As if the silence that settled inside the elevator was dragging it down heavily, the space descended.
Downwards.
A distant abyss.
To the 96th basement floor.
"…You pressed it?"
That's right.
Suddenly, I chose the option to head into the distant abyss of ghost stories, into a deep core that couldn't be measured.
…It would be a lie if I said I didn't hesitate.
I'm not yet confident I can face the dream incubator I came from and retain
my sanity.
But...
'In other words, I'm not afraid of anything else.'
Right now, I'm in a state where I can't feel fear.
As Braun said, if my emotions, like my reason, will gradually recover, then from that point on, I'll tremble with fear every time I explore the Cheerful Research Institute in the Main Building's basement.
'It might be better to grasp what I can before then.'
It's a kind of preventive injection.
[Ah, it's an effect that removes fear through repetition. A classic and proven learning method...]
[However, there's a completely unexpected variable beside you.]
Ho Yuwon.
[That too is part of the charm of live broadcasting, but if it's bothersome, why not just leave him behind? If you need the host's help, I'll lend a hand!]
...
No, for now, I will take him with me.
[Hmm?]
'I'm bothered by the employee ID card hanging around his neck.'
Ho Yuwon's Cheerful Research Institute employee ID card hanging around his neck.
I glanced at it again.
Surprisingly, I had already seen an object of the same form.
It was the key card of the deceased employee in the underground dream incubator room where the prototype incubator was located.
Cheerful Researcher
■■■
The part labeled 'Cheerful' was roughly erased with a pen. It’s what I had used to operate the incubator.
It's probably still inserted in that incubator... unless someone else took it out.
'…Even so, I don't know if I'll be able to retrieve it.'
In any case, it wouldn't hurt to observe exactly what effect that employee ID card had in this Cheerful Research Institute ghost story.
Yuwon, who met my gaze, lost the look of momentary surprise from me pressing the button without hesitation and was smiling again.
His face was still completely busted.
"You surprised me. Roe Deer-nim, how brave of you."
...
"With as much courage as you have, you'll explore well, right? I'll diligently follow you."
He's a truly annoying bastard.
I ignored his words.
The elevator, descending at a chilling speed, finally reached its destination.
Basement 96th floor.
Ding dong, the door opened with the same cheerful chime...
And.
A peaceful corridor came into view.
"..."
From the offices, occasional laughter or the light sound of typing could be heard… but that was all.
It's as if we've returned to the 2nd basement floor, a perfectly normal sight.
Which makes it even stranger.
It shouldn't be like this.
"Roe Deer-nim?"
...
"Roe Deer-nim, aren't you getting off? It's just a normal office corridor… Surely, you're scared? If you're very scared, cover your eyes. I'll gently push you..."
>Warning 1
>Reason: Obstruction of Duty (Intentional)
>Cumulative Warnings: 1 / Strikes left until disciplinary action: 2
"What? I was only trying to help… I'm truly sad."
Sigh.
"And I'm worried if you can even properly execute disciplinary action. You failed earlier..."
>Proof of successful disciplinary action execution
>Confirmation of your own left cheek
Only then did he quiet down.
'Please just shut your mouth...'
Why is he like that even with half his face busted?
Regardless, I stepped forward, paying attention to the dust on the floor and the presence near the office doors.
Exiting the elevator.
Thump, thump.
I muffled my footsteps as much as possible. Even without fear, I remained vigilant.
I enveloped myself in smoke.
'There's definitely something.'
I walked slowly to the end of the corridor.
...
However, on the peaceful corridor of the Cheerful Research Institute, bathed in sunset light… there was nothing unusual.
Just a quiet office corridor.
"It's really strange... isn't it?"
I grabbed the doorknob of the office with the least sign of presence.
"Ah. Shall we go into that office? But inside, perhaps..."
A music box sound was heard.
Ho Yuwon and I turned our heads simultaneously.
But there was no one speaking to us.
Instead, a wide-open door was visible at the far end next to the elevator…
An emergency exit.
