Chapter 130
Chapter 130
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Happiness
-----------------------------------------------------------------
After hearing that he had to be killed, Yoo Daon hadn't been in her right mind.
Just thinking about that fact made her stomach churn, and after he left with Song Arin and Jang Chaeyeon, she had leaned against the wall and dry-heaved.
"I'm happy right now."
Yoo Daon had smiled and said that to him once.
It wasn't a lie.
She really was happy.
Even if her life had been tough since childhood, it wasn't just because it was hard.
That's why she couldn't even entertain the idea of that man dying for her.
Of course, it wasn't just that.
There was something Jang Chaeyeon always said to him.
"Believe."
How could she say to believe so easily?
What if Jang Chaeyeon's trust drove him to his death?
Wouldn't that be the worst thing for him?
Since Yoo Daon couldn't know what burden her own trust might place on him, she couldn't say she believed in him.
Of course, that wasn't the only reason.
Trust was a word far removed from her.
She couldn't trust herself.
How could someone who couldn't trust herself trust another?
She stared blankly at the man running ahead of her, lost in thought.
[Fourth - Advance]
She recalled the phrase from the room she couldn't leave without doing XX.
What had that phrase been?
She knew without looking. The wish Yoo Daon held was overly presumptuous and one that continued to this day.
And she didn't want to give up that wish.
That's why there was something she could do.
Yoo Daon's eyes turned to the man running beside her.
As always, she opened her manual.
"...Help me."
She had to find what she wanted.
[Office Manual]
[SX - Room You Can't Leave Without Doing XX]
0. If you enter this room alone, there's a way to reflect the wish of the person who put you in there.
0-1. The method is as follows.
This time would be different.
*
I'm running like mad alongside Yoo Daon.
For a moment, I wonder where everyone else is, but seeing my expression, she runs with me, her hands trembling.
Her shaky breaths as she runs beside me have steadied.
...
...
The two of us run together.
But just running away like this wouldn't solve anything.
The ceiling crumbles like sand.
Glancing vaguely out the window, I see a world already shining in golden light.
[Name: - ]
[Age: - ]
[Talent: - ]
[Trait: - ]
[Background: The great day is near. A day of noise and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness.]
[Weakness: - ]
And my eyes are increasingly failing me.
-Thud!
A chunk of stone pierces through the wall and flies at us.
"Daon!"
[Chronos's Shield: 10 seconds]
Yoo Daon reaches out, and a translucent barrier unfolds, blocking the stone.
"Just hold on a little longer! If we can turn back, we'll tell you everything that happened to us!"
The more the Management Bureau turned to ruins, the harder it was to find our way.
We probably couldn't use the elevator anymore.
I pull the manual from my pocket.
[Office Manual]
[ ]
The manual shows nothing.
-Thud!
I duck to avoid an incoming stone chunk.
We're still okay for now.
But the door for one person probably hadn't opened.
"Daon."
Yoo Daon looks at me at my words.
"...I'll buy time."
Without Critical, how long could I last against that thing?
...
Yoo Daon looks at me.
I couldn't let her worry.
"I'll buy time and hold out to the end."
I draw my pistol from my pocket.
Yeah. Let's do my best.
If we talk and I judge that guy as much as possible, maybe I'll get lucky with a Critical.
-Crack...
Before I know it, the ceiling has crumbled, and golden light pours down on us.
In the light like a sunset, Yoo Daon looks at me and nods.
As if realizing something, her gaze turns far away.
"Got it."
"...Thank you."
She'd finally made up her mind.
"Then, this way."
"Daon, do you know the path?"
"I just checked the manual."
"Really?"
"It reads surprisingly well when things get dangerous."
Yoo Daon answers nonchalantly and starts walking.
She leads me, and we run again.
Dodging the light as much as possible, we head deeper into the Management Bureau.
How long did we run?
Yoo Daon stops and looks at me.
"Here."
"Yes?"
Behind her door was a single glass door.
This wasn't an elevator or stairs?
"The manual told you about a place like this?"
"Yeah. It said it would open if you were here, Jaeheon."
Yoo Daon speaks innocently.
"If you're here, I'll probably be okay."
Yoo Daon smiles at me.
She opens the door.
And what I see is...
[Room You Must Do XX In.]
"What?"
The moment I mutter,
-Thump!
Yoo Daon slams into my back with all her might, shoving me.
"Urk!"
My body tumbles into the room, and
Yoo Daon looks down at me.
The manual opens.
[Office Manual]
[SX - Room You Can't Leave Without Doing XX]
1. This room appears randomly in the Gangseo Branch. Until it returns to its place, employees must not wander alone or with someone they have a bad relationship with.
2. This room is not a lewd facility. Management Bureau employees seeking secret meetings should find another room.
3. This room will absolutely not open until each person's deepest achievable desire is fulfilled.
4. The sign expresses each person's deepest desire.
5. Caution: Recently, Management Bureau employees attempting planned murders using this room's properties have been frequently discovered. Those caught will be subject to 'resignation' measures, and the Management Bureau bears no responsibility.
