A few more days passed.
[rumble]
“Wriggler, get ready.”
I tapped the lower-half mask with a fingertip, then pulled down the visor I’d been wearing like a helt.
[clack]
The gas mask with a big filter coupled to the multi-lens visor, completing a single mask—and at the sa ti, the artifact’s effect activated.
[System : ‘Variable Lens’ is operating. Choose effects. You can select only two views at once.]
My intent was firm; no further commands or inputs were needed.
With the whirr of turning gears, seven colored lenses slid into position.
[B-rank accessory ‘Variable Lens’ provides ‘True Eye’ and ‘Enemy Tracking.’
// True Eye : grants a sight that can pierce a target’s true nature. This includes ‘Mana Sense,’ ‘Spirit Sense,’ and ‘Invisible Detection.’
// Enemy Tracking : locates a designated enemy. Effective range 300 m. You can only designate a target you have seen at least once.]
My vision transford, dramatically.
Far off, under the sinister glow of moonlight—
Ruins blanketed in grotesque, five-hued tallic crystals.
Between collapsed buildings, a shadow blacker than the night convulsed like a misshapen mass.
Hee-hee-hee, uh-huh-huh—ha-ha-ha—huh—
A wicked shadow exhaling laughter and sobbing at once. The [Weaver] I’d been tracking—no, [The Laughing One].
It hasn’t noticed yet. If I strike first...
“Ah, wait. What’s that?”
Damn it, there’s a person.
Paju has already beco unlivable. So who is that? Another corpse [The Laughing One] picked up, like last ti?
I shifted the [Variable Lens] configuration and layered a few detection spells—observing the person.
A woman? Or a boy? In any case, small.
A protective suit covering the whole body, and an oxygen rig.
Careful, cautious movents.
Not being puppeted. Just a scavenger?
Judging by the load on their back, they’ve co to steal sellable relics from ruined Paju.
Busy filming things with a cara—unaware [The Laughing One] is hunting them.
‘[The Laughing One] likewise does not know it is our prey.’
Kongsoon, nestled in my arms, offered a perfectly reasonable proposal.
Attack at the mont [The Laughing One] goes for that person.
“Not a bad thought—but first I need more intel. And while we’re at it, I’d like to save them.”
‘So a little human foolishness remains in you.’
To a wise cat, human dullness must look amusing.
But she wasn’t annoyed—so I could push my luck.
“Then while Wriggler draws [The Laughing One]’s attention, I’ll pin it. Perhaps so rciful soul will help that poor human.”
‘Prepare my treats.’
I gauged how much premium cat food I had left and nodded—
Kongsoon slipped from my arms and shot like an arrow onto a half-collapsed rooftop.
“Good. Wriggler, let’s move. You left, I right.”
[chirr-rrrk!]
Wriggler moved on my command.
To draw eyes, it flung massive tentacles in all directions, causing an uproar.
[r r r umble!!]
Khh-h-h—uh-huh-h—
At the sight, [The Laughing One]’s darkness flinched and shrank, a trendous array of bones surfacing within the dark.
Battle stance.
A face-off like a mythic giants’ duel—Wriggler versus [The Laughing One].
“Kyahhh!?”
The scavenger scread at the spectacle.
Kyah? So not a boy—a woman.
Whether she failed to grasp the situation or not—her flailing was confusion {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} more than panic.
‘Human, be still.’
Kongsoon’s annoyance—befitting one far greater than re humans.
Still not so bothered as to give up a can of tuna, she looped a long tail around the scavenger’s nape and yanked her back.
“Ah! Help !”
My turn.
The artifact on my feet—leather boots—[Acrobat’s Boots]—activated.
[B-rank shoes ‘Acrobat’s Boots’ trigger unique effect ‘Showti.’
// Showti : for 10 minutes, bonus to Jump, Dance, and Balance checks; auto-casts ‘Leap’.]
I don’t need help from an artifact to use a trifle like [Leap]—but if you have it, use it.
And it saves the focus I’d spend on posture and balance.
[Leap]
[Blurred Presence]
I closed fast from outside [The Laughing One]’s alert radius—
And snapped a spell straight into it.
[Flash Burst]
[boom]
[Kraaaagh!]
A scream from [The Laughing One]—delivered by ans other than sound.
“Hey, long ti! Friend! Three days, right? How’ve you been?”
‘Feast’s Offering! Feast’s Offering! Kim Sinhwa! Kim Sinhwa!’
“Great to see you too!”
[KR-R-RUMBLE!] [CR-RRRASH!]
An avalanche of bones poured at .
Whoever coded that AI—this version’s attack pattern is always the sa.
[Blink]
[zip]
A relaxed dodge on survivability tools.
‘I will kill you!’
It snarled a ferocious threat—but honestly, it’s not even funny.
“Co on, mister. I’ve been playing with abyssal beings lately; ‘I’ll kill you’ doesn’t even count as a big threat.”
Saying so, I executed the sequence I’d prepped.
[Material Transmutation : tal to at]
[Material Transmutation : Stone to at]
[Spell Amp : Maximize]
This whole field is tal and stone.
I dumped mana to mutate everything in the area into flesh at 26% protein, 15% fat—and chained the next spells.
[Flesh Control]
[Wall of at]
[Spell Amp : Multi-Cast]
“Wrap him!”
[shlaaaap!]
Like a shoggoth’s motion, at clung to [The Laughing One].
‘at? What madness is this!’
Apparently it hadn’t expected such an absurd attack; how polite of it to worry about my ntal health.
“We’re not done—wait for the rest of the combo!”
‘Useless!’
