CH 36

[User: ▢▢▢▢▢▢

Date: ▢▢

Current Location: Floor 1, Room 103 (Cursed Room – Athanasia’s Human Farm)

Sage’s Advice: 3]

The identity of this ‘farm’ that I realised with the help of ‘Diverse Perspectives’…

At the start, I thought this was some type of research lab.

Like a building created by humans, there would be a large laboratory built on top of the ground, with several rooms inside that were dedicated for extracting the intellect of living beings. My hypothesis was that the overwhelmingly large room imprisoning the Teacher was in the basement.

That couldn’t have been any further from the truth.

Absurdly enough, this facility was actually a large spaceship!

Dozens of rooms were rotating around the room the Teacher was imprisoned in, and the assembly of rooms was endlessly proceeding through the large and empty space. It looked like a replication of planets like Earth rotating around the Sun, with the Sun endlessly racing across the galaxy. 

The Teacher wasn’t an experiment material or a test subject – he was in fact the ‘engine’ that supplied this spaceship with energy.

I also understood what it meant to remove the restrictive device. Separating the engine from the two rooms that controlled it was the way to remove the restriction.

But…

If one of the connected rooms in a flying spaceship was to be separated, then what would happen to that separated room? That room would have neither an engine nor a method of survival so it would end up becoming lost in outer space, wouldn’t it?

I turned to Estavio in a fluster.

“What happens to this room if I remove the restrictive system?”

You are asking the obvious. It will float across space forever. It might come into contact with something, but the ones inside would probably die of starvation before that. 

But you don’t have to worry about anything. Even death is salvation for the faces in this room, and you can simply relocate yourself with your bracelet.

“What about you?”

Why are you concerned about that? Do you already have some fondness for me? That’s good news.

It’s nothing. It will just be a short rest…

Even that won’t last forever. Before long, the nightmare of this room will start again, and the ‘Devouring One’ will recover my sense of self again.

“Leaving aside whether I have fondness or not… How would I escape this place without your help?”

Even without me, the Devouring One will help you in one way or another. In the end, it is the participant’s job to overcome the trials.

Why do you seek the help of a loser despite being a participant with many possibilities? Trust yourself…

Estavio didn’t say anything else, and I too did not ask for any more help.

– Kung

A loud thud echoed across the facility. In the middle of outer space, its connection with the engine had been lost.

This room…

Let’s not think about it. I had to worry about my wellbeing first.

I quietly touched my bracelet which I was getting relatively used to. It was time to jump to the other room that had the second restrictive system.

What was going to be in the next room? I wondered.

With this, there is only one thing left for me to do.

“Didn’t you say you won’t help with anything else?”

Before that, did I not tell you that I would help you with 2 of the things? I shall keep my promise…

As soon as Estavio swung his tentacle in the air, a strange knowledge seeped into my head.

I immediately recognised what was inside the room with the second restrictive system, and also realised what I had to do.

Ahh… This Hotel was seriously keen on pushing me to my limits. 

But everything was almost over.

*

The second room was totally different from every other place.

It was completely different from all the nightmarish farms and materialised forms of hell that I had been seeing at this ‘spaceship’. Even though this room should have been made by a completely different race, I could still feel the warm atmosphere and the gentle feeling in this room.

The carpet was soft and there were many toys in place.

That was to be expected, because this place was here to educate and protect the young kids – the young Athanasia babies.

I was here to turn this place into hell.

As soon as I went into the room, I saw small starfishes wriggling towards me as if they were looking at a mysterious animal. It seemed that Athanasias couldn’t walk on their two feet when young. 

It might be similar to how human babies crawled around when they were young. Well, even though they were babies, they were still bigger than me.

I thought while walking past the babies. Why were the ‘Farm of Pain’ and the ‘Kindergarten’ in charge of restricting the engine? 

The answer was rather simple.

Those two locations were the ‘safest’ places in the minds of the Athanasias.

Most of the other rooms for the Athanasias were farms that collected intellectual beings from outer space and extracted their intellect, so they must have taken into account the possibility of foreign lives rebelling against them like what I was doing right now.

On the other hand, the Farm of Pain only had the heads of intellectual beings that were being tortured forever except for the Athanasias, so it was impossible for those bodyless organisms to retaliate.

And the Kindergarten only had Athanasian babies so there was no risk at all.

They definitely wouldn’t have expected a crazy ‘livestock’ to receive the help of the ‘engine’ to steal their bracelet…

I waited around with the ‘kids’ for someone to show up.

