Chapter 4: Staff-Only Passage (2)

[4. At midnight, the lights will be turned off for approximately one minute for inspection of the lighting system. During the blackout, please stop moving and remain quiet to prevent unexpected accidents.]

“Did I ask you to do anything difficult? All I told you to do was check whether the walkie-talkie works.”

San-hyeok clicked his tongue at the man trembling before him.

The man was an ordinary office worker named Kim Cheol-su, someone with such a faint presence that he barely registered at all. He had no particular role assigned to him, either.

However, if he survived, San-hyeok would continue bullying him like this and constantly pick fights with him. There was even a tip recommending that players get rid of him early unless they wanted to increase the difficulty for themselves.

“Is it you again?”

There it was.

The first line that marked the beginning of San-hyeok’s confrontation with the protagonist.

Since the righteous protagonist had initially tried to treat him without prejudice, it was supposed to come much later. Apparently, the earlier incident had brought it forward.

“Again? What the hell is that supposed to mean, pig?”

They were trapped in an isolated place among strangers who had only just met one another.

San-hyeok seemed to have already sized everyone up and decided he could start acting however he pleased.

Discord within the group was never a good sign, which made the whole situation nothing but a headache for Su-myeon.

‘I can’t see properly....’

With more than ten people crowded together, he could barely make out the heads of the men arguing.

Giving up on staying in the middle of the group, Su-myeon turned slightly and took a step forward.

Between the two men facing off, he spotted an open drawer with a walkie-talkie inside.

“Th-that person earlier... he disappeared after breaking a rule too! I don’t want to touch that thing!”

After blurting that out, Cheol-su suddenly darted away and hid behind Su-myeon, who had just stepped forward.

No, I wasn’t planning on shielding anyone....

“You again?”

This time, San-hyeok spat out a line that filled Su-myeon with déjà vu.

Please save that rivalry for the protagonist. Don’t waste it on an extra like me who has nothing to do with this.

Su-myeon could only feel unfairly targeted, but before he could respond, Ju-hee snapped.

“If you’re so curious, why don’t you touch it yourself?! Why are you picking on someone who already said he doesn’t want to?”

“What’s this tiny little thing yapping about...? Ha. Do you even know who I am...?”

San-hyeok kept letting out hollow little laughs—ha, huh, wow—as though he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

But frankly, who he was hardly mattered right now.

Everyone here was in exactly the same situation, trapped in some unknown place without so much as a coin to their name.

San-hyeok swept his gaze over the group members glaring at him, looking as though he still intended to play king even here, then stepped forward.

“Fuck, fine. If you don’t want to do it, then don’t. Bunch of fucking cowards.”

With that, San-hyeok abruptly reached for the walkie-talkie inside the drawer.

Apparently, he intended to put on a show of bravado and seize control of the situation that way.

Su-myeon would have been grateful if a troublemaker like him simply got himself killed, but the problem was that this wasn’t something that would put only San-hyeok in danger.

‘If anyone touches that thing, the crazy clown will chase all of us!’

Wanting to preserve what little peace they had for as long as possible, Su-myeon kicked the drawer shut.

It slammed closed just before San-hyeok’s hand reached the walkie-talkie, and San-hyeok shot him a murderous glare.

Unfortunately, Su-myeon couldn’t immediately voice the words that had risen to his lips.

How was he supposed to explain this naturally?

“Um....”

“Mr. Su-myeon is right. Even if it is your own life you are putting at risk, I will stop you from doing something dangerous.”

While Su-myeon hesitated, Han-su stepped forward first, positioning himself in front of him as though to protect him.

But... Mr. Protagonist.

I haven’t actually said anything yet.

“You people are really putting on a show.”

San-hyeok looked between Han-su and Su-myeon, his lips twisting into a sneer.

“You think you’re any different from me? You over there—and you! And you!”

He began jabbing his finger wildly at the other group members who had been watching the entire confrontation.

“You were all curious too. You all thought it’d be great if the walkie-talkie actually worked and connected us to the outside, so you stood there and watched the whole thing, didn’t you?”

So why the fuck are you only giving me shit about it?

