Chapter 31
Chapter 31
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 31
Chapter Title: Happiness Comprehensive Hospital Horror (2)
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For now, I set aside my thoughts and slowly surveyed my surroundings.
The first thing I felt was the air, chilled cold.
Even in the height of summer, a cool energy grazed my skin, making my body tremble faintly.
I cautiously took a step forward, and the scenery before me came into view.
It looked like an ordinary hospital lobby.
Waiting chairs and the reception desk entered my sight, and the floor gleamed with white tiles.
Fluorescent lights shone down from above.
There was no darkness.
But that excessively bright light somehow stirred an inexplicable sense of dread in me.
My gaze shifted farther, revealing a corridor that stretched endlessly.
On both sides, patient room doors stood in a row, and faint lights blinked on the patient name panels above them.
Most were smudged beyond recognition or completely blank.
I crossed the center of the lobby.
As I approached the reception desk, I scanned its surface.
There was no computer, no people.
Just a single sign glowing faintly, welcoming visitors.
[Happiness Sharing Comprehensive Hospital – Bringing Happiness to Patients.]
The words were warm, but to my eyes, they looked like a grotesquely twisted smile.
I hesitated for a moment before turning my head back.
A faint possibility crossed my mind.
‘Maybe… I can escape?’
The place I’d entered was right in the middle of the city.
I turned my body.
Beyond the transparent glass windows.
The view outside the hospital was fully visible.
But what unfolded there was not the cityscape I’d hoped for.
A black forest.
The scenery beyond the exit had already transformed into an alien world.
The moment I looked at it, the darkness pulled at my gaze like a hook.
A bizarre sensation, as if black shadows were slowly seeping into my pupils.
My vision shook, and I felt something go awry somewhere.
My mind flashed white, and soon all sounds vanished.
...
"Ah."
When I came to, I was somehow standing at the hospital entrance.
The moment I reached for the door, a stinging pain shot up from my fingertips, holding me back.
My face went cold in an instant.
Just moments ago, I’d clearly been standing in the middle of the lobby—
‘...When?’
Shh—
Regardless of my question, the automatic door slid open slowly.
Soon, the outside view appeared before my eyes, unobstructed even by a small barrier.
A black forest, not a single ray of light penetrating it.
Trees rising like twisted monsters.
In the utter stillness without a whisper of wind, branches writhed as if struggling on their own.
And then.
From the dark earth below, something formless began crawling into view.
An arm whose end I couldn’t even gauge.
It was grotesquely bent, as if human and animal limbs had been forcibly mashed together.
As faint light from beyond the automatic door brushed it, I saw skin clinging and peeling like rotting flesh.
The door hadn’t closed yet.
The massive arm groped the air, then slowly stretched toward the threshold where I stood, as if searching for something.
I was frozen in place, unable even to breathe.
It’s coming closer.
I have to run...
Hurry...
I need to run...
...Run now!!!
Even as my brain screamed warnings, my body kept signaling me not to move.
Instinct whispered.
The moment you move, you’re done.
In that brief void where reason and instinct clashed.
The arm was already right in front of my nose.
Poised to engulf my body any second.
My muscles throughout tensed like stone.
Too late.
My heart surged into my throat, but I couldn’t twitch a single finger.
And in that moment.
Shh—
With the small sound of the automatic door closing, the massive arm sank slowly back into the forest’s darkness, as if losing its target.
For a while, nothing changed beneath the ground.
Even so, I couldn’t tear my eyes away.
Only after confirming no change for a few more minutes could I finally exhale the breath I’d been holding.
My impression of what I’d just seen was simple.
...Going out there means death.
No need to verify it.
Nothing else came to mind but instant death the moment I stepped out.
It was the first time I’d felt ‘death’ so viscerally.
If my hand hadn’t been injured and I hadn’t come to this hospital?
I would’ve walked right out without warning and been seized by that unfathomable arm.
...No, if I hadn’t been injured in the first place, I wouldn’t have come here at all.
I couldn’t tell if my luck was bad or if it was actually fortunate.
One thing was clear.
...That unfathomable arm hadn’t spared me.
It had been blocked by some invisible barrier, unable to close the distance beyond a certain point.
Then, words Kim Sera had said while exploring the Underground Sewer Urban Legend flashed through my mind.
“Ordinary anomalies designate the initial entry point as a sort of safe zone. Unless you voluntarily leave it, you’re safe while staying inside. That’s a rule too. A one-sided game-over before it even starts isn’t recognized under the contract.”
