13
Chapter 13
3. Second Floor Barracks Hallway / Night
A hallway crowded with people pouring out. They walk almost at a run, faces filled with excitement. Their steps are light, anticipation for the performance building.
Lab Employee 1: I can't believe we get to see Leonardo da Seoul perform!
Lab Employee 2: I never thought I'd be this lucky in my life! I need to get downstairs and grab a good spot, fast!
Meanwhile, Doctor Kim pushes against the crowd, walking in the opposite direction. His facial muscles twitch in annoyance, and his hands flail about.
Doctor Kim stops in front of the door where the Rookie is staying. His movements are stiff and jerky.
***
"Cut! How dare you try to reject the scenario! Absolutely not! An actor must be faithful to the performance! Ready!"
Snap-!
"Action!"
***
4. Male Rookie's Dormitory / Night
A dormitory with more empty beds than occupied ones. Three Rookies are sitting on their beds sharing drinks when they suddenly stop.
Rookie 1: Did you hear something just now?
Rookie 2: I heard it too. It didn't sound like tumblers clinking.
Rookie 3: It sounded just like a slate snapping, you know, the ones they use when filming movies or dramas.
Just then, the door opens. A Rookie moves abruptly and spills some soju. The liquor spreads across the floor.
Doctor Kim looks down at Rookie 3, standing right in the spilled soju.
Rookie 3: (smiling awkwardly) Ah, I mean, I'm the one who brought the alcohol, and I'm the one who suggested we drink.
Doctor Kim: (firmly) Everyone.
Doctor Kim continues to move his hands and make strange faces, but he is unable to perform any action outside the scenario.
Doctor Kim: A performance has been prepared to celebrate the successful completion of your training. Please come along.
Rookie 1: (looking puzzled) Huh? At this hour?
Rookie 1 looks toward the window. The clock points to 11:20.
The Rookies clap their hands.
Rookie 3: I'm so looking forward to this! Let's go!
Rookie 2: Let's go!
Rookie 1: My goodness! The legendary singer who can move people to tears with a single verse! Leonardo da Seoul! I absolutely have to hear this!
Doctor Kim and the Rookies leave the room in high spirits.
***
"Cut! ...What is this? There's no way I'd allocate this much screen time to a mere extra. Is something interfering? No, that can't be. As the Director, there's no way I wouldn't notice."
***
The moment he left the room, the mysterious Coercive Force loosened its grip. While his legs continued to move on their own, leading him down the stairs, his hands and mouth regained their freedom.
Lee Yeon-woo grabbed the stair railing, but his palm slid, pulling him downward as he spoke urgently.
"Doctor Kim. What is going on? Is this some kind of field exercise or training?"
"No. We are under attack."
Doctor Kim spoke dryly. His mind was focused elsewhere. During the brief moment of freedom, he quickly moved his hand to tap on his mobile phone.
The Institute Management System, accessed via the Director's authority.
He worked through it bit by bit during the scene changes, and now all that remained was to execute the emergency containment measures. A large, crimson button filled the phone screen.
Kang Yeol, glancing at the screen, asked calmly.
"Who is attacking us and how? What should we be doing?"
"The confirmed intruder is a board member of the Association of Free Artists. Anomaly Entity 'Director.' He possesses limited reality manipulation—"
He didn't stop even as he spoke. Doctor Kim's finger pressed the red button and released it.
While their immediate surroundings remained unchanged, the area housing the Anomalies was sealed off by iron gratings, and the final containment measure, 'But Suddenly a Ninja,' was unsealed, granting the ninja freedom.
In the meantime, they exited the building and arrived at the empty lot.
A sound echoed.
Snap-!
***
4. Empty Lot / Moonlit Night
The institute staff gathered in the lot are buzzing with excitement. They look ahead, eyes sparkling, jumping up and down in anticipation.
Lab Employee 3: Look over there! It's Leonardo da Seoul!
Security Staff 3: I can't believe this day has actually come! I'm so happy!
Standing in the center of the white moonlight, Leonardo opens his closed eyes. The people who make eye contact with him lose their minds. Leonardo places his hand on the guitar.
Leonardo: Is everyone here? Everyone without exception?
All Lab Employees: (very loudly) Yes!
Leonardo: Everyone, I am Leonardo of Seoul, Leonardo da Seoul.
All Lab Employees: Waaaaah!
Leonardo: Now, before I start the performance, I have a few announcements.
Leonardo points to Security Staff 1.
He is the one who greeted Leonardo at the main gate. He is wearing sunglasses. Beside him, several other security guards are also wearing sunglasses askew over their pajamas.
Leonardo: Please take off those sunglasses. They'll get in the way of enjoying my show, won't they?
Security Staff 1: Y-yes.
Security Staff 1 struggles to remove his sunglasses. They fall to the ground, cracking and shattering. One by one, sunglasses tumble onto the dirt floor.
Leonardo looks around at the audience. They are huddled close, waiting expectantly. Leonardo adjusts his grip on the guitar.
Leonardo: For the first song...
But then! Suddenly a ninja appeared!
Ninja: Do-mo. Nice to meet you. I am a ninja.
***
"Cut! Cut! Cut! How dare you touch my scenario! How dare you! This is unacceptable!"
***
The moonlight vanishes, leaving the empty lot in darkness. The ninja, who had manifested in reality through the Author's power, vanished in an instant.
In his place, a white man wearing a flat cap popped out and began screaming at the top of his lungs. The veins in his neck bulged, and spit flew everywhere.
"Touching my work? I'll make you pay for this one way or another! I only wanted my artwork back, but my mercy ends here, now!"
However, no one was listening to him politely.
