Chapter 12
I kept running like a madman until a bus terminal appeared.
I got on the bus in terror.
I couldn't bring myself to look out the window. I just bowed my head and prayed that all of this time would pass.
Before long, we arrived at the destination.
It was nighttime.
A very dark night.
When I got off the bus, all the countless people in the terminal were looking at me. Every single one of them had their eyes and mouths sewn shut.
Not a single one missing.
All of them had become like that, staring at me.
"Hahahaha!"
Laughter burst out.
It made no sense. If I just got one little rule wrong, was the whole world supposed to end up looking like that? There was no way this could be reality. I must be hallucinating.
"Ahahahahaha!"
I ran while laughing. I had no idea where to go. Was there even anywhere left to go in the first place?
Anywhere was fine.
As long as it was somewhere with no one there.
"So please, stop! Don't look at me, please!"
No matter where I went, the people with their eyes and mouths sewn shut watched me.
But that wasn't all... those damn windows!
Inside those windows!
No matter which window on a building I looked at, some giant-headed thing was pressed right up against it, staring at me from the other side! What, were they asking me to remove the stitches from their eyes and mouths or something?!
I threw rocks, kicked at them, and smashed the windows. Shards of broken glass flew everywhere. Every single shard reflected a monster in it.
"Aaaagh!"
Please...!
Anyone.
If there's a normal person, answer me!
"Oh, right!"
I ran to the subway station.
It was late at night.
Of course the shutters would be down.
When I got there, the shutters were, just as expected, down!
"Vampire! Vampiirreee!"
If this were hell,
I'd rather run into a vampire. At least that monster would have its eyes and mouth intact. At least I wouldn't have to look at those damn stitches!
ㅡRumble.
But what was behind the shutter...
"Fuuuuuck!"
Countless people with their eyes and mouths sewn shut, enough to fill the entire station. They were staring at me like chickens trapped in a cage.
I ran again.
Toward my one-room apartment.
I could finally relax only after reaching my room, which reeked of rotten garlic and was covered wall to wall with crucifix drawings. I climbed onto the bed without even taking off my clothes or shoes, pulled the blanket over myself, and fell asleep trembling.
Hoping that when I woke up, everything would be back to normal.
Of course it wasn't.
Even after I woke up, the darkness hadn't ended. Just like before, the people with their eyes and mouths sewn shut were staring at me from every window, pane of glass, and monitor in the house.
"Mom! Dad!"
I ran away again.
This time to my parents' old house.
With the feeling that I wanted to see my parents one last time.
I made it to the house, but.
"..."
"..."
What welcomed me were my mom and dad, both with their eyes and mouths sewn shut. They sat side by side on the sofa, staring straight at me. Without saying a word.
"Mom! Dad! Please! Pleeease!"
I reached out and pulled at my father's eyelids and lips. Rip. The stitches came away. There was nothing inside his eyes, and no teeth in his mouth either. Not even gums or a tongue.
My mother just stared at me like that.
"Please...!"
After doing the same to my mother, I left.
"Ahahaha!"
Now there was no way out.
"Let's die."
Let's just die.
Die and start over.
If I died and woke up again, I could start back over in my one-room apartment filled with crucifixes. Then I'd just skip this shitty job and do construction or something. Some shady security job? I'd never do something like that.
Thinking that, I headed to the apartment building in my neighborhood.
The apartment building I used to live in.
I took the elevator to the top floor, went up one more floor by the stairs, entered the rooftop code, and opened the door.
"Let's die."
I stood on the railing.
If I fell down from here, I'd die, right?
ㅡWhoosh!
Every visible window opened. Starting with the apartment building and even the villas far away. From within them, the people with their eyes and mouths sewn shut stared blankly at me.
As if they were waiting to watch me fall.
"Fuck!"
I clenched my teeth.
"Fuuuuuuuck!"
I jumped with all my strength.
ㅡWhoosh!
Was this what bungee jumping felt like? My body fell rapidly, and the ground drew closer and closer. But I took this as salvation. If my head smashed into that floor, I could start over agai-
ㅡThud!
My head shattered.
My brain splattered upward.
My body was crushed.
Blood poured out, and my mashed-up organs scattered.
.
.
.
I was still alive.
I didn't die.
My consciousness didn't cut off.
Even though my head had shattered and my body was crushed, all I could feel was excruciating pain. I wasn't dead.
ㅡSwoosh.
The people with their eyes and mouths sewn shut approached. They grabbed my body and lifted it up. Then they started carrying it somewhere.
I didn't die.
.
.
.
I arrived at Cheongak Mary Hospital.
A doctor with sewn-shut eyes and mouth operated on me.
No...
Could you even call this surgery?
Left with only my head and torso, I was laid on a bed all by myself.
I couldn't die.
I don't die.
Trapped in a body with no limbs, I was placed in the hospital.
After that, uncountable years passed.
ㅡCreak.
