Chapter Text
The softly-padded bed enticed Wemmbu deeper into sleep. He felt the worries of battle and the pains of injuries begin to wash away, calmed by the ever-present buzz of what felt like an IV stabbed into his forearm.
…wait, an IV?
Where the hell was he?
Last he remembered, he and Egg had been about to jump into the end portal in the Farlands in order to defeat LAW once and for all. They knew the risks of the endeavor, yet Wemmbu didn’t think even once that the end portal would end up being the most dangerous and anomalous of all the possible events. Upon entering the end portal, he had simply blacked out, awoken only by the ever-present buzz which enveloped the room.
Speaking of Egg, was he here too?
Despite his immense grogginess, Wemmbu forced his eyes open, using all his remaining strength to push himself up on the bed, finally taking a look around the room he was in.
He was sitting in a very circular purple twin bed surrounded by very circular furniture such as a bedside table, bookshelves, a wardrobe and a mirror. Whoever’s house this was needed a quick lesson or two from Horace urgently. And of course, a small IV filled with a substance eerily similar to a galaxy was stabbed into him, as if providing him with the essence of celestial life itself.
But what surprised Wemmbu the most was not the unknown substance currently being pumped through his veins. Why would he care about that?
It was Eggchan, who, to Wemmbu’s left, was sleeping snugly in his own blue, circular twin bed, like there were no worries at all in the world. He, too, had his own celestial IV pouch being pumped into him.
Looking around the room for exits, Wemmbu found both a window to his right looking out into a shrubby garden, and a simple door in front of Egg’s bed.
Narrowing his eyes, he ripped off the tubes connecting him to the IV and stepped off the bed, not without a familiarly dazed feeling rushing through his head. After stumbling for a moment, he collected his bearings and approached Egg’s bed.
Now, Wemmbu had never been very afraid of Egg. When it came to both PVP and strength in general, Wemmbu could reduce Egg into an ugly hatched egg’s chick who would even grant the ugly duckling some confidence.
But, perhaps, waking Egg up by pricking a hole in the IV pump filled with a celestial liquid and pouring it all over his face probably wasn’t the greatest idea.
With a dark purple hand mark on his face and feeling dejected, Wemmbu helped Egg out of his circular cot.
Egg examined the room intensely, but ultimately gave up when he didn’t recognise even a single wood type it could possibly have been made from.
“Where could we possibly be, bro.” Wemmbu asked from behind him, trailing his purple finger along one of the circular bedside tables as if it were his first time seeing something truly befitting a circle. Well, it kinda was.
Egg took a moment before answering. Perhaps for dramatic effect, or perhaps to save his ego as the all-knowing lore holder; Eggchan. “Dude, I have genuinely no clue.”
At that moment, the door handle bent abruptly, as if something had jumped on it from the other side. And then, the door creaked ajar.
Wemmbu quickly pushed Egg behind him, fishing out his sword from his inventory and taking a protective stance, eyes trained at the slowly opening door.
But nothing ever walked inside.
Confused, Wemmbu turned to Egg, only to find him staring at the ground in pure, unadulterated shock. Following his line of sight, Wemmbu soon realised why.
“Are you done gaping in shock or do I have to smack your mouth back up?” A jarringly deep voice came from a small, chibi-looking grown man, standing firm on the ground. The size of a literal newborn baby.
After a few seconds, the little man’s irritation became more obvious. Wemmbu eventually spoke. “I’m sorry, but what the hell even are you?”
As if he had heard the question many times before, the little man rolled his eyes, annoyed. “Just call me 999, it’ll be easier that way.” He turned around to reveal a sticker on his back: ‘999’. Odd, but okay.
“No, but what are you? Are you like a new mob or something?” Wemmbu began to theorise, not noticing (or not caring about) the growing irritation 999 exuded.
999 balled his hands into fists before gritting his teeth and attempting to calm down. Egg, always the observer, noticed this, punching Wemmbu softly in the arm to shut him up. “Dude, whoever this guy is, maybe he can help us get back home. Stop making enemies with every single person you come across.”
“Well, I dunno if he could be considered much of a ‘person’ but sure, Egg, sure.” Wemmbu retorted, lips twitching in slight mockery of the little man before them.
