Chapter 306
Chapter 306
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 306
Chapter Title: Persuasion
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I passed through the long vertical tunnel leading downward and entered the interior of the underground bunker.
The bunker stretched out straight ahead in a series of connected spaces.
The bunker's condition wasn't great.
After Cheongho died, Cha Taewon and a few others had come and taken everything worth salvaging, and no one had visited since.
"It's one of my bases, after all."
I hadn't paid it much attention, lacking any real plan for it.
No—now that it had been designated as my second residence, I could utilize it however I wanted.
Even so, I didn't like this place and had left it untouched for a long time, without even marking it for [Gate Creation].
Was it because Cheongho died here?
Because of that uncle I wasn't close to?
'No. Honestly, it didn't faze me much.'
....
My Intelligence stat recreated the events of that day in perfect, vivid detail, letting me recall exactly what emotions I'd felt—but it was just a faint impression of "that happened."
So why didn't I like this place?
Kiiiiiik—
I shoved open a door that looked like a submarine hatch and pressed on.
It was dark.
I'd removed most of the magic stone lights that once illuminated it and taken them to the [Hungry Manor]. Just basking in their glow granted buffs like increased HP recovery and immunity boosts.
Too valuable to leave in an abandoned dump like this.
And so the underground bunker had become a dark, damp place without a single light.
"The darkness of my life just keeps going, huh."
Yeah, around now, I needed some assurance.
"This godforsaken fake world."
And I was a castaway drifting through this horrific fake world.
I still hadn't found any solid leads.
I was just racing from here to there, restoring a world on the brink of collapse, then dashing back the other way to eliminate whatever was trying to tear this fragile place apart. Rinse and repeat.
"There's some bastard out there hyping up the climax and setting the stage."
Even if I rushed to Busan right now and wrecked the [Source of Life]'s plans.
What would come next?
"Yeah. At least it's encouraging that a brother of the [Great Source] showed up."
The [Source of Life] was an avatar of the [Great Source], one of the top-tier abyssal beings.
Once I took this guy down, the lesser ones below him wouldn't dare act up easily.
Would that be the end?
"I know. They'll say something like, 'That guy's just the weakest of our four abyssal kings,' and come at me one by one."
Damn it.
I grumbled as I headed to the deepest room in the bunker.
* * *
"Glória in excélsis Deo."
A song echoing from the bunker's deepest chamber.
Latin.
In Korean, it translated to "Glory to God in the highest."
Dokgo Gyeom was singing it.
"Aren't you a heretic? What gives you the right to sing a Catholic hymn like the Greater Doxology?"
When I pointed that out, Dokgo Gyeom stopped singing.
"Kuhuhuhuhu—"
Laughter from [The Laughing One] in the darkness.
"Why'd you turn off the lights?"
The rest of the bunker had no lights, but this room did.
"Kuhuhuhuhu— Because the jailer's and prisoner's tastes aligned."
I needed someone who could monitor Dokgo Gyeom 24/7 without rest and resist his surreal powers of persuasion.
And, if necessary, someone with the ability to kill him.
That's why I'd assigned a fragment of [The Laughing One], possessing a death knight golem, to watch him.
"My tastes run brighter. Let's light it up."
I snapped my fingers, activating the magic stone light on the ceiling.
Fwaaah—
Bright light drove away the darkness, revealing the filthy, shabby state of the underground bunker room it had concealed.
I turned to [The Laughing One], standing in Cheongho's form.
"Hey, even for you, hanging out here looking like Cheongho is in poor taste, isn't it?"
This place was Cheongho's legacy—and where he died.
And [The Laughing One] was the monster who'd imprisoned him here and devoured him after killing him.
Realizing what I was thinking, [The Laughing One] cackled.
"The great Kim Shin-hwa decrees: Monster, I command you—steal Cheongho's form and speak in his voice. And in this hellish underground darkness, watch over the heretic leader who worships a false god."
Kuhuhuhu— Kuhuhuhuhu— Euhuhuhu—
"Shut up and move."
I scowled, and [The Laughing One] retreated with a theatrical bow, feigning relaxed composure on Cheongho's face.
Where he stepped aside....
"Kim Shin-hwa. Kim Shin-hwa.... I've heard the name."
Clank, clank.
The sound of chains with Dokgo Gyeom's voice.
"Yes.... Heo Sang-hyeon was just that—a phantasm you created to deceive me, true to his name...."
Had the long submersion in deep darkness done it? Dokgo Gyeom spoke in a subdued, quiet tone.
"Sorry to burst your bubble, but Heo Sang-hyeon was just the owner of the boarding house I lived in."
Bound in mana stone-reinforced restraints and chains etched with ritual seals, Dokgo Gyeom stared vacantly at the floor.
His lips parted weakly. His eyes drooped listlessly.
The complete opposite of how he'd rampaged at the masquerade in clown makeup.
'Depression phase now?'
Dokgo Gyeom suffered from severe bipolar disorder. When the depression hit hard, conversation became impossible—but he wasn't there yet.
"The host...."
He spoke in a voice like crumbling dry leaves.
"What did you do to him?"
"Killed him."
"Ah...."
Moisture gathered at the corners of his eyes.
"A precious soul has passed...."
After a long pause, Dokgo Gyeom looked up at me with trembling eyes.
"Heo Sang-hyeon.... Yes. He was the disciple and family name I remembered. Kim Shin-hwa. You didn't just kill him—you took his family too."
