GSGW c211

note: recently got a comment that you can find translations up to c271 on the wayback machine. If you don't want to wait, go ahead and check it out, although idk how to get to it. And thank you anonymous commenter for the heads up! 

 

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Chapter 211

The monster’s fingers, wrapped in black gloves, swept upward.

With that smooth motion, every basement floor button in the elevator lit up one after another.

The new employees stared blankly.

Just now…

What did it do?

“C-cancel! Canc—!”

Too late.

The elevator moved a single floor in the blink of an eye.

Ding.

[Basement Level 12.]

The elevator doors opened defenselessly.

A memory from a few hours earlier flashed through their minds like lightning.

—Ugh… ngh.

—W-what is this…?

The elevator that had gone to Basement Level 12 to complete a mission had returned with one employee missing—and the floor soaked in red blood.

[Doors opening.]

The dim corridor of Basement 12 appeared faintly in the elevator light. The new employees inhaled sharply.

“….”

“….”

But there wasn’t a single drop of blood in the corridor. Unlike the elevator.

“Haa…”

Before they could instinctively feel relieved, something strange caught their eyes. Greasy, dirt-like dust had piled up on the floor and was wedged into the elevator’s threshold.

'Dirt…?'

He raised his head, searching for its source.

Scattered here and there along the corridor like markers on the ground were lumps.

Weathered-looking lumps.

But if you looked closely, eyes adapted to the darkness could distinguish their silhouettes.

An ankle near the Achilles tendon. A fragment of ear and temple. A right shoulder blade.

Pieces of human bodies left behind like bloodless mannequins.

“Hiii…”

Thud.

The new employee clamped a hand over his own mouth. To keep the sound from escaping.

He couldn’t make a noise.

Because at the end of his gaze—he saw something huge.

Standing motionless in the dark corridor.

It was wearing a uniform.

The same Security Team uniform as the horned monster inside the elevator. Neat. Perfectly intact. The silhouette of a completely ordinary human. It almost looked like a bored security employee standing idly. But—

Its head was of a scarecrow.

A hollow face crudely made of straw, with fresh blood roughly smeared to form eyes, nose, and mouth.

……

Somewhere, a song could be heard.

Standing tall all day long,

Angry Mister Scarecrow

It echoed faintly through the corridor.

Chirp chirp chirp, how frightening,

The birds all fly away.

Ha ha ha ha, be careful now,

Your hat might fall away.

Drip.

Blood gathered in the scarecrow’s crudely drawn eye and fell from the tip of the straw.

Standing tall all day long,

But since when…

Angry Mister Scarecrow

…had that head been looking this way?

“….”

Gulp.

The new employees froze.

The scarecrow hadn’t moved. And yet—

Why had it changed?

Why was it now one iron door closer than before?

Why had it gotten closer again?

Why was its left straw hand raised?

Why was it holding a grass-cutting sickle?

Why was its face—

“AAAAAAAH!”

At that moment, the door of another elevator opened nearby, spilling light and screams.

“…!”

Other people. Clearly another group sent to complete a mission in this corridor. The sound of them collapsing inside their elevator echoed out.

“W-what the hell is that?!”

They had seen the scarecrow and the body fragments scattered across the floor. And they screamed.

……

Standing patiently all day long,

Kind Mister Scarecrow

Why was the scarecrow now standing with its head turned?

“Hiiiiaaa!”

“Close it! Close it!”

“N-no! Run—!”

Too late.

And the new employee, staring blankly at the scene, suddenly realized something.

Right. A chance to escape.

“Hic!”

This was the moment. While it wasn’t looking at them— Quickly, quickly! The new employee stretched his hand toward the close button—but it was blocked.

By a black-gloved hand.

“…!”

The gas mask with grotesque horns and lantern-like yellow eyes.

The Security Team employee from Room 666 on Basement Level 13, who blocked the close button, didn’t even glance at him.

It simply stared silently outside the elevator. From its gas mask, thick black smoke poured out and pooled around its feet.

Fwooooosh…

Then it spread low like fog. Creeping into Basement Level 12.

Toward the scarecrow.

Ha ha ha ha, be careful now

Your hat might fall away

Standing patiently all day long

Kind…

Huuuu.

Suddenly—the smoke surged upward, engulfing the scarecrow.

“!!”

The sound grew muffled.

The smoke was so thick and dense that the scarecrow’s form vanished completely. And beneath it—

A new sound began.

Crack—crrrk—CRUNCH.

A grotesque noise echoed through the corridor.

The new employees held their breath, panting quietly as they listened.

The strange scarecrow shape, now completely swallowed by black smoke, could no longer even be seen as a shadow silhouette.

Only the sound remained.

