Episode 16
Suddenly, a sense of reality that had been distant from me filled my lungs.
“This is driving me crazy.”
Seriously, I thought I was going crazy.
Whether it was President Yoon bursting into tears or Dr. Ha Seong-yoon speaking to him, he felt a nauseating sensation as if he would go crazy at any moment from the sudden surge of reality that came crashing down on him.
It was like the seasickness of someone who had been on a boat for a long time, or someone who couldn’t adapt to a roller coaster.
The sense of reality that came crashing down on me with a thud pressed harder on my chest than before, and I almost collapsed from my seat without even being able to gasp.
Jeong In-ho grabbed the arm of Dr. Ha Seong-yoon, who had approached him without even knowing what he was talking about.
It was just an instinctive action, like running away from a monster.
“… Mr. Jeong In-ho.”
“…I don’t know.”
“Mr. Jeong In-ho, you need to move. I can’t hear any noise from over there.”
“I don’t know, I don’t know.”
He shook his head at Dr. Ha Seong-yoon’s words.
I didn’t need someone to tell me what to do, I needed someone to take over my terrible sense of reality.
I wanted someone to take away this f*cking, gut-wrenching sense of reality.
“I didn’t mean to leave like that. I did something stupid.”
“… Calm down, I know you’re really confused right now.”
“What would you do if you knew, damn it. I, no, I, should have just stayed still… .”
I was out of breath.
It wasn’t that I had lived a smooth life, nor did I love the ordinary too much, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that things were gradually getting bigger.
Even though I only witnessed a piece of meat.
Yeah, I just ran into a chunk of meat.
I wasn’t the monster that killed them, nor was I the one whose limbs were torn off by the monster. I was just a lump of meat that didn’t move or move. It was even more painful and my legs were shaking because I didn’t want to see it.
Of course, Jeong In-ho himself didn’t know that.
But yeah, yeah. Still, I have to figure out what to do next. I have to tell these people what I think.
If I could speak like those extra witnesses who passed by in the movies I saw, I too would be able to escape this play.
Of course, he knew very well that there was no way that could happen, but he consoled himself with such baseless thoughts and slowly opened his mouth.
I’m cleaning out the pockets of my head once again.
Being weird is a weakness, and revealing weakness means losing the information battle.
“… Yeah, yeah. So… .”
He didn’t want to be weak… .
“… First, let’s find the remaining two.”
“… … .”
“There must be someone, someone like Director Lee Jae-heon or Employee Kwon Yeon-hee.”
Even Jeong In-ho himself could not know what form that ‘existence’ actually meant.
Clearly, my reason was thinking about what to do after collecting their bodies, but my emotions did not follow suit.
Jeong In-ho walked forward, hoping that they would stay alive.
“… Boss, wake up. It’s dangerous to be alone.”
“… But Mina…”
“I can come back and help you out as much as I want. But if President Garam gets seriously hurt, who will help Kang Min-ah?”
“… … .”
President Yoon, who had been shedding tears and unable to even scream, quietly got up from his seat, seemingly accepting Dr. Ha Seong-yoon’s persuasion.
His pupils were empty and he couldn’t even close his mouth as he gasped for breath, but he didn’t seem stupid enough to deny reality.
After all, President Yoon Garam had only recently met these people.
Rather, Jeong In-ho himself, who should be crying, couldn’t even cry right away, so he got angry at her for being useless.
But I couldn’t reveal it.
‘That’s the right reaction. It’s not something I should be upset about. That’s stupid… .’
Yeah, isn’t it a human reaction to shed tears at the death of someone you just became close with?
If you feel jealous or frustrated and get angry about it, it means you are lacking as a human being.
Jeong In-ho guessed that he was at his limit. His legs were aching from running for a long time, and his hand holding the monkey wrench was sore every time he blew up a monster.
My body was already tired, so it was only natural that I would feel out of breath and lose my temper after witnessing the deaths of my close friends.
But when we checked the place we had caught, he felt his dazed mind become clearer.
“…ah.”
There were only bloodstains everywhere in their place, but no corpses were visible.
“…There’s no body.”
“doesn’t exist.”
“then….”
then,
If you’re really, really lucky…
“… Did he escape alive?”
Jeong In-ho felt that his voice had improved significantly. Of course, a man-eating monster might have appeared and swallowed the two of them, but I don’t know.
Considering that the bodies of Supervisor Kang Min-ah and Intern Noh Yeon-seok were left intact, the probability of that happening seemed low.
“wait a minute.”
Click.
Dr. Ha Seong-yoon, who was walking around the darkened surroundings with a lighter on, nodded.
“…there are traces of escape.”
“Oh, where…! Where?”
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President Yoon Ga-ram, who had been staring at his seat with his head bowed, shouted in a louder voice.
She lowered her voice as if she immediately remembered the possibility of a monster nearby, but there was no denying that her appearance had improved since before.
