episode_0134
by fnovelpia“Yebin… … ?”
Suddenly, there was no one around.
Also, I wasn’t on the 7th floor.
As if in a dream, the whole situation unfolds before my eyes again.
I am on the 6th floor, one floor below that.
This is the floor I lived on when I first moved into this apartment.
And the stairs below the 6th floor.
At that emergency exit, there was an event that repeated itself infinitely.
The sound of footsteps continues.
Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick
Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick
Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick
… … Slowly, take a deep breath and look at the situation again.
One. I am now at the emergency exit on the 6th floor, not the 7th.
Two. I don’t know why I came here. It could be someone’s intervention, or it could be an illusion.
Three. Where is Yebin…? … I don’t know. In fact, there is nothing I can know for sure right now. All I know is that this is the emergency exit on the 6th floor.
Instead, there are new things that appear.
On the stairs we return to, there are many people going up and down.
Before, I could only hear sounds, but now I can see them. And a lot of them.
It is almost impossible to distinguish each and every person.
And if something new is seen, it means there is something new to learn there.
But should I really check? I stumbled and grabbed the railing.
He was left alone. Yebin was not by his side. A terrible sound continued from the cell phone that Jeong Hae-won was holding in his hand.
The video is choppy, but you can hear the wind. You can also hear space tearing and breaking apart.
I left all this behind me and concentrated my mind.
If you ended up here anyway, it might be fate.
I’m ready to find out the truth.
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The countless people passing by before my eyes move along their own paths without even looking this way.
Sometimes they pass by each other or ignore each other.
Among them.
First of all, there are the people who climb the stairs. At first glance, they look to be in the worst condition.
A person covered in bandages and bleeding profusely. A person who has gone completely mad and is kicking wildly before being dragged away. A person who can barely climb stairs with the help of crutches.
There is blood everywhere they go.
Concentrate your mind.
Erase the images of refugees from your sight.
Next is the group of people going down the stairs. This is the type of atmosphere that I am most familiar with.
They all carry large bags on their backs and shine flashlights around them. Their gazes constantly checking both sides as if they will never let their guard down are impressive.
Survivors trying to find a way to escape from the apartment.
Concentrate your mind.
The expedition team disappears from before my eyes.
There aren’t many people left now.
First, the people from the Foundation. The staff in spacesuit-like combat uniforms and researchers in white lab coats. And the ‘Professor’.
They entered the apartment using a surprisingly ordinary method.
The afterimage goes up the stairs and then back to the beginning again, repeating this cycle.
I waited quietly halfway up the stairs, then observed the professor’s expression as he came up.
I can definitely confirm that he is wearing a beige coat. However, I quickly forget what his face looks like.
I guess it’s not time yet.
I don’t think the professor intentionally hid his identity.
No matter how many devices are put in place to hide information, the insight of a librarian is stronger than that.
As someone who is in a position to manage information, I am particularly susceptible to anomalies that induce forgetfulness.
This is something you can check when you raid the professor’s lab.
The professor’s traces were erased.
The last thing that remains is ‘me’.
‘Me’ running down the stairs with an anxious look on my face.
Go down the stairs as fast as you can, then go back to the beginning and jump down from the top.
My fingertips are shaking.
I held onto the railing and carefully walked down the stairs.
The stairs below the 6th floor. The characteristic here is ‘repetition’.
No matter how far you go down, the stairs just keep repeating endlessly. You can’t get out.
The way out of this eternal shackle is simple.
Having a clear destination in mind. Usually, the thought of ‘I want to go back to where I came from’ will help me get out to the 6th floor.
6th floor.
5th floor.
Go down the stairs.
The numbers on the emergency exits begin to decrease one by one.
4444th floor
13th floor
2ㅡㅡㅡtsooo
Numbers and letters slowly starting to distort.
Now, its original form is unrecognizable.
2$&(floor*&^*%&
What is certain is that we are getting closer and closer to the apartment’s ‘exit’.
I’m out of breath.
2.124th floor
The sensor lights that used to light up whenever a person appeared now blink irregularly.
I stretched my head under the railing and checked the lower level.
Sensor lights on empty floors are turning on in advance.
1.333rd floor
A window appeared on the wall.
I looked outside, but I couldn’t see anything.
There is a sound of wind.
1.999899998212th floor
The lights were tinted red. I decided to take a break here.
Thoughts.
Originally, this would have been a useful passageway.
