Chapter 6

Chapter 6. Those Who Couldn’t Get Out

「Senior, what’s wrong? Is there something there?」

The first-year girl, whose hair was no longer bobbed but tied in a ponytail, approached the stiffly frozen male student.

The male student flinched and tried to close the locker, but it was already too late.

「Is that……?」

Those two seemed to understand the meaning of this abnormal phenomenon right away.

That place was a Labyrinth where only those who fulfilled a specific condition could escape.

I wondered if there might also be a condition that resolved the entire Labyrinth and let everyone escape at the same time.

But waiting until graduation was probably the easiest solution.

「I’m jealous. I really am. I should’ve been born just a little earlier. Then we could’ve graduated together. But really, really, congratulations. I mean that.」

The round-eyed girl finished speaking bravely, even as she choked up.

The only first-year student in Seonghwa High School buried her face in the arms of the only prospective graduate and cried for a long time.

Sniff.

A sniffling sound came from the row behind me.

There were only two people in the audience, and one was vomiting while the other was crying.

A truly beautiful cinematic experience.

「Don’t even think about saying weird things like you’ll stay or whatever. Just think about getting out. Don’t come back. Don’t worry about me either. If you’re that worried, you can ask them to help me once you get out. We know all the rules now.」

「You think you can last without me? For two years?」

The two of them looked at each other with bloodshot eyes sharp enough to stab.

「Then what about me? Can I last too? Without you?」

I knew love could save people.

「Fuck, what is that bastard? It has both eyes and a mouth stuck on it? Hey! You get inside the faculty office! I’m going to run my ass off for a bit! I’ll shake that thing off and come right back! Tell Song Seorin for me!」

So I also knew love could kill people.

「Se-Seorin. Song Seorin. What are you doing? Hey. Get up. Huh? Are you mad? Because I didn’t go to the auditorium? I, I didn’t graduate……. Wait. I, the graduation ceremony. Then, because of me……?」

Yun Haejun held Song Seorin in the faculty office that had become a sea of blood and did not get up for a long time.

The scene changed.

Yun Haejun silently gathered the bodies.

He wiped away the dried bloodstains in the faculty office.

He dressed neatly, even putting on a jacket and tie.

He skillfully chose food from the school store, went up to the rooftop, and placed each item one by one on top of desks lowered as much as possible.

I looked closely at the school-store products Yun Haejun had placed there.

Apple-flavored jelly, pear-flavored ice cream, sikhye, galbi-flavored snacks, fish-shaped snacks, rice drink…….

Yun Haejun knelt before the heaviest memorial offering table in the world and performed a deep bow.

He got up, then bowed once more.

His back, curled like a child’s, was trembling faintly.

Black smoke rose beyond the shoulders of Seonghwa High School’s last student.

The screen very slowly pulled away, capturing a full view of the school.

Seonghwa High School burned like a torch in the darkness.

At last, as the school gradually grew smaller, the ending credits began to roll.

[Those Who Couldn’t Get Out]

[Yun Haejun]

[Song Seorin]

…

…

…

Names. Names. Names.

The names of two hundred or so people.

I clamped a hand over my mouth.

A Labyrinth was a space-time of rules, by rules, and for rules.

If one properly obeyed the set rules and satisfied the Labyrinth, one could get out of the Labyrinth.

‘Those Who Couldn’t Get Out.’

Therefore, a Labyrinth had no malice.

If it seemed malicious, that was merely mimicry, and no more than an arbitrary human interpretation.

This machine-like space, this terrifyingly pure space, was…….

[Location Provided by Seonghwa High School]

…

…

…

[Subtitles by Labyrin Pictures Co., Ltd.]

The credits ended too.

I quietly took out my phone and checked the time.

6:02 p.m.

The running time was two hours and seven minutes.

I turned to Choi Jaeha in the row behind me and gestured that we should probably start getting up.

FLASH―!

But suddenly, behind the back of my head—in other words, the screen lit up again.

Fuck.

It was making a delayed attack.

I immediately planted my half-raised ass back in the chair.

If I had stood up thinking the credits were over, I would’ve really died.

Did this insane Labyrinth even make a post-credit scene?

Was it trying to show a preview for the sequel?

The moment I stared at the screen in disbelief.

“Huh?”

I sprang up from my seat before I even realized it.

“Huhh?”

And Choi Jaeha’s stupid voice was my last memory.

This Labyrinth definitely had a rule banning “huh?”

Damn it.

1. Do Not Stand Up Before the Movie Has Completely Ended.

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

Am I mistaken?

Did I really see that right?

Besides, it happened so instantly that I don’t even know how I died.

