Chapter 141

「Alpha」, drenched in blood, charged toward me.

At the sight that made my heart go cold, I hurriedly raised myself.

GRAB—!

At that moment, a weight pulled on my body.

It was 「Seo Do-un」, grabbing me from below.

Damn it, let go……!

While I twisted my body to shake 「Seo Do-un」 off, 「Alpha」 reached right in front of me.

Just when I thought I would be caught like this.

CRASH—!

「Alpha」 was suddenly shoved and fell beside me.

Hanging on its back was Kwon Mu-seop, likewise covered in blood.

Kwon Mu-seop, who had chased after 「Alpha」 and tackled it, tangled his arms and legs around it to subdue the bastard.

「Alpha」 resisted, and the two rolled over and over, horribly tangled together.

THUD—!

「Alpha」 lifted Kwon Mu-seop, who was clinging to its shoulder, and slammed him into the floor.

“Krgh……!”

Kwon Mu-seop spat out a rough breath.

But I had no time to worry about someone else.

Something struck me hard after I had been shoved by the two of them fighting.

CRASH—!

Along with an impact that made my head ring, something entered my vision.

Seo Do-un.

Me, ugly and pathetic, my face covered in bruises.

As if imitating what had just happened, it climbed on top of me and began strangling me.

“Kh, urgh……!”

The thing I had failed to kill was now trying to kill me in return.

Ah, I should have.

Why didn’t I kill this sooner?

That was when it happened.

SKRRR—!

Something flew across the floor, scraping it, and touched my fingertips.

I grabbed it without even knowing what it was and swung it.

SQUELCH—!

What had entered my hand was a blood-soaked knife.

I realized that only after it was buried in 「Seo Do-un」’s neck.

Once its neck was pierced, 「Seo Do-un」 collapsed like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

THUD—!

It fell over me as if embracing me, and I shuddered as I shoved it away.

“Hah……! Hah……!”

Then, without even a moment to steady my breathing, I ran toward 「Alpha」, which was facing off against Kwon Mu-seop.

When 「Alpha」 discovered me, it grabbed Kwon Mu-seop by the back of the neck and hurled him toward me.

I wanted to catch Kwon Mu-seop as he flew at me.

But I could not withstand that weight.

THUD—!

In the end, I was crushed beneath Kwon Mu-seop and fell with him.

In the meantime, 「Alpha」 kicked off the floor and quickly retreated backward.

Was it planning to run away again?

That sickening bastard, always appearing at crucial moments, needling us, and then running away.

Even so, deep down, I prayed that 「Alpha」 would just leave.

But contrary to my wish, the place 「Alpha」 retreated to was beside the Director.

It placed its foot on Director Go’s neck.

No way…….

CRUNCH—!

A chilling sound came from Go Hong-sang’s neck.

At that raw sound, my breath stopped.

But 「Alpha」, the one that had done it, remained calm.

As if it had finished what it had come to do, the bastard merely turned around, leaving us behind in the ruins.

---

Director Go Hong-sang died.

After confirming the Director’s death, we immediately headed toward the Deputy Director.

Kim Seon-ung was desperately pressing down on his own thigh over a pool of blood.

Blood streamed through the gaps between his fingers.

It was the wound from being stabbed while fighting 「Alpha」.

On top of that, the pool of blood Kim Seon-ung sat in had a long trail stretching in one direction.

It was the trace of him pushing the knife toward me earlier.

“Do-un, gauze!”

At Kwon Mu-seop’s shout, I pulled out every medical supply I had in my vest.

Kwon Mu-seop shoved gauze into Kim Seon-ung’s wound.

It must have been pain like digging through raw flesh, but Kim Seon-ung did not even let out a groan.

CRUNCH—!

Only something sounded as if it broke inside his mouth, where he was biting down on a handkerchief.

The hellish first aid ended.

Kim Seon-ung was barely holding on to consciousness, and we breathed raggedly in front of him.

“I must be getting old too…….”

