WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS

Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ How to Die in the Office Labyrinth ◈

Chapter 81: Do You Smell Something Burning?

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"This is a fire alarm going off, right!"

"Is there actually a fire in here? It smells like burning tires or something!"

"Just in case, stay low and cover your nose!"

The voices were swallowed by the deafening fire alarm, barely audible.

Going back through the emergency exit to the arcade was out of the question now.

We had arrived on a different floor.

If we wanted to leave, we had no choice but to figure out this floor's escape conditions.

"Let's head over there for now! Toward the fire extinguisher!"

We crouched low and scurried to the pillar with the fire extinguisher mounted on it, then took stock of our situation.

Briiiiing! Brrriiiing!

The fire alarm had always shut itself off quickly the first time I triggered it.

Apparently there were floors where it didn't.

There had to be a reason the alarm wouldn't stop on this particular floor.

What's more, it hadn't been ringing before we opened the door. It started going off a few seconds after we stepped inside, which meant...

Whatever the reason, it definitely wasn't doing us any favors.

"No smoke, right?"

"No! There's still that burning smell, but I don't think there's an actual fire!"

So where was the burning smell coming from, and how, and why did it keep going?

If there was no fire, then why was the alarm ringing?

"Oh! My car is in here!"

The accountant shouted over the noise, face twisted into a scowl.

"Sorry?"

"My car! I parked it here! On the third floor!"

"Which zone is it in?"

"Zone? I didn't memorize the zone number! I just remember the spot! Over there! I parked it against the wall!"

Where Chae Jae-ha was pointing was the complete opposite end of the floor from where we stood.

"Then let's head that way!"

The situation was different from B5 right from the start, since we weren't following clues, but we needed to move somewhere. Being inside a car had to be faster and safer than being out in the open.

Assuming getting into the car wasn't against the rules, of course.

"You two and Ji-ho, stay in the middle! Chae Jae-ha-ssi, up front!"

"Uh... me?"

"How else are we going to find the car? I'll be right next to you. Don't worry so much!"

"When did I say I was worried..."

"Sorry? What was that?"

"Nothing! Fine, I got it!"

Anyway.

Talk him around the right way and he'll go along with pretty much anything.

Though I had to admit my skill at managing the accountant seemed to grow a little more with each passing day. Not sure how I felt about that.

We sorted out the formation quickly.

Chae Jae-ha and me up front.

Lee Na-hyun, Jeong Ji-ho, and Hwang Ju-yeon in the middle.

Lee Jin-su and Yu Hyun-jae in the back.

Two, three, two. Three rows, moving together.

Brrriiiiiiiing!

The relentless alarm was starting to give me a headache.

My pulse quickened. My nerves drew tight.

That's the whole point of an alarm, after all. To make you register danger immediately and respond to the emergency.

"I think the key should reach from about here... I can't hear anything over this..."

"What? What did you say?"

But being underground, barely able to see by the glow of our phones, listening to that wall of sound that drowned out the person right beside me, things started to blur. Even my sense of where I was began to slip.

Like being struck blind and deaf at once.

Nothing felt quite real.

Like I might be dreaming.

"Oh! Something just flashed over there! Could that be Jae-ha-nim's car?"

"Where?"

"There! Something flickered that way for a second!"

Lee Na-hyun held up her phone and pointed diagonally to the right.

The flashlight wasn't strong enough to reach the far wall.

"Hm? Over there...?"

Beside me, Chae Jae-ha frowned.

"I parked it this way, though...?"

"Sorry?"

"I parked it this way! Not that way! This way!"

Chae Jae-ha was pointing diagonally to the left.

"Oh? Then what I just saw was..."

An unpleasant chill crawled up the back of my neck, and the sharp, acrid smell hit harder than ever.

When you keep smelling the same thing, your nose usually goes numb to it.

But not this time.

Right then.

"Aaaaaaagh!"

A raw, ragged scream came crashing down on the back of my skull.

For just a second my mind went: who is that?

"Lee Jin-su-ssi!"

"No! Ahhhhh!"

I'd never heard Lee Jin-su raise his voice like that.

Everything happened too fast to even think about helping.

Thud!

Lee Jin-su's body pitched forward and slammed to the ground.

Shhhk.

Scraping across the floor, being dragged into the dark.

Skreeee, crackle...

"Ahhh! No, ghhk...!"

Underneath the smell of burning rubber came another smell. Meat cooking.

"What is that! What, what is that thing!"

"I don't know! Just go! Where's the car?"

The formation collapsed. Everyone scattered and ran. In the middle of it all, one person turned and pushed back toward Lee Jin-su instead.

"Lee Jin-su-ssi!"

Yu Hyun-jae.

I just stood there and watched the creature drag Lee Jin-su away by the legs.

"......"

The shape was close to a massive four-legged animal, as if draped in a black veil.

Long, thick black strands hung down over the creature's entire body like a coat, too heavy to be fur.

Tires.

It looked like something built from tires, torn apart at random and crudely patched back together.

And those tire fragments were melting. Slowly, just barely, piece by piece.

As though a fire burned underneath that black rubber hide.

"Ngghh, urrgh..."

The creature dragged Lee Jin-su to an empty parking space, looked him over the way you might sort through something, then bit down on his thigh a second time.

