Chapter 163
Chapter 163
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: 163. Absence of Intellect
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I open the manual.
[Office Manual]
[Gangbuk Special Hospital - 6th Floor]
6. Cases of emerging unscathed from this floor are not all that common. However, compiling the accounts of survivors, it seems one must beware of the "thing that speaks backwards."
7. Additionally, no one who has encountered and survived the "thing that speaks backwards" exists to this day. Please exercise caution.
The thing that speaks backwards.
I knew exactly what it referred to.
Blood-soaked patient gowns were scattered on the floor.
As if someone had carefully stripped them off, the bloodied clothes were neatly laid out on the ground.
"I'll go check for an exit."
"I'm coming with you."
Yoo Daon and Jang Chaeyeon walked up the hallway, while Song Arin and I checked on the people trembling in fear.
People banging their heads against the wall while muttering something, or burying their faces between their legs in terror.
Anyone could see something was off.
It wasn't that trembling in fear was strange.
The problem was that their actions were far too devoid of intellect for people gripped by terror.
They weren't even thinking of hiding somewhere, expressing gratitude for their survival, checking on those around them, denying reality, or mourning their losses.
Not the slightest sign of any such response showed in the people wearing patient gowns.
"Don't these people seem a bit off to you?"
There's one person who would know best in a situation like this.
Song Arin, hearing my words, furrowed her brow as she looked at the people.
"...You're right."
She murmured while gazing at them.
"Their emotions are fragmented."
"What do you mean?"
"It's just one primal fear. No sadness, no anger, no regret. Nothing else can be felt."
Song Arin looked around at the people.
"They seem like people who've had their intellect stripped away."
Removal of intellect.
Song Arin and I quickly exchanged glances.
In the meantime, Yoo Daon and Jang Chaeyeon walked back over to us.
"There's a door in the hallway."
"Can we get out?"
"It's locked. Looks like it needs a key."
Jang Chaeyeon shook her head.
"We might be able to force it open, but even if we did, it'd make a huge noise, so we didn't touch it for now."
"Good call."
The door was locked. Just knowing that much was helpful for now.
I had no idea what might happen if we forced it open.
"Has anyone here heard that monster from earlier—or at least something like it—speak?"
Thanks to the Team Leader warning us of the danger so quickly, we'd managed to escape in time, but that meant we hadn't even gotten a chance to lay eyes on the monster.
Of course, what would've happened if we had is obvious.
"I heard it."
Yoo Daon raised her hand.
"What did it say?"
"I'm so curious what tonight's dinner will be."
Yoo Daon murmured.
"And... uh, don't run away. I'm saying I'm hungry."
...
I mulled over Yoo Daon's words.
Blood-smeared walls and floors, and people talking about being hungry.
"Isn't this place like a restaurant?"
"A restaurant?"
The Team Leader repeated my words and murmured.
"Yeah. I don't know the reason, but according to Arin, these people's intellect is severely diminished."
Talk of hunger, and people with lowered intellect.
"Honestly, there aren't easier prey than people lacking intelligence."
For a species that survived through intellect, stripping away intelligence is no different from taking away their greatest weapon.
"In other words, if we think of this as a restaurant."
"A restaurant..."
Jang Chaeyeon furrowed her brow slightly.
"Then there must be an entrance to the restaurant too."
There has to be a path.
"...But."
Song Arin, who had been listening to us until then, murmured.
"When we first came in, wasn't the wall clean?"
...
Hearing Song Arin, I recalled the scene when we entered.
The wall had been clean.
If it hadn't been clean from the start, it would've stuck in our memories.
Human memory always clings more to the abnormal than the everyday.
"...The walls were clean."
That means.
"Someone's been cleaning."
The moment Song Arin and I locked eyes,
"Something's coming."
The Team Leader murmured and grabbed my arm.
Thudding footsteps approached.
Should we hide now?
We could hide, but then we might not find info on the exit.
Someone had to stay and observe.
"Arin and I will stay. Everyone else, hide."
"What about you, Jaeheon...!"
"Now."
Yoo Daon's eyes shook slightly at my firm words.
"Let's go."
Jang Chaeyeon pulled Yoo Daon and the Team Leader inside.
Soon, only Song Arin and I remained in the hallway.
I hurriedly took off my vest and started putting on a patient gown, and Song Arin, catching on, quickly stripped off her vest and layered a patient gown over her clothes.
"N-N-N-New...!"
"You can go in too, Arin."
"No way...?"
Frowning deeply while donning the blood-soaked gown, Song Arin still diligently put it on.
-Thud, thud...
The footsteps grew closer.
Song Arin and I hurriedly blended into the crowd of patients.
