Episode 85
It was a trap that no one would notice unless they looked at the ground.
Like a trap to catch an animal.
* * *
Lee Jae-heon muttered to himself as he watched Chief Kang being weakly led by his hand.
‘Wow.’
We almost all died together, even though it was a plan or something.
He tried to calm his heart, which was pounding so hard it felt like it was pounding against his ribs, and approached the students. It seemed that Lee Jae-heon was not the only one who was flustered by Chief Kang’s sudden behavior, as the siblings were looking at him worriedly from the tree they had climbed.
The first to speak was student Park Da-hoon.
“Are you okay, sister… No, why is your health…?”
Bam.
Park Da-young, who was pulling out her younger brother’s head, shouted softly.
“Sister…! Mister!”
“Oh my god, you crazy bastard…!”
“Hey, hey, don’t come down. Stay right there.”
Chief Kang, who was being dragged along while holding hands, was Chief Kang, but no matter how much I thought about it, the Park siblings were also targets of attention. If you think about the fact that even those common sibling-like appearances were made up.
Lee Jae-heon looked back at Kang Min-ah and asked.
“Manager Kang, wouldn’t it be better for you to go up too since the weather is like this? I’ll help you…”
“What is this?”
“…what?”
“Why, why did the manager, just now… .”
A trembling voice and shaking gaze.
Her face, illuminated by the torch, was a faint crimson hue, but if it had been under ordinary fluorescent lighting, her skin would have clearly turned pale. She was extremely confused.
Lee Jae-heon blinked once and suddenly remembered.
‘… Ah, right.’
Originally, it was not easy to come across traps like this in this world.
It felt very pitiful that the world was inhabited by seeds that couldn’t get used to pain, but when I saw Chief Kang’s cold, numb hands, it didn’t seem like something to be taken lightly. Well, to these chicks, it was almost like seeing a ghost.
Lee Jae-heon tried hard to shake off his frustration and put on the same indifferent expression he had before. It was the same face he had shown in front of the main character, the doctor, and detective Hong Kyung-joon.
It’s about time I let them know my settings.
“… Chief Kang.”
“Yes, yes, sir.”
“I’ll tell you in advance, it’s not a ghost or anything.”
“… … .”
Those listening to him froze for a moment, perhaps because his expression and tone had changed, but Lee Jae-heon acted as if he didn’t even notice that. He tried his best to look absent-minded.
“It’s not a ghost… Yes, it’s similar to the monsters we’ve seen so far.”
“… a monster.”
“Maybe Ms. Kang Min-ah saw me, but it seems she was momentarily possessed by the monster.”
After a brief pause in his speech,
“…There are monsters like that too.”
It happened again.
‘I have to hint that I am already possessed.’
You could say it’s a kind of bait.
The protagonist or the doctor would have already figured out that his abnormal condition was somewhat related to the green algae monster. Of course, anyone could make this kind of inference, but with his mental power as low as it was now, he would not have been able to make even such a basic inference.
So, by now, you should have shown something meaningful. Even if you don’t feel it right now, later, when you have more time, you can remember and think, ‘Ah, that’s why it was like that.’
‘If you just pretend not to be a little absent-minded when I use honorifics that I haven’t used much recently… .’
Wouldn’t you be able to feel at least a minimal change?
And the way Lee Jae-heon showed them this wasn’t just to let them know that he was in a strange state. It was time to slowly tell them the true nature of the sense of discomfort they had felt from Lee Jae-heon.
Of course, I couldn’t say it out loud, but I could have told you indirectly.
“There’s a flower garden over there. I heard before that there was a flower garden on the outskirts of the park, and there really were a lot of flowers.”
“I’ve heard of it too. That, that place that couples often go to?”
“I don’t know about that, but it seems certain that the flower garden is a transformed place.”
Jaeheon Lee openly revealed his knowledge.
It wasn’t something he found out himself, but information that the main character, Jeong In-ho, obtained by burning his entire body, but since he vaguely remembered the contents of the novel, there was no problem in explaining it.
“Of course, in the past it wasn’t as steep as that.”
Lee Jae-heon said that and looked at the cliff located nearby.
All he could see was the depth he had caught while catching Chief Kang, but he roughly estimated that it was about the depth of a 5th floor apartment building. If he fell, he would die if he was unlucky, and if he was lucky, he would end up broken and shattered.
The ground below the cliff was flat and oval-shaped like an old park, and the various flowers that filled it were enough to dazzle the eyes. If such a terrain existed in the real city, it would have been famous as a tourist attraction.
But this is the other side of the world, and there are monsters inside.
“…I’m probably possessed by the monster inside me.”
It swallowed the person whole.
‘It’s not really the monster’s job to seduce survivors.’
