Episode 260
Perhaps because there was a lot of work to do during the dark, the day brightened quickly, and Jeong In-ho formed an investigation team including himself, Ha Seong-yoon, Kim Yeon-woo, and Hong Gyeong-jun. It’s not that I wasn’t tired, but I didn’t have enough food to just waste the day, and I didn’t know when the monster would come out, so I naturally hurried.
Still, perhaps because he heard nagging that wasn’t just a bunch of nagging, Lee Jae-heon didn’t say anything to the search team’s suggestion that he go to the convenience store without me.
“….”
“Is there a problem?”
“…I didn’t say anything.”
“The expression on your face is like swearing.”
Even if his face showed a lot of dissatisfaction.
“I understand that you were very worried about me. However, it is not very difficult to move and you don’t know what might come out of it, so it is difficult to understand that you would go without me…” “It
is not difficult to understand. “Everyone understood it except the manager.”
Jeong In-ho smiled, as was his habit, but inwardly sighed. Lee Jae-heon often had the ability to talk nonsense in a persuasive and coherent way, so if possible, I had to stop him before he started talking any more. They knew that it would be impossible to persuade Lee Jae-heon right now, so they had to do something like this.
Seeing Jung In-ho like that, Lee Jae-heon raised one eyebrow but nodded.
“Anyway, I understand. Please be careful.”
“Because it’s not that far away. “It won’t take that long.”
“Mr. Jeong In-ho.”
Lee Jae-heon caught Jeong In-ho as he tried to take a step.
“I told you yesterday, but the convenience store…”
“Yes, I remember.”
Lee Jae-heon, who was notified that he was excluded from the convenience store search before going to sleep, grumbled for a while, but eventually seemed to have accepted the reality and gave some warnings about convenience stores in the underworld.
“They told me to be careful because the rules are different for each convenience store.”
“It also depends on size and configuration. Just because it’s big doesn’t necessarily mean the difficulty level increases… but if there’s a rule like Unhak High School where you can’t get in and out, it’ll be difficult.”
“We will enter as carefully as possible and check to see if there are any monsters inside. Still, there are about three convenience stores nearby, so you might be able to get into one of them without difficulty.”
“If it’s dangerous, just come back. “If you come with me…”
“No.”
“You disgusting bastard, there is no room for it.”
“The manager is persistent.”
Jeong In-ho and Lee Jae-heon looked at each other with disgusted faces, and although it was a childish thought, Jeong In-ho felt a little resentful. In this situation, who is the person who constantly commits the most stupid and crazy things and sees themselves in that way? There was no such thing as a very red flag.
Lee Jae-heon, who was looking at Jeong In-ho like that, immediately erased the look of boredom on his face and said.
“…There is always a shortage of food in the other world. Fortunately, it was easy to get supplies when I was in the park, but even that is hard to find in the winter. “It’s even more so if it’s inside a building or on a central street.”
“I was expecting that much.”
“Humans can do anything when they are hungry. The easiest way for a human driven by hunger to solve it is to sacrifice another human being. “It’s simple and obvious.”
“…that.”
“In this situation, humans are the best means and food that other humans can use. Anyway, even if you die here, in reality, a mannequin will replace you, and even if you get seriously injured, everything will go back to normal when you return to reality. “The sins committed here are not sins.”
At Lee Jae-heon’s words, Jeong In-ho stared at him quietly.
“…Is this an experience?”
“Please stop talking about that guy’s experiences, it’s disgusting. “I just meant to be aware of it.”
“I just want to know, really.”
“I wonder if you can leave me alone even when you don’t have time to spare.”
Jae-heon Lee seemed to be laughing at himself when he said that, so Jeong In-ho strongly grabbed the bat that Gar-ram Yoon had given him. Although the bat that I held for a long time was likely to become warm, there was still no warmth felt in the palm of my hand.
“That won’t happen.”
“Go and check it then.”
Lee Jae-heon, who added artificial lightness to his face again, waved his hands.
“I keep telling you, please be careful. “If the arm falls off, it’s hard to put it back together.”
“…You’re not saying it’s impossible.”
“There is a way.”
“It’s definitely not the round fruit, is there a way?”
When Jung In-ho, who had heard from Park Da-hoon about what Jae-heon Lee had done in the previous episode, looked at him with suspicious eyes, Jae-heon Lee blinked.
“…Well, there are other ways. “It’s because the side effects are big.”
“Could the side effects be greater than the fruit?”
“It varies greatly. “It’s best not to use it if possible.”
“I will take note of it.”
After exchanging greetings with the standby team once again, the search team departed and slowly descended the mountain behind the school, which had become quite high due to the influence of the other side of the world. Dayoung Park said that the height was more like a hill than a mountain, but now the altitude has risen to a level suitable for moderate hiking.
Kim Yeon-woo said as he went down the mountain.
“I feel a little bit disappointed. “Even though it’s such a noble mountain, there isn’t a single common vegetable…”
“The manager said that if you look carefully, you’ll be able to find mugwort. Of course, it may not be many, but one or two. However, it may be difficult to sustain it with food.”
