The fingers of the monster, encased in black gloves, moved as if sweeping upward.
Following that smooth movement, every basement floor button in the elevator lit up.
The new employees stared blankly at the sight.
Just now.
What did it just do?
“Ca-Cancel! Can—”
It was too late.
The elevator moved a single floor in the blink of an eye.
Ding.
[This is Basement Floor 12.]
The elevator doors opened, completely defenseless.
The scene from a few hours ago flashed through their minds like a lightning bolt.
—“Uuuugh... Heup.”
—“Wh-What is this...?”
When the elevator had gone to Basement floor 12 to complete a ‘mission’, it had returned without a single employee, only a pool of red blood spread across the floor…
[The doors are opening.]
And now, in the dim light of the elevator, the dark corridor of ‘that’ Basement floor 12 was revealed. The new employees held their breath.
“……”
“……”
However, unlike inside the elevator, there wasn't a single drop of blood in the hallway.
“Haah.”
Before they could instinctively feel relief, something odd caught their eyes. Oily, dirt-like substances were piled on the floor, caught in the cracks of the elevator.
‘Dirt...?’
Searching for its source, they raised their heads.
Lumps placed sporadically like landmarks along the hallway came into view.
Lumps that looked weathered with time.
But looking closer, their eyes adjusted to the darkness and distinguished their silhouettes.
An ankle near the ankle bone, a chunk of an ear and a part of a temple, a right shoulder blade…
Fragments of human bodies, left colorless like mannequins.
“Hiiiiee...”
Slap.
The new employee covered his own mouth. So that no sound could leak out.
He must not make any noise.
Because, at the end of his gaze, he saw something colossal.
Something standing tall in the dark hallway.
It, too, was wearing a Uniform.
The same Security Team Uniform worn by the horned monster riding in this elevator. A perfect human silhouette, neat and without distortion. It almost looked as if a bored Security Team member was just standing there absentmindedly. However…
What was attached to its head was a scarecrow.
On a crudely made hollow sack filled with straw, a face was roughly drawn with fresh blood.
…….
From somewhere, a song could be heard.
Standing tall all day long
The angry Mister Scarecrow
It echoed faintly through the hallway.
Chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp, chirp, oh how scared the children are
The birds scatter away
Hahahahaha, do be careful
The hat might fly off
Plop.
A drop of blood, caught on the scarecrow's crude drawing of an eye, fell from the tip of a piece of straw.
Standing tall all day long
But since when…
The angry Mister Scarecrow
…Had its head been looking this way?
“……”
Gulp.
The new employees froze.
The scarecrow definitely hadn't moved. But…
Why had it changed?
Why was it now one iron door closer than before?
Why was it even closer again?
Why was its left straw hand raised?
Why was it holding a grass-cutting sickle in its grip?
Why was its face…
“Aaaaaaagh!”
At that moment, the doors of another elevator next to them opened, with a burst of light and screams pouring out.
“…!”
Other people. Clearly others, who had come to this floor for their own missions, could be heard stumbling out of the elevator into this hallway.
“Wh-What is that!”
Witnessing the scarecrow and the body fragments on the hallway floor right before their eyes, they screamed.
…….
Patiently standing all day long
The kind Mister Scarecrow
Why was the scarecrow standing with its head turned?
“Hieeeek!”
“Close it! Close it!”
“N-No! Run—”
It was too late.
And as the new employee who had been watching in a daze realized—
Yes. A chance to escape.
“Hieeck!”
This was their chance. While it wasn't looking at them, quickly, quickly! The new employee reached out with all his might to press the close button…
But, he was blocked by a black-gloved hand.
“……!”
Grotesque horns sprouting in all directions, and a gas mask with yellow lamp-like eyes.
The Security Team officer from Room 666 of Basement Floor 13, who blocked the close button, didn't even look at him.
It just stared blankly out of the elevator, thick black smoke poured out from its gas mask, pooling at its feet.
Fuuuuuuu…
Then, drifting low like fog, the smoke crept toward Basement Floor 12.
Toward the scarecrow.
Hahaha, do be careful
The hat might fly off
Patiently standing all day long
The kind……
Whoosh.
The smoke surged up and covered the scarecrow.
“!!”
The sound was swallowed, thick and heavy.
Smoke, so dense and pitch-black that the scarecrow’s figure vanished. And beneath it…
A new sound.
Cr-Cr-Cr-Crack-Crack-Crack-Crack-Crack
A bizarre noise echoed down the hallway.
The new employees listened to it, panting while holding their breath.
The grotesque form of the scarecrow, now covered black by the smoke, wasn’t even visible as a shadow.
Only the sound remained.
Only the sound of merciless rupturing could be heard.
Crunchcrunchcrunch, it sounded like horns or bones breaking, or like something being ground together, or forcibly stuffed or swallowed somewhere.
