Chapter 69
Chapter 69
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 69
Chapter Title: Body Snatcher (3)
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I entered the warehouse alongside Tae-Won Chae.
The interior was cluttered and filthy, but surprisingly, it looked like it had been operating normally until quite recently.
Massive, aged shelves lined every visible spot, forming walls, and each shelf was stacked with cargoes of unknown origin.
Because of that, visibility was extremely limited, but even in the early sections, I realized these cargoes weren't placed haphazardly.
‘They’re not just piled up randomly.’
Someone had deliberately calculated and arranged them to naturally divide the space.
Tae-Won Chae seemed to have the same thought, whispering to me with a cautious expression.
“The layout feels a bit off.”
“Looks like someone intentionally calculated it to divide the space naturally.”
“A maze…? Is that it?”
“Yeah. Probably to slow down intruders and hide whatever’s deepest inside.”
It wasn’t something thrown together overnight. Without separate partitions, someone had spent a long time painstakingly rearranging the warehouse’s structure in this massive space to conceal what was within.
Venturing a bit further in, faint smells of blood and sulfur began to waft through the air.
Not fresh scents. Blood had been spilled here multiple times before.
Over and over.
They must have kidnapped humans and conducted breeding and parasitization rituals deeper inside.
There were 60 mana sources detected within the warehouse.
Most possessed middling levels of mana.
Probably on par with the ones we’d just faced. The ones we saw earlier were clearly young parasites that hadn’t been inhabiting human bodies for long, judging by their forms and shoddy abilities.
But among those juveniles, one stood out with exceptionally strong mana.
Not quite on the level of the Geom Moo-kyung I’d fought recently, but still formidable enough to be troubling. Not an opponent I could beat by just blowing him away lightly.
That one seemed to be the adult, the mother figure for these parasites….
“This place looks like a colony of an adult that recently went independent and started aggressively breeding.”
“Independent…? You mean there are more of these things?”
“Yes. And this is still in the very early stages. They’ll multiply exponentially over time.”
Tae-Won Chae let out a low groan.
But we couldn’t afford to chat any longer.
A gloomy, low voice began echoing from deeper within.
Followed by the dull thrum of percussion instruments.
“Y’aaaaa…… G’anghel, fai…… Ngath…… Fhaagh.”
“Uaaah…… Chug Ahi al buh buh…… Ph’nglui mgagn K’yarnakagn…….”
Chants of alien tongue, repeating like incantations.
Just hearing them could brainwash you, twisting your mind.
[System: Exclusive trait ‘Abyssal Madness’ activates. Nullifies mental domination effects.]
As long as I had the [Abyssal Madness] trait, I was fine.
The problem was Tae-Won Chae.
His face was pale despite his efforts to stay composed. He’d been through all sorts of battles in Paju, facing ability users and mutants alike. But that was all within human limits.
This level of surreal, otherworldly horror was probably beyond even him.
But we had no time to hesitate. Heading toward the sound, I spotted a passage leading to the warehouse’s deepest recess. Passing through there would let us confirm the parasites’ nest.
‘Tch, thorough bastards.’
Unfortunately, a guard stood watch over that passage. One parasite clad in human flesh. I signaled to Tae-Won Chae, then activated [Sound Distortion] just like outside to eliminate noise.
Almost simultaneously with my spell, Tae-Won Chae’s body sprang into motion.
He leaped onto a nearby shelf in one bound, then raced toward the guarding parasite in a posture like running up the wall itself. What followed was a merciless kick.
Bam!!
Immense power. The kick, infused with mana, tore the guard’s neck clean off in one blow, sending the head—housing the parasite’s true body—flying far away. Ah, but just launching it like that—what if it escapes?
[Arrow of Ruin]
[Spell Enhancement: Toxicity]
I hurled a toxic, subdimensional energy bolt at the flying head. The parasite, pierced before it could flee, perished on the spot.
“Launching it like that risks the true body hiding away.”
“Hmm…… I meant to smash it head and all, but I misjudged my strength.”
Practically a curtain call idea. Do all physical fighters think like that? No, that’s not it. He was starting to get overwhelmed by the surreal situation, leading to rash judgment and illogical choices.
Of course, if he could channel that madness into recklessness like a curtain call, that’d be ideal—but the Tae-Won Chae I remembered from the game wasn’t that type.
“Let’s hurry inside.”
“No, wait a moment.”
I stopped Tae-Won Chae briefly.
“Branch Chief, you seem to be losing your composure a bit.”
“Huh?”
I pointed to his fist. He’d been clenching it white-knuckled since earlier. Only after looking at his hand did he grasp my point, his face turning flustered.
