Chapter 134

“To the stairwell!”

Manager Kwon Mu-seop shouted lowly and turned his body.

The problem was that the balcony we were on was also full of people.

The people who had been walking normally until a moment ago were now approaching us as if sliding, with only the tips of their feet touching the floor.

Ah— ah?

Ah, ah, ah? Ah?

Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah.

Meaningless sounds endlessly flowed from their mouths.

Dozens of people making such sounds as they approached was enough to drive one mad.

The only fortunate thing was that they were as slow as drifting pollen.

But there were still too many of them, so I could not see a way out.

What should we do? Can we just push through?

It was then.

“Everyone, careful!”

The Deputy Director shouted briefly and threw something.

……It was the Director’s left arm.

Whirrr—!

Pop— pop— pop—

The Director’s left arm flew with force like a boomerang and struck the people.

Then the people burst lightly like soap bubbles and disappeared.

And…….

Splatter—!

The Director’s left arm also lightly exploded and scattered blood.

If we touch those things, we are finished…….

“Run!”

At that moment, Kwon Mu-seop shouted.

Manager Kwon Mu-seop, who had shouted that, was already running.

Toward the place where the Director’s left arm had exploded.

There, where an explosion had occurred once, a wide path had opened.

At an opportunity we would not get again, we sprinted with all our strength.

CRASH—!

“Ugh……!”

But an ominous sound came from behind us.

When I looked back, the Director seemed to have slipped on blood and was floundering on the floor.

The Deputy Director turned around to bring the Director back.

But Kwon Mu-seop shouted,

“It is too late!”

I could not know how the Director and Deputy Director reacted to those words.

All I could know, since my eyes had been turned toward Kwon Mu-seop, were 2 things.

Pop— pop-pop-pop-pop-pop—

An explosion occurred immediately after Kwon Mu-seop shouted.

Splatter—! Splat— splat—!

And the water-like sounds that followed were the sounds of blood and flesh scattering.

Feeling someone’s death, I clenched my teeth.

The entrance to the stairwell came into view.

BANG—!

Kwon Mu-seop pushed the door with his whole body, and I rushed inside.

The moment another person entered behind me.

THOOM—!

The metal door closed again.

“Huff, huff…….”

I gasped for breath and looked back.

There were Kwon Mu-seop and Deputy Director Kim Seon-ung.

But Kim Seon-ung was holding something.

It was a human arm.

“It fell in front of me, so I took it. This time it is the left arm too. Manager Kwon, the current time is…….”

Flung open—!

Kim Seon-ung was asking the time when the sound of a door being opened hard came from the upper floor.

We flinched and checked above, and found a man panting for breath.

……It was Director Go.

It was Director Go, whose limbs were unexpectedly intact, with only his clothes and hair somewhat disheveled.

“Huff, huff, huh…….”

That Director Go sat on the stairs and gasped for breath, then sprang up when he saw us.

Then, just as he strode down the stairs.

SLAP—!

He struck Kwon Mu-seop across the cheek.

“‘It is too late’?”

After hitting Kwon Mu-seop, Director Go murmured stiffly.

“You, do you not even know the hierarchy of the organization you belong to? The Director is in danger, and it ends with one line that it is too late?”

“I apologize. It was an unavoidable situation.”

Unlike the Director, who was boiling over, Kwon Mu-seop remained calm even after being struck on the cheek.

Perhaps more provoked by that attitude, Director Go raised his arm again.

“Director, calm yourself. It is my responsibility for failing to attend you at your side.”

Kim Seon-ung grabbed that arm and lowered it as he cut in.

When Director Go glared at Kim Seon-ung too, Kim Seon-ung held out the arm he was carrying.

“Even so, I tried to bring your remains, Director…….”

“Get that away! I said get it away!”

Director Go turned deathly pale at the sight of his own arm.

From beginning to end, it was a sight that felt as if it would drive me insane.

After cooling down somewhat like that, we sat around on the stairs.

“There are 3 watches now.”

“There is another 13-second difference…….”

