Chapter 108

THOOM—!

Entangled with Cha Si-eon, I flew nearly 3m and hit a wall.

No, what struck my head was not a wall, but a bookshelf.

A massive bookshelf packed tightly with books.

Why suddenly……?

Blankly, I looked around.

“Huh……?”

Before and behind me, there truly were bookshelves of vast scale.

Like a space infinitely expanding inside facing mirrors, they were bookshelves with no visible end.

Is this a Special Zone?

Was I dragged into another Special Zone right before being crushed to death by the siren?

I tried to examine the surroundings properly, then flinched in surprise.

There was no floor here to stand on.

The bookshelf my back was against continued infinitely not only sideways, but also up and down.

So right now, my feet were floating in empty air.

“Do not move carelessly.”

When I flailed, Cha Si-eon, who was in front of me, spoke.

“If you make a mistake, you may be pushed somewhere it will be difficult to return from.”

At those words, I turned my body and grabbed the bookshelf.

Then I took off the half-broken helmet.

“Team Leader, this place is…….”

“It is 「Circulating Library」. It seems that when Mr. Seo Do-un was pulled here, I moved along with you.”

---

Route D. Take Refuge in the Special Zone 「Circulating Library」

「Circulating Library」 is, like the relevant zone, a zone under special management.

If escape from this place is not feasible, you may take refuge in 「Circulating Library」.

However, there is no guarantee that taking refuge in 「Circulating Library」 will improve the situation from where it currently stands.

「Circulating Library」 is a danger zone where you may lose your way and wander forever.

Therefore, judge and decide carefully.

The resulting outcome and responsibility are entirely yours.

---

「Circulating Library」.

A Pending-grade Special Zone with the extremely rare characteristic of being connected to other Special Zones.

That was why, in places such as 「Railway Station Where the Siren Sounds」, 「National Theater That Roots Out the Fake」, and 「Island Where Blood Falls」, “taking refuge in 「Circulating Library」” was sometimes recommended when escape was not feasible.

That meant this 「Library」 was safer than the Special Zones listed above.

Realizing that I had survived death, I exhaled a long, long breath.

When I touched my forehead, it was soaked with cold sweat.

Just now, I had nearly been crushed to death.

Twice, at that.

Why? Was the siren in 「Railway Station」 not supposed to sound on a 47-minute cycle?

But it had sounded twice in a row, and both times, it had aimed for me.

No, before that.

“When we were dragged into 「Railway Station」, we did not move together.”

At that survival game field, Cha Si-eon and I had been at least 5 or 6 steps apart.

Our bodies had not been connected by a cord or anything like that either.

“And it seemed Team Leader was pulled in before me. Is that correct?”

“That is correct. I flowed into 「Railway Station」 first, and approximately 20 seconds later, Mr. Seo Do-un followed in.”

And then we were both moved to 「Circulating Library」?

It was not as if someone had dipped us in and pulled us out by mistake, so what on earth is this situation?

And why Cha Si-eon? No, how?

Confused, I looked at Cha Si-eon.

Then I found blood flowing from his forehead.

“Team Leader, your forehead is bleeding.”

Cha Si-eon wiped his forehead with his hand and confirmed the blood.

Then he said, as if it were nothing,

“It seems I was injured when the helmet broke.”

Come to think of it, Cha Si-eon was not wearing a helmet.

Even from when he pushed me out in 「Railway Station」.

“Your helmet broke?”

“The siren sounded once before Mr. Seo Do-un entered 「Railway Station」.”

Then that means the siren sounded three times in a row.

Had the 47-minute rule completely disappeared?

“At that time, the siren’s crushing descended over me, and my helmet broke then.”

“But how are you unharmed?”

“Right before my neck broke, Mr. Seo Do-un entered. At that moment, the crushing stopped, and the siren sounded again.”

Cha Si-eon spoke calmly while massaging the back of his neck.

No, why is he speaking so calmly about his neck nearly breaking?

That aside…….

“And after that, I began being crushed.”

“That is correct. It seems the siren tried to kill me, then changed its target to Mr. Seo Do-un.”

“…….”

What on earth is this absurd story?

The siren had been killing Cha Si-eon, but when I appeared, it left Cha Si-eon alone and tried to kill me first?

Why?

Since when did we have that kind of grudge relationship?

“I do not understand the situation at all right now. Why were you dragged into 「Railway Station」 in the first place, Team Leader? By any chance, are you also like me…….”

“No, that is not it.”

“……?”

“In my case, it must be a side effect related to the blinded agent.”

This meant Agent Lee Seop.

The side effect was the phenomenon of being dragged into 「Railway Station」 if one directly mentioned Lee Seop or dug too deeply into materials related to him.

“In truth, I heard something similar to a siren sound at the pension yesterday as well.”

“Yesterday, you mean when the kids were playing with fireworks?”

“Yes.”

So that was why he had pressed my head down onto the wooden platform.

“Until yesterday, I thought it was a mistake, but right before this, I heard a siren sound too. After that, I was dragged into 「Railway Station」.”

Cha Si-eon spoke as if fitting together the puzzle pieces in his head.

“The siren sounding repeatedly earlier is also a phenomenon that occurs when our employees enter 「Railway Station」. If a person connected to the Bureau enters 「Railway Station」, the siren continues to sound and crushes people related to the Bureau first.”

Yes, I had heard this.

「Railway Station」 was not particularly difficult to solve, but Bureau agents could not enter it.

Because they died the moment they set foot in 「Railway Station」.

If one was connected to the Bureau, it was the same for convicts or contaminated people.

