Episode 47
“….”
“It wasn’t just me. “There were people who were eaten together like now.”
Together like now.
“…I was eaten.”
In that short voice, Jeong In-ho read a sadness so faint that he could not grasp it.
Manager Lee Jae-heon, who removed a layer of his facial expression, looked like a rotten old behemoth. The circumference of its body cannot be measured with just a person’s arms, and it has so many branches that it can cover the sky, but it resembles a tree that was left in a desolate ruin for a long time and eventually reached the end of its life, but failed to collapse.
“There were quite a few… but they all died.”
“….”
“I lost my senses and was killed by a monster. I fell to my death because I couldn’t see. A few times, they went crazy and didn’t know what to do, so they died while holding each other’s collars…”
Nevertheless, when talking about death, Director Lee Jae-heon was just like a machine.
It was calm, as if well-programmed 0s and 1s were retrieving a predetermined value, but it didn’t even have the slightest sadness, like when saying the word ‘eaten’, which made the listener feel chilled. It was the coolness you would feel in a gray-silver elevator or a piece of metal.
Manager Lee Jae-heon stopped speaking in a short line and then smiled roundly.
“In the end, I was the only one left.”
It was definitely a laugh that I thought would never suit him.
But his smile was like something a child had drawn on paper. It was a work created by a child who did not yet have the skill to draw with his hands, but just wanted to draw a straight and pretty picture.
It’s clumsy and makes sense.
“….”
It was a smile that was extremely suitable for someone who survived alone.
“I guess you don’t want to hear my complaints.”
“I’m curious, though.”
“In-ho really can’t tell jokes, I know.”
Manager Lee Jae-heon found it very strange that I was paying personal attention to him. As if such a thing should never happen in this world, as if I had never been in such a situation. Like someone who thinks it’s impossible because they don’t know anything at all.
That couldn’t be possible.
“…What if it’s not a joke?”
“I think it would be quite unpleasant.”
“….”
“It’s not that I have good memories of this place. “It’s a place where you feel disgusting when you look at it and you feel sick when you breathe in it… it’s that kind of place.”
“sorry.”
“There’s nothing to complain about.”
Jeong In-ho blinked because he felt that it was really sincere.
“…Aren’t you sad?”
“I was sad.”
“You must be suffering.”
“It’s painful, but.”
Manager Lee Jae-heon continued.
“Because it’s just that much.”
“….”
Jeong In-ho thought for a moment about what ‘that much’ meant. Just enough to pass by in your mind without having much meaning.
When I turned my attention to the dull, dull noise, I saw Manager Lee Jae-heon scratching his neck as if clawing.
“…I think it would be better not to do that.”
At that moment, Jeong In-ho remembered the cold, sinking air.
“….”
“Don’t scratch your neck.”
“…ah.”
Manager Lee Jae-heon let out a small exclamation as if he had only just realized what he was doing.
He looked at his awkwardly raised hands for a moment, then placed them on his knees and clasped them together. Throughout the entire process, Director Lee Jae-heon’s face continued to have a round smile on his face.
He said it like a joke.
“Because my throat is itchy.”
“…is that a joke too?”
“It’s no joke.”
“….”
He completely erased his smile only after Jeong In-ho looked at the corner of his mouth. In the end, Jeong In-ho turned his gaze to look at Dr. Ha Seong-yoon, looking resolute and unnatural, like a machine entering a command.
The doctor sighed at that gaze and got up from his seat and approached Director Lee Jae-heon.
“Can I take a quick look at your neck?”
“Do you need it?”
“At least the manager will need it.”
“well.”
So keep your mouth shut.
He smiled as if he had heard a funny story, but did not stop the doctor from reaching out. The sight of Jeong In-ho just turning his gaze into space reminded him of the situation just before he woke up.
He was moaning as if he was having a seizure, scratching his neck and twisting his body, but when I pressed him with my hand, he just drooped down without even moving a single movement. It seems that Jeong In-ho could not hide his embarrassment at that moment as he was probably seeing this for the first time in his life. Those memories were gnawing at my brain.
Director Lee Jae-heon met Jeong In-ho’s gaze and immediately smiled again.
“But… aren’t you curious about this?”
Jeong In-ho felt a brief sense of goodness at that.
“…What?”
“How do I get out of here?”
“….”
“I’m sure you’re all curious.”
That was correct.
