Ch.106Blood Capsule (5)

“We have to go! Press the button!”

Seok Hyunmin shouts with a pale face.

With wild eyes, he rushes toward the wall where the button is located.

I can’t let him press that button.

I grabbed Hyunmin’s arm, but a woman’s strength alone wasn’t enough to stop him.

“Haewon! Grab him!”

“No. We need to get out of here.”

“…What?”

For a moment I stared blankly at Jung Haewon, then collapsed to the floor, unable to withstand Hyunmin’s strength.

“Please. You can’t press the button.”

I grabbed Hyunmin’s ankle and held on desperately.

“Please!”

I struggled alone, clinging to Hyunmin, but no one helped me.

Not Choi Serim, not Jung Haewon.

Everyone just stared at the floor with gloomy faces.

“Move. I’m doing this so we can all survive. We have no choice. We need to escape from here.”

“Aaah!”

A heavy pain strikes my shoulder.

Then my body lifts up, and another impact hits my back.

Bang!

The elevator wall vibrates and my vision flashes.

A dull, throbbing pain.

The agony spreads from my chest throughout my entire body, making it difficult to breathe properly.

“Ugh.”

The pain is so intense I can barely move.

“We need to bring back my sister and Daju.”

Tears well up in my eyes as I speak.

Even now, everyone else remains frozen in place.

The only one moving is Hyunmin, heading toward the button.

“To survive. We have no choice.”

“Move!!”

Hyunmin shoves Jung Haewon, who’s standing blankly in the way.

Now only a few steps remain between him and the button.

Did something happen to those two, making it too late to save them?

Is that why they’re saying we should escape and survive with just the people here?

But that’s impossible.

We won’t survive even if we escape.

If we abandon Heo Yoon and Yoon Daju and move from here, the entire story will go wrong.

It might not just go wrong—it could snap completely, deleting the universe we live in.

Like deleting a computer file by moving it to the trash.

We need to stay here somehow and bring those two back.

If something happened to them, we need to rescue them.

I barely managed to get up and approached Hyunmin once more.

Thwack-!

Hyunmin, who seemed unstoppable, suddenly collapses.

Behind him on the floor, I see Robin.

“Sorry for the delayed response. I needed a moment to assess the situation.”

Robin rubs her reddened fist, suggesting she knocked him out with a punch.

“I sensed something was wrong too. But I needed some time because it might be transmissible through physical contact.”

“Ah…”

“Be careful, Dabin. Don’t rush in recklessly or you’ll end up in bad shape.”

“Yes.”

Robin examines me carefully.

“You have good anomalous resistance, don’t you? Everyone else seems out of their minds, but you’re the only one who’s fine. Or is this some benefit granted to Wanderer’s Library librarians?”

“Being a librarian does provide some protection, but I’ve always had strong resistance.”

“That’s good.”

Robin glances sideways.

Dan is crouching down, checking on the collapsed Hyunmin.

“Dan. How is he? I tried to control my strength, but it’s been a while so I’m a bit worried.”

“He’s breathing.”

“That’s good.”

Robin sighs and leans against the wall.

Behind her, none of the buttons have been pressed.

“Now let’s talk about what the problem is.”

Just as I was about to speak.

“Button.”

Suddenly, a familiar voice interrupted.

I didn’t need to turn around to know whose voice it was.

Choi Serim, who had been quiet until now, suddenly raised her head and spoke in our direction.

More precisely, toward Robin who was standing in front of the buttons.

“Press the button.”

It wasn’t just words.

Serim’s ability to manipulate people’s thoughts and movements was activated.

“No.”

I immediately rushed to grab Robin, but she didn’t move at all.

“I won’t fall for that twice.”

The mental manipulation seemed to have no effect on her.

“H-how?”

Through my librarian’s insight, I could clearly see what happened.

Serim’s ability reached Robin but then bounced right off.

“Anyone can do it with enough training. The problem is that it’s such a rare ability that finding training subjects is difficult.”

“Should I knock her out too?”

Dan asked, but there was no need.

Serim slumped against the elevator wall.

Her white neck and glossy hair drooped along the wall.

“Hmm. Maybe I should scout her for the Foundation later.”

Robin muttered.

I hurriedly positioned myself between her and Serim.

“No way.”

“I was just joking.”

Now only three people in the elevator are in their right minds.

Robin, Dan, and me.

The researcher is just regaining consciousness but still can’t control his body properly.

Hyunmin is unconscious after being struck on the neck.

Serim and Haewon are slumped and motionless.

Yebin stares blankly into the mirror as if powered off.

“Now let’s think about what the problem was again.”

“It was probably the pills. The Blood Capsules that the researcher and I took.”

“Capsules… The others didn’t take them, so could that be the direct cause?”

“One of the Blood Capsule’s characteristics is this: ‘If someone who has taken a Blood Capsule comes into contact with the facility, they may experience side effects.'”

