Chapter 38
Chapter 38
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 38
Chapter Title: Triskaidekaphobia
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“Ever since I learned that this place was unknown to anyone and had appeared after the Great Collapse, I’ve wanted to come back.”
I turned my head slightly to look at Jang Hyun-deok, but he wasn’t there. His voice, however, continued to echo.
“It kept appearing in my dreams. This place. The beautiful celestial nymphs dancing in the center of these endless rock-covered ruins.”
While I had turned right at the rock, Jang Hyun-deok had gone left. Our paths had diverged, and he was now moving in a different direction from me.
“There must be incredible treasures and rewards hidden here, right? I believe you, of all people, will make my wish come true.”
A rock blocked the way ahead. As I turned again, Jang Hyun-deok’s voice had somehow moved in front of me. There must be another path over there.
[System: The ‘Enhanced Vigilance’ trait activates.]
Damn it.
A sudden expansion of my senses made my already taut nerves hypersensitive.
“Wizard! Look, those things!”
Jang Hyun-deok’s excited voice assaulted my ears. With the trait active, it hit like a drumbeat against my eardrums. Without thinking, I raised a hand to cover one ear as I looked toward him.
“That son of a bitch.”
We had somehow reached the deepest part of the ruins.
Jang Hyun-deok had arrived there ahead of me, but he didn’t attack or suddenly transform into a monster.
Instead, with a radiant smile of ecstasy plastered across his face, he spread his arms wide, pointing at the things in the heart of the ruins.
On this dark night.
In these dark ruins deep within the Tan Stream forest, the only source of light was the magical glow dancing atop my hand.
Jang Hyun-deok’s face, turned toward me, was dyed in eerie colors by that light.
An innocent, joyful expression, like a child leading his parents to a grand festival.
In the direction he pointed... there were things completely unlike the scattered rocks around us.
Yes, special things.
The intact masks I had confirmed before entering the ruins.
Jang Hyun-deok believed those masks would bring him instant wealth, and for some reason, he felt compelled to bring me here.
And the fixer who had brought Jang Hyun-deok to this place before.
What had happened to him? Jang Hyun-deok was ignoring what occurred that day. But if he had returned safely intact, the masks wouldn’t still be here.
‘Well, in a way, it’s a classic setup.’
This deep inside, surrounded by so many obstacles, yet those masks were visible even from far outside.
Thanks to some perfect angle and coincidence making them visible from afar?
No.
It was simply luring in prey that had stumbled upon it by twisting the laws of physics to dangle the bait.
I turned my head slightly to gaze past Jang Hyun-deok at the rock statues lined up wearing masks.
The fact that they wore masks and still held mana within them. There was one more special thing about them.
Their forms were perfect, unlike the others.
Perfect human shapes.
Smooth, polished, pristine surfaces. Hardly worthy of being called rocks. Statues would be more fitting.
Compared to these statues, the surrounding rocks looked like melted, rotting corpses.
The statues each struck different poses.
Arms spread toward the sky, a leg raised like a ballet dancer, body crouched, arms bent.
“Look. They somehow... look like they’re dancing, don’t they?”
“Definitely those kinds of poses.”
“The dance I saw in my dreams was exactly like this. There was definitely strange music and beautiful lights falling from the sky...”
A dance...
Yes, if you thought of it as a dance, you could see it that way.
The number of those mask-wearing, dancing statues...
One, two, three.
And over there, four, five, six.
There too. Seven, eight...
Wait!
Wait, wait, wait, wait.
Hold on.
A chill raced through my body like I’d been struck by lightning.
An ominous intuition flashed through my mind.
Of all things, damn it.
Of all things, Jang Hyun-deok was doing the exact same thing. That mad bastard was counting them out loud, grinning like an idiot!
“Nine, ten, eleven...”
“Hey, stop it.”
Was that really my voice? It was trembling far too much.
“Hm? There’s one there too. Total masks...”
I hurriedly drew up my mana. I had to shut that damn bastard’s mouth...
[The number of mask-wearing statues stimulates the madness embedded in your mind.]
Too late. Shit! A message window popped up, blocking my vision.
I had already registered the number anyway.
“...Thirteen of them?”
[‘Madness – Triskaidekaphobia’ manifests.]
Ha, damn it all. I’d avoided it so well until now, and it hits me like this.
[Mental Strength stat attempts resistance against the delusion.]
