Chapter 127
Chapter 127
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 127
Chapter Title: The Fixer Exam, Is This Really Okay? (1)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
When I came to, I found myself in the middle of a colorless world.
Had my mind finally snapped?
Everything I saw was a murky gray.
And yet, the sky alone glowed an ominous red.
I couldn’t help but find the sight deeply unsettling.
“Where… am I?”
After staring blankly at the sky for a long while, I slowly lowered my gaze.
My eyes fell upon the sight of a ruined city, littered with piles of corpses.
The destroyed cityscape was so blurred it was hard to imagine what it had once looked like.
But for some reason, I instinctively knew this place was Nighthaven.
It was incomprehensible. After all, there was no way Nighthaven could have fallen like this.
With the Dragon Mayor and Raven around… it was supposed to be the safest place in the world.
“While the city was falling to ruin, where was Raven? Was he just taking a peaceful nap somewhere?”
Unable to accept the situation, I furrowed my brow and muttered to myself.
Then, I took a step forward, searching for Raven, who had to be hiding somewhere.
But there was no sign of life in this city.
All that existed were chunks of flesh, once human, scattered across the ground like weeds.
In a world that had lost all color, the blood, strangely, remained a deep, vivid red.
I wandered the city endlessly, searching for Raven. I don’t know for how long.
Suddenly, I felt a tight grip on my ankle, and I fell right where I stood.
“Agh!”
*Splat.*
The blood, pooled on the ground like a puddle, splashed onto my face from the impact.
It's sticky and disgusting. Blood is so hard to clean off, and of all places to fall, it had to be here.
With that thought, I tried to push my sluggish, unresponsive body up.
No, to be precise, I *tried* to get up.
If only the corpse right next to me hadn't suddenly turned its head to look at me.
Was it because I was so shocked?
I couldn't even scream, only managing to gasp for air like a fish out of water.
The corpse, its face too mutilated to recognize, spoke in a completely unfamiliar voice.
“This is the masterpiece of the Nexus Project. The key for humanity to become the gods of all dimensions.”
“It was fortunate we were able to secure the Child of God. With this, we move to the next phase.”
“Death to the traitor. Death to the traitor. Death to the traitor. Death to the traitor.”
It was the voice of a man. It was also the voice of an old man.
But it was the voice of a woman. And the voice of a child.
A cacophony of voices, impossible to distinguish.
Was it the noise, so incomprehensible, that was scrambling my brain?
I shoved the corpse away and scrambled backward on the ground.
Of course, since the ground was covered in blood, my entire body became a sticky, bloody mess.
But the fear, like a sharp blade at my throat, was too overwhelming to care.
“What… why… what is this…!”
Then, *thud*, I felt my back hit a hard wall.
I was sure I'd seen that there was no wall there. Why?
That faint thought vanished like a mirage, suppressed by overwhelming emotion.
I-I have to escape, anywhere. With that thought, I frantically darted my eyes around.
It was then that I belatedly realized I was surrounded by corpses with familiar features.
And upon understanding what that meant, I could only mutter to myself in a hollow voice.
“…Greg? Ra…ven? Alice…?”
Of course, there was no way I wouldn't recognize them.
They were the people I'd come to cherish after falling into this world.
How could I not recognize their features?
This had to be a nightmare.
A terrible dream where my precious world was collapsing.
A cruel reality I wished was a dream, one I couldn't wake from no matter what.
But I couldn't just stay here.
I instinctively knew that something terrifying was coming for me.
But my body felt as heavy as if it were submerged deep in the ocean.
No matter how much I struggled, I couldn't get up from where I'd fallen.
“Don’t come… Stay away!”
*Rumble…*
Amidst the thick dust swirling through the ruined city.
Something of an unknown shape slowly approached me.
Something that moved leisurely toward me, as if it were floating in the air.
My legs completely gave out. I stared blankly up at it and let out a dazed voice.
“Huh?”
The thing that broke through the thick, colorless dust and stopped right in front of me was… none other than a cargo truck.
A vehicle shining like a new car, completely out of place in this ruined city.
It was like a pointless gag scene appearing during the climax of a serious horror movie.
My fear and terror were momentarily paralyzed by bewilderment.
Then, the reason that had been thoroughly suppressed by my emotions slowly returned.
For the first time, I was able to calmly look around.
“A truck…? Ah, could this be…?”
As I hurried to grasp the situation, several keywords struck my mind like lightning.
The Fixer exam, the second test, illusion magic, overcoming fear…
And when I finally managed to lift my unresponsive body.
I realized that all of this was a fabrication, an illusion shown by the bracelet.
“No wonder… my body wouldn’t move properly. Is this a hallucination, something close to a dream?”
Thinking back, everything was full of inconsistencies.
Me, who was just in the examination hall, suddenly standing in the middle of a ruined city.
And thinking this was Nighthaven without any basis in the first place.
To not even feel a sense of unease when the sky was the only thing with color in a monochrome world.
It's like I was an idiot who couldn't even tell the difference between sugar and salt.
But I had a bit of an excuse.
I mean, this is a special device made by a very powerful illusionist, right?
