Chapter 21

Chapter 21. Shopping! Warehouse Club! (1)

I think I passed out for a moment.

Everything around me was red, and my eyes stung.

-Mr. Seo Do-un, can you hear me?

Cha Si-eon’s voice rang from the smartwatch.

When I moved my head to answer, something warm flowed down.

It was my blood.

-Answer me, Mr. Seo Do-un!

I wanted to answer, but my voice would not come out.

The blood covering my face was warm.

It felt like I was submerged in a bathtub.

---

Ten days earlier.

It was my third day as a Bureau agent.

“Special Zones are classified into four types.”

I was receiving private tutoring from Cha Si-eon in a small training room.

“This classification is based on the Special Zone’s form, nature, and operating principle. For reference, 「Railway Station Where the Siren Sounds」 and 「Hospital That Hunts Humans」 both belong to Type 1.”

He had told me to ask questions whenever I had them, so I shot my hand up.

“Who named the Special Zones?”

“They were decided through meetings.”

“Ah…….”

Honestly, that was really lame.

The Special Zones were one thing, but even boss mob names like 「Moving Gun」.

If they were going to name them anyway, would it not be better to make them a little classier?

“We use names that are as intuitive as possible so citizens can easily identify the targets.”

I had only been thinking it, but Cha Si-eon went out of his way to add an explanation.

It was not exactly kindness. His tone was arrogant, as if he were pointing out my ignorance.

What am I supposed to do with that personality…….

“Type 1 Special Zones are the most common, with sixteen confirmed cases. They are characterized by elaborate structures resembling reality and clear aggression, and their current exploration rate is 52%.”

“What is the exploration rate?”

“It refers to the properties of a Special Zone and the response methods the Bureau has uncovered. This includes escape routes, the traits and patterns of dangerous entities, and methods of interaction with neutral entities.”

I see.

Fifty-two percent was kind of ambiguous, though.

“Type 2 Special Zones appear to resemble reality at first glance, but dreamlike distortions occur within them. Their defining trait is a seductive atmosphere, and people who enter them feel an impulse to remain in that space. There are twelve Type 2 Special Zones in total, with representative examples including 「Rainbow Cake Shop」 and 「Alien Slaughterhouse」. The current exploration rate is 39%.”

Wait a second. Did he not say they tried to make Special Zone names as intuitive as possible?

But the name was 「Alien Slaughterhouse」? Seriously?

“Type 3 Special Zones are Special Zones that evoke the afterlife or a religious ideal realm. As a result, people are often overwhelmed by awe or fear the moment they enter. There are eight in total, including 「Palace of Dead Kings」 and 「Messiah’s Dining Hall」. They are the most dangerous type of Special Zone, and their exploration rate is only 11%.”

This was getting better and better.

If it was the afterlife, did that mean things like heaven or hell came out?

“Lastly, Type 4 Special Zones.”

Gulp-

As the difficulty grew more atrocious by the moment, I swallowed dryly.

But the explanation that followed was oddly hollow.

“Type 4 remains unknown.”

“Unknown?”

“Yes. Almost nothing is known about Type 4 Special Zones. Unlike other Special Zones, they do not draw in citizens either, so they are only presumed to be dormant.”

“Then how do you know they exist and classify them?”

I asked the obvious question.

But Cha Si-eon looked at me, then answered a beat late.

“The fallen agent mentioned previously was once drawn into a Type 4 Special Zone.”

The fallen agent.

He meant the person who had been dragged into Special Zones more than twenty times.

“That was the first and last time the existence of a Type 4 Special Zone was confirmed. According to the agent’s testimony at the time, the Type 4 Special Zone was ‘a columbarium so vast its end could not be seen.’”

Wow. My vision went dark all over again.

As if dreams were not enough, there were pseudo-heavens and pseudo-hells.

And a columbarium on an absurd scale, confirmed exactly once.

