episode_0109

Inside the elevator where the survivors gathered.

Robin is trying to sort out information about the timeline by asking each person about their memories one by one.

The only one left is Choi Se-rim.

However, Se-rim looked at the floor and avoided answering.

“I don’t know either.”

“Mr. Daju too. Mr. Selim too.”

“Yes. Maybe some people lose their memories when they move into an apartment?”

Robin narrowed his eyes for a moment, but that was it.

He immediately turns his attention to the other survivors and moves on to a different story.

“Okay. Now let’s think about the specific time zone.”

Whether Robin doubts it or not, Choi Se-rim closes her eyes tightly and takes a deep breath.

I guess he didn’t want to talk about it that much. Choi Se-rim’s past is a painful memory just to recall.

Bam.

I walked over to my sister and tapped her hand.

While thinking as best as possible.

A sunny park I’ve been to before.

A view of the library’s reading room.

A quiet auditorium window. The sound of the wind fluttering the curtains.

Instead of listening to the conversation going on in the elevator, I just focused on recalling good images.

Soon my eyes met with my older sister’s.

I feel that Choi Se-rim’s mind has become much more at ease after looking into my thoughts.

It’s not just about sharing peaceful memories. When you focus on reading one person’s thoughts, the frequency of other people’s thoughts flowing in is significantly reduced.

Robin, who committed various unethical acts at the Foundation, even though it was to protect humanity.

Yoon Da-ju, a former researcher at the foundation and once a test subject who had a difficult time.

Heo Yoon and Seok Hyeon-min have been living in an apartment for a long time.

People who are always caught up in big and small anxieties.

All that was going around must have been horrible memories.

‘thank you.’

My sister, who is finally able to rest, expresses her gratitude to me through her thoughts.

I feel a mixture of sadness and pride at the same time.

It provides a place for your thoughts to rest and escape from painful memories.

My sister really needs this.

The same goes for the other person in the elevator who is currently digging hard to find the truth.

Choi Se-rim finds stability and makes decisions. Her memories are the key to this puzzle.

Choi Se-rim, who seemed comfortable, suddenly asks me as if she is anxious.

‘But what about Dabin? Is it okay for her to be like this?’

It means that there is an important conversation going on, and you are asking if it is okay for you to overhear it all.

Right now I’m just focusing on recalling good memories.

But, it doesn’t really matter.

‘Yes, it’s okay.’

I don’t need to hear the conversation or participate in it.

Because I already know the information about the timeline through the librarian’s abilities.

Besides, the point is that other people besides me are discovering the truth for themselves.

Robin is doing very well.

A lot of time passes.

It feels like Choi Se-rim is feeling much more comfortable.

A park on a sunny summer day, created in imagination.

I sat on the bench, raised my head, and looked at Choi Se-rim.

At this point, I think it’s time to start talking about it.

I started talking with an apology.

‘But, sister.’

‘Why, Dabin?’

I get anxious for no reason and end up speaking faster and faster.

‘There’s something I need to do, sister. That’s why I created this space. I think you need time to calm down.’

‘Huh? What is it?’

‘That’s what my sister did before.’

‘… … .’

This is the truth that even Choi Se-rim herself has turned away from because she does not have the confidence to handle it.

Even I, who am telling you this, feel sad.

I took a deep breath and told the truth as calmly as I could.

‘Sister, you’ve been touching other people’s memories little by little?’

Choi Se-rim’s shoulders shake and she starts to get agitated just from the first sentence.

She was once a librarian at the Infinite Library.

Even though it was imperfect, she must have known the flow of the future, and Choi Se-rim did what she had to do accordingly. Using her own abilities.

‘My sister interfered with other people’s memories, preventing the exploration from progressing until I came to the apartment. To hand over the librarian to me, and to prevent the worldline we live in from disappearing.’

‘Dabin. Wait, wait.’

‘I also put some restrictions on my thoughts until the right time came.’

‘Ah. No. That’s… … !’

Choi Se-rim is in agony just listening to the story and is clutching her head.