To dodge the surging, sli-like tide of at, [The Laughing One] loosened its form.
Trying to [Incorporealize] and run again? Not this ti.
[Prison of Corpses]
[Bind]
[Animate]
[wet slap] [wet slap] [wet slap]
Flesh that had only obeyed orders fused with the darkness comprising [The Laughing One]—and with a tearing sound, hundreds of eyes ford.
‘Wait! What are you doing! Stop!’
“It’s nothing big! You’ve always wanted a body, right? I’ll give you one!”
‘I refuse! Let go!’
[sliiiither!]
But the pact I nailed into his body earlier is still there.
Rember? I promised to give him a body he could use.
I yanked that contract to the surface—and granted a body to [The Laughing One], once nothing but untouchable darkness and laughter.
“Gyaaaah!”
Now [The Laughing One] began to make noise I could perceive with hearing.
Done.
“Wriggler! Eat!”
[shliiiirp!]
“Uaaaagh!”
[You have gained enough experience to reach the next stage. Level 1.]
[You have sealed the high-order ntal entity ‘The Laughing One’ again. And a lot has happened this past month. You ransacked Hellistic’s labs and obtained many artifacts, and you deepened your friendship with ‘Saturn Cat – Kongsoon.’]
No achievent, though.
Right—the ‘Seal The Laughing One’ achievent already popped before.
[And through your battle with ‘The Laughing One,’ you gained an amusing possibility. By granting a taphysical being a physical body and neutralizing it—will that little trick work on abyssal beings as well?]
“Ah, you noticed?”
I only tried a few possibilities.
It mocks the experint—but who knows? I’ve got a few more ideas to try.
[What will you choose now? Using the knowledge and power you’ve gained, will you continue a new adventure in this tiline? Or to erase this version of the future, will you go tornt Watch Head again? Whatever you decide—we will respect your choice. Now look forward to a future of chaos.]
With sparking static, the ssage window vanished.
And as it vanished, the scavenger spoke up.
“Um—are you Kim Sinhwa, by any chance?”
“You know ? Well, I am Kim Sinhwa.”
“Wow! I knew it!”
The scavenger pulled off the protective gear hiding her face.
Ah—soone I knew.
“Reporter Gapureum, right?”
“Yes! Call Gafu!”
Gafu’s big round eyes sparkled as she stepped toward .
“So the [Overlord of Ruins] really was you, Kim Sinhwa! I’ve wanted to et you!”
, huh?
And—[Overlord of Ruins]? Who’s that supposed to be?
Since the story would run long, I tidied the area and set up a safe zone.
“Here’s tribute—snacks.”
‘Admirable.’
“Reporter, how about cocoa? I dug it up nearby.”
“Ah, thank you.”
Gafu and I talked for a while beside Kongsoon, who was nyan-nyaning through tuna.
It seems there are still survivor bases left in the south—Busan, Gwangju, and so on.
That’s not all. Gafu kept laying out the situation.
“Yes, and in the central region, Sejong City is at least functioning as a city.”
“Even Sejong?”
Not far from here—impressive.
“Of course. Yang Seoho is there.”
Ah—Sir Yang Seoho is protecting the country...
Unlike , who in one way or another has only triggered disasters, Yang Seoho is clearly a [Protector].
“Yang Seoho is preparing to resolve this.”
“Resolve it?”
“Yes. I don’t know the details, but I heard the tallic crystals covering the world are a problem caused by Yeonam Group. So Yang Seoho plans to attack Yeonam’s headquarters soon.”
Important intel.
So the chairman of Yeonam Group finally gained the power of immortality?
Usually a cinematic plays then the ending rolls, so I never knew what happened after—but it turns out it’s this massive ss.
“I see... Then what were you doing around here, Reporter?”
“I was looking for you! I suspected the [Overlord of Ruins] was you, Kim Sinhwa!”
“?”
To do what?
I asked, a bit incredulous—but Gafu bounced to her feet, fists clenched.
“I knew it! You’re the super-hero who’ll save this world! Please, defeat Yeonam with Yang Seoho!”
[Will you accept the quest?]
“So? Are you going to do it with Yang Seoho?”
The basent of the [Starving Mansion].
The hourglass floating in the silver barrier—or rather, Gong Isu—asked.
“No. I declined. And what I just told you happened a week ago.”
Gong Isu shook his head, confused.
“Why?”
“It felt contrived.”
“Contrived?”
I nodded and handed him a cup of cocoa.
“Give Dream Scent instead.”
“Stop drinking.”
“Damn.”
He accepted the cocoa without protest.
“Right after the ssage window says all that, a quest is offered. A slick, impressive-looking world setup. Obviously they want to stay here and go on a killer adventure with Yang Seoho.”
I did agonize—but I’ve decided to stop wandering this tiline.
“So you rule that choice out? What if they showed holes on purpose to steer you there?”
If I expect scissors from them and plan to throw rock—then they, predicting that, throw paper, so I must throw scissors!—and in that instant they, foreseeing everything, throw rock?
“No. Trace it that way and there’s no end. I’ll just do what I was going to do.”
At that, Gong Isu let out a pained groan.
“What you were going to do... That’s the only way...?”
Send Gong Isu to the past—and make this version of the future not have happened.
And then I, as the fourth Kim Sinhwa he ets, disappear—
“As if. Let finish.”
“Not so?”
I lifted a finger, confident.
“You seem to think I don’t believe your experience—but that’s not it.”
I said I’d keep all possibilities open.
That includes the possibility what Gong Isu said is true.
I reached a hand toward him.
“You and I are going back together. First, let’s verify what’s true and what’s false.”
User Comments
0 comments from readers