Chapter 78

A crow……?

The pitch-black bird that had flown in after breaking the glass window flapped its wings on the floor.

The way it struggled, unable to fly again, looked somehow desperate.

I hurriedly exchanged looks with Cha Si-eon.

A crow that moved around Special Zones, especially one that hovered around me.

This bird seemed to be that bastard, so what should we do?

Should we catch it?

It was when I looked back and forth between the crow and Cha Si-eon.

Kaaak—!

The crow stretched out its neck and vomited up blood.

Was it hurt somewhere?

Cha Si-eon jerked his chin toward me.

It meant we should capture it.

Right, we had to catch it first, whether to investigate it or treat it.

Cha Si-eon took off the combat shirt he was wearing.

It seemed he meant to use it as something like a net.

I also took off my service uniform jumper and spread it out.

We slowly widened the distance between us as we approached the crow.

Soon, the crow was between us, and we exchanged looks again to pounce at the same time.

The crow no longer flapped and simply sat quietly on the floor.

Did it mean for us to take it like this?

At that moment, my eyes met the crow’s.

“…….”

It was looking at me with eyes black as coal.

Not at Cha Si-eon, who had approached closer, but only at me.

“Wait, Team Leader!”

I shouted without realizing it.

At my restraint, Cha Si-eon, who had been about to pounce on the crow, stopped still.

“Do not catch it.”

I spoke again.

I said it from pure instinct, with no idea of the reason or purpose.

“Why are you telling me not to catch it?”

“If we catch it, we cannot know why this crow came.”

Was that really something I had thought and said?

I did not think so.

Because even I only understood the reason after saying it.

Right, we have to get the hint.

To do that, we have to leave this bird alone.

Perhaps accepting my intent, Cha Si-eon lowered the top he had been holding spread wide.

I also moved my jumper away and observed the crow.

The crow looked at me for a moment, then staggered to its feet.

Then, still with labored movements, it flapped its wings.

The crow, which barely leapt up, flew straight to the second floor.

We climbed the stairs and chased after the crow.

But when we reached the second floor, the crow was no longer there.

Instead, the space was broken.

“Huh…….”

It was a sight I had never seen in my life.

A gap in midair, shaped like shattered glass.

And beyond it, a completely different space.

It looked as if someone had roughly cut out a photograph of another space and pasted it onto the air.

“Isn’t that something that appears in games?”

“It often appears in movies too.”

Right, I had seen it often in games and movies.

A hole on the dimensional level, commonly called a portal.

“That looks like a passage…….”

“Probably.”

“Did it make that to tell us to go in?”

“Hoo…….”

At my question, Cha Si-eon exhaled for a long time.

I felt the same way.

Seriously, what do we do?

Excuse me, Mr. Bird. What are you doing, suddenly shoving something like that in front of people already exhausted from a long drift?

At that moment, Cha Si-eon put his top back on and said,

“I will enter and look around. Seo Do-un, please wait outside.”

“You’re going in there?”

Just like this? When we do not even know what that is?

I asked in surprise, but Cha Si-eon did not repeat himself.

He hooked the wire to his belt like a miner entering a coal mine.

Then, leaving the wire case to me, he stepped into the rift.

The rift was as large as a gate.

And the space beyond it was pitch-black.

So much so that I could not tell whether it was darkness or the deep sea.

Cha Si-eon turned on the searchlight and went inside, and I watched the sight from outside.

At some point, Cha Si-eon’s light disappeared.

Judging by how the wire kept unwinding, it seemed he had turned sideways and entered deeper.

The wire unwound smoothly.

Had about 10 minutes passed?

The wire no longer unwound.

Another 2 minutes passed.

BANG—!

……A gunshot?

The sharp explosive sound unique to a pistol struck my eardrum.

It had not come from far away, but from somewhere quite close, inside that rift.

Immediately afterward, the wire began rewinding quickly.

Is he coming back? But the speed is too fast.

Don’t tell me the line snapped?

As I watched anxiously, Cha Si-eon appeared from the darkness.

Cha Si-eon ran straight out of the rift, and after coming out, he caught his breath for a moment.

“What is it? What is inside?”

At my question, Cha Si-eon swept a hand across his forehead.

As if he had seen something difficult to deal with.

When I looked at him in confusion, Cha Si-eon opened his mouth.

“It was like a maze inside. But the form and texture of the space did not look like part of the 「Island」. No, it did not seem like a Type 1 Special Zone.”

It did not seem like a Type 1 Special Zone?

As someone who had only ever entered Type 1s, this expression was not easy to understand.

I had seen it in the manual.

Depending on the type, spaces had their own distinctive atmosphere, or texture.

And the unique trait of Type 1 Special Zones was that they were almost identical to reality.

“And?”

“If you keep going in, there is a fairly wide space. 「Big Cat」 was there.”

“……What?”

“It seemed to have been attacked by something, because its outer shell was damaged. It was in a much more damaged state than when I last encountered it.”

What the hell does that mean? 「Big Cat」 all of a sudden?

In that instant, several thoughts crossed my mind.

The roars that had rung out all night.

The crow that had been hurt and vomited blood.

