Chapter 49
An eerie silence and air cold enough to raise goosebumps.
The corridor of the underground isolation facility comes into view.
Dark.
A corridor with the lights out.
Definitely.
Until just now, I was facing a vampire.
"..."
Where does reality begin... and where does it end?
No, in the first place, is this reality?
ㅡThump-thump.
My heart feels like it's about to burst. Cold sweat seeps from my entire body, and I feel dizzy, as if my mind has floated loose from reality.
Suppressing the nausea welling up inside me, I quickly worked through the situation.
The vampire...
That crazy bitch killed Gorgodio. Then she tried to kill me too. She lifted me up, saying she'd turn me into a ghoul, and just before she bit into my neck...
The vampire screamed.
And then, as if...
As if it had seen something terribly frightening.
The vampire panicked and became confused, then urgently hypnotized me.
Yeah.
It was hypnosis.
I know because it's happened to me several times.
That was the sensation of being hypnotized.
The vampire screamed at me to wake up at once and hypnotized me, and I woke up here—just like waking from sleep after being hypnotized to wake up.
What on earth... What is going on?
Have I finally gone insane?
In the first place.
What point in time is this?
"Gron?"
The moment I heard Ms. Spangdal's voice, I felt all my thoughts grind to a halt.
That voice is terrifying beyond words. Every muscle in my body contracts. I realized that I was trembling all over.
Is that thing behind me really human?
Fuck...
Please...
What the hell happened to me?!
"S-Senior Spangdal."
"Why?"
At least while communication was still possible.
Without turning around or confirming that Ms. Spangdal was a monster, I clung to the possibility that she was human.
I wanted to say anything at all.
"Suddenly... I'm so scared. I feel like I'm about to cry. What should I do? I-I don't want to set foot in the isolation facility..."
I felt like screaming. I really felt like I was about to cry. My legs were already trembling. My voice was probably trembling too.
My chest shuddered as though I'd stepped into a freezer.
"Oh dear. Did you suddenly get scared?"
I heard the same voice as always.
A voice that might even have been gentle.
"Yes. My hands and feet are trembling. My heart feels like it's going to burst from fear."
"Do you need to calm down?"
"Yes... I need to calm down a little."
But there probably wasn't time for that.
"Then I suppose I should hug you."
ㅡSwoosh.
Ms. Spangdal, standing behind me, wrapped her arms around me.
Was she cold?
Or was she warm?
The sensation...
It felt just like a human.
The sensation of being hugged by a human.
"Are you all right now?"
Ms. Spangdal rested her chin on my shoulder.
If I turned my head, I would know what she really was. She might be human, or she might have transformed into a monster like last time... the monster that had turned pitch-black as though a shadow had fallen over it and sprouted thorns.
It was probably the latter... But I didn't want to confirm it yet. I wanted to delay that transformation for even a little longer.
So I didn't turn around.
As if.
Like an ostrich burying its head in the ground.
.
.
Little by little.
Something strange began appearing at the edge of my vision.
I felt as if whatever was holding me was changing into something else.
.
.
I want to undo this...!
I want to go back to before I entered the Bureau!
This fucking underground facility!
Extreme fear consumed my mind. Cursing this world, I screamed inwardly. I felt like I was going to collapse from madness. I wanted to die just like this.
But dying wouldn't be the end...!
Because I'd just come back here after dying!
I was certain I'd solved it, so why had I come back here?!
"Gron?"
The moment I thought about that, one possibility occurred to me.
No way...
What if I hadn't solved it in the first place?
What if, instead of solving it...
I'd merely activated the Reality Reperception Device?
"Are you feeling better? Then let's start moving. You can't keep using your senior like this. It's a senior's duty to look after a rookie, but doing this much..."
Even her voice seemed to be changing now.
I can't take it anymore!
"Fuck!"
Cursing, I kicked off the ground. By concentrating my strength in an instant, I barely managed to break free of Ms. Spangdal's arms.
I can't die like this.
To escape this fear, I have to get out!
"The window...!"
Right, the window!
I just have to find a window!
I should have gone out through the window back then!
This definitely happened because I didn't go out through the window!
If I went out through the window, I could escape somehow. That's what the window was there for in the first place. Once I went through it, the clear message would finally appear.
But then.
"Huh?!"
I couldn't see any windows.
Even after turning my head and carefully examining the corridor walls, I couldn't see a single window!
Ms. Spangdal had definitely shown me that it was here!
But even when I looked there again, there was no window!
"What are you looking for?"
"Ah...!"
Black.
A black shape.
I hadn't turned around, but I could feel something black drawing closer to me.
"Are
you
looking
for
a
window
?"
"Yes...?"
She was talking about the window?
"There
are
lots
here. Win
dows
."
"Uh."
The next moment.
"Huh?"
The entire hallway wall...
Dozens, no.
Hundreds of windows appeared.
"Huh? Huhhhh?"
They hadn't been there just a moment ago!
I turned my head.
Turning my body as well, I checked the entire hallway.
Windows here too.
Windows there too.
