Chapter 33
“...”
“...”
The road to the apartment passed in silence as Anonymous 1 and I walked without saying a word.
“The Five Rings and the television?”
“With meals, clay pillars, and water bottles.”
Were the two anomalies talking to each other?
Or was one of them human, speaking like that to pretend to be an anomaly?
Either way, we had seen the other guards having a creepy conversation.
‘If one of those two is human.. wow, that would be really tough.’
Remembering that we were already struggling just to survive,
I decided not to ask anything to determine whether one of them was human.
Just as we were about to enter the apartment..
“..?”
When the guards abruptly cut off their conversation and fell silent..
“B, Bumbardilo..! Crocodile..lo.”
“..W-what dildo..? A crocodile dildo?”
“Dilo..!”
I blurted out whatever words came to mind and acted as naturally as possible like an anomaly.
“Yesterday, house, death, aha.”
“Goose meat, security guard.”
The night guards, who had been eyeing us suspiciously, went on their way.
‘So absolute silence looks suspicious?’
Was it because our complete silence looked suspicious?
Or perhaps those guards were people too, and had only been trying to determine whether we were human..
Whatever the truth, I now knew that we needed to make a reasonable amount of noise to keep them from getting suspicious.
“Cappuccini.. assassino.”
“??”
As I uttered something that sounded plausible, I grabbed Anonymous 1 by the arm and walked straight into the apartment.
“...”
“...”
They seemed to have a lot to say, but given the situation, they and I maintained our silence until we reached Unit 201.
‘They said all we had to do was get here.’
When we reached Unit 201, there was nothing in particular we needed to do.
Since I had carried out the instructions written in the rules, I was just about to return straight to the guard post.
Creak..
The door to Unit 202, right next to Unit 201, began to open slowly.
“...”
“...”
As my heart pounded like crazy,
it was Anonymous 1 who brought my frozen mind back to its senses..
“Awl..! Lego, let’s go to the lion statue.”
“..!”
Thanks to Anonymous 1 coming up with an absurd sentence and throwing out a question,
I realized that I was unconsciously gripping the awl tightly, ready to fight whatever was coming out of Unit 202..
I immediately turned around and left the apartment at a slightly hurried pace.
Click-
Back inside the guard post we had returned to.
‘Is anyone here? No one, right?’
I looked around the guard post and confirmed that there was no one else here besides us.
“Whew.. Haaaa.. Seriously, wow.. I thought my heart was going to burst..”
“Huaaah.. Yeah, no kidding..”
We were finally able to breathe out the sighs we had been holding in.
“No, Daebung.”
“Yes?”
“Why do you keep.. trying to fight those things, seriously..?”
“Ah, well. It’s become a bit of a habit.. Whenever I encounter an anomaly, it’s usually in a place where there’s nowhere to run..”
“That’s a really bad habit. You have to run no matter what. You are a supernova who’s cleared more horror-story dungeons than I have, of course, but.. we’re just ordinary humans. If you fight the anomalies recklessly.. ..you know what happens to you too, right?”
“Right..”
“Run for as long as you can, and only fight back when you decide you can’t run anymore. ..Got it?”
“Yes, sir..”
Anonymous 1 was right.
All the situations I’d been in until now had involved me preparing to fight only because I’d been attacked by anomalies at dead ends where I couldn’t escape.
Like just now, trying to fight when I could still run away.. was practically suicide.
“Unlike you, I’m an ordinary human.. I can’t just kill anomalies or anything.”
“Uh.. ..I’m an ordinary human too, though..?”
“Ah-ha, that joke was pretty funny just now.”
“?”
“Daebung being ordinary.. If we had the community, I would have shared this hilarious news with everyone.”
“???”
From now on, I decided to run for as long as I could whenever possible.
“Anyway, what was that.. that thing earlier? A crocodile having a dildo?”
“..I don’t know what you thought you heard. That was just a meme. It was hugely popular around the world, then died out almost immediately.”
“A meme? Ah.. I’ve lived here so long that I didn’t even know a new meme had become popular..”
From my conversation with Anonymous 1, I could tell that they really had been living here for a very long time,
but I decided not to ask about it just to satisfy my curiosity.
“Ha.. Do you think we can get out? Even with our supernova Daebung here.. This is the first horror story where I can’t be sure we’ll get out, so I’m nervous.”
“We can get out. If no escape route appears, we can just clear the horror story.”
“As expected of Jongno’s Kim Daebung. I respect that confidence.”
“No, no.. I’m not from Jongno, and my surname isn’t Kim.”
Having resolved to focus all my attention on escaping this place somehow,
I stuck my head out and began observing the other night guards.
“To find a clue to escape.. I think we need to find the real human hiding among the night guards.”
“I was thinking something similar. If we find a real human, we might be able to hear details like why the Status Window won’t turn on.”
“Right?”
“The problem is how to do it. How can we find a human without the other anomalies noticing? And.. while also making sure the anomalies don’t learn our language.”
Anonymous 1’s point was perfectly sound.
The anomalies were in the process of learning our language-learning system.
If we randomly used a sentence like A to find another human, a guard anomaly that had learned sentence A would use that learned sentence on an actual living human,
and if the human who took the bait mistook the guard anomaly for a human and revealed their identity..
