Chapter 36: Please, No

To start with the result, it seems my liver ended up being useful for something.

I don’t know whether that’s a misfortune or a stroke of luck.

Although, if this was a floor that could be cleared without even going to NeoSoft, wouldn’t that be a good thing in the long run?

After all, even if we died, we wouldn’t have to play that game anymore.

But at that moment, I lost my mind.

“Excuse me. Did you say the offices on the right were empty?”

First they helped me to my feet, and instead of heading toward the left corridor where NeoSoft was, I walked straight into the corridor on the right.

Then I threw open a door that had no sign on it whatsoever.

“Ah. Shi—”

I found it.

Something.

Or someone.

Standing in an empty office, staring fixedly at the wall.

“Excuse me.”

Click.

“Haa…”

As expected, the door didn’t close.

I watched that thing through the half-open gap.

Slowly, it turned its body toward me.

Fortunately, it didn’t come any closer.

“T-that… is that a person? No, right?”

Choi Jaeha, who had come behind me, whispered against my back.

It looked like a person.

At least its silhouette did.

“I’d say probably not…”

It was wearing a thick gray coat, far too heavy for the season.

A brimmed hat pulled down to its eyebrows.

A scarf completely wrapped around its face.

Its face couldn’t be seen.

It was between 160 and 170 centimeters tall.

Its build was hidden beneath the thick clothing.

And it was wearing gloves.

Every part that could be considered “exposed skin” was covered.

It was impossible to guess its age or sex.

And if it wasn’t human, that distinction was even more meaningless.

In other words.

Nobody knew what was underneath those clothes.

“It’s holding a pair of scissors.”

“L-let’s go… Let’s run… Let’s run…”

While Yoo Hyunjae calmly pointed that out and Choi Jaeha tugged on my jacket.

“Mr. Choi Jaeha… There are three important things you should know.”

There are three fundamental facts worth remembering here.

First.

There are monsters and anomalous phenomena in labyrinths that can kill without needing bladed weapons.

But that doesn’t mean they can’t kill using bladed weapons.

Second.

Labyrinths are not games.

Encountering a monster or an anomaly does not necessarily mean you’re on the right path.

Third.

But the problem is that there’s also a possibility that it is the right path.

And there’s no way to know unless you go and check.

“And the fourth point? Isn’t there a fourth point? Aren’t you forgetting something about how you could go in there and die?”

That’s so obvious that even someone as uninterested in labyrinths as Choi Jaeha doesn’t need it explained.

Which is why it doesn’t count as a fourth point.

“I-it’s moving!”

The moment the unknown figure slowly began to raise the hand holding the scissors.

Choi Jaeha had already retreated all the way back to NeoSoft’s entrance.

Yoo Hyunjae and Hwang Juyeon moved away down the corridor with Jung Jiho so they wouldn’t have to see inside the office.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! GET OVER HERE!”

While a certain man was on the verge of dying from frustration.

I stared fixedly at the tip of the scissors.

“I think it’s pointing at me.”

I took one or two steps left and right from the doorway.

Then it became clear.

That thing was pointing exactly at me.

Should I ignore it?

Or was ignoring it precisely the fastest way to die?

I couldn’t know.

That was the problem with labyrinths.

Well, one of many.

“I’m going in.”

“What? Going where?”

There was another argument.

That I was crazy.

That I couldn’t do this.

That it was all the liver’s fault.

But in the end, I went in.

“You really are insane…”

With Choi Jaeha’s voice in the background, I slowly moved forward.

One step.

Then another.

The closer I got, the lower the tip of the scissors pointing at me descended.

First it pointed at my head.

Then my chest.

Then my abdomen.

At first I thought it was pointing at my liver.

But the arm kept lowering.

I followed the direction of the blade with my eyes.

My right hip?

My femur?

My femoral artery?

What was it pointing at?

And when I finally reached the figure in the hat.

I understood exactly what the tip of those scissors was pointing at.

My right pocket.

Rustle…

Inside was my souvenir from Happyland.

The commemorative photograph of my visit.

The red roller coaster with peeling paint.

The six empty seats.

The rusted rails that smelled of iron.

The shadows of the night devouring everything.

A fragment of the happiest moments of my life.

“Do you want this?”

It nodded.

Though, to be honest, I don’t know if that was really a head.

Because of the height difference, I still couldn’t see what was beneath the hat, and I had no intention of bending down to look inside.

No.

I mustn’t look.

My instincts were screaming it at me.

“Here.”

Snip, snip—

The creature took the A4 sheet folded into four parts, carefully unfolded it, and began cutting it with the scissors.

Looking closely, I saw that it was trimming away the margins so that only the photograph remained.

[One of Seon Yuhan’s Happiest Moments]

Including that caption as well.

Even with those thick wool gloves, it handled the scissors with surprising precision.

When it finished, it held the photograph for several seconds.

Then it took several steps to the left and raised its arm.

Tap.

It attached the photograph to the wall.

I had no idea how it had stuck it there without tape.

Nor did I understand what was special about that spot.

But it seemed to follow its own rules.

“……”

I waited for some kind of change.

Nothing happened.

The creature turned toward me.

Then it slightly tilted its hat, as if asking why I was still there.

“Do you want me to leave?”

The figure nodded and waved a hand as though saying goodbye.

In the end, I slowly left, still bewildered.

