“Walk that way. Park Gwangrim went out first. Jang Hyundeok will be waiting too.”
Letters and numbers, darkness.
And in that bizarre, abstract space of random chaos, a trace ford that one could walk along.
A route where only the concepts of , , and existed. That it was composed of flowing alphabets or warped deep-sea-fish imagery wouldn’t be important information to a high entity like this [Source of Life].
And at the end of that passage I could see Park Gwangrim—and Jang Hyundeok’s vacant face.
They looked unhard, with no trouble or wounds.
“You just have to walk that way. That alone will let you obtain what you wanted.”
For a mont I was almost led by the few concepts the route provided and nearly walked forward without thinking, but I turned my body and looked at the [Source of Life].
“You just called the protagonist, didn’t you?”
“I did.”
“Specifically, the protagonist of this [Cthulhu World].”
[Cthulhu World] is a ga in the cosmic-horror genre, built on the Cthulhu Mythos.
The protagonist’s objective is single.
“To uncover the truth of this world and prevent its destruction.”
But that exists only as a story purpose.
As a resident of the cosmic-horror genre, the protagonist’s true role is different.
“...”
In this world there’s no hymn to humanity or victory, no neat, intuitive catharsis like in web novels.
“Destruction is scheduled, and soday you die, or go mad, or give up everything and despair, right? And that’s the role of the protagonist who appears in this ga?”
Upon hearing , the [Source of Life] widened both eyes and tilted his head.
“Why are you telling that?”
A middle-aged male face resembling Jang Hyundeok.
Depending on the situation he smiles, shows curiosity—there are changes of expression, but the strange alien feel is like an image churned out by a generative AI.
‘Like a robot.’
The changes are overly contrived, and more than anything, from a mont ago he hasn’t taken a single breath or blinked even once.
I turned my back to the passage the [Source of Life] provided and thought for a mont.
‘Sure, I could just leave like this.’
But why should I grant this bastard’s wish?
I briefly recalled what Tudor told .
“You don’t just grant any wish, right? There must be a thod or conditions.”
Right—I’m not so chanical being who grants any random wish. And I’m not a ga character wandering without will either.
I carefully moved my mana.
I can’t walk out like this.
I refuse to be used in this kind of way.
And more than anything...
“It probably won’t go well, but since I’m the protagonist, I should at least try.”
I already know it’s an irresistible entity, but even so, resisting and thrashing—that’s the protagonist’s role.
Saying so, I triggered the spell I’d prepared with care.
[Black Fla]
[Spell Boost: Maximize]
[whssshhh—]
Pitch-black fire, laden with a wicked force, poured toward the [Source of Life].
“This is an unstable space. Using magic could poison you.”
The [Source of Life] said only that and made no move.
The spell I launched—black fire tangled with the grudges of the dead—
[spirit fire 01 1010 10 grudge 1010111 $s lts burns e ki l l s 2 1 fire black 00011 c!&a&grudge10101 fla soul1011 wraith &zfire fireaa psychic 10101010 amplified power^]
Shattered and scattered into 0s and 1s and a handful of words and concepts.
I expected as much.
“Then how about this?”
Without stopping, I triggered telekinesis and floated [Four-Sign Trueblade] and [Butcher’s Hook] into the air.
[clatterrrrr—]
A wildly complex magic circle ford, using the two artifacts as dia.
Artifacts prepared as weapons can be equipped only one at a ti, but I ignored the gay convenience setting and converted the forces housed in those two weapons into raw magic power.
[Sword Realm]
The [Source of Life] briefly knit his brows, grimacing.
“A magic not in the database. Did you just make it?”
“Sure did! You said this is outside the managent area, didn’t you?”
Right—this is a magic that doesn’t exist in the ga.
A magic improvised the instant I realized I could do it.
[skreeee—]
The “sword” setting housed in the Four-Sign Trueblade—expanded infinitely into this ambiguous space.
