episode_0144

“Hey! Im Da-bin!

After running for a while, I stopped for a moment when I heard a voice calling me.

The lights were out in the lab, so I couldn’t really see anyone around me.

“Choi Se-rim!!!”

The voice continues.

“Dabin. It’s over there.”

At the place that Se-rim pointed to, Heo-yoon was gesturing urgently.

“Come here first!”

Alone?

He said he was waiting in front of the elevator, but there was no sign of the elevator.

Sister Se-rim also noticed something strange and asked me.

“What do you think? Is it really you, Yuni?”

“I don’t know. For now,”

“Dabin!”

“Hey. Im Da-bin! Behind me! ”

Se-rim and Heo-yoon call me at the same time.

And before I could even realize what was happening, my body was lying on the floor.

Just as I was opening my eyes.

The weight of people weighs me down.

“Got it.”

A creepy voice rings in my ears.

A pungent breath touches my cheek, and the hem of the researcher’s white clothes stained with blood completely obscures my vision.

“Let go!”

I tried to fight back with the pistol in my hand, but my body was already firmly pinned to the ground.

I have to raise my arm to aim the gun. I can’t even lift it off the ground.

“Ugh… … .”

Clench your teeth hard.

I tried to resist with all my might, but the situation didn’t change much.

“Sister!”

“No way. Don’t interfere with my thoughts!”

“Huh? What should I do?”

Phew!

Choi Se-rim hit the guy with all her might with the blunt object she was holding, but the guy shook it off as if nothing had happened and raised its head.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

No matter how many times I repeated it, it was the same.

“Dabin… … .”

“Sister. Get away for a bit.”

“No.”

“Hurry up!”

I briefly lifted the pistol in my hand.

If you shoot well, you can get out of here, but if you shoot wrong, the bullet could hit Se-rim.

So, it’s better for me to just wait for an opportunity by myself.

“Okay.”

The guy grins, showing his bloody gums.

“Now you can’t run away… … .”

“Huh?”

While struggling, my ankle was grabbed.

Sharp nails dig into the skin.

While an ominous feeling flashed through my mind.

Knock knock-

In an instant, a sharp pain is felt.

It was fortunate that I was able to pull my foot out at the last moment, but it still caused tremendous pain.

“Ugh. Gasp… … .”

Pain so severe that you can’t even breathe properly.

I barely raised my head to check the condition of my ankle.

I imagined it going the opposite way, but thankfully it wasn’t to that extent.

It’s probably just dislocated. It’s not completely broken. If I can just get out of here, I can somehow escape.

“Dabin! Now!”

“Sister?”

When I raise my head again, the first thing I see is a hanging piece of cloth.

A thick gray cardigan. It was the one Serim was wearing.

“I’m fine, so shoot.”

Sister Se-rim took off her clothes and covered the bastard’s eyes with them.

“Leave this alone.”

The mad researcher’s head is thrown back.

It seemed like he just couldn’t feel pain anymore, but he didn’t get any stronger.

“Let go!”

Thanks to that, the bastard’s gaze turned away from me for a moment –

– I was finally able to properly aim the pistol I was holding in my hand.

Towards the bastard’s head.

“Shoot! Hurry up!!!”

Crunch.

As it was a special pistol, the firing sound was barely audible.

Rather, the sound of flesh splattering from the bullet was more evident.

Push.

The arm that was holding me loosened weakly.

“Ugh. Gasp. Gasp… … .”

Se-rim and I, as well as you, all held our breath.

I pushed the researcher on top of my body with all my might, and the body slid down and fell to the floor.

“Dabin… …!Dabin!”

Even in this situation, Se-rim noona hugs me tightly.

“Are you okay? Did you get hurt earlier?”

“It’s okay. But what about older sister Yoon earlier? Did you see where she went?”

“Sister Yooni… … . I don’t know. I think I missed it in the middle.”

“What did you miss? You kept running.”

Heo Yun appeared in the darkness.