Kim Seon-ung muttered as he spat out the handkerchief.

At that pointless remark, something like a smile rose even on Kwon Mu-seop’s face, which had been frozen stiff until now.

“Manager, your head is bleeding too…….”

“It’s nothing. I got clipped by an elbow earlier.”

Kwon Mu-seop spoke as if it were no big deal and only wiped the blood away.

Once the blood was gone, I saw that his forehead had been slightly torn.

The place 「Alpha」 had swept through once was truly no different from a ruin.

Director Go Hong-sang dead.

Deputy Director Kim Seon-ung seriously wounded.

Manager Kwon Mu-seop lightly wounded.

I was relatively all right, but 「Seo Do-un」, who looked exactly like me, was collapsing into cinders and scattering.

Since 「Seo Do-un」 broke apart like that, is there nothing more to see?

Surely the next generation won’t renew itself like Jae-gyeom’s 「Delta」, right?

While I was looking uneasily at the traces of 「Seo Do-un」, Kwon Mu-seop muttered,

“Will the Director not come back again?”

Until now, Director Go Hong-sang had faithfully returned every time he died.

But for some reason, this time, nothing happened.

I kept looking toward the door, but the Director from 13 seconds before did not burst through it and appear.

“Isn’t it because there’s a body?”

The Deputy Director muttered with a pale face.

“Try throwing away the body and leaving only the left arm. He might come out then.”

He was not merely saying it as a joke.

The Deputy Director was seriously urging us to test the Director’s resurrection conditions, and that was the most basic method for identifying the spatial rules of a Special Zone.

“Deputy Director, please escape first.”

Kwon Mu-seop suggested this to the Deputy Director.

The Deputy Director was in a state where he needed to be put in an ambulance immediately.

We could not leave him like that and leisurely test things.

“Let us do that. Right now, I will only be a burden if I stay.”

The Deputy Director readily nodded too, and we supported him as we went to 「Hanged Shadow」.

The innermost glass window of the fitness center.

At its center was the shadow in the shape of a person who had been hanged.

I flinched for a moment at the sight.

For an instant, I felt as if something had sat heavy in my stomach, but I forced myself to stay calm.

“Deputy Director, please relay this outside, just in case.”

Kwon Mu-seop said this as he handed his notebook to the Deputy Director.

Kwon Mu-seop had been writing something in that notebook since earlier.

It was probably a record of this space.

The Deputy Director looked back and forth between the notebook and Kwon Mu-seop’s face once, then muttered quietly,

“Do not overdo it. You two come out right away too.”

“Yes.”

Kwon Mu-seop answered immediately, but the Deputy Director did not look very convinced.

After taking the notebook, the Deputy Director struggled to stand straight.

Then he took off the silver ring he always wore.

He threw it toward 「Hanged Shadow」.

The shadow swallowed the silver ring as if it were a hole.

The silver ring vanished in an instant.

I wondered if nothing would happen like that, but then the shadow suddenly expanded and swallowed the space.

Just when all directions seemed to go completely dark.

The surroundings brightened again, and the ordinary fitness center returned.

The 「Hanged Shadow」 reflected in the mirror was still the same.

Only the Deputy Director, who had been beside us, had vanished without a trace.

“Looks like he got out safely.”

Kwon Mu-seop muttered like a sigh.

If we threw a silver ring at that shadow, we could escape the same way.

To be honest, I wanted to get out of this sickening space right away.

But before that, we had to take care of Director Go.

We returned to the Director’s corpse.

Director Go Hong-sang lay face-down on the floor, silently dead.

“……Are you really going to cut off his arm?”

“Ha…….”

Kwon Mu-seop only sighed at my question.

Manager Kwon Mu-seop seemed to be thinking something similar to me.

“I think this is a problem with the space, not the condition of the body.”

“I think so too…….”

Kwon Mu-seop nodded at my words.

The Deputy Director had told us to try cutting off his arm, but that was not the important part.

Besides, it seemed the Deputy Director had known that and said it deliberately.

