Kim Sojin descended to the fifth basent floor.
There, a group of people had gathered.
“Senior, soone’s approaching. They look like a girl.”
“Don’t co any closer. If you do, we’ll assu you're an evil spirit.”
Kim Sojin observed them carefully. In their hands were objects condensed with spiritual energy. Weapons of spiritual power. A group fully ard with these.
Moreover, the leaders in traditional hanbok had spiritual realizations high enough to be on the verge of deploying their full power.
They were experts just before reaching the peak of their training. This group seed to be part of a top-tier organization, like the sect alliance or a great sect. If it had been any ordinary girl, she would have collapsed from the oppressive force of their energy.
“She’s breaking through our spiritual pressure and approaching.”
“Shall we attack?”
“Wait. She could be an NPC of this strange phenonon.”
Kim Sojin looked beyond them.
Beyond them, the Infinite Elevator was open.
Seeing the barricade they’d set up to keep the doors from closing, it seed these people were skilled in using the elevator.
“For the elevator to suddenly stop in a dinsion like this… I've been to places called hell, but this one ranks high on the list of ominous places.”
As the girl-like figure trembled, a man smiled warmly and spoke to her.
“Don’t be afraid. I’ll protect you no matter what.”
“Senior, that’s so cringe…”
“What? I was being considerate, and now I’m hurt.”
They were even exchanging casual banter.
Truly, they seed like professionals at exploring elevators.
Kim Sojin, hearing their conversation, nodded.
“It’s a familiar sight… A well-trained team…”
Kim Sojin mumbled with a smile, and the one who seed to be the leader raised his hand, gathering the attention of the others.
Each team mber, gripping their weapon, stared intently at Kim Sojin.
The girl, noticing this, stopped talking and looked at them.
Then she spoke toward them.
“As one who governs souls, I vow not to attack you.”
Her vow.
As soon as they heard the vow, so began to relax.
A few even said:
“What? We were scared for no reason. She even made a vow.”
“Everyone, ease up. Don’t waste your energy.”
Kim Sojin silently watched them, then raised her hand.
As the girl clenched her fist, several heads exploded in unison.
“Attack! Attack!”
“Damn it!”
“S-Senior!!”
Suddenly, the head of the teammate standing next to them exploded, spraying blood like a fountain. In shock, they could do nothing but stare at the girl.
However, even amidst the chaos, the girl simply pointed at sothing with her finger.
At the spot she pointed to was a grotesque creature, a twisted mix of tentacles and teeth, crushed and lifeless.
The remaining teammates could recognize the face of their fallen comrade on the corpse of the grotesque thing.
It was a parasitic creature that had devoured the comrade’s head, replaced it, and had been controlling the body.
The surviving team mbers, horrified, spoke in disbelief.
“A Body Snatcher? Is it really a Body Snatcher?”
“I’ve only ever read about them in research papers.”
In terms of advanced biology, these creatures were known as Body Snatchers—beings that stole and controlled human bodies.
Kim Sojin, with a faint smile, remarked:
“A well-trained team dies because they trust their teammates. It’s always been that way. This is a familiar sight.”
Kim Sojin continued in a slightly amused tone.
“You guys don’t rember? It’s common sense not to talk about safety or reassurance in the middle of an anomaly, right?”
The mont one considers an anomaly to be safe, they fall under its influence. Thus, one should never feel reassured in the face of an anomaly. But several mbers of that team had been trying to comfort each other, offering reassurance.
Kim Sojin found this sight nostalgic.
A team, slowly picked off by Body Snatchers, looked just like this.
“I saw this so much as a kid. One by one, they’d get taken over by Body Snatchers, and by the ti there was only one team mber left, all the fake teammates would stand around them, grinning with their mouths torn wide open. That’s just how Body Snatchers work. The first ti I saw it, I almost wet myself.”
The surviving team mbers felt terror for two reasons.
First, they didn’t know when their comrade had been taken over by the Body Snatcher. What they did know for sure was that it didn’t happen during this elevator exploration. There simply hadn’t been any ti for it.
Which ant their comrade had been possessed long before.
But when?
And how many Body Snatchers were lurking back at their base right now?
The team mbers felt a chilling fear from that realization.
Secondly, they were terrified of the girl.
A girl who saw a dead Body Snatcher and grinned like she was eting an old friend. Body Snatchers were rare, advanced bio-creatures that only appeared in specific hells. Creatures you should never be happy to see.
