Discord:https://dsc.gg/wetried
"Good. Then from here, I will move."
At Kim Han-ro's words, Kim Hae-sol nods.
"Yes. From here, it is probably better for you, Mister Han-ro, who moves faster, to move."
"...I understand. But we will need to revise the route."
Kim Han-ro nods and begins to draw a rough map in his notebook.
"First, inside the communications tower, the way to head to the second floor is the stairs you just saw. And there is an elevator. But because that elevator only to the first basement level and even-numbered floors...if that monster is holding out on the stairs, you have to go down to basement level 1 and take the elevator to the above-ground second floor."
"Basement level 1 is also a place where we don't know what might be there, right?"
"...Please take this too."
Kim Runi hands Kim Han-ro the 'Glasses That See Death', and Kim Han-ro, after getting used to those glasses for a moment, nods.
"Then, I will go and come back."
Like that, after they exchange opinions quickly, Kim Han-ro puts on the 'Glasses That See Death' and goes outside.
***
Tadat—
After appearing with dark glasses on, Kim Han-ro rolls his body without making a sound in the communication tower corridor and drops down at the place with the stairs.
He pricks up his ears and tracks the monster's footsteps.
'It's wandering around above the stairs. It hasn't found me. Other than that...'
Other than that monster, there is no particular sound he hears. It seems the communications tower has only one monster.
'Even so, letting my guard down is forbidden.'
Basement levels 2 to 4 of the communications tower are the mining site, where they scoop out this island's strange resources.
The discoverer who first discovered this island found it at a place they call 'Sem'.
Kim Han-ro has something he did not tell Kim Hae-sol and Kim Runi.
He was not a mere member of the suppression team. He was one of the reserve executives who was preparing to be promoted from the suppression team and become part of the island's operations staff.
There was no particular reason.
It's because he was simply a suitable person who matched extremely well with the 'reagent' produced on this island.
Because of that, on the condition that he participated in experiments that use the reagent, he signed a contract to obtain an honorary executive post and an astronomical sum of money, and thanks to that, he knows in detail about several truths of this island.
'The island's mining site. From the 2nd to 4th basement floor...in truth, is not the island but something like another world.'
And the mutants who took the reagent were the first discoverers of this island.
They are the ones who, by being put under 'hypnosis' under the ability the island's de facto owner gained by taking the reagent, entered that other world and brought back resources from the other world.
Because he already knows about these bizarre things, he was not that surprised even when he learned about the organization called the Anomalous Phenomena Management Bureau.
And also, basement level 1 is a space where the suppression team moved the resources mined from between that other world and this world, and through researchers, refined and diluted those resources.
'Usually, the person called the owner of the island managed the mutants through hypnosis on basement level 1. But the fact that the monster has come all the way into this communications tower...does that mean the owner of the island has already fallen to it? If so...'
Even if he handles the monster, he does not know what the mutants that have lost control will do as they burst out from underground.
'The Director of the Abnormal Phenomena Management Bureau was said to be able to resolve it but...honestly, the mutants the owner of the island has been controlling are not just one or two.'
Therefore, if something strange has happened to the owner of the island, he does not know what will happen to the mutants.
They might all go mad and rampage, swim out of this island, and land on the mainland.
'If that happens, it will be a great disaster. The ones called Hae-sol and Mister Runi. After I bring them up to the second floor, I have to come down underground again.'
In the communications tower basement, there is TNT that the owner of the island prepared in case of emergency.
He has to set that off.
If he does that, he will die too, but it does not matter.
'Anyway...I already paid off the family's debts.'
His family suffered under gambling debts, and while paying off debts, he borrowed from loan sharks and he got sold all the way to here. Afterwards he became a compatible subject and received a massive sum of money, and already settled the gambling debts.
And in return for offering his own body to the 'high-ranking people' who host this competition for experiments, he not only got money, but also blocked every single way his family could gamble.
In any organization in Korea,
Even in a small gambling house in the corner of some neighborhood, his family can never, absolutely never, gamble again.
'Even if I die, everyone is fine. But I can't let these mutants go berserk...!'
Kim Han-ro hardens his resolve and goes down underground.
The farther he goes down underground.
