Chapter 41
"Department Head Lee Do-hyeong...?"
The suited man's demeanor changed strangely at my words.
"Could it be that Department Head Lee Do-hyeong is nearby...?"
"Do you know him?"
"D-Department Head Lee Do-hyeong is nearby? Does that mean he's finally come to rescue me? Then it's all right! I'll survive!"
The man threw back his head and shouted, his excitement rising.
Even as I was flustered, I tried to analyze the current situation.
He had a bizarre attitude, utterly convinced that Department Head Lee Do-hyeong could solve this situation. On top of that, he firmly believed that Department Head Lee Do-hyeong had come to rescue him.
If this guy really was human... he looked like someone who had been driven to the brink and become intoxicated by the faintest sliver of hope.
"..."
Department Head Lee Do-hyeong was dead.
He had died before I entered Cheongakmeri Hospital as a security guard. If that information had never reached this man, it meant he had been trapped here for quite a long time.
Should I tell him that Department Head Lee Do-hyeong was dead?
Or... should I pretend not to know and steer the conversation in another direction?
I didn't think I had enough time to do either.
"Is Department Head Lee Do-hyeong really that amazing? Enough to break through this place?"
"You bet! He's the best investigator in our Management Bureau! If you joined this place, you must've heard that you should beware Heungbaek (凶白)! Yeah! That's what it was! He must have deliberately induced the abnormal situation to bring down the fake Management Bureau!"
The man grew even more ecstatic and began completing some kind of personal theory of his own. He looked like a lunatic arbitrarily piecing together information to suit his tastes and drawing his own conclusion.
"You! If you join our side now, you're a rookie, so you can survive somehow! We have to join up with Department Head Lee Do-hyeong somehow and escape!"
I.
As I watched this man, who was so lost in vain hope that he kept spinning hopeful theories,
I felt an extreme sense of unease.
What... was this?
What was the fake Management Bureau, and what was the real Management Bureau?
The fake Management Bureau bastards possessed such bizarre technology that they could throw the coin and stock markets into chaos and use the process to identify the 'prophets' caught up in it. They even monitored the mundane world and tracked down vampire hunters.
Honestly, they didn't feel human. Even when my brain was pulled out, everything had felt completely unreal.
However, Jaaldi had said that these fake Management Bureau bastards... didn't actually exist in the real world. An urban legend. An anomaly. An entity. An abnormal phenomenon that suddenly appeared, then eliminated or abducted anyone who learned its secret.
That was what I had believed until now.
But.
The man before me was.
Far too 'human.'
"..."
I didn't deliberate for long.
My choices were limited. Even if all of this was an abnormal phenomenon designed to deceive me, the only thing I could do right now was see as much as possible.
I needed to know as much as possible to have a basis for judgment. I didn't know what was trying to deceive me. Feeling a chill run down my spine, I decided to play along with this 'suited man.'
"What's your name?"
I released the suited man's restraints.
"Whew... Sorry for the late introduction. I'm Section Chief Jo Seongchun of the Management Bureau. Let me tell you one more thing: don't introduce yourself. If you say your name, it'll be registered in the Management Bureau database. After that, you'll become a complete 'fake Management Bureau entity.'"
The database...?
"Honestly, it's hard to believe."
I didn't know what the truth was to begin with. I left every possibility open and continued doubting everything so I wouldn't be shaken.
These bastards were the ones who had pulled out my brain... Section Chief Jo Seongchun's words were extremely interesting and provocative, but they had no credibility.
"Either way, isn't this the time to cooperate? The situation doesn't look good. Besides, you're communicating with me right now. That means you're not an entity yet. Think for yourself about what it means for your fake Management Bureau to seal away your real name."
Seal away my real name?
"Anyway, we have to join up with Department Head Lee Do-hyeong... First, we need to find the location at the heart of this containment facility. Do you know anything?"
The location at the heart of the containment facility.
There was no way a rookie like me would know that.
"Ah."
The Containment Team research lab Senior Spandall had told me about.
That was probably the core facility.
That was when.
ㅡBang, bang, bang!
The door shook violently amid a furious pounding.
Meeting Section Chief Jo Seongchun was very interesting, but it hadn't given me any clear way out. I was in a truly desperate situation.
"O-outside...! Damn it! We have to break through somehow!"
Section Chief Jo Seongchun looked around, overcome with fear.
Could this guy have a plan?
ㅡWhip!
Section Chief Jo Seongchun turned toward me and shouted.
"A plan! Isn't there some plan?!"
Wait, did this bastard not have a plan either?!
"Of course not. Look at the situation we're in."
"Don't give up!"
Instead, he scolded me.
"Use everything you can! We have to solve this somehow! You! Use the rules you know!"
"Use the rules I know...?"
"I know you people follow bizarre rules! Find one among them that you can somehow use to get out of this situation! Twist the rules or turn them to your advantage!"
"What...!"
His words sent a bolt of lightning through my mind.
Who knew rules could be viewed this way? I had never thought of exploiting rules in a crisis.
But there wasn't any rule I could particularly use right now.
Wait.
[8. The Management Bureau's lights never go out. If you think the lights have gone out, trust nothing and escape the building immediately. This is for your safety.]
Right...!
This rule!
