Chapter 111: Tower of Entangled Lines (2)

[2. In the Tower of Entangled Lines, you must be careful of every cable. It is either a trap or alive. One of the two.]

Horror games, out of nowhere?

At Su-myeon’s question, Jae-min nodded before he even realized it.

“Of... of course. I’ve probably played just about all the popular ones.”

“Have you ever heard of UTG?”

“Uh, no. That’s the first time I’ve heard of it.... Is it a Steam game?”

What had he been expecting for a moment?

Feeling slightly disappointed, Su-myeon turned his head away.

“...Never mind. Just think of the current situation as something similar to a horror game and follow us.”

When he checked, Song Jae-min’s code was #LIVE.

After adding his own code and Han-su’s code to Jae-min’s phone, Su-myeon suddenly remembered something subtle.

'Come to think of it, Han-su’s codename was Wolf too....'

Han-su’s code, #WOLF, and his own code, #####, were added to Jae-min’s messenger as well.

What did these codes mean?

He thought about it briefly, but this was not the time to worry about that.

Su-myeon asked Jae-min.

“Do you livestream too?”

“Of course. Ah, I was supposed to stream tonight too....”

Jae-min muttered that this was a huge problem, since there was no internet and his phone had completely died.

Since he had already been told he could not release the footage, there was nothing he could do with that either.

But failing to show up without saying anything at all would be an even bigger problem.

He had only just started managing to attract a little attention from people lately.

And now he was going to lose all of it like this....

After watching the dejected Jae-min for a moment, Su-myeon soon pushed himself to his feet.

There was no more time to waste here.

“Follow us without stepping on anything.”

“Yes. But.... Huh? Your bags got lighter?”

Apparently, Jae-min had been lost in his own thoughts and had not seen Han-su shove their belongings into the two men’s inventories.

There was no time to explain that now, so Su-myeon did not even answer and took the lead out of the server room.

The hallway was lined with all kinds of thick cables, but overall, the white tiles and paint made it look clean.

“That’s not as easy a request as it sounded...?”

The hallway was so full of cables that it was difficult to walk without stepping on one.

Carefully walking while zooming in and out to capture the surroundings in detail, Jae-min was completely caught up in the thought that this was huge.

If only he could release it, it would probably blow up.

The sight of the hallway, with every window suddenly sealed off by cables, was ominous beyond belief.

And the interior of the building, which had been a ruin only moments ago, had turned spotless and new in an instant.

“There are this many cables, but not even a speck of dust rolling around.”

Behind my computer at home is a disaster.

At Jae-min’s completely tensionless remark, Su-myeon let out a short sigh.

It was better than someone falling into a panic, but would he really be all right?

3-1) Living Thornbush

A massive mechanical cluster formed from discarded old LAN cables, sharply severed barbed wire, and sharp fragments of broken racks tangled together like snakes. It reacts to external stimuli, grabs the target, and drags them down to the first floor.

This includes sound waves caused by noise, so never make a loud sound or touch it.

Jae-min mulled over the rules Su-myeon had told him and then asked.

“Sir, how do you know things like this?”

As he spoke, Jae-min turned the camera toward Su-myeon.

Setting aside the fact that anyone could tell at a glance that Jae-min looked older.

“Why do you keep filming people? If you’re planning to sell the footage to us, you’d be better off properly filming the surroundings.”

Su-myeon pointed it out again because it made him deeply uncomfortable.

But Jae-min still could not give up.

The place might be dangerous, but after seeing the veterans in front of him, he had decided the situation could not be that serious.

If he merely followed along obediently, his life would never change.

Even if they paid him generously for this one video.

There was no telling when he would ever become a successful creator.

At least for the foreseeable future, the videos he poured his heart into would keep being dismissed as unproductive nonsense, and his daily life would continue with people treating him like a freeloader.

'But if....'

If he could somehow get permission to upload even a little of this footage.

Then perhaps this extraordinary experience could become an opportunity instead.

'If I can just upload this, it’s guaranteed to blow up.'

Besides, the people accompanying him made for a pretty strong lineup too.

