Chapter 53: Yu Daon
Do jellyfish have eyes?
I’m a humanities major, so I’m not really sure about that sort of thing. But since they don’t have eyeballs, I suppose they can’t see, right?
"It's coming this way...!"
Song A-rin whispered, tapping my arm repeatedly.
Whether the creature could actually see or not was unclear, but it was slowly approaching the area where Song A-rin and I were standing.
Even if we tried to run, where would we go?
"Ms. Song A-rin, does hypnosis work on it?"
"I've been trying since earlier. It works, but... it feels like trying to drink the ocean through a paper straw... ...it's too weak."
Song A-rin answered quietly, her brow deeply furrowed.
"I'm ready."
Hearing this, Jang Chae-yeon calmly raised her hand and whispered.
"Wait a moment."
Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. What if it's an enemy that explodes when shocked?
Moreover, the manual specifically warned to avoid physical confrontation, which nagged at me.
I turned my gaze toward the patient.
[Name : Bud]
[Age : Manufactured 2 weeks ago]
[Trait : Variable]
[Talent : X ]
[Background : Where is the limit of medicine? Until now, it was common knowledge that medicine could intervene even in matters of the mind. Here are the sacrificial lambs for those who challenge that common sense.]
[Weakness : There is no choice but to burst its head. However, you must bear the subsequent fallout yourself.]
Extremely unsettling.
I opened the manual.
[Manual for Office Workers]
[2-17. While walking, you may encounter a long corridor. From this point on, you must rely entirely on individual luck.]
A completely unhelpful entry.
So, it ultimately comes down to my discretion.
"Let's try to avoid it as much as possible."
At my words, the two women nodded.
"How?"
"By our wits? If necessary, Ms. Chae-yeon will... burst its head."
Jang Chae-yeon nodded her head slowly.
I looked back at the patient, or the Bud.
It stood right in the middle of the narrow corridor, making it difficult to pass by easily.
"Let's stick to the wall."
In the end, all three of us had to hug the wall and pass by, like in a stealth game.
We began walking, pressed tightly against the wall in suffocating silence and darkness.
Looking up at the ceiling, or the sky, the jellyfish still floated through the air as if swimming.
Had they barely escaped the pain of the flesh only to be trapped in a cage of the mind? It was impossible to know.
Fortunately, all three of us managed to pass by it without major issue.
"..."
Holding our breath, the gazes of all three of us, including me, were fixed on it.
It still moved slowly, patrolling the area.
"Doesn't it seem to know?"
"It seems so."
"Easier than I thought."
Song A-rin let out a sigh of relief and started walking ahead.
At that moment,
-Zap!
A sound came from above.
I quickly looked up.
Two jellyfish had collided in the air, and something like electricity sparked,
"...Ah."
The patient we had just passed began screaming, grabbing the tentacle presumed to be its head.
"Aaaaah!!!"
It's screaming? How?
There was no time to ponder whether jellyfish had mouths to scream with.
"Ms. Chae-yeon!"
"Okay!"
In response to my call, Jang Chae-yeon immediately reached out her hand and then clenched her fist tightly.
-Squish!
As its head burst apart with a blue light,
memories came flooding in.
"Huh...!"
I don't know this person's name. But the despair he experienced here, the pain of surgery, and ultimately, even the source—
Before I knew it, I was on my knees, then collapsed face down.
While feeling this person's pain—
"Ugh...!"
The pain stopped, and a migraine began to set in.
Had my mental barrier activated?
If so, what about the others?
I hurriedly looked back at the two women.
Both Jang Chae-yeon and Song A-rin were similarly on their knees.
Jang Chae-yeon was sweating cold sweat, gasping for breath, shook her head a few times, and got up from her spot.
"...Vicious."
"...Are you alright?"
She wiped away the cold sweat and nodded.
"Ah, uh...!"
Song A-rin's condition was more severe.
With a pained expression, she gasped for breath like someone suffering from respiratory distress and began scratching the floor with her nails.
"Kha, huk...!"
"Ms. Song A-rin."
I quickly grabbed Song A-rin's shoulders.
She shook her head.
"...Stop...!"
She didn't seem in any state to understand conversation.
What to do?
I rolled my eyes sideways.
[Method : 1]
Even if I tried to connect Method to Jang Chae-yeon now, she was also in shock, so it probably wouldn't work.
...Can I use it on myself again?
It didn't work during the Mountain Spirit incident, but I had no way of knowing if it would work now.
In the end, I had no choice but to try.
Once again, a line trailed out from above Song A-rin's head.
I connected the purple line to myself.
This time, the line didn't bounce away but plugged into my chest.
Before I could even feel doubt, a chilling sensation, as if someone had shoved ice into my head, ran through me simultaneously,
"...Huuuk... Huk..."
Song A-rin's sounds also subsided.
"...Ms. Song A-rin."
"...I can hear you."
Ah, now I remember, when she's connected to me, her speech pattern becomes like that.
