Chapter 52 |
What Lee Yeon-woo had done was simple. He had merely substituted the Blood Packs used as lures in the game with parts of his own body. Fingers, ears, or things like eyeballs.
They were nothing more than lumps of blood mimicking a human appearance, after all.
"Only then can I learn the knack of how to overpower the opponent from the inside, when my main body is consumed."
"......"
"Coco?"
"Yes."
"You seem to be in a very foul mood."
"Yes."
"Dear me."
He seized the monster cat as it was and pulled it into his arms. Coco showed displeasure but let itself be caught without resistance. Yeon-woo cradled Coco and murmured softly.
"Will you not forgive me?"
"No."
"How resolute."
And yet, staying still while cradled in his arms was tantamount to a declaration of surrender. A cunning cat like that could not be unaware of this, so it was effectively a tacit absolution.
"I am fully aware that what I did was insane."
Yeon-woo let out a deep sigh and felt along his own face. The sockets where his eyeballs should have been were slick and deeply sunken. The texture was not even smooth.
Cleanly extracting only the eyeballs while sprinting had proven more difficult than anticipated. It was his first time butchering a human, after all. As a result, the surrounding skin had been torn off along with them.
"Still, the other parts were separated relatively cleanly thanks to the Phlebotomy Equipment, were they not?"
"No."
"You are much too objective."
"Yes."
Coco's mood was still scraping rock bottom.
'If only I were certain Coco was the one who kidnapped me here, I could've teased it for having the nerve. What a shame.'
Whether Coco had truly kidnapped him or was merely an accomplice, Yeon-woo did not yet know. Coco, too, clearly had areas of ignorance regarding this hotel and Yeon-woo.
'Whether that's just an act, I can't say....'
Reining in his stray thoughts, Yeon-woo continued.
"...Thanks to the ample transfusion I prepared in advance, I did not reach the Lethal Threshold. As you are aware, every cut was made after careful calculation. Both speed and stability."
"This is not fine."
Its vocabulary had expanded again. How commendable.
"I will admit it was a brutish method of blood collection, but will you not try to understand the circumstances? It is not as though I wanted to use such barbaric instruments."
For parts that could be easily torn off, like ears or eyeballs, he had used his hands. But parts that included bone were beyond that. He needed the aid of a tool, and there was nothing else on hand.
"Even the Chainsaw, which by comparison felt merciful, I had left somewhere in Room 14."
Instead, Yeon-woo had stowed every piece of Phlebotomy Equipment he encountered along the way into his Inventory.
"......"
"It was only because I had those at all that this kind of attempt was possible."
This was the world of a cruel adult-rated game. There was no chance of finding sane medical instruments here.
'An Iron Maiden, was it?'
A torture device -- an iron coffin lined with sharp spikes on its interior.
Modified from its original form to clamp onto specific body parts, it was a malicious object that proved its subjects had been treated as less than livestock.
Its design had never considered the possibility of keeping the subject alive.
'That thing --'
It could sever.
Upon attachment, it severed the part and wrung out the blood.
Everything from arms and legs down to extremities as small as fingers. Rather than a device designed to inflict pain, it was a tool focused purely on the efficiency of harvesting blood.
Perhaps that was why it had been designated not as 'torture equipment' but as 'Phlebotomy Equipment.'
"Still, the damage to me is not severe. An ordinary body would have long since died from Excessive Bleeding, but I have been a lump of blood from the start. Limited though it may be, regeneration is also possible."
"No."
"Well, it wasn't easy, I will grant you that. This is quite difficult. I thought I'd studied enough, but real combat's different after all. Nothing goes the way I want it to...."
"Yes."
The technique Yeon-woo had acquired during his previous ordeal with The Drenched One. Emergency Restoration Protocol was a technique that forcibly restored human form when scattered into a liquid blood state.
'Since it borrows from the hotel's resurrection mechanism, it's fundamentally different from regeneration.'
Strictly speaking, it classified the current state as 'death' and then forced a systemic 'resurrection.' It was closer to restoration than recovery.
But what Yeon-woo needed now was pure recovery -- filling in the missing parts.
'That's why I'm going through all this trouble.'
Scraping together every scrap of knowledge he had to repair his body, his head was spinning.
In reality, that 'head' was probably nothing more than a Mass of Liquid Blood, but that was how it felt. Wearing a human shell meant that organs like the brain apparently bore a proportional load.
"On one side I am busy regenerating my body, and on the other I am busy trying to consume and conquer...."
"Yes."
"The eyeballs are certainly far more difficult to produce. Arms and legs could manage well enough with a rough layer of flesh over bone, but this is an entirely different field. This neural network -- no, wait, was it this part? This is maddening."
