episode_0135

The sound of footsteps kept getting closer, and then at some point they stopped.

The lights in the apartment no longer flicker. They remain dark.

But the guy still hasn’t shown up.

***

I rested against the emergency exit wall.

The sound of footsteps continues.

Because so many incidents have passed through these stairs.

I looked up and forward, and luckily I was able to see ‘that incident’ from before.

Footsteps.

A woman with a familiar face is running down the stairs.

Her hair was disheveled and her face was wet with tears.

It was me in the past.

The sound of footsteps following after that.

This time, it’s the Foundation’s special forces in white combat uniforms.

“Ugh, ugh.”

Without even looking this way, another ‘me’ was running almost out of breath.

From here on out, it’s an important turning point.

“Aaak!”

‘I’, who almost lost the pursuit, ended up tripping over something.

I tripped and fell.

A world line divided into countless parts.

Countless ‘me’s.

That’s why it was possible.

“Ugh.”

‘I’ woke up again, covered in tears, but it was already too late.

The Foundation’s forces had already followed suit.

“Let go!”

‘I’ am then taken away by the foundation.

“놓으라고 이 개새끼들아!”

The tantrum means nothing.

When I think about what’s about to happen to that guy, I get goosebumps and feel sorry for him.

It was too cruel for me to do anything to myself.

◦ Live this fuck!

‘My’ voice echoes and fades away.

Is it because the voices are the same?

I thought I had become mentally stronger, but my mind is also wavering.

“Whew… … .”

He closed his eyes tightly and covered his face with his palms.

At that time, the Foundation’s personnel probably stormed the 7th floor and disposed of all the survivors.

Yoon Da-ju, Choi Se-rim, Heo Yoon, and Seok Hyeon-min all died at that time.

In such a state of great shock, he is taken away as a test subject by the Foundation… … .

Now I know.

I have already committed too great a sin to pretend to be clean now.

I was taken by the Foundation and became a test subject, arriving at floor [13A1].

And on the [13A1] floor, there is a mechanical device that demands sacrifice instead of summoning what you want.

I still remember using this place to get food.

I had a strangely high physical value, so I could obtain quite a lot of food even with minor injuries.

Was it like a bunch of cans of tuna in one wound?

That’s why the foundation was targeting me at the time.

I was taken in by the Foundation and forced to participate in an experiment led by the ‘Professor’.

First of all, you are manipulated into doing what you want through endless brainwashing.

What I want is a chain.

It is the link in the chain that binds the fifth apostle.

If you bring it here, the fifth apostle will be released and the world will be engulfed in destruction.

Another me would probably be standing in front of the machine, brainwashed.

And then he said in a tearful voice.

“What I want is, hibap! What I want is… … .”

“Link of a chain.”

“The link in the chain that binds the fifth apostle… … .”

The chain is called here, and it is their turn to pay the price.

I scream and fall down with all my insides blown out.

Then the professor would have said in a calm voice.

“Administer medication.”

Treatment. The moment you apply the crimson jelly to a wound, new skin begins to grow back.

I am given a brief period of recovery, with the jelly that Foundation personnel forcefully brought me in my mouth.

The sensation of my lost organs growing back again was terrifying.

And again, it was time to make a wish.

What I want is a chain.

But, fear.

“Additional injection of stabilizer.”

Soon you will feel relaxed and your mind will become dazed.

“What I want is the link in the chain that binds the fifth apostle.”

The excruciating pain comes.

I scream.

I tried to struggle, but I had no limbs to swing. All of my arms and legs were cleanly cut off and gone.

“AAAHHH! AAAHHH!”

“I need more painkillers. Be careful not to let the subject die from shock.”

“Ah …

Eventually, Gori is summoned to the apartment, and the fifth apostle is released into reality.

And I can’t stand the experiment and I die.

“The experiment was a success. Let’s get ready to leave the apartment.”

The ‘professor’ turned his head, but then stopped walking.

The world line begins to collapse.

Because this is impossible.

The world we live in is a story.

And, ‘Seven’ is the being that dismantles and annihilates such stories.

The world we live in has been almost swallowed up by the Seven.

A state almost on the verge of extinction.

But the reason we can survive is because of the existence of this ‘apartment’.

Infinite Library. The Wanderer’s Library.

This ‘apartment’ is a cosmic archive that has been bizarrely transformed by the influence of a certain world.

The story about ‘apartments’ is barely holding the world together.

