Chapter 28: The Hand Is Faster Than the Eye

“Seon Yuhan-ssi?”

“W-where are you going all of a sudden?! What’s wrong with you?!”

“You shouldn’t be running! Your heart rate…!”

I had to escape. Anywhere.

I had to get out of there. Somehow.

“What an ungrateful creature.”

It was a voice that could not be ignored.

I… simply couldn’t…

I couldn’t defy it.

“Filthy beast that doesn’t even know gratitude.”

“Please…”

I bit my lips and ran without thinking.

I knew my heart could no longer calm down as long as I kept hearing that voice.

I knew my heart would be torn out if I didn’t leave that floor.

So there were only two things I could do.

First, hope that returning the name “Bae Seou” to the urn had been the condition for escaping Basement 5.

Second, assuming that was true, get out of the parking garage before 108 seconds passed.

The emergency exit. Where is the emergency exit…?

“Look at you twisting yourself apart trying to survive.”

I found it.

Bang!

I ran until I was out of breath, and the moment I saw the emergency exit sign, I threw myself down the stairs without thinking.

“Seon Yuhan-ssi, that emergency exit…!”

Wait.

At the same moment I heard Yoo Hyunjae’s urgent shout behind me, a doubt arose.

Am I going down?

But aren’t we already on the lowest floor?

‘In fact, a small emergency exit I had never seen before appeared. When I opened it, there were only stairs leading down. Even though Basement 5 should be the lowest level.’

It was exactly the emergency exit Yoo Hyunjae had mentioned.

Damn it.

As I stretched my foot toward the next step, my mind spun frantically.

There was no time to stop and think.

If I stayed on the same step for more than five seconds, I would fall.

Should I go back and take the emergency exit we had originally used to descend and return to the second floor?

Would there still be time left before the 108 seconds were up?

What if something interrupted me while I was heading toward the other exit?

What if I had to hear that voice again?

Clack.

The decision was made.

I opened the emergency door that had no floor number.

***

The first thing I saw when I opened the door was a completely ordinary office hallway, illuminated by the sunset light coming through the windows.

I had escaped.

From the parking garage where not a single ray of light could enter.

The first thing I did was check the floor number written above the door.

14th Floor.

Below the second floor.

Below Basement 5.

And below that, the 14th floor.

I knew the order was scrambled, but seeing it was still absurd.

Before moving, I pulled the Tarae Journal from my inner pocket and checked the floor information.

[14th Floor | NeoSoft]

A software company?

In any case, it seemed to be another outside company located in the Jarae Building, just like the Hawol Accounting Firm where Choi Jaeha worked.

Wait.

I stopped while putting away the journal.

Until now, I had only opened it to check floor information.

But if I wrote something in it.

Would it still be written there even after dying and returning?

The journal reappeared with me every time everything restarted.

If the contents remained as well…

Then there would have been no need to memorize all the vehicle information from the parking garage.

…Hmm.

I calmed down and first wrote down the actual order of the floors.

[3, 2, B5, 14]

On one hand, I was glad I had brought a pen for the interview.

On the other hand, I thought that if I had never come to that interview, none of this would be happening.

I suppressed the nausea rising again and wrote.

[Bae Seou]

I stared at that name for a long time.

Then a question suddenly struck me.

And who was the killer?

Did it not matter who had killed Bae Seou?

Was it enough simply to find the victim’s name and honor her memory?

Normally, you would also have to discover the culprit before considering the case solved.

“……”

If labyrinths were truly tombs of unresolved problems waiting for someone to solve them…

Then perhaps I would end up solving that mystery.

Right there.

Inside that labyrinth.

And the moment that uncomfortable premonition crossed my mind.

Bang!

The emergency door burst open behind me, and the other four came rushing out.

In order.

Choi Jaeha.

Hwang Juyeon.

Jung Jiho.

And Yoo Hyunjae.

“Hah! And where are we now? Huh? Fourteenth floor?”

“At least we managed to get out of the parking garage. What a relief…”

“So you arrived here as well, Seon Yuhan-ssi. That’s a relief. Since you didn’t come back, I assumed you had reached a different floor.”

“Yes, exactly. But what was with that sudden sprint?! I thought something terrible had happened.”

“I’m sorry. I had a rather unpleasant hallucination.”

The moment I apologized, Choi Jaeha’s expression completely relaxed.

He was such a simple person that it was refreshing.

“What? So you do know what fear feels like? Honestly, I thought you were some kind of cyborg. You said screams didn’t attract the monster and started screaming without fear. You didn’t even blink.”

“By the way, Seon Yuhan-ssi.”

“Yes.”

I ignored Choi Jaeha’s comment and looked at Yoo Hyunjae.

“What is that notebook?”

The owner of the Jarae Group pointed with his chin at the journal in my hand.

“Ah. I found it here a little while ago.”

Lies depend on momentum.

“I thought it would be useful to write down the things I know, so I was making some notes. If you need them, I can tear out a few pages and hand them around.”

“Before that, may I take a look at it?”

In any case, the journal had told me that as long as I wished it, it would always remain linked to me.

I wasn’t worried about it being taken away.

“Ah, yes. Of course.”

I handed over the reddish-brown leather journal as naturally as possible.

Yoo Hyunjae examined it as though appraising a jewel, carefully turning it over again and again, then flipped through each page with the same caution one would use when reading an extremely rare antique book.