The places Director Go had died until now.

Inside the room. Lobby. Lobby. Lobby.

And the places Director Go had come back alive.

The hallway outside the room. Stairwell. Stairwell. Stairwell.

His place of death and his place of resurrection had been different.

“Maybe this time too, the Director will only come out alive once we leave this place…….”

“…….”

At my guess, Kwon Mu-seop’s silence deepened.

Leaving this place meant giving up the escape route we had secured after 4 hours.

There was also no guarantee that this escape route would appear again in 4 hours.

There was even less guarantee that 「Alpha」, which had fled, would not return.

So we stood at a crossroads.

Would we abandon Director Go and escape like this?

Or would we take a risk to save the Director?

Kwon Mu-seop could not readily reach a conclusion.

No, his will had been decided from the beginning, but he looked unable to force it through.

It was obvious what he was thinking, so I spoke first.

“We have to take the Director with us alive.”

“What?”

“We cannot leave him behind like this. We have to try as far as we can.”

At my words, Kwon Mu-seop’s gaze wavered.

Manager Kwon Mu-seop must have wanted to bring the Director out alive too.

But he could not win alone.

And he could not ask me to risk my life with him.

So he had been conflicted, and now that I had volunteered first, it should have been more welcome than anything to Manager Kwon Mu-seop.

But Kwon Mu-seop did not readily welcome my proposal.

Instead, he began examining my face with suspicious eyes.

“I said this earlier too, but you do not have to take responsibility for everything.”

Kwon Mu-seop said the exact opposite of his position.

No, this too was one of Kwon Mu-seop’s many positions.

“And if you come out like that, I am in a position where I have to stop you.”

“But you cannot give up either, Manager.”

“Ha…….”

At my words, Kwon Mu-seop let out a long sigh.

“I am grateful you stepped forward first, but honestly, if I were you, I would not go that far.”

Kwon Mu-seop revealed what was inside him in a low voice.

Manager Kwon Mu-seop was wondering whether he really should accept my proposal.

He also seemed worried that I was acting impulsively.

As if wanting to confirm that, Kwon Mu-seop asked me directly,

“Why are you going that far?”

“Because of what I said earlier.”

“What you said?”

“Because I spoke to the Director about sympathy, pity, and conscience, it became difficult to pretend not to know this situation.”

At my answer, Kwon Mu-seop’s expression became even stranger.

Kwon Mu-seop looked at me for a long while.

As if trying to see whether my words were sincere or whether I was merely deflecting.

It was pointless.

I was sincere, and there was no hypocrisy, deception, or self-sacrificing intent in those words.

So no matter how suspiciously he examined me, all Kwon Mu-seop could take away was a sense of defeat and bewilderment.

Sure enough, Kwon Mu-seop silently swept a hand over his face.

Then he looked at me again and said,

“If I give you pocket money, will you take it?”

Today too, my golden-almighty Manager was trying to settle emotional debt with money.

Thinking it was not a bad method, I gladly nodded.

“I will save it up. Please settle the balance when I resign.”

---

A little while later, we came out of the fitness center.

No, we had not come out completely yet; we had one foot braced in the doorway as we prepared ourselves mentally.

“If this door closes, there is no turning back. You know that, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then I am really closing it on three. One, two…….”

“……But what if we leave this place and the Director does not come back?”

“Why would you say that now…….”

In truth, neither of us wanted to remain in this space any longer.

We truly hated it a great deal.

I wanted to hurry out, wash, and lie down.

But, damn it, we still have to go…….

“One, two…….”

“…….”

“…….”

“The gap between two and three is too long, Manager…….”

“……Yes, let us hurry a little. Three.”

At my urging, Kwon Mu-seop finally pulled his foot out of the crack in the door.

Click—

The door closed lightly, without any abnormality or sign.

That was when it happened.

“Why, why are you only appearing now……!”

In the corridor outside the fitness center, a middle-aged man was running toward us.

It was Director Go, almost sobbing.