Ian sprang up from the bed and immediately seized the grimoire. The Hand of Re-creation settled gently into place, fluttered open, and he raised his hand over the letters floating before his eyes.
“Be born anew.”
Wuuung.
The activated magic interfered with the arrangement of the text, warping the letters.
Only for a moment. The collapsed letters returned to normal and blinked before Ian’s eyes.
“……Huh.”
The first situation in which the magic of re-creation had failed to work. For some reason, Ian felt a chill run down his spine, and he tried using the spell on the cup beside the table.
Crack!
With a sound like something being crumpled, the cup’s form changed into something like a dagger.
Apparently, rather than there being a problem with the magic itself, this unidentified monstrosity called a “status window” seemed to be ignoring magic. It did not appear to be entirely unaffected, but it was certain that he could not simply kill it through brute force.
“Phew…….”
With slightly trembling hands, Ian took out a cigarette, put it between his lips, lit it, and exhaled smoke into the air. Smoking inside the room was prohibited, but right now he had no room to worry about that.
Perhaps thanks to the hot nicotine and tar soaking into his lungs, his mind cleared considerably. With a cold expression, he sat on the edge of the bed and manipulated this thing called a “status window.”
‘Direct touch…… works. It feels like operating the system of a VR game.’
There was a genre commonly called game fantasy. It referred to novels where the protagonist entered a game and moved along with a status window, and the scene before him looked exactly like that.
Then had he perhaps been dragged into a game as well?
“…….”
For an instant, that thought crossed his mind, but Ian did not jump to conclusions and cooled his head.
Since he had encountered an unexpected situation, he needed to move calmly. If he panicked and thrashed about for no reason, his field of vision would only narrow.
‘This change probably hasn’t happened only to me. It would be right to assume everyone aboard this cruise has become strange.’
He observed the situation calmly.
According to the words written on the status window, Ian’s role was detective.
It would not be a role assigned without any basis. He had probably received this occupation because he had spent all day yesterday wandering around in search of clues to the case.
As proof, Lee Seo-a, who had been gambling at the casino last night, had been assigned the role of gambler.
The others would not be much different. The captain would probably be an actual captain, while roles like photographer or detective were likely occupations obtained through certain triggers. They probably were not their real jobs.
‘Some kind of role-playing game, then.’
Roles assigned after analyzing what had happened the day before.
It seemed the Mystery had been moving covertly since yesterday. Considering he had failed to detect it, it likely possessed a nature closer to a parasite or a tool than a Mystery that acted directly.
Either way, it was nothing but troublesome. Ian clicked his tongue in irritation and turned his head toward the terrace.
Because of the dark clouds in the sky, the sun had not risen. Night was receding, but it was not a particularly bright morning. A thick sea fog lay over the surface of the water, and beneath it, he had the sense that something was swimming.
……Was it an ordinary fish?
He could not tell. Nor did he particularly feel like checking right away. Now was not the time.
Ian stubbed out the cigarette he had finished in the ashtray, washed quickly, and left the room.
Lee Seo-a was nowhere in sight. Judging by the presence he sensed in the room next door, she still seemed to be asleep.
Without hesitation, he called her and woke her up.
[Mmm……? Why…….]
A thoroughly hoarse voice flowed through the phone speaker. Ian did not beat around the bush and went straight to the point.
“The Mystery has started moving. Can you see something called a status window or whatever?”
[Huh……? Status window……? ……Uh, fuck, what is this?]
Her voice instantly became clear. Along with the sound of blankets sliding down, he faintly heard the bed springs creak.
[Why am I a gambler? I’m a mage!]
“It’s probably because you made a lot from gambling last night. Anyway, that’s not what’s important. The problem is that we’ve been caught up in a Mystery without even realizing it.”
Leaning against the corridor wall, he looked around.
“……Uuughh.”
Far away, beyond the corner, he saw a woman staggering toward him. Feeling the cold touch of the revolver he had tucked inside his clothes, Ian moved his lips.
“Come out quickly. If you’re not out in thirty minutes, I’ll break down the door.”
[Got it. I’ll get ready and come out right away.]
Instead of complaining, Lee Seo-a answered quickly and hung up. Ian operated his phone with one hand and opened the GPS app.
[Current Location: Fog Sea]
The name of a region he had never heard of popped up. Ian furrowed his brow deeply and zoomed out on the map.
The world map expanded. The red dot marked in its center was located in the sea between South America and North America.
‘……This is the Bermuda Triangle.’
Ian was not particularly well-versed in the coasts of other countries, but even so, he could tell that this place was one part of the Atlantic Ocean called the Bermuda Triangle. It was so famous that there was no need to think hard about it.
A place wrapped in all kinds of conspiracy theories and mysteries. However, it had only been a few years since all of them had been revealed as fake, so considering they had suddenly transferred here like this, that too must have been information concealment carried out by the Bureau.
That fact itself was not particularly surprising. What mattered was that they had flown from Korean territorial waters to the American continent overnight.
‘Since it’s a real-world location, we probably aren’t trapped inside a spatial anomaly. It seems like we literally teleported…….’
Teleportation.
It was a word with no sense of reality at all, but now that a Mystery was involved, it was not impossible. Ian exhaled slowly and turned his head toward the woman approaching from afar.
“Uuugh.”