“This won’t do…… I came to help, but I nearly got in the way.”
“It’s fine. But these things eat human brains. I’m worried you might lose it when you see what’s waiting ahead.”
With that, I cast a spell on his mind.
[Lion’s Valor]
[Exhilaration]
“This is……?”
The sight awaiting us ahead wasn’t something Tae-Won Chae could handle.
So I infused his mind with the power to endure instability and the will to not flee.
Tae-Won Chae’s expression brightened, as if his body had grown younger, brimming with vitality.
“Your earlier move was excellent. Let’s approach like that.”
As I spoke, I raised my hand toward the top of the shelves forming the wall.
Seeing where I pointed, Tae-Won Chae gave a slightly sheepish smile.
“Embarrassing. But got it.”
With that, Tae-Won Chae’s body shot upward swiftly. Like a ninja, he soundlessly reached the topmost shelf tier, crouching low and creeping forward slowly.
Makes me envious of the fighter class. My last playthrough character was a fighter too….
[Sound Distortion]
I lacked confidence in moving that silently, so I distorted sound while levitating my body.
[Leap]
I told Tae-Won Chae to hold position and took the lead. Traditionally, the frontline tank should go first…. But something felt off.
Deeper in, a scene utterly unlike the rest of the warehouse awaited.
A space about the size of a classroom. Completely empty, as if all fixtures had been cleared out, but the floor and walls were splattered with unpleasant slime and dried bloodstains.
And in the center of that floor, a massive pentagram was drawn. At its heart lay a single girl.
Dressed in pajamas, with glass-cut-like wounds on parts of her body.
It was Hyun-ah Jeong.
Nothing bound her. Nor was she unconscious. Hyun-ah Jeong stared blankly at the ceiling, her face devoid of any emotion or thought.
Likely paralyzed via nerve clusters with hypnotic effects.
At each vertex of the massive pentagram where Hyun-ah Jeong lay, one human stood.
Five in total. The remaining twenty or so humans knelt respectfully outside the pentagram, observing the ongoing ritual or playing bizarre instruments.
The visible humans varied wildly in gender, age, attire—everything.
‘Calling them humans might be inaccurate.’
They weren’t living humans.
They breathed, spoke, even wielded mana….
But inside their heads, instead of brains, lurked grotesque alien organisms.
The one among them with the strongest mana.
The parasite inhabiting a middle-aged man in a gray suit stepped away from its position, slowly entering the pentagram.
Its mouth opened.
“The great and innocent Sultan of Evil, the blind and foolish one, the true king dreaming the dreams of the universe.”
Its words continued.
“Our lord has permitted the breeding ritual.”
“Iä! Iä!”
“Iä! Iä!”
Purple, eerie mana began emanating from the pentagram on the floor.
The mana, now permeating around me unnoticed, sought to coil around my body.
Very slowly…… but steadily beginning to erode my mind.
Crackle……
[System: Exclusive trait ‘Abyssal Madness’ activates.]
As the trait triggered, a small spark jumped at my temple.
The encroaching purple mana flinched and recoiled. Good thing I entered before Tae-Won Chae.
It made a tiny noise, but fortunately, they were too absorbed in the ritual to notice me.
These parasites served the greatest evil, possibly the origin of all—the [Blind Idiot God].
Unlike other abyssal beings that voraciously multiplied their followers, he required no worshippers, no symbols or temples in his name.
The [Blind Idiot God] held no will to act of his own.
Merely a conceptual existence from time immemorial, or an abstract law, or pure force.
Yet by performing certain rituals passed down for hundreds of millions of years, one could borrow his power, if briefly. What they were doing now was one such ancient rite.
The parasites’ mumbling chants ceased.
The adult parasite inside the pentagram grinned grotesquely and addressed Hyun-ah Jeong.
From its mouth flowed a voice…… remarkably gentle and sweet.
“Worry not, child of man.”
“There will be no pain, no suffering of any kind.”
“We shall gift you only pleasure, happiness, and ecstasy.”
“Return to the innocent life of the past, stripped of the intelligence you unjustly claimed. Submission suits you—life as a slave.”
“Accept it. Accept it. Accept it.”
‘What utter bullshit.’
Then, from outside the pentagram, an especially burly man stepped in.
His mouth opened.
It gaped enormously.
Beyond the limits allowable by human flesh.
From that vast maw, a small parasite crawled out.
A horrific monster neither human nor insect.
The entire spectacle was so bizarre that even someone from Paju—or anywhere in this world—would lose their mind upon witnessing it.
Thus, a new message window appeared, blanketing my vision.