Chapter 113: Tower of Entangled Lines (4)

3-2) Watcher

A fused entity whose entire face and upper body are covered in hundreds of camera lenses and sensors like tumors. It crawls along the ceiling like a spider and detects objects that show movement. Because it moves by driving feet fitted with sharp sawteeth into the ceiling, it is slow and makes a great deal of noise.

If you listen carefully and hide until the sound can no longer be heard, you can pass by without encountering it.

TAP-TAP-

Su-myeon recognized the distinct sound reaching his ears and looked around.

When he peered into the server room beside them, even more cables were tangled inside, leaving what looked like no empty space at all.

“Pull up the floor...!”

As expected of a data center, the floor was a raised floor with countless cables running beneath it.

At Su-myeon’s words, Ryang immediately grabbed the corner of one of the floor tiles with her small hand.

Once a gap opened, Han-su quickly helped Ryang lift up one of the large floor tiles.

Thick cables ran beneath it, but there was enough space for several people to lie down and crouch inside.

“.......”

TAP-TAP-TAP-

After pushing Jae-min into the innermost part, Su-myeon pulled Ryang into his arms and lowered himself down again.

Finally, Han-su squeezed himself and Mu-yeon inside and flattened himself against the floor.

Then they pulled the tile back over themselves, covering the opening above.

TAP-TAP-

TAP-TAP-

The sound of something moving as though gnawing into the solid ceiling gradually drew closer.

Everyone held their breath and lay completely flat beneath the raised floor.

From above, the strange tapping sound continued several times as though whatever it was were circling around the area.

The space inside was narrow and low, so Su-myeon had no choice but to remain still with Ryang held in his arms as he waited for the sound to move away.

“.......”

He had expected her to feel cold like a machine.

But unexpectedly, Ryang’s body was warm and soft, carrying the unmistakable sensation of a child.

It truly felt as though he were holding a child who needed protection.

Once he could feel her body heat, the feeling became even stranger.

It was almost... like finding a lost and abandoned puppy.

He felt a strange sense of responsibility, as though he ought to help this being even though he did not even know whether she should be considered a living creature.

Perhaps that was why the dokkaebi had chosen the appearance of a child.

After all, nothing in the world could lower a person’s guard and inspire unearned kindness quite like a child.

And she was not too young either, looking exactly around middle-school age.

Even amid this bizarre scenery, she possessed an oddly convincing sense of reality.

If he helped her just a little, she would probably follow along obediently, and then perhaps he could save her.

It made him think things like that....

“......,”

No, in the first place, was this being even one of the things he could rescue and bring outside?

TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-

While he was thinking, the sound that had been circling nearby faded into the distance and everything became quiet.

“Um, my arm is actually bent the wrong way right now. Can we please get out of here quickly?”

Only then did Jae-min groan and make an earnest request.

Trying to hurriedly hide four people, [N O V E L I G H T] along with one huge wolf, beneath the floor had left none of them in a particularly comfortable position.

“...Let’s get out.”

Han-su, who had been the last to crouch down beneath the floor, checked outside and finally pushed himself upright.

As Mu-yeon quickly scrambled out and shook himself off.

Han-su grabbed them by the hand one at a time and pulled them back up.

“Please get up already....”

Su-myeon, who had been pinned beneath the surprisingly heavy Ryang, spoke as he felt his legs beginning to go numb.

Ryang groaned as well and took Han-su’s hand to stand up.

“Good grief, this old woman is going to die trying to get out of here.”

The statement did not suit her appearance as a young girl at all.

Having avoided the Watcher’s eyes, the group hurried toward the elevator again.

The elevator looked broken, with strangely corrupted characters displayed on the panel above it.

It was the sort of thing none of them would ever want to ride in as it was.

But when Ryang placed her hand on the circuit board, sparks flew several times.

“Wait a moment.”

At Ryang’s words, Jae-min immediately swapped in a spare camera battery.

Seeing him efficiently charge his phone with a power bank at the same time made Su-myeon sigh for several reasons.

'Yeah, it’s better than him panicking.'

While Su-myeon found himself thinking that for what felt like the hundredth time, Ryang spoke.

He had thought they might encounter a few more kinds of monsters in the meantime if they were unlucky.

But perhaps because, as she had said, it had been so long since she had been able to move around.

An excited Ryang finished the work in an instant.

“Now! It is done! We can safely descend to the lower floor!”

CLANG-

Strangely enough, the notification sound before the elevator doors opened was the sound of a gong.

“What thinkest thou! Is it not splendid!”

Come to think of it, was a dokkaebi club supposed to be able to create anything?

After patting the proudly grinning Ryang on the head, Su-myeon stepped into the elevator.

The interior had an unusual design that seemed modeled after a hanok.

Apparently, the dokkaebi favored beautifully modernized traditional styles that looked almost like works of art.

“Oh, this is nice....”

As Jae-min muttered while filming the interior, Ryang answered in an excited voice.

“Is it not? Is it not?”

At times like this, she really did look like nothing more than a fifteen-year-old brat.

Once everyone had boarded, the elevator quietly began moving.

[B4]

CLANG-

The display above indicated basement level 4, and soon another cheerful sound announced their arrival.

But completely at odds with that atmosphere, pitch-black darkness stretched beyond the opening elevator doors.

***

Director Jang Bok-eum sat inside a vast and silent office.

A closed-off layout and luxurious decorations.

Anyone could tell at a glance that it was the office of a high-ranking government official, but it was not actually Jang Bok-eum’s office.

“This much manpower....”

The elderly executive sitting across from Jang Bok-eum looked troubled as he examined the documents.

The National Intelligence Service was a secretive organization.

They never, under any circumstances, operated in large groups together.

But.

“Even so, it must be done.”

