Episode 16
Suddenly, a sense of reality that was far away filled my lungs.
“driving me crazy.”
I really felt like I was going crazy.
No matter whether President Yoon burst into tears or Doctor Ha Seong-yoon said something, he felt nauseous, as if he was going crazy at any moment due to this sudden sense of reality that washed over him like a wave.
It was like the seasickness of someone who had been on a boat for a long time, or the feeling of someone who was not used to a roller coaster.
The sense of reality that came down with a thud pressed against my solar plexus even more than before, and I almost collapsed in my seat without even being able to gasp.
Jeong In-ho grabbed the arm of Doctor Ha Seong-yoon, who approached him without even knowing what I was talking about.
It was just an instinctive action, like running away from a monster.
“…Mr. Jeong In-ho.”
“…I don’t know.”
“Jung In-ho, you need to move. “I can’t hear anything from over there.”
“I don’t know, I don’t know.”
He shook his head at Dr. Ha Seong-yoon’s words.
I didn’t need someone to tell me what to do, I needed someone to take over my terrible sense of reality.
I wanted someone to take away this damn, gut-wrenching sense of reality.
“I didn’t mean to leave space like that. “I did something for no reason.”
“…Calm down, I know you’re very confused right now.”
“What will I do if I know, damn it. “No, I should have just stayed still…”
I was out of breath.
It wasn’t that I had lived such an easy life or that I loved ordinary things too much, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that things were gradually getting bigger.
Even though I just saw a piece of meat.
Yes, I just came across a piece of meat.
It’s not like I’m the monster that killed them or the monster tore them limb from limb. It was just a piece of meat that didn’t move or move. Because I didn’t want to see it, my stomach tingled even more and my legs started shaking.
Of course, In-ho Jeong himself did not know that.
But yes it is. Still, I have to find what to do next. I need to tell these people what I think.
After speaking like the extra witnesses passing by in the movie I saw, I too will be able to escape from this play.
Of course, he knew very well that this could not be possible, but he consoled himself with such groundless thoughts and slowly opened his mouth.
I clean out my pockets once again.
Being strange becomes a weakness, and revealing a weakness means losing the information battle.
“…Yes, that’s right. So…”
He didn’t want to be the weak one…
“…Let’s find the other two first.”
“….”
“Someone among Manager Lee Jae-heon or Kwon Yeon-hee… must be there.”
Even Jeong In-ho himself did not know what form that ‘existence’ meant.
The opposite sex was clearly thinking about what to do after collecting their bodies, but my emotions did not follow suit.
Jeong In-ho moved forward, hoping that they were still alive.
“…Boss, wake up. “It’s dangerous to be alone.”
“…But Min-ah….”
“I can come back and take care of everything. On the contrary, if President Garam gets seriously injured, who will help Kang Min-ah?”
“….”
President Yoon, who was unable to even scream with tears streaming down his face, stood up quietly, perhaps accepting Dr. Seong-yoon Ha’s persuasion.
His pupils were empty and he couldn’t even close his mouth that was breathing heavily, but he didn’t seem to be stupid enough to deny reality.
In fact, President Garam Yoon had only recently met them.
On the contrary, Jung In-ho, who should have been crying, couldn’t even cry right now, but he became angry at her for no reason.
But I couldn’t reveal it.
‘That’s the right response. It’s not something for me to be angry about. That’s stupid…’
Yes, isn’t it a humane reaction to burst into tears when you see the death of someone you just became close to?
If you get angry because you feel jealous or frustrated, you are actually lacking as a human being.
Jeong In-ho guessed that he was pushed to his limit. My legs throbbed after running for a long time, and the hand holding the monkey wrench ached every time I exploded a monster.
I was already very tired, but after witnessing the death of close people, it was natural for me to feel out of breath and grumpy.
However, when he checked the site we had captured, he felt his dazed mind become clearer.
“…ah.”
There were only blood stains in their places, but no bodies were visible.
“…There is no body.”
“doesn’t exist.”
“Then…”
Then,
if you are really very lucky…
“…Did you escape alive?”
In-ho Jeong felt that his voice had improved. Of course, a man-eating monster may have appeared and swallowed the two companions, but I don’t know.
Thinking back to Director Kang Min-ah and Intern Noh Yeon-seok, whose bodies were still intact, the probability of that happening seemed low.
“wait a minute.”
Sweet.
Doctor Ha Seong-yoon, who was walking around the darkened area with a lighter on, nodded.
“…There are signs of running away.”
“Oh where…! “Where?”
President Garam Yoon, who was staring at his seat with his head down, shouted in a louder voice.
She lowered her voice as if she had immediately remembered the possibility that there was a monster nearby, but it was undeniable that she looked better than before.
