#112
Who is it?
Open your eyes. How long are you planning to stay like that?
How long? I’m already dead.
Ridiculous. Your whining has reached a serious level. Get a grip. By now it’s time to open your eyes properly and do what you need to do.
The cold, cynical tone even carried irritation. I felt slightly angry. Was he speaking so easily because it wasn’t his problem?
I’d done enough. I’d collected three Fragments of the Sacred Tree starting from nothing, yet the system was being spiteful to me like this. Opening a dungeon suddenly to trap me so I couldn’t use any of the things I’d prepared.
You think this is the system’s trap?
The voice scoffed.
You’re really beyond help, aren’t you? Stupid, selfish, cowardly, and weak-hearted. Most of all, utterly irresponsible. Without medicine you can’t even open your eyes properly to see what real reality is, right? I’m truly disgusted.
The harsh criticism left me not just angry but dumbfounded. Beyond help and irresponsible. This really crossed the line. Who was he? What did he know about me to be spouting off? Even if he knew, what right did he have to say such nonsense?
Whether I’m weak-hearted and cowardly or not, what’s it to you! Who are you to call me irresponsible and selfish?
I yelled angrily.
Irresponsible? What responsibility do I have? Is saving this world my responsibility? Why me? I’m not even from this world originally. I was just unlucky enough to get dragged in! Everyone expects things from me as if it’s natural, but no one helps me return to reality!
I knew I was receiving help from many people. The fact that I’d survived this far from having nothing was all thanks to help from Elmer, Eira, and others. I’d been saved by Carlisle several times too.
But being criticized one-sidedly like this now, I could only think it was unfair. The resentment that none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been dragged here in the first place welled up. I was just unlucky. It wasn’t a matter of being called irresponsible or selfish.
The problem was dragging me over here in the first place. Why should I suffer like this, why me!
I screamed as if having a fit. If my body had been awake, I would have stomped my feet like a child.
Ha.
But what came back was a cynical response as if finding it absurd.
Poor Carlisle, trusting someone like you and… doing…
I couldn’t hear clearly what he’d done, but I was angry at this too.
Why are you bringing up Carlisle? Carlisle helping me isn’t because of a sense of responsibility to save the world either. Why should I save a world that even the strongest person in this setting has no intention of saving!
Why? Why indeed!
Ironically, this time the voice exploded in anger at my words.
Because you’re the one who promised to come save the world, to save Carlisle! And you’re also the one who forgot that promise on your own!
What?
I opened my eyes wide.
What’s that? What are you talking about right now?
I gasped for breath, then grabbed my throat as black water rushed in.
Don’t be scared and breathe, you idiot! You can’t see the truth because you keep taking medicine!
I came to my senses, but I was still alone in the darkness. Only then did I identify who was criticizing and pressuring me. The owner of the voice echoing in my head was me.
Through the scolding to not be scared and breathe, I realized I could breathe even without any items. Even though water flowed in and out of my mouth as if I’d suddenly grown gills, I could breathe naturally.
It was shockingly amazing, but I didn’t have the luxury to marvel at this new sensation. I was still captivated by what I’d just heard.
What did I just hear?
I’d made a promise to save the world… to save Carlisle? And I’d forgotten that promise? What kind of absurd thing was he saying?
Was there that kind of event in the game? But this game was a farm management game and I was just a farmer. Though I did defeat monsters to obtain things, the maximum goal was just village reconstruction, not a story where a hero saved the world.
That I’d promised to come save Carlisle and the world. Maybe if Carlisle came to save me, but what kind of ridiculous…
Right, let’s say for argument’s sake that I’d made such a promise that I just didn’t remember. But then Carlisle should at least know about it. But I couldn’t sense any sign that he’d been waiting for me or remembered such a promise. He just remembered the playboy character I’d played in the game and was angry about that.
Moreover, if that promise was real, it would mean Carlisle, a game character, knew about the real world, which would be truly impossible.
I was definitely not in my right mind right now. I must have finally gone crazy. It would be stranger not to have a mental breakdown drifting alone in this darkness, even in the deep sea. I couldn’t even tell if I was dead or alive, so who could guarantee this strange voice wasn’t a hallucination?
Even the voice that talked about truth disappeared like it was really a dream the moment I became fully conscious. Maybe thinking that voice was mine was a mistake from the start. The voice being the same aside, wasn’t the tone quite aggressive and sharp?
Come to think of it, fantasy had dungeons that induced hallucinations. Especially if it was a deep sea dungeon, that would be more plausible. A monster could have mimicked my voice, or the dungeon itself could have caused hallucinations.
Look at now. I didn’t even know how deep I’d come down. The surroundings were pitch black and I couldn’t even see the surface. Even though I could breathe, just being in the deep sea brought waves of fear. Moreover, bizarre sounds that could be wind or monster cries came from somewhere, constantly making me anxious and afraid.
Tranquility Potion…
I thought I needed a tranquilizer, but at that moment I flinched remembering the voice that told me to stop taking so much medicine. Whether it was delirium or a monster whispering…
Fuck, how am I supposed to endure this sober without medicine?
I screamed internally. Either way, since I had no medicine, I had no choice but to endure it raw even with trembling hands. Even knowing I could breathe, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I might suffocate at any moment.
Rubbing my stuffy chest with trembling hands, I thought I needed something to focus on. Drifting indefinitely in darkness like this doing nothing, I’d surely die from going crazy before starving or being eaten by something.
Quest window, status window, anything please appear.
I felt like talking even with the system. Fortunately, this time a window sparkled up as if responding to this call.
[Emergency Quest: Ghost Ship Treasure Hunt] [Pass through three gates to obtain the treasure.] [Reward: Memory Fragment, Treasure] [Tip: You could really die, so do everything you can. If you can ask for help, try your best. That’s also your ability.]
A tip? What was this again? Moreover, the system suddenly spoke informally. Like a villain revealing their true colors, but looking at the content, it seemed to be trying to help surprisingly, which was puzzling. But asking for help—if that was the case, they should have sent Carlisle with me from the beginning.
Anyway, the rewards were treasure and memory fragment. Not telling me what the treasure was aside, what did memory fragment mean? With the earlier auditory hallucination too, did this really mean I had lost memories? No, what lost memories. If I’d lost memories, wouldn’t I know myself? I couldn’t not know there were erased parts. I was a South Korean youth born and raised extremely ordinarily…
Huh?
Then I suddenly realized. The fact that my memories of reality were unexpectedly vague. That there were broken and empty parts here and there.
Come to think of it, it was strange. I’d had only the single-minded desire to return to reality from the beginning, yet I’d never specifically thought of ‘reality’ and missed it. Did I even have memories of daily life? Family, friends, work I’d been doing—I’d never even thought to recall any of it. Was the only thing I remembered memories of playing the game?
Most strange of all was that I couldn’t even think it was strange myself. I felt like I’d been hit in the head with a hammer. A shock greater than hearing that hallucinatory voice engulfed me.
But at that moment.
My vision grew faintly brighter and something appeared before my eyes. A huge shipwreck tilted and crashed on the bottom was a cruise ship.
Showing that many years had passed since it sank, it was damaged in places, and thick seaweed as well as corals glowing in various colors had grown, making it look like a city’s night view. Schools of large and small fish swam in and out through the broken and shattered parts. Most glowed in various fluorescent colors, creating quite a fantastic atmosphere in itself.
As I stared blankly at the scene before me, a quest window appeared again.
[Enter.]
What was this? The instructions were suddenly detailed. It wasn’t even a tutorial.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
