episode_0128

A single, calm word was enough to ignite madness.

This was the first time I had seen someone’s face distorted like this right before my eyes.

“I can’t get out of here.”

The man repeats my words in a trembling voice.

“Here, you can’t get out.”

I crossed my arms and watched the other person’s reaction.

My body starts shaking on its own.

“I can’t be at ease for even a moment… … .”

thud.

The man knocks down a wall on himself.

thud.

Continue on.

Is this what it means to be overwhelmed by someone else’s emotions?

The sound of the wall being slammed echoes through my dazed head.

And when he opened his eyes again, the man’s wrist was completely broken.

A hand barely hanging on to the end of an arm, supported by grotesquely stretched skin.

In the hallways on either side, the residents of this floor are crawling out through their doors.

Because noise is rare here.

Anything unusual becomes a spectacle.

I raised my voice as much as I could so everyone could hear.

“The only way out of here is to die.”

His voice was filled with as much despair as he could muster.

“But you guys are already dead?”

The air is freezing.

Madness spreads in silence.

The noise of people talking among themselves gradually grows louder.

Finally, someone screams.

“I’m going out.”

“I’m going out!!!”

People who are instantly angry at the fact that they can’t get out of there.

As my hopes grew, my anger grew.

Ugh-

Kwaaang!

Everyone rushes out the door as if they had made a pact and starts swinging their weapons at each other without thinking.

The young man’s hammer swung through the air, and the woman’s head exploded with a bone-crunching sound.

Perseok-

I bent down.

The man’s hand, trying to grab her hair, passed over her nape.

“You can’t get out of here.”

You have to look at it properly.

I wonder if the madness I’ve ignited is spreading properly.

I ran down the hallway, barely able to keep my balance as I almost fell.

It was a scene of massacre where no one died.

People swing weapons at each other or punch the walls of buildings.

Someone even jumped into the abyss outside the hallway.

“Kill me. Kill me. Kill me!”

“Just break them all. Then you can go outside. I’ll break them all.”

The hallway was instantly filled with blood and fallen bodies.

Half-made towel racks, chair legs, and other things were pulled out from the bodies of those who had fallen, completely dismembered.

The same thing happens when you step outside the hallway.

The people gathered in the square scream in chorus, bursting each other’s flesh.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

Some women and children who do not have the strength to swing their blunt weapons bang their own heads against the walls of the building.

Blood flowed from their broken foreheads and soon their brains began to leak out, but they did not die and continued to harm themselves.

“Ugh, gasp. Ugh… … .”

When I could no longer run, I sat down with my back against the wall.

People who are trapped in their apartments even after death.

When they first entered the apartment, what they believed was the possibility of escape.

If you wander through hundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands of floors, there will be an escape route somewhere.

You can get out of this dangerous place and return to reality.

But there is no such thing as an escape route.

Once you enter the apartment, the outside is a completely empty space.

Countless people died senseless deaths during the expedition.

In that case, we have no choice but to have a different goal.

Their next belief was about the ‘safe layer’.

There were occasional ‘safe floors’ in apartment buildings, but they always came at a brutal price.

But there must be places that offer a place to stay without any cost.

You can’t go outside, but maybe you can get your daily life back there.

The safe floor that everyone now dreams of.

But only a very few people had access to it.

The group I was a part of at one time was probably the only one.

Once again, countless people died.

The last faith they had was in a safe place.

At the same time, they know that they can never get out of here, and that any seemingly safe floor comes with a brutal price.

The afterlife is built on belief.

The two beliefs of the dead: hope and despair.

Hope floats upward to a perfectly safe hotel on the upper floors.

Despair sank downward and became the purgatory of the lower realms.

The dead are trapped in purgatory and live longing for heaven.

Only a select few can go to heaven when they die, but who dares seek safety here?

Become a furniture and go to the hotel.

And then he returns to being human again and grows furniture inside his body.

Those who die in the apartment are stuck in an endless cycle of reincarnation, holding on to only fleeting hopes.

“… … .”

I showed that there was no hope,

Now faith crumbles before madness.

This is not a place for dead souls to stay.

You’d better look somewhere else.

Again, with the desire to get out of this apartment.

“After.”

I sighed and got up from my seat.

A child just passed by and jumped down the building.

Now it’s time to finish the proof.

I can die here and go back to the hotel upstairs.

“Huh?”

Someone grabbed my wrist roughly and pulled me back, making me fall.

When I raise my head, I feel a look of despair.

A fire burned in the sunken eyes of the gaunt man.

okay.

If I die here, it will be visible to everyone.

How wrong your thinking was.

If you have the right faith, you can get out of here simply by dying.

“… … Kill me.”

I picked up the paroo that had fallen on the floor.

“I would do that too.”

Clang!

Paru flew into the air and crashed back down to the ground.

The hand that dropped the weapon rang as if electricity was running through it.

The man who disarmed me closes the distance towards me, still holding the pistol in his hand.

Is it really that hard to deal with men?

Since we were fighting head-on with the same weapons, I thought it was natural that I would lose halfway.

Still, I didn’t intend to be pushed back to this extent.

I just tried it this time, but… … I have to avoid this kind of situation as much as possible in the future.

I closed my eyes tightly.

Phew-

A dull pain in my shoulder, soon followed by a sound of cutting air.

When I came to, I was lying on the floor.

“Ugh. Ugh… … .”

[Library Protection System: Reduces the severity of injuries caused by external impact.]

[Library Protection System: Pain is reduced for smooth job performance.]

