Chapter 51
Chapter 51
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Translator: TrueDetective
Chapter: 51
Chapter Title: 15. From Here On, It's Brutal (2)
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I was staring blankly at the door lock while talking on the phone with the Lion CEO.
What could the password be?
The CEO had started living across from the dorm only after the Heavenly Demon arrived.
That meant it was most likely a number related to the Heavenly Demon.
The top candidate was the Heavenly Demon's birthday, 0808.
But the CEO was the one who had forged the Heavenly Demon's identity.
There was no way he'd use a fake birthday as the password.
The next possibility was the day the Heavenly Demon arrived in this world.
But the CEO still didn't know that the day Namgung Jun disappeared was when the Heavenly Demon fell here.
So the only candidate left was one.
The day the Heavenly Demon and the CEO first met.
The very day he had smashed through my office window.
Since it was the same type of door lock as the dorm, it was probably a six-digit code.
So I entered the six-digit date.
*Ding-ding-ding.*
‘It worked.’
His feelings for the Heavenly Demon seemed beyond doubt.
Over the phone, the Lion CEO asked me in a flustered voice.
-What was that door-opening noise? You’re not breaking into the dorm right now, are you?
“I’ll see you next time, sir.”
-Wait, you little—
I hung up and pulled open the CEO’s front door.
A chill seeped out from inside.
“…What the hell is this?”
It wasn’t that I was startled by something being there.
I was startled because there was nothing.
Like the Gupilbang dorm, the CEO’s place had a straight shot from the entryway to the living room.
But there wasn’t a single piece of furniture in sight.
An utterly empty scene.
‘Taking off my shoes here would be ridiculous.’
Even in a moment like this, I hesitated over whether to remove my shoes.
I stepped inside cautiously, still wearing them.
As I reached the living room, I figured out the source of the chill.
‘…He left the AC running?’
The temperature was set so low that my hands were already numb, and I’d only just come in.
I’d come to snoop around for anything suspicious.
But there was nothing.
Or rather, the fact that there was nothing at all was the suspicious part.
From what I’d observed, Baron sometimes crashed here.
But this place wasn’t fit for eating or sleeping.
It was barely worthy of being called a home.
Not only were there no basic living essentials, but none of the rooms even had doors.
An inexplicable unease washed over me, and I turned back.
Something I’d missed when I first entered was hanging by the door.
Two swords were mounted there, and they looked like real blades at a glance.
I drew one just a bit from its scabbard, and sure enough.
It was a proper sword with a blue-tinged edge.
It wasn’t weird for the CEO to own a real sword.
Gupilbang carried them around, and there was no way a martial artist like him lacked a sword-carrying permit.
With the place otherwise empty, the swords actually made it seem less suspicious.
‘The chance that this sword is insanely expensive and he’s using the whole apartment just to store it… nah.’
If that were the case, he wouldn’t hang it right by the front door.
I sheathed the sword and searched the apartment.
There wasn’t much to search, aside from the ceiling AC unit humming nonstop.
The view from the balcony was no different from the dorm’s.
What the hell had the CEO been doing in a dump like this all this time?
‘There are two possibilities in a case like this.’
Either he’d cleared out every last item just before I arrived, perfectly timed.
Or there was some hidden space.
If there was a hidden space, it’d show some sign.
I walked slowly from the entryway to the living room.
Then I stopped, sensing something odd underfoot.
‘It sinks just a little when I step.’
I jumped in place a few times, then moved and tried again elsewhere.
It was definitely different.
I got down almost prone, checking for seams or gaps, then looked up at the entryway.
The only things here were those two swords.
They weren’t hanging there for no reason.
I approached the swords and examined them closely.
Dust had built up, so they’d been mounted as decorations for a long time.
But the hilt showed signs of being touched.
One was from me pulling it just now.
The other was at the tip of the sword.
Normally, you’d grip the hilt like I did, leaving handprints there….
‘Pushed… with fingertips?’
I shifted my gaze to the wall where the swords were mounted.
I spotted faint scratches in a fan shape on the wall.
Without hesitation, I gripped the hilt and pressed.
The mount, which I’d thought fixed to the wall, shifted.
*Click.*
“……!”
I’d thought the floor was seamless.
But the living room floor started to move, rolling inward to reveal a passage leading down.
It was just wide enough for one person.
“Insane.”
I couldn’t see anything below.
It was getting dark, and even turning on the lights here wouldn’t help much.
More importantly, flipping a switch now would leave evidence that I’d been inside….
But.
‘I have to go down now.’
There was no way the CEO wouldn’t notice I’d been here.
