Chapter 116
After waking up, I sat blankly on the bed for a while.
Even though I had a mountain of work to do, I just sat there motionlessly.
I tossed and turned quite a bit last night. It was because I had dreamed for the first time in a long while.
It would have been better if I had forgotten what the dream was, but I remembered everything vividly.
However, my memory of the dawn, when I had woken up briefly because of the dream, was blurred.
I only had a vague recollection that I felt comforted because Dominic was with me.
In the past, I often saw memories of my former life in my dreams.
But after I started playing the Creator’s game, I stopped dreaming.
I had been too busy playing the game to think about the past for a while.
It was useless to think about it now.
It was too late for regrets, and I had already regretted enough...
I struggled to shake off the emotions weighing down on me.
Only after spending some time did my heart feel a bit lighter.
Taking slow, deep breaths, I calmly retraced last night.
It was a situation where the Residue were frantically pounding on the door.
Yet, the moment I answered the phone, their presence vanished completely.
When I checked the hallway after the call ended, no one was there.
At first, I thought it was just a glitch, but it seemed it wasn’t.
- I hope you have sweet dreams!
After hearing that meaningful farewell and then having the dream, I suspected that Mr. Black Block had intervened in all of this.
However, once I assumed Mr. Black Block intervened, several questions arose.
1. How did he intervene in the Trial?
Previously, Mr. Black Block had mentioned that he kept trying to communicate with me but failed, and only succeeded in establishing a connection through S2P.
He had barely managed a single phone call, yet this time he wiped out the Residue in the hallway instantly and even influenced my dreams.
’Are communication and intervention different things?’
It was a difficult part to understand.
Regardless, assuming he did intervene, the next question followed.
2. Why did he help me, and why did he make me dream of the past?
As for removing the Residue, I could interpret it as him helping me as a fan.
If I speculated with a "Dominic-style" way of thinking, I could say Mr. Black Block simply dealt with them because he hated the noise during the phone call.
But... making me dream of the past was truly incomprehensible.
I didn’t know if it was truly Mr. Black Block’s intention, but of all things, why that memory?
I felt unpleasant.
I wanted to make it so he could never touch me again.
"...?"
I blinked for a moment.
For a split second, I felt as if a blackout had occurred.
But as if it were a delusion, my physical condition was fine.
I wondered if it was because I was tired.
I continued my train of thought and formulated several hypotheses.
However, since none of them were particularly convincing, I eventually gave up on speculating.
Concluding that I should be cautious of Mr. Black Block, I moved on to the third point.
3. Why didn’t Dominic stop the intervention of another god?
This was the most puzzling part.
Given their previous communication and the method of staining things with blood, I thought Dominic would dislike Mr. Black Block, which made this feel even stranger.
Still, this was a problem for which I could potentially find an answer.
Because I could just ask.
’Though I don’t know if he’ll give me the answer I want.!’
I took a moment to be careful before calling Dominic.
It was to avoid making the mistake of calling him Mr. Pudding Slime.
"Mr. Dominic."
Dominic, who had been waiting quietly on my thigh, looked up at me.
Whenever I was lost in thought, he always waited like this without interrupting.
Thinking that he truly was a gentleman slime, I asked him.
"When I answered the phone yesterday, it seems Mr. Black Block chased away the entities outside the door. Is that correct?"
"That is correct."
"Is it... alright for me to be in contact with Mr. Black Block?"
"Do you still have a price left to pay to that man?"
Slap.
Dominic jumped and stuck himself to my check.
He spoke with a low chuckle.
"Roasted Chestnut. You do not need to ask me about every little thing like that."
It was a generous remark, but for some reason, it felt like he was telling me not to ask any further.
After some hesitation, I asked just one more question.
"Regarding the Trial where I ran the restaurant. I don’t remember dining with you at the end..."
"Could you tell me what I ate then?"
"Children’s nutritional supplements."
I ate lemon-flavored candies like Je Hyeon-oh?
That was absurd.
However, Dominic wasn’t the kind of slime to make things up, so it seemed he had fed me something that would be helpful to me.
’Maybe it didn’t suit me?’
Having obtained an answer that only left me more confused, I gave up on further questions.
After offering a polite thank you to Dominic, I got out of bed.
As I prepared to head to the infirmary, I checked the status windows of Kwak Han-mook and Je Hyeon-oh.
Kwak Han-mook’s status window was the same as yesterday.
- Current Status: irritated.
It was ’Irritated’ when I checked yesterday morning, and it was ’Irritated’ this morning as well.
At this point, it was certain that one of the prison guards was making Kwak Han-mook irritated.
’Or maybe it’s CEO Cha’
He was a very strong candidate.
I closed Kwak Han-mook’s status window and opened Je Hyeon-oh’s.
His whereabouts had been unknown since yesterday.
I scanned the status window thoroughly to find even a single clue as to where he was and what he was doing.
There were no peculiarities other than the addition of children’s nutritional supplements to the acquired items.
It was as I reached the bottom while scanning the status window.
