At first, soone wished.
'People will notice I've been dragged here.'
Before long, a great many people wished.
'The police will investigate, for sure.'
'It's fine. It won't take them that long to find .'
'If I behave, I can go ho in one piece.'
Then ca the doubts.
'How long is this pain going to last?'
'Why isn't anyone coming to find ?'
'Don't tell
I have to stay here forever?'
And then, they hoped.
'Please, let today end quickly.'
'Let this pain be over within today.'
At last, they understood.
'Ah.'
No one is coming to save . It was a despairing realization.
But that was not the end. These unknowable tortures and rituals showed no end in sight, and eventually they reached a point where the pain simply would not stop.
How terrible that was -- those who have not lived through it could never know.
'It hurts.'
'It's agonizing.'
'Please.'
Gradually, they lost the shape of a person.
'No.'
'Save .'
No.
'Kill .'
They had already resigned themselves. The hope that they could escape alive, that things could get better than this -- they had abandoned it long ago. And even having abandoned it, the horror remained.
Should things not at least be better than this? They had miserably given up on survival. Given up on the normal life they once had. Given up even on hope.
At least better than this.
"......"
"......"
...And yet, why could they not lose their minds?
'Why.'
They wished they could just go mad. How happy they would be if only they could let go of their sanity.
If they could escape from this pain, from this despair, from this terror for even a few seconds, they would do anything.
But they could not. They were not granted even a mont's peace.
***
There had been a commotion.
And yet unable to die, we are trapped.
'Please.'
We're here.
'We're right here, so why did you close the door?'
Kill us.
If that's not possible, then let us out.
It's too cramped and suffocating here....
***
This place was not a single space.
Rooms stretching on without end. In each room, air hung heavy and oppressive. The ceilings pressed low and the gap between walls was narrow. No matter how far they reached with outstretched arms, there was no escape.
Open a door and a new room appeared. But they were all the sa. Nothing changed. Were they circling the sa place, or was it simply the sa room repeated endlessly?
'It hurts.'
We keep hurting.
'It hurts so much.'
Heat that felt as though blood would evaporate.
Cold that pried apart every joint.
Light that scorched skin and darkness that blinded the eyes.
Among the hopes being severed, the most terrible thing was sothing else entirely.
They were never alone. An existence that was neither one individual nor separate individuals. In that cramped vessel, multiple beings were crushed and mixed together.
Clumped into a single form.
'It's suffocating.'
'It's too tight.'
'I can't breathe.'
Arms and legs were bound to one another's bodies. Heads grew from places that were not their own bodies. Flesh and bone were always slick with sweat, blood, and alien mucus.
So wailed. So silently gasped for breath. So scratched endlessly at the walls with their fingernails. No amount of scratching could carve an exit, and yet they could not stop.
In that cramped vessel, the pain did not end with a single being.
'It's unbearable.'
'Please.'
The agony of one being flowed into another. The sensation of muscles tearing. The sensation of bones twisting. The sensation of lungs bursting -- all mixed together and circulated. An unbroken circulation.
The sense of ti had collapsed. A sealed room where not even the sky, not a single ray of sunlight, not a single blade of grass could be seen. Denied the rcy of death, they were pushed endlessly from room to room.
'This ti?'
'Maybe this ti?'
Each ti a door opened, the thought 'maybe' arose, but terribly -- there was always only new pain waiting. Nothing existed but endless circulation and compression.
'But still, you never know.'
No one had ever told them this pain would never end.
No one had ever told them there was no exit sowhere in these rooms. And so they wandered, repeating despair and suffering.
Maybe this ti. Maybe this ti will be different. After all, this place was the belly of eternity.
'Ah.'
They volunteered for suffering.
And so they lived in despair.
***
The door opened.
"......"
Groping hands.
Arms outstretched.
Bodies moving.
'This is the one.'
They seized that ankle.
"......!!"
'Please.'
Don't run. Don't run. Don't run.
"Ugh, wait...!!"
'Please.'
Don't run.
