episode_0047

This time I went to the warehouse and tasted canned tuna.

It tastes like moist potatoes.

I found some perfume in the box where I kept my miscellaneous items and sprayed it on.

It smells like potatoes.

I opened the door to room 701, which was usually used as a conference room.

Instead of a stack of paper documents organizing the exploration details, potatoes are rolling around.

For a while, I walked around the 7th floor with Daju Yoon in tow.

There’s only one thing left.

“Let’s go to the elevator.”

Beep.

When I pressed the button, potatoes rolled out.

The elevator was completely full of potatoes.

“Errr!”

Dajoo, who was in a daze while nauseating, muttered next to him.

“This is not reality ah… … . It can’t be like this… … .”

I looked under the stairs.

Just one floor below was completely filled with potatoes.

“What is this.”

“We… … I’m going to die buried in potatoes… … .”

We had no choice but to return to the hallway.

The 7th floor hallway returns.

Daju, squatting down, hugs himself tightly with his arms and shakes his shoulders.

“I’m scared of potatoes. I hate potatoes.”

What happened?

I sorted out the situation.

I woke up after a short sleep, and the whole world was filled with potatoes.

Now I can even smell the dirt on the potatoes.

“Daju. Can you stay here alone?”

“Let’s go together. Don’t abandon me… … .”

“Okay. Let’s go over there first.”

We returned to the front of the elevator.

“Oppa Seol, you’re not really trying to scoop up potatoes, are you? You’re not trying to scoop out potatoes and take the elevator, right?”

“No.”

You can’t use the elevator, but there is something else to do.

I opened the fire hydrant on the wall next to the elevator.

Instead of a fire hose, it contains a simple wind-up mechanism.

[Reality Generator]

This is my first time seeing this in person.

It was a very important item, so I was told not to mess with it carelessly.

It has a simple structure, like a pencil sharpener sold at a stationery store. The outside is made of transparent glass, so you can see the gears inside meshing and rotating.

“Uuuuuk.”

I left Daju, who was gagging non-stop, and looked at the device.

As I concentrate, I feel a little dizzy.

/Anomaly Observation/

At some point, information flowed into my head.

A slightly different sensation than what you see with your eyes. However, there is no change in the feeling of ‘seeing’ the letters directly.

[Reality Generator: Maintain an ordinary space. A steady supply of surreal fuel is required to maintain effectiveness.]

This is the same as when I first came to the 7th floor. On the outside, there seems to be nothing wrong.

Focus a little more.

[Charge status: 76/100]

[Reality value: 100]

what. Are you okay?

I bent down and made eye contact with Daju, who was still sitting shaking.

“Daju. Have you charged this recently?”

“Uh, huh? What is it?”

“That. Reality generator. They say you have to charge something called surreal fuel to run it. Have you charged it recently?”

Daju ponders my words for a while and finally nods.

“Yes… … . The man charged it about two weeks ago.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

The reality generator runs normally.

So, that means nothing strange is happening on the 7th floor.

‘Who brought the potatoes?’

This is also strange.

If you move this many potatoes, no matter how careful you are, they are bound to make noise.

I and Daju must have sensed it too.

“Daju Yoon. Who knows,”

“Wow!!!”

“Didn’t you see someone moving that old crop?”

Daju barely answers while wiping his saliva.

“Yes.”

So, is there only one conclusion left?

“This is a dream.”

If you think this is all a dream, the pieces start to fit together.

First of all, Daju has lived in a place similar to her current situation.

I remembered what I heard from Daju a little while ago.

‘I’ve stayed in a similar place before. But this is the 7th floor.’

‘7P12th floor. I was trapped there.’

If so, isn’t this something from Yoon Da-ju’s nightmare?

I’m in someone else’s dream.

It may be speculation, but it doesn’t make any sense.

Above all, there is precedent.

When I met Choi Se-rim in my dream.

Although the place and situation are different, there are many things that feel like reality but cannot be understood.

If I think about it carefully now, there are many strange things.

Why would I take the elevator alone and not tell anyone?

And I don’t even know where the floor that looks like a library is. This may have caught my eye by chance while looking at the exploration data organized by other people, but in my dream, I got into the elevator with complete confidence. I didn’t know enough to act with that much confidence.

Still, it felt really real.

Choi Se-rim’s voice is heard from close by. Every single detailed facial expression. And the feeling of stepping down the spiral staircase, and the smell of wood and dust at the tip of my nose. The sound of turning pages. Even the unpleasant feeling of the ink that finally wetted my hands.

There is something to point out.

I stared at the mechanism inside the fire hydrant again.

[Reality Generator]

[Charge status: 76/100]

[Reality value: 100]

… …

[Reality value: 6]

[Reality value: 73]

[Reality value: 2]

[Reality value: -1]

[Reality value: 11111111176]

The reality value, which had remained at 100 until a while ago, began to fluctuate wildly.

This change occurred simply by suspecting, ‘This could be a dream.’

then.

Wouldn’t it be possible for me to wake up here with my own will?

I was about to bend my fingers, but I relaxed slightly.

This is because I got burned once last time.

Ttuduk.

I broke it.

I felt a sharp pain along with the sound of my joints breaking, but my fingers didn’t stop there.

The fingers are already bent beyond the range at which the joints can move, to the point where they almost touch the back of the hand.

