202. Reality and Unreality
202. Reality and Unreality
I didn’t make that judgment just by listening to the sound.
Because I could clearly see the series of events that were unfolding right now.
Is that all?
The faint waves of red light that seemed to come from far away were clear signals from Laplace.
It’s still a distant future, but it’s clearly a sign that an extremely ominous future awaits.
It was visible all over the spaceship.
‘huh?’
At that moment, a strange, uncomfortable feeling came over me as if it was weighing down my whole body.
A momentary sense of discomfort that gives you goosebumps.
Instead of letting that feeling go, I stood there, staring blankly.
Although he wasn’t really looking at anything in particular, his mind was completely focused on one point.
– Eeeeeeeeeeng…!
The sound of a siren receding.
Blurred vision.
As my eyes opened, two images appeared overlapping each other… .
– Crackle… Crackle…
“… … .”
– Support support… support… support…
“…noise.”
“noise?”
Park Han-eul asks back without missing my small muttering.
I still stared into the empty space, staring at the small sense of discomfort in the world reflected in my ‘eyes’.
It was definitely noise.
There was a level of noise between the tiny particles that connect worlds that you would never normally see, a level that you would not be able to detect unless you were extremely focused.
“… … .”
“Park Jin-woo. What do you mean by noise? Is it something to do with the spaceship howling?”
“… … .”
“If what you say is true, then this entire spaceship is completely contaminated and corrupted. This place is like the inside of a tiger’s mouth. If you discover anything, even if it is absurd, you must share it with me.”
Park Han-eul spoke calmly and persuasively, but he had not hesitated to answer from the beginning.
Ssuk- He raised his right hand and stopped Park Han-eul from continuing to speak.
“Just a moment. Let me gather my thoughts… .”
“okay.”
“… Professor. If, where we are standing now… .”
I lowered my gaze to my feet.
The contact surface is constantly making a clicking noise, like a broken TV.
It was evidence of the overlapping reality that had been going on since I first came here.
“…What if it’s not reality?”
But does that just mean that ‘reality’ and ‘reality’ overlap?
“What does that mean?”
“So, this place.”
I took a quick look around Ruin.
Beyond the frozen Alpha swarm, the hull of the ship, which looks old at first glance, comes into view.
There, the logo of the spaceship, half-peeled from the passage of so much time, was plastered on it.
[NASA Corporation]
‘Since when did NASA become a non-profit?’
[Answer: No information related to the corporation could be found.]
As I was muttering in bewilderment, Akasha’s reply came back as if she was driving a wedge into my heart.
Even though this place is set on Earth 4, which is similar to Earth but different, and I don’t know the differences that occur there.
‘If you can’t even find information about Akasha…’
This is the kind of information that is truly impossible to find.
The thoughts that followed were obviously absurd, but they gave me a certain confidence.
To begin with, the very fact that I was standing on my own two feet in this world was absurd.
‘If you look at it that way, this is nothing more than a show of affection.’
He spoke to Park Han-eul, who was looking at him with a puzzled look, in a more confident voice.
“What if this place doesn’t exist in reality in the first place?”
“Didn’t you say it at the beginning? This place must be real.”
Park Han-eul stabs the floor with the sword he is holding.
Then, the ice fragments that were entangled with the flesh popped up along with the flesh.
“But is that what you want to say, that all of this was actually fake, an illusion? Like the dream or illusion of ‘Geomsan’ that Lee Seon-hu reported?”
“Strictly speaking, it’s not a fantasy or anything… it’s a place that actually exists.”
“Speak clearly. It’s a place that doesn’t exist in reality, but actually exists?”
“hmm.”
Park Han-eul’s voice gradually becomes more harsh.
Although I was confident, honestly, it was still just a theory without any evidence.
So I hesitated a bit, but seeing Park Han-eul’s unusual expression, I decided to explain first.
“Please remember that this is nothing more than a hypothesis without any evidence. If my guess is correct, then the reality of this spaceship’s existence is probably not ‘real reality.’”
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“Isn’t this real?”
“To be more specific… a program? A game? Maybe it’s a world with that kind of concept…”
Park Han-eul distorts his expression as if he finds it pitiful.
I knew this would happen.
I hesitated to answer because I knew you wouldn’t believe it.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. Are you saying I’m in a program or a game?”
“Well, that’s just a guess.”
“Do you think that’s a reasonable guess? And you want me to believe it?”
Park Han-eul’s sharp gaze.
I just shrugged.
“It’s a story that’s hard to believe. You know that, right?”
“After all, it’s just a hypothesis without any evidence.”
“Yeah. There’s no evidence anywhere.”
– Bam!
Park Han-eul roughly pulled out the sword stuck in the floor and stared at the corpse of Gamma, frozen to death, blocking one of the passageways.
“Then I guess I’ll just have to look it up.”
“professor….”
