GSGW c210

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Chapter 210 

 

After drinking the wish-granting potion and realizing the truth, my body began to collapse.

Director Ho’s Security Team uniform—forced onto my failing body in desperation—only made things worse, accelerating the necrosis.

And so, standing on the brink of death, I had no choice but to make a decision.

—Just sign here.

I signed the employment contract that Director Cheong handed to me.

Immediately afterward, I lost consciousness… And when I regained awareness, I had already been transported somewhere.

A bleak, cramped room.

The first thing I saw was a number.

[666]

It was the nameplate attached to the iron door.

The room contained nothing but a metal bed and a sink. Old-fashioned. Silent.

The only light came from a single fluorescent lamp and the silence so quiet, yet so loud.

Yet during working hours, I was free to go outside. Because from the first day until now, my job had never changed. Not even once.

—Today, your assignment is security for the annex basement, Floor 13.

Basement Level 13

My duty was to guard this corridor.

—Security for the annex basement, Floor 13

But it was meaningless.

No one came here.

There were no windows. No emergency exits. Just a corridor lined with iron doors. And I wandered through it aimlessly.

Patrolling.

Red and blue lights blinked.

An elevator stood at the end of the hall. The indicator flickered, numbers lighting up.

But I could not board it.

There was no button.

None existed.

There was no way out.

Hiss….

Black smoke drifted thickly through the air.

The pale fluorescent lights flickered, and the smoke swayed and curled upward.

It came from my breath—leaking through the gas mask.

I walked. Slowly.

The only moving thing in this place was the smoke trailing across the corridor floor. And if I watched that smoke long enough—

—Your working hours have ended. Return immediately. Your working hours have ended. Return immediately. Your working hours have ended. Return immediately.

It ended.

According to my contract, I returned to Room 666, whose door had opened.

Click.

The door locked behind me. I sat on the bed.

Silence again.

Normally… would someone feel terror?

Claustrophobia. Fear of isolation. The horror of existing unnoticed beneath a monstrous pharmaceutical company. Would someone feel afraid?

Probably.

But I no longer remembered what such emotions felt like.

Still—perhaps forgetting wasn’t so bad.

I simply reflected for a moment on my work.

My job.

Security officer of Annex Basement Level 13.

Without questioning what existed beyond the iron doors, never leaving the designated corridor, I performed my assigned security duties.

As for the anomalous phenomena that occurred upon contact—no information had yet been obtained.

The vague shapes flickered faintly in my mind before dissolving.

If I described them in the style of the <Darkness Exploration Records> wiki, it might have sounded something like this.

Yes. It probably would have.

But even that faint, censored imagination didn’t last long.

Krrrrzzzt—

The silence shattered.

A flickering black-and-white screen cast shadows across the metal bed.

[Special-entity employee full of dreams and passion! Welcome to Daydream Inc.’s Security Management Team!]

A low-quality digital recording echoed through the sealed room.

[Yesterday we explained in detail the wonderful work the Security Management Team does, right? Today we’ll tell you the rules you must follow during your shift!]

In the corner of the room, a small spherical television was playing a video. It had been running continuously.

<Security Management Team New Employee Training Video>.

Always the same content.

[You may not leave your designated work area!]

Two mascots appeared.

A fox mascot spun cheerfully in front of the elevator in the hallway.

The format felt strangely familiar.

Something I had seen somewhere before. Yet somehow…twisted. Was it twisted? A cheerful workplace training video about corporate life at Daydream Inc. played in black and white, its light flickering across the room.

[You are a contracted employee, and employees must never break the workplace rules!]

It looked like a typical new employee training video. But there was one difference.

It obsessively explained what must be done after working hours ended.

[Sleep.]

[Do not break curfew. You cannot wander around. You must rest. That is the normal behavior of a company employee!]

The bizarrely cheerful brightness of the video filled the cramped room.

Then—

[That concludes today’s training video. Have a restful time!]

Click.

The screen vanished.

“….”

Today’s work was finished.

Now the only light entering the small room came faintly through the iron door—red and blue.

Sleeping time.

Of course, I could not sleep.

But as the training video said, sleep time could not be violated. It was a workplace rule.

So I lay down on the bed.

And closed my eyes.

While learning about “company work” like that, I continued my labor in the annex basement, Floor 13.

……

……

How many days had I worked?

