After drinking the wish potion and realizing the 'truth'.
My body collapsed, and the security team uniform of Director Ho, which desperately stuffed that body in, had the opposite effect and caused me to necrotize.
Thus, faced with imminent death, I made an inevitable choice.
"Just sign here."
I signed the employment contract papers that Director Chung handed to me.
Immediately after, I lost consciousness... and when I regained my senses, I had already been transferred to some place.
A bleak small room.
The first thing I saw was a number.
[666]
A nameplate attached to the iron door.
The space consisting of an iron bed and a sink was very classic and desolate.
The only light source is a single fluorescent lamp, and it's as quiet as a mouse.
However, I could go out freely during working hours. Because my work, which hasn't changed a
single day from the first day until now, is....
"Today your duty is security for the 13th basement floor of the annex building."
The 13th basement floor.
Because it's guarding this corridor.
"Security for the 13th basement floor of the annex building."
But it's meaningless.
No one comes.
This place with no windows or emergency exits is just a corridor lined with iron doors, and I walk here meaninglessly.
I wander the corridor.
Red and blue lights flicker.
I see an elevator. The lights indicating the floor numbers blink and numbers appear.
But I can't board it.
Because there are no buttons.
They're not visible.
I can't get out.
Hiss....
Black smoke is thick.
The fluorescent lights in the pale corridor flicker, and the smoke wavers and rises.
It's coming out of my breath through the gas mask.
I walk while locked in.
If you stare at that only moving thing, the smoke spreading and wavering on the corridor....
"Your work hours have ended. Return immediately. Your work hours have ended. Return immediately. Your work hours have ended. Return immediately..."
It ends.
I enter room 666 again, which is open as per the contract.
Click.
The door locks, and I sit on the bed.
Silence again.
Would one normally feel terrified?
Whether it's claustrophobia or fear of isolation, would one feel fear... about simply existing in the basement of a terrible pharmaceutical company without anyone noticing?
Perhaps I would have.
But I don't remember exactly what kind of emotion that is.
But not remembering isn't so bad either.
I just ponder for a moment.
My work.
Security officer for the 13th basement floor of the annex building.
Perform security duties without questioning what exists beyond the iron doors, and without leaving the designated 13th floor corridor.
Abnormal phenomena that occur upon contact have not been identified so far.
Those shapes that dimly flash and blur in my mind.
If described in
Yes. It must have been like that....
But even that faint and censored imagination doesn't last long.
Zzzzt-
The silence is broken.
The light from a black and white screen casts shadows on the iron bed.
[Welcome to the Security Management Team of Daydream Corporation, special entity employee full of dreams and passion!]
The sound of a low-quality digital recording echoes in the closed room.
[Yesterday we told you in detail what kind of wonderful things the Security Management Team does, right? Today we'll tell you about the rules you must follow while on duty!]
A small old TV in the corner of the solitary cell continues to play the video.
The
It only tells the same content.
[You cannot leave your designated work area!]
Two mascots appear.
The fox mascot stands still in front of the elevator in the corridor, spinning round and round.
A format I seem to have seen before.
But somehow distorted... is that distorted? A cheerful educational video about the lifestyle of office workers and Daydream Corporation, processed in black and white, moves light in the room.
[You are a contracted worker and cannot violate work rules!]
It's like a typical new employee training video, but there's a slightly different point.
It also obsessively tells what to do when work hours end.
[Sleep.]
[Don't violate bedtime. You can't wander around. You must rest. That's the normal behavior of a company employee!]
The bizarrely bright and cheerful video's light ripples in the small closed room.
And then....
[This concludes the training for this video. Have a pleasant time!]
Click.
It disappears.
"..."
Today's routine is over.
Thus, only faint red and blue lights seep in from beyond the iron door of the small space where all light sources have disappeared.
Bedtime.
Of course, I can't sleep.
But as shown in the training video, I can't violate bedtime. That's the work rule.
I lay down on the bed and closed my eyes.
As if sleeping.
