Episode 347:
While Kang Min-ah went to convey the news of this incident to the survivors in the garden.
“Mr. Jaeheon Lee…?”
“I am here.”
“ah.”
Kim Yeon-woo was out of his mind.
“Dead, dead… I’m glad there’s no one.”
The proof was that even though I was constantly holding Lee Jae-heon’s hand, I was looking for him.
Of course, she had the courage to voluntarily continue to explore the surrounding area, but even taking that into account, this was too sudden and embarrassing. I’ve searched the same place several times so far, but I’ve never encountered a situation like now.
“Ha…”
Besides, aren’t humans beings who live with their feet on the ground? The fact that the sturdy floor collapsed in an instant was an event that would have surprised even the strongest of minds, Kim Yeon-woo.
“No, it’s surprising that you didn’t die even after falling from that height.”
“It’s definitely high.”
“At this level, I think it will easily beat the many sinkholes that have appeared in the news. “Sinkholes of this size are not common even overseas.”
Kim Yeon-woo, who had been rambling as if he had not yet come to his senses, looked up with an embarrassed expression.
“I can’t believe they fell from this height…”
It’s impossible to determine exactly because the entrance to the hole that caught them was filled up right after they fell, but thanks to the intermittent light sources floating in the air, it is possible to roughly estimate their height. there was.
“Even if I can’t do it, it would be possible to build a 15-story apartment building.”
“Oh, I guess you had the same thoughts as me.”
Jaeheon Lee reacted to Yeonwoo Kim’s words.
“As it happens, this apartment complex has a total of 15 floors.”
“…ah?”
“The number of floors increases as you move toward the rear wing, but the 17th floor will be the highest floor. “As you probably know, Yeonwoo Kim, most buildings were 15 stories.”
“…I remembered.”
Nodding his head, Yeonwoo Kim looked at the sinkhole.
“And when I think about it that way, it makes me feel a little uncomfortable. “After all, it’s a sinkhole as deep as the height of an apartment building.”
“Even now the hole is blocked.”
“Since the entrance is only thinly blocked, couldn’t the survivors outside dig it out?”
“If we look at it from afar, it is thin, but we don’t know if it will be thin when we look at it up close. If you see something that gets blocked on its own, you would know that there is an automatic recovery system… Even if you sell hard, it may get blocked again.”
“Well, even if we open the entrance again, climbing up itself would be a problem.”
The walls of the sinkhole were rough, like a layered rock cliff. A physically well-trained Lee Jae-heon or Kim Yeon-woo would have been able to climb the wall without difficulty, but even so, there were limits. Kim Yeon-woo and Lee Jae-heon are not strong enough to climb up the 15th floor of an apartment building or higher.
“Besides, it’s too simple to think like that…”
Kim Yeon-woo glanced at Lee Jae-heon.
“Jaeheon Lee’s injuries are still the same, right?”
“There is nothing we can do about it as it is an injury that cannot be recovered unless you return to reality.”
“Even if we were both in the best condition, it would have been impossible to climb back up to where we fell anyway, so it’s okay. “It doesn’t seem like there is any other way.”
Kim Yeon-woo said while looking at the door next to the huge empty space where they fell.
“It feels uncomfortable to anyone who sees it, because it looks like a trap.”
Compared to the sinkhole created by nature itself, the smooth and clean white wooden door gave off a strangely unpleasant feeling. Isn’t he looking so neat, as if he’s showing off?
‘It looks like a lantern-eared anglerfish is luring its prey.’
The lanternfish that lives in the deep sea uses the luminous body attached to the end of the tentacles on its head to catch and eat fish that rush at it when it sees the light. It made me angry that they didn’t even seem to have any intention of hiding that the flashing lights were a trap, but it was also true that things couldn’t proceed if they remained in the vacant lot like this.
If the walls of the sinkhole were all dirt, you would have dug a new hole or built stairs to climb up, even if it meant tearing your hands. To that extent, the pure white door gave Kim Yeon-woo an inexplicable feeling of rejection.
“You have to go there, right?”
“Didn’t you just say that that too could be a path?”
“I’m sorry for not having any sense of purpose. Strangely enough, the more you look at it, the worse it feels, so stop…” “
…Is that that much?”
“yes?”
Lee Jae-heon blinked slowly in response to Kim Yeon-woo’s question.
“It doesn’t feel that strange.”
“…Then, um.”
Lee Jae-heon was an excellent veteran with a long history of surviving in the underworld, and Kim Yeon-woo had no intention of taking his words for granted. Kim Yeon-woo, who was thinking while touching his lips with his finger, opened his mouth.
“Man, woman… police officer, civilian….”