Even worse, 「Railway Station Where the Siren Sounds」 and 「Hospital That Hunts Humans」, the places where I had nearly died, were apparently among the ordinary ones.

While lamenting the cruelty of the world, I suddenly remembered something.

Come to think of it, there was something I needed to check about 「Railway Station Where the Siren Sounds」.

“Have you ever been to Yongsan Station?”

When I raised my hand and asked, Cha Si-eon looked at me.

But this bastard had a habit, did he not?

When a question was inconvenient, he did not answer right away. He stalled.

“The internal structure of Yongsan Station and 「Railway Station Where the Siren Sounds」 was identical. Did you not know?”

“We know.”

“Then do you know there was a bombing in that area?”

“I know.”

When I asked again, Cha Si-eon finally answered.

As expected, the Bureau had already grasped it.

I was not the only one who thought it was strange.

I chewed over this coincidental situation, then carefully opened my mouth.

“Could Special Zones perhaps be something made by the victims of those places……”

“There is no possibility of that.”

But Cha Si-eon’s immediate answer cut my words clean off.

“Special Zones are phenomena that require scientific investigation, not matters to which one should attach superstitious imagination. Such a connection is not only artificial, but also an insult to the victims.”

……Ugh, I had no rebuttal.

Cha Si-eon’s cold point hit me pretty hard.

So I closed my mouth awkwardly, and Cha Si-eon added coldly.

“The facts currently confirmed are only these three: Type 1 Special Zones are imitating specific spaces; the subjects of that imitation are places that suffered great damage during wartime; and many war-symbolizing dangerous objects exist in Type 1 Special Zones.”

“……That much means there is a connection, does it not?”

No, this was blatant setup.

If they did not pay it off, it would become disastrous foreshadowing!

The editor inside me shouted in my heart.

But the Bureau’s public servant did not listen.

“We will leave the possibility open, but we cannot conclude as much.”

Wow. So this was how thorough one had to be to work for the state…….

When I lost my words, that rigid public servant added,

“Separately, it is true that Type 1 Special Zones contain many war-related dangerous entities. Therefore, if you are dragged into such a Special Zone, it would not be much of a stretch to consider yourself dragged onto a battlefield.”

“Are you cursing me?”

“It is advice.”

When I snapped and asked back, Cha Si-eon answered calmly.

So I thought he seemed like a psychopath.

But looking back on it, Cha Si-eon’s words, surprisingly, had not been wrong about anything.

---

And this morning, my thirteenth day since entering the Bureau.

At that point, I was still going through an ordinary routine.

“Why is a young person’s spine like this? Did your company not buy you a desk? Do you work lying on the floor?”

A man in a white coat scolded me while displaying an image of my spine on the monitor.

He did not know anything.

Our boss bought employees good desks and good computers.

That way, he could keep us sitting for ages and make us work.

But if I said that now, I would be the only one getting scolded, right?

“Mind your posture and exercise. You don’t need to be beasts like the agents here, but if you go on like this, you’ll suffer when you’re older.”

“Haha, yes…….”

The name of the man scolding me with that bleak, unsympathetic face was Kim U-in.

Every time I saw him, he had a lollipop in his mouth like a cigarette, so I could not tell whether he was trying to quit smoking or just liked sweets.

He was the Bureau doctor currently checking my physical health, mental health, contamination level, and so on every three days.

Kim U-in rolled the candy in his mouth with a clicking sound and asked,

“Last time, you said you were worried about being dragged back into a Special Zone. How are you today?”

“I’m doing all right.”

I answered comfortably.

In truth, until a few days ago, I had been suffering from considerable emotional instability.

The day I was dragged into 「Hospital That Hunts Humans」 had been exactly the tenth day after I returned home.

So I had been tense, wondering whether something would happen on the tenth day again.

But that day passed without incident, and in a good way, some of the tension went out of me.

“I’ve decided to think about it less. I can’t predict it anyway, and it might pass without any trouble like this.”