Because there remains a possibility that we can stop the ‘seven’ by doing ‘something’ in the ‘apartment’.

The world does not completely disappear.

That is, the world line that fails to stop Seven will collapse because of Seven.

That’s exactly what happened when I was captured as a test subject and died.

“… … .”

The ‘Professor’ looks at the collapsing laboratory.

Everything turns black and scatters.

All events begin to seem as if they never happened.

The ‘professor’ is ■■ towards his subordinates.

■■■■■■■■■■■

And time rewinds again.

The branch that could have stopped Seven. Right before that.

How did I know this back then?

Maybe it’s just instinct.

Or perhaps the authority of the librarian acquired later may have had an influence on the past.

Or maybe it was the help of Choi Se-rim, who was the librarian at Muhan Bookstore at the time.

Anyway, one thing is certain: no one can wash their hands of this sin and be cleansed.

Aren’t there countless ‘me’s’ dying at the entrances of apartments right now?

Going out of the apartment requires adequate preparation.

Otherwise, we can’t stop ‘Seven’.

Even if you try to force yourself out, you will only end up dying painfully.

Time goes back to just before going down the stairs, and ‘I’ will go down the stairs again.

This repeats infinitely.

Blink.

Flashing lights.

I got up from my seat again.

Now that the thinking is done, it’s time to ‘go down’ the stairs again.

The one waiting at the very bottom is probably a bit of my past self.

‘I’ am the only one who will survive until the end.

Im Da-bin.

I would probably come to a different conclusion than I do now.

I can’t think of what it is.

Because I already killed the ‘Professor’ and gained enlightenment from him.

Footsteps are heard again.

It is the sound of my own footsteps taking steps.

Resolute footsteps.

We will be destroyed but not defeated.

In order not to be defeated, we all must be destroyed.

***

Blink.

Blink.

The lights come on, and the footsteps that had stopped ringing resume.

Someone slowly emerges from the darkness. I wait, leaning against the emergency exit corridor.

The person who came down from the stairs was Im Da-bin.

It was me.

Unlike me who was wearing a tracksuit, he wore a white suit shirt with a black coat over it.

While there are shadows around the eyes, the pupils are brightly shining.

As if he had gained some new insight.

……and,

Of course, she is a woman.

Since becoming a woman, my body has gotten much smaller, so the sleeves of my coat are drooping.

So there was no other way?

If he had remained a man, it would mean that he would have died a horrible death in the apartment, or that there would have been no chance of saving the world at all.

I tried to interact with the ‘me’ that appeared from the shadows.

Of course, I didn’t have high expectations.

It is an existence from a different world line in the first place.

It may be different from the time it existed, but if it were now, wouldn’t it be possible?

“I,”

“Okay. Bye.”

A quick reply came back.

“Are you trying to go out too? No. If you can talk to me, you can’t go out right now, right?”

“Yeah.”

His personality has changed a lot. He is much more talkative and smiles a lot.

As if I wasn’t me anymore.

“Ah. You don’t know yet. You haven’t met the ‘professor’ yet. Right.”

“Have you already met?”

“Yeah. I met you. I heard a lot about you.”

“… … I heard the story.”

“Yeah. Anyway, then I guess I’m a little bit ahead. I’m the future Dabin. You’re the past Im Dabin. ”

“I guess so.”

While I’m lost in my complicated thoughts, my future ‘me’ laughs.

“Ah. Why is this so fun?”

It seems like he’s let everything go. It seems like he’s completely detached.

I was embarrassed.

No matter how much time difference there is, we are both the same ‘me’.

Does it make sense that I don’t understand myself?

“By any chance. Did you meet the ‘professor’ at the lab? I was just about to break into the lab.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“Can I ask what happened at that time…?”

My future self pauses in thought.

“You’ll be shocked.”

“I’ve already received a lot.”

“Really? Are you okay?”

Looking at the face of the future Im Da-bin smiling as if it was funny, I felt a strange sense of discomfort.

The fear I felt at first comes back to me again.

When you first enter an apartment and first encounter a threat you can’t even fathom.

When I was trapped alone in an elevator filled with rainwater.

When I saw the image of the destroyed world in the internet broadcast started by my future self.

Swish.

Before I knew it, I was taking off my coat.

The white suit shirt he was wearing inside is revealed.

The white cloth that could only be seen briefly was soaked with blood.

I ask.

“Why do you think it turned out like this?”