“Why are you looking at me like that? In any case, this is a world where the laws of reality have collapsed due to the contamination of magic. I wouldn’t be surprised if something as absurd as you are talking about happened.”
To be able to show this much understanding.
To me, who only knows Park Han-eul in La Focal, it was honestly quite touching.
“Get out.”
Park Han-eul stands in front of Gamma’s corpse after pushing me back.
The subsequent swing of the sword creates a beautiful trajectory.
A flash of blue light blooms.
– Pagagagagagak-
A lump of flesh that falls apart so easily.
Is this what the whale caves that often appear in fairy tales are like?
Because it was completely frozen, no blood flowed, but a cave of crimson flesh spread out before my eyes.
“Ugh… disgusting.”
“let’s go.”
“yep.”
I followed Park Han-eul, who was walking silently ahead, and walked down the only passageway where the bulkhead had not come down.
* * *
Was it the siren that echoed throughout the ship, the sound of crying that came from far away?
Alpha entities, which were originally supposed to be sleeping in a lump of flesh or a membrane reminiscent of a gochi, were walking around with their eyes open.
Park Han-eul and I, who had been watching the situation from afar, looked at each other and spoke at the same time.
“It seems like you’re roaming.”
“I think it’s roaming.”
It was inevitable that the exact same impression would come out.
That’s because the way the alpha entities roam around looks like programmed game AI.
Park Han-eul said.
“The contaminated organisms may not have intelligence, but they move with some purpose at regular intervals. It’s completely different from their original, simple behavioral pattern of blindly showing hostility.”
“Even if there is a higher entity, it’s a bit strange.”
“I know that even the devil has a hard time controlling himself by giving orders….”
“Maybe there really is a devil.”
“Still, it is generally accepted that such delicate movements are impossible. It may be different if it has developed further over the years, but there have been no such reports from the front lines.”
Park Han-eul and I continued to exchange opinions while hiding in the hallway.
Since there were still many guesses, we had no choice but to brainstorm, adding hypothesis to hypothesis.
But it was definitely a very fruitful time.
“It would be easier to find your way if you had a map. Park Jin-woo.”
“Yes. Go ahead.”
“If this were a game, there would definitely be a way to clear it. Even a guess would be fine. Do you have any opinions?”
“hmm….”
After selecting a game genre that fits the current situation, we compared and contrasted its clichés with the current situation.
[Answer: Start the simulation.]
All kinds of scenes flashed through my mind, as if I was quickly flipping through a book without even looking at it.
Eventually, only one hypothesis remains, the one that best fits the current situation.
Check it out and spit it out.
“core.”
“core?”
“This is the power source for this spaceship. If we find it, destroy it, and escape, wouldn’t that be the ending?”
That’s the common main story of a typical horror game.
Destroy the source of the phenomenon causing the abnormality and escape.
Most horror games have that kind of main plot, unless the goal is simply survival.
“I can’t say for sure, since I only observed the atmosphere of this spaceship.”
“Is that the way to escape this world overlapping with this ‘false reality’?”
“This is just a guess and a hypothesis, Professor.”
“know.”
– Slurp.
Park Han-eul stood up, drawing his sword.
“Even if it’s just a guess, it’s enough as long as the purpose is clear.”
Park Han-eul’s gaze, which was quickly scanning the surrounding space, settled on one place.
Covered in a slimy substance made of flesh, it looked at first glance like a map depicting the inside of the ship.
“If it’s a power source, it would be in a place like a generator room or engine room.”
“Aren’t they both the same thing?”
“The power plant that supplies electricity and the engine room that provides propulsion for the spaceship are completely different concepts. Listen carefully.”
“Oh, yes… .”
Honestly, I don’t know what the difference is, but I decided to just nod my head at Park Han-eul’s strong tone.
Soon, Park Han-eul disappeared from his seat with a small breeze, and soon, the sound of flesh being cut could be heard from the other side of the passage.
“You move around really well wearing that protective gear.”
I lowered my gaze and examined my body.
What came into view was a pair of protective clothing that looked like rags, with obvious tears and cut marks here and there.
“Thank goodness we have [Wordanaz]. Ugh.”
Feeling that I still had a lot to learn, I also went through the passage while holding Ruin.
* * *
How much did it stir inside the hull?
As you approach the generator room using the map you acquired, the level of monsters inside gradually increases.
By the time we got close, Gamma, who usually appeared as a boss monster, was appearing like a trash mob.
“No matter how much I think about it, this seems like the way a game is played, right?”
“I agree with you. This is so obvious, yet it’s an arrangement that shouldn’t have happened.”
The spaceship that had turned into a den of contaminated creatures was so blatant that Park Han-eul would say something like that.
Although it is a natural habit of a community to protect its leader, the polluted organisms are nothing more than monsters without such nature or intelligence.
There is no sense of mission or concept of protecting the polluted organism that has become a sort of leader and has become integrated into the entire spaceship.
