The monster's fingers, wrapped in black gloves, move upwards.
With that smooth movement, all the elevator's basement buttons lit up.
The new employees watched the scene blankly.
now.
What did you do?
"Cancel, cancel! Cancel…."
It's late.
It was only a blink of an eye that the elevator moved one floor.
Ding.
[It's the 12th floor underground.]
The elevator doors open unprotected.
A scene from a few hours ago flashed through my mind like lightning.
-Ugh... Sob.
-What, what is this…?
The elevator that went down to the 12th basement floor to carry out a 'mission' returned with not a single employee present, and only red blood pooling on the floor...
[The door opens.]
And the dark hallway of the 12th basement floor is revealed dimly in the elevator light. The new employees are holding their breath.
"...."
"...."
But there wasn't a drop of blood in the hallway. Unlike the elevator.
"ha."
Before I could instinctively feel relieved, something strange caught my eye. Something like greasy dirt had accumulated on the floor and was stuck in the gap of the elevator.
'soil…?'
I looked up to find the source.
The lumps placed here and there like landmarks in the hallway catch the eye.
Weathered looking lumps.
But if you look closely, your eyes, adapted to the dark, will be able to discern the silhouette.
One ankle near the peach pit, a piece of ear and temple, the right shoulder blade… .
The remaining body parts, bloodless and model-like.
"Heehee…."
Tub.
The new employee covered his own mouth to keep the moans from escaping.
You must not make any noise.
Because I saw something huge at the end of my gaze.
Standing blankly in a dark hallway.
They're wearing uniforms too.
The security team uniforms, like those worn by the horned monsters riding this elevator. They were clean, unaltered, and perfectly human silhouettes. They looked like boring security team members just standing around blankly. But… .
The thing on the head is a scarecrow.
The face, made roughly of straw, is hollow and the facial features are roughly drawn with fresh blood.
....
Somewhere, a song is heard.
Standing tall all day
angry scarecrow uncle
It echoes faintly through the hallway.
Tweet Tweet Tweet Tweet I'm scared
The birds are flying away
Hahahahaha be careful
My hat is going to come off
Bam.
Blood drips from the ends of rags on the scarecrow's crudely drawn eyes.
Standing tall all day
But since when?
angry scarecrow uncle
Was that head looking here?
"...."
Gulp.
The new employees were frozen.
The scarecrow clearly didn't move. But… .
Why did it change?
Why are we now one iron gate closer than before?
Why did we get closer again?
Why is your left hand made of straw raised?
Why are you holding a sickle in your hand?
Why the face….
"Ahhhhh!"
At that moment, the door of another elevator next to it opens, and light and screams pour out.
"…!"
Other people. It was obvious that they had come to this hallway on a mission, and the sound of them falling down inside the elevator was heard.
"What, what is that!"
They were screaming as they saw the scarecrow and the body parts on the hallway floor right before their eyes.
....
Standing around all day
Good Scarecrow Mr.
Why is the scarecrow standing with its head turned away?
"Hiiiiiiiii!"
"Close it! Close it!"
"Ah, no! Run away…."
It's late.
And the new employee who had been blankly watching it realized.
Yeah. A chance to escape.
"Hic!"
We have to take advantage of this gap. Quickly, quickly, while they aren't looking! The new employee stretched out his hand with all his might to press the close button… .
Blocked by black gloves.
"...!"
A gas mask with strange horns sprouting out in all directions and yellow, lantern-like eyes.
The security team member in room 666 on the 13th basement floor who had blocked the close button didn't even look back at him.
It was just staring blankly outside the elevator, and thick black smoke poured out of its gas mask, pooling at its feet.
Hooooooo…
And it sinks low like fog towards the 12th floor underground.
Towards the scarecrow.
Hahahahaha be careful
My hat is going to come off
Standing around all day
Good… …
hook.
Smoke rises and covers the scarecrow.
"!!"
The sound is thick.
The smoke was so thick and heavy that the scarecrow's form disappeared. And underneath it… .
A new sound.
Wooddudududuk
A strange noise echoes through the hallway.
The new employees listened to it, panting and holding their breath.
The grotesque scarecrow, covered in black smoke, was now nowhere to be seen.
Just sound.
All that can be heard is the merciless sound of explosions.
It sounds like a cracking sound, like a horn or bone breaking, or like something grinding, or like something being forcibly stuffed into something or swallowed.
