The Outer God Needs Warmth – Chapter 170

People I met long ago keep appearing.

Rebecca Rolfe has blonde hair. Like before I entered her body in first world. Or the appearance after I entered and left. Her skin is not pale white but a glossy white.

“What a cute young lady. Who are you?”

“That’s the Outer God.”

Before I could answer Rebecca’s question, Hyunkeshuni, who was sitting turned around nearby, answered.

“The.. Outer God?”

“Pretending not to know while you do.”

Hyunkeshuni grumbles and Rebecca giggles while looking at her. I remember their relationship was quite bad at the end.

It’s a very strange scene.

Rebecca came close to me. Taller than me. Although she’s on the small side, Rebecca was almost a full-grown adult by the standards of the first world.

And she comes close enough for our noses to almost touch and meets my gaze. This one seems a bit real. After I left, Rebecca wandered around without even light, let alone warmth in her body.

“You’re not lost. You don’t not know your goal, and you have no hesitation.”

Was this person always so good at reading people? Or is she just pulling out and calling forth memories from my head?

As I worried, can the witch extract and read memories?

I don’t know. So I have to move forward.

At least I should be able to go to the castle over there. The tall white castle visible far away from the square where I am now.

“Do you have a key?”

Rebecca asked a question that didn’t fit the context while looking at me. I only have one key that I got here.

It’s strange that the illusion has context. I took out the key I had put in my pocket.

“Did that crying king give it to you? A cruel and merciless king.”

“He wasn’t crying.”

Tis was a king. But he didn’t appear to be crying. Even when I turned back while leaving, he wasn’t shedding any tears at all.

“A king can only cry when there’s no audience. But it’s really strange. To think he would hand over the key so easily.”

Rebecca turned around. Hyunkeshuni is had turned earlier so only her back is visible.

Instead of doing anything special, Rebecca grabbed the air.

Clank

Then a heavy bunch of keys appeared. She examined each key one by one, then grabbed one of them and quietly held it out to me while pointing to her mouth with her index finger.

“If the king allowed it, I have nothing to say. Here, if you go that way, you can get out of this place.”

The shape is the same as the key I received from Tis. But unlike the key that had “despair” written on it, this one only has scratch marks on it. The embossed letters were scratched off. What words could have been written?

As I held the key with such questions in mind, Rebecca pointed to the place where the headquarters of the Future Hope Church once was.

It means go.

I greeted Rebecca and looked at Hyunkeshuni. She’s still looking back. So I just left her and moved my feet again.

I open the door of a building on one side of the square and go inside. But what I see in front of me is not the inside of the building, but a long corridor surrounded by earth.

As soon as I enter, the door closes and I hear a clicking sound. It probably means I can’t go back. Going straight ahead in the corridor, there’s another door.

Not a wooden door but an iron door. There was no door of this shape in the underground temple. When I grab and open it, this time I see a desolate rocky desert in the middle of the night with stars pouring down.

When I go outside, there’s just a door standing alone in a wide open space. It means it’s empty both front and back. It seems like a door that goes anywhere.

Thinking about what’s happened so far, there should be someone in this place too. I looked around.

And I found that someone. No, rather than someone, it would be more accurate to say something that used to be someone.

There’s a corpse of a woman whose head has been replaced with a huge padlock. Wondering if the key goes in here, I pushed in the key that says “despair”.

But it doesn’t turn.

It’s the same with the key whose name has been erased.

Looking around, I don’t see any key that could fit in here. Even searching my pockets, I don’t see anything plausible. I tried taking off my top to see if I could see something with my body, but there’s only a stark white naked body with no memories shining as my own body. I can’t tell anything.

Nothing comes out even when I search my pockets, so I just threw it away and headed towards the destination again. Even in this rocky desert, I can see the white castle rising far in the distance.

As I walk along the walking path I often ran on before, I see a steam locomotive.

Not a train that moves with magic stones or such, but a real steam locomotive. A train with even coal loaded in the back.

It’s standing in the middle of nowhere. And long railroad tracks extend in front of it.

This means I should ride it, right? I entered the shabby train station made by laying stones on the ground next to the train.

There’s no one at the station. There’s only a platform without even chairs to begin with. I got on the train there.

When I go inside, I see one person. A man in the attire of the second world is standing in front of the stairs going up to the passenger car.

It’s a man I know. But it’s also a man I’ve never seen directly.

Eunjae.

He doesn’t speak to me even when I get on. Instead, he drew his sword and pointed it at me with it. And he swung it.

No, he tried to swing it.

As if he couldn’t cut me, the blade stopped at a distance where it would touch my hair.

He glared at me, then put away his sword and pointed with his hand not to the passenger car but to the locomotive. As far as I know, there’s a place with coal in the back, so I have to go around to get to the engine room.

But this is inside an illusion.

When I open the door in the direction of the locomotive, the engine room immediately appears.

It’s not a proper engine room. In the place where coal should be put in, a huge piece of iron is firmly attached as if welded.

There’s a keyhole in the middle of that iron mass. If I open this, the train can depart, right?

