The End and the Beginning (5)
Step, step—
After saying goodbye to Do-jun, I went straight to the director’s office and reported a massive fire.
I told them it looked like it might spread into a forest fire, that the flames were too violent for a kid like me to do anything about it, that people were dying all over the place. I inflated the situation as much as I possibly could.
Well, they probably were dying.
Since I’d always treated them like they weren’t even human, I’d almost forgotten they actually were. By now, the banquet hall was probably a real-time slice of hell.
Then I came back to the banquet hall building and set fire to the alcohol I’d already poured from the ground floor all the way down to the basement.
After that, on a hunch, I headed for the place where Yu Hye-in was supposed to be—and then—
Creeeak.
“……I really didn’t think you’d still be here.”
Just when she should’ve been running for her life, there she was, lounging on the bed in a single bathrobe, enjoying a glass of wine as if she’d all the time in the world.
“I told you to wait, didn’t I? Unni loves Seol so much.”
Crazy bitch.
Luckily, not a single person had escaped the banquet hall.
This room on the second floor had no way out anymore—neither up nor down. Within minutes, this place would be swallowed by the flames too.
“And… if Seol came all the way here and I wasn’t around, he might be disappointed, don’t you think?”
“You know what’s happening, right?”
“Of course. I’m not stupid.”
She said she’d waited because I’d told her to wait, even though this was practically a place where she could die at any moment. With a smile steeped in madness, she talked about how she might disappoint me if she ran off, as if there was anything at all normal about this.
“So you stayed here just because of me?”
“Yeah.”
“You could’ve run by yourself.”
“I thought maybe Seol warned me in advance because he wanted to save me alone, but… I don’t think that was it either.”
“……”
I shut my mouth at her words.
I didn’t know what to say.
She was looking at me like she knew exactly what I thought of her, exactly what I felt.
Like she knew perfectly well that I despised her.
“They’re all dead.”
“I don’t know how you pulled it off, but that’s amazing, our Seol.”
“You’ll be dead soon too.”
“Haah….”
She only shrugged at my words, then lifted the wine in her hand and took a light sip.
Savoring the taste and aroma, she let it slide down her throat, then exhaled with a feverish little breath and met my eyes.
Swish.
“It’s a shame I won’t get to see the moment a one-of-a-kind masterpiece is finished… but, well, I’ve been thinking about it for a month.”
She rose from her seat and took a step forward.
Watching her come toward me so slowly, I swallowed and stumbled back a little.
“If an unfinished work is afraid of becoming perfect and tries to kill me because of that, I think that would be just fine too.”
“What…?”
“I’m saying that if my death can complete your persona, then that wouldn’t be so bad either.”
Like always, she stroked my cheek.
That familiar touch, cold and slick like a filthy snake crawling over skin, cooled my sweat-soaked face all too easily.
“My death will live inside you for the rest of your life. No matter what work you finish, no matter what ending your life reaches.”
“……”
“In every moment of your life, I’ll still be alive inside you, Seol-ah.”
“Ha… fuck….”
“It’s okay if you’re not perfect. I only thought I loved you because you were perfect….”
She held me close.
Softly, tenderly, as if whatever she felt really was love, she patted me like she was embracing a lover, careful and affectionate.
Pow—!!
“You really have changed…. But you know what, Seol-ah?”
“……”
I shoved Yu Hye-in away with all the strength I had.
She went flying helplessly to the floor, only to look up at me with a radiant smile.
“The fact that the reason you changed was still me… it makes me insanely ecstatic.”
“Jesus fucking Christ, you’re insane.”
“What are you going to do? Kill me?”
“Haah….”
“Here, take the wineglass. Just do it like last month. Break it and drive it deep into my neck.”
My face twisted at the sight of her holding out the wineglass, her cheeks flushed red.
It felt disgusting.
Utterly disgusting.
It had felt like I’d finally lightened the load after getting rid of everything with Do-jun’s help.
Like maybe I was finally clearing out the past for good.
“Killing you would still piss me off.”
“I had no idea it would feel this exhilarating, having the masterpiece that was supposed to become perfect be dirtied because of me, Seol-ah.”
Crash—!!
I smashed the wineglass against the wall.
Shards of glass tore into my arm, and when a little blood ran out, I scowled hard enough to crease my face.
My hand, still gripping the broken glass, trembled violently.
I wanted to drive it into that woman’s neck right then and there, and end her breathing.
“Seol-ah.”
“……”
I just stared back into those eyes calling my name.
I should’ve been shaking just from looking at her. I should’ve been getting chills just from hearing that voice.
