How to Die in the Office Labyrinth - Chapter 23

WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ How to Die in the Office Labyrinth ◈

Chapter 23: Sender Not in Your Contacts

──────

I stared into a darkness too complete even for shadows.

The jingle-clop of footsteps came up beside me.

"What's wrong, all of a sudden? You look spooked. Something behind you?"

I checked the timid accountant's face.

Chae Jae-ha had been crouched down examining a tire, and his expression was, unexpectedly, perfectly fine.

"Ah, no."

I shook my head.

"Nothing."

Right. A trick of the mind.

Mercy was not coming for me.

"Ugh, not this one either."

"Oh, do you need me to hold up the pattern photo again?"

I pushed my phone screen toward him. Chae Jae-ha glanced at it and waved me off.

"I've got it roughly memorized. Keeping my eyes on your phone the whole time would be a hassle. Hey, Seon Yu-han-ssi, do you still not have a car? Tire tread patterns, right, every manufacturer does them a little differently, but this part here, see how it runs in vertical grooves along the circumference of the wheel, that's the most common kind..."

I half-listened to the lecture on tire tread patterns delivered by Chae Jae-ha, certified public accountant and proud car owner.

Nothing critically important. Nothing I didn't already know, either.

There had been a time when I was fixated on the marks left behind like scars at the places where someone had lost their life.

A long time ago.

Even now, sometimes, I find myself calculating the appropriate speed to crush my own femur.

Bad habit.

"Ugh, but the patterns all look similar and different at the same time. Trickier than I expected."

The flash wasn't very bright, and Chae Jae-ha blinked several times like his eyes were getting tired.

"Let's switch. I'll take this section."

This time Chae Jae-ha held his phone up for light and I crouched to check the tires.

What we were looking for was a rib-type pattern, thick grooves running lengthwise in waves.

Just as he'd said, the details varied from tire to tire. You had to check carefully.

That skid mark, though.

It kept nagging at the edge of my mind.

"For it to be that long and clear..."

"Huh? What? Did you find one?"

"Ah, no. Not that."

I kept comparing tire patterns as I spoke.

"That tire mark from earlier. Normally it doesn't stay that long and sharp, does it?"

"Hmm... Fair point. For a mark to come out that dark, the speed would have to be pretty high. Must've meant quite a bit of distance between the cars ahead and behind."

"Could it be accident damage?"

"Could be. Or maybe some wild animal just bolted out of nowhere."

Chae Jae-ha shrugged like it was nothing.

"But does it even matter? Couldn't it just be something fake the Labyrinth made?"

Whether it was fake or real wasn't the point. The point was that the Labyrinth had made it.

"It might be a clue to the next floor."

"Ah... I guess? But nothing really like that happened on the second floor. Couldn't there just not be any clues this time?"

"That's..."

I hit a wall.

Come to think of it, this person believed we'd escaped the second floor because we saved Jeong Ji-ho at Uri Saennal Daycare.

He didn't know the librarian at Chaekbang Ollae wasn't human. Didn't know any of the clues pointing to that.

At that moment, a nameless fury churned in my gut.

That the Labyrinth isn't a place you can escape just by saving someone.

That saving a child does absolutely nothing for your escape.

That what I truly wanted to save might not have been that child at all.

That what you truly need in the Labyrinth isn't the resolve to die, but the resolve to kill.

That life isn't freely given, but a state of being barely maintained at the end of something filthy and desperate.

That just as it was outside the Labyrinth, survival is struggle, and struggle cannot be graceful.

That in the Labyrinth, at last, we are made equal.

That they knew nothing...

"There may have been a clue we missed, and we just got lucky and stumbled onto the answer."

I forced the blind rage and bitterness back down. Vomit it out. Vomit it out. Vomit it out. Vomit it out. Vomit it out. Vomit it out. Vomit it out. Just let it out. The undigested shriek clawed at my insides.

"Is that so? Ah, you said you were hoping to be a Red Thread, right? So you know a bit about Labyrinths? Hmm. Well, then. Seon Yu-han-ssi might be right about this."

After that we switched roles again.

Chae Jae-ha checked each tire while I held the flash, brightness turned low.

Buzz.

The moment I picked my phone back up, new text messages began arriving one after another.

[(Domestic)

Hello we are recruiting testers to help write tasty reviews for shopping mall products

Can be done anytime anywhere regardless of time or location

Same-day delivery so many customers satisfied please feel free to inquire anytime anywhere

1.2kg+ per day / 30kg+ per month

▾Live chat▾

https://s.ub-5iK.com

Slots: 11 (first come, first served)]

What kind of shady ad is this.

Deleted.

[::Web message::

First floor double the size~♥

A space

this

spa ci ous

doesn't exist

Before they close

get out

Free opt-out 080730616]

Is someone trying to mess with me.

Deleted.

