WETRIED TRANSLATIONS

The Legendary Newbie of the Ghost Story Labyrinth

[Translator – Aren]

Chapter 96 - Floor 23 (2)

Park Minho, Ivan, and Gu Bonjae entered Floor 23 through the Entity Rift.

He had already heard plenty about the floor before entering, but when Park Minho actually saw the scene spread out before him, his mouth fell slightly open.

"Wow…! It’s real.”

Filling his entire field of vision was something utterly familiar from a Korean perspective. A complex of uniform, matchbox-shaped, 25-story gray apartments.

The enormous masses of concrete made it easy to believe what he had heard in the military, that apartment complexes served as effective barriers against North Korean multiple rocket launchers and self-propelled artillery.

The problem was that there wasn’t the slightest trace of life anywhere in the complex.

Beneath an eerily heavy and murky sky, everything had been severely damaged.

The cars in the parking lot had shattered windows and lay overturned, while traces of fires and explosions covered the apartment complex. Barricades that appeared to have been desperately pulled up stood at the entrance, alongside unidentified bloodstains.

But the most chilling thing was that not a single sign of human presence could be felt anywhere within the enormous complex.

It was the very picture of a post-apocalypse.

It looked like a residential area from a movie after a zombie outbreak.

This was Floor 23.

The Abandoned Apartment District.

"All our belongings are gone. Only our clothes and shoes remain."

Ivan looked displeased that his firearm and phase-compression backpack containing their food and supplies had disappeared.

Gu Bonjae, standing beside him, responded calmly.

"They said we’ll get everything back once we leave the level. We knew what would happen before coming in, so let’s focus on finding supplies.”

Floor 23’s most notable characteristic was that, the moment someone entered, all their equipment disappeared aside from a few items such as clothing, shoes, glasses, and watches.

Even worse, all anomalous abilities were sealed as well.

"I’ll be counting on the two of you.”

This was why Park Minho hadn’t brought Seol Suyeon or Nicola.

Once anomalous abilities disappeared, the only thing left to rely on was physical strength.

Ivan had trained in boxing and sambo for years, while Gu Bonjae’s body itself was that of an entity, making him tough enough to survive being hit by a car. The two of them were extremely dependable companions on Floor 23.

"Let’s start by looting some supplies.”

Ivan stated their first objective.

Now that everything they had brought with them had vanished, their survival depended on how thoroughly they could gather supplies from the ruined apartment units.

"Leave the entrance to me.”

Gu Bonjae spoke confidently.

Opening a locked metal door without any proper tools was a challenge in itself. Someone who knew the trick could open one quickly, but someone who didn’t would only waste time and exhaust themselves.

But with Gu Bonjae there, it wouldn’t be a problem.

"Mister, let’s try that building. We can start looting from somewhere around the middle floors.”

"Let’s do that."

At Park Minho’s suggestion, the group entered an apartment building that looked relatively intact.

The elevator was broken, so they climbed the stairs when a sound reached them from far away.

-Chop, chop, chop, chop.

"A helicopter?"

Anyone would have recognized the sound of a helicopter. Ivan, who was walking ahead, explained.

"It’s the sound of a fake rescue helicopter that can only be heard on this level."

"It’s fake?"

"Yes, it’s one of Floor 23’s traps, so we need to be careful. Whenever you hear that helicopter, you must never leave the building.”

"Why is that?”

“From a distance, it sounds exactly like a helicopter, but it's actually a flying entity imitating one. The moment you send a distress signal, it comes to snatch you.”

"Wow…Damn.”

Park Minho thought this truly was a damn awful world. Apparently, there were many other entities that exploited the environment to lure people in as well.

The group soon reached the seventh floor and looked around.

"How about this one? It doesn’t look like anyone has broken into it.”

Gu Bonjae pointed to an apartment unit.

"Looks good.”

