I checked the work tip note with trembling hands.
11. Are you doing this two days in a row?
I feel bad for you, having to do night shifts in a row when they usually give you the next day off after night cleaning... Anyway, the tips continue. This dawn—
No, no!
‘Let’s stop reading.’
At the very end, a rule that seemed strangely Contaminated had appeared. I didn’t know about the first one, but from the second note onwards, the notes themselves might be a trap.
I violently folded the note back up and shoved it into my pocket.
Then I looked up, scanning the still tightly closed doors of Containment Corridor B until my eyes landed on one spot.
[Containment Cell B14]
“…….”
What on earth happened?
‘Stay calm.’
I need to organize this.
I was clearly spending the first day.
It was around 3 AM. Just as we were finishing the cleaning, a containment cell door suddenly opened, and someone… ‘something’ in the form of Assistant Manager Eun Haje appeared.
And the moment Supervisor Park Minseong realized its identity….
‘It noticed immediately and did something… something horrible.’
I have no memory after that.
But why did an entire day vanish, making it the second day, and why did the story end with ‘We finished cleaning safely’?
Yet the structure makes it feel as if I regained consciousness right before it happened…….
Wait a minute.
I checked the digital watch on my wrist.
Just before 3 AM.
…….
“Supervisor! This way, right now!”
“Wh-Whaaat?”
I called out to Supervisor Park Minseong and ran.
I opened the iron door at the end of the corridor, where the green emergency light was still shining normally, and stepped out.
“What is this….”
Thud.
I closed the door the moment Supervisor Park Minseong followed me out. I heard his bewildered voice.
“Roe, what are you doing? We haven’t even finished cleaning yet, why on earth….”
[BEEP!!]
[Unauthorized opening of containment cell confirmed. Locking down the corridor.]
As if on cue, red lights flashed, and the Protective Shutters descended on all doors.
Including the door to the corridor we just exited.
“…!”
Supervisor Park Minseong’s expression hardened.
“…Wait. Roe. Did you know this would….”
“One moment.”
I immediately took out my radio and turned it on. I turned up the volume and pressed the button.
Since that thing in Assistant Manager Eun Haje’s form told me not to trust the radio, I judged that it was, conversely, something trustworthy.
“Mr. Jay. Something came out of a containment cell.”
Bleep.
An answer came back instantly.
[Is it the corridor?]
“No. We just stepped out of the containment corridor. However….”
I glanced at the door leading out from the rental storage room.
A shutter had come down there as well.
“We are trapped in front of the rental storage front desk. …The Protective Shutter has come down on the exit door here too.”
[Hmm, well… since the primary containment is done, don’t be scared… just stay there……. I’m coming now.]
[By the way… was it cell 12 that opened? Or 6?]
Phew.
I barely managed to answer.
“It was probably… 14.”
Silence.
[…B14?]
“Yes.”
An ominous silence drifted over the radio once more.
My back grew damp with sweat.
Bleep.
[Don’t talk to anyone and just stay still. Keep quiet and hide. Stay away from Corridor B.]
I swallowed hard.
“Yes.”
[But the containment lockdown has a… Hold Time. Even if I release it immediately, the system holds it for… 10 minutes.]
10 minutes.
[Hold out for 10 minutes until I get there. …Don’t talk. From now on.]
Click.
The transmission ended.
Silence descended upon the dark rental storage room illuminated by the red emergency lights.
“…….”
Looking to my side, I saw Supervisor Park Minseong, his face pale after hearing the entire radio conversation, carefully backing away from the door leading to Containment Zone B’s corridor….
Just then.
THUD!!
The door shook.
THUD, THUD, THUD!!
Something inside the containment corridor was pounding on the door hard enough to make the Protective Shutter rattle. Violently.
Then, a faint voice could be heard.
…Hey! What the hell…!
“…….”
Someone was shouting from the containment corridor we had just escaped. For some reason, it sounded increasingly familiar….
“Roe, don’t listen…!”
“…!”
Supervisor Park Minseong covered my ears and hurriedly pulled me toward the rental storage front desk.
Only after we were far enough from the containment corridor door did he whisper urgently to me.
“The Protective Shutter is down; there’s no way a sound from behind it could be heard all the way here…! That’s not real. That is…….”
Gulp.
The supervisor swallowed.
“…I think something really did come out. Just like you said.”
“…….”
“Earlier… that security team person said they’d be here in 10 minutes. Let’s just stay still and not trust anyone who comes and tries to talk to us until then. Never be the first to speak….”
I nodded slowly. The supervisor sat down, breathing a sigh of relief.
“By the way, how did you know, Roe? That the containment cell door was opening….”
“It’s a bit complicated, but first, there’s something I need to know.”
“What is it?”
“What exactly happened on our first day?”
Confusion spread across Supervisor Park Minseong’s face.
“Huh? On the first day?”
“Yes.”
“We just cleaned normally and… ah, of course, a few things from the work tips happened, but we handled them well and went home, didn’t we?”
The examples he followed up with were all things we had indeed experienced. … Before the chaos in the containment cell broke out, that is.
In that case.
“Do you remember giving me the second work tip paper at dawn?”
“…Roe.”
Supervisor Park Minseong’s expression stiffened.
“There was no second paper.”
“…….”
“Are you perhaps… affected because the containment cell door opened? Hold on, let me see today’s work tip….”
What?
I stopped Supervisor Park Minseong from trying to pull the note out of my pocket.
“Wait a minute. How did you get that work tip note in the first place?”
“Huh? I got it, saying it was a work tip circulating in the Security Team.”
