WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B

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Chapter 135: Meeting Plaza

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We were walking through the forest.

Right after barely managing to grab a few items from the otherwise unremarkable supply box, we came to several conclusions.

First. We were contestants in a "race."

Second. This venue had a mechanism capable of eliminating every contestant.

Third. If there was an "all eliminated," there must also be an "everyone passes."

"So there must be some kind of finish line we can reach. Maybe getting out of the forest."

There was no Labyrinth without an exit.

"Mm, but doesn't the forest look way too big to get out of...?"

Kim Hee-sook had wrapped one of the blankets from the supply box around herself like a cape. She spoke while frantically checking the ground and our surroundings.

"What I mean is, um... maybe there's something like a finish-line marker inside the forest, not outside it... Like a flag or something."

That made sense.

"That could be it."

Of course, if that was the case, blindly heading straight out of the forest would not be enough. We'd need to figure out the finish line's location and direction.

Click, click.

Hyeon Je-won, who had been following us while examining the hand flashlight from the supplies as though it were some great artifact, suddenly spoke.

"But do you think that broadcast won't come on again? It would've been nice to get more information."

The voice that had announced the start of the race earlier did not return.

As though its only purpose had been to indirectly inform us of our situation.

Flap.

At the sound of wings, I raised my head slightly.

Four crows perched on branches, looking down at us.

Four pairs of red eyes following us from tree to tree.

I watched them quietly, then looked away.

"......Aaaagh......"

A faint scream came from far away.

"Whoa, what the hell!"

Yun Geon-min froze like an animal facing its natural predator. He clutched the small pouch from the supply box as though it were a lifeline.

"......Ugh, aaagh......"

I stopped with the others and listened.

"Th-that was a person, right? A person's voice... right?"

"I think so."

It didn't sound like there was only one person, either.

"......"

After the man's agonized scream, a low voice muttered too quietly to make out, then fell silent.

"......Ugh, ngh......"

Now all we could hear were faint, intermittent groans that sounded almost like sobbing.

"Wait. Does that mean there are other people besides us...?"

As I listened to Kim Hee-sook's anxious voice, I looked back at the branches.

The four crows were still watching us with red eyes.

Well, mysterious spectators were buying Human Tickets and watching us in that disgusting way.

There was no way there were only four contestants to bet on.

Then was the person who had screamed just now Chae Jae-ha? Maybe there hadn't simply been no corpse in the white room of the Sales and Marketing Division. Maybe he had arrived here first. Was it possible for them to buy "pets" at different times like that? But then who on earth did that other voice belong to?

"Oh. Are those the people?"

Hyeon Je-won's voice, almost like a mutter, cut through my head full of questions.

When I turned, they looked at me briefly, then quickly avoided my eyes.

"Um, Seon Yu-han, you said there might be several Labyrinths just like this one, and that the people who disappeared during Labyrinthification had probably been separated and sent to their own Labyrinths. Then there could also be a time and place where all those people can gather...!"

"Ah."

It was entirely possible.

If the Labyrinth had scattered people apart, it could also bring them back together in one place.

For a moment, I went blank.

"Then..."

The truth was, I had thought the instanced dungeon theory was the most likely explanation.

"The Labyrinth likes it when people wander around inside it. To wander around, they have to be alive first. So it wouldn't wastefully kill that many people all at once without even giving them a chance to get lost."

That was the kind of place a Labyrinth was.

"What's your name?"

"▶ Kim Jin-woo"

"▶ kmj1234"

"▶ Yu-min"

"▶ binary"

"▶ Forgot"

There had also been the IDs of Lee Jin-su's missing coworkers among the Happyland game choices.

Still, it could have been another trick by the Labyrinth. Until I got out of this Labyrinth and met another survivor, I couldn't be one hundred percent sure.

The Labyrinth was a place where anything was possible between zero and one.

"If it were possible to turn back time, what would you do, Seon Yu-han?"

I thought of the Interview Administrator.

The person who was always with me from the beginning of a loop until the building lost power.

"I'm going to the second floor. There's a daycare there. I won't force you to help, so get out first."

The person who had always headed down toward the daycare from the beginning.

Even though I had only passed on information about the upper floors after my route changed upward, they never gave up that stubbornness.

What had they said this loop?

"Thank you. Then I'll stop by the daycare first, and after that, I'll try going up like you told me."

I still... couldn't stand people like that.

They should just take care of their own life. Instead of wasting time worrying about things that were young and weak, they should think about how to survive.

They should just... just stay alive.

"They really are alive..."

...Yeah.

That was all.

I just wanted the people who had disappeared to be alive somewhere.