As President Yoon staggered towards the place where Dr. Ha Seong-yoon was shining with a lighter, In-ho Jeong, who took a moment to catch his breath due to his pounding heart, also took a step forward.
He also needed hope that things would get better than they are now.
When the two came to Dr. Ha Seong-yoon, he pointed to the floor and said.
“Do you see the blood here?”
“Blood stains….”
“It started from here and went all the way inside.”
It was a sign that I wouldn’t have been particularly pleased with under normal circumstances, but at least in the current situation, I couldn’t have been more pleased with it.
They were kindly suggesting where to move.
Jeong In-ho, who felt his heart sinking a little, noticed something different from before.
“…It’s covered in strange traces, but there are footprints.”
“Are there any footprints?”
“Yes, so…”
It was a relief.
“At least you weren’t dragged away.”
If you were dragged by a monster, there would be no way you would have such consistent footprints.
Apparently, the two who survived ran away on their own accord, and I thought this was a trace left by the monster chasing after them.
CEO Garam Yoon also nodded to Inho Jeong’s guess.
“You mean… he could be alive?”
Her expression was still in danger, but her expression looked much better than before, perhaps thanks to the thought that employee Kwon Yeon-hee might still be alive.
There was a sparkle of life in those eyes.
“I guess I need to move. It’s good that the possibility has been confirmed, but the situation is not very safe…”
“Yes, I have to go after you right away.”
Jeong In-ho nodded and quickly moved his legs again.
His legs, which had stumbled for a moment, soon straightened and he ran as fast as before.
He thought as he ran along the trail.
‘They were both in bad shape.’
Jaeheon Lee’s body was so tattered that it was even more surprising that he could move and run without any problems, and Kwon seemed to be at a great physical disadvantage due to his small size.
Even when she ran away from the company, employee Kwon Yeon-hee was right in front of Manager Kang Min-ah.
Her running speed was slow and her grip strength and quickness were below average.
Considering that he didn’t exercise regularly, his endurance would be weak, so if he was chased by a monster, it wouldn’t be very optimistic.
Moreover, there were more problems than that.
‘Visibility will not be clear.’
There are many strange things in this world, but the one that immediately comes to mind is the sky above my head.
Normally, when morning turns to night, the sky should turn red with the sunset in between, but the sky in this world had no such thing and just calmly lost its light.
Since neither the moon nor stars were visible in the sky, this meant that visibility could not be secured without a separate light source.
However, it seemed difficult to expect the street lights that are usually easily seen in such a twisted park, so the only light source left was our lighter.
But…
‘The group here only had one lighter.’
Jeong In-ho bit the flesh in his mouth. As a result, I felt blood leaking out, but I had no time to worry about this sharp sensation.
Their group had a total of three lighters, and the people who had them were Lee Jae-heon, Ha Seong-yoon, and Jeong In-ho himself.
As two of them left the remaining four, naturally there was only one lighter for them to share.
The day is already dark and visibility is not clear.
Director Lee Jae-heon, who had a lighter and was able to deal with monsters, would not have been able to use his strength properly because his body had become a rag.
That’s how Chief Kang Min-ah and intern Noh Yeon-seok died.
“…Whew.”
Jeong In-ho exhaled and tried to clear his head.
I was sad, scared, nervous…
All kinds of negative and stuffy emotions were flooding my insides, but I couldn’t afford to leave myself to them.
If the situation had been delayed and someone’s body was discovered once again, there would be nothing more resembling self-torture than that.
It was extremely dark and I couldn’t see the surroundings clearly, but surprisingly, it wasn’t difficult to chase after the two people.
It wasn’t just because of the blood that appeared to have been spilled by one of them.
Doctor Ha Seong-yoon pointed to one side and said.
“There, there now…!”
He couldn’t finish his sentence because he was out of breath, but that was enough.
In-ho Jeong was able to find a fire burning a bush in the direction he pointed.
Yes, flames.
“….”
…Flames?
‘why?’
Jeong In-ho felt his heart stop as a chill ran up his spine.
Director Lee Jae-heon said clearly before the group was divided. There are limits to lighting something with a small lighter.
That’s why he said that in order to start a fire, you need to grow an ember with dry paper and then transfer it to a piece of wood.
But you created such a big fire? While running away from a monster?
‘It’s impossible.’
Jeong In-ho swallowed his breath.
It would have been better if there had been a fire burning in the place where we had just left, but there was no way that they, who seemed to have just run away, could have started a fire of this size.
In particular, Manager Lee Jae-heon’s lighter was a luxury item that most smokers would know.
To start a fire, you had to first open the lid and then turn the rotating plate on the side. Like most high-end lighters, it must have had at least one safety device, but it couldn’t have been easy to ignite raw materials with a cumbersome lighter.
As Jeong In-ho thought about that, he thought of the vine wrapped around Manager Lee Jae-heon’s ankle when he left the flower shop with the two people next to him.
