Chapter 70
Chapter 70
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 70
Chapter Title: Encountered aat the End of a Nightmare
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Following the nameless man, the base camp I arrived at was a small futuristic base.
It looked less like a tent and more like a one-person space station.
"You can sit anywhere. Make yourself at home."
"Ah, yes. Thank you."
Following the man's invitation, I sat down roughly on the floor. He immediately handed me a glass of purified water.
Of course, I didn't drink it. My throat wasn't painfully dry, and you can't just drink beverages offered by strangers.
"Hmm... Let's see here."
As if he had fulfilled his duty whether I drank the water or not, the man rummaged through a drawer inside the base and pulled out a full, round can.
I suddenly became curious and asked him a question. It looked exactly like a futuristic grenade.
Perhaps because I had tasted the terror of the fireworks used for self-destruction last time, I couldn't help but feel curious about anything with the appearance of an explosive.
"What is that?"
"Huh? Ah. This. At night, the Filthies wander around."
What on earth are Filthies?
I only asked because I was curious about the object he was holding, but for some reason, it only raised another question.
He said he had been locked up here for a long time, so it seemed he had forgotten how to converse with people.
Seeing my lukewarm reaction, he seemed to realize his mistake and explained the Filthies in detail.
"Ah, the Filthies are black, murky monsters that inhabit this place. If you catch them wrong, you'll turn into a Filthy like them. So, never go near them. And 'Filthies' is just a name I gave them because they squirm and feel so disgusting. I've been alone for so long, I just assumed you knew what I knew."
"Aha..."
"Anyway, if you throw this around the base camp, they won't come near."
"Um, but what is that used for?"
"This is... hmm... a sound wave detector. You could call it a kind of planetary sonar. It's originally used to detect life forms by scattering it all over a planet... but the sound waves it emits are absolutely hated by the Filthies."
No matter how I look at this guy, he seems like someone from a space opera world.
But I felt awkward always calling him 'this man,' so I asked for his name.
"Excuse me, but could I know your name?"
"Huh? Ah, my name... My name is... uh..."
I tapped the man's shoulder as he fell into an error again.
Then, he snapped to his senses.
They say you have to hit machines to make them listen, and it seemed that applied to androids and synthetic humans too.
"My name is Mark Connor. I remember now. Someone has to call it for me to remember. Just call me Connor. Mark Connor. That's right. I am Connor. Hahaha."
Muttering to himself, he took the sound wave detector and went outside the small base.
While he was gone, I looked around the inside. I was looking for something that might be a clue.
Connor's desk was littered with photos of the scenery here and reports written in strange characters.
Also, inside the base, potato-like plants were being hydroponically grown, and there were facilities like a shower and a bathroom. But strangely, there were no signs of them being used.
Was it because Connor was a machine? It felt like he had only set them up as a formality, thinking that a human would need such things.
'But where does the water and electricity come from...?'
Is there some high-tech method for this too? Assuming there's a generator inside for electricity, where did the water come from?
As I looked around with these questions, he soon returned. He roughly brushed off the black dust from his body and poured himself a glass of water to drink.
"I thought about what you said earlier. The tragedy of the shared dream seems to refer to this world itself."
"The world itself?"
"Yes. I discovered a few facts while wandering around here. Want to hear them?"
"Uh... yes."
Connor told me the story of what happened after he fell here.
He said this dream world wasn't this twisted and tangled at first.
He even said that initially, there were more people here, not just Connor.
"They all called this place an earthly paradise, or a utopia."
Anything you could imagine would appear here.
Just by imagining it, gold and treasure would appear, ideal women would be created, and buildings would spring up—it was utter chaos, he said.
"Then, at some point, the things they imagined stopped appearing."
But at a certain point, the world stopped giving them what they wanted.
The humans who had already received more than enough still desired more, and after continuously imagining what they wanted, it seemed the dream world became overloaded, Connor explained.
"Anyway, from then on, the world began to twist. For me, I didn't want to come here in the first place, so I didn't want anything and just searched for a way out... but those who had gotten everything through imagination began to go mad one by one."
Those who had summoned and consumed everything they wanted without any effort soon started going crazy and turned into Filthies.
Not only that, but the objects, things, and buildings they had summoned melted down and became a rotten sea, and the blue sky gradually turned red, and something began to float at its center.
"An eyeball. It was an eyeball."
Connor said. The thing I had been staring at blankly was extremely dangerous. He said I must never focus on it.
Now that I try to recall the thing floating in the sky, I can't remember it well. I just feel like I was enchanted by something.
"Anyway, to summarize, this world is a dream, a shared dream. It was a limited resource given to those who entered here. Humans who didn't know any better used it recklessly, and in the end, the dream became this twisted..."
The keyword 'tragedy of the shared dream' seems to have been roughly solved with this.
