Ch.147Communication Symbol Cards

The elevator moves for a long time.

Probably heading downward.

At times like this, there’s usually plenty of time to spare, and since the elevator interior is quite spacious, I often wander around.

I was about to take a spot next to Jung Haewon when it happened.

“Huh? Whoa?”

Jung Haewon startles visibly.

“Noona. Wait. Please don’t come this way.”

“Hm? Why?”

He looks noticeably flustered, his face already turning red.

I’m just as confused.

Something’s clearly wrong, but I can’t even begin to guess what it is.

Finally, Jung Haewon manages to speak first.

“Your clothes.”

“…Clothes?”

That’s when it hit me.

“Oh right.”

I had been wearing a hoodie but burned it.

I’d been a bit careless since I was wearing a thin t-shirt underneath.

Then when my sweat cooled, it felt refreshing, and I was also tired from everything we’d been through, so I was spacing out a bit.

And then.

Looking in the mirror leaves me speechless.

My thin short-sleeved t-shirt is soaked with sweat and clinging to my body,

and since it’s white, it’s practically see-through.

“Th-this…!”

I hurriedly raise my arms to cover myself.

“Hey. Don’t look this way.”

“I’m not looking.”

“Ah. I was so exhausted I completely forgot. Hey, Yoon noona. Do you have any clothes I can change into?”

“Dabin’s clothes? If you open the black suitcase over there, you should find some. Check the second zipper and look inside.”

Thankfully, the luggage we brought was piled in the corner of the elevator.

I rushed to the corner to find some clothes.

This time, a black jersey with three white stripes.

We packed mostly athletic wear, and fortunately, it fits me well.

Once I finish changing, Serim noona cautiously approaches and asks.

“But why did Dabin’s clothes end up like that?”

“I burned them.”

“Burned them?”

“Yes. To save Daju. I had to burn the pattern drawn in blood on the floor.”

“I see… Well, I’m glad you only burned your clothes and are safe.”

“But I think I mentioned this to Daju too. Why didn’t you tell me to change?”

“Hee.”

Yoon Daju just stares at me with a smirk.

“You did that on purpose, didn’t you?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Stop lying.”

“What a shame. I could have enjoyed the view a little longer.”

“Good grief…”

The kid is definitely nice.

But staying in the Anomalous Apartment for so long has made her mischievous.

Being an experimental subject probably contributes to that too.

Click-

With the noise from the elevator, our break time comes to an end.

[12$2]

[$vb!3]

[5a32]

[1114$]

The interval between changing numbers gradually slows down,

until finally a single number appears on the screen.

[1]

First floor.

The elevator stops at the first floor.

“Is everyone ready?”

Without anyone taking the lead, we all nod.

The doors open.

Light gradually streams in as the slit widens.

“We’re finally getting out.”

It was Heo Yoon.

Yoon noona is looking ahead with a complicated expression.

So is Seok Hyunmin. And Serim noona. And Daju.

Everyone must be thinking the same thing.

Many people lost their lives.

To explore the apartment.

To find an exit and return to reality.

Yet there was such a simple path all along.

I understand why they might feel it’s all meaningless.

“But.”

Heo Yoon abruptly speaks.

“I still don’t understand why everyone had to die.”

“Noona!”

I shouted suddenly, but Seok Hyunmin has the same expression.

“No. Just. It just feels so pointless.”

“…”

“…”

As a solemn silence falls, I speak in a clear voice.

“No. It wasn’t meaningless.”

I’m not saying this just to comfort them.

Even in the future I glimpsed through my Librarian abilities.

Even from the perspective of the ending we’re creating now.

It truly wasn’t meaningless.

“I survived thanks to those people.”

If Daju hadn’t saved me at the emergency exit.

I would have lost my life immediately.

Then everything would have ended.

“And everyone here survived thanks to those people too.”

The people trapped in the apartment tried their hardest to survive.

They found food, cooperated with other survivors, and created living spaces on relatively safe floors.

Thanks to them, I wasn’t left alone.

I was able to reject the professor’s selfish conclusion and choose the right path.

“Thanks to those people. We were able to come this far.”

So, this is a path that would never have opened if I were alone.

I am here, now.

“…Thank you.”

Heo Yoon soon composes herself.

Then she turns to face everyone, looking like a leader as always.

The elevator doors had already fully opened.

“What should we do? Should I go out first?”

I stood beside Heo Yoon, who was holding a weapon.

“Let’s go together.”

Jung Haewon adds his voice.

“That’s right. It’s the ending now, so we should all go out together.”

Daju too.

“So we count to three and then go out?”

Serim unnie too.

“One!”

Everyone starts counting without anyone taking the lead.

“Two…”

Heo Yoon, with her gaze fixed ahead, murmurs to me.

“This is the most ordinary floor I’ve seen so far.”

“Yes. It should be.”

Serim noona was suddenly beside me.

“Let’s go, Dabin.”

Between Yoon noona and Serim noona, I shouted the final number loudly.

“Three!”

We all rushed out through the door.

“We escaped!”

“We escaped the apartment!”

Haewon and Daju cheer.

“So if we go through that door out there, we’ll be in reality, right?”

“Yes. We just need to go straight out.”

Meanwhile, Yebin hides behind me, clutching my clothes tightly.

“Reality… I’ve never seen it before.”

Since Yebin was originally a program trapped in a computer.

I wonder if this is her first time seeing reality directly.

