A Survival Guide for a Counselor in the Apocalypse Chapter 105

Chapter 105

 

—

[Complete Fear (00:00:59)]

[Your brain has recognized “fear.” Ah, fear is something everyone knows… but still.]

[In this apocalypse, to recognize fear and become immersed in it is no different from saying you want to die. You are saying you want to die!]

[Move! Advance! Overcome the fear!]

[Chance of Mental Strength decreasing +5%]

—

 

For a moment, I stared at it blankly.

But the thought that came to me in that instant was… stupidly…

 

‘…It’s been a while since I’ve seen you.’

That thought crossed my mind.

Because it really had been so long.

Honestly, I could count on one hand the number of times I’d even seen them in dreams.

There were no videos.

The only photo we had together was one where I was standing stiffly beside them.

And now… they were even speaking.

Every word they said was a curse directed at me.

‘That’s what their voice sounded like.’

I had forgotten it so much that… even hearing that voice cursing me now… felt like something I hadn’t experienced in a very long time.

So…

 

— 

[So?]

[What are you thinking right now?]

— 

 

More than fear… There was something like longing.

Just a little more.

With that thought, I took a step forward blankly.

At the tip of that step… something caught me again.

 

— 

[To overcome longing with yet another sense of responsibility… how impressive.]

— 

 

Beside me was Lee Hoin.

That wasn’t really him… it was an illusion.

My gaze returned to the real Lee Hoin, whom I was holding onto.

Right.

He’s here.

He’s here… crying helplessly, drowning in trauma.

Him first.

I had to save him first.

There was no time to get lost in illusions.

I sat Lee Hoin down against the base of a nearby tree.

Then I exhaled and took out a cloth, covering his vision.

After that, I put earphones in his ears and played music.

I didn’t know if it would help.

It might still break through all of this… the sounds, the visions.

But this was all I could do right now.

Lee Hoin continued crying, soaking the cloth.

For now…

‘If I want to stop this damn thing–’

I had to go to where that snake bastard was.

I pulled out my dagger and turned my head.

Where was it exactly?

Where?

Standing blankly amidst the illusions that kept blocking my view…

I hesitated.

How… how was I supposed to find it?

 

— 

[What’s the point of wanting to kill it? Sadly, you can’t do anything!]

[(Laughter)]

— 

 

As I stood there like someone who had lost their way, a sharp pain suddenly stabbed through my head.

 

— 

[Responding to the summons with your soul degraded to about 95%.]

— 

 

I never called you.

At some point, my master… whom I hadn’t summoned, was standing beside me.

The first thing he did upon appearing…

Thwack!

Damn, my head just rang.

Can you even fracture your skull like that?

I clutched my head, dizzy from the physical blow.

It felt like I’d get a concussion just from being hit.

“You useless fool. Have you already forgotten what you saw back then? Inside that disgusting, filthy stomach.”

That disgusting, filthy stomach… that place where I had found the sack of mutant corpses.

‘The orb…’

Something was stained with a strange color.

That thing was there.

“Focus. Scatter your mana… and find it. The concentrated core of what you saw.”

Scatter my mana.

The mana I had left right now…

‘Not even 10.’

Even so, I did as I was told.

Luckily, not much had been used when my master appeared, so I slowly focused and searched.

I didn’t have the ability to cover this entire mountain.

So I followed the barrier.

If I followed the barrier, I might at least reach the tail of whoever made it.

Then I could at least get a direction.

Slowly, I began moving that way.

I didn’t even know where I was going.

I couldn’t tell if I was climbing the mountain properly.

Even though it was clearly daytime, everything looked the same in the mountains.

I exhaled sharply and kept climbing, ignoring the relentless screams around me.

“Tch, these damn things. So noisy. I hate places this loud the most.”

My master, sounding irritated, cut through the forms of the illusions with his sword.

They didn’t disappear just because he cut them… it was simply an expression of his annoyance.

That annoyance… became an anchor that held me together.

Focusing on his complaints kept me sane.

I could hear notifications about my mental strength decreasing.

Each time I heard it, I grew more anxious.

