The next morning, when I woke up, I checked the date on the phone by my pillow.
One week remained until the inauguration ceremony.
In Korea, the inauguration ceremony for apprentice Cleaners is held unconditionally on fixed dates each quarter. Every apprentice Cleaner must be inaugurated as a full-fledged Cleaner at the very next ceremony.
What if a Stigma manifested the day before the ceremony? That poor bastard with the worst luck would have no choice but to be inaugurated as a full Cleaner the very next day and become Rank 9.
There was only one reason the system was run in such a shitty way.
Keeping Stigma manifesters as apprentices for too long was far too dangerous due to the contamination zones. To put it in military terms, it was like being in the middle of a war, so they shortened the training period as much as possible and shoved people straight onto the front lines.
You might say the sacrifices among Cleaners would be too great.
But in Korea's case, the elite lineup represented by Ranks 1 and 2 was already fully stocked. So the policy was to just grind up the rest.
"I'd like to experience as many contamination zones as possible, if I can."
Once the apprenticeship period ended, Yoo Sangcheol would no longer accompany me. My lifeline would be gone.
If possible, succeeding at cleaning some bizarre contamination zone like the one at Gapsun's place would be ideal.
"That is, if I don't die."
As if answering my muttering, the toaster made a ding sound and spat out the toasted bread. So the entire loaf of bread I bought from the bakery had all been turned into toast.
I quickly spread jam and butter on them and devoured them. On top of that, I also dealt with two roasted chickens.
"I seriously feel like I'm going to puke."
There was a reason some Cleaners filmed themselves eating and uploaded the videos. Was this even an amount a human should eat?
After the meal, I went to the training center and trained as usual. Then, around 3 p.m.
Extinction-type contamination zone detected in Yongin. Assembly call. Rendezvous point is…
How was there not a single day off? I immediately left the training center and headed to the assembly point sent via message.
"Did you wash up before coming?"
Oh Minhyuk's hair was damp. He shook the water out of it and nodded.
"I just woke up…"
"It's three in the afternoon?"
At Oh Minhyuk's words, Han Sehee tossed in a comment. Just woke up, huh. Looks like becoming a model child of the nation was out of the question.
"Looks like everyone's here, so cut the chatter and move out right away."
Once again, our means of transport was a helicopter. Since apprentices weren't assigned to any specific region, fast transportation was only natural. Once we were inaugurated as full Cleaners and given an assignment, we wouldn't need to use helicopters anymore.
"Is the contamination level low?"
"For now."
But since we couldn't expect a high degree of reliability, there wasn't much confidence in Yoo Sangcheol's voice.
And so we crossed the soldiers' control line and stood before the black wall of the contamination zone.
We stepped forward.
"..."
We entered the interior of a gigantic dome-shaped structure. What the hell is going on here? With that thought in mind, I looked around.
It was enormous beyond measure, yet extremely quiet. Quiet to the point where it felt wrong for such a vast space to be this silent.
Oh Minhyuk, Han Sehee, and even Yoo Sangcheol were all here. Just as Han Sehee was about to say something to us,
I desperately signaled for her to stay quiet.
[The structure carries sound really well.]
When I examined the walls closely, they were plastered with something resembling the wooden acoustic reflection panels I used to haul around when I worked construction.
I took out a sketchbook and wrote on it, holding it up. A dome-shaped structure that looked like it was designed to spread sound far and wide.
Fortunately, it didn't seem like simply writing or flipping paper caused anything to happen. Did it require a certain threshold of noise?
Or was I just being overly sensitive?
[The intent feels malicious.]
It was shaped as if it were practically begging us to make noise. Naturally, it wasn't asking us to make noise for our own sake.
After checking the sketchbook, Han Sehee took off her shoes. Oh Minhyuk and I also carefully removed ours to avoid making any sound. Socks would probably make less noise, at least.
I handed a notebook to Oh Minhyuk and Han Sehee as they crept closer to me.
[You don't carry those slippers for preventing floor noise between apartments or something?]
Oh Minhyuk wrote that and showed it to me.
[As if.]
Why would anyone bring something like that when heading to deal with a contamination zone? How would we have known something like this would happen?
If we made noise even once here, the sound would keep reverberating due to this massive structure and its interior materials.
[Do monsters come running when they hear sound?]
Han Sehee's guess made sense. Blind monsters that hunt by sound were a pretty common cliché in games and movies.
[The floor is sheet metal.]
The floor was sheet metal, while the walls and ceiling were acoustic reflectors.
If we had kept our shoes on, the shoes and the metal floor would have collided and created noise. And that noise would have echoed endlessly in this space.
[It feels wrong. Like… someone keeps staring at us.]
Just as Han Sehee said, it felt like an unpleasant gaze was on us. On top of that, the air was chilly and heavy. Like something was pressing down on us. Even standing still, it felt like my heart was being squeezed.
[What about Cleaner Yoo Sangcheol?]
At Oh Minhyuk's question, I shrugged. I couldn't see him, so how would I know? All I could think was that he was probably somewhere.
And who were we to worry about Yoo Sangcheol, anyway.
[He's probably handling things just fine.]
What mattered more was taking care of ourselves. First, we needed to confirm the survivors…
Fuck.
