Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Staff-Only Passage (1)

[3. If you accidentally enter the employees’ area, you may worry. Do not touch the employees’ belongings under any circumstances, and leave quickly.]

As soon as San-hyeok’s voice was heard, Han-su furrowed his brow fiercely and spoke quietly.

“That man from earlier… did not disappear because of you.”

Han-su had seen it directly too, so he must have known the man had not disappeared but probably died. It was a fairly delicate choice of words.

Su-myeon looked at Han-su, then soon realized.

Because he had kept fiddling only with his phone, Han-su seemed to have misunderstood and thought he was dispirited.

“Ah….”

Wouldn’t it be strange to answer, “That is true”? And “I understand….” would be strange too, would it not?

For a moment, Su-myeon could not choose an answer that fit the situation, and he could not continue speaking, his face turning awkward.

“There is no need for you to feel guilty, but… of course, I do not feel at ease either.”

Of course he felt uncomfortable, but that came entirely from the shock of having witnessed a suddenly brutal scene in person.

Su-myeon did not particularly think the shaggy-haired man’s death, or to be precise, his murder, was his own fault. That was obviously entirely the fault of the bastard who killed him.

However, because he could not find a suitable response, he simply nodded.

“…For now, if we tell the group what that man did, there is a high possibility the group will collapse, so I do not intend to reveal it yet.”

At Han-su’s words, Su-myeon once again could not answer immediately.

Why are you reporting that to me?

“……I agree.”

But out loud, he merely quietly went along with him.

Just carry me properly on your bus. Mr. Protagonist.

“There are only stairs going up?”

“I guess this was a basement.”

“No wonder there weren’t any windows.”

Meanwhile, everyone had gathered in clusters in front of the stairs San-hyeok had found and was murmuring again.

It seemed none of them could readily bring themselves to go up.

In the meantime, Han-su boldly stepped to the very front and set foot on the first stair.

“I will take the lead. Would you take the rear, Mr. Su-myeon?”

…Why me….

Su-myeon forced down the urge to object and nodded.

When everyone went up the stairs, Su-myeon took out his phone from his pocket again at the very back.

Even though they had gone up one floor, the surroundings looked no different from before.

Only now, office furniture such as cabinets and desks had been placed here and there, standing all alone.

After watching for the right timing, Su-myeon quietly spoke.

“A new safety rule appeared.”

After confirming that everyone was pulling out the phones they had, Su-myeon let out a breath of relief.

Please don’t touch anything and just pass through quietly. Please. Please.

“…Is this the employee area?”

Han-su asked back as if it bothered him, so after sighing inwardly hundreds of times, Su-myeon cautiously raised his hand.

Why is everyone’s field of vision this narrow? Someone else should find things like this first.

“It says Staff Only here.”

In the end, Su-myeon had stepped forward again and pointed at the [STAFF ONLY] sign attached to the wall near the stairs.

[AM 11:36]

After checking the current time one last time, Su-myeon put his phone back into his pocket.

This floor was a time-attack maze. They had to get out within one hour.

Fortunately, perhaps because this was still only the second floor, the difficulty was not high, so the structure was one where they would usually be able to find the stairs within the time limit.

As long as no special incident occurred in the middle.

‘…This stage has one fixed death too.’

Su-myeon looked at the curious woman in office attire.

She had a pretty face with chestnut-brown curly hair tied back tightly, and she was dressed exactly like a neat office worker.

Go Ju-hee. She was the fixed victim on this floor.

Of course, depending on the stage, even greater damage could occur every time, but there were always fixed deaths that could not be prevented no matter what.

For her, the problem was that very curious.

“Huh…?”

When she saw the walkie-talkie on the floor, she bent down almost reflexively to pick it up.

Even in the game, a problem occurred because she grabbed that walkie-talkie as soon as she entered this stage.

The moment a clown-dressed Security realized a human had touched his belongings, he began chasing them.

Because of that, they had to escape the maze while being chased.

‘The clown Security’s first appearance is when he tears off Ju-hee’s arm while she’s holding the walkie-talkie….’

Because of the shock of having her arm ripped off entirely from the shoulder blade, Ju-hee collapsed, either dead or unconscious.

After that, the chase began, so naturally, she could never be seen again after that.

Before it was too late, Su-myeon stepped in front of her, grabbed Ju-hee’s extended hand, shook it firmly, and let go.

“Hello. I’m Han Su-myeon. This is very confusing, isn’t it?”

As Su-myeon said, Ju-hee looked up at him in a daze with a confused expression and tilted her head.

It was far too unnatural a situation to be called a simple handshake.

Thanks to that, she was also reminded of the fact that she must not touch objects unnecessarily.

Ju-hee, who realized she had nearly made a mistake, also put on an awkward expression and lightly shook his hand.

“Ah, yes…. It really is. I’m Go Ju-hee. You were… the person standing in front of that door earlier, right?”

Her object of curiosity had shifted from the mysterious object to Su-myeon in that short time, and Ju-hee immediately asked another question.

“The person who went inside… where do you think he disappeared to?”

Could there perhaps be a secret passage inside?

She had thought that, but she said she had been too afraid to bring herself to say it.