A week?

Two weeks?

A month?

Seven years?

■■■?

I couldn’t tell. It was impossible to calculate. But that was fine. The contract didn’t specify a working period. So I simply remained here.

Eventually, working hours would come again.

And then, in the silence, I would patrol this place once more—

Knock… knock.

……

Knock, knock, knock.

A sound.

I heard a sound.

A careful movement of firm joints wrapped in soft flesh, striking iron.

Someone knocking on the iron door.

……

A knock.

A person.

I pulled the door open.

“Wah—!”

“Eeeeek!”

The iron door of Room 666 swung open.

The people holding the handle jumped in shock, stumbling backward into the corridor. One of them tried to point at me—

“…Ah—!”

But quickly clamped a hand over their mouth.

Then bowed their head.

“H-Hello… good afternoon.”

“We’re new employees. Nice to meet you.”

They spoke.

Their voices were stiff, as if rehearsed. But they were real.

I realized something. It had been an incredibly long time since I had heard the voice of a living person.

…No.

Living?

“If it’s alright, may we come in for just a moment—”

No. It sounded like a dead voice.

Every sound of the living that reached my ears crackled with static, like something from an old training video.

Filtered. Recorded. Through the gas mask, their voices were muffled and distorted, making it difficult to identify individuals clearly.

And—

“…Um.”

Their faces were gone.

Or rather, I couldn’t recognize their faces.

Where their faces should have been looked like melted mosaics.

Red and black distortions, as if damaged film had been forcibly pieced together.

'Why?'

Was it because, according to my work contract, I had no need to see them? Or had my collapsing body also destroyed my ability to perceive properly?

I didn’t know.

But it didn’t matter. Clothing, body build, and tone were enough to identify individuals.

And enough to understand the situation.

New employees. Suits. Team of three. Panic and confusion. No masks.

And one more thing.

“….”

I turned toward the one who had spoken first.

Listening to his rapid breathing, I reached out my black-gloved hand.

“Gasp—!”

I pulled something from the front pocket of his suit.

A note.

I will go down to Basement Level 13

At Door No. 666

In order to enter inside after knocking.

I see.

So that’s it.

Experiment Name: New Employee Orientation — Attempt #21

Method: Assign missions using the lottery box (Qterw-E-382). Participants explore the annex basement and encounter the security staff ■■■■ assigned to that area.

Like sparks flashing through my mutated mind, fragmented records briefly surfaced.

Then lingered. I understood what this situation was.

“…!”

I returned the note to his pocket. The employee whose chest my gloved fingers brushed shuddered violently.

Behind him, a larger recruit stepped forward as if to calm the others, gently pushing the other new employee behind him. Then he spoke calmly.

“…It was an order from the company.”

“….”

“We are currently performing assigned duties.”

Yes.

Orientation could be considered as work.

I looked at the three pitiful recruits who were merely participating in the New Employee Orientation.

And then—

I stepped back. One step behind the door.

As if inviting them inside.

“….”

“….”

“…C-can we really go in?”

Entry by authorized personnel did not violate workplace regulations.

“Th-thank you… thank you…”

Trembling, glancing nervously around, their rigid bodies stepped into Room 666 to carry out what was written on the note.

Then—as if they had stepped into a pit of fire—they leapt right back out the door.

…That much wasn’t necessary.

“Hiiiiik!”

In their rush to escape, two of the employees nearly shoved each other aside, their limbs tangling as they fell.  I tried to extend a hand to help them up—but before I could, the two were already scrambling away on all fours, fleeing down the corridor.

That’s right.

They were running away.

There was an escape route.

The elevator.

“Hic—hic!”

“Wait, calm down—!”

I thought I heard the larger one trying to stop them, but they were frantically pressing something.

The elevator button.

So there was a button.

It simply wasn’t visible to the security staff.

Soon, with a cheerful chime, the elevator doors opened and light poured into the corridor.

The bright interior of the elevator.

“C-close it! Close—!”

I stepped forward after them. With each step, smoke seeped from my gas mask.

The moment the black smoke drifted into the elevator—

You cannot leave your designated work area! You cannot leave your designated work area! You cannot leave your designated work area! You cannot leave your designated work area!

The words rang inside my head.

You cannot leave your designated work area! You cannot leave your designated work area! You cannot leave your designated work area! You cannot leave your designated work area!

