Chapter 2: The clock is Watch

Bang!

I grabbed the doorknob tightly and threw myself forward like a runner receiving the baton in a relay race.

Luckily, I managed to prevent the door from opening.

Clack, bang! Clack, bang!

Damn it, what kind of strength is that…!

It’s definitely not a child.

And, of course, it doesn’t seem like a normal human either.

“Now. What hour. What minute.”

I can’t take the phone out of my pocket while I’m holding it back.

While barely restraining that thing that was trying to break in like crazy, I turned my head and looked inside the interview room.

Ah! Ah! There’s a clock there!

Luckily, on the wall behind the seat where I had been sitting, there was an analog clock.

Click, clack.

“Ugh, 3! 3:57…! No, 58 minutes! 3:58!”

I shouted urgently toward the dark figure visible through the gap of the half-open door.

“Thank you.”

At the same time it said that, the doorknob that had been shaking violently stopped, and the overwhelming weight from the other side disappeared as if by magic.

Thud…

The door closed.

“Now 3:58. Communication error. Reconfirm later. Sorry. Support to the interview.”

Squeak, screech, squeak.

The unpleasant friction sound gradually moved away.

“Ha…”

Only when the sound disappeared completely could I breathe normally again.

I stayed silent because I felt that I shouldn’t respond.

Did it only need me to tell it the time and it would leave quietly?

I wasted energy for nothing.

My legs completely gave out.

I sat down for a moment to think.

By the way, should I leave?

I can’t stay here forever.

Should I go down again through the emergency exit?

I mentally reviewed the location of the stairs.

If that thing is still on the third floor, I have to flee by the shortest route. I can’t get the direction wrong.

This time I have to be careful not to fall.

Just as I was doing that mental rehearsal carefully—

Bang!

The door opened.

Without any prior sign, without the slightest hint.

Everything happened in an instant.

“Time stops.”

Darkness.

I saw darkness gathered outside the door, like a puddle.

It wasn’t the hallway lit by sunlight coming through the windows despite the blackout.

It was total darkness, capable of leaving you blind.

“Time flows.”

Wind.

I felt a wind flowing like a waterfall from outside the door.

It wasn’t a gentle breeze that caresses your hair and brushes your ear.

It was a wind strong enough to make your legs wobble.

“Usage time finished. Time exists.”

Fwoooosh—!

That darkness began to suck in the air like a vacuum.

And I was nothing more than dust.

“It must not exist. Time does not exist.”

As if I were toothpaste being squeezed, my body was crushed and twisted from the feet.

And just before bursting from the head—

The last thing I saw was a paper stuck under the sign of the interview room that said “Conference Room A”.

[Recruitment of new employees of the Yuwi Guild

Interview Room

10:00 a. m. ~ 4:00 p. m.]

Damn.

It was 4:01.

**

Respect the usage time of the interview room.

**

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

That’s what I’m saying.

I swallowed those words and took out the phone with trembling hands.

It felt as if my head was throbbing and my body was falling apart, but that was just an illusion.

[3:29｜5G｜87%]

Is there still internet signal?

How strange.

Anyway, first…

“I have to get out. Alive.”

“Huh?”

“I’m sorry. Excuse me.”

I stood up and took the interviewer by the arm to help him stand.

“Ah.”

On his somewhat absent-minded face, an innocent smile appeared.

“Is this a dramatization? It’s been a while since I’ve seen a candidate who shows their answer with actions.”

I ignored that nonsense and went out with him from the room.

The interviewer followed me without resisting.

He seemed to think this was my answer to the question of “what would you do if you could turn back time,” and was observing me with a look full of interest.

If they hire me, this person will be my superior.

“Is it normal that there’s no one in the hallway?”

“Yes, more or less. On the third floor there’s only the auditorium and conference rooms, and today there are no events apart from the interviews.”

Now that I think about it, it was already quiet before entering.

“Ah. There it is.”

I found a fire extinguisher on the hallway wall, near the restrooms.

In a few minutes there will be another blackout, and the internet will also be cut off.

I extended my hand toward the red alarm button.

If I activate the fire alarm now, at least everyone in the building will be alert and prepared.

With luck, I might even prevent someone from getting into an elevator.

“Mr. Seon Yuhan.”

Clack.

Just as I was about to press the button, the interviewer grabbed my arm.

He had more strength than he appeared to have.

With a professional smile, he began to speak without stopping.

