Chapter 105
"Can you escape this way, too?"
Escape by obtaining guest status from the hospital director.
Apparently, as long as I have guest status, I can enter and leave freely, but let's be as careful as possible. As Teacher said, I don't know what might happen if the hospital director suddenly changes. If I don't have a clear purpose, there's no reason to return to the hospital.
But.
This time, no escape message appeared. It hadn't appeared when I defeated the vampire in the subway, either.
From what I could tell, this was probably because I'd already received the points.
Things obtained through the status window carry over to the next loop. So apparently, the record of points received carries over as well, preventing duplicate rewards.
"Then what about items?"
Could it be that items couldn't be obtained more than once, either?
Could you only obtain them once across all loops?
It wasn't certain yet, but if that was true, it was a disaster.
Even when playing a single-player RPG, you save the good consumables for the final boss fight, only to end up never using them and having them left over.
If there was no guarantee I could reacquire items, I'd have no choice but to save things like the Singing Flower and the Vampire Angel's Heart, too.
"Please don't let that be the case."
Points were one thing, but for items to be worth anything, they had to be obtainable more than once instead of being limited to a single acquisition.
But when had this damn status window ever done anything good for me...?
Anyway.
I had obtained a grimoire and some medicine from the hospital.
I knew what the medicine did, so let's find out about the grimoire first. A grimoire belonging to the hospital director sounded formidable at a glance.
I moved to a suitable place and took the grimoire out of my inventory.
"Hmm."
The book itself wasn't particularly special.
Its cover was densely covered in characters from some unknown underworld language, but I couldn't feel any indescribable magic from it, nor could I decipher the writing.
Could something incredible happen if I opened it?
"..."
A tense moment.
ㅡFlip.
I carefully opened the book.
"...!"
Something!
Something...!
I couldn't feel anything.
A magical storm? The whispers of some suspicious entity? I couldn't sense anything like that. There was only a page densely covered in characters I couldn't decipher.
It didn't even seem to have the convenient feature of automatically translating itself once I became the grimoire's owner. In the age of super-AI, even the local idiots use automatic translation services to explore knowledge from abroad, yet this insane grimoire didn't even have that. I was horrified by this absurd, tragic disparity. We live in an age when something taken for granted by one person becomes desperately necessary to another.
Thinking that, I kept turning the pages, but there was nothing special.
"Do I have to figure out how to use this myself?"
Then this was going to take forever.
How many millennia would it take me to figure it out?
Still, since it was called a grimoire, I had a feeling that if I figured out how to use it, I might be able to do something incredible.
Handling a grimoire meant becoming a mage. If this bizarre book had originated from some horrifying entity in the underworld, then naturally, a mage who wielded its power could be considered a formidable being as well.
Maybe it would improve my combat abilities.
Even if I was good at shooting and hunting vampires, there was nothing I could do if I actually got dragged somewhere like the Human Meat Factory. I'd secretly regretted that, so it would be nice if the grimoire could help me improve in that area.
I couldn't figure it out for now.
I put the grimoire back in my inventory.
"Hmm... What about the GPS?"
I took that out too.
[My location : 89734154]
My location... It didn't seem to have changed.
There wasn't anything in particular on the map, either. It would be great if the map displayed dangerous areas or something, but maybe I was asking too much.
Let's put it away.
The inspection was over.
It was about time to head up to Seoul.
The Giant Incident. I had to prevent it.
* * *
The bus heading up to Seoul.
I thought about what I needed to do to prevent the Giant Incident. In fact, it was extremely simple.
To begin with, I knew which building the freak who entered the wall—the Seed of the Star, essentially—would enter.
Then, if I waited on top of that building in advance, I could inject it with the medicine as soon as the incident began. It would be over in one fell swoop.
There wouldn't even be any need to call Gorgodios or Kuras.
"..."
This time... I had no intention of joining the Administration Bureau in the first place. There were more than one or two suspicious things about it. What would I do by joining an organization that even had agents specializing in purges, like Jemtree?
Anyway.
I was about to enter that building and wait in advance, but then I thought about it: hadn't the building collapsed as soon as we fed it the medicine?
That made it a little dangerous.
Unless I could speedrun my way out, everyone inside the building would be massacred.
Was there some other way... Ah!
"That's it!"
There was no need to enter the building in the first place.
All I had to do was somehow force the Seed of the Star to swallow the medicine. Of course, its physical abilities were quite powerful, but forcing the medicine into its mouth should be within my capabilities.
Good.
Let's do that.
If I solved the matter myself like this, there'd be no reason for me to get involved with the Administration Bureau at all. After that, well, maybe I could farm Black Stones and visit Jinseop to do something about it.
Since I'd heard when he got caught up in it while acting alongside him, I could probably stop him from joining the fake Administration Bureau as long as things proceeded the same way.
