Chapter 112: Tower of Entangled Lines (3)

[3. The monsters that commonly appear in the data center are as follows. Please keep each precaution in mind when dealing with them.]

[Paired device detected]

[Please bring the device a little closer.]

The eyeball floating in midair circled around Su-myeon, peering at him.

It was simply a round sphere with a black iris and pupil, yet somehow it gave the impression that it was 'peering' at him.

After thinking for a moment, Su-myeon raised his phone and brought it close to the eyeball.

Then he felt a sharp, tingling sensation like static electricity at his fingertips.

At the same time, the discarded cables and various components lying in the corner all rose into the air at once with a crackling sound.

“Ugh... mmph...!”

Jae-min recoiled in horror, but with one hand he firmly covered his own mouth, while with the other he turned the action cam around and captured the scene.

Mu-yeon, whose fur had stood completely on end from the static electricity, lowered his body and growled.

One wrong move, and it felt as though they might be caught in the powerful current and electrocuted.

“.......”

Su-myeon was not even certain whether running away would be safe.

The cables and discarded components floating in the air gradually began taking the shape of arms and legs, like the framework of a human skeleton.

They twisted this way and that as though fitting joints together.

Then the flashing blue sparks began filling the gaps between them like a hologram, forming muscles and flesh.

Amid a scene that looked as though some bizarre monster were about to be born, the bones and muscles of a face began taking shape as well.

The eyeball that had been floating in midair also settled neatly into the proper place in the skull and stopped moving.

“Phew....”

A long sigh escaped through the open jawbone.

The entire process had taken no more than about a minute, and the figure that had emerged was fairly small.

Strangely enough, Su-myeon did not feel that it looked particularly dangerous.

“Finally.”

Skin and lips began wrapping around the open jawbone.

And what flowed out from between them was also, unexpectedly, a delicate voice.

Su-myeon felt a familiarity in this voice too, as though he had heard it somewhere before.

It felt like he had been experiencing this kind of déjà vu a lot lately....

“Finally, thou hast come to find me. Mortal.”

At the familiar form of address that followed, Su-myeon knew for certain what the being before him was.

***

After Hyeon-seok left, Ji-hoon’s question lingered in the Governance office.

“Director Jang Bok-eum. So what exactly did he used to do...?”

Unfortunately, there was no one who could answer Ji-hoon’s question.

“Wouldn’t Hwi-yeon know?”

Du-pal, who had been sitting in a corner, at least offered that suggestion.

“I don’t know either.”

Hwi-yeon, who had quietly emerged from the duty room, happened to answer at that moment.

Whether her fatigue had actually gone away or not was hard to tell.

Tilting her neck as she stretched, Hwi-yeon continued.

“From what Chief Han and I were able to confirm, all we know is that he is also involved with ghost stories.”

In particular, he had an enormous interest in completely ending ghost stories.

That was about the only thing they could say about him with certainty.

“Even within the National Intelligence Service, other than the small number of people you work directly with, most people don’t know each other’s identities or detailed backgrounds.”

So it was not particularly strange that they did not know his exact affiliation or identity.

“Here.”

“Ah, thank you.”

Hwi-yeon continued speaking while checking the documents Ju-hee handed her.

“I don’t know whether he’s someone we can trust, but at least for now, it’s certain that we share the same goal of 'wanting to end ghost stories.'”

That was the conclusion Hwi-yeon and Su-myeon had reached after investigating Director Jang Bok-eum and thinking the matter over.

In the end, they had no choice but to hide Mu-yeon from him.

Even so, they had concluded that if they continued taking care of Mu-yeon for a certain period of time without any problems, Director Jang would probably turn a blind eye to it.

“It doesn’t seem like maintaining reality or rescuing survivors is Director Jang Bok-eum’s highest priority.”

“Isn’t that basically the same thing? Ending ghost stories and rescuing survivors....”

At Mi-ae’s question, Hwi-yeon ran a hand through her tangled hair after her brief nap in the duty room.

“They’re a little different. Su-myeon and I thought rescuing survivors should take priority....”

Director Jang Bok-eum did not.

If it meant ending a ghost story, his attitude suggested that he would turn a blind eye even if every survivor inside it had to be wiped out.

