Chapter 43: Dead Moments

Isn’t this one of those things that kills people outright?

After observing the mannequin from different angles and moving around to figure out exactly what it was…

The mannequin did not react in any way other than imitating me.

It kept a small distance and repeated my movements with a one-step delay.

By the way.

Why did these two people commit suicide in such strange ways?

It was obvious that something in the labyrinth had destroyed their minds.

After all, neither a necktie nor hand sanitizer would be the first thing that comes to someone’s mind as their last meal.

I examined the two corpses again, which were lying apart from each other.

If nothing else, I hoped to find some kind of farewell message on their phones.

[Enter Password]

“Hmm.”

I even wiped their faces clean and opened their eyes.

But it seems that didn’t work.

There was nothing particularly noteworthy inside the Moment O’Clock office. At least for now.

Even the supply storage room from which the mannequin had emerged was completely normal.

I returned to the hallway.

Fortunately, the door did not lock behind me.

That meant that, at least for the moment, nothing was going to happen inside Moment O’Clock.

If there had been some dangerous entity, the door would have locked to prevent me from leaving.

I walked down the hallway to the office across from it.

Naturally, the mannequin continued following me one step behind.

[Shingye Daily]

The company name was written in a thick, heavy typeface.

I thought it was interesting how different the atmosphere was compared to Moment O’Clock as I opened the door.

“Ah.”

This was new.

The enormous office was completely empty.

Except for a single workstation.

Low partitions, a laptop, a desk, and a chair.

In the middle of that office, dark due to the blackout, only the laptop screen emitted light.

It was such a desolate sight that it felt unsettling.

I slowly approached to examine the laptop.

The mimicking mannequin on my left also sat in a nonexistent chair and stared into empty space.

[▓▓ Daily]　　[●]

The characters before “Daily” appeared corrupted.

And the profile in the upper-right corner was completely blacked out.

Judging by the overall design, it seemed that the labyrinth was imitating the internal webpage used by employees of a newspaper company.

[Published]

[Draft]

[Publication Failed]

First, I clicked “Published.”

There was nothing there.

When I clicked “Draft,” a long list of articles appeared.

I began reviewing them one by one from the top.

[Is World War III Imminent? Anxiety Among Citizens Continues to Rise…
｜20▓▓.▓▓.▓▓. 19:57 Saved]

The world may be worried about a world war, but I’m much more concerned about my own life.

[Worker Falls Alongside Auxiliary Structure at Construction Site in ▓▓-dong; Two Pedestrians Crushed to Death

｜20▓▓.▓▓.▓▓. 17:10 Saved]

When is this news from?

I couldn’t tell because the date was corrupted.

Besides, workplace accidents like this have happened constantly for years…

I froze for a moment as something came to mind.

Then I moved on to the next article.

[Cooling System Failure and Hydrogen Explosion at Gangwon’s Saegang Nuclear Power Plant… Evacuation Order Issued for All Citizens
｜20▓▓.▓▓.▓▓. 09:56 Saved]

Hmm?

As far as I know, a nuclear power plant has never exploded in Korea.

I kept reading.

[Smoking Inside a Kitchen… Boom! LPG Gas Explosion; Owner Dies, Two Customers Seriously Injured
｜20▓▓.▓▓.▓▓. 15:21 Saved]

Do things like this still happen?

Still, this article seemed normal.

[Military Reports Detection of North Korean Missile Launch; Government Activates Air-Raid Alert and Calls Emergency Meeting
｜20▓▓.▓▓.▓▓. 07:09 Saved]

This wasn’t that strange either.

Since the Post-Labyrinth Era, direct military actions have decreased and relations have stabilized, but similar situations had occurred before.

[Three Family Members Found Dead in Detached House in ▓▓-gu… Murder During Robbery Followed by Arson Suspected
｜20▓▓.▓▓.▓▓. 08:49 Saved]

This also seemed perfectly possible.

[Presidential Office Reports Russian Attack on Japanese Nuclear Facility
｜20▓▓.▓▓.▓▓. 12:39 Saved]

…

That was strange.

Since when had Russia attacked a Japanese nuclear facility?

[All Students and Staff of ▓▓ Middle School Die in Mass Incident; Police Launch Large-Scale Investigation
｜20▓▓.▓▓.▓▓. 16:22 Saved]

If it were Seonghwa Middle School transformed into a labyrinth, I could still understand it.

But there had never been an incident where every student and teacher in a middle school died.

“Haa.”

From the looks of it, the events described in these articles…

Never actually happened.

