Chapter 79

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Translator: True Detective

Chapter: 79

Chapter Title: The Threshold Guardian's Burden

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Minus 300 Layer Breakthrough.

The elevator began to shake violently, as if its cables had snapped.

Then the white lights flickered before switching to green ones, and from the speaker that had been playing announcements, the sound of someone sobbing leaked out.

Clunk!

The elevator shook so badly that maintaining balance was growing increasingly difficult.

This wasn't just a descent anymore. This was a freefall.

The elevator was plummeting downward.

As the announcement about passing through the "Depths" ended, the doors of the plummeting elevator tried to force themselves open.

The green lights inside the elevator turned red, and from outside the doors, someone screamed and pounded, begging to be let in.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

The scream was so desperate that I wondered if we should just pass by, and without thinking, I glanced at Eve. Our eyes met, and she shook her head, warning me.

"In the Depths... there are especially many things that mimic humans. When the lights turn red... you can't trust anything..."

"Then that thing outside the door..."

"It's definitely not human... or maybe something that mistakenly thinks it's human..."

Whatever was outside the door wasn't human.

I decided to ignore the sounds coming from outside the elevator.

"We're about to... cross the third boundary. We'll be out of the Depths soon, so... if you feel anything wrong with your body or mind, tell me right away. I'll stop the elevator before any problems arise..."

As she spoke, cracks appeared in the mirrors inside the elevator, and indistinct shapes of other people began to appear through the shattered glass.

"What are those?"

"Uh... it's better not to know too much... They're afterimages of those who never reached their destination..."

"Afterimages?"

"Yes... the result of infinitely repeating death, denying an already determined outcome..."

Those who had tried to go to the same place we were heading and died were dying, rewinding, and reverse-replaying the entire process infinitely in the mirrors.

As if looping a specific timeframe over and over.

"Is there no way to save them?"

"Since they're literally afterimages... the originals are already dead and gone, so it wouldn't mean anything."

There's nothing we can do.

We can only hope they accept their deaths and end the loop themselves.

"Do-hyun... we're about to enter minus 400 layer... but before that, I need to check something. Do you feel any pain? Or are you hearing hallucinations or auditory ones? If it's hard to endure, tell me now..."

Eve pressed the [Emergency Stop] button.

The elevator came to a screeching halt just before entering -400 layer.

She must need to check one more time before going all the way down.

"As you can see, I'm fine. Perfectly normal, so no need to worry about my condition."

Physically and mentally, I'm completely fine right now.

And we've already broken through minus 300 layer. Stopping now feels wrong.

Above all, something told me that if I gave up and went back now, this chance wouldn't come again.

"Really, are you sure...? Do you feel pain in your liver or lungs that you wouldn't normally? Or feel like your mind is collapsing? No hallucinations or voices...?"

"Pardon? None at all?"

"Eh..."

When I answered nonchalantly with my usual expression, Eve looked up at me with a flustered face, as if she hadn't expected me to be this fine.

Is being perfectly fine that surprising?

"The deeper we go, the stronger the pressure gets... Breaking through minus 400 layer... you could die... We need to decide now. You're really completely fine, right?"

"Really, no issues at all. We can go deeper."

"Got it... Then... we can proceed..."

The next moment, the elevator plunged into -400 layer.

All the lights in the elevator went out, leaving only the floor indicator blinking.

A normal player would have died instantly upon entering -400 layer.

Now I understood why Eve kept checking my condition. She was genuinely worried I'd die.

Of course, for me, it was just a bit of ear pressure.

"No one's ever... endured this pressure before... Not humans, nor most anomalies... But as expected... you're different, Do-hyun."

As I cleared the pressure in my ears, Eve grabbed my arm and spoke in a muffled voice.

Eve's affinity had increased.

She seemed unable to believe we'd reached -400 layer together, her emotions a mix of joy and astonishment.

The place we were heading must be incredibly hard to reach.

A human would have burst from the "boundary pressure" long ago, and even most anomalies would have dissipated under the strain.

Yes, any ordinary anomaly would dissipate.

But Eve was fine.

'The deeper we go down, the stronger Eve becomes.'

The magnitude of power emanating from Eve was steadily growing.

The closer we got to our destination, the endpoint, the deeper her shadow became.

She was a being who darkened even more down here than on the surface.

Eve wasn't a typical calamity-grade anomaly.

An irregular without an exorcism method.

All anomalies in this world have their own exorcism methods, and she was the sole exception to that rule.

That secret was unraveling now.

400 layers below. Here, Eve was nothing short of a "catastrophe."

This must be her true form.

The description window had changed too.

Unlike when she was a calamity-grade without an exorcism method, now as a catastrophe-grade, a clear exorcism method was listed.

"Every anomaly has its own exorcism method."

One of the great rules of this world.

No anomaly escapes that rule.

Eve was no exception.

Shedding the mask of the elevator ghost calamity-grade anomaly, Eve had become a catastrophe-grade anomaly with a definite exorcism method.

Just like other catastrophes, the difficulty was absurdly high.

"We're almost there. Brace for impact..."

Thud!

The elevator arrived at its destination, and the fall stopped abruptly.

