I Became A Ghost In A Horror Game-Chapter 116: The Little Mermaid – Octopus Witch

[The winner of the contest is Ariel!]

Waaaah! Clap clap clap!

The moment I entered Ariel’s mental landscape, a roar of thunderous applause and cheers slammed into my ears.

The sight of a huge crowd celebrating her victory was surprisingly overwhelming.

Standing proudly on stage, she shouted out in joy at her achievement.

“Wow~! Thank you, everyone! With all this love and support, I’ll become the greatest singer ever! Though I’m sorry for the others who lost because of my incredible vocal talent, I hope you all find your own paths~”

God, Ariel was so damn insufferable back then.

Look at that smug attitude.

I wanted to smack the back of her head right then and there.

Still, the atmosphere in this place was unbearably festive.

Jack, Pinocchio, Red Riding Hood, Peter Pan.

All of their pasts were dark—grim, even.

But Ariel? She said she won the in-game contest fair and square with her singing and escaped.

She claimed there was no hardship involved. Was she actually telling the truth?

“Sniff! Hearing such a beautiful song in this lifetime... I can die without regrets now!”

“Senpai! You’re amazing as always!”

“You’re the best~!”

“Ufufufu... Ahahahahaha!”

Ariel giggled shamelessly as she was drowned in a wave of praise intense enough to make one dizzy.

It was getting hard to keep watching.

I barely restrained myself, gritting my teeth internally.

“You’re incredible, Ariel. You really cleared the game flawlessly.”

“Ah... It’s you.”

Mephistopheles appeared beside Ariel as if he had teleported.

He looked exactly the same as when I was still human... No, wait. That’s not right.

That guy was never this handsome.

Does the mirror distort memories too?

How interesting.

Anyway, Ariel glanced him up and down, then blurted something completely out of the blue.

“I fell in love with you at first sight.”

Love can appear suddenly, like fate... but isn’t this straight out of Romeo and Juliet?

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Ariel once told Jack that love was blind and irrational, and now I understood why she said that.

But Mephistopheles didn’t return her sparkly-eyed affection.

“I’m sorry, Ariel. There’s someone else I need to focus on. I don’t have time for something like love.”

“Who is it? Whoever it is, I’ll make you love me!”

...This was really Ariel’s past?

She seriously won the contest and got out of the game without any struggle?

This is pathetic.

Falling for someone at first sight and selfishly using everyone around you?

I didn’t think she was that kind of person... But something about this scene didn’t sit right.

First: we’re not being shown how she won the contest.

Red Riding Hood’s past started at the beginning, but here we’re only being shown the ending.

Second: I’ve been trying to rewind further into the past using the mirror, but it’s not working.

[The winner of the contest is Ariel!]

Again.

[The winner of the contest is—]

Again.

[The winner of the—]

Again.

[The winner of the contest, please come up to the stage!]

The phrasing changed slightly, but again!

Again! Again! Again!

Stubbornly, I kept digging into the past.

It must be Ariel herself resisting.

Should I go back and weaken her further? That thought crossed my mind when—

On the last attempt, the scene changed completely.

Two girls were talking in a different setting.

“Sis. If you succeed, how will you live?”

“Hmm, maybe like a dragon—free, noble, looking down on everyone from above?”

“Ugh... You’re gross.”

Crack—!

“...!”

A fracture appeared in Ariel’s mental world.

Dangerous.

Shatter!

I was thrown out of the mirror, and the one I’d used on Ariel burst into pieces.

Then, I felt something ominous rising from Ariel.

Not that her power grew stronger, but it felt denser, more concentrated.

The atmosphere shifted entirely as Ariel looked at me with venom in her eyes.

“...I didn’t think your mirror could dig this deep.”

Her hair had grown longer, and her wings had transformed.

What once resembled weightless liquid with no definite form had now solidified into unmistakably octopus-like limbs.

So those were the hidden wings of the Little Mermaid... Even Jack’s eyes widened at the sight.

“Ariel?”

“You sealed your own memories, didn’t you?”

