Chapter 35

Chapter 35. How Many Funerals Is This Now?

“If it were possible to turn back time, what would you do, Mr. Seon Yuhan?”

***

[The Late　　　]

Taking Choi Jaeha, Hwang Juyeon, Jeong Jiho, and Yoo Hyunjae with me, I broke through the B5 parking lot frantically and found Bae Seou’s urn in an instant.

It was not difficult, since I only had to pretend to follow what was written in the diary.

[The Late Bae Seou]

“Uh, Bae Seou……? Uh, uhh?”

WHOOSH.

Five flowers burned themselves and became ashes.

“Th-that, uh…….”

Hwang Juyeon stared at the scene in confusion, then moved her lips.

“What is it? Do you perhaps see or hear something?”

“No, it’s not that. Uh, I just don’t know if I should say this or not. I’m not sure.”

What was she suddenly talking about?

Honestly, until this point, my head had been full of thoughts about clearing that game.

It was random anyway, and there were many parts I could lose without dying.

The thought that I had to win this time. Only that thought.

But with the one sentence Hwang Juyeon uttered while carefully pointing at the urn, my wicked thoughts were washed away completely by shock therapy.

“I think I know this person. Bae Seou.”

“……Excuse me?”

What was she suddenly saying?

No, but then why had she not mentioned it before…….

Ah.

Every time, the circumstances had made it impossible.

The first time, I had heard something that was not there and bolted straight into the emergency exit.

The next time, Choi Jaeha had only just died.

And after that…… I had abandoned Hwang Juyeon entirely. Because I had gone mad over the game.

“Even when I saw this name in the diary, and even when I heard the radio and the story about the unidentified skeleton from the Yeongun Mountain Labyrinth, I couldn’t remember clearly……. I also didn’t connect them.”

The piano instructor wriggled her slender hands and continued speaking.

“A girl named Bae Seou went missing. Twenty years ago. When I was in middle school. I went to the same church as her. Only briefly, though.”

“Ah…….”

“By chance, I stopped going there afterward, so it’s been a long time since I heard any news, but I think that Bae Seou is this Bae Seou…….”

Wait.

Church?

If it was church…… a cross?

I recalled the cross-shaped car charm that had been inside that parcel box at first.

And the time Hwang Juyeon had died while searching for a vehicle with a cross decoration using that as the clue.

Was it not a trap?

No, no.

What led to the name ‘Bae Seou’ was the invoice. Not the cross inside.

“Ah. That emblem.”

Yoo Hyunjae raised his eyebrows slightly as he spoke.

“That sedan emblem the snake entered. There is a cross drawn beside that snake. That may have been a clue in its own way.”

“Ah……. I suppose so. I feel sorry for not recognizing it…….”

At this point, it was not a coincidence.

The others did not know because they had not opened the parcel box and seen what was inside.

“Still, I’m glad we found out……. Mm, then let’s go down once, all of us. The, uh, floor below was the 14th floor, right……?”

Hwang Juyeon changed the subject as though trying hard to suppress her emotions.

But I decided to remember it.

The cross might be.

A clue to finding the culprit.

***

[Neosoft]

By now, the sight of the darkened game company office after the power outage had become familiar.

“Mm. Hello…….”

Alive, Lee Jinsu was not particularly familiar, though. I had only seen him once.

He had his tongue, hair, and ears. His fingers and legs seemed a little lacking.

In any case, he was alive.

“Ah. You came down from the parking lot……. The assistant manager and I were playing this game, and, ah. There was a colleague, but they passed away, so I moved them to the representative’s room over there……. For now…….”

He felt different from, yet somehow strangely similar to, the person who had calmly confessed to killing his colleague and had not quit the game purely because it was fun.

He was not cold, but he was not lively either.

The area under his eyes looked hollow and gloomy.

He also rarely expressed emotion.

DING.

While we were briefly introducing ourselves to one another, a familiar pop-up appeared on Lee Jinsu’s monitor.

【Hello, binary! You are happily playing our Labyrinsoft game 《Lost In HPPYLN》! Would you like to invite new friends to share happiness with you?】

【▶ Invite】

Lee Jinsu sighed while holding the mouse.

“I’m sorry, but I’ll invite you. There’s no other way…….”

“Yes. Please do so.”

【Invitation Complete!】

The screens of five people, including Jeong Jiho, who received a new game console, turned on.

【Enter your name.】

【＿＿＿＿】

“Be careful with that……. I’m not sure, but I think you play the game in the order you enter your names…….”

Lee Jinsu began explaining what he knew in a quiet, weary voice.

That if one pressed ‘EXIT,’ one could probably quit, but he was not sure.

That if one pressed ‘CONTINUE,’ one would randomly lose a body part.

“But you could lose something like your heart and die. My colleague passed away that way too…….”

As I looked carefully into Lee Jinsu’s eyes, which trailed off faintly, I realized.

What Lee Jinsu would choose between ‘CONTINUE’ and ‘EXIT.’

I suppressed a faint anger and checked the monitor of the suicide hopeful after the pop-up vanished.

【What is your name?】

【▶ Kim Jinwoo】

【▶ kmj1234】

【▶ Yoo Min】

【▶ binary】

【▶ Forgot】

This was a part I had wanted to ask about.

“Those names…… or IDs. Are they perhaps people you know?”

Lee Jinsu slowly nodded.

