“As expected, it’s incredibly large. As expected from a servant created directly by a being of the abyss.”
A beautiful round gem sparkling with a golden light.
This was a large magic stone that was difficult to lift with just one hand.
It was an item of tremendous value that couldn’t even be compared to its same weight of gold. It could be sold, or the magical power of the [King in Yellow] within it could be extracted to create a new artifact.
Starting with this one, since there were a total of thirteen dancers, there should be twelve more large magic stones remaining.
“And then there’s that head.”
“Eeek!”
Jang Hyeon-deok stepped back with a pale expression on his face. It seemed as though he was going through real-time checks of sanity. Although he managed to maintain his calm, an instinctive aversion seemed to limit his actions.
“I-I’m fine. You don’t have to pay me… no, you don’t have to give me anything. Just… just please send me back.”
“Thank you for that. But no.”
“Huh?”
“I might not know about other things, but I will pay you. So, load this into the car and take me to Geumchon.”
“Uh… Load this into the car…?”
“Don’t you have something like a cart around? Something with wheels?”
“Well, yes, but…”
“Hurry up and bring your car.”
“But, that’s…”
“Quick! Don’t you want to go home?”
“I-I got it!”
Jang Hyeon-deok ran more as if he was trying to escape the situation than to pack this luggage. It seemed impressive how he could run in the dark, but soon enough, Jang Hyeon-deok stumbled and fell. There was a brief commotion as Jang Hyeon-deok, who thought I had a change of heart and attacked him, screamed and begged for mercy. Eventually, I provided him with a magical light source by his side.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})Just in case, I watched Jang Hyeon-deok’s retreating figure for a moment. He seemed to be walking cautiously with an awkward posture…. Anyway, I don’t think he would fall again.
Well… since we’re firm allies, he won’t run away on his own.
I turned my attention back to the corpses of the dancers.
“Tsk… I was going to ask Jang Hyeon-deok to do this, but with him like that, it looks like I’ll have to do it myself.”
The event prepared at the archaeological site concluded, but it seemed my tasks for the day were far from over.
I began to spread my magical power in all directions, using magical vibrations and telekinesis…
[Touch of the Other World]
Crack! Crash! Bang!
I extracted magic stones from the scattered corpses of the dancers. Once again, golden scales and gems fluttered through the dark site, making the surroundings glitter magnificently.
***
Over 50 days have passed since I started spending my nights in the world of [Cthulhu World].
I had fifty nights, fifty sleeps, and fifty dreams yet not once was I granted a moment of rest.
The dreadful attention and influence sent by the outer gods seeped into my mind…. creating horrifying and bizarre nightmares.
Even now I am dreaming.
An endlessly vast, desolate desert, a massive lake, and beyond it, a towering spire, all under the shadow of a great and majestic city.
And above in the sky, two suns are faintly dimming.
The old spires that stood against the sandstorm for eons and the screams of a fallen city.
And an eerie, burning blue light swimming through the terrible ruins.
“We are watching you.”
Strange whispers.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})Endless rows of nameless tombstones stretched out.
From beneath the ruins, strange forms emerged… groaning, howling, and screaming.
From the deep underground, a huge form arose, a monstrous entity whose mere presence was emitting blasphemous malice.
Somewhere, the sound of drums began to echo.
Golden dancers with masks reversed,
and bizarre creatures without eyes, mouths, or souls, danced a strange dance to spread the gospel of the great king.
It was a slow, awkward, and ludicrous dance set to a dreadful music.
“I refused the banquet.”
At the center of it all dwelled a vast and repulsive shadow.
Attached to its huge body were thousands of boneless limbs writhing.
A massive nightmare pulsating with an unfathomable power.
“I merely chose to watch you, visitor from beyond the distant abyss.”
In a language beyond the scope of any world, a great soul was described, one with countless epithets, minds, wills, and incarnations; truly exalted, truly wondrous, truly great, truly wise.
The master of Carcosa, he who dwells in Aldebaran, the who must not be named, the high priest of the sunset, the lord of the sunset, that which lies beneath the lake, the peacock king, the one and infinite great spirit.
The [King in Yellow] is watching over you.
In the skies of Carcosa, the hem of the King’s yellow robe fluttered.
From afar, the song of the Hyades could be heard…
Crackling.
[System: The unique trait ‘Madness of the Abyss’ has been activated. The effects of the nightmare have been nullified.]
“Ah, finally.”
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})For a while, it seemed the [Living Flame] was repulsed or perhaps the burning madness of the nightmares it sent had quieted down.
Thanks to this, only the [Nightmares of R’lyeh] sent by Cthulhu were repeating, and just when I was starting to get used to them…
The channel of the King in Yellow was added to my nightmare subscription service.
This wasn’t like subscribing to a streaming channel… Every time I got entangled with beings from the abyss, a new nightmare was added.
“I never asked for this crappy streaming…”
[Madness of the Abyss] was preventing any major problems from arising…. but that was a separate issue from feeling filthy.
Ugh, makes me sick…
Should I hang up a dream catcher or something?
I bet if I raised my mental strength stat, I could block this too.
It had been three days since I locked myself in my room for a rest after the turmoil with Jang Hyeon-deok.
I was contemplating taking the day off as well, but I had promised to meet Tudor.
Eventually, I decided to get up.
That I decided meant… I didn’t actually get up yet.
I just can’t seem to leave the bed.
