Chapter 3: Rubbing
I shouldnt be doing this. I need to get out of here! Thats all I should be thinking about right now.
The hastily made makeshift bonfire was in a state where it could go out at any moment.
The areas untouched by the warmth of the bonfire were cold and dark, yet it was just enough to discern what was there.
Rows of test tubes and the test subjects they contained.
The name of this place was [K-3675 Secret Research Facility].
It seemed like a name haphazardly thrown together with random numbers, but nonetheless, this place was a secret experimental site owned by a certain company.
It was a site where forbidden technologies such as life extension and the resurrection of the dead were researched.
The researchers here, armed with lofty ideals and the arrogance of turning the impossible into possible, eventually meddled with forbidden knowledge they shouldnt have touched.
But what they created were grotesque and blasphemous monsters that could neither be considered living nor dead.
The facilitys meager defenses were insufficient to contain these monsters, and as a result, the research facility was eventually shut down.
Although this place came with such an elaborate backstory, right now, that didnt matter.
While trying to find a way out, the protagonist would discover the reason for their memory loss and uncover the horrifying truth behind the events that occurred in the facility That was the beginning of the games story.
But it doesnt matter much to me.
Most importantly, the first piece of information and the card key the protagonist needed to obtain were now hopelessly burning in that pile of paper. So much for a conventional storyline.
But that wasnt the problem.
As you can see, I havent lost my memory, and I knew exactly what happened in the research facility and how to escape this place.
The real problem was survival.
Although it was a kind of tutorial area, [K-3675 Secret Research Facility] was notoriously difficult to escape from due to the games disastrously high level of difficulty.
If you started with a hastily created character, you were more likely to encounter a death ending than escape.
Ah, this is so frustrating. Why did I have to end up in this game? Wouldnt it be better if it were a light-hearted farming game, a dating sim, or something else?
I never played a lighthearted game before, though But still, why on earth did it have to be [Cthulhu World]!
I reached out towards the nearly extinguished bonfire.
I could see my thin and frail arm and my trembling hand.
This appearance and sensation were completely different from before I woke up in this world.
Even when I tried to exert strength in my fingers, my hand could barely perform the minimum movement regardless of my will.
[Strength 4: Frail]
It was a stat I had chosen thinking I could remake the character again if necessary, but did the concept of again even exist for me in this world?
Suddenly, a strange noise caught my attention.
Creeeak
Grggrrrr
Sssshhhh...
I turned my head to see a large passage opening on one side of the wall. There was no door or anything resembling a cover.
Kreeeeek!
Keeek!
Krrrrooo!
Eerie noises and dreadful groans could be heard as something in huge numbers approached. It wasnt just one or two.
The view was different from the computer screen I had been staring at for thousands of hours, yet this was the [K-3675 Secret Research Facility].
After bizarre research and forbidden experiments, it created monsters that shouldnt exist in reality, and because of that the place was closed.
In that process, no one dealt with the monsters.
The researchers who were abandoned along with the facility became food for monsters, and eventually, the facility turned into their nest.
There was a bright bonfire lit in such a place. it was only a matter of time before something took notice.
But isnt this too many?
Originally, the creatures that appear here are tutorial monsters, meaning an easy-to-defeat zombie should pop up. And since it was a probability-based encounter, you will see up to three at most if your luck was particularly bad, but
Kueeeek!
Gyaaaak!
Kirrrrk!
Kuuuuh!
Even by a conservative estimate, that noise sounded like at least 30 of them. Isnt that strange?
Gradually, I began to see the zombies pouring in from the dark corridor. A platoon-sized horde of zombies was rushing in.
[System: The Feasts Offering penalty trait has been activated.]
[Beings from the abyss are showing interest in you.]
Ahh so thats what happened
It didnt make sense, but what could I do?
Zombies were not beings of the abyss. The beings of the abyss designated by the system are surreal deities or otherworldly rulers. It seems like some great being exerted an inexplicable influence and herded these zombies towards me.
