Episode 358:
An apartment complex with an eyeball monster. There were a total of two methods that Jaeheon Lee came up with to create an event that would raise up survivors using those materials.
Being chosen as a ‘sacrificial offering’ to an eyeball monster.
Create a chain reaction through two triggers.
For reference, the reason why Lee Jae-heon and Kim Yeon-woo fell into the sub-sinkhole was because of the former. As a result, Kang Min-ah and other survivors had to enter the sinkhole to save the two stragglers, and eventually rescued Lee Jae-heon and Kim Yeon-woo.
So what kind of situation will the latter create?
“…Ugh….”
“…Mr. Lee Jae-heon?”
“Wait a minute….”
“Jaeheon Lee!”
Jaeheon Lee closed his eyes as he felt someone supporting his weakened body.
“What is this…!”
Well, you won’t die.
I just hope the chicks cope well.
* * *
Room 1201, Building 119, before Jaeheon Lee collapsed.
“Uh, Detective…?”
“Mr. Inho!”
Han Do-yoon, Woo Woo-young, Kim Ki-jeong, and Yoon Gar-ram, who were previously on the 119 building exploration team, and Hong Gyeong-jun, Jeong In-ho, and Ha Seong-yoon, who were on the standby team at the police station, met at the entrance of room 1201.
“Oh my, are you here to save us?”
Luckily, there was a clock in room 403, which reflects Kim Ki-jeong’s childhood, so he could tell that four days had passed. Of course, because he was trapped inside the building, he was unable to communicate through smoke during that time.
When Han Do-yoon recalled that and asked as if he was sorry, Jeong In-ho smiled awkwardly and answered.
“That’s true, but….”
“Oh, yes.”
“We were trapped too.”
“oh?”
When Han Do-yoon made a subtle expression and let out an exclamation, Hong Gyeong-jun, following Jeong In-ho, opened his mouth.
“I think I was trapped for about a day. Thanks to you, I now know for myself why you were unable to send any communication. “Is it true that you were trapped in someone’s childhood?”
“…So…”
Kim Ki-jeong asked with a similar expression to Do-yoon Han.
“You guys were also caught in that house or something?”
“Judging by the shocked expression on his face, it appears that the subject of the place where the members of the investigation team were trapped was Mr. Kim Ki-jeong.”
“…you’re right. “I couldn’t find the clue and wasted time, so I couldn’t come out right away…”
“Our subject was Ha Seong-yoon.”
At those words, Kim Ki-jeong, Han Do-yoon, Woo Woo-young, and Yoon Gar-ram turned their attention to Ha Seong-yoon, who had not said a word until now. Ha Seong-yoon, who usually had a gentle smile on his face, was leaning his head against the wall with a frown on his face.
Then Ha Seong-yoon, who made eye contact with Garam Yoon, smiled and said.
“It’s been a while.”
“Mister…”
Yoon Garam cried, holding Ha Seongyoon’s cheeks.
“Why is my face half cut?…”
“Haha, it’s not that bad.”
“Oh my god, look at how much weight you’ve lost.”
“ha ha ha.”
Ha Seong-yoon, who smiles silently, and Yoon Gar-ram, who is possessed by a grandmother watching her grandchildren on a holiday, make a similar expression to Kim Ki-jeong when Joo Woo-young looks at them. Han Do-yoon, Kim Ki-jeong, and Yoon Gar-ram, who had equally subtle faces, turned their gaze back to Hong Gyeong-jun and Jeong In-ho.
Woo Woo-young said, fixing his hair.
“If the people in the waiting group also experienced that room escape game….”
“It’s an escape room, so it’s similar to In-ho Jeong’s opinion.”
“Oh, is that so? Anyway, if you were trapped like that, I guess everyone who enters building 119 experiences something like this once per group? Are people who entered Building 119 around the same time put into one group and one of them is randomly selected to go through the past?”
In response to Woo Soo-young’s opinion, Hong Gyeong-jun tapped his forearm with his finger and nodded.
“For us, the last person to stay on the stairs was Ha Seong-yoon. From what I heard earlier, it seems that the subject of your topic was Mr. Kim Ki-jeong. How many times did Mr. Kim Ki-jeong come out of the stairs?”
