As with every night spent in the [Cthulhu World], the previous night’s dream was among the worst imaginable.
Endless underground tunnels, the stench of decaying corpses.
A chant echoed continuously in a murmuring voice.
Down, down, deeper down. Descend deeper down.
Descending the spiral staircase into the infinite depths of darkness.
At some point, the seemingly never-ending staircase abruptly ended, revealing a secret cavern hidden beneath the earth.
There lay an underground lake that stretched endlessly in breadth.
But it wasn’t water that filled the lake.
Everywhere I looked, there were corpses upon corpses and vile creatures like worms and beasts feasting on the rotten flesh of these bodies.
In a darkness so stifling it seemed even death could suffocate, there was a grotesque feast unfolding, designed for devouring the flesh of the dead… such was the nature of this dream.
It was no ordinary dream.
It was a message sent by the beings of the abyss to destroy my mind, to grasp me in their clutches.
A dream that shatters the soul of the person who experiences it and makes it impossible for them to live the same life as before.
But I was already mad, so it was okay.
No, that’s not quite it… If I hadn’t possessed the trait [Madness of the Abyss], I would have lost my mind long ago.
Leaving aside such nightmarish dreams, it’s been three days since I got a new house.
Rrrrrr–
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})Over these three days, I’ve managed to furnish the house with the essentials, and now I’ve regained enough stability to actually cook and eat my own meals.
Rrrrrr–
Then I made up my mind and bought a proper skateboard.
Riding the board isn’t exactly easy, but in my case since I’m not physically riding it, it’s not much different from riding an electric scooter to be honest.
The telekinesis conjured by magical power secured my body atop the board.
I supplied magical power to the wheels created for rotation to keep moving the board forward.
There is no need for actions like pushing off with my feet.
With a bit more focus, I could even force the board to perform tricks similar to those done on skateboards and accelerate faster than a motorcycle.
At first, the vibration from the wheels was a problem, jolting all the way to my head, but I solved it by using magic to forcibly neutralize it.
But setting all that aside…
It’s incredibly convenient.
I didn’t have to walk, and I could maneuver indoors or over complex terrains.
Even terrains typically unsuitable for a board were no issue. I could force it to move with magical power. If I set my mind to it, I could traverse deserts or jungles without any trouble.
Maybe in the future, when I can afford it, I’ll pay a craftsman somewhere to make me a magic board or something.
I planned to create a high-performance custom board slathered with artifacts and magic.
Still, I had settled near Vasilisa.
While riding my board I could have reached Vasilisa in about five minutes, but I intentionally roamed the dark back alleys and rooftops of the Geumchon neighborhood, whirling around before heading towards Vasilisa.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})This was partly to avoid any potential tailing or tracking of my movements, but honestly, more than half the reason was simply the exhilaration I felt riding the board.
Given the dire circumstances and conditions I faced, a change of mood was essential. To stay sane, I needed to eat delicious food and maintain positive thoughts.
Enjoying the delightful speed, defying physics with leaps, and spinning through the air, I finally reached the deepest part of the Geumchon neighborhood’s damp and dark back alleys.
There, out of place in such a setting and time, was a peculiar café with a stylish exterior that was open for business.
Café Vasilisa was a café run by a witch who lived for a long time, and at the same time, it was a café for fixers wandering the darkness of Paju.
When I entered Vasilisa, a tall barista with a large spherical monitor for a head, Orb, greeted me in a mechanically synthesized voice that unnaturally broke off.
– Hel.lo? Kim. Shin-hwa.
“Hi, Orb. Got anything to chew on besides drinks?”
– Home. Made. Sandwich? Tasty.
Hmm… Can I really call a sandwich made by Orb a homemade sandwich? Well, the body beneath the head is human, so… anyway, it doesn’t matter.
“Then, I’ll have that and an iced Americano. I’m not eating here, so please pack it up.”
– Just. A. Moment.
While I waited for Orb to prepare the sandwich, someone suddenly approached me and struck up a conversation.
“Hey, masked friend.”
“Uh.”
Shiny bald head with bulging muscles. He was one of the fixers who had laughed at me on my first day at Vasilisa. Always lounging in the café, gobbling down stuff like parfaits… but why approach me all of a sudden?
“Your name is Kim Shin-hwa, right? Is that your real name?”
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})“Is that why you started talking to me?”
“Ah, such a cold response! My name is…”
“Wait, stop!”
“What’s the matter…?”
I broke into a cold sweat.
Ah, shit… I remembered this dimwitted bald mercenary’s… This man’s name. I even knew his real name.
“No need to introduce yourself; I already know your name!”
This man’s name was Kang Il-sam. His fixer name that he used as a fixer….it was a word that read as a certain number in English. To use such an unpleasant, ominous, horrible, evil, superstitious, unlucky number as a name, what was he thinking?
“Ah, you already know my name? That’s an honor. Well, my fixer name is Thir…”
“Why did you approach me? What do you want?”
I spoke without taking a breath to force him to stop speaking.
Just thinking about Kang Il-sam’s name… even the thought sent shivers down my spine. Anyway, the bald man looked momentarily perplexed; even with my mask on, it was evident something was off about me.
