ep13. Where Blood Rains (3)

"Team Leader Cha...!"

With Cha Si-eon's forearm pressing down on my throat, I shouted.

"It's me! Seo Do-woon!"

But Cha Si-eon did not back off.

He didn't press the attack any further, either. He simply kept me pinned to the point where I wouldn't quite die, looking down at me.

He clocked my face and decided to smash first and ask questions later, didn't he...!

Choked up at his utterly unmoved expression, I protested again.

"It's really me! I was just dragged here...!"

Ignoring my words, Cha Si-eon grabbed my left arm and spoke into my smartwatch.

"Ops room, do you read me? Ops room."

No answer came back. My smartwatch had apparently gone dead the moment I entered this place too — the influence of this Special Zone, it seemed.

Cha Si-eon's gaze narrowed further.

Damn it. Does he ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠think I'm a mimic, a Fake Human?

"Team Leader, I have never been here before! So how would this zone even know ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠me well enough to make a copy of me!?"

"You were taken here once."

At Cha Si-eon's flat assertion, I belatedly remembered: when I escaped the General Stadium Where Corpses Run, I'd been dragged through several other Special Zones — none of it in my memory, apparently. One of those places had been this one, the Island Where Blood Rains.

"That was for, like, a few seconds at most...!"

"Or it may have replicated you from my memory."

"Even so — of everyone you know, *ack* — why would it pick me!?"

"Because you're the only one whose appearance here wouldn't be strange."

You son of a — that's exactly the problem...!

Unable to bear the pressure on my throat, I tapped at his forearm. Struggling and clawing at him would probably get my head torn clean off, so I forced myself to just tap, and the crushing force eased slightly.

Gulping down air now that my airway was half-open, I got a good look at Cha Si-eon's face. His helmet was gone — sold off somewhere, apparently — his long hair loose and flying everywhere, his face smeared with blood and sweat. His expression looked calm enough, but his eyes were bloodshot and crimson.

This might genuinely be dangerous.

Cha Si-eon had spent four days conducting operations here, then three days isolated. He would have been scraping the bottom of the barrel — stamina, sanity, all of it — just to endure. Expecting composure or patience from a man in that state was a losing bet.

What do I do?

No choice. I'll just have to throw it out there.

"Team Leader Cha, please calm down and listen to me. I'll prove I'm not a fake generated here."

"How?"

"If I were built from your memories or your thoughts, Team Leader, then I couldn't say anything you don't know."

"And if I don't know it, there's no way to verify it."

"I know that you're dating Gwak Jae-gyeom."

"...What nonsense is that?"

"Exactly — it was nonsense. So, was that nonsense something you could have come up with on your own?"

"..."

"If I were a fake built from your imagination, everything I say and do would have to fall inside the bounds of what you could conceive. That means that bit of nonsense I just said would also be your thought. Team Leader — do you normally go around thinking you're dating Gwak Jae-gyeom?"

Go on. Say it.

"...You really are Seo Do-woon."

Cha Si-eon murmured quietly and rose to his feet. Freed at last, I scrambled upright and hacked out a dry cough.

Damn it all. I thought my neck was going to snap...

While I was catching my breath, Cha Si-eon gestured at the snack spread scattered across the floor.

"What is all this?"

"Ha Yu-ju sent them for Jae-gyeom to pass along..."

I answered through gritted teeth, seething. Paying me no mind whatsoever, Cha Si-eon swept his gaze over the fallen snacks, then tore open an ion drink and drained it.

Where was that suspicion when you were nearly killing a man...

Having emptied the bottle in one go, Cha Si-eon picked up an energy bar and asked, "What's the situation at the Bureau?"

I apologize for acting violently. I was isolated alone and got a little paranoid. This is some branch point of the Island Where Blood Rains. ...He had zero intention of saying any of that first, apparently.

Absurd as it was, I decided to chalk it up to Cha Si-eon being Cha Si-eon and briefed him on the outside situation: Team 1's failed mission and their casualties. Apophis entering to search, then withdrawing. And Gwak Jae-gyeom's condition too.

Cha Si-eon listened to all of it in silence, steadily consuming calories. At that unnervingly composed demeanor, I asked, "And how have you been, Team Leader? Have you been eating and sleeping properly?"

"I just ate. And I slept as much as I needed."

Cha Si-eon answered stiffly, as he always did. The fact that "I just ate" meant he'd been starving until now was something I set aside for the moment.

Did you really sleep as much as you needed, though?Your eyes are bloodshot.

