Finding the Clues
The building where the hostages of Team Beta were being held. Out of the darkness, Yoon Jay emerged.
He had apparently been through water, because droplets dripped steadily from him, dotting the floor as he passed. Leaning against the wall with a pistol raised in one hand, he eased the door open—but sensed no one inside.
Not here.
Yoon Jay swept his gaze across the empty sealed room.
He had expected as much, honestly. There were four guests; they would never let just one of them have all the fun.
"Am I already too late...?"
Yoon Jay swept his sweat-damp bangs back from his forehead, his striking T-zone catching the light. A faint crease formed between his brows—he'd been dealing with a lot of people on the way here, and it showed.
He turned his gaze slowly toward the camera mounted on the wall.
Yoon Jay kicked off the ground and soared, landing squarely on the rooftop. The flustered voices of the staff reached his ears, and a drone camera belatedly framed his figure.
Where are the clues?
During the assembly episode, his mission had been the total annihilation of every contestant. But today was different. His top priorities were securing the hostages, protecting them, and getting them out.
In truth, one quick scan from the rooftop had given him a rough idea of where the hostages were being kept. But this was a broadcast. He was supposed to gather the clues scattered across the set and close in step by step.
"...!"
The instant Yoon Jay sensed danger, he melted behind cover with lightning-fast movement. A paint round burst against the spot where he'd just been standing.
"A sniper?"
Raising his assault rifle, Yoon Jay returned fire toward the source of the shot. His body had moved almost on pure instinct.
"Gah!"
The sniper took a paint round to the shoulder before he could even dive for cover. It wasn't a headshot, so he wasn't eliminated outright, but his wound left him unable to move.
"How did he know where I—?"
Radio chatter crackled into the fallen sniper's ear.
(Park Kyu-hyun, what happened?)
"I got hit!"
(What? Already?)
"Where's the recovery item?"
(Not yet! Hold on!)
Frankly, he hadn't expected one. Recovery items were few and far between—they'd probably be saved for the others. Park Kyu-hyun laughed hollowly. Of all people in the world, the first one eliminated was going to be him.
"But seriously, how did he know?"
The shot had been dead-on. If Yoon Jay hadn't caught on in advance, Alpha would have been eliminated before the mission even began, and the sniper team would be leisurely hunting the hostages by now.
While the sniper team scrambled in confusion, Yoon Jay dropped swiftly down the side of the building. Ever since recording the assembly episode, PD Han Kook-young had become his devoted fan.
He also knew that whenever Yoon Jay appeared, ratings skyrocketed, so he'd packed the set with every cool-looking prop imaginable. The wire was one of them.
Viewers watching live poured out their reactions.
Gripping the wire and touching down like a scene straight out of an action film, Yoon Jay lightly dusted himself off.
"...I got careless."
He'd claimed the high ground to find where the clues were and get a read on the set's layout. He just hadn't expected them to locate the sniper rifle that quickly.
(Mr. Jay, it's PD Han. How did you know you were about to be sniped?)
"Just had a bad feeling, sir."
(You didn't notice them ahead of time?)
What, does he have some kind of animal instinct?... Well, it worked out anyway. PD Han Kook-young wiped the sweat from his palm onto his thigh.
One wrong move, and the show's key guest could have been eliminated the moment it started.
So I've got a rough picture of the route now.
Having memorized the layout in the meantime, Yoon Jay turned his gaze slowly toward the drone camera trailing him.
That was probably how his position had been discovered so early. He'd have to be more careful from now on.
"First, I'll head for the nearest clue. Although... a swimming pool wouldn't be there for no reason, right? I wonder if something's hidden there too."
Talking to himself like this didn't come naturally to Yoon Jay. But it was a broadcast, and he was faithfully following the writer's instructions about keeping the audio track filled.
"Was that a sniper shot?"
"Already?"
In the meantime, Jung Seung-woo—Soldiers K's bona fide ace—had agreed to move separately from Choi Tae-yang.
"Hyung, where'd you see Kyu-hyun hyung?"
