The Doll Room

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'Not bad at all. There's no way they'd tell me to stop right in the middle of performing the ritual. I'll start chipping away at it little by little from tomorrow.'

I clicked my teeth together several times in satisfaction, then proceeded with Irmana's ritual. I thought about placing a hand on the goddess statue, but it somehow felt disrespectful, so I simply set it down on the floor.

'O Goddess Irmana... I am a very pitiful skeleton who earnestly prays to meet you... I truly want to meet you. If you can hear my voice—'

A moment later, my consciousness had been transported to an entirely different world.

I found myself looking down at a lake so vast my eyes couldn't take it all in. I snapped back to my senses and wondered where on earth I was.

'?! Isn't that a forest at the far end? So am I floating above a lake...? Could this be Katarin Lake?'

Was the water that had gushed from the ancient empire's pitcher drawn from here? When I focused my senses, the energy felt similar to what had come from the jug. Yet the magic power contained within was incomparably cleaner and purer.

How tempting. It must have lost a great deal of its strength when transferred into the pitcher. Even diluted, it was mysterious water capable of producing all sorts of effects.

'I thought it would be a tiny lake, but this is practically an ocean.'

Unless the trees themselves were miniature, the lake sitting boldly in the middle of the forest was truly enormous. Even from this soaring vantage point, I could barely make out its edges.

While I stared down at the lake in a daze, I suddenly felt a colossal presence gazing down at me from a height so immense I couldn't even gauge the distance. A chill raced down my spine.

'......'

I couldn't speak. I couldn't even turn around. I simply trembled. When I regained my senses, I was back in the front yard of the house.

'Phew— That nearly killed me.'

My molars rattled uncontrollably.

'Ha— Ha— This... this feels similar to when my consciousness was pulled away because of Yeonhee, doesn't it?'

Of course the scale was incomparable, yet the overwhelming sense of powerlessness—like I was less than a speck of dust—was exactly the same.

I'd planned to activate Mimicry the moment the ritual ended, but I'd suffered an unexpected mental blow.

'Sigh... I don't even know anymore.'

I flopped onto my back and spent a long while trying to steady my mind.

'Whatever it was, it seemed furious...'

No, to be more precise, it hadn't been angry at me...

'It felt like it was angry at itself.'

Since my consciousness had been drawn there during the ritual, the being that stared down at me from above had to be Irmana.

'What could have enraged such a mighty existence so deeply?'

I was desperately curious about the story behind it, but no matter how long I stared at the statue or ran my hands over it, there was no further reaction.

'I was hoping another event would trigger... Well, I suppose I'll just have to keep experiencing it.'

Today wasn't the only day, after all.

I carefully stored the statue in my subspace and activated Mimicry.

A familiar sensation washed over me as a minimap unfolded inside my head. Sinister presences appeared as dots in the nearest positions, and soon a single dot of a different color appeared far off in the distance.

When I tapped the distant dot on the map, a message rose before me.

I had restocked my Skeleton Bombs to a full hundred. My mouth was filled with Special Strong Acid. Horns rose from my forehead and my tail was curled and hidden behind me. If we clashed immediately, I intended to unload every skill I had.

After enlarging a Fireball until it exceeded the size of my torso, I shouted toward the system.

'Move to the Great Villain.'

An unfamiliar space. An unfamiliar smell. And countless dolls writhing and screaming in every direction.

'So I came to the same room I saw yesterday...'

I'd entered in Stealth, but the space was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠empty.

'Mm— good. He's on his way home.'

When I expanded my senses, I could feel Bin Chi-seung gradually drawing closer. It was a filthy sensation, like old sticky glue clinging to my pants. The unique texture of villains that I could never forget.

He must have stopped by a convenience store; he was carrying a bag stuffed with food. Training clothes, horn-rimmed glasses, a hat pulled low. The unbalanced shoulders and limping leg were unusual for a hunter, so it felt slightly strange.

As he walked quietly, he grew increasingly cheerful and even began whistling. The sight filled me with unease.

'Hmm... I don't sense any foreign presence in the space itself.'

It seemed he'd noticed my intrusion, but he didn't appear completely certain. He strode forward without hesitation.

'I was planning to strike the moment he arrived anyway.'

I turned the doorknob, intending to leave the doll room and ambush him as he entered.

'Huh... So I can't leave without the owner's permission. Of all places, it had to send me here.'

