Ch.20Mechanical Device (2)

“Just a little more…!”

With a tingling sensation at the tip of my nose, dizziness suddenly washes over me.

[Cost] ↔ [Demand]

You can… it.

Thud!

I reflexively steady myself against the machine. My eyelids tremble violently, and I taste a metallic bitterness in my mouth.

“Oppa? What’s wrong all of a sudden!”

“…I’m fine. Just trying to read what’s over there.”

“Anomalous observation?”

I nodded.

Fortunately, the strange symptoms quickly disappeared, and I was able to stand on my own. Now I need to tell Seok Hyunmin about this.

“Hmm.”

“…?”

When I close my mouth, Daju tilts her head curiously. Come to think of it, I’m not sure how to address Seok Hyunmin.

Hyung? We’re not that close. Besides, calling him that in this body would seem strange.

Oppa? Absolutely not.

“Um… Mr. Hyunmin?”

“Mister! Oppa has something to tell you!” Daju calls out.

“What? Why?”

Seok Hyunmin emerges from the back area.

“He found some text over there.”

“Oh, that? But the letters are all broken up.”

“That’s what I thought at first too, but when I focused more, I could read it.”

“Oh.”

Seok Hyunmin expresses mild amazement.

“Not bad. With eyesight like that, you might be the best I’ve seen.”

“Wow. Is Oppa that good?”

“Yeah. I’m second best. I can read most things, but even I couldn’t make that out.”

“That’s amazing.”

Daju is always like that, but Seok Hyunmin is showing rare interest.

“What’s interesting is this. Let’s call all these strange things around here ‘anomalies.’ Then the properties these anomalies have would be ‘anomalous properties.'”

“…?”

“It’s the same thing. Strange phenomena are anomalous properties. Strange things are anomalies. Things with anomalous properties are anomalies, and the properties anomalies have are anomalous.”

“I see.”

“So here’s how it works. Look. Women typically have weaker abilities to detect ‘anomalies’ or notice ‘anomalous properties.’ But they’re somewhat stronger at withstanding exposure to them. And men are the opposite.”

I’ve heard this before.

When we came in contact with the “Memetic Kill Agent.” Me and Choi Serim. Yoon Daju only felt pain briefly, but the men didn’t fare so well. Of course, there were differences in the danger levels of the kill agent at that time.

“But from what I can see, you’re good at both.”

Seok Hyunmin rests his finger under his lip, deep in thought.

“Is it because you were originally male?”

“Oh… that’s so overpowered.”

Daju nods beside me. Seok Hyunmin lightly taps my shoulder.

“And I heard about it before. Just call me hyung.”

“Ah. Okay.”

“So what was that sentence you saw earlier?”

“I couldn’t read all of it. There seemed to be two sentences, but I couldn’t read the bottom one completely. The top sentence was—”

I trail off and look up.

A mountain of scrap metal. As my gaze reaches the top, the sentence from before appears again.

■%%■!#■■↔요###!@■

■에%%■!#■■ 수 있습니다.

As expected. If I just glance at it, this is how it looks.

But I still remember what I saw earlier.

“The top one had [Cost] and [Demand]. There was a double-headed arrow between those two words.”

“What about the bottom? Couldn’t you read any of it?”

“There were a few characters like ‘e’, ‘can’, ‘is’. But nothing about the actual content.”

“I see. So that’s how it is…”

Seok Hyunmin takes out a cigarette and lights it while holding a flashlight in his other hand.

“Want to come to the back here?”

He shines the flashlight on the floor, revealing two separate rectangular areas. The areas are drawn on the left and right sides of the machine.

“Cost and demand. So which side is the demand? Does it matter which way we go?”

“Let’s just experiment.”

“Yoon Daju, you stay put. Rushing in could be dangerous.”

Seok Hyunmin continues muttering something while puffing on his cigarette.

“This won’t work. There’s too little to go on.”

“What? Then…”

“Let’s just go.”

The flashlight beam trembles. Seok Hyunmin has turned away from the machine completely, just watching cigarette ash fall to the floor.

“Really? We’re just leaving?”

“Yeah.”

No matter how many times Daju asks, the answer is always the same.

I feel we shouldn’t leave like this.

“This machine. It seems like it exchanges things. If the cost is small, wouldn’t it be relatively safe? We could start experimenting with something minor…”

“Hey. A feeling? You believe in that? Don’t you think?”

Every word from Seok Hyunmin is laced with thorns.

I flinch momentarily at his deep, gruff voice.

“B-but. Where else are we going to find certainty? Isn’t this enough evidence?”

“Hah……”

“Do whatever you want.”

In the chilly atmosphere, I step toward the rectangle on the left.

“Um… one can of tuna?”

Thunk.

As I mutter quietly, something falls on the opposite side.

