I Translated the Necronomicon

30. The Latest Virtual Reality Service~

“Hmm, 17 of them.”

Parashu wiped the blood off and looked around.

Some of the guys who had fled as if they didn’t care if they died, there were three of them. I felt like chasing them, but I let them go, pretending to be considerate, knowing that I’d be quite busy just cleaning up the mess.

After all the havoc they’d caused, they wouldn’t dare show their faces around here for a while.

[46/100]

Yuda-hee had also taken down quite a few opponents, but there were still a significant number left.

Seems like there were frequent clashes happening, but we were already done here, so it didn’t concern us at all.

It was time to check the loot, the spoils of victory… but Yuda-hee was still looking beyond the hill of bodies, beyond them.

There was still one guy left.

A peculiar guy, not running away, not fighting back.

Long hair covering his face, sunken eyes, lanky arms and legs, and a strange wheezing sound, “Keul keul…”

To be honest, he was the kind of person you wouldn’t want to be near, let alone meet.

Even though Yuda-hee didn’t discriminate people based on their appearance or gender, and was all for gender equality, there were certain physical appearances that could trigger a deep sense of repulsion.

Just being around him exuded such a strong negative energy, as if he was standing in the middle of a graveyard, that it was hard to look at him kindly.

I felt a strong urge to run over and smash his head in right then and there, just like I had been doing so far, lure him in with a bluff, and then dispose of him.

As the blood around me started to form a circle in response to my thoughts, he just stood there, staring directly at Yuda-hee’s face, completely ignoring the ritual itself.

“Stop wasting your time.”

As I shook the amulet from my pocket, the blood scattered as if in disappointment.

He knows this ceremony is fake, just a scare tactic.

Well, with 17 taken care of, what more could one ask for… With a slightly regretful feeling, Yudahee swallowed a suppressed sigh.

It was nice to have them come running and enthusiastically throw themselves at him, even when he was just standing still.

As Yudahee held Parashu tightly, ready to spring forward, he opened his mouth.

“My name is Zanmang (殘亡). I have no intention of fighting you directly.”

“Oh? Given the current situation, it’s hard to understand that, isn’t it?”

If you weren’t going to fight, you should have run away together when you released the three a while ago.

“Anyway, even if I get close, I know I can’t beat you… Isn’t it enough with the previous 17 in such a obvious fight?”

At the same time, the amulets scattered from Zanmang’s hands began to unfold around Yudahee, tightly wrapping around him.

Ignoring the amulets and trying to move forward, a small spark jumped.

“Wolnyeongbaekbu, deploy.”

Each one, as if alive, began to emit a faint moonlight. Something elusive began to be spewed from the amulets.

Those opaque things murmured around Yudahee, passing by his cheeks or face, spreading their energy.

“hehehe… How about it, Yudahee? How does it feel to struggle in the illusion shown by Wolnyeongbaekbu?”

“….?”

No, even if you say that.

From Yudahee’s perspective, it just looks like meaningless things are swaying.

According to Zanmang’s words, it seems to be a technique of illusion that overlays illusions on the target.

But for that to work, Yudahee’s mental strength was too abnormal.

If we evaluate it in the commonly spoken term, Sanity+ value, it’s not just reaching 0, but rather, it might be more accurate to say that it has reached an overflow state where 99 is permanently maintained.

Foreign news and countless things that shouldn’t be seen, rolling endlessly, tentacles raping the brain, accumulating cursed knowledge by touching and seeing them – I’ve been counting the days over the years to the point of forgetting that.

Wouldn’t it be strange if one hoped for things to be perfectly fine?

“Huuaaah! Huhat!”

Unaware of Yudahee’s condition, Jamang was vigorously shaking a talisman.

While idols dancing might be a pleasant sight, this was truly at the level of disturbing terror.

Worried about the possibility of fleeing if suddenly attacked, Yudahee, pretending to be enchanted, swung the parasol around, slightly relaxing the gaze.

In the process, not forgetting to slowly take one step at a time forward… but as he progressed beyond a certain distance, the talisman resisted, blocking the path.

Tsk.

He must be close enough now. How should I deal with that annoying bastard? – Yudahee was contemplating when Jamang thrust the bronze mirror he was holding into him.

“Danyeosemungyeong… Absorb!”

The moonlight produced by the collision of the talismans soon condensed into a point and was absorbed into the bronze mirror, disappearing.

No matter how desperately Jamang tried to showcase his technique, from Yudahee’s perspective, it was just a visually pleasing magic performance – neither more nor less, a completely worthless act.

Unaware of Yudahee’s state, Jamang, holding the brightly shining mirror, shouted loudly.

“Show me what Yudahee saw, Danyeosemungyeong!”

And –

Gradually, Yudahee’s eyes widened like watching a child’s mischief…

“This, this damn bastard!”

Shock engulfed him.

The mischief turned into a wildfire.

Success.

Entering Yudahee’s mental world unharmed, Jangmang burst into laughter.

The perfect control and timing of magic brought about this miracle. Now, all Jangmang had to do was wander through the space of this ritual, collecting information, as there was nothing else to be done.

The first thing Jangmang selected was the ‘worst’ memory.

Though he entered the consciousness unharmed, swiftly crumbling Yudahee’s mental world was a necessary step to easily access the desired memories.

Starting with the most recent memory… Flipping through, there was a memory of a girl with white hair offering a box.

[Don’t press the button, don’t press the button, don’t press the button, don’t press the button, don’t press the button]

Yudahee vehemently denied this memory in her mind.