“Whether there is a secret passage or not… both possibilities feel too frightening.”

Ju-hee expressed it vaguely, but Su-myeon could understand.

She had opened her eyes in a mysterious place, and a person who had been with them until moments ago had vanished with only one door between them.

Leaving behind only a blood-soaked T-shirt and a scream.

If there was a secret passage inside, then a vicious kidnapper would be in there, and if there was not, then an unresolved mystery would remain.

“I thought it would be better to just move.”

If they went up, they would find windows or, at the very least, a rooftop.

Then they could request rescue or try something. As Ju-hee forced herself to say something positive, Su-myeon simply nodded without saying much.

She was not wrong. If they kept going up, they could get outside and escape.

‘The problem is…….’

This hotel was a nine-floor underground building.

They were currently on the eighth basement floor, so they had to go up seven more floors before they could finally find the exit and escape.

“…Mr. Su-myeon, did you see anything about what happened to that man?”

There was no need to tell her the details of that disgusting scene, but he wanted her to become more alert.

Su-myeon hardened his face into a serious expression and spoke in a deliberately lower, more atmospheric voice.

“Someone, no. There was some other entity. I think it was the entity called the Housekeeper that was written in the guide rules.”

“Then… the man who broke the rules and went inside…….”

Did it clean him up like cleaning a room, just as the name Housekeeper implied?

Ju-hee, whose curiosity had led her that far in her imagination, turned pale and shook her head.

“So there really must have been a secret passage inside. I’m glad I didn’t try looking for it for no reason….”

Su-myeon had deliberately referred to the Housekeeper with the ambiguous word “entity.”

Even so, Ju-hee seemed to naturally think it was a person.

“But how did that person know he went inside right away? Were they watching with something like CCTV somewhere?”

Ju-hee’s curiosity continued to branch out. She pointlessly glanced up at the ceiling above.

Naturally, there was nothing that looked like a CCTV camera.

At the moment when it became awkward both to lie and to tell the truth, Han-su approached again.

“Mr. Su-myeon, even though we have continued moving, I still cannot see the end of the building.”

“Oh my….”

At Han-su’s words, Ju-hee also covered her mouth with a worried expression.

Where was this place, and for what purpose were they here?

As gazes mixed with worry and frustration fixed on Su-myeon, he was dumbfounded.

So why do you keep telling me things like that….

“Do you perhaps have an opinion on what would be best to do in the current situation?”

When Han-su openly asked such a question, Su-myeon could not hold back this time and asked back.

“Why are you asking me that….”

Because of his timid personality, he could not ask as boldly as he wanted, but for now, he decided to be satisfied that he had said what he needed to say.

Then Han-su’s sharp gaze softened somewhat as he answered.

“…Ah, I apologize. I did not mean to burden you. I simply asked because you seem to be thinking the most rationally and reasonably.”

“That’s right. I didn’t notice either, but I realized it after hearing what Mr. Su-myeon said earlier.”

Ju-hee agreed with Han-su and added a word.

“I fell asleep in the break room at work for a moment, but when I woke up, I wasn’t wearing the slippers I had been wearing before I fell asleep. I was wearing the shoes I had worn when I came to work.”

A state that seemed the same as the outfit she remembered last, yet was also different.

That strange sense of wrongness would not have occurred to her if Han-su had not pointed it out.

“Only my police ID remained, and all of my other belongings were gone.”

The two of them also seemed to think that this point made it strange to regard the situation as an ordinary kidnapping.

However, Su-myeon had a slight idea why the two of them were dressed that way.

‘Isn’t it because this is the state that best represents each person’s character?’

If this was simply the world inside a game, then that would be a fairly important element.

After all, it would not be very cool for Ju-hee, whose concept was an office worker, to shuffle around in slippers, or for Han-su, a detective character, to be unable to reveal he was a detective because he lacked his ID.

Su-myeon, who was getting dizzy from the identical wallpaper and carpet no matter where he looked, checked the time for a moment.

[AM 11:48]

Before he knew it, quite a bit of time had passed as they walked and talked about trivial things.

If possible, he wanted to reach the upper floor before midnight, but progress was slower than he had expected.

“I’m going to walk a little farther up front for a bit. It feels a little stuffy….”

Su-myeon made an excuse and moved from his position at the rear to the middle.

In any case, there was an exit on the surface, and they could go outside.

Of course, the game continued into Chapter 2 after that, with the protagonist searching for other ghost stories, but after getting out, Su-myeon just had to cut off contact immediately.

Then he would return to his ordinary life.

‘Let’s get out quickly.’

There was no need to leave his peaceful daily life behind and deliberately increase the time he suffered here.

If they were going to find the stairs, that should appear soon….

“I said I’m not doing it!”

At that moment, someone shouted from among the people walking up front.

Han-su and Ju-hee, startled, passed beside Su-myeon and quickly ran forward.

‘She really is the type who has a hard time living long….’

Su-myeon, who thought that while watching Ju-hee’s meddlesome behavior that was no less than the protagonist’s, quietly looked over the situation ahead.

Sure enough, San-hyeok was at the center of the commotion.