Now that the Coercive Force had loosened, the atmosphere shifted instantly. The venue transformed from a feverish concert hall awaiting a favorite singer into a company facing an enemy.
The security staff bent over to retrieve their sunglasses, joints creaking like rusted machinery, while the main gate guards reached for their taser guns. Superiors fumbled through their pockets to activate emergency devices remotely, and researchers sharpened their senses to observe, analyze, and memorize the Anomaly.
The process was far too slow. They moved painfully, sluggishly, as if bound tightly by something heavy.
As if to buy time, Doctor Kim shouted loudly.
"Director! I hadn't heard you'd entered Korea. Does it really have to be like this?"
"Shut up! You lot don't even have the right to speak! You people who know nothing of art!"
"There are many Anomalies here that can kill people! Things that must never be revealed to the world—"
"They aren't Anomalies! They are great works of art that move the world and are loved by it! And you people shoved them into boxes! And now, you've dared to interfere with my scenario! How dare you!"
The Director's eyes gleamed. Doctor Kim sighed inwardly.
'He's impossible to reason with. There's nothing more I can do.'
Still, he had done everything he could.
He had executed the emergency containment measures to securely lock away the Anomalies and summoned the ninja. There was no chance the institute's Anomalies would be stolen, and the ninja might even subdue the Director.
Just as he began to feel at ease.
The Director suddenly smirked.
"Right. I shouldn't just be angry. Dealing with unexpected situations is where a director's skill truly lies. Fine, this would make for an interesting scene."
He uttered a few words.
"Ninja massacre. Provocative, primal violence."
"What?"
Before anyone could understand or stop him, the Director shouted quickly.
"Ready."
Snap-!
"Action!"
***
5. Empty Lot / Dark Night
An empty lot where the moon has not risen.
But then! Suddenly a ninja appeared!
Ninja: Do-mo. It is a pleasure to see you for the second time. I am a ninja.
The ninja is in the darkness! He is standing among us! Clad in pitch-black cloth and a hood!
The ninja draws his ninja sword! The ninja sword flashes even in the dark! A blade of light, like moonlight, slices through the institute staff! Once! Twice! Three times! Four! Five! Six! Seven!
Seven crescent moons rise from the ground and vanish!
Bodies fall, sliced to pieces! Blood spurts! Screams echo! It is a scene of horrific carnage!
The ninja, standing in the center of the field of corpses, drops his ninja sword!
Ninja: Th-this isn't what I wanted. Ah!
The ninja collapses in the middle of the sea of blood! His knees sink into a pool of gore!
Then, the ninja suddenly springs up and flees, vanishing into the darkness.
***
"Cut! Haha! Serves you right! That's what happens when you dare to change someone else's work!"
The Director, who had utilized even the ninja's corruption as a directorial choice, shook his head and laughed. He pointed at the scattered pieces of corpses, and as if that weren't enough, he began kicking them.
Sliiiide—
A kicked piece of a corpse rolled away, leaving a red trail in its wake. The thick, dizzying scent of blood filled the air.
About twenty people had been brutally slaughtered in an instant.
It felt surreal. The Director's mad laughter sounded distant.
The institute staff stared blankly down at the fragments of their former colleagues. They looked hollow, as if they had lost both speech and thought.
"Mister."
Leonardo, with droplets of blood splattered on his face, rubbed them away and glared at the Director.
"Are you insane? Why are you killing my audience!"
"Ha! They aren't your audience; they're my actors! Whether they live or die is up to me!"
"I don't care if they're actors or whatever! If they're here to hear my song, they're the audience!"
"And you are just an actor moving according to my scenario! How dare you talk back to the Director—"
"Whatever. You've got some weird power, but you've never actually made a decent piece of work—"
"You—"
The two began to bicker.
But Lee Yeon-woo couldn't hear them clearly. With his narrowed vision, he looked down at his feet. A corpse lay sprawled before him. Blood surged forward, soaking his slippers and seeping between his toes.
'...I barely survived. By a hair's breadth.'
It was sheer luck. The ninja's eerie blade had grazed Lee Yeon-woo by a sliver. The sharply sliced sleeve of his shirt was the proof.
However, he couldn't purely rejoice in his survival.
It wasn't just because the cause of the problem was still there.
"Ugh."
"Aaagh."
Kang Yeol and Lee Seo-yeon, whom he had grown fond of over the past week, were slumped over, bleeding out.
Kang Yeol's arm was sliced so deeply that the bone was visible. He calmly tore a piece of his shirt and tied it as a bandage, but his complexion was pale. Though he tied the knot using his good hand and teeth, he was trembling slightly.
Lee Seo-yeon, who had collapsed, was in worse condition. Her left leg, thin as a twig, had been severed. Blood poured from the cross-section of her thigh like an open faucet.
Having managed to tie the knot, Kang Yeol hurried over to her.
"Ms. Lee Seo-yeon, I'll perform emergency first aid first."
He began tying the torn shirt around her thigh. Lee Seo-yeon trembled violently, nearly fainting. Her eyes rolled back, showing only the whites.
"Gggghhh!"
Lee Yeon-woo slowly shifted his gaze again. Among the corpses scattered everywhere, he saw a familiar face.
'Ah.'
The security staff member who had shot him with a taser gun on the first day of training. The one he had spoken with often after the man apologized. It was his severed head.
Perhaps he had come out in the middle of sleep, as the pieces around him were clad in pajamas.
"I wondered how great a director a board member would be, but if you lacked talent, you'd be a third-rate—"
"Say one more word. I'll kill you too."
The two intruders were still fighting.
Sending a hazy look their way, Lee Yeon-woo began to walk unsteadily, like someone drunk. Stepping through pools of blood and over corpses.
Toward the taser gun lying on the ground.