episode_0023

Checkmate.

Outsider.

We are surrounded front and back, and the only thing left is death,

There are about two minutes left until morning.

Through my mind growing distant from the shadow of death looming before my eyes.

“You idiot! Run away quickly!”

“…”

“Just die here because I’m going to kill you!”

You died, but you kill me again.

I came to my senses after hearing those ridiculous words and turned around and ran.

The mannequin that was standing right behind me was still caught in Suyeon’s field of vision and couldn’t move.

Ride, ride!

Perhaps because the guy I was looking at was now within Suyeon’s field of vision, he was running to catch me and could no longer move.

We arrived in front of another villa just one block behind.

I heard someone running from the front,

Flash!

The dark street lights up brightly when the lights suddenly turn on.

I opened the villa door and went inside the 4th floor villa.

Leaving behind my heart that was beating like crazy.

I got into serious trouble.

‘Rule 8…’

If there is a living creature next to you, eliminate it immediately. The person next to you is not alive.

I sat down on a nearby sofa to think about rule number eight.

I looked out the window thinking about what happened today.

Compared to the first day, the village had improved noticeably.

Just like humanity is developing.

The village became a city.

*

I couldn’t go catch my brother who suddenly ran out.

‘8th rule..?’

The last time I entered the second floor of the tower, the 8th rule did not exist.

That’s right too.

Other than the rules we’ve found so far, there are only useless rules left, so I didn’t bother to look for them, but this is the last rule here.

Rule 24.

There is no 8th rule here in the city of mannequins.

‘The eighth rule does not exist.’

Su-yeon knew all the rules because she had searched here in the past to see if there would be another hidden reward if she found all the rules.

‘I don’t need to find any more rules… but I still need to find the 24th rule.’

Fortunately, there was a 24th rule not far from here, so I thought I could resolve my brother’s suspicions.

Night comes again in 6 hours.

I’ve come up with a plan to resolve my brother’s misunderstanding…

‘I saw which building my brother went into, so it’s okay.’

It was Sooyeon who wasn’t planning on taking her face out of the bag until then.

*

4 hours.

It was a time when I was sitting on the sofa, not sleeping, and worrying.

‘If Sooyeon wasn’t human… why did she save me?’

‘If you let me die… then why were you putting your head in the bag?’

The worries that keep coming back and forth.

There were so many paradoxical aspects.

Morning of the 3rd day.

What if Suyeon died while I was sleeping, or if an unknown monster was pretending to be Suyeon?

Why did that monster wake me up and take me around like usual?

If Soo-yeon was a monster, why did she save me when I ran away?

If Sooyeon was a monster, why did she help me come to my senses in that situation?

The result of long, long deliberation was the conclusion that Suyeon was not a monster.

‘There’s no reason to keep me alive when a monster can kill me for sure.’

‘…’

As I thought about Suyeon, I realized that there were so many paradoxical aspects of her in the first place.

On the topic of hating me

‘Even though I don’t sleep, I make myself sleep every morning, willingly or unwillingly, so that I don’t get tired.’

On the topic of hating me…

‘He makes me follow him around every night and won’t let me scream and die.’

On the topic of hating me…

‘When I was in danger of dying… I was crying.’

It’s been like that since long ago.

Even though they kicked me out of the house, they were crying as if they were heartbroken.

Even when I lost my temper and fought with people.

I don’t know how, but it brought me back to my senses.

“…”

A thought suddenly occurred to me.

I don’t think Sooyeon hates me..

For some reason, it seemed like there was a reason they had to keep me away.

‘..Are you going to tell me when the time is right?’

Seeing as they didn’t bother to tell me now, I could only assume there was a reason I didn’t know about.

The lights went out and the night of the fourth day arrived.

When I hurriedly walked outside, Suyeon was waiting for me.

“Because there are times when I will follow you.”

“…”

“I’m not following you..”

I was stroking her head.

“What are you doing?”

She slowly tilts her head back and looks at me with wary eyes.

“You know.”

“Don’t give up.”

“I thought about it carefully.”

“Don’t act like we’re friends.. I’m leaving you behind?”

I approach her growling like a cat.

“You ate something wrong..”

I hugged her.

“No matter what you say, you are my younger brother.”

“..Why are you doing this all of a sudden?”

“And I plan to do what I have to do as an older brother.”

He hit Sooyeon on the back of the neck.

After being hit for about two days and fainting, I got a general idea and tried to follow along.

Her skills were nothing short of sloppy, but since she had endured 78 hours without sleep, she fell asleep easily even with a small shock.

As she slowly fell, I lifted her into my princess arms.

There was something I thought about during the morning of the 4th day.