"My wish."
Yoo Daon mutters, looking at the room's wall.
Words appear on the sign.
[Room That Won't Open Until Yoo Daon Dies]
"Daon!"
-Thud!
The door closes.
Through the glass door, Yoo Daon looks at me.
"Jaeheon."
"Daon, don't do anything crazy, open the door please!"
...
Golden light shines down on her head.
Yoo Daon clasps her hands together.
Before I know it, she's crying.
"Daon!"
Her eyes meet mine.
"I..."
Yoo Daon whispers from beyond the door, looking at me.
"I've never been afraid of death."
"...Daon!"
Brighter than the sunset, the golden light illuminates her body.
"But now I get it. Dying is this scary."
Her delicately clasped hands tremble.
"Disappearing from existence is this terrifying."
The golden light pours on her shoulders as Yoo Daon looks at me.
"But."
She lowers her hands and looks at me.
...
"There's something even scarier that I've realized."
...
I'm reflected in Yoo Daon's teary eyes.
"You dying scares me more."
...
Yoo Daon wipes her tears.
"I've said it before."
"Daon, stay calm and open the door first..."
"I said I could die three hundred times for you, right?"
Her shoulders scatter like sand, then reform, repeating.
Yoo Daon herself is literally crumbling.
"So I'll stay here."
...
"Jaeheon."
"Daon, there's still a way. If we both go in and just hold out, that's it. Come in here quick! We just need both of us inside!"
"I just read it too, but it said variables could arise."
I hurriedly look at the manual.
The manual, which had been open, is now closed, showing only the cover.
"That's not certain yet—"
"You know what, Jaeheon?"
Yoo Daon looks at me.
Even as her body scatters like sand in the golden light, her smile catches the light, shining brighter than anything.
"I'm so happy right now."
-Thud!
A massive boulder slams into her body, and in the blinding golden light, she turns and runs toward someone.
Soon, with dazzling golden light, drumbeats echo.
-Doom, doom, doom...
-Thud! Thud!
Amid sounds of something falling and breaking, screams, and Yoo Daon's voice.
Under the pouring golden light, she faces off against a familiar-faced man, talking about something.
The man glares at her with bulging eyes, and she looks at him with her usual smile.
Finally, the golden light intensifies, and the noises fade into the drumbeats.
"...Open."
-Thud!
I kick the door, but it doesn't budge.
"Hurry."
I grab the manual with both hands.
"Tell me quick."
[Office Manual]
"Hurry!"
I scream, clutching the manual like a madman.
[Office Manual]
But the manual doesn't open any page.
Nothing appears in my eyes.
Even so, the door didn't open for two hours.
*
-Creak...
The words on the sign fade.
The door opens, and a acrid smell hits my nose. The golden light from the sky is gone, replaced by sand like a desert everywhere.
Maybe everyone turned to sand.
"Chaeyeon!"
No calming response.
"Arin!"
No irritated reply.
"Daon...!"
No ever-smiling face.
...
I force my feet through the sinking sand.
How long did I walk?
Among countless debris, only the branch director's desk remained intact in its place.
I slowly tap the branch director's desk.
It opens, revealing the now-familiar basement.
Unlike before, I walk down alone.
...
And before my eyes is the now-open iron door.
[Name: Iron Door]
[Age: X]
[Talent: X]
[Trait: Selection]
[Background: The door opened for humanity's last hope.]
[Weakness: -]
Humanity's last hope.
Was this really necessary?
As I step inside, a chill accompanies the sight of numerous machines.
Slowly, I walk forward.
Soon, before my eyes is...
"...A watch?"
A single pocket watch sits primly on the desk.
A translucent window appears above the watch.
[Name: ]
[Age: -]
[Talent: Wind-up]
[Trait: Wind-up]
[Background: Humanity's final bastion continues its arduous operation, having skipped through countless times together.]
[Weakness: If used just a little more, this watch will also meet its end.]
...
Was all this for this tiny thing?
I pick up the watch and look at it.
Where the hour and minute hands should be, there's only a winding key.
I grasp the winding key.
-Click.
As it winds, the world begins to twist.
With sickening vertigo, the world spins.
"...Huh?"
I'm standing on the branch director's desk.
The branch director stares at me in shock for a moment, then her expression turns deadly serious.
"...You used it, the watch?"
After a brief silence, the branch director looks at me.
"Yes."
"...Let's talk."
She looks at me with a calm expression.
"Before that, Director."
"...Yes."
"What day is it today?"
I ask the branch director for the date.
Before being taken to the mountain.
I'd already met Ailin by then, so no fish or vitamins.
"Director."
...
The branch director looks at me with wide-open eyes.
"I'm fighting a regressor."
The branch director's eyes widen greatly.
Time hadn't turned back.