Advanced bio-creatures were beings whose origin lay in the spiritual world. And Body Snatchers, born in hell, were often referred to as demons.
Yet this girl smiled at the sight of such a rare demon, as if she were glad to see it. Even the veteran team mbers, known for their survival skills, couldn’t help but stiffen and tense up at this sight.
Her otherworldly beauty and surreal deanor enveloped her, making it hard for the surviving team mbers to breathe under the weight of her presence.
At that mont, the sound of the elevator moving echoed through the space.
Even though it was operational, the team mbers didn’t move.
Kim Sojin asked them:
“What are you doing? Aren’t you going to get in?”
The mont they heard those words, the remaining mbers imdiately bowed at a 90-degree angle and shouted, “Thank you for sparing us, senior!!!” before rushing toward the elevator, fleeing in panic.
And so, Kim Sojin was left alone on the fifth floor.
“...Co.”
Now alone, the girl threw her phone far into the distance.
A few seconds passed.
The space around her brightened as an overwhelming torrent of spiritual energy poured down, almost too bright to see her form.
‘Was it when I was 8? Or 9? It was the sa back then, too.’
Kim Sojin endured the pain, recalling her past.
‘To deceive that sect, I had to make a false vow. The handlers never told that making a false vow would bring down heavenly punishnt. I nearly died back then... No, they probably wanted to die.’
She clenched her teeth, suppressing the pain, but showed no other changes in her expression.
‘The heavenly punishnt hurt more in my heart than it did from my body burning.’
When the heart aches, sadness follows.
When sadness takes root, the heart turns cold.
A cold heart quickly becos cruel.
And a cruel heart inflicts wounds upon others.
That’s why the world grows crueler with each passing day.
The girl realized this at a young age.
And from that mont, she gave up hope in this world.
Having endured the heavenly punishnt, she wiped away her tears.
But these weren’t tears of sorrow. They were reflexive, brought on by pain.
Despite the agony that brought her to the point of tears, the girl didn’t make any noise other than the occasional groan. She was that accustod to pain.
She picked up her phone as if nothing had happened.
When she touched the screen, a new Wi-Fi icon appeared.
Without hesitation, Kim Sojin pressed on the network.
===
Wi-Fi
Available Networks
- KillEveryoneButGetHeavenlyPunishntLikeAnIdiot (locked)
Secured with WPA2
- SeenMoreGhostsThanMyParents (locked)
Secured with WPA2
- PrefersHellOverTheHumanWorld (locked)
Secured with WPA2
- ThenWe’reTeammatesLOL (locked)
Secured with WPA2
===
“Big talk when you're scared stiff.”
Kim Sojin’s hands trembled slightly as she saw this.
“Go ahead, give your best shot. I’ll pay you back a hundredfold.”
With those words, the girl sprinted down to the next floor.
***
It was a refreshing morning.
The sky was blue, and the birds chirped rrily.
Yet, there was a lingering sense of unease.
Unease? Just saying that makes feel like I’m turning into so kind of pessimist.
I brushed my teeth and splashed water on my face haphazardly. As I washed, mories of yesterday started creeping in, particularly the mont Jamsuni stord off in a huff.
Ah, maybe that’s why I’m feeling uneasy—because of Jamsuni running off yesterday.
It wasn’t the first ti she’d dashed off after getting upset recently. Was it when I said I was going to take the entrance exam for Cheonji?
That little brat had shown up at the DMZ, of all places! I nearly had a heart attack. Easily the scariest mont of the year for .
And this ti, Jamsuni ran off again, upset over so petty argunt.
I have no idea where she went, but I trust she didn’t head for soplace dangerous like the DMZ again.
I spanked her hard enough last ti; surely, she wouldn’t make that mistake again, right? Besides, I’m here now.
She’ll probably show up around breakfast, sulking and whining about how mad she was.
-Gurgle, spit
I spat out the toothpaste as I mulled it over.
Looks like breakfast today is soy stir-fry. I can already hear Jamsuni’s voice, "...Soy stir-fry is the best!"
Just then, I heard soone hastily opening the door.
I wrapped a towel around myself and stepped out of the bathroom, only to find Nayu standing at the entrance.
The mont she saw , she shouted:
“Nayu! Breaking news!”
– – – The End of The Chapter – – –
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