Left and right. Every wall.
Identical windows stretched across every wall in evenly spaced rows!
"
Win
dows
are
everywhere,
so
go
in
right
now
."
"Eeeeeek!"
I ran away crying.
"Aagh! Aaaaaagh!"
Windows!
There are so many windows!
The entire wall is covered in windows!
"A
ha
ha
ha
ha
ha
ha
ha
."
A horrible laugh came from behind me. That lunatic sound scraped through my brain and gouged at my mind. I screamed until my throat went hoarse. I didn't even know why I was here in the first place.
"Windows! Windoow!"
Wasn't I supposed to escape through the windows?
Was even that a lie?
There were so many windows, and I had no idea which one I was supposed to enter!
"Where is it, damn it! Where is it!"
The moment I screamed that, every window swung wide open.
-Come in here!
-Here! Here!
-This way!
-This way is safe!
Strange voices began calling to me from inside them. And pure white hands reached out, trying to grab me.
-Come in this way!
-Let's be comfortable now!
-Hurry! Hurry! This way!
-Come over here!
The insides of the windows were smeared with a deep crimson color. It was so ominous that I didn't even want to imagine what that color was made of.
The pure white hands emerging from them looked horrifying, and I felt that if they grabbed me and dragged me into a window, something irreversible would happen.
I couldn't look at the windows anymore.
"Aaaaaaaah!"
Screaming, I ran with my eyes shut and my ears covered.
Was escaping through the windows a lie from the very beginning?
The Reality Reperception Device? That was all bullshit too! There had never been any way out of here! All that remained for me was an ending in which I went insane from this terror!
Then what should I do?
Go to the quarantine team's laboratory?
Where is it?
Was that place even a real space? Were Gognija and Dejure both fictional beings?
Then where is the truth?
"...Manager Jo Seongchun."
Manager Jo Seongchun came to mind.
Was he really the truth?
If everything in this Bureau was a lie, then was he the truth after all?
"Ah!"
Whatever!
Whether it was the fake Bureau or anything else!
Anyone who would stay with me would be fine by me!
ㅡFlash!
I opened my eyes again and searched for the isolation room where Manager Jo Seongchun was. What was the room number again? With the entire wall plastered in windows, could I even find it?
-This way!
-Here!
As I ran, I did my best to ignore the hands trying to grab me and the windows, and examined the wall. The windows stretched on endlessly, but the structure of the wall itself hadn't changed. The door leading into the isolation room still existed. Only windows had appeared on it too.
Then the door might still work!
"There!"
That's it!
The very door where Manager Jo Seongchun had been!
I approached the door with a shiver of hope running through me. White hands reached out of the windows, waving through the air and trying to grab me, but...
ㅡBeep!
The door opened when I held my ID card to it!
I entered in a burst of joy. There were no windows inside. For the first time in this insane space, I felt safe. It was unbelievable that the mere absence of the windows could make me feel so relieved in this place of terror.
Of course, I still had no idea what to do. I didn't know what would happen next. Something even more terrifying... Some horrible event I didn't even want to imagine. Something like that was bound to happen.
Even so, I wanted to rely on Manager Jo Seongchun.
ㅡBzzzz.
I opened the inner double doors again.
"He's there!"
Manager Jo Seongchun was inside!
He existed!
"Manager Jo Seongchun! Is that you?!"
The familiar man in a suit sat there, bound. I ran toward him. He looked bewildered for a moment, then raised his head.
"These inhuman bastards... Wh-what?! Who are you!"
Look!
That human reaction!
He looked human, and he reacted like a human. Even though he was an agent of the fake Bureau who had seemed so inhuman, seeing him show such a human reaction filled me with overwhelming relief.
Compared to Ms. Spangdal, he was a fine human being, wasn't he...!
As my fear faded a little, my mind began working quickly. Now that I was here, I had to do something. I had to do something with Manager Jo Seongchun.
"What's this? It's not in the Management Bureau database..."
He muttered.
Now Manager Jo Seongchun would take me for a rookie agent of the fake Bureau and try to persuade me.
So I had to beat him to it!
"I'm a rookie agent of the Management Bureau! An operation to rescue you has begun!"
A lie I made up on the spot.
I shouted, thinking I might as well try it.
I had no idea what would happen.
I only made a split-second judgment that it might be better this time to hear information as a rookie agent of the real Bureau, since I'd heard it last time as a rookie agent of the fake Bureau.
"A rookie?! Are you finally here to rescue me?!"
"That's right!"
"Then tell me! Who's your direct superior?!"
"My direct superior...!"
Who should I name?
Department Head Lee Do-hyung?
That name came to mind for an instant, but I immediately shook my head. He wasn't the one. Jaldi had said that Department Head Lee Do-hyung had disciples, and that there was a sword unit made up of them.
I don't have a sword right now.
So I had to give another name.
Who, then... Ah, right!
"Manager Gwak Seongju! Manager Gwak Seongju!"
The giant with the twin machine guns whom I met on the battlefield where we fought the vampires!
I shouted his name!