The closer he goes to the place where the 'owner of the island' is supposed to be, Kim Han-ro feels his head start to ache and his heart start to pound.
Squirm, squirm...
Basement level 1 laboratory.
When Kim Han-ro arrives there, he sees the owner of the island, whom he has not seen in a long time.
The owner of Ghost Island.
The one who obtained mysterious resources and gained eternal life.
The host of the Cuttlefish Game.
They...
They have turned into a monster in the form of a huge tentacle tree, a fusion of a gigantic cuttlefish and a tree.
"...It has been a long time."
Seeing the owner of the island, Kim Han-ro does not panic and greets them.
"You have mutated even more than before. Before, you were only to the extent of a cuttlefish with a human upper body attached..."
Now it is to the extent of only a human face being faintly visible on the tentacle tree.
The tentacle tree drapes tentacle roots throughout the 1st basement level, and its trunk pierces through the first level and pierces up through the ceiling at the place where the elevator is.
In fact, from the start, the true identity of the radio-wave jamming device is this.
One of the island owner's giant tentacles rises from basement level 1 to aboveground floor 2 and, with a hypnotic wave that even interferes with electromagnetism, jams this island's radio waves, and furthermore, by using the hypnotic wave, lures ships passing near this island to come to this island and forces them to participate in the game. Or, when inviting the operating staff who run the game and the audience who watches the game, it makes it so they can enter the island only if they come after receiving the island owner's hypnotic wave.
"...Are you conscious?"
Kim Han-ro swallows hard and approaches the owner of the island as he asks.
And the owner of the island opens their mouth with difficulty.
"...The suppression team...I see. Reserve Security Chief. So it is you."
"Yes. How is your condition?"
"...Not good. I will die soon."
"...Are you injured by the monster?"
"Similar. But it is not a physical wound...it is just that thing's...no, [that person]'s truth. I learned a truth about that truth..."
"Pardon...?"
"It is nothing... You do not need to know."
The owner of the island continues, their body trembling.
"I will soon die and return to thee."
"Pardon?"
"You do not need to know the details. Do not ask more...please... Anyway, I am dying. Just know this... Right now, I am using all my ability to keep the mutants caught on basement level 2, but...when I die soon, the mutants will go mad and rampage. So...I have something to ask of you."
"...You want me to set off the TNT?"
"Yes... You..."
At that moment,
Step, step...
"...!"
Kim Han-ro notices, at his ear, the sound of footsteps coming down from the second floor to the first floor, and from the first floor to basement level 1.
The monster is coming.
"Yes, I understand. I will turn off the jamming device and come right back to set it off. Please do not worry! I will take my leave now..."
Kwaduduk!
Kim Han-ro forcibly pries open the elevator entrance with both hands, then grabs the wall surface of the elevator shaft and quickly climbs up to the second floor.
'I almost got caught by the monster. But it's a once-in-a-lifetime chance.'
If the monster on the second floor is coming down to basement level 1, that means the second floor is empty!
Kim Han-ro finally yanks open the second-floor elevator entrance and reaches the second floor.
Tadat!
Arriving in front of the second-floor radio-wave jamming device room, Kim Han-ro flings the door open as if tearing it off, then enters the room.
Wriggle, wriggle...
The inside of the jamming device room is made of wall surfaces that wriggle like the inside of a strange creature's innards.
It is a room made from the island owner's tentacles.
'Originally, it was set up so it emits hypnotic waves, so it doesn't look like a tentacle wall and looks only like ordinary walls and equipment, but...island owner's condition must be very bad.'
From earlier, they kept saying strange things about return to thee and whatnot.
'Not a physical wound, but did they get hurt mentally?'
Perhaps the invisible slashing strike that the monster sends has some strange effect.
He enters the tentacle room and approaches the device inside.
The device is connected to something like a strange brain, and he understands it as something like an auxiliary brain the owner of the island made to cause radio-wave jamming with hypnotic waves. If he inputs a signal into that auxiliary brain, the ability the island owner splits off activates and the entire island's radio waves become jammed.
And this too, under normal circumstances, would have looked like nothing more than a device connected to a power unit.
Feeling that the owner of the island's condition is severe, Kim Han-ro releases the jamming device.
—Beep-beep.
—Suppression Team Deputy Leader Kim Han-ro, identity confirmed.