Avoiding the wide-eyed gaze of Jang Chae-yeon, who was staring at me and Song A-rin, I checked Song A-rin's condition.
"Are you okay?"
"...Thanks to you."
She wiped the corner of her eye with the back of her hand.
"Were you crying?"
"Shut up, I am."
I waited until her breathing settled a bit.
Around the time she seemed to have regained her composure,
"If you're feeling a bit better—"
Before I could finish, she grabbed my wrist.
"...Let's stay like this for a moment, I am."
"...As you wish."
We got up from the spot.
We walked on, maintaining an awkward silence.
Song A-rin walked while keeping her distance from me, her gaze turned away in the opposite direction. Jang Chae-yeon walked beside me with an uncomfortable expression. And then there was just me.
Thus, we passed numerous black doors.
"Are all the people here like those things?"
"I don't know."
Jang Chae-yeon answered in a calm voice as she walked beside me.
"But it can't hurt to be careful."
"They told us not to open them in the first place, so we won't."
Curiosity? Exercising curiosity here would be for those who are either confident they won't die no matter what happens, like Yu Daon, or those sure they can survive even in a place like this.
Especially after what just happened, I have no intention of doing anything.
So this is what high variability means.
Relying on the faint light of the jellyfish, we walked down the endless corridor.
"By the way, what will you do if you save the black-haired woman, I am?"
"What do you mean? We'll run away."
"Have you looked for an exit, I am?"
"I'm going to start looking now, I am."
I could feel Song A-rin's sharp gaze, but I ignored it and opened the manual.
[Manual for Office Workers]
[2-18. From the moment you enter the Intensive Care Unit, escape through Wing B is impossible. You must escape through Wing C, the Mortuary, and the process is highly likely to be extremely painful.]
[If you have found the person you want, step outside the door and run immediately. Of course, the 'Hospital' does not take kindly to its patients disappearing.]
[If you see a cliff immediately upon stepping outside, commit suicide at once. Killing the person you saved there is also the utmost consideration you can offer them.]
[If you are lucky enough to see a path, no matter what the place you are running towards looks like, run towards what feels like the least path-like option.]
[While running, the things you saw in the operating room may chase you. The use of force against this object is not prohibited, but the probability of it being effective is low.]
[Good luck.]
I could fully understand why the Management Bureau had abandoned the Intensive Care Unit.
There was no clear strategy.
Just walk the path. What happens afterward, even we don't know precisely.
A structure relying purely on luck. The Management Bureau would understandably despise it, and casualties were bound to be high.
"...Is that it over there?"
Jang Chae-yeon's voice, pointing with her index finger towards the end, snapped me out of my thoughts and I looked ahead.
After passing countless doors, the end was finally in sight.
Amidst the black doors, the only one with a normal-colored hospital room door.
"Let's go."
I couldn't stop my steps from quickening.
"Hey, slow down, I am...!"
"..."
I heard the two women's voices from behind, but my impatience was uncontrollable.
Walking at a pace almost like running, I reached for the doorknob,
-Click.
I opened the door.
"...Ah."
Yu Daon was there.
With an emaciated face, wearing patient clothes, she was lying on the bed, looking at me.
"...Mr. Jae-heon?"
Her expression was full of confusion.
"Huh? Am I dreaming? How?"
Yu Daon then started pinching her own cheek vigorously.
"...It hurts...?"
She stared at me blankly, muttering.
"Is it really you, Mr. Jae-heon?"
"It's really me."
"How did you know to come here? No, why did you come!"
For the first time, Yu Daon's expression showed a mix of worry and anger.
"Do you know how dangerous this place is...!"
"I know."
"Then why—"
"Because I wanted to."
Yu Daon closed her mouth, then opened it again.
She continued in a trembling voice.
"For someone like me—"
"It's not 'for someone like'."
'I can die for free about three hundred times for you.'
'That's good.'
'It sounds funny when I say it, but you're betting your life on me, aren't you?'
'Then I should bet my life on you too, Mr. Jae-heon.'
The conversations I had with her came to mind.
Yu Daon wore a dazed expression for a moment. As if she hadn't expected to hear such words.
Her transparent pupils trembled pitifully.
She moved her lips several times, repeatedly opening and closing them.
"Just, why..."
Following her feeble hand gesture, wrinkles formed on the bedsheet.
Soon, a few tears began to wet the sheet.
"No one has ever said... they needed me before..."
"I wouldn't be here if it weren't for you, Ms. Daon."
"...Thank... ...you..."
"..."
At my words, she simply began to cry without saying anything else.
How long did she cry? She then slapped both her cheeks firmly and looked at me.
"...Let's talk outside."
"Alright."
"I have a lot to say, really."
"I understand."
Yu Daon, still in her patient clothes, got up from her spot and looked at the three of us.
She looked a bit gaunt, but it was the same confident smile as always.
"...Let's go."
Yu Daon gently grabbed my arm.