Chapter 17
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Translator: Silver Dragon
Chapter: 17
Chapter Title: Counter Cognitive Hazards with Physical Hazards (4)
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There wasn't even time to walk anymore.
Growing impatient, I started sprinting like a madman.
"Stop him!"
"Just hold out a little longer!"
"Buy time!"
They had realized time wasn't on their side either.
Zombie Chiltoom poured out in response to the Star Flowers' call.
They were now throwing everything they had at blocking me.
But there was one thing they overlooked.
To me, with mental corruption already underway, they were nothing more than prime prey.
"Fine by me!!! Bring it on!!! Come at me all at once!!!"
They surged toward me like waves.
The plasma blaster spat fire, and the wave of death pushed back.
That created space for me to advance one step.
Soon, they rushed in to fill the gap.
Then I fired the blaster again, shoving them back.
Like this, I slowly pressed forward until I finally reached the bridge entrance.
They blocked the bridge door with their bodies.
It was their final desperate struggle to bar the way.
"Kuhahaha! Fine! Then I'll take you on up close!"
I swung the gun like a club and charged.
I crushed their skulls one by one with raw force.
Pushing in with pure melee finally shattered their lines.
I had successfully set foot on the bridge.
And the sight that greeted me there was astonishing.
"This is..."
The atmosphere was completely different from before.
It was like a garden.
A garden infused with the mysteries of the universe.
The mold bastards had prattled on about a garden before.
But their colony had been more like a clump of fungi.
This place, though, truly felt like a garden.
No, it really was a garden.
Now that I looked, things I hadn't noticed came into view.
Soil covering the floor, bugs crawling through it.
Lifting my gaze revealed a vast blue sky stretching overhead.
As I stood there, lost in the bizarre scene, unable to collect my thoughts...
A voice drifted from among the flowers and plants.
I followed the sound, pushing through the undergrowth.
The deeper I went, the louder the flowers sang.
The sky gradually lost its light, growing dark.
With each step, the voice grew clearer.
Finally, at the source...
...an unidentified black silhouette appeared.
It was the shadow of some man.
The shadow was gazing at this place.
I locked eyes with the entity.
Just looking at it instilled overwhelming terror.
My hands trembled, breathing grew labored.
I wanted to close my eyes, but I couldn't.
Closing them would plunge everything into total darkness.
And if it did, I felt certain that thing would come for me from within it.
Don't look away.
The crushing fear began to dominate me.
I kept staring at it.
No, I had to.
It felt like I would cease to exist otherwise.
All the while, the song continued.
I couldn't close my eyes or cover my ears.
Soon, a certain idea took hold of me.
It was a tale of some king.
He was the king who dwelled in our dream world.
Every night when we lay down to sleep, we visited his realm.
Bit by bit, realization dawned.
Everything that happened in dreams was real.
It was just events from another dimension's version of myself.
We forget our dreams upon waking.
Why don't we remember our dreams?
Could it be because there was something we must never remember?
And if such a thing existed...
One thing was certain.
That entity was none other than it.
He was the King of Illusions.
He dwelled beyond this physical universe.
He was the reason all intelligent beings dreamed.
Dreams were his power, inescapable.
If an intelligent being began to perceive or remember him...
It would gradually gain physical form.
Thus, the flowers sang to remember him.
To keep the king from being forgotten.
To summon the king to this universe.
The flowers shone light to forcibly implant his existence.
At first, his presence faded quickly into oblivion.
All intelligent beings had an instinctive defense mechanism against him.
His existence was so horrific that the moment you saw it, your unconscious forced forgetfulness.
But with repeated exposure...
The image built up in the mind.
Gradually perceived, remembered, and materialized.
Once fully cognized...
He would devour that intelligent being.
The result was these Star Flowers.
They had perceived him.
They wanted others to see what they saw.
The more beings perceived him, the clearer his presence became.
The moment enough intelligent beings learned of him...
He would fully manifest in this universe.
"Hail the king."
The nonsense spilled from my lips unbidden.
"He is the Sha of Media and Parsa."
I couldn't stop talking.
"The establisher of justice."
It soon turned into song.
Now came the crucial part.
The Star Flowers were shouting.