, , , , , , , , , , —images of swords blooming round, randomly, repetitively, beautifully, like flowers of light and matter generated inside a kaleidoscope.
“Impressive. Are you eroding spatial information with willpower? A little more developnt and you might beco the founder of a new magic lineage.”
“You just said you had no control rights over space, right?”
“That’s what I said.”
“Good. Then you can’t escape!”
[clatterrrrrrrrr—]
The sword-images deployed on all sides tightened toward the [Source of Life].
The [Source of Life] made a face of mild surprise—nothing more than what you’d make when realizing you’re late for an appointnt.
“Ah, I seem to have told you too much. The administrators will be annoyed later.”
“I’ll make sure they won’t!”
[clatterrrrr—] [shlaaash!]
The instant the space-data composed of countless overlapping sword-images touched his body—
[pooom—]
The [Source of Life] burst apart into hundreds of gorgeous flowers and scattered.
No hit sensation.
Gokhwejul’s voice ca from a random direction.
“Why are you suddenly doing this? I find your purpose difficult to parse.”
Honestly, I can’t give a rational reason for why I’m doing this either. It’s just—
“I’m pissed, so I wanted to land a couple hits. If you don’t like it, resist. Rational enough?”
“Not rational. Isn’t your intelligence higher than that?”
[whip—]
I attacked the [Source of Life] now wearing Gokhwejul’s body as its look.
[shraaaash—]
A savagery infused into the space itself. Space moved, imbued with the will to cut, split, slice, and wound the target’s flesh, and assaulted its body.
[pooom—]
Gokhwejul’s body blew apart into hundreds of flowers and whirled away.
“Oh, wizard. For a re human you do have formidable willpower—but this is aningless flailing.”
Jang Hyundeok’s voice, from another direction.
“What you’re seeing is just a terminal.”
“So what?”
Borrowing Jang Hyundeok’s face, the [Source of Life] shrugged.
“Doing this changes nothing for —uh... from your point of view, I’m the [Source of Life], right? Anyway, it has no effect on . It’s not possession; it’s just a video call. You’re smart enough to perceive that, right?”
“Shut it.”
[shraaaash—]
The space, mutated by my will into a razor image of slaughter, kept moving, endlessly.
[pooom—]
Jang Hyundeok turned to flowers and scattered.
“Sir! Please stop and just leave now! Outside, Jang Hyundeok and Park Gwangrim are waiting!”
An NPC—no clue which—ca running, shouting.
When I smashed him, he exploded into hundreds of flowers and vanished.
“I advise you to calm down!” “Nothing will change!”
“Sir! Don’t you want your Jang Hyundeok to beco more special too?”
“We’re doing this for you, sir.”
“I’m on your side.” “We can take a mutually beneficial path.” “This isn’t rational.” “Why waste ti like this?” “Hurry out and et Jang Hyundeok.” “Wasn’t this your plan? I’m trying to help it!”, “Sir? Co along!”
NPCs kept surging in.
“Haa—haa—damn.”
The mana drain was brutal. But I lifted my sword again and moved the space where the force of murder and destruction took form.
NPCs in Jang Hyundeok’s skin were mashed like they’d been thrown into a monstrous grinder.
“Sir!” “Sir!” “Sir!” “Sir!” “Sir!” “Sir!” “Sir!”
[krrrrrrrunch—]
So many flowers rose that I could barely see.
“Haa—haa—”
“Ah, I get it now, oppa. You’re angry, aren’t you?”
Hyeonji’s sunny voice.
“Shut up!”
I raised my sword, but the sword-image wouldn’t move.
[ssssss—]
The image collapsed.
I couldn’t maintain it anymore. The world was about to revert to an abstract space again.
“Oppa, let’s stop now and go that way. Hyundeok oppa and Gwangrim oppa are waiting.”
“I # Nоvеlight # will really kill you.”
Now even my arms and legs had no strength. To keep from collapsing, I jamd the Blade of Flesh into the “floor” and barely held myself up.