What method could kill a theater nuisance during a screening without a sound or sign?

……No. Forget it.

I had something to do.

“Excuse me. As of this moment, this building has become an Invasive Labyrinth. You need to leave. Yes, I am serious. Please keep listening.”

I raised the interviewer from their seat as I explained.

“The power will go out soon, so you cannot take the elevators. Be careful not to trip on the stairs, and do not stand on the stairs for more than five seconds. If someone asks you for the time, just answer with what you know. If you end up trapped in the main auditorium, you must follow the announcements no matter what. Also, I think we can probably only move one floor at a time, but if you finish what you need to do on the second floor and still cannot get to the first floor…… then even I do not know. I am sorry.”

Ha. I had poured out too many words while walking almost at a run, so I was out of breath.

“Uh, ah, understood.”

The interviewer nodded despite their bewilderment.

“But are you all right, Mr. Seon Yuhan?”

“Yes. Please hurry. I need to get someone out of the elevator.”

I did not forget to tell the interviewer to ask the Raiders of Yuwi Guild to spread the news of the Labyrinthization through social media.

“I see. Understood.”

The interviewer looked at me with a steady gaze.

“Also, Mr. Seon Yuhan. You do not need to apologize for not knowing something here. A Labyrinth is a place where not knowing is only natural.”

“Ah.”

In that case, I, who knew even a little about the Labyrinth and kept rambling, was inevitably someone “unnatural.”

Even though the interviewer had noticed that, they did not interrogate me. They even told me not to feel sorry.

Having someone like this as my interviewer was one of the few fortunate things among my countless misfortunes.

“Yes.”

For some reason, it was hard to meet their eyes, so I lowered my head and answered as if speaking to myself.

“Then, Mr. Seon Yuhan. Be careful, and let us meet again later.”

“Yes. Please be careful.”

I hope they do not disappear.

Will we be able to meet again?

Thinking that, I stopped the elevator.

6… 5… 4… 3… DING!

「The doors are opening.」

The face of the accountant, whom I was oh-so-delighted to see, appeared.

“Mr. Choi Jaeha.”

“Huh? Yes?”

“I have something to tell you. Please come out for a moment.”

Choi Jaeha looked confused by the request of someone he had never seen before in his life, but perhaps because he could not simply ignore me, he came outside in a daze.

“Uh. Um, what is this about……?”

Choi Jaeha stared hard at me, as if trying to find my face somewhere in his memory.

There was not much I could tell him.

Except that this Jaerae Building had become a Labyrinth, and that within about one minute, communications would be cut off and the inside of the building would lose power.

“No, what kind of nonsense is that……, sir?”

The way he subtly switched to polite speech—well, should I say the man was simple?

If you addressed him politely, he would apparently use polite speech for the moment, even if you said something a little insane.

Maybe last time was because I dragged him out without warning. He had spoken casually from beginning to end then.

BOOM!

“Aaagh! What is that?!”

RUMBLE, CRAAASH, BANG!

“Now, you have confirmed it. Let us go down the stairs.”

CRASH, THUD!

“Uh, ah? Understood…….”

After experiencing the Jaerae Building elevator-falling show in surround sound, the man grew a little dazed and became obedient.

“Hold the railing and come down slowly. But do not stop standing still.”

“Ah, yes. Um, but I really do not remember, so if it is not rude of me to ask, how do you know me……?”

Choi Jaeha’s voice echoed through the emergency passage like a cave.

“I know you one-sidedly. You are the accountant from Howol here, are you not?”

“Ah, ahh. You saw my photo on our company website? I was wondering. If you were one of our clients, there is no way I would not have recognized you.”

The accountant let out a relieved sigh and laughed, then stopped.

“But—”

“Do not stop standing still. Please keep coming down.”

“Ah, yes. No, but what was your name?”

“It is Seon Yuhan.”

Fortunately, perhaps because we were in the middle of going down the stairs, Choi Jaeha did not take out his business card.

“Yes, anyway, Mr. Seon Yuhan.”

The accountant opened the first-floor emergency exit door and stepped out, looking straight at me.

“How did you know I was in that elevator?”

Wow. He was surprisingly sharp.

“I did not know.”

“For someone who did not know, you called my name almost as soon as the door opened, as if you had been waiting for me.”

So pretending to know him in advance and calling him out of the elevator created this kind of problem.

“On top of that, you knew the elevators would fall because of the blackout. Actually, elevators do not fall just because the power goes out. Even if this place has become a Labyrinth……. In the first place, has it not been less than five minutes since Labyrinthization started? It was fine until I got into the elevator. It does not particularly look like a Labyrinth either, so how did you know?”