That was why 「Railway Station」 was an inaccessible zone where the Bureau could do nothing but monitor.

“Is this because we mentioned that person yesterday?”

I asked, half in doubt.

As it happened, at the point when Cha Si-eon said he heard the siren sound yesterday, we had been talking about Agent Lee Seop.

“No. It probably is not. We did not directly mention his name, and that degree of speaking around it does not pull someone in.”

“Then what is it? Did you perhaps look at materials on that blinded agent recently?”

“…….”

Cha Si-eon did not answer.

I could not ask further either.

If I needlessly mentioned him and got dragged back into 「Railway Station」, that would be a disaster.

Perhaps Cha Si-eon had no intention of continuing this conversation either, because he organized the current situation first.

“In any case, my being dragged into 「Railway Station」 was due to that side effect, and it appears to be a separate matter from Mr. Seo Do-un.”

“Then how should we interpret the fact that I was dragged into 「Railway Station」 immediately afterward?”

“I suspect it may be a situation similar to the 「Island」.”

“Hah…….”

At Cha Si-eon’s guess, I let out a low laugh.

When I laughed foolishly, Cha Si-eon looked at me.

“Why are you suddenly laughing?”

“I never imagined I would be dragged into a Special Zone during vacation…….”

“This is still a zone where an escape method has been secured.”

“No, that is not it. This place is outside the Seoul Metropolitan Area. I wondered if I might be safe if I were in another region, but it confirmed it for me immediately like this…….”

I let out a few more dry laughs.

Because the hope that maybe, just maybe, had collapsed all at once, and it felt hollow and ridiculous.

Cha Si-eon spoke to me in a businesslike tone.

“Did I not tell you yesterday? That Mr. Seo Do-un would be an exception.”

“You did.”

“……Did you perhaps not believe me?”

“You never know with people’s affairs…….”

I smiled faintly and avoided his gaze.

Cha Si-eon seemed quite dumbfounded by that.

No, what is important right now is not this.

Let us organize the situation again.

Cha Si-eon was dragged into 「Railway Station」 because of a side effect related to the blinded employee, Lee Seop.

I was dragged into 「Railway Station」 because of my special constitution.

After that, Cha Si-eon and I were dragged into 「Library」 together, also because of my special constitution.

How should this be interpreted?

“So this means that, this time too, 「Crow」’s side threw me into a Special Zone to save Team Leader, correct?”

“…….”

“At this rate, perhaps 「Crow」’s side regards Team Leader Cha as quite important.”

“Perhaps so.”

At my guess, Cha Si-eon also nodded with a thoughtful face.

It was a conspiracy-theory-level guess, but it was true that Cha Si-eon had survived because I was dragged into 「Railway Station」.

And this special treatment of Cha Si-eon’s was already the second time, following the 「Island」.

It would make no sense to dismiss it as mere coincidence.

“Situation Room, can you hear me?”

I spoke into my smartwatch to convey our situation.

But no answer came back.

“「Library」 is a zone where communication is impossible. So we must escape on our own.”

Cha Si-eon spoke while taking a wire out of my vest.

Then he hooked the ring at the end of that wire to his own clothing.

It was a measure to avoid losing each other in this vast space.

“As long as we follow the manual properly, escaping 「Circulating Library」 is not very difficult.”

Well, will that really be the case?

I looked skeptically at the endless stacks stretching before me.

I liked books too.

I was also someone who found peace of mind in bookstores or libraries.

Nevertheless, the sight spread out before my eyes right now contained a fundamental fear.

We were currently in a passage between two bookshelves.

The bookshelves themselves, that is, if only their structure and form were considered, were ordinary.

An ordinary collection of square compartments.

As bookshelves should, each compartment was packed with books.

However, there was not much consistency among those books.

Some were thick like dictionaries.

Some were thin and colorful like picture books.

Some were rough-paper books that would be a disaster if water were accidentally spilled on them.

Some were heavy hardcovers.

There were even thread-bound books with the binding thread exposed along the spine.

There seemed to be no particular intention to arrange the bookshelves pleasantly; everything was a complete jumble.

Still, up to this point, it looked like an ordinary bibliophile’s study.

The true problems with these bookshelves were twofold.

One was that the letters of the books stuck into the bookshelves were entirely unreadable.

The other was that these bookshelves continued on an absurd scale.

The bookshelves placed before and behind us had no visible end.

Not only sideways, but up and down as well.

Bookshelves continued so far that one wondered whether there was any end at all.

Their scale was enough to make one imagine infinity.

So despite this space being filled with bookshelves and books, it gave a bleak feeling like being abandoned in the middle of the universe.

“May I throw my helmet?”

“Go ahead.”

I flung the helmet I was holding sideways.

My helmet flew without any resistance.

Whether because there was no gravity or no air resistance here, it slid away from me at the exact speed with which I had first pushed it.

Then, in the end, it became a dot and disappeared from my sight.

Huh…….

If one lost one’s way here, there really would be no answer.

The total scale of 「Circulating Library」 had not yet been revealed.

The Bureau had also tried several times to observe the end of these bookshelves.

Examining them with high-powered telescopes, having agents tie their bodies with wire and move directly, shooting arrows tied with specially manufactured thread.

However, despite these attempts, they had failed to observe the end.

So the conclusion drawn for now was only, “the width of these bookshelves exceeds 240km.”

In front of bookshelves where the word “vast” was not lacking at all, Cha Si-eon said,

“You already know the escape method for 「Circulating Library」, but I will give you an orientation once more.”