On the outside, she was distant and disliked me, but most of her actions were for my benefit.

Even if she didn’t say it in words, she was still my sister.

Then me too.

It was her brother.

And I just did what I had to do as her brother.

*

It was morning when I woke up.

“What are you doing? Did I throw it on the bed too hard?”

As soon as I opened my eyes, what I saw was a man’s eyes full of dark circles.

“This… This…”

I wanted to ask what he was doing.

I wanted to scream and ask why on earth you did that.

But I couldn’t continue speaking.

Tears flowing endlessly from the eyes and voices crying due to intensified emotions.

This man.

This stupid man.

for me.

This time too, he was sacrificing himself.

“I thought you would be angry, but did you get angry?”

How could you be angry?

“..What day is it today?”

“It will be evening in 2 hours on the 6th day, and if you last 46 more hours, it will be over.”

I was asleep for two whole days.

That means the man was alone for two days.

He wasn’t a returner who knew strategy well like me, and it would have been difficult for him to take me around while I was asleep.

Even so, I saw my brother not showing any signs of hardship.

In the end, I cried like a child on the spot.

*

“Don’t do that again.”

“Okay.”

“Use polite language.”

“Yes.”

Suyeon became a sharp female cat again, but

“There’s only an hour left, but get some sleep.”

She was also my sister.

From the night of the 3rd day to the morning of the 6th day, I did not sleep at all, and every night I moved carefully so as not to wake Suyeon, who was sleeping. Since there was no longer a wall, I always kept my mind sharp and moved in the direction where there was no sound, so I was very tired. As I did so, I closed my eyes for a moment.

Tuk-tuk.

“Wake up.”

I blinked, but the world was dark.

I swallowed hard as I walked quickly out of the apartment.

Chu knee.

No matter how much you drooled, not only your mouth, but your entire lips became moist beyond moisture.

In the end, I wiped the saliva I couldn’t swallow with my sleeve and walked down the streets that had now developed into a city.

At first, there were only houses where people lived, but now buildings such as apartments, cafes, and schools were arbitrarily arranged without any set rules.

When there was a fence, it was easy to hide inside, but now, even if you’re sitting around the building, if you hear footsteps, you walk to the other side of the sound.

Then, when you can no longer hear footsteps, sit down and rest again.

We kept moving in a city with no end in sight.

Sometimes I ran, sometimes I crawled, hiding behind a low fence.

Cheeik.

I was already drinking my 8th cup of canned coffee because I couldn’t relieve the accumulated fatigue by just sleeping for an hour or so.

“Is it okay for me to eat all of the things you brought with the intention of drinking alone?”

“I’m fine because I have something else.”

“Now that I think about it, sometimes I feel like I smell something inside my bag. Is it a scent that wakes me up?”

“..Similar.”

“I’m hungry too so…”

“No!”

“Shh! Shhh.”

“No..”

“Let’s share the good things.”

“Me, share..? Jo..no..”

He must have been angry when I kept persistently asking him to borrow it, and even in such a dark situation, I could see his face turning red.

‘How good is it?’

It’s so expensive and so good that my only brother asks to borrow it and I just say no.

Out of curiosity, I tried to pull her bag in front of me and open it.

Thanks to her panicking and defending the bag, the contents inside the bag fell out one by one.

We ran out of canned drinks and auxiliary batteries for charging cell phones.

Then, when a plastic bag fell down.

Rattling! Da da da da da da da! Rattling! Da da da da da da da!

The sound of a can of coffee falling is so loud that a mannequin hears the sound and comes running.

However, I heard the creepy running sound of a mannequin, which I was familiar with until now, along with the sound of footsteps that I had never heard before.

Let’s turn towards the direction from which the sound is heard.

Ddak.

As soon as the black mannequin came into my field of vision, I stopped in place.

however.

Rattling! Rattling!

The sound of running, which was clearly coming from the same direction, went around the building and ran towards us.

Suyeon, who was picking up a fallen object, also noticed the current situation and quickly finished calculating.

“Run forward.”

As she said that, we ran towards the mannequin standing in front of us.

‘It’s crazy, it’s become even more clever.’

Rattling! Rattling!

Something with unidentifiable footsteps comes running behind us, having circled around the building to surround us.

“Look ahead! Because I’ll look after you!”

As I ran, I stared intently at the black mannequin in front of me.

A mannequin whose posture changes little by little when it closes one eye as if winking and sometimes blinks both eyes with difficulty.

Even after passing the black mannequin, let’s look back at the black mannequin to prevent it from continuing to move.

beyond

A black mannequin was seen running on all fours, using its hands and feet like a dog.