Episode 479
Before I talk about why I was planning such a vicious plan.
While touring the concert hall with Jeong Eun-woo, Lee Jae-heon, like other survivors, was contacted by Hong Gyeong-jun.
―Jaeheon Lee, who is next to you right now?
―My name is Jeong Eun-woo.
―It’s my first time hearing this name, but it’s ominous. Who is that?
―I know you as the lost uncle of our Lee family’s eldest daughter, Chief of Staff and Assistant Manager Jeong In-ho.
-You mean this?
Hong Gyeong-jun, who found out about Jeong Eun-woo’s existence, started nagging, but Lee Jae-heon achieved remarkable mental growth by combining with the prototype.
Lee Jae-heon, who skillfully avoided Hong Gyeong-jun’s sincere concerns, diverted attention by briefly describing his situation and then ripped off information from other survivors.
As a result, Jaeheon Lee learned that there were other survivors besides me in this aquarium. Even two kindergarteners, two high school students, and one murderer. It couldn’t have been an amazing combination.
“I want to see results until we meet…”
And Jaeheon Lee was a regressor.
‘The strategy will be faster if you quickly acquire information before encountering regressor candidates who may remember this episode. Now that finding out how to kill the final boss is the top priority, encountering survivors who are overly worried will only make everything from investigation to strategy return to hassle.’
When I heard from Hong Gyeong-jun, he said that the so-called student team was in the ‘Amazon of the world’ corner. After passing there, the only things left to this concert hall are the ‘Sea Treasure Hall’ and the ‘Underwater Tunnel’. Both are normal corners where nothing happens if you pass by them without touching anything.
Of course, ‘nothing happening’ means that it is virtually invisible, and many ‘exhibition’ conditions are being quietly fulfilled… but the important thing is that after passing the ‘Amazon of the World’, it is only a short distance to the concert hall.
“….”
Well, it won’t really be as ‘immediately’ as you say.
‘I have to protect two kindergarteners and my teamwork won’t be good… so if this one doesn’t waste time on things like sleeping or eating, we won’t run into each other so quickly.’
Then I thought about it.
‘The one that will be on display will definitely be from the team over there, so we just need to do as much research and prepare as possible. Anyway, I didn’t think I would be able to successfully attack from the beginning.’
Jaeheon Lee was preparing to return.
It was like that from the beginning. This aquarium, which is equipped with the three elements of water, darkness, and restraint, was not a good match for Lee Jae-heon. It wouldn’t take long for each episode to wear out its usefulness.
However, when I returned, at least my worn-out mental strength was restored. It is said that remembering before returning, it is inevitable that one’s mind will be gradually consumed, but it was still more efficient to return when Lee Jae-heon became unable to fight.
Since you never know who might become a sub-regressor, you should be careful about dying.
“…Jeong Eun-woo.”
“Did you call me?”
Jeong Eun-woo, who had been looking around the concert hall, heard Lee Jae-heon’s call and approached him. To be honest, I was a bit surprised to see such a sensitive response even though I didn’t sing loudly in this large concert hall.
‘It looks like your hearing is fine.’
Or maybe my five senses have become better due to the influence of the other side of the world.
Jeong Eun-woo was definitely a convenient partner for Lee Jae-heon. There are no unnecessary questions, your abilities are solid, and the feedback is immediate. However, Lee Jae-heon dismissed this as a useless idea and continued talking to Jeong Eun-woo.
“How many doors are open?”
When I came down the stairs connecting the audience seats to the floor, I was able to see 12 doors that were not visible from above the audience seats. Some places were open and some were not.
In the novel, the main character managed to enter one of those rooms and avoid the monster, but after finding out the identity of the final boss, he gave up on conquering this place.
‘I said it was a room with documents and a monitor where you could see the monster as soon as you entered. You can view the structure of the aquarium or the information on the final boss…’
If that room is open, Jaeheon Lee can also find out what the structure of this aquarium is, exactly how to kill the final boss in the aquarium, and what it is. And even if they did return, it would be convenient to pretend to know in the next episode and encourage them to finish the final boss.
“Six doors are open. I did not go inside, but only checked whether the door was open or not. “Three of them have been identified as having monsters.”
“Thank you for the neat report.”
Although it was an unexpected companion, Lee Jae-heon liked Jeong Eun-woo. His physical abilities seem to be inferior to Song In-myeong’s, but his weapons seem to be strong, and above all, the way he acts is efficient. Jeong Eun-woo knew very well how he could be useful.
‘You can leave all decisions to your superiors.’
Sometimes people misunderstand that having more power is not always a good thing. It is natural that responsibility increases as one holds power. If you didn’t have extreme greed or ambition like the poisonous snake in your previous life, becoming a cog in a society where you only receive orders was one way to live an easy life.
This soft world seems to regard such an attitude as ‘a very degrading way of treating people as tools,’ but Jaeheon Lee found that to be a huge fuss.
Originally, people were born as tools for themselves, others, and the community. There is an ego, but its essence should not be denied.
Eunwoo Jeong seemed to be well aware of that fact. Jaeheon Lee liked that the most. That is, I do not deny the fact that I am a tool.
“Just in case, let’s move together.”
“I would appreciate it if you could do that.”
“First, could you please guide me to a place where there are no monsters?”
“Then come this way…”
Lee Jae-heon and Jeong Eun-woo began searching the three rooms without monsters. In order, the rooms were located at 1 o’clock, 2 o’clock, and 3 o’clock.