“Oh I see! Kim Ki-jeong was the last to come out of the stairs!”
Han Do-yoon said with his characteristic cheerful smile.
“Rather than coming out, I was dragged out!”
“…Were you dragged by someone by the collar and thrown to the floor?”
“omg.”
Han Do-yoon blinked widely at Jeong In-ho’s question.
“That’s right, Mr. Kim Ki-jeong tried to stay on the stairs just in case…”
“He must have been pulled by an intangible force and thrown out. I know roughly what the situation was. We also left Ha Seong-yoon waiting on the stairs and came out to the 8th floor, but as soon as we took our eyes off him, Ha Seong-yoon was thrown down.”
Jeong In-ho’s smile seemed vaguely vague, perhaps because he was remembering that time.
“That big guy rolling around on the floor, it’s so…”
“Why do you look like you’re happy?”
“You misunderstand.”
“Oh, I see… I guess it’s a misunderstanding…”
Han Do-yoon seemed to know why Ha Seong-yoon’s expression was so bad as he was being rubbed heavily by Yoon Gar-ram from a little distance away. Even though I was already in poor condition, I was thrown out as the oldest person at the time, and my past, which I didn’t want to see, was forced to be revealed, so I couldn’t have been in a good mood.
Kim Ki-jeong nodded because he sympathized with Ha Seong-yoon to some extent.
“Yeah, that feels bad….”
For reference, Kim Ki-jeong was also the oldest member of the exploration team. For Kim Ki-jeong, who cares a lot about his reputation, it was a situation where he couldn’t avoid being offended if he didn’t want to. Moreover, the feeling of having to show the past that I had kept hidden to those young friends was really…
‘At least I was better off because I had that pony.’
Kim Ki-jeong glanced at Do-yoon Han.
‘… Well, I got a lot of help in one way or another.’
Do-yoon Han was the type of person that Kim Ki-jeong avoided as he was someone who would drain out of energy when he was around him, but he was still a person who had a knack for lifting a depressed mood or lifting up a person who was down at the bottom. It could be said that Kim Ki-jeong also received a lot of help from him in damn room 403.
However, unlike Kim Ki-jeong’s team, which worked cooperatively in its own way, Ha Seong-yoon, Jeong In-ho, and Hong Kyung-jun often showed that they did not get along well with each other. There was no way any of them could have comforted Ha Seong-yoon like Han Do-yoon did, so it was natural that they were calm now.
“…But… you came out early?”
So Kim Ki-jeong offered crude consolation in an attempt to cheer him up, but Ha Seong-yoon opened his mouth with a hollow smile.
“I doubt whether a day is really a short time, but looking at your records, it is true that we escaped quickly. “We came first to room 1201… It took a short time because there wasn’t much to do.”
“Was there anything special?”
“I don’t know what Kim Ki-jeong was like, but I saw my family when I was in elementary school.”
“Oh, that’s me too…”
“Regardless of the factors, it seems like it just showed the past from when I was an elementary school student. I can’t say that my life was very smooth, but nothing much happened when I was in elementary school. “It was so long ago that it took time to remember the clues, but there wasn’t a big problem.”
“….”
Kim Ki-jeong felt a little envious for a moment.
‘Then why is your expression so bad?’
However, unlike Kim Ki-jeong’s envy, Ha Seong-yoon’s escape from the room was not very easy.
When I was in elementary school, I felt a sense of separation and discomfort every time I came across traces of my parents who were real, not mannequins, and the two young men I was with were even better at working alone, but they were not good at cooperating, so it was even more difficult. Hong Gyeong-Jun was in a state of mental breakdown after learning that Lee Jae-Heon and Kim Yeon-Woo had failed, and Jung In-Ho had an attitude of ‘I’m going to fail anyway’, wondering why he was so liberated.
“…haha.”
There was a reason why Ha Seong-yoon could not manage his facial expressions.
“I tried to open the door to see if I could go inside room 1201 first, but it was locked so I couldn’t get in. “Now, perhaps thanks to everyone gathering, the locked door has been opened.”