(Near Point A.)
"Okay. We'll head that way first."
(You have to avenge me...)
Avenge him... If that were actually possible, we'd have beaten Jay hyung at least once by now.
Jung Seung-woo gave a small nod to Choi Tae-yang, whose eyes met his. The two of them set off to find Yoon Jay.
Yoon Jay wasn't the only one hunting for clues to the hostages' hiding place. Omega Team was in the same boat—they were the ones who had to stop the rescue.
There were five clues hidden in the field. Having already found one, Yoon Jay headed for the next hiding spot.
"..."
Stepping into the space where the second clue was hidden, Yoon Jay halted mid-stride. People's presence drifted from every direction, and someone's shadow was reflected in the aluminum wall panels.
A trap.
The moment he realized it, footsteps sounded behind him. Yoon Jay spun around, threw his knife into the man, kicked off the wall to close the distance, and took him down.
The bullets fired from the ambush by those gunning for him sailed harmlessly past—Yoon Jay had simply been that fast.
"Gah!"
Using the fallen man as a shield, he drew his pistol from its socket and aimed at those in hiding. One man took a round straight to his helmet and was out on the spot, but two others had ducked behind cover and weren't eliminated yet.
Yoon Jay pressed himself against the wall and raised his rifle as well. After several exchanges of fire, the victor was Yoon Jay.
"You don't have a recovery item, do you?"
"Even if I did, I couldn't tell you anyway, Instructor."
Ha Eun-sung, subdued, raised both hands to show him. The plan to ambush Yoon Jay without taking the clue had been his own suggestion.
They hadn't let their guard down like before, so he'd thought it was worth a try—and his teammates, burning for revenge from the assembly episode, had agreed.
As Yoon Jay methodically took down each man without breaking a sweat, the live reaction feed flooded with so many comments it started to lag.
Yoon Jay stripped the intact gear from the fallen men and replenished his own dwindling supplies.
Was that Jung Seung-woo and Choi Tae-yang?
The muzzle of Yoon Jay's rifle, casually pointed upward as he maintained his equipment, tilted toward the ceiling. But he didn't pull the trigger—he simply lowered his head.
On the third floor, Jung Seung-woo and Choi Tae-yang, who had been watching Yoon Jay, flinched hard. That guy really is a ghost.
(Mr. Seung-woo, why are you just standing there? Aren't you going to ambush him?)
"No, sir."
(Why not?)
"It's more fun this way, isn't it?"
Jung Seung-woo let it slip that he planned to keep tailing Yoon Jay and land the killing blow at the single most decisive moment. That wasn't actually the reason, though.
Nothing's going to happen, right?
It had been a month since the two of them took over Yoon Jay's protection, and nothing as strange as that incident—him lunging at Yoon Do-jun—had happened since.
"..."
There'd been a commotion, so he needed to get out quickly. Yoon Jay was moving to leave in search of the next clue when he glanced toward the spot where Jung Seung-woo and Choi Tae-yang were hiding. Their eyes met.
"Uh oh."
"You saw him too, right?"
Jung Seung-woo and Choi Tae-yang exchanged whispers. There was something strange about the look in Yoon Jay's eyes.
The third clue had been in the pocket of a contestant he encountered on the way—meaning he'd subdued them without much difficulty.
Before long he found the fourth clue and searched other locations, but the final clue was nowhere to be seen.
There was exactly one place he suspected.
(Mr. Jay, please say something. I'm scared.)
"...Yes, ma'am."
Early on, he'd dutifully followed the writer's instructions about filling the audio. But as time passed, Yoon Jay's mouth had clamped shut.
And it seemed like there was a lethal edge to his gaze now—even watching through the monitors, it was genuinely bone-chilling, so PD Han Kook-young kept calling out to him at intervals.
[Aaaagh! Please, save me!]
[D-Don't move! I'll shoot!]
[Ten! Get down!]
Voice that could never be heard here echoed low and rolling through the set.
"Please keep talking to me."
