Chapter 146 |
> [Spatial Shift 2: The Power Generation Room of Flesh and Machine]
"Flesh and machine...?"
"Something pop up again?"
"It says this place is the Power Generation Room."
How long had they walked? The owl alighted before a rusted iron door. The first new pattern of door they'd found in that interminable corridor.
"So this time we're getting machines~"
"Ah, that's ominous."
"And this place isn't?"
"The feeling is just repulsive."
'What is this feeling?'
Irritation, disgust, anger, yet also a strange restlessness. The urge to scream right this instant. But pinning it down to a single word was difficult.
"Why, does it look dangerous? I knew the owl friend was leading us into a trap-- ow, ow."
"Kkukkuguguguguguk."
"What kind of owl has this many different calls?"
The falsely accused white owl pecked Seung-jae's crown with relentless dedication. A flustered Do-heon carefully caught the flapping owl and pulled it into his arms.
"Easy there, don't peck him."
"Hoo."
A sigh-like cry that seemed to say 'I'm holding back,' and Seung-jae blinked.
"That thing's not a person? Peel the skin off and check."
"You insane animal abuser."
"Hoo-- hoooh--."
"Now I'm getting it from both sides. I'm about to cry."
Seung-jae shrugged and pointed at the door.
"So, in or out? If you really think it's bad, we'll find another way."
"Is it really okay to ask me that? I'm not confident."
"Your eyes are better than you think~ Uncle believes in his nephew~"
"Yeah, well I don't believe in me."
"Is that a problem?"
"Wow...."
Do-heon looked between the iron door and Seung-jae, then nodded.
"...Let's go in."
It was only unpleasant, after all.
***
> [Spatial Shift 2: The Power Generation Room of Flesh and Machine]
> Opening the rusted iron door reveals damp concrete and a corroded steel grate floor.
"......"
> Where the ornate red wallpaper has been torn away like skin, damp concrete and massive hunks of metal are exposed like entrails.
"This has a certain feel to it...."
"The air's a bit stale."
> Acrid dust, thick blood-stench, rusted metal, and old machine oil.
"Is 'a bit stale' really the right description?"
> A vast underground power generation room like the belly of a great beast, where aged metal pipes and dozens of enormous gears interlock, turning with a deafening roar.
"No matter how I look at it, it's more than 'a bit,' isn't it?"
"Yeah, there might be a touch of contamination too."
"You keep saying 'contamination'--what does that actually mean?"
"Exactly what it sounds like. Going mad, or body mutating, or...."
"Fuck, that's happening to us right now?"
"Now I see why nephew hesitated at the door."
Seung-jae scratched his temple with the muzzle.
"Haven't felt this urge to smash everything in a while~...."
At that, Do-heon felt a flash of deja vu and asked.
"Wait, are you getting annoyed and grossed out too? A little queasy?"
"Revulsion, I'd call it."
"That's it, that's exactly it. Revulsion. That's the word."
Do-heon realized.
"I feel this urgency to crush something underfoot--that's not normal, right?"
"For an Artist to be affected at this level, it's a pretty concentrated contamination."
Seung-jae looked at the owl perched on his nephew's head.
"And yet that one's perfectly fine? Getting more suspicious by the minute~"
"Less suspicious than you, Uncle."
"Why are you like this to the uncle who risked his life to find you, honestly."
"Ah, no, that was kind of reflexive...."
It was a fair point, now that he heard it. Do-heon rolled his eyes.
"Uh... well, maybe stop picking on the owl."
"Since when were you such an animal lover?"
"Fair, but...."
Something about the creature made him oddly attached, and he didn't want to see it get scolded.
"Anyway, so staying here means we die?"
"Worse than dying, maybe~? I've been wanting to jump off something for a while now."
"Fuck, what does that mean?"
"You've been sneaking into banmal for a while, is that intentional?"
"It's not."
It just kept slipping out.
"What do you mean you want to jump, exactly?"
