Chapter 112
It was a title that flowed from the lips of someone I never expected, at a moment I never anticipated.
Despite it being a name I had used for a long time, it felt strangely unfamiliar.
I couldn’t hide the trembling in my eyes.
Orca gently set me down on the ground.
He continued speaking, his pitch-black eyes scanning every inch of me.
"You were exactly the same as you are now. Your face, your actions..."
"..."
"It was such a realistic dream that it felt like reality. Every time I woke up, I felt a lingering regret. Every night, I waited for Teacher Roasted Chestnut to appear in my dreams."
"..."
"The time spent with Teacher Roasted Chestnut was the only amusement in that tedious solitary confinement. Haha, I can’t tell you how much I looked forward to bedtime."
"..."
"I desperately hoped it was reality, but I gave up knowing it was merely a vain dream... And then, Teacher, you appeared before me!"
Orca burst into laughter once again.
"Perhaps all those dreams were prophetic."
I had an intuition.
It wasn’t something like a prophetic dream.
Orca had experienced the playthroughs I had done in his dreams.
To be precise, it seemed he had experienced me playing the role of the medic in The Cell-X through his dreams.
It was a moment where reality and the game intersected.
I had experienced a similar moment before.
It was in .
In 3Clean, the butlers remembered everything I had done in my previous plays and welcomed me as ’Roasted Chestnut’ the moment they saw me.
However, in Three-Clean, the game itself had a setting where it ’remembered the player’s previous plays.’
’The Cell-X doesn’t have anything like that.’
Why did Orca dream of my playthroughs?
I tried to think of commonalities between Three-Clean and The Cell-X, but nothing immediately came to mind.
I... looked at Orca.
I couldn’t immediately decide how to react to him, as his face was filled with anticipation.
It was because I didn’t know how the fact that I ’knew’ them would play out.
I had already experienced this once in Three-Clean.
The butlers acted for my sake based on a great deal of affection.
But their goodwill was not what I wanted.
I almost became an infected butler of the mansion, and even after barely regaining my senses, I was sent to Call of the Void by the butlers.
The result of that was Dominic, who was now by my side.
I couldn’t predict what would happen this time either.
Of course, it wouldn’t be worse than the situation with Dominic, but....
Still, it was certainly dangerous. A clear judgment was made without further thought.
’I must not pretend to know them.’
I calmly opened my lips.
I intended to say that I had no idea who ’Roasted Chestnut’ was and that this was all a misunderstanding.
Just as I was about to speak, a tendril from Creature No. 1 slid out and wrapped around my forearm.
I felt a gentle caress, as if it were gauging my mood.
I couldn’t utter the words I intended.
My parted lips closed on their own.
As I stood there speechless, Orca smiled.
"We all dreamed of the Teacher. We waited for the Teacher to come to us."
Perhaps it was because I had already been through it in 3Clean.
Now that reality and the game were connected, for some reason, my fear wasn’t great.
Other emotions and thoughts kept surfacing, covering even the feeling of fear.
I had always been the only one who remembered.
I had unilaterally reminisced and chewed over the moments we spent together.
But now, we shared the same memories.
Maybe this time....
Maybe this time, I could change the True Ending.
Under that affectionate gaze looking at me, I finally answered.
"I had dreams too."
I might regret this answer later.
But I felt I would regret it more if I gave a different one.
"I will miss Teacher Roasted Chestnut. But I hope Teacher Roasted Chestnut does not miss us."
"We are together, but Teacher Roasted Chestnut is alone, is he not? It seems like you would be too lonely.... Please think of us just a little. Ah, but you mustn’t forget us entirely!"
"Dreams where you, Mr. Orca, and the other creatures appeared."
I looked up at Orca with desperate eyes.
"That’s why I came here. Because I want to help you. You might be suspicious, but could you trust me just once!...."
I bit my lip for a moment before continuing.
"I will give you your freedom."
The smile vanished from Orca’s face, which had been laughing happily until a moment ago.
Orca could no longer smile.
"Teacher... you really are exactly like the dream."
He observed me with cautious eyes.
"To the point where I wonder if I’m dreaming this too, because I wanted to meet the Teacher so badly."
How far had Orca been with me in his dreams?
Had he been with me until the moment I reached the True Ending?
Probably not.
If he had, he would have treated me with a slightly different feeling than he did now.
Orca hesitated before asking.
"If it’s not rude, may I call you Teacher Roasted Chestnut?"
I nodded silently.
Orca reached out his hand to me.
As I grasped the extended hand, the smile finally returned to Orca’s face.
It seemed he had realized that this was reality, not a dream.
The hand of the creature with the nature of an orca was warm.
Orca gripped my hand firmly and shook it.
"Regardless, this is the first time we’ve met in reality, is it not? I am Orca. I look forward to working with you, Teacher Roasted Chestnut!"
"I look forward to working with you too, Mr. Orca."
It was while I was shaking hands with him.
BOOM!
A tremendous roar erupted.
Startled by the vibration, Creature No. I forgot its massive size and clung to me, trying to hide behind my back.
Orca also jumped in surprise and looked toward the direction of the sound.
System windows scrolled up before my eyes.
[Creature No. 3 has been subdued by the guards.]
[Creature No. 8 has been subdued by the guards.]