“What did you just say?” 999 growled, a crushing aura of darkness enveloping his small body as he revealed a long, glistening black blade. It was kind of amusing how threatening he looked despite his size.
Successfully entertained, Wemmbu beckoned for Egg to follow him as he began to approach the door, intending to leave the area and, probably, never come back.
But before he could reach the door, a sharp SHING split the air as he felt a blade nick his shoulder, deliberately held back from doing any real damage.
Suddenly alert, Wemmbu pushed Egg out of the way and swung his own blade towards the little swordsman in the air. He seemed to be walking on it?
As expected, 999 dodged the blade. Using the swing’s momentum, he vaulted onto the blade itself, launching himself straight at Wemmbu, who threw a wind charge at his feet to quickly evade the attack.
999 quickly retaliated with a wide, arcing slash which drew some blood from Wemmbu’s other arm and shattered the mirror near Egg’s bed.
“Is that it?” Wemmbu cackled heartily, fully prepared for the next attack.
But, before 999 could release another restrained slice, a harsh, cosmic aura surged through the open doorway, freezing all movements within.
Wemmbu had never felt like this before; like all the life within him was constrained to the floorboards, unable to move an inch. Egg’s face had gone deathly pale, and 999, still prepared to attack, hastily drew his sword back, submission evident in his features.
“The Great Plotter wishes to speak with you, he does not like to be kept waiting.”
⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
In the end, Egg was able to subdue Wemmbu enough to begrudgingly follow 999 towards whoever the hell ‘The Great Plotter’ was. Seriously, do people always have to come up with the corniest usernames?
The hallway was quite narrow, but carried a grand presence within its walls nonetheless. Egg and Wemmbu walked together, close behind 999 who confidently yet warily treaded through the long corridor.
After a while, they eventually reached a grandiose doorway, arched and painted purely white. It seemed thick and sturdy, yet whatever lay beyond it made the doors feel far too thin.
999 turned towards them. “Don’t cause any trouble when you’re in there, it’s not worth it.” He looked pointedly at Wemmbu, for obvious reasons. “Be polite, and do not interrupt him when he is speaking. You’ll be lucky to leave with your life intact if you get on his nerves. And don’t even think about starting a fight, Wemmbu.”
Wemmbu seemed a little caught off guard at that. “Wait, how do you even know my name? Where the hell even are we, anyway?”
Without answering any questions, 999 swiftly opened the gates and ushered the pair in.
Upon entering the doorway, Wemmbu immediately collapsed.
It was quite rare recently for Wemmbu to appear at all weak in front of Egg. So it came as a great surprise that he’d barely made it a step into the room before collapsing, almost crashing face-first into the ground if Egg hadn’t caught him.
Egg forced himself to look up, fighting the weakness which had overcome his entire body.
Egg paid no mind to the room dressed in fancy gold and celestial effects. His eyes were trained on the countless beings that occupied the grand space. One glance was enough to send an ache reverberating down his bones, and chattering his teeth. The beings were indescribable —grotesque. Eyes stretched out where arms should be, tentacles stabbing through their own gums. Such creatures could only ever exist within pieces of literature, their very existence defied all that Egg thought he knew about his world.
Yet, sitting prim atop a golden throne in the centre of the room was a man, strangely serene. His appearance resembled that of 999, only tall.
“Child, how is it you persist through the presence of the great Outer Gods?”
The man’s voice echoed through the hall, bouncing off the golden chandeliers which rattled slightly at its impact. Egg’s head felt woozy as he began to feel an overwhelming sensation of nausea.
Hesitantly, he opened his mouth. “What the hell are they?” He tried to sound calm, but the panic in his tone prevailed atop his façade.
The man on the throne smiled a horrid smile. “Do not mind them, they are simply observers. Now, if you don’t want your little friend there to die, I’d suggest you listen to me.”
Egg looked down at Wemmbu, whose expression remained in a purgatory of the peacefulness of sleep, and the pain he’d felt before passing out. He looked back up at the man on the throne. “You are ‘The Great Plotter’, right? Why did you bring us here?”
