Chapter 69 – 69. Faced at the End of the Nightmare

The base camp we arrived at following an unknown man was a small futuristic base.

Rather than a tent, it looks more like a one-person space base.

“You can sit anywhere. Make it as comfortable as your own home.”

“Ah, yes. Thank you.”

At the man’s recommendation, I sat down on the floor. He immediately handed out a glass of purified water.

Of course, I didn’t drink. He wasn’t thirsty to the point of death, and he couldn’t drink anything other people offered him.

“Hmm.. Let’s see.”

As if I thought I had done my duty, whether I ate water or not, the man rummaged through the drawer inside the base for a while and pulled out a round barrel filled with something.

Out of curiosity, I asked him a question. It was because it looked like a futuristic-looking grenade.

I am curious about the explosive-like appearance, probably because I tasted the terror caused by the last self-destruct firecracker.

“What is that?”

“Huh? Ah. This. There are stale water going around at night.”

What else are the dirty people doing?

No, I asked because I was curious about what he was holding, but why did I only have one more question?

He said he’s been stuck here for a long time, so he seems to have forgotten how to communicate with people.

When I showed a lukewarm response, he explained in detail about the dirty water, as if he was sorry.

“Ah, those bastards are black, muddy monsters that inhabit this place. If you’re caught wrong, you’ll turn into dirty water like them. So don’t ever come close. And the dirty water is just a name I gave because they are so sloppy and reluctant. I have been alone for so long that I have assumed that you know what I know.”

“Aha…”

“Anyway, if you throw this around base camp, they won’t come close.”

“Hey, but what are those things for?”

“This is… Um… Sonar. You can think of it as a sort of planetary sonar. Originally, it’s a thing that detects life by spraying it all over the planet.

No matter how you look at it, this man seems to be from a space opera-like worldview.

But I kept saying it was this man, so I asked for his name.

“Hey, can I get your name?”

“Huh? Ah, my name… My name… Uh…”

Again he hit the erring man on the shoulder.

Then he came to his senses.

They said machines only listen when you hit them, but that seemed to be true for androids and androids as well.

“My name is Mark Connor. I remember now. There must be someone to call. Just call me Connor. Mark corner. Okay. I’m corner haha.”

He muttered that and took the sonar out of the small base.

I looked inside while he was out. I was hoping there might be some clues.

On Corner’s desk, photos of the scenery here and reports written in unusual characters were strewn about.

In addition, plants resembling potatoes were grown hydroponically inside the base, and there were toilets including shower facilities. However, I don’t see any signs of being used.

Is it because Connor is a machine? I felt like they only had an assortment of products, thinking that people would need something like this.

‘By the way, where does water and electricity come from?’

Is this some kind of advanced scientific method? Even if there is a generator inside the electric field, where did the water come from?

As I looked around here and there with such doubts, he soon returned. He roughly brushed off the black dust from his body and drank a glass of water.

“I’ve been thinking about a few things since I heard what you said earlier. The tragedy of a shared dream seems to refer to this world itself.”

“You mean the world itself?”

“Yeah, I’ve been walking around here and found out a few things. Can you hear me?”

“Uh.. Yes.”

Connor told the story after he fell here.

It is said that this dream world was not so twisted and twisted at first.

Even in the early days, it was said that there were more people than Connor.

“They call it paradise on earth, or utopia, to be considered together.”

In this world, anything you can imagine comes out.

It is said that gold and silver treasures were born just by imagining it, an ideal woman was created, and a building was erected and it was not a fuss.

“Then, at some point, the things I imagined didn’t come out.”

But at some point, the world stopped giving us what we wanted.

Connor explained that humans who had already gained too much wanted more, and after imagining what they wanted over and over again, this dream world seemed overloaded.

“Anyway, that’s when the world started to twist. Well, I didn’t come here because I wanted to come here in the first place, so I didn’t want anything and just wandered around looking for a way out… But those who got something with their imagination started going crazy one by one.”

It is said that those who called out and consumed everything they wanted without any effort soon went crazy one by one and became dirty water.

Not only that, but the objects, objects, and buildings they summoned melted and became a rotten sea, and the blue sky gradually turned red, and soon something emerged in the center.

“Pupil. It was an eyeball.”

Connor said. The one I saw earlier that I was stunned by was that it was very dangerous. You should never focus on it.

I’m trying to remember what was floating in the sky now, but I can’t remember. I just feel like I’m possessed by something.

“Anyway, to summarize the story, this world is a dream and a shared dream. It was a limited resource given to those who entered this place. The dream was twisted like this after unreasonable people used it at random…”

The keyword of the tragedy of shared dreams seems to have been roughly resolved with this.

The question now is how to get out of here. I asked Connor if he had any guesses.