This was it!
When I first entered the basement, the corridor had been pitch-black. It had been so dark that I could barely identify anything. The lights had been 'out'!
"Was that where it all went wrong!"
If the lights were out, it was only natural that I couldn't see anything. And yet, for some reason, I had wandered around in that darkness with Senior Spandall and performed every task perfectly. That was where everything had gone completely insane.
I had found a clue.
But what could I do with just this? The rule sheet said to trust nothing and escape immediately. By that logic, I shouldn't trust Section Chief Jo Seongchun either.
I was just about to turn and tell him that.
"Huh...?"
Section Chief Jo Seongchun had disappeared.
But.
In his place.
ㅡHiss, hiss.
All that remained was a mass of organs that looked like human lungs.
ㅡGape, gape.
At the end of the lungs... more precisely, on the organ connecting the two lungs.
A human mouth was attached.
The mouth spoke.
"This is a fake Management Bureau. This is a fake Management Bureau. This is a fake Management Bureau. This is a fake Management Bureau. This is a fake Management Bureau."
"I am Section Chief Jo Seongchun of the real Management Bureau. I am Section Chief Jo Seongchun of the real Management Bureau. I am Section Chief Jo Seongchun of the real Management Bureau. I am Section Chief Jo Seongchun of the real Management Bureau."
Ah.
"Ha, haha... Hahahaha..."
Laughter spilled from the mouth.
What was I supposed to believe?
Was I supposed to believe nothing, just as the rule sheet said?
ㅡBzzzt.
The containment room door opened.
"F-fuck..."
I was overcome by extreme terror.
ㅡPeek.
A head appeared.
A woman's head.
[You have encountered the urban legend The Woman Who Pulls on Your Neck and Turns Your Face White.]
Long black hair hung down.
Her face was unnaturally pale.
Her eyes were pitch-black.
A woman whose neck was over two meters long
ㅡPeek.
She peeked her face out from behind the doorframe while holding onto it.
ㅡPeek.
ㅡPeek.
ㅡPeek.
[You have encountered the urban legend The Woman Who Pulls on Your Neck and Turns Your Face White.]
[You have encountered the urban legend The Woman Who Pulls on Your Neck and Turns Your Face White.]
[You have encountered the urban legend The Woman Who Pulls on Your Neck and Turns Your Face White.]
ㅡPeek.
ㅡPeek.
ㅡPeek.
Her face drew closer.
.
.
.
[You died after your neck was pulled and your face turned white.]
[Death count: 12 -> 13]
.
.
.
[Restarting.]
* * *
The moment I opened my eyes, I tried to press the button for the upper floor.
ㅡSnatch.
I was caught immediately. Just as I wondered whether to shake free and force my way out by sheer strength, Senior Spandall's face darkened as if a shadow had fallen over it, and a terrifying gaze appeared. Then the two eyes split into a dozen or more eyes that covered the head. Spikes sprouted all over the body.
"#$%#$^#@%"
I heard words I couldn't understand and kicked off the ground to run.
"Huff! Huff!"
Time to think.
Time to judge.
I didn't have enough of anything...!
Was Section Chief Jo Seongchun even a real person to begin with? Was what he said true? Had I merely heard the urban-legend entities called the 'fake Management Bureau' talking that way about our 'real Management Bureau'?
But the rule sheet had said to trust nothing...!
If I couldn't trust anything, then in the end, everything Section Chief Jo Seongchun had said was a lie.
"How am I supposed to judge this...!"
I had a rough idea where this situation had begun and what I had been caught up in. It had to be some phenomenon related to the Management Bureau's underground facility, specifically its lights being out. Was this an urban legend where I would repeat eternal deaths forever?
Whatever it was, if I followed the rule sheet and went outside, I would somehow resolve it. But I couldn't get out because I was underground.
I was at a dead end.
There was no way out.
But there was one thing worth trying.
I had to go to the Containment Team research lab!
"I have to find it!"
The Containment Team had a laboratory. If I went there, I might find some kind of clue. If even that wasn't the answer, then there truly was no answer.
Please, let there be something...!
ㅡTap-tap-tap!
I ran straight down a path I hadn't taken before. If I went somewhere I hadn't been, I might find something. Before long, grotesque sounds began to echo around me. This sound would gnaw away at my sanity. I ignored it. And then the Woman Who Pulls on Your Neck and Turns Your Face White would appear—no!
"Don't think!"
Don't think about that sight!
If I thought about the appearance of that insane ghost, my mind would collapse. If my spirit broke under this horrible pain and fear, all that remained would be endless deaths. My reality itself would become hell.
I shook my head, bit the inside of my cheek to feel the pain, and erased the thought.
An impulse to go find Section Chief Jo Seongchun again surged up, but I suppressed it completely. He wouldn't help. Listening to him would only intensify my confusion. Besides, hadn't he turned into a lung at the end...?! And fuck, I had no idea what the hell my ability was doing! Why did it appear and disappear at random? If I encountered an urban legend, it should at least show up!
I was running like that when, at one point—
"Ah!"
I found a door at the end of the corridor, not one set into the wall like a containment-room door, but one that seemed to mark a dead end.
I ran with all my strength and reached the door.
[Containment Team Laboratory]
Here it is!