Chapter 210: Ch 210: New Employee Orientation
After drinking the Wish Ticket and realizing the ’truth’.
My body collapsed, and the Security Team uniform from Director Ho,
which I desperately forced my body into, ended up having the opposite
effect—it drove me into necrosis.
So, on the verge of death, I made the only choice I could.
– All you have to do is sign.
I signed the employment contract that Director Cheong handed to me.
Immediately afterward, I lost consciousness... and when I came to, I had
already been transferred to some unknown place.
A desolate, small room.
The first thing I saw was a number.
[666]
A nameplate affixed to the iron door.
The space, consisting only of an iron bed and a washbasin, was extremely
old-fashioned and utterly silent.
A single fluorescent light provided illumination, and everything was deathly
quiet.
However, during work hours, I could leave the room as much as I wanted.
That was because, from the very first day until now, my assigned work had
never changed, not even once...
– You’re assigned to security work today on Basement Floor 13 of the
Annex.
Basement Floor 13.
My job was to guard this corridor.
– Security for Basement Floor 13 of the Annex.
But it meant nothing.
No one ever came.
With no windows or emergency exits, this place was nothing more than a
corridor lined with iron doors, and I wandered its length without purpose.
I roamed the hallway.
Red and blue lights flickered.
The elevator was visible. The indicator lights flashed, showing numbers.
But I could not ride it.
There were no buttons.
I couldn’t see any.
I could not leave.
Shhhhk...
Thick black smoke filled the air.
The pale hallway’s fluorescent lights flickered as the smoke trembled and
rose.
It was coming out from my breath, filtered through a gas mask.
I walked, shut away from the world.
As I stared at the only thing that moved, the swirling smoke spilling and
drifting through the corridor...
– Your work shift has ended. Please return immediately. Your work shift
has ended. Please return immediately. Your work shift has ended. Please
return immediately...
It’s over.
Just as stipulated in my contract, I return to Room 666.
Click.
The door locks, and I sit down on the bed.
Silence, again.
Would most people find this horrifying?
Whether it’s claustrophobia, or the fear of isolation, or the terror of existing
unnoticed in the depths of a horrifying pharmaceutical company, would
most people feel... fear?
Perhaps that would be the case.
But I can’t remember exactly what such feelings would be like.
But even the fact that I can’t remember isn’t so bad.
I simply mull it over for a moment.
My work.
Security Officer of Annex Basement Floor 13.
Do not question the entities existing beyond the iron
doors. Perform security duties without leaving the
designated hallway of 13BF.
Anomalous phenomena occurring upon contact have not
yet been identified.
The faint shapes that flicker and blur in my mind.
If I were to describe it in the style of the <Dark Exploration Records> wiki,
perhaps it would be written like this.
Yes. That’s probably how it would go...
But even that faint, censored imagination doesn’t last long.
Bzzzt—
The silence is broken.
Light from a black-and-white screen casts a shadow over the iron bed.
[Special entity Employee full of dreams and passion! Welcome to
Daydream Inc.’s Security Management Team!]
The low-quality sound of a digital recording echoes through the cell.
[Yesterday we told you all about the cool work done by the Security
Management Team, didn’t we? Today, we’ll tell you the rules you
absolutely must follow during your shift!]
A small round TV in the corner of the solitary cell keeps playing the same
video.
It’s the <Security Management Team New Employee Training Video>.
It repeats the same information.
[You cannot leave your designated work area!]
Two mascots appear.
A fox mascot stands still in front of the corridor’s elevator, spinning in
circles.
It’s a format I feel like I’ve seen somewhere before.
However, there is something distorted... Is it that which is twisted? The
cheerful educational video about the lifestyle of an office worker and
Daydream Inc. plays in black-and-white, moving light across the room.
[You are a contracted worker, and you cannot break the labor rules!]
At first glance, it seems like the usual training video for new employees, but
there are some differences.
It obsessively tells you what to do when your work hours are over.
[Go to sleep.]
[Do not violate your designated sleep time. You may not wander around.
You must rest. That is the normal behavior of a company employee!]
The light from the strangely bright and cheerful video flickers through the
small cell.
And then...
[This concludes the training in this video. Please rest comfortably!]
Click.
It vanishes.
"..."
The workday has ended.
In the now pitch-black small space, only a faint red and blue glow filters in
through the iron door.
Sleep time.
Of course, I cannot sleep.
But as the training video said, I must not violate sleep time. That’s the work
rule.
