Chapter 93

“I need to find a new escape route.”

-You are saying you will explore that place alone?

Kwon Mu-seop asked back as if he did not understand what I had said.

His tone already implied that it was reckless.

“Yes, I will try to find a method myself.”

-You cannot do it alone.

“Manager.”

-No, you cannot. Do not think of moving recklessly.

“It is not exactly reckless. It is the same as when we explored the 「Ant Nest」.”

-During the 「Ant Nest」, I was beside you, and if things went wrong, we also had the option of breaking the core. But there, we have not even identified where the core is. I cannot permit you to explore alone in that state.

“If I do well, I might discover a new escape route like during the 「Sports Complex」.”

-Do-un, you were unconscious for 3 days then. Do you not remember?

“In any case, I recovered. So I will try one more time. I think that will be more advantageous for my survival than waiting here without any promise.”

-That is…… yes, I understand that things are frustrating right now. But during the 「Sports Complex」, Jae-gyeom was also beside you. Right now, you are alone.

Kwon Mu-seop was more firm than I had expected.

No, strictly speaking, I was probably the one suddenly accelerating right now.

After fainting briefly and waking up, the first thing I said was, “I need to find an escape route.”

On top of that, this was a Quarantine-grade Special Zone that had not been properly explored.

A nightmare-like zone for the Bureau, where the agents deployed in the past had died horribly.

So Manager Kwon Mu-seop’s reaction was natural.

-Calm down first. And think carefully. Are you feeling any strange impulse, or hearing an unfamiliar voice in your head?

On top of that, Kwon Mu-seop was even doubting my mental state.

In the past, cognitive distortion had also occurred in Team Leader Kang Seung-cheol, who had explored this place.

Since I was saying this in a zone with such a precedent, this too was probably not a one-sided condemnation.

But I did not think I was distorted.

I was still afraid of the mountain of corpses piled over there.

The enormous head of the 「False God」 was also repulsive in an ordinary way.

Even so, the thought that I had to move came from some instinct that was difficult to explain.

An instinct close to certainty, like what I had felt when my eyes met 「Crow」’s on 「Island Where Blood Falls」.

But if I said it like this, I would be suspected even more.

Perhaps this really was the initial stage of cognitive distortion too.

After hesitating for a moment, I opened my mouth.

“Manager, some time ago, you said, ‘It seems Special Zones have a concept of clearing,’ correct?”

-What?

“You said it before. ‘I do not agree that Special Zones are games made to be cleared, but it does seem there is a concept of clearing.’”

-Why are you bringing that up now?

At the question I suddenly brought up, Kwon Mu-seop asked back warily.

So I explained slowly.

“I know you suspect whether my current state is normal. So I am trying to explain the flow of my thoughts. If I am leaping too far, or if my logic is warped, please tell me. I will doubt myself too.”

-……Fine, let us try.

Kwon Mu-seop reluctantly agreed, and I continued speaking.

“To escape a Special Zone, one must achieve certain conditions. I compared that to a game and called it ‘clearing.’”

-Yes, that is right.

“Then, Manager, did the 「Sports Complex」 originally have the clear condition that ‘when the end-of-game whistle blows, the people inside are sent out’?”

-What do you mean?

“I have actually continued wondering about it. Whether our escape at that time was truly legitimate. Whether an escape route called the ‘end-of-game whistle’ really existed in that Special Zone from the beginning, and we miraculously reproduced it exactly by chance. Or if that was not the case…….”

-…….

“Whether our actions were newly judged as corresponding to escape.”

Kwon Mu-seop sighed lowly.

It seemed he felt my question was worth considering.

“At the time, we had no time to think about anything. We were busy trying anything to get out.”

And even after leaving the 「Sports Complex」, I had no chance to calmly review it.

Because I was unconscious for 3 whole days after that.

“But when I later thought it over alone, I wondered if this was truly right. The other escape routes there all had complicated and difficult conditions. But our improvised actions happened to satisfy all the escape conditions that had not yet been revealed? Is that truly possible?”

-So what you are saying is that it was not an originally existing escape route, but a route newly developed because your actions received a passing judgment?

“Yes, that is correct.”

-If we assume that is true, what is the conclusion?

“So the conclusion is that Special Zones may not be ‘spaces carefully designed with some intent,’ but ‘things that roughly imitate reality.’”

Kwon Mu-seop sighed again.

Manager Kwon Mu-seop was someone who said, “I can see the Special Zones thinking.”

But what I had just said directly contradicted that.

-I am not very convinced. Then how do you explain Special Zones threatening humans?

As expected, Kwon Mu-seop immediately refuted it.

-Dangerous entities are clearly hostile to humans. Can we say there is no intent in that?

“What if even that is imitation?”

-Imitation?

“What if the things we feel are threats, and therefore define as ‘hostile reactions toward humans,’ are all clumsy imitations of reality?”

-How can that systematic slaughter be merely…….

Kwon Mu-seop stopped mid-sentence.

As befitted a person with good instincts, he seemed to have realized what I was saying.

The rules of Special Zones were truly absurd.

The price of one train ticket was 15.87 million won.

Or if you did not have a mart membership, you were torn apart and driven out.

Or what you had to put into the goal was corpses equal to your own weight.

