Torture Levels One Through Seven! #2
The message from Seo Gaeul’s kidnapper made Seo Docheol’s hair stand on end. It had been sent to an email address that only he and his daughter knew. Attached was a photo of Seo Gaeul screaming while holding hands with someone, along with an audio file.
「Zombie Main. Turn yourself in. Until you do, I will carry out my seven-stage torture plan on Seo Gaeul. Stage One is holding hands. If you do not surrender by the end of today, we move on to Stage Two tomorrow.」
When he played the attached audio, a gut-wrenching scream tore through the speakers.
At his daughter’s scream, Seo Docheol’s blood ran cold, then boiled hot, over and over. His vision swam. Dizziness hit him. Nausea rose in his throat.
“Nam Sanho, you son of a bitch!!!”
Seo Docheol was certain the kidnapper was Nam Sanho. No one else would display such blatant lust for his daughter.
‘…This is all my fault.’
He regretted everything. Why had he ever tried to arrange his daughter’s engagement to someone like Nam Sanho? All he had wanted was to grant his daughter’s wish. All he had wanted was to keep the promise he made to his late wife.
When he thought of his daughter suffering, Seo Docheol could no longer hold back his tears.
At that same moment, Seo Gaeul was scrubbing her hands clean with soap. The memory of holding hands with Ha Namjin last night made her skin crawl.
“That crazy perverted bastard, Ha Namjin!”
“Calm down.”
“Calm down?! Yu Yeoleum, of course you can say that—you’re just watching from the other side of the river! No way. I refuse to be the only one suffering like this. If I have to progress through the stages with him, then you do too. Otherwise I’m not cooperating!”
“What? That’s completely unreasonable!”
Yu Yeoleum frowned, but Seo Gaeul had already made up her mind. If the Zombie Main didn’t turn himself in, the skinship stages would advance every single day. Even if she could tolerate up to Stage Three, she absolutely wanted to block Stage Four. And if she couldn’t block it, she wasn’t going down alone.
But—honestly, she had to admit there was no better bait to throw at Nam Sanho. That man had an insanely strong possessive streak.
“If the Zombie Main really is Nam Sanho, he’ll show himself before we even reach Stage Two. The obsession he showed me back then was enough to make me want to puke. He wouldn’t even let me talk to other guys.”
In truth, the engagement between Seo Gaeul and Nam Sanho had fallen apart before it even began. President Nam Taegeon had rejected Seo Docheol’s proposal. Her father had taken that rejection as a tremendous humiliation, but Seo Gaeul herself hadn’t cared much.
In some ways, she had even thought it was for the best.
‘Nam Sanho was handsome, but he wasn’t my type. I don’t like men who cling to me and obsess over me… Plus the rumors about him were terrible.’
Yet for some reason, Nam Sanho had started acting like her fiancé anyway. If she so much as talked to another man, he would butt in. If she gave even the slightest glance to another guy, he would fly into a rage and cause a scene.
“You should have seen him lose his shit and demand that the café part-timer who asked for my number kneel and apologize before he filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against him.”
The incident at N-Mart had been an extension of that same obsession. That day, the full moon had drained Seo Gaeul of her strength. And of all times, Nam Sanho had shown up and started spouting nonsense like, “Run away with me. Let’s live together.”
“That bastard thought the reason I didn’t resist was because I liked him. If I had actually been dragged off by him back then…”
Seo Gaeul had resisted with everything she had. In the struggle she had shoved him down the stairs. He had tumbled, his neck snapping on impact.
Dead—!?
At least, that was what she had believed at the time.
“But Mom’s ring—the one he stole from me—was found at the memorial park. That meant Nam Sanho was still alive. The zombies there that day had been sent to capture me.”
The memorial park where her mother rested. Nam Sanho must have predicted Seo Gaeul would appear there, released the zombies, and tried to seize her. What a perverted bastard.
By this point, Yu Yeoleum couldn’t help but ask.
“Why were you even trying to get engaged to someone like that?”
“He was the President’s adopted son. If Nam Sanho eventually took over and became President, I would become the First Lady. That meant I could live like the queens in fairy tales, right? That was my mom’s dream.”
“To become a queen?”
“To live like a princess.”
