Escape Plan
After tying him up with rope and stripping off the heat-resistant suit that covered his head, a man with an utterly ordinary face—no distinctive features whatsoever—came into view.
Arin yanked the earphones from his ears and, without waiting for him to wake, slapped his cheek.
While he shook his head and mumbled incoherently, she dragged over a chair that looked relatively intact and sat down.
"Wh-what the hell?"
"Feeling a bit more with it now?"
Arin snapped her fingers in front of his face to gauge his reaction.
Once she decided he was somewhat coherent, she asked,
"So, who exactly are you…?"
"I have nothing to say to a heretic bitch!"
"Come on, let's talk calmly…."
"Oh~ Our Star, have mercy on this foolish heretic who has captured me…!"
Arin scratched her head, eyeing the man pitifully as he screamed prayers to block out her words.
She stood from the chair and picked up the steel pipe.
"Mister, I glimpsed you guys fiddling with machines. You know anything about hacking?"
"Grant me the courage to step forward…!"
"I heard there's a hacking method called the rubber hose cryptanalysis."
"To move forward… what?"
People always crave the simplest, most effective solutions.
And rubber hose cryptanalysis was one such brutally efficient, straightforward technique—one that required only cheap metal and a person to extract information.
It was so simple and easy that Arin could employ it right now.
"Guhhh!"
Not sure if it was working, but after a few tries, Arin gained a confidence that rivaled any expert's.
She didn't stop.
One hand clamped over the man's mouth, the other swung the steel pipe down onto his knee.
When his screams faded—pain surpassing his brain's tolerance—she asked,
"Ready to talk?"
"You fucking bitch… mmph!"
"Got it."
The steel pipe sliced through the air repeatedly.
The man glared at Arin, who wasn't even pretending to ask questions.
Eventually, despair and pleas filled his eyes.
His screams turned to groans and sobs.
Seeing that, any creeping guilt Arin felt vanished as she remembered these were the lunatics who burned people alive.
She tilted her head, composing her expression, and asked the snot- and tear-streaked man once more,
"Talk."
"Wh-what… do you want to know…?"
"What's your goal here?"
"W-we're just researchers! Investigating anomalies…."
"Mister, ever heard of that famous theory?"
Arin sighed deeply, muttering about a well-known theory as she opened her bag.
She pulled out every bottle of distilled water she'd relied on so heavily and placed them slowly before him, one by one.
"Water… always knows the answers, right? I like that theory."
"We're believers of the Star God. We came to turn this place into a holy site."
"Ah?"
Arin circled her hand, urging him to continue.
He swallowed hard and spilled everything.
This land was ideal for a holy site, but already claimed by other heretics.
Turning it into one would invite problems from minor deities.
To secure it definitively, they'd contacted the Pastor of the Church.
"But he refused."
"Yeah! That idiot heretic couldn't grasp the greater cause!"
"If you needed the land, why twist it into this mess?"
"We needed ownership. Since we couldn't claim the present, we summoned the past."
He explained that in this warped past, the current owner—the Pastor—would naturally vanish.
But something unexpected happened.
"We caught the Pastor as a medium, but even burned like that, he kept his sanity. It left ownership ambiguous—half ours—which bound us here."
"So that's how it went down? Then how do we escape safely?"
"I really don't kn—"
Arin smashed the steel pipe into the back of his head, knocking him out.
She wedged a wooden block into his mouth, secured with rope, and slipped outside quietly.
"Don't know, my ass. You said yourself he's weak to fire."
She'd wanted to ask how to destroy the place entirely, but this low-level goon might truly not know, so she'd skipped it.
Outside, she retrieved the flamethrower she'd stashed and headed to the warehouse room.
More time had passed than expected.
By the time Arin returned, several people were awake—including Gaeun and Seoyeong.
As Arin opened the door, Seoyeong—who'd been fidgeting and shaking her legs—rushed over and grabbed her.
Seoyeong had noticed Arin leave in her sleep but brushed it off subconsciously; now she hugged tight, her trembling voice thick with relief that Arin was safe.
Arin melted into Seoyeong's warm embrace, her heart pounding wildly, terrified her feelings might show, so she just clung there.
"Anyway, that's why this happened."
Moments later, Arin gathered everyone's attention and relayed every detail she'd learned.