At San-hyeok’s muttered accusation, punctuated by curses ground between his teeth, no one dared answer too quickly. They merely glanced at one another, gauging each other’s reactions.

While Cheol-su and San-hyeok had been arguing over the walkie-talkie, everyone else had simply stood by and watched.

It probably hadn’t been out of deliberate malice.

It was simply the way most modern people were.

It wasn’t their problem.

If they stepped in for no reason, they might only end up getting dragged into the mess themselves.

So they had all assumed someone else would help.

‘I’m one of them too....’

If this had been an ordinary situation, Su-myeon might not have stepped forward either.

The only reason he had stopped San-hyeok was because he knew in advance that San-hyeok’s actions could put Su-myeon himself in danger as well.

“Instead of wasting our strength fighting among ourselves, we should move together. If you cause any more trouble, I will not stand by and watch.”

Han-su spoke with clear displeasure at San-hyeok’s attitude.

The problem was that the more Han-su pushed back, the more worked up San-hyeok became.

“What are you gonna do if you don’t stand by?! Huh?! What the fuck are you gonna do?!”

Meanwhile, far more time had passed than expected.

Leaving San-hyeok and Han-su to bicker, Su-myeon pulled out his phone.

[AM 11:59]

Oh, damn it....

No one had noticed amid the commotion, but right on cue, a new safety rule concerning the noon blackout had appeared.

He had needed to keep an eye on the time and warn everyone without making it seem suspicious, but thanks to that bastard, everything had gone completely off track.

“Oh, look at this! A Korean police officer is about to hit someone. Huh? He’s gonna hit me! Huh! Go ahead, hit me! I said hit me!”

Unable to endure watching San-hyeok descend into what was practically a childish tantrum, Su-myeon’s foot moved before his brain did.

It was probably one of the unfortunate side effects of the taekwondo lessons his mother had forced him to take as a child in an attempt to cure his laziness.

“Guhk....”

Caught completely off guard by the kick, San-hyeok toppled over and rolled across the floor.

There had been hundreds of times while playing the game when Su-myeon had wanted to hit him just once.

But before he could even savor the satisfaction, he shouted.

“Shut your mouth for one second! Everyone, when the lights go out, don’t move and don’t say a single—”

He tried to bring the situation under control as quickly as possible.

But there wasn’t enough time.

Before Su-myeon could even finish speaking, pitch-black darkness swallowed everything around them.

“.......”

Su-myeon immediately clamped his mouth shut.

Perhaps most of them had taken his warning seriously, or perhaps the atmosphere itself had frightened them into silence. Either way, the surroundings fortunately remained quiet.

Only the sound of breathing could be heard.

At least Su-myeon had managed to hold up his phone at the last possible second, and that offered everyone a small measure of reassurance.

[PM 12:00]

The screen displaying the time cast a faint glow into the darkness.

Even such a meager light was far more comforting than being unable to see anything at all.

“Sniff....”

A tiny sound came from somewhere nearby, as though someone were quietly sobbing.

Su-myeon was so tense he couldn’t even swallow. At some point, he realized he was holding his breath.

49 seconds, 50 seconds, 51 seconds....

The count might not have been exact, but Su-myeon continued ticking off the seconds in his head.

That single minute felt many times longer than it should have.

Like an eternity.

[PM 12:01]

As the time on his phone changed, the fluorescent lights overhead flickered on one after another with a low hum.

It worked.

They had made it through.

Unfortunately, that fleeting sense of relief was shattered almost immediately.

“U-uwahhh!”

“Kyaaaah!”

The instant the lights came on, screams erupted from every direction.

Startled, the others looked around, only for several more screams to follow.

Bloodstains and ragged chunks of flesh were scattered everywhere.

He had clearly heard only the faintest sound of someone sobbing.

So who the hell had moved?

Trying to figure out who was missing, Su-myeon checked Ju-hee first.

“H-how did... this.......”

Ju-hee was unharmed, one hand clamped over her mouth as she stared ahead in horror.

The person who had inevitably been destined to die on this floor was still alive.

For now, that proved one thing.

The game’s events really could change depending on Su-myeon’s actions.

Then, if it wasn’t her, who the hell had—

“Ha... hahahaha! Haha! Serves him right~”

At San-hyeok’s delighted laughter, Su-myeon turned his head as well.