Obviously, there was no way a kindergarten would only have kids inside. There had to be a teacher. I had to wait for the teacher with the control rights of this room to proceed with the plan.

Who. Are. You.

That was when a sharp voice dug into my head like a needle. Its intonation was a bit awkward compared to Estavio who sounded like a human.

I turned around and saw an adult Athanasia.

“Who knows. A chicken that escaped from a poultry farm?”

Come. Out. Of. That. Place.

“Are you going to use ‘Diverse Perspectives’ on me as soon as I distance myself from the kids? This device – I noticed something after using it, but it’s actually very hard to specify a target when there are multiple intellectual beings in a cluster like this, right?”

You. I. Know. You. You. Are. Theodus’s. If. You. Go. Back. You. Will. Be. Forgiven.

“It’s really hard to understand what you’re saying. Sorry, but there are still a lot of things to do.”

You. Do. Not. Understand. You–

——-Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

The ‘Teacher’s’ brilliant and colourful voice echoed across again! I really wondered how I could feel the ‘colour’ of his voice, but in any case, I had been waiting for this mysterious sound!

The adult Athanasia turned stiff like a rock as soon as it heard the sound. 

In this place, there was no-one like Estavio who would guide me to the restrictive system like what happened at the Farm of Pain. So–

I had to crush the heart of this Kindergarten teacher.

*

– Stab!

I killed one.

– Stab!

And another one.

I didn’t even know how many I killed. Until five, I had been keeping count but I wasn’t sure anymore. 

What I did know, however, was that there was an abundance of starfishes in this room that could be killed. 

I failed when I was trying to manipulate an adult Athanasia with the bracelet to release the Teacher at the ‘engine room’.

Even though the bracelet was almighty, I was a complete newbie at using it.

I couldn’t deceive the transcendent minds of an adult Athanasia.

But… What if I used it on kids?

In the end, Athanasias were nothing but mortals that were a little bit stronger than humans. They weren’t born as divine existences.

The rest was simple.

When I gently stroked the head of a baby Athanasia, and ‘educated’ it to see the head of another Athanasia as a delicious food, the baby delightfully started indulging itself in its meal.

—- Kurrrrk

—- Uurrgh

A strange noise began to leave the mouth of the adult Athanasia that had been stopped by the Teacher.

Was that even the mouth? I had no idea but some strange liquid was flowing out of one of the holes on its body, and its tentacles began to tremble.

How would I appear in the eyes of that existence? 

It was like a chicken escaping from the poultry farm and picking up a gun to infiltrate a kindergarten and shoot the babies to death.

It must be a hellish nightmare that it wouldn’t have even dreamed of.

“The biggest concern I had when coming to this place was, ‘What if words didn’t go through?’ You see, I had never had any conversation with you guys until I met Estavio, but looking back, it seemed that we could talk to each other just fine.”

– Stab! Kyahat!

The child looked like it was enjoying the head of its friend. Well, I was the one who made it like that though.

“You can understand what I’m saying right? I want to go to the control unit.”

Actually, there was no need to receive the help of that adult Athanasia either. Peaceful methods like communication, conversation and negotiations were only when there was no way of controlling the other party.

I had a device that could control the minds of other people, so why would I bother talking or negotiating with them?

I was just waiting for its mind to crumble down so much that it couldn’t even retaliate against my beginner-level control.

– Rip!

This time, the child started ripping out the tentacles of another kid to eat them. I had chosen the biggest child to control and he seemed to have been a relatively violent one.

Weight was also a big element in the world of kids. 

It was like a 4 or 5 year-old human baby suddenly starting to act violently, while the other young Athanasias nearby were busy crawling around while wailing in a strange voice. 

Slosh-!

I heard something fall down. Turning around, I spotted the shivering tentacles of the adult Athanasia crumbling down like boiled noodles. 

Seeing that, I immediately realised that it crumbled – the mind of the adult Athanasia finally crumbled at the face of the hellish nightmare.

After that, it was very simple.

Without any retaliation, the adult allowed me to control it using ‘Diverse Perspectives’ and I separated the Kindergarten from the engine.

Now, there was only one more thing to do.

I had to go back to the ‘engine room’.

*

As soon as I arrived at the outskirts of the ‘engine room’, I was met with the face of an extremely familiar person who I had been missing for a long time.

“Songee! Uhuk… Hkk… I missed you so much. Everything is so scary. I was waiting for you to come. Uhuk.”