Lee Jae-heon deliberately said something like, “It seems like a monster has possessed you,” in order to connect it to his setting, but in reality, it wasn’t like that. It wasn’t the monster that was calling the survivors and making them fall off the cliff, but those beautiful flowers.
Flowers that emit transparent light like stained glass.
‘I thought it was said that if you drink the blood of fallen survivors, you will shine even more.’
However, he felt like he had seen those shiny things somewhere before.
Large monsters filled the inside of the glass window. Beautiful, thin petals with teeth instead of pistils and stamens, walking towards a man’s side to chew and devour him…
Maybe the flower shop’s.
“… … .”
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…well.
‘I don’t remember very well.’
It was hard to remember exactly where I saw it because I didn’t have the mental and physical space. For now, it seemed like it was okay to leave it like that. That’s what it seemed.
As he paused for a moment, looking at the cliff, Chief Kang, whose patience had run out, spoke first. It was evidence that he had noticed Lee Jae-heon’s blank expression.
“Excuse me, is there a monster over there too?”
“… There will be. Where there are traps like this, there are usually monsters.”
“… … .”
“I was surprised that she called me to a place like that and ran to me, but I was also surprised that Kang Min-ah came all the way here.”
He continued speaking in his characteristically mechanical tone.
“I expected you wouldn’t have gone far.”
And, this was half true.
‘Maybe I overestimated him.’
Lee Jae-heon thought that Kang Min-ah would just be wandering around the middle of the park no matter how hard she ran, but when he came there himself, it wasn’t like that. At least she ran away leaving obvious traces and arrived on time. If they weren’t chicks, it would have been quite a headache.
First of all, the death of Chief Kang, which was not in the plan, meant that the mental state of the other members of the group could not have been sound. Furthermore, the situation became too big to touch the flower garden while the work that had been started was not finished.
‘In conclusion, it’s a good thing we arrived before we fell into the trap.’
Manager Kang, who had been quietly listening to Jaeheon Lee, opened his mouth after moving his lips a few times.
“Well, um… we came to the outskirts of the park.”
“Thanks to that, I was late in finding it.”
“uh….”
She hesitated for a couple of times before asking.
“How did you come here?”
“… … .”
Now it seemed like his head was starting to turn.
‘…If you just give me time, you’ll even find out that I’ve been possessed by a green algae monster.’
Of course, that’s just a setup and not true.
Lee Jae-heon tried to hide his delighted smile inside, and kept his tired and stiff expression on his face. It seemed like the chick still had something to say, so it was polite for an adult to wait.
As expected, Chief Kang muttered, unable to hide his trembling eyes.
“We, we too… we don’t know our way around here. We were wandering around because we didn’t know.”
“… … .”
“I’m sure the manager doesn’t know much about parks either.”
“I don’t know.”
“But how did you find us? No, no, rather… .”
A sigh of relief escapes me.
“…Why do you know that?”
You try reincarnating just one more time, baby chick.
Lee Jae-heon was the one who said something that didn’t fit the mood, but his expression was the same. I couldn’t die and was rolling around in the mud, so it would be natural for me to get annoyed when I see a fluffy chick.
Actually, the only information he had about this world was thanks to the novels he had read in his previous life, so Lee Jae-heon, who had not personally participated in the event, had nothing to say. Of course, he would not say it out loud.
“Why, why… is there a monster… why is it like that? Why do you know that…?”
“… … .”
“Isn’t that something you shouldn’t know? Isn’t it?”
Chief Lee Jae-heon, whom Chief Kang knew, was not a person in a very different situation from their group. Rather, he was more dissatisfied because of his wealthy background, but even so, Lee Jae-heon was revealing more than enough knowledge.
Looking at Chief Kang Min-ah, who was feeling disoriented and confused by the contradiction in the setting, Lee Jae-heon answered while maintaining his emotions.
“… It just seemed like it would be like that.”
“…aha?”
“And I knew you wouldn’t believe me.”
He blinked once and continued speaking.
“But, Kang Min-ah.”
“… … .”
“Can we talk about this a little later?”
“uh….”
“If you’re still curious… Okay, you can ask Manager Jeong later. Or when everyone is gathered.”
Of course, when that time comes, I won’t be thinking about having a conversation like this.
Lee Jae-heon, who had said so, changed his face completely, with the same tone and expression as usual. He felt that Chief Kang, who was standing before his eyes, was startled by the rapid change, but he did not stop talking.
A low voice echoed through the narrow space barely lit by a torch.
“I met Manager Jeong before coming here. He was running towards the doctor with Staff Kwon… As far as I know, our intern ran away before him.”
“… … .”
“I thought Yeonseok would be here, but I guess not?”
There was a weariness in those words that could not be hidden.
‘Oh, it’s the reset angle.’
