
What [Hungry Old Man] called a magic stone traced a geometric path in flight...
Boom!
“Grahhh!”
...and exploded toward [Hungry Old Man].
“No, that's a magic stone bomb.”
[Hungry Old Man] was blasted down the corridor.
I picked up the backpack and said,
“I told you not to touch it.”
Craaackle—
A horrific grinding noise. [Hungry Old Man] gnashing its teeth.
I addressed the withered old man.
“Ah, this is just unnecessary epilogue bait. I don't care how it turns out, don't wanna see it, but it keeps showing up as the villain.”
“We meet again... Ho Sang-hyeon.”