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Chapter 127 – Star Fall (10)

Look at their fervent chatter. They say not one person in the world is identical, yet look at every single one of them talking about the ‘madman Gyosu Park’.

Honestly, I felt like it was a little unfair for me.

It wasn’t like I wanted to become an inefficient, crazy monster like that. All I did was struggle to the best of my abilities with this garbage trait called Glass Body. Although the problem was that there were some side effects.

Thud!

From the effects of the Bloodlust mode ending, Professor collapsed out of exhaustion on the path toward the place they were going to rejoin at.

“Opugh! Be a little more careful, can you?”

“I don’t want to hear that from the person who’s been carried all this time! Let’s switch! I don’t have a single droplet of strength left in me.”

“Do you think that I have strength? I hope you know how much I struggled with this frail body of mine thanks to somebody burying me alive!”

“I would have gone to pick you up if you stayed there.”

“Why not try and stay underground with just your head out right in front of the enemy base? It is incredibly terrifying!”

Obviously, he didn’t forget to pick up Mage Ottman, whom he buried in the forest on the way. Although he did feel a little bit sorry when he saw the white-haired man’s head covered in dirt and sweat from the failed struggle to escape, in his defense, he thought that was the safest option at the time!

“Hu-hap!”

So, in the end, all Professor could do at the moment was use the rest of his strength to push Ottman and himself into a bush next to them.

Professor, whose muscles were torn to the cellular level from Mutation Bloodlust, and Ottman, whose old body has been suffering from mana over usage and the fatigue of being buried alive, both lay there on the ground with their arms and legs sprawled out on the grass.

“Ahh… my body. We will be in big trouble if they send out a patrol to track us down.”

“The chances… argh!—are low. I’ve scared them senseless.”

“Scared? Can mutes feel such a thing?”

“Eh, well… I think so? Looking at how their expression changed after I smashed in their head a few times.”

“A few times, you say… I am not sure I understand. I have not seen a mute who has been able to live after their heads were broken open. So what happened to the plan?”

Professor, who had been struggling to bring relief to himself by massaging, let out a strange scream from the pain of his skin being mushed together and laid back down.

“Yeargh! The plan? It should be a success if Borka’s team did their part. I attracted a lot more of their attention than I expected.”

“Then they should be coming this way any time now. Since this is the quickest route to the path that is connected to the hilltop where the Light’s Order’s priest is.”

“So let’s just stay here and rest, then tell them to carry us there when they come.”

He tried to listen around him for a moment but, as if proving that nobody was nearby, was only able to detect the sound of a weird bug’s screeching.

The start of the operation was at exactly midnight. It felt like he did a lot of things, but the actual time they had been at Pelas was even less than two hours. The dark skies still greeted them with its shining moon and sparkling stars.

Just as he tried to get some proper rest, he heard Hyde’s voice inside his head.

[It looks like you actually managed to pull it off this time without my help.]

‘Yeah. I’m surprised you weren’t begging me this time to let you out.’

Inside the dark space of consciousness that was now all too familiar, Hyde waved the black left arm that was connected to his hazy shadow. From how he looked a little taller now, he now looked like… a middle schooler? Compared to the elementary schooler last time. All he could see was a vague silhouette, but his overall frame felt mature.

[How do I put this? It is partially because I’ve had the chance to be outside recently… But now that I have a lot of parts I can call my body, I feel a lot more lax. It’s completely different from when I was only able to move a couple fingers. Mhm!]

‘Eugh.’

It always feels a little weird talking with Hyde. It feels like he’s family for one moment… but thinking about the relationship between me and him, I realize that I intentionally keep my distance with him. The reason I got through this situation by myself was because of the sense of danger that’s become even stronger. I handed over one of my limbs, almost up to the shoulder. If I let him take over a few more times, Hyde might be able to take over my entire body, up to the head. No, maybe the next part is going to be the head. The shoulder is right under the neck. I might not have that much time left…

[It’s probably the leg next. I don’t know which side, though.]

Mmmm… To think the topic of our conversation is about which body part I need to hand over next.

‘That reminds me, I was going to ask you some time.’

[About what?]

‘My body. Can you not take it over?’

I’ve been feeling it over the time that we’ve been stuck together, but through his actions in the events with the Dome, I’m sure of it now. Hyde is incredibly interested in the preservation of my life—more than I thought. Not only my life, but when he’s outside, he wants to keep the situation regarding my well-being as positive as possible.