Thus, while learning about 'company work', I continue my work on the 13th basement floor of the annex building.
...
...
How many days have I worked?
1 week? Two weeks?
2 month?
1 years?
■■■?
It's unknowable and difficult to calculate. But there's no problem. The contract doesn't specify the work period, so I just need to stay like this.
Work hours will come again.
Then in the silence, this place....
Knock... knock.
...
Knock knock knock.
A sound.
I hear a sound.
It's the sound of soft skin-covered hard joints carefully moving, hitting against iron.
The sound of knocking on the iron door.
...
1 knock.
People.
I pulled the door. "Eek!"
"Aaaah!"
The iron door of room 666 opens.
Those who were holding the handle fall back into the corridor in shock and try to point at me with
their fingers, but....
"Ah... mmph."
They cover their mouths.
And bow their heads.
"Hello, hello sir."
"We are new employees. We greet you."
They say.
Their voices were stiff as if rehearsed, but it was real.
I realized that it was the living voice of someone I was hearing after an extremely long time.
No....
Living?
"If it's alright, may we visit for a moment...."
No. It's a dead voice.
All those living people's voices heard through the auditory organs crackled as if heard from an old training video.
As if filtered, as if recorded, all those people's voices seen and heard through the gas mask make it difficult to identify individuals hazily.
And....
"...Um."
There are no faces above the suits.
No, I can't identify the faces.
The areas where faces should be only appear like completely melted mosaics.
As if reconstructed from damaged film pulled together as best as possible, distorted red and black.
'I wonder why.'
I don't know if it's because I don't need to see them according to the work contract, or if my collapsed body has collapsed my recognition system as well.
But there's no problem.
There's no issue with identifying individuals by their clothing, build, and intonation.
Or with grasping the situation.
New employees, suits, groups of 3, panic and confusion, no masks.
And one more thing.
"..."
I turned to look at the one who spoke first.
Listening to that gasping breath, I reached out with my black gloved hand.
"Hnngh!"
I pulled out something that had slipped from the front pocket of their suit.
A note.
I go down to B13
Knock on door 666
Enter after knocking
This is....
I see.
'Experiment Name: New Employee Orientation' 21st Attempt
1 Assign missions using the Lucky Draw Box (Qterw-E-382). Configuration of encountering the security team ■■■■ in charge of the area while exploring the annex basement.
Records flashed like sparks from my mutated head, surfacing before lingering as if savoring them.
I 'knew' what kind of situation this was.
"Eek!"
I put the note back in his front pocket. The one touched by my black gloved fingers convulses.
The large-built one standing in the back came forward as if to calm things down, pushing another new employee behind his back, and spoke calmly.
"...It was a task instructed by the company."
"..."
"We are, carrying out our duties."
Right.
If orientation can be considered work, that is.
I saw three pitiful new employees who were simply participating in the 'New Employee Orientation'.
And....
I took one step back behind the door.
As if inviting them in.
"..."
"..."
"C-Can we... come in?"
The entry of authorized personnel does not violate work regulations.
"Th-Thank... thank you..."
Trembling, watching cautiously, the stiff human bodies stepped into room 666 to carry out what was written on the note.
And then they jump back out of the door as if they had stepped into a fire pit.
...That's not really necessary.
"Eeeek!"
I tried to reach out to the two employees who almost pushed each other trying to get out quickly and fell with their limbs tangled, but before that, they started crawling away.
That's right.
They're running away.
There is an escape route.
To the elevator.
"Hic, hic!"
"Wait, calmly..."
I thought I heard the large-built one trying to stop them, but they frantically pressed something.
The elevator button.
So there were buttons.
They just weren't visible to security personnel.
Soon, with a cheerful sound, the elevator doors open and light pours into the corridor.
The bright elevator interior.
"C-Close it! Clo-!"
I moved my feet to follow them. Smoke rises from the gas mask with each step.
The moment the black smoke entered 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!
It rings in 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 is not leaving the work area.