This is only a fantasy. In reality, Choi Se-rim is standing still as if nothing happened, but in her head, it was different.

‘I know. I had no choice. I know this better than anyone else. I just bought it when it was convenient and handed over the authority.’

It was something that had to be addressed at least once.

Although I inherited the authority, I did not inherit Choi Se-rim’s abilities.

Some limitations still remain among others.

A quiet scream.

A silent scream.

Is it because it’s a figment of my imagination?

Choi Se-rim’s self-harm became even more brutal.

As he violently grabbed her head, her hair was pulled out along with her skin. Blood spurted out everywhere, and Choi Se-rim didn’t stop there. She hit her own head on the armrest of a park bench.

Blood flows from the broken forehead, creating a gruesome sight.

‘Because of me. Because of me, people died for no reason.’

Choi Se-rim sobbing and vomiting.

‘We already knew there was no escape route. We made sure people didn’t remember.’

‘I made people stay on the 11th floor knowing there was a price to pay.’

‘please…….’

‘Dabin. I want to stop now. Please.’

She always had to make choices.

In order to secure a clean water source, he left a former friend with purification abilities in a water tank.

Because of my duties as a librarian, I had to erase other people’s memories and manipulate their thoughts.

This has been happening since she was very young.

I grabbed Choi Se-rim’s wrist very slowly but firmly.

‘You don’t have to suffer alone anymore.’

Freshly flowed blood soaks his fingers.

Warm blood flows down the back of my hand and wraps around my arm.

Before the warmth disappeared, I pulled my arm and hugged Choi Se-rim.

‘It was inevitable.’

It took quite some time for Choi Se-rim to find stability again.

Now it’s time to return the information we took from the survivors.

***

Robin asks people with his arms crossed.

“Next is Haewon’s turn. The time when she entered the apartment. Is there an exact year or an event that can be guessed?”

As befitting her experience working for the Foundation, Robin is adept at eliciting statements from people.

The people gathered inside the elevator each explain the situation of the ‘outside world’ before entering here.

“Uh… … . Now that I think about it, I don’t remember the exact year.”

Jeong Hae-won answers hesitantly.

“Hmm.”

Robin tapped his wrist with his fingertips.

Jeong Hae-won, as well as the other survivors, Dan, Rico, and even Robin herself, do not remember the exact years in which they lived.

“If that’s the case, then it seems like some information was lost in this part as well. It seems to be a similar principle to why Da-ju and Se-rim lost their memories.”

Is this an anomaly on the meme side?

A meme is information that has evolved to be remembered and spread to as many intelligent beings as possible. For a meme, being forgotten is like the death of a living organism.

So, while it may seem like it would be the complete opposite of forgetting, some types of memes can erase memories. They have evolved to erase other memories and leave a gap in which they can be remembered.

‘There is an anomalous meme in this apartment, and it affects people and erases their memories.’

Although it appears that only the information regarding the exact year has been erased, it is possible that other memories have also been erased.

What you need to figure out in times like this is not ‘what you forgot’.

You need to organize ‘what you remember’ and figure out how to deal with it.

Robin, who had been lost in thought, opened his mouth again.

“I’ve forgotten the exact year, but I still remember the old days. Even if it’s hard to pinpoint the exact point, I’m sure I can figure out the context of the timeline.”

“So, what you’re saying, Robin, is let’s draw a timeline?”

The leader of the survivors is Heo Yun.

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“Then I can reduce the work a lot. I already wrote it down in my exploration notes before.”

Heo Yun took out a thick notebook from his bag.

Inside the shabby leather cover, fluorescent post-it notes stick out individually to divide the table of contents.

“I’ve collected stories not only of the people who are here now, but also of survivors who came before us. And of people who died in the past.”

“… … .”

Indeed, there are traces of the hands of countless people.

Without any manual or procedure, they would just risk their lives to gather information.

Robin bowed his head and placed his hand on the cover to express his condolences.

“Let’s take a look.”