“We promised that there would be no disadvantages in the interview, but doing something like this is already debatable. Showing your answer through actions is within expectations, of course, but for those actions to affect the entire building is already problematic. We are not alone in the company; there are also executives. You understand, right? Besides, triggering a false alarm… even the firefighters might come, and that wouldn’t be appropriate, don’t you think?”

It made sense.

Not because of the executives or the false alarm.

The problem was that more people would enter the building.

According to my intuition, this place is…

It may be that the part about having died and returned is not real, and everything is happening in my head.

But to me this feels real.

So I must assume that it is and act accordingly.

In the end, there is only one place where something like this can happen.

A maze.

“Mr. interviewer, this building… has turned into a maze.”

“Are you still with the dramatization…?”

The interviewer, who was looking at me, closed his mouth and narrowed his eyes.

“Are you serious? It’s not that a maze appeared, but that it has already turned into one?”

As expected, being someone who works with difficult clients, he had a great capacity for perception.

Although grasping the situation is one thing, believing me without hesitation is something entirely different.

Perhaps, by nature, he is a kind-hearted person.

“Yes. It is an invasive-type maze.”

Common mazes exist in a space different from that of Earth.

They appear as “rifts” that connect with another space-time, absorbing those who are nearby.

Those are called “contact mazes,” and most are like that.

But there are always exceptions.

In very rare cases, a space on Earth itself turns into a maze.

That is called a “labyrinthization phenomenon,” and those places are called “invasive mazes.”

“Huff… this is serious.”

The interviewer ran his hand through his hair and took a deep breath.

“Then it’s already too late to get out, right?”

“Yes, it seems so.”

The start of the labyrinthization is set at 3:29, when my return occurred.

Now it’s 3:32.

Soon there will be a blackout, and the elevators will fall.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Seon Yuhan. It seems we lost time because of me.”

“No.”

I didn’t want to see his face while he apologized, so I turned around.

“If it’s invasive, then the firefighters won’t come. I was naive.”

Invasive mazes usually end with the total annihilation of those inside.

Because that is their resolution condition.

That all humans inside must die.

Of course, there are other conditions.

The problem is that they are not known, or that they are difficult to fulfill.

Contact mazes, even though they are in another world, still follow known patterns.

Thanks to years of experience, explorers can resolve them.

But the invasive ones are different.

They are extremely rare, and they directly convert a real space into a maze.

A completely new environment.

And since everyone dies, there are almost never survivors who can provide information.

Collecting data is practically impossible.

That is to say, an unknown space where anything can happen.

That is an invasive maze.

“For now, let’s go down to the first floor. The lobby should be the exit. The elevator is out of the question.”

The interviewer nodded and took the lead toward the emergency exit.

“Mr. interviewer, what is the fastest way to alert everyone that this place is a maze?”

In an invasive maze, external rescue cannot be expected.

“At the very least, we must prevent more people from entering. And in any case, explorers won’t come.”

No one would risk their life entering an unknown maze.

And even if someone wanted to, their agency or guild would stop them.

“Ah, right. We should report it to the Maze Management Department…”

Bang!

As the emergency door opened, all sounds echoed.

“No. Not the department. They follow procedures before acting. By then, civilians won’t know anything. We need everyone to know right now.”

I went down the stairs carefully.

This time without tripping.

“Then… ah!”

The interviewer’s face lit up.

“There is a very easy and safe way—”

I stopped in my tracks.

His voice bounced off the walls like an echo and disappeared.

Why?

Why does this person disappear again and again?

Where does he go?

Bang!

The sound shook the entire building.

Boom! Crash! Bang!

Then I remembered the man from the elevator.

Crash! Thud!

He didn’t disappear like the interviewer.

If it was him…

Maybe I could have saved him.

My breath caught and I grabbed onto the handrail.

Why am I like this?

Idiot. Selfish. Regretting too late.

Why am I still like this?

I…

Plop.

“Huh?”

Suddenly, the ground disappeared beneath my feet.

Like when you think you’ve already finished going down the stairs but there’s one more step.

“Aaah!”

I fell.

Into a cold and deep void, like a well.

Further and further down.

I reached upward uselessly.

Toward the only faint light filtering through the darkness.

It was rectangular.

The landing where I had stopped had collapsed.

…Anyway.

It seems I will have another chance to save the man from the elevator sooner than I thought.

Damn it.