“Somehow, it was strange that I didn’t wake up even though it was a dream that had been ruined to this extent… Actually, the owner of the dream itself didn’t exist. Until now, I’ve been wandering around looking for the owner of the dream to wake up from this dream… But that wasn’t the answer.”

Connor murmured at my question, stretching out his thoughts before showing me a simplified map of the world.

“This is by far the safest place. If you go a little farther out of this radius, you will come across two unique terrains and shapes.”

One is the rotten sea and the corpse of a dead giant.

The other is a field with sunset and a collapsed tower.

“I think the answer lies in one of these two places.”

These are places that are very symbolic.

The important thing is that both places are very dangerous, according to Connor.

It was said that the rotten sea was full of stale water, and the fields were struck by lightning, so if you made a mistake, you could be burned to death.

I had no idea where to go. To be honest, I didn’t like the fact that I had to go to a dangerous place in a situation where I couldn’t even use my skills properly, but I had to get out quickly. Is there any star? Just gotta go

There is no point in procrastinating time in a situation where you don’t know how much time there is between this dream world and reality.

When I wake up, a month has passed and then it will be very difficult. To the point where I want to kill the drug dealer who sold me strange things like the blue pill that I turned away.

“Where do you want to go?”

Botamilli told me to seek help from this man. I will go with him in the direction he chooses.

“I want to start with the Rotten Sea. It’s more suspicious there. I’ll go as soon as the sun rises tomorrow.”

“All right. Is there anything else I need to prepare?”

“You’ll probably need a gas mask and an oxygen tank. And then…”

He thought about it for a long time, and then took out a couple of usable items from the drawer again.

‘Hmm… They all come out of that little drawer…?’

Didn’t you get a bunch of sonars out of that drawer earlier?

“Hmm…”

Weird. The moment I thought it was strange, I started to feel a sense of incongruity.

As if I felt a sense of incongruity in my daily nightmare before coming here.

I’m feeling uncomfortable with that guy right now.

“Hey, I’m sorry… Can I take a look at that drawer?”

“Huh? This? Uh… Why?”

“Yes?”

“No. Why. Do you want to look at someone else’s drawer?”

A sharp response comes back.

A moment of wariness and hostility stood in the robot’s eyes.

“That’s rude. I just want you to leave.”

“Wait a minute, what is that?”

“Get out now!!!”

You’re crazy.

The discomfort reached its peak.

That man, Mark Connor, is my enemy.

The moment I realized that, Botamilli’s urgent cry was heard.

[Cultist!!! Get out of there right now!!! The existence next to you I said is not that machine!!!]

The moment he heard that voice, Mark Conner’s body began to twist and break.

“Chijik. Chijik.. Ah. Ah. Oh, an error occurred. Outside intervention. Error. Error. Eliminate errors.”

His body twisted and the mechanism spewed out.

I ran out of the base right away.

Then, outside the base, beyond the range of the sonar that Connor had planted, there were a lot of beings he described as dirty water.

They weren’t like sludge.

They were people

Humans writhing in pain covered in something like black oil.

[The existence next to you I spoke of is not a false god on that machine!]

[That’s what I said!!!]

It wasn’t Mark Connor that Botamilli was talking about.

It was the water that was looking at me and the eyes floating in the sky.

It was to get help from that thing staring at me.

“No! I’ll tell you straight!!”

[Connection lost while talking!]

[It almost ended at the point where you considered that mechanical device as a colleague!!]

Even those eyes that strangely drew attention, when I looked closely, they weren’t even eyes.

That’s the power button.

“Thing. There. Go there go go there. Stand there west. Mum. Dance!!!!!!”

A monster in the shape of Mark Connor reached out to me.

Then the slobbers blocked Connor’s hand and quickly grabbed me and started running.

“This, this, a stranger.”

I was snuggling and jumping and the slobbery talked to me.

He begged me, weeping black tears.

“My, my. Please… Me, power up. Turn off… That crazy… Mechanism. Power…”

Crazy mechanics.

Everyone.

I immediately came up with a hypothesis.

This is a dream… So it’s a virtual world. It can be seen as a shared dream itself.

The old objects here… Are humans who were connected to the virtual world.

Wasn’t that Mark Connor the manager of this world, or a high-performance Android like Skynet…

The guy who did the favor of the people went crazy for some reason, and after turning all the humans inside into beings called dirty water, he built his own world and was spinning around forever…

Then, the owner of this shared dream is none other than that monster, Mark Connor himself. If you turn that guy off.

You can wake up from this dream.

“Ah!!! Mo, everyone should sleep.. Must! Humans! The main culprit that increases entropy, everyone go to sleep. You must not wake up!”