Fortunately, there was no unfortunate incident where it threw the scissors and lodged them in the back of my neck.

What the hell was that?

What exactly had that been?

“I suppose the condition was simply to give it that photograph.”

Yoo Hyunjae, who was waiting outside, cleared up part of my confusion.

If the condition for advancing to the next floor was to place the commemorative photograph obtained after clearing Happyland on the wall.

Then all those horrible things that happened during the game had not been in vain.

“Ah. Then now—”

“—Mr. Seon Yuhan. You should sit down and rest for a bit first.”

I tried to go downstairs immediately to check.

They forced me to sit on the floor.

Only then did I notice that the other three were already sitting against the hallway wall.

“Mr. Seon Yuhan’s condition is already concerning. And we have a child here as well.”

Only then did I lean against the wall and accept the bottle of water and snacks they offered me.

Apparently, while I was delivering the photograph in that empty office, Yoo Hyunjae had raided NeoSoft’s break room.

“What if you had gotten trapped in there?”

“But I didn’t get trapped.”

Poor administrative staff.

That was what I thought when I saw that irritatingly calm expression.

I discreetly turned my head toward the child sitting between Choi Jaeha and Hwang Juyeon.

“Jiho. Uh… how old are you?”

There were too many things I had never asked him.

The child hesitated as if he wanted to say something.

In the end, he held up 3 fingers.

Seven years old.

The age to enter elementary school the following year.

“I see… You still have trouble speaking, right? And you’re scared too.”

Jung Jiho nodded.

“By the way… the teacher who was originally taking care of you…”

I didn’t need to finish the sentence.

His expression said it all.

Inside the false wall next to the daycare lockers was a person who had been “put away” inside a toy box.

That person had indeed been a daycare teacher.

And Jung Jiho had seen her end.

It was only natural that he couldn’t speak.

‘So that you won’t cry noisily, so that you won’t make a scene, so that you won’t run around, so that you won’t squirm restlessly, and so that you won’t mutter incomprehensibly.’

The conditions for being a “beloved child” that the goose doll at the daycare had mentioned.

He was afraid of breaking those rules.

Even after leaving the daycare.

Even after seeing that the adults around him spoke normally and didn’t die.

His voice was probably still refusing to come out.

“Hmm. Your parents work in this company, right? Was it your mom? Ah, yes. Your mom. Do you remember what the magician said earlier?”

The child’s round eyes looked at me.

“If this were a game, we’d be a team. And the people who aren’t here would be clearing the game somewhere else.”

Fortunately, he seemed to vaguely remember the explanation about instance dungeons.

“So don’t worry too much even if you can’t find your mom in here. Once we get out, you’ll be able to see her.”

His expression showed doubt.

And it was a reasonable reaction.

Even if Jung Jiho survived.

His mother might come out dead.

However, as I kept talking, his face brightened a little.

“Look. We’ve been making pretty good progress, right? I’m sure your mom is too.”

No.

Maybe she was already dead.

And if that happened, would this child blame me someday?

Would he ask me why I lied to him?

Why I gave him false hope?

But I preferred that to seeing him give up.

Even if it was a cruel hope.

I wanted him to keep moving forward.

To get out of the labyrinth alive.

“Hey, Jiho. By the way, don’t you have a phone? They say even kindergarten kids carry one these days.”

Choi Jaeha’s sudden question diverted the child’s attention.

Then Yoo Hyunjae, sitting beside him, turned toward me.

“Mr. Seon Yuhan.”

“Yes?”

“What did you answer in the end?”

“Excuse me?”

The director’s eyes gleamed.

“I mean the final interview question.”

“Ah.”

The final question that, according to rumor, was always asked in interviews for the Jaerae Group, including Yuwi Guild.

If it were possible to turn back time, what would you do?

Technically, sharing interview questions was prohibited.

But it was so strange that it had become an open secret on the internet.

On employment forums, people jokingly called it “the regressor question.”

“I was under the impression that sharing it was forbidden.”

“You know who I am, right?”

Of course I did.

Yoo Hyunjae.

Co-CEO of Yuwi Guild.

And I also knew that such an absurd question would never have made it into an interview without his approval.

“Anyway, I could easily find out what you answered during the interview. If I really wanted to.”

“It would be better to save those things for after we get out of here. Right now, what you need is water and food.”

“Going a day without eating isn’t a problem.”

The conversation had taken a strange turn.

I just wanted him to eat what he was holding.

“So, what did you answer?”

What a persistent man.

“But Director. Why are you so interested in that? I don’t just mean my answer. I mean, why do you ask something like that in an interview?”

“That’s a little unfair. You didn’t answer me either. Why should I explain it to you?”

That strange man’s eyebrows lowered slightly.

“Haa, if you don’t want to say it, you don’t have to.”

“No, I’ll tell you. Life is unfair by nature.”

Is this man crazy?

Isn’t someone from the company not supposed to say something like that?

Does he really want to know what true unfairness means?

“That question is simply used as a personality test. If you guarantee there will be no consequences, people tend to answer more honestly. Some of the answers are quite interesting. However…”

Yoo Hyunjae smiled.

“That’s beside the point. Personally, I believe temporal regression phenomena can occur inside labyrinths.”

“Temporal… regression phenomena? You really believe that?”

“Yes.”

Please.

I hope that’s not true.