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Chapter 856: Side Story - Island Survival (1)
"Now, from this moment, let us begin the 44th Cuttlefish Game."
Piiiieeek!
A loud noise.
At the same time, Kim Hae-sol gets up while clutching his head full of a pounding headache.
"Ugh...this place is..."
Director of the Anomalous Phenomena Management Bureau, Kang Min-hee.
Because of her 'part-time job offer', Kim Hae-sol got dragged all the way to this strange island and ended up playing a death game. He clicks his tongue.
'Fuck...I really can get out alive, right...?'
Kang Min-hee said she planted an insider in the death game that is happening inside the Ghost Island in advance so Kim Hae-sol will absolutely not die, but...
Having actually come here, he becomes very anxious.
'An unidentified island... A place you get dragged to if you can't pay your debt... A terrifying game tangled up with high-ranking people...'
No matter how he thinks about it, it feels like he's come to the wrong place.
'M-Money. They said they'd pay a lot of money, so I came but...am I going to die? Fuck, fuck, fuck...!'
On top of that, the other people getting up around him are all, without exception, menacing, and they are people with a stench reeking of alcohol and with dangerous eyes.
"Hey, you there! Who are you people!? Send me back! This is kidnapping, you know?"
A man whose eyes do not look good gets up from his spot and shouts.
Only then does Kim Hae-sol come to his senses and begin to grasp the surroundings.
'This place is...'
It is inside a cubic room.
It is a facility that looks like a small gymnasium, it looks quite spacious, and around him, all kinds of people who seem to have been caught from different places are waking up and looking around.
And around them, people wearing pure-white, expressionless masks are standing with guns in their hands.
'G-Guns...!'
Kim Hae-sol sees the gun and immediately gets scared, but the man with strange eyes, as if he ate something wrong,
As if he thinks it is fake, approaches the person holding the gun in an irritated way and starts arguing loudly.
"Hey, do you know who I am?? I mean, I have a little debt, but I'm not someone you can just grab like this. Just because I'm late on the payment once or twice, you think you can, huh, grab a person like this, huh?"
And when the man gets angry, from behind the people holding guns, a man in a suit wearing a pierrot mask approaches and speaks.
"Haha, sir. Please calm down. If I remember correctly...the 'Cuttlefish Game' was explained clearly in the solitary room, and was it not also explained that if you take the red pill, we will send you back home? Sir, you yourself chose the blue pill, so you are automatically participating in the Cuttlefish Game."
"Wh-What, you bastard!"
When the pierrot in the suit explains kindly, the man, as if he gains some confidence, shouts even louder.
"How old are you, you bastard, huh!? Do you think what you're saying makes sense right now!? Hey, you bastard. If you're going to argue consent or non-consent over just taking some pill, why is there a contract, and why are there lawyers!? Without a signature, huh, all of this is invalid, you bastard. I was out of it earlier and half-asleep, so I just swallowed whatever, and you brought me here because of that? If I get out, I'll file a lawsuit right away..."
And it is when the loud man points at the suited man and his finger is about to brush the suit.
Taang!
A gunshot rings out, and one of the agents wearing an expressionless mask shoots the man and kills him.
The pierrot in the suit clicks his tongue and scolds the agent.
"Hey now. How can you kill a person? Blood splattered on my suit."
The agent who shot bows his head as if apologetic, and the pierrot in the suit clicks his tongue, kicks the collapsed man with his foot to shove him aside, and then continues speaking.
"Honestly, people these days really have no patience. It's a problem. Ahaha, isn't that right, everyone? Now, first, it seems some of you may not understand the situation, like this person just now. For those people, to explain again briefly, you have debts. You borrowed someone else's money, and you didn't pay it back.
"Is there hope you will pay it back? Absolutely none. All of you here went to gambling dens and squandered other people's money, started some weird business and then ignored other people's advice completely until the business failed, or you indulged in pointless luxury and missed even the time to repay your debt. Even so, are your organs or blood types rare? That's not it either. If your looks were outstanding, it would be a bit better. But if not even that, then at least work diligently!"
Kim Hae-sol looks around.
They are pitiful people who got dragged here because of debt, but somehow, every single one of them gives him a bad feeling from the moment he first sees them.
As if his intuition is not wrong.
Everyone dragged to this place seems to have lived a dead-end, ruined life.
"Anyway, for all of you who fell into gambling, drugs, indulgence, and laziness and show absolutely no will, ability, or worth to pay your debts, we prepared a special service. It is called the Cuttlefish Game. You already heard it in solitary confinement earlier, but all of you who participate in this game will have all your debts fully wiped away. Also, the final winner or the final winning team can receive prize money totaling 20 billion. And just as we gave you choices with a red pill and a blue pill in solitary confinement, you are already in a state of having agreed to participate in the game. And, as such..."
The pierrot in the suit cheerfully claps his hands and speaks.