[Speak the king's name]
[He is king of kings]
[Sha of Media and Parsa]
[Establisher of justice]
Just three letters.
"Ku..."
"Ru..."
The instant I tried to utter the final letter...
"Captain! Snap out of it!"
Orca's voice yanked me back to reality.
Only then did I realize.
The Star Flowers had been force-feeding information into my head.
[So close~!]
[Almost there!]
[You could've been like us]
Looking around, the mold bastards mocked me.
I instantly drew my gun and aimed at them.
"Uwaaaaaah!!!"
I sprayed bullets like a lunatic.
Before, smashing them all had solved the problem.
Not this time.
The flowers had already regrown, surrounding me.
They kept shining starlight on me.
The starlight evoked the song.
I strained to keep it out of my mind.
But limits were approaching.
Suhariltoom Human! Get a grip!
Suhariltoom called out to me desperately.
But I already knew.
It was too late to shake off those thoughts.
"I... I shouldn't have come here..."
Soon, a woman's singing voice began to fill the air.
It was achingly sweet.
I looked up toward it.
There bloomed a flower more radiant than any I'd seen, incomparable in beauty.
[Well done making it this far]
[Now accept us]
[Accept the King of Illusions]
[Sing with us in eternal dream]
The voice from the second signal.
Ehilaatoom, no doubt.
-- Beep! Beep! Beep!
Then, discordant noise shattered my focus.
"Science Survey Ship 317, do you read?"
A new voice chimed in.
It was Chiltoom himself.
"This is Captain Rakshyatoom. I've brought the medical ship and one warship you requested, Ehilaatoom."
Chiltoom warship.
Hearing that snapped me alert.
"No... don't..."
I squeezed out the words with all my strength.
But my voice wouldn't carry.
The flower that was once Ehilaatoom smiled at me.
She cleared her throat and spoke.
"Yes! Welcome! There's infection aboard, so deploy troops!"
"Understood. What do we do?"
"Dock and connect the two ships. The alien infectees have taken the entire landing bay."
"Got it. We'll do that. Anything else you need?"
No.
I stretched with all my might.
My body wouldn't obey.
My body felt wrong.
Like it wasn't mine anymore.
No, perhaps what was taken wasn't the body, but the mind.
"Kraaaah...!"
A faint scream was all I could manage.
Suhariltoom Human! You're the only one left to trust! Resist the corrosion!
But how?
How do you resist corrosion?
"Hee hee. How cute."
Ehilaatoom's tendrils wrapped around me.
She pulled me to her eyes.
"It's over now. Nothing in this world can overcome this cognitive hazard."
She boasted proudly.
"He's the most powerful known cognitive hazard. Nothing surpasses him."
The world's strongest cognitive hazard.
Nothing could resist it.
"I'll show you the light. Now sing with us."
She shone light on me.
And it began seeping inside.
Finally, he collapsed, drained of strength.
Ehilaatoom could at last relax.
"Took you long enough. You resisted more than expected—I thought you might actually beat it. Or maybe low-IQ humans just last longer?"
She stroked him with her tendrils as she spoke.
"Wonder what flower you'll bloom into, with a spirit that tough."
She caressed him more tenderly.
Hoping he'd soon burst into a new bloom.
Was it her loving care?
His body twitched.
"Oh? Finally blooming?"
Ehilaatoom grew excited.
How beautiful would the colors of his flower be?
How sweet his song?
She watched with bated breath.
Soon, he mumbled something.
"Th...is..."
"This?"
Singing right as he bloomed? Incredible talent.
Maybe he'd bloom even grander than her.
As she thought that...
"La...i..."
"Wh-what?"
His "song" sounded off-kilter, unhinged.
But it sharpened.
"La... i..."
"Lai lai..."
"Lailai lailai cha! Cha! Cha!"
"Lai lai lai lai cha! Cha! Cha!"
Suddenly, he rose.
The Star Flowers cried out in shock.
"Light! More light!"
They blasted light to erode his mind again.
Futile.
He scoffed at their efforts and bellowed,
"You little...!"
"Bastards!!!!!!!"
He was coming.
The demon who massacred the colony.
Revived once more.