"You're talking like I murdered some good man and stole his wife and kids."
I took a few more steps toward Dokgo Gyeom.
"I executed a monster who'd parasitized one family for ages, exploiting their bodies and even stealing their right to freedom in death. And I gave Heo Sang-hyeon the life that had been taken from him."
....
Dokgo Gyeom stared at me silently for a moment.
"I can't see your face well. Kim Shin-hwa. Could you come a bit closer?"
The restraint covering half his face writhed oddly for a second.
Clank—
The sound of chains shifting.
"Kim Shin-hwa, I wouldn't recommend getting closer."
[The Laughing One]'s advice.
"I know."
Dokgo Gyeom was bound by five layers of restraints from the Foreign Administration, and I'd added one more barrier myself—but it couldn't fully contain him.
Even Yang Seo-ho hadn't been able to kill him.
Once he recovered from his fight with Yang Seo-ho.... Or hit mania again.
He'd break through the barriers and escape.
'It's per the game's lore, though.'
By design, Yang Seo-ho and Dokgo Gyeom were fated to clash.
To prevent Dokgo Gyeom—the player's obstacle—from getting captured and torn apart by Yang Seo-ho? He had near-immortality with super-regeneration and escape abilities.
'The problem is, as the player, even I can't kill or contain him.'
I never planned to keep him locked up forever anyway. A few days was enough....
And in the meantime, I could talk to him or run some experiments.
"Just one question."
"Did you bring me here to ask questions?"
"Of course not. Smuggling you out gave me versatile political leverage and influence. I'm not expecting much from your answers. But—"
I glanced at [The Laughing One], then back at Dokgo Gyeom.
* * *
"Aren't you the leader of the [Church of Eternal Unity] before the masquerade?"
"The great [Father King] bestowed that heavy mission upon me."
Dokgo Gyeom spoke with genuine anguish.
"In principle, you're not connected to the [Source of Corruption], right?"
"The great [Father King] comprehends all and exists across all time. And I am not the one to fathom the mission he gave."
Dokgo Gyeom of the [Church of Eternal Unity] served an abyssal being known as [Father King].
[Father King] was the foremost among abyssal entities, his influence reaching even other abyssal beings.
"So you'll let the [Source of Life] destroy this world? Is that [Father King]'s will?"
....[Father King] awaits the time of his descent."
Good news.
I smiled.
"Then we agree on that point, at least."
I wanted to prevent the world's destruction, and Dokgo Gyeom needed to keep it intact until [Father King] descended.
He wouldn't want some half-baked timing from the [Source of Life] smashing everything.
To drive it home, I added:
"I told people you're in Busan. Your loyal apostles will head there to rescue you—right where the [Source of Life] will rampage."
....Vile."
"Say what you want. For [Father King] and to save your minions, you'll have to go to Busan."
Dokgo Gyeom's lips twitched for a long time without responding.
"Kim Shin-hwa."
His voice was faint, as if he might die any moment.
"Yes."
"What drives you? Faith?"
A heretic's question.
"No. I have my own goal."
"What is it? Why deny the truth?"
"Truth?"
"Yes. Truth. Why do you think we believe and follow the gods? Why do we abandon family, friends, and embrace alien entities beneath the skin of kin and countrymen?"
A strange fervor gleamed in his low, quiet voice.
"I get what you're driving at. This world isn't ours—we serve the true masters.... Something like that nonsense?"
"Yes. That is the truth of this world, an inescapable law for any born here. Why deny that simple, absolute truth?"
A flicker of irritation hit me.
"Whoever owns this world has nothing to do with me."
"Why?"
"Because I'm not from this world."
Dokgo Gyeom shook his head, chains rattling with it.
"Kim Shin-hwa. Are you saying you're an outsider born under the laws of another world?"
"That's right. This is a crudely made fake world. I'll leave it and return to where I belong."
This world was an artificial game world.
Everything here moved by manipulated settings, and everyone thought according to those settings.
I'd escape this world and return to my original one.
"It's just like our doctrine."
What nonsense was this?
"No, looks like you don't get it...."
"I heard the great voice from beyond the frail veil, and I know what you know. This world is land forged from empty wordplay, sustained for the amusement of greater beings."
From beneath the restraint mask caging his face to prevent biting....
Dokgo Gyeom grinned eerily.
"Everything in this world moves as ordained and foretold by the great ones beyond the cosmos, the great revelation implanting new knowledge, thought, and ideas into us. Beyond this world's veil lies a higher dimension inhabited by superior beings. And sometimes, madmen arise who wish to escape this land for that higher plane."
I'd kept him here for three days already—no food, not even a drop of water.
Yang Seo-ho had probably treated him the same way.
Yet after over ten days without water, Dokgo Gyeom's lips were blood-red, his eyes gleaming with eerie madness.
"Like you, Kim Shin-hwa."
Dokgo Gyeom burst into ecstatic laughter, singing.
"Et in terra pax homínibus bonæ voluntátis."
Peace on earth to men of good will.
"Ah, forget it. My mistake for trying to talk to a heretic."
"Persuasion fails. Heretic worshiping vain stubbornness and baseless knowledge. Kim Shin-hwa, can't you see we're serving the same god and following the same doctrine?"
"What...?"
For a moment, I nearly lost my temper.
"I'll play along with your plan. But it will align perfectly with the will of my great lord, Yog-Sothoth."