Kim Seon-ung and I placed Director Go’s wristwatches side by side and compared them.

The wristwatch the current Director Go was wearing was running 13 seconds slower than the watch of the previous Director Go, and 26 seconds slower than the watch of the first Director Go.

If he dies here, does he resurrect in the state he was 13 seconds before?

Is this limited to Director Go, or does it apply to all of us?

More importantly, why exactly 13? It feels unpleasant…….

“Why did those people suddenly change earlier?”

“What comes to mind right now is the phrase, ‘Are you not searching for the core?’”

Kwon Mu-seop answered my question.

At that moment, Director Go, beside us, flinched.

“There was no particular issue when we were conversing. So there is a high probability that mentioning the core was the trigger.”

“If there was such a prediction, you should have hinted at it beforehand. You have been doing this work for nearly 10 years, and your thoughts are that shallow?”

Whether he really thought so or it was a thief feeling his own feet sting.

Director Go Hong-sang immediately blamed Kwon Mu-seop.

At this point, I felt that this needed to be pointed out once.

Why is Director Go acting like this?

I understand that his nerves are on edge because it is his first time entering a Special Zone.

I also understand that seeing “his own dead severed left arm” with the eyes of another person is frightening.

But why is he sharpening his blade only at Manager Kwon Mu-seop?

As if there is some bad blood.

Wait, come to think of it.

Did they not say Manager Kwon Mu-seop had gone up against the higher-ups when Cha Si-eon was isolated on 「Island Where Blood Falls」?

That higher-up would be this higher-up.

Ah, then is Director Go in a sour mood because of what happened back then?

There is plausibility.

Thinking back, even when we had still been in the Director’s office, Director Go had openly nitpicked at Kwon Mu-seop.

Separate from opposing the 「Railway Station」 special operation, he had been sincere in pressing him down as if saying, “Everything you say is wrong, and you are wrong.”

Seen in this context, Director Go’s current behavior made sense too.

Director Go had disliked Kwon Mu-seop from the beginning.

Some might say, “What kind of idiot vents personal ill will when he is about to die?”

But I see it rather as him acting like this because he is about to die.

Only when a bag is intact can one take out whatever item is needed at the time.

When the bag bursts, its contents are bound to spill out.

Director Go, whose mental state had burst open, also seemed to be mindlessly emitting the malice he had originally carried.

At times like that, one needed to step back and catch one’s breath…….

“Director, please calm down. You seem too agitated.”

“Who is agitated? Did I say anything wrong just now?”

Because he was such a high-ranking person, control from the people around him did not work at all.

A person with power whose mental state had collapsed was no different from a child holding a bomb.

Not only did he hurt himself, he dragged everyone around him into danger too.

So I wondered if things would be all right like this.

As if answering that anxiety of mine, Director Go began very actively holding us back.

---

The third Director Go had just died.

10 minutes and 13 seconds before the death of the third Director Go.

We caught our breath and went out to the lobby again.

At that time, a metal mesh had been laid over the lobby floor, and blood was flowing beneath it.

As expected, this space was unstable and fluid.

So opening and closing a door unfolded entirely different situations.

It was while we were considering whether to break through or avoid this bloody phase.

The third Director Go touched the metal mesh wrong, woke all the corpses beneath it, and was eaten.

We fled to the stairwell in that gap, and a short while later, the fourth Director Go returned to our arms.

“You called yourselves field experts, yet you cannot control the situation that badly? How many times has this been, exactly? Let us see once we get out. I now know how messily you people work……!”

And as soon as he returned, Director Go reprimanded Kwon Mu-seop.

Director Go coughed several times while speaking and pulled at his necktie as if his throat felt stuffy.

But when Kwon Mu-seop showed no particular reaction, Director Go grew irritated at empty air.

“I would like something to drink here!”

Who is he speaking to?

Unfortunately, there was no one here to attend him with an “Oh dear, Director.”

The Deputy Director was playing a similar role, but that did not mean he could create nonexistent water and present it.