Now, the zombies were close enough for me to clearly see them.
The spacious corridor was so crowded with zombies that they continuously pushed against each other.
The sight of a fallen zombie being trampled and crushed by others rushing from behindIt was quite the spectacle.
Each zombies state of decay and bodily damage varied, but they were all wearing half-tattered white gowns.
They were likely all researchers of this facility once.
Once intelligent minds that reached for forbidden knowledge to surpass human limits but now fallen.
However, now they were zombies, neither living nor dead.
Little of their human appearance remained.
Their hands and feet sported gruesomely long fingernails, and their bodies, riddled with wounds, oozed sticky black fluid.
Some had an arm or a leg missing.
Others had their intestines spilled from gaping abdominal wounds.
And some had their skulls shattered and their brains exposed.
As in many games, zombies in [Cthulhu World] were considered lower-level, insignificant monsters.
Butwhen you face them in reality, you feel a chilling terror that cannot be replicated in any virtual experience.
An ordinary human would have been instantly overwhelmed by the realistic killing intent and the repugnant odor.
Despite such realism, I felt no particular shock or fear.
Wow, damn. Its real, really real.
It was indeed real.
Real zombies.
An overwhelming sense of reality that couldnt be dismissed as mere imagination or a dream.
What astonished me was not the zombies, but the absurdity that this situation had become my reality.
[Zombies, oozing foul black fluid, approach you. Their numbers are overwhelming. Its an inescapable, worst-case scenario. You sense the horrific smell of death and their irrational movements. Seeing their bizarre and grotesque forms, you should feel a physiological repulsion, a dizzying terror, helplessness, and despair.]
Despair, as if. I told you, I dont feel any fear.
[System: Attempting to resist fear with your mental strength stat. Mental strength check failure.]
What?
Ahh, I was so surprised that I exclaimed in astonishment.
Failure? Seriously? Oh, is it because its a probability-based judgment?
[However, you have already gazed into the deep abyss. The madness of the abyss paradoxically becomes a shield that preserves your sanity]
Fizzle-
A bright white spark erupted at my temples and it erased the artificially induced fear that was about to take hold of me.
[System: Unique trait Madness of the Abyss activated. Fear effect removed.]
At this point, I started to understand what was happening.
I was not an ordinary human. With the [Madness of the Abyss] trait, no matter how repulsive these monsters were, they couldnt inflict any harm on my mind.
And I possessed a power beyond that.
Hey, zombies, dont come any closer.
Grrrrr
As if they would listen to my words. They lacked the intelligence to do so. But thats not it As the horde of zombies drew closer, my mind became calmer, and I began to realize what I could do, what I needed to do. Alright, show them, Kim Shin-hwa. Show them what you can do!
I directed my will towards the bonfire which was now barely more than a few small embers.
My enormous intelligence stat of 30 began to come into play. All the calculations needed for manipulating magical power were performed in an instant, and my will materialized in reality at a speed beyond the speed of thought.
As I began to manipulate magic in earnest, my magical power started to become visible.
The magical energy scattered around me began to swirl violently.
Are those red, twinkling lights covering the entire room all my magical power?
It felt surreal, like being inside some fantastic special effect.
[Flame Manipulation]
[Spell Enhancement: Maximization]
Woosh-
The flames grew explosively large.
The fire, now deserving to be called a flame, expanded its reach in an instant and it surged towards the zombies like a living creature.
Originally, Flame Manipulation was a minor spell with the effect of changing the direction of flames.
This minor, trivial spell, combined with the [Spell Enhancement: Maximization] trait, was amplified to an unbelievable degree.
Pukwakwagwagak!
Kieeeeeergh!
Kaaaaaargh!
Oh, whats this The firepower is much stronger than I expected.
No, it wasnt just that.
The amount of magical power emanating from my body was far too immense!
Excessively, overwhelmingly immense.
Whats this, this enormous amount of magical power?
As I began to release my magical power in earnest, the energy stored in my mana core started to pour out.
