Chapter 15
Creeeeak..
The sound of a rusty door opening echoed throughout the house.
Since the place was quiet to begin with, the rusty screech of metal echoed even louder throughout the house.
And then..
“...”
That was all.
“..?”
I kept waiting with my finger resting over the status window's “Return” button.
To find out what kind of entity was entering the house, I stayed perfectly silent without even making a sound of breathing, but..
‘..What?’
The entity that had opened the door wasn't coming inside.
‘..What was that?’
Another thirty minutes or so passed.
Even though I was still hiding beside the sofa, holding my breath.
Since no entity had entered the house yet, I cautiously moved toward the front door, just in case..
‘???’
A single sheet of paper was attached to the firmly closed front door.
Yeah.. ..That really was all.
There was just one lonely sheet of paper stuck to the front door..
‘When did it close the door and leave..?’
I had no idea what kind of entity it was.
It had opened someone else's front door at will just to stick up a single sheet of paper before leaving again. It was honestly..
I was briefly dumbfounded, but just in case, I turned on the status window's camera and zoomed in on the paper.
After taking a picture of the paper to check whether it was really safe to touch it.
I moved to the gallery where my photos were collected and slowly began reading what was written on the paper.
--
1 ) I
came
from outside. Even if you block the door
with a password,
I
can open it all. So you
had
better not do
anything stupid
at all. Actually, don't do anything stupid
at
all
.
2 ) Even now,
the house
how about coming out of?
This
world
is so beautiful. The things I pity
the most
are those holed up inside their houses. Outside
is
safe
again.
3 ) This may sound crazy, but
we
have
already
secured the
safety
of every
house.
It's true. Since we blocked them
with
walls, they couldn't
break
through even one wall, so they couldn't
get inside
in the end.
4 ) Fortunately,
our
we
were about to
starve
to
death when we met some good people who came to distribute food.
We had nothing to eat,
so it was
really difficult.
5 ) Don't worry about things like that. You should hurry and come outside too,
so
.
There are lots of good people outside.
Inside the house,
there's no need to
hold
out.
6 )
You have four
days to come outside. If you come out
after
that, you won't receive any food.
Everyone
can't receive food, so you must come out before the food distribution
ends
completely.
7 ) You don't
necessarily
have to work. This place prioritizes
keeping people
alive, so you can just come here and relax while
watching the sun
rise among the other people. It's an easy place
to be.
8 ) You have to think about the future. If you stay inside your house forever, all you'll do is starve to death.
9 ) There won't be another chance. You must come outside within four days.
10 )
Nobody
wants to
die.
11 ) I know this sounds ridiculous, and you probably don't
want to believe
it, but believe me. Everyone is living
happily
and well. Join us.
Save me
. I'm so bored and lonely I feel like I'm going to die. Let's have fun together.
Please..
Huh?
--
‘..I don't know this house's password either..?’
It said it could open the door even if I blocked it with a password..
Was this anomaly some kind of electronic-device hacker?
Could it hack anything just by touching machines..
‘Ah, no way.’
While I was thinking that to myself.
I suddenly remembered the computer that only showed the customer service inquiries.
‘..It really is a hacker anomaly. ..But why did it break the computer, then?’
I was briefly dumbfounded by the anomaly's ability.
‘Why is it insisting that I come outside so badly?’
The paper resembling the rules left by that hacker anomaly said I absolutely had to come outside within four days.
It brought back memories of Belliard Library, where I had been required to follow the rules.
‘Ugh.. I have to go outside even though it's scary.. I guess there's a lot to prepare.’
I realized that from now on, I had a lot to prepare if I wanted to follow the rules in this mysterious world.
‘What should I pack first..?’
At Belliard Library, they provided me with fresh clothes every day, so I hadn't had to worry much.
But the place I would have to make my way through from now on.. clearly wouldn't be as kind as Belliard Library.
‘I should prioritize water and food. It would be good to pack a few changes of clothes too.. As for weapons.. Hmm.. It would be nice to have something like a baseball bat. Armor would be good too.’
Just as I was about to get water from the tap, food from the refrigerator, and wearable clothes from the wardrobe.
I realized something.
‘..I have to check every single one of these things too..’
I had so many things to investigate, such as whether the tap water here was safe to drink, whether the food in the refrigerator was safe to eat, and whether there was an anomaly inside the wardrobe.
“Haaah...”
Stressed by the fact that there was still so much to investigate, I immediately accessed the community.