“Yes. Who exactly was it?”
“…….”
“Can you describe the person who gave it to you?”
“Of course……,”
Supervisor Park Minseong’s face turned pale.
He opened and closed his mouth several times as if trying to speak….
Finally, he confessed.
“…I don’t know.”
“…!”
“No, clearly… huh? So, uh, was it left in the bedroom? No, a colleague from the Security Team gave it… did I have a colleague? Huh? Huh? Huhhh?”
Damn it.
“It’s okay! You don’t have to think about it. For now, let’s just stay still.”
“……Okay.”
Supervisor Park Minseong quietly curled his body and lowered his head.
“…Let’s just think about getting out. We’re leaving as soon as that door opens. Without looking back.”
“Yes.”
Phew…….
‘Seriously. This is driving me crazy….’
My head was in a whirl.
Since our accounts differed, I didn’t know how much of what I remembered was truth and how much was a lie.
I didn’t know what was reality, and what to believe was ambiguous, but the situation was filled only with dread.
‘Am I… am I possessed by something right now?’
But I was definitely wearing the silver ring. It meant I had a strong resistance to illusions, hallucinations, and brainwashing. If so….
‘Let’s organize this logically.’
I tried desperately to recall.
And a third party who could look at this phenomenon objectively would be….
‘Braun.’
It would have to be the Plush doll in my pocket.
‘Braun! I want to ask you something, is that okay?’
…….
Silence.
No way.
‘…Braun!’
I fumbled through my pocket. Even when I called again, there was no response—
-Ah! Here I am. My friend!
Phew.
I gripped the fluffy plush doll in my pocket and let out a sigh of relief.
-Oh dear, my response was a bit late! How embarrassing. It took some time to catch up, you see.
“…….”
‘Catch up’?
‘…Why did you need to catch up to me?’
-Ah, didn't you skip straight to the 30th, Mr. Roe Deer!
The cheerful voice began to say incomprehensible things.
-Of course, I am not blaming you. Finishing the disciplinary action quickly is fine too. Greeting the New Year rapidly without pouring effort into useless tasks! Bringing forward even more joyful events….
‘Wait, wait a minute.’
I hurriedly cut him off.
‘Sorry for interrupting, Braun. But… I have something to check.’
-Ah, if I can accept a guest's grumbling, how could I not accept a friend's! Speak freely, Mr. Roe Deer!
Right, okay….
‘You’re saying I skipped straight from the 29th to the 30th. By what means?’
-Hmm. Didn’t you readily hand that story over to someone else?
‘…!’
Wait, wait a minute.
‘Someone else?’
-That’s right. Oh! He happens to be right next to you now, Mr. Roe Deer.
“…….”
-His appearance changed quite perfectly, didn't it. Haha! He truly was a master of disguise, friend.
I barely managed to move my stiff neck and looked at the person Braun mentioned.
The one who was sitting right next to me.
“Um… Roe? You’re not saying anything, and I’m a bit scared, so can we talk?”
…Earlier.
I thought I had called out to Supervisor Park Minseong and made him follow me when I ran out of the containment corridor.
But thinking back, I hadn't grabbed him and run, nor had I looked back.
Which means.
‘It's possible that someone other than Supervisor Park Minseong followed me out upon hearing that sound….’
If so. The one pounding on the door from inside the corridor just now was….
“…….”
“Roe, are you okay? Answer me.”
And the advice Sergeant J3 gave me over the radio.
-Don’t talk to anyone and just stay still.
That meant….
It included the person I came in to clean with.
“Roe? Roe…… caught again.”
Thud.
Before my eyes, Supervisor Park Minseong’s face fell to the floor.
Then listen to me about Ireum-ni-i-i-i-m
The mouth hole in the melting body moved, drawing closer.
To my face, closer….
[BEEP!]
The red emergency light flashed again.
And the sound of machinery operating began to echo from all around.
…The sound of the shutters rising.
[Lockdown is lifted. Shutters are opening.]
Ah.
Thank you! It’s open!
The faceless one drew even closer.
It shouted in a voice full of ecstasy.
Hahahahahahahahaha
The bizarre laughter exploding right next to my eardrum rattled my brain. My mind grew hazy. It became distant.
In reality…
A blackout.
“……Hah!”
I lifted my head.
The dark rental storage room.
A sealed space where the red emergency lights were on due to lockdown. The tightly lowered Protective Shutters.
Me, looking as if I had just fled the Containment Zone B corridor, abandoning my cleaning tools.
It was a scene from slightly earlier than what I had just seen.
And in my pocket… the work rule note.
For the 3rd day of work.
I immediately crumpled it and threw it aside.
Bleep, bleep.
[Hello…. Are you okay?]
The radio was crying out, but I ignored it.
Because this time, this time I remembered clearly.
‘…You said Ireum-nim.’
I brushed my hair back with hands trembling and slick with cold sweat.
‘I see.’
What all of this was.
My missing story.
The one who appears in the form of an acquaintance.
The one crying out for Ireum-nim.
Its identity was….
==========
Dark Exploration Record / Factions
[Church of the Luminous Unknown]
: One of the three major factions appearing in the <Dark Exploration Record>.
They worship a transcendent deity called Ireum-nim, and their doctrine is to become meaningful beings in this world to survive the end times.
In this process, they follow antisocial and supernatural fanaticism, rituals, and laws.
Divided into six sects, they blindly follow different Divine Laws according to their characteristics and cause bizarre Anomalous Phenomena.
The truth is [Spoiler].
==========
It was the Church of the Luminous Unknown.
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