As President Yoon staggered toward the place where Dr. Ha Seong-yoon was shining his lighter, Jeong In-ho, who had been holding his breath for a moment due to his pounding heart, also moved his feet.
He too needed hope that things would get better than they were now.
As the two approached Dr. Ha Seong-yoon, he pointed to the floor and said.
“Here, do you see the bloodstain?”
“Bloodstains… .”
“It continues from here to the inside.”
It was a trace that I wouldn’t normally be happy about, but at least in the current situation, I couldn’t be more pleased.
They were kind enough to suggest where they should move.
Jeong In-ho, who felt his heart sink a little, noticed something different from before.
“… There are footprints, although they are covered by strange traces.”
“Are there any footprints?”
“Yes, so… .”
It was a blessing.
“At least you weren’t dragged away.”
If you were dragged by a monster, there would be no way that these footprints would be so regular.
The two survivors clearly moved their feet and ran away, and it seemed that the monster was chasing them and leaving traces behind them.
President Yoon Ga-ram also nodded at Jeong In-ho’s guess.
“He might be alive, right?”
Her expression was still precarious, but perhaps it was the thought that Kwon Yeon-hee might still be alive that made her look much better than before.
There was a lively sparkle in his eyes.
“I guess we should get moving. It’s good to see the possibility, but the situation isn’t all that safe… .”
“Yes, I must go after him right away.”
Jeong In-ho nodded and quickly moved his legs again.
The legs that had been staggering for a moment soon straightened up and ran as fast as before.
He thought as he ran along the trail.
‘Neither of them were in good condition.’
Lee Jae-heon’s body was so tattered that it was surprising that he was able to move and run normally, and Kwon Sa-won looked to be at a physical disadvantage due to his small size.
Even when running away from the company, Kwon Yeon-hee was right in front of Manager Kang Min-ah.
She was slow at running and her grip strength and agility were below average.
Considering that he didn’t exercise regularly, his endurance would have been weak, so if he had been chased by a monster, we couldn’t be very optimistic.
Besides, there were other problems as well.
‘The view won’t be clear.’
There are more than one or two strange things in this world, but the one that comes to mind right away is the sky above my head.
Normally, when morning turns to night, the sky would turn red with the sunset, but in this world, there was no such thing, and the sky just calmly lost its light.
Since there was no moon or stars visible in the sky, this meant that visibility was not possible without a separate light source.
However, it seemed difficult to expect the streetlights that we could easily see in such a twisted park, so the only light source left was the lighter we had.
but….
‘The group here only had one lighter.’
Jeong In-ho bit the flesh inside his mouth. He felt blood leaking out, but he didn’t have the luxury of caring about something this spicy.
Their group had a total of three lighters, and the people who had them were Lee Jae-heon, Ha Seong-yoon, and Jeong In-ho himself.
With two of them leaving the other four, naturally there was only one lighter they could share.
It’s already dark and visibility is poor.
Chief Lee Jae-heon, who had a lighter and could fight monsters, would not have been able to exert his strength properly since his body was like a rag.
That’s how Supervisor Kang Min-ah and Intern Noh Yeon-seok died.
“… Phew.”
Jeong In-ho exhaled and tried to clear his head.
Sad, scared, anxious… .
All sorts of negative and sticky emotions were churning through my insides, but I had no time to give in to them.
There could be nothing more self-destructive than delaying the situation and discovering someone’s body again.
It was extremely dark outside and I couldn’t see my surroundings properly, but surprisingly, it wasn’t difficult to keep up with the two people.
It wasn’t just because of the bloodstain that appeared to have been shed by one of them.
Dr. Ha Seong-yoon said, pointing to one side.
“Over there, over there right now…!”
He couldn’t finish his words because he was out of breath, but that was enough.
Jeong In-ho was able to discover a fire burning the bushes in the direction he pointed.
Yeah, I mean the fire.
“… … .”
… flames?
‘Why?’
Jeong In-ho felt his heart stop beating as the chill ran up his spine.
Clearly, before the group split up, Chief Lee Jae-heon said that even a small lighter has its limits in lighting something on fire.
So, he said that to light a fire, you need to start a fire with dry paper and then transfer it to a piece of wood.
But how did you create such a huge fire while running away from a monster?
‘It’s impossible.’
Jeong In-ho swallowed his choked breath.
It would have been different if the place we just left was already on fire, but it seemed like they had only recently fled, so there was no way they could have started a fire this big.
In particular, Director Lee Jae-heon’s lighter was a luxury brand that most smokers would know about.
To light a fire, you first had to open the lid, then turn the turntable on the side. Like most high-end lighters, it probably had at least one safety device, but it was a hassle to light a lighter, so it couldn’t have been easy to light raw materials.
As Jeong In-ho thought about that, he remembered the vine wrapped around Manager Lee Jae-heon’s ankle when he left the flower shop with the two people next to him.