If that’s the case, pressing the button would be a cognitive norm. Jangmang entered Yudahee’s body in the memory and pressed the button on the box.

Click.

And then, Jangmang realized.

Something might be wrong with this.

Her whole body stiffened, and her brain seemed unable to think properly, as if it were being devoured by something.

The surroundings gradually turned black, and sharp sensations, as if electricity were flowing through her body, accompanied the smiling face of the girl.

“It seems to work on the one behind. Lucky.”

Jangmang and the girl’s eyes met.

“….!”

It wasn’t a mistaken perception.

The girl now accurately recognized herself in the mental world.

Though Jangmang tried to retreat, denying that the girl in her mental world could be aware, it was too late.

“Welcome, Contractee Jamang.”

Only then did the girl’s figure come into view.

A colossal body too vast to take in at a glance, and an aura of madness distorting human nature.

Even though her mouth involuntarily hung open, saliva dripping incessantly, and her consciousness confined to the realm of the mind, blood tears welled up in her eyes, bursting blood vessels.

The brain, melting away.

“Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah!”

Unbearable, unbearable, unbearable, unbearable.

She wanted to gouge out her own eyes that beheld the indescribable and immediately smash her head into the ground to die, but that presence never allowed it.

A face silently smiling, only the mouth twitching to convey the meaning, but… Jamang understood.

[You pressed it, didn’t you? The 5th. But. ton.]

In an instant, the feeling of being sucked somewhere overwhelmed her, and Jamang’s consciousness was thrown onto the ground.

“Ke, keuk…!” Only now could she breathe, and her eyes fully opened, but… what unfolded before Jamang’s eyes was even greater despair than before.

An endless expanse of land where not even the horizon was visible, a world with nothing but a black sky and her own body sprawled out there.

Neither the Moon’s Waxing Norwan nor the New Sesemun Province could be felt.

A day passed.

Jamang tried every means at her disposal, but no reaction occurred.

A month passed.

Jamang earnestly prayed to the black sky.

Even as blood flowed profusely from her broken head, she continued, continued, and continued to plead.

I was wrong. I was wrong. I was wrong. I was wrong. So please…

A year has passed.

“He… hehehe…”

Jangmang tried to self-harm by cutting his own wrist, but the flowing blood disappeared like a lie, and his body returned unharmed.

A mental world that does not even allow death.

And… 10… 100… 1000… Countless times, Jangmang regretted and regretted… and regretted.

[Hmm-What’s this? Have you already broken down?]

As if unamused, Yogg Sothoth reached out towards the shattered soul of Jangmang.

—–

Rolling aimlessly in the emptiness, Shub-Niggurath stared blankly at Yogg-Sothoth who had come to find him.

What the hell is this bastard here for?

To Shub-Niggurath’s surprise, Yogg-Sothoth extended a box to him.

“Ta-da~ 5 trillion years… No, wait…”

Cutting-edge virtual reality service~

Smiling, Yogg-Sothoth, Shub-Niggurath vomited out black mucus.

“Wow, what a load of crap… Talking about virtual reality~”

But despite lightly avoiding the attack, Yogg-Sothoth handed over the box again.

Shub-Niggurath, naturally inclined to dismiss anything Yogg-Sothoth brought as abnormal, hesitated at the following words.

“But, with this… You can experience the Earth that Judah visited… Experience humans firsthand, you know?”

An enticing proposal… Perhaps it wouldn’t hurt to briefly lend an ear to Yogg-Sothoth’s mesmerizing words~ Shub-Niggurath’s black goat horn twitched slightly at the thought.

“…What is this.”

“In the future, you know, there’s this cheeky fellow peeking into Yudahee’s memories, doing this and that—splashing around, stirring up the soul, and then… adding a bit of power and seasonings, voila~”

While holding a bronze mirror in front, a cynical figure staring blankly at Yudahee was reflected.

“They’ve become able to move the body of a future human as they please~ That’s what it is. Interested, huh?”

“Yudahee?”

Sure enough, beyond the screen, there was unmistakably Yudahee. Turning her eyes to gaze into the emptiness far away, there was still a Yudahee lingering here.

If Yorg Sotos’s words were true, the person in front must be Yudahee from the future.

In the end, did this guy, after singing about Earth and home so much, really come back?

“What do you want?”

“Hey, what’s with the stiff talk about what we want between us? I’m just offering you a chance to enjoy, to experience. Give it a try.”

Hey, give it a try.

Yorg Sotos handed the box to Shub Nigras, embraced in his arms, and then stepped back.

“Just hoping you’ll enjoy it for fun? Just that~”

“Hmm…”

Shub Nigras felt like he was being deceived, but still, looking at this endlessly sweet bait in front of him, he couldn’t resist not touching it.

If he refused this, Yorg Sotos would probably say the same thing to other media.

Yudahee called him an early adopter, didn’t she?

It wouldn’t hurt to try it out first—thinking that, Shub Nigras accepted the proposal.

And reaching out to the box, he connected to the soul as Yorg Sotos instructed… gently opening his eyes with the cynical body.

Truly a bizarre yet fascinating sensation.

This was the pure body of a human, not created by anything else.

Before the astonished eyes of Shub, there was Yudahee, spewing curses in sheer astonishment.

“What the hell is this bastard doing?”

Yudahee, caught in panic, wondered what on earth he had done.

“It’s been a while… No, nice to see you—should I say?”

Mockingly, or rather, Shub Niguras, smiled so wide that it reached his ears.