Melting Shampoo (7)

When about ten minutes had passed since I left the hair smeared with Melting Shampoo in front of the front door.

Beep-beep-

I heard something entering the front door's lock password.

‘It's here.’

Just as the community users had guessed,

the hacker anomaly really had begun opening the door, apparently having followed the scent of the Melting Shampoo here to hunt its prey.

I immediately held out the candle I'd lit with the gas stove and prepared the insecticide that existed in this world as well.

‘..Open it.’

I hid behind the bed I'd propped up in front of the shoe cabinet by the entrance, and by the time I'd even finished preparing to use the makeshift flamethrower with my breathing suppressed to silence.

Beep-beep-

The anomaly had entered the entire password..

Creeeak-

It slowly began opening the front door.

‘Fuckfuckfuckfuck..’

I had somehow steeled my heart, but when I actually faced reality.. nothing but curses came pouring out.

Because..

the anomaly visible beyond the front door had such a horrifying appearance.

I couldn't overcome the instinctive revulsion.. and fear.. wrapping around my entire body.

‘Is something like that.. even allowed to exist in this world..?’

To explain it simply.. it looked like this.

It moved using the six legs attached to its torso, like an animal that walked on all fours.

The two forelegs at the very front were slightly longer than the toes on the other legs, so they seemed to be used like hands.

This creature was about the size of an insect enlarged to the size of a wolf, and was covered in a texture resembling human skin..

It did have a face attached to the top of its torso, but that face was about twice the size of an ordinary human face, while..

it had only two enormous holes on it, impossible to tell whether they were eyes, ears, or nostrils..

“...”

The phrase ‘frozen stiff’ would have been accurate.

I had seen countless anomalies at Belliard Library as well..

but looking at a creature that seemed like a human had evolved into an insect, I felt the terrifying possibility that I could become like that too.

Skitter..

“..!!”

The anomaly that supposedly couldn't enter the house was naturally making its way inside the front door.

Hissss-

I immediately pulled myself together and began spraying the insecticide with the candle held out in front of me.

‘Die..! Die..!!’

Fire, one of humanity's oldest weapons and one of its most powerful.

Using that fire to attack the anomaly.. The anomaly.. the....

Hissss-

“...”

The anomaly had its face buried in the hair covered with Melting Shampoo.

Since the anomaly was baring skin that clearly looked human as though it were naked..

the skin began burning pitch-black as soon as the fire touched it, but..

‘Fucking.. shit..’

the six-legged anomaly was still pushing the holes in its face toward the hair covered in Melting Shampoo, as though nothing had happened.

‘The fire.. The fire.. isn't working..?’

The fire didn't work.

My strongest available weapon didn't work..

As soon as I realized this, bottomless helplessness came to dominate my mind.

“...”

I stopped spraying the insecticide.

All I could do was stare blankly down at the anomaly.

‘What's.. ..wrong with me?’

I didn't want to die.

I wasn't stupid enough to just sit still like this.

However..

my will, broken once already, began making me feel like a loser incapable of doing anything.

‘Get a grip.. This.. this.. It's a mental attack.. This is a mental attack..’

Once I realized that I was under a mental attack, I reached out to resume using the makeshift flamethrower-

Hissss-

“..Ah.”

My strength had drained away from the mental disturbance, and I unconsciously lowered the candle I had been holding.

Because of that, I was spraying only insecticide—not flames—at the anomaly..

“..Huh?”

Kikikikikik-

Startled by the anomaly's sudden strange noise, I took a closer look at it.

I could see that the parts being hit by the insecticide were melting away.

‘..It wasn't merely shaped like an insect—it was an actual insect?’

Of course, the actual mechanism of insecticide isn't to melt bugs to death, but..

seeing the anomaly melt after being sprayed with insecticide began to feel absurd.

‘..I got scared for nothing.’

The anomaly died as its flesh melted away, spilling out the organ-like flesh inside.

For a moment, I had the horrifying thought that the anomaly's organs looked similar to human ones.

‘Wow.. Fuck..’

As soon as it died, I realized that the energy that had left me helpless had returned to normal.

‘It really was a mental attack.’

I was able to realize that it had used a mental attack.

However.

‘It was.. still a little better than at Belliard Library.’

I realized that the mental attack I had suffered from the Crybaby anomaly at Belliard Library

and the mental attack I had just suffered from the six-legged anomaly were similar attacks.. and felt that something was strange.