It wouldn't actually kill you from shock, but it specializes in cornering you mentally.
It seems simply steeling my resolve wasn't enough.
Then again, even with memories from another world, my own mental fortitude isn't anything special.
If an ordinary person like me could easily shake it off, the pass rate wouldn't be barely 30%.
“So it maximizes feelings of fear and dread to prevent rational judgment? Come to think of it, the corpses around me… they don’t look like Raven or Alice at all now. I must have perceived them that way because I was afraid of it… right?”
After muttering to myself and nodding lightly.
I finally noticed that I was speaking so naturally.
Hmm, this was another piece of evidence that this wasn't reality.
I wasn't actually speaking, though I still don't know what my voice sounds like.
Feeling a sense of wonder about it all, I suddenly looked at the white truck standing tall on the road.
A truck popping up out of nowhere, right when my greatest fear was supposed to appear.
Thanks to that, my immersion was completely broken, allowing me to forcibly regain my senses, but…
Its strangely familiar appearance made me tilt my head in confusion.
This truck is what I fear most? I don't feel that way at all.
As I thought that and stared intently at the truck, a possibility suddenly crossed my mind.
“…Ah, no way! Is this… the cargo truck that hit me in my past life?”
Seriously, what is this?
More dumbfounded than surprised, a muscle in my face twitched.
No wonder it seemed so strangely familiar. To think we had that kind of connection.
For me, it was bewildering in many ways.
The moment of death was so fleeting that I barely felt any pain or fear.
So why did this truck appear as the thing I fear most?
Could I have been suffering from some kind of PTSD without even realizing it?
“…But I don’t really feel anything just looking at it. Is this thing defective? No, the buildup until this point was pretty scary…”
Pondering this with my chin in my hand, I clambered up the truck and perched on its roof.
From there, my view was filled with the completely ruined city and the dead bodies scattered everywhere.
It felt so unreal that looking at it now was like watching a scene from a game.
So, this is what I fear from the depths of my subconscious.
Nighthaven falling, and everyone, including Raven and Alice, dying.
Yeah, it was definitely a sight I didn't want to see.
It's the kind of thing you'd expect the illusion bracelet, which tests mental fortitude, to show.
Of course, it's less that the bracelet figured it out on its own and more that I brought out my own greatest fears.
“…I’ve broken free from the illusion. In that case, I should probably end this test quickly.”
I took a deep breath and slowly closed my eyes.
In the deep darkness that immediately followed, I focused my consciousness on the tips of my limbs.
Amidst a hollow sense of floating, where I felt nothing as if paralyzed.
Slowly, as if finding a lost thread, I detected a faint sensation connected to my physical body.
‘This is it. My real arm is here.’
Once I had regained the lost sensation, the next step was simple.
Feeling the contradictory sensation of moving yet not moving, I yanked off the illusion bracelet on my wrist.
It felt like suddenly shooting up to the surface from the deep sea.
I immediately found myself standing in the middle of the gymnasium.
“…!”
Was it because I broke free from the illusion by my own will?
I was assaulted by a sudden, piercingly bright light and a loud noise that felt like it was hammering my eardrums.
And right in front of me was the examiner, a Peacekeeper, his eyes wide with shock.
Of course, as if to remind me this was reality, my voice wouldn't come out.
“How so fast…? He has no mana, so he shouldn’t have any resistance either!”
“That’s an absurd level of mental fortitude. Is that kid a monster…?”
“It hasn’t even been thirty seconds… I guess you really can’t judge a book by its cover!”
As I slowly grew accustomed to the slightly awkward sensations, I looked around.
The other examinees were standing next to me, their eyes closed, letting out pained groans.
Was I the first one out of the twenty to wake from the illusion?
Well, it makes sense. Everyone else is probably in the middle of fighting their enemy. I broke out of the illusion the moment I met mine.
A speed difference like this might have been inevitable.
I doubt anyone else had a cargo truck suddenly appear like I did.
After looking around for a moment to assess the situation, I quietly handed the bracelet to the examiner.
There was nothing to do just standing there awkwardly.
I figured it was better to get out of the way so I wouldn't disturb the other examinees.
“White Team, number 274… P-Pass…! But please wait here for a moment… A-After all the examinees have finished, stabilizers will be provided for everyone…”
“…”
Ah, I think there was a scene like that in the original story.
If that was the reason, I nodded once to show I would wait quietly.
Perhaps because the illusion is only visible to the person wearing the bracelet.
The examinees standing near me were all grimacing with their eyes closed.
Some of them were foaming at the mouth and losing consciousness, unable to overcome the illusion.
Others declared their surrender, giving up on the test.
So it wasn't just difficult for me. This test is especially hard for humans, isn't it?
I really have to respect any pure human who managed to pass this mental fortitude test.
“A-Alright… The passers are the four currently standing! Next fifteen, step forward!”
*Pant, pant…* “What… that kid passed, too…?”
“How strong is his mind…? Tsk, I’d better avoid him if we meet in the next test.”
I had the strange feeling that I was making some enemies.
That's really not it. I sincerely hoped it was just a misunderstanding.