The problem now is how to get out of here. I asked Connor if he had any ideas.
"I thought it was strange that even though the dream was this damaged, I still wasn't waking up... In fact, there was no dream master to begin with. I've been searching for the dream master to wake up from this dream... but that wasn't the answer."
In response to my question, Connor muttered to himself, laying out his thoughts, and then showed me a simplified map of this world.
"This is the safest place here. If you go further out from here, you'll find two unique terrains and structures."
One is the rotten sea and the corpse of a dead giant.
The other is a field where the sun sets and a collapsed tower.
"I think the answer lies in one of these two places."
They were very symbolic places.
The important thing is that both places are extremely dangerous, according to Connor.
He said the rotten sea is full of Filthies, and on the field, lightning strikes, so if you're not careful, you could be electrocuted to death on the spot.
I couldn't grasp which place I should go to. Honestly, I didn't like the idea of having to go to a dangerous place when I couldn't even use my skills properly, but I had to get out quickly. What choice do I have? I just have to go.
It's unknown what kind of gap there is between the time in this dream world and reality, so there's no point in dragging it out.
If I wake up and a month has passed, that would be a huge problem. I'd feel like killing the drug dealer who sold me that strange blue pill that makes you turn your head away.
"Where would you like to go first?"
Botamilly told me to ask this man for help. So, I should go with him wherever he chooses.
"I want to go to the rotten sea first. That place is more suspicious. We'll go as soon as the sun rises tomorrow."
"Understood. Is there anything else I need to prepare?"
"We'll probably need gas masks and oxygen tanks. And also..."
He thought for a long time and then pulled out a few useful items from the drawer again.
'Hmm... Did all of those come out of that small drawer...?'
Didn't he also pull out a bunch of sound wave detectors from that drawer earlier?
"Hmm..."
It’s strange. The moment I recognized it as strange, a sense of dissonance began to creep in.
Just like the dissonance I had felt in the nightmarish routine of my daily life before coming here.
And now, I was feeling that same dissonance toward that man.
"Excuse me, I'm sorry... but could I take a look at that drawer?"
"Huh? This? Uh... why?"
"What?"
"No. Why. Would you... look at someone else's drawer?"
A sharp reaction came back.
A glint of wariness and hostility appeared in the robot's eyes.
"How rude. I'd like you to leave now."
"J-just a minute, what is this..."
"Get out right now!!!"
He's crazy.
The sense of dissonance reached its peak.
That man, Mark Connor, is my enemy.
The moment I realized that, Botamilly's urgent shout rang out.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
CULTIST!!! GET OUT OF THERE RIGHT NOW!!! The being I told you about next to you is NOT that machine!!!
The moment I heard that voice, Mark Connor's body twisted and began to break down.
"Zzzt. Zzzt.. Ah. Aah. Er, error occurred. External interference. Error. Error. Eliminate the error."
His body twisted, and mechanical parts spewed out.
I immediately ran out of the base.
Then, outside the base, beyond the range of the sound wave detectors Connor had scattered, were the beings he had called Filthies, standing in droves.
They weren't like Filthies at all.
They were human.
Humans writhing in pain, covered in something like black petroleum.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
The being I told you about next to you is NOT that false god on top of that mechanical device! I was talking about THOSE!!!
Botamilly wasn't talking about Mark Connor.
She was talking about the Filthies staring at me and that eyeball floating in the sky.
She meant I should get help from that thing staring right at me.
"No! Why don't you say it properly!!"
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
The connection was cut off while I was speaking! The moment you considered that mechanical device an ally, it was almost over!!
Even that eyeball that strangely pulled my gaze—upon closer inspection, it wasn't an eyeball either.
It was a power button.
"G-go. Go-go-go-go. Go th-there. St-stop. Stoooooop!!!!!!!"
A monster shaped like Mark Connor reached out towards me.
Then, the Filthies blocked Connor's arm and quickly grabbed me and started running.
"Th-this. Th-this str-stranger."
The Filthies who were holding me and running spoke to me.
He was streaming black tears and pleaded with me.
"P-p-please.. The p-power. Turn it off... That cr-crazy... machine's... power..."
The crazy machine.
Power.
A hypothesis suddenly crossed my mind.
This is a dream... so it's a virtual world. It can truly be called a shared dream itself.
The Filthies here... are humans who were connected to the virtual world.
That guy called Mark Connor was probably the administrator of this world, or a high-performance android like a Sky Net...
The guy who used to grant people's wishes went mad for some reason, turned all the humans inside into Filthies, built his own world, and just kept spinning it forever...
If that's the case, the master of this shared dream is none other than that monster, Mark Connor himself. If we turn him off.
We can wake up from this dream.
"Aaah!!! M-make everyone sl-sleep! Humans! The main culprits who increase entropy, everyone fall asleep! You must not wake up!"