"Hello?"
"Do not worry. The eyeballs may be difficult for now, but regeneration is proceeding step by step. What I am contending with inside the monster is still only one finger's worth. Now that I know that volume is insufficient for subjugation, I need only increase the intensity going forward."
"No."
"Yes, that is correct."
Yeon-woo affirmed.
"The truth is, I am anxious."
What if I fail?
"That would be quite a blow."
It hurt, and it was exhausting. Even if pain was translated into 'information' in his perception, the fatigue from the sheer volume of information pouring in was very real. Tearing off parts of his own body and feeding them to a monster was not something a sane person would do, either.
Had he decided too hastily?
It was impossible not to fear pain and death.
It was no laughing matter. He was no extraordinary person, nor did he have the luxury for this. He had done something stupid for the sake of people -- or whatever they were -- who had nothing to do with him.
But,
"There is... a value that belongs only to such stupid things."
That's just how the world works. It doesn't run on calculation alone. Efficiency isn't always the answer.
"If things go wrong, I will regret it, but even if I could go back, I would make the same choice. That is what makes me more like myself. What can you do?"
"......"
"...Ah, I think I can see a little now."
"......"
"No, wait. Ah. The retina is reversed... this is maddening."
When the mind was in a hurry, even the assembly went awry. Yeon-woo simply closed his eyes again.
Since things had come to this, it seemed better to focus on capturing the monster rather than regenerating his body. Diversified investment was only possible when circumstances allowed.
He listened to the massed screams as they were.
And so.
"......"
"......"
He fell asleep to the approaching clamor.
***
And then, he could see.
Jet-black hair. Pallid skin. Dressed in this hotel's formal suit -- the new master of this place. And behind his back, visible... visible....
'A door.'
'It's a door.'
'It's the way out.'
The exit.
'I can get out.'
That single thought consumed them.
They could see nothing else, could think of nothing else. They either did not know they were in a frenzy, or knew and were mad regardless. They were blinded by the fact that this was their last chance. No -- they had gone blind long ago.
So, please.
'I want to get out!!!'
In their desperation, they reached out.
They caught him.
'.......'
No, did they actually catch him?
'.......'
Are you sure?
'.......'
'.......'
'.......'
...The scent of fresh blood was overwhelming.
'...Huh?'
On the tip of the tongue.
So, much.
***
In the Second Pursuit, getting caught by the monster leads to two dead endings. Having one's body torn apart, or being swallowed whole. Yeon-woo had analyzed the latter as a kind of 'reflexive behavior.'
The basis was sufficient.
'The latter is a Cutscene that only triggers when the Blood Pack lure strategy is overused.'
The original purpose was to catch the player, but perhaps after picking up and consuming Blood Packs repeatedly, it had come to perceive even the Playable Character as a Blood Pack. It was clearly not in its right mind, so following inertia would have come easily.
He had judged it would be the same this time. Since he had been feeding it parts of his body the entire way here, it would ultimately try to swallow even 'him' at this location. It would have grown accustomed to the taste in that short time.
'Even so.'
Despite the prior verification and practice.
'It's overwhelming.'
He had managed to get swallowed safely. But embracing the monster -- these people -- had not been easy. Had he not gradually adapted through prior practice, it would have been even harder than this.
Heat that felt as though blood would evaporate. Cold that pried apart every joint. Light that scorched skin and darkness that blinded the eyes. Among the pressure encroaching upon his entire body, the most terrible thing was something else.
...They were terrified.
'I'm sorry about this.'
On top of already being in a hyper-agitated state, the fear that they would be devoured by Yeon-woo himself, or that the only door would close just like this, had been added to the mix.
Being pulled, torn at, and assailed by screams in an already suffocatingly cramped space had drained him of his energy. He was overwhelmed by hands that could have been resentful, obsessive, or pleading -- he could not tell which.
"......"
He had never thought this would... be easy.
Starting from his fingers, he had offered up his entire body. Cut and torn them off with his own hands. And fed them to the monster. And when that was not enough, he had to subdue the opponent with a 'him' separated from himself.
He had been prepared for this.
"......"
And yet, it truly hurt. So much.
'...Why did something like this have to be real?'
Blood mingled with blood and became one. Through that channel, memories and sensations were shared. Beyond the terrible screams -- a pain that was alive and writhing. Vivid despair. Not a preserved history, but a hell that still pulsed with life.
Why did something like this --
"......"
Yeon-woo calmed himself. He decided to be calm.
Right now, he stood at the crossroads between leaving this hell to persist forever and severing it here and now. And Yeon-woo was learning the knack -- the method of maintaining composure even amid this chaos.