And then a plea-like scream is heard.
The sound of someone trying to run away and beg for something is heard mixed with the loud noise, and soon disappears with the sound of a terminal squeak.
The moment silence came.
"...."
"...."
Finally, the black smoke disperses again.
The scarecrow that had been hidden by smoke reappeared in the hallway… .
"...uh?"
It's a corpse.
The new employees blinked.
However, the sight of the bloody corpse lying on the floor with its entire body crushed remains unchanged.
The blood that had formed on his facial features like a scarecrow dripped to the floor.
Bam.
"Ahhhhhhh!"
"evil!!"
The room was filled with screams. But the man wearing the gas mask inhaled the smoke again with one breath. The new employee crawled to the corner of the elevator in fear.
[The door closes.]
Meanwhile, in the elevator next door, the doors closed with the sound of someone frantically banging on buttons without taking a breath.
"Over there, over there!"
The other new employees get out safely.
At the same time, the black smoke that rushed in from the 12th floor underground hallway neatly collected on the elevator floor.
"Eek!"
"for a moment!"
Someone grabbed his shoulder as he tried to escape the smoke in a fitful manner.
A fellow employee named Jang Heo-un. He whispered urgently.
"Don't bother me for no reason."
"…!!"
"That smoke didn't cover our heads…. Calm down, let's calm down."
It was exactly as he said.
The smoke was quietly gathering on the elevator floor.
"Whew, whoosh…."
The new employee swallowed, took a deep breath, and grabbed the elevator handle.
[The door closes.]
So we left the 12th floor.
He desperately averted his gaze from the corpse beyond the elevator doors, but just before that he saw it stagger back to its feet through the crack in the doorway… .
Like a scarecrow.
"Huhhhh."
He swallowed with a groan.
But the intense impression of what I had just seen did not fade.
A strange being.
And the smoke that turned that strange being into a corpse.
Suddenly, you realize the surprising result.
'…I lived.'
Everyone lived.
My legs shook with relief.
Thoughts crossed my mind at the same time.
'wait for a sec.'
So, was that weird horned 'security agent' number 666 actually helping people escape to the elevator?
'Wait a minute, then… .'
Yeah. Maybe it's not so scary. Maybe it's okay! He couldn't stand the situation of being trapped in an elevator with something horrible, so he turned his head away with rationalization.
"Th, th…."
I made eye contact with the security team member.
however….
"thanks...."
Was it originally like this… melting?
The arms of the security team member were strangely long. Strange… There were too many feet.
The lower half of his body, melted, was mixed with smoke and bulged on the elevator floor.
And it has thirty-seven eyes.
The eyes stare at him without blinking.
"Uh, uh uh uh…."
what?
What is that?
[It's the 11th basement floor.]
An external shock temporarily postpones the panic.
Arrived again.
[The door opens.]
"I will remove the optic nerve."
"I will connect my mouth and my belly button."
"I wish I had no feet!"
On the 11th basement floor, a staff member wearing a doctor's gown was conducting a friendly consultation for surgery in room 910.
hook.
This time, the man wearing the gas mask gazes outside with his thirty-seven eyes and sends out smoke.
Soon, the strange being wearing a doctor's gown became a bloodless corpse with its limbs sewn in the wrong places.
"Ahhhh!"
Scream again. Run away.
The people who were conducting the consultation as if possessed leave room 910 like crazy and get on another elevator, and this elevator's doors naturally close as well.
[The door closes.]
"...."
The new employee looked at his feet.
I can't see the elevator floor.
Because it is covered by the melted lower body of a security team member.
Heart pounding.
Something like a thumping sound is heard from the wall.
This is because the left upper body of the security team member is widely stuck to the wall. "...."
It was repeated like that.
[It's the 10th basement floor.]
[It's the 9th basement floor.]
[It's the 8th basement floor.]
As the doors on each floor open and close, and as the smoke creates strange situations, the shape of 'it' inside the elevator becomes strange.
It's getting bigger and bigger and bigger.
[It's the 6th basement floor.]
[It's the 5th basement floor.]
The shape of the elevator is getting more and more bizarre and difficult to look at. Strange ■■■■■■■■■■
[It's on the 4th basement floor.]
[It's the 3rd basement floor.]
[Underground forever underground.]
