Chapter 53
Chapter 53
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: 53. Yoo Daon
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Do jellyfish have eyes?
I'm a liberal arts major, so I don't know much about that sort of thing. But since there are no eyeballs attached, maybe it can't see.
"It's coming this way...!"
Song Arin whispered as she tapped my arm repeatedly.
Whether it could actually see us or not was impossible to tell, but it was slowly heading toward where Song Arin and I were.
Even if we ran away, where could we go?
"Song Arin, would hypnosis work on it by any chance?"
"I've been trying since earlier. It does affect it somewhat... but it's like trying to drink the ocean through a paper straw... ...it's way too weak."
Song Arin furrowed her brow deeply and answered quietly.
"Get ready."
Jang Chaeyeon calmly raised her hand and whispered upon hearing that.
"Hold on a second."
We have to see it first, no matter what. What if getting shocked by it makes it explode or something.
On top of that, the manual specifically warning to avoid physical confrontations was nagging at me.
I turned my gaze to the patient.
[Name: Flower Bud]
[Age: Manufactured 2 weeks ago]
[Trait: Variable]
[Talent: None]
[Background: Where are the limits of medicine? Until now, the common knowledge was that medicine could intervene even in the mind. Here, there are sacrificial lambs to challenge that common knowledge.]
[Weakness: You have no choice but to burst its head. However, you must deal with the aftermath yourself.]
This is seriously unsettling.
I opened the manual.
[Office Manual]
[2-17. You may come across a long hallway while walking. After that, it depends entirely on personal luck.]
What a completely useless entry.
In the end, they were leaving it entirely up to my judgment.
"Let's avoid it as much as possible."
The two of them nodded at my words.
"How?"
"However we can? If worst comes to worst, Chaeyeon, you... burst its head."
Jang Chaeyeon nodded slowly.
I looked back at the patient, or rather the Flower Bud.
Standing in the middle of the narrow hallway, it wouldn't be easy to slip past.
"Let's hug the wall."
In the end, all three of us had to creep along the wall like we were in a stealth game.
We began walking, pressed flat against the wall in the suffocating silence and darkness.
If I looked up at the ceiling, or rather the sky, the jellyfish were still drifting through the air like they were swimming.
Had they barely escaped the pain of the flesh only to be trapped in a cage of the mind? It was impossible to know.
Fortunately, all three of us passed it without major issues.
...
The three of us, holding our breath, including me, kept our eyes on it.
It continued to patrol the area slowly.
"Doesn't seem to notice?"
"Looks that way."
"Easier than I thought."
Song Arin let out a sigh of relief and took the lead.
At that moment,
-crackle!
A sound came from above.
I quickly looked up.
Two jellyfish had collided in the sky, sparks flying like electricity,
"...Ah."
The patient we'd just passed grabbed what seemed to be its head tentacles and started screaming.
"Aaaaah!!!"
Screaming? How?
There was no time to ponder if jellyfish had mouths to scream with.
"Chaeyeon!"
"Yeah!"
At my words, Jang Chaeyeon immediately reached out and clenched her fist.
-Splat!
Its head burst in a burst of blue light, and
memories came flooding in.
"Guh...!"
I didn't know this person's name. But the despair he'd experienced here, the pain of surgery, and in the end, even his origin—
Before I knew it, I was on my knees, collapsed forward.
While feeling this person's pain—
"Urgh...!"
The pain stopped, and a migraine began to set in.
Had my mental barrier activated?
What about the others?
I hurriedly turned to look at the two of them.
Both Jang Chaeyeon and Song Arin were on their knees just like me.
Jang Chaeyeon, sweating coldly and gasping for breath, shook her head a few times and stood up.
"...Vicious."
"...Are you okay?"
She wiped the cold sweat from her brow and nodded.
"Ah, urgh...!"
Song Arin's condition was even worse.
With a face full of agony, breathing as if in respiratory distress, she began clawing at the floor with her nails.
"Ka, hng...!"
"Song Arin."
I quickly grabbed her shoulder.
She shook her head.
"...Stop...!"
She wasn't making any sense.
What do I do.
I glanced sideways.
[Method: 1]
Even if I connected Method to Jang Chaeyeon now, she was still reeling from the shock, so it probably wouldn't work.
...Could I use it on myself again?
It hadn't worked during the Mountain Spirit incident, and I had no way of knowing if it would now.
In the end, I had no choice but to try.
Once again, a line extended from above Song Arin's head.
I connected the purple line to myself.
Sure enough, this time too, it didn't bounce off... the line pierced into my chest.
Before I could even feel surprise, it was like someone had shoved ice into my head, chills running through me at the same time,
"...Hic... Hng..."