“What about Dabin? I saw you get caught earlier. Are you okay?”

“I hurt my ankle a little.”

Heo Yoon glances at my ankles and then quickly turns away.

It’s dark anyway so I can’t see properly.

“I don’t have time to look at it now, so let’s look at it later. Can you stand up?”

“Just a minute. I’ll try.”

I placed my hands on the floor and slowly raised my body.

The moment I tried to support my body with both legs, the pain came back again.

“Ahh… … Ugh!”

It’s so painful that I can’t even hold back a scream.

A sensation as if electricity and sparks are flying at the same time. My legs also give out.

Heo Yoon lets out a deep sigh as he lies there in a daze.

“It’s not just dislocated at first glance. It’s completely broken.”

“Yes… … ?”

“No way. Come here.”

Even in my daze, I held out my arm.

“No. Don’t support me. Carry me.”

“Yes… … .”

“Serim, please protect us from the side.”

“Yes, sister.”

Heo Yoon carries me on his back and hands the weapon he was holding to Choi Se-rim.

“Do you know how to use this?”

“A shotgun?”

“Yeah. Even if you don’t know, you have to write it.”

“… … Okay.”

“Just hold on tight, put the gun on your shoulder, and when you see someone running at you, just shoot them.”

Sister Se-rim awkwardly accepts the shotgun.

Even while being carried by Heo Yun, I couldn’t help but feel worried.

There should be no need to use that.

Heo Yun carried me on his back and started walking quickly.

“Let’s go now.”

“But what happened? I heard you were waiting near the elevator. Didn’t anyone else see you?”

“At first, it was next to the elevator. But when I came to my senses, it was here. As for the others, I don’t know, now.”

A few words of conversation were exchanged and then stopped.

Neither I nor Heo Yun could open our mouths here.

“Hurry up and get it out.”

“You need blood to complete it.”

The surroundings are filled with the muttering voices of crazy researchers.

In addition, the sound of blood seeping out of the floor and stepping on a corpse to squeeze out blood is also heard.

“… … Everyone is crazy.”

Sister Se-rim is so touched that she almost starts crying.

“Serim Noona. Don’t read what other people around you think.”

“Yeah… … . But… … .”

“Or you can just read my mind.”

“No, Dabin. You have to be careful too.”

It’s exactly as Choi Se-rim said.

There is a terrible madness going on around here. If I let my guard down, even I could go mad.

There is no other way.

I have to get out of here as quickly as possible.

“I’ll try to hold out here.”

“Yes. I try my best not to read your mind.”

“Hey. Im Da-bin.”

“Huh?”

Heo Yun, who had been walking silently, looks back slightly.

“You do your best. You just broke your ankle.”

“… … Yes.”

A throbbing pain still radiates from my broken ankle.

Because of the circumstances, I am just forgetting the pain to some extent.

But when I step directly on the floor, it hurts so much that I feel like I’m going to faint.

Can we continue to move like this?

From far away, the voices of the mad researchers are heard again.

“The fifth monk comes.”

“Welcome the fifth monk.”

“Give blood for the fifth monk.”

“Because I need to build a red altar for the fifth monk.”

“Let the unclean blood fill the unclean chalice.”

… …

“I need more blood.”

Every word was spoken in a creepy voice, but I couldn’t hear it properly.

Worries even more terrible than that surrounded me.

My ankle is broken.

Then, can I survive outside of this? I had confidently proposed the ending. Wasn’t the professor right after all? There’s no way someone like me could survive. It’s not better outside of the apartment. It’s a much more dangerous situation. There’s no way I could survive in a situation where I can’t even walk properly. I’m going to die. With my intestines ripped out and my eyes bleeding, my thoughts completely melted and I have no consciousness, I’ll wander the streets in a horrible state, and I’ll be swallowed up in eternal oblivion and die. It doesn’t end there. My consciousness continues to persist. Even if everything is completely destroyed, my consciousness stubbornly survives and I’m immersed in endless regret. I made everyone die. I failed. In the end, the professor was right… … I failed.