Wow. He had not said this much last time.

People became smarter when you gave them time to think calmly.

Then from now on, I should not give them time to think.

“I have good instincts. For some reason, I just felt like this place was going to become a Labyrinth today. Like I could tell what would happen in this Labyrinth?”

“No, does that make any sense?”

Choi Jaeha finally threw politeness away.

“Even a fortune-teller who guessed the day another country’s president would die couldn’t predict where the next Labyrinth would appear.”

“I guess that fortune-teller has never been trapped in a Labyrinth.”

Only then did the accountant shut his mouth.

“A Labyrinth sometimes leaves behind unsolved problems. Even after it is resolved.”

The way he slowly watched my reaction, trying to figure out the true meaning of my words, was really something.

In any case, he was an honest man.

“Anyway, this is the problem we need to solve right now.”

I threw a new problem at Choi Jaeha so he would not think about anything useless.

“We came out on the second floor. Even though we opened the first-floor emergency exit.”

“Wh-What? It’s true?”

In the end, we repeated the process of going down to the first floor and coming out on the second floor again.

“Ughhhhh! Seriously!”

It seemed this could not be helped.

Well, I would have checked it myself too, so I had no intention of criticizing him for that.

“So, what are you planning to do now, Mr. Seon Yuhan? If you’re, you know, a Labyrinth survivor, then you must know something, right? About what we should do. I know Invasive-types are very different from Competitive-types, but still.”

“I intend to go around the entire second floor. That itself may be the condition for going down to the first floor, and if not, we may be able to find out what that condition is. First…….”

We start here.

I added that, jerking my chin toward the front door of the main auditorium before us.

“The main auditorium? Why here?”

“Just because. I feel like it.”

The piece-of-shit snuff film titled “Will Spring Come to Seonghwa High School Too?”

Honestly, I did not even want to look at it.

But last time, I had not watched the post-credit scene until the end.

I had to see it. Even if I did not want to. In order to know.

I had to know. Even if I did not want to. In order to get out.

“And after we leave the main auditorium, I intend to make a full loop starting with the daycare center over there, then return here.”

I pointed to the second-floor map attached to the corridor wall.

Jaerae Building was a square-shaped building.

On the map, the library was to the north, the daycare center to the west, the goods store to the east, and the main auditorium to the south.

Since the structure had a wide-open center, if the library was the destination, one had to pass in front of either the daycare center or the goods store.

Starting from the main auditorium, I planned to visit the daycare center, the library, and the goods store one by one in a clockwise direction.

I did not bother telling Choi Jaeha to follow me or asking him to come with me.

“L-Let’s do that.”

Even without being told, he simply followed on his own.

Contrary to his build, he seemed rather timid and sensitive.

“But no matter what happens, please do not be too surprised, and follow the rules carefully.”

“What are you talking about? Am I a child?”

I was saying it because you seem like a child.

Remembering how I had pleaded with Choi Jaeha last time to please sit in a seat, I opened the main auditorium door.

***

As a result, I once again had to soothe the accountant, who made a loud fuss about how he did not want to sit, and I had to rewatch the piece-of-shit snuff film titled “Will Spring Come to Seonghwa High School Too?”

[Those Who Couldn’t Get Out]

[Yun Haejun]

[Song Seorin]

…

…

…

Not [Those Who Appear], meaning the cast. [Those Who Couldn’t Get Out].

Even seeing it again, I could not so much as force out a hollow laugh.

As I waited for the post-credit scene, I thought about Seonghwa High School.

Four years ago, Seonghwa High School became an Invasive Labyrinth on October 2, and on the evening of February 5 the following year, the day the graduation ceremony should originally have been held, it was released from Labyrinthization. Completely burned down.

They said the inside of the school had been neatly organized, and most objects had been burned to nothing, so it had been difficult to determine what had actually happened.

Only the six bodies left on the rooftop and the traces of two hundred or so people, crudely reduced to bone ash and placed in all kinds of storage containers, proved that far too much sorrow had been trapped there.

And now, I knew the path they had walked.

Would there ever come a day when I could speak of them?

How brave and how cowardly those children had been, how kind and how foolish those adults had been, how much they had thought of others and how much they had known only themselves.

How fiercely all of you had failed.

Would I be able to tell the bereaved families, still trapped in a Labyrinth that no longer even existed?

Could I escape this Labyrinth? For their sake too?

FLASH―!

Once the credits had completely rolled down, the screen lit up again.

I gripped the armrests tightly so I would not stand up before realizing it like last time.

The post-credit scene that had killed me began.