Chapter 38: Call 1336 for Gambling Addiction Help

Wasn’t he a scammer?

He was saying that if we won the game, he would let us leave this place.

“When you say ‘here,’ what place exactly are you referring to? You’re not talking about the eleventh floor, are you? Because if that’s the case, even if we win, we’d barely be getting back what we invested.”

At my question, Do began spinning happily to the rhythm of an imaginary melody. All twenty-one eyes curved at the same time, as though they were itching.

He was smiling.

Without making a single sound.

“You would make an excellent gambler.”

As if that were a compliment.

“Of course, I mean this Jaerae Building. The labyrinth in which you are trapped.”

“What?”

“What did you say…? Really?”

“Seriously?”

The scarlet cube tilted to one side.

As if it were cocking its head.

“You find that suspicious?”

“Of course. You’re going to let us leave the labyrinth that easily? It sounds too good to be true.”

Like a lie.

“Too good to be true. So good that it demands wagering everything. And precisely because you wager everything, it becomes true.”

The eyes and voice of the blood-colored die carried a strange solemnity.

“That is a gamble.”

Do’s eyes focused on me.

“And when exactly did I say I would let you leave easily?”

His voice, which seemed capable of drawing people toward it, was filled with intense anger.

“The only thing you can wager against me is your life. I have never considered life to be something insignificant. That is why I never take a competition lightly.”

In other words.

Neither should we.

We had to wager our lives.

It was ridiculous.

From the moment we became trapped in the labyrinth, we had already been forced into a gamble where our lives were at stake.

“Of course, if you don’t want to, you are not obligated to participate.”

“Huh…?”

“We don’t have to play?”

“And if we don’t play? Aren’t we still trapped here anyway?”

“Not at all.”

Do’s eyes moved back and forth like a pendulum.

Like a person shaking his head.

“If you wish, you may open that door and leave right now.”

No way.

It wasn’t possible.

He couldn’t let us go that easily.

“However, if you decide not to compete against me.”

Of course.

You always have to listen to the whole sentence.

“As payment, I will keep one piece of future good fortune that you would otherwise have obtained.”

“What does it mean to keep our good fortune…?”

“It means that, inevitably, something will go wrong because of bad luck. Even though you might originally have overcome it thanks to good luck.”

In a labyrinth, even a small misfortune could lead directly to death.

But still.

It was a matter of probability.

There was a chance it wouldn’t become fatal.

“As for the challenge.”

Yoo Hyunjae politely raised his left hand before speaking.

“I assume I will be allowed to choose the format.”

This man is unsettling.

“Director, don’t you think you should think about it a little more?”

“Why? It’s worth trying. Besides, I’m usually quite lucky.”

That’s exactly why I’m worried.

Yoo Hyunjae had already died once after saying something very similar.

Luck is definitely not on this man’s side.

“Even so, considering who the opponent is, it would only be fair if I could at least choose the format.”

“I will grant you the right to choose the challenge. However, certain specific details of the rules will be adjusted by me.”

Simply put.

Each person could choose the type of contest they would have against Do.

If they lost, they died.

If they won, they escaped the labyrinth.

If they refused the gamble, they could leave this office safely for now, but later they would inevitably suffer an episode of bad luck.

“What if nobody is here because everyone already escaped?”

I heard Choi Jaeha whisper that to Hwang Juyeon.

“A moment ago he said we were his first guests.”

“Ah. Ah, right… You’re right…”

She seemed hesitant.

And that was normal.

No one knew how many floors still remained ahead.

And here they were being offered immediate escape if they won a single game.

“I’ll do it.”

How could I pass up an opportunity like that?

“What? Are you serious? You’re going to do it? Just like that?”

“Aren’t you deciding a little too quickly…?”

“It’s fine.”

I ignored the surprised looks and turned my head toward the die.

“I’ll play.”

“Then come in.”

Do turned his eyes toward me, then abruptly spun around and entered a private office separated from the rest.