In the item that indicated the current status, I saw unbelievable words.
- Current Status: Despair.
Despair...?
I looked at it several times, but the words did not change.
I tried to think calmly.
What could possibly make Je Hyeon-oh feel despair?
But no matter how much I thought about it, it wasn’t easy to guess.
In the first place, I had never seen him show enough interest in anything to feel despair.
At most, the Trials or the Companions?
Naturally, he was absolutely not the type of person to feel an emotion like despair over such things.
[Lieutenant Colonel Je. Where are you?]
Feeling a sudden surge of worry, I sent another message, just as I had been doing since yesterday.
The fact that messages were one-way communication was inconvenient at times like this.
Though I doubt Je Hyeon-oh would have replied well even if it were two-way.
’I should finish my duties as the medical officer quickly and look for Lieutenant Colonel Je first.’
I sent a message to Kwak Han-mook asking him to let me know if he found Je Hyeon-oh.
After finding Je Hyeon-oh, I planned to contact Samra to hear about the situation outside.
’I wonder if he’s worried’
Thinking of Samra, I checked the Tuesday tasks on the weekly schedule.
▸ Tuesday
☐ Organize medical records digitally.
☐ Disinfect medical equipment and check hygiene status within the infirmary.
☐ Examine 6 or more patients during face-to-face consultations with human prisoners.
☐ Must perform rounds in Sector X, which were missed on Monday.
The word ’Must’ was attached to the Sector X rounds.
It meant that if I failed to do the rounds today, it would lead to a Bad Ending.
Since this was something that happened when the same task failed twice in a row, it was as I expected.
I figured I could go to the infirmary, finish the digital organization and equipment disinfec-ton/inspection first, and then handle the human prisoner consultations and Sector X rounds in order.
I headed to the infirmary with the guard slime.
And to organize the records, I first located the computer monitor that had been tucked away in the infirmary’s large cabinet.
"..Wow."
I let out a short exclamation.
I had only seen thick CRT monitors with protruding backs in archival footage; this was my first time seeing one in person.
When I lifted the heavy monitor and placed it on the desk, it took up more than half of the surface.
’The monitors in the new guard training center were touch screens.’
Could it be that only the infirmary had this?
However, since the computer matched the overall atmosphere of the prison, I dismissed the doubt.
I connected the monitor to the main unit and turned on the power.
The slightly convex screen had large pixels when viewed up close.
The digital organization wasn’t actually about organizing data, but rather playing a mini-game.
It was a simple structure where I had to hit the blue letters falling from the sky and avoid the red ones.
The speed was a bit fast, but it wasn’t particularly difficult.
I played the mini-game diligently to finish the digital organization task, and then quickly finished the equipment disinfection and hygiene check.
After taking some cereal out of my inventory and eating it, it was time for face-to-face consultations with the human prisoners.
Fortunately, the guard who came today didn’t interfere much, so the consultations went smoothly.
Now, all that remained were the Sector X rounds.
Normally, there are no rounds on Tuesdays.
However, as I completed the tasks on the weekly schedule, the words ’Perform rounds’ appeared.
Today, I had to act based on the judgment that Clause 4 of the operational manual was a lie.
***
Clause 4. Rounds in Sector X are conducted every Monday and Thursday.
Rounds are never conducted on other days.
The guards accompanying the rounds must always stand ’behind’ you.
If an accompanying guard walks ahead of you and blocks a specific solitary cell, do not look into that cell and pass it by.
There is a high probability that a Creature prisoner, mangled by the guards’ cruelty, is in there.
The moment you see it, you too will be trapped in that room.
It seemed I just had to make sure to walk in front of the guards.
Originally, two guards accompanied the rounds, but today there was only one, perhaps due to the cleanup of yesterday’s events.
Under the guard’s surveillance, I headed toward Sector X.
The iron door of Sector X, which Je Hyeon-oh had destroyed last night, had been hastily repaired with steel plates.
To see if it worked properly, the door opened normally when the guard tapped his access card.
Just before stepping inside, I held my breath for a moment.
"Teacher Roasted Chestnut, listen! I loved swimming. A long time ago, I used to swim 100km a day. I can’t do that anymore, though."
"Haha, aren’t I old and broken? Even if I return to the pod, no one would want to see me swimming."
I had told Orca No. 6 to return to his cell.
I told him it was for the True Ending, but locking him back into a narrow space was by no means a pleasant task.
Gripping my medical bag, I walked ahead of the guard.
Then, I checked starting from Room 1.
Solitary Cell I was empty. It seemed the vine plants had moved according to my plan.
I heard the guard grumbling behind me.
"Where the hell did No. 1 go... That bastard was fun to beat."
Ignoring the guard’s words, I was heading toward Room 2 when-
"Hey, medical officer!"
"...Yes?"
The guard raised a fist toward me and barked.
"We’re collecting Neo as soon as today’s rounds are over, so move fast if you don’t want to get hit."
I replied, the corners of my mouth curling up slightly.
"Understood."
It was time to try killing a guard.