The passage that crow had opened.

And 「Big Cat」 lying collapsed inside it…….

“Did it see you too, Team Leader?”

“Yes. I was almost caught.”

So that was why he fired the gun and ran out…….

“Did it chase you?”

“The passage was too narrow for 「Big Cat」 to come out. The bastard seems to be trapped inside.”

I was about to nod, then realized his words did not fit and asked back.

“Then why did you nearly get caught, Team Leader?”

“I approached to try to secure a fragment.”

“…….”

This guy had made such a fuss about how dangerous 「Big Cat」 was and all.

But the moment he saw it, he approached, thinking of stealing a fragment……?

“So did you obtain one?”

“No. It was on edge, so I could not approach properly.”

It was not a surprising result.

Approaching a wounded, trapped named dangerous entity. It was impressive he even returned alive.

BANG—! BANGBANGBANGBANG—!

At that moment, gunfire came again.

That sound ringing from far away was most likely the Bureau’s rescue team.

The situation had become quite strange.

The rescue team was diligently rushing over to save us, and inside there, 「Big Cat」 was trapped, as if telling us to take a fragment.

“A fragment…… we should bring one, right?”

“That is correct.”

“Of course, it is dangerous with just the two of us, and joining the rescue team before going in would be best.”

“That is true.”

“The problem is whether that passage will remain until the rescue team comes.”

“That is also correct.”

Cha Si-eon was agreeing with me, then dragged two chairs over from the café side.

It was not consideration telling me to sit.

Cha Si-eon placed the chairs at the left and right ends of the rift.

After that, he took books from the bookshelf on the café wall and piled them on the chairs.

Then, at the end, he even split an intact book in half to make the height of the piled books align exactly with the height of the rift.

“Seo Do-un, what time is it now?”

“It is 9:20.”

“We will measure the size of this rift every 5 minutes from now on.”

Right, that was about all we could do immediately.

But even this was only a half-measure.

If that rift had a time limit, we could not know whether it would gradually shrink and disappear, or whether it would suddenly collapse and disappear at some point.

Cha Si-eon probably knew that too, but for now, he established a standard.

Then he returned to my side and said,

“For reference, I estimate the number of rooms in this Special Zone to be approximately 8,400.”

“8,400?”

“I calculated it at dawn. This place’s areas are assigned by sampling with replacement. Setting aside the forms from A to J, considering that only one duplicate area has appeared while we have broken through 129 times so far, the probability of drawing a duplicate room here is only 0.77%.”

“…….”

“If we put our number of breakthroughs and the duplicate probability into the birthday problem formula, which is similar to the current situation, and back-calculate the population size, roughly 8,400 comes out.”

“……?”

When I closed my mouth and stared blankly, Cha Si-eon asked me,

“Do you have any objection?”

“No, I do not.”

To be honest, I did not understand.

So what mathematical formula did he use?

Team Leader Cha, I did not see you that way, but you were a science person…….

As a humanities person, I decided to humbly accept Cha Si-eon’s logical inference.

And so we faced a new problem.

If there were approximately 8,400 areas here, how long would it take the rescue team to get here?

BANGBANGBANG—! BANGBANGBANGBANG—!

Judging by that sound faintly ringing out, they seemed to have no intention of following the rules.

If they were just smashing everything apart and breaking through, would it still take 5 minutes per area?

It was a very rough estimate, but 8,400 multiplied by 5 minutes was…….

42,000 minutes, 700 hours, 29 days…….

Of course, that was if the rescue team reached our area only at the very end, so they would arrive faster than that.

At least faster than 29 days…….

“There should be agents who have filled their rest period by now too. The scale of the rescue team will gradually expand, and the search time will shorten accordingly.”

“That is fortunate.”

“The problem is that even among the rescue teams, the advance and follow-up groups cannot share their situations. Coordination and supplies will be difficult due to the communications problem.”

“I see.”

“Still, breaking through each area should not be a problem. The other agents will soon recognize the downgrade of this Special Zone too.”

“That is fortunate.”

“The problem is if the rescue team reaches the area where this Special Zone’s core exists before they reach us. If they break the core, all of us will be released outside.”

“I see. Team Leader, 5 minutes have passed.”

When I told him the time, Cha Si-eon headed toward the rift.

Then he took out his knife and began measuring the change.

“It has shrunk by about 1.5cm on the left, right, and height.”

Ah, these bastards keep making a humanities person calculate.

“Then every 5 minutes, the width decreases by 3cm and the height by 1.5cm.”

“This rift is approximately 3m wide and 2.5m tall.”

“Since the width shrinks from both sides, it will close faster.”

“The time until the horizontal width closes completely is 500 minutes, 8 hours and 20 minutes.”

“But there is no guarantee this will close at a constant speed.”

“The closing speed may be proportional to area instead of distance, and for a person to pass through, at least 30cm in diameter must be secured.”

“Wouldn’t 30cm be difficult for you, Team Leader?”

“That is true.”

“…….”

“…….”

Cha Si-eon and I exchanged gloomy looks.

As if I knew his mind, and he knew mine.

About 20 minutes later.

We were muttering curses as we jumped into the rift.