“They seemed like people from our office, so when we first saw this, the assistant manager and I talked about it. We wondered if it was something like an instance dungeon. We said it would be better if it was. At least that would mean they weren’t all dead, and that they were alive somewhere.”

“Excuse me…….”

Hwang Juyeon opened her mouth in an awkward voice.

“Instance dungeon? What is that?”

“An instance dungeon.”

“So what does that mean?”

“Oh, uh, ah…….”

The Neosoft employee, who had momentarily begun buffering, briefly explained the concepts of an instance dungeon and a party, as well as his own guess.

“Ah. So, in game terms, we’re one party here? And the vanished people each belong to different parties? They’re in other Labyrinths exactly like this one?”

“Yes. Roughly speaking…….”

While the teacher and top student spoke, the first person who came to my mind was the Interviewer.

The thought that the vanished people were alive somewhere was good news, at least because it was not merely my own guess.

However, the fact that I could not meet them unless I got out alive was not good news.

“Ah…….”

At Lee Jinsu’s voice, I shook off my stray thoughts and moved my gaze to the monitor.

【Oh dear! There was a driver one move above you! You have entered a state where you can no longer enjoy happiness. Still, you can continue becoming happy.】

【CONTINUE】

【EXIT】

“No, wait…….”

【CONTINUE!】

“You are now. Ha…….”

I had never once beaten this damned man’s hand.

For a moment, I grabbed Lee Jinsu’s hoodie as if seizing him by the collar, then let go.

【Worry! It will not hurt. A small sponsorship will make you happy：lung】

There was no meaning in getting angry at someone who would soon die.

While Lee Jinsu, with a pale blue face like mine from some other time, gasped and died, I had no choice but to curl up as if hiding my whole body.

Are you trying to find peace alone?

I must not die, and I cannot die.

Why are you trying to find peace alone?

Only to suppress that irrational anger.

***

【Do not worry! It will hurt. A small curse will make you unhappy：liver】

“Ha…….”

“Are you all right?”

“I am all right……. I am just a little dizzy.”

“D-dizzy? Then this, no, would this kind of medicine not work? Ha, Mr. Seon Yuhan, you are not dying, right?”

“I will not die……. But my head is ringing, so please, a little.”

“Huh? Mm. Mm. I’ll be quiet.”

Fortunately, it seemed only a nonfatal portion of my liver had disappeared.

【Lost In HPPYLN】

【CLOSE】

Everyone’s screen changed the same way.

“Wow, it really seems to be over! Over! Look! The door is open! Hurry up and co— no, no. Right. Mr. Seon Yuhan, sit in that chair. I’ll push you.”

“I told you I am fine…….”

The large accountant in his mid-thirties jumped up and down like a child in delight.

The actual child, on the other hand, stood quietly as if hiding behind Hwang Juyeon, holding onto the hem of her clothes.

I knew Jeong Jiho was looking up at me anxiously, and I pretended not to know.

Children’s eyes sometimes pierced the world as sharply as ice and as pointedly as an awl.

I did not want to know what that child saw in me that frightened him.

“No, I really can walk.”

Just as I was arguing with Choi Jaeha about whether or not I should sit in the chair.

CLICK, WHIRR.

“Ugh, that startled me!”

Suddenly, the multifunction printer against the wall began operating.

SWISH— RUSTLE—.

“Something is coming out. It seems like some kind of photo.”

Yoo Hyunjae, who was closest to it, tilted his head as he looked at the paper being printed.

SWISH, RUSTLE—.

We all gathered and checked what had been printed on the A4 paper.

“This looks exactly like that. You know, the automatic photo they take when you ride a roller coaster and go downhill.”

An image of extremely low quality, like a scanned Polaroid photo, had been printed.

An old six-seat roller coaster cast in shadow.

The rails and pitch-black night sky could be seen faintly in the background.

And beneath that photo, a comment written in a cute font.

[Seon Yuhan’s One of the Happiest Moments]

“Seon Yu…… Huh? Why is this Mr. Seon Yuhan? There’s nobody in it.”

“You are right.”

Holding the A4 paper, I stared quietly at the photo.

“I will take it for now. Just in case.”

“Sure. Let’s just get out. But Mr. Seon Yuhan, are you really okay? Your face is still pale.”

“Yes. I am truly fine.”

As I folded the photo and put it into my pants pocket, I hid my trembling hand.

I knew.

I knew that my eyes had met the eyes of me in the photo…….

***

“What floor will the next one be……?”

“I wonder. Mr. Seon Yuhan, there was nothing after the 14th floor in that diary, right?”

“No.”

“Then maybe this is the last floor? I hope it is.”

Their buzzing voices echoed in the passageway leading down after we opened the emergency exit on the 14th floor.

RATTLE!

Inside the emergency passage, it was written as the 13th floor, but once we went out into the hallway, it would not be the 13th floor. We opened that emergency exit door.

“What is this?”

“Uh, why…….”

We came out on the 14th floor again.

“Fu.”

ck…….

“—could be what happened, I suppose. Let’s try going down ag—”

“—Mr. Seon Yuhan.”

As I turned around, desperately denying reality, Representative Yoo Hyunjae’s low voice struck the back of my head.

“Labyrinths do not make mistakes. That is the work of humans.”

Suddenly, the strength drained from my entire body.

“Uh, Mr. Seon Yuhan!”

So all the shit I had done in Happyland or Madland or whatever it was had all been meaningless?

All of my living organ donations had been utterly useless?

……All of those moments when I dared to forget them, lose myself, and abandon my name?

Please say it is not true.