I shared what I knew with Robin.

I was worried my explanation might sound flimsy, but Robin quickly understood.

“So, the two people who went outside are experiencing side effects. And influenced by that, the people inside the elevator are also losing their minds. Is that right?”

“Yes.”

At least this much makes sense.

The booklet Yebin brought serves as evidence.

It’s a kind of manual that was near the device that produces Blood Capsules.

[Those who have taken Blood Capsules must not approach any production facilities. If approached,]

However, the details about the side effects are blacked out.

Even using my librarian abilities to search, I couldn’t find specific information. I only have a vague understanding of the side effects.

“What’s the nature and criteria of this influence?”

If I don’t provide a reasonable explanation, Robin won’t help me.

I can strongly sense that even now.

From here on, I can only answer based on my own thoughts.

“I think it probably spreads based on ‘connections.’ The closer you were to those people, the more you’re affected. We’ve been living with those two, but you haven’t, which is why you’re fine.”

“Then the symptom when affected would probably be fear.”

“Yes. The desire to get as far away from the subject as possible.”

Robin fell into thought, then suddenly spoke.

“Let’s make an agreement here.”

Her blonde hair and the gray eyes beneath it stare at me.

“I’m pursuing a dangerous individual called ‘the Professor.’ He’s set up a base in this apartment and is trying to awaken something terrible. My goal is to stop his plan.”

“…”

“In a way, it might be related to the end of the world you mentioned. So,”

“Yes. I think I can help.”

“Then I’ll help you rescue those two people.”

Robin looks outside.

“I’ll have to go out there, I’m afraid.”

Behind her, Dan is watching cautiously.

“Dan.”

“Ah. Do I need to go outside too?”

“No. Stay with Dabin. The others might try to press the elevator buttons, so stop them if they do.”

Robin stepped out alone.

I rushed to grab her.

“Wait. I should come with—”

“You can’t come, Dabin. You took the Blood Capsule, so you need to be careful.”

I stopped in my tracks.

All I could do now was pray for Robin’s safe return.

“…Come back safely.”

“Of course I will.”

Leaving those confident words behind, Robin walked out of the elevator alone.

“I have no idea what’s going on here.”

Dan, who remained in the elevator, muttered.

“Do you know anything, miss?”

Miss?

He must be talking to me, which feels really awkward.

I suppose it’s natural for someone meeting me for the first time, but still.

“…”

I can’t think of what to say.

I don’t even know where to begin.

When and how did I get involved with this apartment in the first place?

The driver, knowing nothing, continues to ask about the situation.

“If you know something, I’d appreciate you telling me. Robin is so mysterious, I can’t get anything out of her.”

“So you were just driving and ended up here?”

“Yes. I was driving a geology professor to a research facility near the volcano. Then the volcano erupted. The professor told me to drive down quickly, the volcano was spewing fire, and now we’re in this place.”

Dan’s already aggrieved-looking face became even more so.

“I just drifted in here by chance! I don’t know anything about this situation!”

Chance, huh.

He might think so, but even that is part of the story.

“Chance…”

“Yes, chance.”

“I don’t think that’s the case.”

At least in a situation like this, there’s no such thing as chance.

Imagine a lottery where all papers except one are burned.

Even if you draw, can you call that chance?

Dan, not understanding at all, gives a hollow laugh.

“You’re talking as if everything is destiny. What, are you destined to save the world from a predetermined apocalypse?”

“Yes.”

“What?”

“It might sound funny, but that’s exactly right.”

I answered in a serious voice.

“I’ll show you later.”

But I’m not sure if there will be an opportunity.

If Robin fails here, we’ll all die.

And it’s not just people dying.

It’s the death of time, space, and everything we can exist in.

[Gather the predetermined characters, in the predetermined way, to prevent the predetermined end.]

The moment we deviate from the one predetermined path, the world will be deleted as if it never existed.

The one and only ending where we can survive.

For that, Heo Yoon and Yoon Daju are absolutely necessary.

***

Heo Yoon looked at what was once Yoon Daju.

Was what she felt now sadness? Or fear?

Passing through the flickering rooms had gone well.

The two rooms facing each other shattered everything that came between them, but the two of them were exceptions.

She wraps herself in thick clothes.

And quickly runs through the area.

Thanks to Yoon’s quick thinking, both of them had escaped with only minor injuries.

The problem came afterward.

The wound.

Something began to grow from Daju’s wound.

Something black.

Daju shed red tears and blood gushed from her mouth like a fountain.

Veins bulged beneath her skin, then broke through and writhed.

It was as if…

Her body was turning inside out.

“Sister.”

“It hurts so much.”

“Help me.”

Hiding in a room, Heo Yoon heard a trembling voice calling for her.

It wasn’t Daju’s voice.

Dark hospital corridor. Flickering lights.

What she saw through the crack in the door wasn’t the Yoon Daju she knew.