A Pretty Plausible Escape Plan

Yoo Jinchae strained with everything she had not to notice the cold sweat soaking through her back.

Damn it, my mana's just about spent....

Her head burned hot enough to melt her brain, and her whole body weighed on her as if she were submerged in water. She knew holding out like this would hit its limit soon. Ever since she'd been loaded into the abduction vehicle, she had been desperately clinging to her power as it kept trying to unravel under the ability-suppression skill.

Still, it had been bearable, more or less.

Because until now she'd only ever crossed paths with people it didn't matter whether they learned her true identity, and she'd only ever been in dark places where a face was hard to make out. Thank goodness she'd at least been able to let her power go and rest, if only in stolen moments.

But the moment the kidnappers recognized Na Hwiyeon's face, everything changed. Yoo Jinchae had poured every last drop of mana into her head, recalling that insolent brat Ahn Param's words.

"It's not that you can't use it at all. Like the name says, it's suppression, not nullification. You can still manage that much, can't you? Just way harder and more draining than usual."

When she'd stood in for Moon Chaeyoung at press interviews, she had lacquered herself ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠over with her ability from head to toe — so thoroughly that from any angle, anyone would have sworn she was Moon Chaeyoung. But now, with a suppression skill draped across the entire building, even altering her bone structure was out of the question. All she could manage anymore was the face itself.

And so, granted, her short, plum-dark hair had given way to blonde locks spilling down to her waist — but a changed hairstyle was nothing. As long as the face was Moon Chaeyoung's, she could insist till she was blue in the face and get away with it. And, hilariously enough, it had worked on the kidnappers too.

Dumb bastards.

Wiping the beads of sweat trailing down her forehead, Yoo Jinchae wrenched the corners of her mouth upward. If she wanted to keep clinging to Na Hwiyeon's side, this was the face she had to wear. If these kidnappers caught on — even belatedly — that she was not Moon Chaeyoung, there was no telling what they would do on the spot. At the very least, if they threw her back into some hole like this, she could gather her mana, rebuild her strength, and attempt another escape with Na Hwiyeon.

She held her breath and waited for that moment to come.

And at last, as they headed down toward the basement and the door there swung open....

Light poured down, bright enough to blind. Then came a roar that bordered on screaming.

—WAAAAAAAH!

She drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"If I can just hold on a little longer...."

But in that instant, she came face to face with it.

"The... the sky?"

A dizzyingly lofty expanse. Clouds. Birds. A forest of buildings unfurling between them — and overlaid across reality, the nightmare of that day. An A-rank Chaos Dungeon set against a Seoul in ruins, as if the apocalypse had been faithfully recreated. Herself, trapped inside it. Falling, from the sky down toward the earth....

"Hk—!"

Yoo Jinchae's breath snagged, caught fast in the memory of that day.

I was in the mood to click my tongue.

People in white robes, black bird feathers pinned at their chests, shrieking up at a stage.

—It comes! It comes! It comes!

No matter how hard I tried to see the good in it.... They're a cult. Look here — cult. Look there — cult.

"Teacher...!"

Ahn Param, clinging to the hem of my clothes and going limp, was hauled off by the rope tugging from up ahead without even managing a proper struggle. Tied to that same rope, Yoo Jinchae and I fared no better.

The moment we stepped indoors, every gaze in the room converged on us at once, as if on cue. Their cheering cut short as they carefully cleared a path. But I read something thick and settled in their eyes. The look of people measuring something. Their bloodshot eyes were, every single one of them, revolting.

[Something's off.]

You see that? If this kid was calling it weird, there was something seriously wrong with this place.

With a heavy heart, I looked down at the ground beneath my feet. The problem beneath the problem. ...It was as if I were walking on the sky itself.

It wasn't a hologram, nor was the floor painted with any trompe-l'œil trickery — what it showed was excessively, painfully realistic.

"......?"

And yet the sensation of stepping on it was decidedly artificial. How to put it — like someone had strained to fake a soft, plump, cushiony texture in order to sell the feeling of strolling across clouds. I could tell for certain this thing was fake. Maybe because I'd spotted what felt like a crack in it, the shock I'd felt at first glance was slowly wearing off. Though the longer I kept staring, the dizzier my head felt, too....

"......Hnngh...!"

The wailing up ahead wouldn't stop. I tore my eyes off the floor and looked forward. It had been nagging at me this whole time, after all.

"You okay?"

"...Hic! Hnnngggghhh!"

Ahn Param's legs wobbled as he shuffled along in front of me, and I genuinely wondered how he was staying upright. I couldn't see him clearly, but he looked fully occupied leaking tears and snot. Param, at least, was too busy crying to notice anything.

"You're all right too, right, Teacher?"

Just in case, I flicked a glance behind us as I asked — and then:

?

"Teacher?"

Code red. This one was in far worse shape. Yoo Jinchae trudged along with her head bowed, her long blonde hair hanging limp as she swayed — and then her face flashed into view for half a second, and I thought I'd seen it wrong.

Moon Chaeyoung?

Her hair and build were Yoo Jinchae's, but the shell of her face was Moon Chaeyoung's — and my body jolted on pure reflex. I shook my head quickly and pulled myself together. Why am I jumping? She's been getting mistaken for Moon Chaeyoung this whole time, so under the circumstances, her face reverting to Moon Chaeyoung's isn't strange at all.

And if these lunatic cultists find out she isn't Moon Chaeyoung — who knows, they might try to kill her on the spot.

I put strength back into my neck and tried again.

