Chapter 17
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 17
Chapter Title: Sacrifice's Diary
-----------------------------------------------------------------
*CRASH!*
I shoved the door with enough force to break it down.
I tried kicking it, even slamming my whole body against it.
But the firmly locked door didn't budge. I was helplessly trapped in the cold storage room.
"Damn it..."
"Is it locked?"
Dayeon asked, bewildered, pausing her inspection of the animal specimens.
It seemed she hadn't grasped the severity of the situation, even as things escalated.
"Maybe there's some way to open the door around here?"
She mumbled quietly before turning back to the animal specimens.
It felt less like she was focused on escaping and more like she wanted to finish looking at the specimens.
*What do I do...*
My mind was filled with panic.
The classroom, the secret archives...
I'd been trapped several times before, so I was used to it, but this time was different.
The place we were currently trapped in, the cold storage room, boasted sub-zero temperatures.
The intense cold seeping into my bones proved it.
If we couldn't escape, we'd be turned into human popsicles.
I immediately started searching the room. The last thing I wanted was to freeze to death here.
[An animal taxidermy specimen is inside a glass case.]
[It's a box with a label on it.]
[Chemicals are cryogenically stored in the display case.]
*An item to break the door...*
I searched every inch of the cold storage room, but there wasn't a single trace of an item.
*Whoosh.*
A cool breeze blew from the air vent.
Goosebumps involuntarily broke out all over my body.
*Hoo...*
My legs were trembling from the cold.
Deciding to rest for a moment, I plopped down on the spot.
Of course, the floor was ice-cold, and a chilling coldness assaulted my rear.
*I'm not really going to freeze to death like this, am I?*
I had experienced countless deaths, but this felt different.
The security guard, the computer, the painting—they all sent me to my grave in an instant. In short, they were instant deaths.
The pain of dying was horrific, but I could just barely hold onto my consciousness.
But freezing to death was a different story.
It was a slow death.
I would have no choice but to die while slowly savoring the agony of death.
Unless I bit my tongue and committed suicide, I would simply die a leisurely death.
*That's right. Now that I think about it, I have this.*
I opened my inventory and took out the item I'd acquired in the secret archives.
[Book That Kills You When Read]
【A book with a red cover. You die if you read it.】
It was the 'Book That Kills You When Read' that Dayeon had found in her secret archives and handed to me.
I'd thought it was a completely useless item, but now I had a rough idea of its purpose.
*Was it meant for times like this...?*
A so-called painless suicide pill.
*'If you get stuck, use this to die quickly and go back.'*
A dry laugh escaped me at the developer's tear-jerkingly considerate design.
But I couldn't use it now.
I put the book back into my inventory.
Even if I die, I have to know *why* I got stuck.
The most important thing right now wasn't whether I froze to death or died instantly, but escaping.
As long as the mystery of the cold storage room remained, dying would only repeat the current situation. The fundamental problem wouldn't be solved.
Why were we trapped?
How do we escape?
I couldn't die until I found the answers to these two questions.
*I wish I could figure out at least one of them.*
But my body was slowly giving out.
I tried to endure it with sheer grit, but there was a limit to how long I could just hold out.
*It's so fucking cold, I'm gonna die...*
I squatted in a corner and curled up.
I tried to conserve as much body heat as possible, but it felt like my health was draining in real-time with every cool breeze.
I couldn't feel my toes.
My teeth chattered uncontrollably,
and with every breath of frigid air that filled my lungs, my heart screamed for help.
Just as I was trying to move my cold, stiff body, unable to bear the chill any longer...
"Are you okay? You look pale."
Dayeon quietly leaned in close.
Normally, I would have turned my head or moved away,
but I didn't want to waste what little energy I had left by moving unnecessarily.
I kept my lips sealed and remained silent.
"Heeh, your lips are purple."
Dayeon wasn't the type to back down just because I was pointedly ignoring her.
She poked my cheek and chattered endlessly, annoying me.
*Why is she so full of energy?*
I was practically bedridden by the extreme cold.
Dayeon, on the other hand, was energetically wandering around the room.
And she was doing it in a school uniform skirt that left her legs bare.
My gaze drifted to her without me realizing.
It was strange how she could show off her legs so openly without looking cold at all.
Just then, my eyes met Dayeon's.
Of all things, because I was squatting, it created a composition ripe for misunderstanding.
*Ah.*
It was too late to make an excuse.
The angle, the situation—it was perfect for a misunderstanding. No matter the reason, my gaze could only be seen as creepy.
"Pervert."
Dayeon pressed her skirt down with her hands and glared at me as if I were an insect.
"..."
I wanted to argue, but I was at my physical limit. I just responded with silence.
"Say something. Are you avoiding it because I hit the mark?"
Dayeon asked with a look of contempt. Of course, it was because I was too weak to talk. Whether she would believe that was another matter.
"...It's because I'm cold."
I forced my frozen tongue to move and managed to speak.
Even if I froze to death, I wanted to prove I wasn't a pervert.
"Really? You look pale. Like someone who's about to die."
Dayeon offered words of concern.
With her expressionless face, I couldn't tell if it was genuine worry or sarcasm, but I forced myself to believe it was worry. That was the only way to find some comfort.
"Is it that cold?"
"...I'm not exaggerating. I seriously feel like I'm going to freeze to death."