A merciless tearing sound.

Crack—crunch—crrk— It sounded like horns or bones snapping. Or grinding. Or something being forced somewhere it didn’t belong. Or being swallowed.

Then came a scream.

Something begging, struggling to escape. Its desperate cries were swallowed by the roaring noise—until suddenly they ended with a sharp crack.

Silence followed.

“….”

“….”

At last, the black smoke dispersed.

The scarecrow that had been hidden within it slowly reappeared in the corridor—

“…Huh?”

A corpse.

The new employees blinked.

But the sight didn’t change. A blood-soaked body lay on the floor, its entire form crushed and broken.

Like the scarecrow, blood clung to its facial features and dripped down.

Drip.

“AAAAAAAH!”

“AAH!!”

Screams filled the air. But the one wearing the gas mask simply inhaled once, drawing the smoke back inside. The new employee recoiled in terror and crawled into the corner of the elevator.

[Doors closing.]

At the same time, the elevator beside them slammed shut as its passengers frantically hammered the buttons without even breathing.

“Th-there!”

The other group of new employees had escaped safely.

Meanwhile, the black smoke that had surged into the Basement Level 12 corridor rushed back like a tide and pooled neatly on the floor of this elevator.

“Hiiiik!”

“Wait!”

Someone grabbed his shoulder as he reflexively tried to shrink away from the smoke.

It was the coworker named Jang Heoun. He whispered urgently.

“Please… don’t provoke it unnecessarily.”

“…!!”

“That smoke didn’t cover our heads… Let’s calm down. Calm down.”

He was right.

The smoke remained quietly pooled on the elevator floor.

“Haah… haaah…”

The new employee swallowed and steadied his breathing, gripping the elevator handrail.

[Doors closing.]

And so they left Floor 12.

He desperately avoided looking at the corpse outside the elevator doors—but in the last sliver of space before the doors shut, he thought he saw it staggering back to its feet.

Like a scarecrow.

“Ugh…”

He groaned and swallowed hard.

But the impression of what he had just witnessed refused to fade.

That strange being.

And the smoke that had turned that strange being into a corpse.

Suddenly he realized something astonishing.

'…We survived.'

Everyone survived.

Relief made his legs tremble.

At the same time, a thought crossed his mind.

'Wait.'

Then did that bizarre horned “Security Team employee” from Room 666 actually help people escape into the elevator…?

'Wait… if that’s true…'

Maybe there was no reason to be this terrified. Maybe it was actually okay.

Unable to endure the situation of being trapped in an elevator with something horrifying, he turned his head, rationalizing desperately.

“Um… excuse me…”

His eyes met the Security Team employee’s.

But—

“…Tha…nk… you…”

Was it always… this melted?

The security employee’s arm was strangely long. Something was wrong. There were too many feet. Its melted lower body had spread across the elevator floor, bulging beneath the smoke. And it had thirty-seven eyes.

None of them blinked.

They stared directly at him.

“W-wh… wha—”

What is that?

What… is that?

[Basement Level 11.]

The external jolt briefly interrupted the panic.

They had arrived again.

[Doors opening.]

“I’ll remove the optic nerve.”

“I will connect my mouth to my navel.”

“I wish I didn’t have feet!”

On Basement Level 11, employees in doctor’s coats were cheerfully conducting a surgical consultation in Room 910.

Huuu.

Once again—the gas-masked figure stared outward with its thirty-seven eyes and released smoke.

Soon, the bizarre entity in the doctor’s coat became nothing more than a bloodless corpse, its limbs stitched together in the wrong places.

“AAAAH!”

Another scream. Another desperate escape.

Those who had been conducting the consultation fled in terror from Room 910 and rushed into another elevator. And this elevator’s doors closed naturally as well.

[Doors closing.]

“….”

The new employee looked down.

He could no longer see the elevator floor.

Because the Security Team employee’s melted lower body covered it completely.

Thump.

Something like a heartbeat echoed from the wall.

Because the left side of the security employee’s upper body was now spread against it.

“….”

And it continued like that.

[Basement Level 10.]

[Basement Level 9.]

[Basement Level 8.]

Each time the elevator doors opened and closed… Each time the smoke created another bizarre scene… The thing inside the elevator changed shape.

Growing larger. More distorted.

[Basement Level 6.]

[Basement Level 5.]

The form of the thing riding the elevator was becoming more grotesque—more unbearable to look at—a strange ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■.

[Basement Level 4.]

[Basement Level 3.]

[Basement Level: Eternal Basement.]

Something was wrong. Only then did he realize. Now the entire elevator was made of sticky smoke, yellow lantern lights, thorned crowns, and bone-pile-like curves of ■■. That was it. This place was Basement Level 13. He was being pulled—dragged—back down to Basement 13—

Ding.

