WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS
Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 167: Avoid This M n!
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Why was he lying?
Without making it obvious, I gave Kang Jun-gyeom another once-over.
A perfectly fitted black suit, shirt included.
A hoop-shaped piercing that seemed to wrap around his left ear, giving him a slightly roguish air.
And rimless glasses with a delicate, neat design that made him seem sharp instead.
Yet he did not have a Uiwi Guild employee badge.
Of course, he probably thought he could brush that off by saying he had left it at the office...
‘I’m Kang Jun-gyeom.’
‘You came down from upstairs, right?’
The last time Yu Mi-rae heard Kang Jun-gyeom’s name, they spoke with certainty, as though he had come from above.
In other words, the Uiwi Guild’s co-representative, who would know every employee’s name.
If there had been a Kang Jun-gyeom in the Audit Office on this floor, or the Sales and Marketing Division downstairs, they would never have reached that conclusion.
‘For example, people who aren’t members of Jaelae. Strictly speaking, people who do not perceive themselves as members of Jaelae...’
And considering what the people trapped in this Labyrinth had in common...
There was a high probability that Kang Jun-gyeom was not an Audit Office employee, or even a Uiwi Guild employee to begin with.
I had suspected as much last time.
So what I wanted to know was why he was lying.
Why he would not honestly say he had come from somewhere else.
“Ah, I see.”
For now, I decided to play along.
I was curious how far he would take it.
More importantly, exactly which floor had Kang Jun-gyeom come down from?
The floor directly above was the rooftop, and above that was the floor with Hoewol Accounting Firm and Myeongil Books.
No matter how I looked at him, he did not seem like a publishing employee.
An accountant... did not quite fit either, but Chae Jae-ha did not exactly look as though he had “I’m an accountant” written on his forehead.
...Anyway, regardless of where Kang Jun-gyeom had come from, he was definitely headed downward.
The problem was that directly below us was that damned Sales and Marketing Division.
Going down meant certain death.
“I’m planning to go up. Would you like to come with me, Mr. Kang Jun-gyeom? Two is better than one, isn’t it?”
There was no need to intentionally keep him alive this loop, but there was no need to deliberately shove him into certain death either.
He did not seem like the sort who could not be talked down, like Yu Mi-rae.
Besides, he seemed quite clever.
If he had already passed through the floors above us, he could help in Yu Mi-rae’s place.
I also wanted to know why he was lying about where he belonged, and why he felt familiar.
I did not know much about him yet.
It might be interesting to keep him close and slowly get to know him.
“Ah, of course. That would definitely be better. I was actually about to ask you the same thing, whether we could go together.”
Kang Jun-gyeom readily agreed.
Clunk.
Together with Kang Jun-gyeom, I headed upstairs.
“Uh... But, Mr. Seon Yu-han. How are we supposed to go up now? Isn’t this the end...?”
I stood in the cool rooftop breeze and watched Kang Jun-gyeom.
I knew how to get up from the rooftop, but I wanted to see how he would react.
Come to think of it, how had he gone down from the rooftop?
“...You’re right. Should we go back down?”
At that, Kang Jun-gyeom hesitated, one eyebrow twitching in confusion.
“You said you came up from below. Wouldn’t going back down be dangerous?”
He would not take the bait.
I still had a long way to go.
I had wanted to get a sense of how he would try to go down.
“That’s true. Then shall we look for another way? Maybe something will come to us if we get some fresh air.”
“Yes, I think that would be best.”
Listening to his spirited reply, I stood at the railing and quietly took in the city at dusk.
After I blankly stared for a while, I sensed Kang Jun-gyeom approaching my side.
I could feel his gaze fixed on my profile.
“Do you see something strange?”
I did.
That world felt far too strange to me.
“Who knows. Nothing in particular.”
Perhaps because I answered half-heartedly, Kang Jun-gyeom fell silent for a moment before cautiously speaking again.
“Um... Then, Mr. Seon Yu-han, what was that lower floor you came through like? From what I can see, it seems as though the floors have all been mixed up and changed.”
I slowly turned my head and met his eyes.
“It was a floor where children were bought and sold.”
The steady eyes behind his lenses faintly shifted.
“Children... You mean young children?”
“They were not very young to me... but they must have been young to the other customers. Age is relative.”
