Chapter 52
Chapter 52
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 52
Chapter Title: Lights Out at the Management Bureau #7
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A bizarre sense of floating washed over me. I'd literally thrown myself through the window, bracing to hit the floor and roll.
"Huh?"
But not only did I not roll, I was suddenly standing.
More precisely, I found myself standing with my eyes open.
"What...?"
The world.
It was too bright.
After being in the dark for so long, opening my eyes felt like getting hit by a flashbang. But it was just an illusion, and soon the scenery came into focus normally.
Current location.
Inside the elevator.
What's in front of me.
A brightly lit corridor of the isolation facility!
Had I come back to life?!
Was I really back?!
"Ah!"
A surge of joy nearly brought tears to my eyes.
This bright light...!
I'd longed to see it so much!
Yes!
The window had been the right answer after all!
The window I'd chosen was the correct one!
I'd been going in circles because I didn't realize that!
You pathetic idiot! That's why you'd thrown your tantrum like a kid crying for toys at the mart? Section Chief Lee Do-hyung down in hell must be laughing at you! Agent Gognija must've been so frustrated!
"Grong? What's wrong?"
I turned at the voice.
A beauty with wavy purple bobbed hair.
It was Spandal.
"Sniff! Senior Spandal!"
Overwhelmed with relief, I hugged her tight.
"U-Uh? W-Wait. Why... why are you...?"
She wasn't some monster. I could feel human warmth. This softness and heat were proof of a normal human.
Even if Spandal was acting a bit off, she couldn't be a monster. Whatever monstrous changes happened were surely just from the anomaly like the lights-out at the Management Bureau.
"I-It's awkward... like this... y-you should let go..."
Even as she said it, Spandal didn't push me away. Instead, she patted my back encouragingly. As expected of Spandal and her love for her juniors. From now on, any attack on her is an attack on me.
I wiped my tears and pulled back.
"Um..."
Spandal scratched her cheek, looking troubled.
"Senior Spandal, my fear just exploded out of nowhere. I got scared thinking I'd run into a monster."
"Sigh... Even so, hugging your senior suddenly? That could be a problem."
"But it was so scary...! Anyway, thank you! I'm calm now!"
"Good to hear..."
I was back.
Finally back in the normal world.
The relief was overwhelming. This bright place was where I belonged. I'd do better from now on.
Uncovering the Management Bureau's secrets... that could wait. Just do my agent duties normally. Once you're in, there's no getting out anyway.
Everything happened because of the lights-out anomaly. That made sense. Illusions and contradictions kept piling up. It definitely wasn't normal.
"Alright, then. Shall we check on Isolation Team duties?"
"Yes! Senior Spandal!"
But then.
A thought struck me.
What if I had to trim the Tooth Tree again here? What would happen?
Amid that series of horrors.
I'd trimmed the Tooth Tree twice.
First in the dark with the lights out, then after activating the Reality Recognition Device when it got bright again.
Wait a second.
Even with the lights on... it wasn't fully normal, right? After living fine for a bit, I got hypnotized by the vampire and woke up again. Trimming the Tooth Tree meant that cycle repeating...
"So, what duties are we checking?"
I asked cautiously.
"Yeah, first off."
If here.
If Spandal said we were going to trim the Tooth Tree.
It felt like an ominous premonition that everything would loop again.
"Ah, that sounds good."
"What is it?"
"The fake Management Bureau agent."
"Pardon?"
"We captured him alive and locked him up. You should see that."
Wait.
Fake Management Bureau agent...?
"Senior Spandal. That fake Management Bureau agent...?"
"You'll see when we get there."
A meaningful smile.
Chills ran down my spine.
The Tooth Tree.
It would've been better if she'd said we were going to trim the Tooth Tree.
"Ah."
Why.
Why.
Why.
If I'd really escaped.
Why no resolution message?
"Let's start work by ripping out Section Chief Jo Seong-chun's neck."
It wasn't the isolation room door that opened.
The window appeared out of nowhere.
Creak.
"Hey! Don't just barge in through the window! My neck's so long, my body won't fit right!"
Section Chief Jo Seong-chun crawled out from the window.
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[You died after your neck was pulled and your face turned pale.]
[Death Count: 13 → 14]
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Inside the elevator.
Bright corridor.
"..."
I hadn't escaped.
Regression doesn't reset my mental state. I'd thought I'd escaped just moments ago, but even that was a lie. The pain of my neck stretching was vivid.
"Ha, haha! Hahaha!"
Before despair and fear could consume me, I burst into laughter. The laughs kept coming. I didn't know why.
But one thing was clear.
The only thing I could trust was the status window messages.
If I'd escaped, a message should've appeared...!
"Grong?"
Without turning, I bolted.
"I'm not falling for it!"
The corridor was brightly lit.
But even this was a trick.
"I'll survive, no matter what!"
The stinging nape sharpened my focus instead.
Senior Spandal... I trusted you. That gentle embrace in the bright light. But it was all fake.
I wouldn't blame Spandal for this.
I had only myself to blame.
To survive, I had to do anything. Sinking into despair and fear would just rack up meaningless death counts.
I had a hunch that if I gave up here and died infinitely, something even more terrifying than that would come.
So run!
Keep running!
"Arghhhhh!"
I unleashed the rage boiling inside. Fear and anger mixed, overflowing. Spit flew from my mouth with screams, tears streamed from my eyes. Snot even dripped—pathetic.
So what!
Think!
What to do now!
"Ah...!"
Come to think of it, wasn't this the first regression after activating the Reality Recognition Device?