That’s also the reason why I was able to draw Alpha’s aggro while Park Han-eul was dealing with Gamma.
“The structure is such that the walls get thicker as you go towards important places… . As you said, it seems like this place is in the form of a game.”
“I don’t know about the nuclear power plant though.”
Although the simulation is based on a horror action game, it is unclear whether this world was originally intended to be a horror genre game.
I can only assume that since it was completely corrupted by magic, the genre, whether romance or whatever, would have been transformed into horror.
“It’s a good thing. In typical horror games, you’re always in a position where you have to run away.”
Inside the gas mask, Park Han-eul’s eyes draw small arcs.
“It’s time to change the genre. To Musou-ryu.”
“professor….”
I looked at Park Han-eul for a moment as he spoke confidently, then said.
“Are you a gamer?”
“… … .”
Park Han-eul leaves with cold eyes.
“I’m glad to see you, I’m glad to see you!”
“Just keep following along. If your protective gear is damaged, you’ll have neither food nor shelter.”
“Yes, yes.”
“This is not a joke. What kind of beggar are you…?”
“Professor, you’re secretly showing off Ha Seong-jun.”
Park Han-eul raised his sword.
“Stop talking nonsense. It’s not that I’m in Ha Seong-jun’s department, it’s that Ha Seong-jun is in my department.”
A blade that emits blue light along with those words.
I also held onto Ruin and created countless magic circles of “Ice White” around me.
The hostile contaminated organism Gamma begins to wiggle, wiggle, and crawl, its eyes flashing red.
Tentacles sprout and wiggle from various parts of the caterpillar-like body.
I looked beyond that.
Even though Gamma alone would be difficult to handle, I caught sight of three or four more of them.
“Phew.”
Further inside, in the generator room where the wall was half-collapsed, what was clearly visible was a giant ‘heart’.
Yeah, heart.
It’s neither a giant lump of flesh nor a slimy substance mixed with unidentifiable machine parts.
It was clearly the heart of a living creature beating in ‘real time’.
“… Isn’t this really too obvious?”
He smiled softly and kicked the ground.
* * *
“hmm.”
This world, which seemed to follow the structure of a horror action game, was full of clichés up until the final boss battle.
A ‘giant monster’ of enormous size that is incomparable to anything seen before.
However, it is much more ‘easy difficulty’ than dealing with mid-bosses and elite monsters.
Even the most obvious patterns that seem to be considerate of the players.
“How petty.”
– crackle- crackle-
Park Han-eul looked up at his heart that was collapsing and making noise, and put his sword back into its scabbard.
A huge vibration occurred throughout the entire hull, accompanied by a screaming ‘Goooooooo-‘ as if the spaceship was screaming.
Flesh particles and other things falling from the ceiling fill my vision.
“So, what should we do from here?”
“If we go by the cliche, we’ll probably escape in an escape capsule or a small spaceship, right?”
“…Isn’t this the deepest place?”
Park Han-eul glanced around, but there was no sign of anything that looked like a spaceship or capsule.
“If we leave it like this, we’ll end up destroying ourselves along with the spaceship.”
“Aren’t you being too peaceful?”
“That’s ridiculous.”
Park Han-eul’s cold gaze is directed at me.
“Aren’t you just having a moment of leisure?”
“Well, that’s it… .”
He snickered and laughed as he approached the place that particularly caught his eye.
There was a place where there was a circuit board that was so covered in flesh that it was impossible to even recognize its shape, and I pressed down on the one button that was visible to my ‘eye’.
– Boom- Boom!
Then something collapses, making a huge noise.
My gaze and Park Han-eul’s naturally turned towards that place.
Park Han-eul frowns as he discovers an escape capsule faintly visible beyond the suddenly collapsed equipment.
“What’s going on all of a sudden? An escape route suddenly appears?”
“It’s just so cliche and good, right?”
“This is really good.”
Tsk, Park Han-eul clicks his tongue and approaches the escape capsule.
After looking at her back for a moment, I walked towards where her now completely shattered heart had once been.
I looked at the indelible traces in the world seen through the magic eye.
“… … .”
[Answer. Now it is clear. This is a trap to summon the Master.]
“okay.”
[Answer: If there had been no magic eye, it would not have been easy to find the escape route.]
“It would have been unexpected to even come here by taking a shortcut in the first place.”
Park Han-eul headed toward the place I pointed without any doubt, but in reality, he had simply walked along the path visible in the magic.
Even the map-like thing that was discovered a long time ago was actually a trap.
In a situation that was so obviously intentional, I ended up laughing.
“and….”
He bent down and picked up a small, blackened piece from the shattered remains of his heart.
“You wouldn’t have expected me to find and acquire this.”
The vivid fragments in my eyes had a familiar shape.
[The Demon King’s Divine Being: Sloth]
▶Rating
: Myth
▶Type
: Divine object
“I will eat well.”
He giggled, wrapped it in a sealing cloth, and threw it into the subspace.