I was surprised it could move me directly to a Great Villain, but it wasn't exactly doing me any favors. If the destination wasn't chosen randomly...

'Does it connect to the last space shown in the video?'

That seemed the most likely. In that case, I'd have to time my video cutoffs carefully... but was that even possible?

I tapped the door and walls with my hand. They bent like jelly, so I quickly pulled away.

'I could smash them if I wanted, but breaking a space ability by force often triggers additional conditions.'

Besides, the dolls might get hurt. In the end, I decided to wait until he arrived. Since I was in Stealth, maybe he wouldn't notice me.

Click.

A short while later, he placed his hand on the front door handle, sharing its metal and warmth.

'......'

He turned the knob with extreme caution... and agonizing slowness. Then he slowly pushed his head inside and looked around. His eyes, constantly darting as if ready to pop out, gave me a strong sense of revulsion.

Creeeeak—

'He definitely noticed. When? From the moment he suddenly became cheerful earlier? I didn't feel anything at all. The dolls aren't emitting any magic power either.'

It meant the space was designed so perfectly that even I couldn't detect it. Only then did a slight sense of crisis settle in.

Soon he stared straight at where I stood. Even though I was behind a wall, his gaze felt vividly clear.

'What? How did he—'

Then I saw the dolls packed into my field of vision and nearly smacked my own skull.

'So vision sharing was possible...'

The dolls that had been writhing in agony only a second ago had now calmly settled down, staring at me with indifferent eyes.

'Stealth is useless... My senses aren't functioning properly either. Hmm...'

The stealth I'd grown through my class change didn't seem like it would be overpowered by mere dolls. The space itself had to be designed to be overwhelmingly advantageous to its caster.

'Haa~ Oh dear, oh dear~ It's been so long since a guest visited~ What did I do wrong? Even limping around pathetically outside was useless. Hehe—'

Clack!

After closing the door, he spoke to me in an oddly excited voice.

'He seems confident.'

Otherwise he wouldn't have reacted like this. He licked his lips and began waving his hand through the air. The space where I stood distorted, and the dolls vanished in an instant.

'His physical abilities are far below even an ogre, so nothing impressive there, but the magic power and aura he ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠gives off are incredible. How is that possible?'

His magic power was more than three times my own, and its density was astonishingly thick. He had clearly reached an advanced stage in sorcery.

The ominous gray magic power crept toward me.

Whoosh—— BOOM!

I refused to hold back any longer. I switched to combat form, releasing Stealth. It was my first time switching to combat mode while in human form. The explosive burst of flame felt rather pleasant, as if a fireball were protecting me.

I'd poured in a considerable amount of magic power to shake the space itself, yet the distorted and refracted area was now filled with a different color.

"Kkukuku..."

Bin Chi-seung entered the room holding a female doll in his arms. He approached me and spoke.

Clap clap clap clap—

Suddenly countless dolls appeared from thin air and clapped in unison. Yet every one of them shed tears of blood, and their eyes as they looked at me were thick with emotions that had reached their peak.

I deliberately ignored the dolls' voices to focus on Bin Chi-seung.

'That polite speech doesn't suit him at all...'

He kept spouting nonsense as his face gradually grew hideous. If one were to draw the face of a human filled only with malice, it would look exactly like that.

......

When dealing with those who could manipulate their own space, one had to be careful even with a single breath or word. I'd heard that if you were caught by special ability users who could set keywords, uttering certain words could restrict your ability usage for a period or even have it stolen entirely.

Of course there probably weren't many hunters with abilities that powerful, but one could never be sure. Especially not with someone who carried the title of Great Villain.

I immediately took action.

'There's no point thinking about it.'

But before I could even move, he thrust the doll he was holding forward and spoke.

......

His body emitted a bright flash. He spoke as if he had seen something in the future, and for a moment the image of the leader of the Path rose in my mind, sending goosebumps across my body.

'No... It won't be at the level of the Path's leader. At best he'll be ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠able to see a few seconds ahead... There must be a limited number of uses as well.'

My experience told me so.

The dolls had now clustered thickly around his body, rubbing their hands together and begging me not to kill him, not to hurt him.

'Ugh...'

If they had simply been dolls I wouldn't have cared, but knowing they were shrunken humans connected to real bodies made it impossible for me to cut them down together.

'I really am too soft. If killing a few people is the price to eliminate a villain like this, I should be willing to pay it...'