Strange, I finally realized. Now the entire elevator is made of sticky smoke, yellow lights, a crown of thorns, and a curved ■■ like a tomb of bones. That's it! This is the 13th floor! I'm being sucked into the 13th floor.
Ding.
....
....
[This is the first floor.]
[The door opens.]
Light pours in.
"Ugh, ugh, ugh…."
The moment the familiar ground-level lobby came into view, the new employee collapsed.
Someone approaches him urgently and taps him on the back.
"Slowly, slowly… just exhale."
A fellow new recruit named Jang Heo-un? He?s holding his breath and dying while holding his breath. Our ■■ is… .
■■?
"…excuse me."
I said I was going to talk to you.
He turned his head without realizing it.
When did ■■ come out? The security team member's appearance had returned to normal.
A man wearing a gas mask with horns, who had a strangely intimidating presence. 'Jang Heo-un' was speaking to him… .
"Are you helping us just now?"
no.
The smoke moves.
"Hic!"
But instead of covering his head, the smoke creates letters.
Employee's duty
"...."
Jang Heo-woon, who had been silent for a long time, finally opened his mouth. "Yes. Thank you…."
It was a voice that sounded both hoarse and choked.
Then he turned around and started supporting another crew member who was shivering in the corner of the elevator.
I might be out of my mind from fear.
'You crazy kid.'
I have to get out of here right now. The new employee suddenly came to his senses.
And then he hurriedly got out of the elevator, desperately ignoring his coworkers.
If you try to help someone in this crazy situation, you will most likely die. Take care, take care, that is the only way to survive… He barely managed to regain his senses amidst the fear and panic.
"Excuse me, what is that?"
"Ugh…."
Fortunately or unfortunately, the lobby was already in chaos and filled with the noise of all sorts of survivors returning, so not many people saw the security guard inside the elevator.
Its gaze, like a yellow light, briefly turned towards the lobby while Jang Heo-un was helping another employee out of the elevator… and then suddenly, it stared straight at him.
and….
Be thankful for luck
"...!"
[The door closes.]
The elevator started again.
To the 13th basement floor.
[B13]
The new employee stared blankly at the floor number sign, then collapsed on the lobby floor.
He was drenched in cold sweat.
* * *
The elevator doors closed.
I am alone again.
"...."
As the smoke rises, I feel my body, which had been crushed and distorted, slowly regaining its proper form and fitting into the frame of the security team uniform… .
....
Something is stirring.
I put my finger on my chest, but I couldn't feel any heartbeat. It was because I was so disintegrated without a form that I didn't even know where I was or if I even existed.
But the strange trembling lasted for a while.
And I savored it.
Like a bottle of perfume.
Ding.
The door opened on the 13th basement floor.
A dark, dark hallway with eerie iron doors flashing red and blue lights.
But there's something else too.
-Confirm the goal.
Security teams.
The familiar-looking staff members come out of the hallway and confront us.
Perhaps someone reported me, assuming I had acted rashly.
It was a misunderstanding, because I was properly performing security in the area on other floors, never setting foot on the ground.
question
However, instead of paying attention to the letters I had created, the security team took out their own special suppression devices and transformed into contaminated forms… .
"Oh my, you all are so brutal!"
A white hand suddenly popped out from behind.
"It's okay. Here, please move aside…."
A bright voice, out of place in the situation, is heard, and a research team member walks out from the center of the security team.
The human faces are still unrecognizable, appearing like melting mosaics, but they can be recognized by their clothing and ID cards.
That identity.
"hello."
Kwak Je-gang.
"It's been a long time since I've seen you in person like this… no, it's the first time. Hahaha!"
His bespectacled face seemed to have a calm smile, but his voice was filled with excitement as he spoke.
"I'm the person in charge of our security team's new special unit! And by the way, I'm also in charge of the annex experiment today."
The excited man, not even afraid of the security team's gaze, takes out some documents from his bosom and hands them to me, smiling broadly.
"I want to start with a light Q&A… Haha, this is it. First, should I introduce the visitors to the 13th basement floor today? It seems like these guys forgot to introduce themselves. Let's see, 28-year-old Lee Jeong-in, 25-year-old Park Yong-hae. And…."
The voice is as if holding its breath, then emphasizes it.
"Mr. Jang Heo-un, 26 years old."
....
....
just now.
"Hmm? Do any of these names sound familiar? Hahaha."
What did you say?