Song Arin's noises quieted down.
"...Song Arin."
"...I'm listening."
Oh, right—when connected to me, her speech pattern changes like that.
I averted my gaze from Jang Chaeyeon, who was staring at us with wide eyes, and checked on Song Arin.
"You okay?"
"...Thanks to you."
She wiped the corners of her eyes with the back of her hand.
"Were you crying?"
"Shut up."
I waited until Song Arin's breathing had steadied somewhat.
Once she seemed to have regained herself a bit,
"If you're feeling a little better—"
Before I could finish, she grabbed my wrist.
"...Just stay like this a little longer."
"...Sure."
We stood up.
We walked on in an odd silence.
Song Arin kept her distance from me, looking away in the opposite direction, while Jang Chaeyeon walked beside me with an uncomfortable expression. And just me.
We passed countless black doors like that.
"Are all the people here like that?"
"No idea."
Jang Chaeyeon answered calmly as she walked beside me.
"But it can't hurt to be careful."
"They told us not to open them in the first place, so we won't."
Curiosity? Indulging in curiosity here would mean either having confidence like Yoo Daon that you won't die no matter what happens, or being the type who can survive even in a place like this.
Even after what just happened, I had no intention of doing anything like that.
So this is what high variability means.
We walked the endless hallway, relying on the faint glow of the jellyfish.
"By the way, what are you gonna do once you find Black Hair?"
"What do you mean? Run."
"Have you scouted an exit?"
"I'll start looking now."
I ignored Song Arin's sharp gaze and opened the manual.
[Office Manual]
[2-18. The moment you enter the Intensive Care Unit, escape through Building B is impossible. You must escape through the detention center in Building C, and that process has a high probability of being extremely painful.]
[Once you've found the person you want, get out the door and run immediately. Naturally, the 'hospital' does not take kindly to its patients disappearing.]
[The moment you step out and see a cliff, kill yourself immediately. Letting the person you saved die there would also be the greatest mercy you could offer.]
[If you're lucky and see a path, no matter what it looks like where you're running, head for the place that feels least like a path.]
[Things you saw in the operating room might chase you while you're running. You're not forbidden from using force on such objects, but it will likely have minimal effect.]
[Good luck.]
I could fully understand why the Management Bureau had scrapped the Intensive Care Unit.
There was hardly any攻略 method.
Just walk the path. We don't know exactly what happens after that either.
A structure purely reliant on luck. No wonder the Management Bureau hated it, and there were bound to be many sacrifices.
"...Isn't that it over there?"
Jang Chaeyeon's voice, pointing to the end with her index finger, snapped me out of my thoughts, and I looked ahead.
After passing countless doors, we could finally see the end.
A hospital room door between black ones, the only one with a normal color.
"Let's go."
I couldn't stop my steps from quickening.
"Hey, slow down...!"
...
I heard the two of them from behind, but I couldn't help my urgency.
Moving at a near-run, I reached for the doorknob and,
-rattle.
Opened the door.
"...Ah."
There was Yoo Daon.
Lying on the bed in a patient gown, her gaunt face looked up at me.
"...Jaeheon?"
Her expression was full of confusion.
"Huh? Am I dreaming? How?"
Then Yoo Daon pinched her own cheek hard.
"...That hurts...?"
She mumbled blankly and looked at me.
"It's really Jaeheon?"
"It's really me."
"How did you know to come here? No, why did you come!"
For the first time, her face mixed worry and anger.
"This place is so dangerous...!"
"I know."
"Then why—"
"Because I wanted to."
Yoo Daon shut her mouth, then opened it again.
She continued in a trembling voice.
"You barely—"
"It's not 'barely.'"
'I could die for free about three hundred times.'
'Sounds good.'
'It might sound funny, but you're staking your life on me.'
'Then I'll stake my life on you too, Jaeheon.'
Our past conversations flashed through my mind.
Yoo Daon stared blankly for a moment, as if she hadn't expected to hear that.
Her clear eyes trembled pitifully.
She opened and closed her mouth repeatedly.
"Why on earth..."
A faint hand movement wrinkled the bedsheet.
Soon, a few tears began soaking the sheet.
"No one's ever told me... that I was needed..."
"I wouldn't be here without you, Daon."
"...Thank... ...thank you..."
...
At my words, she just started crying without saying anything else.
How long did she cry? She slapped both her cheeks hard and looked at me.
"...Let's talk outside."
"Sure."
"I have so much to say."
"Got it."
Yoo Daon, still in her patient gown, got up and looked at the three of us.
She looked a bit gaunt, but it was the same confident smile as always.
"...Let's go."
Yoo Daon lightly grabbed my arm.