We ran as we heard Mark Connor shouting from behind.

Madly, mindlessly.

The more I ran, the more rapidly the landscape of the world changed.

“Rotten. Ocean. There. Us like this. Where it was made.”

“The guy. You too Wolf. To make I did it.”

“The guy. Detection. Not possible himself too. Because it’s cheating.”

In the middle of the run, the old things stretched out information about the corner to me.

‘That goddamn machine man, from the start he was planning to drag me in and turn me into dirty water.’

In addition, he is usually deceiving himself as a person named Mark Connor, so even if a person with good sense like Harin enters here, it seems that he will not be able to see through it properly.

“Everyone. There. Save us AI. There is.”

“To him. Go. Say you’ve represented all of us. We can no longer approach the tower.”

“Then. I’ll turn this world off Please. Gentile.”

It seemed that those who had once become dirty water were judged to be in error and could not approach the power source that could turn off the system.

Soon the scenery changed once again and I and I arrived at a field with a collapsed tower. There was no lightning in the field.

“Ooh, we. So far.”

“Hurry. Go!”

They turned around to block the oncoming Mark Connor.

I ran forward. Without looking back, towards the tower that reached the sky.

“Heo-euk… Hee-euk…”

When I arrived at the entrance of the tower, my body floated up on its own, and I was able to reach the power source floating in the sky in an instant.

“Aww!!! No!!!”

Down there, Connor screams as he climbs the tower.

However, he could not rise above a certain height.

I turned my attention away from him and turned my gaze to the man standing in front of me.

He was wearing a white hoodie and standing with his eyes closed. His appearance was strangely captivating.

“Are you sure you want to turn the power off?”

“Yes? Ah, yes.”

“Warning. If you turn off the power now. 120 million users will become brain dead. Would you like to turn it off anyway?”

“Uh…Yes?”

“If you turn the power off now. 120 million users will become brain dead. Would you like to turn it off anyway?”

What bullshit is this?

Are you saying that 120 million lives are now in my hands…

If the number of humans to be killed goes beyond the billions… This is a bit difficult again.

‘Surely… That stale water told me to turn off the power…’

Honestly, wouldn’t it be better to end my life cleanly than to live like that forever.

Moreover, everyone asked me to turn off the power.

“I will turn it off.”

“Yes. Command is applied. [World Editor Simulation] Will power down soon. Thank you for using it.”

The System AI smiled happily. As if thanking you for turning the power off.

Koo Goo Goo!!!

The red sky shattered and a space of nothingness appeared.

Also, Mark Connor’s form collapses and the ground goes out.

The world is destroyed

A universe came to an end by my hand.

[You will soon wake up from your dream.]

[From ‘The Tragedy of Shared Dreams’ to ‘The Observer’s Workshop’.]

“This…”

At the same time as the world went dark, I moved to another place again.

*****

“Crazy… When will you wake up from this dream…”

I barely came to my senses. I feel like my head is about to get crushed.

“Hmm. You got this far in a pretty unique way? You can come here even with the blue pill.. Isn’t it amazing?”

“Yes?”

The place I woke up looked like a study somewhere. Or a workshop that makes something.

In particular, large clocks, telescopes, and compasses are placed here and there like symbols, and objects from the times that don’t match each other, from things that look like instrument panels, are randomly arranged.

“Welcome. Player.”

And an old man with a white beard sat in front of me and welcomed me. He looked like a beggar and a homeless person, but his two eyes were filled with power, making him look like a wizard.

I suspected that this guy might be a fake helper like Mark Connor.

“Haha. You don’t have to doubt it. Doubting it doesn’t change anything. After all, nobody can die here, and you can’t use that little power. Yes, what you call a skill.”

“All right, who are you? I’m a bit confused…”

To be honest, it’s hard to keep up with the situation now.

It’s a dream world, so it’s all jumbled up.

“I am called the observer of the world line, or the god of dreams. Don’t ask for my name. There are so many, I don’t know all of them.”

“Anyway, you can get a present to commemorate your visit here.”

“This space is… A kind of Easter egg. I thought there was no way I could come in the first place.

“Is it because of that unusual luck? Or is it because of the fruit of the source you swallowed?”

“Anyway, waking up the Void God is amazing. To think she’s even favored me…”

“Whoah. Seriously Botamil. Haha!”

It’s like an old man going crazy.

The old man gave me a big clap and held out 2 of her crystal balls.

And the crystal balls he held out were blue and red respectively.

“Now, this red thing is a misfortune that will come relatively soon. The blue one is a very, very fragmentary record of your death. The red color can be changed by observing. Blue is fixed the moment you observe it.”

Now, what are you going to see, cultist?

To choose

Is it a misfortune that can be changed?

Or is it a record of your end?