Suddenly, I saw a pot falling out of thin air. I didn't need to see it hit the floor to know what would happen next.
I hurriedly pulled several sleeping bags out of my inventory and threw them toward where the pot was about to fall. Bulk didn't matter, since I stored them fully spread out. They were thick winter-grade ones, too…
The pot landed atop the sleeping bags I threw. Thankfully, it didn't make a loud noise.
"..."
That was way too close. At this point, it was almost certain. This contamination zone wanted sound. It didn't even have to be sound made by us.
Either way, it wanted noise. And once noise occurred, no matter what it was, something horrible would happen.
The moment I stepped forward, a thunderous sound echoed.
"You piece of shit."
As I stepped, the sheet metal floor buckled and blasted out a deafening noise. Without anyone needing to say a word, our faces turned pale.
This was beyond unfair. We had blocked the falling pot and identified the dangers of this contamination zone.
No, who in the world would expect the floor to buckle?!
So now, what was going to change…
"…?!"
Along with the reverberating sound, briny water suddenly rushed in through my gaping mouth, and my vision turned pitch-black. I hastily pulled out a flashlight from my inventory, but it crumpled and shattered instantly.
What the hell is this, what's happening. My body was floating in midair, like I was underwater.
The truly lucky thing was that I had been exhaling at the time. If I had been inhaling, water would have rushed straight into my lungs.
In the pitch-black darkness where nothing was visible, only the force field generator emitted a faint light, showing how much battery remained.
It was decreasing. It was resisting the force being applied to my body. If the flashlight crumpled instantly, the water pressure was enormous.
Pitch-black water with overwhelming pressure.
This was the deep sea. In an instant, I had been dropped into the deep sea.
The force field generator's battery dropped by 30 percent in the blink of an eye. If this continued, I'd have to replace the battery.
The moment I took out a coin battery, it would crumple under the pressure. It was draining fast. It felt like about 5 percent was disappearing every second.
"..."
And then, when I came to my senses, I was back in that bizarre space filled with silence. I wanted to suck in a huge breath immediately, but
I slowly regulated my breathing. I roughly understood what was going on. The moment sound occurred, this space transformed into an extreme environment where humans couldn't function properly.
Han Sehee and Oh Minhyuk were also staring at me with pale faces.
"..."
Half of Oh Minhyuk's face had melted away, and Han Sehee was covered in blood from head to toe, as if she'd gone through something horrific.
I immediately injected Oh Minhyuk with a high-speed recovery agent.
[You held out well.]
Despite half his face being melted, Oh Minhyuk didn't make a sound. After being injected, he looked at the words on the sketchbook, nodded, and carefully spat out the scraps of cloth he had stuffed in his mouth.
If he hadn't been able to endure the pain and had screamed, we would have been thrown back into that extreme environment again because of the noise.
As long as noise persisted, we'd suffer in the extreme environment, and when we returned, if we couldn't endure and made noise again, we'd be thrown right back into the horrific environment without even a moment of rest.
An ordinary person would be done in one go, and even Cleaners would eventually die after experiencing it a few times.
[So it wasn't monsters chasing us.]
[I'd rather have monsters chasing us.]
Monsters could be fought and eliminated. But when the environment itself turned hostile, there was nothing you could do. I didn't know any way to kill an environment. Under no circumstances could we make noise.
I quickly replaced the force field generator's battery, then took out some cloth. I handed a piece to Han Sehee and Oh Minhyuk each.
"…?"
The two looked at me after seeing the cloth pieces I gave them. I had already used mine to make a gag and sealed my mouth.
Most sounds humans make come from the mouth. So first, we had to block that. Soon after, both of them obediently put the gags in their mouths.
[Are there even any survivors left alive?]
That was the problem. In such a vicious contamination zone, how many could possibly have survived?
And why was this shitty contamination measurement technology so inaccurate? Just because it's safe if you don't make noise, the contamination level is low?
It throws people into the deep sea if they make noise, and that's not dangerous? Does that make any sense? After getting hit by this a few times, it was seriously pissing me off.
Then, someone tapped my shoulder from behind.
"..."
When I turned around, Yoo Sangcheol was standing there.
[Looks like you've grasped the situation. Well done.]
Yoo Sangcheol wrote the words on his phone and showed them to us.
[What about the survivors?]
[I thought it would be a bit too cruel to leave that to you, so I handled it.]
I agreed. In this situation, worrying about survivors would have been too cruel for us. Honestly, it was more accurate to say it was impossible.
We were supposed to practice rescuing survivors, but if all the survivors ended up dead because of that, what would be the point?
[Thank you.]
I thanked Yoo Sangcheol. If he had rescued the survivors using his ability, then it was fair to say all survivors in this contamination zone had been evacuated.
[No need to thank me. Because of survivor protection, I won't be able to help you much.]
[That's fine. We'll manage somehow.]
So there was only one thing we needed to focus on.
Dealing with the source of contamination. What kind of contamination source was it, exactly? And how were we supposed to deal with it?
It didn't seem like something we could just beat into submission. This wasn't that kind of contamination zone, and chances were high the source couldn't be dealt with in that way either.
But if we could deal with it.
It felt like it would make for a very reassuring addition to my collection.