episode_0147

The elevator moves for a long time.

Probably pointing downwards.

At times like this, I often have a lot of time to spare, and the space inside the elevator is quite large, so I can wander around.

It was when I happened to be trying to sit next to Jeong Hae-won.

“Huh, huh?”

Jeong Hae-won is startled.

“Sister. Wait a minute. Don’t come this way.”

“Huh? Why?”

He looks visibly embarrassed, and his face turns red.

I’m also a bit confused.

Something is definitely wrong, but I can’t even figure out what it is.

In the end, Jeong Hae-won was the first to speak.

“Clothes.”

“… … clothes?”

For a moment, I thought, “Oh no.”

“That’s right.”

I was wearing a hoodie and then I burned it.

I was a little careless because he was wearing a thin T-shirt underneath.

Then, as the sweat dried, I felt cool and tired from all the hard work, so I was dazed for a bit.

Then.

I’m speechless when I look in the mirror.

The thin short-sleeved T-shirt was soaked with sweat and stuck to my body.

It is so white that you can see inside.

“This, this… … !”

He quickly raised his arms and covered his body.

“Hey. Don’t look this way.”

“I’m not looking.”

“Ah. I forgot for a moment because I was so tired. Hey, Yuni noona. Don’t you need to change your clothes?”

“Dabin’s clothes? You can find them if you open the black suitcase over there. Open the second zipper on that side and look for them.”

The luggage I had brought was thankfully piled up in a corner of the elevator.

I quickly went to the corner and looked for clothes.

This time a black jersey with three white stripes.

I brought mostly activewear, and luckily it fits well.

After I finished changing, Se-rim approached me cautiously and asked.

“But why are Dabin’s clothes like that?”

“I burned it.”

“You burned it?”

“Yes. I had to save Daju. I had to burn the blood-drawn pattern on the floor.”

“I see… … . Anyway, I’m glad that you’re safe, even though your clothes were burned.”

“But I think I told this to Daju too. Didn’t you tell me to change?”

“Hee.”

Yoon Da-ju just stares at me and snickers.

“You did it on purpose.”

“No, that’s not it.”

“Don’t lie.”

“It’s a shame. I could have seen more.”

“Ehyo… … .”

Clearly the kid is a good person.

After staying in the apartment for a long time, people became gloomy.

Being a test subject might also play a part.

Kikrik-

Break time ended with the noise of the elevator.

[12$2]

[$vb!3]

[5a32]

[$1114]

The interval between the numbers changing gradually slows down,

Finally, a single number appears on the screen.

[1]

1st floor.

The elevator stops at the first floor.

“Is everyone ready?”

Everyone nods without saying a word.

The door opens.

As the slit widens, light gradually enters.

“You’re finally leaving.”

It was Heo Yun.

Sister Yoon looks ahead with a complicated expression.

Seok Hyun-min too. Se-rim noona too. Da-ju too.

I think everyone thinks the same.

Many people lost their lives.

To explore the apartment.

To find an escape route and return to reality.

But there was such a simple way.

I can understand thinking that it’s vain.

“But.”

Heo Yoon blurts out a comment.

“I don’t really know why they all had to die.”

“Sister!”

Seok Hyun-min also has the same face, even though he suddenly shouted.

“No. It’s just. It’s just so vain.”

“… … .”

“… … .”

In the midst of the solemn silence, I speak in a clear voice.

“No, it doesn’t mean anything.”

I’m not saying this to comfort you.

Even in the future I saw through my librarian’s abilities.

Even from the perspective of the ending we are seeing now.

It wasn’t really meaningless.

“I survived thanks to those people.”

If only Daju hadn’t saved me at the emergency exit.

I lost my life right away.

Then it was all over.

“Thanks to those people, everyone here now survived.”

People trapped in apartments have been struggling to survive on their own.

They foraged for food, cooperated with other survivors, and created a residential area by finding a safer floor.

Thanks to that, I wasn’t left alone.

I was able to reject the dogmatic ending suggested by the professor and choose the right path.

“Thanks to those people, we were able to come this far.”

So, it is a path that would never have opened alone.

I am here now.

“… … Thank you.”

Heo Yun will soon fix his face.

And he turns to everyone. As always, he looks like a leader.

The elevator doors were already open.

“What should I do? Should I go out first?”

I stood next to Heo Yun, who was holding a weapon.

“Let’s all go together.”

Jeong Hae-won also adds a word.

“That’s right. Now that it’s the ending, we should all go out together.”

Multi-state.

“Then if I count to one, two, three, I’ll go out?”

Sister Se-rim too.

“One!”

Everyone starts counting without saying who will go first.

“Two… … .”

Heo Yun mutters to me, his gaze fixed on the front.

“This is the most ordinary floor I’ve ever seen.”

“Yes, that will happen.”

Sister Se-rim was also next to me before I knew it.

“Let’s go, Dabin.”

Between older sister Yoon and older sister Se-rim, I shouted the last number loudly.

“Three!”

We rushed out the door.

“Escape!”

“Escape from the apartment!”

Haewon and Daju cheer.

“Now that I go out that door, it’s reality, right?”

“Yeah. Just go out right away.”

Meanwhile, Yebin hides behind me and holds on to the hem of my clothes.

“Reality… … . I’m seeing it for the first time.”

Because Yebin was originally a program trapped inside a computer.

This might be the first time I’ve seen reality for myself.

He looks like a kid who’s coming to daycare for the first time, so he’s kind of cute.

“Just be careful and you’ll be fine.”