She’s kind of cute, like a child visiting kindergarten for the first time.

“You’ll be fine as long as you’re careful.”

Exiting the elevator was completely normal.

The anomaly occurred the moment everyone set foot on the first floor.

!@$%#^$&

!@$%

@#%$

@

The space rippled.

“Oppa. Just now?”

“Dabin. Didn’t something seem strange just now?”

“Yes. I felt it too.”

“What now?”

Dan, despite his large build, complains nervously.

“Do I have to drive through volcanic ash again?”

“Shut up and take this.”

“Robin?”

Robin threw something at Dan, but I couldn’t see what it was.

“Robin? What did you just throw?”

“A basic symbol card I made. It’s useful for communication between people who speak different languages. Here’s one for you too, Riko.”

“Whoa!”

Thud.

A small booklet landed in Riko’s hand.

“But why do we need this?”

“Because soon we won’t be able to understand each other.”

“What?!”

“Riko, you can write in English, right?”

“Yes.”

“And Dan too.”

“I can, but I don’t understand what you’re suddenly talking about.”

“Come on. Why do you think we’ve been able to communicate as if we’re speaking the same language until now?”

It felt like I suddenly realized something I’d been missing.

The original survivors all speak Korean so they can understand each other, but that’s not the case with Robin’s group who joined later.

The people who speak different languages are Robin, Dan, and Riko. These three.

The reason we could communicate smoothly with people who should speak different languages was due to the special environment inside the apartment.

I quickly approached Robin.

“Robin. Can I see it too?”

“Sure. Take a quick look.”

Robin takes out another booklet and shows it to me.

I thought she was just sitting quietly in the elevator earlier, but she was making these.

“We can understand each other because of the meme in the apartment, right?”

“Yes. You understand perfectly.”

“Once we leave the apartment, we won’t be able to communicate with each other. That’s why you made these.”

I quickly flipped through the booklet to check its contents.

The paper has various symbols drawn large enough that simple communication is possible just by showing them.

From simple symbols like O and X, to pictograms designed to minimize cultural bias.

“It’s a standard format used by the Foundation. It’s useful not only for people from different language backgrounds but also for communicating with unfamiliar extraterrestrial intelligences.”

Robin hesitates a bit before asking.

“It seems like the apartment will disappear soon… is that right?”

“Yes.”

That’s correct.

The apartment has fulfilled its role.

All that remains is for it to disappear.

I know this from my time as a Librarian at the Wanderer’s Library, but I’m surprised Robin knows this too.

“How do you know all this, Robin?”

“Just intuition. I’ve been with the Foundation long enough.”

“…That’s amazing.”

“It’s too early to be amazed.”

“What are you two talking about?”

I was startled when Serim noona suddenly interrupted.

“Yeah. Explain it to us too.”

“What’s this about not being able to communicate suddenly?”

Daju and Seok Hyunmin join in.

“Actually…”

There was more to explain than I thought.

First of all:

“The apartment will disappear soon.”

“What?”

“It won’t disappear that quickly, so we can prepare at a leisurely pace.”

The apartment has finished its role in the story.

As a base left behind to gather all the characters in one place and have them perform certain tasks.

Since it was only temporarily remaining for that purpose, it’s time for it to disappear.

And secondly:

“We won’t be able to communicate with the foreigners anymore. This is actually normal, but we were able to communicate thanks to the ‘meme’ in the apartment.”

Daju nods.

“Ah… So that’s why you gave out those word cards earlier…”

“Yes. And it would be good for everyone else to familiarize themselves with the content on the cards while we can still understand each other.”

“Okay. Let’s do that.”

After I said this, Heo Yoon efficiently takes charge.

“Robin. Can we see those cards too?”

“Of course.”

A brief waiting period.

The others are passing around the cards and roughly checking their meanings.

“Let’s prepare slowly, and once we’re ready, we’ll head out.”

“Yes, noona.”

!@!@$%^$&

!@$*((%

@#%$

((&*)*^)&&&)

Meanwhile, the space ripples again.

This time, not just ripples but noise can be heard as well.

A faint siren sound.

Radio static.

A man mumbling.

“I repeat.”

It was a message from the Foundation.

“Let’s all look up at the moon tonight.”

Words are listed.

Moon.

Look up.

Apricot-colored mirror.

Severed ankle.

Slender.

The words seem to be arranged according to certain linguistic rules, yet occasionally there are sentences that violate grammar.

Quiet but deadly phrases that work on the human subconscious.

Ordinary people will suffer from depression and paranoia,

while mentally unstable people will feel suicidal impulses just from hearing them.

This will probably cause thousands of people in Korea alone to take their own lives.

The number of deaths worldwide will be countless.

News will break, and cracks will begin to form in everyday life.

Collective auditory hallucinations that science cannot explain.

While people are confused, it slowly infiltrates from the weakest part—the subconscious.

This was the beginning of the Foundation’s plan to exterminate humanity.

I repeated the thought.

Mentally unstable people will feel suicidal impulses just from hearing them…

Mentally unstable people…

The first person who came to mind was Heo Yoon.

“Yoon noona!”

“Huh? Dabin?”

“Cover your ears. Quickly!”

!@***&^%$

@@#%

#@^$

$^^%

As the space ripples, the boundary between the apartment and reality becomes increasingly blurred.

The noise is getting stronger.

There was no time to wait for noona to act on her own.

I quickly lunged forward and firmly covered both of Heo Yoon’s ears with my hands.