An underground location of unknown whereabouts.
A dark steel area, much like an evacuation space inside a tunnel.
“…….”
“Ah, Agent. This way.”
The agent from Hyunmoo Team 1 followed the guide.
In the Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau's Glass Prison, there were no employees working as guards.
An unknown supernatural power, devoid of sound and form, acted as the guard, and one person at a time worked in shifts to check the status of that 'guard.'
The person in charge asked cautiously.
“…Did you come for the interrogation of that Agent Grapes, no, 37-999?”
“…….”
“I see. This way.”
Following the guide's cautious lead, the agent opened a steel door, avoiding the 'guard,' and stepped inside. That place was….
A crystal cave.
“…!”
Countless pieces of quartz reflected light in a diffused manner, making all sorts of shadows and shapes flicker throughout the cave.
Yet, strangely, no light source that could be the origin of the reflections was visible.
A feast of light and shadow with no starting point.
Click.
“The prison cell is here.”
The person in charge willingly opened a rusted door located in the corner.
However, there was no human figure there.
Instead….
Countless glass beads were piled up against every wall, forming a structure that diffused light.
“…….”
The agent looked at it with dark eyes.
Layer upon layer of glass beads filled the space densely, forming a cone shape. It felt almost like an ornament.
However, things could be seen moving inside each and every glass bead.
Aaaah….
Let me out let me out let me out please
You betrayed me.
Am I going to die here?
Isolated prisoners.
The one standing before them could observe each thing inside those glass beads as if they were a giant. A strange structure that felt somewhat like a panopticon.
That was the true identity of the Glass Prison.
A secret room consisting of a single bead.
In this crystal cave, whose exact location was unknown to anyone but those involved and whose mode of existence was a mystery, one could not leave unless the gatekeeper personally moved that glass bead outside.
Even if one managed to break their own glass and succeed in escaping, it was not a true escape.
It was merely the inside of another glass bead.
A circular structure. A continuous chain of glass rooms that never ended.
“It's the bead at the very top. I heard you made a special request. I heard you asked for it to be even a little more comfortable…. Since he was originally an agent, after all.”
The agent's eyes stopped.
Exactly… the 37th floor. The summit of the glass beads.
The single bead located there.
To that identification tag.
“…….”
A black shadow was visible inside the glass bead, but the human figure, which looked to be lying on the floor, did not move.
“My apologies for the long-windedness. This is the record of 37-999’s previous interrogations.”
The agent barely managed to take the documents handed over by the person in charge and read them down.
[Prisoner Number: 37-999]
[Prisoner: Kim ■■ (Agent Code Name: Grapes)]
[Affiliation: Emergency Rescue Squad Hyunmoo Team 1 (Pending)]
[The transfer was originally proceeded for the purpose of a simple mental and physical check-up taking 24 hours, but return was delayed due to a strange pattern revealed during the first day's interview.]
[Discussion for formal imprisonment in progress.]
The agent's hand clenched tightly for a moment at the last line, but he soon turned the page.
Rustle.
[Day 1.]
[The prisoner was transferred to the Glass Prison as part of the procedure to examine an agent who had been under a special Binding Restriction.]
[The Binding Restriction was confirmed to have already been lifted (Executing Entity: Tiger General of Daecheongbong), a light interview and physical examination were conducted.]
[※ Abnormality discovered during the interview process.]
[The prisoner arbitrarily refused all statements regarding the identity, timing, and form of the supernatural entity that imposed the Binding Restriction.]
[Check-up procedure suspended. Switched to interrogation.]
Of course, at first, even if it was called an interrogation, it wasn't that intense.
Why are you refusing to testify, where does it hurt, is there no estimated time when it was imposed even roughly, what kind of Binding Restriction was it.
They approached slowly, thinking the agent was showing a traumatic response to a shocking event.
However, the reaction returned to all those questions was the same.
[The prisoner entirely refused to answer all questions.]
It was then that the officials began to feel the seriousness of the situation.
[Suspected of acting to evade testimony by knowing the interrogation effects of the Glass Prison in advance.]
Thus, from the evening of the 2nd day, the true interrogation of the Glass Prison began.
[Interrogation Intensity: 3]
[Deploys professional interrogators.]
[Tenacious and detailed questions, trap questions, implications hidden within mundane questions, questions structured so that even silence becomes an answer….]
The intensity gradually rose.
After three days had passed, the Glass Prison finally made the prisoner, who had persistently evaded all questions, succumb to the situation.
