“Ah, it’s getting worse and worse, isn’t it?”
Shelves lined up along the wall, various preserved foods, and supplies necessary for survival.
If the previous room was the treasure vault of Cheong-ho, this room is truly a storage for the purpose of a shelter.
In other words, a space filled with items to survive in the apocalypse era.
To be exact, that’s what the original design intent was.
Everything stored for survival has been destroyed.
It looks like the ruins left by a madman or a gorilla, or perhaps a mad gorilla, rampaging.
The rampage isn’t the problem.
The biggest issue is the disgusting traces covering this entire ss.
A terrible stench was emanating from the bizarre stains covering the room and walls.
“I’ve been slling rot since a while ago, and this must be the reason.”
Rejoice, Cheong-ho faction mbers! The chairman’s sanity score you’ve been waiting for has finally reached minus 100 points.
Soone had mashed and crushed preserved food and drinks, leaving traces sared on the walls. It was hard to make out, but it seed they wanted to create so kind of inscription or shape.
Thanks to my unnecessarily high intelligence stat, I could recall exactly what had happened in this room.
Panicked hand movents. Abruptly interrupted patterns. Traces of shattered tiles on the floor. While scribbling, they had paused around here, trembling and stamping their feet. Then, they had moved over there… no, they jumped.
They picked up sothing sticky again and sared it on the wall over there. Then they struck the nearby shelf. Cans ca tumbling down. They had stomped on a few of the fallen cans, bursting them open, and sared or threw the food that spilled out. It was disgusting.
Deeply imprinted footprints on the floor. They had rampaged again while stamping like a monkey. Bloodstains? Self-harm maybe? Several thick nails lay among the bloodstains. Broken and shattered nails. So had almost completely peeled off, with bits of flesh still attached.
“Well, at least it’s a relief he used food for the scribbles?”
Judging by the state of his mind, it wouldn’t have been surprising if he had used excrent instead of food.
Ritualistic patterns. Primitive symbols. Obscene curses written to desecrate the human spirit and mock human achievents. It reminded of the grotesque murals created by the ghouls in the basent of the apartnt complex.
Amidst all this, there were expressions that couldn’t be written without surreal cognition and knowledge of the abyss.
How much did Cheong-ho understand about the existence of the abyss?
Almost zero.
Excluding his identity as an underworld boss, Cheong-ho was a rather simple and pure gentleman. Even if compared only to the three heads of the Triad, Cheong-ho was more like a romantic thug from the 1950s than a character from [Cthulhu World].
It was unbelievable that such a gentleman had done sothing like this.
But conversely, that was all there was to it.
“But why is there no one here?”
Who was it that spoke to earlier?
“Haah…”
I let out a sigh. This really was a crappy ga.
In the end, there were only three rooms, including the one at the entrance, in this rat hole. Was it really designed to be explored to the very end?
“Oh, Chairman! Do you really have to do this? Isn’t it customary to greet guests at the entrance?”
Oh, adults these days really have no manners, no manners at all.
Just in case, I called out for Cheong-ho, but no special response ca back. It ant I had to enter the last room.
“Oh well. Yeah it’s all my fault. I’m going, I’m going.”
I guess it’s pointless to talk about his survival score anymore, let alone his sanity score.
Even if I t sothing resembling Cheong-ho, I might not realize it was him.
I summoned my magical power again and opened the last door.
Considering the ga’s structure, searching this room should reveal so aningful clues or useful items. But I had no intention of wasting more ti trying to find them.
Creeeeak…
The deep darkness repeated itself once more.
“Haaah …”
So did my sigh.
What should I tell Jeong-hyeon-ah? It would be nice if I could at least find sothing resembling a corpse to bring back.
The last room beyond this contrived darkness was a living space.
A bed, shower facilities, a toilet, a kitchen area, and a hobby space to endure long periods of confinent.
I felt sorry for Jeong-hyeon-ah, but I started to think about just setting a fire and walking away.
