Chapter 290
Chapter 290
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 290
Chapter Title: House of Healing
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It seemed to pick up from the previous investigation, with fragmented interviews listed one after another.
"It's owned by some shady religious group."
These were the words of a taxi driver from Ansan (a regular taxi. There are no secure taxis in Ansan).
"They ran it pretty conscientiously up until now, and they didn't do any proselytizing or anything, so no one paid much attention. But lately, the vibe's been off."
Park Gwang-rim had asked what he meant by the vibe being off.
"One of the drivers from my company saw several trucks going in there. Not just any trucks, but those armored ones that only big corporations like Yeonam or Holistic would run. There's no reason for something like that to show up in Ansan."
I'd smashed a few of them in Sokcho myself, but armored trucks were expensive gear typically owned only by major corporations like Yeonam or Holistic.
* * *
I tore my eyes from the notebook for a moment and gazed at the House of Healing, shrouded in darkness.
"Damn it, what the hell is this place?"
Were the guys behind that rundown chain-link fence connected to some big corporation?
I hadn't even read the parts about the interior of the House of Healing yet, but there was already way too much ominous stuff.
Was this place more important than I'd thought?
It might be worth pushing myself a bit to check it out.
"And what? Dismemberment murders? Organ trafficking?"
What kind of nonsense was this?
"Ah, Hyun-deok."
This was driving me crazy, for real.
I tapped my mask impatiently for a bit, focusing my mind.
Jang Hyun-deok's body had protective spells on it.
They weren't for tracking his location, but at this range, I could at least get a rough sense of his condition.
Direction: straight ahead.
Around 1 km away.
Condition: calm.
"He seems to be in there."
If something had happened to the spell's target—Jang Hyun-deok—I would've known by now.
But his condition was still calm.
He hadn't been split in two or had his guts ripped out.
Of course, the spells weren't designed to account for him sticking his nose into a dangerous place like this, so they weren't foolproof, but for a problem this big...
'No, it's not just that—it's excessively calm.'
It was like he was sleeping peacefully in a comfy spot.
What the hell was going on in there?
Frustration. Anger. Impatience.
'Ah, screw it. Maybe I should just bulldoze the place with brute force?'
But in the end, I suppressed my impatience.
Memories from playing [Cthulhu World] flashed through my mind—things I'd encountered all too often.
[Pressing that button activated the pulverizer on your friend's body!]
[Oh dear, if you hadn't done that, your friend wouldn't have turned into a monster. What a shame.]
[Your friend? Ah, you mean 'this'?]
[We provided plenty of hints and warnings. Didn't you read them?]
This game wasn't normal.
It was made with abnormal malice and twisted madness. Move without understanding the situation inside, and who knew what mess you'd end up in.
'Yeah, checking this notebook won't even take five minutes.'
I opened the notebook again, but there was something weird tucked between the pages I'd been reading.
"What the hell is this?"
A twice-folded A4 sheet of paper.
Rustle—
The content read...
"For a healthier, brighter future humanity."
Nice opening line.
[Welcome to the House of Healing.
The House of Healing is a comprehensive childcare, nursing, and care facility operated for your health and bright future.
The following are rules you must read for your safe stay.
1. The House of Healing is divided into the Hope Wing for child childcare and the Healing Wing for adult nursing care.
For the safety of child residents, adult residents may not approach the Hope Wing under any circumstances.
Even if you hear sounds from the Hope Wing, do not approach it.
2. Do not disturb sleeping people.
We conduct special sleep therapy here. Long-term sleep is essential and normal for recovery.
Do not disturb other residents' sleep or...]
The rules continued.
Don't eat anything outside designated meals, don't damage the garden, and so on.
One passage caught my eye midway.
[6. Always smile.
You are not yet useless. Laughter will turn you into a better person.
For your health, we operate 'laughter time.'
When the laughter bell rings, everyone smile happily.
If you see someone having trouble laughing or not smiling, call a nearby volunteer or administrator.]
"Wow, real heartwarming stuff."
Of course, I didn't mean it positively.
"Damn it."
I scratched my head furiously and flipped open Park Gwang-rim's notebook.
* * *
[Kim Shin-hwa is my benefactor.]
[I got 10 billion upfront. Enough to risk this much.]
The word "benefactor," brimming with resolve.
There was a reason he needed that kind of determination.
In the end, Park Gwang-rim had infiltrated the House of Healing using some connections and a hefty sum of money.
I hadn't hoped for him to go this far.
He had entered as a patient.
[Admission was simple. I just called, and they said in sweet, cheerful voices that I could come today. Typical pattern. Once you're in, you never come out.]
There must've been at least three buildings beyond that chain-link fence.
At the [Office Wing] near the main gate, Park Gwang-rim met the people running the House of Healing.
"Nice to meet you. Welcome. We'll help you."
People in white clothes with [Volunteer] name tags.
Having worked as a broker in Paju, Park Gwang-rim instinctively knew they were at least mid-level ability users or cultists.
Not the combat type. Probably support or brainwashing abilities, even if they had powers.
Park Gwang-rim immediately chewed and swallowed a capsule hidden in his mouth.
[Good thing I prepped the Brain Cooler.]
[Brain Cooler].
It had side effects, but it was an expensive mental enhancer that blocked brainwashing or mental magic.
Not absolute, but it countered low-level stuff to some extent.
