GSGW c217

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Chapter 217

The red yarn of Nostalgia wrapped around my neck.

The first thing I felt was clarity.

The sensation that everything was sharp and properly in place.

“……”

I blinked.

I could blink.

Eyelids and eyelashes. The view through my corneas is clear…

I look down at my hands. Without the black rubber, there were bare human hands there, skin fully exposed.

I clenched and opened them.

Yes.

This was what it originally felt like.

This was the sensation.

The shock faded naturally, leaving only a trace behind, and familiarity remained.

Natural emotions and sensations.

And along with them came a feeling I had forgotten.

Yes. A feeling.

I was surely—

Snap

……

……

I lowered my head.

There were no bare hands.

What I saw there were only holy hooves and scales attached to melting, shapeless flesh—

I forced the gloves on.

Force them in.

Force them in.

“…Roe Deer?”

Force them in.

Force them in.

Done.

Human fingers.

Fingers with a silhouette similar to a human’s.

And between them I could see—

The floor.

On the floor lay a single strand of thread that looked worn and tattered.

Fuzzy. Dirty. Discolored. Worthless now.

The yarn had snapped.

“…!”

“Wait—”

It had been a mistake.

Did you think Nostalgia Kitty could help you? Did you think what you were experiencing was merely contamination? Did you think there was a possibility you could return to a time when your body and mind were healthy?

Did you believe you could go back to the comfortable ignorance that once held you? That from there, you would gain a hint of what path to take, learn how to survive in this world, reset your goals, return to being human, return home—did you think of something like that?

Did you hope for it?

Did you believe it was possible?

Really?

By making such an absurd wish, such a mistaken wish, you realized something you never needed to know. You woke inside this grotesque body. You experienced it. And now the terror of all those days spent alone in the underground levels, seeing nothing but ghost stories and corpses, comes rushing back.

Wearing Nostalgia Kitty was a mistake.

No effect can take only the good parts. You cannot have only the human form—only the body capable of interacting. Which means— if I truly was human, then the emotions I should naturally feel would return as well.

My fear. And my despair.

Once experienced, even if the brain and body collapse into a muddled mess in an instant, it does not disappear.

It remains.

I cannot endure it.

……

Smoke rises. It keeps rising.

It fills this space completely, leaving no gaps to escape. It fills everything—yet it is still not enough.

……

The space

is not enough.

“Roe Deer, wai—”

I stood up.

The one wearing the badger mask collapsed into the thick smoke. I carried him to the bed. He should rest.

Then I faced the Security Team leader.

Because his working hours had ended, and he no longer had the authority—or obligation—to control me.

So—

“Um…”

.

“…Is there anything I can do for you?”

I opened the door to the isolation room.

And walked out.

Black smoke flowed out behind me, filling the containment corridor.

Red and blue lights began flashing.

Just like the Basement Level 13 of the Annex.

[Evacuation alarm. High-grade darkness containment failure. Evacuation alarm. High-grade darkness containment failure. Evacuation alarm…]

The alarm rang through the corridor.

And inside my head as well.

You cannot leave the designated area! You cannot leave the designated area! You cannot leave the designated area—

You never designated a place where I must remain after working hours. You only assigned a new workplace. You never specified my space. Not by voice, not by signature, not even by implication.

Therefore—

I can choose where I rest after work.

I can go anywhere.

Any—

I stopped.

But the unbearable feeling did not disappear. Why doesn’t it disappear? Why?

Ah.

Right.

I keep moving my feet. Riding the smoke, the distance closes.

The containment corridor was about to end. The front of the equipment storage appeared. Most of the Security Team had left their posts to prepare equipment and arm themselves to subdue the escaped containment subject, so only a few remained.

I knew.

That there would be a flaw in their calculations.

Since Containment Subject (130666) had never demonstrated unrealistically fast movement abilities, they had assumed it would take at least three times longer to reach the storage room. A catastrophe born from that miscalculation. 

That was how this situation could be described.

“Ah—”

The few remaining Security Team members sank into the smoke.

From one of them I retrieved a key and opened the door to the equipment storage.

Then I keep walking, until I reach the central elevator.

Ding.

The elevator stops. I step inside.

The floor I needed to go to was already decided.

-Floor 17… that’s where the researchers searching for new darkness are.

Floor 17.

[Doors opening.]

A pristine office space of glass and marble appears—the same place I once visited in a different form.

The smoke that had filled the elevator spills out, pressing down upon the office like a heavy tide.

[Evacuation alarm. High-grade darkness containment failure. Evacuation alarm. High-grade darkness containment failure. Evacuation alarm…]

“AAAAAH!”

“Run! Run—!”

People in lab coats rush toward the emergency exit. Someone who inhaled the smoke collapses. Someone weeps and wails. Another bursts into laughter. Someone clutches their head, muttering. Someone kneels in prayer.

All those melting mosaics of people.

I step into them.

Until I find what I’m looking for.

Toward an office I already knew.

[Research Team 1 – A]

Toward the clean, spacious office at the very end.

Before anyone can escape.

Before anyone can hide.

I gather the smoke that had spread throughout the corridor, pooling it beneath my feet, then send it surging upward to cover an entire section of the hallway.

And just like that, I sealed off Research Team 1’s office.

With smoke.

……

Now, no one inside can escape.

Darkness and silence pool before the corridor.

Within it, I open the door.

“Ah.”

There is only one person inside, working the night shift.

[Evacuation alarm. High-grade darkness containment failure. Evacuation alarm. High-grade darkness containment failure. Evacuation alarm…]

Even amid the blaring alarm, he simply scans the CCTV footage with distant eyes.

Checking the cameras from the containment room all the way through the corridors I passed—Kwak Jaekwang lifts his head toward the open door.

