Chapter 317
Chapter 317
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 317
Chapter Title: Hypnosis Detective's Assault -3
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A battle with a hypnotist is a battle with oneself.
Distinguishing whether you're under hypnosis or not is the key to the fight—it's everything. If you want to eliminate the enemy and suddenly find yourself included among them, you'll end up self-destructing.
And simply starting with left-right reversals or implanting perceptual alterations like "It's common sense to overload your magic circuits with 300% mana when casting spells" can blow everything up.
You have to meticulously figure out which points they've locked down and which they've left open. You need to pay close attention to your actions.
It's in the same vein as that scarred-face senior's puppetry spell. It's a game of deadly choices. I have to keep questioning myself relentlessly.
"Am I under hypnosis?"
But hesitating and agonizing like this just gives the hypnotist more time to cast. Their net grows tighter and more unbreakable with every passing second.
So what do you do...? Truth be told, there are plenty of ways.
Selbia would just blast the whole area away. Yuri would end it in a flash, and Yuna wouldn't fall for it in the first place, so no fight would even start. So what about me?
Today's choice for me—
A head-on clash.
"Mental Barrier: Open. Grant modules autonomy."
I drop my mental guard and feign vulnerability.
—To reiterate, a battle with a hypnotist is a battle with yourself.
And the simplest way to beat yourself? Ask someone else to do it.
You can't study alone, but if someone's standing by with a stick, you'll cram whether you like it or not, right? The tricky part of hypnosis I mentioned earlier crumbles with one added premise.
An "external observer."
Just one sane observer pointing out "That guy's acting weird" shatters the hypnosis. That's why the "Hypnosis Detective" cooked up that childish scheme to lure me out.
But he had no idea there was an independent personality living in my head.
I summon the fragment that split off from me—one I absorbed, yet somehow retained its ego for reasons unknown. An unpleasant cackling echoes through my skull.
-Caw caw caw! Long time no see, main body! I know the situation. I've been watching from inside with our "promise." I know my role too. Let's have some fun!
The mad crow.
-But no guard? That's wild. Using an "external observer" is smart, but why take the hypnosis hit on purpose? Huh?
"You know damn well, so don't ask."
-Right, to draw him out. Caw caw! If you crush him too overwhelmingly, he'll bolt, so you're staging a crisis to make the main body show up. I get it, but that's exactly why I have to ask!
Bubbling with irritation.
Information coalesces near my shoulder, manifesting a crow with jet-black feathers that tilts its head this way and that. Me and this guy—two-man team.
Combat begins.
The animals circling me, their spinning eyes, cries, and the rustling of the underbrush—all hypnosis attacks. It sounds like dissonance, but there's rhythm, and that restrained beat plants malicious info in my head. Yet I feel no discomfort at all. No suspicious black hands creeping from the edge of my vision, no world flipping upside down, no spiders pouring from the trees. It's all perfectly natural. Nothing strange about it. In this intact world, I make normal, accurate judgments.
"When combat starts, it's common sense to strip naked and blast my trump card straight into my temple, right?"
Watching the crow blabber, it seems that's not common sense. Even with my mental barrier down, hanging this level of hypnosis on me in an instant shows real skill.
I abandon control of my body entirely, moving only my mouth.
"Now I get how hypnotized heroines feel. You know how you wanna backseat-game someone who's trash? That's the vibe. You look Bronze-tier to me, crow."
-A magic that makes you want to give bad advice—pretty vicious in a way. So, an eye for an eye... Shall we counter with the same kind of card?
Squelch, squirm, squiiiirm.
A grayish slime forms on my skin, twisting into bizarre spirals and patterns. The "Great Kaiju's" hypnosis pattern.
Effects: reduced ranged projectile accuracy and mental domination.
Of course, it doesn't perform as monstrously inside a session. But disrupting hypnotized beasts? Piece of cake.
Screeech, yap yap, grrr rumble.
Some beasts snap out of hypnosis amid the cries and scatter. At the same instant, the rest charge me in unison.
Neigh-hihihi-!
-Oh dear, non-anthropomorphic horses aren't my taste... Regrettable, but I'll pass, lady. "Gaze Hijack."
Whoosh—the mare charging from the front veers 45 degrees. Hooves pounding, dust flying, it barrels right past me.
-Share your overflowing affection with your neighbor. "Berserker's Confusion."
-Caw caw, great idea, but I must point out no one wants to see a guy strip, main body.
Fwoosh.
Red mist blooms around me. It ramps up violence in beasts caught in its radius, forcing rage over hypnosis.
Screeech, skreeeech! Kyaaaak!
Bloodlight overlays their spinning eyes, and they unleash indiscriminate attacks on the nearest targets. Eagles clawing dogs, boars ramming rabbits—pandemonium.
The mad crow mutters from the chaos's heart.
-Perfect. Their attacks aren't touching us. Hypnosis under stable control. But... it's off, main body.
"Where?"
-No impatience.
Indeed.
Combat involves reading your opponent's psyche. If they block your attacks well, switch tactics. Spot their feints, prepare counters in dominance.
That's why I'm nearly invincible in 1v1 spell duels. Brainpower handles the magic fine, but insight into their mind lets me stay a step ahead.
So... in a drawn-out fight like this, you'd expect flickers of anxiety, impatience, anger, bloodlust. Nothing.
The mad crow clicks its tongue with a caw.
-Too mechanical, right? Test it. Half-cast "Step Gate Ascension Realm" and cancel, main body.
"A thousand gates, a thousand stairs, nowhere for eyes to rest, nowhere for mind to settle... actually, there is."