“Then I’m leaving. Goodbye, Jiho.”

“No, this is too sudden… Please win… We have to meet again after we get out.”

“…Do well, Mr. Seon Yuhan. One way or another, I owe you a lot. Thank you.”

“I hope you win and that we can meet again later. It was a pleasure meeting you, Mr. Seon Yuhan.”

What is wrong with everyone?

Receiving such serious farewells honestly felt absurd.

After all, if I lost, we’d see each other again.

“Ah.”

‘For these people, this is the first time they’re saying goodbye to me.’

And naturally, it will also be the last.

My stomach churned.

As though that sudden realization were kicking my entire body.

Something boiled inside me.

“Yes. I’m also… grateful to all of you.”

I forced the words out of my throat.

Now that I thought about it, I had never had a proper farewell either.

It had always been sudden.

Both my death and theirs.

“I hope all of you make it out.”

Genuinely hoping this would be the final goodbye, I entered the gambling room…

“You lack the qualifications necessary to participate at my gaming table.”

“Damn…”

It seemed I was going to die without even being allowed to gamble.

“Why? So you just want me to die?”

At the customer’s complaint, the casino owner let out an incredulous chuckle.

“If I told you to die, could you do it?”

Ah.

“So you know. You know I can’t die.”

“It’s not that I know. It’s something that can be seen. What use would eyes be if they couldn’t recognize the value of a wager?”

Do’s eyes remained motionless, as though piercing through my body.

“A life is singular. In the world called ‘me,’ the pain of birth and death occurs only once. That is why there exists a wager called life. You are violating that rule. The most sacred rule of all.”

I had already assumed there would be beings capable of perceiving that I was regressing through time.

After all, even the commemorative photograph from Happyland showed versions of me from previous loops.

“If someone possesses multiple lives, how can it be said that they’ve wagered everything? If there is a place to retreat to, how can it be called an abyss?”

Now I understood.

“Is that why you hate me?”

I was a being incapable of making a one-time wager with my life on the line.

Because even when I died, I couldn’t truly die.

“Yes. I hate you. Your very existence is blasphemy.”

Wow.

A true purist of the gambling world.

“Then because I can’t really die, even if I beat you, you can’t let me escape?”

“The weight is not equal. To you, death is as light as an exhalation. Freedom, on the other hand, weighs as much as guilt.”

The balance problem again?

I was sick of scales.

“…Then how about I wager someone else’s freedom?”

The eyes embedded in three of the die’s faces stared at me.

The fact that he didn’t reject the idea immediately was a good sign.

“Jung Jiho. The child outside. How about this if I win, you let him escape.”

“Let us begin negotiations.”

Only then did Do lead me to a white table with a single chair.

“Ah. Before that, there’s something I want to confirm. If I help the child escape and then die and return, what will happen to him? Will he come back too?”

Because if that were the case, this wager would be meaningless.

“No. He will not return.”

I sat down and looked up at the die.

Do floated in front of me and stopped.

“My rules are not so light. This labyrinth would not dare interfere with someone who has fallen outside the rules of this place.”

Rules were something sacred.

Of all the stories whispered by the beings of the labyrinth, if there was one thing that could be trusted without reservation, it was the rules.

They could hide information.

But they did not lie about the rules.

“And what if, after he gets out, I discover the child was already dead?”

“My. Rules. Are. Not. So. Light.”

“Okay, okay. I was just asking.”

That meant that even if I regressed through time again, Jung Jiho would continue to exist outside the labyrinth, alive and safe.

That was enough.

“More importantly. Shouldn’t you first think about what will happen if you lose? You would be wagering the life of that young and quiet boy.”

“…Couldn’t I just die myself? Even if it can be reversed, death is still death. And I hate dying.”

It wasn’t easy to read the expressions of a mass of flesh covered only in eyes.

Do closed his eyes for a long time while slowly spinning.

Then he opened them.

“I’ll accept it. If you lose, only you will die.”

“Permanently?”

