Chapter 5

Chapter 5. Staff-Only Passage (3)

[5. Security is a very sensitive employee. If you have any inquiries, please greet him politely with “What a clear-smiled day it is today!” after meeting him, then state your business.]

Only half of them followed Su-myeon’s shout.

Su-myeon, who was running at the very back, saw San-hyeok and most of the others at the front turn right.

It was different from the original development in the game.

Originally, at this point in the game, the protagonist had not confronted San-hyeok, so everyone smoothly followed Han-su’s choice.

But was it because things had changed from the very beginning? The group was splitting between both sides.

The problem was that the majority had chosen the direction San-hyeok led.

‘Then the development I know might change a lot….’

However, Su-myeon, already so out of breath from running that it felt as if it had risen to his throat, had no strength left to shout any more.

The enormous thudding footsteps could be heard right behind his back.

He had seen enough through countless death animations in the game to know what happened if one was caught.

If he did not want to be “removed” to some unknown place with his arm torn off, he absolutely could not be caught.

After passing the fork and running for a while, the sound of footsteps quickly began to grow distant.

“…The thing chasing us followed the other side.”

Ju-hee, who had been running at the very front, looked back to check and stopped. Only then could Su-myeon stop as well.

Han-su, who also stopped walking, gasped for breath and looked around at the group that had been cut in half.

“Have we split up? Where did the rest of the people go?”

“The other… the other side….”

Su-myeon, who had followed from the back, barely spat out the words and gestured to the right.

Immediately afterward, Su-myeon sat down on the floor, almost collapsing, and panted roughly.

“Aaaah!”

Just then, a scream came from somewhere in the direction Su-myeon had pointed.

Han-su stared in that direction with a conflicted expression.

Ju-hee also bit her lip hard, but soon shook her head and checked Su-myeon’s condition as he gasped for breath.

“It would be better to rest for a moment.”

“I would be grateful if you please did that….”

Because he had been breathing so hard, his lungs hurt, and he felt as if he was going to cough up his heart.

When Su-myeon had been young and had sports days at school, he had always felt most comfortable placing appropriately last.

A run that suited the phrase “full sprint” felt like something he had done for the first time in his life.

After wiping away the sweat on his chin with the back of his hand and gasping for breath for a long time, Su-myeon’s breathing finally calmed down, and Han-su quietly asked him.

“…Why did you tell us to go left?”

Of course, there was a path even if they went right.

However, the Back Office was also the employees’ space, so they would have to wander for much longer, and there was a high possibility they would not get out within the time limit.

The Arcade on the left had stairs leading up to a shopping mall with a shopping area, so it was the natural choice.

The problem was how to explain that….

“Doesn't an arcade usually refer to a shopping mall overseas?”

Because he had breathed so hard, his throat was completely dry. Su-myeon swallowed once and added.

He had never been on anything like an overseas trip, so he did not know it well, but it was simply information he knew because he had seen it in the game.

“Back Office means, well, literally a space used by employees…. We’re in the position of guests, so I thought a place where guests are supposed to be might be safer.”

Besides, all the monsters they had seen so far had roles as employees.

Su-myeon tried to explain as concisely as possible.

“In any case, isn’t it right that we shouldn’t go into a staff-only area?”

Han-su was not the only one listening to Su-myeon’s explanation.

Ju-hee, who was listening beside them, nodded as well, and the others who had believed Su-myeon’s words and chosen the left side with them also nodded.

The number of people left was exactly six, including Su-myeon.

“…From now on, I think it would be best not to split up as much as possible.”

Everyone voiced agreement at Han-su’s words, so Su-myeon also dusted himself off and stood.

The group had been cut in half, but after checking their faces, he actually felt a little more stable.

For the most part, only calm people who were obedient and easygoing had remained.

Those who were rebellious like San-hyeok or did not fit group activity seemed to have opposed Su-myeon’s shout and gone the opposite way.

“…?”

As Su-myeon stood and habitually dusted off his pants, he felt something catch on his finger and grabbed it.

It was another silver coin with a rose embossed on it.

Su-myeon looked at the coin in his hand with a somewhat awkward feeling.

It had clearly not been there before he sat down, so when had it appeared?

He had his doubts, but the Rose Coin was an item for guests, not employees, so it seemed probably all right to touch it.

‘At any rate, it’s currency that goes into the inventory….’

He still did not know where he was supposed to use it, though.

Su-myeon pressed the coin firmly against the phone screen and put it inside.

[Rose Coin : 2]

[Preparing Stock….]

What in the world could he buy with this?

He was curious, but he felt as if he was drifting farther and farther from normality, so he decided not to hold any more curiosity about it.

[PM 12:21]

In addition, after checking the time displayed on his phone, Su-myeon thought for about one second about giving up on everything and lying down.

It was amazing that his lungs had not burst after that full sprint just now.

He had run for more than ten minutes….

“I am concerned about that as well.”

While Su-myeon was thinking such thoughts, Han-su approached and spoke.

Just as he was wondering what Han-su had misunderstood this time to use the phrase “as well,” Han-su continued.

“Among the safety rules, there is a sentence telling us to leave quickly. What do you think that ‘quickly’ means, exactly?”

It seemed he had thought Su-myeon was thinking about that part because he had been looking at the time.

