Chapter 21
Bang! Bang! Bang!
When the mannequin anomaly first tried to break down the front door, I was extremely tense.
‘..You're so damn noisy..’
Bang! Bang! Bang!
And it had been about an hour since the mannequin anomaly first tried to break down the door.
‘This isn't the Belliard Library..’
Back when I worked at the Belliard Library, the door the mannequin anomaly broke down in the world beyond Bookshelf No. 52 was wooden, so it must have been breakable, but..
This house's door was no mere wooden door.
An iron door.
And.. it was an iron door with self-repair capabilities.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
‘It definitely has a lot of strength, but since it can't break the door in one go, it keeps repairing itself.’
The wooden door I had pierced with the awl made from the teeth of the Blue Anonymous 10 anomaly still had a hole in it and couldn't repair itself.
That's why I had thought this building's self-repair was possible only for the floor, but..
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Even though it kept trying hard to break down the door.. whenever I watched the iron door repair itself each time it was dented by the impact..
‘It looks like it wouldn't break even if it spent its whole life smashing it.. Why is it trying so hard?’
By now, I almost felt sorry for the mannequin anomaly.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
I had gradually gotten used to the constant banging sounds.
I decided to tune it out for a while, whether or not it kept trying to break down the door, and began looking around inside the house.
‘I should take the wooden door with me.’
Thinking about it, I was definitely planning to return from here to where the community members were today.
Either I'd press the Return button because I didn't want to starve to death, or I'd clear this horror world like the Belliard Library and return.
Either way, I was definitely going back to where the others were today.
‘At the very least, I definitely need to bring the insecticide.’
While looking around for useful things to put in my inventory before returning.
Suddenly.
‘Would it be a good idea to take the wooden door off whole?’
When I started thinking it would be good to take the wooden door with me intact and began unscrewing its hinges with a Phillips-head screwdriver.
‘..Is this self-repairing too?’
Every time I loosened a screw a little, I could see the hinges repairing themselves.
“No, ..the door doesn't heal, but the hinges do?”
A bemused chuckle escaped me at the absurd sight.
But then I realized that if I couldn't unscrew the hinges, there was no way to take the wooden door with me.
‘I can't even break the wooden door.. Ah.. Forget it.’
Poke-
As if venting my frustration, I violently stabbed the screwdriver into the center of the wooden door.
I put the Phillips-head screwdriver straight into my inventory, stood up, and began looking for something else worth taking.
‘Fine. If I can't take the wooden door, I can take something else. Let's see.. first, I should probably take the candles—’
“..Huh?”
The wound I had just made in the wooden door had been healed perfectly.
‘..Why did it heal..?’
Startled by the sudden self-repair, I checked the lower hole.
The hole I had made with the awl crafted from the anomaly's teeth was still open, so this door clearly shouldn't have been able to repair itself..
When I saw that the wound I had just made in a fit of anger had been repaired, I sensed that something was strange.
I took the screwdriver from my inventory and began stabbing the door here and there once more..
Sure enough.
‘..It heals.’
The wooden door kept repairing itself.
“..No way?”
Seeing that, I remembered something and immediately took out the awl made from teeth.
Puk-
The moment I gripped the awl, I stabbed the wooden door without hesitation..
‘..Wow.’
I could see that the mark made by the awl was something the wooden door wasn't repairing—or rather, couldn't repair.
‘This.. has an ability that prevents self-repair too?’
Some games have items that reduce healing.
When an opposing character recovers 100 health, an item that reduces healing suppresses it so that they recover only about 60 health, but..
‘100% healing reduction?’
This awl made from the anomaly's teeth.. not only prevents an anomaly with self-healing abilities from recovering even a single point.
It also seemed to have the effect of making the healing reduction last quite a long time.
Just look. Doesn't the hole I made on my first day here still remain unrepaired?
‘You.. you're quite an amazing thing, aren't you?’
To think something like this had gone around with its mouth tightly shut just because its teeth fell out so easily..
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Leaving the mannequin anomaly behind as it continued pounding on the iron door hard enough to break it.
As I marveled at how amazing the awl I possessed was..
‘Come to think of it.. I wonder if this awl is harder than the iron door.’
Suddenly, I wondered whether the awl I was holding was harder than the iron door.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Thinking that perhaps I could use the awl on that mannequin anomaly to leave it with a wound it couldn't heal.. one that might remain forever, I immediately picked up the hammer and approached the iron door.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The mannequin anomaly attacked the upper part of the iron door, striking down at it at regular intervals.
‘Here.’
I reached the iron door and identified the exact spot the mannequin anomaly was attacking.
Bang!
Thud!
I began hammering the awl in time with its attacks on the iron door.
Bang!
Thud!
Bang!
Thud!
Bang!
Thud!
Bang!
Thud!
Bang!
Thud!
Bang!
Thud!
After several rounds had passed, with the sound of my hammer blows drowned out by its attacks, I had driven the awl into the door in secret.
When the hammering had continued for roughly fifty or sixty strikes, I felt the awl sink in under a full-powered blow.
Just as I felt the small joy of finally piercing the iron door with the awl.
Bang!
The mannequin anomaly, which had attacked the iron door at the exact same timing again..
Tud.. Tudududuk..
“..?”
I could hear it making a strange sound.
‘..What was that? It sounded like something fell.’
Clearly.. after hearing the sound of something small and hard falling outside..
‘It's quiet..’
I realized that the mannequin anomaly, which had been headbutting the door for about an hour, had suddenly gone quiet.
‘Did it collapse?’