She looked as if she were soaked through with water. Yellow pus and fluid dripped from between her unfocused pupils, and blue tentacles writhed between her right leg, which had split into three.
No matter how one looked at her, she was not in a normal state. Ian put a cigarette between his lips, took out the paring knife in his pocket, and threw it.
Swaaaak!!
The paring knife flew swiftly and grazed the woman’s thigh before falling. The woman gave no scream, showed no reaction, and scattered into mist.
[Kiiieeeek!!]
Three small blue worms fell onto the spot where she had vanished. They opened their maws wide and shrieked.
They were far too grotesque to be called ordinary parasites.
Ian took out his revolver to shoot them dead, but the worms dried up faster than he could pull the trigger.
[Kiiiik…….]
They shriveled as if all their moisture had been sucked out.
Without managing to launch a single attack, the worms turned to dust and disappeared.
“…….”
Ian quickly lowered the revolver he had been aiming and checked whether there were any witnesses nearby.
Fortunately, no one had seen it. There was a security camera in the middle of the corridor, but since he was with Lee Seo-a, he was not too concerned about it. He only needed to deal with direct witnesses somehow.
“……Phew.”
Ian exhaled slowly and lit the end of his cigarette.
A little while later, Lee Seo-a opened her door and stepped out.
Wearing only a light crop top, a hooded zip-up, and long pants, she frowned when she saw Ian smoking.
“Smoking is forbidden here.”
“Is now really the time to worry about that?”
Ian lightly brushed off her comment and straightened up.
“I just saw something like a monster. It looked like a drowned corpse with tentacles stretching out from its split legs.”
“A common anomaly. Any other traits?”
The two conversed as they started walking.
“When it died, it scattered into mist. And I don’t know if it was because it still maintained a human form or because it was originally human, but it was still treated as a primate.”
“Ah, you killed it with that knife?”
Ian nodded and picked up the kitchen knife lying in the middle of the corridor. Lee Seo-a sent her guardian spirit flowing into the security camera.
“It died without even being able to resist, so that’s certain.”
“I’m only saying this just in case, but what if we’re experiencing hallucinations? What if the thing you killed was a person, and this status window or whatever is all a lie? What do you think of that hypothesis?”
“Impossible. If what I killed just now was human, then even if its disappearance was a hallucination, a corpse should have remained. But we walked down the corridor without any obstruction.”
Ian glanced back at the clear corridor and pressed the elevator call button.
“So it probably isn’t a hallucination.”
Lee Seo-a nodded.
“I agree. I’ve experienced plenty of hallucinations, so it’s easy enough for me to tell the difference. I only said it for the sake of eliminating possibilities, so don’t worry too much about it.”
She held out an empty bottle of bone powder to Ian and looked back at him.
“This. The bottle of bone powder I gave you yesterday. When I woke up this morning, it had already been triggered. For now, it’s certain that the Mystery here interfered with our minds.”
“……I’m still fine, though.”
With an uneasy expression, Ian took out the glass bottle, which was in the exact same state as when he had first received it. Lee Seo-a paused for a moment, but after confirming the grimoires visible through his coat, she nodded.
“The grimoires probably built a mental barrier for you. Looks like you’re rather loved. Though I’m not sure whether the love of an Outer God is a good thing.”
“…….”
With a look of renewed surprise, Ian became aware of the grimoires inside his bag. The two books sensed his gaze and vibrated briefly.
A tremor that seemed to ask, “I did well, didn’t I?” He smiled bitterly and stroked the covers of the grimoires with his hand.
“There shouldn’t be any major problem. Anyway, if it’s mental-type, did we avoid the first attack for now? Neither you nor I seem to have gone mad.”
“Probably. I don’t have any confusion in my memories. You don’t either, right?”
“None. All the magic I learned is still in my head.”
“Good.”
While they were talking, the elevator arrived.
Inside the elevator was a young married couple. Paying no attention whatsoever to the two of them, they were pressed against the wall and kissing passionately.
Letters appeared above their heads.
[Newlywed Lee Tae-ryeong]
[Newlywed Kim Ga-in]
Names like those of game NPCs.
After confirming that nothing of the sort was floating above their own heads, Ian and Seo-a boarded the elevator.
The blatant sound of kissing rang out, but Seo-a felt not the slightest hint of embarrassment as she gripped the awl in her pocket tightly.
Her air was so murderous that if the couple tried anything strange, she would immediately stab them in the throat. Ian was not much different.
“Mmm, honey.”
“Stay still, okay?”
As the elevator descended, the two of them continued repeating only those words. Even their movements were identical.
No matter how one looked at them, they did not appear to be normal humans. It was more convincing to see them as machines with commands input into them.
“……They’ve been devoured.”
Seo-a said, glancing at the newlyweds.
“They’ve been eroded by their roles.”
“…….”
“The mental attack seems to work like that. If we’d been hit, I would’ve acted like a gambler. You would’ve acted like a detective. Like real NPCs inside a game.”
“……A troublesome bastard. Is it a Mystery that overlays a game onto reality?”
“I’m not sure, but if that’s the case, the way to resolve it would be…….”
“To reach the ending.”
Ian answered as he smoked his third cigarette.
The cigarette smoke touched the ceiling of the elevator, then soon scattered.
At that moment, the elevator stopped automatically and arrived at the floor where the dining hall was located.
Ding.
With a cheerful sound, the elevator doors opened.