Then there was something to test.
The window!
I didn't know exactly, but "regression" meant the timeline rewound. So now, I needed to find that possibly intact "window" and go through it.
Things had gotten too tangled to think deeply. But what was sure was that this was the first death and regression after activating the device, back to the lit underground facility point.
If I proceeded as is, I'd meet the vampire and repeat the same thing.
So what if I found a window now and went through?
Maybe it'd resolve!
"Where...!"
I found the window.
The very first one.
The one Spandal had shown me. I didn't know when it appeared suddenly. I'd suspected it and didn't enter. I should've. This was the price.
"Huh!"
While running, the window appeared.
That exact window.
A purely decorative one, questionable if it even worked.
Yes! Through there!
"Hup!"
I threw myself at the window. It looked decorative. I might crash into the wall.
But.
No collision with the wall.
My body passed through into the window!
Escape...!
Whoosh!
Opening my eyes again, I was inside the elevator.
Bright corridor ahead.
"Damn it...!"
Message!
No message?!
Then this wasn't escape either?
I'd thought it'd work and tried immediately.
Yet no message.
"Grong?"
"Yeah."
Spandal's normal face.
"..."
Success?
Or failure?
Maybe in this phenomenon, messages don't appear due to some rule or condition?
The corridor was bright, Spandal human. If this was real escape, the hypothesis that no message appears here would hold. But if not?
If I hadn't escaped... the series of illusion-or-dream events leading to the vampire would play out, and I'd wake up at some point, repeating.
At this point, I thought.
Assume everything's an illusion.
What if I don't wake up?
I woke because I met the vampire.
So if I avoid the vampire?
Could I just live in this hyper-realistic illusion without the extreme fear and chase?
The option of giving up.
It tempted me so much.
"..."
But after dying over ten times today, I thought: settling into the illusion might lead to something worse.
And.
Vampire!
Hatred for the vampire!
Maybe this whole mess was the vampire's plot to make me give up chasing it?!
I felt my delusions bloating into madness.
I had to decide.
1. Accept this as reality, live while avoiding vampires.
2. This is fake. Resolve it before it gets worse.
"Grong? You seem off. You look unwell. Scared?"
"Yeah. Senior Spandal. I'm scared. Really scared."
"Yeah, that happens. First time and all. But advice: better to be a coward than brave."
"Brave guys die early?"
"You get it."
Actually, talking to Spandal now felt like healing.
Right now, she's human.
Right now.
This conversation, her reactions—all human.
Until she turns monstrous, she's my reliable senior. Even if she changes in ten seconds... these few words now are precious.
Maybe that's why.
Spandal felt so dear.
"But Senior Spandal, looks like I don't wanna be a coward."
"Gained some courage?"
"Yeah."
I mustered my courage.
"Take this!"
I yelled energetically.
"You thorn monster bitch!"
"Huh... Kyaa?!"
The moment I kicked Spandal's shin with all my might.
Whoosh.
I suddenly felt the world darken.
When did the lights go out?
I thought they were on at first.
"Grong... what... are... you... doing."
Shadows draped Spandal's body. Pure black overtook her, eyes popping up all over, thorns sprouting.
"Fake after all!"
I'd gotten a crystal-clear, undeniable clue!
1. Simply going through a window isn't the answer!
I'd regretted it endlessly. If I'd activated the Reality Recognition Device and gone straight through the window Spandal showed, maybe it'd resolved.
Confirming that wasn't it felt so refreshing!
Like finally cutting losses on a stock I'd held three years through a -50% beating, hope shattered.
Escape needs something more.
I shelved the possibility of "no escape method." I'd have quit long ago if I thought that.
Running, I think.
I had a route I'd made.
Join Section Chief Jo Seong-chun.
Go to the lab.
And I'd figured the main killer ghost here. In my two deaths here, wasn't it the Neck-Pulling Pale-Face Woman both times?
One possibility.
Maybe the root of this phenomenon is.
"That peekaboo?"
The Neck-Pulling Pale-Face Woman as the main culprit?
I keep thinking.
Message window?
Neck-Pulling Pale-Face Woman.
It appeared in the messages.
In this underground isolation facility.
The ghost in the messages appeared multiple times and killed me twice. This must mean something.
First time, I just got got.
Second, Section Chief Jo Seong-chun got neck-pulled into a ghost and chased me, pulling my neck to kill.
Neck-Pulling Pale-Face Woman—that's the main one. She didn't speak much. But Section Chief Jo Seong-chun, maybe due to the anomaly, as a dead ghost yapped at me nonstop.
Maybe the hint's there.
No sooner had I thought that.
Peek.
A pure white face appeared ahead!
"You fucking bitch!"
Now anger overrode fear...!
That giraffe-neck bitch might be behind this!
No defeating her head-on. Even Section Chief Jo Seong-chun went down in one hit. Unlike the vampire, no beating her.
Had to evade for now.
Peek.
Peek.
Peek.
"Arghhh!"
Every corner I turned, she appeared!
And.
Swoosh.
Spandal neared—or windows appeared on the corridor walls.
Pure white hands emerged from those windows... Ah!
Lightning struck my head.
"Pure white hands!"
These fucking pure white hands!
Just like the Neck-Pulling Pale-Face Woman's!
"This is it! This!"
The odds she's the culprit skyrocketed...!
Clues! Clues are piling up!
Keep getting clues!
Peek.
The pure white face slid right up to me, shuddering.
"You bastardttt!"
Next time, I'll solve this!
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[You died after your neck was pulled and your face turned pale.]
[Death Count: 14 → 15]
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