--
[I still haven't proved that I'm human, but can I get some help?]
(Photo)
So this is a world where some hacker anomaly brings you a set of rules.
It's still ridiculous that it opened the door, put the rules inside, and left all by itself.
Since I have to go outside within four days, I'm going to start preparing a little today.
If preparing turns out to be hopeless, I can just use Return, but personally, I feel like I'll come back here again someday, so I should gather as much information as possible.
(Photo)
I turned on the tap. The water looks clean, so is it okay to drink it?
(Photo)
This is inside the refrigerator, but there aren't any brands or labels at all, so I don't even know what kind of canned food is in there.
Can I eat it?
(Photo)
The wardrobe looks fucking scary, for starters..
(Photo)
I poked a few holes in it with the awl. There's an ano
(Photo)
Whoa.. That scared me.
I was startled by a breaking sound while writing, and when I checked, the wardrobe door had broken.
I was going to ask whether there was an anomaly inside the wardrobe, but apparently there isn't one. Why is this wardrobe so weak?
It broke just because I poked a few holes in it.
Tsk tsk. This is why you should use Made in Korea.
Anyway, I'm planning to go outside according to the rules and live there for a few days.
If there are any must-have items I should prepare before going outside, I hope the veteran big brothers can recommend some.
[Comments - 7]
Anonymous 1 : What the.. Did you turn the wardrobe into a beehive? If you poke it that much, even an anomaly would die, newbie..
ㄴ Poster : Would an anomaly die from something like that?
ㄴ Anonymous 1 : How do you know that?
ㄴ Poster : I don't know that. I'm just raising the question.
ㄴ Anonymous 2 : The newbie makes it sound less like an opinion and more like a fact. Yeah, someone with 3 kills and 0 deaths probably knows better than someone with 0 kills and 0 deaths.
ㄴ Anonymous 3 : For real lol
Anonymous 3 : There was a post a long time ago about how to check whether water is safe to drink. I'll find it, so hang on.
--
As soon as I accessed the community and wrote a post asking for help, I looked around the room for a while.
I couldn't leave everything up to the wisdom of the crowd.
I began searching around on my own for things I could take with me.
‘Hmm.. I wonder if there's something that could work as armor.’
I wasn't naively assuming that ordinary people would be walking around outside.
Just as Belliard Library had dressed me in a librarian's uniform.
I had to fully consider the possibility that anomalies might attack me when they saw an ordinary human like me.
‘I guess I'll have to spend the next three days working hard to make something.’
I decided to spend three days making armor out of the materials in this place.
‘Let's see. To use something as armor, I need leather first.. I'll tear the leather off the clothes…’
…
Four hours had passed since I came here.
After spreading all the materials that seemed usable for making armor or weapons across the living room.
While I was wondering how I should connect them all together.
‘Oh, right. I still have to prove I'm human.’
I remembered that I had to prove to the gallery that I was human.
I decided to postpone crafting for a while and began thinking about what would be good to use as proof.
‘Hmm.. What would be good..?’
A way to clearly prove that I'm human..
A way to prove that I'm a person without using a selfie of myself..
“Hmm..”
I fell into such deep thought that a sound escaped me without realizing it.
I was agonizing over how I could convince the people who thought I might be an anomaly that I was definitely human.
‘Oh? Should I talk about manga or anime?’
If I told them some ridiculous story about a female idol who sang K-pop hunting male idols who were demons, surely everyone would acknowledge that I was human.
I immediately accessed the community to prove that I was human.. ..What is this?
--
[Newbie, you bastard, hurry up and look at this]
[Did he already go outside?]
[I'm seriously going crazy. Looking closely, this is fucking creepy;]
[Ah, seriously. I regret not being able to send the newbie a note because he might be an anomaly.. Actually, just be an anomaly already..]
[IthinkI'mgoingcrazyIthinkI'mgoingcrazyIthinkI'mgoingcrazyIthinkI'mgoingcrazyIthinkI'mgoingcrazyIthinkI'mgoingcrazyIthinkI'mgoing…]
[Is there any way to make him look at the gallery instead of his messages?]
[I'm telling you, that bastard really is an anomaly. Don't worry for nothing]
.
.
.
[Hey, hey, look at this right now, newbie. You must not go outside.]
--
‘..What? Six hours haven't passed yet, have they?’ What could it be? Why were the gallery users searching for me so desperately..?