Bailonz Street 13-Chapter 231.1

The silence that had settled inside the elevator pulled down like a weight as the space descended.

Downward.

Into an abyss of unmeasurable depth.

To Basement Floor 96.

“…You pressed it, didn’t you?”

Yes, that’s right.

I’d chosen the option that plunged us into the distant depths of the ghost story, an incomprehensible, unfathomable deep layer.

…It would be a lie to say I didn’t hesitate.

I’m not confident I could face that incubator I came from and keep my wits about me.

But…

‘Put another way, I’m not afraid of anything else.’

Right now I can’t feel fear. If Braun is right and my emotions slowly come back like my rationality has, then from that point on, every time I explore the Cheerful Research Institute’s underground, I’ll tremble in terror.

‘Maybe it’s better to understand what I can before that happens.’

A sort of preventive injection.

[Ah, an effect of removing fear through repetition. A classic, validated learning method…]

[However, there’s an entirely unexpected variable at your side.]

Ho Yoowon.

[That might be part of the thrill of a live broadcast, but if it’s uncomfortable, why not leave him behind? If you need this host’s help, I’ll pitch in a little!]

……

No. For now I’ll bring him along.

[Hmm?]

‘It’s the employee ID he’s wearing that bothers me.’

The Cheerful Research Institute employee badge hung from Ho Yoowon’s neck.

I glanced at it again.

Amazingly, I’d already seen an object of exactly this type before.

It was the card key the dead employee had carried in the underground dream incubator where the prototype incubator was located.

Cheerful Researcher

■■■

The part with the name and ‘Cheerful’ had been roughly crossed out with a pen. That’s what I had used to activate the incubator.

It’s probably still stuck in that incubator… unless someone else took it.

‘…Even so, I’m not sure I could retrieve it.’

In any case, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to observe what effect exactly this badge has within this Cheerful Research Institute ghost story.

Ho Yoowon met my eyes and, after a brief look of surprise at my pressing the button without hesitation, his smile returned.

His face was still busted and swollen.

“You startled me. Roe Deer-nim. How brave of you.”

……

“You’ve got courage, so you’ll do well exploring, right? I’ll follow faithfully.”

What a seriously irritating prick.

I ignored him.

The elevator’s floor numbers had been plunging alarmingly fast, and finally, they reached the destination.

Basement Floor 96.

Ding-dong. The door opened with the same cheery chime…

And.

A peaceful corridor came into view.

“……”

From the offices came occasional laughter or the light clack of keyboards, but that was all.

It looked perfectly normal, as if we’d come back up to Basement Floor 2. Utterly ordinary.

Which made it even stranger.

This can’t be right.

“Roe Deer-nim?”

……

“Roe Deer-nim, aren’t you getting off? It’s an ordinary office corridor… Are you scared? If you’re really frightened, cover your eyes. I can give you a little push…”

Warning 1

Reason : Obstruction of duties (intentional)

Cumulative warnings : 1 / Strikes left until disciplinary action : 2

“Pardon? I was only trying to help… this is so sad.”

Huu.

“And I worry you might not be able to carry out discipline properly. You failed earlier, didn’t you…”

Proof of successful disciplinary action

: Check your own left cheek

Only then did he quiet down.

‘Please just shut your mouth…’

Why is half his face still like that after being smashed?

Anyway, I moved forward, mindful of dust on the floor and any presence at the office doors.

I stepped out of the elevator.

Step, step.

I kept my footsteps as quiet as possible. No fear, but I remained vigilant.

I wrapped the smoke thickly around me.

‘There’s definitely something here.’

I walked slowly to the end of the corridor.

……

But in the peaceful, sunset-lit corridor of the Cheerful Research Institute… there was nothing odd at all.

Just a quiet office hallway.

“Really strange… isn’t it?”

I gripped the handle of the office door where there was the least sign of life.

“Ah. Shall we go into that office? But inside there might be—”

I can hear a music box playing

Ho Yoowon and I turned our heads at the same time.

But there was no one speaking to us.

Instead, at the far end beside the elevator, one wide-open door could be seen…

An emergency exit.

From deep inside the dark emergency stairwell, with no windows and only the glow of an emergency light, something was coming out into the hallway…

Fire.

Flames poured from the stairwell into the office corridor.

“…!!”

A shrill alarm began blaring through the hallway.

And all the office doors swung open.

“Ah.”

I pressed myself flat against the wall at once. Beyond me, Ho Yoowon too had pressed his back tightly against the corner.

From the offices, countless presences came rushing out all at once.

The residents of the Cheerful Research Institute, unseen by explorers.

[Normally, in the event of a fire, the basic safety protocol is to use the stairs. But…]

[This time, that place has become a passage leading straight to death!]

That’s right.

The footsteps of those who could no longer escape through the emergency exit reverberated with confusion, fear, panic…

Some rattled window frames as if desperately trying to pry them open, others clattered faucets as though bravely fetching water from the restroom to fight the flames.

But most followed instinct.

[Oh! They’ve run to the elevators!]

Ding-dong.

The elevator doors opened, followed by the rough, crashing sounds of bodies cramming inside.

The warning chime was drowned out by the elevator’s announcement.

—Capacity has been exceeded. Capacity has been exceeded…

Where could that thing even go?

No, would it even be able to depart safely?

The doors refused to close.

I didn’t need to see it to imagine.

The researchers of the Cheerful Research Institute swarming the elevator, jamming the doors, the weight overload setting off alarms.

Then suffocating to death there, or burning alive.

And then…

I soon realized there was no need to imagine at all.

Salt Goblin

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