How to Survive in an Anomalous Apartment

Ch.134We Will Not Be Defeated (4)

by fnovelpia

Ch.134We Will Not Be Defeated (4)

“Yebin…?”

Suddenly, there was no one beside me.

And I wasn’t on the 7th Floor anymore.

Like a dream, the entire situation unfolds anew before my eyes.

I’m on the 6th Floor, one floor below.

The floor I first lived on when I entered this apartment.

And the stairwell below the 6th Floor.

In that emergency exit, there was an endlessly repeating incident.

The footsteps continue to echo.

Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick

…Slowly, I take a deep breath and reassess the situation.

One. I’m now at the emergency exit on the 6th Floor, not the 7th.

Two. I don’t know why I’m here. It could be someone’s intervention, or it could be an illusion.

Three. I don’t know where Yebin is… Actually, I can’t be certain of anything right now. The only fact I know is that this is the emergency exit on the 6th Floor.

Instead, new things become visible.

On the staircase I’ve returned to, countless people are going up and down.

Before, I could only hear sounds, but now I can see them. So many of them.

It’s impossible to distinguish each individual person clearly.

And if there are new things to see, it means there are new things to discover.

But do I really need to confirm this? I grabbed the railing, staggering.

I’m alone. Yebin isn’t by my side. Jung Haewon’s phone in my hand continues to emit terrible sounds.

The video has cut off, but I can hear the wind. The sound of space being torn and shattered.

Leaving all this in the back of my consciousness, I focused.

If I’ve ended up here, perhaps it’s fate.

I’m ready to confirm the truth.

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&LOOP&

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The countless people passing before my eyes move along their own paths without even glancing in my direction.

They pass through each other or ignore each other as they go.

Among them.

First are the people climbing the stairs. They clearly look to be in the worst condition.

People with bandages, bleeding profusely. People who have gone completely mad, struggling wildly as they’re dragged away. People barely climbing the stairs, relying on crutches.

The places they’ve passed are soaked with blood.

I focus my mind.

I erase the afterimages of refugees from my vision.

Next are the people going down the stairs. They give off the most familiar atmosphere to me.

Each carries a large bag on their back, illuminating their surroundings with flashlights. Their vigilant gazes, constantly checking both sides as if determined never to let their guard down, are impressive.

They’re survivors looking for a way to escape the apartment.

I focus my mind.

The image of the exploration team disappears from my sight.

Not many people remain now.

First, people from the Foundation. Staff in combat suits resembling spacesuits and researchers in white gowns. And the “Professor.”

Surprisingly, they entered the apartment using ordinary methods.

The afterimage repeats, climbing up the stairs and then returning to the beginning.

I wait quietly about halfway up the stairs, observing the Professor as he comes up.

I confirmed he’s wearing a beige coat. But his facial features quickly fade from my memory.

Perhaps it’s not time yet.

I don’t think the Professor deliberately concealed his identity.

Even if he had set up devices to hide information, a Librarian’s insight is stronger.

As someone in a position that manages information, I’m particularly resistant to anomalies that induce forgetfulness.

This is something I can confirm when I raid the Professor’s lab.

I erased the Professor’s traces.

Finally, what remains is “me.”

“Me” running down the stairs with an anxious expression.

Rushing down the stairs with all my might, then returning to the beginning and running down from the top again.

My fingertips tremble.

I carefully descended the stairs, holding onto the railing.

The stairwell below the 6th Floor. Its characteristic is “repetition.”

No matter how far you go down, the stairs just repeat endlessly. There’s no escape.

The way to break free from this eternal cycle is simple.

Visualize a clear destination in your mind. Usually, the thought “I want to return to where I came from” allows you to escape to the 6th Floor.

6th Floor.

5th Floor.

I descend the stairs.

The numbers written on the emergency exit begin to decrease one by one.

4444th Floor

13th Floor

2ㅡㅡㅡtseuㅇㅇㅇㅇㅇ

Numbers and letters that gradually begin to distort.

Now they’re unrecognizable from their original form.

2$&(Floor*&^*%&

What’s certain is that I’m getting closer to the “exit” of the apartment.

I’m out of breath.

2.124th Floor

The sensor lights that used to illuminate when people appeared now flicker irregularly.

I stretched my head over the railing to check the floor below.

The sensor lights are already illuminating on a floor where no one is present.

1.333rd Floor

A window has appeared on the wall side.

I looked outside but couldn’t see anything.

I can hear the wind.

1.999899998212th Floor

The lighting turned red. I decided to rest here.

