Replaced world
Replaced world
The existence of a perfectly functioning elevator in a building filled with nothing but darkness is incredibly alien.
I could tell it was a trap at a glance, but... what other choice did we have? The only option given to us was to shove ourselves right into the tiger's maw.
We checked our surroundings and even finished a safety test just in case before boarding the elevator.
Ji-ing. The elevator closed and vibrated.
While feeling the sensation of floating as we slowly ascended, Yoo In-ha spoke up.
"...Y-yeah, it's like those urban legends that used to be popular back in the day..."
"Urban legends? Which ones?"
"The ones about how to get to another dimension..."
Ah, I know that urban legend.
It was the legend that if you performed certain actions while riding an elevator, you could go to another dimension.
Owl Bear Elder asked, perhaps not knowing about this urban legend.
"What exactly is this 'other dimension' you speak of?"
"Hmm, it'd be faster to explain it as a place where no one exists. It's the same as the real world, but a place where there are no people."
"Hmph, well now..."
Although Owl Bear Elder trailed off, I could feel that he found it very ironic.
Our situation was somewhat similar, after all.
Our path ahead was littered with beings that mimicked humans but were not human.
I suddenly looked into the mirror.
A mirror that created an infinite space. And my reflection within it.
I suddenly had the illusion that I had made eye contact with someone within that infinite 'me'.
...I guess that just means I'm that nervous.
'That aside, why is this damn elevator so sluggish?'
It's taking forever just to move up a single floor.
Then again, I couldn't exactly expect normal speed...
Ding-.
The elevator arrived at the 2nd floor.
"Combat readiness. Prepare for an ambush."
The heavy door opened, and the scenery of the 2nd floor was revealed before our eyes.
I instinctively gripped the Glock at my waist and scanned the outside.
'...There's nothing here?'
To be precise, there were no beings trying to ambush us.
We had truly entered the 2nd floor without any interference.
In this case, isn't it more like... we were invited?
We swallowed that doubt and looked around.
Recalling the horrific chaos and thick darkness of the 1st floor, I was bracing myself for whatever bizarre scenery would unfold this time.
The scenery that came into view was not much different from the 1st floor; no, it was a gruesome scene of chaos where the smell of blood was even thicker.
Most of the ceiling lights were smashed, and the only thing dispelling the thick darkness was the Halo above my head.
Where the light touched, I saw a wide, U-shaped desk that had half-collapsed.
On the wall behind the desk, a blood-splattered acrylic sign was split in half and hanging precariously.
[Precision Examination · Gynecology Specialty Center]
On both sides of it, call monitors for waiting patients were scattered, broken to the point where their original shapes were unrecognizable.
"This is the Gynecology Outpatient Extension Floor. It's a place where sensitive procedures like transvaginal ultrasounds, hysteroscopies, or simple curettage were intensively performed."
Captain Kim whispered lowly, sharply observing the destroyed surroundings.
"In this place, separating patient traffic and protecting privacy were the top priorities in the architectural design. That's why the patient waiting lounge and central station were placed widely on the outside, while the inner hallway where the actual Internal Examination Rooms and Recovery Rooms are located is thoroughly blocked off by soundproof walls and double partitions. The entrance flow is designed to be angled so that the inner treatment area cannot be seen at all from the outside."
"You know quite a lot about this."
"...It wasn't exactly a place I had no connection to."
However, there was nothing incorrect about Captain Kim's words.
But what truly caught our attention was not this miserably smashed interior.
"...The smell is strange."
Min Ah-ji covered her nose and took a step back.
"The smell of disinfectant and... the stench of rotting blood are mixed together, but that's not the problem. Look over there, look at that..."
The place Min Ah-ji pointed to. Inside the U-shaped desk of the half-collapsed central nursing station.
Something wearing a nurse's uniform was standing there.
Ta-dak, ta-da-dak.
On the broken desk, in front of a shattered monitor that didn't even have power.
A Mimic Beast wearing a nurse's uniform was busily tapping away at keyboard fragments with fingers that had been stripped of flesh until the bones were fully exposed.
Then again, there's no way all their skin would be intact.
This is a place where soldiers must have already come and gone several times.
Unlike those monsters with immortal bodies, the fragile human skin had long since been torn away.
But what was even more bizarre than that was...
"Record... check... Reception..."
A bizarre, wheezing voice leaked out from between its torn lips.
