Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Representative in the Darkness

It was dark enough to blind me.

The moment I tapped the flashlight button, white light shone straight ahead.

This place was…….

A place with hundreds of windows and doors.

A place with hundreds of windows and doors that absolutely must not be opened without permission.

“Basement fifth floor…….”

It was the parking lot.

B5.

I stared blankly at the large letters written on the wall.

If time could be twisted, then space could be twisted too.

It was only natural.

“Ha…….”

It seemed all the floors had been mixed up. I had wondered if that might be the case.

As expected, the Jaerae Diary advertisement had not mentioned floor information for no reason.

I quickly skimmed through the floor information at the front of the Jaerae Diary.

…

…

…

[3F｜Main Auditorium, Conference Rooms]

[2F｜Main Auditorium, Uri Saenal Daycare Center, Book Bang Ollae, TRE]

[1F｜Lobby, Café Saero, Maze Garden]

…

…

…

The second and third floors had probably been exceptions because they were originally connected through the main auditorium.

Thanks to that, of course, I had mistakenly thought at first that the floor below the second floor might be the first.

In any case, all the floors in this building had been jumbled up, so there was no way to know which floor was where.

That was bad.

But if I tried to find even a slightly positive point in this…….

If I reached the first floor, I could get out.

No, strictly speaking, the possibility that the Labyrinth’s exit was on the first floor had increased.

My intuition told me the exit really was on the first floor.

A Labyrinth was fundamentally made so that people would wander for a long time and suffer.

If the exit had been on some random floor other than the first, we would have wandered long enough even without the floors being mixed.

In other words, precisely because the exit was on the first floor, there was a high chance the floors had been mixed so it would be difficult to find the first floor itself.

Of course, it was not impossible that the Labyrinth had gone beyond mixing up the floors and placed the exit somewhere other than the first floor…….

But honestly, I believed the Labyrinth would not go that far.

Because a Labyrinth was kind.

Difficult, yes, but not difficult enough to make people sit down and give up before even starting.

It would plant a goal for moving forward and hope for going outside in us.

It would pull us from the front and push us from behind so that we survived longer and longer, wandered farther and farther, and wandered more and more.

That was the Labyrinth’s way.

Because a Labyrinth was merciless.

Of course, that was not the only reason.

A Labyrinth respected ‘doors.’

‘……The third-years have the mouth-shaped mask. We have confirmed that there are masks in charge of each of the three grades. These masks do not attack teachers first, and they do not seem to enter the faculty office…….’

For example, at Seonghwa High School, which, like this Jaerae Building, had become a Labyrinth as a single building, the basic mask monsters could not cross the threshold of the faculty office.

A door was something that separated one space from another.

Once one crossed a door, that place became a completely different world from before.

At least, was that not what we had agreed upon and believed?

Even if the cement floor was the same, if one crossed this threshold, it was a corridor. If one crossed that threshold, it was an office.

A Labyrinth incorporated precisely those rules of ‘doors’ into the Labyrinth’s rules.

In other words, if one crossed through the first-floor door that had been considered Jaerae Building’s entrance even before Labyrinthization, there was a high chance of going out into the world outside the Labyrinth.

Of course, not every Labyrinth took the form of a closed building like this place.

Some Labyrinth exits had no doors.

Perhaps that was why.

Even after coming out, it did not feel as if I had come out.

“…….”

I shook my head to clear away idle thoughts.

I did not step forward rashly, but carefully looked around.

An underground space where not a single ray of light could enter naturally.

Even though the power was out, the atmosphere itself was different from the aboveground floors where light came in through the windows.

The cool yet damp air unique to an underground parking lot seemed to seep into my clothes, and the feeling was strangely irritating.

“Urk, ugh…….”

At that moment, a small sound came from somewhere far away.

My whole body instantly stiffened.

I barely managed to turn off the flashlight and pricked up my ears.

The sound of something splattering down, a shallow coughing, a groan that flowed out like a pained sob.

Ah.

Not long ago, I had made sounds like that in the main auditorium too.

“Excuse me, are you all right……?”

Someone was vomiting up the contents of their stomach.

……Or coughing up blood.

I turned the flashlight on again and stretched my arm toward the direction the sound had come from so the light could reach farther.

“Ahem.”

Far in the distance, I saw a figure hurriedly clear his throat and straighten his bent upper body.

“I am all right.”

Even though he was not very close, the clear, forceful voice of a young man lodged itself in my ears.

Fortunately, it seemed he had only vomited.

“Turn off the light.”

The phone flashlight was not very strong, so I could only barely make out the outline of his shadowed features.

But there were people in this world who could make even a small spark look like a halo, and after hearing that voice too, I could roughly tell who it was.

“Ah, yes.”

So I turned off the flashlight without arguing for now.

“Is it dangerous to turn on the light?”

Besides, there was nothing bad about listening to someone who had been on this floor even a little longer than me.

Whether it was true or false, I could extract information from it.

“Yes. That is my guess.”

For example, the fact that being in a dark state where one could not see even an inch ahead was advantageous.

At least for that man.

“Please stand still there. I will go to you.”