(Yes? Yes, of course.)
Being able to shed the burdens of his past when thrown into a situation reminiscent of it was something only possible when he was acting. Variety shows didn't qualify for that exception—he'd confirmed as much back in the assembly episode.
[For the gods!]
[Die!]
Props that mirrored reality. The set. The mission to rescue the hostages.
Will the mask shatter again, like this? He shook his head back and forth, shaking off the brooding thought. He had to find the final clue.
That swimming pool can't just be there for nothing.
Arriving at the pool, Yoon Jay read the message painted on the wall—a clue awaits beneath the water—then, keeping only his minimal gear, plunged into the pool with a great splash.
As Yoon Jay tucked the clue from the pool floor into his jacket and started to rise toward the surface, a shadow fell across the water above him.
Omega Team had numbered twenty-one in total. Yoon Jay had taken them down one by one, leaving seven. Two survivors—aside from Jung Seung-woo and Choi Tae-yang—had surrounded the pool.
The situation was bad. The moment he surfaced, both men would pull their triggers, aiming for his head.
"We actually got him."
"Let's not get careless till the very end."
Even mock firearms had their limits, so rather than waste bullets, they waited. He'd have to come up for air eventually.
But no matter how long they waited, Yoon Jay didn't rise.
"Why isn't he coming up?"
"Could something be wrong? I'll go in."
"No, hold on."
He was a mouse trapped in the water anyway. Just then, the sound of a paint can toppling echoed from behind them.
The instant the two men instinctively spun around, Yoon Jay seized both their ankles and dragged them into the pool. The force was staggering.
"PWAH!"
By the time the two men, helplessly dunked, broke the surface, Yoon Jay's muzzle was trained on them both.
Ping! Ping! Being mock weapons, they couldn't reproduce the report of real guns.
Having eliminated the two men, Yoon Jay slipped away from the scene. He'd collected all the clues, after all.
"Argh, and I really thought we had him this time..."
"What was that earlier, anyway?"
The culprit behind the dropped paint can stepped into view.
"Hey, Kim Ha-on! That was you?!"
"S-sorry, sir."
"You did that on purpose, didn't you!"
"I really didn't! If I had, I'd be getting torn apart right now!"
"You've already been torn apart plenty!"
In truth, it had been a calculated move. Kim Ha-on—Soldiers K's resident sweet potato, its villain character—had been racking up screen time handily. He'd made skillful use of his position as the guy everyone loved to hate.
"I swear I'll avenge you!"
With a mournful look plastered on his face, he sprinted after Yoon Jay. A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
Back in the assembly episode, when Jung Seung-woo had faced Yoon Jay one-on-one, the response had been phenomenal.
This time, that's going to be me.
I'm the main character of this episode!
Meanwhile, Team Beta was racking their brains over the last remaining puzzle.
"I swear I've heard this one somewhere before!"
"Then what is it!"
"Ugh, what is it? It's on the tip of my tongue..."
The final puzzle was a music quiz. After groaning and knocking their heads together, the three hostages finally solved it and escaped the room.
"Let's get out of this area first. I'm scared out of my mind."
"But are we allowed to just walk out like this?"
The moment Team Beta escaped, the set shifted into Phase 2. An alarm klaxon wailed, and searchlights swung this way and that, raking the darkened set with their beams.
And then Yoon Jay appeared in the space where the hostages had been held. Water dripping from him, he searched the room.
"...An escape room?"
Back before he'd started his acting career, he'd visited all sorts of places like this with his twin younger siblings.
The discarded handcuffs on the floor, the patterns carved into the walls, the dice—he could work it out easily enough.
So those three solved the puzzles and escaped, then. Yoon Jay glanced around.
"They must have left some kind of trace..."
Did they just escape without one? As Yoon Jay searched for signs of the three, the two Omega Team survivors trailed him, carefully climbing the building's stairs.
Yoon Jay, back turned as he searched for the hostages' traces. The two men, rifle raised, wound tight as bowstrings. A tense score swelled beneath it all.