He immediately had to bite down hard on his lip to keep himself from screaming.

Any self-respecting horror fanatic liked to boast that they had grown immune to every kind of gruesome sight imaginable.

Su-myeon was no exception.

But no matter how realistic something artificial might look, it couldn’t convey even a quarter of the sheer, overwhelming presence of the real thing.

And this was already the second time today.

Confronted with the horrific sight, Su-myeon clenched his fist tightly and forced himself to stay composed.

“Is... is he dead...?”

“What do we do?!”

“Ugh....”

Trembling voices rose from all around him, mingling chaotically with the sound of someone retching.

On the wall everyone was staring at hung Cheol-su.

Literally.

Cheol-su’s body had been fastened to the wall like the mounted carcass of an animal.

Through the torn opening in his abdomen, as though some grotesque red flower had bloomed there, the things that had forced their way out exposed their slick crimson flesh.

“Ugh... uuuugh....!”

While everyone stood frozen in horror, a pained groan escaped Cheol-su.

Even with everything that should have remained inside his body hanging out of him, human vitality was stubborn.

He still hadn’t stopped breathing.

“S-save....”

Cheol-su’s voice sounded as though it might die away at any second, yet the plea continued desperately.

“He’s alive!”

At someone’s shout, the more fainthearted among them collapsed where they stood, while a few of the braver ones hurried toward the wall where Cheol-su hung.

“Hurry! Help him!”

Ju-hee was at the very front, but with her small frame, she couldn’t even reach Cheol-su’s feet where he hung high above the floor.

Drip. Drip.

Heavy drops fell onto her clothes, staining them.

It hardly looked like blood anymore—more like something thick and viscous mixed into it.

“W-wait!”

Seeing Ju-hee move, Han-su and several others stepped forward and began trying to figure out how to get Cheol-su down.

Don’t tell me they’re actually planning to take him down?

Su-myeon hurried forward and stopped them from attempting something that couldn’t possibly help.

Everyone else had overlooked it because the horrific wound in Cheol-su’s abdomen drew all the attention.

But Su-myeon had seen it.

Clutched in Cheol-su’s blood-soaked hand was a foreign object, crudely sewn into his flesh with thick wire.

“See? You were going to end up holding it anyway. So why the hell did you make such a fuss?”

San-hyeok seemed to have noticed it too.

He opened the drawer beside him again.

The walkie-talkie that had unquestionably been inside it was gone.

It was now sewn to Cheol-su’s hand.

“...Quickly. We don’t have time. We need to get out of here right now!”

Having grasped the situation, Su-myeon raised his head and looked at Cheol-su again.

As though that last groan had carried away his final breath, Cheol-su’s body now hung completely limp.

Even the pool of blood already gathered beneath his feet looked large enough for him to have died from blood loss alone.

Han-su, however, seemed unable to give up.

He reached out and grabbed Cheol-su’s leg.

“Wait....”

“Mr. Kang Han-su! He’s already dead! Don’t you understand?!”

This kind of role is the worst.

The absolute worst.

After shouting at him, Su-myeon turned away first and started running.

They had to abandon the dead quickly and save the living.

If they wasted time trying to bring down a corpse, they would only end up the same way.

THUD! THUD THUD THUD THUD!

The instant Su-myeon began running, the sound of something enormous charging toward them thundered through the passage.

The remaining group members quickly understood the situation.

Leaving Cheol-su behind, they began running after Su-myeon.

There were still fourteen of them.

That was hardly a small number.

Su-myeon had unquestionably been the first to start running, yet before long, people were overtaking him one after another.

“Huff... huff!”

Was a lifetime of laziness really coming back to punish him like this?

All Su-myeon could do was desperately try not to end up dead last.

“Th-there’s a fork!”

Somehow, Ju-hee’s clear voice carried all the way to the back even though she was running at the very front in high heels.

At her words, Su-myeon raised his head.

[ <-Arcade ] [ Back Office-> ]

A helpful sign stood at the fork ahead.

That was it.

The marker he had been looking for!

The moment Su-myeon saw it, he shouted.

“Left!”