But could I really do that?
“Oh, I can roughly predict the next developnt.”
This is why you shouldn’t enter Tanhyeon carelessly.
The distance between Tanhyeon and the abyss is narrower than other places.
Even with the smallest trigger, a previously nonexistent ruin would form and previously nonexistent monsters would roam.
And those would eventually beco footholds for the beings from the deep, deep abyss to project their influence.
Since it has dragged on this long, sothing big will pop out eventually.
Cheong-ho was just bait to lure in.
A being of the abyss that would act in this manner…
“Hmm… from what I’ve seen so far, I’m not sure. Maybe it’s [The Master of Boundaries]?”
[The One and All], [The Key and the Door], [The Path Opener], [The Viceroy].
No, that’s not it.
If [The Master of Boundaries] were to appear soon, there would have been a more chaotic and horrifying on than this. He wouldn’t be satisfied with just driving one person crazy.
So, who is interfering this ti?
This ti, there were too many unpredictable variables.
“Alright. So, is this really the tiger’s den?”
To capture a tiger cub, you have to enter the tiger’s den.
In the end, it was a matter of checking the pace.
I pushed my head into the deep, deep darkness.
But the darkness didn’t disappear. It was just deep darkness.
Darkness.
Darkness.
No matter how far I walked.
No matter how much I advanced, the darkness didn’t disappear.
It was dark. Deep, deep darkness.
“Damn it, how long is this loading going to take?”
It might not actually be loading, but to , it sohow felt like it.
[System: The penalty trait ‘Feast Offering’ has been activated.]
At the sa ti, sothing began.
A strange cry was heard from sowhere.
It was the sound of sothing wailing. A groan filled with pain, or perhaps a sweet scream steeped in pleasure and joy.
An incomprehensible alien language was heard.
The owner of this shelter must have created this place to protect himself from external disasters and destruction.
However, contrary to its purpose, this place had beco a greenhouse for the world’s destruction.
The sturdy shell created to protect people from external disasters and ruin was rotting from the inside. It was now but a haven for terrible monsters.
And the aningless sound of laughter like scraping tal.
Heeheehee, heeheeheehee, heeheeheeheehee…
“Hey, wait a minute.”
I opened my mouth to speak for a mont, but there was no response.
Just an emotionless aning flowed in, like a recited spell. A bizarre will delivered not through the air but through the darkness.
Khh, heeheehee, heeheeheeheeheek!
– Prophet, the one with wisdom, the one who foretells the future, the one who will lead you to your distant future.
– The one who eliminates fear, dread, and despair of the unknown future, the one who will realize the impending disaster.
“Wait, sorry, but can I say just one word?”
But there was no response.
Only the repeated recitation of the spell continued.
The darkness seeped into my skin and burrowed into my mind.
A vile darkness that eroded my soul and sought to annihilate my very existence, along with many other unhealthy things trying to invade.
Hey, you bastards, my head’s already a ss, so stop barging in!
Crackle!
A blue spark crackled near my temple. My special trait was activated at the right mont.
[System: The unique trait ‘Madness of the Abyss’ has been activated. The effects of ntal erosion have been nullified.]
Yes, my dear Madness of the Abyss.
You’re working hard again today.
– No matter what you think, no matter what hope you hold, in the darkness, in the abyss, in that deep dream…
Nevertheless, the darkness continued to speak to . The darkness that kept trying to penetrate my mind, the damp madness, the fishy sll that kept trying to penetrate my mind.
“Ah, damn it, shut up.”
Stop it, you bastards.
[Ibn Ghazi’s Beacon]
A pure white fla imbued with the power of protection flared up. This alone didn’t seem to be enough.
Dozens of magic circles blood all around. Runes and magic circles with different effects emitted colorful flashes of light.
The darkness that had been swirling around retreated far back and avoided the light.
“Ah, that feels refreshing.”