"Teacher, are you hurt anywhere? Did something happen to you?"

"...Hah... hah..."

I kept calling her, but nothing came back except ragged breathing. But right now... not a single one of us could move as we pleased. In a moment like this, there was only one thing I could do.

Status Window!

I called for it in my head and waited, but unlike every other time, it stayed silent.

"......"

Don't tell me this is the suppression skill's doing too.

I ducked my head and brought my ear down toward my bound hands — the earring grazing across the back of them.

Tii... ring.

There it is!

And then two more status windows popped up in a row.

I sighed at the pair of them. So that's why their conditions had been off. Param aside, the only way to find out why Yoo Jinchae's state had suddenly worsened had been to check the Status Window — I'd needed some kind of clue. And as if my hunch were right on the money, both windows showed a glaring problem in common.

Status Conditions. Param's read "A coward beyond imagining." Yoo Jinchae's read "High places are terrifying." From those two lines, one fact wasn't hard to work out.

Both of them are scared to death of heights.

Yoo Jinchae's looked especially bad — severe enough to verge on outright panic. ...Incidentally, this punk Param's status-condition backlash was "ability overuse." His rank even leaps from D straight to B. He gets scarier the more he panics.

"Is that a blessing or a curse?"

Anyway — root cause identified. Time to actually do something about it. I jabbed my index finger firmly into the small of the guy's back in front of me.

"Param."

"Hnnngggghhh!... A-a-am I really gonna die?"

"Param. Ahn Param."

"...Wh-what! I'm scared out of my mind, why do you keep calling me!!"

Well, look at him answering properly — so he wasn't in full panic mode yet, huh? Ahn Param wheeled around and glared daggers at me through two eyes swollen shut with tears.

Oh wow. He really is streaming tears and snot.

I took a moment to admire those eyes, then arched just my right eyebrow and said:

"Scared?"

"...Ex-cuse me?"

"You're getting scared over this? Over something a kindergartner probably wouldn't even blink at? Like a little baby?"

"...!"

I savored his face cycling from red to blue in real time, and at last a satisfying reply arrived.

"...N-no! Ha! Honestly! I'm not scared, not even a little! Argh! What do you take me for!!"

There it is. That's the answer.

"Right, right. Our Param would never be fazed by a little thing like this. Crying at an optical illusion would be murder on anyone's pride, after all."

Ahn Param snapped his head right back around and grumbled under his breath.

"I'm not scared at all, so why is it doing this to me.... Seriously, wa—ha—me, geez."

Simple-minded brat. All it took was one word — scared? — and courage he never knew he had came flooding in. Boys that age really do let a pointless streak of one-upmanship run the show.

Well, this side was handled. The problem was Yoo Jinchae.... I could see her trailing steps lurching left and right. Her complexion said she'd drop any second, and I ought to do something about it right away — but....

The man at the very ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠front undid the rope, then shut me and Yoo Jinchae ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠inside a cage of iron bars.

"Don't you go getting any ideas about slipping out. This cage is carrying a high-voltage current."

Ahn Param, meanwhile, was made to kneel primly outside the cage, his shoulders seized.

"Hey, pipsqueak. You wait right here, nice and quiet, and when we give the signal, you come up to the stage."

"What?"

"The one who brought you in said to leave you here."

"Jaehong-hyung...? Th-then what happens to me now?"

"Shouldn't it go the way you heard it while you were eavesdropping? Once you're used up — you either become a believer, or extra sacrifice material? Not that it's any of my business."

The man roughly ruffled the hollow-eyed boy's hair with a smile, then moved off with his colleague.

"......"

"Hah... hah..."

"Moooooom... hnnngggghhh..."

There he goes again, bawling.

Leaving Yoo Jinchae lying in a corner, breathing like a dead woman, I got to my feet and walked up to the bars. I lifted my head and looked at the young man in a crown standing on the stage. Is that him — the cult leader?

The cage we'd been thrown into sat in a concealed nook tucked beneath the stage. A spotlight beamed down over the man's head, and a voice drifted over — smooth, and pleasant to hear.

"This time, we have spared no effort in preparation for summoning Lord Astaroth."

—WAAAAAAH! Leader!!

For an instant, the man's gaze swung our way.

"But first, a word of greeting from Chairman Lee Cheol-yong, whose generous investment has made today's sacrifice possible!"

At the man's call, an old man shuffled out onto the stage. As if overcome with gratitude, he clasped the leader's hands briefly, then gingerly took up the microphone.

"That my hand should have a part in so blessed a day fills me with joy beyond all measure."

—HAHAHAHAHA!

The old man bowed in worship toward the false heavens overhead, then rambled on for several more minutes in a rapturous daze before finally shuffling down off the stage.

Bizarre.

And then, at last, the man returned and this time pointed a finger down at the spot where we were.

"And now, a round of applause, please, for the employees of our own G-Detective Agency, who so safely delivered that sacrifice to us."

—Clap clap clap clap.

Watching that spectacle, a hollow laugh slipped out between my teeth. Wow. They've got us filed under 'live human sacrifice' and everything.

I turned away, done watching the lunacy. After all, I'd only been checking whether there was any gap to squeeze through. Think.

I laid it all out: the situation as it stood, and the resources and manpower I had at my disposal. A raving cult gathered to summon a demon. A man who looked to be its leader. Yoo Jinchae and me — the sacrificial offerings. The stray tag-along, Ahn Param. And... Nabi.

Fit the pieces together the right way, and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the result was this: a pretty... plausible escape plan, sitting right there in my head.