Chapter 88

Seo Do-un, what is your problem?

Following Doctor Kim U-in’s advice, I asked myself once.

The answer came back immediately.

-Is there anything that is not a problem right now?

-Even if the situation has gotten a little better, my position is still the same.

-I do not know when I will be dragged into that hell again.

-And too many people have died.

-Heads were blown off, people were compressed, split in half, crushed, dropped, exploded, shot, pierced by trophies, grabbed and swung around, bitten in the nape, stabbed with knives, and suffocated.

-Do you think enduring that is easy?

Mm, true.

I had gone through many harsh things.

To the point that it would not be strange for PTSD to develop.

So are you twisting my stomach over that now?

-…….

There was no answer.

I waited for a moment, then changed the question.

Was everything always the worst until now?

Were you only forcing yourself to endure?

Perhaps this question was easy, because the answer came back again.

-Not exactly.

-I am being paid a lot.

-The people I met here are not bad either.

-They are people who have fought life-and-death struggles without anyone knowing while I lived an ordinary life.

-I hope we can all be freed from this nightmare together.

Yes, I know this feeling too.

That is why I could say I was getting along reasonably well.

Because it was hard, but it was not only hard.

Because enduring in this place was not meaningless.

Good. I understand up to this point.

So what exactly is making my stomach twist?

-…….

My head became quiet again.

I truly do not understand.

But thinking about it, it was like this before too.

Back when I still ate school lunches.

When my insides twisted so badly it was hard to breathe.

Back then, I had only thought it was because of academic stress.

In truth, it had not been such a simple problem, and I had only understood the real cause much later.

That is how a person’s insides are.

People deceive themselves as easily as they eat meals.

No, they fail to recognize themselves.

They do not know very well what kind of person they are, or what the emotions swaying them truly are.

They often live on while creaking in that state, and when they fall hard, only then do they belatedly search for what the problem was.

Then they face the distortion that has already grown enormous and despair.

I do not want to repeat that mistake, but it is not easy.

But let us not be impatient.

Even if not right now, I will surely come to know.

If it is something I must recognize, and if I wish to know it.

---

-We will begin the 5th entity response test.

Baek Sa-ra’s voice rang through the speakers of the Situation Control Room.

-Test subject. One neutral entity 「Employee」 within 「Membership Warehouse Mart」.

The main screen in the control room showed the interior of 「Membership Warehouse Mart」.

Inside, Exploration Team 1, including Baek Sa-ra, was facing off against a barcode-headed 「Employee」.

Beepbeepbeepbeep—!

The 「Employee」 spat out mechanical sounds irritably.

The one that 「Employee」 was hostile toward was Baek Sa-ra.

However, the other agents of Exploration Team 1 were pressing it down with equipment, so it could not attack Baek Sa-ra and was only struggling.

The reason the 「Employee」 ignored the agents blocking it and was hostile only to Baek Sa-ra was simple.

The other agents possessed memberships for the 「Mart」.

But Baek Sa-ra had not brought a membership, and instead was holding a long box.

It was a block-shaped box made of three small lidded boxes connected together.

-Ring No. 1.

Baek Sa-ra spoke monotonously and opened the left lid of the box.

Beepbeepbeepbeepbeep—!

The 「Employee」, which had been struggling to lunge at Baek Sa-ra, suddenly retreated.

Because the 「Employee」 changed the direction of its movement, the agents of Exploration Team 1 had no choice but to lose their hold on it.

After confirming that the 「Employee」 had retreated a good distance away, Baek Sa-ra closed the lid.

Then the 「Employee」 charged at Baek Sa-ra again.

-Ring No. 2.

This time, Baek Sa-ra opened the middle lid of the box.

The 「Employee」, which had been rushing toward Baek Sa-ra at nearly flashing speed, retreated again and widened the distance.

Baek Sa-ra closed the middle lid again, and finally opened the right lid.

-Ring No. 3.

When Baek Sa-ra opened the lid of the last compartment, the 「Employee」 had already arrived right in front of Baek Sa-ra’s nose.

CRASH—!

However, the one who attacked the other was not the 「Employee」, but Baek Sa-ra.

Baek Sa-ra hooked her foot around the barcode neck of the 「Employee」 that had arrived in front of her and threw it sideways.

The Exploration Team 1 agents pounced again on the 「Employee」 slammed into the floor.

Beepbeepbeep—!

-We have confirmed the 「Employee」’s avoidance response toward Ring No. 1 and Ring No. 2.

Baek Sa-ra spoke while looking down at the struggling 「Employee」.

Han Ji-su handed Baek Sa-ra a card.

It was the membership for 「Warehouse Club」.

Beep—!

When Baek Sa-ra held the membership in her hand, the 「Employee」’s sound changed.

Soon, the 「Employee」 stopped struggling as well and grew quiet.

With the lid of the box where Ring No. 3 was inserted left open, Baek Sa-ra approached the 「Employee」.

But the 「Employee」 remained quiet without making any sound.

The Exploration Team 1 agents slowly released that 「Employee」.

Then the 「Employee」 returned to its assigned area, passing Baek Sa-ra and the agents as if nothing had happened.

-No response to Ring No. 3.

“Confirmed.”

Cha Si-eon, sitting beside me, answered Baek Sa-ra’s report.

Yesterday, the rings made by processing pieces of 「Big Cat」 had been completed.

So Baek Sa-ra and Exploration Team 1 were testing the effects of the newly made rings.

-Ring No. 3 should simply be kept as a souvenir, Lord Otter.

Baek Sa-ra threw a light joke at me.

As if she could see me, she smiled brightly toward the camera.