“Do you think that’s possible?”

“Isn’t it?”

“There are rules above my own.”

“…I see. But is that really enough? I appreciate you accepting it, but you just said you hated me because I couldn’t wager my life.”

“Do you truly not understand? Or do you simply not want to understand?”

I stared at him.

The twenty-one eyes laughed again from within.

“Your death is enough. You’ll understand.”

***

“There is something I must make clear. This will be the first and last chance you will have to wager that ‘single life’ of yours against me. I may not remember having met you, but I have eyes capable of recognizing the value of your life.”

In other words, even if Do couldn’t recognize me after a regression, he could recognize the value of my life.

So I wouldn’t be able to trick him and challenge him again.

“Furthermore, I will choose the game.”

That didn’t matter to me.

I had intended to accept anything from the start.

Against an opponent like him, my odds would be similar no matter the game.

“Good. Allow me to explain the game you will play. Its name is The Breath of Judgment.”

The moment he finished speaking, two objects appeared on the table.

One was a black gas mask.

It didn’t cover the eyes and looked as though it had come from a futuristic science-fiction novel.

The other was a die.

This time, a completely ordinary die.

It wasn’t made of flesh.

It was a small ivory-colored cube with red dots instead of eyes.

“That’s it? A gas mask and a die?”

“If life and death could not be decided by the number of eyes drawn on a simple cube, how could that be called a wager?”

By that logic, it made sense that he considered life itself a wager.

Life was something tremendously absurd.

At least for me.

“Put it on.”

I followed his instructions and put on the mask.

It covered half my face.

I thought it would be uncomfortable, but it was surprisingly light.

“Breath of Judgment. The name is grandiose, but it’s a very simple game for determining whether a statement is true or false. Because truth and lies are…”

Like breath.

Invisible to the eye.

And capable of concealing a deadly poison.

“Therefore, whoever fails to deliver the correct judgment will end up paying the corresponding price.”

…That mask.

Rather than a mask meant to protect me from poison, it seemed designed to expel it.

And it was pointed directly at me.

“The numbers are always read from the top face.”

Then the small die began rolling across the table on its own.

“When rolled, one of six possible events will occur with a probability of one in six. It may land on one.”

The die stopped.

A single red eye on the top face stared at the ceiling.

It rolled again.

“Or it may land on two.”

This time a pair of bloodshot eyes appeared.

“Or a three.”

Three eyes forming a triangle.

“Or a four.”

Two tilted pairs of eyes.

“Or a five.”

A red cross awaiting the condemned.

“Or a six.”

Spaces incapable of becoming the Star of David.

“When one of these six events occurs, I, as the witness, will provide testimony regarding it. Let us conduct a demonstration.”

Clack.

Rattle.

The sound of the die rolling echoed across the table.

Then it stopped.

Six.

“An event has occurred. I will begin my testimony.”

At that moment—

“Aaaahhhh!”

Suddenly, a young woman’s piercing scream emerged from Do.

“What I saw was the first perfect number!”

Startled, I looked up.

And at the same time, words appeared on the sheet.

[Testimony X: “What I saw was the first perfect number!”]

[Accept | Verify]

I understood.

The number rolled was 6.

And 6 was known as the first perfect number because it is the smallest perfect number.

It was a kind of puzzle game.

I had to determine whether the testimony correctly described the event number indirectly.

It could be extremely easy.

Or incredibly difficult.

“But you’re not going to swap the die or replace the testimonies halfway through the game, right?”

“There is no wager without tricks.”

Did this bastard just openly admit he intended to cheat?

“However, tricks that destroy the foundations of the game are not permitted.”

“Ah.”

“Therefore, the supreme rules of the labyrinth guarantee that truth will always be truth and lies will always be lies.”

So he wasn’t going to change the die’s result or alter his statements midway through.

That was reassuring.

Then…

Maybe I really could win.

Without realizing it, a smile escaped my lips.

Perhaps gambling really was worth it.