Chapter 53
Chapter 53
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 53
Chapter Title: Human Skin Obsession
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Creaaaaak......
As the sign on the door indicates, this room is a chemical storage closet.
Inside the dark room, rows of glass display cases stand stacked high.
[The room is dark and a bit chilly.
It's probably to preserve the chemicals inside.]
Ah, you startled me. It stayed quiet for a while and then suddenly starts up.
Why didn't it say anything in the hallway earlier? There was supposed to be designated text there originally.
Is it slacking off? Or... ah, maybe because I didn't enter in the proper sequence?
Normally, you take the stairs up and enter the hallway first.
But since I came in through the window this time, maybe that's why the hallway message didn't trigger?
The game was full of bugs and errors, so I can't be sure, but it feels like that might be the case.
'Whatever, if not, then not.'
[Glass display cases line the room, filled with labeled vials of chemicals and jars containing small specimens.
Every visible transparent jar holds parts of beasts or humans, or bizarre lifeforms you've never seen before.]
"Hey, I can see that with my own eyes."
[Those lifeforms are truly bizarre and horrific in shape. They're the spawn of grotesque monsters that are neither human nor beast. The creature has four arms, each tiny hand with six fingers. Witnessing this lifeform seizes your mind with alien fear and terror.]
Oh god, it's going off again. It's excited again.
[System: Mental Strength stat attempts to resist fear. Mental Strength check successful.]
Since I resisted the fear, no special traits activate separately.
I briefly cover the eyeholes of my mask with my hand and then remove it.
"Alright. Let's think about the creepy stuff later."
There's one item here I want to grab.
Most of the jarred things look similarly disgusting, but one stands out as especially revolting—the bizarre lifeform mentioned in the message window earlier. The label on its jar reads "Type D Biological Tissue Sample" along with three characters: "Dimensional Spawn."
As I bring my hand to the jar, I feel the tiny lifeform wriggling inside. Even sealed in a glass jar steeped in preservatives.
It's not an illusion. Part of its grotesquely swollen head splits open. A small, round eye emerges from the crack, staring at me. It's an emotionless orb, but it carries an unmistakably unpleasant, ominous intelligence.
But the eerie sight doesn't last. The lifeform soon closes its eye again, as if losing interest. It looks peaceful, like it's dead or asleep.
"Tch, this is why this place sucks."
The pointless horror theatrics repeat endlessly.
I grab two such jars, take some precautions, and carefully tuck them into my backpack.
That'll do. Before heading out...
"Shall we do a quick loot run?"
Among the chemicals here, there's some useful stuff.
It's best not to stick your neck into situations where you'd need this crap, but the guy I'm about to meet, Je Mu-kyung, is a pain in the ass. He comes equipped with artifacts that have high magic resistance, so peeling those off would be more efficient with these chemicals than spells.
"Let's see... this one?"
I pick up a blue vial without a label.
[Balusua's Blue Elixir (S-rank Catalyst): One of the elixirs used by ancient serpentfolk. It's a lethally potent corrosive poison, so using it unrefined is dangerous.]
I should grab a few more usable ones while I'm at it.
'Ah, this one releases toxic gas on contact with air.'
Of course, it's a problem if any of these blow up in my possession.
[Hardening]
I cast Hardening on the vials. When needed, I can dispel it and throw them as instant grenades.
I put some in my backpack, slip others into my pockets for quick access, and head back to the hallway.
'I really feel like an idiot. Couldn't I just set the place on fire from outside?'
Of course not.
The quest isn't done yet.
I still have to see a few more wretched sights.
Alright. Now it's time to meet Je Mu-kyung, holed up in the operating room...
I head to the operating room entrance at the deepest corner of the hallway.
Je Mu-kyung rarely comes out, too absorbed in his "surgeries."
The operating room entrance, like everything in the hallway, reeks of blood and menace.
Even the display board above the door flashes [In Surgery].
It wasn't a place for normal surgeries even before Je Mu-kyung and the test subjects took over.
It was where they ripped out brains, dismembered humans, and reassembled the pieces.
'This place had its own share of dogshit horrors far removed from daily life.'
If I just blasted it with a few fireballs from outside, I wouldn't have to see more filth...
The small fry on the first floor don't matter if they die or burst, but not with Je Mu-kyung.
To enter the secret underground spot I talked about with Curtain Call, I need the USB he has.
Even when playing the game, I'd screw up the quest multiple times by getting flashy with booms! or zaps! out of laziness.
And one more thing.
