Chapter 325
Chapter 325
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: 325. The Room of Rest
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- Bang! Bang!
As soon as the door closed, Yoo Daon yanked the handle to check if it would open, and when it didn't, she started tugging on it desperately, pressing herself against the door.
"Urgh...! Urgh...!"
She strained and pulled at the door with all her might, but it didn't budge an inch.
"It won't open."
"I figured as much."
"Good thing we didn't let her go alone."
Song Arin let out a sigh, and Jang Chaeyeon muttered in relief.
"We need to get out of here first."
Then, Eirin drew her gun from behind.
"You never know what might happen if she's alone."
"...Can't argue with that."
Song Arin clicked her tongue and started walking.
...
She stared blankly up at the ceiling.
"Hm, Arin, what... is..."
Yoo Daon looked up at the ceiling as well and froze in place.
...
...
The other two looked up at the ceiling too and were at a loss for words.
"What the hell is that..."
Eirin muttered in a slightly trembling voice, and none of the three knew what to say.
An ornate frame hung from the ceiling.
"Ugh..."
And in each frame were human body parts.
Two arms, two legs, wrists and ankles.
In the center was a torso with a gaping hole punched through the left chest, bleeding profusely.
The hole in the left chest was filled with a transparent orb.
"Huh?"
Eirin frowned at the sight of the orb, but as if to cut off her train of thought, the person let out a groan.
"Ugh..."
"He's alive..."
"I'll lower it."
Song Arin muttered in shock, and Jang Chaeyeon reached out while mumbling.
The man's body began to descend, and Yoo Daon narrowed her eyes.
"Chaeyeon, hold on a sec."
...
Jang Chaeyeon stopped her hand at Yoo Daon's words, and Yoo Daon let out a breath before backing up and then charging forward.
"What the hell is she doing?"
Song Arin muttered in disbelief, but Yoo Daon ignored her completely, stepped onto the sofa, kicked off the wall, and grabbed the person hanging in the frame.
Her movements were like a series of nimble bounces.
"Hup...!"
As Yoo Daon clung to the frame, it rattled, and Eirin widened her eyes.
"Hey, that's danger—"
- Splash!
At the same time, something burst out from the heart of the groaning person.
Crimson liquid.
Something like paint poured down over her head, and Yoo Daon, who took the full brunt of it, fell to the floor.
- Sizzle...!
An incomprehensible sound accompanied a horrific stench rising up, and Song Arin and Jang Chaeyeon hurriedly backed away.
The three women's gazes turned to Yoo Daon.
Her skin was completely melted and stuck together, her face dissolved.
It was as if she'd been doused in some powerful chemical.
"What the—"
"She's melting..."
As the two muttered in shock, Yoo Daon staggered to her feet.
"Hoo..."
Her festering skin began to regenerate bit by bit.
"Cough! Cough!"
She clutched her throat, coughing as she moved away from the spot.
"...What did you just do?"
Song Arin eyed Yoo Daon suspiciously, and she shot back a look as if to say, what kind of stupid question is that?
"If Chaeyeon had pulled it down, she'd be the one like that, right?"
"...You were protecting her?"
"Yeah."
Yoo Daon nodded at Jang Chaeyeon's murmur.
"...Thanks."
Jang Chaeyeon gave a slight bow toward her, and Yoo Daon smiled back.
"I'm fine!"
Song Arin thought, are these really people who don't get along? But since it had ended well, she hurriedly turned her attention to the person.
"Ugh..."
The area where a heart should have been was completely hollowed out, the other side visible through it, and the same horrific liquid that had drenched Yoo Daon was still oozing from there.
"He's alive...?"
"He's alive."
Song Arin nodded at Eirin's murmur.
She could read the consciousness flowing from him, after all.
"But how is he still alive?"
"...Let's take him with us for now."
Honestly, more than that, she was worried about the man.
If something horrible was unfolding outside the door after leaving him alone—
- Bang!
At that moment, a gunshot rang out, and the four exchanged glances before rushing to the door and yanking the handle.
"Hey, Kim Jaeheon!"
Song Arin called out to the man in a frantic voice.
"Yeah, you guys are out early."
There stood the man, prying a blood-soaked glass orb from someone's eye.
"...What are you doing?"
Song Arin stared at him in bewilderment and muttered, and he averted his gaze for a moment before waving his hand with an "Ah."
"Give me a second to explain."
*
People can't walk properly with their eyes closed.
How do I know? From dragging myself to work in the morning after too many late nights, stumbling down the company hallway half-asleep with my eyes shut. You'll figure it out.