And then a wailing, as if begging, was heard.
The sound of someone pleading and trying to escape was mixed with the tremendous noise… And then soon vanished with a final, choking gasp.
The moment silence returned.
“……”
“……”
Finally, the black smoke dispersed again.
The scarecrow that had been hidden by the smoke reappeared in the hallway—
“……Huh?”
A corpse.
The new employees blinked.
But the sight of the blood-drenched corpse lying on the floor with its entire body crushed did not change.
Blood dripped from the scarecrow’s makeshift features and fell onto the floor.
Drip.
“Aaaaaaah!”
“Aaack!!”
Screams filled the air. However, the one wearing the gas mask sucked the smoke back in with a single breath. One new employee crawled into the corner of the elevator in terror.
[The doors are closing.]
Meanwhile, in the elevator next to them, the doors closed with the sound of someone frantically smashing buttons without even breathing.
“O-Over there!”
The other new employees were successfully escaping.
At the same time, the black smoke that had surged through the Basement floor 12 hallway now neatly pooled on the floor of this elevator.
“Hieeeek!”
“Wait!”
Someone grabbed his shoulder as he tried desperately to avoid the smoke.
His coworker named Jang Heowoon. He whispered urgently.
“Don’t get on its bad side.”
“…!!”
“That smoke hasn’t covered our heads yet…. Calm down, let’s calm down.”
It was as he said.
The smoke was quietly pooling on the floor of the elevator.
“Huff, huffffffff….”
The new employee swallowed hard, caught his breath, and grabbed the elevator handrail.
[The doors are closing.]
And so they left the 12th basement floor.
He desperately averted his eyes from the corpse that would be just beyond the elevator doors, but just before the doors closed, he thought he saw it staggering to its feet again….
Like a scarecrow.
“Huuuuuuuh.”
He swallowed with a groan.
But the intense impression of the scene he had just witnessed did not fade.
A bizarre being.
And the smoke that had turned that bizarre being into a corpse.
Suddenly, he realized something shocking.
‘…We survived.’
Everyone had survived.
His legs trembled with relief.
At the same time, another thought crossed his mind.
‘Wait a minute.’
Then, did that ‘Security Team member’ from Room 666 with the strange horns actually… help people escape via the elevator?
‘Wait, if that’s the case….’
Yes. Maybe there was nothing to be afraid of. Maybe it was fine! Unable to endure the situation of being trapped in an elevator with something so horrific, he tried to rationalize it, turning his head.
“U-Um, excuse me….”
He met the eyes of the Security Team member.
However….
“Tha… nk… you…….”
Had its arms always been that… melted?
The Security Team employee’s arms were unnaturally long. It was strange… it had too many feet. It’s melted lower body mixed with the smoke, swelling, and warping across the elevator floor.
And it had thirty-seven eyes.
The eyes stared at him, unblinking.
“Uh, uuuuuu….”
What was that?
That thing, what was it?
[This is Basement Floor 11.]
An external shock briefly postponed his panic.
Another stop.
[The doors are opening.]
“I shall now proceed with the extraction of optic nerves.”
“I will now be connecting the mouth to the navel.”
“Wouldn’t it be great to have no feet, too!”
On Basement Floor 11, an employee in a lab coat was in the middle of a cheerful consultation for surgery in Room 910.
Whoosh.
This time, too, the one wearing the gas mask stared outside with its thirty-seven eyes and sent out the smoke.
Soon, the bizarre being in the lab coat became a bloodless corpse with its limbs stitched together in the wrong places.
“Aaaah!”
Again, screams. Escape.
The people who had been in the middle of the consultation as if possessed fled Room 910 like mad and boarded the other elevator, and the doors of this elevator closed naturally as well.
[The doors are closing.]
“……”
The new employee looked down at his feet.
He couldn't see the elevator floor.
Because the Security Team member’s melted lower half was covering it.
Ba-thump.
A heartbeat-like sound was heard from the wall.
Because the left side of the Security Team member’s upper body was stuck broadly to the wall.
“……”
And so it continued.
[This is Basement Floor 10.]
[This is Basement Floor 9.]
[This is Basement Floor 8.]
Every time the doors of each floor opened and closed, every time the smoke caused a bizarre situation, the figure inside the elevator grew stranger.
It got larger and more distorted.
[This is Basement Floor 6.]
[This is Basement Floor 5.]
The form of the thing riding the elevator grew more and more grotesque. It was so bizarre and difficult to look at. It’s a strange ■■■■■■■■■■ it’s just strange strange stra—
[This is Basement Floor 4.]
[This is Basement Floor 3.]
[This Basement Floor is an endless basement.]
At last, he realized what was strange. Now the entire elevator was composed of sticky smoke and yellow lights and a crown of thorns and the curves of ■■ resembling a grave of bones. That'sit!ThisisBasementFloor13!He’sbeingsuckedbacktoBasementFloor13andnow
Ding.