“It really is a problem. What sentence could we use that wouldn’t matter even if an anomaly learned it..”
“This isn’t something we can solve with ‘Mansa Jjitjina,’ ‘Daebung,’ or anything like that.”
It was one of those moments when I found myself missing the community.
It would have been great if we could have received some incredible advice with the power of collective intelligence..
“We have time coming out our ears, so let’s think about it slowly.”
…
Three hours and fifty minutes had already passed since Anonymous 1 and I began our shift, and before we knew it, the time for our third night patrol was approaching.
“Let’s go. This time, let’s focus on the apartment and look for anything unusual.”
“Yes.”
So we decided to keep looking for clues to escape during this night patrol as well,
and just as we quietly left the guard post and began making a wide circuit of the apartment,
“Bombardilo Crocodilo.”
“Wh-what dildo? Crocodile dildo?”
‘They’re copying our conversation word for word.’
We could see another guard trying to imitate our conversation exactly.
Although its imitation wasn’t perfect, which gave us a good opportunity to be certain that it wasn’t human,
just as I was realizing that we needed to pay close attention to the anomalies’ learning abilities here,
in the distance..
‘Why are they all gathering here, seriously..’
I could see more night guards walking toward us.
“Skybo, Charizard.”
“Oh, chocolate. Cat.”
With no choice but to leave this spot, I was about to spit out some appropriate words and move away when..
“Tralalero Tral, Lala.”
At the sound of another guard suddenly spouting a brainrot meme..
‘..Did I mention anything about a shark with legs earlier?’
I remembered that I hadn’t mentioned the name of a shark with legs a moment ago,
which meant..
‘Is it human? No, is it an anomaly that learned it?’
In other words, the night guard who had spouted that Internet meme could either be an anomaly that had learned it from another survivor working here, or a real human.
Therefore.
“..Chimpanzini Bana..nini.”
“?”
Hoping it might work, I casually spouted another kind of brainrot..
“Tung.. tungtungtungtung.. sahur..?”
“..Lirili Laril..la.”
It became clear that the person I was speaking with was human.
Once the guard I had spoken with also became certain that I was human,
“..!”
the human guard who had suddenly approached me..
“?”
quickly placed a sheet of paper in my hand and began walking somewhere with their fellow guard.
…
The guard post we returned to after finishing our third night patrol.
“What was that earlier? I got a full-body chill because I thought Daebung was about to get stabbed..”
“They handed me a sheet of paper before they left.”
“Paper? Like a note? But what on earth were you talking about..?”
“We communicated using an outdated meme called Italian brainrot.”
“..No way?”
“If the guard hadn’t learned it, then it was information only a human could know. That let them be certain that I was human too.”
“Wow.. That’s a method I never would have imagined.”
“It’s just lucky we were able to understand each other so well.”
As soon as we entered the guard post, we unfolded the paper the other night guard had placed in my hand.
And, astonishingly..
--
According to what we’ve confirmed, from 15 : 10 ~ 15 : 25, it’s safe to walk around outside alone.
We haven’t figured out the other time slots yet, but let’s gather and share information during this one.
Let’s meet behind Guard Post 3.
--
The paper contained a message left by other people who had fallen into this place.
“Maybe.. we can escape this place much faster than we expected.”
“How?”
“If we gather the people who are here..”
“You’re not about to say we should fight the anomalies, are you?”
“Gather them.. gather themmm.. ..through a group orgy..”
“..Just say we should fight. I’ll hear you out for now.”
“Whew.. If there are a lot of people, we might be able to fight the anomalies.”
“Yeah. That’s better than a group orgy.”
I felt as though Anonymous 1 had judged me unfit to be human.
Anyway.
“Tonight, let’s keep looking for people.”
“You want to look again? Wouldn’t the anomalies have learned that Italian brainrot or whatever?”
Even if it didn’t come to an all-out war with the anomalies,
the moment several humans gathered, it was obvious that we would have a much easier time finding a clue to escape this place.
“We just have to try talking using words the anomalies haven’t learned.”
“For example?”
“Mesugaki.”
“Mesugaki..?”
“Yes. What word comes to mind when you hear ‘mesugaki’?”
“..Incompetent? Trash..?”
“That’s the idea. Say the word ‘mesugaki’ to a guard you’re meeting for the first time. If they respond with a word like ‘incompetent’ or ‘trash’?”
“Then they’re human.”
“Exactly.”
We decided to gather as many of the survivors here as possible.
“..But does it have to be mesugaki?”
“There are lots of other words too.”
“..For example?”
“Well. Hitomi, or MILF.. or futanari.. something like that..”
“..Definitely human.”
“...”
“Our Daebung is even more incredible than I am..?”
But seriously..
Was there really any other conversation besides this one.. that could convince us someone was human..?
“Then.. Anonymous 1, can you think of any better words?”
“I was thinking of something like the globally famous movie Titanic. Something that people of other nationalities would understand too. But.. wow.. As expected of Daebung. You never fail to live up to expectations.”
“..Don’t talk to me ever again.”
“Ah, why? Aww, don’t sulk, Daebung.”
“Vehicle, sky zoom-zoom, screech.”
“Oh, please, Daebung..!”
“It’s clay and fingers at the back of the neck.”
“Daebung..!!”