Chapter 41

Chapter 41. The Labyrinth for a Good Person Is █

'One who stays trapped in a Labyrinth too long eventually becomes part of the Labyrinth.'

It was a saying that went around like a fad in the earliest days, thirteen years ago, when the phenomenon called the Labyrinth had only just begun to occur.

A ghost story, you might call it, or an adage.

These days, thanks to the experience and information piled up over the years, Raiders resolve Contact-type Labyrinths as quickly as possible and the survival rate has risen—

but before that, Contact-type Labyrinths produced just as many casualties as Invasive ones.

In the early days especially, countermeasures were lacking against the Rifts that sucked in everyone nearby, like black holes, into a Contact-type Labyrinth.

If you listen to the testimonies of survivors from that time, a Contact-type Labyrinth was nothing short of a horrific pandemonium, a live-action version of some lowbrow death game.

That's why such a saying came about.

That if you stayed trapped in a Labyrinth too long, you'd become part of the Labyrinth.

Meaning, that is, that you'd become something other than human. By losing your humanity.

Of course, it was a sentence lazily bandied about by people who'd never once given a moment's thought to 'humanity'—people who simultaneously overrate and underrate the value of that thing called humanity—

but coming to where I am now, it seems there may be some insight in those words after all.

'▶ Seon Yuhan'

'▶ Seon Yuhan'

'▶ Seon Yuhan'

The person I'd thought had died and vanished ten years ago became some unidentifiable something of the Labyrinth, and even today, it spoke to me again and again.

'Verify.'

And to learn that truth, I shoved a seven-year-old child's chance at escape into the Labyrinth.

That person.

And I.

We'd been trapped in a Labyrinth far too long.

***

"Interviewer. Please, hear me out."

I have to get out. I have to get out of here.

What I can do, and what I must do, is only that. Still.

Setting aside, in one corner, the tangle of thoughts that only knotted tighter the more I tried to undo them, I went down floor by floor.

"Huh? No, seriously, what the hell is this bullshit?"

Pulled Choi Jaeha out of the elevator.

"Haah……. Seriously, this is insa— no, sorry. Anyway, this is a Labyrinth, right?"

Ran into Hwang Juyeon, who'd come out at the fire alarm and was descending the endless staircase.

"Khk, urgh……"

Killed the librarian of Book Bang Ollae, alone.

"Thank you for playing so well with our children. Goodbye, guardians. You too, Jiho—take care."

Brought Jeong Jiho out of Uri Saenal Daycare Center.

"Mm. I'm fine."

Met Yoo Hyunjae, who'd retched in the parking lot and was pretending he hadn't.

"The late Bae Seou."

Watched the ashes of chrysanthemums fill the urn that had reclaimed its name.

"Hold on a moment, Mr. Lee Jinsu."

Stopped a would-be suicide-by-negligence just as he was about to press 'CONTINUE' to keep the Happyland game going.

This time, my hand was faster.

"I'll take over. You rest."

"……Sure."

Lee Jinsu glanced up at me with his one remaining eye, then withdrew listlessly.

I think I was the only one who saw the faint disappointment reflected in that eye.

"For now, I'm just going to keep pressing 'Become Unhappy.'"

I didn't take out the Jaerae Diary this run.

I didn't want to give the slightest opening to a certain conspiracy theorist who'd lock a time-reversal experiencer back in a Labyrinth just to experiment on them.

Unless a situation arose where I absolutely had to take the Diary out, that was my plan going forward.

【▶ Become Happy】

【▶ Become Unhappy】

I have no intention of becoming happy.

I probably don't have the right to, either.

【Become Unhappy!】

【Correct. You are unhappy.】

But I'd kept choosing unhappiness, endlessly, turning it over in my mind.

The red tears that had poured down in the moment of happiness, and the screams that had reached me like a sweet song, and the texture of them crunching between my teeth, and the hunger that no amount of swallowing, and swallowing, could ever fill……

【An unhappy thing that knows not how to wish for happiness has no right to exist in the Land of Happiness. Get out.】

【EXIT】

"Huh, it really does let you out? If you only press the unhappy choice?"

【EXIT!】

【Foolish as you are, you missed the chance to become happy.】

【However, even that foolishness demands a price.】

I really hope it takes a part I won't die from losing. Like that bit of liver last time.

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

Ah.

The brain, of all things. Just my luck.

I closed my eyes, resigned to the death that was coming.

Thinking it was a mercy, at least, that there'd be no pain.

"……Mr. Seon Yuhan?"

"Mr. Seon Yuhan, are you all right?"

And then, right away, I opened my eyes again.