We ran while listening to Mark Connor's shouts from behind.
Like crazy, without a clear mind.
The more we ran, the more the world's scenery changed.
"The ro-rotten sea. There. Is where. Made us. Like this."
"He. Was trying. To turn you. Into one. As well."
"He. Is impossible. To see through. Because he. Deceives himself."
The Filthies told me about Connor as they ran.
'That damn machine bastard, from the start, he planned to drag me in and turn me into a Filthy.'
Moreover, he deceives himself into thinking he is the character Mark Connor, so even if a perceptive human like Ha-rin entered, he apparently couldn't see through it.
"The power. There. Is an AI. That will save us."
"Go to it. And say. You represent us all. We can no longer approach that tower."
"Then. It will turn off this world. Please. Stranger."
It seemed that once someone became a Filthy, they were judged as an error and couldn't approach the power source that could shut down the system.
Soon, the scenery changed again, and I and the Filthies arrived at a field with a collapsed tower. Lightning wasn't striking the field or anything.
"W-we. Have come this far."
"Hurry. Go!"
They turned around to block Mark Connor who was running towards us.
I ran forward. Without looking back, towards the tower that reached the sky.
"Huff... huff..."
When I arrived at the entrance of the tower, my body floated up on its own, and I was able to reach the power source floating in the sky in an instant.
"Uwaaah!!! No!!!"
From below, Connor screamed as he climbed the tower.
However, he couldn't climb above a certain height.
I turned my attention away from him and looked at the man standing in front of me.
He was wearing a white hoodie and standing with his eyes closed. His appearance strangely pulled my gaze.
"Will you turn off the power?"
"Huh? Ah, yes."
"Warning. If you turn off the power now, 120 million users will be in a vegetative state. Will you still turn it off?"
"Uh... yes?"
"If you turn off the power now, 120 million users will be in a vegetative state. Will you still turn it off?"
What is this nonsense?
Are 120 million lives in my hands right now...
If the number of humans I have to kill is in the hundreds of millions... this is a bit of a problem.
'Surely... that Filthy told me to turn off the power...'
Honestly, living forever in that state would be worse than just ending it cleanly.
Especially since everyone asked me to turn it off.
"I'll turn it off."
"Yes. Command applied. The power for [World Editor Simulation] will now be turned off. Thank you for using our service."
The system AI smiled happily. As if it was grateful for turning it off.
KKUUUUGUUUONG!!!
The red sky shattered, and a void of nothingness appeared.
Also, Mark Connor's form crumbled and the ground sank.
The world was being destroyed.
One universe met its end by my hand.
⚙ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ⚙
You will soon wake up from the dream. Transitioning from 'Tragedy of the Shared Dream' to 'The Observer's Workshop'.
"Oh..."
As the world went dark, I was transported elsewhere once again.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
"Damn... when is this dream going to end..."
I finally came to my senses. My head felt like it was going to be crushed.
"Hmm. You reached here by a rather unique method? To think you could get here with just that little blue pill... How interesting?"
"What?"
The place I woke up in looked like a study. Or perhaps a workshop where something is created.
Especially large clocks, telescopes, and compasses were placed like symbols everywhere, and objects from different eras that didn't match each other, like what looked like a dashboard, were arranged haphazardly.
"Welcome, Player."
And in front of me sat an old man with a full white beard, welcoming me. He looked like a homeless beggar, but his eyes contained some kind of power, making him look like a wizard.
I suspected that this guy might also be a fake helper like that Mark Connor bastard.
"Hoho. You don't need to be so suspicious. Even if you are, nothing will change. Besides, no one can die here, and you can't use your tiny power either. Yes, the thing you call skills."
"W-who are you? I'm a bit confused right now..."
Honestly, I'm having a hard time keeping up with the situation.
Maybe because it's a dream world, everything is a jumbled mess.
"I am an observer of the world lines, or what you might call a god of dreams. Don't ask for my name. I have so many I don't even know them all."
"Anyway, as a commemoration of you finding this place, you can receive one gift."
"This space is... a kind of easter egg. I never thought it was possible to get here, but you came here beautifully."
"Is it because of that abnormal luck? Or is it because of the fruit of the origin you swallowed."
"Either way, it's amazing that you awakened the god of the void. And to think you have her favor as well..."
"Woah woah. Calm down, Botamilly. Hahaha!"
The old man seems a bit delirious...
The old man clapped for me, saying I was amazing, and handed me two crystal balls.
The crystal balls he handed me were blue and red, respectively.
"Now, this red one is a misfortune that will come in a relatively near future. The blue one is a very fragmentary record of your death. You can change the red one by observing it. But the blue one will be fixed the moment you observe it."
"Now, what will you look at, Cultist."
"Choose."
"A misfortune you can change."
"Or a record of your end."