Chapter 103
Even I, Kim Geunhong, a seasoned agent, momentarily fell into a panic. I only came to my senses after instinctively punching him in the ribs.
ㅡThump!
"Ugh!"
The man gaped, then hunched his body with his eyes wide. When he began choking and tried to scream again,
ㅡThump-thump-thump!
I grabbed him and landed three powerful punches on his ribs, striking upward like uppercuts.
"Mmph...!"
Now he couldn't even make a sound.
After being struck four times by those punishing thump-thump punches, there was no way he could come to his senses.
He had screamed so wildly that I thought he was an anomaly, but judging by his reaction, he was human after all. An anomaly wouldn't show such a realistic response to pain.
"Quiet."
He'd startled me by suddenly screaming, and I'd almost cursed at him, but given the extreme circumstances, I'd let it pass. My beating him had also been an appropriate measure. Right now, the only important thing was keeping this man alive.
"Let's go in quietly. If you make another sound, I'll give your ribs ten punches in a row."
Tears streamed down his face.
Had I cracked his ribs?
I wasn't particularly worried. Whenever someone was injured, the hospital's rules required that they be treated. Besides, going through such bizarre healing would naturally crush his spirit. He'd do as he was told. Maintaining a rebellious attitude in this hospital was a bad idea. Obedience gave him a better chance of surviving.
I supported him into the hospital room and laid him down.
"Mmph...!"
He was in so much pain that he curled up like a shrimp and pressed his arms against his ribs.
It was a truly pitiful sight, but I whispered mercilessly to him.
"I'll find the survival rules booklet for you. Study it carefully and follow it exactly. That's the only way you can get out of here alive."
In the previous loop, I had shoved him into the black room.
That had become a thorn made of guilt, lodged in my heart.
But this time, I had corrected my mistake.
I had saved the man who was originally supposed to die.
That became a source of confidence for me.
"Do you understand? Never make a loud noise. This is a hospital. Doctors aren't the only ones who can give injections. I can give your ribs as many fist injections as I want. Answer me if you understand."
"Y-yes..."
"Good. It's nice to see you enduring the pain. That attitude will keep you alive."
If someone saw me right now, they'd think I was nothing short of an anomaly. But there was no helping it if I wanted to save this man.
There wasn't enough time or a suitable environment to empathize with his panic and calm him with kind words. Proceeding in a somewhat coercive manner was the only way to save both him and me.
"A nurse may come in. If she tries to do anything, obey her. Don't show any resistance. If you do, you'll die. If you don't want to die, remain calm."
After calming him down, I left the hospital room.
But.
Once I stepped outside.
"..."
A nurse was standing in front of the elevator.
She was looking at me.
Her outfit matched the one in my memories: red high heels, fishnet stockings, a nurse's cap, and a one-piece uniform. Was she the very nurse who had cared for me when I was a patient?
Back then, her eyes and mouth had been sewn shut, but now she didn't look that way—perhaps because I was classified as a security guard.
She merely looked like a woman with an expressionless face.
ㅡClick, click.
The familiar sound of heels.
The nurse approached.
"Mr. Kim Geunhong."
The security guard rules.
I am security guard Lee Seungcheol.
I must never respond to another name.
"Mr. Kim Geunhong."
I ignored the nurse's call and continued my work mechanically, as if I couldn't hear her. I had to collect the box placed outside the door.
"Mr. Kim Geunhong."
I continued ignoring her as I pulled the cart along.
As I did so.
"Mr. Kim Geunhong. Mr. Kim Geunhong. Mr. Kim Geunhong. Mr. Kim Geunhong. Mr. Kim Geunhong. Mr. Kim Geunhong. Mr. Kim Geunhong. Mr. Kim Geunhong. Mr. Kim Geunhong. Mr. Kim Geunhong. Mr. Kim Geunhong. Mr. Kim Geunhong. Mr. Kim Geunhong. Mr. Kim Geunhong. Mr. Kim Geunhong. Mr. Kim Geunhong."
This crazy bitch kept calling me...!
Calm down, calm down.
If I lost my composure here, it was all over.
Why had this nurse appeared? This hadn't happened originally. The only difference was that I hadn't put the man in the black room and had instead sent him back to the hospital room.
Could that be the reason?
Should I kill myself right now?
Countless possibilities raced through my mind. Trying to save a person in the first place had been a mistake; I should have simply performed my duties there. If I failed again, I would naturally have to kill myself immediately to avoid being flayed. A single moment of hesitation could ruin everything.
Even if I were flayed, there was no guarantee that I would return in exchange for receiving penalty points.
An extreme choice.
Should I use one of the items I had treasured and saved for so long?
Just as my thoughts reached that point.
"..."
The voice calling my name disappeared.
Had she left...?
I kept pulling the cart and collecting the box. Only after collecting it all the way to the end did I change direction and look back.
The nurse was gone!
Had she gone back?!
I moved cautiously and peered inside through the square window in the hospital-room door.
The nurse was nowhere to be seen.
It seemed she had gone back by elevator.
I needed certainty.
I checked every hospital room.
...Nothing.
I entered the hospital room from my memories.
The patients were sitting propped up in their beds, staring blankly at the ceiling. I ignored them and opened a drawer.
There it is.
A patient rules booklet distributed by the Administration Bureau.
Seeing this made me miss the Administration Bureau terribly. I wanted to see Spangdal and Jaaldi too. I didn't want to see Jemtree anymore, though, since she was a fucking bitch.