“Are you looking for the differences between the two of us? “That’s wise.”
As Lee Jae-heon said, Kim Yeon-woo was looking for the difference between Lee Jae-heon and himself. If two people fall into the same sinkhole and are looking at the same door, but they feel different things, there must be different conditions among them.
“Maybe it’s the difference in injuries. “I have scars on my abdomen and legs, but you don’t, Kim Yeon-woo.”
“Well, it may be a matter of physical condition… I also have injuries from falling, and if you look at it that way, it means that Lee Jae-heon’s mental ability is not that good at the moment. “What do you think?”
“…Then this isn’t it either. “My mental ability is… of course, I wouldn’t say it’s good, but I don’t think it’s at a level where I can’t feel anything even when I see a door that clearly looks like a trap.”
“Actually, Jaeheon Lee’s claims are not that trustworthy.”
“I don’t particularly trust my condition, but I have to keep the possibilities open. “If it’s not just that I don’t feel it, but that there’s something different about the two of us, it could be embarrassing later.”
“You are right.”
Yeonwoo Kim nodded.
“I will keep it in mind for now. “At the moment, I’m not sure exactly what causes this difference.”
“There were too few clues.”
Jaeheon Lee said while looking around.
“Then how about taking a look nearby? “It’s an empty lot with nothing special, but for that, it’s pretty well laid out.”
As Jaeheon Lee said, this was a landscape that would make it difficult to call it a simple ‘vacant lot.’
“…Uhm….”
Kim Yeon-woo also followed Lee Jae-heon and looked around.
Ivy growing from the bottom up and a light source similar to a firefly floating in the air. Rectangular windows are regularly and tightly packed into the walls.
“….”
“…It reminds me of the 15th floor, the story that came out earlier.”
“It almost looks like the apartment has been thrown upside down.”
“I feel strangely bad.”
Kim Yeon-woo frowned without realizing it.
“But can you move? “There will be no shock from falling at all.”
I don’t know what the principle is, but even though they fell at the same speed as in reality, Lee Jae-heon and Kim Yeon-woo did not die and were still alive. However, both Lee Jae-heon and Kim Yeon-woo suffered basic fall injuries, except that they suffered major injuries such as a broken neck or a falling limb.
“It also smells like blood.”
Kim Yeon-woo continued speaking while looking at Lee Jae-heon’s abdomen, which was covered by black polar T-shirt.
“It looks like the wound burst.”
“…maybe.”
“I learned basic first aid, but…”
“….”
“I think I need to take a look at the affected area first.”
“I will do that.”
Lee Jae-heon lifted up his clothes in a tone that seemed to be sighing. Just when the pitch-black clothes seemed shiny for some reason, Kim Yeon-woo let out an exclamation after checking Lee Jae-heon’s abdomen with his clothes exposed.
“Isn’t the bleeding… a bit severe?”
“Because it is a non-healing wound, stopping the bleeding is bound to be difficult. “It just exploded for a moment.”
“I think we need to stop something.”
“I agree. “Do you have any bandages… or even cloth?”
“Just in case, I received something from Teacher Ha Seong-yoon in advance.”
As he was the person who conducted the most frequent expeditions recently, Kim Yeon-woo had already received bandages from Ha Seong-yoon. Since this is a world where traps that are not traps are sometimes dug, I tried not to let down my guard.
Kim Yeon-woo said while looking at the affected area.
“The wound is deep, so I think I need to put a bandage inside…” It may be a
shallow wound, but if the wound is deep, attaching a bandage or wrapping a bandage around the outside won’t solve the problem. Just leaving the skin tissue glued together does not mean that the blood welling up inside will disappear. Rather, there was a possibility that the accumulated blood could cause new problems, so measures had to be taken from the inside out.
Of course, in such an unclean situation, using a not-so-clean bandage to stop the bleeding in that way raises concerns about infection by other pathogens… “…Can we trust
Lee Jae-heon’s mental strength?”
As of now, there was no other way.
There is no choice but to believe in the hidden world where the individual survivor’s mental strength is embodied and directly influenced, and to believe in Lee Jae-heon’s mental strength to overcome that pain. The other world is a barren place where there is no other way to do anything.
“It’s not like I went back to reality and was doing nothing. Although I didn’t study how to build a house like Vivian, I did study how to deal with a few emergency situations. “I am confident that I can quickly stop the bleeding.”
“You don’t have to make such a bold offer.”
Lee Jae-heon said with a smile.
“I often do this on my own, so are you going to complain now?”
“Wait a minute… alone? often? “You said you did it?”
“…Anyway, it’s okay.”
“….”
“It’s okay.”
Kim Yeon-woo, who wiped his expression of bewilderment, quickly sighed and nodded.