"Literally? Throw myself off something? Judging by your reaction, nephew's not feeling that?"
"I'm just irritated and stuffy...."
"Can't even pinpoint who the irritation's aimed at, so my head's spinning."
Seung-jae looked around.
"What kind of hotel shoves a space like this inside."
> [Optional Observation: Massive Steam Engine and Pipes]
> Countless gears spin ceaselessly, pumping steam into enormous pipes.
> Between the horrific metallic screeches, rough panting of something alive can be heard mixed in.
> It feels as though someone is forcing this abnormally vast space's heart to beat by grinding their own blood and flesh into it.
"......"
"See anything?"
"Th-there's a lot, but is there no way out right now...."
"Why's the owl just sitting there?"
"Stop hassling the owl!"
> [Optional Observation: Red-Corroded Valve]
> A valve rusted red beyond turning.
> The instant you touch it, scorching heat seems to radiate alongside faint screams of pain echoing through the pipes.
"I didn't even touch it, what the...."
"Kkiik."
"Don't touch? Is that what you're saying?"
"Hoo."
"Ah, was that a warning?"
Apparently it meant: this is what happens if you touch it, so don't.
"I can't tell if it's being kind or unkind."
"Hooeng."
"Oh, it's flying again."
"Was the ceiling too low to fly earlier~?"
"That's not sarcasm, right?"
"Mmhm, of course not~...."
Do-heon furrowed his brow at the machinery's oppressive presence and quickened his pace. Dodging the dreadful roar and heat, the two followed the owl through a thick shielded door deeper into the Power Generation Room.
'If it'd been just the two of us, we'd never have found the way.'
After passing through what was a labyrinth in yet another sense, the scene beyond the next door changed.
> [Spatial Shift 3: The Central Control Room of Surveillance]
"Oh."
"How many spaces does this place have?"
"The Back○○ms are like that."
> A chilling, blue-tinged, mechanically neurotic space.
> Floor and walls are covered in cold silver panels. Hundreds of thick cables, tangled like intestines, crawl across the floor like tentacles and extend into the walls.
> An alien structure resembling a wrecked research lab and control room fused together ominously.
"Strangely creepy...."
Do-heon held his breath and surveyed the walls, revolver in hand.
> [Optional Observation: Static-Filled Monitors]
> Dozens of old CRT monitors filling the wall.
"CRT?"
"Outdated hardware for a research facility~"
"So it looks like a research lab to you too, Uncle?"
"I had my suspicions."
"About what...."
Most screens were filled with static noise, but on closer approach, the images warped grotesquely, showing empty hotel corridors or blood-drenched unknown spaces.
As if something beyond the monitors was peering back.
'Unpleasant in a different way from before.'
Looking up at the ceiling made it worse.
> [Optional Observation: Red-Blinking Surveillance Cameras]
> Countless surveillance cameras densely installed across every corner of the ceiling without a single blind spot.
"Those... are active, right?"
"Whether they're functional or just decor, I can't say."
"They've got power."
Red lights blinked from the lenses. With a mechanical whine--zzzz, zzzz--the lenses moved in unison, tracking their every movement.
The conviction settled in that someone at the heart of this massive system was watching and attempting to control everything.
"......"
At the overwhelming presence that exceeded the bounds of perception, Do-heon's face went briefly white. Then--
"Hey, over there."
"Y-yes?"
"Isn't that the Inspector?"
"Inspector... police? The cop?"
"Yeah, the bird's flying that way right now."
The owl was fluttering toward the deepest recess of the ruined Central Control Room, a dark corner lit only by the blue glow of monitors.
"Wh-when did it fly off?"
"While you were zoning out, you punk. Snap out of it. You're not supposed to stare at stuff like that."
"Fuck, am I supposed to look or not...."
But soon a man entered Do-heon's field of vision as well.
> Amid the tangled cables and blinking panel lights, a man stands stock-still in a fluorescent vest and traffic police uniform.