[What’s this sudden confession? Oh, I see how it is. After meeting your new son who’s shoving spears into your face, you must have realized that I’m the better son!]

‘I’m serious. Let’s be honest, we’re pretty close now, aren’t we? And it’s been a while since I’ve heard you snicker obnoxiously and tell me to hand over this body.’

[Close, you say… You could definitely see it that way. An intelligent being that you can share your closest feelings with. I’m more like a spouse than a friend. Hey Dad, wanna get married?]

‘Can you stop changing the subject? Let’s just live like this. I’ll give you another arm or leg if you really need it. I’ll let you come out sometimes, too, so can’t we just live peacefully like this?’

One thing I’ve learned living in the Wastelands is that the world is a f—ing terrible place. If I imagined a happy life and an unhappy one, it was always the unhappy one that happened.

Meet a supernatural being inside the game and ask them to separate us? That would be the ideal situation. Looking at how the game’s turning out, it looks more plausible than I thought, too. But that’s only an assumption. If it’s impossible, then either one of us has to disappear. Whether it’s through a system in the game or through the Dome’s technology to kick out Hyde, or I slowly get my body stolen and just disappear.

So before that happened, I thought it would be the best option to have a negotiation between the two of us.

[Hmmm— ahhh. You’re coming in a li’l deeper than I expected. I would have cried if I had eyes. Who knew you thought that much of me? I think this is going to be a long talk, so let’s sit down.]

Shhwk—

When Hyde waved his hand, two chairs and a table appeared out of thin air. A familiar design. Looking at it closely, it looked exactly like the ones in our shelter.

[A negotiation should be done at a table. There’s even a thing called negotiating table, after all.]

‘So. The answer?’

[…]

Hyde paused for a moment as if thinking, then opened his mouth with little difficulty.

[…The short one or the long one?]

‘Short.’

[That’s gonna be a little hard to do.]

Bang!

At that moment, I unconsciously slammed my fist on the table. A little hard to do. Does that mean he wants to carry this on until either one of us dies?

‘Then, do you really have to take everything from me? This only ends if either of us dies! It’s my body in the first place! Don’t you know that I consider even a small part of it precious? And I said that I’d rather live with one or two limbs half-gone than have you disappear…!’

[Woah, woah there. You Koreans really have to chill. Why’d you even choose the short one if you weren’t going to understand it in the first place? You were going to need to hear the entire thing anyway.]

After returning the cheap table that I broke with my fist back to its original state, Hyde put his left arm on top of the table and continued.

[Actually, I’ve been trying ever since the left arm came into my possession.]

‘Try what?’

[To not take it. Your body.]

‘You… tried not to take it?’

[Yeah, you idiot! You think I didn’t think the same thing? It hasn’t even been a month since we’ve been together, and I already have an entire arm, and the future of an angry Gyosu Park living inside of my head forever was getting clearer than day! That isn’t what I wanted! The problem is on your side, you stupid shell of a human!]

Hyde’s hand grabbed onto the collar of my shirt and pulled me in.

[It’s not me! You’re handing it over to me! The body!]

Hyde’s shouts rang out in the space where only he and I could hear them.

‘I… gave it to you?’

[Yeah.]

I almost collapsed back on the chair when Hyde let go of my shirt.

[In the last moments with Old Picture, I almost fainted from surprise when I saw the entire left arm moving according to my will. I definitely didn’t want it. Just with the left hand I had, I could write, shake hands with new people, feel hot and cold things, and feel rough and smooth textures like metal, dirt, and wood. I already had more than enough things to think about with just the left hand alone. I really didn’t want to take your body. But regardless of what I wanted, this happened.]

Just like I did, Hyde made a clacking noise as he scratched the palm of his left hand with his finger.

[After the shenanigans with the Dome ended, I tried to look for the reason why that happened. Honestly, everything was a little weird from the get-go, no? My creation, my existence. Not a single thing was normal. Just then, I remembered something you said. Just one wrong thing might make the assumption a mistake, but if you keep getting it wrong…]

‘Then the fact you knew was wrong in the first place.’

After finishing Hyde’s sentence, I saw myself remembering the memory that Hyde mentioned.

[GG. It’s an incredible game. Just from the settings regarding the aura and skill stuff, you can tell they didn’t make this just for fun and games. But the problem is, because you’re so immersed in that concept, you start to think that GG is something close to reality. Did you know that aside from the mental things, GG hasn’t been able to directly affect reality so far?]