“…I’m sorry there’s nothing else I can do for you.”
Jaeheon Lee shrugged his shoulders without saying a word.
That’s why Kim Yeon-woo thought he was such a pitiful person.
* * *
Hong Gyeong-jun, who heard the story from Kang Min-ah, came to a conclusion.
“We will form a team.”
“Team?”
“Since two people have been left behind, a search team will be needed first. The search team will not only go to the sinkhole, but will also have a separate team that will go directly to the sinkhole. “There will need to be a separate team to check if there are other triggers within the apartment complex.”
Hong Gyeong-jun comforted the confused survivors and helped them understand and accept the situation.
“Currently, police officers Jae-heon Lee and Yeon-woo Kim fell into a sinkhole, and Vivian Student and Do-yoon Han have confirmed that they are alive. “It is said that the entrance to the hole where the stragglers fell has closed again… If we are not going to dig up the ground and find it, someone will have to go to another sinkhole in the center of the complex and check.”
“Do you think we can find you two if we go to that sinkhole?”
Hong Gyeong-jun nodded to Kim Ki-jeong’s question.
“I think it is most likely. The fact that he survived without dying immediately even though he fell into a pit that deep means that the other world or the complex itself took some action, meaning that it had no intention of killing him right now. And right now, the only terrain that can go that deep is the sinkhole in the center. If you are planning to use Jae-Heon Lee and Police Officer Yeon-Woo Kim as bait, they will not stop us from moving to the sinkhole in the complex. So, we have no choice but to send an exploration team there and go down there and look for the stragglers who fell into the sinkhole near the security office.”
Hong Gyeong-jun continued speaking while twitching his fingers.
“After a few inspections, we saw that there was a spiral staircase attached to the side of the sinkhole. It may take some time to find it as the location changes frequently, but it shouldn’t be difficult to go down the central sinkhole via the stairs. However, since this is an area that has not been properly searched yet, it would be a good idea to leave a mark so you don’t get lost. “It would be nice if the sinkhole where police officers Kim Yeon-woo and Lee Jae-heon fell are connected to the sinkhole in the center of the complex.”
If Kim Yeon-woo had been next to him, he would have noticed that Hong Gyeong-jun was quite anxious and calmed him down so that he would not proceed emotionally. However, it could be said that it was Hong Gyeong-jun’s misfortune because the only quick-witted people next to him were people who were busy taking care of their own lives.
Hong Gyeong-jun, who finished speaking like a quick hit, continued hesitantly.
“And the feeling…”
“Now that I think about it, I heard from Kim Yeon-woo that Hong Gyeong-jun’s intuition is trustworthy. “Is this really something I can trust?”
“…I would appreciate it if you didn’t believe it but just looked at it as a possibility.”
Hong Gyeong-jun, barely able to come to his senses, nodded.
“I think I need to leave the garden first.”
“Even though monsters don’t come in here?”
“The thing that preyed on Trooper Kim Yeon-woo and Lee Jae-heon is the apartment complex connected to this garden. The way the scarecrows behave also seems to have changed slightly. “We’d better get out before something happens.”
“Ah…”
At those words, the survivors looked at the scarecrows dripping blood. Usually, it didn’t come out of its territory except at certain times, either in the morning or afternoon, but now for some reason, it was floating in the air along the ditch.
Ha Seong-yoon nodded.
“I know what you mean. I have nothing to say about this either. Then, it would be best to take the kindergarten students, high school students, and Azalea to a safe place…” “
Yes, if it is okay, I would like to take them to the police station within the shopping mall.”
“It’s the safest place we’ve checked so far.”
The monsters in the shopping mall didn’t even approach the police station, and if Hong Gyeong-jun or Kim Yeon-woo were there, they could have gone inside. And the police mannequins inside the police station were evaluated as not being a threat to the survivors even without Hong Gyeong-jun and Kim Yeon-woo.
“The only problem is that food supply is difficult… but that’s something we can take with us from here.”
“you’re right. “First of all, I think it would be a good idea for some survivors, including me, to take a standby group like students and Jin Dal-rae to the police station and start searching for the rest.”
“All right.”
“….”
“…Mr. Hong Gyeong-jun?”
Hong Gyeong-jun, who was silent for a moment, then looked at Do-yoon Han and asked.
“Have you seen the keyring monster?”
In the past few days, the key ring monster that had been on the mountain behind had come to the garden where the survivors were staying and sat down. It had been sitting on the border of the garden for a while, watching the survivors, but for some reason it was no longer visible.
Han Do-yoon also seemed to have noticed this and his face turned pale.
“…uh?”
This is because I realized something was wrong.
(Continued in the next part)