Beneath the emergency light, something was emerging into the corridor from the dark emergency stairs, devoid of windows...
Fire.
Flames were pouring from the emergency stairs into the office corridor.
"…!!"
A loud alarm began to ring in the corridor. And the doors of all the offices swung open.
"Ah."
I immediately pressed myself against the wall. Ho Yuwon followed, pressing his back tightly against the corner.
Numerous presences poured out of the offices. The residents of the Cheerful Research Institute, invisible to explorers.
[Oh dear, the basic safety rule in case of fire is to escape via the stairs. But…]
[This time, that place is a passage to death!]
That's right.
I can feel the vibration of footsteps created by those who can no longer reach the emergency exit.
Panic, fear, chaos...
Some seemed to be desperately trying to open windows, as the window frames creaked, while others bravely rushed into the restroom, as if to fetch water, operating the faucets.
But the majority made the instinctive choice.
[Oh, they've run for the elevator!]
Ding dong.
The elevator doors opened, and the sound of bodies colliding roughly inside the elevator was heard.
The elevator's announcement was heard along with the warning chime.
[The capacity has been exceeded. The capacity has been exceeded...]
Where will that go, I wonder.
No, it's a scene where I'm not sure if it can even depart safely.
The doors did not close.
Even without seeing it, I can imagine it.
The researchers of the Cheerful Research Institute crowding to get into the elevator, getting caught in the doors, the warning chime sounding due to exceeding the weight.
Slowly suffocating or burning to death in front of it.
And...
Soon, I realize I don't need to imagine.
Thump.
It started with one.
But as time passed, it increased exponentially.
Two, five, eight, fifteen...
The dead researchers of the Cheerful Research Institute.
They begin to appear, filling the elevator and the corridor.
'The dead are... judged as objects.'
And the bodies of the 'Cheerful Research Institute entities,' which were once recorded as objects of fear and dread that caused disappearances upon mere contact and were recorded as unknown entities in the explorer logs... They looked like ordinary people.
Broken fingernails scratching the elevator door, disheveled hair.
The sight of two in lab coats falling in the corridor, burning to death, one trying to cover the other's mouth.
Until the very last person.
Until death.
"Roe Deer-nim"
...
"Can you see them? You do see them, don’t you?"
Ho Yuwon furrowed his brows and smiled with apparent pity.
"It's truly unfortunate. Isn't it?"
...
"But congratulations. You chose a good floor. It will be much easier to navigate the 96th floor now."
I realized I had regained one more emotion.
Revulsion.
My body, no longer affected by toxic gas and high heat, stood still and endured that revulsion...
Together with the equally unharmed counselor from the Fox Counseling Room.
Sizzle.
The sprinklers activated belatedly.
Strangely, black water poured down.
The smell of fresh blood's iron and a fishy odor reeked from within.
The flames in the corridor, hit by the black water, subsided slightly, and the burnt office doors fell out into the corridor.
The smoke lessened slightly.
"Cough."
A cough was heard from Ho Yuwon.
It sounded as if it were meant to be heard, but when I turned my head, not a single strand of his hair was burnt.
Unbelievable normalcy for someone who inhaled toxic gas and was in the flames.
I asked the ghost story.
>Question: Sounds made by those evacuating.
"Well. I'm sorry, but my hearing is bad... And I think they're all dead already."
...
>Warning 2
>Reason: Lack of Cooperation
>Cumulative Warnings: 2 / Strikes left until disciplinary action in: 1
"You're too much..."
Do as you please.
I detached myself from the wall and stepped into the incident unfolding within the Cheerful Research Institute.
Squelch.
…A crushing sound was heard from beneath the wet corridor.
[Huu, my friend's foot touching such a dirty floor.]
It doesn't matter. I'm not scared.
'Where should I start?'
I looked at the burning Cheerful Research Institute, its windows shattered, walls burnt, revealing the bare interior of the offices.
The view was open, almost like a single space. So, it immediately caught my eye.