Even though I managed to secure 8 points in my health stat, I somehow squandered it which brought me back down to 7 points.
Below 8 points, a person barely meets the minimum capability to function normally. At least 8 points are needed to continue this extreme and perilous life of a fixer.
Not that reaching a health stat of 8 points would bring about a revolutionary change. It would merely return me to my previous state before being dragged into this world, that is, to the level of Kim Shin-hwa, the game addict who used to lie around playing games all day.
Why did I have to come here as a mage… If I had entered as the warrior I was playing just before, I could have done anything with my excessive muscles and surplus stamina.
“Maybe I should just close my eyes and invest in health every time I get a bonus?”
That was not an option.
I had no history of raising health and strength beyond double digits while raising a mage character.
What am I thinking? If I have any stats left over after strength, I should be increasing my intelligence by at least one point.
I have come to realize that the basis of everything comes from muscles, but it was difficult to go against my set schedule or flow.
I wondered if I could somehow come across a powerful artifact… It would be nice if it just fell out of the sky.
The view of my room, seen from an angle, was a mess.
Gleaming… remnants of corpses and cursed gems that I had gathered with Jang Hyeon-deok at the ruins three days ago were scattered everywhere, along with various knick-knacks and clothes.
It was a horrendous sight.
I need to get rid of those things soon…
But before even getting up and changing clothes, there was a more pressing preparation for going out.
I stretched out my hand while lying down.
Fzzzt…
A burst of colorful lights emanated from my fingertips before scattering in all directions.
The door, the windows, and even the walls and ceiling were all covered.
I fortified the flimsy door and windows, applied silence, detection interference, and even bestowed invisibility on the artifacts and gems, along with setting up electric shock and flame spells to activate upon approach.
These were just temporary security measures I could set up immediately.
I felt sick to my stomach because I only ate delivery food all week.
While I’m going out today, I should buy something proper to eat.
I picked up a few gems and chunks of mana stones scattered around my room and stepped outside. As always, I didn’t head towards the main entrance below but towards the rooftop.
It was already late evening outside with the sun tilting towards the horizon.
Buildings of similar height stretched around the one I was standing on, with the landscape of Paju visible beyond them.
Is this really another world?
Each time I came up here, I fell into similar reflections. Could this really be fake? It seemed too real to call it virtual, and it seemed too similar to reality to call it another world.
As if mocking my thoughts, I could see the tip of Hwangnyongsa Mountain and the giant bronze head of the seated Buddha statue at Hwangnyongsa far beyond the buildings.
There’s no such eerie-looking giant Buddha statue in the actual Paju.
But the statue in the distance wasn’t the issue.
The mask covering my face was the beginning of the abnormality.
“Haah…”
Right, what’s the point in pondering such thoughts? Let’s just get going.
[Leap]
A mage wearing a cursed mask soared into the skies on a magical board. Before I knew it, I had surpassed level 20. The unlocking of second-order magic allowed me to harness an even greater array of spells and incorporate finer details into my posture correction and leaps.
It felt more like an art than a mere trick, as I, along with the board, performed a 360-degree rotation in mid-air… No, it was a feeling. Suddenly, I executed several more rotations in succession before landing smoothly on the ground.
Without the need to push off, I entrusted my body to the skateboard that glided forward while navigating through the dark back alleys of Paju.
Today…
I had received a message from Tudor last night. She mentioned there was a job at Vasilisa that might interest me, and I had a rough idea of what it could be.
I already completed five requests.
If the game was to follow its predetermined storyline, then that quest would surely come next.
The requests provided by the brokers were different each time, but there were certain tasks that appeared at regular intervals. These were known as fixed requests, and the veteran players of [Cthulhu World] would often decide which broker to work with based not only on their personality and reliability but also on the quality and type of these fixed requests.
While I was heading to Vasilisa with these thoughts in mind, something unexpected occurred.
“Excuse me, just a moment.”
Someone called out to me.
Behind me. Who could it be?
I suppressed my magical power to make it difficult for anyone nearby to detect me while preparing my spells for immediate deployment before turning around.
Coincidentally, there was an illegally parked car nearby.
So I used this car’s side mirror to check who was behind me
…It was the police.
Though Paju was known to be unlawful, I had been moving around too comfortably until now.
But such an encounter was always a possibility.
Wearing this mask and wandering through the back alleys would definitely look suspicious to anyone.
I was just about to address the issue with the mask… What terrible timing.
Should I increase my board’s speed and just flee?
No, let’s not. I sensed the presence of several others within my detection range, and among them, some were not ordinary people. They possessed abnormally high levels of magical power just like Lee Chang-hyuk or Kwak Dae-yong.
The police in Paju were formidable enough as they were. Among them, there were irregulars who were far from ordinary.
There was no telling what complications might arise If a chase were to start.
To buy some time, I pretended not to hear anything and turned around while my mask hid my face.
I had no intention of escaping through such an obvious tactic.
While escaping might have been the only option at first-order, second-order offered spells that could help me out. However, even with such spells, it was impossible to use them while facing someone directly.
All I have to do is keep the mask out of the police officer’s sight, even if it’s just for a second.
“Hey, you! Stop right there!”
It seemed my attitude only further provoked the police officer. His previously polite attitude vanished as he raised his voice.
But at that moment, I quickly twisted my body and completely avoided his gaze.
Now was the time. I activated the spell I had prepared in advance.