[Interrogation Intensity: 7]
[Restrains the prisoner's body. After fixing the head and eyes so they cannot avoid the gaze, the premise that silence is an affirmation is asserted.]
[A gag is worn during questioning to avoid attempts to not listen to questions through meaningless exclamations, etc.]
[Thereafter, it became possible to discern 'Yes or No' from the prisoner.]
The only saving grace was that interrogation methods that pressured by changing the prison's living environment were not used.
It was a decision made considering the prisoner's health condition, but it wasn't very effective.
[Day 5.]
[Prisoner Status: Poor.]
[Politely declined suggestions for sleep and meals.]
[Requested to let the Goblin Fire provided to him out of the prison, saying he felt 'sorry' for it.]
[Disallowed due to concerns over the prisoner's escape attempt and unexpected situations.]
[However, for emotional stability, several items preferred by Goblins were brought into the cell.]
[Prisoner expressed gratitude.]
[Special Note: Personal opinion of the interrogator.]
[-At this rate, it seems another Binding Restriction is in place. I recommend transferring him to a professional examination institution rather than here to proceed with a gut or exorcism again.]
However, to the question of whether another Binding Restriction was imposed, the answer 'No' surprisingly came directly from the person himself.
And that was judged as the truth by the Glass Prison.
[-It might be a suggestion that makes him think he isn't under a Binding Restriction.]
Despite such a personal opinion from the person in charge, the transfer was also processed as pending for the time being.
The page turns.
The date changes again, and the prisoner's condition worsens further.
[Day 6.]
[Prisoner Status: Poor.]
[Provided a special meal out of concern for the prisoner's health condition. (Subsequently, the special meal (mung bean chicken soup) was left untouched until the next day.)]
[No response to interview.]
[The deployment of the Nightmare Maze was proposed for a more intense interrogation, but it fell through due to strong opposition from field agents.]
“…….”
“This is the record up until yesterday.”
And from the next page, it's not a record, but an inference.
Speculation about the prisoner's identity.
Information that only the current person in charge and the interrogator could view, labeled with 'Absolute Prohibition of External Disclosure.'
[Circumstances suspected of being a spy confirmed.]
The agent's hand clenched tightly.
[The prisoner consistently attempts to maintain silence for all interrogations, but based on several truths confirmed in extreme situations, the 'questions he wishes to avoid most' can be inferred.]
[They are as follows.]
[Source of information.]
[Purpose of working at the Disaster Management Bureau.]
[The one who imposed the Binding Restriction.]
[Unclear gap period before employment.]
[Various traces of Contamination.]
And so the conclusion had been reached.
But the sentence did not end there.
[However, considering the prisoner has no moral disqualifications, the fact that he faithfully performed all assigned supernatural disaster response tasks, and his ethical tendencies confirmed as true, this is suspected to be an act using coercive means such as blackmail or sorcery.]
[Since the information that can be confirmed with short answers is limited, introduce a method to draw a more cooperative attitude from the prisoner.]
The agent turned the page.
It was the last page.
A document attached as a temporary appendix was visible.
The reason he was standing in this place now.
[Special Note: An agent of Hyunmoo Team 1, who transferred the prisoner to the prison, strongly applied for the role of interrogator for the past few days but was disallowed due to regulation violations.]
[Confirmed application for interrogator from another agent within Hyunmoo Team 1 who was deployed to the same site at the time.]
[Approval pending.]
“…….”
“Preparations are complete, Agent.”
Ryu Jaekwan lowered the record from his hands.
And for the interrogation, he approached the front of the glass bead.
I blinked.
A transparent ceiling is visible.
In the narrow hemispherical space surrounding him, a bed, a desk, a chair, and a few books and food are placed according to specifications.
Beyond that, it is not visible as if wrapped in fog, but I could tell that the material composing the walls was transparent.
‘…So it was a place like this.’
The Glass Prison.
A long time ago, a Dokkaebi won a grand tile-roofed house by winning a game of Yutnori against a certain Mr. Kim.
However, Mr. Kim, not wanting to lose his house, came up with a scheme. He denounced and drove the Dokkaebi away, claiming the Dokkaebi had used foul play in the bet with strange magic.
The Dokkaebi was furious.
So, he created a space where no one could use foul play inside a glass bead only as big as a thumb joint and invited Mr. Kim inside. And the two played Yutnori again.
The Dokkaebi won.
He won and won again.
Until he had taken everything belonging to Mr. Kim.
