Chapter 201
Translator: uly
Chapter: 64
Chapter Title: Essential Quest: Illitihia
[Part 2 Chapter 64]
§ Essential Quest Illitihia
The dungeon that had sent Ban Woojin back to his original world immediately set off to meet Rahee.
Essential Quest:
[S-Rank Quest] Default Room Re-entry
Quest Content: Recover the memories presumed lost from Rahee unnie.
It had to resolve this quest.
Gate Trauma Center.
This was where Rahee currently worked.
Originally, she had been helping kids who participated in the Abyss Project, but once they had all grown up to a certain extent, she moved to a new workplace.
Dun pulled his hat low over his face and wore a mask as he headed to where Rahee worked.
“Is this your first time?”
“Yes.”
As he tried to head straight to where Rahee was, a guide at the entrance blocked him.
“If you give me your name and date of birth, I’ll check and schedule a consultation for you.”
“Ah…… That’s a problem.”
When Dun hesitated, the guide kindly continued.
“Are you a civilian? The civilian counseling center is at another branch. Shall I guide you there?”
“No, not that. Hmm…….”
Dun considered waiting until Rahee got off work but found it too bothersome, so he went into the bathroom and changed into Saebyeok’s appearance.
He took off the hat and mask he had been wearing earlier, removed his hoodie to leave just a short-sleeved shirt, and exited the bathroom.
“Schedule a consultation for me. I’m Saebyeok from the Association.”
“Ah! Saebyeok!”
The guide recognized him and smiled brightly.
“What brings you here? You’ve been ignoring all our calls saying you wouldn’t come.”
“Haha.”
“Shall I schedule a consultation with Hunter Rahee?”
“Yeah, please.”
The guide busily arranged Saebyeok’s meeting time.
“Don’t run off this time. Just sit and wait five minutes.”
A vague memory surfaced of constantly fleeing whenever they tried to schedule counseling sessions while he was Saebyeok.
If even the Trauma Center guide knew about his escapes, he must have dodged them quite a lot. Dun gave an awkward smile and sat down.
“Hunter Saebyeok, please go to Room 3.”
It hadn’t been long since he sat down when the meeting was scheduled.
Finding it suspiciously easy, he looked at the guide in puzzlement, who sighed and spoke in a scolding tone.
“The person who had the prior slot yielded it to you, so don’t run away this time.”
“Ah, no need for that. I’ll just wait.”
“…….”
“……I said.”
The guide frowned as if telling him to stop talking and gestured for him to hurry to Room 3.
‘She’s so kind.’
Back when he was Saebyeok, the constant contacts had felt like spam and annoying, but looking back now, it felt somewhat grateful.
Dun nodded in thanks and pulled the door handle marked “Hunter Rahee.”
“Sae, Saebyeok!!”
The moment he opened the door, Rahee jumped up from her seat with an excited expression.
A beauty with long straight black hair and a refined look greeted Dun with a bright smile.
Rahee, who had spread her arms to hug him, became aware of her surroundings and cleared her throat.
“Ahem. Sit over there…….”
Saebyeok nodded and sat on the plush, comfortable sofa. Rahee gripped his hand tightly, worried he might run off.
She had scheduled consultations dozens of times only for him to ghost her.
Occasionally, if she lured him out with talk of playing games, he’d sluggishly show up, but if she tried to ease his mind with her awakening ability, he’d bolt immediately.
He’d said it was embarrassing to show his mind as it was.
“You okay?”
“With what?”
“The recent Hysis Gate…….”
Dun nodded.
Years had passed, and there was no reason not to be okay. Everyone had survived anyway.
“I’m not here for mental treatment. I came to find lost memories.”
“L-Lost memories?”
“Yeah.”
Dun nodded.
“You…… lost some memories?”
“Yeah. I need to find them.”
The memories he had lost when Lee Yoo-hyun gave him the “Dun Package” in the past.
He needed to recover them to create the cheat and clear the essential quest.
Rahee nodded.
Truthfully, she was just happy that Saebyeok had come to her, no matter what he wanted.
“C-Can I look at your emotions while recovering the memories?”
“Do whatever. It’s fine by me.”
“Wh-What…… What’s this…….”
At those words, Rahee looked surprised before smiling. Saebyeok’s wariness seemed to have eased a lot.
She had always wanted to lighten the burden of Saebyeok, who bristled like a wildcat and poked around everywhere, and this was her chance.
She had to soothe him quickly now that he had opened his heart.
“Anyway, Saebyeok. I’ll say it again. Your information……. It’ll be forgotten along with the end of your consultation. You can trust me…….”
Rahee’s treatment involved fully exposing the subject’s life story, so during consultations, she protected information by erasing the treatment content from her own autobiography.
This was exactly the part Saebyeok had worried about, and he always fled whenever she tried to explain it.
“Got it, I trust you. Hurry and find the memories.”
“Wait, don’t rush me.”
Rahee steadied her breathing and sorted her mana.
Touching Saebyeok’s story, which surely held many wounds, required even greater focus.
Composing herself, Rahee opened her mouth to chant the incantation.
“The blueprint of a person drawn through understanding…….”
The incantation wasn’t strictly necessary, but reciting it helped her concentrate and looked more impressive, so Rahee continued calmly.
“The imagination you create is a composite of the unconscious…….”
“Unnie, this is frustrating.”
“……Saebyeok, shh. Drawing out the unconscious that stimulates emotions to show you the illusion of those memories…….”
Once her mana was densely concentrated in her body, Rahee shouted clearly.