Seo Gaeul recalled the promise she had made with her mother. Her mother had wanted her to live like a princess from a fairy tale, yet here she was, being abused by a kidnapper.
‘Well… in a way, I guess I really am a princess locked in a tower.’
Of course, Seo Gaeul knew a real princess. The Fairy Princess, Kore.
She quietly pulled out the walkie-talkie while Ha Namjin was away.
“Good thing he didn’t catch this.”
Static crackled.
Seo Gaeul fiddled with the walkie-talkie and contacted Kore.
“Bom, I got the doll you sent last time. It really was under the bed.”
"Really? That's so amazing!"
"That means we're really in the same space!"
"You're trapped in the Flower Room too, right? Just like me!"
The Fairy Princess was also imprisoned in the Flower Room—an exact replica of the space where Seo Gaeul and Yu Yeoleum were held. Though there were a few differences.
“You really don’t know the name Ha Namjin?”
"No idea. Is it a famous name in the outside world?"
"The only similar name I know is Nam Taegeon. I heard he's some kind of assemblyman out there. Is it like our Fairy Elders' Council?"
President Nam Taegeon had held his assembly position roughly twenty years ago. In other words, the Flower Room where the Fairy Princess resided existed twenty years in the past.
"I'll hide the doll under the bed again! Check if it's still there twenty years later!"
"If it's there again, that would be so much fun!"
When Seo Gaeul checked under the bed, another doll she had never seen before had appeared. It was an extremely worn-out stuffed toy.
“It’s here.”
"Wow!"
Yu Yeoleum found the whole thing baffling. The power of the Miracle concept that Seo Gaeul possessed was truly incredible.
‘I never imagined we’d end up communicating with someone from twenty years ago.’
Suddenly she grew curious. Where was the Fairy Princess in the world twenty years from now? The fact that she wasn’t in this room probably meant she had left for somewhere.
Seo Gaeul spoke again.
“Bom, if you still remember us twenty years from now, can you come back to the Flower Room and rescue us? I don’t know the exact date, but it should be around spring, twenty years later.”
"Got it! Spring twenty years from now! I'll remember for sure!"
Five minutes later, there was a knock at the door of the room where Seo Gaeul and Yu Yeoleum were imprisoned.
Could the Fairy Princess have leaped across twenty years of time to rescue them?
Seo Gaeul’s heart swelled with strange hope. She pressed her ear to the door and heard a voice.
"Seo Gaeul. Yu Yeoleum. Are you in there?"
“…Why does that sound like a man’s voice?”
###
Nam Wooju headed toward an old junkyard in City D. He was there to meet an elderly man who supposedly lived there.
“Ugh… that smell…”
The stench of something rotting made his adjutant, Jang Boreum, cover her mouth with her hand. Soon, zombies burst out from somewhere inside the dilapidated junkyard.
━KyaAAAAAHH!
“Major General, sir!”
“Stay back.”
Just as South Korea’s top-ranked Supernova, Nam Wooju, prepared to counterattack, a harpoon flew in from somewhere and pierced straight through a zombie’s head.
Shuk—!
At the end of the long rope attached to the harpoon stood an old man with a massive scar over one eye.
“I’m not saluting! I’m a civilian now!”
The old man’s voice boomed. Nam Wooju removed his star-emblazoned military cap and asked,
“Are you the Starving Old Man, sir?”
“That’s me!”
The old man dragged the zombie corpse over and tossed it into a bonfire. Crackle, crackle. Several zombie bodies were already burning. The stench was so vile that Jang Boreum felt nauseous.
While she muttered, “Excuse me for a moment…” and went looking for a restroom, Nam Wooju approached the old man.
“I heard you know about the Fairy Princess.”
“I do. By the way, what season is it right now?”
“It’s spring.”
“Spring… spring… let’s see…”
The old man began counting on his fingers. One to ten. He seemed mentally unstable. It was common for ordinary people exposed to the demonic energy of the Great Labyrinth for too long to end up like this. Still, even in old age, his muscles had not withered and his posture remained tense. It was clear he had once been an outstanding soldier.
As one soldier to another, Nam Wooju asked him directly.
“Warrant Officer Ha Gihun. Where is Kore right now?”