“Mr. Seon Yu-han.”
Kang Jun-gyeom’s gaze turned serious.
“Could you explain more clearly? Without speaking in vague terms. I want to hear it without misunderstanding.”
He did not jump to conclusions or get worked up easily. He was cautious.
“And no matter what happened, I will not blame you, Mr. Seon Yu-han. The Labyrinth is a place where you must follow whatever rules it gives you.”
“Is it only the Labyrinth?”
“Pardon?”
“Nothing. It was a joke.”
I gave a small laugh and waved my hand.
Kang Jun-gyeom did not laugh.
I climbed onto the rooftop railing, which came up to my chest.
“Mr. Seon Yu-han...?”
The man of unknown affiliation did not try to stop me. He merely looked up at me with a calm expression.
He probably thought he should not provoke me carelessly.
“Mr. Kang Jun-gyeom.”
“...Yes. Go ahead.”
With his personality, he would not sit beside me even if I asked.
I had been planning to grab him by the collar and jump.
...Yu Mi-rae really only pushed their luck when they knew they could get away with it.
I sat on the railing and looked down at Kang Jun-gyeom.
“I have passed through fifteen floors this time.”
“...Pardon?”
“It will be sixteen now.”
Then I fell.
If he was curious, he would follow.
Thud...
The moment I opened my eyes, I saw the emergency exit on the sixteenth floor.
I decided to wait only two minutes.
One minute would be too cold...
Just then.
Thud.
“Ha, haa...”
Along with the sound of dress shoes touching the ground, I heard him steadying his breath.
Seeing him stare at me with his eyes wide, I let out a short laugh without meaning to.
“You came quickly, Mr. Kang Jun-gyeom. I was waiting for you.”
He really was an interesting person.
“Mr. Seon Yu-han...”
Even now, Kang Jun-gyeom approached with barely a trace of disorder in his posture.
“Do you know how to pass all the floors here? How? Could you tell me?”
He even looked somewhat desperate, and I quietly studied him.
“Mr. Kang Jun-gyeom.”
“Yes.”
“Have we met somewhere before?”
“...Pardon?”
Kang Jun-gyeom asked back with a bizarre expression.
“Why would you suddenly...”
“...No, never mind. I feel like I have seen you somewhere, but I cannot remember.”
“Uh... Well, I am not sure... I do not think we have met...?”
Then why did he naturally assume I was human?
If someone suddenly appeared before you, safely passed through two floors right in front of you, and claimed to have passed through sixteen in total...
I would consider the possibility that they were a monster from the Labyrinth.
And Kang Jun-gyeom did not seem careless enough to fail to suspect that.
“...Is that so.”
I gave a vague reply and headed toward Myeongil Books.
“Wait, Mr. Seon Yu-han?”
Kang Jun-gyeom strode after me.
“You did not answer my question.”
“Ah, you asked whether I know how to get through every floor.”
Swish.
As I grabbed the publishing company’s door handle, I turned to Kang Jun-gyeom.
“If I knew, would I be here―”
“―Wait a moment.”
The moment I opened the publishing company’s door, Kang Jun-gyeom reached out, gently moved me back, and went in ahead of me.
“Is anyone here?”
I quietly watched Kang Jun-gyeom make a full circuit of the publishing company’s interior.
Neither too fast nor too slow, he examined his surroundings with practiced care. Then he turned back to me with an embarrassed smile.
“Ah, there is nothing here.”
Was he putting on an act despite having been here before, or was this really his first time here?
I could not tell yet.
If it was the latter, there were two possibilities.
First, Myeongil Books was unrelated to escaping this floor, and Hoewol Accounting Firm was important.
Second, Kang Jun-gyeom had really never been to this floor at all.
“...”
My eyes naturally fell on the wide table in the shared space.
As always, a single play sat on the table.
Scrape.
When I sat at the table, Kang Jun-gyeom pulled a chair over and sat beside me, looking at me directly.
“Anyway, going back to what we were talking about, you may not know about every floor, but you do know about the floors you have passed through, right?”
He neither took the bait easily nor let things slide easily.
“I know there may be parts that are difficult to talk about, but Mr. Seon Yu-han...”
Perhaps he interpreted my expression somehow, because Kang Jun-gyeom spoke gently, his eyes earnest.