I spoke with certainty, and the Ariel in this new mood nodded slowly.

“And that whole thing about being in love—that was a lie, wasn’t it?”

Jack turned to me like I was speaking nonsense.

She did all this because of love, so what do I mean it was a lie?

Honestly, it was just a hunch.

But I was right.

Because Ariel confirmed it.

“That’s right. I never loved that man.”

“Then what the hell was your goal?”

I asked, and Ariel answered nonchalantly.

Revealing her true intention.

“I want destruction. So I created the memory of loving Mephistopheles myself.

The moment I first saw him, I knew. That following him would bring destruction to whoever tried.”

She wanted destruction?

I thought she was a girl driven mad by love, but she was just plain insane.

Even Jack didn’t know how to respond... No, there must be a reason she desires her own ruin.

“Ah~ Just imagine. Drowning while chasing a man who would never love me back. Isn’t that the most tragic, perfect end?”

“I’d rather not imagine that. I’m going to stop you right here.”

“Yeah? Fine by me, I’m not picky.

Killing you and stealing your power to chase after him would be more dramatic, but if I die here... I’ll accept that too.”

Ariel readjusted her spear.

At the same time, the water Jack had once absorbed with his plants started flooding back in.

It wasn’t that Jack withdrew his power.

Ariel’s strength now surpassed his.

“But if you don’t want to get swept up in my destruction, you’d better stay sharp!”

This time, along with the surging tide, an inky black cloud spread across the ceiling like octopus ink.

Rain poured down in torrents.

I shouted to the kids—

“Set sail again! This time, it won’t be easy!”

The ghost ship launched again, and I turned to Jack.

Told him this would have to be the real deal.

Jack clenched his fist in determination.

“Why am I so sad—

I don’t even know why.

There’s an old tale passed down from long ago—

And it won’t leave my heart.”

Ariel began to sing.

And I realized her song was causing physical effects.

Once she finished, something big would hit.

So I had to prepare.

I used the mirror to create phantoms of everyone currently here.

Not through any anomaly, but by exploiting my inherent mirror-based ability—much harder to do.

Ariel dismissed my action as pointless misdirection.

“Alice. I’ll use the plants to absorb all this water flooding in, or else we’ll all drown. But I won’t be able to use any restraining vines.”

“I’ll keep creating phantoms. I can’t make any monsters for now. So that means—”

Jack and I spoke in unison.

“Close-quarters combat it is!”

As long as I had Jack—whose physical strength was unmatched—by my side, we’d be fine even without conjuring anomalies.

We flew straight up and clashed with Ariel mid-air as she came after us.

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

Jack’s axe.

My knife.

Ariel’s trident clashed against them at the same time.

Clang! — and it was Jack and I who were pushed back.

Assessing the power in that instant, we changed tactics.

Jack would engage her head-on, while I struck from the side for a critical blow.

And if things got dicey...

“Fire!”

“!”

The kids launched a cannon strike for support.

Even when hit directly in the face, Ariel stood unharmed.

Scoffing at our efforts, she spun her weapon and sent Jack flying before beginning a special attack.

“A tragedy where hearts miss each other.”

When hearts miss, it becomes conflict—and that conflict leads to tragedy.

The first stage was physical separation.

As Ariel paused her singing and uttered those words, the ghost ship carrying the children split into four separate vessels.

Kyung-min tried to connect them with chains to keep them from drifting apart, but piranhas emerged from the water and bit through them.

Separated, the kids would struggle to deal with Ariel’s summoned sea monsters attacking from below...

“Ugh!”

“The cheers are cold, the gazes are cruel—

A sea of blood flows silently,

And the spotlight shines dazzlingly

From atop the peak.”

The Little Mermaid resumed her song.

I understood what that last attack had been.

It bothered me how much she seemed to grow stronger with that “tragedy” keyword—and sure enough, I was right.

Fate Manipulation.

The more Ariel sang, the more the flow of fate twisted into tragedy.