“Isolnum Verkatios!!”
Flash!
Everything turned into a white space. Holding a giant brush, Rahee stood at the starting point of Saebyeok’s story.
As Rahee passed through scenes and stories, she suddenly felt something off.
‘Why is there nothing to touch?’
Even the emotions in potentially traumatic memories were calm.
Rather, her own heart ached from reading the memories, but the emotions of the person who owned them were flat.
“What are you doing?”
“Eek!”
A voice suddenly came from behind, startling Rahee into a short yelp.
“H-How did you get here?”
“Mollang.”
Rahee stared at the innocent Dun with round eyes.
Normally, the subject would fall asleep when she used her ability, so it was strange that Saebyeok had followed her here.
“But unnie, it’s an illusion magic, right? How does it heal people’s mental states? I’ve always been curious.”
Having originally been a children’s educational comic artist, Rahee never imagined she’d end up working in a place like this.
But after her second job change, her class subtly shifted to “Autobiography Comic Artist,” and spending time with Abyss Project participants solidified her position as a mental treatment hunter.
Treating minds required different approaches for each person, but the general format was similar.
First, read the individual’s information to generate an “autobiography,” then depict it as an illusion.
A person’s life would then unfold like a panorama before her eyes.
From there, she would drastically reduce the descriptions and depictions of the most painful memory emotions and expand those of joyful memories.
Through this process, people could lean more on good memories than bad ones, gaining vitality.
This allowed her to heal without much conversation or forcing the subject to voice painful memories, making it a low-resistance method for quelling trauma.
“Ah……. As I view the memories, I find parts where emotions linger intensely……. I reduce the descriptions of those parts and add more to good memories. So……. Hard memories from gates fade lighter, while descriptions of happy family times are enlarged.”
As she spoke, Rahee let out a sigh mixed with admiration.
“Still, it’s am-mazing.”
“……What is?”
“You’re already doing it. Good memories are described largely. Bad ones minimally.”
Rahee smiled bitterly as she retraced the memories. This was probably how Saebyeok had held onto his sanity in extreme situations.
Rahee painfully smiled while stroking with her fingertips the parts that had faded like erased drawings.
“It’s like you just erase the too-painful stuff from your…… head.”
Since Rahee’s analysis was spot on, Dun nodded vigorously several times. He had completely erased some difficult memories from his mind.
That’s why it took so long to remember that Ninapinta was in the game.
It was fascinating that his unconscious habit had become Rahee’s awakening ability.
Perhaps Rahee unnie’s ability had manifested from him, so there was a connection?
Dun walked through the remaining memories alongside Rahee. She frowned a lot and smiled a lot while examining Saebyeok’s memories.
But what hurt her heart was how matter-of-factly they were described.
Rahee walked up to the point where the Hysis Gate had erupted.
“Ah, again……. This is weird.”
As they kept walking, Rahee suddenly stopped. Memories after the Hysis Gate shouldn’t stretch on so endlessly, but they did.
Far ahead were memories of Saebyeok at 20 years old, and beyond……
A child with light brown hair appeared. The child was calling friends’ names from the middle of a fiery pit.
Red eyes filled with loneliness and screams.
A terribly familiar face. This child was the one who gave her the ability……
“You……. Who are you?”
“…….”
Dun awkwardly scratched the back of his head. Having been greeted so warmly the moment he entered, he had missed the timing to reveal the truth.
Dun reverted from Saebyeok’s appearance back to his original one.
His cold black hair turned to soft wheat-colored hair, and his black eyes shifted to the red ones seen earlier.
His overall appearance subtly changed as well.
The person familiar from the game appeared.
Rahee’s eyes widened hugely as she watched the process.
“Dun……?”
“Hard to explain.”
Fortunately, no Paradox Penalty popped up. It seemed because Rahee would erase her own memories after treatment.
“You, you were Saebyeok? H-How……?”
It was hard to accept immediately, but the autobiography unfolding before her proved Dun was Saebyeok.
“Ah, well, it’s hard to explain simply. Just think of me as future Saebyeok.”
“That’s not s-simple……. Hold on……. Let me sort my thoughts…….”
Rahee walked through Dun’s memories for a long time, lost in thought. She saw the scene where Dun had granted her ability.
She also saw scenes of Dun being chased by players.
As she walked through the memories confronting the unrealistic situation, Rahee realized Dun’s life began from the death of a close friend.
“Saebyeok died……?”
Having read the memories and seen the near-death scene, Rahee shook her head, tears falling.
Fortunately, that wasn’t Saebyeok’s end, but Dun’s subsequent life didn’t look peaceful either.
Rather, the emotions themselves appeared calm, which hurt her heart.
She had felt the past emotions were too faintly colored for mere self-erasure, and it turned out to be from deliberately trying to forget over much time.
Abyss-related parts had moderately vivid emotions and memories, while the rest were hazy like erased with an eraser.
Rahee couldn’t stop being shocked as she wandered around.
All her questions about Dun made sense now, but the understanding was so unrealistic it made her feel dumb.
“You’re really……. H-How did you live like this…….”
The backstory of Dun, who seemed so innocently carefree, was nothing but shocks.
“Just lived.”
The embarrassed Dun scratched the back of his head as he walked through his own memory interior.
While examining memories from just arriving at Mont Gihle, he suddenly spotted a neatly severed memory part. While wandering the waterfront searching for the kids, the memory abruptly cut off.
It cleanly severed. Then naturally sutured, continuing onward.