Chapter 222
Chapter 222
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 222
Chapter Title: Securing Plausibility
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Rumble—
The thunder snapped me back to awareness.
‘What the hell is this? Where am I?'
Wherever this was, it was massive.
A sky choked with crimson storm clouds and an endless expanse of metallic ground gleaming silver.
Rumble—
Eerie lightning danced through the blood-red clouds, trailing long arcs. The air felt thick, like blood might rain down any second instead of water.
Scattered across the vast plain were faceless dolls, each one enormous. Over there on the horizon, a colossal doll head loomed where a mountain should be. It was enough to make your mind reel.
“Zzt—Zzzk!”
Thirteen rats dashed through a canyon piled high with dolls. Rats, they were called, but each was a grotesque monster. Rat monsters, then?
Come to think of it, the metallic floor I'd assumed was actually made of fish scales.
'It's like staring at a surreal painting by some neurotic artist.'
For some reason, I was walking through this bizarre space.
Wait, why was I walking? Since when?
“What is this? Where are we?”
“Huh?”
“Ugh.”
My voice drew reactions—my own voices.
No, that phrasing was off now that I thought about it. But I got the picture.
I turned to the two people nearby who'd just echoed 'my voice.'
“Looks like this is a dream, seeing as you two showed up.”
“......”
The ever-fiery Fox Mask Kim Shin-hwa writhed in a gesture that screamed, 'I'm pissed off.' She looked ready to erupt any second.
Luckily, Crow Mask Kim Shin-hwa jumped in quick to hold her back.
“Hey, calm down.”
“No—seriously—”
Why was she always so hot-headed? Crow Mask glanced between Fox Mask and me, waiting till she seemed to cool off before speaking again.
“Out there, Lee Ha-seo was trying everything to wake you up. Looks like that kicked off this lucid dream.”
“I'm not totally following, but there's some good news at least.”
“Good news?”
Fox Mask tilted her head at my words.
“Least I've got a Kim Shin-hwa in my head who loves explanations. Beats being stuck with just hotheads or lunatics like her.”
“Huh? You picking a fight?”
Fox Mask lunged like she was about to grab my collar, but Crow Mask blocked her again.
“Ah! Kim Shin-hwa, cut it out! Can't you just listen nicely for once?”
“Hey, let go! Let me go, I said! You fucking bastard, get over here! You fucker!”
“Yeah, don't hold her back. Let her go. Let's see what happens.”
Thwack—
Fox Mask's fist hit my shoulder, and in the end, we—us, including Crow Mask—started a pointless, idiotic brawl.
But we couldn't keep it up forever.
“Ha, fuck.”
“Whew—damn.”
“You idiots......”
My low stamina held true even in dreams, and naturally, the other two shared it.
We sprawled half-prone on the ground, and Crow Mask spoke to them.
“Feeling better now?”
“Yeah.”
“Then apologize.”
“Sorry.”
“To him too.”
“Sorry.”
“Fuck off.”
“Jeez.”
Crow Mask sighed.
“What happened to you out there sucks, but enough venting. We cleaned up around you and kept you safe while you were out.”
“Got it.”
I recalled what Crow Mask had said before our dumb scuffle.
“So Lee Ha-seo did something to wake me up? But where are we?”
“This is the mental world reflecting your consciousness.”
My consciousness?
This desolate place mirrored my mental state?
Blood-soaked storm clouds overhead, giant dolls on the horizon, fish-scale ground, and rat monsters prowling it all.
And everything gathered in groups of thirteen, for some reason.
My fragments and I wandered this space wearing masks.
“Yeah, all the madness I've endured.”
But why had I been wandering here?
I looked back at the two Kim Shin-hwas and asked.
“That...... room or whatever, where is it?”
Fox Mask looked up and said.
“Off-limits right now.”
“Why?”
“Hmm, you're in a delirious state.”
“Delirious? Earlier....... Not sure how much time passed, but didn't that lunatic who hijacked my body lose the madness when it wrecked that doll thing?”
“Seems released. You saying 'doll' casually is proof.”
“Oh, got it. The madness trigger for delirium is gone, but my sanity stat's too low to break out on my own?”
Sanity stat.
Or SP (Sanity Point).
In [Cthulhu World], characters didn't just snap and go berserk in surreal situations.
There was a gauge called sanity stat, based on mental fortitude, that dropped with madness outbreaks or shocks.
“Right. That's our take. Games had a UI to check it, but here we're just guessing.”
Crow Mask finished, and Fox Mask shot up.
“To me, we're screwed. Sanity at zero. Game over.”
A character at zero sanity couldn't be controlled anymore.
Not dead, but an irreparable lunatic.
Game over, basically.
“No, no. Not zero.”
Crow Mask cut in hurriedly.
“Probably not. Your preset defense spell's active. And we managed limited messages to others' minds.”
“Oh, so it's recovering? Don't tell me tons of time passed?”
Sanity didn't recover easily.
Resting did it slowly, but took months.
Artificial boosts existed, but risky with side effects......