There was no arrival announcement. The doors simply opened quietly.

Before us stretched an underground space of unknown extent, too vast for a flashlight to illuminate fully.

"Is this the place you wanted to show me?"

The layer we'd finally reached after descending so far: "Minus 404 Layer."

Considering Eve's designation EVE-404 by the Management Bureau, it was a pretty symbolic number for her.

Is this the place she wanted to show me?

"No. This is just the path to the place I want to show you... The place I want Do-hyun to see is... a bit deeper. Can you follow me...?"

"Of course, now that we're here. I'm curious about what it is, so I'll follow to the end."

"...Thank you for being interested. Then follow me closely so you don't lose me. It's very dark here... easy to get lost..."

Eve stepped out of the elevator first.

Following her out, dry air, pitch-black darkness, and utter silence greeted me.

The atmosphere suggested something lurked in the shadows, but my senses detected nothing. Not even a single ant existed here.

This was an abandoned place shrouded in darkness, silent and quiet, where no one came and it wasn't easy to reach.

"What I wanted to show Do-hyun is right ahead..."

Passing cracked walls and collapsed concrete debris, we reached a spot plastered with damaged signs and warning plates covered in strange characters.

Ignoring the countless warnings, we pressed on until we reached the end of the narrowing corridor.

Finally, the heart of the hidden 404 layer revealed itself, and in the darkness-shrouded space, four structures came into view.

"No way, these are..."

"Yes... these are the 'doors' I've been guarding. I wanted to show you the hidden doors, Do-hyun. The doors to the other world that you can only reach by crossing reality and the other side."

The room ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠contained a total of four doors.

They were called doors, but they weren't the kind you could open and close normally.

'One is a well. Next to it, a slide. Then a ladder connected to the ceiling, and a frame containing a blank sheet.'

The well had a lid on it, and a chain blocked the slide to prevent sliding down.

The ladder was wrapped in rusted wire mesh to block climbing, and the blank sheet in the frame was smeared with filth.

Each door connected to the other world was sealed in its own way.

Eve had been guarding these otherworldly doors alone here for a long time.

From the moment she was born in this deep darkness, she'd been monitoring them like a mission, ensuring no one crossed.

"And sometimes, I have to block things that cross over from the doors."

"They cross over?"

"Yes... not often. But things that lost their way over there flow in here, or ones with incomprehensible malice cross over. If I can't block them first... they dig holes to reach the surface."

"Holes?"

"Yes... If I stop the elevator, the only entrance and exit, the trapped things dig holes to escape upward. Digging a hole is complicated and hard... but if they have the skill, they can escape."

You can't reach "-404 layer" by normal means.

Nor escape it.

Riding the elevator with Eve was the only proper way to arrive or leave. Anything else was invalid.

Arriving without the elevator counts as "intrusion."

And -404 layer was especially strict with intruders.

"No stairs reach here. No emergency exits either. To enter or leave, you have to dig a hole. But that's... overly difficult and exhausting..."

"Wait. Then what kind of bastard infiltrated here on his own, opened a door, extracted the Placenta of Dreams, and left?"

Who the hell was that guy?

I had no way to reach here on my own.

Even if there was a way, how many could pierce the boundary pressure to reach hidden 404 layer?

And he came to such an insanely hard-to-access place, caused chaos, and vanished.

If he'd wanted real havoc, he could have unlocked all the doors and committed terrorism. But the intruder didn't.

"Actually... the real reason I brought you here, Do-hyun... is related to that."

"You have a request for me, don't you?"

"Yes..."

As expected, she didn't bring me just to sightsee.

Besides showing me around, she had a favor to ask. Probably to find the intruder.

"The truth is... there were originally 7 doors..."

"...Pardon?"

Wait, 7 in total?

Then why are there only 4 here?

This wasn't an intruder search request? Doors are missing.

My head spun for a moment. It seemed the intruder had stolen 3 doors outright.

"No, then where did the other 3 go?"

"I know for sure about one... I don't know the exact whereabouts of the other two..."

"Two doors are completely gone. Which door did the Placenta of Dreams come from? One of the stolen ones?"

"No... that one... the well over there."

The Placenta of Dreams that took over Hanmasaet Township Apartment came from the well.

The mysterious intruder opened the well, took out the Placenta of Dreams, handed it to Seol-yun, and stole 3 doors before fleeing.

"And this... is the hole the intruder dug..."

Sticky, tar-like substance coated the wall.

The intruder had approached by unknown means, dug this hole, stolen the doors, and escaped.

Perhaps giving the Placenta of Dreams to Seol-yun and causing chaos was a diversion. To lure Eve to the apartment...

Anyway, Eve had tried to track the intruder using the clues left on the wall but ultimately lost him.

"So, what were the stolen doors?"

"I numbered each door..."

The missing doors were numbers 2 and 4.

"Number 2 is in the shape of a laptop... It used to be a notebook, but as times changed, its form modernized. And 4 is a mirror..."

A laptop and a mirror.

"What lies beyond those doors?"

"I... don't know well either... The laptop with the blue screen was too complex for me to understand... The mirror seems related to the sky, but nothing has ever come through it."

