Leave the Company Before Midnight

I read the dismissal notice from top to bottom.

……I really shouldn't do that again.

Watching someone vanish inside the labyrinth was, as ever, something I hated to see. No matter how few words we'd exchanged.

If they had to die, I'd rather they die right in front of me — as a corpse I could burn.

Click.

I stepped back into the server room. I'd already opened and cleared the General Affairs office, which meant it was time to head upstairs.

"Ugh…."

The moment I entered the deepest part of the server room, black cables plunged once more into my back, where the punctures hadn't even finished healing.

The instant I thought, I should pick Floor 4 —

Bzzt. Crack-crackle.

"Ah."

Compared to the way my brother had killed me, the current flooding through my body was, frankly, little more than a tickle.

Just like that, every option but one dissolved — and above it, a new message window bloomed.

Ah, damn it all.

So I'd only been allowed to choose exactly one of those options. Which meant Unlock had been the wrong choice.

……This loop was as good as spent.

I was trapped on the 12th floor, plain and simple. Unable to go up or down.

"……."

Swish. Tap. Rrrrip. Thud. There. Flutter.

This time, with leisure to spare, I turned the entire Corporate Support office completely inside out. From behind the dust-caked cabinets to the locked drawers, the overflowing wastebaskets, the copier's paper trays, even the guts of the ceiling-mounted air conditioner — every last corner of it.

On the off chance there was some other clue that might get me off the 12th floor.

"Hah…."

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I even gathered up the shredded scraps from the paper shredder and pieced them back together, and still — nothing.

All I got was a heaping pile of useless information that couldn't have mattered less for escaping. And the time, which slipped away obscenely fast.

Typical labyrinth, I thought. You come to a fork, you pick a road, and you walk it. And by the time you realize your choice was wrong, every other road has already collapsed behind you.

That's why so many people die in labyrinths. There may be more than one way out, but the ways that lead nowhere are always more numerous — and you can never know whether you've picked the right road. Not until you reach its end.

Creak. Tap.

I slumped into whatever chair was closest and tapped at my phone screen to check the time.

Normally, this would be about the time I'd be in the arcade playing Garden of Psyche, while the others took turns rattling off answers for True Stories.

"……."

The moment I stopped moving, a skin-crawling silence settled over my ears. It was very quiet. Nothing here. No one here. Nothing but me. No one but me. In this place.

Rustle.

"Mmm…."

When I opened my eyes, the office that had been merely dim before was now in complete darkness. I had no idea when I'd fallen asleep.

……When was the last time I actually slept? How long had I been awake?

No. No, that doesn't matter. None of that matters.

I shook my head hard to snap myself awake.

It was the dead of night, so it stood to reason that no light leaked in through the windows.

And with that, my record for longest survival was officially broken. It had been around nine thirty, I think, back when I was drowning in the machine room.

Thud.

"…Hm?"

As I rose from the chair and worked the stiffness out of my neck, something like a pale gray powder drifted down from my hair. For one disorienting second, I thought I'd slept not for five hours but for five days.

Crrrack. Craaaash—!

Ah. Honestly, I'd almost have preferred if that were true.

I lifted my head slowly.

……Whatever that was, it could no longer be called cracking. Compared to that ceiling, a family plot that had split apart without a drop of rain would have looked silky-smooth.

Krrrmmm….

And it wasn't just the ceiling. Naturally, the floor too.

Crrrumble….

Bracing myself to die, I stepped out into the corridor and fled — and the corridor was worse. It was the kind of sight where one wrong breath seemed like it would bring the whole thing down on your head, so precarious that the real miracle was that it hadn't already collapsed.

"Ha."

Which meant this building had already finished preparing for its own collapse. It was simply waiting for the smallest flare to go up.

……No way.

I turned my eyes back to the numbers on the screen. I'd once asked the master of the Jaerae Building something.

'By the way, how long does this building stay open? Is there a set time when it closes completely?'

I'd wondered whether this labyrinth had a time limit.

'It's open twenty-four hours. Even if there were a limit, I'd say we're safe until midnight.'

That was the guess ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Yu Hyeonjae had offered at the time.

He really does get even the most useless things right.

……Damn it all.

I had to find the 1st-floor exit and escape before midnight.

I confirmed through the elevator panel that Choi Jaeha had gotten off ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠on the 9th floor, then turned right around.

At the stroke of midnight, this labyrinth collapses under its own weight and buries everything inside it. From 3:29 PM, when the loop begins, to 12:00, when the building falls.

Roughly eight hours and thirty minutes.

That's the time I've been given.

"……."

Labyrinths never pose problems that cannot be solved.

……Not for me to survive on my own, though.

Whoosh.

I spread my diary open and retraced what I knew of this labyrinth's floor-by-floor structure. I barely knew the layout of the upper floors, and I had no idea where the 1st floor even was — but depending on how things went…

Half the people trapped in this labyrinth might die.

Irretrievably. Forever. No matter how hard they struggled.

'You're not planning to try any harder, are you? Even if people die, you won't save them?'

……Choi Jaeha is like a broken clock — every now and then, he reads people dead right.

I don't want to save them at the cost of my own life. I don't believe their lives outweigh mine. The day will never come when their unopenable graves weigh on me with sorrow.

And yet.

And yet…

I know all too well that those days without sorrow will go on tormenting me, without end.

Tap.

Bzzt.

Ah. It works.

What a relief.

I would definitely have to thank him for this. The true labyrinth would never permit such a cheap trick.

"Hold on just a moment, Ms. Kim Heesook. Let's go in together."

Kim Heesook had tried to hold me back at the server room threshold.

"It's all right. It'll work out somehow. And I'd rather not send a woman my mother's age in there alone."

She fell silent for a moment, wearing the complicated expression of someone with far too much left to say, and then gave a small nod.

"Aigoo, all right then. Honestly, I didn't much like going in alone either."

And yet she'd strolled in alone every single time before. Which was also exactly why she'd died every single time.

We made our way to the deepest part of the server room, to the server monitor standing firm in the middle of a shattered cabinet.

Download? Export?

Options that had never existed before had been added. Had mine and Kim Heesook's choices been merged somehow? Either way, they'd surely be the options that got her killed.

"Agh! Aaagh…! What — what is this…?"

At that moment, Kim Heesook and I each had a cable inserted into our backs in friendly tandem.

"Ms. Kim Heesook, bear with it just a moment and stay still. Moving will only make it hurt more."

While she reeled beside me, I seized my chance and pictured what I wanted in my mind. The server received my signal and brought up a new ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠window on the monitor.

"Hnngh…? The screen. Seon Yuhan, what did you, just… do…?"

Her face, lit by the monitor's glow, had gone deathly pale.

"We're going to the 4th floor."

It was time to leave this place. He wasn't speaking to me anymore, after all.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