Chapter 3

Chapter 3. The Book That Records Mysteries (1)

[A Black Flame Dragon appeared on my right hand. Giving it away to anyone who wants it.]

[Author: ㅇㅇ]

[(Photo of a black liquid clinging to the right hand like a glove)

(GIF.jpg of the black liquid rising like mist when the hand is shaken)]

I’m giving it away.

I don’t need money. Just tell me how to get it off.

When physical force is applied, it turns into liquid, and washing it with water does absolutely nothing.

Does anyone know how to remove this?

└Whoa, why did this guy suddenly turn black?

└Isn’t this the dude who got trapped in the bathroom five minutes ago? LOL What the hell did you do in there? LOL

└Bathroom... black... liquid... stuck to your hand... uh...?

└Shut the fuck up, that’s disgusting.

└Is this the average Regressor-Possessor-Reincarnator Gallery user?

└The gallery average hits a new low once again today.

└No, seriously, what the hell is that? LOL Any possessors know?

└I know a regressor.

└Oh, really? What is it?

└I sent you a private message ^^

└Boring as hell. Blocked.

└And you’re saying you have no mana? Another fake post.

└Season 3 of Fake Post just dropped LOL.

└Seriously, you guys actually believe he has no mana after seeing that? He’s obviously just using magic and pretending he isn’t because he wants attention;;; Gallery users, I swear.

└A certain Archmage once said: Do not assume that what you know is everything there is.

└This gallery is crawling with Archmages, so why are you saying it like some grand quote? Did you make that up yourself?

└Me, an Archmage, says: Drop your coordinates. I’m teleporting over there.

As expected, the moment I made the post, replies poured in.

Unfortunately, not a single one was useful.

I spread open the right hand I had been using to scroll through the gallery and examined it.

It had already been two hours since I escaped the bathroom.

I had tried just about everything, but the black liquid showed absolutely no intention of leaving my hand.

“What the hell are you...?”

I still had no idea what it was.

However, I had a rough guess as to why it had appeared.

It was probably because I escaped from the bathroom.

There were three reasons I had reached that conclusion.

First.

Right before escaping the bathroom, I had felt a strange sensation from the doorframe I grabbed.

That sensation was exactly the same as what I felt from this liquid now.

Second.

Immediately after the liquid attached itself to my hand, the bathroom returned to normal.

The strange boundary around the doorframe disappeared, turning it back into an ordinary bathroom.

And finally...

There was the darkness I had felt before the bathroom returned to normal.

The liquid covering my hand gave off exactly the same atmosphere as that darkness.

Maybe this liquid was the darkness that had swallowed the bathroom.

I couldn’t be certain.

I knew neither its function nor its true identity.

That was exactly why I wanted to get rid of it as quickly as possible.

If this liquid suddenly stole my senses like the bathroom had, I would be in serious trouble.

Even now, zombies were wandering around outside.

If I lost the use of one hand in a situation like this, my future would be nothing but bleak.

The gallery was the only place where I could ask for help.

[Please stop laughing and tell me what to do.]

[Author: ㅇㅇ]

[(GIF.jpg of the surroundings growing darker as the light from a lamp is sucked into the blackened right hand)]

Is this thing actually safe?

A man is dying over here...

Sirs, please save this poor newbie.

└Now that I think about it, this guy really is a newbie LOL. I forgot LOL.

└His first impression was just way too intense www.

└That’s fucking fascinating LOL. I want to cut off your hand and study it LOL.

└?

└???

└Protect the newbie!

└What kind of world is this guy even living in for something like that to exist?

└Zombie virus + isolated space that removes your senses + Black Flame Dragon. Damn.

└Zombie Bathroom Black Flame Dragon Gallery, let’s go.

└What a fucking lineup.

└It’s not just black. It’s literally swallowing the light around it;;

└Even magic would have a hard time recreating that, wouldn’t it?

└I’m an Archmage. It’s possible. But designing the spell formula would take more than fifty years.

└What about turning it into liquid form?

└Around two hundred years?

└Whoa, I’m also an Archmage, but I don’t think I could do that. Damn. You must be in the top one percent of gallery users.

└He means he studied for two hundred years, gave up, and started shitposting on the gallery.

└Hey, you can’t resist gallery shitposting LOL.

The now-familiar notification sounds rang one after another.

Am I... kind of famous now?

It hadn’t even been a full day since I started using the gallery, yet quite a few people already remembered me.

That was a good thing.

It meant more people would pay attention whenever I made a post in the future.

Feeling strangely pleased about that, I browsed the gallery for a while longer.

Still, there were no particularly useful answers or opinions.

I would have to wait until more comments appeared.

Instead of mindlessly pressing refresh over and over, I opened the search function.

Using my pitch-black right hand, I tapped away at the floating keyboard in the air.

I intended to use my waiting time as productively as possible.

[Things to do during an apocalypse]

Currently, a zombie virus was spreading throughout the world.

From the quick Google search I had done earlier, it seemed the zombie outbreak had struck the entire planet.

For now, things like the military and society itself still seemed to be functioning somehow.

At this rate, humanity would probably manage to successfully suppress the zombies.

That was...