This time I decided to close my nose and try to breathe.

Hmm.

“Wow. What is this?”

An exclamation came out without me knowing. I am clearly holding the bridge of my nose tightly with my hand, and I can breathe without difficulty.

“Oppa, what are you doing?”

“Stay still. I think I’ve almost found the answer.”

I knew for sure that this was a dream.

Now I am in a ‘lucid dream’ state where I realize I am dreaming.

According to information I picked up on the Internet a while ago, waking up from a dream is simple.

‘I want to wake up.’

I thought strongly in my heart.

… … Nothing happened.

“I want to wake up!”

Even if you shout out loud, it stays the same.

“Wake up! Wake up!”

After kicking the fire hydrant with my foot,

bang!

Even if I hit my head, I couldn’t wake up.

“Oppa, why are you acting like this all of a sudden?”

Daju gets anxious and grabs the hem of my clothes.

“Ah. Just stay still. This is a dream right now?”

“A dream?”

“Yes! Does it make sense that there are so many potatoes rolling around on the 7th floor? Of course it’s a dream!”

right.

Now that I think about it, even while I was writhing to wake up, Daju stayed still.

Under the circumstances, this is Da-joo Yoon’s dream. It is a nightmare created by mixing the memories of living on the 7P Machinery floor, which was said to be full of potatoes, and the experience of spending time on the 7th floor.

Then, wouldn’t it be Da-joo Yoon who can end this?

“Give me your hand.”

Daju, who was mentally and physically weak, was easy to handle.

He grabbed one of Daju’s fingers and firmly snapped it.

“Ah!”

“You have to wake up!”

“What is this… … .”

As expected, the fingers are bent enough to touch the back of the hand.

Daju is astonished.

“This time, cover your nose and breathe.”

“Is that okay?”

“Because it’s a dream.”

Daju did as I said. His nose is obviously blocked, but his shoulders are shaking.

“Huh?”

“Did you see it? Did you know this was a dream?”

“Yes.”

“Now let’s wake up.”

“How do you do that?”

” Think strongly in your heart that you want to wake up. If things don’t go well, you can shout loudly.”

“… … .”

Daju closes his eyes and falls into thought.

Then he opens his eyes again and shouts loudly.

“I want to wake up!”

As expected, nothing happened.

“Oppa. This doesn’t work?”

“… … .”

I looked at Daju in silence.

Daju tilts his head without knowing anything. A drop of cold sweat runs down my cheek.

Somehow I feel a little sorry for it. Still, it can’t be helped. There remains a final means of waking up from a dream.

Here’s how to wake up from a lucid dream:

First of all, in most cases, if you think strongly, ‘I want to wake up!’, you will wake up easily.

Even if it is not necessary, a lucid dream is one that is easily broken by hearing a loud noise or receiving a small shock.

So there is no need to use the last method… … It was written on Namu Wiki.

But now I am still trapped in a dream.

I slowly opened my mouth.

“Then there is one last method left.”

“What is it, oppa?”

“It has a huge impact on consciousness. Then it just bounces back to reality.”

“Big shock?”

I didn’t answer. Instead, he hugged Daju tightly from behind.

“Stay still.”

“Huh?”

Daju looks up at me in confusion. His pale face almost looks pitiful, but he has no intention of stopping.

I then pressed the elevator button.

‘The door opens.’ A few potatoes roll out of the elevator again along with the guidance voice.

When it first opened, it was completely full of potatoes, but now there is still some empty space.

Daju finally notices.

“Oppa. Wait a minute.”

“Daju.”

“Oppa!”

I held on tighter to Da-ju Yoon, who was struggling.

Daju shakes his head vigorously with teary eyes.

“Oppa. That’s not it. That’s not really true.”

“I’m sorry.”

I threw Daju into the elevator just in time for the door to close.

thud! thud! thud!

The sound of a knock on the door echoes throughout the 7th floor.

“Ah… … . Ahhh… … .”

The elevator doors won’t open. The buttons inside are all covered in potatoes.

“Eugh!!!”

***

I opened my eyes with a fluttering sound.

Reality is back again.

Even when I touch the bed mattress, I can’t feel any potato chunks.

“Phew.”

Is it dawn?

I carefully opened the door, went out into the hallway, and knocked on the door of Daju’s house.

Daju stands behind the open door holding the handle.

The face is very pale.

“You had that dream too, right? Those potatoes come out,”

Daju keeps nodding his head instead of answering.

Then he runs straight to the bathroom and continues to vomit.

“Wow. Wow!”

I patted Daju on the back.

What happened in the past that made me hate it so much? I want to ask, but if I do that, it will cause more trouble. I’ll have to ask Serim Choi later.

The really serious problem is that this happened twice in a row. It is highly likely that similar dreams will repeat in the future.

I decided to tell others tomorrow.

no.

Is it right to wake everyone up now?

Other people may also be trapped in dreams like this, and if I sleep now, I could also be trapped again.

“I’m resting here.”

I left Daju and went out to the front door.

The moment I grabbed the handle and opened the door.

“Huh?”

Someone was out in the hallway.

It was Heo Yoon.

Maybe he came out in a hurry, but his head was a mess.

He was dressed in pajamas with slippers on.

With a mesmerized face, Heo Yoon looks at me out of breath.

“What is it? Dabin?”