That was all I wanted.

The reason I had truly believed the Labyrinth had changed into something like an instanced dungeon...

Was because I couldn't bear it.

I couldn't bear the thought that I was the one who had "gotten lucky and survived without disappearing," leaving behind the Interview Administrator, the children they wanted to save, and the countless people in Jaelae Building.

"......Ah, ugh..."

"Let's go over there. They might need our help."

I pointed toward the sounds.

"Huh? No, it obviously looks dangerous. You want to go there...?"

Yun Geon-min frowned.

"You said we had to find the finish line. If someone got hurt, doesn't that clearly mean it's the wrong way...? We don't know what'll happen if we go there."

"...I'm not saying this because I want us to do a good deed. The right direction could be more dangerous, couldn't it? Besides, I think we should at least see what those dangerous things are."

"Seon Yu-han is right!"

Hyeon Je-won backed me up.

"In an emergency, it's better to gather more people and help each other...! We need to know what's there, too..."

They also seemed eager to check for artifacts while we were at it, but I didn't care.

"That's right, Yun Geon-min. We only got together like this because Seon Yu-han and Hyeon Je-won waited for us..."

When Kim Hee-sook added that, subtly bringing up the confinement sentence in the Legal Affairs Office, Yun Geon-min lowered his head as though he had nothing more to say.

"Okay..."

We began walking again, following someone's groans as they gradually drew closer.

The hand flashlight blinked in time with its clicking. Forest paths crunched under our slow footsteps.

A few minutes passed like that.

Bang!

Which came first, the deafening boom or the wet, hot sensation soaking my back?

Thud...

Then came the sound of something very heavy collapsing beside me.

"Huh, huff, hah..."

When I turned around, Yun Geon-min was gasping for breath, while Kim Hee-sook stood frozen, unable even to breathe.

Their faces and ivory clothes were stained red.

Slowly, I lowered my gaze.

Hyeon Je-won was there.

More precisely, about seven-eighths of Hyeon Je-won was.

"Ha..."

I crouched in front of the headless corpse and examined it.

If all four of us had been walking together, but this had happened to Hyeon Je-won alone, there had to be a specific reason...

I saw the hand flashlight on the ground.

The only supply Hyeon Je-won had taken.

Swipe.

When I picked it up and checked it, the bulb was covered in red.

Not just splattered with a few drops of blood. Chunks of flesh clung to it, too.

...Had Hyeon Je-won been holding the bulb toward their face?

"Ah."

A burning heat spread through my fingertips when I absently touched the bulb.

"I think this hand flashlight was some kind of weapon."

It had kept clicking like that, after all.

I had no idea exactly how it had worked, but Hyeon Je-won had blown their own head clean off with this hand flashlight.

Of course, they couldn't have done it on purpose.

They had probably been inspecting it with the bulb facing their face when it happened.

"I'll keep it for now, in case we need it."

"Urgh..."

Yun Geon-min answered with a dry heave.

Kim Hee-sook only stood there blankly, staring at me. The shock seemed so great that it hadn't truly sunk in yet.

"Seon Yu-han..."

"Yes?"

"Oh, no. It's nothing."

Kim Hee-sook shook her head and looked away.

I watched her pale face for a moment, then turned my gaze to Yun Geon-min.

"Yun Geon-min, we should get goi-"

"Ah, fuck, what is that!"

Yun Geon-min recoiled in horror and stumbled backward.

Scrape, slither, rustle.

An unpleasant sound came from behind us.

Thinking a monster had finally appeared, I gripped the hand flashlight tightly and turned around.

But what I saw was not a monster.

"Mm...?"

It was a plant.

Vine-like stems had begun to cover Hyeon Je-won's headless corpse. They moved so quickly that within seconds, the body was wrapped so tightly its original shape could no longer be seen.

"Oh, fuck, that's disgusting..."

Suction cup-like holes formed all over the vines covering the body. One by one, flower buds like fangs emerged from those holes.

It was not a good sign.

"...Let's hurry. It looks dangerous."

Fortunately, Kim Hee-sook and Yun Geon-min agreed. Without another word, they quickly moved on.

"......Ugh, ngh..."

We followed the pained groans like a compass, occasionally looking behind us.

The buds covering what had once been Hyeon Je-won wriggled as though they might bloom at any moment.

What would happen when all of them flowered?

The most beautiful thing could be the most horrific.

I knew that.

"Huh?"

By the time we had gone far enough that what had once been Hyeon Je-won was no longer visible, I came face-to-face with someone I didn't recognize for the first time in a very long while.

"Get back!"

And that stranger was pointing a hand flashlight at us.

Footnotes:

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