Han-su was large and handsome, while Su-myeon had a somewhat sharp and rough-looking impression, but was still fairly well put together.

And then there was the giant wolfdog the two of them were bringing along.

The three of them had the visuals to make an entire movie on the spot.

“Nothing’s going to happen just because I film your faces a few times. I’ll watch where I’m going, so cut me some slack, sir.”

At Jae-min’s words, the black wolfdog tilted its head.

Thanks to the cute, bright yellow sun visor it was wearing, the large and impressive dog somehow looked a little docile.

After hesitating at the sight, Su-myeon simply took Mu-yeon’s sun visor off.

“Then anything that happens because of that from now on is entirely your responsibility.”

I’m not saving you, got it?

At Su-myeon’s emphatic warning, Jae-min responded lightly.

“Yes, yes. Don’t wor—!”

Jae-min, who had been speaking casually, suddenly recoiled in horror and stepped backward.

He nearly stepped directly on one of the machine cables, so Su-myeon quickly grabbed him by the collar and yanked him back.

“I told you to be careful...!”

“N-no, that’s not it... that... that thing...!”

Startled, Jae-min pointed at Mu-yeon with trembling fingers and a shaking voice.

He had thought it was simply a very large, wolf-like dog.

Barely keeping his voice from rising, Jae-min spoke again in a whisper.

“It has another eye...!”

“Did you think we’d bring an ordinary dog into a place like this?”

Su-myeon tossed the sun visor that had been obstructing Mu-yeon’s vision into his inventory.

At Su-myeon’s unconcerned attitude, Jae-min calmed his racing heart with a confused expression.

'......I’ll... be allowed... to release this, right?'

Jae-min subtly moved Mu-yeon out of the camera frame.

After walking down the hallway for quite some time while avoiding the cables, another structure finally appeared.

“Oh, stairs! But... B2?”

They had definitely started on the second floor above ground.

Jae-min muttered in confusion, but the others reacted differently.

“As expected, underground again.”

“At least it’s within what we expected.”

At Su-myeon and Han-su’s indifferent reactions, Jae-min suppressed his surprise and filmed them.

The bundles of cables extended upward as well, but their source was clearly deeper underground.

Jae-min naturally started to go up, but Su-myeon gestured toward him.

“We’re going down.”

“Ah, right. You said we weren’t leaving immediately.”

Jae-min nodded, then asked again.

“Can I ask why you’re going farther down instead of leaving right away?”

“There are people trapped underground.”

Su-myeon answered briefly as he started toward basement level 3.

Rescuing them had been one of their major objectives from the beginning.

But they also intended to investigate the dokkaebi and test various methods, including anesthetics.

Jae-min looked like he had many more questions, but Su-myeon cut him off firmly.

“So do not do anything unnecessary.”

The people who had been dragged here while simply doing their jobs were innocent victims.

But in Jae-min’s case, he had to bear some responsibility for the situation he was in.

If he had looked around just a little more carefully, the agents controlling the nearby area would have caught him.

Instead, he had carelessly trespassed on someone else’s private property.

Simply to film a video that would attract people’s attention.

Even without anything supernatural involved, that was already a fairly dangerous thing to do.

Jae-min had chosen to take that risk.

That was why Su-myeon emphasized it again.

“If something happens because of your own mistake, I’m not saving you.”

It sounded like a threat, but Su-myeon was half serious.

As they descended a little farther, they saw that the fire door leading to basement level 3 was wide open.

It had been forced open by cables extending up from underground as if deliberately displaying the way.

Thanks to that, they could clearly see inside and enter without difficulty.

Or rather, they were just about to enter.

“......Am I the only one seeing that?”

Just before Su-myeon stepped over the threshold of the fire door.

The group stopped almost simultaneously.

At Jae-min’s whisper, Su-myeon and Han-su stopped as well.

“......No.”

“.......”

The reason everyone had stopped in confusion was because a single eyeball was floating in midair.

As though it were guarding the entrance to basement level 3.

The moment it saw the group, its eye began rapidly rolling around.

“U-ugh... mmph...!”

