Chapter 6
Chapter 6
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 6
Chapter Title: Prison of Time (2) -The Reason She Was Chosen as the Toilet-
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While digging through various materials, I came across an unofficial method for interrogating prisoners.
It's a way to shatter a prisoner's mind very quickly and efficiently.
The 53 minutes on that timer I mentioned earlier—actually, the exact number of minutes didn't matter. 49 minutes, 37 minutes, whatever. As long as it's an uneven number that doesn't divide neatly. The more time stacks up, the harder it becomes to calculate precisely.
53 minutes means it rings about 27 times in a day. But if you pass out or fall asleep in between, you'll miss some timers for sure. That makes the calculations even more complicated.
And above all, that special timer is set to shorten the interval by 1 minute with each ring.
A prisoner blindfolded and fully restrained can't possibly notice that. The intervals are already ambiguous, and humans can't detect them gradually shrinking bit by bit beyond that.
Like a frog slowly boiling in lukewarm water, they end up adapting to the alarm that has sped up before they know it.
Why do it that way?
To neutralize the prisoner's mind in the shortest time possible. In pitch-black darkness with eyes covered, the only sound piercing the eardrums at some point is that sharp alarm.
The only thing they can rely on to calculate how long they've been in this state is that beep every 53 minutes.
In that condition, even after just 10 rings, it drops to 43 minutes. After 20, 33 minutes. After 30, 23 minutes.
Even if they miraculously stay conscious and count every single one, the 27th alarm—which should mark 24 hours—will ring after 1080 minutes. In other words, 18 hours.
That's a whopping 6-hour discrepancy on the first day alone. My 18 hours feels like her 24.
After that, the time distortion snowballs massively, and that's when they'll truly start going insane. Even if they wring out calculations from a mind that's already broken, their sense of time gets jumbled into a total mess.
"After the 30th... it rings every 24 minutes or so."
Then she'll perceive 24 minutes as 53.
Then 21, 20, 19 minutes... creating more than double the error.
My one day becomes two or three days for her.
Her little head will start spinning.
'Am I going crazy? Didn't it just ring? No, the previous one was definitely slower... Wait, no, it felt faster... No, I must have miscounted. Has a day passed? Three days?'
...
In those gradually shortening intervals, her nerves frayed to the breaking point, she'll feel one day as two, two days as three, a week, an eon.
That's not all.
Sound matters too. Not the timer's alarm.
The most primal sound of terror.
Ghostly wails? Fingernails on a chalkboard? Child's play. Sure, those are scary enough, but human adaptability is surprisingly resilient. The brain unconsciously deciphers the patterns in such noises, turning them into ignorable background static.
The truly terrifying thing is extremely restrained noise.
The Orfield Laboratories in Minnesota has a famous anechoic chamber.
Absolute silence registering -9 dB on the meter. A non-reflective void. Called a chilling prison of stillness where you hear nothing but your own heartbeat—it's spawned countless ghost stories.
Average people start hearing hallucinations after just 45 minutes locked in there. Ghost screams, chalkboard scratches, whispers in your ear—the brain conjures them itself. By then, most people bolt out pale-faced.
But...
What if, in that space, you're blindfolded, lights off, fully restrained, and 10 hours pass? What happens to a human then?
How long could you endure that hell?
I hope she holds out.
Let's trust Shin Nari's mental endurance. She has to stay unbroken so I can train her properly.
"I believe in you, Nari. Heh heh."
I drifted off to sleep with a satisfied smile.
I need to catch up on rest to train her.
I
fell
into
slumber.
Familiar bathroom tiles somewhere.
-Splash!
Toilet water poured over me. Fortunately, it was clean toilet water today.
No, it's pathetic that I'm distinguishing "clean toilet water" while drenched in it.
At least it didn't have piss or occasional shit mixed in...
"Hey, you fucking retard, I told you to bring 400,000 won by today, you piece of shit!"
Jin Kyung-pil.
The top dog in class. 188 cm tall, did taekwondo as a kid, apparently. Plus, he got held back a year from various incidents, making him basically an adult. With that athletic build suited for sports teams, he'd turned the school into his kingdom.
"..."
Thud!
Ugh!
"Hey, fuck, are you deaf?"
"Kyung-pil, bro~ Don't be too hard on him. The loser's an orphan who never learned manners, heh, pfft."
"Kekekeke, you're one wicked bitch."
"Aang~ What's that supposed to mean~ You're so mean."