‘If Director Lee Jae-heon is really a survivor…’
In any case, it means that there is a way to escape from the other side of the world.
Meanwhile, Director Lee Jae-heon was in reality, not the secret world. Since Jung In-ho and other company colleagues remembered that time, there was a high probability that Manager Lee Jae-heon, who was said to be the only survivor, knew a way to escape this world.
‘but.’
On the other hand, I also had this thought.
I slowly opened my mouth.
“…is that a complete escape?”
“….”
“Is it true that once you leave, it’s over?”
Isn’t Director Lee Jae-heon the one who got eaten again?
In response to that question, the other person calmly kept his mouth shut. It seemed as if the audience was watching a play, remembering it, and thinking about it, rather than trying to think of something to say because they were particularly embarrassed or embarrassed.
In the end, Manager Lee Jae-heon wiped the smile from his face.
“No way.”
However, his eyes had not changed at all.
* * *
To get straight to the point, you can escape.
‘for now.’
He nodded inwardly, recalling the description in the novel.
If there is no way to escape from the secret world in the first place, problems will arise with the settings he has built up so far. Since the setting was built with the knowledge that escape was possible from the beginning, it is quite possible to actually escape the other side of the world.
However, the problem is that it is not a complete escape.
“Even if you escape once, you will be brought back someday. Of course, this is just based on my experience, but mostly.”
“…I’m being dragged back.”
“Besides, there are no rules. If you’re unlucky, you might get eaten again the very next day, but if you’re lucky, you might be able to survive for a few years. “There are individual differences in everything that comes and goes.”
“What exactly do you mean by individual differences?”
“I understand that people drop into this place approximately once a year. But I’m not sure…”
“….”
“We came here on March 1st, but some people come in January or February. But that doesn’t mean I’m only being dragged on March 1st… Personally, I think there are jockeys who are treated the same way.”
“…Jockey….”
“Jockeys who were eaten together in the past are put back together on the same day. When they all die, they join others another day. As a result, sometimes we meet different jockeys… but since the horses are averaged over the course of a year, it is not clear what will happen when. “Because common sense doesn’t apply in the first place.”
“…Then there are no clear rules?”
“New people coming in once a year? Is that something that will come together if they are treated as one group and eaten again? Other than that, there is no set date for survivors leaving and coming in. And usually, one rider is wiped out before he can escape.”
“….”
“Aren’t you scared?”
As he asked that question, Jaeheon Lee tried not to display a sneer on his face or voice. For someone who asked the other person if they were scared, it was to show an annoyingly calm reaction.
“I will live in fear for the rest of my life. If you don’t get taken this year, next year, if you don’t get taken today, tomorrow. Another hour later…”
“…Is that how you lived?”
What is the purpose of asking that?
The main character’s voice was calm and similar to Lee Jae-heon’s, so he could not understand the intention of this question. Jeong In-ho’s appearance was the same as usual, to the point where it was unclear whether it was sympathy, surprise, or analysis.
Lee Jae-heon, who thought it was a meaningless response, answered lightly.
“That’s how I lived.”
Of course it was a lie.
‘I couldn’t live like that, I just drank alcohol.’
Until he remembered his past life, Lee Jae-heon’s life was very prosperous. Of course, if I hadn’t remembered my past life, I would have died shortly after being eaten by the other side, but sometimes it is easier to die without knowing.
Anyway, until now, Lee Jae-heon has lived a truly happy and prosperous life, and of course he has never been preyed upon by the underworld.
‘It’s also a setting that I wouldn’t have been able to create if I hadn’t read the novel in the first place.’
But he couldn’t tell the truth, so he continued.
“Anyway, there is a simple way to escape, even if it is imperfect.”
“…What is it?”
“It’s about killing at least one monster.”
At those words, the protagonist looked at Lee Jae-heon with pitch-black eyes.
“…What are the standards? “Who decided that?”
For someone who heard confusing information out of nowhere, he was sharp.
It was indeed a quick analysis and accurate judgment worthy of the protagonist of this world. He was doubting the truth of Lee Jae-heon’s words and at the same time asking about the origin of the hidden world.
Unfortunately, Jaeheon Lee could not answer this question.
“There is no such thing as a standard. “I don’t even know who decided it.”
“So how do we find that monster?”
“There is no trick. Just go around killing sins.”
Due to this problem, Assistant Manager Jeong In-ho in the novel is mentally broken.