He only needed to forget, for the briefest moment, that he was human.
'Set aside emotion and focus on calculation.'
Then the work goes quickly.
"......"
In truth,
it was not even difficult.
We can get out.
'.......'
'.......'
'...Really?'
Yes.
Let's go together.
***
A concrete corridor caked with blood and scraps of flesh.
"......"
"......"
"......"
How much time had passed?
Having barely crawled out through blood and debris, Yeon-woo dragged his staggering body to a wall and slumped against it.
"Ha...."
There was no strength left in his body.
Before him, a slimy, mucous mass lay sprawled across the floor. It looked like a quivering lump of flesh, or like the byproduct left after all the juice had been drained.
The remains of the monster, after he had absorbed it.
"Ha. Haha."
Yeon-woo covered his mouth with a hand trembling from exhaustion.
"That was... a little dangerous."
"Yes!"
"I agree, Coco."
His entire body was drenched in blood. The Emergency Restoration Protocol had been completed successfully, but its aftermath could not erase the traces of having rolled through blood.
Perhaps the tension had loosened after realizing the gamble had succeeded.
"Truly,"
Thick veins stood out across Yeon-woo's pallid face. As the reason that had been submerged returned, anger finally followed in its wake.
"They must have been insane."
Vile creatures had committed vile acts.
***
A part of his body -- that is, the existence called 'him' -- exhibited a tendency to encroach upon its host the moment it was absorbed by someone. The monster that had tried to devour Yeon-woo could not escape this cycle, either.
That was a separate issue from not having undergone the Conversion Process. In the end, just as with The Guest Without Taste before, Yeon-woo had ended up forcibly sharing all the memories and sensations of the Room 14 monster.
"This is truly repulsive. Why on earth...."
"Hello?"
"I had suspected it would be history that actually happened. Just as with The Drenched One, I did think the monster in this Room 14 Event was a being that had truly existed."
He had thought so.
"But the scale of this is far too large."
The monsters in Hoone were the embodiment of some negative concept. Just as The Drenched One had been born from the deaths of the drowned. But the memories held by this event's monster followed a different trajectory.
It was not merely that the number of victims was large -- the regions forming the backdrop were themselves disparate.
"The language used by the researchers and the interior design varied drastically. The races of the victims were... all different. Taken together, this was not a localized incident within a single building or group."
"Yes."
"Pardon?"
He had hoped it would say no.
"...This is Hoone?"
The Hoone that Yeon-woo knew was not like this. Of course, there was no shortage of undepicted settings, but it felt as though grotesque realities had been crammed into every undefined gap.
"This is not merely a game made real. Is this... the game and reality merged together?"
"Yes."
"......"
He removed his glasses and rubbed his face dry.
"...What kind of insane...."
"Hm?"
Was there ever a time this absurd?
'Where the hell was my game being exploited?'
At this point, it was as though the game had been exploited to contain reality. He had read a staggeringly vast history. Something like that could never have been contained in Hoone from the start.
"......"
"......"
Let's calm down.
"...Hoo...."
He calmed down.
'The result wasn't bad, so that's enough.'
If it was a truth he would have faced eventually, he had merely learned it a little early. The faster one acquired information, the more it improved survival rates. He had succeeded, had he not?
"Insanity becomes experience if you do it enough times."
"Pardon?"
"Yes."
Whether ground through a filter, torn apart by a Chainsaw, or shoved into a monster's maw, the fundamental pain was similar. What mattered was that he had grown quite accustomed to the sensation of operating as liquid blood.
It was thanks to that he had survived this time as well.
"But this time, I truly stood on the threshold of death. Grinding myself through the ventilation shaft was an extra-systemic attempt, but this was a death defined within the game."
"Yes."
"Fortune favored me. Thanks to the systemic instincts I had trained into my body, I was able to avoid the lethal thresholds. As a result, it seems I did not trigger a death verdict."
"Yes."
"Drinking an excess of blood beforehand must have helped as well. They say for one who has learned Blood Magic, the more blood the better. I lost far too much blood from the internal battle of wills with this fellow."
"Hello?"
"To be honest, I am not that well even now. My mind is in disarray, and I have no strength in my body. I never imagined evading the game system's eye would be this difficult. It felt like my brain was being raked through...."
Yeon-woo staggered to his feet. He turned the doorknob.
"Well then, let us head outside--"
"May I have some?"
He closed it again.
"......"
"......"
"...Hello?"
To Coco's hesitant question, Yeon-woo answered with a blank expression.
"...Perhaps not?"
The situation appeared to be somewhat not fine.
Why was it over there?
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