All of them were half-insane.

But even so, all of them strangely suited the space.

Then would dangerous entities be any different?

“Type 1 Special Zones imitate spaces where major damage occurred during wartime.”

-…….

“Just as neutral entities like 「Railway Police」 or the 「Employees」 of the mart imitate elements of those spaces, dangerous entities like 「Moving Gun」 or the 「Execution Ant」 may simply be imitating wartime situations that occurred in those spaces. They are only divided into neutral entities and dangerous entities by human standards, and their essence may be the same.”

The bombing inflicted on the railway station became the sound of a siren that crushed people.

The massacre that occurred at the university hospital became a monster that hunted humans.

The fierce urban combat became gunfire and explosions bursting everywhere.

Would it only be this?

All Type 1 Special Zones were connected to war.

The Bureau had organized all wartime incidents that took place in those locations, and I too had looked into what had happened in the Special Zones I entered.

The original form of 「Sports Complex Where Corpses Run」 was a sports complex located not very far from Yongsan Station.

Before the sports complex was built, that place was a broad hill.

During the war, it was high ground where the North Korean army deployed artillery, and it was also a place where countless corpses piled up after fierce fighting.

The original form of 「National Theater That Roots Out the Fake」 was located beneath Namsan.

In the past, Seoul was occupied by the North Korean army, then recovered with the help of the American military, and that repeated twice.

Whenever the ruling force changed in this way, people who remained in Seoul were dragged away and massacred for being “wicked landlords” or “collaborators.”

People killed in that way were also buried on Namsan.

「Ant Hill That Steals the Five Senses」 was the same.

That mountain bordered the infamous prison in Seodaemun-gu.

The people imprisoned there were collectively executed on the back mountain without trial, under the excuse of wartime, their eyes covered and wrists bound.

Needless to say, 「Island Where Blood Falls」 was the same.

Like that, dozens died in one place, hundreds died, and thousands died.

All of this was memory engraved into the land beneath our feet.

Considering these facts, could the threatening aspects of Special Zones not also be seen as imitations of those events?

Perhaps, without malice or goodwill, they were simply following a series of events committed by humans.

“I know there are entities that move with intent, like 「Big Cat」 or 「Alpha」.”

Since it seemed Kwon Mu-seop would refute me again, I spoke first.

“But are those mercenary entities and the other dangerous entities truly in the same category? If that were the case, 「Alpha」 should not have been attacked by the 「Ants」.”

But in the 「Ant Nest」, 「Alpha」 had been attacked by the 「Ants」.

Just like us, according to the rules of that place.

“So they are different. The mercenary entities, including 「Big Cat」, and the other dangerous entities are different. They differ as ‘things that hold intent and are hostile to humans’ and ‘things that are simply faithful to imitation.’ That is the only way to explain it.”

-Let us say that is true too. Then what?

“If this prediction of mine is correct, we do not necessarily have to understand everything.”

-……?

“Until now, the Bureau’s exploration has proceeded in the direction of observing the abnormal elements within a Special Zone and finding ways to respond. By risking lives and trying until meaningful results came out.”

Like a primitive human who had gotten into an elevator, they pressed anything suspicious without exception.

Since one wrong move could take a life, they even mobilized convicts and tried again and again until an answer came out.

“If Special Zones are things some Designer made by framing everything from A to Z, then that method is right. The only answer would be to follow the set gimmicks as if playing a game and reach the survival ending. But if this is an imitation of reality, we no longer have to search for a fixed strategy. We can leave suspicious things as suspicious and derive an answer that this space can accept.”

I did not know what the actor was that accepted and judged it.

Even I felt sudden and unfamiliar to myself, pouring out these words as if I had prepared them in advance.

But still, I did not think I was distorted.

When I woke again, my head somehow felt clear.

Along with the feeling that tangled circuits in my brain had been arranged, I felt certainty.

Certainty that I could break through this place.

-First.

Kwon Mu-seop, who had been listening to me, slowly began speaking.

-I am glad you seem sane. Your explanation is sufficiently rational, and it is also content worth discussing together.

Fortunately, Kwon Mu-seop no longer doubted me.

Not only did he not doubt me, he spoke as if he had instead gained faith.

-Since your condition seems good, I suppose I can share the situation outside.

-Manager…….

Behind Kwon Mu-seop’s calm murmur came Yoon U-jeong’s voice.

Her tone sounded as if she was trying to stop him, but Kwon Mu-seop paid no mind and continued speaking.

-In truth, we are having difficulty opening the path right now. The object blocking the passage is strangely hard, and we have not even dug out 10cm yet.

“…….”

-We are currently devising a method to dissolve it with chemicals, but we still cannot guarantee whether this too will take several hours or several days.

So that was why he had told me to look at the rooftop myself.

Yes, that was why he had not told me the estimated time of Response Team 3’s arrival either.

I quietly accepted it.

-So what can you do right now?

To me, Kwon Mu-seop asked,

-Even if your assumption is correct, the danger remains the same, and that is a zone where we have already failed an exploration. What can you do there?

Kwon Mu-seop’s question was pure.

He was not being sarcastic, nor was he expressing skepticism or concern.

With truly pure curiosity, he was asking about the possibility I had discovered.

So I answered clearly as well.

“Editing.”