‘That… can’t be. Just looking at the Wastelands, if GG’s Market and Community didn’t exist—’

[That’s just the interaction between people. GG is just a tool.]

‘My left arm—’

[It’s an incredibly special situation, but my existence and the mutation virus miraculously made it somehow.]

‘Then you!’

…Clcccck.

The sound that Hyde’s finger made filled up the silence between the two of them.

[Me, too, just like anything else. I’m living in your mind, but I have no real body. Think about it logically. The effects GG has on reality is only related to the ‘mind’. It’s actually pretty obvious. It’s impossible for a virtual reality made up of electricity and a program to have a physical effect. You’re just getting tricked momentarily by its unbelievable realism.]

As he said, it was the obvious truth. The limitations the Gedroits’ Game had were that it was, in the end, only a game. Although it may be able to affect the player’s memory and mind, it couldn’t create something out of physical matter.

[So when I thought about it that way, I got an answer. What the Gedroits’ Game planted in the people up til now. What changed people… There’s one thing that comes to your mind.]

’…A mental disease?’

Hyde nodded his head. At that moment, the two thought of the same memory.

The person who starved to death after playing as a cannibal. Not the person that he was in reality, but the person that was inside the game…

[It’s a multiple personality disorder. You’ve seen it in movies. A split ego. Two sides fight to take control of the body. The loser disappears, and the winner takes over. It was such a simple answer, but you forgot about it because of the realism of this game. You gave a name to me, who’s just a mental disorder, and considered me like I was an actual separate being.]

From Hyde’s faceless face, Gyosu, for some reason, could imagine a smile that looked a little sad.

[That’s what happened. The fight for control between two consciousnesses. The only reason a little bit of control started to come over to me is because you’re too nice. You say that you don’t want to give it to me, but deep inside, you have that weird sense of responsibility that you need to pay the price for me saving your life. You’re that kind of guy. A stupid idiot that pretends to be all wise and the most self-centered person in the world, but when it comes down to the most important moment, you can’t ignore the others. That’s you, Gyosu Park. Every time you get my help, you weigh that out on your moral scale and give me something in exchange. The help inside the game was a finger or two. Saving your life in real life was an entire arm. How generous of you.]

And so, finishing with that, Hyde got up from this chair.

[I’ve actually kept this to myself—didn’t really bother telling you. Nothing really changes, even if you know this. The taking over thing isn’t something I can solve, either. And it’s not like your oddly warped sense of selflessness is going to go anywhere unless you go into some dark dungeon and get it tortured out of you. So nothing changes in the end. Either you find something similar to a ‘god’ inside of this game and ask it to give me a new body, or you find the guy that made this thing and use his super brain juju powers to separate us. That’s why I’m telling you to stop worrying so much and just play the game. Who knows what would have happened if you used the time we were talking here to study magic or, hell, swing another punch? How long are you going to stay a big doofus? Let’s improve from the iPhone with good specs and terrible battery life, can we? Unless you want to hand over more of your body, that is.]

It felt like Hyde’s complaining voice was gently embracing my shocked mind. Yeah. Not one thing changed, so there’s no reason for me to sit here and drool.

‘I can’t believe you’re the one that’s stating the facts.’

[I’ve switched roles because somebody was being an idiot. How’d you like it?]

‘Tch. You don’t ever miss a word.’

[Only learned from the best.]

Pap, pa-pap, pap!

Thump! Thumpp!

In between the two that smirked at each other, the sound of quiet footsteps and loud ones came into earshot.

‘They must be here.’

[Get out of my room. And your head out of the clouds while you’re at it.]

Whooshh—

As the space within his consciousness collapsed, the green grass and starry skies came back into sight.

’…Damn it. Thanks, Hyde.’

[Eugh, quit that corny stuff! Buzz off, Vessel!]

Before he left, it was embarrassing, but he couldn’t not say thanks. Hyde said nothing changed, but that wasn’t the case for me, at least.

Just a mental disease? Multiple personality disorder? As if. In what world is there a fragmented ego that considers itself a mental disease and comforts the person?

Nothing changed, but the fact that he was special didn’t change. At least… he was special to me.

A separate friendly ego within a person that’s suffering from a lack of affection? What better cure for it than this?

Ding—!

“That’s… one really complicated guy.”

“Complicated guy?”

“Mmm… I heard the assassination team was also busy, so you might have missed it. My magic.”