“Going over the previous floors yourself and putting them into words may help you psychologically. Of course, it may also help us figure out how to get out of here.”
Trying not to laugh, I nodded.
“...Then I will tell you just this once.”
Kang Jun-gyeom adjusted his glasses and leaned forward slightly, as though he intended to listen closely.
“On the third floor, I taught identical-looking students how to live properly as humans.”
“Pardon?”
“On the twelfth floor, I thought about going to the fourth floor while wires were plugged into my back, and the access restriction was lifted.”
“...Pardon?”
“On the fourth floor, you just go with it and the health check finishes on its own.”
“...Pardon?”
“On the sixth floor, I saw Aunt. She is in every office on that floor. I like my guest room. It feels like coming home.”
“Ah...?”
“The eighth floor is not fun anymore. It ends once you fill out some paperwork.”
“Ah, yes...”
“The first basement floor is not much either. I was happier before I knew there was Nectar there.”
“Nec...tar? There is Nectar there?”
“Yes. It tastes disgusting enough to make you throw up.”
“Ah, I see...”
“On the tenth floor, I receive confinement sentences by the minute depending on what I do, but I was innocent.”
“Ah, that is something to congratulate you... on, I suppose...”
“On the second floor, there was nothing for me to do. Hwang Ju-yeon probably killed the Librarian. She is reliable.”
“Um...? Who is that...?”
“On the fifth basement floor as well. Yu Hyun-jae must have handled things on his own.”
“Representative Yu Hyun-jae is here too?”
“Not anymore. He died on the floor below, the fourteenth floor. He cleared the game well, but he was unlucky. It was convenient to put him in a freezer since he had no lower body.”
“...No, wait. Ah, no. Yes, please continue.”
“On the eleventh floor, I cut my hand on paper. Doi will not gamble with me anymore.”
“Ha... Yes... Is that so.”
“On the fifteenth floor, I killed Father, set fire to the house, then died with my younger sibling.”
“What? What did you say?”
“Then came the fifth floor. I was a customer there. I had a chance to buy the other children, but for now, I made a preemptive claim on only myself and passed through the ninth floor.”
“The ninth floor... Ah, right. That is the Sales and Marketing Division.”
“You know it?”
“Pardon?”
“Nothing. Then I met you, Mr. Kang Jun-gyeom. In the conference room on the seventeenth floor.”
“Oh... Ah... I see. Yes, I understand.”
His expression showed that he understood none of it.
“Um, first... Thank you. That must have been difficult to talk about.”
“Who knows.”
Kang Jun-gyeom’s eyes darted around for a moment, his mouth opening and closing before he continued.
“Uh, um. It seems you met some other people along the way. Then, those people...”
“They all died. Ah, though there should be two people left in the Legal Affairs Office. Probably.”
“Ah...”
Kang Jun-gyeom rubbed at his mouth with a grave expression.
“So, in this building... No, across seventeen floors, there are only four living people including us...?”
“No, we do not know that.”
I explained that the Labyrinth had changed into something like an instanced dungeon.
It seemed to have grouped people together like parties and placed them into separate Labyrinths.
“There were probably around twenty people at the beginning.”
I did not bother explaining that those people shared a common trait.
Surely, some Labyrinths would contain only people who did not feel any belonging to Jaelae Group, like this one. Conversely, some would contain only people who did feel belonging to Jaelae Group.
There might also be Labyrinths grouped by other common traits.
“Well, enough about that...”
I gestured toward the ash-gray book on the table, Nail Shell.
“I am going into this book now.”
“Pardon?”
“What is in Hoewol?”
“Pardon? Uh, why are you asking me...?”
I quietly examined Kang Jun-gyeom’s face.
“...You really do not know?”
“I mean, know what...?”
His reaction was similar to the ones he had shown when I spoke about the floors I had passed through.
Which meant Kang Jun-gyeom had never been to this floor.
Not this floor or the one above it. He had started from the rooftop and come down.
“Uh, Mr. Seon Yu-han...?”
He did not smell of cigarettes.
Then...
The reason this tough, quick-witted man who hid where he belonged had started from the rooftop...
“Ah... What?”
What a letdown.
“You are from the Labyrinth Management Bureau.”
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