Hong Gyeong-jun nodded and joined in.
“The supply of drinking water will also become difficult. There is a lake in the park, so it was relatively easy to find water, but it is an environment where it is difficult to obtain raw food like back then. “It might be better if I set aside a day and go back to the park, but…”
Ha Seong-yoon smiled softly and said to Hong Gyeong-jun, who was talking back.
“It’s not possible.”
“I guess so.”
Kim Hee-chan, the student with a broken leg, was the problem, but if we dig deeper, it was none other than Lee Jae-heon.
“It was a miracle that I even made it from the park to Unhak High School in that condition. Didn’t they come quite quickly, saying they were worried about the safety of the students? “It must have put a lot of strain on your body.”
“…I really… didn’t know it would be that bad.”
“Did you think it was me? How are you so good at putting on such a carefree face? “If I were an ordinary patient, I would have been lying in bed unconscious by now.”
Unlike a doll, a person’s body is torn in only one place, so it does not mean that only that area needs to be treated. Depending on the weapon that caused the injury, you have to worry about tetanus, and even if it was properly disinfected, inflammation would occur from time to time, and the inflammation would cause fever symptoms, and even after recovery, the recovery would take a strange direction, causing problems with bones and organs. .
“I heard Jaeheon Lee even took a bath like that?”
“I’m sure. Kang Min-ah said she confirmed that there was water in the bathtub.”
“Besides, it was cold water?”
“I heard the air was so cold that goosebumps appeared on my skin, so that’s probably true.”
“The body cannot be normal in such a situation. “You look like a crazy patient.”
It’s not for nothing that people say not to let water get into your wounds. Of course, washing away pus or foreign substances with clean running water is a good treatment, but there are degrees to that. Water was seeping through the torn organs, which couldn’t have been good.
Moreover, didn’t Lee Jae-heon soak himself in cold water, not even flowing water? How much of an impact does body temperature have on your health? Why would you do such a crazy thing? Ha Seong-yoon could not understand Lee Jae-heon.
“Even healthy people will catch the flu if they take a bath in that cold water.”
“Actually, as for the manager’s current condition… it’s hard to say that he escaped the flu.”
Jae-heon Lee walked around with such a normal face that most people didn’t notice him, but Ohsung employees who went into his house and measured his temperature found out that Jae-heon Lee had a fever so high that he was breaking into a cold sweat. I could still see how he couldn’t act as obnoxious as usual and was shaking around when he was wrapped in a blanket.
Jeong In-ho’s expression, as he recalled the memory of that time, suddenly became strange.
“…Now that I think about it, I think things have improved a bit since I came to the other side of the world.”
“It’s a world where mental power has a physical impact.”
“Seeing something like this would be considered a blessing among misfortunes, perhaps…”
To be precise, it was a blessing among misfortunes, but Jeong In-ho did not necessarily say it that much. This was because Kim Yeon-woo’s face, who was only now hearing about Lee Jae-heon’s condition, was getting stiffer by the minute.
“How can there be such cruel families? It’s such a terrible thing.”
“You are correct.”
“If Jaeheon Lee had been a minor, would we have been able to help you more easily?”
It was easier for a minor who received more protection than a man over 40 to lend a helping hand, but Jeong In-ho shook his head inwardly. It looks like he was in that kind of environment since he was young, but in the end, no one helped Jaeheon Lee.
‘Even if there were, they would all have been blocked.’
This is a family where people pull out their fingernails for raising their voice a little.
“…Oh, it’s over there.”
“It was pretty close.”
“Yes, there are two places, one near the main entrance of the school and the other near the shopping mall.”
This was not something Jeong In-ho found out, but it was information provided by Park Da-young and Park Da-hoon, students at Eonhak High School, and Kang Min-ah, who had been looking around the area and looking for a rest area.
“Surprisingly, the convenience store near the main entrance is small.”
“Dayoung said that there is a rumor that if there is a large convenience store in front of the school, students will go there… and encourage deviance, so the small convenience store was established.”
“If the rumors are true, it’s quite scary. “Will my grades go up if I don’t go to the convenience store?”
“well…?”
“Studying is for those who want to study.”
“It feels strangely unlucky for the doctor to say such things.”
“Of course I studied well.”
“I guess so.”
When the search team cautiously approached the front of the convenience store, glancing at the high iron bars like a prison, looking around, Kim Yeon-woo, who looked beyond the glass wall, blinked rapidly and said,
“uh? No, wait a minute. no.”
“yes? “What… huh?”
“…There really is nothing.”
As Kim Yeon-woo said, there was nothing in the display case inside the convenience store. There wasn’t even a monster at the counter, but it was a completely different sight from what Jaeheon Lee said, who said there was usually at least one mannequin monster per convenience store.
Hong Gyeong-jun, who checked inside without saying a word, opened his mouth.
“…I think it would be better not to go in.”
“…Is there a reason?”
“I just… don’t feel good.”
Kim Yeon-woo, who stiffened at those words, spoke hurriedly.
“Don’t go in then. “I think it would be better not to go in.”
“Because you don’t feel well?”