‘..What's different between then and now?’

What was different between me then and me now that allowed me to withstand the mental attack?

At Belliard Library.. I had immediately lost control of my entire body.. so why had I been able to properly resist the mental attack here?

If I had to look for a difference between now and then.. ..there was Mentality.

--

Mentality : 81 / 103

[Available Returns] : 1

[Available Crafting Attempts ] : 1

Input:

--

Unlike my Mentality at Belliard Library, which had almost never risen above 20..

my Mentality now was.. a whopping 81.

In other words, the higher one's Mentality.. the more one could resist an anomaly's mental attacks.

‘I should always keep it maxed out.’

I understood why the people in the community had wanted items that raised Mentality so badly.

That aside..

‘..I got lucky.’

I couldn't say anything except that I had gotten lucky.

How had those things that supposedly couldn't enter the house managed to get as far as the inside of the front door?

Or could they simply enter whenever they smelled Melting Shampoo..?

Or had the information written there been false...?

Whatever the case, if the anomaly had taken an interest in me instead of the hair covered in Melting Shampoo as soon as it entered the house..

wouldn't I have been in a situation where a truly horrifying scene could have followed?

‘..Idiot.’

I didn't know whether it was an entity whose targeting prioritized eliminating whatever was covered in Melting Shampoo.

Or whether it had no eyes and was trying to hunt me using only its sense of smell.

I let out a derisive laugh at the sight of the anomaly that had died from pure insecticide thanks to its own mental attack, then..

‘I should write the second experiment log.’

Now that I had obtained a test subject, I decided to write the second experiment log for the countless people who must be waiting for me.

--

[Experiment Log #2]

Hello.

I'm the person you commonly call the ‘newbie.’

Before writing this experiment log, yes.

I have a crafting ability.

However.. I still don't fully understand this system, so I can't be sure that I can satisfy your expectations.

So.. please stop sending me direct messages..

Some people have been sending all sorts of suggestive photos over DM, or just.. photos of their figures, claiming that they're themselves..

I'm a man too, so of course I like them, but in a world where I'm scrambling just to survive, I feel like I'll die if I spend my energy on such pointless things.

For now, I only ask that you exercise restraint.

Ahem.. Now, let me get to the main point.

(Photo)

First, I killed it.

It was something that died after being sprayed with insecticide, but since I thought it might be hard for you to look at, I roughly covered the organs that resembled human ones before taking the photo.

(Photo)

Judging by the fact that its exterior and organs resembled those of a human.. this seemed to have taken the form of an ‘infected human.’

I was subjected to the same mental attack as at Belliard Library, but I was somewhat prepared this time, so I was able to deal with it easily.

(Photo)

I tried cutting and stabbing the corpse's skin with sharp objects, and surprisingly, it passed every test.

It was several times more durable than the computer metal plate I had used.

Its only weakness is that it melts immediately when sprayed with insecticide.

I don't know whether it has any other weaknesses, but I'll look into those gradually.

I can confirm that the hypothesis another user wrote about luring anomalies with Melting Shampoo was correct.

It really smelled the Melting Shampoo and crawled all the way into the house, that fucking piece of shit..

I ended up using honorifics while writing this.

Whew.. Please understand that I used honorifics because I'm currently in a fragile state of mind and body.

In my next post, I'll return to my original way of speaking and write Experiment Log #3.

Thank you for reading this long post.

[Comments - 33]

Anonymous 1 : What??? Someone sent you a dick pic in a DM????

ㄴ Poster : Yep.

ㄴ Anonymous 1 : Newbie, I'll be your dog for life. Could you share those pictures with me?

ㄴ Poster : It was a man's.

ㄴ Anonymous 1 : ? ..Then how does Newbie know that?

ㄴ Poster : I know about the one Teacher sent, too. Don't pretend it wasn't you.

ㄴ Anonymous 1 : Oh..

ㄴ Anonymous 2 : Why did you send that? ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

ㄴ Anonymous 3 : ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ Getting caught is fucking hilarious ㅋㅋㅋ This is what makes him a newbie ㅋㅋㅋㅋ I guess we have to call him Blacksmith now.

ㄴ Anonymous 1 : Since the blacksmith makes things, let's call him ‘Big D.’ How about it?

ㄴ Poster : Please stop emphasizing Teacher's tastes.