So I lay down on the bed and closed my eyes.
As if I were sleeping.
In this way, learning about ’company work’, I continued my employment
on Basement Floor 13 of the annex.
...
...
How many days have I been on the job?
A week?
A fortnight?
A month?
Seven years?
Or ■■■?
I don’t know, and it’s hard to calculate. But it doesn’t matter. The contract
doesn’t state a period of employment, so I just remain like this.
Soon, work hours will return again.
And in the silence, I will...
Knock... knock.
...
Knock, knock, knock.
A sound.
I hear a sound.
It’s the sound of hard joints, wrapped in soft skin, cautiously moving and
striking against iron.
The sound of knocking on the iron door.
...
A knock.
A person.
I pulled the door open.
"Eek!"
"Hiiiieeek!"
The iron door of Room 666 opens.
The ones holding the doorknob jump back in shock, collapsing into the
hallway, about to point their fingers at me...
"Ah... mmmph."
They cover their mouths.
Then lower their heads.
"Hel, h-hello."
"We are new employees. Pleased to meet you."
They speak.
Their voices are stiff, as if practiced, but it’s real.
And I realize that this is the first time in ages that I am hearing the living
voice of someone.
No...
Are they really alive?
"If you don’t mind, may we visit for a moment..."
No. It is the sound of the dead.
Every living person’s voice that reaches my auditory organs comes out
crackling, as if from an old training video.
As if filtered, as if recorded, every voice I see and hear through the gas
mask blurs the shape of the person, making it impossible to clearly identify
them.
And then...
"...Um."
There is no face above the suit.
No, their faces cannot be identified.
Where the faces should be, it looks as though everything has melted into a
mosaic.
Red and black, warped as if someone tried to reconstruct damaged film by
gathering every last scrap.
’Why is that?’
Is it because, according to the employment contract, I don’t need to see
them, or is it because my collapsing body has also collapsed my recognition
system? I do not know.
But it doesn’t matter.
There is no problem identifying them by their clothes, build, and intonation.
No problem understanding the situation.
New employees, business suits, three-person teams, panic and confusion, no
masks.
And one more thing.
"..."
I turned to the one who had spoken first.
Listening to their ragged breaths, I reached out a hand clad in black gloves.
"Huuuhp!"
I took what was in the person’s suit breast pocket.
A note.
After going down to 13 BF
and entering room number 666,
I will knock and go inside.
This is...
I see.
’Experiment Name: New Employee Orientation’ 21st
Attempt
: Missions are assigned using the Luck Draw Box (Qterw-
E-382). The structure involves exploring the annex
basement and encountering the Security Team member
■■■■ responsible for that area.
As if sparks leapt from my mutated head, the record surfaced for a moment,
lingering as I took it in.
I ’understood’ what kind of situation this was.
"Eek!"
I put the note back into his breast pocket. The one touched by my gloved
black fingers shuddered.
A large-built person who had been standing in the back stepped forward, as
if to calm things down, and gently pushed another new employee forward
as he spoke calmly.
"...We were following the company’s orders."
"..."
"We’re, simply carrying out our assigned duties."
That’s right.
If you could consider orientation as part of the job, that is.
I looked at the three pitiful new employees who had merely participated in
’new employee orientation’.
And then...
I took a step back from the door, as if inviting them in.
"..."
"..."
"I-Is it... alright if we come in?"
Entry by authorized personnel does not violate work regulations.
"Th, Thank... Thank you..."
Trembling, glancing about nervously, their stiff bodies stepped into Room
666 to fulfill what was written on the note.
Then, as if stepping into a pit of fire, they immediately bolted back outside.
...There was no need for that, though.
"Hiiiiek!"
I was about to reach out my hand to the two employees who had almost
tripped over each other trying to get out, but before I could, they were
already crawling away as if to escape.
Right.
They’re escaping.
There’s an exit.
The elevator, right there.
"Huff, huff!"
"Wait, calm down..."
The big one seemed to be trying to stop them, but they kept pounding on
something.
The elevator buttons.
So there were buttons after all.
Were they just invisible to the security officer?
Soon, with a cheerful sound, the elevator doors opened and light poured
into the hallway.
A brightly-lit elevator interior.
"C-Close it! Just c...!"
I moved after them. With every step, smoke rose from my gas mask.
The moment the black smoke entered the elevator.
You cannot leave your designated work area! You cannot leave your
designated work area! You cannot leave your designated work area! You
cannot leave your designated work area!