A flying eyeball!

Jae-min recoiled in horror, clapped a hand over his own mouth, and hid behind Su-myeon.

Yet even then, he peeked over Su-myeon’s shoulder and stuck the action cam out.

Was that professional dedication, or did he simply have no sense of fear?

With that strange thought, Su-myeon looked at the eyeball floating in the air and felt an eerily familiar chill.

Somehow....

“......This.”

Han-su seemed to feel something similar, because he trailed off and looked at Su-myeon.

At the same time, Su-myeon touched the now-empty area around his left eye.

The black iris of the eye floating in the air looked remarkably similar to his own.

Bzzzz- Bzzz-

At that moment, Su-myeon’s smartphone suddenly began vibrating.

Startled, Su-myeon hurriedly raised the phone and turned off the vibration.

All he had done was dismiss an alarm.

But Dokkaebi AI had already forcibly launched on the phone and brought up a notification window.

[Paired device detected]

***

At that time, early evening.

Even though the workday had ended, the Governance employees who were unable to go home had naturally settled into overtime.

“Then I think we only need to finish organizing this, and Hwi-yeon can head to Chuncheon.”

Ju-hee spoke while rubbing her tired eyes.

Hwi-yeon and Jae-hak were scheduled to go as the follow-up team to support the field team afterward.

Because of that, the two of them were already sleeping in the duty room, while the remaining staff organized documents related to support.

“Seems like the pay is pretty low for this workload.”

Hyeon-seok, who had come to the Governance for the first time in a while, commented after seeing Ju-hee’s workload.

“The donations I made alone should be enough to pay you more than this every month.”

“You only say that because you have no idea how much manpower gets poured in every time something happens in the field.”

Ju-hee scolded Hyeon-seok as she spoke.

“Do you know how much Su-myeon goes through? Honestly, if there’s money left over, Chief Han should be the one getting more.”

At Ju-hee’s muttering, Hyeon-seok clicked his tongue as though dumbfounded.

“That’s why I bought him a personal vehicle and gave him a generous reward too.”

Leaning against the side of Ju-hee’s desk, Hyeon-seok continued speaking while checking his phone.

Despite his imposing appearance, even a chaebol became casual around his own sibling.

Mi-ae, who had been listening to the siblings’ conversation, tilted her head crookedly.

Wasn’t this organization with no proper foundation a little too freewheeling?

It was still a government agency, after all.

“But aren’t you busy?”

When Mi-ae casually asked Hyeon-seok, he replied.

“Am I getting in the way?”

“Well~ not exactly~ but you do make me a little self-conscious. You’re a chaebol, after all.”

Apart from that, Hyeon-seok had records tying him to ghost stories as one of their victims.

That was why he could stay here like this without being a complete outsider.

Mi-ae looked at the faint scars still visible on his cheek and neck.

She had heard that, as a former victim of a ghost story, scars remained over almost his entire body.

Even though it was a hot season, he was dressed in a full suit, which certainly suited a corporate division head.

But it was also a style he insisted on partly to conceal the scars.

“Anyway, Chief Han saved my life. I came by to greet him and see if there was anything else he needed, but of course he happens to be away....”

“That’s why I told you to at least check with me before coming.”

Ignoring Ju-hee as though he had not heard her at all, Hyeon-seok checked the time and stood up.

He was busy, but at the moment, Hyeon-seok held a decisive advantage in the corporate succession struggle.

That was thanks to the important state information he had quietly picked up through Director Jang Bok-eum as part of the company’s cooperation with the Governance.

It would probably become a problem if it ever came to light.

But some degree of cooperation between a state intelligence agency and a major corporation was hardly unheard of.

“When Chief Han gets back, please give him my regards.”

“Sure~”

Mi-ae was the only one who answered Hyeon-seok lightly.

After Hyeon-seok left, saying he would check whether the medical team needed anything as well.

The remaining employees quietly returned their attention to their respective work.

But once again, the silence did not last long.

“Um, but.... There’s something I’ve been wondering about....”

Ji-hoon, who had been watching the situation, cautiously voiced his question.