His house, his wealth, his family, his appearance, his status, his lifespan, and even his name.
Finally, the Dokkaebi, who had taken over the tile-roofed house and become Mr. Kim, abandoned the cave he lived in and the glass bead as a gift of consolation to his Yutnori opponent who had lost everything.
The defeated Mr. Kim, no, the one who became nothing, remained in the cave like that.
Even today, the one who is nothing is guarding the glass beads in the crystal cave where the Dokkaebi used to live.
So that no one can use 'foul play.'
The Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau built the Glass Prison system using this.
These mysterious glass beads where all supernatural phenomena are blocked, and the gatekeeper who protects them.
‘I heard they mixed in some supernatural phenomenon related to the underworld and judgment….’
Whatever.
It didn't matter.
What mattered was that the place where I am currently imprisoned can only have a clean and accurate reality remaining.
Inside this, supernatural entities can only exist, and all actions that are realistically impossible do not occur.
Just like… the reality outside the Wiki.
Here, all items are useless, and tattoos are just tattoos.
‘During the body search, they only took away things like the glass hand cannon I had on me.’
Since the inventory tattoo wouldn't activate, there was nothing to search through.
But in the same sense, it could be seen as an extremely reassuring place.
‘Because it means there's no chance of suddenly falling into a ghost story.’
Physically, it should be correct that I can rest ‘safely,’ just as Agent Choi said. I even heard that some people voluntarily imprison themselves here to avoid curses or malevolence.
However….
“…….”
I cannot sleep.
Tension and resignation pulse together throughout my body.
Just like the past few days when I was being interrogated.
The intensity of the Glass Prison's interrogation is gradually increasing. I am desperately evading answers, but quite a bit of information has already been extracted.
‘They must surely be suspecting it.’
That I am suspicious.
That I might even be a spy.
‘If so, from now on, they might… introduce even more powerful methods.’
The Management Bureau is an institution that can be infinitely merciless toward selected villains.
Recalling several interrogation methods I already knew, cold sweat trickled down from my temples.
‘Damn it.’
Perhaps Agent Choi expected that I, with the Binding Restriction lifted, would confess everything from the beginning….
Maybe he hoped I would give up since I can't return to Director Ho anyway.
The problem is that my secrets don't end there.
Among the things I know, there are too many things that cannot be explained simply by being a spy.
I don't even know how far I'll be forced to speak, and I don't know what my treatment will be afterward if I do—secrets like those.
My original world, the Dream Incubation Room, various contaminations, and… even the Dark Exploration Records.
‘If I were going to talk, I should have confessed from the start and settled things as a spy.’
But in that case, what about Yeongeun and Mr. Heowoon, who came in with me?
And what about my Wish Ticket?
‘Back then, this was the right choice.’
……But, even so, I know.
That this, too, will soon reach its limit.
“…….”
I am soaked in a sense of lethargy, but I had to pull myself together.
The time is approaching. The grueling interrogation time, where traps and decoys will come rushing in.
Swallowing my saliva, I calmed my anxiety as much as possible and calmly categorized in my head the things that must absolutely not be caught.
And….
Drrrrrrrrk.
The sound of glass clashing is heard.
Beyond that glass wall, a human figure approached.
An interrogator appearing with the wall between us.
However, that figure was not the person in charge I saw yesterday.
“…Prisoner 37-999.”
“…!!”
Agent Bronze.
Ryu Jaekwan was standing beyond the glass with dark eyes.
Wait a minute.
‘Agent Bronze is… today's interrogator?’
The interrogation method has changed.
I assessed the situation while tense.
Agent Bronze spoke slowly, not avoiding my eyes.
“…I will notify you before the interrogation. You have the freedom to state falsehoods, but all lies will be revealed transparently.”
I know.
If one gives false testimony in the Glass Prison, the truthful response to that testimony is projected onto the glass.
Only silence will protect you.
—A prisoner from a Daydream.
That's why I couldn't say anything.
Because lying here is no different from telling the truth.
But my silence must have also been suspicious. It makes them suspect if I already knew the mechanism of this prison. It's obvious.
‘And that, too… is the truth.’
I would have suspected it too.
I grit my teeth while looking at Agent Bronze.
‘Has the direction of the interrogation been set toward mobilizing acquaintances?’
It was a relatively generous treatment… but I couldn't deny that it would be effective.
“The interrogation will begin.”
I swallowed a groan.
And….
A completely unexpected question came out.
“Where is your home?”
“……!”
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