“That is a good mental-health posture. Your contamination level is still normal, so we will monitor you for just one more week. If there are no abnormalities, you should be cleared to go out starting next week.”

Going out? That was welcome news if I had ever heard any.

Feeling happy for the first time in a while, I left the examination room.

But the moment I opened the examination room door, the space changed.

At the suddenly altered air, the hair all over my body stood on end.

But I had no time to look around.

-Seo Do-un, get down!

Along with Cha Si-eon’s shout, something struck my head.

BANG—!

It was a magnificent headshot.

---

And now.

-Mr. Seo Do-un!

I wanted to fall asleep like this.

But it was so noisy that all my sleep fled.

I moved my arm and dragged it up beside my face.

Then I barely whispered into the watch.

“I can hear you.”

-……Can you move?

“Yes.”

I was still dazed, so I answered briefly.

In truth, I did not know whether I could move. I would find out if I tried.

-Then do not stand. Crawl out of your current position. Roll to your right, to two o’clock relative to your head. Do not raise your head. Move.

I rolled as instructed.

Only after I was lying face-down did I realize that I had been lying flat on my back.

Blood had gotten into my eyes and my vision was a mess, but I crawled for now.

Then something flew rapidly over me.

-Stop there and sit up. We will deal with the bleeding now. The bleeding site is behind your left temple. In the lower right pocket of your vest, there is a hemostatic agent, bandage, and painkiller.

Following Cha Si-eon’s instructions, I searched the vest I was wearing and took out the first-aid supplies.

I sprayed the hemostatic agent around the hole near my left temple and wrapped the bandage around and around it.

I also tossed the painkiller into my mouth, chewed it, and swallowed.

As I did, my mind gradually returned.

I had remained dazed as if drunk on sleep, but now it finally felt as though I had woken up.

-How is your condition?

“I think I’m all right.”

Maybe it was because of the medicine, but my body was more or less fine.

My mood, however, was the worst.

Ha, where am I this time?

Covered in sticky blood, I looked around.

A high ceiling with all the pipes exposed.

Steel storage racks stretching from floor to ceiling.

And sealed goods packed tightly inside them.

Was this a distribution warehouse?

But there was a sheet of paper attached beneath each item.

As expected of a Special Zone, I could not read the letters on it, but from its shape, I could tell it was a price tag.

This was not a distribution warehouse. It was a warehouse club.

A warehouse club? Could it be that place, of all places…….

As I checked my surroundings and kept sighing heavily, Cha Si-eon asked through the watch.

-Mr. Seo Do-un, do you remember the situation immediately before this?

“I was leaving after receiving medical treatment. I opened the examination room door, and the space changed.”

-That matches what the medical staff witnessed. March 5, 11:12 a.m. Mr. Seo Do-un’s third entry into a Special Zone has been confirmed.

At Cha Si-eon’s confirmation shot, I clenched my teeth.

This made three times.

In the end, it had become an established fact.

As Kwak Jae-gyeom had said, I was a human who kept getting dragged into Special Zones.

When I exhaled another sigh, Cha Si-eon spoke in a low voice.

-Suppress your confusion. Survival comes first right now.

Yes, that was right.

At Cha Si-eon’s cold composure, I cut short my sagging breath and exhaled.

“I’ve calmed down. Where is this?”

-The place you have been dragged into is the Type 1 Special Zone 「Trap-Rigged Warehouse Club」.

“……I can see why you emphasize intuitive naming.”

It was a truly transparent name.

Transparent enough that I could see my future clearly.

I let out a hollow laugh in disbelief and asked back.

“So how do I escape from here?”

-Before that, Mr. Seo Do-un.

“Yes?”

-Congratulations on your official appointment.

“…….”

At the sudden congratulations, I pretended to be surprised, then smiled faintly.

Then, since I could not bear to say it aloud, I answered in my heart.

Thanks, you psychopath…….