That wasn't all. Over a dozen Mimic Beasts were sitting on the sofas in the waiting lounge, which were tattered and soaked in blood and bodily fluids.
One was wearing a woman's skin, stroking its own belly while staring into the void with empty eyes, and another was pretending to flip through a magazine that was so soaked in blood its form was unrecognizable.
There were also some chatting with other monsters nearby in incomprehensible, squeaking noises.
"The Mimic Beasts... are mimicking their behavior from when they were alive, as if this hospital is functioning normally."
Deep shock was embedded in Captain Kim's voice.
That bizarre scenery induced much greater goosebumps than if they had just fiercely rushed and attacked us.
In the ruins where everything was plastered with blood and flesh, they were going beyond simply wearing human shells; they were mocking the actions that the owners of those skins had performed here.
I rubbed my dry face for no reason.
Those damn things... they've gone beyond mocking the dead and are now trying to replace them.
I felt a terrible malice from that.
A terrible premonition that these things appeared to replace humanity.
Even if those things finally hid among humanity and conquered it completely...
'Humanity would look like it's being maintained. On the surface.'
Because they would mimic the behaviors of the living.
Even though immortal monsters that crave human skin are hiding inside those shells.
To prevent such a state, we had to stay even more alert.
"...Engage. Throw grenades."
Since we ambushed them first, their response was bound to be sluggish.
No matter how immortal a monster is, it gets neutralized if you pump a few bullets into it.
By launching a surprise attack with the grenades we had packed plenty of, they had no time to cope.
"...Clear. Let's move."
Holding back the cold sweat running down my spine, we entered the hallway beyond the broken soundproof wall.
On both sides of the hallway, doors to treatment rooms and examination rooms, with their doors ripped off or stained with blood, were lined up.
Owl Bear Elder carefully pushed open the half-broken door of the first room.
[Internal Examination Room 1]
I had to suppress a gag reflex at the sight seen through the crack in the door.
On the OB/GYN-specific examination table, which was stained red and turned into a bloody mess, a Mimic Beast in the form of a lump of meat with its lower body crushed was lying with its legs spread.
Of course, that wasn't all.
Another Mimic Beast wearing a blood-stained doctor's gown was holding a transvaginal ultrasound device with its wires cut.
We pushed a few grenades inside.
That alone was enough to deal with it.
"...We will check the inner rooms as well. We need to find if there's a gap to go up to the floor above."
We passed by Internal Examination Rooms 4 through 6 in turn. Beyond the smashed partitions, bizarre imitation acts were taking place in every room.
The next place that appeared was the [Hysteroscopy · Colposcopy Room].
Magnification observation equipment and biopsy equipment were lying on the floor, smashed and caked in blood. In those ruins, a Mimic Beast wearing a nurse's gown was repeating the act of handing a scalpel to thin air.
We pushed a few grenades inside.
After that, we didn't find any special circumstances inside.
The next was the [Minor Surgery Room].
A room where curettage or simple tumor excisions were performed, equipped with local anesthesia equipment.
On the operating table where rotten blood had pooled, remains of someone whose form was unrecognizable were lying, and a Mimic Beast holding a rusted scalpel was slicing through those remains, performing their own surgery.
Our response was the same as before.
"This side is the [Recovery Room]."
Yoo In-ha pointed to the gap in the open door, carefully pushing with her tail.
A recovery room with three or four reclining beds that were half-broken with springs popping out.
There, Mimic Beasts with their skin half-peeled off were lying as if dead, with the ends of monitoring equipment with torn wires wrapped tightly around their bodies.
The machines had been smashed long ago, but they were mimicking peaceful expressions and making wheezing breathing sounds.
We, likewise, pushed a few grenades inside.
"This is the last room."
Captain Kim pushed the half-torn [Consultation Room] door at the very end of the hallway while holding his pistol.
The most sensitive space for conversation, where biopsy results are explained or pre-operative guidance is provided.
There, two Mimic Beasts were sitting facing each other across a desk that had been split in two.
The one wearing a doctor's gown was pointing at a blank sheet of paper soaked in blood, unable to be recognized, and opening and closing its mouth...
And the patient was listening to those words that didn't even form a language with a terrible, expressionless face.
And Captain Kim's face, having seen that entire scene, twisted severely. It was a face I was seeing for the first time.
"...You sons of bitches, how dare you..."
But even while saying that, Captain Kim couldn't bring himself to easily throw the grenade he held in his hand.