If you know the characteristics, you can go anywhere at once. If you enjoy exploring, you might prefer this over the elevator.
No. If you put your mind to it, you could escape the apartment in one go.
Just once. If I had just gone down the stairs, they would have taken me straight out of the apartment.
But the reason I couldn’t go out was… .
I got up again.
At some point, the sound of footsteps on the stairs is no longer audible.
The numbers below the decimal point increase endlessly.
There are bloodstains on the window.
and.
0th floor. At the end of the stairs, you can see a glass door.
The ‘real reality’ is reflected outside the transparent glass door.
… … That’s why.
seven.
It is not known why it is so named.
It may be because it is a being born and discovered under the seven narrative layers.
Or maybe it was the title of some epic that the Seven had absorbed and destroyed.
What is certain is that he is here now.
There’s something out there in that dark abyss where the occasional light flickers.
No. The darkness itself is the entity of the bastard. A void of nothingness.
If you open that door and go out, no story can survive.
There is a sound of wind.
I waited for a moment, wiping away the sweat.
[]
A sentence appears in the air, but then falls limply.
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$!ㅁ$%ㅓ#ㅝㅁㅊ^^&&
In the timeline I am currently in, nothing is moving.
I shouldn’t have been here in the first place. I wouldn’t have even thought of coming. But here I am.
The play, without a cast, stopped running.
You will be able to see it.
Just wait a moment, it’ll be here soon.
Very faintly, I can hear footsteps.
It’s the sound of my footsteps.
Swaaahh …
The door opens with the sound of wind.
I stood still and watched another me approach.
‘Me’ just looking towards the door leading out without paying any attention.
‘I’, with a clearly anxious look on my face, slowly came down the stairs and approached the door.
‘I’ am now going out
The arm that was holding the door stretched out, and then the entire body turned into spaghetti.
“Ah… … !”
Knock knock.
‘I’ was cut off without even leaving a scream.
All that remained around the stairs were traces of what looked like tattered rags, a mixture of clothing and flesh.
All incidents outside the apartment have now been erased.
No matter how many times you go down the stairs, you will never reach the point where you get out of the apartment.
So back to the starting point.
But if you keep going down the stairs, at some point it will disappear. It will be as if it never existed in the first place. You will go into an abyss where there is nothing.
“Ugh.”
It’s not someone else’s body, it’s my body. It can’t be a good sight.
But now is not the time to turn away. There are definitely cases where people go out of the apartment.
I looked at the cell phone in my hand again.
Ugh-
Meanwhile, another version of myself appears and turns into a rolled up rag.
The corpses that had died earlier had disappeared somewhere, so there was no need to worry about this place becoming filled with corpses.
What’s important is this broadcast.
Another internet broadcast signal sent here from outside the apartment.
At this point, there are cases where you go out of the apartment.
Then how did it go?
Is there any condition?
The only thing I can think of is killing the professor and progressing the ‘story’.
Just like progressing through a game story, you can advance to the next stage by defeating the boss.
And this is the path I will choose soon.
There is no longer any sound coming from Jeong Hae-won’s cell phone.
Instead, footsteps are heard.
Another victim?
Again.
Again.
This time something was different.
It is a confident, determined step.
As the sound gradually gets closer, my heart becomes more anxious and my thoughts speed up.
The existence of another case means that another choice exists.
The future me who killed the professor and left the apartment. And another ‘me’ who was able to escape the apartment through an unknown choice.
The sound of footsteps is getting closer.
I tried to use my librarian’s abilities to find out information, but the sentences just scattered through the air like before.
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$!ㅁ$%ㅓ#ㅝㅁㅊ^^&&
Instead of staring blankly at the fragments of language rolling around, I try to recall my memories.
How to leave the apartment? Of course I looked into it.
The story progresses to a single point where you stop the Seven and save the world.
That is, killing the ‘professor’. Other than that, there is no other way to escape the apartment.
But how on earth?
There was clearly another me in the future, a me who made a different choice, who went out of the apartment, and ended up watching the end of the world.
The sound of footsteps is getting closer.
Stand on the lowest floor of the apartment and look up at the sky.
A railing attached to a staircase. A spiral that rises continuously upward.
From just out of sight, the sensor lights begin to blink irregularly.
As someone coming down the stairs passes by, the number of blinking lights continues to increase.
“Ah.”
Now, now, as if.
The entire apartment seems to alternate between light and darkness.
The sound of footsteps is getting closer.
Who on earth is that coming down from above?
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