I rolled my eyes beneath the mask and scanned the surroundings.
What I saw before … Ugh, it wasn’t completely over yet.
The darkness had rely retreated; it hadn’t completely disappeared. An unnaturally thick darkness still covered the entire room.
From the looks of it, it had the sa properties as the black sli seen outside the shelter.
“It’s wider than I thought.”
If my mory was correct, this room wasn’t supposed to be this spacious.
Compared to the other rooms I had passed through earlier, this one was definitely smaller. But now, it didn’t seem that way.
Ah, that’s not it.
The sense of distance was being distorted.
This was not a good sign. The shamanistic power, surreal pressure, and eerie darkness were interfering with my senses. Not only my spatial awareness but also my detection abilities and magical influence were being disrupted.
Since there were no visible enemies, it wasn’t a major problem… but then again, the lack of visible enemies was a problem in itself, wasn’t it?
“After all the commotion I caused coming in, shouldn’t soone be here to greet ?”
There was no response.
How disappointing.
“Ah, damn it, what is this?”
This was an event that didn’t exist in the ga.
Therefore, anything could happen.
In [Cthulhu World], bugs often occur where important NPCs disappear and events beco impossible. Shit, could it be that? Could it be that after setting up such an atmosphere, they’re stuck sowhere unable to move?
I cautiously walked further into the room.
[System: The trait ‘Enhanced Vigilance’ has been activated.]
Sothing appeared.
The direction? Damn, my detection abilities were delayed.
It was behind .
“Hehehe, hehehehe. You have co, you have co, my brother. Hehehe….”
“Oh, Chairman, you’re safe? I was worried you might be stuck between so objects and couldn’t appear.”
Though I said this, it’s not the ti for jokes.
Cheong-ho entered through the sa door I ca through.
How did he avoid my sight and co in from behind ? Is it not just the sense of distance but the space itself being distorted?
What about Jang Hyeon-deok and Goo Jin-cheol?
Due to the excessively high density of magical power, I couldn’t sense the situation beyond the room.
Regardless of my doubts, Cheong-ho just burst into laughter.
“Khrr, khuhuhuhuhu, kuhuhuhuh….”
Is laughter the source of all happiness?
“You look cheerful and healthy. It seems you’ve been doing better than I thought?”
A hunched posture. Wide-open eyes. Drooling saliva.
Tattered clothes and skin sared with all kinds of filth, an unpleasant sll that makes want to vomit imdiately.
Anyone would see that he was in an unstable state.
Anyone walking down the street like that would be arrested and taken to the hospital in 30 minutes.
But is that really Cheong-ho?
What is that?
I’m not talking about his pathological laughter or unstable deanor that suggests madness.
Cheong-ho looked exactly the sa and spoke with Cheong-ho’s voice, but sothing was different.
It felt as if so foreign entity was wearing Cheong-ho’s skin.
“Kuhuhuh… it couldn’t be better. Kim Shin-hwa, my brother. Kuhuhu, kuhuhuhu, kuhuh… kuhuhuhu…”
Cheong-ho made a sound that was hard to tell if he was crying or laughing and trembled.
“Kuh, kuhuhuhuhu, kuhuhuhu… I missed you. I have been waiting for you all this ti. Kuhuhu, in this dreadful darkness, for such a long, long ti, how much ti has passed? Kuh, kuhihit!”
“Ah, just a mont. It seems like it’s about ti for you to start saying sothing serious. May I briefly say sothing first?”
Before Cheong-ho could start spouting nonsense, I had to say what I needed to.
“If you plan to say, ‘I know everything you don’t know, but I won’t tell you easily’ just stop it. If you have sothing to say, speak quickly and briefly, using precise words; otherwise, just say one thing.”
“One thing?”
The sa thing I had recomnded to Hwa In last ti.
“Yes. If you scream ‘Kkieeek’ and run at , I will say ‘I knew it!’ and hit you.”
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