Could it be that…?

Are they events that will really happen?

Events that may occur someday in the future?

After quickly reviewing the headlines saved as drafts, I opened the “Publication Failed” section as well.

[Unknown Toxic Gas Invades Subway Train During Rush Hour… “Mass Suffocation Tragedy”
｜20▓▓.▓▓.▓▓. 15:01 Saved
｜Publication Failed 2 Hours Ago]

[Vehicle Driven by Drunk Driver Crashes into Utility Pole… Two Students Electrocuted to Death; “Penalties for Drunk Driving Must Be Strengthened”
｜20▓▓.▓▓.▓▓. 20:45 Saved
｜Publication Failed 1 Hour Ago]

There were only two articles.

It seemed connected to the fact that there were two corpses.

And also to the phrase “publication failed.”

It appeared that both had died in a way related, at least to some extent, to the content of the articles whose publication had failed.

The man did not die from gas, but he suffocated after swallowing a necktie.

And the woman died after drinking hand sanitizer that smelled similar to alcohol.

[Published]

[Draft]

[Publication Failed]

Then, was what I had to do turn one of the draft articles into a “published” article?

And if publication failed, would I end up committing suicide in some horrible way related to the headline of that article?

I didn’t know how I was supposed to “publish” an article.

But it was clear that it wouldn’t be something as simple as editing a few lines of text with the keyboard.

Considering that all the headlines involved disasters and tragedies, perhaps the solution was to change the events so that they ended well.

If that was the case, there were two criteria for choosing which article to publish.

First.

Which incident seemed easiest to resolve?

Second.

If I failed, which one seemed likely to offer the least painful method of suicide?

World, nation, all citizens, mass incident, government, presidential office…

All articles with such an enormous scope were immediately eliminated.

Following those criteria, the article I chose was.

[Family of Three Found Dead in Detached House in ▓▓-gu… “Murder During Robbery Followed by Arson Suspected”]

This One.

If it was a murder during a robbery, the most likely outcome would be bleeding to death or dying almost instantly.

And even if it ended up being smoke inhalation, I would probably lose consciousness quickly.

I also considered these two articles:

[Worker Falls Alongside Auxiliary Structure at Construction Site in ▓▓-dong; Two Pedestrians Crushed to Death]

[Smoking Inside a Kitchen… Boom! LPG Gas Explosion; Owner Dies, Two Customers Seriously Injured]

But I ruled them out because of the limitation that I could only use what existed on this floor.

How was I supposed to crush myself under something heavy all by myself?

And how was I supposed to cause a gas explosion?

If publication failed, the quickest and easiest option would probably be to find a knife and stab myself in a vital spot.

Or set fire to the supply storage room I had seen earlier.

[Family of Three Found Dead in Detached House in ▓▓-gu… “Murder During Robbery Followed by Arson Suspected”
｜20▓▓.▓▓.▓▓. 08:49 Saved]

When I clicked on the article, a preview page containing the full text appeared.

[(Photo)

▴ Police inspect the scene after discovering three members of a family dead with signs of violence following a fire at a detached house in ▓▓-gu, Seoul.

Three members of the same family were found dead during the early morning hours in a detached house in ▓▓-gu, Seoul.

According to the ▓▓ Police Station and the ▓▓ Fire Department, a fire broke out at around 3:10 a.m. in a residence located in ▓▓-dong, ▓▓-gu.

After receiving a report from a neighbor at 3:13 a.m., firefighters arrived at the scene and extinguished the fire seventeen minutes later, but all three family members had already died.

During post-fire operations, signs of violence were discovered on the bodies, and the police and fire department are currently conducting a joint investigation.

The family’s teenage children, Youth A and Youth B, were found in the living room with stab wounds to their necks.

The father, identified as C, a man in his forties, was found in the master bedroom with his limbs bound and multiple stab wounds across his body.

Investigators located two separate points of origin for the fire, one in the master bedroom and the other in the living room.

Near both locations, opened alcohol bottles and a large quantity of flammable materials were discovered.

Police and firefighters consider it highly likely that a third party was responsible for both the murders and the fire.

The investigation suggests that the perpetrator threatened and murdered father C, subsequently killed Youths A and B as witnesses, and then started the fire to eliminate evidence.

Authorities are also considering the possibility that this was a premeditated crime motivated by personal grudges.

(Photo)

▴ Police tape installed in front of the burned residence in ▓▓-gu, Seoul.