“I learned that it is best to trust Detective Hong Gyeong-jun’s intuition as much as possible.”
“That kind of thing… who are you learning it from?”
“I learned it from my detective colleague. He said there was nothing to lose by trusting me.”
Hong Gyeong-jun opened his mouth again upon seeing Kim Yeon-woo, who had already taken a step back from the convenience store.
“Besides, there’s no food inside anyway. Even if there is some way to obtain it, if there is a rule like Eonhak High School that prevents you from entering, it will be a headache.”
“You don’t necessarily have to take a difficult path. All right.”
Eventually, the search team left the convenience store in front of the school and moved towards the shopping mall.
“…I see a monster.”
“Wow, that’s really… “It’s terrible.”
In-ho Jeong agreed with Seong-yoon Ha that it was ‘terrible.’
“I heard that there were a lot of monsters in the shopping mall near the school, but…” I
understood why Kang Min-ah said that there was no shelter here.
The tall buildings shone in pastel tones, like brick houses from a fairy tale, but were bent and twisted in such a strange way that it seemed impossible for anyone to move within them. It felt like I was reading a storybook drawn by a child, but it was much more burdensome and disgusting than that, and I felt sick to my stomach.
The string of lights connecting the buildings glowed subtly in artificial colors, and although no one touched them, they exploded and threw menacing glass shards down below.
“…I can’t believe they’re all getting hit by that…”
The monsters dancing below were getting hit by fragments of the lighting.
Small fragments were stuck in various places on the monsters of various shapes, as if they were cotton dolls. A clown who performs all kinds of tricks with a long, thin mannequin wearing a rabbit mask and a liquor bottle. Dozens of cats hiding in every corner and playing party flutes.
Gigi geek Gigi geek―?
“…It looks like we shouldn’t make eye contact.”
The cats smiling with their sharp, triangular teeth clearly exposed had different appearances, but their bizarre smiles and two pitch-black eyes were all the same. The tail, which resembles a wire bent here and there, shakes while making mechanical noises, and the head also repeatedly twists and turns like a broken doll.
It had a splendid appearance as if a festival had been held, and the overall color was a pale yellow like warm sunlight, but the search team could not even speak properly due to the extreme dampness that made it feel as if it would rot if touched.
I felt like I couldn’t breathe.
“…Above….”
Birds were sitting between the tall, bizarre buildings, making screeching sounds. They were all white birds, but they were backlit by light coming from an unknown source, making it look like crows were watching us.
There were many other creepy elements, but the most important one was…
“…where did you say there was a convenience store here?”
The point was that they had to go in here.
“Just go one block ahead and move all the way to the left. And if you go three blocks from here and go one block to the right, there’s one. “If I remember correctly.”
“Anyway… it’s all deep inside.”
In the alleys of the shopping mall, numerous monsters were frolicking as if enjoying a light festival, and they had to make it to the convenience store without being attacked by these many monsters. I don’t even know what rules there are at convenience stores.
Hong Gyeong-jun, who had been watching the inside of the mall in silence for a moment, opened his mouth.
“…They say the monsters in the shopping mall especially don’t go to the police station.”
“Oh, that’s right. “It’s not that they don’t come at all, but they say they avoid it.”
“Then what about the police?”
Hong Gyeong-jun, who had already taken out the police notebook from his pocket, turned to Kim Yeon-woo.
“You’re also dressed properly.”
Kim Yeon-woo was wearing an impressive fluorescent light green vest that police officers often wear. The inner shirt, dark pants, and even a cap-shaped police helmet. He asked, pointing to Kim Yeon-woo, who looked like a police officer to anyone’s eyes, unlike Hong Gyeong-jun, who deliberately wore plain clothes because he was a detective.
“Even if it’s a police notebook, doesn’t Kim Yeon-woo have enough of a police presence?”
“…Then…”
Kim Yeon-woo, the person involved, nodded seriously and ran into the alley without anyone else having time to stop him. It was a sudden and quick movement that even Hong Gyeong-jun, who expressed his opinion, was taken aback by.
“Mr. Kim Yeonwoo…!”
“for a moment…!”
And they were able to check the results created by Kim Yeon-woo.
“ah! It works!”
Kim Yeon-woo noticed the monsters avoiding him and turned his head toward the search team. The search team was at a loss for words at the sight of her looking at us with an unusually excited expression on her face, but Kim Yeon-woo, who didn’t seem to notice, waved his hands and made a lively voice.
“You’re avoiding me!”
“…Ah….”
“…I see.”
“Can I protect you? I think there is! “I guess there is, right?”
“Yeah… maybe…?”
When Hong Kyung-jun couldn’t keep up with the situation and awkwardly chimed in, Jeong In-ho quietly approached Ha Seong-yoon and whispered softly.
“I think you can become good friends with Mr. Garam Yoon.”
Ha Seong-yoon did not bother to refute.
Kim Yeon-woo, who loved me, saying that I could protect him even with my body, and Yoon Gar-ram, who was loving and appreciating the plant-shaped monster. As long as the location is a secret world, both of them can never be said to be ordinary.