"Your lives and your human rights...from the moment you took the blue pill, have fallen into our hands. From now on, please remember that you are not humans, but beasts who can only live if you listen to what we say. If you do not follow our instructions, then even if the agents here take your lives at any time, they are not guilty. You understand, right? Of course, you still might not understand even with this, so we will hand out some pamphlets about the Cuttlefish Game."
The pierrot in the suit kindly hands out pamphlets to the people, and Kim Hae-sol also receives a pamphlet and tries reading it.
It is a pamphlet with the same contents the pierrot in the suit just explained.
Kim Hae-sol roughly stuffs the pamphlet inside his clothes and swallows hard.
"Now that we have handed out all the pamphlets, we will begin the first match of the Cuttlefish Game. The first event is simple. It is a game called [Towel Passing]. You all know it, right? First, everyone make a circle and sit down in your places."
Following the pierrot in the suit's instructions, Kim Hae-sol sits in a circle with the others.
In the seat next to Kim Hae-sol, a woman with silver hair like a foreigner sits, and for some reason, Kim Hae-sol thinks her impression does not look that bad, unlike the others here.
'Why?'
Kim Hae-sol has has a special intuition since he was young.
It is an intuition that lets him instinctively distinguish dangerous people, bad-quality people, and good people when he sees them.
That intuition was right in almost 99% of cases, and even just now, as he looked at the other debtors around him, he didn't get a good feeling, and as the pierrot in the suit said, it was proven when he confirmed they are not diligent people.
However, this woman, for some reason...
But this woman, for some reason...
He can't tell anything.
When he tries to hold her in his eyes, it feels like his mind turns white.
This kind of case is not non-existent.
For example, when the news said in his childhood that a typhoon is coming to the Korean Peninsula.
When he saw photos or drawings of the typhoon on the news.
Or when a storm hit and he saw lightning striking down from the sky.
When an earthquake happened, and so on...
He remembers he often had the experience of his head turning white when he saw something like a natural disaster.
But now, Kim Hae-sol feels the same sensation toward a person.
'What kind of human is this...ah.'
Suddenly, Kim Hae-sol realizes he is staring at her too openly.
As if she notices his gaze, she is staring straight at him.
"Ah, I'm sorry. I stared too much..."
"..."
The silver-haired woman looks at Kim Hae-sol quietly, then suddenly blurts out a line.
"Your eyes are pretty. You...they're eyes that are hard to see on Earth."
"Pardon?"
Kim Hae-sol suddenly feels his face grow hot at that one line.
His heart pounds like crazy, and his face reddens.
A strange feeling similar to when he talked with the woman called Kang Min-hee dominates Kim Hae-sol's mind.
This, could it be...'
Kim Hae-sol feels flustered, wondering if the reason he is like this is because he fell in love at first sight.
It is then.
"My name is Ji...no, it's Yang Ji-hwang. What are you?"
"I, I am Kim Hae-sol..."
"You...you have eyes with some kind of secret. Do you perhaps know something about this place? Try telling me, only to me."
"Ah, th-th-th-that's..."
Kim Hae-sol seems to be bewitched.
Like when he first met Kang Min-hee, it feels like his body moves on its own.
Without realizing it, he gets pulled along by Yang Ji-hwang as she brings her face close, and he ends up confessing into her ear the reason he came here and who sent him.
"Hmm...so that's why you came. Okay."
Yang Ji-hwang strokes Kim Hae-sol's head and smiles.
"It's useful information. Thank you."
"...Hee..."
At her stroking, Kim Hae-sol loses his grip on his senses and smiles.
With the feeling like he is being acknowledged by a great existence, his whole body feels at ease.
A groundless confidence and courage surge up, like he will never die here.
***
Ji Hwa thinks.
'Kang Min-hee already sent people to suppress it. From this kid's eyes...she is probably planning to save only the virtuous people worth saving here, right?'
She smiles coldly.
'That saves me some trouble. Instead of bothering to think before I kill, I just need to avoid only the people this brat is carrying along, and kill everyone else.'
Ji Hwa glances at Kim Hae-sol's head.
Tok tok—
So that Kim Hae-sol does not notice, she activates the communication device hidden inside Kim Hae-sol's ear.
It seems like Kang Min-hee planted it in Kim Hae-sol, but the energy inside Ghost Island interferes with the signal, so it seems he cannot receive any communications.
Kim Hae-sol's communication device breaks free of the signal interference by Ji Hwa's power, and Kim Hae-sol flinches in surprise when he hears someone's voice at his ear, but he stays still and concentrates on the voice.
—Kim Hae-sol. Do you hear me? If you hear me, scratch your head three times with your left hand. I repeat, Kim Hae-sol. Do you hear me? If you hear me..."
'Ah, it must be the insider.'
Kim Hae-sol immediately scratches his head, and from inside the communication device in his ear, he hears the sound of someone sighing.
—So you can hear. Don't react and only listen. I am Kim Runi, an agent belonging to the Anomalous Phenomena Management Bureau. Right now, I am disguised and infiltrated as one of the internal administrators of this death game inside Ghost Island, watching the situation. Listen carefully. Our mission is to keep as many people alive as possible and take them out beyond Ghost Island. However, we cannot stop this brutal game itself. So I will leave the judgment to you.