[Creature No. 10 has been....]
The creatures that had escaped were being subdued by the guards.
I hurriedly spoke.
"The others have been caught."
"How did you know that?"
"The explanation... I’ll give it to you later: Mr. Orca, I have a plan."
I quickly explained my plan to Orca.
He seemed flustered by the plan I poured out in a rush, but like a brilliant orca, he understood it instantly.
"I’m counting on you. I’ll go check on those who haven’t been subdued yet."
"I understand. Do not worry. But... is Teacher Roasted Chestnut alright?"
Orca asked worriedly.
Actually, I didn’t think I’d be alright. But for now, there was no other way.
I quickly patted and soothed Creature No. 1, who refused to let go of my back.
"I’m fine. I’ll be going now."
Running straight toward the exercise yard, I hurriedly sent a message to Je Hyeon-oh.
I checked the sky, but Je Hyeon-oh, who had been flying around fine until a moment ago, was nowhere to be seen.
Where did he go?
There was no way he had been caught, but I couldn’t figure out why he had disappeared.
Meanwhile, another system window popped up.
[Creature No. 11 has been subdued by the guards.]
I increased my speed further.
And I headed toward the place where Creature No. 12, who hadn’t been caught yet, would likely have fled.
I stopped in my tracks while rushing toward the coastal cliffs.
A creature with the lower body of a spider and the upper body of a woman was being pulled up the cliff, entwined in numerous chains.
No. 12 had already been discovered.
’How did they find her?’
I couldn’t believe the guards had pinpointed No. 12’s location so quickly.
No, it wasn’t just No. 12.
The other creatures were being subdued as if all their escape routes had been predicted.
Against the backdrop of her struggling, the system window sent a cruel notification.
[Creature No. 12 has been subdued by the guards.]
[The quest ’Find the Escaped Creatures’ has failed.]
Dominic, who had been quietly watching, spoke up in surprise at the quest failure notification.
"Roasted Chestnut, a notification popped up saying you failed. Does this mean you’ll be bullied by the guards?"
However; I couldn’t even look properly at the words Quest Failed!
No. 12 writhed in pain, as if the chains were agonizing.
One of the guards was knocked back by a spider leg she swung while struggling.
Immediately, another guard pulled out a gun and loaded it.
It was a gun for executing creatures.
Frozen for a moment, I suddenly lunged forward.
"Wait!"
It was only after I reached the edge of the cliff that I realized the one holding the gun was the Security Chief.
Panting for breath, I blocked the path in front of Creature No. 12.
The lips beneath the grey metal mask slowly opened.
"Little Lamb."
He spoke to me in a chilling voice.
"I see you failed to become a guard."
The Security Chief realized.
The moment he saw me, he knew I hadn’t become a colleague.
I was wearing the guard’s clothes, but I wasn’t wearing the metal mask.
It was an outfit sufficient to determine that I hadn’t completed the new guard training process.
[Suspicion +10]
"How did you get out of the training center?"
The Security Chief questioned me along with the rise in the suspicion value.
Because I had been running for a while, I was gasping for air.
I steadied my breathing as much as possible to speak clearly.
*Security Chief. Please do not execute the creatures."
"You did not answer my question, Little Lamb."
"At the training center..."
Just as I was about to make an excuse, a voice came through the radio.
- Did you find the medic?
The audio quality of the radio was poor, so I couldn’t guess the owner of the voice, but it was shocking that they were speaking informally to the Security Chief.
Considering the Security Chief’s position within the prison, there was no one who could speak to him in such a manner.
Except for one person.
The Warden.
While playing The Cell-X, there are almost no occasions to encounter the Warden.
This is because the actual power in the prison is held by the Security Chief, so there are far more clashes with him.
"I have found the medic. I will bring them immediately."
While I was blinking in bewilderment, the Security Chief gestured with his chin to the guards.
Two guards grabbed me from both sides, and I was dragged straight to the Warden’s office.
’At least I stopped the execution.’
As the Warden summoned me. the execution of Creature No. 12 fizzled out.
’But how did the guards pinpoint the creatures’ locations?’
Even I, who had played the game, didn’t know the exact locations of the creatures when the prison break event occurred.
The standard strategy was to guess one of several locations and check them one by one, or get help from other creatures.
But now, it felt as if the guards knew every single place the creatures could possibly go.
I wondered if it was an anomaly, but I couldn’t understand it.
’It’s also strange that the Warden is looking for the medic.’
So many errors were occurring that I couldn’t even figure out where the problem was.
I racked my brain as I was dragged by the guards.
The door to the Warden’s office was made of a material that looked noticeably superior to anything else in the prison.
After a short knock, the Security Chief spoke in a polite tone.
"I am entering."
Then he opened the door.
The Warden’s office was filled with furniture that was as high-quality as the door seen from the outside.
Beyond a wide desk, I saw a man sitting with his back turned.
He was wearing a uniform slightly different from the regular guards.
The cloak draping over one shoulder of the uniform was peculiar.
The Security Chief saluted and spoke.
"I have brought the medic you requested."
The chair slowly rotated.
Facing the Warden, my mouth fell open.
He... was not wearing a metal mask.
What sat upon the Warden’s face was a white Cognitive Decline Mask.