Despite how unbelievable it sounded from a schoolgirl, no one doubted or questioned it.
The flamethrower—taken from the suited cultist—provided irrefutable proof.
"If the kid's right, anything that makes fire should let us pass safely?"
"The ash figures should be fine to bypass. But the real problem is those Star-worshipping cult lunatics."
Unknown numbers of suited believers roamed inside.
And flamethrowers—threatening even in small numbers—how many did they have?
From the Pastor's words, they already knew survivors hid in this warehouse.
This side was undeniably disadvantaged.
"Th-they're wearing heat suits, so they're sluggish, right? If we run, they won't catch us!"
"We don't know how far we need to run, and there are elders here."
"What if we fight back? Shoot fire to scare 'em off, block swings…!"
"You think this is a movie? Block what?!"
As people tossed out ideas, Arin pondered the safest exit.
She glanced between the flamethrower and her hand, then spoke.
"They're stationed one floor down, and the lobby overlooks from above."
"So…?"
"Everyone head to the lobby and hide on the second floor. When they've gathered, I'll lure them one way. You all dash to the entrance with the flamethrower up front. Gaeun knows the way…."
"Fuck, are you insane?"
"Arin, what are you saying? Absolutely not!"
Predictably, Arin volunteering as bait—adult man inside a schoolgirl's body—sparked backlash.
Gaeun and Seoyeong, the closest to her, opposed fiercest.
Lacking courage to reveal her true state here, Arin added other reasons.
"I've roamed enough to know the paths a bit. They know too, but with comms limited, they can't block or herd intelligently."
"That doesn't make it safe! And you don't have to—I'm the adult here, let me…!"
"Seoyeong auntie doesn't know the way. Even if I explain, there are limits. Same for others."
Arin held back Seoyeong, who insisted she could remember, and hugged her first this time.
"And Seoyeong auntie, you need to go with Gaeun. I told her already—if I can't leave, no one's looking for me anyway."
"No one's looking? Me… me and Gaeun, we'll…."
"No one else can do it. Everyone here has family waiting. And… this isn't suicide. I only said it because I'm confident we can pull it off."
With majority consent, they gathered in the lobby without delay, holding breath on the second floor to watch.
After Arin's final words—that this wasn't her first anomaly—she rolled her shoulders.
Seoyeong grabbed her, pleading otherwise, but muttered it wasn't right in a quiet voice, tears welling from self-resentment at lacking alternatives.
Arin taught Gaeun flamethrower operation, then headed opposite their path.
She knocked out the stashed cultist again and pulled out the heat-suit hood.
Soon, believers filed in from one passage.
The lone lobby guard rushed to them in panic.
Sensing the moment, Arin crouched, descended stairs silently, back to an empty passage, and hurled the hood with all her might.
"Looking for this? You cult scum!"
The believers panicked at the hood by their feet, milling about—but no pursuit.
Arin scowled, then smirked and yelled,
"How pathetic is your 'Star' if its followers lose to a kid?! Seeing who believes this crap—clearly no god, not even a minor spirit… ow!"
Her blasphemy hit harder than expected.
All charged, firing flamethrowers.
Arin bolted into the shadowed passage behind her.
Over their shoulders, she saw survivors—Gaeun and Seoyeong included—descending, and nodded.
'Can't sleep without glow stars on the ceiling? I'd be ashamed if I were their god!'
As Arin dashed into the dark passage, luring the suited horde, the second-floor group moved—Gaeun leading with the flamethrower.
Mid-descent, they spotted the Pastor bound to the pillar and froze in shock.
The Pastor's raspy cry forced their heavy steps onward.
They left him praying hoarsely behind and pushed for the exit.
Others supported unsteady elders, shoving when needed.
In blinding darkness, survivors relied on flickering embers and the shoulder ahead, never halting.
"We have to go back for Arin—now…."
Seoyeong glanced back anxiously.
Gaeun, at the front, reached back, gripped her hand, pulled her close, and said,
"You know we can't now."
"How can you…!"
"She volunteered, and we couldn't stop her. Arin… believes we'll make it and stayed behind. Turning back now… would make her faith worthless."
Gaeun tried for calm, but her voice shook.
She forced steadiness and continued,
"What we can do… is escape fast, get help. When Arin makes it out, we'll… tell her she was an idiot… and both scold her."