No, he had actually spoken as though he encouraged that approach.

That attitude seemed to have made Su-myeon even more wary of Director Jang.

“The Director is more interested in eliminating ghost stories, even if every survivor has to die.”

As though this was a good opportunity now that the subject had come up, Hwi-yeon continued.

“You should keep that in mind when writing your reports too. If there was a chance to end a ghost story, but it looks like we passed it up because we prioritized the survivors....”

You know, right? Use your judgment?

An awkward atmosphere settled over the office at Hwi-yeon’s words, but everyone nodded.

***

“Waaah~ This is sooo good~! How long has it been since I last had buckwheat jelly?”

Su-myeon felt as though his headache was returning at the cutesy voice that could not have suited the situation any less.

In front of him, a girl who looked around middle-school age and wore a modernized hanbok was devouring buckwheat jelly.

She had one black left eye that Su-myeon could now say with certainty was his own, paired with a blue right eye.

On top of that, she had a single horn growing from her head, giving her a bizarre appearance, though her face itself was cute.

Her innocent cheeks were flushed red as she stuffed her mouth full of jelly.

It was a face Su-myeon was certain he had seen before in a dream.

'Is that the dokkaebi herself?'

When the dokkaebi reached for the makgeolli as well, Han-su reflexively slapped her hand away.

“You’re still wet behind the ears.... Hand it over!”

The dokkaebi snapped back fiercely, snatched the makgeolli away from Han-su, and began drinking straight from the bottle.

Though she had about as much intimidating presence as an angry Chihuahua.

After gulping down the makgeolli, the dokkaebi shoved the remaining buckwheat jelly into her mouth and said,

“I have possessed reason for more than a thousand years already, fool.”

The sight of her speaking while chewing with her mouth full of jelly did not make her look anywhere near that age.

But having watched her being assembled right in front of him, Han-su was too confused to stop her any further.

“Ah, I feel alive again.”

Even while filming the scene, Jae-min could not make sense of what he was seeing.

Setting aside the food that had come out of Han-su’s phone as though he had prepared it in advance.

No, he could not even set that aside.

'Food came out of a phone...!'

Why were Han-su and Su-myeon acting as though there were nothing strange about that?

It was one absurd, mind-numbing situation after another.

He could now understand why they had told him he could not release this footage.

But at the same time, Jae-min also thought that this video would be an enormous hit.

“She looks like she’s cosplaying....”

“Tsk. Insolent wretch.”

When Jae-min zoomed in on the dokkaebi’s horn, which was oddly shifted to one side as though there should have been another on the opposite side, she glared sharply at him.

Still, perhaps because she had eaten her fill of jelly, the dokkaebi was in an excellent mood.

“Phew. I feel alive again. Yes, yes. So. What dost thou intend to do now? If there is more thou wishest to ask, thou mayest ask!”

I’m in a good mood! I shall answer everything!

That was the tone in which the dokkaebi spoke, but Su-myeon still found her deeply unreliable.

“Are you planning to take my other eye now too?”

At the moment, she looked like an ordinary.

Well, not ordinary, but merely a girl dressed in unusual clothing.

But through the Cyclops Contact Lens Su-myeon possessed, he could see the truth.

The dokkaebi was nothing more than a mass of machinery covered in translucent skin.

The only thing that possessed a completely proper biological structure was the left eyeball she had taken from him.

That one alone.

The dokkaebi blankly met Su-myeon’s gaze.

“Why would I take that? I have waited so long for thee.”

Su-myeon still did not know whether he could trust the dokkaebi completely.

Had she not answered differently when he asked her before?

“Didn’t you say you weren’t specifically waiting for me?”

“Yes, fool. Thou art so particular....”

Looking annoyed by Su-myeon’s question, the dokkaebi continued.

“To be precise. I have long waited for one who could get me out of here. And that one is thee! Satisfied?!”

“Then why did you drive me away in that dream before? You could have told me about this place then.”

“What? Art thou mad?! What fool peers into the realm of the gods by riding upon a dream?”

The dokkaebi continued with an incredulous expression.

