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TL: ALT
Chapter 114 – Hallucination Theory, Broken?
――Yes.
It’s a common development in the final stages of RPGs and the like.
In order to gain the power to defeat the final boss, the protagonists go through trials presented by gods or spirits.
During the trials, the protagonists are forced to have traumatic experiences or, on the other hand, pleasant dreams in which all their wishes are fulfilled.
If they do not wake up from the hallucination, they will be swallowed by the trauma or dream and will not be able to return.
Of course, the game’s protagonist and his friends never fail the trials and cannot return.
They regain their consciousness during the trials, realize their true desires, and return safely to their original world.
This kind of development is common, perhaps because it is a universal theme for human beings or perhaps simply because it is a convenient training session before the final boss.
――I suppose I am in the same situation now.
If that’s the case, then the way out of this situation must be the same as the game’s formula, right?
In other words, as long as I realize that “this is not real,” the process can be over.
So I shouted out loud with all my might, angry and a little smug, that I had been subjected to this.
But,
“…Nothing happens.”
After waiting a good dozen seconds, I mumbled awkwardly.
I yelled with all the strength I could muster, thinking I’d been spotted, but I hoped some class somewhere in the middle of a lesson didn’t hear me…
If they did, I’d be more than embarrassed.
“W-what does that mean…?”
It would have been perfectly logical.
I didn’t expect anything to happen.
“…You mean there’s a special end condition?”
Is it possible to get some kind of power in this world?
“No. Is it possible that the theory that it was a hallucination for the trials in the first place is wrong…?”
There was something strange about it, wasn’t there?
When I say weird, I don’t mean the thing I’ve been feeling all the time since this morning, but weird in the normal sense.
“That God created this trial…but it seems too out of character.”
God said she would build an easy dungeon to give me a bonus.
A deal, so to speak.
She didn’t say at the time that the dungeon was some kind of “hallucinatory trial.”
And the “hallucination” is exactly what my trauma is about.
It may be a fitting trial, in a sense, but would this benevolent God do such a thing in a deceptive way?
“Well, when you say it’s a trial to be overcome, I can’t help but agree…”
And by the way, there would have been no need to include the “I built a simple dungeon” deception.
I forgot about the “deception” itself until a few minutes ago.
It would be the same if I had told them the truth correctly, but they forgot.
“To begin with, I don’t remember entering the Dungeon of Trials.”
Prevent the dungeon from collapsing.
Kudave raised the battle cry of victory.
God’s call to the shrine.
Returning to the dungeon when the reward is mentioned.
God tries to use the void to build a trial dungeon.
But it fails.
Return to the dungeon.
Talk to Serika.
Riding my bike home from the Black Swan Forest Water Park.
The national road at midnight.
When I got home, I realized that my bike was the one I used to ride to school in high school.
My mother’s face was younger than I remembered as she fell asleep in the living room.
After returning to my room, I took off my high school uniform.
“It seems like an unbroken line, doesn’t it?”
I would still know if I had entered the entrance portal of the dungeon.
It is common in the final dungeon of RPGs for the inside of the dungeon to reflect my mental world.
This world is not a game, but it seems to have been “translated” to fit the game culture.
If God made this dungeon for me, it’s only natural that I would have to overcome the trauma.
“I guess when I got home I was almost the ‘me’ of this world.”
The phone I saw in bed seemed strangely tacky to me because I was still conscious of my original world.
It’s no wonder that the newest phones I had in high school look old-fashioned to me now.
“The national road was… how was it?”
The roadside chain stores are pretty much always changing.
The first time I went to the Water Park Dungeon after breaking out of my shut-in state, I was surprised to see new restaurants and home improvement stores along the national road.
But I was tired last night, and it was late and dark on the side of the road.
“Isn’t this the kind of thing where you suddenly lose consciousness and find yourself in another world?”
Where is the turning point?
When I talked to Serika on the phone, I must still have been in my original world.
“Oh, and then I fall asleep?”
The Karakuri UFO was surprisingly unshaken, and outside the canopy was a starry sky.
Listening to Serika’s voice, soothing to my ears, I fell asleep and…
“Huh? But then Gennai woke me up, didn’t he?”
Karakuri Doctor Gennai, whom I summoned through Summon Secret Monsters, woke me up by shaking me after he landed the UFO in the parking lot of the water park.
