The reason an alarm sounded when forcibly pulling an inserted ID Card was simple. The system recognized it as an 'abnormal forced termination.'
'In other words, if you log out through the proper procedure, the alarm does not trigger.'
[Pardon? Yes.]
Yeon-woo calmly examined the dust-caked server terminal.
'According to the Archive, the Central Control Room has airtight security, making access and disconnection impossible without complex procedures.'
In Hoone, which had been a solo-developed sprite ga, the limits of implentation had reduced this to the simple systemic device of 'pull the card and the alarm sounds.'
'But....'
Now that everything had beco reality, those procedures would be fully implented.
[That is correct.]
'Then there is no need to hesitate further.'
Card slot, biotric scanner, broken microphone, and keypad. Having committed to mory the positions of the old console devices with their blue lights, Yeon-woo picked up the mory Card he had found in the drawer.
'Let us have a look.'
At how distinguished these people had been.
***
BEEP--
A clear electronic tone, and the door opened.
Cold air and the rhythmic hum of cooling fans spilled out. The lights cast a pallid glow, and the server panels lining the walls blinked like traffic signals.
The woman who had just entered the server room asked the man.
"Working?"
"No, I just got here too."
"Aha."
When the woman gestured for him to go first, the man inserted the card hanging from his neck into the reader. A short beep, and the panel lit blue.
[ID authentication initiated.]
[User: Research Team 2, Bohuslav.]
[Please proceed with biotric authentication.]
The man aligned his eye with the scanner, and a cold light swept across his iris.
[Scanning.]
[Scan complete.]
[ntal wave within stable range. Access granted.]
"This is really exhausting."
"Aren't you used to it by now?"
"I have to peel my eyelid back every ti."
"There's another thod, you know."
"I absolutely hate pain."
[Please enter your task code.]
"Not everyone is as tough as you, you know that?"
"Oh, really?"
[Status: Logged in.]
"I'd rather give up a finger once than flip my eyelid every single ti."
"Ugh, that's exactly the kind of thing I hate."
"Stop being soft. With that mindset, you'll never reach paradise."
"If suffering is mandatory, then what's the point of paradise?"
The man gave the panel a cursory check, then made an exaggerated gesture to the woman.
"Then, my lady, if you would."
"Such a gentleman -- my heart flutters."
"Sure it does."
"Hehe...."
The woman stood before the console. She, too, inserted her card and waited for the voice prompt.
[ID authentication initiated.]
[User: Research Team 2, Sterling.]
[Please proceed with biotric authentication.]
Unlike the man's turn, a sharp needle rose from the reader.
"Ugh."
"Enough, you've mocked
plenty."
"What did I say?"
"You're being cute today."
She pressed her finger firmly against the slightly thick needle. A thin trail of blood beaded out.
[Scanning.]
[Scan complete.]
[ntal wave within stable range. Access granted.]
"Move, coward."
"Coward?"
"You're blocking the keypad."
[Please enter your task code.]
"Like I said, not everyone is as tough as you, sweetheart."
"You sure about that?"
[Status: Logged in.]
"But this way is cleaner. Iris recognition has a lot of instability. Who was it that spent an entire day in the surveillance room writing statents because they exceeded the threshold?"
"Don't be like that. I'm sure the iris scanner didn't want to malfunction either."
"Do I have to be jealous of a console now?"
"Who knows?"
The man shrugged.
"But it is a hassle. Having to do this both on the way in and on the way out. They should at least give us a longer lunch break. That's all I'm saying."
"Asking for a longer lunch break just because of an authentication seems a bit greedy."
"Damn it, nobody cares how hard we work. This is labor exploitation."
The man spoke a task code into the microphone.
"Task code 7-Delta. Experint record review, watcher synchronization check."
The main screen lit up, displaying every manner of reading.
"How are our cute little lambs doing?"
"Need you ask? Fantastic."
The woman studying the screen alongside him let out a sigh.
"I've told them how many tis now that they should block that path...."
"Tell
about it. If a research subject escapes, who cleans that up?"
"The suppression team?"
"We still have to write statents, those bastards."
The woman let out a small laugh.
"Higher-ups are the sa everywhere -- they never listen to the people below."
"They say they're short on funds? What's the real problem?"
"Pride, maybe?"
"Oh, the honorable knights have arrived."