The Great Plotter’s grin sharpened ever so slightly at Egg’s continued speech. “Since I’m a little impressed with your continued perseverance through the gaze of the Outer Gods, I will answer this one question.” He cleared his throat, an ominous gleam sparkling in his eyes. “I did not bring you here, per se. I simply found you two, adrift and unconscious, in the [STAR STREAM]. You are both lucky that I was the one who found you and not some Great Old One, or you’d likely have been devoured already.”
The [STAR STREAM]? The Great Old Ones? What the hell was this guy on about?
“Due to your… irregular stories, it’s likely that the constraints of probability will not affect you. And as such, there is something I need you to do for me.” Ignoring the confusion etched into Egg’s expression, the Plotter rose from his seat and began approaching the pair. “You will watch the ‘Sole Reader’ and anchor the ‘Puppet of the Oldest Dream’. If I am satisfied with your compliance with my continued requests, I may help you two find your ways back to your own world.”
Egg, unable to hold it back anymore, blurted out: “Wait, what do you mean ‘probability’, ‘stories’, and who even are those people? How are we supposed to do your request when—-“
“Tut tut tut, all will become known soon enough.” The Plotter lifted his hand, long fingers stretched elegantly out. And, in one fell swoop, plucked off one of his fingers. “Do not forget, I am the one who holds the power here, ‘Presence of the Puppet World’.”
Before Egg could question what that meant, everything went black.
⋆⁺₊⋆ ━━━━⊱༒︎ • ༒︎⊰━━━━ ⋆⁺₊⋆
Kim Dokja stared at the system message in front of him. A morbid sensation ran down his spine. Had he strayed that far off from the original story for an entirely new sub scenario to already show up?
[SUB SCENARIO - PRESENCE OF THE PUPPET WORLD
CATEGORY: SUB
DIFFICULTY: ???
CLEAR CONDITION: ???
TIME LIMIT: NONE
REWARD: ???
PENALTY FOR FAILURE: ???]
He had never heard of any ‘Presence of the Puppet World’ before in ‘Three Ways to Survive the Apocalypse’, and it chilled him to think that such an out-of-this-world anomaly could show up this early in the scenarios.
He looked back towards his companions, all of whom were tentatively staring at him, awaiting his response to the situation. Well, all except Yoo Joonghyuk, who was glaring daggers at the large, purple egg sitting innocently in the middle of the streets.
“Are we… supposed to go to it?” Yoo Sangah asked, despite not taking a step forward.
“No, it will hatch by itself.” Kim Dokja replied
At that moment, a deep rumbling shook the companions to their core. The probability radiating from the egg felt far too heavy for the fourth to fifth main scenario. How could the [STAR STREAM] possibly allow something like this?
Just as Kim Dokja began to think he had just hallucinated the whole thing, a large crack suddenly sliced through the hard shell of the egg as light cascaded down its rugged, purple edges. Until, finally, the egg had been hatched.
Enveloped in the embrace of light itself stood two figures. One, with white hair and blue eyes as light as the shine that surrounded them. His eyes covered by small wing-like appendages extending from his ears. And the other, slightly shorter with long, purple, wavy hair and light purple skin, donning dark purple horns and a golden, decorative tiara.
[Constellation Demon-like Judge of Fire is squealing at your fashion sense]
[Constellation Abyssal Black Flame Dragon likes your devil horns]
[Constellation Lily Blooming in Aquarius is enjoying Incarnation Eggchan’s angelic appearance]
After waking up with a pounding headache surrounded by what looked like the freaking sun, having these strange messages blasted right into Wemmbu’s face was really not helping.
As the blinding light faded from his vision, he eventually caught sight of a group of random people gaping at them. Well, one looked like he wanted to snap their necks and another’s face was too blurry to tell from this distance, but that’s beside the point
Noticing Egg beside him, Wemmbu opened his mouth to speak, before faltering after seeing the dead-serious expression which had overtaken his friend’s usually goofy attitude. What had happened after he blacked out for Egg to seem so… stiff?
“Egg, what the hell is going on?” Is what Wemmbu settled on saying, hushed voice to prevent the shocked observers from overhearing.
Egg, finally remembering Wemmbu existed, decided to bless him with an answer. “In short, creepy Harry ‘Potter’ guy is forcing us to watch two people with extremely weird usernames because we don’t belong to this world so we’re like, better, or something.”