Hummm—
As I prep Step Gate Ascension Realm, hypnotized beasts open their mouths to scream in unison... then snap shut on cancel.
-Hmm?
"This..."
I click Step Gate Ascension Realm a couple times. The beast pack starts an action, cancels, repeats. Stupidly honest stuttering. This is... an algorithm.
If I prep big magic, they do something specific. Otherwise, default behavior. 100% mechanical.
He wasn't remote-controlling from afar. He implanted tight hypnosis in the animals and let them loose. Like a chess AI. They follow procedures—no intent.
No wonder conversation never clicked pre-fight!
It was all voice recordings. I was explaining to a file, fighting a bot this whole time.
"This bastard hid his main body perfectly so far. Even the fight's on autopilot?"
-Pointless brawl, shadowboxing. Ambitious plan to lure the real "Hypnosis Detective" failed.
"I took the hypnosis on purpose, damn it... Mental Barrier: Reactivate!"
-Caw caw! Still fun though, main body! I'll sink back now, catch you next time—
Crack. I shatter the hypnosis burrowed in my head instantly. Ignoring the swarming beasts, I bolt through the forest. No point dragging this out.
"Hypnosis Detective"... incredibly cunning. Never seen anyone hide their identity this hard. Need a new angle to track him.
Thinking as I brush past foliage.
From what I've heard, the "Hypnosis Detective" was originally a Violet Magic Tower mage. Holds a grudge against some guy called "Mountain Goat" from the old tower days, mistakes me for him.
Whatever this "Mountain Goat" did, he wasn't ordinary.
Thinking that way, those hypnotized animals... seem kinda weak?
Click.
"Huh."
Something trips at my feet. Switch flips. Trap. I surge mana, ready to intercept.
Heavy mental attack? Explosion? Anything mana-based, I can—
BOOM-!
"Guh-!"
Something long and heavy slams my side.
The impact launches me, tumbling across the ground. Breath catches. Clutching my stinging flank, I look up.
I can't believe a trap this sneaky slipped my senses—shocking. But seeing what hit me shocks me differently.
A log.
"......"
A log tied to a rope. Pure physical force, zero mana. Pristine trap.
Realization hits—more absurd than painful.
"What the fuck."
"Hypnosis Detective," my ass.
Violet Tower mage, huh? Should be slinging spells.
No, wait. Maybe not his trap—professor or student left a training one, I stepped on it by chance.
Click.
Then another.
"Shit, for real!"
I crouch to dodge this time. Heavy sandbag whooshes over my head. A sensor on a tree stump flashes, activating another trap.
Magic trap. I thrust out a hand, link mana lines, hack the internals to deactivate. Then—
A coconut drops right on my crown.
Thwack!
"Ow!"
Tears prick. Misery wells up.
Clutching my head, I scan around. Waste some mana—flood the area with mana waves for a full sweep.
Sparkle. Twinkle twinkle twinkle.
My vision sparkles with countless traps flaunting themselves. Couldn't spot them before without this detail scan.
They didn't use spells for magic traps.
"...Drawn and engraved with magic stones, huh."
He made simple artifacts as traps.
Plus undetectable primitive-physical ones everywhere.
Now it clicks. "Hypnosis Detective" title aside, he's 70% enchanter. Etches magic into animals or objects, sets the board, lets it run.
Mechanically. Fully auto.
Chill.
A shiver runs down my spine. This sensation... familiar. Somewhere... similar experience. That pain, helplessness, overwhelming terror...
Auto-moving mad animals per algorithm, soulless enchanted traps, primitive physical ones ignoring magic.
Fight style nullifying my illusion magic specialty.
"How..."
I recall the terror's source and can only scream.
"How the hell does a Violet Tower mage have the power of a cleaning golem—!!"
After tumbling every which way for 10 minutes, bruised all over, I finally escape the forest.
Vrrr. Fire magic has recovery spells. Inferior to holy magic in performance and cost-efficiency, but the hot-pack feel is nice. Selbia warms me with healing-heat from both hands, asking, "...What the hell did you fight to get this beat up, Professor? Sublimation-tier dark mage ambush?"
I explain the forest fight to the huddled Yuna, Yuri, Selbia, and the pint-sized perp.
"So that's how I lost the 'Hypnosis Detective,' kid. Wanted to catch the guy who hypnotized you for you. Too bad, huh."
"Ah, y-yes. Th-that's... quite the story."
"That look says 'Why tell me?' Right?"
"...Yeah. No idea."
I raise an index finger, continuing.
"This incident taught me anew: I'm weak against things without human will involved. The 'Hypnosis Detective' attacked purely with puppets, left zero clues. Except one."
A guy obsessively hiding his identity, using animals so far, faking a class cancellation—but never touching academy students.
"Why pick you, of all people...?"
"......"
Doesn't add up. If he needed a messenger, grab any student inside or use an animal. No reason to drag a kid from that desert kingdom. Suspected him from the start, but dismissed 'cause no mana. How could a mana-less kid cast spells? But... this fight showed he's more enchanter than hypnotist. What if all the incidents so far...
"Weren't cunning schemes to hide his identity and hit my weaknesses precisely... but he had no choice?"
"......"
"It's you, 'Hypnosis Detective.'" I stare deep. Beyond the bowl-cut kid's eyes, I catch a clear flinch. Simultaneously, he realizes I've clocked him. Decision point. He moves.
"—'Hypnosis Coin' activate!"
"Think I gathered everyone for fun? Subdue him!"
"Too late to escape. 'True Desire Binding.'"
Rattle clank—!
Chains grind. Before the "Hypnosis Detective" can pull his string-tied coin, he's wrapped up tight and pinned.
Gotcha, bastard.