Currently this elevator has arrived at the 13th basement floor, and I am merely entering a space connected as part of the 13th floor.
It has never been specified that the elevator is excluded from the 13th basement floor work space.
...
...
It became quiet again.
"Ah! J-Just..."
I naturally boarded the elevator again.
The doors close.
Thud.
Black smoke fills the elevator interior.
"Ah, aaaaah■■."
"Oh oh, oh, Mr. ■■, th-that■"
I hear the employees' groans and mutters from beside me. Is inhaling the smoke painful? I held my breath and sucked the black smoke into my gas mask.
The mosaics of human faces revealed in the smoke take on a transparency.
It seems they're leaking bodily fluids from their eyes, nose and mouth. But their breathing seems to have stabilized...
I tried my best to push the smoke towards the walls to fix it, but one person who was watching me speaks while trembling.
"Are... are you telling us to be quiet?"
Telling?
That my actions of moving the smoke have meaning...
Ah.
"..."
So this is... how it's done.
Meaningless expression
"Ah, Hangul!"
The mosaics shake and are shocked at the letters I created with smoke.
Even through the noise, a strange gladness or relief can be read.
"Um... are you going to, attack, attack us...?"
Current situation : Negative
"Ah...!"
The voices brighten considerably. The relief that comes from familiarity, the strange empathy when the unknown shows an understandable aspect.
Emotions I knew.
The sound of sighing reaches my ears in a dull quality.
And another question.
"Then, where, are, are you... going?"
"..."
I looked at the elevator buttons.
Things I couldn't see in the 13th basement floor corridor.
Among them, I see the button the new employees are reaching for while watching me cautiously.
1st floor.
"..."
It's not allowed.
I currently cannot set foot on the ground floor. Leaving the elevator is a complete departure from the work area, and is the limit of the loophole I can refuse.Cannot leave.
Then why did I board the elevator?
"..."
Because there's something I can do without getting off the elevator.
I reached out my hand.
Frozen in the elevator, the new employee who had been acting composed gasped for breath.
What's going on? What's going on?
The black smoke thick in the elevator now, and between that smoke...
Yellow eyes like gas lamps.
'Fck, fck...!'
Horns like huge tree branches or ribs protrude above the gas mask. The black full-body uniform without a single bit of flesh showing was like a nightmare crumpled into a human silhouette.
The 'Security Team' nameplate on its chest is like a creepy joke.
The thing that was in room 666 on the 13th basement floor.
'If, if I act politely, I'll have a higher chance of survival...!'
He inwardly hurled blame and curses at the team member who had introduced himself as 'Jang Heo-un'.
Far from making eye contact with him, Jang Heo-un was staring intently at the monster.
'Still pretending to be calm!'
The fact that he was currently not dead, and that Jang hadn't put him in this situation, were conveniently forgotten for the sake of resentment.
At the same time, he inadvertently realized why there were dead people in the elevator.
'They all chased them into the elevator...!'
But there was nothing... that had boarded with them.
He swallowed.
Could it be they killed them out of anger for not being able to board?
'Then how did this... h-how did it board?'
The one fortunate thing was that some kind of communication seemed possible, but... damn it.
'Is it okay to... go back to the 1st floor lobby with that thing?'
In horror movies, when this happens everyone in the lobby dies too. Cold sweat beaded and fell from the tip of his chin.
But survival instinct came first.
I want to go back. I'm going back. I will escape this terrifying underground insane space!
'Yes, yes!'
It's something that I'm not dead!
Let the bastards in the lobby fend for themselves! I can't be the only one to die here!
He reached out his hand to press the 1st floor in an almost deranged state...
Their eyes met.
"Ah."
Yellow eyes look at him from within the smoke.
The new employee froze again.
However, the strange figure holding a lantern did not stop the new employee from pressing the 1st floor.
Instead, it too reached out its black hand.
And tapped the B12 button.
"Huh...?"
B11, B10, B9, B8... all the way to 1st floor.
All those buttons.
It swept over them, as if playing piano keys.