Horror Game Developer: My games aren't that scary!

Chapter 684: Walking Disasters [4]

I wanted to react, but my body refused to listen to me completely. The pain in my mind was so sharp that it drowned out everything else, leaving me frozen where I lay.

I could do nothing but watch as the doctor stepped over my body without hesitation.

His footsteps echoed softly across the room before he reached his chair and lowered himself into it.

Spinning to face my direction, his legs crossed

“You’ve certainly made quite a mess of this entire situation. I’m not quite sure who you are, but you’ve caused one hell of a lot of trouble. To make matters worse, I’ll probably be the one getting an earful once all of this is over.”

The doctor seemed to be complaining, and yet his smile made me feel otherwise. A faint chuckle escaped him as he shook his head, as though he found the entire situation more amusing than troublesome. Reaching across the desk, he picked up the stack of papers resting there and glanced over them.

“Now, I’m starting to wonder why you decided to come here of all places. Back when we met, you said that you were going to Sector 3. Was that your way of throwing me off?”

He flashed the files in his hand.

“Is something wrong with your nodes? From the start, this place was your goal, wasn’t it? You risked doing all of this because something is wrong with your head.”

The doctor tapped his temple.

“I won’t call you stupid since you did get quite far, but in the end, you seemed to have hit your limit. Was it really worth it?”

“…..”

I didn’t reply.

I couldn’t reply. My entire body refused to listen to me as I barely managed to raise my hand, trying to reach for the documents.

The sight seemed to amuse the doctor as he brought them closer to me, only to pull them back right as they were about to reach my fingertips.

“Tut. Tut. You wouldn’t understand the documents even if I did give them to you. It’d be too much of a waste.”

The doctor placed the documents back on the table before leaning closer, his eyes carefully studying me from head to toe. As he did, something seemed to come to mind. He paused for a moment, then spun around in his chair and pulled open one of the drawers in his desk.

After rummaging through it briefly, he retrieved another set of documents before reaching for his coat and taking out a set of pills that he dangled right before my very eyes.

“Then again, this is what you should’ve been aiming for from the start. These are what I’d call my latest masterpiece.”

He chuckled.

“I’ve done several tests already, and while I can’t guarantee that they will completely heal broken nodes, they are the closest thing to those pills that were shown to me by them.”

For just a moment, the pain that had consumed me began to fade. In that brief instant of relief, my thoughts drifted back to his words, replaying them over and over in my mind.

Ah.

Something else clicked inside my mind.

This doctor…

He was trying to replicate the pills given by the system.

The doctor laughed.

“Honestly, I’m actually quite tempted to give them to you. I would want to use you as my testing subject. I’ve tried it a couple of times with some other humans, and while most results have been positive, there have been a few… let’s say side effects. They’re not quite ready yet.”

The doctor dangled the pills before me once more, and in that instant, I reacted.

“Ukh.”

Groaning, my hand reached in his direction, desperately trying to reach for the pills with everything that I had. But not even a few seconds after my pathetic attempt, my body failed on its own, and I stumbled onto the ground once more.

The doctor’s laugh reached my ear subsequently.

“You really seem quite desperate for them.”

Although I couldn’t see him, I could imagine.

I could imagine the smile that marred his lips as he looked down at me from above.

“Don’t be too down, though. I won’t be giving you the pills now, but nothing says that I’ll never be giving you the pills. Just have a little bit more faith, and I’ll see what I can do. How about it?”

I raised my head right as he brought the pills back to his coat.

He clapped right after.

“Alright! In light of all the mess that you’ve caused in search of these pills, I’ll let you be my most trusted experimental subject! This way we’ll both get what we want. Ah, but…”

He paused for a moment, his thoughts drifting to something else.

“I’ve been trying to contact the Enforcer for quite some time. I can already guess that you’ve done something with him, but I’m curious about what. He was quite a capable man. I’m wondering exactly how you managed to overpower someone like him.”