“I don’t know that either. The only thing that kid gave me was this. Must have been a few years ago…”
The old man pulled out a worn, old box and handed him a piece of paper. It was stationery. On it was written:
Uncle, if I stop appearing in front of you, please go to the Flower Room on some spring day in my place and rescue Gaeul and Yeoreum for me. There's a map drawn on the back of this letter.
— Kore
Flower Room? Gaeul and Yeoreum?
‘Could it be Seo Gaeul and Yu Yeoleum?’
Nam Wooju thought of the two missing women. He had no idea why a letter Kore had left long ago would contain such information, but he couldn’t afford to ignore the only clue he had obtained. It was possible that the missing Seo Gaeul and Yu Yeoleum knew Kore’s current whereabouts.
When he flipped the letter over, a map of the Great Labyrinth was drawn on the back. It was incredibly detailed, even accounting for the constantly shifting interior of the labyrinth. Nam Wooju was genuinely impressed.
“Adjutant, I’m heading into the Great Labyrinth. Wait here with the old man.”
With no time to waste, Nam Wooju entered the Great Labyrinth and searched for the place called the Flower Room. It looked like a dead-end wall, but according to the map, it was a “door.”
Knock knock knock.
“Seo Gaeul, Yu Yeoleum. Are you inside? I am Major General Nam Wooju of the Republic of Korea Army.”
Staring at the tightly concealed room, Nam Wooju felt a surge of admiration. If Seo Gaeul and Yu Yeoleum were truly inside, the kidnapper’s skill was far from ordinary. To think he had hidden women inside the Great Labyrinth itself.
According to the Labyrinth Entry Records he had checked beforehand, only one person matched the profile of the culprit. Of course, he would need to ask the victims directly for more details.
“I have a lot of questions for you two—about Kore and everything else. I’m going to break down the entrance, so step away from the wall. You might get hurt if you’re caught in the blast.”
Clap—!
Nam Wooju clapped his hands. The power of the Star concept condensed gravity into a black hole. The surrounding air trembled violently. Just as he was about to destroy the wall—
Bang—!
Shhhhhhh…
A powerful shockwave erupted, but a strange magic circle appeared around the corridor and completely neutralized the attack.
“My attack only left a crack? As expected of fairy sorcery. This room must be incredibly important.”
His competitive spirit flared. Just as Nam Wooju decided to reveal his true power—
Shhhhhhhhhhh—
Thick darkness began to spread across the floor and around him. It clung to the surrounding walls like a living creature. Nam Wooju instantly realized this was no ordinary darkness. Even when he shone his lantern at it, the darkness refused to recede.
Clank. Clank. Clank.
From beyond the pitch-black corridor came a bizarre sound. Clang. Clank.
It sounded like metal striking metal.
“Who’s there?”
「I am the darkness within you.」
Squelch—!
Something sharp pierced through Nam Wooju’s chest and burst out the other side. The unknown blade tore through his internal organs from deep within his ribcage. His mind went blank from the agony.
“Cough!”
Even in that instant, Nam Wooju used superhuman willpower to assess the situation. Whatever lay beyond that darkness, he could not let it leave here unscathed.
###
━Grrrr…!
Ing-ing, who had been sleeping on my stomach, suddenly let out an extremely pissed-off noise and began flying around the room in panic, waking me up instantly.
“It’s a zombie.”
When I looked out the window, a single zombie was loitering in our yard. I grabbed a club, went to the living room, and smashed its head in.
Crunch—!
“How dare you trespass on my property without permission.”
I had piled up plenty of obstacles in the yard—how the hell had it gotten through? Since I was already up at dawn, I decided to check the latest news. The moment I turned on the internet news, chaos was already exploding everywhere.
“Missing inside the Great Labyrinth?”
How on earth did that happen? It shouldn’t be easy to put a Supernova in serious trouble. There was one thing that came to mind, but… right now, something else was more important.
A new video from the Zombie Main? We had only reached skinship Stage One, yet he had already taken the bait. He must have been incredibly desperate.
The content of the video was simple.
「To the kidnapper of Seo Gaeul. Let’s meet and talk. I want to speak with you alone, somewhere without any interference. I will give my contact information to Seo Docheol.」
They want to meet? It’s obviously a trap. But a real man doesn’t run away just because he knows it’s a trap. On the contrary, I’ll use it against him.
Riiiiing—.
Just then, a call came in from my father-in-law at the perfect moment.