Chapter 44
Chapter 44
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 44
Chapter Title: Fooling the Guide Machines
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A dark, oppressively bronze-hued mansion.
I followed Supervisor Park Minseong, walking silently in his wake. The supervisor, who had just accomplished the absolute madman feat of disguising himself as an usher machine to fool the system and rescue a doomed new hire, evaluated the situation in his own uniquely detached way.
"It's not like their AI processing is particularly advanced. Maybe about the intelligence level of a high-end robot vacuum cleaner? So I figured I could trick its visual sensors for a moment by just mimicking its general appearance!"
I wasn't entirely convinced the machine's intelligence was that rudimentary, but the timing had worked out flawlessly, and he had saved my life. For that, I was eternally grateful, tears practically welling up in my eyes.
"Um, but how exactly did you disguise yourself as one of them...?"
"Ah! My specialized equipment."
Supervisor Park grinned widely and pointed to a nondescript strip of cloth draped casually around his neck.
Ah!
I immediately recalled his earlier explanation regarding his personal loadout.
Until now, I had only heard about these kinds of esoteric utility items in ghost stories where they inevitably failed or proved entirely meaningless, so I had taken the explanation at face value. But now I was seeing the genuine article in action.
'Under the right, highly specific circumstances, it's actually an incredibly decent piece of gear, isn't it??'
I was heavily tempted to requisition a new piece of custom gear and borrow his parents' equipment to use as the base raw material.
Of course, theory-crafting loadouts wasn't the urgent priority right now!
"Alright. Phew. Now that we've secured Deer too, let's get the hell out of this insane place."
"Have you located a viable escape route, sir?"
"......"
Supervisor Park Minseong didn't answer directly. He just smiled faintly.
'He must have some kind of hidden trump card he's relying on.'
For now, I decided the safest play was to trust him and follow quickly.
"This way."
We climbed the grand staircase from basement level 1 back up to the main floor.
Before long, the surrounding architecture shifted, the oppressive bronze yielding to a massive hallway bathed in gleaming, golden brass tones.
'We're back above ground.'
That realization alone should have brought some relief, but...
The first floor had descended into absolute chaos.
Aaaahhh!
Mmph!!! Mmmphh!
Eaaars... My ears!
Agonized screams echoed from every conceivable direction.
'Two hours have passed.'
Even the employees who had successfully been hiding were now being systematically hunted down by the usher machines, getting caught one by one and having more body parts violently torn off...
Just as I nearly had earlier.
"......"
Supervisor Park didn't even cast a cursory glance toward the corners where the horrific sounds were originating. He simply kept walking with measured steps.
"Deer, don't look back."
"......"
My hands were clenched so tightly that the veins were bulging violently against my skin.
"I know it's hard to hear, but right now, securing our own squad's survival comes first. If we're going to keep farming points in this hellscape... you have to learn when to let go."
"......"
Suddenly, I recalled the moment during the talk show recording when the supervisor had calmly resigned himself to not surviving.
For some reason, I felt like I finally understood how this seemingly cheerful, good-natured foreman had managed to endure the psychological meat grinder of this place...
At any rate, I didn't argue.
Before long, after cautiously scouting the area, Supervisor Park arrived at his designated destination safely.
And that destination was...
"Here."
"......"
A window.
It was the exact same tightly sealed, opaque glass window that Go Yeongeun had desperately tried to pry open earlier, only to fail miserably.
'Don't tell me he actually plans to go out through here?'
But instead of grabbing the frame and prying at the glass with all his might, the supervisor simply raised a single finger and knocked softly on the pane.
Knock, knock.
With a soft click, the window suddenly slid open.
"...?!"
No, it wasn't just opening outward.
The entire pane slid smoothly downward, retracting all the way into the floor, revealing itself to be...
'A terrace door!'
This wasn't a window at all!
'No wonder the exploration records were phrased like that...'
I had dismissed it as typical, convoluted ghost story manual phrasing, but it was entirely literal. There really were no windows.
"Let's go."
"Yes, sir."