“…..”

I didn’t reply to his question.

I physically couldn’t, my nodes aching even more than before. Even listening to all his talk was hard for me.

Thankfully, I didn’t need to listen for much longer.

Clank!

Not a moment later, the door to the room opened, and several figures walked in, their gazes falling on me as the doctor stood up from his seat, immediately barking several orders as he pointed in my direction.

“Take him away. Make sure to incapacitate him so that he can’t free himself. As you’ve seen, he is a very troublesome one. I don’t want anything bad to happen while he’s being brought out.”

I continued to put up a struggle, but given the state of my body, it was impossible as the guards pulled me away.

The last thing I saw before my consciousness slipped was the curl of the doctor’s lips as everything vanished, and I reappeared inside the familiar room.

“Ukh!”

I reached for my stomach, my body hunching over as I nearly puked.

‘Ah… what a familiar feeling.’

Taking several deep and heavy breaths, I barely managed to keep myself steady as the pain inside my mind reached a point where I found myself struggling to keep it together.

But eventually recovering myself, I leaned back against the doorframe of the door before laughing.

“Ha… ha.”

Found them.

I found what I had been looking for.

Taking another deep breath, I reached for my pocket and tried to take another vial, but it was in that moment that I realized that I had run out completely.

“I guess… this is it.”

Maybe this was for the best.

Even now, I didn’t know what sort of memories I had lost. However, whatever they were, I knew that I couldn’t risk any more. This could come back and bite me in the future.

‘Yeah, let’s not push any further. This is good enough.’

Allowing myself to recover a little bit, I stood up and headed for the door, reaching for the handle and walking out.

Pocketwatch in hand, I followed the same path that I had done before. If there was a slight variation, it was that I didn’t call the Realmwalker this time, but Mirelle.

She showed up in her child form. Given my current node situation, there was no way for her to sustain her teenage form.

“You’ll be this round’s sacrifice.”

“…..”

“Go.”

“…I don’t wanna.”

“Go.”

“I don’t wanna. No.”

I closed my eyes for a brief moment before raising my hand and showing five fingers.

Mirelle’s little face changed.

Her small lips parted, ready to decline, but I spoke before she even had the chance to.

“Seven.”

Her little face trembled, and just before she could negotiate further, I shook my head.

“…Nothing more.”

“Tsk.”

Did she just click her tongue?

I raised my brow, but right then, the little girl had already turned around and trotted away.

A familiar scene occurred.

“There!”

The guards gave chase like they did in the past. However, it was obvious that they were taken aback by the presence of the little girl. But I wasn’t too worried, as everything up to the doctor’s office proceeded just as smoothly as in the past.

Arriving before the door, this time, I didn’t open the door myself as I had the Realmwalker shift its form around me and open the door for me.

Despite it just being the Realmwalker that acted, my nodes still ached as I flinched slightly.

Click!

Entering the familiar room, I stumbled forward before falling to the ground.

The familiar scene played out.

The doctor came in a moment after, rambling about my situation.

I just remained on the floor, not saying a single thing.

“Is something wrong with your nodes? From the start, this place was your goal, wasn’t it? You risked doing all of this because something is wrong with your head.”

I just allowed him to talk.

“Tut. Tut. You wouldn’t understand the documents even if I did give them to you. It’d be too much of a waste.”

I waited until he reached for his coat and tried to grab the pills, only for him to freeze in the process.

“Kuk.”

I found myself unable to hold back from that point forward.

“Kuek…!”

Reaching for my mouth, my body started to tremble.

Especially when I noticed the confusion on the doctor’s face as he looked at me.

“Are you laughing?”

As if understanding something, the unease on his face grew.

I raised my head and finally looked at him, unable to hold back my smile any longer as I opened my mouth, revealing the numerous pills resting on my tongue.

He stood up abruptly.

“You⎯!”

But it was too late.

I swallowed all the pills before he could do anything about it.

“——”