He alone could open and close the door, just once.
'Please, look at us.'
There are people here.
There are so very many people here.
If you pass us by like this, if you leave
here and go, we'll just be trapped forever.
'I'm right here.'
'Please look at .'
'Please look here.'
They pulled him from so very far away. Drew him in as deep as they could.
And then they pleaded. They scread with everything they had. They wanted to make themselves known to this place's new master. But all that ca out was a terrible wailing.
So among them realized this. Others did not. And yet, together, they wept, shrieked, and scread.
'There are people here!!!'
Please.
'Save us...!!!'
Because they had not gone mad, because they still could not die --
They wanted to live.
***
Ah,
They had lost him.
'......'
'......'
'......'
No.
They pounded on the door with desperate force, but it would not give.
They tried once more to get him in their grasp, but the room was too vast. Where? Where? Where is he? Where is he? This won't do. At this rate, he'll walk out alone.
Leaving us behind.
Here. Leaving us here.
***
Through the agony of a body burning alive, they reached out a hand through that current of water.
Their eyes had not been wrong. He had called even monsters his friends. He would call a conglorate of every drowned thing his friend, too. They held hope. At the sa ti, they harbored jealousy. Why only them?
'We're monsters too.'
'We were in more pain.'
'We were lonelier.'
Why only them?
'Ah.'
'Ah.'
'No, no, please....'
'Don't leave like this.'
'Don't leave
behind.'
'Don't go.'
'I'm scared.'
'It hurts....'
He opened the door. He was trying to go out through it.
***
"First off, everything's fine, but--"
Coco asked in return.
"Pardon?"
"Oh dear, my apologies. Let
correct that. Nothing about this situation is fine."
Then, to rephrase.
"Putting all else aside -- given that this is a crisis upon which the survival of both myself and this hotel hinges, we need clear certainty to proceed with our plan."
"No?"
"Yes. My plan."
Do you know what the most important thing in the research process is?
"Research is the repetition of problem identification, hypothesis formulation, verification attempts, revision, and re-verification. No one knows the answer from the start. At least, not if it is truly research."
Lee Yeon-woo tossed a Blood Pack onto the floor. It was bone-dry, an empty pack without a single drop of blood remaining.
"Whether a hypothesis holds can only be proven through extensive experintation. Logical prediction may be possible, but confirmation ultimately cos through data and experience alone."
"Pardon? Yes."
"But in the end, this too is repetition. A single attempt carries far too many variables. Do you understand what this ans?"
"No?"
"It ans that the more samples accumulate, the more we can reduce error and secure consistent results."
Failure is also a result. And therefore, an achievent.
"Even failed attempts beco valuable research assets, because they tell us 'what does not work.'"
Research is not a path walked with the answer already known. It is drawing lines on a blank page, morizing the dead ends of a labyrinth, groping forward through darkness. The very process of finding the answer through repeated trial and error --
That is the essence of the act called research.
"And so, Coco."
"Yes?"
"Do you understand which stage we are at now?"
"No?"
"We have just passed through problem identification and the hypothesis formulation stage."
"Yes."
"That is correct."
"Pardon?"
"That is how things stand."
Yeon-woo pulled out one of the pieces of Phlebotomy Equipnt he had brought along.
"It was worth bringing these."
Coco, dangling, asked once more.
"Pardon?"
"There were tis I doubted whether they would be of any use, but in the end, all things are made to be used. Even if their purpose has strayed sowhat from the original."
"No? No? No?"
"Why are you acting like this? Maintain your dignity as a mysterious NPC in an R-rated horror hotel simulation ga. Have you gone soft at this point? Did we not already agree to follow my judgnt?"
"Did we not!!"
"I will not listen."
Yeon-woo continued.
"The body of a living creature is truly marvelous. It does not carelessly release any foul odor from within. My case was sowhat different, but it stands to reason that the scent of blood does not leak out unless the skin is broken."
"N-n-no...!"
"And the monster in Room 14 can only be lured with 'fresh blood.'"