It rang in my head.
You cannot leave your designated work area! You cannot leave your
designated work area! You cannot leave your designated work area! You
cannot leave your designated work area!
...
No.
What I’m doing isn’t leaving my work area.
The elevator is currently at 13BF, and as part of 13BF, I’m only entering a
connected space.
Nowhere does it state that the elevator is excluded from the work area of
13BF.
...
...
It became quiet again.
"Ah! W-Wait..."
I naturally stepped into the elevator again.
The doors closed.
Thud.
The elevator interior filled with black smoke.
"Ah, aaaaaa■■."
"Ooooh, o-oh, ■■-nim, t-t-that’s■"
I heard the staff’s groans and mutterings beside me. Maybe the smoke made
it hard to breathe? I held my breath and sucked the black smoke into my gas
mask.
Amid the smoke, the mosaic of human faces appeared, tinged with
transparency.
It looked as if bodily fluids were seeping from their eyes, nose, and mouth.
Still, their breathing seemed steady...
I tried to direct as much of the smoke as I could toward the wall to keep it
away, but one person, trembling under my gaze, finally spoke.
"D...Do you mean, we should s-stay quiet?"
Mean?
Is there any meaning behind my actions with the smoke...
Ah.
"..."
Was this... how it was done?
Such expression means nothing
"H-Hangul!"
When I formed the letters with smoke, the mosaics wavered in shock and
amazement.
Even amidst the noise, I could sense a strange relief or comfort.
"Um, are you... are you going to attack us...?"
Current status : Negative
"Ah...!"
Their voices brightened noticeably. The reassurance of something familiar,
that odd comfort when the unknown reveals an understandable side.
Familiar feelings.
A dull sigh passed my ears.
And then, another question.
"T-Then, where a-are you going... to go?"
"..."
I looked at the elevator buttons.
These were things that couldn’t be seen from the corridor on Basement
Floor 13.
Among them, there was a button that the new employees, glancing at me for
my reaction, were reaching out to press.
1F.
"..."
No.
Right now, I cannot set foot on the surface. Leaving the elevator would
constitute a complete departure from my designated work area, which was
the absolute limit of any loophole I can exploit. I cannot leave.
Then why did I board the elevator?
"..."
Because there are things I can do without getting off the elevator.
I reached out my hand.
* * *
Frozen inside the elevator, the formerly smug new employee struggled to
breathe.
What the hell is this? What the hell is going on?
The elevator was thick with black smoke, and through that smoke, he could
see...
A yellow, gas lamp-like glare.
’Fuck, fuck...!’
Huge antler or rib-like horns jutted up over the gas mask. The black full-
body suit, which revealed not a scrap of flesh, looked like a nightmare
crammed into the shape of a human being.
The ’Security Team’ nametag pinned to its chest felt like some kind of
ghastly joke.
The thing from Room 666 on Basement Floor 13.
’I-If we behave politely, our chances of survival go up...!’
He inwardly cursed the teammate who had introduced himself as Jang
Heowoon, looking at him instead of the monster.
’Still pretending to be calm!’
At the same time, he conveniently forgot, for the sake of blame, that he was
not dead yet, and that Jang Heowoon hadn’t actually put him in this
situation.
Only now did he, absentmindedly, realize why there had been dead people
in the elevator before.
’They all tried to escape into the elevator...!’
But there hadn’t been anything riding with them...
He swallowed.
Could it be, did it kill them out of spite because it couldn’t board?
’Then this thing... H-How did it manage to board?’
The only small comfort was that, apparently, some kind of communication
was possible... but, damn it.
’Can I really go back to the first floor lobby with that thing?’
In horror movies, this is exactly when everyone left in the lobby gets
slaughtered. Cold sweat dripped from his chin.
But his survival instinct came first.
He wanted to get out. He would get out. He was going to escape this hellish,
insane underground space!
’Yeah. Yeah!’
At least he wasn’t dead!
The people left in the lobby could fend for themselves! There was no way
he’d be the only one to die here!
Almost delirious, he reached out and pressed the button for 1F and—
Their eyes met.
"Ah."
The yellow glare in the smoke looked straight at him.
The new employee froze again.
But the strange figure who was holding a lantern didn’t stop him from
pressing 1F.
Instead it, too, reached out a black hand.
And, tap, pressed 12BF.
"Huh...?"
Basement Floors 11, 10, 9, 8... all the way up to 1.
It pressed every button.
As if gliding down piano keys.