Chapter 79
Escape successful!
"Ah!"
The moment the alert popped up, my fist clenched on its own and a shout burst from my throat. A thrill at having made it back alive swept through my whole body.
For a moment, I let myself bask in it.
The reward is 300 points?
Somehow, I feel like I lose out no matter what I do. Dying once costs 2,000 points, and the escape reward isn't even half of that.
Still, since I only escaped, I can understand why the reward was stingy. The process of figuring out how to escape was bizarre, but even if I get tripped into that place again later, I should be able to get out the same way. Then maybe I'd get 300 points again.
I did escape.
So what about the solution?
How am I supposed to resolve this Hanseol Human Meat Factory incident? "Resolve" means total eradication. A state where no one ever gets tripped into that insane factory again—that would be resolution.
Could brute force do it?
Seeing how a truck-caused traffic accident worked, it might even be possible for the Bureau to destroy the factory by force.
But that place is only a part of another world.
Just like smashing Geumseong Cement in that industrial complex wouldn't make Korea collapse.
"..."
Maybe it's one of those places where there is a way to escape, but no way to resolve it?
Cheongak Mary Hospital was the same.
A place where escape methods exist, but no solution does.
Just as I'd heard from the Bureau, there are many strange spaces in this world—hospitals, factories, and the like—and unlucky people just keep getting caught up in them.
My jaw clenched at that fact.
Still, if I could distribute a rulebook like at Cheongak Mary Hospital, I might be able to save a lot of the people who got caught up in it. I even wrote down information at the end while impersonating Director Lee Dohyeong.
With enough luck and boldness, they should be able to escape just by reading that note.
"Phew."
For now, I looked around, relieved to be back alive.
No one was around.
An alley?
Ah, right.
This is the alley near my house. I was on my way to the butcher shop when I suddenly got tripped into the human meat factory.
How much time had passed?
When I checked my phone, almost a full day had passed. As expected, the time difference between strange spaces and reality is way too random.
There were also a lot of missed calls from the Bureau.
Let's contact them and report in first.
"..."
But...
I couldn't bring myself to operate my phone.
It feels like Kim Sungjin will call any second now.
Did that guy really fail to escape? I managed to escape by putting a completely intact corpse into the grinder.
But Kim Sungjin's body wasn't there. So he must have had no choice but to go beyond the veil while riding in the truck.
I couldn't tell whether that counts as an escape, or whether it just sends him to some other bizarre space.
"Please call me...!"
If he survived that hell and even met a Bureau agent in the end, but still couldn't escape, that would be too awful.
I gripped my phone tightly, but no call came.
It's hopeless.
Did he really not have any way out?
"No way."
It might just be that he can't contact me because of a time delay. Besides, as we suspected, the factory doesn't seem to have only one escape method. Both the grinder and the truck might count as valid ways out.
I kept thinking.
A person falling into the Hanseol Human Meat Factory's toilet is, quite literally, an anomaly. It's a variable even those butcher monsters can't control.
Because the normal route is for deliveries to come in through the truck.
As Kim Sungjin said, we can assume an anomaly occurred where a real human suddenly fell into the factory, and to correct the error, human flesh corresponding to the cold room suddenly appeared.
So if you get rid of that generated human flesh, the error is corrected and you return to reality.
Maybe this would be sudden and shocking even from the monsters' point of view. The way we see this as an anomaly, wouldn't they see it as an anomaly too?
That's why if the generated corpse is properly canned and delivered, you've lost the escape method. I don't know why the grinder and truck get judged differently, though.
"No...!"
The more I thought about it, the more it seemed like Kim Sungjin couldn't possibly come back!
If I force the issue a bit, those monsters are the ones who receive and process the corpses of humans from reality. Then of course they'd use the passage connecting that other world and reality, and that passage is the truck and the veil.
So Kim Sungjin must have escaped properly using the second method!
"Call me already!"
Was this all just my own mental victory?
I held my phone and waited for contact, but there was no response.
"World Politics Board!"
For now, let's go into the World Politics Board.
If I investigate here, I might be able to learn about the board regulars. Through them, I might even find out about Kim Sungjin. That bastard Kim Sungjin might have actually escaped, but be deliberately avoiding contact because he's afraid of the Bureau.
Just as I was thinking that.
Screeeech.
A car stopped in front of me.
"Grong!"
Spangdal got out and approached me with a very shocked expression.
"Senior Spangdal?"
"What happened to you!"
"Well, actually, I got caught up in a strange phenomenon..."
"I knew it!"
It looked like the Bureau had figured out I was missing.
"I'm so glad!"
"Ah."
Spangdal hugged me tightly.
This feels good.
"We found out you suddenly went missing yesterday. We thought you had vanished without any warning and gotten caught up in a strange phenomenon... and it was true."
I knew it.
"Yes. It was a truly awful time. It feels like a miracle that I made it back... But I got caught up around here, you know? I'm worried about civilian casualties. We should probably seal off the surrounding area."
"Already doing it. This whole area is under lockdown."
"Huh?"
Already?
"We've designated the entire radius around where you disappeared as a danger zone."
Now that I think about it, there's no sign of anyone around.
If you hadn't contacted me, I would've thought there was no one on the street and that I'd been caught up in another strange phenomenon.