You think you're walking straight, but snap out of it and you're rubbing against the wall, with people staring at you like you're some weirdo as they walk away.
Hypnosis is the same.
Just because you're hypnotized doesn't mean a blind person's gait suddenly becomes normal.
Hypnosis only takes away or guides the target's freedom of thought—it doesn't fix their balance.
But this guy had followed us without issue even after his eyeballs were replaced with glass orbs and even under hypnosis.
I've got enough suspicion now. Just one last test.
I aim the gun barrel at the blind man and pull the trigger.
- Bang!
The shot grazes the man's hair.
"...Ugh..."
He groans as if he has no idea what just happened.
"Too bad. Arin’s hypnosis isn't omnipotent."
You don't wake up from hypnosis even with an ear-shattering gunshot right next to you? Then Song Arin might be a once-in-history genius of the Management Bureau.
In other words.
- Bang!
The moment I pulled the trigger again, the man lunged at me.
"Raaargh!"
He charged like he'd forgotten how to speak, and I hurriedly dodged back while firing again.
- Bang! Bang!
The bullets hit the man's leg, and he collapsed to the floor.
No matter how human flesh and bone are made, there's no way I'd lose.
I look down at the man writhing on the floor.
A translucent window pops up again.
[Name: Park Hu-yeong]
[Age: 29]
[Talents: None]
[Abilities: None]
[Background: This man, who visited in search of video content, realized why he is still alive.]
[Weakness: In this place, there is only one life.]
Yeah. Got it.
"Kyaaak!"
I turn to see another person charging at me.
[Name: Oh Min-je]
[Age: 27]
[Talents: None]
[Abilities: None]
[Background: He lived a truly rotten life as a person, but he has never killed anyone. That's because he himself is already dead.]
[Weakness: In this place, there is only one life.]
I roll on the floor and plant a bullet in the forehead of the charging figure.
- Bang!
Even to my eyes, the bullet sinks cleanly into its forehead like it was sucked in, and it topples backward.
Yeah. It was foolish of me to think aesthetics would keep people alive.
But I can't just kill every person I see, either.
"Raaargh..."
I grab the head of the man collapsed and bleeding from his leg and lift it up.
"Sorry."
Then I reached into his eye and began extracting the orb.
At that moment, Song Arin opened the door.
*
"...And that's what happened."
"Hey. If I cast hypnosis right, you wouldn't notice a bomb going off next to you."
"Then you must not have cast it right. Ack, next time do it prope—Arin, headache, headache!"
Song Arin glared at me, and while I groaned from the headache, Yoo Daon and Eirin were prying open the mouth of the person whose lips were sewn shut.
"Try this."
"Oh, it was in his mouth!"
"...How did you open his mouth?"
Yoo Daon and Eirin showed me a blood-soaked knife, and I decided not to look at the scene.
"Got it."
Jang Chaeyeon approached me, floating two orbs in the air.
"...So..."
Song Arin looked at the person lying on the floor, missing limbs and groaning, then extended her hand into his hollow chest.
"Ugh..."
She grimaced in disgust and pulled out a transparent orb.
"...How many is that now?"
"Four."
Two in the eyes. One in the mouth. One in the heart.
"We have to collect orbs equal to the number of people?"
As expected from the Response Team leader, Eirin muttered seriously while staring at the orbs.
"Who knows..."
All it asked of us was to get through three rooms, after all.
"Let's rest for now."
"Rest? Where?"
Song Arin looked at me like she couldn't comprehend, and when I shook the card key labeled <108>, she nodded with an "Ah."
"We can't rest long. The branch chief is buying us time."
"I'm fine without rest."
"Me too!"
Jang Chaeyeon and Yoo Daon spoke up, but I waved my hand to stop them.
"No. You two rest."
Rest when you can.
*
We passed the remaining rooms and stopped in front of 108.
A sign reading <108> welcomed us.
Unlike the other doors so far, it had a modern electronic lock that opened with a card key.
- Click!
The moment I held up the key, the lock disengaged with a sound, the door swung open, and a calm scent like you'd smell in a hotel tickled our noses.
"...Hoo..."
Eirin let out a deep breath as she entered and flopped onto a random sofa, while the others went in, stretched their legs, or sat in chairs.
Yeah. Time for me to go in and rest too.
As I took a step forward,
- Flutter!
The manual unfolded.
...
It won't even give me time to rest.
Grumbling inwardly, I opened the manual.
[Office Manual]
[The Room of Rest - Recovery Team Kim Jaeheon's Manual]
1. If you desperately wish for it, it will come true.
What the hell does this mean?