Choi Jaeha, Hwang Juyeon, Jeong Jiho, Yoo Hyunjae, Lee Jinsu.

I could see them all fine, recognize them all fine.

My memory seemed to be in order, too.

"Mm. I'm fine."

I moved my body this way and that, as well.

I couldn't feel anything particularly wrong.

"It seems only some unimportant part of my brain went missing, just a tiny bit."

"Haah…… Well, that's a relief, then."

"Are you really sure you're okay? What if something suddenly happens to you later……"

"If I were going to die, I'd have died already."

【Lost In HPPYLN】

【CLOSE】

In a little while, the photo would come out of the printer.

"I'll grab some water and food from the pantry."

I made some excuse and stalled for a moment.

"Whoa, you scared me……"

Soon the multifunction printer began to whir.

"Looks like some kind of…… photo is coming out."

[Seon Yuhan's One of the Happiest Moments]

This time it wasn't a roller coaster.

The dark scene of an unlit room, glimpsed through the crack of a slightly open wooden door.

The little room on the second floor of the 'Haunted House,' where I'd stayed for a while.

It looks happy.

"Hm? Is there a Seon Yuhan anywhere in here…… huh? Another one's coming out?"

Unexpectedly, one more sheet emerged.

"This one's…… yours, Mr. Lee Jinsu."

It seemed everyone who'd actually played the game—not just those who cleared it—got a commemorative photo.

[Lee Jinsu's One of the Happiest Moments]

The top of a Viking ship, as if soaring high.

In the back row of the Viking in the photo, no one is sitting.

"Hold on to it for now, Mr. Lee Jinsu."

"Uh, okay……"

Lee Jinsu didn't seem to recognize himself in the photo.

A botched thing.

Maybe I should've just left him to keep going.

I wonder if he'll be of any use beyond filling out the headcount.

"For now, let's get out."

***

"Ah! At last, my first guests are arriving."

Handed the Happyland visit commemorative photo to the unidentified being in the empty office across from Neosoft.

The Strategic Planning Division of Yuwi Guild, on the eleventh floor I'd reached once again.

"Defeat me, and I shall let you leave this Labyrinth."

The lump-of-flesh die proposed a contest this time too, putting escape from the Labyrinth up as the stake.

"I'll do it. I will."

This time, Yoo Hyunjae was the first to raise his hand.

Unlike last time, I held my silence.

As Mr. Do had said, there wouldn't be another contest like the last one anyway.

And I couldn't wager my companions' lives as the price of my escape, either.

The weights don't match.

Even if I offered up all five of us here.

"Have you decided what you will wager your contest on?"

"Texas Hold'em."

"Poker. How orthodox."

"I wouldn't say so. I'm going to alter the rules a bit."

Mr. Do bobbed its cubic body up and down, as if urging Yoo Hyunjae to go on.

"I'll use hwatu cards as betting chips, and when the cards are opened, each player flips their hwatu cards face-up to reveal them too……"

The more I listened, the more concrete the rules.

These weren't rules he'd just thought up.

He'd surely played this game sometime before.

"Hm. It gets far too long if I explain the rankings and scoring as well."

"Oh, I see. Adjustments will be needed too. Let us discuss that separately, over there."

Mr. Do moved as if pointing to the private office at the back.

"Um, Director."

Choi Jaeha called out to halt Yoo Hyunjae, who'd risen from his seat.

Looking at that mug of his, Choi Jaeha actually seemed more nervous than Yoo Hyunjae.

"Are you…… confident you can win? From what you've said, it sounds like you've played before, but……"

"Confident I can win? If there were such a thing, it wouldn't be gambling."

Yoo Hyunjae fiddled with the ring on the little finger of his left hand.

Probably an unconscious habit.

"People who strongly believe they're certain to win fall into just two categories, I've found. Either con artists. Or addicts who need to check into rehab this instant."

Doesn't he want to live.

He doesn't even think to cheat his way to a win.

Not my concern, though.

"I hope you can all see me on the way out."

Leaving only that one line, Yoo Hyunjae went in.

"Now then, you lot read that record while you wait."

Just before Mr. Do followed Yoo Hyunjae in and shut the door—

a yellow file folder appeared on the table we sat around.

"Whether to play a game with me, and if so, what game. It will serve as a reference for that decision."

The door of the private office, turned gambling den, closed.

"What is this. A…… contest report?"

I checked the file folder Mr. Do had left behind.

[Match Record]

Writing entered neatly in the white box for the title.

It had probably provided this last time too, after I went in to play first.

When I opened the folder, inside were A4 documents under the same title, divided into boxes like an actual statement, each filled in.

