I Became a Genius Mage in the Cthulhu Game
Chapter 53: Human Skin Obssession

Creaaak…

Just like it was written on the door, this room was a pharmaceutical warehouse.

Inside the dim room, you can see glass display cases built in layers.

[The room is dark and somewhat cold.

This is probably to preserve the medicines stored inside.]

Oh, what a surprise. After being quiet for a while, it suddenly started working.

Why didn’t it make any sound in the corridor earlier? There’s supposed to be designated text for the corridor as well.

Is it just slacking off? Or maybe… Ah, could it be because I didn’t enter in the set order?

Normally, one should first enter the corridor while coming up the stairs.

But this time, I entered through a window, so perhaps the message that should have appeared in the corridor didn’t trigger?

Given the game’s history of bugs and errors, I can’t be certain, but it feels like that might be the case.

Well, if not, no harm done.

[In the room, each glass display case is filled with bottles labeled with medicines and small specimens.

Each transparent bottle you see contains animal or human body parts, or strange creatures you have never seen before.]

“Hey, I can see things with my own eyes too.”

[The creature within is truly bizarre and horrifying. It is a grotesque monster, neither human nor beast, with four arms and each small hand has six fingers. Upon witnessing this entity, your mind is engulfed in an alien fear and terror.]

Oh dear, it’s exciting. Really exciting

[System: Attempting to resist the distortion with your mental strength stat. Mental strength check succeeded

Since I resisted the fear, no additional traits were triggered.

I raised my hand briefly to cover the mask’s eye sockets, then lowered it.

“Alright. Let’s put off the unpleasant feelings for later.”

There’s something here I want to take with me.

The things in the bottles all look similarly repulsive, but one stands out as particularly vile. It’s the strange creature mentioned in the message window earlier. The label on the bottle reads “Type D Biological Tissue Sample”, along with two words: “Dimensional Species”.

When I reached for the bottle, I could feel the tiny creature wriggling inside, even though it was soaked in chemicals and sealed in a glass bottle.

It was not a mistake. Part of the small creature’s grotesquely swollen head split open. And from the fissure, small round eyes emerged and they were looking at me. Although the eyes lacked emotion, I could sense an unpleasant and ominous intelligence in their gaze.

However, this bizarre scene did not last long. The creature soon closed its eyes again, as if it had lost interest. It looked to be peaceful as if dead or asleep.

“Tsk, this is why I didn’t like this place.”

The unnecessary horror elements kept repeating endlessly.

I packed two of such bottles, took several protective measures, and then carefully placed them in my backpack.

With that taken care of, before heading out…

“Maybe I should do some quick looting?”

Among the medicines here, there were some useful ones.

It would be best not to put myself in situations where these would be needed, but the upcoming encounter with Je Mu-gyeong would be troublesome. He wears a special artifact with high magic resistance, and stripping it would be more efficiently done with the medicines here than with magic.

“Let’s see… is this the one?”

Among the bottles, I picked up a blue one without a label.

[Valusia’s Blue Elixir (S-rank Catalyst): One of the potions used by the ancient serpent people. It contains a corrosively potent poison that can be deadly, so it’s dangerous to use without proper purification.]

Besides that, wouldn’t it be a good idea to bring a few more things with me?

Ah, this one releases toxic gas when it gets exposed to the air.

Naturally, it would be problematic if such items were to go off while in my possession.

[Hardening]

I applied a hardening spell to the bottle. When needed, I could effectively use it like an improvised grenade by removing the hardening spell and throwing it.

I packed several into my backpack and kept a few within easy reach, then made my way back to the corridor.

I feel like a complete fool. Can’t I just set fire from outside?

Of course, that wasn’t an option.

The quest was far from over.

There were a few more miserable sights to endure.

Alright, it was time to confront Je Mu-gyeong, who was holed up in the surgery room…

I headed towards the surgery room located at the farthest end of the corridor.

Je Mu-gyeong was so engrossed in “surgery” that he rarely came out unless it was necessary.

The entrance to the surgery room, like everything else in the corridor, was soaked in blood and gave off a grim atmosphere.

Above the door, an electronic sign flashed “In Surgery” which only added to the eerie setting.

Even before Je Mu-gyeong and his test subjects had taken over, this place was far from where any standard surgeries were performed.

It was a site of grotesque procedures: extracting brains, dismembering humans, or reassembling the dismembered parts into some macabre form.

There is a whole bunch of shit going on in there that no one in their right mind will find normal.

I could simply launch a barrage of fireballs from outside the door and spare myself the sight of any more horrors…

Yet even though the minions on the first floor were expendable, Je Mu-gyeong was a different matter.

I needed the USB he possessed to access the secret underground facility I had discussed with Curtain Call.

Even during my time playing the game, rushing in with flashy explosions or lighting attacks led to many failed quests.

And there was something else, perhaps even more important than the quest itself, something that might hold value far beyond the promised reward of 120 million.

I wanted to talk to him.

Although the chances were slim, there was a possibility that Je Mu-gyeong held the clue to my return to my original world.

Well, realistically speaking, the likelihood of that is probably less than 5%…

No, it might even be less than 1%.