Egg had finally lost his mind? Noted.
[Constellation Prisoner of the Golden Headband is disappointed at the censorship]
…What?
Before Wemmbu could respond, he suddenly felt a prickling sensation at the back of his neck. It was a feeling he had learned to utilise over his countless battles; a warning of an incoming attack.
Without hesitation, Wemmbu twisted his body around and clashed sword-on-sword with the man who had been glaring at them earlier. Come to think of it, didn’t he look sort of like 999?
Cutting off that thought, the scowling man in a black coat unleashed a brutal attack. Wemmbu barely dodged it, and shooted out a wind charge at the man’s chest. Which he avoided effortlessly. The man managed a nick of his sword on Wemmbu’s cheek, but it was quickly stitched back together after biting into a golden apple.
The man seemed quite surprised, though. “What? [Way of the Wind]? How do you have that?” This reveal only served to darken the glare in the man’s eyes as he approached Wemmbu once more
When Wemmbu didn’t answer (mostly because he had no idea what that was), the scowling man seemed to punch the air, sending Wemmbu flying backwards, smacking into the wall of a building. Without missing a beat, he threw an ender pearl out and struck it with a wind charge, teleporting him into the sky above the man’s head. Now at a perfect angle, Wemmbu adjusted his body and came down soaring, his mace, Gambit, in his grip. He swung his arms back and brought the mace crashing down onto the man’s head and—
THUD
His mace connected with the hard ground.
The man, at the last second had evaded his mace attack so quickly Wemmbu hadn’t even seen him move.
The impact of the blow had caused the man to go flying into a wall, too, yet he had somehow landed on his feet as if he were the protagonist of a novel.
Just as the two were preparing to charge once more, two voices sounded out from two directions
“Wemmbu, stop.”
“Yoo Joonghyuk, stop.”
Very reluctantly, the two held back.
The slightly blurry-faced man donning a white version of the scowling man’s coat cautiously approached Wemmbu and Egg, hands raised slightly in an implication of peace. He seemed friendly enough, but something about him just felt off, as if he were playing a role he already knew the outcome of. “I’m not going to attack you, I just want you to answer some questions. Could you?”
Wemmbu glanced over his shoulder at the scowling man who was, well, scowling at them. Could he really trust a friend of the guy who literally just tried to kill him?
“Well, first, answer ours then. Who the hell are you people?” Egg responded almost instantly, a somewhat threatening tone creeping in. Wemmbu was sort of impressed.
The blurry man seemed to contemplate his answer for a second. “My name is Kim Dokja. The man you just fought is Yoo Joonghyuk. The others behind me… are our companions.” Kim Dokja spoke with a careful and slow, yet restless tone, as if there was something weighing on him he couldn’t wait to ask. “Those skills… How are you able to use them? What are they?”
Wemmbu furrowed his brows. “Skills? I dont’t… No. Why should we even tell you anything?” He growled, expression hardening. “You have given us literally no reason to trust you. Now, where are we?”
Visibly disappointed, Dokja sighed, placing a finger on his chin. “You’re on Earth, in Seoul. Consider yourself a returnee. At least tell me which world you come from?”
As Wemmbu was about to respond, a message suddenly cut him off.
[The Star Stream has deemed Incarnations Wemmbu and Eggchan exempt from the standards of the scenario]
[Incarnations Wemmbu and Eggchan have caught the attention of the Great Old Ones]
[Constellations of the Absolute Good alignment are in shock]
Kim Dokja’s eyes seemed to darken immensely at this progression, as if he were something omniscient encountering a situation he could never have expected. Yoo Joonghyuk, too, turned to look at them quickly as if seeing them for the first time once more.
Wemmbu decided to break the heavy silence. “What? What the heck is a ‘Great Old One’?”
For some reason, Egg seemed to have a little bit of recognition in his eyes, as if he’d heard the name somewhere before, at least in passing. He’d have to ask him about that later.
“Who are you two? Seriously.” Kim Dokja breathed, he seemed intensely weary, as if something was soon going to happen.
[The Great Old Ones are gazing at you]
A crushing sensation weighed on the backs of everyone within their near vicinity, and everything went black.