After that, well.
I hadn't decided exactly what to do.
But I had a feeling that the grimoire I'd acquired this time would become something very important. As such, I felt I should proceed by learning more about the grimoire... but how should I do that?
Ah.
Right.
Should I ask Teacher Kim Seonghan's wife?
Whatever else, this grimoire originated from the hospital. I felt a deep connection with Teacher Kim Seonghan. Through him, I'd met his wife and received the Black Stone. Given that connection, there was a chance his Arab wife might know something about the grimoire.
Having decided on a course of action, I moved without hesitation.
* * *
"The time has come...!"
Descendant of the Singing Star!
The time had come to defeat the bastard with my own hands!
"Come out...!"
Having taken up a position in a suitable location, I waited for it to appear. The freak of a monster entered the wall, its twisted face contorted as it moved grotesquely.
I was going to latch onto that bastard and jam the hospital medicine into its mouth.
I was ready.
I'm not the same person I was back then.
I've fought countless battles across loops. The me back then and the me now were worlds apart in terms of combat power. Could a mere Seed that hadn't even become a Giant defeat me?
Absolutely not.
I was Grong, a vampire hunter powerful enough to rival Han Segun, and the Administration Bureau's top marksman, who had even brought tears to Kurosna's eyes. Besides, I was practically Teacher Kim Seonghan's star pupil. After all, I was also a mage who could command the grimoire I'd received from him.
I wouldn't lose!
Just as I was burning with fighting spirit.
"...!"
It appeared!
I caught sight of the twisted thing approaching from the distance, moving grotesquely.
Already prepared, I moved nimbly.
But at that very moment.
"Huh?!"
I had no choice but to fling myself aside and hide, still in my prepared stance.
Because...!
The fake Administration Bureau!
Because those fake Administration Bureau bastards had suddenly appeared!
"They said there were anomalies wandering around Seoul, too."
"Don't they look like total pushovers?"
Agents in black suits and sunglasses appeared 'out of nowhere' and began approaching the Seed of the Star.
Why on earth had they appeared?
They hadn't done this in the previous loop.
Just as I began to suspect that some major anomaly had occurred because the loop had changed, I saw him.
"I heard an anomaly had appeared, so I was expecting something."
His sleeves rolled up.
His white hair tied back.
A Japanese sword in hand.
"Was this it?"
Department Head Lee Dohyeong...!
He had appeared completely unharmed!
A shiver.
I could only tremble violently with awe. How could Department Head Lee Dohyeong be here?
Ah!
Like lightning striking my head, an intense realization flashed through my brain.
That's it...!
Because I hadn't fired Gunster Call at Cheongak Mary Hospital, Department Head Lee Dohyeong was alive and had appeared here! There was nothing strange about a department head from the Administration Bureau roaming around Seoul!
ㅡFlash!
It happened in an instant.
Department Head Lee Dohyeong's figure disappeared, and when he reappeared, he walked as if unconcerned and shook the blood from his sword with a crisp motion.
And then.
ㅡPatter.
The Seed of the Star was chopped into hundreds of pieces and fell.
"O-oh!"
"As expected of Department Head Lee Dohyeong...!"
"The Administration Bureau's strongest swordsman!"
"Hyungbaek!"
The fake Administration Bureau agents marveled instead of me.
I held my breath from my hiding place.
"Boring. Boring. No feel to it. This is a waste of time. I'm annoyed, so clean it up yourselves."
"Yes!"
"Understood!"
Department Head Lee Dohyeong left, and the fake Administration Bureau agents began taking care of things. The freak's corpse was neatly collected, and not even a witness remained. Just as suddenly as they had appeared, they vanished.
"..."
The sky...
was clear as ever.
The world was utterly quiet.
The Giant never appeared.
No matter how long I waited, I never heard any news of a Giant suddenly appearing.
That's right.
"The fake Administration Bureau... solved it."
They had solved it.
And very simply at that.
They had handled that horrific Giant apocalypse as if they were picking up a piece of trash from the street.
"..."
The strength drained from my legs.
I dropped to my knees where I stood.
"Ah."
It was originally something that could have been resolved this easily, without any problems...?
All because I'd made a needless fucking mess of things.
Had all that apocalyptic fucking bullshit happened because I'd fired Gunster Call to put up a desperate fight at the hospital, thereby causing Department Head Lee Dohyeong to die?
My choice.
Had my choice—the one I'd thought was the best—brought about the worst possible outcome?
The Giant trampled the world, tens of millions died, died, and died again—was all of that caused by me...?
"Ah, aah!"
All kinds of tangled emotions tore through my chest and mind. I had no choice but to scream as I clawed at my hair.
"Aaaaaaaaaaagh!"
I was the cause!
It was all because of me!
"Huaaaaaaaaaaagh!"