A reasonable guess that the mannequin anomaly had fallen over followed, but..
I wasn't suicidal enough to open the door based on a mere guess.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
I placed the awl against the lower part of the front door and began making a new hole through which I could look outside from within.
After repeating roughly seventy full-powered hammer blows like that.
“Haaah.. I really.. need to go back now..”
Having been unable to muster any strength after not eating anything for roughly four days, I thought of this as my absolute last resort and hammered the awl one more time.
Poke-
“Hooah..”
Fortunately, a hole appeared in the iron door, and I was finally able to look beyond the front door through the small opening.
‘Let's see..’
I immediately used the status window's photo-taking function to look around outside the front door through the hole..
‘..Huh?’
I could see the mannequin anomaly, which looked exactly like the one I had seen at the Belliard Library..
lying there with its torso split into several pieces.
‘It died..?’
Of course, I had put the awl from Anonymous 10's anomaly against its point of impact..
Had it really died just because it got pierced there a little?
‘..What is this?’
Good grief..
I've never seen such a weakling.
Just as a person wouldn't die from being stabbed by a needle a little too hard.
Wasn't the awl, to a mannequin anomaly, basically.. just a needle?
‘..Did it kill itself..?’
It was a little absurd that the anomaly had died from being pricked by a needle, so I kept watching to see whether it moved at all..
After observing it for roughly thirty minutes, I became certain it wasn't moving.
Creak..
Very slowly.. I began opening the front door.
Creak...
Even when I had opened the front door about halfway, I could tell the mannequin anomaly still wasn't moving.
As I flung open the door I had opened halfway.
Puk- Puk- Puk- Puk-
I began delivering finishing blows to the mannequin anomaly's body, which lay in pieces.
Puk- Puk- Puk- Puk-
As I stabbed it one by one, I noticed a hole.
‘..Is this guy seriously an idiot..?’
Looking at that hole gave me an immediate clue as to why the mannequin anomaly had died.
Because..
The hole in its head from the awl.. wasn't a hole I had made while delivering the finishing blows.. It was a hole made when it slammed its own head into the iron door and impaled itself on the awl.
--
[This guy killed himself]
(Photo)
Seriously.
It was the guy that tried to eat me at the Belliard Library, but it followed me all the way here.
I have no idea how this world's whole setting works, but how did it find me all the way here..
And.. how did it even know I was here?
Well, there are anomalies that come looking when you send them a note. I can't believe I never thought of that.
I should be careful not to do anything that would make an anomaly resent me from now on. I should keep in mind that if one holds a grudge, it might follow me.
[Comments - 16]
Anonymous 1 : Daebung can use mental attacks now too ㅋㅋㅋ He even made it kill itself ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
ㄴ Poster : ㄴㄴ I held the awl out, and it slammed its head into it. I thought at most it would stab its hand, but it rammed its head into it.
ㄴ Anonymous 2 : We call that a mental attack.
ㄴ Poster : I told you, it wasn't.. I didn't use a mental attack..
ㄴ Anonymous 3 : ㅋㅋ Now it's not “couldn't” use one, but “didn't” use one ㅋㅋ At this rate he'll really use a mental attack ㅋㅋ
ㄴ Anonymous 4 : For real ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
Anonymous 5 : He killed the note anomaly, and now he killed the anomaly that followed him from the Belliard Library. Are you still going to say you didn't use a mental attack?
ㄴ Poster : I told you, I didn't use one..
ㄴ Anonymous 1 : Yeah, yeah~ That guy “killed himself.” An anomaly! “Killed himself”! Right?!
ㄴ Anonymous 3 : Ah ㅋㅋ The anomaly was so scared of Daebung that it even killed itself ㅋㅋㅋ
Anonymous 6 : But seriously, Daebung, do you really know how to use mental attacks?
ㄴ Poster : ? Why are you asking that?
ㄴ Anonymous 6 : No matter how much we think about it, honestly, “the note anomaly died from stress” < this doesn't make any sense.
ㄴ Anonymous 6 : We've stressed that thing out more than once or twice over the past few years.. so seriously, no matter how we look at it, “Daebung did something to make the note anomaly die.” That's the accepted theory.
ㄴ Poster : But I really didn't do anything..? I just teased it..?
ㄴ Anonymous 6 : Tsk.. Daebung, are you really sure you don't know how to use mental attacks?
--
‘..If I tell them I can use mental attacks, won't I get banned..?’
Immediately after sharing information about hunting the anomaly that had followed me from the Belliard Library to this place.
I briefly looked down at the corpses of the mannequin anomalies I had brought inside the house.
‘What should I make with these?’
What I needed right now was a long-range weapon, so I hoped the status window's crafting bench would turn the mannequin anomaly's corpses into something like a crossbow.
I made a simple crossbow in advance and planned to combine the mannequin anomaly's corpses with it, making the status window's crafting system definitively produce a crossbow—
“..Huh?”
My vision suddenly began to turn cloudy.
This was.. the symptom I had experienced when I pressed Return, but I hadn't pressed Return.
‘I cleared it..!’
I had only just realized that I had safely made it through this world when..
‘Ah, wait..!’
If I moved on like this, the mannequin anomaly's corpse would be left behind here.
‘Craft!’
Unable to simply watch these precious crafting materials disappear.. I immediately pressed the Craft button while holding the mannequin anomaly's corpse.
As my vision turned cloudy and then returned to normal..
“Wow.. why does it feel like I've come back home?”
I finally opened my eyes in the place where the community members were gathered.