The hanging tire strands fell like a curtain and made it impossible to see the creature's head or mouth. All that moved were the black rubber pieces writhing against each other, and the sight of it was grotesque for exactly that reason, like watching a slug or an octopus feed.

"Hgh, no, aahhhh!"

Every time Lee Jin-su screamed, the creature shook itself irritably, jaw still locked on his leg.

Like it was annoyed. Like it wanted him to shut up.

...Wait. What was that.

Something pale and long was stuck to the creature's dark flank.

"Representative, let him go now! It's too dangerous!"

I moved closer to get a better look and grabbed Yu Hyun-jae's shoulder.

And I understood what Lee Na-hyun had seen "flickering" earlier.

"A leg...?"

There was a leg attached to the creature's dark side. One human leg, just the one, like a decoration.

The pants had been torn away, and what remained was a silver sneaker catching the light.

A left leg, thigh to foot, still intact. The cut at the thigh was dark red, seared shut.

Burned through with heat. Severed with heat.

That was exactly what was happening to Lee Jin-su's right leg right now.

Was it collecting legs?

Because legs are a mode of transportation?

Because they correspond to a car's wheels?

"We need to go! We might be next!"

I had a rough read on the situation. I grabbed Yu Hyun-jae and pulled.

"......"

Lee Jin-su wasn't screaming anymore.

Yu Hyun-jae, who had once exiled Lee Jin-su from the pasture without hesitation and let him die, finally let go of Lee Jin-su's arm.

He'd been trying to yank him free.

I didn't think that was a contradiction. Or hypocrisy.

"Having a hidden purpose doesn't make the visible purpose false, Seon Yu-han-ssi."

I believed that.

Saving someone when you can save them, and killing someone when you have to kill them.

Those two things can coexist.

"Keeaaugh!"

"What the, huff!"

Right then, a scream cut through the fire alarm from somewhere else.

Anyone could tell it was Lee Na-hyun and Chae Jae-ha.

I'd thought they'd gotten safely to the other side, but something had happened over there too.

"This way."

I mouthed the words to Yu Hyun-jae and moved toward the others, staying tight against the parked cars so there'd always be something to duck behind.

"Oh, Representative! Seon Yu-han-ssi!"

"Where were you two! I thought something had happened...!"

"We found Jae-ha-nim's car!"

But when we got there, everything seemed fine.

Lee Na-hyun, Jeong Ji-ho, Chae Jae-ha, Hwang Ju-yeon. All four were unharmed.

They'd even found Chae Jae-ha's car and were just opening the door.

"Is everyone alright? I heard screaming!"

"Ah, well..."

"Over there..."

Lee Na-hyun made a face and pointed carefully toward one spot.

"Ah."

I followed the tip of her finger and found a body.

Left leg missing, which made sense.

Almost certainly the owner of the leg hanging off the Tire Beast's flank like an ornament.

I stepped closer and looked the body over carefully.

"Ugh, why are you staring at that, it's disgusting! Get in, come on!"

What was the exact cause of death?

Blood loss?

Traumatic shock?

Both were possible.

Assuming the creature operated by ordinary logic and hadn't done anything that defied normal understanding.

No anesthetic, no transfusion, the femoral artery running through the thigh cut away.

Most likely the person had died from purely physical trauma.

Click.

I went back to Chae Jae-ha's car and opened the rear door.

"Sit here...!"

"Okay."

Thud.

"Ji-ho, do you want to sit here? Probably easier."

Shutting the door muffled the alarm enough that talking felt possible again.

Jeong Ji-ho shifted onto my lap. His expression had eased a little.

He'd clearly been under a lot of stress from the alarm. Even the adults were struggling with it.

"Um, but, about Jin-su-nim..."

Yu Hyun-jae in the passenger seat lowered his head, and I shook mine at Lee Na-hyun beside me.

"So, um, how are we supposed to get out of here?"

Chae Jae-ha gripped the steering wheel tight, looking anxious, his eyes drifting to Yu Hyun-jae.

"Were there any unusual changes to this car?"

"Ah, no, not really... It did seem a bit different from the B5 parking garage, though."

The moment I heard that, I was quietly impressed.

Someone who'd had no interest in Labyrinths whatsoever was now factoring in floor-by-floor pattern differences.

A remarkable leap forward.

Not that I thought it was necessarily a good thing.

The Labyrinth is a place where, if you can manage to stay ignorant of it forever, you're better off not knowing.

"So, um, do we have to kill that thing... the one that took Lee Jin-su-ssi?"

Hwang Ju-yeon spoke up.

"You and Yu-han-ssi got a good look at the creature, right, Representative? What did it look like exactly?"

"Yes, somewhat. It looked more like an animal wearing a kind of cape made of tires. So I couldn't make out what was underneath."

"I thought it was a horse."

The co-representative of Uiwi Guild added that.

"A horse?"

Thinking about it, the silhouette really had looked like a massive horse with its whole body hidden under a curtain.

"Yes. The shape fits, and horses were a form of transportation, same as a car. On top of that, engine output is measured in horsepower."

That tracked.

I was thinking it might be a creature with a horse as its base.

Right then.

Brriiiiiiiing!

Brrr-r.

"Hm?"

"Oh?"

Click.

The fire alarm, which had been shrieking loud enough to split your skull, stopped dead without warning.

Footnotes:

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