The woman leaned against the man's shoulder and asked.
"So, done checking everything?"
"No... hold on...."
"Sweetheart?"
"...All right, done!"
MWAH!
The man blew a kiss.
"Doesn't the hassle bother you? Going through that tedious authentication process just for one check?"
"It is inefficient."
"And it's the sa on the way out. I wish they'd make a terminal we could operate remotely. I want to get away from this godforsaken server room."
"No branch has that kind of technology."
"That's what I hate about it."
The woman spoke into the microphone.
"Session end. Save log."
[Saving data.]
[Termination initiated.]
"......"
[Please proceed with exit authentication.]
"Gentlen first."
"Damn."
The man brought his eye to the scanner again, and the woman presented her finger's blood.
[Session termination complete.]
[Please remove your ID Card.]
"Good."
The two pulled their cards from the reader. The woman slung her card around her neck and asked.
"Plans from here?"
"That'd be up to our team leader, wouldn't it?"
"And if our team leader commands it -- shall we have so fun?"
"My, with that attitude you'll never enter paradise."
"So what?"
The woman kissed the man's cheek lightly and whispered.
"The paradise we're building is for sinners."
"...Tough as ever."
Their shadows overlapped.
The 'mory' ca to an end.
***
"......"
"Hello?"
"No, not really."
He had not been curious about the love lives of criminals.
'Are there couples everywhere?'
They appeared closer to monsters in human skin, but this was still, at the end of the day, a group of people. So of course they dated and fell in love. That was conceivable, but....
'Unpleasant.'
As if he had ever been curious about such trivialities.
"......"
Yeon-woo lightly brushed his lips with his thumb. He had spoken aloud without thinking, but the heavier his mouth stayed, the better.
'A Listener does not miss even small sounds.'
[Yes.]
'In any case, this perspective is surprising again. It's different from the mory Cards found in Room 14. Those did not deviate much from the images I rembered, but this one....'
How to put it.
'Extrely private details have been rendered.'
In Hoone, it had only been described as [A card containing a mont shared by two staff mbers]. Whether the two were lovers had never been depicted.
"......"
"......"
His brow creased faintly.
"...Sothing...."
He had been feeling as though a strange error was creeping into his own words for so ti. A side effect of what? The Purification Sample? The stale air? Or a problem that occurred each ti he viewed a mory Card?
'Wait -- each ti?'
He had no 'mory' of having viewed that many mory Cards.
Rolling his eyes, he soon thought of the 'small book' that should be in the kitchen. A gift that was not quite a gift, made for The Guest Without Taste. When he had been making it, surely....
He covered his mouth, then released his hand.
"...There is a problem."
"Yes."
"Understood."
The exact cause was unknown, but it appeared to be a phenonon primarily linked to 'mory Cards.'
'Does this pose an obstacle to obtaining Central Control Room authority?'
[No.]
'Then so be it.'
[Later?]
'Saying it that way makes
feel like one of those dreadful patients who never visits the hospital on ti.'
The lack of urgency was strangely pronounced. Whether it was a General Manager buff, inherent ntal fortitude, or so other cause, he could not tell.
'But thanks to this, I now know how to properly disengage the terminal.'
Back to the main issue.
What he needed was biotric data, a ntal wave reading, and a task code. The task code was not hard to find. It was already printed on the inserted ID Card -- he only needed to enter it on the keypad.
'The ntal wave is the sa.'
What mattered was whether the mind was stable. If biotric authentication data was prepared, he could pass without issue. At the very least, the current Yeon-woo was sound.
'And....'
Yeon-woo looked at the corpse slumped in a chair at one end of the room.
'Everything I need is right there.'
[Pardon?]
'Yes.'
The corpse in the lab coat.
'This person's ID Card appears to match, too.'
[Pardon? Pardon?]
The severed lanyard around the neck matched the cross-section connected to the card.
Iris recognition was not usable as-is. The corpse had been dead for quite so ti. Nor could he use dead blood directly. What the console recognized was blood so fresh it seed just drawn.
But who was Yeon-woo? Though the result of fortune, he was a completed 'Velmareth.'
'Mimicking soone else's blood is within my ability.'
Yeon-woo gripped the corpse's shoulder and bowed his head.
"......"
"......?"
"Ha."
Do I really have to go this far?
[No?!]