The main character and his group, who left the park before the detective committed suicide and the survivors died one after another, stop by the hospital for treatment and are traumatized by the building. Every time I entered a building, someone died or almost died, so in a way, it was a natural step.
When the protagonist and his group, who learned of the horror of the building, headed back to the park, the green algae monster reappeared and attacked them. The green algae monster, which can distinguish living things by blood, was waiting for the main character and his party to return.
There, the protagonist somehow manages to completely kill the green algae monster through his own sacrifice.
‘I didn’t have that kind of ability, so I couldn’t physically crush the monster… but it had the effect of slowing down time.’
We simply did not allow the green algae monster to enter the lake for three days and it died on its own.
‘The problem is that the main character has reached the point where it is impossible to recover from that battle.’
It suddenly occurred to me that the description at the time was quite disgusting.
Two legs were twisted and one arm was blown off. He lost his eyesight due to damage to his eyeballs from toothy vines, and was burned by the heat of the fire, which damaged his vocal cords and crushed his hands. Even with a professional doctor, there was no way the protagonist, who was already exhausted, could have saved something that was beyond their control.
‘Even after that happened, he couldn’t have died right away.’
In any case, Jeong In-ho is the main character of this world, so his mental power is excellent, and his life is as tough as his outstanding mental power. Even though it would not be strange or even fortunate if he died right away, the main character endures the evening because he cannot die.
And the next morning, he woke up in the studio he was living in.
‘Completely unharmed.’
In fact, if it weren’t for this description, even Lee Jae-heon wouldn’t have used his body to this extent. I knew that once I got out of the other world, my body would return to its original state, so I did it anyway.
Anyway, from then on, the main character gets some superficial information: ‘If you kill the monster, you can return to the original world.’ Later, when he was dragged back to the other world, he remembered this proposition and killed several monsters. As a result, he learned that there was a monster that could make all the survivors of the other world escape.
I didn’t even want to think about how frustrating and disgusting the process was, nor could I remember it. However, even though my mind was dying, I vividly remembered the sorrow of being an office worker who had to go to work regularly when he returned to reality.
‘It really gave me goosebumps.’
And actually, if we go back to reality like that….
“….”
Lee Jae-heon quietly swallowed his thoughts.
‘It’s not time to write this information yet.’
The main character’s mind must have become a lot more complicated thanks to the fact that we’ve already resolved the mess and given him new information. New information also means new concerns, so now wasn’t the right time to tell me anything else.
Instead, he decided to provide even more detailed information that he had already spit out. This is information that Lee Jae-heon, the only survivor of the underworld, would know.
“It’s not that there are no standards at all, of course.”
“…Should I say I’m glad?”
“Most of those monsters are so strong that you have to be prepared to lose a limb.”
“That’s not a good thing.”
The protagonist spoke in a neat and sincere voice, but his feelings could be seen in his complex, pitch-black eyes.
That was funny, Jaeheon Lee opened his mouth.
“Wouldn’t it be better than smashing your head into the ground?”
You, I mean you.
‘I don’t even know what it was like in the original.’
Although Lee Jae-heon did not remember all the contents of the novel, he knew at least what kind of mess the main character had become in order to know the one piece of information he had just spit out. How surprising is it that they, who were already living in such a devastated world, would have put a 19-dollar rating on this novel?
Considering the mentality of the main character who was torn apart to obtain one piece of information: ‘There is a monster that can temporarily let you out of the other world’ and ‘If you kill that monster, you can return to reality for a while’, Jung In-ho’s current reaction is both ironic and funny. I just did it.
‘Honestly, that bastard needs to hit me first.’
How many times has he made sacrifices to help the protagonist grow mentally in a healthy way? The current information was also very valuable information that the main character in the novel, who could not buy it even if he paid a thousand dollars, found it out personally.
If you told me that, you should be thankful. It’s so funny that you’re freaking out already….
“….”
“….”
… right?
“…?”
Jaeheon Lee was embarrassed.
It was because the main character and the doctor were staring at him with strange eyes for some reason. To be honest, it didn’t seem like it was the first time I was looking at him like that, so my complicated feelings grew even more.
He forgot the setting and was about to swear, but he worked hard to gain patience and asked.
“What is it?”
“…No, sorry.”
“….”
What.
‘What on earth is it?’
What are those kind eyes now?