Director Go grew displeased at this lack of response, then finally looked directly back at me.

“I asked for water. Why are you standing there?”

Director Go spoke while looking at my canteen.

Then Kwon Mu-seop stepped in front of me and blocked Director Go.

“This water cannot be touched yet. I apologize, but please endure for a little while. At 15:00, we will distribute water.”

“Distribute?”

At the word distribute, Director Go’s mood became extremely displeased.

Director Go gave a hollow laugh alone, then abruptly went out into the lobby.

“Director……!”

Ignoring Kwon Mu-seop’s attempt to stop him, Director Go strode out.

We had no choice but to follow him, and fortunately, this lobby had an ordinary form like the first time.

“Director, if you move alone like this…….”

“Ah, what does it matter! I come back alive even if I die anyway!”

When Director Go roared, the people in the lobby looked at us.

I flinched and checked the state of those people.

Fortunately, they were not watching us with their eyes pierced black like before.

It looked closer to them simply being startled because a loud sound had been made.

“Please calm down first, and let us go back inside…….”

“Calm down or whatever, why should I have to roll around in this beggarly place? This is work for someone like you to do. Why should I?”

Director Go was not in his right mind.

Filled with resentment, he shouted at Kwon Mu-seop, then charged even at the people looking this way.

“Kyaaak!”

“Why are you doing this?!”

Director Go literally became a madman and began grabbing and tearing at the hair of the people in the lobby.

“Ah, let go of this! Ah!”

“These damned things are not even human, yet they pretend to be human……!”

“……Why would you say that, you crazy bastard?”

The woman whose hair Director Go was holding suddenly became serious and murmured.

“Ah, crazy bastard. Ahhh, really, this crazy bastard…….”

“U, uaah……!”

The woman sighed repeatedly as if she had suffered a great disaster, and the woman’s head and Director Go’s hand began fusing into one.

Director Go’s right side instantly became a lump of meat and swelled.

Director Go screamed in agony, but the other people in the lobby pretended not to see it and quickly passed by.

“Oh dear, Director……!”

Deputy Director seemed to try to save Director Go and shoved Director Go’s left arm into the fused area.

Crrrk— crrrrrk—!

But that left arm merely melted in and fused together as well, not enough to separate the two.

On top of that, the increasingly mixed bodies of the Director and the woman were swelling to a strange degree.

As if they would soon explode.

“Back to the stairwell!”

“M, Manager Kwon!”

When Kwon Mu-seop gave the order to retreat, Director Go reached out toward Kwon Mu-seop.

Director Go collapsed with a thud, unable to control his heavy body.

But Director Go desperately twisted his body and finally grabbed Kwon Mu-seop’s ankle.

“Do not go! Do not go. You too, with me……!”

CRACK—!

The Deputy Director kicked that Director’s head.

The Director’s neck bent, and he let go of Kwon Mu-seop. In the meantime, we ran to the stairwell.

Splat—!

Behind us came the sound of a tomato being crushed.

And something spun round and round as it rolled to our feet.

……It was Director Go’s left arm.

“Is this because I am the Director’s right-hand man?”

The Deputy Director muttered to himself while taking Director Go’s new left arm.

What kind of right-hand man kicks his master so directly…….

It felt like I would go insane, but I forced myself to endure and entered the stairwell.

And in the stairwell, the fifth Director Go was already waiting for us.

“…….”

“…….”

Just now, Director Go had created unnecessary danger and tried to drag Manager Kwon Mu-seop into it as well.

After having done all that, Director Go looked at us shamelessly.

Kwon Mu-seop was also merely enduring because he could not do anything to Director Go, who had openly tried to kill him.

Because if he wanted to save Lee Sol, he had to somehow take that Director Go out.

I do not think this can go on.

Feeling that at this rate, this truly would not turn into porridge or rice, I opened my mouth.

“Manager, is that truly the Director?”

I felt Director Go look at me.

But ignoring that gaze, I said to Kwon Mu-seop,

“The Director already died at the beginning, and that may be an abnormal phenomenon interfering with us.”