“The fairest maiden in the world—

Sat enraptured upon the stage,

Soaking in the gray applause

As she combed her red hair.”

“The ships are splitting!”

“We can’t chain them back together! We need something that can take out the piranhas in the sea!”

The kids scrambled to assess the situation. Ha-rim pulled an artifact from her bag.

Items already drawn out can still be used, even without going through the mirror.

What she grabbed was... yes! Ilveli’s nametag!

It’s underwater—perfect choice.

“Everyone, shout it! Taumafiskur!”

The children chanted the name in unison.

A general term for the whale monsters from Icelandic folklore—Ilveli.

Among them, Taumafiskur was known to be savage, merciless, and above all, would always kill the one who spoke its name.

There were four who spoke the name.

And now, four Taumafiskurs surged forward toward the children—

Fighting off the other sea monsters along the way!

While they were engaged, Kyung-min took out another chain.

Of course—the reason they couldn’t link the ships before was because of the sea monsters trailing each boat.

Now that those monsters were occupied, he used a second set of pursuers to cancel them out.

With the chains secure, the children’s ships reconnected into one unified ghost ship.

“Perfect!”

“Nice! Fire again!”

As the cannons fired, the opening created by Ariel deflecting them didn’t go to waste—we launched a successful strike.

At the same time, Jack’s axe succeeded in slicing off Ariel’s arm.

“Fufufu... It just regenerates on its own. What a shame.”

Her arm regrew.

Same for me, but seriously—these demons are a pain to take down!

“She sang a song—

Strange and wondrous was its melody.

Those who heard it were swallowed by uncontrollable grief,

And cast into the depths of ruin.”

In no time, the song had nearly reached its end.

Jack gave me a signal.

Are you serious?

He nodded.

“The waves at last swallowed the man—

A deed committed by Lorelei, through her song.”

The song ended. Fate was sealed.

The reality-warping ability activated—and everything around us would now launch fatal attacks.

The water turned malicious—becoming acid, lava, and radioactive sludge.

The sea monsters, once simply strong, now transformed into beasts rivaling Krakens, rushing us in droves.

At that moment, Jack reclaimed all the energy he’d spent to lower the water level, and stood boldly at the center of the oncoming onslaught.

Huff!

Jack’s beanstalk had another keyword—absorption.

Just like how he once absorbed the evil black ink, now he drew in all the surrounding malice, compressed it—

And birthed a fruit of evil.

But evil doesn’t disappear. That fruit itself became an attack—

And pierced Jack through.

He collapsed.

Through the blur, I saw Ariel’s eyes waver.

“Alice... Ariel helped me when I was alone...”

So please... make sure to save her.

“I will.”

With that, Jack lost consciousness.

Ariel stood there in silence... then laughed.

But I could read her.

Seeing Jack so gravely wounded hurt her—

And she seemed to believe that pain suited her own tragic narrative.

Ariel’s reality manipulation hadn’t ended.

We’d only stopped one strike.

“That’s enough.”

And still, I met her eyes, declaring the end of this fight.

“I’ve fought someone who used similar powers before. Like the Machine God. Those who meddle with others’ fates at will... I can’t stand them.”

“...?”

So then, how should someone like that be punished?

My answer was incredibly simple.

Let them taste it themselves.

“This looping space isn’t something only you can use.”

Ariel had strengthened herself using the converging nature of the repeating space.

But that also meant I could use it too.

“Why do you think I created illusions of us in this repeating room? I’ll carve the answer into your body.”

This was a ritual—one to summon a very special anomaly.

The more ridiculous the condition, the more metaphor and deception were needed to trigger it.

This space—we were already in a room of repeated scenery.

Like reflections between facing mirrors in an elevator, creating endless copies.

That’s why I added our illusions into the mix—

To make it all unmistakably mirror-like.

“Reflections in a mirror move almost identically, but they always have slight errors—imperceptible differences. After all, reflections are formed by light bouncing off a surface, so they’re always a tiny step behind the original.”

The mirror holds our very recent past.

“If mirrors repeat infinitely, those slight gaps become much more defined.”