If even I was like this… what about Lee Hoin?

I suddenly stopped in place.

‘What if something happens while I’m gone?’

What if his mental strength collapses completely?

Damn.

I should’ve at least tied his hands.

I frowned and looked down the mountain… but knowing I might not be able to come back up again,

I turned and continued climbing.

Before he was completely driven to mental ruin…

I had to end this quickly.

As I climbed, irritation began to build.

‘I should’ve just stabbed that thing the moment I saw it.’

Maybe I was being influenced by my master’s complaints.

After grumbling like that a few times, my head actually started to clear.

I could understand why my master kept complaining.

Hearing the constant clanking of armor and his grumbling beside me… everything started to irritate me too.

 That irritation… overpowered the fear.

Irritation defeated fear.

“Ha… why is this path so rough?”

“You call this rough? You should’ve been thrown onto a mountain in Hermadion. The way you whine about a path this gentle…”

What was he talking about, tossing someone off a cliff like a lion cub?

Anyway– panting heavily,

I finally found it.

The massive body of the snake.

I had to get inside it.

 

— 

[And how do you plan to do that?]

— 

 

The snake was so huge that even a single scale was larger than my head.

I took a deep breath and stabbed it once with the dagger.

It didn’t go in.

Damn it.

Just how much had they fed this thing?

“I’ve never seen such a pig of a snake before. Move aside. How much mana do you have left?”

“1.”

At that, my master turned to look at me, sword in hand.

“You…”

He started to speak, then stopped.

“…You…”

He looked at me several times, as if at a loss for words.

In the meantime, my mana ticked up to 2.

I knew what he wanted to say.

I was painfully aware that I had a pathetic mana pool.

But what could I do?

This is just how I am.

After getting beaten up enough, instead of thinking ‘why am I like this,’

I just think, ‘this is how I am, so what now?’

Getting beaten up is the problem.

‘You stop reflecting on yourself.’

After waiting a bit longer for my mana to recover slightly, my master used magic and thrust his sword forward.

It was a somewhat crude technique,

but it worked well enough to cut through.

The problem… was on my side.

Thanks to my ridiculously small mana pool,

I ended up coughing up blood.

I spat it out roughly and forced open the cut, pushing myself inside.

Inside, it reeked… a sour, rotten stench of decaying corpses.

On top of that, stomach acid dripped onto my hands and cheeks, burning my flesh… the smell of my own flesh being scorched mixed into it.

As I slowly moved inward,

I saw it.

The thing I had been looking for.

The core.

I called it a core, but who knows if it really was one.

Still…

I had to try.

I had to try something.

At that moment… from afar…

I heard a wet, dragging sound.

Something is being dragged along the ground.

I turned my head toward the sound… and there… the owner was dragging a sack.

Her movements were desperate.

“….”

“…Oh, child.”

Her pale face forced a smile.

It was awkward.

“You haven’t gone down yet? Why are you here?”

“….”

“Is this thing hungry or something? Acting up all of a sudden. Right? If I just feed it…”

Only after seeing her… did one certainty settle in my mind.

She would never break this illusion with her own hands.

What she said back at the shop… in the end…

 

— 

[Yes, probably… all for nothing?]

[What can you do? That person has something they desperately want.]

— 

 

She stood there for a moment, looking at me.

“Child.”

She called me quietly.

“But really… why are you here?”

Standing still, still clutching the sack like a lifeline.

“Don’t think unnecessary things, alright? This just happened because I forgot to feed it for a bit. That’s all. Once I feed it…”

“Ma’am.”

“Once I feed it, everything will be fine. It has to be fine. This is just… a little tantrum. Right, child?”

She exhaled heavily.

Her breath was ragged,

and her eyes gleamed with madness.

Like someone who truly believed that.

What do you think I could say to her?

What could I say to that face?

My master stood silently outside the snake, watching.

He didn’t say anything… just looked at me, as if telling me to finish it quickly.

“Ma’am.”

“Why do you keep calling me like that? Do you like me that much? Hahaha!”

A hollow laugh spilled out.

“I’m sorry.”

As I said that… I gripped the dagger tighter.