I had liked the condensed-milk mix coffee Jemtree used to make. If I ever drank sweet coffee like that again somewhere... every time I did, I'd think of that vampire-like Jemtree bitch.
Good.
I took the rules booklet and entered the room where the man was.
"...!"
The man lying down flinched.
"You did well. Stay still. And stay quiet. That's the only way to survive. Here, this is a survival rules booklet. If you want to live, follow it."
"W-wait a moment..."
"Keep conversation to a minimum."
"Where is this place, exactly, and who are you..."
He still hadn't come to his senses.
If you failed to grasp reality in a bizarre space like this, you had no choice but to die. You had to accept that the unreal existed and recognize that you had been drawn into it.
Otherwise, you'd die.
The only reason this man could survive was because he had met me—Kim Geunhong of the third loop.
"Do you want me to hit your ribs again? Just quietly accept it. If you don't want to die."
When I raised my fist, his eyes filled with fear.
"Mmph...!"
"I have nothing more to explain. If you act foolishly, you'll die. I'm serious. Follow the rules booklet."
There was no time for explanations.
Once I had given him the rules booklet, I had no choice but to leave the rest to him.
I left the hospital room.
* * *
I continued performing my duties after that. There were several situations resembling emergencies, but I handled all of them admirably.
And then, finally.
-Come up to the office on the ninth floor.
A summons came from Teacher Kim Seonghan!
This was essentially the most important thing in this loop. Teacher Kim Seonghan would surely know useful information about Cheongak Mary Hospital.
Finding that out alone would be a tremendous achievement.
I went straight up to the ninth floor.
"Teacher."
"You've come."
When I entered, Teacher Kim Seonghan, with all his skin peeled off, greeted me.
"How is the security work?"
"It's all manageable. Let's get to the point."
"Yes... Did you perhaps come to rescue me?"
I stared at him silently.
"Teacher. This may sound cruel, but you aren't a normal human being anymore."
To put it coldly.
There was no way a being with all its skin peeled off could be human. Teacher Kim Seonghan had retained his personality, but he was already no different from one of the hospital's entities.
"...I know."
Even so, I wanted to save him.
"If you were human, I could have found some way to rescue you. But you seem to have become half-assimilated into this hospital."
"..."
"To save you in this situation, I need the information you possess. Tell me what you learned while working as a doctor in this hospital."
"Understood. I was going to tell you regardless. If someone like you learns about this hospital, fewer people may become victims."
Just as I thought.
Teacher Kim Seonghan was practically a saint.
Even in this situation, he was thinking about the other victims.
Truly, this was what it meant to be a noble person.
"I happened to get into a traffic accident and was brought here. When I came to, my body had been healed. During that process, they must have realized I was a doctor, because they told me to become one. I couldn't refuse."
Teacher Kim Seonghan's story began.
He, too, was someone who had been transported here under unfortunate circumstances. But unlike the other victims, he had been a doctor, so he became a doctor at the hospital.
When a doctor came here, were they forced onto the doctor route?
"After becoming a doctor... my skin was peeled off."
"...So that's what it is."
"Yes. Once my skin was peeled off, I became literally bound to this space. If I put that skin on, I lose my personality. And I act as this hospital's 'director.'"
What?!
The hospital director was Teacher Kim Seonghan?!
"So you were the hospital director."
The one who had taken out Department Head Lee Dohyeong in an instant had been Teacher Kim Seonghan wearing that skin.
Perhaps the doctor who had conducted the discharge consultation had also been Teacher Kim Seonghan.
"Then what about the previous hospital director?"
"I don't know... At some point, I became the hospital director. In the process, I learned something."
"What?"
"The reason this Cheongak Mary Hospital exists."
"The reason it exists...!"
What on earth could that be?!
If I knew the reason, perhaps I could prevent it...!
"What is it?"
"First and foremost, this hospital exists to heal people. In fact, many people have received treatment here. Any wound, any illness—it can heal them all."
"But the survival rate..."
"Yes. If a person doesn't follow the hospital's rules, they can't leave even if they have been healed. They become an entity of the hospital."
I knew this much.
"Only a very small number of people are discharged normally. Recently, the number has increased a little because an organization called the Administration Bureau has been leaving rules booklets behind... but they are still a minority."
When he mentioned the Administration Bureau, Teacher Kim Seonghan glanced at me. He had guessed that I came from there.
He was half right.
The reason I didn't confirm it outright was that I didn't know what might happen later.
"Of course, that treatment is by no means normal."
"Pardon? What do you mean...?"
"I'm a doctor, too. I can distinguish between things that can and cannot be treated. Besides, the surgeries performed here are bizarre and strange. They aren't human medicine. How could that be normal?"
...Teacher Kim Seonghan was right.
The medical practices of this hospital were by no means normal.
Some utterly bizarre thing performed by anomalies.
Perhaps a horrific thing that merely took the form of medical treatment...
"Teacher. But I've seen several people who were discharged from this hospital. I even examined them, but there was nothing abnormal about them."
I, too, had been healed by the hospital.
By eating grotesque chunks of flesh.
But I had been fine, hadn't I?
"That's simply..."
Teacher Kim Seonghan smiled bitterly.
"It only means that human technology can't detect it."
"...!"
The moment I heard those words, chills ran through my entire body.
That means...
Does that mean I, too, had been subjected to this grotesque thing?