CHOMP—!!
He bit that neck.
Hard enough to draw out the blood that had already gone black and dead.
'The things I find myself doing.'
A revolting, acrid stench of putrefaction hit him. The reason of a human being scread at the horror of having gulped from a sewer. As it rightly should.
And yet, the mont the rotten blood slid down his esophagus, 'Velmareth' perceived it as a delicacy.
"......"
A thirst quenched to the point of chills. A creeping shudder.
'...This is....'
A completed 'Velmareth' felt no compulsion to drink blood, yet was simultaneously a gourmand who savored blood more than any other. But to find even putrid blood like this sweet --
Cold sweat ran down his spine and he tore his mouth away.
"...Ah,"
At this rate, truly, I --
'It's gone bad.'
'It's spoiled water.'
.......
'You shouldn't eat that.'
'You can't get sick.'
...Right.
'Will you be okay?'
'It'll taste bad.'
It tasted better than they imagined, actually.
He stroked his solar plexus with his fingertips. The once-docile tenants were alard by the sudden influx of rotten blood. Their protests, tapping at the stomach wall, finally drew a crooked smile from Yeon-woo.
The dizzying rush of pleasure from just monts ago crumbled away this absurdly.
"Hello?"
"Indeed, it is certainly a delicacy, but...."
He said with a hollow laugh.
"Not a pleasant experience."
What did it matter if he was not human?
'It was because of this that I could save Director Lee Seon-hae. I have no regrets.'
He would simply live as himself. That was enough.
That was enough.
***
"......"
Having exited the server room, Yeon-woo turned the second ID Card over in his hands.
'...I was sowhat wary of The Guest Without Taste, wondering whether blood from a corpse would register as a bleeding event. As expected, it had nothing to do with blood already dead.'
It had been the sa when playing Hoone.
'Thanks to that, this went smoothly again.'
"......"
'What is the problem now?'
[Yes.]
'What is it?'
[Not fine.]
'Drinking a corpse's blood was no pleasure for , either. Hearing that from you -- the pri suspect who dragged
into this hotel -- is rather unjust. Was this really the ti for
to be worrying about hygiene?'
[Hmhm.]
'The one who wants to cry is .'
The hand straightening his shirt collar trembled faintly.
'To think the day would co when I bit into a corpse's neck.'
On top of that, the slis inside him had protested about him 'eating sothing spoiled.'
He needed to raise his blood-drinking proficiency in a hurry. Primitive oral ingestion was rcilessly shaving away the minimum dignity Yeon-woo maintained as a human being.
'Setting that aside, the blood I absorbed was put to good use.'
Using the corpse's blood as a dium, Yeon-woo had temporarily restructured his own blood composition. A precise disguise. Sufficient ti to fool the server terminal.
'This thod could be developed further.'
[Pardon?]
From the perspective of Blood Magic, blood was not a re liquid. It was a vessel carrying information. For now, he was rely mimicking properties at a surface level, but if his proficiency rose....
'It should be possible to read the mories and emotions imprinted in blood.'
By consuming, or by being consud.
"......"
"......"
Having followed that thought to its end, Yeon-woo suddenly sobered and erased the speculation.
'On second thought, let us stop there.'
[Yes.]
'Unless there are unavoidable circumstances, it remains unpleasant.'
[Yes.]
Adjusting his glasses, Yeon-woo surveyed the area.
'Now I need just one more ID Card.'
Of course, collecting only ID Cards would not suffice. That would essentially result in the bad ending. Failing to acquire the sixteen records ant being entombed in the Central Control Room.
For Yeon-woo, who had far too much to do, that was unthinkable.
'I would like to obtain mory Cards or Sealed Records as well. Only one so far -- at this rate, when will I ever reach the Central Control Room....'
[Yes.]
"......"
[Pardon?]
"......"
Yeon-woo picked up the Phlebotomy Equipnt.
[No?]
"...Ha."
Feeling the unpleasant churning in his stomach, Yeon-woo clicked his tongue inwardly.
'This is maddening.'
[No!]
THUNK!!
He drove it straight into his arm.
'Truly nothing goes right.'
In precisely ten seconds, he was going to vomit.
***
"Ah."
The guest who loved blood rose to his feet. The smile on his lips spread grotesquely.
"At last?"
The hour of the hunt had dawned.
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