At Jang Bok-eum’s firm voice, the executive could not deny it.

He merely broke out in a cold sweat.

His hazy gaze hesitated for a moment, but without saying much, he stamped the documents.

This was the moment when the paperwork the Governance had worked so hard to prepare gained actual power.

No matter who Jang Bok-eum was, he could not simply requisition personnel as he pleased.

“Thank you.”

After expressing his thanks simply, Jang Bok-eum left the approved documents behind and rose from his seat.

No matter what it took, his goal was to uproot the ghost stories that had spread across this land like rotten mold.

He had absolutely no interest in anything else.

To be frank, he had little interest in the expenditure of personnel being mobilized for this work either.

It did not matter at all how many died.

All he cared about was making every last ghost story disappear.

“.......”

And for that purpose.

He desperately needed the person named Su-myeon.

Even if everyone else died, at least he could not die, nor could his will be broken.

As Jang Bok-eum left the office, he pulled out his ringing phone.

[Agent Lee Hwi-yeon]

When he answered, her characteristically composed voice came through.

She said that now that the paperwork was finished, she was already heading to Chuncheon to handle the follow-up work.

Ever since he had met Su-myeon and established this ridiculous organization.

Everything had been proceeding at remarkable speed.

Hopefully, this time as well.

The result would live up to his expectations.

“Yes, the situation-management personnel will also be departing shortly.”

Jang Bok-eum continued walking with a faint smile.

***

Basement level 4 of the abandoned data center.

Having entered the lowest level, one that did not exist in reality, Su-myeon tapped the flashlight in his hand several times.

The beam flickered as though it might go out at any moment.

“At this rate, it feels like it’s going to turn off again....”

The flashlight Jae-min was holding was also flickering roughly once every three seconds.

“You fool! That is driving me mad!”

“Ah, it’s not like I’m doing it on purpose....”

At this rate, I can’t even film anything properly.

As Jae-min muttered, Ryang snapped her fingers.

Blue sparks flew, and the flashlights finally began shining normally.

“...Thank you.”

Su-myeon thanked her out of courtesy and only then looked around properly again.

Basement level 4 was completely packed with cables.

There was so little room to step that they had no choice but to walk on the cables, but the cables were so tangled among themselves that all they could do was writhe.

They could not easily snatch the group away or take any other action.

“It really... feels like we’re stepping on something alive.......”

It was exactly as Jae-min said.

When they stepped on dozens, even hundreds of cables bundled together like masses of tentacles, a strange sensation of them crushing against one another traveled up through their feet.

The sensation was more than enough to make it feel as though they were stepping on the body of a living creature, and goosebumps rose along Su-myeon’s arms as well.

“For now, let’s find the survivors.”

They would still be alive in some form.

And if possible, perhaps they could save at least some of them.

If they had already been captured in a state beyond recovery.

Then ending things for them here could also be a form of rest.

The group illuminated their surroundings with their flashlights as they moved farther inside.

“...Looks like it’s over there.”

Han-su’s flashlight pointed in one direction.

It was too dark to see anything properly.

But in the direction Han-su indicated.

As though spiders had captured prey and spun cocoons around them.

There were numerous people hanging upside down, tightly bound in strands of cable.

“Gasp....”

Su-myeon’s words that there might be survivors and that they intended to save them had sounded extremely hopeful.

That was why Jae-min, who had not expected anything like this, sucked in a sharp breath.

The closer they got.

The more horribly grotesque the people hanging there appeared.

Dozens of cable strands were embedded throughout their bodies, pulsing at regular intervals as though they had become one with their blood vessels.

As if their life force were being used as batteries.

“......They lead over there.”

A massive CRT monitor stood at the center of basement level 4. It was obscured by cables, so they could not see exactly what was written on the screen inside.

But a faint light shone through the gaps between the cables.

“You wretched thing.

How dare thee....”

The moment Ryang saw it, she abruptly reached out and tried to remove the cables connected to the people on her own.

Would that actually be all right?

Su-myeon watched Ryang act for a moment.

According to what she had said, she was a dokkaebi who had lived for more than a thousand years.

He had hoped she might be of some help in rescuing survivors from a ghost story.

THUD!

The moment Ryang disconnected one of the cables, one of the people hanging on one side dropped heavily to the floor.

“.......”

Mu-yeon cautiously approached the fallen person and lightly nudged them with his nose.

Perhaps they had already been almost dead.

Or perhaps their neck had broken when they fell upside down.

They did not react at all and did not appear to be breathing.

Mu-yeon shook his head from side to side and whimpered.

Seeing that, Su-myeon hurriedly stopped the dokkaebi.

“Wait, I don’t think we can do it like that.”

“What? Why dost thou stop me! We must teach this wicked thing a lesson!”

Su-myeon barely managed to stop Ryang as she tried to yank out the next cable as well.

There were cables embedded in the people’s bodies, but their condition did not appear immediately life-threatening.

If possible.

Perhaps they could use the anesthetics they had brought and find a way to move everyone outside.

“We had one idea too....”

BUZZZZ-

BUZZ-

But suddenly, Su-myeon’s phone began vibrating wildly.

[> Root_Access: External interference identified.]

[> A critical integrity breach has been detected within the system.]

“...What... is this?”

This was the first time something like this had appeared on the Heartphone.

And the app running in the background was Dokkaebi AI.

“...Huh?”

Then part of the cable Ryang was holding began driving its end into Ryang’s wrist.

“W-what is this! Get it off me quickly!”

Ryang seemed to have had no intention of doing that either, and she recoiled in alarm as she shook her hand.

[> Breach element classification: Unregistered data]

[> Defense system activated.]

[> Reverse-trace data injection.]

[> ERROR.]

[> ERROR.]

[> ERROR.]