With me sprawled on the floor gasping after a kick to the ribs from Jin Kyung-pil, the two girls started giggling.
"Woo-seop, urinal position on this guy."
"Roger! Urinal position, ready~ Hahaha!"
Song Woo-seop, Jin Kyung-pil's right-hand man. That bastard obeyed every word like a eunuch without balls, ready to rip out his guts and liver.
He grabbed my hair—my ribs cracked, breath ragged—and
shoved my head into the urinal. My cheekbone slammed against the rim, agony exploding. Something cracked in the back of my skull.
-Zzzip
The familiar sound of a zipper now.
-Shhhh
"Ahh~ Feels good."
"Kyaa~ Oppa, what are you pulling out in front of a girl?!"
"Heh heh, what's wrong? You'll see it plenty soon. Right? We've been putting it off long enough, haven't we?"
"Hmph, what are you talking about~ I'm not that easy, you know?"
"Hey~ Fuck, you're the only one I haven't banged in a week. Heh, but that's what I love about you, you haughty bitch. Fine, fuck it, don't give it up easy then. I can always dump my load on those disposable sluts anyway. You just be my pretty, cute girlfriend."
"Ehehe~ Oppa, you're the best!"
Worse than their pathetic display was the lukewarm, disgusting liquid soaking my hair and dripping down my face.
"Hey, I'm being generous here! You're my classmate, so I'll give you three days this time. Bring 400,000 won by then, got it? *Hack—* Spit!"
I felt thick phlegm sliding down my neck. Jin Kyung-pil and Song Woo-seop left without even washing their hands, and the girl following turned back to spew at me.
"Hehe~ Loser~ Fucking wimp who can't fight back~ Serves you right for staring at me creepily. Did you think I sewed your clothes every day 'cause I liked you? Retard, moron, loser~ Hehe, you make me sick."
I saw the name tag on her chest.
"Oh? Staring at my tits again? Ugh! You're disgusting. Wasn't getting expelled as a sex offender enough? Huh?"
"Hey~ Hurry up, what're you doing?"
"Coming! Right now!"
"Be careful. That dickhead might grope you again."
"Hehe, thanks for worrying, oppa."
The human trash's voices faded away.
I somehow dragged myself up and...
went to the sink.
I turned on the bathroom cleaning hose under the sink and doused my head.
Cleaning hose meant only cold water, but no choice. Can't shower my whole body with the sink faucet.
The weather was cold enough for breath to fog.
Outside the window, it was already dark.
No heating in the bathroom.
There I was, alone, pouring cold cleaning hose water over my head.
It was cold.
Icy.
Splashhhh—
Still, I kept dousing myself. Wanted to wash away the stench.
Suddenly, I caught sight of myself in the mirror—like a drowned rat.
Face full of scratches and bruises.
Dark circles under my eyes, lips turned purple.
The boy looked utterly miserable.
The face in the mirror—my face—twisted horrifically.
"Urgh... Huhuhu... Kuuhhh..."
It was
freezing
to death.
"Haaah!! Huhk! Huhk!"
Fuck.
Fuck!!
This goddamn dream.
I thought I'd erased it all, but it still torments me sometimes.
It's been a while since I woke up on the verge of a panic attack.
I grabbed two nerve stabilizers from the pill bottle by the bed and chewed them down.
"Good. Yeah. Even better. Gotta have fuel for revenge. Motivation for the emotions."
Gulping down the cold water from the desk cleared my head.
How long did I sleep?
Meant to nap briefly, but the clock showed 6 hours gone.
Was I that worn out?
Checking the CCTV, Shin Nari was trembling like she was having a fit.
I put on the mask and headed to the basement.
"Hello?"
"Mmph! Mmph! Mmph!"
I removed the gag. Sticky drool she couldn't swallow stretched like clear threads.
"Haaah! Hahk! Huhk! Uhk! Huhuhu, uhuhu."
"Oh dear... I don't like crying kids much. Crying kids are bad kids, after all..."
"Hic, hup! Sniff!"
Straining desperately to hold back tears. I hadn't removed the blindfold, so I couldn't see her eyes, but she was probably squeezing them shut to stem the flow.
"P-Please, please! I'm sorry! I-I-I did something wrong, I'm so sorry! You're one of the friends I bullied in high school, right? I'm sorry! Really sorry! I've reflected a lot!!"
"Hmm... Well? Not exactly a model answer."
She's skirted close to the truth, but it's still superficial.
She doesn't even know exactly who I am, does she?