Getting out of the elevator was completely normal.

The change happened the moment everyone stepped onto the first floor.

!@$%#^$&

!@$%

@#%$

@

The space was rippling.

“Brother. Just now?”

“Dabin, didn’t something just happen?”

“Yes, I felt that too.”

“What is this now?”

Dan grumbles in a way that belies his large size and fright.

“Do I have to drive in volcanic ash again?”

“It’s noisy, take this.”

“Mr. Robin?”

Robin threw something at Dan, but I couldn’t see what it was.

“Mr. Robin? What did you just throw?”

“Just a random symbol card. It’s useful for communicating with speakers of different languages. Rico, take it too.”

“Wow!”

Bam.

A small booklet was also held in Rico’s hand.

“But why is this necessary?”

“We’re going to lose communication soon.”

“Yes!?”

“Rico, can you write English?”

“Yes.”

” Mr. Dan too.”

“That’s true, but I suddenly don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh my. Until now, how could we communicate as if we were speaking the same language?”

I felt like I suddenly realized that I had been missing something.

The original survivors all spoke Korean, so they could communicate, but that wasn’t the case with Robin and his group who joined in the middle.

The three people who speak different languages are Robin, Dan, and Rico.

It was thanks to the special environment inside the apartment that I was able to communicate normally with people with whom I would not have been able to communicate normally.

I walked quickly towards Robin.

“Mr. Robin. Can I see it too?”

“Yes. Let me just take a quick look.”

Robin takes out another booklet and shows it to me.

I thought you were just standing still in the elevator earlier, but you were making something like this.

“The reason we can communicate is thanks to the memes in the apartment, right? ”

“Yes. You saw it exactly.”

“Now that we’re out of the apartment, we won’t be able to communicate with each other. That’s why I made this.”

I quickly flipped through the booklet to check the contents.

The paper has a variety of symbols drawn in large letters, so that simple communication can be achieved just by showing them.

It contains everything from simple symbols like O and X to pictographic symbols that are as free from cultural bias as possible.

“This is the standard format used by the Foundation. It is useful not only for communicating with people of different language backgrounds, but also for communicating with unfamiliar extraterrestrial intelligences. ”

Robin asks, this time a little hesitantly.

“It seems like the apartment will disappear soon… … . Is that right?”

“Yes.”

That’s exactly what he said.

The apartment did its job.

All that’s left is for it to disappear on its own.

I figured this out when I was a librarian, but it’s surprising that Robin knows this too.

“How does Mr. Robin know everything?”

“Just a feeling. I’ve been at the foundation for that long.”

“… … That’s amazing.”

“It’s too early to be surprised.”

“What are you two talking about?”

I was startled when Sister Se-rim suddenly barged in.

“That’s right. Please explain it to us too.”

“What? Why are you suddenly saying we can’t communicate?”

Daju and Seok Hyeon-min also join.

“Actually… … .”

There was more to explain than I thought.

First things first.

“The apartment will disappear soon.”

“What?”

“It doesn’t disappear that quickly, so you can prepare slowly.”

The apartment has finished its role in the story.

A base where all characters are gathered in one place and left to carry out certain tasks.

It was a temporary space that was left just for that purpose, so now it’s time for it to disappear.

And the second one.

“Now I won’t be able to communicate with people from other countries. Actually, this was normal, but thanks to the ‘memes’ in the apartment, I was able to communicate.”

Daju nods.

“Ah… … . So that’s why you gave me something like a flashcard earlier… … .”

“Yes. And I think it would be good for other people to know what’s written on the card in advance. It’s still a good time to talk. ”

“Okay. Let’s do that.”

As I say this, Heo Yun proceeds with the work skillfully.

“Mr. Robin, can we see that card too?”

“Of course.”

Wait a moment.

Other people are passing the cards around to each other to get a rough idea of what they mean.

“Get ready slowly, and when you’re done, go out right away.”

“Yes, sister.”

!@!@$%^$&

!@$*((%

@#%$

((&*)*^)&&&)

Meanwhile, the space starts to ripple again.

Not only the ripples, but this time there was also noise.

A faint siren sound.

The sound of a walkie-talkie.

The sound of a man mumbling.

“Let me say it again.”

It was a message from the foundation.

“Let’s all look up at the moon tonight.”

Words are listed.

moon.

Look up.

Apricot colored mirror.

A severed ankle.

It’s thin.

Although words seem to be arranged according to certain grammatical rules, there are also occasional sentences that are ungrammatical.

Silent but deadly phrases that work in the human subconscious.

The average person suffers from depression and paranoia,

A mentally unstable person will immediately feel suicidal just by hearing it.

This probably causes thousands of people to take their own lives in Korea alone.

The number of people dying worldwide is uncountable.

As the news comes out, cracks start to appear in our daily lives.

Group auditory hallucinations that cannot be scientifically explained.

While people are in confusion, the weakest part, the unconscious, is slowly being eaten away.

It was the beginning of the Foundation’s plan to exterminate humanity.

I repeated the thought.

A mentally unstable person will immediately feel suicidal just by hearing this… … .

A mentally unstable person… … .

The first thing that came to my mind was Heo Yun.

“Sister Yoon!”

“Huh? Dabin?”

“Cover your ears. Quickly!”

!@***&^%$

@@#%

#@^$

$^^%

As the space becomes more turbulent, the boundary between the apartment and reality becomes blurred.

The noise is getting louder.

There was no time to wait for my sister to act on her own.

I quickly flew up and grabbed Heo Yun’s ears tightly with both hands.