This time, hoping it’s right, I took out the key, pushed it in, and turned it.

Then I hear a sound like starting a car, and the train slowly starts to move.

This place is really a mess.

It’s really strange that the train is still but the surrounding environment is changing rapidly. Normally, when you ride a vehicle, you should feel pushed back due to inertia, but there’s no such feeling at all.

Moreover, while the background is pushed back, the snow-white castle visible in the distance doesn’t get any closer at all.

Given that this is a dream-like world, it’s not strange even if the background actually moves backwards.

And the background that was passing by quickly turned pitch black as if entering a tunnel, and rainforest and wetlands appeared.

As expected.

It’s the second world.

Soon the background completely stopped. It seems to be a portrayal of the train stopping. I turned around. There’s no exit door here. So I went back to the passenger car.

I opened the door, but I don’t see Eunjae. Instead, the sword he pointed at me earlier is stuck in the entrance, and a key is hanging on it.

This key has “anger” embossed on it.

When I take it and get off, I see a very familiar place. The road leading up to the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult village. If you go up, there’s Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, and if you turn left from here and go straight, there’s the house where I lived.

I headed towards that house.

No, I tried to head there.

A building I often saw in the second world is blocking the way. As expected, the entrance is nailed with boards to prevent entry. It was originally an empty hill, but there’s a building that shouldn’t be there.

It means go the way you’re supposed to go.

I went straight up following the city built along the hill. A huge building sitting on top of cliffs and protruding strange rocks.

It’s a broken building in the original world, but it’s intact here. If I go like this, will I be able to meet Heavenly Demon?

Thinking that, I went inside the building. When you open the door and enter, you’re supposed to cross a bridge with a cliff below, but a room appears immediately.

When I enter there, I meet two people inside.

And in the middle of them is a Go board. When the fishman holding black stones places a stone, the man holding white stones places a stone. But the Go board is strange.

Instead of playing Go on a grid pattern, they’re playing on a board filled with curves like a kaleidoscope. Go? Well, let’s call it Go since they’re using black and white stones.

The people playing Go are one young man and one fishman.

They’re people I know from memory but have never seen directly.

Primordial Heavenly Lord and Great Kraken.

It’s their appearance when they were young, or when they were still human.

“We have a guest.”

The fishman turns only his eyeballs to look at me.

Anyway, everyone here is fake. Just fakes that look similar appear and only point the way without much conversation. It’ll probably be the same this time.

“You should say owner.”

The Primordial Heavenly Lord answered like that.

“It’s a guest. When has that thing ever stood independently even once?”

At Great Kraken’s question, the Primordial Heavenly Lord’s eyes narrow.

“Well. Unlike you.”

It’s strange.

It’s too meaningful to dismiss as meaningless talk. The Great Kraken’s expression frowns.

“Annoying bastard. So what did the guest come here for?”

At this question, I pointed to the white castle visible in the distance.

“I’m heading there.”

Both Great Kraken and Primordial Heavenly Lord look down at the Go board without giving me a single glance. There’s no answer. Thinking the answer might be difficult, I was about to move when the Great Kraken opened his mouth again.

“It would be better not to go.”

“In other words, it means you must go.”

The one who responded to Great Kraken’s words is none other than Primordial Heavenly Lord. Unlike Great Kraken, he continues speaking with his gaze fixed on the Go board.

“There’s nothing in that castle that the owner needs to conquer.”

“The guest can just leave, can’t they?”

According to Primordial Heavenly Lord, there’s no witch up there.

According to Great Kraken, I can leave anytime.

Great Kraken’s words are correct. As I’ve always done, I can simply press down on reality and easily leave this world. It’s not that I might be able to, I was certain.

But Primordial Heavenly Lord’s words have a bit of a problem.

“You’re saying there’s no witch up there?”

At those words, both Great Kraken and Primordial Heavenly Lord laugh out loud. As if they heard an amusing joke, they laugh for a while, then Great Kraken and Primordial Heavenly Lord’s gazes turn to me.

“There’s no witch except for the guest.”

“That’s the owner’s castle.”

As they say this, their eyeballs turn not towards me but slightly behind.

“A human named Nietzsche said. When you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you. Be careful if you follow the guest.”

“The owner is a greedy person. They endlessly strive to obtain shining things. But they don’t hide the most important thing.”

This isn’t advice for me.

In other words, it means the witch is following me. They seem to be saying opposite things, but in conclusion, they’re trying to hinder me.

“Where’s the door?”

At my question, the two people sighed deeply and got up from their seats. Then they picked up the Go board and moved it to the side.

There’s a deep hole underneath.

I stood in front of it. It’s clear that they both dislike me. But I’m also certain that they won’t interfere with me.

What if I’m deceived?

If I’m deceived, I can just do it again.

“Have both of you disappeared?”

Then suddenly. I asked them a question because it was strange.

“To the guest, we’re fake.”

The Great Kraken answered without expression.

“I’ve been saying owner, haven’t I?”

The Primordial Heavenly Lord smiled, saying to think about the meaning.

So realizing that they have no intention of answering properly, I jumped into the hole.