Reporter ▓▓▓ of ▓▓ Daily

▓▓▓▓@▓▓▓.▓▓.▓▓]

I looked at the two buttons at the bottom of the page.

[Edit]　[Publish]

Hmm.

The objective was to make the article appear under “Published”…

After thinking briefly, I pressed “Publish.”

[+#▓▓▓”?S縉-▓훘▓?y0▓4▓▓??뵍O▓▓▓▓競vꠓ▓?1^▓?폖吟▓▓▓察?븺B?ꠙ퀓▓▓짨N曄2쵦ꠙ莊▓▓삘▓R▓▓ꠘcP>▓▓▓힉?%▓쁄?J?페`▓,꺭▓▓??X읥5Þt昉O橫▓긨q뢜햭▓▓▓▓▓]

The entire article filled with corrupted characters and incomprehensible symbols, covering the monitor screen—

***

Cold, strangely damp air filled my lungs.

“Ah…!”

The sensation of that unfamiliar air sliding down my throat made me cough as if I had choked.

At this moment, I was outside the Jaerae Building.

…Though rather than having gone outside, it felt more like I had gone even deeper inside.

To begin with, the mannequin that had been following me was still beside me.

And judging by the appearance of this place, with a tiny window located almost at ceiling height, it seemed to be some sort of semi-basement.

Back at the company, it had just been dinner time.

Here, however, it was the middle of the night.

Through the small window, I could see a sky as dark as this room.

According to the article, the fire started around 3:10 a.m.

The murders of the family must have happened even earlier.

If I was here to somehow intervene in that incident and make the article become “Published,” then I must have arrived at a point before the murders took place.

『What are you doing?』

“Ah, damn it. What the hell?”

I flinched.

Suddenly I heard a voice behind me accompanied by the sound of something shifting.

If this could be called a human.

And if this could be called a voice.

『What now? Did you forget again? Well. After the stunt you pulled yesterday…』

I remained seated, staring at it.

It wore a thin T-shirt and sweatpants.

Its long hair was spread across the bare floor.

It lay completely sprawled out without even a blanket.

ꠚ▓▓▓?v▓?,▓16V▓▓Q좖쓐?▓茗▓▓▓▓撫;?韻▓▓ꠕ▓逆D팑▓▓▓▓▓贄??끎▓▓8▓▓▓냥[E?ꠖ%▓?▓쨇▓R▓▓I?▓▓?KT4濱?H5?や▓▓

A mass of black letters.

Countless broken, fragmented, worn-out sentences intertwined with one another like a tangled ball of thread, forming a human shape.

『Then go back to sleep. I’m tired.』

Letters flowed out from where its mouth should have been.

Instinctively, I checked my hands and feet.

『Haa… I told you to sleep. Stop worrying so much… Bah, whatever. You’ll remember everything again tomorrow anyway. Like always.』

They were perfectly fine.

No.

Were they really?

My body lacked energy, and there were bruises on my arms and legs, but that wasn’t the issue.

The important thing was something else.

My surgical scars were gone.

That was the real problem.

This…

Isn’t my body.

“Ah…”

Even my voice was different.

…Ah.

‘The family’s teenage children, Youth A and Youth B, were found in the living room with stab wounds to their necks.’

Right now…

I was Youth A.

I looked at Youth B, who was composed of those impossible-to-read black lines.

“What were our names?”

『Wow. This time it’s really bad. ▓▓▓, idiot. I’m ▓▓▓.』

I couldn’t see her face.

I couldn’t hear her real voice.

I couldn’t even pronounce her name.

Youth A’s sister.

I didn’t know whether she was older or younger than him.

“How old are we?”

Judging from the way they spoke to each other, they seemed like siblings with only a small age gap.

『Hey. We don’t count those things. Stop bothering me and go to sleep. Before I knock you unconscious myself.』

The sentences flowing from Youth B, who had turned her back toward me, scattered with complete indifference.

She seemed completely serious, so I decided not to push the topic of age any further.

Although, judging by her reaction, it seemed that A was the older sibling.

On the other hand, fortunately, B did not seem to find it especially strange that her brother was acting as though he had lost his memory.

Come to think of it, it wasn’t impossible to believe.

There were the bruises covering his body.

And there was also the fact that two teenagers who appeared to be middle school students were sleeping in what looked like a basement without even a blanket.

Their guardian.

Most likely the father who appeared murdered in the article.

He seemed to abuse his children.

And someone who lived like that might suffer memory lapses from time to time.

That was the kind of abnormality one human being could inflict upon another human being.

Exactly the same way a labyrinth could.