Without the mask, my reason for acting this way would have been completely exposed.
“Ah, right. It’s nothing…”
He hesitated for a moment, then shrugged his shoulders and pointed at me with both hands.
“Kim Shin-hwa, you’ve been quite the rising star lately, so I just wanted to say hi.”
“Ah… I see.”
So what? It’s curious why someone who isn’t the type to start conversations like this would do so. But his name keeps disrupting my focus and concentration.
I thought my dream was disturbing for some reason…
No, it’s not working. I need to wrap this up quickly.
“Thanks for your interest. But today’s not a good day for me…”
He should just vanish in such a way that he would never be seen by me… that’s a bit extreme. I can’t exactly tell him to go change his name and come back, can I? Even though I hadn’t finished speaking, it seems my gestures of refusal and rejection were clear enough. He looked a bit troubled as he started speaking.
“Hey, don’t be like that. It’s a good offer; just hear me out.”
“What is it?”
“Seems like you’ve been working solo for a while. Aren’t you interested in joining a team?”
Ah, so that was it… an invitation to join his team? The results of my recent work weren’t bad, but there hadn’t been anything as significant as the Lee Chang-hyuk incident to gain such fame…And the same thing happened with Park Kwang-lim last time; it seems Tudor has been doing things behind the scenes to promote my name.
“Working alone has its limits, right? Some tasks require a number of people to back you up, regardless of skill… And you’re a mage, aren’t you? Having a reliable colleague, like a hearty bowl of gukbap, to cover your front would surely make earning money a lot easier, wouldn’t it?”
Sorry, but I dislike it because of your awful name. No, that’s not it.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t plan on joining any group for the time being.”
“Don’t be like that. We can still be close without officially joining, like a guest member. For a mage like you, we’d offer the best share. I stake my Name on it.”
“No, what I mean is…”
Please just leave with your terrible name and don’t hang it over me… If this conversation continued, I might either go mad or lose my temper and beat him up.
Fortunately, the conversation ended in an unexpected way.
“Oh dear, you’re here? Are you going to eat that sandwich here?”
When I turned my head, I saw Tudor wearing a wide-brimmed cone hat standing looking down at me with a playful expression on her face.
She was already tall, but in high heels it was impossible to meet her gaze without looking up.
“No, I’ll take it to go.”
“Why don’t you just lift your mask a bit to eat?”
I got goosebumps.
Why is she like this? Asking to slightly remove the mask in such a crowded place?
With triskaidekaphobia (fear of 13) already etched in my mind, I had to suppress another madness threatening to emerge… mask obsession. I had to quickly change the topic.
I was caught between a rock and a hard place. Tudor insisting on removing the mask and the bald man trying to say his name! I had no choice but to give up on the relationship I had built with Tudor and everyone…
“Well, that doesn’t really matter. Sorry, but can I borrow Kim Shin-hwa for a bit?”
Ah, fortunately, it seems my thoughts were just paranoid delusions, a side effect of my mental illness. Tudor winked slyly at the bald man and pulled me away.
“Ah, I don’t know what it is, but favoritism isn’t good.”
The bald man joked, but he didn’t seem to be in a bad mood. For someone with such a terrible name, he seemed to have a good personality.
“Huh? When did I ever show favoritism?”
“I don’t know what it is, but I’m hungry. If it’s about work, let’s get it over with quickly. I want to go eat my sandwich.”
I would slit the throat of an abyssal being if I could just get this over with.
“Hmm, okay. And Thirteen, I have something to ask of you, so… don’t go anywhere and wait for me.”
“Ah, got it.”
I ended up hearing it! Wow, how can a person’s name be that? No, why in the world would someone choose such a nickname?
I felt like screaming, but fortunately, mere fleeting hearing didn’t trigger my mental illness. If it were that sensitive, I would have fainted even at the sight of phone numbers on signs while passing by.
Ah… damn it… How the hell do I erase this mental illness…
Anyway, I left the bald fixer with the terrible name…. behind and headed to Tudor’s office. I’m not sure how my gait looked, but it seemed extremely awkward. Fixers who were slowly getting used to my mask looked at me with puzzled expressions before speaking to the bald man.
“Hey, what did you say to that masked guy to make him act like that?”
“Who knows? I just proposed teaming up…”
“Aaah, then it makes sense he’d be upset.”
“What did you say?”
Then followed the sound of hearty laughter. He didn’t seem like a bad person, but I’m sorry; I just can’t associate with someone with such a name.
As soon as I sat down in the office chair, Tudor handed me a stack of documents.
The first page had a large photo of a construction site attached to it.
“An apartment complex?”
“Exactly. It’s a flashy, chic apartment going up near Munsan Station.”
Munsan Station is just three stops away on the Gyeongui-Jungang Line from here in Geumchon.
I’m not sure how it was in the reality I lived in, but redevelopment was in full swing in [Cthulhu World].
“Let’s see… The building is almost complete; only the finishing touches are left. So what’s the problem?”
“A ghoul popped out of the underground parking lot.”