Kim Hae-sol is dumbfounded at those words.
'What did he say? Leave the judgment to me?'
—The person who loses in the game, depending on the votes of the 'high-ranking people' who remotely watch the game from another place inside Ghost Island, can die, or can live by going through a losers' revival match. And I, as an internal administrator, can incite the high-ranking people as much as possible and save up to three people. However, I leave who to save to you.
'What?'
—Use your intuition. Choose people who seem okay to live. And when that person goes up for a vote, if you send me a signal, I will save that person no matter how I have to incite them.
'What kind of crazy talk is this!? Telling me to choose people to save!? How is that any different from choosing people to kill...?'
As Kim Hae-sol panics, Kim Runi's calm voice comes through.
—For reference, there is no reason for you to take on the burden of life. Though this death game is called a death game, it is not actually killing people for real.
At that moment,
The Towel Passing game ends.
Thankfully, the towel does not come to Kim Hae-sol and Ji Hwa's side, so they can stay sitting in their places to the end, but the man who loses by being the one standing to the end trembles and asks the host, the pierrot in the suit.
"Wh-What happens to me...!? P-Please, save me. Save me! I-I don't want to die!"
When the man tries to lash out, the agents rush in and restrain him, and the pierrot in the suit calms the man and says.
"Please calm down. Our Cuttlefish Game does not kill people recklessly. Of course, if you keep thrashing around, we have no choice but to use guns, but first, please calm down."
"Th-Then...?"
"From now on, sir, you will receive the vote of the 'audience' who are watching this game. Why, it is like the rules of the Roman Colosseum. If the audience wants to save you, you will safely be given a chance for a losers' revival match...and if the audience 'wants to kill' you...ah, calm down. Even if 'kill' is chosen, it does not actually mean you will die for real. Anyway, if the audience says they will 'kill' you, then from now on you will only receive a 'very special punishment'."
"A, a special punishment...?"
"Yes, that is right. But rest assured. It will absolutely not affect your life. You will merely become a clinical test subject for a special 'drug' we made."
At those words, the man seems a little relieved, and soon after, the agents take the man and go up onto some platform.
Behind the platform, an electronic board of red light and an electronic board of blue light rise up.
And in Kim Hae-sol's ear, he hears Kim Runi's message.
—Are you going to save that person? If you will save him, scratch your head three times with your left hand.
Kim Hae-sol slightly shakes his head to mean refusal.
'It feels too ominous...'
Kim Hae-sol's intuition is always accurate.
People who give him an ominous feeling always has something seriously wrong with them, or are bad-quality humans.
And besides, if it is not actually killing them...
For now, Kim Hae-sol decides to put off judgment for a bit.
Ttiriririririk!
Behind the man, the two screens shine, and on the red screen, 36 appears, and on the blue screen, 4 appears.
"Ah, what a shame! The audience pressed 'kill' a whole 36 times, and only 4 supported 'Mr. Kim Deok-su.' Well...who would pity some idiot who borrowed our money, acted as the ringleader of a voice-phishing scam, then stupidly got caught by the cops and got himself ruined?"
'So he's a voice-phishing ringleader...'
Kim Hae-sol clicks his tongue, and then watches what kind of end the man receives.
"Now then, administer it."
Before the man can even say anything, the agents rush in, bind him tightly, and inject a strange shot into his upper arm.
A little later.
"...Ugh uuaaaagh... Kgh... Kuaaaaaaaagh!"
Bulge, bulge!
The man's arm wriggles and turns into a long tentacle.
Starting with that, the man soon turns into a bizarre tentacled monster like a starfish.
Peobeobeong!
The clothes the man is wearing burst apart, and at that horrific scene, everyone in the hall freezes.
The pierrot in the suit claps and shouts.
"My, my! How unfortunate. It seems the reagent didn't suit you very well. But don't worry. Our institution will take full responsibility for you. Now then, this person will exit, and we will start the game again."
At that horrible and bizarre appearance, Kim Hae-sol feels like his mind is about to collapse, but at Kim Runi's words that follow, he is able to pull himself together.
—Pull yourself together, Kim Hae-sol. There is no need to feel guilty. Even a human processed like this will later be restored to their original state through a measure called 'damage recovery' by the Director.
Woo-woong—
Did he say he can incite the audience somehow?
As if he has some ability related to incitement, at Kim Runi's words, Kim Hae-sol somehow feels his mind become calm, and he comes to think Kim Runi's words are the truth.
'...Yeah, the Director spoke like there is a solution for everything when she sent me...I don't have to take responsibility, the Director will restore them on her own.'
Kim Hae-sol decides that he will simply choose, with an easy heart, the ones who are worth saving.
'From now on is the real start. Get a grip, and save the people I have to save.'
And so, the death game of Ghost Island,
The Cuttlefish Game begins to properly raise its curtain.