If zombies were the only problem.

From what I had already experienced, the zombie outbreak wasn’t the only disaster affecting the world.

In fact, the zombie outbreak might even be considered minor.

The Regressor-Possessor-Reincarnator Gallery.

The black liquid.

The space that robbed people of their senses.

Even though I had only been dealing with supernatural events for a short while, I had already encountered three.

There was no way that was everything.

There had to be far more.

There was no chance governments could remain perfectly functional in a world filled with things like that.

So I had to act under one assumption.

The world was going to end.

That was why I searched for things to do during an apocalypse rather than things to do during a zombie outbreak.

[Things to do during an apocalypse]

[Apocalypse precautions]

[Apocalypse]

[Apocalypse problems]

[End of the world]

I changed the search terms several times and looked through everything I could find.

As I read through countless posts, I wrote down anything important in my notebook.

After organizing the information for about an hour, I finally reached a rough conclusion.

“There’s... not really anything I need to do.”

The most important things during an apocalypse were food, drinking water, and reliable places to obtain more of them.

I already had a year’s worth of combat rations and drinking water, both of which were easy to store.

With enough supplies for an entire year, I probably didn’t even need a reliable source to replenish them.

After all, one year should be more than enough time for the world to completely collapse.

Since I already had most of the necessities, the next thing I needed to consider was what I should be cautious about.

Among the biggest dangers during an apocalypse were depression and raiders.

Depression probably wouldn’t be a problem as long as I had the gallery.

As for raiders...

Wouldn’t the Black Flame Dragon on my right hand take care of them somehow?

Actually, worrying about supernatural phenomena seemed much more sensible than worrying about raiders.

Because starting a little while ago...

I had been hearing a strange sound.

A bizarre noise that no human could possibly make echoed at perfectly regular intervals like a metronome.

It sounded like two thick sheets of paper striking against each other.

The sound was coming from the bedroom.

Seriously? How long has it been since I dealt with the bathroom, and something is already happening again?

I forced myself to stay alert and went to the kitchen.

Then I grabbed a kitchen knife.

I lightly thrust it through the air a few times.

Swish, swish.

I heard the blade cutting through the air.

“This is a little scary.”

Even with the kitchen knife in my hand, a small seed of fear sprouted somewhere inside me.

Don’t be afraid.

As long as I have the Black Flame Dragon and a kitchen knife, there’s nothing to fear.

I repeatedly brainwashed myself with those words as I started walking.

My footsteps were so quiet that not even the slightest sound could be heard.

At least...

That was how they felt to me.

As I continued forward, the bedroom door soon came into view.

I ran through several simulations inside my head.

Different situations.

And how I would respond to each one.

If the intruder was human?

Stab, stab, stab.

Disable them first, then interrogate them.

If the intruder was a zombie?

Stab, stab.

Kill it.

If the intruder was some bizarre creature born from a supernatural phenomenon...

Hmm.

That would probably depend on what it looked like.

Still, I didn’t think I had any reliable way of fighting something supernatural.

Running away would probably be the only answer.

But I believed the intruder was human.

Holding onto that belief, I gripped my blade properly.

My stance looked surprisingly practiced.

Apparently, lurking through posts written by Martial Arts Gallery users had actually paid off.

When launching a surprise attack...

Be as quiet as possible.

I even held my breath as I slowly opened the bedroom door.

Through the narrow crack, I saw a blurry silhouette.

Its body shape resembled a human.

As expected.

It didn’t seem to be some bizarre monster.

I focused on my breathing and waited for the proper moment.

“...Hup!”

Drawing in a short breath, I thrust the knife forward.

Something was sliced apart with a threatening swish.

But...

Something was strange.

There was no sensation in my hand.

Unless my eyes were malfunctioning, I had definitely cut through something.

I was sure of it.

And yet, there had been no resistance against the tip of the knife.

It felt exactly like cutting through empty air.

My brain reached a conclusion in an instant.

A humanoid monster.

I think I’m fucked.

Using footwork I was still unfamiliar with, I quickly created distance between us.

At the same time, I carefully examined the creature.

Now that I had entered the bedroom, I could see its appearance much more clearly.

That thing was...

A book?

It was a book.

A closed book was floating silently in the air.

Its color was a pale charcoal gray, almost like a shadow.

But the silhouette I had seen earlier had definitely been shaped like a human.

A chill slowly crawled across the back of my neck.

I shifted my eyes around the room.

But I couldn’t see any human silhouette.

There was nothing there at all.

“...Hello?”

For now, I stared at the book while nervously fiddling with my knife.

The fact that the book was floating in midair made one thing obvious.

It was definitely some kind of supernatural creature.

The problem was...

What kind of ability did it possess?

As someone who now had experience dealing with strange creatures, I knew the most important thing when facing something like this was information.

Hadn’t I nearly died after entering that bathroom without knowing anything about it?

Facing a supernatural creature without information was something I needed to avoid whenever possible.

The book’s characteristics were probably somehow related to the silhouette I had seen earlier.

After reaching that conclusion, I offered the book a polite greeting.

In response...

The book opened and closed itself, producing a strange sound.

It was the exact same sound I had heard earlier from the sofa.