That was her explanation: those caught in anomalies were guaranteed a degree of safety as long as they didn’t voluntarily cross that boundary.
But there was a condition.
“However, safe zones aren’t eternal. There are conditions. Like the last Gwangju Station anomaly, they can collapse after time passes. Or other conditions might apply.”
I organized the situation in my head.
I turned my body and slowly moved away from the main entrance.
I didn’t know the exact name of the anomaly I was caught in now.
There were no investigators or staff here to explain it.
For now, I decided to borrow the name on the lobby desk and call it the ‘Happiness Sharing Comprehensive Hospital Anomaly.’
I tried to push away the fear and direct my mind elsewhere.
Let’s compile what I knew about anomalies so far.
Entry conditions for anomalies... still unclear.
But given the current situation, it seemed like I’d been suddenly transferred from the city to this hospital in front of a bizarre forest.
In other words, credibility increased for the idea that it was a personal teleportation phenomenon, not a shift of the entire space.
I slowly scanned the lobby again.
If it was a newborn anomaly, that’d be one thing, but otherwise, there should be traces left by prior investigators somewhere.
As long as it hadn’t been neutralized, the principle was to leave at least minimal self-rescue guides for civilians to reduce damage.
So, if this anomaly wasn’t brand new, there was a high chance of investigator-left info somewhere here.
And soon.
As I scanned around, my eyes caught a single sheet of paper on the lobby floor in the center.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
You are currently in Sector 312-H-31.
You have entered the ‘Happiness Sharing Mental Hospital’ anomaly.
This document is not a low-quality joke or prank.
From now on, no matter what you were doing or why you entered the hospital, it doesn’t matter anymore.
Sector 312-H-31, aka ‘Happiness Sharing Mental Hospital,’ randomly summons people who enter hospitals or clinics at extremely low probabilities as ‘patients.’
The place you’re standing is no longer a normal medical facility; it has been transformed into an anomaly structure.
This guide is only effective inside.
Do not take it outside or carry it beyond the hospital boundaries.
The moment the document leaves the hospital boundary, the paper auto-deletes.
The rules listed below are the minimal guidelines for surviving here.
The Anomaly Control Bureau bears no responsibility for mental corruption, bodily harm, or death resulting from violations.
The rulebook must be read only in the 1st floor lobby.
All attempts to transmit or share externally are nullified.
[Happiness Sharing Mental Hospital – Rules]
Rule 1. Patient Identity
1-1. You are a patient here.
1-2. If a nurse or doctor approaches, always maintain patient demeanor.
Rule 2. Hospital Boundaries
2-1. Do not try to leave the hospital.
2-2. Even if the entrance is open, the moment you step out, your record as a patient is ‘terminated.’
2-3. ‘Termination’ is not discharge.
Rule 3. Windows and Forest
3-1. Do not look at the forest outside the hospital building.
3-2. If the forest enters your view, immediately close your eyes and count to 10.
3-3. Even if you see a hand from the forest, do not react.
Rule 4. ㅡㅡㅡ
Rule 5. ㅡㅡㅡ
Rule 6. ㅡㅡㅡ
Rule 00. Escape
0-1. What you must do to leave here is simple.
0-2. Complete treatment and receive a ‘normal’ diagnosis from the doctor.
0-3. After diagnosis, you must complete the billing process.
0-4. Without completing billing, discharge is not permitted.
0-5. If the treatment result is not ‘normal,’ you remain a patient.
Safe Zone: 1st Floor Lobby
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The rulebook had the most important parts blanked out.
Probably info even the investigators couldn’t formalize into rules.
As I moved my gaze down, sloppy scribbles at the bottom caught my eye.
[Fuck. Where the hell is this? I came just to get an IV for a hangover headache—]
[...Happiness Sharing Comprehensive Hospital? I just came for stomach pain!!! If I knew it’d be like this, I wouldn’t have—]
[...Got an interview tomorrow. Should I be happy or what? Fuck. ...Better yet. I’ll go to the army instead..send me back—]
[I was at Seongsim Hospital until just now. Did they change the name..? Anyway, that above is bullshit right? Don’t prank me. I don’t fall for—]
[Time’s off. The clock’s been stuck at 3:17 since earlier.]
[Outside… arm. What the hell is that..? What is it! The guy who came in with me just now—]
Countless scribbles left by people unable to accept the situation.
They looked like graffiti, but each letter conveyed despair, bewilderment, and terror of the unknown.