As I eyed him dubiously, Cha Si-eon suddenly sprang up from where he sat.

"You'll already know where we are, so I'll skip ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the briefing. The zone was reformed several dozen hours ago, and most of the existing rules have been repealed. The only rule still in effect is that the Blood Rain falls at 2:30 AM. So do not trust the old information. Follow my instructions."

"We're moving right now?"

At my startled question, Cha Si-eon looked down at me as if it were obvious. "We have no time. We have to escape before the Blood Rain falls."

"Is there any guarantee we'll make it out before then? You said all the rules changed."

"What is your conclusion?"

"Given the situation, wouldn't it be smarter to rest a bit before moving? You look like you've barely slept at all, Team Leader."

"Worry about yourself, not me. We're moving."

Cha Si-eon turned away as if the matter weren't worth another second of thought.

Man, Jae-gyeom really ought to see him like this, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

I watched Cha Si-eon's back for a moment, then hauled myself up with a groan. And at the same moment, the existential crisis I'd been putting off came crashing down on my head like a sudden downpour.

Right — I had wished for Cha Si-eon to survive. But nowhere in that wish had I signed up to wallow in the mud alongside the man...

The place where Cha Si-eon had been holed up was a somewhat dim corridor. Its walls on both sides were plastered densely with black-and-white photographs, and the overhead lights focused exclusively on them. This wasn't just a corridor — it was a photo exhibition gallery.

A gallery would put us in Zone D or E.

The original of this place, the Island Where Blood Rains, was Nodeulseom, sitting mid-span on the Hangang Bridge. In reality, that modest little island had been developed into a mixed cultural space: a walking trail ringing the island's perimeter, a decent-sized forest on its eastern side, and on the west, a three-story building housing an outdoor performance hall, a book lounge, a gallery, and restaurants. And all of that rich variety, when copied into a Special Zone, had become exactly as rich a variety of traps.

"Our destination is Zone A," Cha Si-eon said, striding ahead. "We'll escape through the bus stop in Zone A."

"What about Route F?"

"Any path leading into the Library has already been sealed. It appears to be a result of this latest reformation."

Extremely bad news. The Island had originally offered six escape routes, A through F. But around last autumn, the zone had undergone its Second Awakening, and in the aftermath, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠four of the routes the Bureau had secured had vanished. That left only two — A and F. And now, after this reformation, even Route F appeared to be blocked.

"So can we trust Route A is still valid?"

"You said it yourself — Apophis came in here and pulled back."

Right. That was true. Route A connected to a physical passage the Bureau had built. The tunnel Apophis had entered to search and then withdrawn from was precisely Route A, in Zone A. Which meant that passage was definitely still functional. All we had to do was reach Zone A, and we could escape this place.

The problem was how to get there.

The Island was divided into ten zones in total. Naturally, in the beginning those zones had been ordinary — one could come and go between them freely. Then the reformation struck at the end of last year, and every one of them changed into something like game stages. In other words, you now had to clear a given stage before you could move on to the next one.

What made it worse was that clearing a stage warped you straight into the next one automatically — with no fixed order and no rules, purely at random. Clear stage B, and instead of C, you might get dumped into F. Clear F, and B might come up again; clear B once more, and H might be next. Which meant that until Zone A appeared, we would have to keep blasting through every zone that came our way — like a game of Monopoly where you keep rolling the dice hoping to finally roll your way off the island.

And on top of that, the reformation had presumably rewritten the rules of each individual zone as well. Who knew what awaited us...

Following behind Cha Si-eon, I stole a glance at one of the photographs mounted beside me. All those countless pictures were black-and-white portraits of people.

"Don't look at the photos. Keep your eyes on my back and follow."

My gaze commandeered, I gave Cha Si-eon's back-of-the-head and shoulders a sidelong glance instead. Then Cha Si-eon abruptly moved sideways.

Only after he moved did I spot the thing surging up out of the photographs. At a glance it looked human — but it was absolutely not a human being. Its face was split down the middle like a piece of rotten fruit, the cut cross-section inside squirming and writhing.

The moment I registered that raw crimson flesh of muscle and blood vessels—

Shk- thwack-!

Cha Si-eon's knife peeled its head clean off. Decapitation, in the most literal sense.

Thunk. Roll, roll, roll—

"..."

Watching the monster's head skitter across the floor, I could only think one thing.

Maybe I've graduated from the Kwon Mu-seop bus to the Cha Si-eon bus...?