Chapter 271.1 |
I know it might sound strange that there’s a Darkness for equipment crafting that Daydream’s Research Team uses often…
Equipment is usually something that helps you survive inside a ghost story.
So you’d naturally wonder why the company’s Research Team would ever need something like that directly, but if you see it in person, you’ll be able to guess, more or less.
How ‘Toy Maker of the Cheerful Institute’ could be used by the Research Team, in what way.
And how it could replace Assistant Manager Lee Seonghae’s missing body parts.
“Alright. Then let’s set our route to E07 and go.”
“Yesyesyess!”
That was how the first equipment crafting site we’d visit in the annex was decided.
…Now, it was time to head to our destination.
“Yessir.”
The moment Section Chief Lee Jaheon made the call, he started moving without hesitation. We followed him and began walking down the dark corridor.
The annex, Basement 3, Darkness isolation area.
Strange noises came from the tightly shut metal doors on both sides, but if we ignored them and moved carefully…
“Stop.”
EXIT
At a dead end.
An emergency door revealed itself.
Right. This time, we were going to use the emergency stairs here to move directly up one floor, to Basement 2.
– B2 doesn’t give out access permission at all, so we enter from an upper or lower floor and move secretly.
The annex’s emergency stairs are different from the main building basement’s bizarre Cheerful Institute side emergency stairs that have an ‘ABSOLUTELY NO ENTRY’ warning posted.
‘There are records in the <Dark Exploration Records> several times of Security Team members who were entering, or people who were fleeing, using this side.’
Of course, this still isn’t a normal route, and strange things can happen while moving.
‘But it’s not unusable.’
Up ahead, Section Chief Lee Jaheon raised his hand.
“I will open it.”
And this emergency door would instead lock down if an isolation failure state occurred, and even normally, an alert would be sent when it was opened, but this time, ‘coincidentally’, that was going to be broken too, so no alarm would be sent.
For example, even if someone with an absurd amount of strength forced it open.
Krrrk, …creeeak.
The emergency door must have opened with that sound, by Section Chief Lee Jaheon.
……
“Roe?”
But I couldn’t see any of it.
‘As expected.’
To me, there is no visible means of leaving the annex. Just like the elevator.
It doesn’t let me perceive a way to exit the floor. Because I’m a Special Division employee who’s supposed to work as the security manager for one floor.
‘I see.’
…To go from being able to see something, to not being able to see it at all. It feels strange.
The emergency exit is also something I can’t perceive, so it only looks like an extension of the wall. A wall in smoke and darkness…
But.
Recommendation : Move in front of 130666
If other people are there, I can follow them.
“…Alright.”
Assistant Manager Eun Haje stepped directly in front of me.
“Be careful.”
“Whoa!”
It seemed Section Chief Lee Jaheon had finished the re-locking measures on the broken emergency door, because he lightly lifted the wheelchair.
Then as he started walking, people went into the wall.
I followed them and ‘passed through’ the wall too.
From my perspective, it looks like an endless void.
“You okay?”
Affirmative
Even if I can’t see the emergency exit, it’s fine because I can see the group.
Everyone started climbing the emergency stairs.
I used smoke to blink, ignoring my legs that wouldn’t move, and kept appearing near the others…
In my head, I was drawing the shape of the stairs.
‘Normally emergency stairs… go up in a spiral after turning a half circle.’
So originally, after changing direction once or twice, the upper floor should appear, but.
“……”
“……”
They kept walking.
Upward, still.
“Um, a door isn’t showing up.”
“Quiet.”
The space was twisted somehow.
But I advised it.
Recommendation : Keep walking
Because it wasn’t a dangerous situation.
‘There’s a similar record.’
Qterw-E-352 isolation failure occurrence.
To avoid an entity that boarded the elevator, two members of Field Exploration Team’s F-squad who were in the annex used the emergency stairs to escape.
Time elapsed : 1 hour 21 minutes.
Beside me, Baek Saheon muttered something like a curse under his breath as he kept moving his feet.
And after some time.
“…There it is.”
We stopped.
B2F
“Basement 2 emergency door. Time to arrival, 12 minutes 53 seconds.”
And.
“Do not approach, under Security Team control… huh.”
The door was already sealed with the Security Team’s warning markings.
Of course. The annex’s emergency doors lock down instead in an emergency and won’t open, and Basement 2 is exactly that ‘emergency’ right now.
But we’d already finished talking with today’s person in charge for the annex’s Basement 2.
“I’ll knock.”
Knock, knock-knock, knock.
Section Chief Lee Jaheon knocked on the emergency door in the rhythm we’d agreed on. A string instrument melody learned from the Groom Lesson ghost story.
Then.
Click.
The emergency door opened just a crack, and pale, washed-out yellow beast pupils swept over us.
Then the head withdrew, and the door opened wide.
“Come in… Quietly……”
We went inside, even our breathing carefully controlled.
My perception ability also recovered as I faced the corridor.
The familiar Basement 2 of the annex, a place I’d visited several times before.
[Oh, what a boring layout, no different from the third basement floor.]
The difference, if anything, was…
[There was no need to express individuality through filth!]
Gruesome traces were scattered everywhere.
Sticky black liquid burned into the floor, claw marks on the walls, yellowed talismans half peeled off and stuck everywhere, stardust, torn rags, and smile graffiti…
Traces of the Security Team’s ‘suppression’.
They stirred ominous imaginings.
“……”
“……”
Sergeant J3 pulled his cap low.
“Over there… other Security Team personnel are…… ‘controlling’ it…… so don’t go that way for now.”
He had willingly taken on the role of opening doors so that we could move along a relatively safe route without running into the Security Team.
Alone.
– The sergeant is really strong, um… capable, so he often gets assigned entire areas by himself. It was the same this time.
– He’s probably patrolling about half of Basement 2 alone, right?
– Yeah……
“Then you’re the only one here, Sergeant?”
“Yes……”
We indicated our destination, and the sergeant nodded.
“Follow me… Don’t prompt hallucinations.”
The sergeant lowered his gaze.
“You might provoke it for no reason…”
“……”
“Just stay quiet.”
Everyone did as he said.
I followed them silently from the rear, sensing danger as we moved.
J3, in his guard uniform, walked slowly with a flashlight, but his steps never hesitated even once, as if he were sensing every presence and threat around us.
“Wait, hold…”
When he told us to stop, we stopped, and when he moved again, we followed.
After that suffocating stretch of time passed at corners and intersections…
We came face to face with it.
E-07
The destination—
A ghost story.