It was like the floodgates of a long-closed dam being opened.
Pure magical power gushed forth.
It was uncontrollable!
And despite releasing such an immense amount of magical power, the energy in my mana core showed no sign of diminishing. In fact, it was even more than just that.
What is this? Its like an entire ocean!
It might not be the best analogy in a situation of spewing fire, but it felt like pouring the entire ocean into a situation that required just a cup of water.
How far can I go?
The shining particles of magical power moved at my command.
And all of this energy was being poured into the flames that were incinerating the zombies.
Shhhh-
The flames had now become a massive wall of fire, engulfing the entire corridor from where the zombies were emerging.
With such power, it was almost comparable to an upper-tier third-order spellno, if I pushed it further, it may even reach a lower-tier fourth-order spelldespite being just a basic zero-order spell meant for manipulating the flow of fire and kindling campfires!
The zombies were undead beings who did not feel pain and they just kept pressing forward despite the blazing flames. However, even the few elite zombies displaying such tenacity were reduced to mere cinders in the face of the towering inferno.
Have I defeated them?
Ah, that was a mistake. I quickly shut my mouth, but the aftermath of my unnecessary ominous statement was almost immediate.
Growwwl!
There.at the very back of the zombie horde, which was ablaze with fire, a new challenger emerged.
Outstanding aggressiveness and presence that could be felt even from a distance.
A hulking figure, filling the narrow corridor all by itself.
Its body was grotesquely swollen, twisted, and contorted.
It was the [Giant Zombie], the so-called mid-boss of this secret research facility. Setting aside its generic name, which seemed like it was slapped on the spur of the moment, why did this creature crawl all the way to this place?
Wasnt this thing supposed to be encountered one floor above? Could this be the effect of [Feast Offering]? Doing as it pleases, huh.
Unlike the other zombies, this one possessed something akin to intelligence.
Although I call it intelligence it had just enough to prevent itself from mindlessly charging into the massive flamesStill, that level of cognition made it dangerous.
Growwwllll!
The Giant Zombie, with its bulging muscles, began to grab the other zombies and hurl them toward me. Wow, this creature was incredibly strong. Flaming zombies started flying towards me.
[Invisible Hand]
This was a spell for exerting minor telekinetic powers.
I thought of using spells like [Barrier] or [Distortion Field], but those were first-order spells and were beyond my current ability to cast.
Even if I possessed immense magical power, a first-order spell was still a first-order spell.
The only spells available to me now were the basic zero-order ones.
However, I overcame the lack of efficiency by pouring in an excess of magical power, and the limited effects were compensated for with my transcendent ability to manipulate magic.
I conjured up the image of grabbing the incoming zombies with the [Invisible Hand].
Wagjajajajak!
Uh?
I used too much power.
The zombies, which were flying towards me energetically, were instantly crushed like tomatoes in an invisible compactor, their juices completely squeezed out.
It wasnt a particularly pleasant sight. But what was more horrifying than witnessing something so human-like being burned or destroyed was the fact that my mind felt no emotion or shock at the scene.
There was no time for sentiment.
If I lingered here any longer, more of them would come.
I moved my magical power and drove a new image into [Invisible Hand].
Sssss- piyuu-
Bang!
How could such a sound be produced? All I had done was grab the zombies flesh out of thin air and hurl it at the giant zombie. But the flesh of the zombie was shot with the force of a cannonball, and the giant zombie, caught in this absurd attack, was completely shattered into pieces.
Around this time, the cries of the zombies that had been swarming in madness also stopped.
I guess that sort of wraps things up The smell is terrible though.
The burning bodies of the zombies were spreading a pungent odor mix of acrid burnt flesh and an unpleasant rotten stench.
But I could feel a strange vibration coming from afar.
Woo-woo-woo
Was it that zombies from other floors were all converging here? Kim Shin-hwa, youre quite popular, arent you?
Ah, this is annoying.
I briefly scratched my head and then changed my mind. It would be a waste of time to follow the official route of dealing with zombies in a meaningless manner.
