Ch.102Blood Capsule

# First Principle of Exploration

[No floor is perfectly safe]

While maintaining her pace, Heo Yoon carefully examined the surrounding terrain.

An old hospital.

It’s surprisingly just like the scene one might imagine.

Dark, murky air. A strange medicinal smell.

The floor has suspicious stains, as if it hasn’t been cleaned for a long time.

“Hey, Yoon Daju! Where are you?”

“Over here!”

A response came from the darkness.

Heo Yoon began to run faster.

What if something suddenly jumps out?

Such anxiety constantly urged her steps forward.

Let’s quickly meet Daju and return with the cure.

“Huh?”

Just now, something like a white shadow flashed past the edge of her vision.

“Daju. Are you still there? Did you find the AI?”

“Yes. I’m with it right now!”

Heo Yoon continued running.

She’s on the corridor of the hospital with only bluish emergency lights floating above.

On both sides, doors to patient rooms are densely packed.

“How on earth would there be a cure here…!”

Woooong-

The sound of an unknown machine running grows louder.

Heo Yoon was now sprinting at full speed.

“This way! Hurry!”

“Are you really Yoon Daju?”

“Yes!!!”

As she moved toward the voice, the light gradually grew stronger.

[Consultation Room]

‘Gulp.’

After swallowing dry saliva, Heo Yoon forcefully opened the door at the end of the corridor and entered.

A consultation room with a desk.

Unlike the outside, this place alone was strangely neat.

A doctor’s gown hangs on the coat rack near the entrance, and a desk sits by the window.

One wall has a curtain drawn, probably concealing a bed.

Would there be occasions requiring lying down for examination?

“…”

She had followed Daju’s voice all the way here.

This is the final destination.

No matter how carefully she looked, the only place the voice could have come from was behind the curtain.

“Um, Daju…? Are you there?”

Was she tricked?

She cautiously approached the curtain.

Swoosh-

“Aah! Aaaah!”

“Unni!”

Yoon Daju and the AI were sitting side by side on the bed.

“Thank goodness. You’re okay.”

“…Not yet.”

Yoon Daju showed her forearm. An IV line dangling down.

The AI beside her also had a blood collection device inserted into its vein.

“What?”

Heo Yoon couldn’t continue speaking properly.

Bewilderment and anxiety crossed her mind.

“What is this? Are you two really crazy!?”

Even while angrily shouting, she hesitates to approach.

Who knows what might happen if she disturbs this wrongly.

In a place where one wrong step could kill someone.

Coming to a hospital-like space they don’t properly understand and getting unknown injections.

Anyone would know how dangerous this is.

“I’ll explain slowly.”

Yoon Daju carefully raised herself.

Heo Yoon slapped Daju’s cheek hard.

Slap!

“Ah!”

“What? Are you two in your right minds?”

“Yes. You should talk before hitting us…”

Yoon Daju rubbed her cheek and began explaining again.

“We’ve checked what this place is for. The injections are necessary.”

“Right, Yebin?”

The AI nods beside her.

“Yebin?”

“Yes. It’s her name, Dabin oppa gave it to her.”

“When?”

The AI, Yebin, opened her mouth to answer.

Though she clearly heard the answer, it didn’t properly register in her mind.

No matter how she tried to recall it, it sounded like mumbling.

“…Okay.”

There must be something else going on.

Dabin sees things others can’t.

“Then, Yebin. Did Dabin tell you to do this too?”

“Yes.”

In the end, she just had to believe.

Heo Yoon sighed deeply and sat down on the bed beside them.

“So why are you getting injections?”

“This is like a treatment fee.”

Daju explains while looking out toward the corridor.

“Treatment fee?”

“Wait. Come in a bit more this way.”

Heo Yoon moved to the inner part of the bed.

Rustle-!

Yoon Daju quickly closed the curtain again.

“Why?”

“Outside. Something keeps moving around.”

After drawing the curtain, the atmosphere completely changed.

The light inside the room suddenly disappeared.

Instead, the corridor that had been dark all along brightened.

The sound of children chattering.

Nurses pulling medical carts.

The sound of patients walking hesitantly and talking to each other.

The hospital, which was thought to be dead, was actually full of life.

Bang bang bang bang bang bang!

Someone is frantically knocking on the curtain.

Shadows of people pass frantically behind the translucent plastic curtain.

Red letters appear on the curtain.

Blood.

The screams of those who crave blood remain as graffiti on the curtain.

The noise only subsided after a long while.

“Phew…”

“Shh! Not yet.”

Rattle rattle rattle rattle!

The curtain shakes violently.

As they cling tightly to the curtain, their detailed forms become visible.

Men in doctor’s gowns.

They’re holding something round in their hands. Usually about the size of a soccer ball, but the size varies from person to person.

Clank!

A metallic sound rang from the wall, and a round capsule rolled out.

Yoon Daju picked it up with a familiar hand and passed it to Heo Yoon.

“Here. Take it.”