My limbs were going numb.
I'd lost all feeling in them long ago.
I felt like if I lost focus for even a second, I'd cross a point of no return.
It was like a tug-of-war with King Yama.
I desperately clung to the thread of consciousness.
"Hmm."
Dayeon trailed off before suddenly grabbing my hand.
In that instant, a gentle warmth spread from my fingertips.
I didn't even have a chance to ask what she was doing.
It happened that fast.
"It's very cold."
Dayeon caressed my hand. It felt like my ice-cold skin was melting away.
The warmth made my mind go blank.
"What, you like it?"
"...I don't know."
"Hmph, if this isn't enough, just say so."
Dayeon slyly leaned in and whispered in my ear with an alluring voice.
"I'll warm you up."
Her whispered breath thawed my frozen ear.
It wasn't because of the words themselves. It was just that her breath carried warmth.
"..."
I wanted to say something, but the words wouldn't come out.
My head was a jumble of a thousand thoughts, and my central nervous system seemed to have temporarily shut down.
"Looks like you're feeling a bit better now. Your face is red. See?"
-*Ribbit*
Dayeon pulled a frog out from her clothes.
The frog hopped onto her palm and chirped.
Its croak sounded like a jeer.
*...A frog?*
I snapped out of my daze.
I quickly noticed the frog on her palm.
-*Ribbit*
The frog nuzzled against Dayeon affectionately. It didn't seem cold in the slightest.
But that was strange.
*Aren't frogs cold-blooded?*
Being cold-blooded, it should be nearly impossible for it to be moving around fine in such a cold place.
-*Ribbit*
But the frog in Dayeon's hand was hopping around cheerfully. This was clearly bizarre.
*A frog, an animal that hibernates because it can't stand the cold, is hopping around just fine?*
I felt an inexplicable sense of déjà vu.
I managed to get my trembling legs to stand and approached Dayeon.
"Looks like you've finally come to your senses."
"Barely. Just enough to hold on."
"By the way, there's something I've been wanting to ask you."
She threw out a completely random and unexpected question.
Something she wanted to ask? I wondered what had gotten into her, asking a question like that.
"Oh? What is it?"
"I've been curious since we first came in here."
Dayeon asked a question I never would have expected.
"What have you been talking about, saying it's so cold?"
"...What?"
The question was so obvious that I was speechless.
Because this is a cold storage room...
*Huh?*
I felt a strange sense of unease.
Why did Dayeon ask that?
This is definitely a cold storage room.
So of course it's cold.
But Dayeon's tone was definitely strange.
It was as if she was asking why I was the only one feeling cold.
*That's weird.*
She and I are clearly in the same space.
Why am I the only one feeling cold, while she's perfectly fine?
Just as my thoughts descended into a maze...
The frog that had been nuzzling Dayeon's palm jumped high and landed on my head.
"Oh my, I think the frog likes you."
-*Ribbit*
The frog rubbed against my head as if petting it. I could feel the faint warmth of its feet.
*...Faint warmth?*
Frogs are cold-blooded, so their temperature changes with their surroundings.
It couldn't possibly be giving off even faint warmth unless this place was warm.
*No way.*
In that moment, my mind cleared.
I felt a jolt, as if struck by lightning.
The reason the cold storage room felt so chilly.
The reason Dayeon was fine, unlike me.
The reason the frog was still alive.
These complex answers jumbled together in my head and converged into a single conclusion.
And when I came to my senses,
"...It's not cold at all."
My body had returned to normal.
The bone-chilling cold from before was long gone, as if it had all been in my head.
Once I realized the truth, a hollow laugh escaped me.
"Ha, haha..."
"Look at you. Your face is weird. Isn't it?"
-*Ribbit*
From the very beginning, this cold storage room wasn't even on. The chilling cold I felt was nothing but my own delusion.
And because of that delusion-induced cold, I had almost frozen to death.
In simple terms, the nocebo effect.
A psychological phenomenon that's the exact opposite of the placebo effect.
*I really thought I was going to die...*
My legs gave out, and I collapsed. It wasn't even cold, but a chill ran down my spine.
"So this was the trap."
"What was?"
"It's nothing, don't worry about it."
With the chill completely gone, the cold storage room felt entirely different from before.
I had a feeling I could find a useful clue now.
"So, did you find any clues to escape?"
"No, but I found something interesting instead."
"Something interesting?"
Dayeon led me to the glass case where the animal specimen was kept.
The human-shaped specimen I'd seen before appeared once again.
*Here again?*
A gasp escaped me, but maybe because I'd just overcome a life-or-death crisis, I'd built up a bit of an immunity.
"It's so strange every time I see it. It looks just like a person."
"I told you, it's not..."
Dayeon stared intently at the human-like specimen.
"So what's the deal with this specimen? It's creepy, so just tell me already."
"It's nothing much, but there was this note in its pocket."
"A note?"
Dayeon handed me a crumpled, yellowed note from her pocket.
[You have acquired Sacrifice's Diary #1.]
[■■/■■/19■■]
【It was a day like any other.
That guy Gyeong-gyun suddenly suggested we do a test of courage.
Something about our school being built on a cemetery decades ago.
I hate scary things, so I really didn't want to go, but everyone else agreed, so now I'm being forced to.
Ugh, seriously.
I hope I get a stomachache that day.】