"Ughhh..."
I walked into the muttering patients, forcing the dumbest expression I could.
Song Arin, frowning like she hated it, muttered something and sighed.
Soon, her eyes went glassy.
"Uh..."
"Ugh..."
I couldn't tell if Song Arin had finished her hypnosis or was just acting, but she clung right to my side, making stupid noises like an idiot.
Acting, probably?
"Arin."
"Ughh..."
Song Arin didn't respond properly, just whimpered and rubbed her cheek against my arm.
"Ughh..."
She let out groans in time with the patients.
"Ughhh..."
No, but why is she so close.
The footsteps drew nearer, and in the end, with her hanging off me, I blended in with the surrounding patients and looked around.
From the hallway ahead, nurses were approaching.
Where faces should have been, there were just round holes.
Exactly like the ones I'd seen at Gangseo University Hospital.
A translucent window popped up.
[Name: Kim Kitae]
[Age: 36]
[Trait: Nursing]
[Talent: None]
[Background: He never intended to become a nurse. But it seems life doesn't always go according to plan.]
[Weakness: Beings bound to a 'hospital' generally have high pain tolerance. On the flip side, they have more memories of pain than anyone.]
They ignored us and walked to the wall, picked up mops, and began cleaning the floor.
"...Cleaning the restaurant nice and tidy, huh."
"Ugh?"
"...Don't talk."
Song Arin didn't seem capable of coherent speech.
The nurses cleaned methodically without a word.
Soon, with the walls and floor spotless, they picked up the blood-soaked rags and mops, stood, and headed back the way they'd come.
To see the exit, we'd have to follow them.
I slowly tailed their heels,
"Ughhh... mmph...."
covering Song Arin's mouth as she groaned while hanging on me, and moved my feet.
The nurses headed to the door,
-Creak, creak.
pulled a key from their pocket, unlocked it, and went out.
We need a key to get out.
When the nurses come again, we'll have to ambush and steal it.
"We'll have to steal the key."
"Ehh..."
Song Arin looked up at me with an innocent expression.
"Arin. Snap out of it now."
"Ugh?"
...
How do I wake her.
I clapped right in front of her eyes.
*Clap!* With the sound, light returned to Song Arin's previously unfocused eyes.
...
"Ugh?"
"I'm gonna die, seriously."
When I repeated her own words back, Song Arin's face flushed red in an instant, and she swung her fist.
*
After teasing Song Arin a bit, I called the others and explained the situation.
"So, we wait for someone to die, then the nurses come to clean the floor."
"That's right."
"But how do we know when they'll come?"
"It said it's hungry. Probably mealtime."
It shouldn't take too long.
Still, what bothered me was...
"...These people have to sacrifice one more time."
...
The Team Leader looked at the people around with a pained expression.
"What did kids this young ever do wrong."
"...Arin, could the reason their intellect is diminished be something like a hypnosis effect?"
...
Song Arin closed her eyes and groaned as if deeply sensing something.
"Hmm, hmm... ...hm."
...
"...No."
Soon, she opened her eyes and looked at me.
"Like I said earlier. It feels like the part where intelligence should be is just gone."
...
"I'll be honest."
Song Arin bit her lip hard, then spoke again.
"In my view, these people are already too far gone. It might be better to just... let them go. If they survive and go back... who knows."
...
Then there was no helping it.
"Shall we wait a little? Team Leader, stay sharp."
"Got it."
The Team Leader nodded.
How much time passed.
"...It's here."
The Team Leader murmured, and we hurriedly retreated inside the door again.
Soon,
-Thud... thud...
Footsteps sounded once more.
A voice came from beyond the door,
"I can't stand the hunger."
Yoo Daon murmured.
"Aaah!"
"Kyaaah!"
Screams rang out again.
The sound of something tearing. And people's screams.
"Huh."
After a brief silence, a puzzled voice sounded.
<.가새냄 한똑똑 청엄 ⸮데는났 명분 가새냄>
"An incredibly smart scent was there, but."
"...A smart scent?"
Yoo Daon furrowed her brow, and Song Arin and I exchanged glances again.
"Gasp..."
The Team Leader sucked in a breath.
-Creeeak...
The door opened, and something appeared.
It was a person standing on their hands.
Perhaps from walking on their arms, they were grotesquely twisted, while the legs were unnaturally thin by contrast.
Where a head should be, only a massive mouth smacked its lips, and otherwise, it was a muscular human body.
<-라사 한똑똑 .다았찾>
-Whoosh!
At that moment, two steel marbles embedded in its arms,
and it toppled backward.
-Ting!
Jang Chaeyeon had flicked the steel marbles.