The expression of someone who has realized something.

“You… no, you.”

……

“It was Kim Soleum, wasn’t it?”

I approach him.

“It wasn’t a vessel. You were like that from the beginning. From the begin—!”

I grab his throat.

His white research coat crumples beneath him as his feet lift into the air.

“Trying to kill me? Out of anger? Ha ha…”

Fear and terror seem to fill his eyes—but soon they’re replaced by exhilaration and curiosity.

“But… aren’t you curious?”

……

“I simply can’t figure out what you are. How you harvested dream essence…

how you move between darkness and humanity…”

Through the lenses of his glasses, Kwak Jaekwang stares at me.

He is smiling.

“Honestly… maybe you don’t know either. …Don't know what kind of being you are.”

……

“You don’t want to be bound by the company, do you? I’ll help you! Director Cheong Dallae? Who cares! A researcher must act like a researcher! The origin! The truth! Understanding must be pursued!”

His voice rings with madness. Conviction and yearning burst out of him.

“If you are trying to find out why you are called here, why you have that form—then I will fully cooperate! No, I beg you—please allow me to cooperate!”

His hollow eyes gleam.

“Dying here wouldn’t be the worst thing… but there’s still so much I want to see.

I can’t die before I find out!”

……

I loosen my grip around his neck.

And he drops to the floor.

“Ugh!”

But Kwak Jaekwang doesn’t complain. Instead he looks at me with eyes shining with exhilaration.

“Yes! A wise cho—”

I bend down and crouch in front of him.

Meeting his eyes, I speak with smoke.

Don’t want to.

“…!!”

I can’t trust you.

“W-wait.”

The smoke forms letters.

Things that cannot be trusted

: subject to deletion

“…! Wait.”

His breathing grows ragged.

I make an announcement.

Warning 3

Reason: insulting remark toward an employee

Accumulated warnings: 3 / Disciplinary action: 0 remaining

Smoke pours from the black gas mask.

Wrapping around Kwak Jaekwang’s head.

“Wait—”

He staggers backward.

I do not follow. But the smoke does.

It wraps around his eyes, nose, and mouth. Slowly suffocating him.

The researcher chokes, gasping desperately, finally forcing out a single sentence.

“Then—!”

With his still-free arm he reaches behind him. His fingers slip several times before finally grabbing his drawer.

A place where Twilight-grade Darkness is kept in temporary storage.

He fumbles inside and pulls something out.

“What if… you use this instead?”

He holds it out to me.

…Red thread.

Extremely similar to the one I just used.

The smoke twitches.

But then I remember—it isn’t yarn. It is thinner, finer. The smoke settles.

And I realize it has an entirely different purpose.

“You just need to make it so betrayal is impossible—so trust becomes unavoidable, don’t you think?”

There is only one thing that description can refer to.

Red Finger

: A Darkness that literally manifests the children’s rhyme, “Pinky promise.”

/tn. translation called it "hook pinkies and make a promise" which I assume is a pinky promise

If a single vow is sworn while a thread is tied around the tip of the pinky finger, that vow will inevitably be fulfilled.

Because if you try to break it, you die.

“The usage is…”

Kwak Jaekwang’s lips move as if to explain, but when I tear open the package and pull out my own pinky finger, he lets out a sound somewhere between laughter and a sob.

“So… it’s a Darkness you already know.”

There is nothing I do not know.

If it has been described, I know.

I take the red thread and tie it around Kwak Jaekwang’s pinky.

Cold sweat runs down his face as he smiles.

“I swear. Um… I will not betray you.”

I look at him.

Invalid.

Reason: inaccurate.

“…I will cooperate fully?”

Invalid.

Reason: inaccurate.

Slowly, I reshape the smoke.

Failed attempts: 2

Remaining attempts: 1

Cold sweat gathers and drips from Kwak Jaekwang’s face.

“…Then could you tell me what exactly I should swear? If I try to improvise again and it sounds suspicious, dying would be inconvenient in many ways.”

……

The smoke forms a sentence.

Proposal:

From now on, I will not go against your will.

Kwak Jaekwang’s eyes tremble.

He understands the absolute meaning hidden in the sentence.

But he opens his mouth anyway.

Because he has no other choice.

“I… from now on, will not go against your will….”

Thud.

I pull the red thread.

The tip of the researcher’s pinky finger—where the thread is tied—severs cleanly.

Blood gushes out.

“Ahahahahaha! Ahahahahaha!!”

Holding his bleeding left hand, Kwak Jaekwang laughs as he watches the severed piece of his pinky roll across the floor.

“Thank you… thank you!”

Six minutes later.

I returned to the containment room myself.

There is chaos outside the door, but it doesn’t matter.

Even if two members of the Security Team are gone… It's fine. It means they made it back safely.

Instead, I think about this new situation.

About what the experience of being wrapped in the yarn returned to me.

About fear. About something unbearable.

…And I reached a conclusion.

'I need to know.'

Why I exist here in this form.

Who called me here in the first place.

To do that, I must first uncover the secrets of this company.

What lies beneath the main building’s basement.

What the Cheerful Research Institute really was.

And if, after learning all of that, there is still no solution…

……

Then I will give up.

It is the moment I reach that decision.

[Now that’s quite an exciting plan, my friend!]

“……!”

I sit up.

…There is something on the bed where I had been lying alone.

A fluffy body. Cute pink ears. Black eyes. A bow tie around its neck.

And—

[Mr. Roe Deer.]

A voice calls out.

“...Braun?”

[Ah, my friend finally calls my name! How delightful!]

My good friend is there.

/tn. OMG ITS BRAUN, I still don't forgive you, but it's nice to see you again

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