Nurses moved me. I was laid on the operating table again, and the doctors used scalpels and saws to strip all my skin off.
Covered in blood, I was taken back to a patient room again.
As time passed, my skin grew back once more.
The doctor repeated the process of peeling off my skin forever.
I.
Can't die.
I simply keep repeating... the status window.
.
.
.
[$^$^$%^$#^^&#]
[$%@@%&#$%]
[@%$^&$&@$*]
.
.
.
[You cannot die.]
.
.
.
[#%#$^&@#% : 0 -> 171,125]
.
.
.
[Restarting...]
* * *
What I saw when I opened my eyes was a parking lot shrouded in fog.
I wanted to stand in the security office and look out the window.
In the blink of an eye, a person running far away disappeared into the fog. The moment I saw that, I recalled a scene I'd seen once before.
I had come to do security work at the hospital, and some bastard who'd been the previous guard had rambled on nonsense before running away.
"Oh."
Once I got that far, I remembered that this place was Cheongak Mary Hospital.
I.
Had returned.
"..."
But I had returned not to the one-room apartment from that day, where I'd barely survived the vampire... but to the security office?
"Status window."
——————————
[●Status Window]
Name : Kim Geun-hong
Age : 24
.
.
.
Round : 2
Death count : 7
[●Collected Endings]
——————————
That's certain.
I had been suffering in that insane world and then regressed back here.
"Hng."
I felt as if I couldn't breathe. At the same time, everything felt empty. How many years had I spent in that insane world? I couldn't even die, trapped in that hospital, donating my skin.
And yet, as I thought about it, it felt as though everything was growing dim, as if it had all been a dream.
It drifts farther away.
That pain.
As the pain drifted away, thoughts about reality came to me.
"Again."
If I just stayed here like this.
"I'll become like that again! No! I can't! I can't do that!"
Absolutely not!
The moment my survival instincts rang the alarm, my heart pounded like it would burst and a powerful surge of adrenaline shot through me. My senses expanded to an extreme, and a willpower akin to the desperate struggle of life itself surged up, the urge to do anything.
Just like back when I was preparing for a crusade, like the legendary vampire hunter Van Helsing!
How I came back? That kind of question doesn't matter right now. What matters is that I came back, and that if I just stay here, the same thing will happen all over again.
"The rulebook!"
I had to memorize the rulebook first. Last time, I screwed up miserably because I hadn't memorized it properly, and because of that I endured endless torture.
ㅡFlap!
"This fucking shit!"
But even reading it again, it still wasn't a proper set of rules. Trying to figure it out on the fly was too risky if I failed. My predecessor who fled just now seemed to have somehow managed it, but there was no guarantee I would.
"I need another way."
Memorizing the rulebook was one thing, but it wasn't a fundamental solution. If I wanted to make it out of here in one piece, I'd need another way.
"What is there? Is there something like that?"
I was anxious.
Desperately anxious.
I probably didn't have much time. If I let myself go into the hospital like this, there'd be no turning back. I had to think of some way right now!
"My phone...!"
I took out my phone first.
Just like last time, out of range.
Is there no way to use this?
ㅡWhoosh!
I immediately kicked off the ground and went outside the security office.
Running beyond the fog wasn't a good idea, but that's not what I was about to do.
ㅡThunk!
A barrier made of fog.
I stopped right there.
"Come on!"
My body didn't go through, only my hand. Just the hand holding my phone passed through. A strange chill ran through me. The phone screen was faintly visible.
"Internet, internet...! Ah!"
It works!
It got in!
"It works! It works!"
The signal was a little shaky, but it was somehow working! Yeah! I didn't need to cross through the fog! I just needed to reach through with my hand!
The screen was blurry from the fog, but not so much that I couldn't read it. I immediately got to work.
[Administration. Administration agents. Identity of the black-clad men. Memory eraser. Vampire.]
I was frantically searching every keyword related to the Administration...!
If my prediction was right, those insane Administration bastards would trace my search history and come find me here. And if they did? Would those bastards just leave this hospital alone?
Of course not!
If these bastards were really an organization that disposed of monster-like freaks for the sake of humanity, then they'd do something about this shitty Cheongak Mary Hospital too!
So come and sort this out!
"Please come!!!"
After searching like that for a while, I didn't go back to the security office but instead found a car in the parking lot whose doors weren't locked and got inside.
I still hadn't entered the hospital. So this could still be considered the very beginning.
Once I entered the hospital, answered the desk phone, ran away after meeting the skinless person upstairs, changed back into the security uniform, and went back in, that would be just beyond the very beginning.
Since I technically hadn't started work yet, maybe I could somehow drag out the time.
"Please...! Come, Administration!"
How much time had passed while I crouched there praying?
ㅡScreeeech!
Several black vans tore through the fog and barreled in wildly!
I cheered inwardly!
This is the fucking Administration's cavalry, you bastard!