"We were in the middle of investigating a strange-phenomenon response when your signal came through."
They're a step late, but at least they do respond.
Sealing off the whole area and investigating the anomalous response... maybe this could help us figure out how to enter the Hanseol Human Meat Factory?
Once we've established an entry method, it wouldn't be bad to come up with a suppression plan.
"But, Senior Spangdal? Can I keep hugging you a little longer?"
"What? Ah, aaah!"
Only then did Spangdal let me go.
That's a little disappointing.
"Ah, anyway... I'm glad you made it back safely. Let's return to the Bureau."
"Yes. I'll go report in. I have a lot to say."
Especially about Kim Sungjin.
I returned to the Bureau with Spangdal.
* * *
"Welcome back, Grong. I was very worried that we might lose you. Not only did you come back, you even brought results. I'm really proud of you."
"I didn't expect things to turn out like this either."
"Grong. Are you okay? Mentally, I mean—is anything bothering you?"
"I'll report on that later. Ah, thank you for the coffee, Senior Jamtree."
Jjaaldi and Jamtree are both looking at me with very worried eyes.
"Then I'll begin my report now. I'll explain everything that happened in detail."
"Understood."
I began my report right away.
My explanation was based on the escape run: I suddenly fell into the human meat factory, explored the place, found a survivor, and found a way out together with him. I also told them about Kim Sungjin and the notebook.
"To think it was such a horrifying place..."
Spangdal's expression darkened as they listened.
"A human meat factory... truly horrific. As you thought, Grong, it's definitely a different type of strange space from Cheongak Mary Hospital. The hospital was a place that eroded reality, but that factory seems to be a world that exists in a separate dimension."
"Yes."
That place is definitely another world.
"Team Leader Jjaaldi. Are there really that many spaces like this?"
"Yes. There are quite a lot of them. The Bureau also identifies and monitors those strange spaces. Schools and prisons are prime examples, and we've already figured out all of their entry and escape conditions, so we periodically distribute rulebooks and conduct rescues there."
Schools and prisons.
"Anyway. We detected an anomalous response near where you went missing. A butcher shop. That seems to be the key point. It might be a kind of anomaly that appears in reality through a butcher shop and abducts humans directly."
If that's the case, investigating that point in depth to figure out an entry method would be effective.
"I also think the butcher shop is one of the conditions. It was written in the survivor's notebook."
"Write down everything you remember from the notebook."
"Yes. Ah, but I only caught the key points, so it's not complete."
"Then we'll need a memory aid. Jamtree, bring it."
"Yes."
What?
Soon, Jamtree brought over a strange hat. It looked like a watermelon cut in half and hollowed out, with weird scientific-looking symbols sticking out all over its surface.
"It's a memory aid device. If you use it, you'll remember what happened at the time much more clearly."
"Wow, they even have technology like this... Well, I did hear memory erasure was possible, so I guess so."
Maybe I should try it first.
"Hehe, Grong is cute."
Jamtree laughed.
Come to think of it, Spangdal is also avoiding my gaze.
A hat that looks ridiculous at a glance...
"I don't think this is a face I want to see in a mirror. Then I'll write it down."
Oh.
The contents of the notebook were coming back to me clearly. I wrote down everything that surfaced—the final traces of the people who died there.
-I am Bureau Director Lee Dohyeong.
At the climax, I remembered every single letter of the line where I'd impersonated Director Lee Dohyeong.
"That damn Director Lee Dohyeong... why the hell did you impersonate him?"
Jjaaldi said in disbelief.
"That was the only thing that came to mind all of a sudden. Besides, it felt awkward to talk about our real Bureau, so I borrowed the name of the Lee Dohyeong entity."
"I'm not sure if that was a good idea... Anyway. The notebook's contents are... heartbreaking. There must have been many others who died besides this."
"Yes."
This part is pretty depressing.
"But Grong, you figured out the escape method and made it back alive in the end. Because of this, we can save even more people."
"That's truly fortunate."
"Yes. I imagine we'll be figuring out and investigating this human meat factory for a while."
Even the Bureau would consider this important work.
"Ah, by any chance, is subjugation possible too?"
"If it took damage from a truck collision, it might be possible. But that place is another dimension entirely, so we need to approach carefully. What if people keep getting tripped even after the factory is destroyed? If the factory is gone, then there'd be no escape method either."
Wait, that's one way to look at it?
"Whatever the case, we know it exists, we've figured out some of the entry conditions, and we've even found an escape method. If we put this place under Bureau surveillance, we should be able to reduce the damage a great deal. Grong, this is your achievement."
Jjaaldi's praise filled my chest with pride. But soon my mind was flooded with thoughts of Kim Sungjin, and my mood sank.
"You don't look so good. Is it because of that Kim Sungjin friend?"
"Yes. I'm not sure whether he escaped or not."
"Since he's an important witness in this incident, we need to secure him. Jamtree. Begin the investigation."
"Huh?"
They're investigating?
"Grong. Did you say he's a regular user of the World Politics Board? This may be an opportunity to learn about their existence, shrouded in mystery. Don't worry. Our Bureau will definitely find Kim Sungjin."
"Of course! I'll do my best too!"
Wait for me, Kim Sungjin!
No matter what state you're in, I'll find you!