—Please select the function you wish to operate.
"Radio-wave jamming, deactivate."
As Kim Han-ro's command is recognized, the function of the island owner's auxiliary brain radio-wave jamming device, which is jamming the radio waves from the center of the island, is released.
'It's done...'
Now it seems the 'Bureau Director' that the person named Kim Runi talked about will come rescue them somehow.
'Now I'll watch until the Director person comes to help...and then set off the TNT.'
The mutants the island owner controls are not just one or two.
They are not as terrifying as the monsters roaming around right now, but they all have unique abilities, and their numbers are extremely large, so if even one escapes the island, it will be a headache.
'While the island owner is controlling them, I have to blow them all up and kill them.'
No matter how great the Director is, she will not be able to control all the mutants.
Kim Han-ro first comes out of the radio-wave jamming device room, goes into a nearby pantry, locks the door, then takes out the phone there and answers a call.
After a while, Kim Han-ro disappears from that spot, then appears again at that spot together with Kim Hae-sol, Kim Runi, and the others.
"Thank you for your hard work. Yes, the signal is coming in."
With his complexion brightened, Kim Runi gets the glasses back from Kim Han-ro, holds the phone, and presses a number.
"Uh, but isn't that phone only connected to the space called the Underworld?"
At Kim Hae-sol's question, Kim Runi smiles faintly and shakes his head.
"In an area where the signal comes through well, you can just use it to call exactly like a smartphone. And it doesn't even need electricity. And...when I talk with the Director, both of you close your eyes and turn around to look behind you. It is a rule. When you talk with the Director, you must always do it in a place where people's eyes do not reach, or in a situation where nobody pays attention."
"Ah, yes."
"Understood."
Kim Han-ro and Kim Hae-sol nod and turn around, and Kim Runi finally starts speaking with the Director.
"Yes, hello, Director. I will report on the incident currently on Ghost Island. First, together with Hae-sol, we have secured the survivors...and also..."
At that moment, listening to the call, Kim Han-ro thinks something is strange.
'Why?'
At this distance, there is no reason for Kim Han-ro to not hear the voice on the other side of the phone.
But strangely, he does not hear the other party's voice that is talking with Kim Runi.
'This is strange. Is he really on a call? Or...'
Is he just pretending to be on the phone?
But if he is pretending to be on the phone, he is making far too detailed a report, and he seems to react as if there really is someone on the other side.
Just then,
"Yes. I understand. Then I will stop by the [ward], leave the survivors there, have them undergo an examination once, and then clock out."
Kim Runi suddenly blurts out something strange, then puts the phone down.
"...You can turn around now. Thank you."
At Kim Runi's words, Kim Hae-sol and Kim Han-ro turn around and ask.
"Uh, then what happens now?"
"...The Director said she is sending a driver to the front of the communications tower. If we move using the means of transportation that person brings, it will be over."
"When will that driver person come..."
"They will arrive in about two or three minutes. When the Director says it like this, they usually arrive within three minutes."
"Pardon? They come right away in two or three minutes?"
Kim Hae-sol finds it absurd that the so-called rescue team can come that fast, but he decides to accept it for now.
What is there to argue rationally about here, anyway?
At that moment, Kim Han-ro asks a question.
"...By the way, it is not that I overheard because I wanted to, but..."
"It's fine. It's something that doesn't matter even if you hear it."
"Ah, if so...the words 'clock out' came up. What does that mean?"
"Ah, that's...the Director said the Bureau headquarters is going to move soon, but the Bureau's ward—that is, the place where the Bureau manages patients—is scheduled to be moved last, so first, stop by there and have them check whether the survivors we evacuated into this phone have any abnormalities, and then clock out."
"Moving...?"
At those words, Kim Han-ro feels something strange.
No, to be precise, ever since Kim Runi made the call, a powerful sense of incongruity has been covering his entire body.
"For now, let's go outside the tower. We have to wait for the driver."
"Yes, I understand. Since the monster is likely on basement level 1, it should be easy to go out through the first floor. By the way...I think I have to stop by basement level 1 for a moment."
"Yes, but before that, please meet the driver first and tell them how much time it will take on basement level 1 before you go. The driver is coming right now...so they can't come and just wait for you blindly, Mister Han-ro."