Seol-ah!! Thank you!!
But thanks to my friend, I guess I was a little better now.
From now on, even if someone called me by my name, wouldn’t I think of my friend before I thought of that insane bitch?
Thud.
“……? Seol-ah?”
“Go die on your own if you want.”
“What—”
I tossed the broken wineglass aside and turned my back.
“W-wait, you can’t just leave like this, Seol-ah. You have to kill me, or stay by my side, okay?”
If my dream was to be the one who killed you, then yeah, just leaving was the right move.
It was going to burn down and kill me anyway, so there was no reason to do that woman any favors.
“We loved each other, didn’t we? You hate me, don’t you, Seol-ah…!!”
It’s a little disappointing, I guess… but…
“Han Seol—!!!”
I got more than I lost.
If I’d known this would happen, I should’ve just never come back.
Rumble…!!
The ceiling had started to collapse.
Like the flames of the apocalypse I’d felt on the 50th floor of the Ci Tower, the temperature around me slowly rose, and I let my shoulders sag.
So how am I supposed to clear the scenario?
What exactly am I supposed to do to get out of this place?
Wiki said no strategy was needed, but I still had no idea how I was supposed to return.
Flash—!
“……”
I heard a cracking sound from the ceiling, and then the whole thing caved in.
I stared at the light flashing through the falling mass.
Maybe dying is the end. I think I’ve done everything I can anyway.
For a moment, I waited in that time that seemed to have stopped, as if expecting the massive wreckage to crush me.
Be happy and live!!
“Ha.”
Then I remembered my friend’s voice from earlier and reflexively dodged out of the way.
“I don’t know either.”
I still didn’t know exactly what the 50th floor of the Mind Tower wanted from me.
Whether it was simply showing me the trauma of my past, or whether there was some other condition for clearing it.
Crash—BOOM—!!
Either way, I’d been too busy thinking about saving the kids to dwell on it.
And now that things had come this far, the situation had changed too much for me to bother worrying about it.
So.
Maybe I should just go see his face one more time.
Seeing my friend’s face, even if it was the last chance I’d ever get, didn’t seem so bad.
* * * * *
Whiiirrrrr—!!
“Seol-ah…?!”
“What’re you staring at?”
“No, I mean… how….”
“I said I’d come back, didn’t I?”
“Hah, haha… right!”
I smirked at the sight of Do-jun standing in front of the lined-up ambulances.
I really hadn’t expected it to work.
Was I going to end up stuck here forever?
“Seol-ah.”
“Yeah.”
I gave an easy answer as Do-jun came toward me with a grin.
Swish—
He stepped closer and held out his fist to me.
The sight of him offering the thing I was always the one to do first made me laugh before I could stop myself.
“Keep living like that.”
“……”
“You’re my pride and joy, my friend.”
Thud.
“……You say friend, so I guess I have to listen.”
I bumped my fist against the tiny little fist of a twelve-year-old boy—and—
Rumble-rumble-rumble…!!
I turned at the sound of a huge crash from far away, where the orphanage building had been.
……So it’s all over.
Yu Hye-in, the director, everything in that hell—all of it had disappeared into those flames.
Just like the past, erased by a fire that swallowed everything whole.
“Goodbye, my friend.”
No, it’s different from the past now.
When I smiled lightly at the voice coming from behind me and turned around,
“……”
the dark night, the line of ambulances, even the image of my old friend smiling at me—all of it had vanished.
The scenery of the Tower, which I hadn’t seen in a long time, was welcoming me back.
“……Ha.”
It was over. At last.
It had been long. God, it had been long.
Only now, well over ten years after Do-jun died, had I finally said goodbye properly.
Only now had I managed to bid farewell to the one friend who’d left without warning one day.
The guy who remained in that world would definitely keep on living hard.
He’d definitely become a pilot and fly through the sky more freely than anyone else.
He’d probably live happily, joyfully, waiting for the day I’d come back.
“……Take care, my friend.”
My friend, the beginning of my regret.
At the end of that loathsome hell, I prayed he’d soar into the blue sky.
“……”
Step, step—
I turned back once over the dark, empty Tower.
Remembering the way he’d still seemed to be waving with a smile, I slowly moved my feet.
Toward the exit of the Tower shining in the distance.
Toward the clear message that read: Clear — 50th Floor of the Mind Tower.
Hoping that our ending would become a new beginning for each other.
* * * * *
-1-
Doom: 294:10:32:41
Section: 6:10:32:41
200 / 77
So a day passed.