If I had come to this world at that time, there was no way I could have used Summon Secret Monster.
And to begin with, this high school magic swordsman over here didn’t have the Karakuri Doctor as his companion.
“Hmm… I don’t know exactly at what point. It’s more of a gradual… transition from the me of the original world to the me of this world.”
But even in that case, there must be a point at which it can be said with certainty that up to that point, it was 100% me in the original world.
“I was definitely me in the original world when I prevented the Okutama Lake Dungeon from collapsing. It was also the time when God created the dungeon for the trials.”
When I think about this, I remember a certain scene.
God, who was building the dungeon, suddenly raised her voice and tried to warn me about something.
I think it was…
“Mhm, this is…! No, Yuto! Immediately…”
“Yes, that’s it!”
But what I remember right after that is the scene where God apologizes for failing to create a dungeon.
Obviously, the flow of the story is wrong, isn’t it?
But then,
“…it looks like things are more chaotic than I thought.”
God tried to create a dungeon just for me, using the void as the raw material.
But it failed because of an accident.
Immediately after that, I was seamlessly replaced from the me of the original world to the me of this world.
I felt uncomfortable in places, but for some reason, I didn’t want to delve into the discomfort at that time.
By the time I got home, the replacement was almost complete, and when I woke up the next morning, there was only minor discomfort left.
Other than the discomfort… yes, the Anti-Poison Earrings Serika gave me were still equipped.
But the rest of the equipment is gone.
It’s not impossible that it’s in my Item Box, but I can’t use the Item Box skill at the moment.
“I can’t use it… right?”
I try to use the Item Box in the sense of the original world, but there is… no response.
“Just as I thought.”
Then the question becomes,
“…What is this world?”
The line of hallucination as a trial prepared by God has not yet been completely ruled out.
But it seems that God herself, who was trying to prepare the dungeon, had an accident.
Even if it was a trial, there is a high possibility that it was different from what God intended.
At least, I’m sure it’s not a naive thing like what I tried earlier, where once I realize, “This is a hallucination,” it clears up.
“There are several possibilities. First, I could be hallucinating for the sake of the trials, and I just didn’t meet the conditions for clearing.”
If that’s true, then I have to find a way to clear it that isn’t mentioned.
It is not enough to realize that it is a hallucination; I have to do something in the hallucination.
But… in this “hallucination” that is so real that it could be mistaken for reality, am I supposed to search for the conditions without any clues?
That’s pretty crazy, isn’t it?
“But it’s still a better possibility, isn’t it?”
It’s a prediction that I don’t want to come true if possible, but… my feeling is that it’s more likely.
In other words,
“…The possibility that this world isn’t a hallucination.”
I said earlier that the hallucination is “so real that it could pass for reality.
Yes, it is very real.
This world, which has seamlessly replaced the original world, is completely indistinguishable from the original world in terms of the reality I feel on my skin.
It is common in a dream to be unaware that you are dreaming.
But the sensations in a dream are completely different from those in reality.
Just because it is difficult to realize that you are dreaming does not mean that it is impossible to distinguish the sensations peculiar to dreams from those of reality.
I’ve never had a lucid dream, but I’ve heard that there are people who do.
“Well, if they say it is a hallucination including the sense of reality, there is no way to deny it…”
But if you start saying that, you may have to question not only this world but also the “reality” of the original world.
The original world was also a “crazy modern world” where dungeons have suddenly become the order of the day.
“Yes, the problem is that this would have been reality.”
That is, when this was reality, that is when this was a different world from the original world.
It is possible that this world is also real, apart from the original world.
“Is it possible that… this is a parallel world, or a world line, or something like that?”
If that is the case, then my situation is pretty bad.
If I were accidentally sent to a parallel world at that time, it would be incredibly difficult to find a way to return to the original world.
The game was not designed to be so friendly that I would be able to return automatically if I fulfilled the conditions for clearing the game.
Besides, the accident was something that even God, who was there, could not handle.
In order to return to the original world, it is necessary to ask for the help of at least one god-like being.
“Wait a minute. Oh, that’s the way to do it.”
God is the reason I’m in this situation in the first place.
At least God had something to do with it.
And according to my memory of this world, there is a God in this world.
“I should go and see God.”
But the God of this world seems to be a little different from the God I know…