Chapter 17
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 17
Chapter Title: Mental Abnormality
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【TY: 0 → 1】
【Strange Tale: Yeongwol General Hospital】
【Items: 1】
【You have witnessed one of the great phenomena.】
【Penalty: Minor Mental Derangement】
"Déjà vu?"
I remembered agonizing over something just like this before.
But this time, it ran even deeper.
Last time, I'd only thought that the soul resided in the mind, not the body. But the ability I just used had clearly detonated the soul itself.
And the self-loathing it unleashed.
'Am I still the same person I was before? Or am I just a completely different stranger wearing the shell of my former self?'
A question far closer to philosophy than theory.
As I'd said before, no philosopher or scientist on Earth could prove or disprove this feeling and idea.
It was terrifying.
Just utterly terrifying.
The inscrutable entity I'd seen from "outside" filled me with dread, and even more so did the disgust surging toward myself for returning unscathed after facing it.
"Spawned back in the original hospital room, huh..."
At least that was a relief.
If I'd respawned right where I died, I might've had to endure endless explosions.
For now, I just curled up and let the emotions flow out.
Ten minutes.
Thirty minutes.
An hour.
In what felt both long and short...
Yu-na, who had been watching me from afar without my noticing her return, slowly approached.
"You really are human after all."
"What else would I be? Some monster?"
"I couldn't help suspecting in the heat of the moment. Like maybe all this was part of some scheme."
"You've got a real talent for wild delusions."
She didn't show it, but she was being considerate, aware that I'd been through something.
Did she have that side to her?
Until now, I'd pegged her as an emotionless psychopath just like me. But it seemed she'd been deliberately matching my emotional wavelength.
"Honestly, does it even make sense? You've been in this insane strange tale space for less than a few hours, yet you rescued me after decades trapped here and reached another area in just days?"
"Objectively speaking, no, it doesn't."
"That's why I got tons of messages from Jutak and Pottak too. From questioning if you were really a 'human' instead of a 'monster' to anonymous hit requests."
"Those fuckers are real pieces of shit, huh? I get the suspicion, but assassination? What the hell..."
Yu-na let out a long sigh and expanded the gallery.
And the messages that appeared.
"Succeed in the assassination, and you'll get to go home...?"
"Total bullshit, 100%. Like I said before, one of them seems to be a traitor in league with the strange tale. If they had the power to escape on their own, they'd have done it already."
"Fair point."
We're only safe now because we have a clear escape method.
For people trapped in an incomprehensible strange tale, it'd be persuasive enough to fool them.
Even I would've grabbed a knife right away if I'd gotten that offer while locked in the White Room.
"This confirms it. Some of the gallery users are in bed with the strange tale."
"Have they lost their minds? Even if they're desperate to escape, betraying fellow humans and cozying up to non-humans... Ah."
"Get it now?"
"Yeah. If I'd been stuck in the White Room a few more years, even I'd have jumped at the chance."
I could understand it.
But I couldn't sympathize.
I got why they'd sell out info after years trapped—that much came from my own experience. But we were fundamentally different.
'Yeah, screw the soul or body or whatever. What does it matter?'
I define myself.
That's enough.
The philosophical debates could wait. Right now, even thinking about it was a luxury.
My gaze turned outward.
Then I looked back, but...
"Yu-na?"
A chill ran down my spine. No one was there.
No matter where I checked in the room, the only thing was the patient I'd knocked out. After circling the room for a while, I confirmed there'd only been two of us here from the start.
"Kiyaaaaah!!!"
A ghost?
Or just a hallucination?
I had no idea what I'd seen, but realizing it might've been some other entity wearing Yu-na's skin made my flesh crawl.
Bang—!
The door next to me burst open, and Yu-na appeared.
"What the fuck is that monster bastard up to now?!"
"Kyaaaaah!!!"
I swung the wooden bat at her head without hesitation, but her all-too-human reaction left me agonizing over whether to swing or not.
"We were just talking, and now you're freaking out again?!"
"Huh?"
"I told you to wait while I got a building map from the nurse!"
"What???"
Fuck.
What the hell was going on?
In my bewilderment, I spotted the penalty floating in the corner of my vision and finally understood.
All because I'd witnessed one of the great phenomena.
This horrific reality where I'd acquired a genuine mental illness that never existed before!
Even though I'd considered myself normal.
This curse shook even my perception, restricting rational thought.
And this was proof of it.
"We were definitely talking just a few minutes ago, right?"
"Yes! We talked about supplies, the map—everything!"
"Haha, hahaha... Fuck, I have schizophrenia?!"
Schizophrenia.
This was 100% schizophrenia.
Forgetting, hallucinations, mental derangement—all the symptoms fit. It was practically confirmed. Thinking back, my usual personality would've brushed off identity crises without a second thought.
It seemed normal at first, but replaying it slowly revealed more and more inconsistencies.
My suspicions hardened into certainty.
Not knowing how long this mental illness would last, I made one request of Yu-na.
"If—and I mean if—I completely lose it and can't tell monsters from you, just ignore me and run."
"That bad? You look fine on the outside."
"I forgot our entire conversation from moments ago, and now identity doubts I'd never had before are flooding in like crazy."
"Sounds like a seriously nasty illness. Worry looks weird on you, oppa. You've probably never had a care in the world."
"......"
This girl was subtly roasting me?
Even with schizophrenia, my emotions felt sharper, clearer.
Maybe someone already 180 degrees off-kilter turning another 180 brought me back to normal.
"Feels like I've spun around and ended up normal again."
"Hmm."
"What 'hmm'?"
"Why don't we step outside and check?"
"Good idea."
If my dulled emotions were returning, she'd have bolted back to the room right away.
But contrary to expectations...
"Doesn't feel much different."
"Hm. Guess you're not fully back to normal then."
"What...?"
"Let's head upstairs like we planned. Thanks to you, we know the main entrance isn't an escape route."
I'd said rules were written in blood, right?
With this, I added a new rule 6 to the half-written rulebook.
6. The main entrance is not a legitimate escape route. Countless doors exist there, all presumed to connect to places other than reality.
The first rule I'd written myself by hand.
Even just one line made me want to share it freely, knowing it could save others.
"This strange tale won't be as easy to crack as the last one."
"Right? The school one only had 4 floors, but this is 15, swarming with constantly patrolling monsters."
"If hundreds of elites rushed in at once, maybe... But right now? Impossible. Can't even say if we could take down a nurse."
The hospital's layout was that alien.
Unlike [School Strange Tale], which offered a path to survival, this place killed you for staying put or moving—a total bastard of a strange tale.
Han I-su surviving here for years was suddenly impressive...
Tucking away my newfound respect,
we passed the corridor teeming with nurses and headed for the stairs.
Floors 1 through 5 allowed general patients, so the nurses didn't bother us much.
"Why isn't the elevator working?"
"No idea."
"With 15 floors, you'd think it'd run. But even if it did, we probably wouldn't ride it anyway."
Every path upward was pure hell.
"Terrifying."
I could still picture those eyeballs from [School Strange Tale].
Regardless of physical strength,
they were the lowest scum of monsters, stealing lives just for making eye contact.
"Come to think of it, how'd you navigate the stairs?"
"I was stuck on the 4th floor for decades."
"Ah..."
Swallowing a pitying look,
despite the risk of encountering such horrors,
we slowly climbed the stairs toward the 3rd floor, where Han I-su supposedly was.