[<Obituary>

We are writing to inform you that you have passed away today

Venue https://r.ly/6e1leV3]

No. I'm not dying today. Even if it kills me.

Deleted.

[f✱❅இck1ந♀௩ri ding-r

L-leave seonu➻◌yuhand-o-r ni❆d-r✚]

I'm the one doing the running around.

...Actually, wait.

Deleted.

[〔Outgoing〕 Oppa I'm hungry let's go out together no one will be there now's the only time now now now now now now]

I don't have a little sister.

I do want to get out, though. Right now. Somewhere with nobody in it.

Deleted.

[(Ad)

One who wanders through time and space

One who pressed forward against fate

One who gave love without reservation

This body born at the scaffold

is now three become one

O Yahweh, do you know my name]

No. That can't be.

...Deleted.

[DC3※8※Card

Dear valued customer 3,185,000

Misc?merchant transaction?in progress

Suspicious activity, inquiry▶on-site visit required]

Delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delete delet

"Oh? Found... hey, hey?"

"Please."

That damn yelp almost made my heart drop clean out of my chest.

It better be nothing.

"Huh?"

It was something.

"What is this thing?"

What Chae Jae-ha was pointing at was...

"It looks like a... delivery package."

A small parcel box, sitting alone on top of the hood.

A tidy little box, each side smaller than an adult man's hand.

"No, I mean. There was nothing there a second ago. Then I look up from the tire thinking, that's the one, and suddenly this just appeared...!"

"Let's not open it right now. Take it back and look at it with everyone else."

I took a photo first, getting the license plate, the car's appearance, and its location in frame.

Go1020, black sedan, D11.

The accountant, meanwhile, was examining the box on the hood with an expression of pure curiosity.

"Samadhi Delivery... is that a thing? The address is Seoul... this is the building, and, huh? Go1020? What kind of address is that? What kind of lunatic orders a delivery to their own car?"

"...The Labyrinth is insane."

Reading through the shipping label confirmed it. This was a gift from the Labyrinth.

I picked up the box with one hand.

The box itself wasn't very large, and whatever was inside seemed even smaller.

"Let's head back now."

"Yeah. But what do you think is inside? It looks really light."

"Hard to say..."

We walked through the dark, leaning on a faint sliver of light while trying not to look directly into it.

Every so often we checked ahead for obstacles and whether we were going the right way, then pointed the light back down at the floor.

Sometimes a dim light you can barely see by is more frightening than pure darkness.

"By the way, this is the first time I've ever seen Representative Yu Hyun-jae this close in person. He's so handsome it's almost unsettling, honestly."

The accountant drifted a little closer and dropped his voice.

"Well, I get why he's popular. And the, uh, the vomiting aside, he actually seems kind of human. I'm definitely bragging to people that I met Yu Hyun-jae."

...When we get out. Chae Jae-ha added that belatedly, and his voice had trembled a little.

He seemed slightly anxious, but holding up better than expected, all things considered.

He didn't seem to be seeing strange things. Not like me.

When I heard Representative Yu Hyun-jae's theory, that we shouldn't make loud noises like screaming, I'd honestly been more worried about Chae Jae-ha than about Jeong Ji-ho or Hwang Ju-yeon.

For someone his size, he was too easily frightened, too prone to making a scene. I'd thought he might turn out to be the wild card.

"Oh. My nephew is a fan of Representative Yu Hyun-jae... well, actually, isn't it kind of weird to be that into the head of a company? The other day the kid asked me to go pick up some Uiwi Red Thread figures or whatever, so I went and checked, and there's nothing for the representative at all. No merchandise. How do you even be a fan like that? Though honestly, if they put out merchandise of the representatives, the actual Red Thread stuff would probably sell less. Oh, right. Those little figures are insanely expensive. Something palm-sized going for tens of thousands of won? But what can you do, you buy it anyway. When a kid wants something, you buy it. That kid's the scary one, let me tell you. Always calling, uncle buy me this, uncle take me here, uncle take me there. Knows I'm a pushover. Honestly, I've spoiled that kid rotten. If at least the kid took after my brother and sister-in-law I'd understand, but no, had to go and be the spitting image of their aunt for no reason..."

"Oh, really."

This one's the type who talks a lot when he's nervous.

My assessment of him holding up well: retracted.

Chae Jae-ha's words were coming out like a machine gun. My ear on that side was going numb.

He'd been fine during the tire search when there was something to focus on, but now that there was nothing to concentrate on, the fear was catching up with him.

Out here like this, I was worried that never mind monsters or anything else, one wrong glance at a passing bug would send him screaming.

...I didn't want to see that kind of thing again.

Didn't want to live through it, either.

Buzz.

Then.

A faint vibration in my hand. The locked screen lit up bright.

"...Ah."

I breathed in when I saw the incoming call screen.

[Aunt]

[Slide to answer]

It was like someone had pried apart my lungs and wrapped their hand around my heart.

A call from "Aunt."