Chapter 210.1 |
After drinking the Wish Ticket and realizing the ‘truth’.
My body collapsed, and the Security Team uniform from Director Ho, which I desperately forced my body into, ended up having the opposite effect—it drove me into necrosis.
So, on the verge of death, I made the only choice I could.
– All you have to do is sign.
I signed the employment contract that Director Cheong handed to me.
Immediately afterward, I lost consciousness… and when I came to, I had already been transferred to some unknown place.
A desolate, small room.
The first thing I saw was a number.
[666]
The space, consisting only of an iron bed and a washbasin, was extremely old-fashioned and utterly silent.
A single fluorescent light provided illumination, and everything was deathly quiet.
However, during work hours, I could leave the room as much as I wanted. That was because, from the very first day until now, my assigned work had never changed, not even once…
– You’re assigned to security work today on Basement Floor 13 of the Annex.
Basement Floor 13.
My job was to guard this corridor.
– Security for Basement Floor 13 of the Annex.
But it meant nothing.
No one ever came.
With no windows or emergency exits, this place was nothing more than a corridor lined with iron doors, and I wandered its length without purpose.
I roamed the hallway.
Red and blue lights flickered.
The elevator was visible. The indicator lights flashed, showing numbers.
But I could not ride it.
There were no buttons.
I couldn’t see any.
I could not leave.
Shhhhk…
Thick black smoke filled the air.
The pale hallway’s fluorescent lights flickered as the smoke trembled and rose.
It was coming out from my breath, filtered through a gas mask.
I walked, shut away from the world.
As I stared at the only thing that moved, the swirling smoke spilling and drifting through the corridor…
– Your work shift has ended. Please return immediately. Your work shift has ended. Please return immediately. Your work shift has ended. Please return immediately…
It’s over.
Just as stipulated in my contract, I return to Room 666.
Click.
The door locks, and I sit down on the bed.
Silence, again.
Would most people find this horrifying?
Whether it’s claustrophobia, or the fear of isolation, or the terror of existing unnoticed in the depths of a horrifying pharmaceutical company, would most people feel… fear?
Perhaps that would be the case.
But I can’t remember exactly what such feelings would be like.
But even the fact that I can’t remember isn’t so bad.
I simply mull it over for a moment.
My work.
Security Officer of Annex Basement Floor 13.
Do not question the entities existing beyond the iron doors. Perform security duties without leaving the designated hallway of 13BF.
Anomalous phenomena occurring upon contact have not yet been identified.
The faint shapes that flicker and blur in my mind.
If I were to describe it in the style of the <Dark Exploration Records> wiki, perhaps it would be written like this.
Yes. That’s probably how it would go…
But even that faint, censored imagination doesn’t last long.
Bzzzt—
The silence is broken.
Light from a black-and-white screen casts a shadow over the iron bed.
[Special entity Employee full of dreams and passion! Welcome to Daydream Inc.’s Security Management Team!]
The low-quality sound of a digital recording echoes through the cell.
[Yesterday we told you all about the cool work done by the Security Management Team, didn’t we? Today, we’ll tell you the rules you absolutely must follow during your shift!]
A small round TV in the corner of the solitary cell keeps playing the same video.
It’s the <Security Management Team New Employee Training Video>.
It repeats the same information.
[You cannot leave your designated work area!]
Two mascots appear.
A fox mascot stands still in front of the corridor’s elevator, spinning in circles.
It’s a format I feel like I’ve seen somewhere before.
However, there is something distorted… Is it that which is twisted? The cheerful educational video about the lifestyle of an office worker and Daydream Inc. plays in black-and-white, moving light across the room.
[You are a contracted worker, and you cannot break the labor rules!]
At first glance, it seems like the usual training video for new employees, but there are some differences.
It obsessively tells you what to do when your work hours are over.
[Go to sleep.]
[Do not violate your designated sleep time. You may not wander around. You must rest. That is the normal behavior of a company employee!]
The light from the strangely bright and cheerful video flickers through the small cell.
And then…
[This concludes the training in this video. Please rest comfortably!]
Click.
It vanishes.
“……”
The workday has ended.
In the now pitch-black small space, only a faint red and blue glow filters in through the iron door.
Sleep time.
Of course, I cannot sleep.
But as the training video said, I must not violate sleep time. That’s the work rule.
So I lay down on the bed and closed my eyes.
As if I were sleeping.
In this way, learning about ‘company work’, I continued my employment on Basement Floor 13 of the annex.
……
……
How many days have I been on the job?
A week?
A fortnight?
A month?
Seven years?
Or ■■■?
I don’t know, and it’s hard to calculate. But it doesn’t matter. The contract doesn’t state a period of employment, so I just remain like this.
Soon, work hours will return again.
And in the silence, I will…
Knock… knock.
……
Knock, knock, knock.
A sound.
I hear a sound.
It’s the sound of hard joints, wrapped in soft skin, cautiously moving and striking against iron.
The sound of knocking on the iron door.
……
A knock.
A person.
I pulled the door open.
“Eek!”
“Hiiiieeek!”
The iron door of Room 666 opens.
The ones holding the doorknob jump back in shock, collapsing into the hallway, about to point their fingers at me…
“Ah… mmmph.”
They cover their mouths.
Then lower their heads.
“Hel, h-hello.”
“We are new employees. Pleased to meet you.”
They speak.
Their voices are stiff, as if practiced, but it’s real.
And I realize that this is the first time in ages that I am hearing the living voice of someone.
No…
Are they really alive?
“If you don’t mind, may we visit for a moment…”
No. It is the sound of the dead.
Every living person’s voice that reaches my auditory organs comes out crackling, as if from an old training video.
As if filtered, as if recorded, every voice I see and hear through the gas mask blurs the shape of the person, making it impossible to clearly identify them.
And then…
“……Um.”
There is no face above the suit.
No, their faces cannot be identified.
Where the faces should be, it looks as though everything has melted into a mosaic.
Red and black, warped as if someone tried to reconstruct damaged film by gathering every last scrap.
‘Why is that?’
Is it because, according to the employment contract, I don’t need to see them, or is it because my collapsing body has also collapsed my recognition system? I do not know.
But it doesn’t matter.
There is no problem identifying them by their clothes, build, and intonation.
No problem understanding the situation.
New employees, business suits, three-person teams, panic and confusion, no masks.
And one more thing.
“……”
I turned to the one who had spoken first.
Listening to their ragged breaths, I reached out a hand clad in black gloves.
“Huuuhp!”
I took what was in the person’s suit breast pocket.
A note.
After going down to 13 BF
and entering room number 666,
I will knock and go inside.
This is…
I see.
‘Experiment Name: New Employee Orientation’ 21st Attempt
: Missions are assigned using the Luck Draw Box (Qterw-E-382). The structure involves exploring the annex basement and encountering the Security Team member ■■■■ responsible for that area.
As if sparks leapt from my mutated head, the record surfaced for a moment, lingering as I took it in.
I ‘understood’ what kind of situation this was.
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