Gu Bonjae wasn’t just large and powerful. Tools were fused directly into his body. An apartment’s front door was nothing to him.

-Crack! Crunch!

The vicious-looking tool attached to his arm easily tore apart the door’s hinges.

"We’ll go in first. Please wait here for a moment, Minho-nim.”

Even without a weapon, Ivan moved with practiced skill. He slipped inside as smoothly as if he were gliding, inspected the apartment, and soon emerged with a nod.

"There are no problems. Fortunately, some supplies remain as well.”

The interior had been frozen in time at the moment someone’s ordinary life came to an end.

An overturned drying rack and children’s toys lay scattered across the floor. There were clear signs that the family who had lived here had hurriedly gathered whatever they could and died.

Park Minho fell into thought.

'Did an actual apocalypse occur on this floor, forcing its residents to endure something horrific? Or is it merely an elaborate imitation of a ruined world?'

The circumstances suggested the latter, but the traces of people having truly lived there were so vivid that Park Minho found it extremely unsettling.

"There’s a fair amount of food left here.”

Ivan searched through the cupboards and placed instant noodles, cans of Spam, and similar food on the dining table. Gu Bonjae emerged from the balcony carrying an unopened pack of bottled water.

"Fortunately, there's quite a lot to eat."

Park Minho searched the rooms, found a hiking backpack, and filled it with food. Meanwhile, Ivan took a kitchen knife to use as a weapon.

They also swept up every useful item they could find, including duct tape, batteries, and butane canisters.

"We need to search the other apartments too. There are still plenty of necessities we need, such as first-aid supplies and bandages.”

According to Ivan, they wouldn’t truly be prepared to explore Floor 23 until they had finished looting supplies like this.

After searching for about half a day, they saw the sun beginning to set.

Ivan suggested finding a suitable apartment, staying there overnight, and setting out the following day.

"Every kind of entity comes crawling out at night. Most of the streetlights are out as well, so it’s extremely dangerous.”

"Understood. We’ll move tomorrow.”

The next day.

Each member of the group carried a bag filled with supplies and held a club in one hand. They even had tucked spare kitchen knives into their belts.

With that, they were more or less prepared to explore Floor 23.

"Things are going fairly smoothly. There were more supplies than I expected.”

Ivan agreed with Park Minho.

"That’s right. However, there is one thing you should keep in mind. The survival rate on Floor 23 is extremely low.”

"Is that so?”

"Yes. The weapons you can obtain here are so pitiful compared to how dangerous the entities are. Many of them would be difficult to fight even with your anomalous abilities intact and a firearm in hand. Facing them with nothing but a club is far from easy.”

"Now that you mention it, that makes sense.”

"Fortunately, we do have Gu Bonjae-nim with us, but we should avoid fighting whenever possible.”

Since Ivan knew Floor 23 well, they left it to him to lead the group.

The party followed the paved walkways between the apartment buildings.

They passed abandoned delivery motorcycles and an overturned delivery truck with its contents spilled across the ground.

A long, dark-red streak along the pavement hinted at the horrific incident that had taken place there.

"What are those?”

Park MInho soon pointed toward one side of an apartment building and bit his lip.

A cluster of black, shadow-like figures gathered there. They almost looked like ghosts made of darkness.

Ivan shook his head as he answered.

"They’re called Remnants. It’s best not to approach them. They’re something like the final memories of those who died here.”

"Are they entities?”

“I don’t know. Some claim they’re entities, while others say they’re a phenomenon. What we know for certain is that touching them allows you to witness the deceased's final memories. The problem is that you also vividly experience the pain they felt as they died, resulting in severe Cognitive Contamination.”

Unless they were searching for an important clue, it was best to avoid approaching them. If the experience drove someone insane, the Remnants would devour them.

"This entire world is full of things like those. We need to be careful. What we should be looking for are survivors who are still alive and sane.”

There were people who managed to live on Floor 23. Some were investigating the floor’s secrets, some had become lost, and others wandered in search for missing companions.