Just like the time when I’d gone back after spending several days on the 50th floor of the Earth Tower and found that only a day had passed, the timer had moved forward by exactly one day.
I still couldn’t say what the real clear condition or purpose of the Mind Tower’s 50th floor was, but at least it was certain that I’d cleared it.
Though, for all kinds of reasons, I felt like a mess.
The hollow sense that this still wasn’t real, the twisted obsession Yu Hye-in had left behind in my memory, even the fact that the friend who called my name with a smile had only been another illusion created by the Tower.
All of it had left this complicated, filthy feeling settled deep in my body.
Maybe I just feel like this because I got dragged back here again.
I’d thought I’d wrapped things up pretty cleanly, but now I felt like I needed to rest for a while.
Ding—!
……Right, this was here too, wasn’t it?
I blinked at my phone, startled by Wiki’s notification after so long.
Mind Tower 50th Floor cleared - TP + 5,000
That was the usual Tower clear reward, and then—
A single red number, (1), sitting inside the internet app.
Conditions satisfied
Unlocking Starlink feature
The moment I clicked it as if possessed, a window popped up in front of me.
It was a new feature I’d gained after about two months… no, if I counted the time I’d actually spent in the Tower, then after three months.
Something about the name feels familiar….
The two letters “Star” at the front probably didn’t mean much, but for some reason it felt like it did.
Starlink
Select a conversation partner
-No registered targets exist.
Conversation partner.
Was this… some kind of messenger function?
For something I’d gotten after clearing all of floor 50, it felt strangely underwhelming.
I’d started with Wiki, a cheat code from the get-go, and by floor 10 a shopping function had appeared that was still absurd even now that I thought about it.
Does the gallery choose the target?
Like the gift function in Starpang, maybe tapping a nickname would bring up a chat option.
I wasn’t exactly in the mood to talk to anyone, but I opened the gallery to check.
Maybe I should just try messaging anyone.
While I was looking through the gallery posts, I stopped my finger on a nickname that stood out immediately.
When I clicked the nickname, the expected menu appeared.
Anyone else would’ve been fine, but if I was going to try this, the Jutak seemed like the easiest option.
Maybe “easy” wasn’t the right word—more like he was just easy to deal with.
At least he was the gallery admin, so it wouldn’t hurt to ask him about a feature like this.
Starlink
Select a conversation partner
-EraserIsNotMe
After I finished registering and went back to Starlink, the Jutak’s nickname had been added.
The moment I tapped the Jutak and hit the start conversation button, a new alert window popped up.
100 TP consumed per message
Additional functions will unlock upon reaching 50 and 100 exchanges with the target
So it’s not just plain chatting.
I wondered what the extra functions were.
When I hit the [ + ] button visible below, four buttons appeared.
There was a [Photo] button, which seemed like it could send pictures, and alongside it a row of [???] buttons.
The first thing that came to mind was… a phone call? But if that was the case, there were still two more left over.
Fifty exchanges, a hundred exchanges—that wasn’t all that many.
To be blunt, I could fill that in one or two minutes. I could check it out right now if I wanted.
The problem was that each one cost a hefty 100 TP.
A hundred bucks for one text message? What the hell….
Maybe, like the gift function, it would get cheaper as the number of regressions increased.
Honestly, it was too expensive to use without hesitation.
TP held: 97,806
The floor 50 clear reward I’d just received pushed me back up close to one hundred thousand.
Of course, I could spend all 100 messages if I really wanted to….
But with the Tower, you never knew what might happen, and it felt wasteful to burn 10,000 TP just to talk.
Or maybe not? Had I already blown through more than that just throwing gifts around on the gallery?
Honestly, nothing seemed like it would be much help no matter what I tried.
I was in a pretty emotionally overwrought state, so my head wasn’t exactly working right.
……For now, let’s just try using it once.
TP held: 97,706
Seeing my TP drop by 100 at a single click, right there in the top-right corner, I let out a crooked laugh.
The others probably didn’t have this Starlink thing, so was it really possible?
Ding—!
Heh heh….
I smiled a little at the reply that came back almost immediately.
He’d probably be shocked out of his mind, stressed to hell.
He’d instinctively realize I was up to some other ridiculous nonsense again.
Chuckling to myself, I spent a moment wondering what to send next.
TP held: 97,606
“……?”
I blinked when I saw that my TP had dropped by 200 for some reason.
Wait—did that mean it also cost points on the other end?
Was I paying for both sides?
Ding!
Ding!
Ding!
Ding!
TP held: 97,206
“Sh-shit… stop!!!”
I just burned through 600 TP in ten seconds!!!
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