Park Gwang-rim actively used the dizziness and nausea from the Brain Cooler to fake symptoms like delirium aftereffects, madness, phobias, hallucinations, and babbling.
He knew well what washed-up fixers looked like after overexerting themselves, so he mimicked them perfectly.
[They welcomed me without the slightest suspicion, making my worries unfounded.]
Their attitude was excessively warm and enthusiastic, he said.
"Don't worry. You're not useless."
"Laughter and happiness will heal you."
"You've now received a new purpose to sustain this world—and you'll be able to do better work than before."
* * *
[It was huge.]
[So big it felt like they owned the whole mountain.]
Thanks to the people's kind and warm guidance, he soon reached the Healing Wing.
Vibrant flowers blooming everywhere.
Emerald-green lawns. Well-grown trees. Warm sunlight.
Patients basking in the sun with smiles in this space brimming with nature's vitality.
When they saw Park Gwang-rim, they approached with fervent energy and greeted him.
"Nice to meet you!"
"Nice to meet you!"
"Let's be together!"
"So glad to meet you!"
Just from the description, it sounded like a peaceful, idyllic scene, but Park Gwang-rim felt an eerie dissonance and discomfort in every detail.
[Too bright.]
[Every one of them grinning with grotesquely twisted smiles.]
[Scary. Creepy.]
[They keep smiling.]
[Why?]
[Among them were fixers I'd seen before.]
[Red Shark, Night Owl, JJ, Black Wind. Fixers who'd been active in their own ways but had retired and vanished recently.]
Park Gwang-rim tried talking to those he knew, but they just smiled with unfocused eyes. No real conversation possible.
* * *
[I heard strange sounds from afar.]
[Children. Kids' laughter.]
[Singing.] [Joyful voices.]
Park Gwang-rim asked the administrators about the sounds, and luckily got an answer.
"It's the kids in the Hope Wing."
"Adults can't approach to protect the children."
"Those kids are essential to sustaining this world."
The last part was a bit odd.
"Kids are our future" is a cliché, but Park Gwang-rim picked up a strange nuance.
So he asked carefully and got an even weirder reply.
"Aren't too many people dying? We're proxying roles to sustain this world. Like outsourcing."
What did that mean?
[Cultish nonsense.]
[Outsourcing? Ties to corporations.]
[Can I figure out who they're connected to?]
* * *
[Flowers in bizarre colors everywhere.]
[Not normal plants.]
[Never seen plants this grotesque.]
[Those ominous flowers are blooming inside the buildings too.]
He was led inside a building and was shocked to confirm the flowers bloomed indoors as well.
"It's poison to adults. Don't eat it."
"Don't eat it. Absolutely do not."
Repeated warnings not to eat.
Park Gwang-rim said he wouldn't anyway, but—
"Yes, but if you do eat a flower, tell us."
The administrator replied with a kind smile.
[But even as I heard the warning, someone sitting in the hallway was greedily tearing into a flower on the wall.]
Still, the administrator just said "Oh dear" with a laugh and did nothing else.
* * *
[I was assigned a room.]
Field hospital.
That's how Park Gwang-rim described it in his notebook.
A space bigger than a classroom had over 20 beds in a row, with people lying there and zero privacy.
[Beds covered in flowers.]
[Not just one. Several. About a third.]
[A human face visible amid hundreds of flowers.]
"Heh heh, heh heh heh..."
Patients surrounded by flowers lay on their beds, letting out creepy laughs.
[Not covered by flowers. Flowers blooming from their bodies.]
Hard-to-parse scribbles and obsessively drawn lines appeared.
Delirium?
Horrific scribbles spanning pages. Radial patterns. Imitations of flowers?
[Flowers] [Madmen] [Why laugh?]
[Lunch] [Sleeping people]
[Plants] [Strange songs] [Trees] [Xswl]
[Dance?] [Ritual?] [Flowers] [Songs]
[Occult acts] [Red flowers]
[Not normal.]
Park Gwang-rim must've hidden somewhere out of the administrators' sight to write.
So these scribbles were notes taken after observing and some time passing.
The mental enhancer's effect had worn off, or—
Maybe just recalling the [people smiling amid flowers] was horrific enough to induce delirium.
Finally, readable writing appeared, as if he'd barely calmed down.
[They said it with sincere expressions.]
"Isn't it great? That's our House of Healing's famous sleep therapy."
"You gain new strength and healing miracles through deep sleep."
"Don't eat those flowers."
* * *
[The laughter bell rang.]
[People started laughing.]
[Total chaos.]
[Horrific.]
[Going insane.]
Illegible scribbles returned.
From here, Park Gwang-rim's records became fragmented and hard to follow.
I forcibly pieced together what he'd written.
[Yes, this is my chance.]
Trapped amid the madmen erupting in insane laughter.
Park Gwang-rim, barely regaining his senses, slipped toward the Hope Wing amid the chaos.
[There were children.]
In the Hope Wing, kids of various ages ran around energetically, danced, and sang.
[Unlike the adults, the kids didn't seem mad.]
[Normal.] [Ordinary children.]
[No, something's off.]
[Off.]
[Weird.]
A belated realization of wrongness.
In slightly shaky handwriting, Park Gwang-rim noted:
[The kids all have the same face.]
Hiding his shock and confusion, Park Gwang-rim observed the children again.
Various ages, different genders.
Up close, they had enough individuality to distinguish them.
But they all looked like siblings gathered from the same womb.
Like one voice recorded and played back from everywhere, the same song echoed around.