Bailonz Street 13-Chapter 210.2

“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…!’ 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

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.

Salt Goblin

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