Thoughts.

Originally, this would have been a useful passage.

If you knew its characteristics, you could go anywhere at once. Someone who enjoys exploration might have preferred this over the elevator.

No. If one wanted, they could even escape the apartment in an instant.

Just once. If you just went down the stairs, these stairs would have taken you straight outside the apartment.

But the reason we can’t leave is…

I got up again.

The sound of stepping on stairs is no longer audible at some point.

Endlessly expanding decimal places.

Blood stains appear on the window.

And.

Floor 0. A glass door is visible at the end of the stairs.

Through the transparent glass door, the appearance of the “real reality” is reflected.

…That’s why.

Seven.

I don’t know why it has such a name.

Perhaps because it was born and discovered under seven narrative layers.

Or maybe it was the title of some narrative that Seven absorbed and extinguished.

What’s certain is that it’s here now.

It’s out there in that dark abyss where lights occasionally flicker.

No. The darkness itself is its body. The empty void.

If I open that door and go out, no story can survive.

I can hear the wind.

I wiped away my sweat and waited for a moment.

[]

Something seems about to appear in the air as a sentence, but it crumbles powerlessly and falls.

]

$!ㅁ$%ㅓ#ㅝㅁㅊ^^&&

Nothing moves in the timeline where I’m currently located.

I shouldn’t be here in the first place. I wouldn’t have even thought of coming. But I came here.

The play has stopped without its actor.

I’ll be able to see it.

Soon, if I just wait a little longer.

Very faintly, I hear footsteps.

My footsteps.

Whoooosh-

The door opens with the sound of wind.

I stood still and watched another me approach.

“I” who doesn’t even notice me, only looking at the door leading outside.

“I,” visibly exhausted, slowly descends the stairs and approaches the door.

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The arm that was holding the door stretched out, and then the entire body turned into something like spaghetti.

“Ah…!”

Snap.

‘I’ was severed without even letting out a scream.

Only a trace, like a squeezed rag, remained around the stairs. It looked like clothes and flesh were mixed and merged.

All events outside the apartment have now been erased.

No matter how far down the stairs you go, you cannot reach the outcome of leaving the apartment.

So, back to the starting point.

If you keep going down the stairs, you eventually disappear. As if you were never there in the first place. You go into an abyss of nothingness.

“Ugh.”

It wasn’t someone else; it was my own corpse. It couldn’t have been a pleasant sight.

But I couldn’t look away now. Clearly, there’s a case where one can leave the apartment.

I checked the phone in my hand again.

Crunch-

Meanwhile, another me appeared and turned into a rolled-up rag.

The corpse that had died earlier had disappeared at some point, so I didn’t have to worry about this place being filled with bodies.

The important thing is this broadcast.

An internet broadcast signal sent here by another me from outside the apartment.

At this point, it means there’s a case where someone can leave the apartment.

So how did they get out?

Is there some condition?

The only thing I could think of was killing the professor and advancing the ‘story’.

It’s like progressing through a game story; defeat the boss, and you can move on to the next stage.

And this is also the path I’ll choose before long.

No sound was coming from Jung Hae-won’s phone anymore.

Instead, I heard footsteps.

Another victim?

Click.

This time, something was different.

They were resolute, confident footsteps.

As the sound slowly drew closer, my heart inexplicably quickened, and my thoughts raced.

The existence of another case means the existence of another choice.

The future me who killed the professor and left the apartment.

And another ‘me’ who escaped the apartment through an unknown choice.

The footsteps grew closer.

I tried to use the Librarian’s ability to find information, but the sentences scattered in the air as before.

]

$! ㅁ$
%ㅓ#ㅝㅁㅊ^^&&

I stared blankly at the scattered fragments of language, instead retracing my memories.

How to leave the apartment? Of course, I looked into it.

To stop the Seven and advance the one and only story that saves the world

That is, to kill the ‘Professor’. There is no other way to escape the apartment.

But how on earth?

In the future, there was clearly another me. Another me who made a different choice to leave the apartment and eventually witnessed the end of the world.

The footsteps grew closer.

I stood on the lowest floor of the apartment and looked up at the sky.

The railing clinging to the stairs. The constantly spiraling ascent.

From where my gaze barely reached, the motion sensor lights began to flicker erratically.

As the person descending the stairs passed, the number of blinking lights steadily increased.

“Ah.”

Now, it’s as if.

The entire apartment is passing through light and shadow alternately.

The footsteps grow closer.

Who on earth is descending from above?

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