“Huh? There’s actually a can of tuna here!”

“Really?”

“Yes. Oppa, are you hurt anywhere?”

“Hmm… let me check.”

On the back of my hand—the unbroken left one—I feel a stinging pain. Looking closer, there’s a small cut.

Nothing serious, just like a paper cut.

“I’m fine. Let’s try something more expensive this time.”

“Hey. It might look fine now, but if you keep going…!”

“I’ll just increase it a little bit more.”

Wait. I wonder if this works for things other than food?

“One bottle of antibiotics.”

Clang!

The effect was intuitive. Instead of my request appearing on the other side, more cuts appeared on my hand.

“Wow. If we’re not careful, we might lose an arm. Need to be careful.”

But I’m not sure what level of request would cost an arm. Should I ask for house deeds or something?

Anyway, it seems we can secure food with just a few scratches on the back of the hand. It’s not just me—there are others too. It might not be as good as the 11th floor, but it could be a decent supply source.

Daju, who had been quietly observing the experiment, rushed over.

“Let me try this time.”

“Sure. But start with something really light.”

“I know. One cola-flavored Chupa Chups!”

Tap.

A single candy falls and rolls on the opposite area. So far so good, but Daju’s reaction is concerning.

“Um…?”

She stands there holding up her left hand, clearly flustered. Even Seok Hyunmin, who had been watching from a distance, approaches with quick steps.

“What’s wrong? What happened?”

I rushed to the other side of the machine.

“Hey. Are you hurt?”

“Well…”

“Let me see.”

He grabs Daju’s hand and shines the flashlight on it. Blood is seeping through her white skin—the wound is clearly deep.

“Hehe… I guess it’s different for each person. Did the candy come out?”

“Yoon Daju, you’re hurt and that’s what you care about?”

“Of course it’s important. It’s cola-flavored.”

“Hah… here.”

Rustle, rustle. Daju fidgets with the wrapper and puts the cola candy in her mouth.

Is she pretending to be cheerful? Or is she just crazy? Maybe both. Either way, it makes me feel sad for her.

“Let’s stop here and come back later.”

“Okay.”

“By the way, how do we get back up?”

Seok Hyunmin, who had been silent, turns around abruptly.

“Follow me.”

The exit is a staircase. The elevator we came in is visible at the top of the stairs.

“This doesn’t make sense.”

“What doesn’t?”

“We had to jump down to get here. What kind of one-way staircase is this?”

Whoosh—

Seok Hyunmin is already holding the elevator.

“Get in quickly. Let’s stop by the 7th floor to treat her wound.”

Daju runs out with quick steps.

I try to speed up too, but suddenly stop on the stairs.

That thing on the wall. Is it graffiti?

* * *

[13A1]

A group of people gathered in front of an old machine.

“We pray to the Father who existed before order. We brothers seek eternal life by offering our flesh.”

A person in white clothes begins the chant.

“By offering flesh, we seek eternal life.”

“We wish to be together in eternity.”

“Let us lift our heads and look together.”

The weak and miserable ones join in chorus.

“Now it is time to enter the holy ground.”

Continue. Next.

“When I call, come without hesitation, without doubt.”

“As salmon take to the sea, as bees are drawn to flower stamens, you too shall take eternal life.”

“In eternity, I shall embrace you all.”

Everyone gathered in the rectangle called the “holy ground.”

“Wait. Where is this? I was definitely—!”

“Brother. It is time for prayer.”

“Prayer? To hell with prayer! Right. You dragged me here! Using some kind of strange brainwashing! Let me go! Get out of my way!”

“Brother.”

“Move… get out of my way…”

There was a brief commotion, but that was all.

The man who momentarily regained his senses blends back into the crowd.

Finally, the man in white recites the last line of the prayer.

“We seek to restore eternal life by offering our flesh.”

The followers repeat in unison.

“We seek to restore eternal life by offering our flesh.”

“We seek to restore eternal life by offering our flesh.”

“We seek to restore eternal life by offering our flesh.”

Chanting the prayer, the followers all reach their hands toward the sky.

Soon their postures collapse. Their skin melts away. The briefly exposed bones lose their form and crumble, mixing into the mass of flesh.

Step. Step.

The cult leader slowly walks to the opposite side.

Reddish-black lumps of flesh writhing on the floor. The man in white picks up one and puts it in his mouth, chewing.

Crunch.

Crunch.

The fog in his mind clears and vitality returns. Old wounds heal, and his purpose becomes clearer.

The man takes out a large sack and sweeps his former followers into it.

One by one. With care.

Rustle.

The man suddenly stops. He lowers his gaze to the floor. Though it’s dark, he can clearly see what’s around him.

Plastic wrappers beneath his feet. Sneaker footprints. Traces.

Perhaps I should have kept a few of them.