No point in smashing Jang Hyun-deok’s face now.
[Mental Strength check...]
The madness already rooted in my mind couldn’t even be blocked by the [Abyssal Madness] trait I’d wielded like a sword until now. It’d be a massive debuff, but if the Mental Strength check succeeded here, I had ways to cope.
[Failure.]
Ah, you fucking shits! You think I’m gonna die here? I shoved my hand into my backpack for the artifact—the one I’d kept close just in case something like this happened...
[Delusion occurs.]
Truth be told, this was worse than a rat’s life. Dumb modern folks plaster numbers everywhere you look. License plates, phone numbers, calendars, addresses, book pages, smartphone battery levels, high-rise floors, stair steps, passing crowds, crosswalk stripes, pigeons pecking at street vomit bobbing their heads—and no matter what, you couldn’t escape those numbers. Think about it. To get home, we take steps. One, two, three. Eventually, my footsteps reach that unlucky, ominous number. We breathe. Inhale one, exhale two, inhale three. My breaths march toward that number.
If I saw a group exceeding a certain number, I’d look away, burn calendars, paste over numbers, split them up, smash random license plates, halt mid-stride, hold my breath, even considered snapping that crazy pigeon’s neck—but I barely held back.
But damn it, here in this cramped prison with no escape, I faced that ominous, unlucky, horrific number.
Not all delusions progress with the same symptoms. There could be physical ones like the shortness of breath, hallucinations, itching, chills, and cramps I experienced first, or like that big weird guy in the underground parking lot last time—whoever he was—it could manifest as mindless charging and violence, or wait? What am I doing right now?
- Ding-a-ling.
A bell rings from somewhere. Who’s that?
『Run.』
Someone’s talking to me?
『Run away.』
Oh, really? Where to? Which way? Why? Right now, uh, I don’t know?
“Wizard? What do you mean, run away?”
What’s that sound? Is someone else here besides me? Do you know? The world has more people than you think. Some turn pale sometimes, some dance. Some turn to stone and hide forever. Sometimes, you wonder why you even came here. But don’t worry. Why do salmon lay salmon eggs? Salmon come from salmon eggs?
- Ding-a-ling.
『Snap out of it! You idiot! Snap out of it!』
Another bell. And someone yelling at me.
“Wizard! Look at that, look at it!”
Oh, was that guy saying it? The weirdo’s pointing somewhere strange. Forsythia blooming with a pop. Weather’s warming up lately—how’s the Sasquatch who transferred from Siberia? Ever thought “hello” is weird? Is “hello?” a question? Wondering if you’ve reached a state of well-being?
『Stop thinking. Turn your head! Turn and look ahead.』
And that way? Or this? But realizing there’s something unknowable, and hating the darkness that pities it alone, unable to make it happily spin under the vast autumn sky or what? I turn my head following some voice.
And in the direction I turned, sure enough.
Oh, no way.
There existed otherworldly grace and mythical beauty that shouldn’t exist in this world.
A sight of awe I’d never witnessed in my life.
Corpses. An endless, grotesque field of corpses frozen upright in agony.
At the center of those corpses, beast-masked dancers performed a bizarre, truly bizarre, eerie, grotesque, outlandish dance.
Heterogeneous flesh sprouting golden scales. Multicolored jewels dangling from their bodies.
Yellow silken fabrics billowing around them.
No language from the dawn of Earth’s first light could describe that dance, those gestures, shivers, twists.
Under that great yellow-burning star in the dark sky. Bathed in Aldebaran’s light, a dozen or so dancers performed a grotesque, repulsive dance impossible in this world.
[System: Penalty trait ‘Sacrifice of the Feast’ effect activates.]
“Look! Wizard! That’s it! The dance I saw! Ahh... how could I have forgotten? That beautiful dance! Look! That beautiful dance! That dance! Yes, I came back here to see that dance again!”
Jang Hyun-deok clutched his head—shedding tears—blood-red tears—despairing—ecstatic—screaming.
“Can you hear it? That voice? That great voice! The great king who will grant my wish! We must leave! Not from here, but to the other side of that galaxy, beyond the Milky Way, to the great land! To our great holy city, beautiful Carcosa!”
- Ding-a-ling.
『It’s fine. It’s temporary.』
What’s fine? And who the hell are you? Why the bell?
『No need to fight for sanity. But avoid it. Run! Or fight! Do something! Or this will last forever.』