“Oh, that.”

“It was quite remarkable. Although it was nothing compared to the monstrous form you showed us next.”

After finishing the internal discussion with Hyde, Professor called out to Notum, who was running on the path with Borka and Aldrich on her back in the distance. In response to his greeting, Borka smiled, showing his fangs, and proudly raised up the Chamber Maid’s head in his hand. It was a perfect success.

“So what if I’m a monster? I become as good as a talking corpse in only 5 minutes. I need to look for a better alternative soon.”

So while he was being carried on Borka’s back, he decided to look into this new magic that was called Blood Armor.

Blood Armor. Not only was it an original spell that he made himself, but he used it quite a bit too, so there was more information revealed about it than he thought.

‘The system page can’t be trusted, so I can consider those levels and statistics variables.’

First of all, it had everything that I wanted it to have.

Now, my glass cannon was limited, but it turned into a steel cannon. Honestly, just this alone is already a success. The mockery for the ‘rocket punch’ that I used, where my arm disappeared in just one hit, is now history. Very good.

It probably came with Shock Protection. Compared to swinging an axe in midair and chopping down a tree, the latter is much more tiring. The level of muscle pain is completely different. Now that there’s no counterreaction, I’m probably getting a benefit stamina-wise. This is good too.

This one was an unexpectedly great one. When I swing my fist with Blood Armor on, the amount of shock that hits the enemy passes through my arm and is shot out through the back of it with an explosion.

The shock that used to just break my arm is now used as acceleration to help my attacks. For defense as well. If I block, then that shock travels to the opposite side of the gauntlet and becomes the strength to push away that attack. It’s an incredible plus, both attack- and defense-wise. Seeing that there’s a (+), there must be a condition I could fulfill to level it up.

Up to this… was incredibly nice.

The most famous mental affliction in this game was added to the skill.

==========

– Jokass : He’s a court warrior now.

– Soygaybar : Heheheh…. Sonny, try using this potion if you don’t feel strong enough…. It’s called Berserker’s Potion, and it makes you feel really good and strong, heheheheh….

– takealook : The numero one contributor to sending the Gedroits Company Back into the underworld so they survive the nuclear war

==========

Berserker. The starting point that swept up GG Ver 1.0 into a tsunami of lawsuits.

After experiencing it, I could see why it gained its reputation.

‘It’s not just losing one’s sanity. It really felt like when I fought in the war after using the drugs that they supplied us with. Does this have an effect on reality, too?’

==========

– professor : Speedwagon sir? Do you happen to know exactly what symptoms people were using for evidence in their Berserker Potion or Buff related lawsuits?

– Speedwagon : It shows up when you look it up. Most appealed change in personality, mental trauma, brain damage data drug usage, and other vague symptoms. That was the only defense that the Gedroits Company could depend on. Since there were no symptoms that could be medically proven.

– professor : Oh! So that means Berserker won’t cause some drastic effect or anything?

– Speedwagon : It’s a case by case, so not affirmative. There is a case where a white 7 yo girl that used to like flowers and princesses sharpened the leg of her favorite Barbie doll to hunt a wild rabbit and gifted it to her mother after playing GG. Looking at how you act outside it probably won’t affect you too much? Personally I don’t think you worry abt it.

– Speedwagon : + image / Rabbit Hunter Girl before.jpg / Rabbit Hunter Girl after.jpg /

– Jokass : Damn look at her smile…. She’s holding the rabbit just like she held the Barbie doll stuck in its throat….

– Soygaybar : Not even Mary Sue can take the sue out of that one

– DOOMgay : She pierced exactly the carotid artery. Excellent work for a young girl.

– Highwaynachoman : Of course they sued them, the genre just went from Princess Maker to DOOM.

– Noru_is_druig : Is a lawsuit really enough? I would’ve gotten on my Harley Davidson and run straight to the Gedroits headquarters with a shotgun.

==========

Fuck. That’s scary. How could you not be worried after seeing that? A girl who used to frolic in the meadow is standing there proudly with a bloodied rabbit in her hands.

“Captain, it looks like you’re thinking about something, but I recommend you think about it later.”

“What, are we here?”

“Yes. You can see him over there.”

Professor turned his head to look at where Borka’s claw was pointing. It was still close to the dark side of the early morning, but it wasn’t hard to know that it was their destination.

Because the priest’s bald head was shining from the moonlight in the midst of the darkness.