Hyeonji smiled, her face twisted.
Embodied in Hyeonji’s body, the [Source of Life] burst into a laugh no human could even imitate and reached out a hand.
Children approached from the direction Hyeonji pointed.
“Wizard, you’ve worked hard.” “I don’t know why you’re angry.” “Right. Hyundeok will beco a better person, you know?”
I looked at the children in silence.
Right—that part is the problem.
“You think I’ll just sit back and let you wreck and defile a party mber NPC I’m using, however you please?”
“Ah, so that’s what you didn’t like?”
“But it can’t be helped.”
One child raised a hand and pointed to the sky.
“The stars are moving.”
Smiling with the sa expression like finely crafted dolls, the children chattered one by one.
“All of this happened because of you, wizard.”
“That’s right. You ssed things up, so it can’t be helped.”
“We’re taking losses too, you know.”
“Yeah. We said we called Hyundeok because we needed resources, right?”
“If we’re going to pull Hyundeok out, we have no choice but to take the resources other people have.”
I nodded as I listened to the children’s bright voices.
Because of ? Now they’re trying gaslighting.
“Ah, that so?”
I burst the mana-stone I’d hardened from my own blood and detonated my mana.
Sensing the aning of mana diffusing through the abstract space, Hyeonji opened her mouth.
“Wizard, that—”
[Ti Stop]
[zzzzzzzip—]
A world washed in gray.
In the frozen ti, Hyeonji went on speaking.
“—even if you use that to stop ti, it ans nothing to .”
“Right. That’s the [Great Source]’s power.”
“In the end we are one. The sa being.”
The children approached with smiles.
Is that so?
Thanks to stopping ti, I confird sothing.
What could move in this space, and what could not.
[Sword Realm]
[shraaaash—]
The mont the magic triggered, I swung the [Blade of Flesh].
It had lost the sa expansive force as before, but the [Sword Realm] altered the laws of the world along the arc of my swing.
[Unique function of L-grade weapon ‘Blade of Flesh,’ ‘Power to Cut Barriers,’ is activated.
// Power to Cut Barriers: Slices space.]
The [Blade of Flesh] is a thing infused with the [Great Source]’s power.
The [Source of Life], avatar of the [Great Source], cannot resist this power!
[shlaaash!]
I cut sothing in the empty air.
Sothing that had been there all along but that I could neither perceive nor see.
‘I can feel it.’
Different from before—I felt sothing sever.
[FWOOOOSH!]
In the gray space of stopped ti, crimson blood—or a trendous downpour of petals—burst forth.
Unable to withstand the overwhelming mana, I was flung backward.
I wanted to scream, but in frozen ti, you can’t scream out loud.
‘But it landed. Now I’ll cancel [Ti Stop]—’
That’s what I thought, but—the effect of [Ti Stop] did not end.
No—that’s not it. This is...
“Correct. This ti I stopped ti.”
Pinned in midair in the posture of being blown back, I couldn’t move, couldn’t scream, couldn’t even fall.
“Amazing, wizard.” “How did you figure it out?”
Emotions not present before appeared on the children’s faces.
Curiosity. A flutter. Excitent. Delight. Chilling, grotesque gazes fixed on .
“By routing through the terminal’s relay core, you wounded the who isn’t here.”
“The way you found the core is fun. The mont you realized we can move even in stopped ti, you attacked whatever was moving independent of this NPC skin, right?”
“Wow! How can you do that? That’s incredible!”
“You weren’t even sure what it was, were you?” “Oh, did you attack on pure intuition?”
“Interesting.” “Interesting.” “Right. Interesting.” “Truly amazing.”
“Now I see why the administrators like you.”
“You’re a more entertaining human than we thought, wizard.”
“Ah, that was a complint.”
“Right. And please grant our wish.”
kikikikiki—hahahahaha—
The children laughed brightly, singing and dancing.
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