“You say you found it here a little while ago?”

“Yes. It was lying around.”

“Hmm.”

Did he realize I was lying?

My mind immediately began working at full speed again.

Should I insist that it was true?

And how could I make it sound convincing?

Or would it be better to explain why I lied?

And if I explained it, should I choose the truth or a lie?

And what would happen if I chose the truth…?

However, all those efforts turned out to be pointless.

Yoo Hyunjae calmly handed the Jarae Journal back to me.

“Keep carrying it yourself, Seon Yuhan-ssi. If you want to give it to someone, hand it over whole. Don’t tear out any pages or damage it in any way.”

“Ah… yes. Understood.”

Although I had never really been that worried, things had turned out even better than I expected.

“Do you know what this journal is?”

Does this guy know something?

“Well… isn’t it just a Jarae Group journal? That’s what it looked like from what I saw inside.”

The representative of Yuwi Guild smiled silently.

“I meant whether you know that it’s a labyrinth artifact.”

“An artifact…? This? And how do you know? At first glance it looks completely ordinary.”

Of course, I already knew.

After all, the labyrinth itself had announced it in the auditorium as a special limited-edition item.

A cursed object that would follow you even after death once purchased.

How could it not be an artifact?

“Because no such journal exists among ours. Not in any year.”

Ah.

So that was how he figured it out.

“If work is progressing normally, by this time of year we would usually have already narrowed down next year’s designs to a few options. But I don’t remember receiving any report. It doesn’t even look like it has reached the sample stage.”

In other words.

Since it was impossible for a physical journal with that design to exist, it had to be an artifact.

“Ah…”

The more I looked at him, the more I understood why he was an extraordinary person.

Not just anyone could gather all the information they knew so quickly and use it exactly where it was needed.

And on top of that, he minimized his own risks by not trying to damage or seize an artifact whose properties were unknown, while at the same time earning people’s goodwill.

“If it weren’t for you, Director, I never would have realized it. I’ll use it carefully.”

“I trust that you will.”

Choi Jaeha, Hwang Juyeon, and Jung Jiho watched me with curiosity.

It seemed to be the first time they had seen a genuine artifact.

“Then let’s get moving. If there’s anyone here, they’re probably on this side.”

Yoo Hyunjae pointed down the hallway to the left.

Looking carefully, the 14th floor also had a square-shaped layout.

The left half was NeoSoft’s office.

The right half appeared to be empty.

[NeoSoft]

We stopped in front of the entrance.

To the right of the company sign was a logo made of squares arranged like a crossword puzzle, spelling out “NEOSOFT.”

“And what exactly is this company…?”

Yoo Hyunjae stared at the invisible interior beyond the frosted glass door and answered.

“As far as I know, it’s a video game company.”

Damn it.

I already had a bad feeling.

I looked at the others and weighed whether it would be better to enter together or split up.

Watching someone die right in front of my eyes.

Or having them die somewhere I couldn’t see.

“…Let’s go in.”

I knew which of those two options was better.

I had known for a very long time.

***

The interior of NeoSoft was dark and silent.

“There’s no one here…? Ah, wait. Isn’t someone over there?”

A faint monitor glow shone from a corner of the darkened office.

There seemed to be someone there.

It carried that gloomy yet strangely peaceful atmosphere of a person working alone in an office after everyone else had gone home.

“Excuse me…”

We approached slowly and cautiously.

Then the face hidden behind a cubicle appeared.

“Eh…”

It was a bald man in a sweatshirt soaked with sweat.

His face was pale as he stared fixedly at the monitor.

His neck was stretched so far forward that it looked as though he was about to be swallowed by the sea or by the screen itself.

【A raccoon-disguised shopkeeper is selling ice cream. It looks delicious. You cannot bear the hunger.】

【▶ Eat】

【▶ Endure】

There was only a text game on the screen.

Very simple pixel art.

Narration.

And choices.

“Are you okay?”

“Can you hear us?”

“Uh… ah…?”

Only after we called him several times did the man pull back his neck and turn his gaze toward us.

“Do you know this place has become a labyrinth?”

I briefly explained the route we had taken and the current situation.

Meanwhile, the man blinked several times with his bloodshot eyes and began typing rapidly on the phone lying on his desk.

I followed the words appearing in his notes app.

[The office suddenly lost power and everyone disappeared except me and one other coworker

I tried to leave but it seems I can’t until I finish this game

And if you’re wondering why I’m not speaking it’s because I lost my tongue after choosing the wrong option

The baldness was because of that too

Anyway my coworker died the same way so I stored the body in the kitchen]

Despite the content.

The tone was strangely light and calm.

“Hah… yeah, it’s locked. Though I wasn’t expecting anything else…”

Choi Jaeha returned after trying to open the door.

It seemed the experiences in the library and the parking garage had toughened him up a little.

Just as the bald man was about to continue typing.

Ding!

A pop-up window appeared on the game screen.

【Hi, binary! It looks like you’re happily enjoying LabyrinSoft’s Lost In HAPPYLAND. How about inviting some new friends to share the happiness?】

【▶ Invite】

“Happyland…? This damn game, wait!”

I read the unsettling message and hurried to stop the man.

But it was already too late.

【Invitation Complete!】

His hand had already clicked the mouse.