Yet, the chance was not zero. Among all the NPCs I had encountered so far, he alone held a possibility that none had. Oh, of course, except for those damned beings of the abyss.

Given such a circumstance, it would be foolish to simply eliminate him without attempting dialogue, right?

With that slim chance in mind, I had devised a plan to confront Je Mu-gyeong alone, ready to face the risks for the sake of a potentially pivotal conversation.

“So, let’s try having a chat.”

I used my magical power to push the door open to avoid touching the dirty door handle.

Creeeak…

The stench of rotting corpses mixed with chemical odors and the smell of blood wafted from the inside of the surgery room.

Je Mu-gyeong was a lunatic.

It’s ironic for someone like me who goes around wearing a mask to say this, but he was a lunatic obsessed with irrational behavior.

Squelch… squelch-squelch…

It was the unsettling sound of tearing flesh.

It was originally a horrific surgery room where crazy surgeries were routinely performed, but now it has transformed into a workshop for a lunatic.

Blood splattered up to the ceiling.

Bodies with their skin flayed lay in pieces.

And then there were the saws, hammers, large butcher knives, hooks, and chains.

The tools seemed more fitting for a slaughterhouse or butcher’s shop than a surgery room.

In fact, activities not much different from those were taking place here.

To be more specific, a monstrous figure with a huge frame was hunched over next to the surgery table while carrying out the ghastly task of ripping the skin off corpses.

His body was so majestic that you could feel the pressure even though he was hunched over.

His shoulders were so broad that it seemed as if one could seat a person on each and still have room to spare.

The creature was a monster created by [Ga-5060 Secret Research Facility].

The most remarkable failure among dozens of failed experiments.

It was Je Mu-gyeong.

“Hello?”

Je Mu-gyeong who had been deeply engrossed in his work beside the surgery table lifted his head to look at me.

He was draped in a hideous sackcloth that covered his body, head, and face.

The sackcloth that looked like what a medieval monk might wear, was more akin to a cape or raincoat than actual clothing.

“Your skills in making clothes are quite dreadful, aren’t they?”

It was a horrific garment he had fashioned himself using human skin he had peeled off.

Of course, this wasn’t skin crafted in any proper manner through tanning.

It was skin forcibly torn from bodies, stretched and pieced together into a patchwork. Some parts still had flesh attached and others were dripping with blood.

Moreover… his face was covered with a ghastly mask made from the peeled-off skin of another person’s face.

“Grrrrr…”

Although he was wearing human skin, what came out of his mouth was an animal-like growl.

Any ordinary person would lose their sanity just by witnessing this bizarre and horrific scene.

[System: The unique trait ‘Madness of the Abyss’ has been activated. The effect of intimidation has been nullified.]

However, this posed no significant issue for me. It’s not that I’m without weaknesses, but as long as I possess the [Madness of the Abyss] trait, nothing can inflict harm upon my mind or soul.

But there’s something off about Je Mu-gyeong… Even though he was always unhinged, he retained enough sanity to respond when spoken to.

That’s why I had planned to confront him alone and not with Curtain Call. There were things I needed to ask him, things that needed clarification.

Yet, my plan had gone awry.

Je Mu-gyeong now was far more deranged than anything depicted in the game.

Still, it might be worth trying to talk with him one more time…

“Hey, mask buddy.”

At that moment, his body tensed even more.

It wasn’t fear.

It was the movement of a beast gathering its strength to pounce on its prey.

The bloodshot eyes visible through the slits of the skin mask gleamed with intense madness.

“This is…”

Oh, he speaks.

“This is mine! It’s my face! I can’t give it to you!”

Ah… I see, I understand.

Who else but I could understand him? Aren’t we both mad in our own ways?

To be precise, Je Mu-gyeong suffered from an obsession with human skin. It was different from my obsession with masks…. Though his condition was worse than mine.

“Alright, you can keep that.”

“No! Nooooo!”

But why did he burst into a fit the moment we met?

Je Mu-gyeong slowly got up and screamed. His eyes flashed with madness and… fear?

“Ah! Aaaaah! This monster… monster! Do not look at me with those dreadful eyes! Do not gaze upon me with your four eyes! Demon from the abyss! You can’t touch me!”

“Huh?”

Monster? Demon? Did he, like Jang Hyeon-deok, go mad at the sight of my mask in an instant?

“I need skin to wrap around me. I must be enveloped in skin imbued with their souls and spirits…! Pain and despair will protect me! The apostle of Yog-Sothoth promised to take me away!”

No, it wasn’t because of the mask.

The content of his words was too strange to be simply about the mask.

“I have seen it! We must journey to that distant realm, the cradle of life, the sanctuary of souls! Beyond the horizon lies a place that is our world yet not our world! A haven without veils, filled with the calm and quiet unknown, to which we must depart!”

Hold on. These words were something I never heard even in the game. What was he talking about?

A place that is our world yet not our world? A haven filled with the calm and quiet unknown?

“We must escape this twisted, ruined, decaying, and crumbling world! We must leave! We must set out on a journey! Urghhh!”