There was no time to stand around being shocked, so without hesitation, we stepped through the open terrace door. Beyond it lay a small, hexagonal terrace space furnished with a long sofa and a low table.
But bizarrely, the view beyond the terrace railings was completely obscured by a wall of dense, suffocating black fog...
It was as if our visibility was being intentionally denied by the architecture itself.
Thud.
The moment Supervisor Park warily closed the terrace door, someone seated quietly on the sofa rose and tapped my shoulder.
"I knew you'd make it out."
"Deputy Manager."
It was Deputy Manager Eun Ha-je.
And right beside her, the cold, vertical slit pupils of Squad Leader Lizard met my eyes calmly.
"Our squad leader suggested we expand the search radius since you weren't on this floor, and boom, you pop right up from the basement."
"Thank you very much."
"Did you purposely head down into that eerie basement level to scout an exit? That's very like you."
I glanced at Supervisor Park with a newfound sense of profound appreciation.
In a tactical situation with zero concrete intelligence on the floor layouts, voluntarily descending into basement level 1—where the oppressive atmosphere shifted so violently—must have taken an incredible amount of resolve.
'Thank you... truly.'
Thanks to him, I still had both of my eyeballs intact in my skull.
But setting that aside for a moment...
"How on earth did you manage to open this? Another employee tried over and over to pry it open as a window earlier and failed completely..."
"? I just used my hands."
"......"
I see.
'If the body suffers, the mind suffers even more... right...'
Looking closer, the terrace door handle did seem a bit violently bent out of shape.
If the usher machines had caught them doing that, wouldn't it have been a truly horrific disaster?
But the D Squad superiors seemed entirely accustomed to Squad Leader Lizard carving out his own brute-force paths in situations like this, as they calmly shifted gear into an operational briefing.
"Alright, well then, now that our squad's back together... should we attempt an escape, Squad Leader?"
"Yes."
"...Do you have a viable, promising escape plan?"
"Yes."
"......Could you share what that method is?"
Squad Leader Lizard answered succinctly, his tone completely flat.
"We are going to tie a rope to the terrace railing and physically explore the outer walls of this exhibition space."
"......"
Pardon?
"From the outside, there has to be a structural floor containing the main entrance. We just need to head there."
That's... certainly an idea.
"I see."
If this cursed mansion didn't plunge down into seven thousand subterranean levels, it might have sounded tempting.
And if I didn't already have an infinitely easier, safer escape item currently gestating in my briefcase, it might have been worth considering.
'This should do it.'
Thinking about the anomalous candle, which should be solidifying nicely by now, I raised my hand.
"Please wait a moment."
If I showed them the physical artifact and explained its mechanics, I might be able to convince them.
I just needed to stall a bit more time until the curing process was finished.
And perhaps rescue some expendable lives while I was at it.
"I was with two fellow new hires earlier, but we got separated. They should still be hiding nearby. If you could give me a moment, I'll go and secure them..."
"......"
"......"
Ah.
"Deer."
Deputy Manager Eun spoke bluntly, her voice devoid of warmth.
"There were exactly three new hires assigned to this mission. Including you."
"......"
"Management claimed they picked a few high-performing rookies and dropped them in here to test them... But they know the truth, and so do we. They just needed to fill the physical body count. They were extras."
"Senior—"
"Quiet."
The deputy silenced the foreman with a sharp look and continued.
"You saw them at lunch earlier, right? The corporate higher-ups in the meeting room. Those birdbrains are practically salivating, hoping this anomaly might be an A-Grade zone."
The memory came back to me.
"They got all thrilled, talking about how it might become the most survivor-friendly A-Grade resource extraction site in corporate history. A-Grade dream essence pure extract is always completely out of stock, after all."
"......"
"The new hires? From the moment the paperwork was signed, they were budgeted as expendable company expenses, operating under the assumption they would all die."
They bypassed standard protocol and pulled the A-Grade manual solely to crack open a top-tier raw material source that was running dry. It was just more profitable.