“Is this a playroom?”
“I was thinking it might be something like that.”
“The shape itself is a space where children can hang out.”
The first room is a playroom.
The child’s poor skills had drawn pictures of fish all over the room, and the floor was a kind of pool filled with colorful balls. It was a cute space, if you will, but the dark atmosphere and vaguely low saturation drawings on the empty ceiling gave it an eerie feel.
There’s no way a child could draw on the ceiling, right?
“Let’s hold off.”
It seemed a far cry from the room full of documents and monitors mentioned in the novel.
“This is… the kitchen?”
“To be honest, it looks more like the kitchen of a raw fish restaurant than a home.”
“It definitely seems like it has a fishy smell or something because of the scales scattered around.”
“The same goes for cutting boards and floors full of moisture.”
The second room is probably the kitchen of a raw fish restaurant. Unlike the first playroom, it was bright with lights, but it wasn’t a pleasant light. The pure white light that could only be seen in a mad scientist’s laboratory created a strangely unpleasant feeling. It looked strangely clean, yet dirty.
A kitchen that wouldn’t be particularly strange if it weren’t for the space inside the aquarium. However, it was a space where I was reluctant to even step foot because of the red water that had pooled on the floor.
“Hold here too.”
As expected, this was not the room Jaeheon Lee wanted.
“The smell of mold is strong.”
“It was a similar odor when I checked earlier.”
“With this much moisture, the fish can live long even if they jump out of the tank.”
“That’s an interesting story.”
“It wouldn’t be a particularly interesting story in this world.”
And the third and final room.
“…Still, I’m glad I didn’t see any fish flying through the air.”
“Is there such a monster?”
“maybe.”
It was a document warehouse.
‘… To be precise, it should be called a file warehouse since the files are organized there.’
Lee Jae-heon, who responded to Jeong Eun-woo’s soulless question, which seemed to be asked out of politeness, looked at the warehouse.
The wooden bookcases, which are hard to find in places where the air is easily humid, were lined up tall and long, and the space for people to pass through was very narrow. The overall shape was like a maze. Red, orange, yellow…all rainbow-colored files were lined up on the bookshelf.
There seems to be quite a lot of information, but…
“I wish I had some information to look at.”
Unfortunately, it was not the room in the novel that Jaeheon Lee was looking for.
‘I said I saw a monitor as soon as I entered there.’
Jaeheon Lee stared at the endless ceiling and bookshelf.
‘…as expected…’
It’s dark and humid.
“….”
“Do you have a problem, Manager?”
“doesn’t exist.”
Not right now.
As Jeong Eun-woo said, there seemed to be no monsters in all three rooms.
In the novel, the protagonist, the narrator, was in such a state of mental breakdown that it was not explained in detail, except for ‘that room’ he was lucky enough to sneak into. The fact that there are a total of 12 rooms was also information that they had directly obtained.
What did it say in the novel? I think it was simply described as ‘there were a lot of rooms.’
Lee Jae-heon said to Jeong Eun-woo while thinking over the original content.
“Please keep holding the door just in case. “It might close while I’m inside, so I think we’ll need someone waiting outside.”
“Yes, please be careful.”
Following orders without question was the ideal attitude of a soldier. If we had met as co-workers in a past life, we might have become quite good friends.
However, Lee Jae-heon’s attempt failed even before it started.
Kwasik!
“ah.”
It was because the file on the bookshelf showed its teeth and bit him.
Eunwoo says there is no monster.
“Are you okay?”
“…Yeah, whatever.”
It’s really varied.
‘… Well, it must have been difficult to judge files that looked normal if they stayed still to be monsters. Especially for Jung Eun-woo, who is not yet familiar with the behind-the-scenes world.’
Lee Jae-heon’s hand, which had been stretched out to one of the files, was badly bitten and left half tattered.
This is not an exaggeration; it was almost cut off with bite marks, as if someone had been strongly caught between the saw and the saw. Lee Jae-heon, who had been bitten from between his middle and ring fingers to his thumb, pressed the wound with his other hand.
Nevertheless, the blood continued to drip. Even considering that the wound was too large to stop the bleeding by hand, it seemed to be bleeding excessively.
“Should I consider this a kind of curse?”
This aquarium is also a secret world. There were monsters, and among the monsters, those who were obsessed with blood were everywhere.
In that hidden world, an injury that did not stop bleeding was no different from a declaration that one’s body would become bait.
‘Probably the friends by the stream… I think the injury in that corner was also cursed like this. Then, we could say that this type of curse is a characteristic of this aquarium. Indeed, there is nothing more stark than the smell of blood in the water.’
After several experiments with his already injured hand, Jaeheon Lee came to a conclusion.
“I think conditions are necessary as expected.”
As he came out of the room, Jung Eun-woo asked in his characteristic, gentle tone.
“What are the conditions?”
“All the papers bared their teeth and rejected me. The files were divided into rainbow colors, and seeing as they were the same no matter which color you chose, it seemed like some condition was needed to view the documents. For example, only those who have seen all the theme zones from the entrance of the aquarium can see them…”
Lee Jae-heon and Jeong Eun-woo’s eyes blinked at the same time.
“…like having to put together a puzzle.”
“…the balls in the playroom were also rainbow-colored.”
“It’s hard to make a living.”
“Life is like that.”
(Continued in the next part)