There are countless lines drawn on an open notebook.

Each line displays information about the time period in which people arrived.

“But what is this thick line in the middle?”

“This is the point where the disaster occurred. I marked it large because I thought it was an important point.”

Robin deliberately focused his gaze around the line.

The names of at least 100 people are split into two halves, with the red line in bold as the standard.

As she stared at one place for a long time, Heo Yun added his explanation.

“All the people who came before the disaster happened to get caught up in it and ended up in the apartment. Almost all the people who came after the disaster were people who took refuge in the apartment.”

So, I organized it all by time zone like this.

“It definitely… … . helps. So much so that it’s questionable.”

“What does that mean?”

“I’ve definitely heard from Mr. Yoon about other survivors. He said that many people died trying to find a way to escape outside. But from the perspective of the refugees from the future, there wouldn’t have been a reason to go outside?”

Robin said with a deep sigh.

“What I mean is, there is a lack of motivation to escape. I wonder why there was a reason to risk one’s life to escape when one knew that the outside world was just as much hell anyway. Instead, one would have wandered around to find a safe place.”

Robin himself knows that it is an excessive leap.

It is a contradiction that can be easily resolved if we define ‘escape’ as leaving the apartment and returning to the reality of a safe time zone.

Past, present, and future.

Now that we know that timelines are messed up inside the apartment, we can assume that the survivors were also thinking the same thing.

But what mattered to her was not logic, but her intuition.

Something is strange.

Why are you bringing up such important information now?

Moreover, when I think back to the stories of the survivors that I heard here and there, the strange feeling becomes even stronger.

The strangest thing is Heo Yun’s comment.

They say they obtained documents about the end of the world through library exploration.

Even though I already knew what would happen in the future, I went all the way to the library to get information.

The information was just a pretext. Wasn’t the real purpose a visit to the library?

What if someone had manipulated the survivors into forgetting the information they already had?

There are many questions, but no clues.

I tried to read Heo Yun’s expression, but I still couldn’t understand anything.

Only a look of bewilderment is evident on Heo Yun’s face.

This is not the expression you make when you try to hide something and get caught.

Rather… … . Through the question, a weakness he didn’t even know he had was revealed, and he seemed to be just as confused as the person asking the question.

“That’s right. Why, why did I forget this until now?”

She is a strong and smart girl, and she is an amazing person in many ways, considering she survived without any information, but in this case, her lack of experience is revealed.

Anyway, since we have obtained important information and there is no risk, isn’t it better to just stay still? Let’s keep our doubts, but there is no need to find out the truth right away.

Robin answered with a quiet smile.

“Maybe there was some kind of restriction between the people living in the apartment, and I, an outsider, may have broken it.”

Like a door that cannot be opened from the inside no matter what you do, and can only be opened from the outside.

Could it be that he opened the door and liberated some information?

“I don’t really know what you’re talking about.”

“Me too. Let’s think about it that way for now and move on.”

There’s still a lot more to figure out later, but for now I’ve decided to just think about it that way and move on.

That’s not what’s important.

Robin leaned against the wall, holding onto the elevator handle.

“Well, now we can try to put the puzzle together again.”

Organize the order of events and understand the situation.

A twisted timeline. Numerous causes and effects tied together by an apartment as a single point.

Starting with the volcanic eruption that Robin himself experienced, the disaster that would wipe out the world on an unimaginable scale, the ‘Fifth Apostle’.

Catching the professor who is probably at the center of it all starts with properly understanding and analyzing the current situation.

***

* Timeline of the main characters as identified by Im Da-bin during the ‘End Puzzle’ episode

– Because it is difficult to determine the exact year, the time period is indicated as past, recent past, etc.

– The timeline shows the point in time in the real world when each character entered the apartment.

– The interior of an apartment has its own timeline, and the ‘starting point’ when entering the apartment is determined by factors other than real time. In other words, entering the apartment in the past does not mean that you were in the apartment longer.

[Ghost Apartment Survival Diary], Excerpt from Appendix/Reference Materials