“Im Da-bin!”

“Huh? Huh?”

When I came to my senses, Heo Yoon was screaming loudly.

“Stop thinking weird thoughts! We’re not going to die!”

“What were you doing?”

“He kept mumbling. He kept saying strange things.”

“Ah… … .”

I only found out after Se-rim told me.

The thoughts were leaking out of my mouth.

“I’m sorry.”

“Dabin, you need to come to your senses.”

Until just now, I was completely captivated by this space.

My eyes got used to the darkness.

I was able to roughly see what was going on around me.

The crazy researchers are all drawing patterns on the floor with their own blood.

It is a huge and elaborate pattern that fills one corner of the laboratory floor and could never have been completed with the sacrifice of one or two people.

A wave occurs around that pattern.

The space itself repeats the process of distorting and then straightening out again.

Is it because of that wavelength that people keep going crazy?

Heo Yun suddenly speaks.

“That picture… …. What will happen when it’s finished?”

“Sister?”

While I was absentmindedly staring for a moment, Heo Yun was looking closely at the pattern on the other side.

“Dabin, you saw it too. Mr. Seongjin was like that too. That Mr. Seongjin was completely crazy, talking nonsense about needing blood… … .”

“Sister Yoon.”

“But, isn’t there a reason for everything?”

“Sister!”

I grabbed Heo Yun’s shoulder with all my might and shook it.

“Huh. Huh?”

“You need to come to your senses.”

Light returned to Heo Yun’s eyes, which had become cloudy for a moment.

“Okay.”

Heo Yun puts his finger in his mouth and bites it hard.

The creaking sound could be heard from here.

“Come to your senses, we’re almost there.”

“Yes.”

Heo Yoon carries me on his back and starts walking again.

I walked for a while, but there was no sign of an elevator.

Even other people can’t find it.

“But is this the right direction?”

“I don’t know either. I definitely saw it, but it’s strange.”

“The lab wasn’t that big. Even if I took the wrong direction, something should have come out by now.”

“Yeah. Right.”

“Sister. Wait a minute.”

I looked closely at the darkness before my eyes.

As expected, space is distorted.

I clearly thought I was going in one direction, but when I came to my senses, it was in a completely different direction.

“The space feels weird right now. It feels like it’s twisting and expanding.”

“What? Then what should I do?”

“Let me think about it for a moment.”

Take a deep breath and calm your mind.

Numerous possibilities come and go in my mind.

Yebin does not receive calls and cannot contact anyone other than those present.

“That won’t work.”

“Huh? Why?”

“I think the more I stay still, the more likely I am to go crazy. I try my best not to think.”

Sister Se-rim asks with concern.

“Is Dabin okay now?”

“Not yet.”

“Sister. What should I do now? Moving is meaningless, and I can’t even think… … .”

“I don’t know. What should I do?”

I feel like I’m at a dead end.

As soon as I can get out of here safely, I can go outside the apartment.

You can’t get caught right before the end.

The time spent thinking is getting longer.

At the same time, the chances of being consumed by madness also increase.

“Ugh!”

I shook my head, feeling nauseous.

The image of my disintegrated intestines suddenly flowed in, and I couldn’t bear it any longer.

“Are you okay?”

Heo Yoon patting her on the back from the side.

Then, as if something had occurred to him, he suddenly opened his mouth.

“That’s right. But you’re the one who bought it. Didn’t you say that this kind of thing doesn’t work?”

“Ah. Are you a librarian?”

“Yeah.”

“Not anymore.”

To be exact, I plan to resign from my position as a librarian soon.

There isn’t much of a difference from this point in time though.

As soon as I made this decision, I found myself with little use of the privileges the library had to offer.

Because the library took everything away so sloppily.

“But thanks to what my older sister told me, it just occurred to me.”

“What?”

“Here’s the method.”

There is a way out of here.

The simplest function that I can use with my own authority right now.

This is a very low level of authority that anyone can use.