ㄴ Anonymous 1 : Oh, come on!!!

Anonymous 4 : When did I ever tell him to lure it with Melting Shampoo??? No??? He used it as bait??????

ㄴ Poster : Yep. Thank you. Thanks to you, I learned how to catch an anomaly.

ㄴ Anonymous 4 : You crazy bastard. You almost died just now; don't say thank you. If you'd died just like that, I would've ended up killing you????

ㄴ Poster : But I survived, right?

ㄴ Anonymous 4 : (This comment has been deleted by the administrator.)

ㄴ Anonymous 1 : This is the first time I've seen Anonymous 4 go dark.

Anonymous 5 : ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ I nearly jumped when I saw the fucking anomaly corpse as soon as I arrived ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 4/0/0 is fucking hilarious ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

ㄴ Anonymous 2 : Dae-bungie's about to go outside and hunt anomalies, so apparently he'll be 40/0/0 soon~

ㄴ Anonymous 6 : What's a Daebung?

ㄴ Anonymous 2 : I just called him Daebung because he's a blacksmith.

ㄴ Anonymous 7 : It rolls right off the tongue. I like Daebung.

ㄴ Anonymous 4 : Daebung is a huge imaginary bird said to fly 90,000 li a day. It's also called the Peng bird.

ㄴ Poster : Anonymous 4 seems pretty damn smart. His Melting Shampoo theory too.

ㄴ Anonymous 4 : Thanks, Daebung, you Peng-bird bastard.

ㄴ Anonymous 1 : Anonymous 4 is really mad ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ I can understand it, though ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ He almost got the newbie killed while advising him ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

Anonymous 8 : ㅈㅈㅈㅉㅉㅉ쪼ㅗㅗㅗㅗㄱㄱㄱㄱㄲㅈㅈㅈ짖ㅈㅈㅉiiiIIIIlllllll

ㄴ Anonymous 3 : ? What's wrong with him? Why is he actually broken?

ㄴ Anonymous 1 : Why are you asking for a dick pic? Want to see Newbie's dick pic? Then get in line. Do you know how long the line is? Like Daebung's thing?

ㄴ Anonymous 2 : I got in line too. To get Daebung's goods.

ㄴ Anonymous 3 : Yeah, me too.

ㄴ Anonymous 5 : Sliiide

ㄴ Anonymous 7 : Where does this anomaly bitch think it's going, trying to cut in line?

ㄴ Anonymous 8 : ㅇㅇㅇㅇㅇ으ㅡㅡㅡㅡㅇ아ㅏㅏㅏ이ㅣㅣ

--

The comments began racing at an incredible speed less than five minutes after I uploaded the post.

Watching those comments, I felt a little proud.. ..Huh? What's with this guy? Why is he like this?

--

(This account does not exist) : ㅈㅈㅈㅉㅉㅉ쪼ㅗㅗㅗㅗㄱㄱㄱㄱㄲㅈㅈㅈ짖ㅈㅈㅉiiiIIIIlllllll

ㄴ Anonymous 3 : ? What's wrong with him? Why is he actually broken?

ㄴ Anonymous 1 : Why are you asking for a dick pic? Want to see Newbie's dick pic? Then get in line. Do you know how long the line is? Like Daebung's thing?

ㄴ Anonymous 2 : I got in line too. To get Daebung's goods.

ㄴ Anonymous 3 : Yeah, me too.

ㄴ Anonymous 5 : Sliiide

ㄴ Anonymous 7 : Where does this anomaly bitch think it's going, trying to cut in line?

ㄴ (This account does not exist) : ㅇㅇㅇㅇㅇ으ㅡㅡㅡㅡㅇ아ㅏㅏㅏ이ㅣㅣ

ㄴ Anonymous 1 : ?

ㄴ Anonymous 2 : Huh?

ㄴ Anonymous 6 : Isn't he dead? Head mod?

ㄴ Admin : I didn't ban him.

ㄴ Anonymous 4 : Doesn't a status-window user's account turn into this when they die? This `(This account does not exist)` thing.

ㄴ Anonymous 5 : Huh? It is?

ㄴ Anonymous 1 : Our Daebung.. He's 5 / 0 / 0 now.

ㄴ Anonymous 3 : ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ It's genuinely novel to annoy an anomaly to death ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

--

..Why did that guy die?