The massive monster would rush toward it, absorb it, then surge back toward the player.
"In other words, to serve my role as bait, I need to bleed. At the sa ti, I can directly attempt the verification I just ntioned. If I simply get swallowed whole and lose just like that, how would we deal with the aftermath?"
That would amount to nothing more than treating that monster friend to a al. He would rather not.
"That is why experintation is necessary."
After all, even a single drug must undergo countless trials to verify its safety. Better yet, this ti there was no need to sacrifice innocent lab rats. He regenerated, and he resurrected.
What a rciful and efficient endeavor.
"Hoo...."
Yeon-woo needed to confirm it.
Whether, when 'he' was consud, he could overco that thing.
"......"
"I've received sufficient transfusion."
Closer to drinking, but regardless.
"Let us begin the verification."
He raised the Phlebotomy Equipnt.
First -- one thumb.
***
It ran with all its might.
It ran without regard for its breaking body.
Smashing through walls, tearing through the terrible maze, it chased after him. But he was too fast. It tried to block his path with electronics and monitors, but it was too difficult.
He was too certain. And in truth, the path he chose was correct. The place they had wandered for an eternity -- he knew it far too well.
As expected.
'Ah.'
As expected, he alone was the answer.
'Please.'
They desperately chased the scent of fresh blood.
'He can't leave like this.'
Have to catch him.
Can't let him go.
If he walked out that door like this, it was truly over.
'If you don't take us with you, we'll suffer forever.'
Have to catch him, have to catch him. Have to catch him....
They did not even know how threatening their own frightened, frenzied movents were. It never occurred to them that this was what made him run. They simply wished to catch him.
'No, don't go. Please don't go. You can't abandon . I want to get out of here, please take
with you. Take us out through that door you see...!'
The scent of blood stopped in one place. Ah, thank goodness. It's not that far. Enduring the tingling anxiety through their entire body, they ran toward it. His scent was still stationary.
But when they reached it, he was not there.
'Blood.'
'A part of him.'
'Yes, a piece of him.'
'But no.'
'Still.'
They opened their mouth. Instinctively, and desperately.
'Fresh blood.'
CRUNCH—!
'Eat.'
'Have to eat.'
Lumped lips bit down on that piece of him. It seeped through their entire body. They devoured the blood ravenously.
'With this, I can run a little more.'
'With just this, I can catch him a little faster.'
'I can hold on a little longer...!'
They just had to hold on. Until they caught him.
That was what fresh blood ant to them. Among the stagnant blood, the only thing that circulated. The sole stimulus that revived life. A single sliver of comfort that could soothe, if only briefly, what had been broken and broken again.
"......"
"......"
Sothing sweeter than that.
'It's different.'
Tears, tears, tears flowed without cease. Sobs leaked through the gaps of their sealed mouths. This was different from what they had eaten to survive. It was warm, and tender, and refreshing.
What's different? Is this blood? Was it blood? Yes, and --
'This is him.'
But. But.
'This isn't him.'
Voices crying out in anguish.
'Ah.'
Ah, they had to run. Quickly.
They moved their creaking, broken body again. The body that had stopped to taste his piece quickly regained its original speed. In all that endless ti, it had been a very small comfort, yet at the sa ti, the first solace they had ever received.
It left them wanting more. It was so peaceful and gentle, but far too small.
They wanted sothing greater.
'Quickly.'
Where's the next scent of blood?
***
"......"
Yeon-woo collapsed in front of the exit.
"...Ha...."
"Hello?"
"No. It failed."
The first trial, attempted through the dium of a thumb, had ended in abject failure.
How unfortunate. He muttered calmly, like a student organizing his error log. If this round of data pointed to failure, there was only one option left. He had to aim for the next step.
"By the way, I did make it to the exit, correct?"
"Yes."
"I can't see a thing, goodness."
"Yes."
"What principle am I even talking by right now...."
"......"
"...As expected, partial regeneration is difficult."
He would need more study.
His entire body in tatters, Yeon-woo murmured those words.
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