……

……

[1st Floor.]

[Doors opening.]

Light poured in.

“Haaahhhh…”

The moment the familiar ground-floor lobby came into view, the new employee collapsed.

Someone rushed over and patted his back.

“Slowly, slowly… Just breathe out.”

The fellow new employee named Jang Heoun grabbed hold of him. He breathed out. Huff… huff… huff… feeling like dying. The smoke tells us about our ■■-nim… 

■■-nim?

“…Excuse me.”

Someone was speaking to him.

Without thinking, he turned his head.

At some point ■■-nim? The Security Team employee’s form had returned to normal.

/tn. idk who he's calling out to here so just kept the very original translation or what the line originally meant

A man wearing a gas mask with horns, radiating a strange sense of pressure. And Jang Heoun was speaking to him.

“…Did you just help us?”

No.

The smoke moved.

“Eek!”

But instead of covering his head, the smoke formed letters.

The duty of an employee.

“….”

After a long silence, Jang Heoun finally spoke.

“Yes… Thank you.”

His voice sounded choked. Or hoarse.

Then he turned and began helping the other team member who was trembling in the corner of the elevator.

Maybe he had lost his mind from fear.

'That crazy bastard.'

He needed to get out of here now. The new employee suddenly regained his senses.

He then hurriedly rushed out of the elevator, deliberately ignoring his coworkers.

In a situation this insane, trying to help others recklessly would only get you killed. Self-preservation. Self-preservation was the only way to survive. He clung to the fragile rationality he had barely recovered amid the terror and panic.

“W-what is that thing?”

“Uhh… sob…”

Fortunately—or unfortunately—the lobby had already turned into chaos. Various survivors had returned, filling the area with noise. Amid all that confusion, not many people noticed the Security Team employee still standing in the elevator.

The yellow lantern-like gaze turned toward the lobby briefly while Jang Heoun helped the other employee out of the elevator. Then suddenly—it looked directly at him.

And then—

Be grateful for your luck.

“…!”

[Doors closing.]

The elevator departed again.

Back to Basement Level 13.

[B13]

The new employee stared blankly at the floor indicator. Then slowly collapsed onto the lobby floor.

His body was drenched in cold sweat.

***

The elevator doors closed.

I was alone again.

“….”

Smoke rose. The body that had been crushed and distorted slowly returned to the proper shape of the Security Team uniform.

……

Something stirred.

I placed my fingers against my chest. But I couldn’t feel a heartbeat. I couldn’t even tell where it was—or if it existed at all. Inside, I had collapsed into something shapeless.

Still, that strange trembling continued for a moment longer.

And I savored it.

Like homesickness.

Ding.

The doors opened on Basement Level 13.

The underground silence flowed outward. The dark corridor. Iron doors flickering with red and blue lights.

But there was something else too.

– Target confirmed.

Security teams.

Employees in familiar uniforms stepped out into the corridor and faced me.

It seemed someone had reported that I had made an unexpected move.

That was a misunderstanding. After all, I had never once stepped onto another floor—or the surface. I had simply carried out the security duties of my assigned area.

Question.

But instead of paying attention to the letters I had formed, the security team pulled out their personal suppression tools, their forms beginning to distort in contamination—

“Oh my, everyone’s looking a little too aggressive!”

A white hand suddenly popped out from behind them.

“It’s alright. Please step aside for a moment…”

A bright voice completely out of place in the situation rang out. From the center of the security team, a research team employee walked forward.

Just like before, the human face appeared melted into a mosaic, making it impossible to identify. But the clothing and employee badge made it clear who it was.

His identity.

“Good day.”

Kwak Jaekwang.

“So this is our first time meeting in person… well—actually, the first time ever! Hahaha!”

Behind the glasses, his face seemed calm, perhaps even smiling. But the excitement in his voice was impossible to hide.

“I’m the person in charge of our new Special Department employee in the Security Team! And coincidentally, I’m also responsible for today’s Annex Experiment.”

Apparently unafraid of the security team’s wary stares, he cheerfully pulled documents from his coat and flipped through them. Then he looked at me with a bright grin.

“I’d like to start with a few simple questions… but haha, before that, shall we introduce today’s visitors to Basement Level 13? It seems these friends forgot to introduce themselves earlier. Let’s see… Lee Jeongin, age 28. Park Yonghae, age 25. And…"

His voice slowed, as if savoring the moment. Then he emphasized the final name.

“Jang Heoun, age 26.”

……

……

Just now—

“Hm? Do any of those names sound familiar to you? Hahaha.”

What did he just say?

 

note: I hated translating around the black squares :( 

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