“Is this the cure?”

“Yes. It can cure all symptoms, and each person can use it only once.”

Then, as if anticipating the next question, she glances at the instruction manual beside her.

[Guide to Blood Capsules]

A thin booklet attached to the wall like a pamphlet.

Heo Yoon tore it off and read it.

It contained exactly what Yoon Daju had said.

“Can we trust this?”

“Do we have any other options?”

Daju shrugs with the IV line still inserted.

Heo Yoon held the capsule.

A pill about the size of an index finger joint. It’s filled with ruby-colored liquid, soft and warm.

Thump. Thump.

Holding the capsule still, she feels a faint pulse inside.

Is something alive in there?

“Ah. You need to eat that quickly. If you hold it too long, it will hatch.”

“Really?”

“Instruction manual, page 7.”

Heo Yoon hurriedly flipped through the manual.

[The storage period is 10 minutes after manufacture. This is the quality assurance period, and if exceeded, performance gradually decreases and deterioration begins.

If 1 hour passes after manufacture, the ■■■■ inside will hatch.]

It’s unclear what will hatch.

The letters are blackened as if burned.

Heo Yoon was about to leave the room but stopped and turned back.

“Then I need two pills. One for the female researcher.”

“Here.”

Yebin handed over another pill.

“Let’s go now. Can you remove the IV yourself?”

“Yes. But we’ll come out a little later.”

“No, why!”

Yoon Daju was playful as always, even in this situation.

“Hmm. Do you want to check for yourself, unni?”

Heo Yoon was pushed out to the outside of the consultation room.

Heo Yoon stands in the bright corridor. The other two are in the dark consultation room.

Of the starkly divided light and darkness, the dark side.

Yoon Daju stood on the threshold, precariously balancing.

“Now watch carefully.”

Thud.

The moment Daju stepped out into the corridor.

All the lights in the corridor disappeared. Simultaneously, lights came on inside the consultation room.

“So that’s how it works.”

“Yes. Someone needs to be here for the corridor to be safe.”

It wasn’t just the lights that changed.

The atmosphere itself changed in an instant.

The lively corridor once again emits a strange medicinal smell.

Nothing is visible, but the clanking sound of a cart passes by.

And over there.

A flashlight beam that wasn’t visible at first flickers.

Tap.

Tap.

Tap.

A hissing sound mixes with the footsteps.

It sounded like someone barely breathing when all airways are blocked except for one tiny gap.

“Daju…?”

Heo Yoon unconsciously grabbed Daju’s arm beside her.

Yoon Daju silently stares into the darkness.

“You shouldn’t have met Seok Hyunmin.”

Words completely inaudible to Heo Yoon, who was already terrified.

“Hey, Yoon Daju! Do something quickly!”

“Yoon Daju!!!”

Though Heo Yoon roughly grabbed and shook her arm, Yoon Daju didn’t move at all.

The changes gradually became more serious.

Now she could actually feel the chill.

Tap.

Tap.

Rustle.

The flashlight beam approaches.

Men in doctor’s gowns are coming this way.

Each holds something the size of a soccer ball.

Heo Yoon ended up making eye contact with one of them.

Empty eyes.

…It was a human head.

“Alright! That’s enough.”

Flash-

The lights came on in the corridor.

Yoon Daju returned to sit on the bed inside the consultation room, and Heo Yoon was left alone in the corridor.

Daju smiles brightly as she pulls up the blanket.

“I found this out through experimentation.”

“You… really have no fear.”

“Hehe.”

In Daju’s bright smile, there was no trace of the cold impression from earlier.

“So your plan is that I go back first with the medicine, and then you two somehow return to the elevator. Is that right?”

“Yes, unni.”

Heo Yoon fell into thought.

It’s certainly the best option.

The effectiveness of the medicine disappears after about 10 minutes.

This means speed is most important.

If they all leave now, the corridor will immediately transform into a dangerous state.

Dark space, surrounding threats, plus a time limit.

There are too many variables.

It makes sense for one person to deliver the medicine through the safe corridor.

After thinking this far, she quickly made a decision.

“Let’s do that.”

The plan is exactly as Daju suggested.

But she adds one condition.

“But let Yebin be the one to go back.”

Heo Yoon didn’t notice at all, but the moment she said those words.

Yoon Daju’s eyes flashed for an instant.

“Then, it will be the two of us going back through the dangerous corridor.”

“Yes. Yebin is still young.”

Saying that, Heo Yoon placed two pills in Yebin’s hand.

“…”

Yebin looks up silently.

Heo Yoon patted Yebin’s shoulder.

“Go quickly. There’s probably less than 7 minutes left.”

Daju, who had been watching everything from the dark bed, suddenly spoke.

“Unni.”

“What?”

“Will you really be okay?”

Daju asks in a dry voice.

For a moment, an inexplicable anxiety crept in, but Heo Yoon soon nodded.

“Of course.”

And then she returned to the dark consultation room and sat down beside Daju on the bed.