It burned in an instant and melted his ankles.
“…ah.”
Jeong In-ho’s head rolled quickly.
A red and blue vine with a plant-like theme. A monster wearing a vine mask was seen in a flower shop. A flower shop. Connected to a park. Grows plants. Plants. Park. And the monster that made the four remaining members see blood exists in this park.
Could that monster be a plant? What is causing this fire? If so, then, then… .
“… … .”
At one point in the park, filled with trees ablaze with brilliant colors, Jeong In-ho finally stopped.
I feel like my heart is being ripped out of my chest.
“…ah.”
“Ah, uh… .”
“… … .”
He couldn’t move anymore.
“… Manager.”
Chief Lee Jae-heon comes into view.
I saw a monster that looked like it was covered in green algae, squeezing Chief Lee Jae-heon’s neck with the fang-filled vines it had pulled out of its body, and savoring his blood.
It was burning with a terrible color, as if it had been sprinkled with strong alcohol and then lit.
“Chief… .”
“… Ugh, ugh.”
“… … .”
Chief Lee Jae-heon was in a more dire state than Jeong In-ho had expected.
Half of his body was burned black, perhaps because he was face to face with the monster, and his arm was crushed because he was blocking the numerous teeth protruding from the monster’s face with his arm.
Moreover, for some reason, his left eye was empty and bleeding bright red blood.
The leg, which was already limping, was twisted in a strange way and was not functioning properly, and one side of the head was crushed as if it had been hit by a nailed club.
Meanwhile, countless teeth resembling fishhooks dug into his neck.
“Ugh, ugh. Ugh… .”
“… … .”
“… Ugh, huh.”
Cool,
Chief Lee Jae-heon spat out blood.
He meets my gaze.
“Hey, ah.”
The voice, with its wetness rising, was torn into tens of thousands of pieces.
“Hey, sir, sir.”
“… … .”
“… Si, heebal. This, do, run away. Kids, this is…”
Bam.
He hit the pipe that fell to the floor with his twisted leg.
The pipe was covered in bright red blood that could not be determined to be that of a monster or a human, and although it was sunken and could not roll any further, it moved at Jaeheon Lee’s shallow kick and came closer to us.
After confirming this, he burst into tears again, spitting out blood and biting his lips.
“… Come here.”
Jeong In-ho had a gut feeling about it.
ah.
“… … .”
I’m not asking you to save my life.
Instead of dying, it means to help someone who is not here right now. It means to save those who ran away, leaving Jaeheon Lee behind.
In the end, you had no intention of surviving.
“… Manager… .”
“Hey, Harley.”
“Wait a minute, no, wait.”
“… … .”
“why….”
Lee Jae-heon did not say anything more, or could not.
However, I grabbed the strange fanged vine with both hands as it steadily spit out blood from its mouth and dug into my neck.
and.
“Cough, ugh.”
I pressed hard to keep it from slipping out of my throat.
The monster squeezed Lee Jae-heon’s body without even looking at us, as if it was very happy about it, and naturally, he couldn’t breathe properly.
A thud, a horrible, cruel sound engulfs us and makes us take a step back.
The flames that were stuck to his shirt burned the fabric and scorched his skin. The dark, melted skin was once again ignited by the flames, but even so, Jaeheon Lee did not let go of the vines that were holding his neck.
Thud, thud.
The blood that has probably led us until now is flowing once again.
“…ah.”
The arm holding the vine, the wound on that arm, was something Jeong In-ho had seen over the weekend.
Through his charred shirt, he can see the long scar he had been hiding. There are shards of glass stuck in his wrists, as if he had been stabbed in the wrist.
The wounds on his arms were so clean that it was hard to believe they were scratches from nails, and there were lumpy, hardened patches of blood on his wrists.
“… … .”
Only then was Jeong In-ho able to look into Director Lee Jae-heon’s eyes.
Clearly the common dark brown eyes, but with a gaze that resembled gray. Colorless, calm, and composed, eyes that did not seem to belong to a living person at all.
So, he is a person who would rather be called an inanimate object.
Yeah, actually I’ve known about it for a long time.
“…let’s move.”
“… What, what are you doing? I need to help you…!”
“It’s no use.”
He didn’t want to live.
“… It’s no use… .”
He must have had those eyes even in such a terrible wound because he didn’t want to live.
Jeong In-ho moved his feet, panting shallowly.
His gaze was directed at the pipe in front of me, not at Director Lee Jae-heon, and he bent down, putting strength into his lips that he had tried to bite.
The pipe that Chief Lee Jae-heon had rolled had all sorts of scratches, as if it had been scratched by glass or nails, and was dark red with blood.
Jeong In-ho held his breath at the slippery sensation and bit the flesh inside his mouth once more before picking up the pipe and holding it in his hand.
As I met Director Lee Jae-heon’s gaze,
“… … .”
… he was smiling.
That son of a bitch.
