Thud.
It began with a single one.
But as ti passed, they multiplied exponentially. Two, five, eight, fifteen…
The dead researchers of the Cheerful Research Institute.
They began to appear, filling the corridor and elevator.
‘The dead are…’
Judged as objects.
And those corpses of ‘Cheerful Research Institute entities’, once recorded in exploration logs as unknown beings that caused disappearance upon re contact, now looked… no different than ordinary people.
Broken nails clawing at elevator doors.
Disheveled hair.
Two in lab coats collapsing together in the hallway, burning, one having tried to cover the other’s mouthpiece.
Every last one.
Until the mont of death.
“Roe Deer-nim.”
……
“You see them, don’t you? You do see them.”
Ho Yoowon frowned slightly, smiling with feigned pity.
“How unfortunate. Don’t you agree?”
……
“But congratulations, all the sa. You chose a good floor. From now on, traveling through the 96th floor will be much easier.”
That was when I realized I had recovered one more emotion.
Aversion.
Even with this body that no longer suffered from poisonous gas or searing heat, I stood there quietly, enduring that wave of aversion…
Together with the likewise-unhard counselor of the Fox Counseling Room.
Chiiiiik.
The sprinklers finally activated.
But what poured down was strangely black water.
The stench of iron and brine, like fresh blood, reeked from it.
The black water subdued the flas along the hallway a little, and the charred office doors collapsed out into the corridor.
The smoke eased slightly.
“Cough.”
A cough ca from Ho Yoowon.
It was almost ostentatious, but when I turned my head, his hair wasn’t even singed.
Perfectly intact, impossible to believe of soone who had inhaled toxic smoke and stood inside a firestorm.
I asked the ghost story a question.
Question : The sounds made by those evacuating
“Well, I’m sorry, but my hearing is poor… And besides, I think they’ve all died already.”
……
Warning 2
Reason : Non-cooperation
Cumulative warnings : 2 / Strikes left until disciplinary action : 1
“You’re too harsh…”
Do as you please.
I pulled myself away from the wall and stepped into the incident unfolding within the Cheerful Research Institute.
Squelch.
…Sothing crushed wetly beneath my steps on the sticky corridor floor.
[Huu, my friend’s feet stepping on such a filthy floor.]
Doesn’t matter. It isn’t frightening.
‘Where should I start?’
I looked at the burning Cheerful Research Institute, its shattered windows and charred walls exposing the interior…
A view thrown wide open, almost like a single vast chamber.
So my eyes imdiately fell on it.
There, behind a collapsed right-side wall and a door torn loose by the flas.
A transparent cylindrical apparatus…
It’s a Dream Incubator.
There was a Dream Incubator here.
I, I, I-I-I, I had to check it I think I had to but it’s hardbecausemybodyisinsidetheincubator
“Roe Deer-nim.”
Roe Deer?
“It doesn’t seem to be the incubator that you were born from, Roe Deer-nim.”
……
Ah.
“It’s broken.”
I staggered and straightened myself up.
At so point, I had nearly collapsed to the floor.
Beside , Ho Yoowon was brushing ash from his hair and fixing his clothes. He kindly inclined his head and reached out his hand to .
“You sat down. You must have a lot on your mind.”
I stood up without taking that hand.
Ho Yoowon looked at with a face that seed disappointed, though I already knew he felt no such thing.
Instead, watching as the flas left in the corridor slowly began to spread again, he asked,
“Ah. Were you perhaps worried that those flas might ride the elevator and spread to other floors?”
……
Negative
No.
I had never worried about such a thing.
From the start, the floors aren’t connected. Because…
Reason : Separate tilines
“…!”
That’s right.
Do you rember? Each floor of the Cheerful Research Institute is an identical structure.
Identical enough that even certain marks on the walls match.
This was sothing the sergeant had once said. And with it, his speculation.
– The sa exact office… the sa layout, even the sa scratches, so it must be the sa place, but… maybe… each one is a slightly different ti…?
“Ah. You knew up to that point?”
No.
In truth, it doesn’t stop there…
Using that testimony, I had also ford a hypothesis before entering.
[Indeed!]
If all the underground floors here are projections of the sa space at different points in ti.
And if that space was part of the Cheerful Research Institute.
Then as you go deeper underground, it’s not simply that the scenery grows stranger…
‘The deeper you go, the more important monts of the Cheerful Research Institute will appear.’
[Hooh.]
The trend is clear.
First, the Lower Levels.
‘The Institute here shows tifras when few people are present, or when it’s oddly outside working hours.’
Lunchti, vacation season, after work.
‘But the further down you go, the more work-related keywords appear.’
In the Middle Levels, the nuance is explicit. Celebration, debate… And the number of people increases as well.
So what of the deeper levels, the innermost floors?
Looking at the trend, the answer shows itself.
‘Monts more strongly tied to work. Critical monts will appear.’
The key events of the Cheerful Research Institute’s operations.
Which ans I can speculate about this situation as well.
[This fire is a very important event tied to the operations of that toy shop…]
[Is that what you’re saying, Friend?]
That’s right.
And we already know well what kind of work the Cheerful Research Institute was engaged in.
‘The developnt of ghost-story rchandise for play.’
It would make no sense for a place like that to collapse this far because of an ordinary fire.
Which ans this fire might not be natural at all, but itself a ghost story.
An incident monuntal enough to decide the fate of the Cheerful Research Institute.
And rembering the Institute’s experintal logs that summoned …
This would be Cheerful Research Institute’s final project.
Chances are high that it’s closely tied to the very reason I was summoned.
‘Rember this.’
I steadied myself with a deep ntal breath, then slowly stepped toward the broken Dream Incubator.
Reaching toward the slot I recalled in my mory…
The card key register point of the incubator.
Clack.
The card key slid free of the slot, revealing itself as an intact employee badge…
Cheerful Researcher
Lee Heowoon
……
What?
“Oh? The na is the sa as the employee who was sent to the Disaster Managent Bureau. That was Jang Heowoon-ssi, wasn’t it?”
I turned my head.
“And it’s also the sa as this year’s new hire. Right? That was Kim Heowoon-ssi, wasn’t it?”
Ho Yoowon was smiling.
…And I realized.
The one who knew better than anyone the whereabouts of the spy dispatched to the Supernatural Disaster Managent Bureau, and could make contact.
The one who had access to the profiles of every new Field Exploration Team recruit this year.
The one with no need to worry about being handed over to Director Cheong.
“What a fascinating phenonon… Do you have sothing you’d like to ask , Roe Deer-nim?”
Right before was the route to uncover the truth about Jang Heowoon-ssi.
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