Unfortunately, however, that was a part Su-myeon already knew the answer to.

“…Doesn’t it mean we must not wander around for more than a set amount of time?”

In order to subtly drop a hint, Su-myeon continued in the form of a guess.

“Probably, …it won’t be divided by minutes… so won’t it limit us by units of time like an hour or something?”

“If I knew this would happen, I should have at least checked the time when we came up….”

That was information Su-myeon had already checked.

At Han-su’s regretful voice, Su-myeon answered.

“11:36. Ah, since I was at the very back, if we account for when the first person came up, around 11:35?”

In truth, even in the game, Han-su was not exactly the type of person who carefully kept track of everything.

The gamer controlling him from behind remembered everything and matched things to reach the ending.

The passive setting of horror game protagonists, who sometimes took carelessly incomprehensible actions and got deeply entangled in incidents, was attached to him as well.

“And since a sign came up, I think the stairs will come out soon too.”

From there, the path would continue in one direction without anything to get lost in.

Su-myeon spoke in a tone mixed with relief, then wiped his glasses out of habit, put them back on, and flinched.

“…What is it?”

Han-su was staring intently at him as he did that.

When a detective from the Violent Crimes Unit with an already sturdy build stared like that, Su-myeon felt a chill run down his spine for no reason.

Even when he looked back over whether he had said anything suspicious, nothing seemed particularly strange.

“I was looking because I thought you were impressive.”

Han-su was purely impressed by Su-myeon’s deduction that was not really a deduction.

At those words, Su-myeon felt like hiding in a mouse hole.

He had merely fitted the evidence backward in a situation where he knew the answer, but he could not tell the truth.

When Su-myeon simply nodded with an awkward expression, Han-su continued with a gloomy face.

“And I would also like to apologize for the part where I failed to act rationally earlier.”

“Um….”

So! Why do you keep saying things like that to me?!

Su-myeon’s wish to avoid standing out as much as possible and blend in normally with the others had already gone far away.

The protagonist’s attention felt burdensome, but half resigned, Su-myeon simply nodded soon after.

“Yes. Well… that can happen. And since there really might be a time limit, shall we hurry a little?”

Wanting to leave this place quickly, Su-myeon pressed on Han-su’s shoulder and pushed him forward.

Han-su also seemed to feel the need to hurry after hearing his words, so he immediately turned and began walking again.

As if meeting his expectations, before they had walked much farther, stairs leading upward came into view in the distance.

However, the problem was the path leading to the stairs.

There was a gaping hole in the floor, and only a single narrow bridge, about a handspan wide and stretched straight across, connected to the other side.

“What kind of building is made like this…….”

After hearing Ju-hee mutter, Su-myeon also quietly checked the situation ahead.

Except for the one-way path a handspan wide, the entire floor was open in a gaping hole.

If someone fell, getting hurt was one thing, but the biggest problem was that they would have to return all the way back to this place.

‘There was a structure like this in the game too.’

An extremely irritating gimmick where one misstep returned you to the first location.

But that was not all that had been prepared here.

When they got a little closer, the walls on both sides of the place where the lone bridge lay came fully into view.

“Shit….”

On both walls, countless walkie-talkies were on display, torn off together with hands that belonged to unknown people.

The walkie-talkies and arms sewn with wire hung all over both walls, and from a distance, the fingers and palms looked like large red flowers.

The many hands of countless unknown people, fixed tightly to the wall, all differed in size and shape.

“Um, this is… just a guess….”

After seeing that sight, Ju-hee cautiously opened her mouth.

“If these were… deliberately collected….”

The other people listening to Ju-hee’s trembling voice all thought of the same thing.

Cheol-su’s corpse from earlier, with a walkie-talkie sewn to his arm.

“It may come back carrying it to tear it off and decorate the wall.”

At Han-su’s calm voice, Su-myeon hurriedly became the first to step onto the single strip of floor that resembled a narrow wooden bridge.

There was no time to hesitate, so Su-myeon went first, carefully stepping on the narrow floor of the lone bridge one step at a time.

Su-myeon simply did not want to waste time because he wanted to survive.

But in the eyes of the others, he looked like a pioneer willingly testing the uncertain stepping stone for them.

After hesitating for a moment, Ju-hee also took off her high heels, held them in her hand, and followed behind him. The others followed in a line after them.

“I will follow at the very back.”

Han-su’s words were very reassuring, so Su-myeon kept moving straight ahead without looking back.

Of course, he felt a little guilty that he kept being the first one to run off, but from the standpoint of someone who knew the answer, he did not want to waste time trying to persuade them.

In any case, it was true that Su-myeon survived somehow because he knew the game’s development was the way to help the protagonist.

THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD!

The sound that had been coming from afar was subtly growing closer.

After barely crossing to the other side and standing in front of the stairs, Su-myeon finally looked back.

Because they were crossing one by one slowly, Han-su had still not even set foot on the bridge.

Even so, most of them had gotten onto the bridge, and only one person remained.

“Uwah!”

A male student wearing a high school uniform was trembling in fear.

He had looked unsteady, and in the end, before he could even take a few steps, he misstepped, staggered, and his body tilted.

At the moment he was falling.

Han-su did not miss the flailing boy’s hand and grabbed it.

“…I have you.”