The best option I could think of right now was to hope that the protagonist would handle things a little better.
Actually, things would have been more likely to work out after a reset, but apart from that, dying was tiring. If anything, it would have been nice if the plan had been completed without anyone dying.
Only then did Chief Kang understand what Jaeheon Lee was saying and opened his mouth, looking pale and ashamed.
“… Hey, Yeonseok… Haven’t you seen it?”
“I left the latest because I was busy chasing those four-legged monsters.”
“Ah, no, why are you doing that alone? No, that’s not it. The curb… .”
“Well then, I’ll go look it up.”
“…yes?”
Answered Manager Kang’s question.
“If you stay somewhere, I can come find you right away.”
Those weren’t empty words.
It wouldn’t be that hard to find and chase the traces left by the chicks, and if they were alive, Intern Noh Yeon-seok wouldn’t have panicked and run away like Manager Kang. If they were hiding somewhere, they could have been found before daybreak.
Or maybe I was dragged away by some unknown monster.
‘Besides, we also need to see how the group of survivors on the other side moves.’
It’s true that we became a team as expected.
As the probability of a reset increased, the information about the other group of survivors became even more important. Given Detective Hong Kyung-joon’s nature, he would not be able to stay still in this chaos, so he had to look at it and figure out the necessary route.
However, Chief Kang, who did not know Lee Jae-heon’s true intentions, shook his head slightly.
“Ah, no… I can’t, sir.”
“What’s wrong with that? That’s all insubordination.”
“Mom, don’t change the subject. Don’t act so casual, really…!”
“… … .”
‘Lee Jae-heon’, who had become a light-hearted man in an instant, felt silently sad. His personality had changed a bit after recalling his past life, but his previous personality had not disappeared.
For a moment, he made a blank expression, forgetting the tiredness that had been faintly on his face.
“Ah, no… Why is Manager Kang talking to me like that… .”
“Don’t act like that, I told you! Please don’t do that!”
“… … .”
Hey, this wasn’t acting… .
‘Is this the mysterious 1st defeat or something?’
Chief Kang, who didn’t know what Jae-heon Lee was thinking, was quite angry and almost grabbed him by the collar and shook him. To be exact, he grabbed his best by the collar, but it felt just as good as grabbing his collar.
“Yeonseok is a grown man too. He can do it on his own. We can all do it!”
“… Chief Kang, calm down first…”
“Why do you keep looking at us like that? Why do you treat us like that? Do you think we’ll all die if the manager doesn’t bleed even for a day? Are we that pathetic?!”
“no….”
When Lee Jae-heon, who was hit hard, was unable to continue speaking, Kang Min-ah began to cry with her face reddened, wondering how she could interpret it.
“… I, I really appreciate you helping us… and I’m sorry, but… .”
“… … .”
“What if you die…?”
I can hear the sound of a snotty nose.
“To the manager, I don’t know what happened… I don’t know why you’re like that, and I don’t know why you’re like that… .”
“… Chief Kang.”
“Oh, if you don’t die, is that not okay? Is it not okay for the manager to not die because of us?”
“What do I have to do to die…?”
“Don’t die, seriously, I think you’ll die like this.”
“… … .”
Shit, I could open a fortune teller’s shop.
‘Isn’t this kid actually a chick…?’
In fact, Lee Jae-heon, who died and came back to life like that, was once again speechless. They say that people who don’t usually get angry are scarier when they do, but this went beyond that level and made his conscience prickle like never before. Why are the words so sharp?
But the timing wasn’t good to back down.
‘Rather, it’s an opportunity.’
If he had intended to earn your trust with proper affection, he would have ended it with a touching hug, but life isn’t that easy, chick.
‘Besides… it seems like I already have a feel for the setting.’
You just said, ‘I don’t even know what happened.’
The sentence itself means that he doesn’t know, but if you look at the following words, ‘I don’t know why that is, or why I know that,’ it means that he has a rough idea. Chief Kang had already instinctively understood and accepted the setting that Lee Jae-heon had told Jeong In-ho and the doctor.
Then, the first layer of ground cover would have been absorbed to some extent, and the Park siblings who were listening to the story from the tree would have also understood the situation with their characteristically quick wit… .
‘It’s just a matter of time before the first setting is released.’
I thought it would be most appropriate when the sun was out and everyone was gathered. Now, I could comfortably proceed with the setting of ‘being possessed by a green algae monster and becoming an enemy’.
Lee Jae-heon laughed and Kang Min-ah said.
“Don’t go.”
He answered it.
“Manager Kang does what Manager Kang can do.”
“… … .”
“I have to do what I can, right?”
“… Manager.”
“say it.”
“sorry.”
“… … .”
She was still crying.
“sorry….”
