I am cooked
"Hey, how ya doin man?"
"What's good, Lan? Feels like it's been a lifetime since I saw you."
My friend shot me a confused look, but still smiled and dapped me up.
Perhaps if it were the real world, I'd already be strangling him, demanding an answer.
But since it was my memory, replaying the events exactly as they were felt natural.
Lan was someone I had known since my teenage years, when I would run away from home and get up to no good.
Which is why it hurt me to think that he was the one who killed me.
We made some idle chit chat after meeting in the parking lot in front of the club.
It all felt a little hazy, as I was mindlessly repeating what I had said in my own memory.
This was a world made from my own mind, so it was probably more comfortable to simply go through what my mind had already experienced.
We skipped the line to the entrance.
The bouncers looked at us for only a moment before letting us in.
'This kind of feeling... well, being in organised crime had its upsides, I guess.'
We blatanly walked past the metal detectors, which was a good thing for me.
I was carrying a submachine gun and a pistol, and Lan was almost certainly carrying a pistol on him as well.
"You know the owner or somethin'? They let us go by easy."
I asked my friend with a little curiosity in my voice.
"Yeah, he owes me a few favors here and there, y'know?"
I couldn't help but smile.
He was the type of guy to brag when given the chance, wasn't he?
Looking around the club, it felt strange seeing the modern world again.
Neon lights, people dancing, music blaring.
I wouldn't call myself a party guy, but I couldn't help but resent that my new world was so far in the past.
'Would the dwarves even have something like this? They are supposed to be a thousand years ahead of the rest of the world after all...'
As the night moved on, I drank with Lan and we mingled with women.
I played as per my memory's script normally, but I was constantly on high alert.
When I drank, I made sure to only drink the smallest amount, pouring my drink on the floor when given the chance.
I rested my hand on my waist, ready to pull out a weapon the moment I felt a threat.
The woman I had been speaking to asked me if anything was wrong, clearly noticing that I was a bit jumpy.
Lan quickly interjected before I could speak for myself, trying to 'save' me.
"Ah, he's just a bit shy's all~ Oi, drink up #####, you gotta loosen up, man!"
It was late past midnight before we decided to leave.
Due to my cold attitude, the woman from the club did not want to go home with me, which I was fine with.
I had still felt nothing wrong yet.
"Ay, sorry about the girl, I'll get a prettier one for you next time, right?"
"Yeah, just go home, you're piss drunk anyway."
Rather than walking to my car, I waited for Lan to go into his and leave by himself.
I watched him enter with the woman he was taking home, and he sped off.
'It wasn't him.'
Throughout the whole night, he had never once shown anything to trigger my suspicion.
And now, I had just seen him drive off, he had not even tried to convince me to go first.
'Well, I guess it could still be him, could've just lured me here and have someone else do the job.'
I had looked around all night, but I did not see anyone looking at me.
Even as I stood outside in the cold, I constantly looked around to see if anyone was tailing me or keeping an eye on me.
"Too many fucking people..."
Everyone in the club was leaving, so the parking lot was pretty full.
Any one of them could have been the person who killed me.
I had to wonder who was so confident to shoot me with this many people around.
'...Well, its guaranteed to be one of them, right?'
A dark thought entered my mind.
It's not like these people are real to begin with, right?
They're just figments of my imagination, memories.
If I killed all of them, wouldn't the one who killed me also be take care of?
It was a forceful approach, but I felt it could work.
Lighting a cigarette, I took a puff.
"Okay, let's do this."
I took cover behind a car in a position where I could see everyone.
Bringing out my submachinegun, I started gunning down everyone in sight.
Rather than screaming and bleeding, upon being shot, they would disappear into a cloud of smoke.
'Hm.'
It was odd, but perhaps this was a sign I was doing the correct thing.
Nobody reacted at the sound of gunshots, simply going towards their car as if nothing was wrong.
I could only guess it was something to do with the fact that this was all a memory.
Getting up from my cover, I continued my 'massacre', although it could hardly be called that.
Everyone turned into clouds of smoke, and by the time I had emptied all my magazines, including the one in my pistol, there was nobody left.
Literally, nobody.
I checked around everywhere I could, but I had turned everyone in and outside the club into a puff of smoke.
'Shouldn't it be over?'
By this logic, I had to have 'confronted' my murderer.
There were a few sketchy looking people amongst the ones I had shot, so perhaps it was them.
"Fucking bullshit."
I threw my empty gun to the ground and smoked another cigarette.
I leaned against the hood of a car and looked up to the moon.
"Alright, just come out then, whoever the hell you are!"
As I shouted in frustration, I felt a chill enter my body.
I was being watched.
It was a feeling beyond what I experienced when being stalked by my master.
'I have to go, right now.'
Whatever the hell it was, it was beyond me.
I ran towards my car, but the air felt heavy.
It was as if everything in the world had become still except for me.
"No, what the fuck?"
As soon as I touched my car, it turned into a puff of smoke.
I stared at the position where my car once was with my jaw hung open.
'...It's getting closer.'
I had no bullets left, having wasted them earlier.
My hand to hand skills weren't bad, but I knew that they weren't going to work.
Running towards another car, I immediately prepared to smash the window, but as soon as I made contact, it to, disappeared.
In that moment, an indescribable pressure washed over me.
I really, really did not want to turn around.
I desparately wished that I could somehow use magic, but I found myself unable to.
Begging for mercy...
'Damn, fuck it.'
I turned around, taking my empty gun ready to pistolwhip whatever was behind me.
But the moment I turned around, I was brought up into the air.
I dropped my gun, my eyes shaking in horror.
"W-what?"
I closed my eyes.
I did not care that my heart had been pierced.
I did not care that this was a trial, or a memory.
I did not care about advancing to the third layer.
I just didn't want to look at the thing in front of me.
No human could possibly face that thing.
[Quest: Small Enlightenment has been cleared]
[The host has gained a minor enlightenment regarding their death!]
[Congratulations! The magic stat has increased from Layer 2 (Highest) to Layer 3 (Lowest)]
[System skill 'analysis' has received an upgrade! The host may analyse sentient beings to a limited extent!]
[Elemental affinities have awoken!]
LOG 22 - UNAVAILABLE