……

No.

This wasn’t leaving the work area.

The elevator had currently arrived at Basement Level 13, and I was merely entering a space connected to it as part of the 13th floor.

It had never been explicitly stated that the elevator was excluded from the Basement 13 work area.

…

…

Silence returned.

“Ah! W-wait—!”

I calmly stepped into the elevator.

The doors closed.

Thud.

Black smoke filled the elevator.

“Ah… aaaa—■■.”

“O-oh… ■■-nim, th-that—■—”

Groans and muttering came from the employees beside me. Was breathing the smoke painful for them? I held my breath and drew the smoke back through my gas mask.

Within the smoke, the mosaic-like outlines of human faces became faintly transparent.

It looked as though fluids were leaking from their eyes, noses, and mouths. Still, their breathing seemed steadier now…

I tried to push the smoke toward the wall and keep it there. Then one of the people watching me trembled and spoke.

“A-are you… telling us to be quiet?”

A meaning?

My moving the smoke had a meaning…?

Ah.

“……”

Was it… done like this?

A meaningless expression.

“L-Letters!”

/tn. it originally says hangul, which is the word for the korean alphabet, so I changed it to match out current setup, which is english letters

The mosaics trembled in shock at the letters I formed with the smoke.

Even through the noise, there was a strange hint of relief—almost joy.

“Th-there… um… are you going to attack us?”

Current situation: Negative

“Ah…!”

Their voices brightened noticeably. The comfort of familiarity. The strange empathy that arises when something unknown shows a side that can be understood.

Feelings I remembered.

Someone let out a sigh that brushed past my ears in a dull, distorted sound.

Then another question.

“Then… wh-where… are you going?”

“……”

I looked at the elevator buttons.

Things that couldn’t be seen from the Basement 13 corridor.

Among them was the button the new employees kept glancing at while hesitantly reaching out.

1F.

“……”

No.

I could not currently step onto the ground level. Leaving the elevator would be a complete departure from the work area—the absolute limit of the loophole I could exploit. I could not leave.

Then what was the reason I boarded the elevator?

“….”

Because there was something I could do without getting off.

I extended my hand.

***

Inside the elevator, frozen stiff, the arrogant-looking new employee began breathing heavily.

What the hell is this? What the hell is happening?

The elevator was filled with thick black smoke. And between that smoke—

…a pair of lantern-like yellow eyes.

'Shit. Shit…!'

Massive antler-like horns—like twisted tree branches or ribs—jutted up over the gas mask. The black full-body uniform revealed not a single piece of flesh. It looked like a nightmare crumpled into the silhouette of a human.

The badge on its chest reading “Security Team” felt like a horrifying joke.

The thing in Room 666…

'“If we behave politely, our chances of surviving go up,” he said…!'

Inside his head, he cursed the teammate who had introduced himself as Jang Heoun.

Jang Heoun wasn’t even looking at him. He was staring straight at the monster.

'Still acting calm, huh?!'

The fact that he wasn’t dead yet—and that Jang Heoun hadn’t personally put him in this situation—was conveniently forgotten as he searched for someone to blame.

At the same time, he suddenly realized why people had died in the elevator before.

'It chased them all the way to the elevator…!'

But…nothing else had boarded with them.

He gulped.

Did it kill them out of frustration because it couldn’t get on?

'Then how… how did this thing get inside?'

At least one thing was fortunate. It seemed possible to communicate with it. But damn it.

'Are we really supposed to go back to the first-floor lobby… with that thing?'

In horror movies, when this happens, everyone in the lobby dies too. Cold sweat gathered at his chin and dripped down.

But his survival instinct spoke first.

I want to go back. I’m going back. I’m getting out of this insane underground nightmare!

'Yeah… yeah!'

At least I’m not dead!

Those bastards in the lobby can fend for themselves! I’m not dying here!

Half out of his mind, he reached out and pressed 1F—

Then their eyes met.

“Ah.”

The yellow eyes in the smoke were looking at him.

The new employee froze again.

But the strange lantern-eyed figure did not stop him from pressing 1F.

Instead, it extended its own black hand.

And with a small click, pressed B12.

“Huh…?”

B11, B10, B9, B8…

All the way to 1F.

Like running fingers across piano keys, it pressed every button in sequence.

 

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