I looked around the space I was standing in.
A simple, rectangular space caught my eye.
There was only one exit.
On the wall to the left of the exit there were one, two, three, and four test tubes. There were people inside, but it wasnt good to disturb them.
On the opposite wall was one desk, and then another. Thats it.
At the second desk there used to be an option to [Investigate] but now I had to search it myself. Damn it, Im short on time.
When I played this as a game, there was a message that would appear when this desk was investigated.
What was the content again?
It should be, [Found a handgun in the bottom drawer of the desk].
Even as a veteran player, I wouldnt normally remember such trivial sentences from an insignificant location.
Yet the fact that I remembered it so vividly implied that the effects of my increased intelligence werent limited to just the use of magic.
In the very bottom drawer of the desk there was indeed a handgun.
Even with heightened intelligence, abilities that I didnt possess before didnt suddenly manifest in my mind.
The way I held the gun felt awkward even to me.
So this is the safety lock, and I pull this and then shoot?
The gun wasnt the important part. Even if I had it, it wasnt something I could use effectively.
What mattered was that, according to my memory, the gun was indeed there.
This was the world inside the game of [Cthulhu World].
I had been to this [K-3675 Secret Research Facility] thousands of times before.
Not just this place, but I knew the locations of almost all secret doors, hidden places, and items in [Cthulhu World], and now I possessed a surreal intelligence that allowed me to remember all those details precisely.
So maybe was that also implemented?
I found myself eyeing a wall next to the corridor where zombies were swarming in.
Originally, this is where youre supposed to rub against
It was a wall reinforced with mechanical devices and steel plates. The location was accurate from what I remembered. From now on, I have to rub against this wall.
Umm But how exactly should I rub against it?
No, not literally rubbing my body against it
As much as I love it, [Cthulhu World] was not a perfect game.
Far from being perfect, it was actually riddled with bugs to the extent of being shunned by players.
Thats why, in the game, there were often objects you couldnt interact with or walls that somehow, if rubbed the right way, could be passed through.
Thats precisely the wall thats in front of me right now.
A spot I often used during my speedrun attempts. But this action of how to rub against it that I mentioned earlier, how exactly should I do it? Perhaps, even if it was the world of that buggy game, I shouldnt assume that the same bugs would still be here?
I slowly reached out and felt the wall with my hand, only to sense the cold touch of the steel plates.
It was an ordinary wall that one wouldnt expect hed pass right through it. But, maybe
I immediately cast one of the basic zero-order spells, [Detect Secret Door].
Papapa-
Magical power extended from my fingertips, transforming into a luminous line that reached toward the wall.
The magical lines spread out like a complex circuit diagram and they swiftly branched out, covering the wall in an instant.
The structure of the wall flowed into my mind.
The thickness and strength of the wall, the configuration of the mechanical devices within, and then yes! I found a hidden switch!
When I forced the switch detected by my magical power to activate, a secret door hidden in the wall opened.
Beyond the dark and large hole that opened between the walls, I glimpsed a secret passage stretching far into the distance.
But this is too strange
In the game, I accepted it without much thought, but now that its structure has been realized in reality, the awkwardness of this place became strikingly apparent.
Why on earth would they create such a passage?
What was more troubling was the secret mechanism I had just used.
In the game, this passage could only be accessed through a kind of bug.
Originally, there was no door created in the game, and this passage itself was a result of the game developers mistake. But now, it seemed almost like it was intentionally designed.
It felt as if this place was testing whether I could discover it.
Though it feels like Im being tricked, its better than wasting time dealing with zombies.
It wouldnt be too difficult, but I had no desire to engage in such a wasteful effort. My immediate goal was to escape this research facility as quickly as possible.
The noise of the zombies was close at hand. Ah, right. Lets go, go. Whether its a trap or not, Ill find out once Im in.
With that thought, I entered the dark passage.
Continuing straight on this path should lead me directly to the boss room of this [K-3675 Secret Research Facility]
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