"Understood."
Kim Han-ro nods and, together with Kim Hae-sol and Kim Runi, goes outside the communications tower and holds his breath for a moment.
Sea fog still fills the island everywhere, and now with even the sun setting, it grows gradually darker.
Kim Hae-sol holds his breath in case monsters come, and looks around the sea fog.
'Is a helicopter coming? Or a rescue team? Or...'
Just then,
Gallop, gallop!
With the sound of something powerfully stamping the ground, something strange begins to appear beyond the sea fog that is growing dark.
Hihihihiiing!
It is a knight in full-body armor, riding a horse.
"...Eh?"
[TL/N: Knight and driver have the same Hangul in Korean.]
At the utterly out-of-nowhere appearance, both Kim Hae-sol and Kim Han-ro can't help but let out the breath they have been holding.
But strangely, even though they let out their breath, no monster comes.
After a moment, the knight stands before the three of them and points behind themselves.
"Get on."
"Yes."
Kim Runi immediately climbs on behind the knight and holds on to them, but Kim Hae-sol and Kim Han-ro freeze in place.
Especially, Kim Han-ro sees how eerie it is that this knight speaks yet makes no sound of breathing.
And...thinking of the duty he has to do, he takes a step back.
"I'm sorry, but could you wait just ten minutes?"
"Why?"
"There is...something I have to do in this building for just a moment."
"The Director will handle the rest. Get on."
"...I'm sorry, but..."
"Get on!"
That's when it happens.
Inside the building, they see a 'monster' come out.
A monster wearing a mask, wrapped in bandages over its whole body, with one hand turned into a sword!
And the knight, seeing the monster come out from inside the building, shouts urgently and, without asking Kim Han-ro and Kim Hae-sol for their opinions any further, snatches both of them up with one hand, seats them behind, and begins to run with the horse.
Gallop, gallop!!
Kim Han-ro tries to resist, but for some reason he has an instinct that resisting the knight is impossible, so he gives up resisting and looks back.
The communications tower grows distant in an instant, the island grows distant, the sea grows distant...
'Huh? The sea? The island?'
Kim Han-ro realizes that they are crossing the sea in an instant.
'Th-This...what is this...?'
As he is flustered, Kim Runi shouts urgently.
"Hae-sol, Mister Han-ro! Keep your eyes open and don't look up at the 'sky'!"
"Pardon...?"
Unfortunately, Kim Han-ro does not properly hear Kim Runi's words and ends up looking up at the sky above him.
From that 'sky'.
[Something] is coming down.
As if...
Something like black hair is pouring down like rain.
Kim Han-ro realizes the true identity of the bizarre sense of incongruity he's been feeling from the moment Kim Runi finished the call.
Yes, it is [moving].
[That] is trying to forcefully stick a place called the 'Management Bureau' onto this island and [transplant] it.
Can you really call that [moving]?
It is a sight as if a gigantic ghost is holding a gigantic building to its chest and is coming down upside down from the sky.
At that sight...
Kim Han-ro finally loses consciousness.
***
Dududududududu—
Kim Hae-sol pants.
"...What, what in the world...?"
When he heard a 'driver' was coming, he thought at most someone like a taxi driver or a bus driver was coming with a ride.
But what appeared was truly a medieval knight.
And that bizarre medieval knight put them on the horse, ran across the sea, and escaped the island.
And the knight, after not even running for long, arrived in an instant at a dark roadside, and only then stopped.
"Th-This place..."
Kim Hae-sol realizes where this is.
It is the alley near the harbor he came through before he infiltrated the Ghost Island.
"Just what...?"
No matter how much he thinks about it, it's something he cannot understand.
"Don't try to understand it."
Kim Runi gets down from the knight's horse with the unconscious Kim Han-ro, and Kim Hae-sol also gets down after him.
"Thank you. Please go safely."
The medieval knight who appeared from somewhere glances toward Kim Hae-sol and Kim Han-ro, then speaks.
"You, you. You two wait here. The Director will move you two to a place you need to be soon."
At those words, Kim Runi sets Kim Han-ro down in the alley and bows, and the knight briefly returns the bow and turns their head away.
After a moment, the knight rides the horse and disappears into the darkness.