> You have found 'The Hanged Man,' Hyeon Si-gyeong!
"'The Hanged Man'?"
"Oh, it tells you that too?"
"What is this even...?"
"Aight, explanations later."
Seung-jae approached the man staring blankly upward.
"Well well, our Inspector friend! What've you been doing here~ You scared the hell out of me."
He clapped the man's shoulder cheerfully, but--
"...His eyes are unfocused? Is he actually okay?"
"Goodness? What's wrong with this one?"
"There's really no response...."
Do-heon approached warily, gun lowered.
> A [silver whistle] is clamped tightly in the man's mouth.
> Peeee-... pip... peeeee-...
> With each breath the man takes, a mechanical metallic sound leaks from the whistle in his mouth. It seems forced out by involuntary breathing.
Eerie, was one way to put it.
"Didn't you just say something about contamination? Isn't this that? If he's this unresponsive after all that jostling, hasn't he just completely lost it?"
"He hasn't."
"How do you know?"
"He's always like this."
At that, Do-heon examined Hyeon Si-gyeong's rigid face with a dubious expression.
> A face as expressionless as a machine. Emotionlessly lowered brows and eyes that are unsettling.
> Looking closely into the man's eyes: his Sanpaku eyes are wide open, but the pupils are unfocused, staring into empty space.
> These are not the eyes of someone gripped by terror or driven mad.
In that instant, Do-heon swallowed an empty breath.
> He is not looking at this narrow room.
The space that had felt endlessly vast to Do-heon was endlessly cramped within this man's field of vision.
> His gaze is fixed on the cosmic structure of this vast construct--the enormous web of causality that defies human cognitive capacity, the innumerable things there are to see--and he is performing infinite calculations.
His consciousness was converting this overwhelming structure into numbers, running calculations complex enough to melt a brain.
"......"
"That's enough looking."
"Hkh."
Seung-jae calmly covered his nephew's eyes, then stroked his own chin.
"Didn't expect you could share an Arcana member's field of vision. Doesn't look like you saw everything, but last time I checked, it wasn't this intense."
"You mean a year later that I can't even remember?"
"From your perspective, it must sound like a story from the future. Anyway, back then you couldn't see this much. Must be getting a boost from this place's system?"
"That... might be it...."
An inaccessible macroscopic perspective. The instant he'd intuitively locked eyes with that strange, vast gaze, Do-heon felt nausea surging.
"My head feels like it's going to explode."
"Contamination? Or because you peeked?"
"The latter, I think."
Onto his throbbing head, the owl fluttered down from a surveillance camera. Whether it was his imagination or not, it felt as cool as placing an ice pack.
"Looks like too much data flooded in and you buffered out, like a computer lagging."
"This is why having a detection-type Artist on the team is nice--you catch on fast."
"I don't know what that means, but it's a miracle my brain didn't explode."
"You can do stuff like that as naturally as breathing. It's not something just anyone can pull off."
In short, his awareness had been hijacked by observing the entire space, temporarily logging his conscious mind out of reality. Seung-jae shrugged.
"So he's not crazy, but communication is out of the question right now. Shame--I was hoping to hear what he'd figured out while moving separately."
"Whatever the reason, he can't do anything right now. It's past midnight, so that 'dangerous guest' the General Manager warned about could pop up any second. We can't stay here...."
"Right, right. We've secured our sack of rice, so let's bounce to the lobby or wherever."
The two had just turned to leave with Hyeon Si-gyeong when--
"Run."
"...What?"
The owl whispered in a gentle voice, then bristled every feather and shrieked piercingly. Into the Central Control Room, where only the acrid stench of overheated machinery had lingered, an alien scent crept in.
Alluring, yet ominous, yet tinged with iron.
"...Poppy fragrance...."
The dangerous guest was coming.
***
At the same moment, the General Manager stroked his chin.
"Should I step in?"
"No?"
"Then let's watch."
Appearing too often wore out the image, after all.