It doesn’t hurt any less at all.

It’s so bad that I can’t help but groan.

I looked at the sentences that appeared in the air, then quickly looked away.

“Ugh!”

In fact, I couldn’t even look at it for long.

The man grabbed me by the neck, and immediately my breathing stopped.

The problem came right after that.

“Wait a minute!”

I could feel it even as I was suffocating.

The man is holding me down with his body and trying to unzip my clothes.

The wind freed me from the hand that had been strangling my neck, and fresh air came in again.

“Get out of the way! Just kill me!”

Could it be the effect of the time I spent as a man?

Even though it was clearly something that could be easily calculated, I unconsciously thought that it was impossible for something like this to happen.

If this continues… …something inside my heart might collapse.

As a man, and as a human being.

Kwak!

I barely managed to reach out and squeeze the man’s shoulder.

My nails dug into his skin, but he didn’t move at all.

“Let go!”

There was a moment when no matter how much I resisted, it was no use, and I had no choice but to close my eyes tightly.

My body was lifted upward.

A huge crowd has gathered in this area, which had been almost deserted just a moment ago.

People who speak with a solemn expression as if they have made up their mind about something.

“I will sacrifice a woman!”

“Okay… … . If we just offer a sacrifice, we can all go out… … .”

“Kill the woman!”

thank god.

no.

Should I say that I am fortunate?

“The sacrifice must die while still a virgin. Everyone left it untouched, right?”

A middle-aged woman is pushing people around like crazy.

“Bring me the cross and nails. I need the hammer and bucket. Hurry up!!!”

Then the woman’s gaze turns to me.

“And that girl. Knock her out first.”

“Yes.”

thud!

A shock that felt like the whole world was resonating.

For a moment, I felt as if my body and consciousness were separated, and all my senses became dull.

Beep be …

A sharp noise that rings in my ears.

My eyes were closed, but I could see what was happening.

Crunch-!

[Library Protection System: Reduces the severity of injuries caused by external impact.]

“You have to nail it right. Again!”

thud!

[Library Protection System: Reduces the severity of injuries caused by external impact.]

Ugh-

[Library Protection System: Pain is reduced for smooth job performance.]

[Library Protection System: Pain is reduced for smooth job performance.]

[Library Protection System: Pain is reduced for smooth job performance.]

A pain that digs into my hands and feet.

They took my blood in buckets and drank it, and put it on their faces.

People who had fallen into despair were helpless in the face of madness that borrowed only the form of religion.

“Keep bleeding!!!”

But if it’s for a fresh start.

And I had to die anyway.

It may seem like fanaticism now, but there is a goal in it to get out of here.

There is also a new belief underlying this: that staying here will only lead to eternal suffering.

A fact that everyone here knows but never speaks out loud.

I was nailed to the fact that there is no heaven, only eternal suffering, with my death.

I’ll find another way soon.

He lost consciousness amidst the cheers of the people.

***

“으.”

It’s the head.

No matter how much I think about it, it doesn’t help at all whether it’s a buyer protection system or something.

What’s going to hurt will still hurt, and what’s going to get hurt will get hurt anyway.

I would say it’s better than nothing.

I got up and dusted myself off.

The pain has passed, leaving only a faint trace behind, but I still vividly remember everything that happened downstairs.

The hallway of the splendid hotel we returned to.

A paradise drawn by survivors who died in an apartment.

The dead no longer believe in heaven, but this place will remain the same for a while.

Because countless sufferings have been offered up during that time.

The hallway was quiet.

I walked towards the end, killing the sound of my footsteps.

The end of the hallway, just like the beginning.

But the emergency exit leading down to the lower floor is no longer visible.

[Ghost Apartment Survival Diary – The Kind Hotel episode has been added.]

[The work takes a step further towards its conclusion.]

[Added episodes can be viewed later in the reading room.]

“… … .”

I silently read the sentences that appeared in the air, then looked at the plain wall, the space where the emergency exit once was, and fell into thought again.

How many people have entered this apartment and died?

It was too heavy a thought to be had at dawn, so instead I knocked on the front door halfway down the hallway.

Knock knock-

“Um… … .”

A voice from beyond the door can be heard.

“What is it, oppa?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“I can’t sleep. I just want to be with someone.”

“How did you know I wasn’t sleeping?”

“You always sleep late.”

“… … .”

As we are having this conversation, it finally feels like I’m back.

It seems like Yoon Da-ju is suspicious of this side.

“No matter how I look at it, it seems fake… … . Oppa. I’m asking just in case.”

“Yeah. Tell me.”

After a moment of silence, Da-ju asks in an agitated voice.

“What color are your panties today?”

“You crazy bitch.”

“Hurry up. 3. 2. 1… … .”

“Any other questions?”

“None.”

This guy is always so absurd to see.

“But how would you know that?”

“Okay, come in.”

The door opened.

As soon as I stepped inside, Dazhu started laughing and chatting brightly.

“A fake one just arrived.”

“Huh? Really?”

“Yes. I did match the colors, but if you were my real brother, there’s no way you’d tell me that, right?”

“… … .”

“Hey. Yoon Da-joo.”

When I straightened up, he saw that and burst out laughing again.

“Of course I’m joking. There’s no such thing here.”

“That’s fortunate.”

“Right?”

“Yeah.”

[Ghost Apartment Survival Diary – The Kind Hotel episode has been added.]

[The work takes a step further towards its conclusion.]

[Added episodes can be viewed later in the reading room.]

[Reward: Secure a safe floor.]