Something even more important than progressing the quest—maybe even more valuable than the 120 million reward.
I want to talk to him.
There's a slim chance he might hold a clue to getting back to my original world.
'Well, honestly, the odds are under 5%...'
No, maybe under 1%.
Either way, it's not zero. None of the NPCs I've met so far had that possibility. Ah, excluding the abyssal entity bastards, of course.
So I can't just sweep him away without a word, right?
I've even planned to meet him alone, risking danger, for that faint chance of conversation.
"So let's have a chat."
To avoid touching the filthy doorknob, I push the door open with magic.
Creaaaaak......
From inside the operating room waft the stench of rotting corpses, chemical fumes, and the tang of blood.
Je Mu-kyung is a madman.
Not that I, wandering around with a mask on, have room to talk, but he's a lunatic obsessed with irrational acts.
Screeech... screeeeech...
The unpleasant noise of leather tearing.
It was already a horrific operating room for insane surgeries, but now it's morphed into a workshop for a maniac.
Blood splattered to the ceiling.
Dismembered corpses with skin peeled off.
Saws, hammers, large cleavers, hooks, iron chains.
Tools more suited to a slaughterhouse or butcher shop than an OR.
In fact, that's pretty much what's happening here.
Specifically, a massive monster crouches by the operating table, ripping skin off a corpse in a gruesome task.
Even crouched, its bulk exudes overwhelming pressure.
Its shoulders are so broad, you could seat a person on each one with room to spare.
That's the monster created by the [Ga-5060 Secret Research Lab].
The most uniquely perfected among dozens of failures.
The worst failure of all: Je Mu-kyung.
"Hey?"
Je Mu-kyung, sitting by the operating table engrossed in his work, lifts his head to look at me.
He's draped in a horrific sackcloth covering his body, head, and face.
It reminds one of a medieval monk, but it's more like a cloak or raincoat than clothing.
"Your sewing skills suck."
It's a gruesome garment he made himself by skinning humans.
Not properly tanned leather, of course.
It's forcibly stripped from bodies, stretched and pieced together into rags. Bits of flesh still cling here and there, blood dripping from other spots.
And... his face is covered by a horrific mask made from someone else's flayed face.
"Grrrrrr..."
Even with human skin over it, what emerges from his mouth is a beastly growl.
Any normal human would lose their mind just seeing this grotesque, horrific space.
[System: Exclusive trait 'Abyss Madness' activates. Nullifies intimidation effect.]
But it's no big deal for me. He has weaknesses, but with [Abyss Madness], he can't harm my mind or soul.
That said, this guy Je Mu-kyung... his condition seems off.
He was crazy from the start, but he had enough reason to respond if spoken to.
That's why I planned to face him alone, without Curtain Call. I have questions and things to confirm.
But the plan's gone awry.
The current Je Mu-kyung is far madder than in the game's cutscene.
Still, just in case... shall I try talking once more?
"Hey, mask buddy."
At that moment, his body hunches further.
Not out of fear.
It's the motion of a beast gathering power to lunge at prey.
His bloodshot eyes gleaming through the leather mask burn with vicious madness.
"This is..."
Oh, he's speaking.
"This is mine! My face! I can't give it up!"
Ha... yeah, I get it.
Who else would understand him if not me? Fellow lunatic, right?
To be precise, Je Mu-kyung has human skin obsession. Different from my mask obsession... but his condition is way worse.
"Yeah, keep it."
"No! Nooooo!"
Why is this guy freaking out the moment we meet?
Je Mu-kyung slowly rises, screaming. In his eyes flickers madness... and fear?
"Ah! Aaaah! Monster... monster! Monster! Don't look at me with those horrific eyes! Don't look at me with four eyes! Demon from the abyss! You can't touch me!"
"Huh?"
Monster? Demon? Did this guy, like Jang Hyun-deok, snap the instant he saw my mask?
"I need skin to wrap myself. Skin holding their souls and minds to cover me...! Pain and despair will protect me! Yugoth's emissary promised to take me!"
No, it's not the mask.
The content's too weird for that.
"I've seen it! We must depart to that distant place beyond, the cradle of life, the soul's resting place! Beyond the horizon lies our world, yet not our world! To the sanctuary filled with calm, quiet ignorance where no veil exists—we must go!"
Wait. I never heard this line in the game. What the hell is he saying?
Our world but not our world? A sanctuary brimming with calm, quiet ignorance?
"We must escape this crumbling, decaying, festering world! We must leave! Embark on the journey! Grraaaah!"