Where Are You, Kang Jinsoo
4:00 p.m.
Elise had returned to the Penthouse, and her mood was still foul.
"This is so annoying. Why did you even let that bug live?"
She sprawled across the sofa, pinching my thigh as she grumbled.
It hurt. But I had to endure it. This was all for the money.
"Private punishment is prohibited by regulation."
"Regulation? I am the law."
"Still, thank you for holding back. It's the only reason I'm still breathing."
When I offered her a bitter smile, she snorted.
"Hey."
"Yes."
"From now on, if that bastard calls you, don't go."
"He's a senior officer. I don't really have a choice."
"Then take me with you. I'll protect you."
My heart dropped.
I'll protect you.
Coming from the mouth of a devilish witch, the words were far too sweet.
Of course I knew it was just her version of "looking after her toy" — but so what?
"…Even just hearing you say that means a lot. Thank you."
That was when it happened.
Bzzzt—
The walkie-talkie in my pocket went off.
The caller ID read Security Admin Office.
"Excuse me a moment. It's the admin office."
I edged into the corner under Elise's watchful glare and took the call.
"This is Handler Kang Jinsoo."
"Ah, Handler Kang? This is an emergency directive from the Director."
The admin clerk's voice was urgent.
"There's a leak in the C-Block Building 3 pump room. The facilities team already clocked out, so we're short on manpower. We need you to go shut off the valve. It'll only take ten minutes."
"C-Block? Isn't that where they keep the violent offenders?"
"All inmates have been placed under isolation. It's safe. This is the Director's order — refusing would be… problematic."
An order from the Director. I had no grounds to refuse.
And if it was just shutting a valve, that was easy money.
"Understood. I'll be right back."
I hung up and returned to Elise.
"Where are you going?"
"Director's orders. I need to do a quick facilities check. Ten minutes, tops."
"Again?"
Elise's eyes narrowed.
"Did that bastard Park Minseok call you?"
"No. It was the admin office. Director's orders."
"…Suspicious."
She clearly didn't buy it, but the word Director made her take a step back.
Director Seo Jisu was someone even Elise couldn't casually ignore.
"Hurry back. If you're late, you know what happens."
"Yes. Ten-minute cut, I promise."
I left the room in a hurry.
Basement Level 3. C-Block.
Murder. Rape. Cannibalism. A dumpster stuffed with the worst scum humanity had to offer.
The stench of mold and blood hit me the moment I stepped into the corridor.
This place gives me the creeps.
I swept my flashlight ahead and made for the Building 3 pump room.
Something felt off.
They'd supposedly isolated all the inmates, but it was far too quiet.
Like the calm before a storm.
"This should be it."
Pump Room No. 3
I pushed the door open. Rusted pipes snaked across the walls, and water stood ankle-deep on the floor.
So there really was a leak.
I waded inside and twisted the main valve shut.
Screeeech. The sound of running water stopped.
"Done. Time to go."
The moment I turned around—
SLAM!
The steel door shut itself.
At the same instant, the lights crackled and died.
Total darkness.
"Huh? What the—?"
I groped my way to the door and tried the handle.
Click. Click.
Locked. Designed so it couldn't be opened from the inside.
"Hey! Is anyone out there?! The door's locked!"
I pounded on it. Nothing.
A chill ran down my spine.
Someone had locked it from the outside.
Kssht. Kssssht.
Then a voice laced with static crackled through the speakers.
"Ahh~ ahh~. Mic check. Can you hear me, rookie?"
Supervisor Park.
His voice was thick with a nasty little laugh.
"How's it feel, trapped in there like a damn rat? You thought you could strut around just because you've got the Director's backing. Look at you now."
"Supervisor Park! What the hell is this?! Open the door right now!"
"The door? Hmm. Seems I lost the key. Oh, and there's one more thing I forgot to mention."
He snickered.
"The ventilation ducts in that pump room connect straight to the C-Block cells. I just opened every last one of them. And…"
Clank. Clank.
From somewhere far off came the sound of dozens of cell doors unlocking all at once.
"Looks like I accidentally hit the inmate isolation release button. Oops. My bad."
"…You insane bastard."
"Those C-rank animals have been starving lately. They're getting restless. What do you think happens when they catch the scent of fresh F-rank meat? Hang in there. I'll pray they find nothing but your bones by morning."
Click.
The broadcast cut out.
And in the darkness, other sounds began to rise.
Grrrr…
Kyaaaaah…
Bestial howls.
And the thunder of countless footsteps closing in on the pump room.
"Ha. So you really are trying to kill me."
I clenched the flashlight tight.
No Elise. No Director.
Just a dead-end alley crawling with violent criminals.
And me — an F-rank pack mule with nothing but a single Calm skill to my name.
I have to survive.
I grabbed a steel pipe from the corner.
My hands were shaking, but I gritted my teeth.
I was not going to die like a dog in this hole.
BANG! BANG!
Someone started hammering on the pump room door hard enough to tear it off its hinges.
"Come out, you little rat!"
"We can hear you breathing in there! Open the damn door!"
"I heard rookie meat is nice and tender! Hahahaha!"
Maniacal laughter poured through the door.
To them, I wasn't a prison officer. I was a long-awaited special meal.
Screeech.
The vent cover in the corner of the ceiling rattled.
Supervisor Park hadn't been lying. They were coming in through the ducts.
"Over here! There's a hole!"
The vent cover was ripped away, and someone's head shoved through the opening.
Our eyes met. A prisoner baring yellowed teeth.
"Found y—"
WHAM!
I swung the steel pipe before I could even think.
Home run.
"Gaaah!"