…….
…….
[This is the First Floor.]
[The doors are opening.]
Light poured in.
“Huuuuuuu….”
The moment the familiar lobby of the ground floor revealed itself, the new employee collapsed.
Someone rushed over and patted his back.
“Slowly, slowly… just breathe out.”
That fellow new employee?named?JangHeowoonorwhateverhisnamewas? Him?Orsomeoneelse?grabbedhisarm,andhetookbreathsinandoutinandouthuff huffhuffanddiedandthesmoketellsusour■■-nim….
■■-nim?
“…Excuse me.”
Someone spoke.
He turned his head instinctively.
Before he knew it, the form of ■■-nim?theSecurityTeam member had returned to normal.
A man wearing a gas mask with horns, possessing a bizarre sense of intimidation. ‘Jang Heowoon’ was speaking to him….
“Were you… helping us just now?”
No.
The smoke moved.
“Hick!”
But instead of covering his head, the smoke formed letters.
>Employee's Duty
“……”
Jang Heowoon, who had been silent for a long time, finally opened his mouth.
“Yes. Thank you….”
His voice sounded as if it were choked up, or perhaps hoarse.
Then he turned around and began to support another team member, who was trembling in the corner of the elevator.
Maybe he had lost his mind from the terror.
‘Crazy bastard.’
He had to get out of here right now. The new employee suddenly snapped back to his senses.
He hurriedly scrambled out of the elevator. Desperately avoiding his fellow coworker.
In such a crazy situation, trying to help others rashly was a sure way to get killed. Self-preservation—self-preservation is the only way to survive…. He gathered his senses, which he had barely found amidst the fear and panic.
“Wh-What is that?”
“Uwaaaaah….”
Fortunately or unfortunately, the lobby, already a mess and occupied by various noises from returning survivors, had its attention dispersed, and not many people witnessed the Security Team member inside that elevator.
The gaze of the thing with eyes like yellow lanterns turned toward the lobby for a moment while ‘Jang Heowoon’ supported the other employee out of the elevator… then, suddenly, it stared straight at him.
And then….
>Be grateful for your luck
“……!”
[The doors are closing.]
The elevator departed again.
To Basement Floor 13.
[B13]
The new employee stared blankly at the floor indicator, then collapsed onto the lobby floor.
He was drenched in cold sweat.
The elevator doors closed.
I am alone once more.
“……”
As the smoke rose, I felt my body, which had been crushed and distorted, gradually regaining its proper form to fit the mold of the Security Team Uniform….
…….
Something wavered.
I brought my fingers to my chest, but felt no heartbeat. Because my insides were collapsed without form, to the point where I don't know where I was, or if I even exist.
But the bizarre pulsing sensation lasted for a moment.
And I savored it.
Like a bottle of nostalgia.
Ding.
The doors opened on Basement Floor 13.
The basement where silence flowed. I saw the dark hallway and the eerie iron doors with flickering red and blue lights.
But there was something else, too.
—Target confirmed.
Guard Teams.
Employees in familiar uniforms emerged from the hallway, confronting me.
It seemed someone must have reported that I had acted out of protocol.
It was a misunderstanding. Because I had properly performed the security of my assigned area. I had never once set foot on another floor, or aboveground
>Question
However, instead of paying attention to the letters I made, the Guard Team members each pulled out their respective special restraint devices, and transformed into contaminated forms….
“Aigoo, everyone’s looking so tense!”
A white hand suddenly shot up from behind.
“It’s fine. Here, please move aside….”
A bright, inappropriately cheerful voice rang out, and a Research Team employee walked out from the center of the Guard Team.
Because I still couldn’t make out his face, which looked like a melting mosaic, but I could tell from his outfit and employee ID card who he was.
His identity.
“Greetings.”
Kwak Jekang.
“It’s been a while since we’ve met in person… No, it’s the first time, isn’t it? Hahaha!”
The face wearing glasses seemed to have a calm smile, but he spoke barely containing his voice tinged with excitement.
“I am the manager in charge of our Security Team’s new Special Division employee! Conveniently, I’m also the one in charge of the annex experiments today.”
As if he weren't even afraid of the Guard Team’s gaze, the excited man pulled out documents from his coat and handed them over, grinning at me.
“I’d like to proceed with a few simple questions… Haha, goodness me. Why don’t we start by introducing today’s visitors to Basement Floor 13? It seems these friends forgot to introduce themselves. Let’s see, 28-year-old Lee Jeongin, 25-year-old Park Yonghae. And….”
His voice paused, as if for dramatic effect, then emphasized.
“26-year-old Jang Heowoon.”
…….
…….
Just now.
“Hmm? Do any of these names sound familiar to you? Hahaha.”
What did he just say?
TL Notes: -
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