“Ah…”
Hong Gyeong-jun, who had been quietly listening to the story, interjected as the investigation team nodded at the front door handle, which moved easily according to Ha Seong-yoon’s hand gestures.
“Well, I think I’ve already figured out the general situation… Is there any more information you can share? “When we came in to look for you, we only saw Ha Seong-yoon’s harmonious family atmosphere, so we had nothing to share.”
“Oh that.”
In response to Hong Gyeong-jun’s unique stern tone and the strange impatience that came from it, Woo Soo-young took out the documents that had been kept in his bag for the past four days. It was the document I received from the management office.
“I’m not sure if this was the trigger, but… we got this from the management office and then came into building 119. “I experienced the Kim Ki-jeong incident right after that, so I think it could be a clue.”
Hong Gyeong-jun, who received a few pages of documents and newspapers, and Jeong In-ho and Ha Seong-yoon, who gathered next to him, read the text carefully and came to a conclusion.
“Was the keyring monster created from the thoughts of the child victim in this case?”
“I’m thinking that might be the case for us too. Did he burn to death in this house…? Or it could have been created out of the thoughts of the apartment residents who saw the situation of the victim child.”
It was difficult to find out detailed information because the data was sparsely smeared with water or charred, but by combining the key ring monster that looked like a burned corpse with the events in the data, a rough answer was possible. Perhaps one of the victims of the arson incident was a child, and the key ring monster may have been created through the thoughts of that child or a resident who saw it.
Hong Gyeong-jun rolled his eyes and said.
“Then that would roughly explain why the theme of Escape Room… was always shown only as elementary school students. “If the victim’s child is around elementary school age.”
“….”
“…Mr. Han Do-yoon, please tell me if something is not right.”
Han Do-yoon, who had been dazed by those words, suddenly came to his senses and made a fuss.
“yes yes? Oh no. “I’m fine.”
“….”
“Actually, I don’t think I’m okay, but I’m really fine, so would you mind not treating me like a burden?…”
“No one wants to treat me like a burden, so don’t worry.”
“…That’s a good thing.”
“….”
Hong Gyeong-jun, who was silent for a moment, slowly opened his mouth.
“If you are having a hard time, please tell me.”
“It’s hard, but I can do really well.”
“I understand what you mean.”
It’s true that it’s not okay and it’s difficult, but even so, it means that I don’t want to be left out of the team to the point where I resort to force.
“However, if you cause trouble or become a distraction during the exploration, please understand that I have no choice but to advise you to take a break.”
“Um, yes, of course.”
“….”
“Of course.”
Hong Gyeong-jun thought to himself as he saw the emphasis.
‘Is there any trauma related to the fire incident?’
He wondered if it was because he had been kidnapped and imprisoned in the same place in the past, but as Hong Gyeong-jun found out, Do-yoon Han’s claim that what happened at that time did not pose a major mental problem was true. Nevertheless, I thought that the fact that it looked like this in room 1201 was a problem related to the characteristics of this place.
Hong Gyeong-jun gathered people in front of the front door, planning to make Do-yoon Han wait outside room 1201 in case of emergency.
“First, take a handkerchief here. I was so anxious when I sent you here that I didn’t even think about it, but this is a place where you never know when a fire may break out. “We decided that we needed a tool to protect our respiratory system by soaking it in water, so we brought it with us.”
“Oh…readiness.”
“No, on the contrary, I was sorry for sending it in a hurry without providing the proper supplies. “Do you have any water left?”
Woo Woo-young, who was in charge of the bag containing the ingredients, shook his head.
“Not much time left. “It’s not like it’s not there at all, but it’s not enough to wet it and use it.”
“Then we will use the water we brought. First of all, it would be better to wet it in advance, fill the empty water bottles with water, and carry them around with you…”
After all the preparations were completed, it was time to move into the front door.
“….”
“….”
“….”
The survivors fell silent for a moment at the large doll placed in the middle of the living room.
After a moment of silence, Jeong In-ho muttered in disbelief.
“…Boss?”
A doll that looks just like Lee Jae-heon.
It was chained and pinned to the floor.
(Continued in the next part)