I wouldn’t get a second chance to check.
I turned on my phone’s flashlight app to head down.
Then I paused, turned back, and drew one of the swords.
I had no idea how to use one.
But better than nothing.
Phone in one hand, sword in the other, I stepped into the darkness.
The stairs weren’t as deep as I’d thought.
Shining my light as I descended, the bottom came into view quickly.
Judging by the steps, I’d gone down exactly one floor.
Once down, I held my breath and listened for any other sounds.
If it seemed like someone else was here, I’d bolt right back up the stairs.
But all I felt was the chill air drifting down from above.
‘No one’s here.’
The phone light only lit up right in front of me, but this was the same building as our dorm.
I could guess the space’s size, so I groped forward until I hit a wall.
Then I followed it, feeling my way along.
To map out the area.
As I traced the wall, it hit me.
There were no windows on this floor.
Not blocked ones.
Just walls everywhere.
The building had been constructed without any windows here from the start.
A chill ran down my spine.
I’d felt this before.
Like the CEO had been preparing for the Heavenly Demon’s summoning for a very long time.
I groped the walls urgently.
No windows meant I could turn on lights without worry.
If the layout matched upstairs, there should be a switch around here somewhere.
If there wasn’t even a light switch, this place had no power, let alone windows.
The CEO was just a normal human like me, so I doubted he did anything in total darkness.
There had to be a way to turn on lights.
‘But here….’
So far, I’d only gone straight.
Even when the front was blocked and I turned, I kept straight.
If it matched upstairs, I should’ve hit doors or walls several times by now.
The fact I hadn’t meant this floor’s layout was different.
‘Did they leave the entire floor empty?’
This was the sixth floor, under the dorm.
I’d never heard anyone lived here.
With the seventh being Gupilbang’s dorm, it made sense they’d leave the floor below empty to avoid noise complaints—I’d thought naively.
After tracing the wall a bit longer.
A reddish glow appeared ahead.
My heart started pounding.
Instead of rushing, I gripped the hilt tight and approached slowly.
Shining my phone light, what was there was.
“…An elevator?”
Its position and appearance matched the one we used daily.
Even the sticker Jaha had stuck on playfully was still there.
‘Press six, and it comes here? Locked so it can’t stop on six?’
The elevator was stopped at the seventeenth floor.
Anyone approaching by elevator, I’d know right away.
More than that, if this was our usual elevator.
Then where I stood was the center of this floor.
But there were no walls ahead or behind.
This floor really was one big open space.
I had no idea what it was for, making it this vast….
I shone my phone light on the floor.
‘Related to this… red line on the floor?’
There was a red line drawn on the floor, like with paint.
Some feathers were scattered nearby, and wax from pressed candles dotted the surface here and there.
Putting it all together… no matter how I tried to deny it.
The thought that this was a Heavenly Demon summoning circle wouldn’t leave my head.
‘If this is a summoning circle….’
I had to erase it somehow and get out.
A setup this big would take time to redraw.
In the meantime, I could get the Gupilbang kids out of the dorm.
The joint dorm chaos variety show was wrapping up anyway.
And the CEO had said it was fine to leave the dorm.
He’d probably succeeded in summoning the Heavenly Demon, so no need to stock sacrifices in the dorm anymore.
But the Heavenly Demon wanted to go back.
Even if he claimed otherwise.
I’d send him back to his original world.
Then the CEO might try using this circle again.
So I needed to wipe it out now.
The CEO might redraw it without batting an eye….
But this was the best I could do.
The question was how to erase it.
Luckily, I could rub it out with my foot.
As I started from the edge, I thought.
‘My agency’s gonna be in a building with no basements or anything.’
But.
As I worked my way inward on this summoning circle….
Why was the middle glowing fluorescent?
This looked familiar from movies….
‘…Luminol?’
Someone had been here before me.
They’d come in with luminol reagent and sprayed it here.
Luminol reveals only one thing.
‘Bloodstains….’
So these red lines….
Were all blood?
I flinched back in shock and tripped.
The sword slipped from my hand, clattering loudly across the floor.
And at that exact moment.
The elevator, stopped at the seventeenth floor, started descending.
‘No, even so, it won’t come to six.’
Even if it was the CEO, he’d get off on seven, not six.
He’d built the secret passage precisely so no one would spot the elevator stopping on six and get suspicious.
Sure enough, the elevator plunged from the seventeenth and halted at seven.
‘Gave me a scare.’
As I groped for the dropped hilt.
The next instant, I froze.
The elevator started moving again.
*Ding.*
And stopped at six.