Since Instructor was smiling at me, I ought to feel honored.

Throb—

At the feeling of a knife stabbing the inside of my solar plexus, I held my breath.

“…….”

I quietly took deep breaths, trying not to show it.

My vision went dark for a moment, but the pain soon subsided.

I caught my breath and raised my head again.

Then my eyes met someone’s.

Yeon Ga-ram of Control Team 4, my counterpart in the comparative experiment.

Yeon Ga-ram was sitting in the monitoring booth today as well.

And, as he had before, he was staring at me.

The difference from last time was that even after our eyes met, he did not turn his head away.

Not only did he not turn his head away…….

“Hmph.”

“……?”

Yeon Ga-ram sent a sneer toward me.

With a triumphant, ambitious face, like a concubine after giving birth to a son.

That person really is peculiar too.

But why?

The moment I saw Yeon Ga-ram, I instead felt my mind become at ease.

What am I, truly?

To feel stability from a person who picks fights with me for no reason.

Was I such a twisted human being?

I became rather chilled by my own bodily reaction.

Even so, I could not reject the peace Yeon Ga-ram gave me.

So in that state, I looked at him for a while.

At that fox-like man who was desperate to look down on me.

---

June 3.

The day of the operation arrived uneventfully.

However, my nervous stomach cramps still had not been resolved.

No, rather, they were getting worse and worse.

Still, it was not to the point that I could not move, so the experiment proceeded as scheduled.

In front of the underground stairs connected to 「Hotel That Selects the Real」, Cha Si-eon asked me,

“Is your condition all right?”

I silently looked at Cha Si-eon.

“It is not all right, then.”

Cha Si-eon nodded on his own.

My face was probably deathly pale right now.

I did not even have the energy to speak, so I answered with my complexion and sighed.

Beside me, Kwak Jae-gyeom came over and chattered.

“Do not worry, hyung. If you faint, Team Leader is taking your upper body and I am taking your lower body.”

“……And what are you going to do with them?”

“We will carry you over, then wake you in front of the core.”

I am grateful enough to cry.

Normally, I would have laughed lightly and responded, but right now, I did not even have the energy to raise the corners of my mouth.

So I simply stared at Kwak Jae-gyeom with hollow eyes.

“Uh, hyung. Sorry…….”

“Kwak Jae-gyeom, come here.”

For some reason, Kwak Jae-gyeom apologized, intimidated.

Cha Si-eon called that Kwak Jae-gyeom over.

Yes, leave me alone for now…….

At that moment, Cha Si-eon’s radio rang.

-This is Response Team 1. Successfully entered the 「Hotel」.

It seemed Response Team 1, which had entered first, had safely arrived at the operation site.

The target of this closure experiment, 「Hotel That Selects the Real」, was a Special Zone being managed relatively stably.

Even so, the reason that place had been selected was because of the contaminated people trapped inside.

In the 「Hotel」, also called the twin Special Zone of the 「National Theater」, there were more than 10 citizens trapped after forgetting they were human and becoming part of the 「Hotel」.

If this experiment succeeded, all of them could be saved.

Was that why?

Today, on the day of the operation, my abdominal pain was hitting its peak.

Apparently, the cause of my stress was this experiment.

Because lives were at stake, I must have been feeling pressure without realizing it.

That was why my condition was like this today.

Understanding it this way, I awkwardly touched the black ring on my finger.

It will go well, right?

Yes, it will go well.

It had been half a month since I came out of the 「Island」.

In that time, I had not been dragged into another Special Zone.

If the one pulling me into Special Zones was 「Crow」, then that was a natural result.

We were following the hints that bird had given us well.

So there would be no need to deliberately interfere with us.

I still felt like I was being played, but fine.

Let us say we are using each other.

And let us not be tense.

It will definitely go well.

-This is Response Team 1. Secured the 「Hotel」’s core.

The radio rang again from Cha Si-eon’s side.

It had only been 20 minutes since they entered, and as expected, they were amazing.

“We will move as well.”

“Hoo…….”

I rose from the chair.

Then, together with the agents of Response Team 3, including Cha Si-eon and Kwak Jae-gyeom, I headed toward the underground stairs.

I too should be done in 10 minutes.

A hotel was not such a wide space.

All I had to do was walk step by step across the red carpet and touch the core.

It will go well. It will definitely go well.

I repeated that over and over as I descended the stairs.

After I continued descending the stairs for a while, I felt space change along with light dizziness.

Perhaps because I had entered the Special Zone, my vision suddenly brightened.

I lightly looked around.

But.

“……?”

There was no one beside me.

No, there were a great many people.

But they were not Response Team 3, who had been walking with me, nor Response Team 1, who were waiting in the 「Hotel」.

Nearly 100 people I did not know were kneeling and bowing face-down on the floor.

What happened?

Is this even the 「Hotel」?

Swallowing an empty breath, I looked around.

It was a wide space, with a high ceiling, and the floor and exterior walls were all made of marble, clean and luxurious.

But in scale and atmosphere, it was certainly not like a hotel.

As I looked around, I saw a structure standing tall in the middle of the corridor.

Is that a stone pagoda?

But something was tangled around that stone pagoda.

White, hard pieces.

Something like the skeleton of a snake was coiled around it like chains.

That skeleton had wound around the stone pagoda, and the remaining upper part was raised high into the air.

I lifted my head to see its end.

My gaze went upward, then farther upward.

I bent my neck all the way back and looked up at the ceiling.

By doing so, I finally saw it.

The grotesque and enormous skull looking down at the people from the ceiling.

At that moment, I realized clearly.

That I had been dragged into the wrong hell.