"The survivors know a great deal about Floor 23. They may also have clues about hidden routes.”

Ivan said it would be unrealistic for the group to find a hidden route on their own.

They didn’t even know how vast this place was, so searching every part of it one by one was impossible.

It would be better to speak with the survivors and look for clues that way.

Everyone agreed with his opinion, so they set out in search of survivors.

"Where do survivors usually stay on Floor 23?”

Most of them gather in the commercial districts. There are plenty of supplies there, and strangely enough, fewer entities.”

"That’s interesting."

"I don’t know where the nearest commercial districts are, but once we find out, there’s a good chance we’ll encounter survivors.”

Judging by their progress thus far, the exploration of Floor 23 seemed to be going reasonably well.

But when they finally reached a nearby commercial district, they were met with an unexpected sight.

"They’re all dead..."

Park Minho frowned as he looked at the survivors’ corpses strewn throughout the commercial district.

Their bodies had been twisted, crushed, and mangled beyond belief. Every single one of them had died horribly.

Gi Bonjae examined the corpses before speaking.

"Strange. Every corpse has been completely emptied of its internal organs.”

"Then an entity was most likely responsible.”

"That would be my guess.”

"Even a commercial district can’t escape being a part of the Backrooms, I suppose. Ivan, what kind of entity do you think did this?”

However, Ivan, who had answered every question about Floor 23 without hesitation until now, tilted his head.

“...I don’t know. I thought I knew every entity on Floor 23. The Remnants, the Infused One, the Echoes, the helicopter, and the rest, but I've never seen traces like these before.”

The situation became a mystery. Just them. Gu Bonjae, whose hearing was exceptionally good, caught the sound of something and crouched down.

"Wait. Can’t you hear something?”

"Huh?"

Park Minho couldn't hear anything at all. He looked at Ivan, but his reaction was the same. It seemed only Gu Bonjae, as an entity, could endure it.

"It sounds like a fight. It might give us a clue about what happened here. Shall we take a look?”

"Understood. Let’s check it out first…"

"Follow me.”

After following Gu Bonjae for some time, Park Minho and Ivan began to hear the noise as well. When they hid themselves and observed the scene, a battle was indeed taking place.

"Get lost, you bastards!”

"The Molting Church! Those goddamn cultists!”

Astonishingly, members of the Molting Church were fighting survivors from Floor 23. Neither side could use anomalous abilities, but there was one decisive difference between them.

The Molting Church’s group had a chained monster with them. It looked like an entity they had tamed and were using for combat.

"RaAAaaAH!”

The four-legged creature resembled a dog. However, it was larger than a tiger, and its hairless skin was horribly decayed as though ravaged by leprosy.

Most disturbing of all, it had a human face.

"Rrrraagh! Woof!”

Its face might have been human, but its muzzle protruded outward, and its mouth had transformed into something resembling a lamprey’s, split open and perfectly suited for sucking out someone’s insides.

"Fall back! No! Nicole!”

At that moment, one of the women among the survivors fighting with wooden clubs and knives was caught.

"Kyaaaah!”

With a short scream, she was dragged toward the monstrous dog. In an instant, it tore into her abdomen and sucked out her internal organs.

"RaaaAAH!”

"You bastards!”

The survivors flew into a rage. However, with the monstrous dog on the enemy’s side, they were hopelessly outmatched.

"What is the Molting Church doing here?”

"I don’t know. Judging from the situation, they appear to be systematically hunting the survivors here…Minho-nim, what would you like to do?”

They could either pretend they hadn’t seen anything or intervene.

Park Minho decided he couldn’t simply stand by and watch if he wanted to obtain information.

The problem was that monstrous dog.

"Mister, can you take that thing down?”

Gu Bonjae merely grinned as though it were nothing.

"Leave it to me. Beating dogs on Boknal has been my specialty since my countryside days.”

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