Kim Runi watches that sight for a bit, then looks at Kim Hae-sol and speaks.
"Well then, I'm off. Stay well. And..."
Kim Runi recalls what Kim Hae-sol has shown until now.
Even though he was suddenly swept up in such a bizarre mission, he responded calmly, and he even rescued several survivors without any special equipment.
"...I look forward to seeing you again."
He is an excellent junior.
"Pardon...?"
Kim Hae-sol does not understand Kim Runi's farewell, but he lowers his head anyway and sees him off.
After a while, when Kim Runi also disappears from view, Kim Hae-sol suddenly sees a limousine appear out of the darkness where the knight disappeared.
The limousine stops in front of Kim Hae-sol and the unconscious Kim Han-ro, and soon the door opens automatically.
"Get in."
"Ah, y-yes."
At the familiar voice coming from inside, Kim Hae-sol takes Kim Han-ro and gets into the limousine.
Inside the limousine, beyond a small tent, he sees the silhouette of the Bureau Director.
"Um..."
Kim Hae-sol cautiously asks her.
"Is it over?"
It is a question containing many meanings.
To that question, the presence beyond the tent—Kang Min-hee—answers.
"Yeah. The island's matter is over too, and we safely completed the rescue of the victims. They will all receive complete treatment, and your part-time job is over too."
"I see..."
"On the island, you used the device Yeon gave you, right?"
"P-Pardon?"
He didn't tell anyone, so how does she know that too?
Kim Hae-sol feels puzzled, then decides to just let it go.
Too many things have happened to worry about even that.
"How is the performance? Is it good?"
"Yes...it seems good."
"Later, tell Yeon in detail how it is. She's involved too, so there's no need to maintain security. And...there is one thing I'm curious about."
At Kang Min-hee's next question, Kim Hae-sol flinches.
"You. You seem pretty suited for it. Do you want to get a job at the Management Bureau? I'm saying this because you look like you have talent."
"Talent...?"
It's dangerous work.
There were many heart-pounding moments, and many moments where his life was in danger.
No matter how much money they give him, and even if he has talent...
'I can't risk my life anymore.'
"I'll be going, then..."
"Ah, I've deposited the 'part-time pay.' Check it."
"Huh?"
Kim Hae-sol hurriedly turns on his phone and checks his account, and confirms his account balance.
"Heheok..."
As expected, it is a heart trembling amount.
"Working here, that much is your weekly pay. So, what do you think?"
"...Pardon?"
Kim Hae-sol asks back because he cannot understand.
An amount like this is not even a monthly salary, but weekly pay?
"And all kinds of bonuses and welfare benefits...even a civil servant pension. Those are the benefits you get if you get a job at the Anomalous Phenomenon Management Bureau, so look it over once and think about it."
Kim Hae-sol, without meaning to, stares at the flyer Kang Min-hee gives him, his eyes wide as he opens his mouth.
"Just what is this...?"
"And this time, since it was a part-time job, I couldn't really support you with proper equipment, but...if you properly come into the Management Bureau and receive the badge I give you, then from then on you can be supported with the Management Bureau's artifacts. You know, things like the phone Agent Kim Runi uses, or the glasses. Since each agent can be issued up to three devices per mission...there won't be that many times your life is in danger."
"..."
"Go back and think it over carefully."
"Yes, yes."
Kim Hae-sol nods blankly as he thinks about Management Bureau agents who receive this much money as weekly pay.
After a while, the limousine stops somewhere, and the door opens.
'This is...'
It's the park in front of Kim Hae-sol's home.
'This car arrives insanely fast too. She said if I enter the Management Bureau, I can use transportation like this, or people like that knight from earlier, right...'
If he commutes with this, the pain of commuting is practically nonexistent.
Kim Hae-sol comes out of the limousine in a daze, greets Kang Min-hee, and looks at the flyer she handed out.
Everything feels like a dream, and only the flyer she leaves behind and his bank balance prove that the Cuttlefish Game for the past few days, and the survival story on the island, were not a dream.
That's right.
Everything is over.
"Getting a job, huh...?"
Kim Hae-sol tucks the flyer Kang Min-hee gave him into his chest and enters his home.
Thinking of the thrilling amount she showed him.