By 'Opponent,' 'Game,' 'Result,' and 'Remarks.'

[Opponent｜Lee** (50s, Indigo)
Game｜Matgo
Result｜Victory
Remarks｜　-　]

Game result, Victory.

It seemed to mean victory from Mr. Do's standpoint.

The human opponent had lost.

[Opponent｜Choi** (40s, Orange)
Game｜Futures-Investment Ladder
Result｜Victory
Remarks｜The behind-the-scenes maneuvering and deception that didn't rely on luck were entertaining]

"Hey, could these be the people who played games before we got here?"

"I don't think so."

Hwang Juyeon countered Choi Jaeha's question.

"It said earlier that we were its first guests."

"Ah…… is that so? Huh? Wait. Then that means there really are people in a Labyrinth exactly like this one……!"

This Match Record had information on people who weren't here.

Just as the names of players who weren't present had appeared as choices during the Happyland game.

It lent even more weight to Lee Jinsu's guess that, much like an instance dungeon, this Labyrinth split its occupants across separate Labyrinths.

"Let's keep reading for now! We'll want to avoid games that have already been played, if we can……"

Ignoring the chatter beside me—

I silently read straight through the Match Record.

[Opponent｜Shin** (50s, Green)
Game｜Two-Player Riichi Mahjong
Result｜Victory
Remarks｜In North 2, the opponent won with a True Nine Gates. As a mark of respect, I crafted mahjong tiles from the opponent's blood and bone and keep them in my collection]

[Opponent｜Lee** (20s, Violet)
Game｜Subway Game
Result｜Victory
Remarks｜Transported the opponent to ■■'■■■■ Station]

[Opponent｜Kang** (50s, Azure)
Game｜Go
Result｜Victory
Remarks｜In the latter half, the opponent wanted to live, which was entertaining]

[Opponent｜Kim** (30s, Yellow)
Game｜Equation Rock-Paper-Scissors
Result｜Victory
Remarks｜Midway through the third set, the opponent, having understood the '■■-■-■■■ Theorem,' destroyed their own stake, resulting in a win by forfeit]

"What even is this……? No, how does it not lose even once? What did it win them all at?"

"Flip ahead. There's got to be at least one time it lost to a person, surely……"

"Ah! Here it is! A defeat!"

[Opponent｜Park** (20s, White)
Game｜Thief Poker
Result｜Defeat]

Mr. Do's defeat. It meant the human had won.

But the content of the Remarks box was interesting.

[Remarks｜As negotiated beforehand, per the opponent's request, transported the opponent to the ■th floor]

"That's insane……"

Hwang Juyeon, who'd lost her words for a moment, changed the subject.

"Th…… that said, it doesn't look like we're guaranteed to lose."

"Right……? It does seem like there's a chance of winning. Ah, Jiho. The situation right now is……"

Choi Jaeha patiently explained the current situation to Jeong Jiho all over again.

"Has everyone decided what they'll do?"

I looked around at Choi Jaeha, Hwang Juyeon, Jeong Jiho, and Lee Jinsu and asked.

Lee Jinsu was a passive death-seeker, so he'd do it, naturally.

"Well…… Looking at this record, it seems hard to win. If we do it and end up dying……"

"Exactly. I really don't know……"

"Still, why not give it a try? Jiho could just play a simple game, even—"

"—no, this guy's really saying something that'll get us killed. We do it and lose, we die. There's no 'give it a try' about it."

"Ah."

For these people, one death was the end.

At least from their standpoint.

"I forgot."

"There's a limit to what you can forget…… ah, oh no. That must be a side effect of that bit of brain going missing earlier. Amnesia. What do we do."

"Mm. I wonder."

"How can you act like it's someone else's problem……? Anyway, what do you think, Mr. Seon Yuhan? It's a gamble where we might die……"

He's worried sick about dying.

……Ah!

Why hadn't I thought of this sooner?

A very good idea came to me.

"I'm going to do it."

These people. Let me persuade them all to gamble.

"We don't even know where the exit is. We've no idea how much farther we have to go, or what we'll run into next."

So what if they lose and die?

Once I die and come back to life, they'll come back too.

They were merely under the illusion that they were staking the price called their lives.

In the end, there was no price at all.

"Take me, right now—I got lucky and lost only a useless part of my brain, and barely survived. If I forfeit this contest and lose my good fortune on top of that, then keep heading down, honestly, I'm scared of what'll happen."

Win, great; if not, no matter.

"So all of you, too……"

I was merely placing into their hands a priceless chance at salvation they'd nearly let slip on their own.

If anything, shouldn't they be grateful to me?