“Lee Ha-seo's there? That weirdo blasted some crystal helix energy into your head.”
“Oh, that? She shot that...... into my head......”
The regeneration ray she'd been tinkering with before the hospital chaos.
“Your protection spell must've greenlit it as friendly; let it through.”
Healing and madness recovery effects, but 89% failure rate?
“......So we hit the 11% chance and recovered a bit?”
“Nope, it failed.”
“......”
“Lee Ha-seo got banned from the ward for blasting forbidden experimental rays at you. But that triggered [Abyss Madness].”
“Ah, so that's how I snapped to.”
Not recovered, then.
Just a faint awakening, holding at 3 or 5 sanity.
“Incomplete awakening. Needs a solid trigger to fully wake.”
Situation sorted, roughly.
Trigger, huh...... I carried something for times like this.
“What about the keystone?”
Fox Mask barked a mocking laugh.
“That was our first idea.”
Ugh.
Crow Mask shook her head slowly.
“Bag tore; keystone's lost.”
“If it'd been in your pocket, we could've forced it.”
“I'm scanning everywhere for it, but no luck.”
“Even if found, hospital staff spots it? They'd stash it as 'patient property.'”
So......
“Lee Ha-seo, our wake-up call, got banned for dumb shit, and our only artifact's MIA?”
“Yeah. We're fucked.”
“Right. Bad spot.”
I pondered the grim verdict. Four sides trapped?
Ways out of delirium solo existed, but slow.
'Problem is, I'm in Paju Central Hospital's locked ward.'
Stay put too long in lockdown, and a hidden event triggers.
Nothing epic.
Trapped forever, no escape—like Gong Yi-su now.
Game over.
“But we've got someone who could help.”
“Who? Heo Sang-hyeon? Red? Tried reaching; can't pierce the ward's barrier without body control.”
“No, someone already in this hospital.”
“......That loser's punk ass?”
Fox Mask clearly despised Gong Yi-su.
“Gong Yi-su won't work. Tried; bounced off his mental barrier.”
Crow Mask had tried him too? Dedicated.
“Even breaching, we talked, right? Negotiating with current Gong Yi-su? Impossible.”
“Yeah, what could that loser do?”
I waved them off.
“No, no. Not current Gong Yi-su I'm asking.”
“Not current?”
“You nuts? Time travel from delirium?”
Hmm, they were all so impatient.
“No, how could I time travel? Gong Yi-su will.”
“No clue what you're on about.”
“This guy's lost it.”
“Listen up. Me later. I'll treat Gong Yi-su amazing. So much he'll admire me, risk it all for time travel.”
“See? Guy's crazy.”
“Kim Shin-hwa....... Future Gong Yi-su to escape? Causality issue.”
True.
To escape via future Gong Yi-su's help, befriend future him first—but need escape for that.
“I know it's weird, but possible? Gong Yi-su later—not now, later—will peek in, curious what happened to me.”
Yeah. Gong Yi-su would backtrack time to tangle with me.
Signs were everywhere already.
“So I declare again.”
I stood on this freaky wasteland and bellowed.
“Gong Yi-su will someday. Absolutely decide to help me.”
“How exactly?”
Fox Mask Kim Shin-hwa's grumpy tone.
“Yeah, causality—”
Crow Mask Kim Shin-hwa's troubled tone.
“No, screw methods or causality!”
I snapped at them both.
“Know how many abyssal bastards pulled shit without plausibility? My turn! I say it happens, so it will.”
* * *
-
A sound from a direction no one could observe.
“Fine. Fine. Fine.”
Gong Yi-su finally raised both hands.
“Alright. Once only. Kim Shin-hwa, was it? Yeah. That underclassman or whatever. That guy.”
Gong Yi-su noticed his hands shaking and slowly clasped them, kneading.
“Dunno what he does for me later, but worth this risk? Got it. Got it.”
-
“No, I'll judge, not you. I'll check him out myself. See if he's worth it, then decide.”
Gong Yi-su, obsessively kneading his hands, reached up and groped the metal helmet atop his neck.
Whirrrrr—
Trait activated, and what he'd dismissed as hallucination filled his view.
[System: Unique trait 'Left Hand of the Destroyer God' activated.]
“Heh heh, I see it. Yeah, I see.”
Second ability now.
[System: Unique trait 'Right Hand of the Creator God' activated.]
Clack-clack—shrrrrk—
Paju Central's mad scientists called it [Irreproducible surreal mechanical engineering]? Idiots.
The helmet replacing his head transformed completely.
A floating round disc where his head should be.
White base, black rim, 60 markings along the edge.
Three spines jutting from the center.
Tick-tock—tick-tock—
[You've rejoined. Welcome, ⌚, no, Watch Head. May you achieve your dream this time.]
“No—no. No! No! No! No! No! Not joining!”
His outburst, on the verge of delirium.
But his third ability triggered anyway.
[System: Unique trait 'Time Traveler' activated.]
Tick-tock—tick-tock—
The clock floating where his head should be spun backward.
And Gong Yi-su's body shifted left, left—farther left than we could see, to an unobservable direction.