Over there, a door torn open behind the collapsed and broken right-side wall...
A transparent cylindrical device...
A dream incubator.
There was a Dream Incubator here.
I, I, I, I, I have to check it? I think so, but it's hardbecausemybodyisinsidetheincubator.
"Roe Deer-nim."
Roe deer?
"It doesn't seem like the incubator you were born from, Roe Deer-nim."
...
Ah.
"It's broken."
I staggered and straightened my body.
At some point, I had almost collapsed onto the floor.
Ho Yuwon, who was wiping the ash from his hair and tidying his clothes beside me, kindly bowed his head and offered me his hand.
"You've sat down. You seem to have a lot on your mind."
I stood up without taking his hand.
Ho Yuwon looked at me with a seemingly disappointed expression, but I already knew he didn't feel such emotions.
Instead, he looked at the flames remaining in the corridor, which were slowly starting to spread again, and asked.
"Ah. Are you perhaps worried that those flames might spread to other floors via the elevator?"
...
>Negative.
No.
I've never worried about that.
Each floor isn't connected in the first place. Because...
>Reason: Separate Timelines
"…!"
That’s right.
Do you remember? The Cheerful Research Institute has completely identical structures on each floor.
To the extent that even the marks on the walls match.
This is something the Sergeant had also mentioned, and a conjecture from him heard at that time...
-“The same office... The structure and even the scratches are the same, so it's the same place, but… little by little… the timeline… seems different?”
"Ah, you knew that much?"
No.
In fact, it didn't stop there...
Based on this testimony, I also formed a hypothesis before entering.
[Indeed!]
If these basement floors are all projecting different timelines of the same
space.
And if that space was part of the Cheerful Research Institute.
Then, it's not just that the scenery becomes more bizarre the further down you go...
‘The deeper you go, the more crucial moments of the Cheerful Research Institute will appear.’
[Hooh.]
Because a trend can be seen.
First, the floors closest to the surface.
'The Cheerful Research Institute here shows a time frame when it has few people, or when it's outside work hours.'
Lunchtime, vacation season, after work.
'But the further down you go, the more work-related keywords emerge.'
Entering the middle floors, the nuance appears.
Celebration, discussion... And the number of people increases.
Then, what about deeper down, the core?
Looking at the tendency, the answer is visible.
'More moments critically related to work will appear.'
The key work incidents that occurred at the Cheerful Research Institute.
Then, we can make such a conjecture about this situation as well.
[This fire is a very important incident related to the work of that toy store…]
[Is that what you want to say, Friend?]
That's right.
And don't we already know well about the work of the Cheerful Research Institute?
'Development of playful ghost story products.'
It was strange for such a place to become like this due to a normal fire.
Therefore, this fire might not be natural, but caused by a ghost story itself.
An incident so significant that it determined the fate of the Cheerful Research Institute.
And recalling the experiment log that summoned me…
-This is likely to be the Cheerful Research Institute's final research project.
It's also highly probable that it's related to the reason I was summoned.
'I'll remember this.'
After taking a mental deep breath, I slowly moved my feet towards the broken dream incubator.
And I reached out my hand to the slot I recalled in my memory...
The key card registration point of the incubator.
Click.
As the key card slid out of the slot, an employee ID card in its complete form began to appear...
Cheerful Researcher
Lee Heowoon
...
What?
"Huh? The name… it's the same as the employee who was sent to the Disaster Management Bureau. Jang Heowoon, wasn't it?"
I turned my head.
"And it's the same name as this year's new employee. Right? Kim Heowoon, was it?"
Ho Yuwon was smiling.
…I realized.
The one who knows the whereabouts of the spy dispatched to the Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau better than anyone else, and could contact them.
The one who can access the profiles of all the Field Exploration Team members who joined this year… and has no worries about being handed over to Director Cheong.
"What an interesting phenomenon... Do you have anything you'd like to ask me, Roe Deer-nim?"
The route to find out the truth about Jang Heowoon was right in front of me.
TL Notes: -
Discussion