It burned in an instant and melted his ankles.
“…ah.”
Jeong In-ho’s head rolled quickly.
A vine that burned red and blue in the shape of a plant. A monster disguised as a vine was seen at a flower shop. Flower shop. It is connected to a park. Grow plants. plant. park. And there is a monster in this park that caused the remaining four party members to bleed.
Will the monster be in plant form? What caused this fire? If so, then….
“….”
Jeong In-ho eventually stopped at a place in the park filled with trees burning with brilliant colors.
I feel like my heart is being torn apart.
“…ah.”
“Ah uh….”
“….”
He couldn’t move any more.
“…Boss.”
Manager Lee Jae-heon comes into view.
I saw a monster that looked like a person covered in green algae, piercing Manager Lee Jae-heon’s neck with a vine full of teeth pulled from its body, as if strangling it, and savoring the blood.
It was burning with a terrible color, as if it had been sprinkled with strong alcohol and then ignited.
“Manager….”
“…big ugh.”
“….”
Manager Lee Jae-heon was in a more miserable state than Jeong In-ho expected.
Perhaps because he was facing the monster, half of his body was burned and turned black, and because he was blocking the numerous teeth protruding from the monster’s face with one arm, that arm was crushed.
Moreover, the left eye was somehow empty and bleeding bright red.
His legs, which were already limping, were twisted into strange shapes and could not function properly, and one side of his head was pressed down as if it had been hit by a nail-studded club.
Meanwhile, numerous teeth resembling fishhooks were digging into his neck.
“Sigh. Ugh….”
“….”
“…Ugh.”
Director Lee Jae-heon coughed out blood
.
He makes eye contact with me.
“Yah.”
The uncomfortable, wet voice was torn into tens of thousands of pieces.
“Hey, Jeong… Assistant Manager.”
“….”
“…Si hibal. This too runs away. Kids, this is….”
Tuk.
He hit a pipe on the floor with his twisted leg.
The pipe was covered in bright red blood that we couldn’t tell if it was from a monster or from a human, and it was dented and could no longer roll, so Jaeheon Lee’s shallow kick moved it and came closer to us.
After confirming this, he once again coughed up blood and pursed his lips.
“…Help me.”
Jeong In-ho had a intuition about that.
ah.
“….”
I’m not asking you to save me.
It means that instead of everyone dying, we ask to help someone who is not here right now. You are asking for the lives of those who ran away, leaving Lee Jae-heon alone.
In the end, you had no intention of surviving.
“…Chief….”
“Bah Harley.”
“Wait a minute, no wait.”
“….”
“Why….”
Lee Jae-heon didn’t say any more, or couldn’t.
However, I held on with both hands to the strange toothed vine that was digging into my neck and steadily spitting out blood from its mouth.
and.
“Kukkuk keuk.”
I pressed hard to keep it from escaping from my throat.
The monster tightened Lee Jae-heon’s body without even giving us a glance, as if it was very happy, and of course he couldn’t breathe properly.
A gross and cruel sound envelops us and makes us take a step back.
The flames cling to his shirt, burning the fabric and scorching his skin. The dark, melted skin caught fire again, but despite this, Lee Jae-heon did not let go of the vine that was gripping his neck.
Tuduk tuk.
The blood that has probably guided us all this time is flowing once again.
“…ah.”
The wound on the arm that was holding the vine was something that Jeong In-ho had seen over the weekend.
The long scar he had covered can be seen through his burned shirt. There are traces of broken glass left on the wrist.
The wound on my arm was so clean that I couldn’t believe it had been scratched by a nail, and there was still blood that was lumpy and hardened on my wrist.
“….”
Only then was Jeong In-ho able to look into Manager Lee Jae-heon’s eyes.
It’s definitely the common dark brown eyes, but their gaze resembles gray. Eyes that are colorless, calm and composed, and do not seem to belong to a living person at all.
So, rather, he is a person who I wanted to call an inanimate object.
Yes, actually, I’ve known about it for a while.
“…Let’s move.”
“…What are you doing? I need help…!”
“It’s no use.”
He didn’t want to live.
“…It’s no use…”
I guess that’s why I didn’t want to live, so I looked at her like that even though I was hurt that much.
Jeong In-ho took a shallow breath and moved his feet.
His gaze was directed not at Manager Lee Jae-heon, but at the pipe in front of him, and he bent down, giving strength to his biting lip.
The pipe that Director Lee Jae-heon rolled had various scratches as if it had been scratched by glass or nails, and was covered in thick blood and turned dark red.
Jeong In-ho, who swallowed his breath at the slippery texture, bit the flesh inside his mouth once again and picked up the pipe and held it in his hand.
When I made eye contact with Manager Lee Jae-heon,
“….”
…he was smiling.
You son of a bitch.