And that man did not want me to come toward him.

Both sides could have started walking and met in the middle.

Was there something there?

It could simply be that he did not want to show me the traces of his vomit, but.

Unless it was such a trivial reason.

“Yes. Understood.”

I shifted my steps slightly and groped the pillar and car right beside me, drawing out an escape route in case of emergency.

Tap, tap.

The sound of low dress-shoe heels touching the floor gradually approached.

Perhaps because it was dark enough that closing my eyes would have been better, there was hesitation in every step, making the speed slow and irregular.

Still, it seemed that turning off the light was not necessarily an action that benefited only that man.

Tap, tap.

At last, when the presence came about two or three steps in front of me.

I greeted him swiftly, as if drawing a line.

“Good evening, Director.”

The founder of Hyunjae Sports Agency. The co-CEO of Yuwi Guild. The owner of Jaerae Building, which had become a Labyrinth overnight.

Yoo Hyunjae.

“My name is Seon Yuhan.”

“Ah, mm. Nice to meet you. You have sharp eyes. It must have been hard to see.”

His voice sounded somewhat embarrassed, but it was too dark to see the face of the person right in front of me, so I could not tell what expression he was making.

“Are you perhaps an employee of our company? I will feel a little sorry if I failed to recognize you…….”

“Ah, no.”

But for some reason, I felt as if I knew what expression Yoo Hyunjae was making, and a little of my tension eased.

It was not as if this was a workplace with fewer than five employees. If the director recognized a mere employee, the employee would be the one frightened.

There was no way he had properly recognized my face from that distance earlier when I was not even an employee.

“I came for an interview today, so this is my first time in the building.”

“Ah. I do not know what time it is, but I heard there was a meeting today to recruit a new Raider. Are you perhaps that person? I have not checked the information yet.”

“No. There is no way.”

“Then it must be the Raider Support Department? An agent.”

“Raider Supp……, ah, the Raider Support Department. Yes. That is correct.”

I was inwardly surprised.

It was fascinating that the director even knew a schedule like that.

Though a Raider recruitment meeting might be worth remembering.

“You thought that was unexpected, did you not?”

“Uh…….”

Should I honestly agree, or deny it?

I did not know what answer he wanted.

No, before that.

Did I really have to keep acting like I was in society even inside a Labyrinth?

With Director Yoo Hyunjae, who was my Schrödinger’s superior because I did not yet know the interview results?

“I am very interested in people. Especially in people who may become ours.”

Wait.

The moment I heard those words, my useless thoughts were swept away in an instant.

Every hair on my body stood on end.

“But, Director.”

Hwang Juyeon and Jeong Jiho.

“Did you perhaps see anyone else here?”

Where were those two, who had come down before me?

“Someone else?”

“Yes. A child and a woman. Two people. They should have come down here.”

“Are they your family?”

His voice sounded somewhat worried.

“No, that is not it. I met them upstairs, but, mm. I lost them.”

It would be better not to talk about how I had lost them.

“Do you need to catch them?”

What the hell was that supposed to mean?

“No, that is not what I mean…… I am worried about them. Obviously. People who came before me are not here.”

“Ahh. That is true. But right now, there are only the two of us on this floor.”

At least, among humans. His voice sounded gloomy as he added that.

I had not expected there to be nothing non-human in a Labyrinth.

I did not doubt that part.

“I…… see.”

The important thing was Hwang Juyeon and Jeong Jiho.

I could not tell whether this man was lying about those two or not.

It would be one thing if I could see his expression or gestures. It was hard to know from his voice alone.

Turning on the flashlight carelessly might really cause something dangerous to happen too.

Of course, that was assuming Yoo Hyunjae had spoken only the truth, without intending to deceive me.

“Ah, yes. You must already know…… that this place has become a Labyrinth, Mr. Seon Yuhan. Given that you came from upstairs.”

“Yes. But it seems the floors are all jumbled up. I came down from the second floor and opened the first-floor door, but I never thought I would come out here…….”

If Yoo Hyunjae’s words were true, there was a possibility that Hwang Juyeon and Jeong Jiho had arrived on a completely different floor.

The pattern of this Labyrinth’s floor-mixing might not be fixed either, and the destination floor might change depending on timing or person.

But if it was a lie…….

“By the way, Director, have you been alone this whole time?”

I very carefully clenched my fist and moved one foot slightly back, adjusting my center of gravity.

Without making any sound.

“……In a manner of speaking.”

Why was this man speaking so ambiguously? Even pausing like that.

“In my case, someone I had been with until just before the Labyrinthization disappeared not long after it happened. Did that not happen to you, Director?”

“Ah……. Actually, Driver Kim, ah, my personal driver was with me.”

Yoo Hyunjae’s voice cut off briefly.

“Ah, this will not do. This is not the time for this.”

The formless, solemn voice came again.

“Mr. Seon Yuhan, listen carefully to me.”

As if I could reach him if I only stretched out my hand, from very close by…….

“Do not be startled.”

The moment I realized that fact.

Goosebumps rose all over my body.

This crazy bastard.

When the hell had he taken off his shoes?