He screamed and tumbled back into the duct.
But there was no time to celebrate. More of them were pouring in right behind him.
The door would give any second, and the vent was already breached.
A rat in a perfectly sealed trap.
Is there any way out of this? All I've got is one pipe and two garbage skills.
Absolute Calm and Status Condition Immunity.
Skills that looked completely useless in a fight.
But right now, they were the only cards I had left to flip this situation.
My eyes locked onto a thick pipe painted bright red.
⚠ HIGH TEMPERATURE WARNING: Hot Water Supply Pipe
…That's it.
I bit down on my lip.
It was a gamble. But it beat sitting still and getting torn apart.
BOOM—!
At last the steel door was ripped off its frame.
Prisoners flooded into the darkness. At least ten of them.
"Found him! You little rat!"
"He's mine! I get first bite!"
A hulking inmate at the front charged in with a makeshift weapon.
I raised the steel pipe like I meant to block him — then ducked and rolled sideways.
And with everything I had, I smashed the valve joint on the red pipe.
CLANG! CRAAANG!
"What the hell are you doing? Stop thrashing around!"
The prisoners laughed as they closed the circle around me.
But on the third hit, the old valve gave out and burst.
FWOOOOOOSH—!!!
With a noise that shredded the eardrums, white steam exploded from the pipe.
High-pressure vapor at over ninety degrees Celsius, blasting up from the underground boiler room.
"AAAAAGH!"
"It's hot! What is this?!"
The cramped pump room transformed into a white hell in an instant.
Vision vanished. Scalding heat that could cook flesh filled every inch of the space.
The prisoners screamed and writhed on the floor.
"My eyes! My eyes!"
"Where's the door?! We have to get out!"
Total chaos.
But in the middle of that white steam, one person stood completely unharmed.
Passive skill activated.
Nullifies high-temperature status condition: Burns.
Resists vision-blocking status condition: Blindness.
I walked through the steam at an easy pace.
It wasn't hot.
Just a gentle warmth, like stepping into a neighborhood sauna.
This body had endured an S-rank witch's hellfire. A hot water pipe wasn't going to leave a mark on me.
"Cough, cough! What the hell is that guy?"
"Why isn't he burning?!"
One of the prisoners crawling on the floor looked up at me in pure terror.
Emerging from the white smoke, I must have looked like a demon to them.
"If you want to live, get on the ground."
I growled low in my throat.
Then I grabbed the nearest man by the hair.
Absolute Calm (F)
"Guh…"
His eyes rolled back. He foamed at the mouth and went limp.
I'd just forced him to sleep, nothing more.
But from everyone else's perspective, the second I touched him, he dropped dead on the spot.
"H-he killed him?!"
"Th-that guy's an Awakener! He's a poison gas type!"
Misunderstanding bred terror.
They couldn't see through the steam. Their buddy was down. And I was fine.
I could practically hear their morale shatter.
"Who's next?"
I dragged the steel pipe along the floor as I advanced.
Screeeech. The sound of metal scraping concrete stoked their panic.
"S-spare me!"
"The door! Open the door!"
The prisoners shoved each other, stampeding toward the narrow exit.
Coming in had been easy. Getting out was another story.
They tangled and tripped over one another until the doorway was pure bedlam.
I used the chaos to haul the fallen steel door back upright, barricading the entrance, then dragged nearby materials over to reinforce it.
"Hah… hah…"
As the steam slowly cleared, the strength went out of my legs.
I sank to the floor.
My heart was hammering like mad.
I made it.
The first crisis was over.
But I couldn't relax yet.
The pipe was ruptured, and the water was still rising.
More importantly, Supervisor Park wasn't the type to give up this easily.
Bzzzt.
I pulled the walkie-talkie from my pocket. Dead.
Park had clearly jammed the signal.
"You son of a bitch…"
I ground my teeth.
The moment I got out of here, I was going to make him pay.
But right now, surviving came first.
I hugged my knees and curled up.
Rising water soaked my ankles.
Cold. Damp. Terrifying.
Then one person's face drifted into my mind.
Selfish and violent — but the moment she took my hand, she fell asleep like a child.
I said I'd be back in ten minutes.
I checked the time.
Already thirty minutes gone.
She's going to be furious. Extremely furious.
I managed a wry smile.
Imagining her so angry she'd burn me alive somehow put me at ease.
At least that would mean I'd made it back alive.
At the same moment, Basement Level 1. The Penthouse.
"…"
Elise sat on the sofa, staring at the wall clock.
Only the ticking of the second hand filled the silence.
Tick. Tick. Tick.
The promised ten minutes passed.
Twenty minutes passed.
Then thirty.
"He's not coming?"
She muttered under her breath.
Her senses were razor-sharp.
Far below, deep underground, the faint presence of him that she had always been able to feel — was gone.
In its place, a nauseating stench of blood and raw terror had taken root.
"…How dare they."
Elise rose from her seat.
Her red hair lifted against gravity, floating upward.
The temperature in the room spiked past one hundred degrees in an instant.
The windows shattered. The furniture burst into flame.
"You touched what's mine?"
She walked toward the door.
An ID card? She didn't need one.
KRAAAAAANG—!
She thrust out her hand, and the thick steel door exploded outward.
The guards stationed in the corridor screamed in pure panic.
"Inmate 001 is rampaging! Emergency! Emergency!"
"Stop her! Raise the barrier!"
"Move."
Elise swept her hand through the air.
The barrier sealing the corridor tore apart like wet paper.
There was nothing in her eyes.
Only one thought.
Find the rats who stole her air conditioner — and burn every last one of them to ash.