It was true that Field Exploration Team members grew exponentially more valuable with field experience and survival time, but at the end of the day, consumables were still consumables.
They were entirely disposable when weighed against more precious resources.
"Remember this: the further up the corporate ladder you go, the more those desk jockeys treat human lives like flies."
Deputy Manager Eun sighed heavily and tucked her unlit cigarette back into its case.
"So, focus on saving your own life."
"......"
"We don't have time, so let's move out. If you start getting sentimental now, it'll only make things harder for you."
I barely managed to force my mouth open.
"That's not it."
"Ah, such a kind soul. Fine, if we're incredibly lucky, maybe they'll manage to crawl out too—"
"One of my fellow rookies is currently holding the escape item!"
"...?!"
Of course, it was an absolute lie.
"We don't even know what's waiting for us in that fog outside. There's no need to recklessly rappel down a rope."
But this much was a solid, undeniable fact!
"With that item, we can escape this place safely."
I was back underground in basement level 1.
Walking alone through these halls made my legs tremble violently, but the absolute clarity of my goal seemed to dull the suffocating fear.
Find my fellow new recruits.
My desperate lie about the rookies holding a universe-shocking, world-amazing escape item had more or less worked.
The time window they had granted me was incredibly short, but... manageable.
'They couldn't have gone far.'
When thrown into deep psychological shock, people lose their mobility. They were probably hiding nearby right now, curled up in a ball, trying to collect their shattered nerves.
Besides, I had given them a highly specific tactical hint earlier.
Where to hide.
'The air vents.'
At the 7-minute mark of my frantic search.
I finally found a colleague crammed into the outer corridor vent on basement level 1.
But it was Baek Saheon.
"......"
"......"
"Hey."
Baek Saheon aggressively avoided my gaze.
"Do you want to get out of here?"
Baek Saheon looked at me with extreme, undisguised suspicion, but slowly nodded his head.
"Then tell me exactly where Goat is."
Uh, somehow phrasing it like that felt oddly like threatening a POW to rat out their comrade's location...
"She went into the left exhibition hall. She's probably hiding behind a sofa or something!"
"......"
Without a microsecond of hesitation, he gave up her exact location. What an utterly spineless guy. Absolutely zero loyalty.
In any case, I soon managed to locate Go Yeongeun as well.
14 minutes had elapsed so far.
"D-Deer...! Thank goodness, truly...!"
I briefly explained the situation to the teary-eyed Go Yeongeun, emphasizing that a squad of superiors had come to extract us, and urged her to keep moving.
And I gave her a highly specific instruction.
"...!"
I handed Go Yeongeun the slip of paper from my briefcase with the candle mold outline drawn on it.
Go Yeongeun carefully slipped it into the front breast pocket of her suit and gave a sharp nod.
"So I just keep my mouth shut and play along with whatever you say?"
Yes!
Baek Saheon, who had been effectively ignored during this entire exchange, looked like he had a lot to say, but he wisely kept his mouth shut.
He must have realized that our escape was finally at hand.
When we reached the terrace door and stepped outside together with the two rookies, exactly 19 minutes had passed.
We had wrapped it up within the 20-minute window. Whew.
"I found them."
"Wow."
"I honestly had a feeling Deer would pull it off."
Assistant Manager Eun and Supervisor Park threw in their dry remarks as the two rookies nervously picked up on the atmosphere. No one would exactly call it a warm, welcoming reception.
Meanwhile, Squad Leader Lizard was already methodically uncoiling the heavy rope on the terrace.
"Ah, um..."
"Skip the introductions."
Manager Lee Jaheon spoke in a flat, deadpan tone as he tied a highly secure tactical knot around a structural pillar.
"Explain the item you are holding within 200 seconds."
The two rookies gulped audibly in perfect unison.
I immediately stepped in.
"May I explain on their behalf?"
"Go ahead."
Now was the time to make a proper, compelling case.
If the mechanics functioned according to the keywords I had combined, this candle...
"This item can actively deceive the usher machines' sensory networks."
Manager Lee Jaheon stopped what he was doing.