Bailonz Street 13-Chapter 232.1

Ho Yoowon.

The director of this company who’d know more about Jang Heowoon than anyone else.

“You must have a lot you’re curious about.”

But he was an untrustworthy man, and he was smiling at me.

Here, in a corridor turned skeletal ruin of corpses by fire and smoke.

He asks me if I have anything to ask.

‘…In that case.’

I can approach it this way.

I let the smoke rise.

Proposition : One-on-one Q&A Ritual

“Mm?”

Conditions : 2 participants

→ Questions and answers must alternate in strict order.

→ One must always answer the other’s question truthfully.

→ If unable to answer, one must state aloud, “Unable to respond,” then receive the next question.

→ An answer cannot be delayed for more than 96 seconds.

[Ah, fascinating. Setting such specific conditions for no reason. It has a slightly ritualistic, incantatory feel to it…]

I did it deliberately. Because this is with something not human.

And…

‘This one definitely has questions for me too.’

In this formal, ritualized form of exchanging questions, he can’t help but take the bait.

And.

→ If one deliberately conceals the truth during the ritual, punishment is inflicted.

“…Haha! Are you imitating me?”

Yes. Have a taste of what it’s like to be on the other side.

Ho Yoowon laughed a few times, then answered brightly.

“But I like it.”

Yet, a faint gloom rippled in his eyes.

“Fair, isn’t it? I could impose a binding to enforce punishment… but I won’t. I want to trust you, Roe Deer-nim.”

Lie.

That’s just something he says because he can’t easily bind me anyway.

‘He tried to bind me and got punched for it.’

But it doesn’t matter.

Agreement

: One-on-one Q&A Ritual

From now on.

Ritual Start

Clap!

“Alright. Since you proposed it, I’ll let you ask the first question, Roe Deer-nim.”

And thus, on Basement Floor 96, in the strange fire of the Cheerful Research Institute, two ghost stories began their exchange of questions and answers.

[Friend, what fact do you wish to know first?]

Start with the most important thing.

Question : Everything Ho Yoowon knows about Jang Heowoon.

“You’re asking a very broad question, Roe Deer-nim.”

Ho Yoowon answered.

“What I know is this. Male, in his twenties, no family, raised in a rural religious welfare facility. Three years before his year of joining the company, that facility was burned down in a fire, and he was the only survivor.”

……

What I once heard from the contaminated Jang Heowoon matched this exactly.

“So his wish is probably… tied to that fire. Perhaps to revive the people who died, or to make the fire as though it had never happened.”

Accurate.

‘Did he look into it more deeply while selecting him as a spy?’

“Then it’s my turn to ask a question, Roe Deer-nim.”

Ho Yoowon looked at me.

“If you already knew what I just said, then from whom did you hear it?”

…!

“Precisely, from what kind of being?”

……

Response :

Staff Member of Flower Golden Resort – Bison

“Ah, I thought so.”

The rekindling flames cast his face in backlit shadow.

“I read in the Field Exploration Team reports that one died in the theme park and came back as a resort employee… but you actually heard it directly.”

……

“So Bison wasn’t just someone who you helped revive… He’s your subordinate, isn’t he, Roe Deer-nim?”

Huu.

“Ah, that wasn’t a question. That was certainty. …You really are human, Roe Deer-nim. You make choices you’ll regret.”

Ominous words, though they carried a shade of regret as well.

Instead of lashing out, I simply looked at Ho Yoowon.

“Anyway, what you’re curious about are the three ‘Heowoons’ with different surnames, right? I’m curious too, so maybe we can try deducing together through this Q&A. …Shall we continue?”

Unshaken, I moved on to the next question.

Question :

Everything you know about new recruit Kim Heowoon.

“…Now this is where it gets interesting.”

Interesting?

“He has the exact same background as Jang Heowoon.”

“…!!”

Male, twenties, no family, raised in a rural religious welfare facility. Fire trauma.

“For it to be just someone who grew up in similar circumstances, the keywords are far too identical, aren’t they? As if they were cast in the same role of a game.”

……

The puzzle pieces in my head begin slotting together.

“Then it’s my turn. …Roe Deer-nim, did you distribute the Wish Tickets you received to the Daydream employees who infiltrated the Disaster Management Bureau with you? To be exact, to whom did you give how many bottles?”

Response : 2 bottles to Employee Goral.

– Requested that they later be delivered to Employee Bison.

“Ah… As expected.”

Wait. ‘As expected’?

That sounded as though he already knew. …Surely not.

Question : Tracing the usage records of the 3 Wish Tickets

“Ah. Rather than tracing them, I just already know.”

…!

“The Wish Tickets I gave out were part of my personal collection. So I treated the bottles a bit… I can tell whether one has been used or not.”

Ho Yoowon smiled.

“And the three bottles I gave you are all used now. …You used one, didn’t you?”

The implication was…

The two that went to Go Yeongeun-ssi have already been used too.

A chill prickled up my spine.

‘Go Yeongeun-ssi used both bottles?’

If they weren’t stolen… no, theft seems unlikely.

Go Yeongeun-ssi is the type to manage danger cautiously.

And she’s the sort of person who wouldn’t have used Jang Heowoon-ssi’s Wish Ticket recklessly.

So it’s likely she used it for Jang Heowoon-ssi.

‘But…’

Why is the Jang Heowoon I saw unchanged?

“Then here’s an interesting hypothesis we can try. …Maybe someone wished the wish poorly?”

Ho Yoowon smiled with mock sympathy.

“Six months on, poor Bison hasn’t shown signs of recovering from contamination, so in desperation… she might have used the Wish Ticket on her own initiative.”

……

“But perhaps due to some error, it wasn’t ‘Jang Heowoon’ who appeared in this world, but ‘Kim Heowoon’ instead, and thus the wish was granted?”

A hypothesis that made my spine go cold.

[Hmm. Is that so? Let’s speculate more concretely.]

So… like this.

If Go Yeongeun-ssi had wished, ‘Please let Heowoon live as a human in this world,’ then…

‘Instead of the contaminated Jang Heowoon returning to being human, a person might appear in the world whom Go Yeongeun would accept as ‘Heowoon’!’

Wish Tickets are personally omnipotent. So such a ghost-story outcome is plausible…

Skeptical : judgment withheld

“Ah?”

There’s a mismatched puzzle in that case.

‘The person on this Cheerful Research Institute employee badge.’

Cheerful Researcher

Lee Heowoon

This researcher named Lee Heowoon is the only one left now.

A person who existed in the Cheerful Research Institute of the past and was likely unrelated to the Wish Tickets that were used recently.

‘…There’s clearly something else going on.’

Heowoon, Heowoon, Heowoon…

Something’s amiss.

‘The keyword ‘fire’ overlaps too.’

Someone who lost everyone in a fire at the facility where they grew up. Judging by the state on Basement Floor 96, this Cheerful Research Institute employee shares a similar background. Why would they have such a background similar to Jang Heowoon… wait.

‘Isn’t it the other way around?’

If you think in chronological order…

‘Jang Heowoon and Kim Heowoon resemble this Cheerful Research Institute employee in background…’

Rustle.

……

Rustle.

“Roe Deer-nim.”

……

“Did you see that?”

I did.

Just now.

The pile of corpses was moved.

No. More precisely, it looked as if the piles of corpses in front of the elevator had moved.

Something buried beneath them had shifted.

Is someone there?

Salt Goblin

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