"A incomprehensible laptop and an unpredictable mirror... Damn, the worst ones escaped."

"Yes... I'm sorry... I failed to guard them properly..."

"Why are you apologizing, Eve? It's the intruder's fault for breaking in when you were busy."

Out of 7 doors, 3 were gone, two being a blue-screened laptop and a mirror flipped vertically instead of horizontally.

Then what about the last one? She said she knew its whereabouts. I asked about the final missing door.

"The remaining one... it's..."

"What is it? I need to know to track it. Tell me quickly."

"Well... the truth is..."

Eve hesitated to answer my question.

Why? Is she connected to the missing door?

"Why can't you answer? Is there a big problem? Tell me so I can help you, Eve."

"...There's one secret I haven't told you yet... I'm about to reveal it now... You need to prepare yourself..."

She told me what she'd been hiding all this time.

Why she became the elevator ghost and went up.

How she escaped this place. She confessed everything to me.

"When I first gained consciousness and opened my eyes, I was left alone here... No one around. Such a quiet place. I don't know how long I was alone here."

For an unbelievably long time.

Eve had wandered -404 layer without even dying.

Her fate from the moment of birth confined her here and made her guard the doors.

Now I understood why words like "sacrifice" and "offering" were in her description.

She was a gatekeeper born to protect humanity.

And...

"I'm bound to this place... so I couldn't leave. So... I opened it."

"Opened it?"

"Yes... Out of the 7 doors, I opened one with my own hands."

"No way..."

"The elevator was the only way I could leave here. And the way to return. So I opened it. The 7th door that newly appeared before me..."

She too was a being that emerged through a door.

An otherworldly entity that ascended to reality via the door.

Entity name EVE-404, Watcher of the Threshold.

Confirming her true identity triggered the challenge completion.

A ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠small key dropped into my palm.

A item that can summon Eve and share her duty.

It contained the original sin of her opening one of the 7 sealed doors.

"This place existing... must never be discovered by anyone... It's an unrecorded place. Beneath reality is the other side. Beneath that, the depths. And beneath the depths is here... But it got exposed because of me. Because I went out..."

"Wait, Eve. Calm down."

"Because of me... reality... got ruined... It's all my fault... I can't bear the guilt... I want to die, but my duty won't let me..."

"Eve."

She poured out the weight of the sin she'd hidden until now.

And collapsed.

The gatekeeper who should have guarded the doors here alone for life.

Out of longing for the outside world.

In unbearable solitude.

Opened a door herself.

And was freed.

2 doors leaked out.

The intruder here is unidentified.

In a way, humanity faced the absolute worst situation.

"I... got too excited... I don't deserve it... I'm sorry... What I truly wanted to show you, Do-hyun... might be this shameless side of me..."

What had changed the Eve who silently guarded the doors?

Probably me.

Eve doesn't blame me. But the one who kept asking for her help and dragged her out, while she lived by the rules, was none other than me.

I definitely share responsibility.

Above all, I couldn't let her drown in guilt and collapse alone.

Even if she opened one door herself out of 7. She'd faithfully guarded the other 6 until now.

Eve deserves a reward.

"You'll... surely be disillusioned with me..."

"What nonsense. Why would I be disillusioned with you?"

"But I..."

"Stop blaming yourself. Why should you bear all the guilt and collapse? No one asked you to guard this place alone forever."

Most people don't even know this place exists.

She'd protected humanity alone in a place no one acknowledged.

Spending countless long years in a place with no company, just darkness. Even I'd want to go out.

People can ride elevators too. Why feel guilty over that and want to die?

If there's a problem, solve it.

That's why Fixers exist.

"Trying to shoulder everything alone will just make your hair fall out from stress. So now, share that weight with me."

"How could I... presume..."

"You wanted to ask, right? That's why you brought me here, to rely on me. Because it's too much alone. Right?"

Eve bowed her head in shame, unable to respond.

She wants to open up about her struggles. And rely on me.

I know even without words. I understand.

"I'm a monstrous being... You'll hate me..."

"Geez, why are you so negative? Lift your head and stand up. You're not monstrous. On the contrary, I want to get closer to you, Eve. So don't belittle yourself. You've tried hard enough and done excellently."

I approached Eve, who stood awkwardly unable to come closer, and hugged her first.

Perhaps she longed for acknowledgment and warmth from others.

She came seeking someone to rely on because it was too burdensome alone.

It's okay now. I can carry her burden with her sufficiently.

This ridiculous power must be for this.

This world is too irrational and unstable, needing normalization.

I have the ability. So let's share the duty.

Together, it's twice as easy.

Her affinity rose a bit more.

Eve sobbed in my embrace, then hugged me back tightly.

"Transfer your duty to me. And commission me. Ask for help."

"Really... is it okay...? To ask you to... share this burden... Can I dare request it...?"

"Yes. It's okay."

I took out the Key of the Boundary.

Yes, this was literally a key.

A key to free the Watcher of the Threshold from her heavy duty.

A key to help resolve this situation.

Soon, the rights to the remaining doors except the elevator she'd opened herself transferred to me.

And the Watcher of the Threshold became mine as well.