“If thou wert to set foot there by mistake, thou wouldst simply die in thy sleep. After all I did to save thee, dost thou expect me to stand by and watch thee die like that?”

Traditional gods could exercise their power only within the proper laws of nature.

In other words, within normal causality.

Access through dreams was also one of the laws of nature, but.

“Am I not in an improper state at present? I am trapped here by these damned wicked things.”

If she carelessly allowed the wrong information value to leak out, Su-myeon’s entire body might be offered up as a sacrifice and become trapped inside the dokkaebi herself.

Somewhere between a ghost story and the spiritual world.

Forever.

Hearing that, Su-myeon could not help but think of the spirit he had recently dreamed about, the one trapped in Shinui Hospital.

Could that situation have been that dangerous too?

'......Come to think of it.'

When he had been having that dream, Sa-rin had also turned deathly pale and scattered salt everywhere as she woke him up.

'Now even sleeping is dangerous....'

It was undoubtedly an enormous incident that shook the very foundation of Su-myeon’s life motto.

At Su-myeon’s unusually pale expression, the dokkaebi made an awkward face.

“So. Hast thou finished asking what thou wished to ask?”

At the dokkaebi’s words, Su-myeon came back to his senses half a beat late and asked another question.

“But that was my grandfather’s house. If you weren’t trying to hold on to me, wasn’t your choice of location far too poor?”

Because she had chosen that place as the setting, Su-myeon had nearly become deeply involved in the dream.

Looking back on it now, it had undoubtedly been a terrifyingly close call.

But at Su-myeon’s words, the dokkaebi looked even more confused.

“...What? Thy grandfather’s house? That place? Thy grandfather? Grandfather?”

The dokkaebi asked several times as though this were something she had never heard before.

That cannot be.... No, surely not? Could it be....

As she muttered those words, Su-myeon frowned as well.

“What are you talking about. You mean you weren’t there because you knew?”

“That is, ......of course not! No. How would this one possibly know such a thing! I have been trapped here for years already and am furious enough to die!”

Could something like that really have been mere coincidence?

It did not seem like an immediately important issue, but Su-myeon could not shake the unpleasant feeling lingering somewhere inside him.

What was it? What was making him feel so uneasy? What exactly had he overlooked?

“And now, like this! Having manifested, this one possesseth enough causality to exert influence upon thee even without an offering.”

“Then, could you return Su-myeon’s eye to him?”

While Su-myeon was lost in thought.

Han-su, who had been listening quietly, asked.

The dokkaebi closed her eyes and subtly turned her head away.

“......One does not take back what one hath given. Once it is given, that is the end of it.”

Han-su looked as though he had a great many things he wanted to argue about.

But Su-myeon felt that continuing this argument any further was pointless.

For now, it seemed better to finish this ghost story as quickly as possible.

And focus only on accomplishing their objective.

Besides, there was one encouraging sign.

Judging from the dokkaebi’s attitude, getting the eye back did not seem impossible.

“Anyway. So. You want to get out too, don’t you?”

“Indeed! Thou must take me with thee!”

There was no harm in receiving the dokkaebi’s help while traveling through the ghost story.

It seemed better to leave the matter of the eye alone for now, make the dokkaebi owe him a favor, and bring it up again afterward.

“If thou descendest farther this way, the roots of the thornbush block this entrance, so it is impossible. This one shall modify the elevator to make it safe, so let us go that way.”

As though trying to prove her usefulness, the dokkaebi readily proposed a method first.

There was no reason to refuse, and so the dokkaebi joined the group.

“From now on, call me Ryang.”

***

After regrouping with Ryang, the group was finally able to cross the threshold leading onto basement level 3.

“We have to cross through here and make it to the elevator, right?”

“Indeed. That is the safest route.”

Following the dokkaebi’s instructions, the group proceeded down the hallway while carefully watching where they stepped.

The masses of cables piercing in from every direction were packed even more densely than on the floor above.

By now, Jae-min was merely holding the camera.

He no longer had the leisure to check the angle.

Tap-tap-tap-tap-

At the sudden sound, Su-myeon stopped.

Just as he began wondering whether he had imagined it.

Tap-tap-tap-tap-

The sound came again.

“Everyone, stop where you are.”