Reflections form. Then more reflections. More and more.

If they continued forever, then beyond them would lie a definite version of our past.

On the right side.

So then—what would be on the left?

Ruuummmbllee...

If the room we’re standing in is just another reflection, then we are also reflections of the past.

If the right side is our past, then naturally, the left must be our future.

That would mean the future is already determined.

Ariel looked at the illusions I’d made.

The ones she had passed while chasing us this entire time.

Then realized—

even on the left side of the room, there were illusions continuing onward.

Ones I hadn’t even created yet.

That’s when Ariel understood.

She’d already been caught in a supernatural phenomenon I had invoked.

Ruuummmbllee...

Something was coming—from the future.

The gate had been completed.

“Its time flows in reverse. And it even distorts time itself.”

It’s coming.

From the mirror of the future.

The white monster.

“I exploited the nature of this special space to make it ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) count as a loophole.

It’s significantly degraded, but it’ll be enough to deal with you.”

The fear of the future. Terror of fate. Inevitable ruin.

Those who live within the bounds of time all fear this anomaly.

I call this being—

[The White Queen].

[Kyaaaaaaaaahhh—!!!]

The moment she appeared, the White Queen shook her head and screamed.

Her overwhelming presence and bizarre behavior froze everyone in place.

“She’s terrifying!”

“She’s way scarier than the other anomalies!”

Before Ariel could even react properly, gashes and trident wounds appeared all over the White Queen’s body.

Each time a new injury manifested, the White Queen let out a shriek so piercing that even I tensed up.

“Why is she getting hurt?”

[Ahahahahahahahahaha!]

Eun-jung asked, but before I could answer, the White Queen broke into crazed laughter.

I summoned her myself, yet I couldn’t keep calm.

“...Because she tried to tamper with fate—meaning, she tried to manipulate the future. That’s what triggered the White Queen’s power. Her ability is to receive all the damage of the future in advance. That’s why she screamed.”

“What’s the point of taking the damage ahead of time...?”

“...! I get it now.”

As Kyung-min muttered, Ha-rim answered in his place.

Smart girl.

“She absorbed all the damage she would’ve taken in the future, but the White Queen didn’t collapse... That means, from this moment forward, no matter what attack hits her, she won’t be hurt!”

“So that means... the White Queen’s victory is already locked in?”

She suffered in advance. She screamed in advance.

And she also laughed in advance.

This meant the White Queen had already won.

Cause and effect.

If you try to rewrite the future, you’d better be ready to get rewritten.

[Ahahahaha!]

“Tragedy is...!”

Shatter!

When Ariel tried to manipulate fate again, the attempt failed outright and broke apart.

The White Queen did absolutely nothing—

she simply lounged in place, lazy and arrogant, laughing silently.

Then, she pulled out a clock, pointed to it, and murmured:

Ding... Ding... Ding... Ding... Ding...

“...!”

Ariel realized it.

The moment that machine’s hand struck twelve, it would all be over.

She threw everything she had at the White Queen—every trick, every attack.

But the injuries didn’t increase.

And even as she was assaulted, the White Queen’s expression remained serene.

“This is...”

The power of royalty—

A strength belonging only to a very special kind of anomaly.

DING!

[Preordained Ruin]

“KYAAAAAAA!!!”

As the clock’s hand struck twelve, Ariel was struck by an incomprehensible, formless attack—

and collapsed instantly.

The White Queen opened her wide mouth and tried to bite into Ariel’s lower half.

“Desummon!”

The White Queen retreated, her desire-filled gaze fixated on me.

Phew. That was close.

If she’d eaten me just now, forget being a demon—

I would’ve been plain, ordinary dead.

I approached Ariel’s unconscious body.

This time, she wouldn’t be able to reject the mirror.

Like I said before,

we came here not for the angel—

but to save you.

For Jack’s sake, we’re going to bring you back.

I just hope...

the part of you that trembled when you struck Jack wasn’t a lie.

Once again,

I brought the mirror up to Ariel.