Bailonz Street 13-Chapter 233.1

The one waiting for me in front of the elevator.

The new hire, Kim Heowoon.

“Mr. Employee?”

I cannot distinguish human faces.

They look like melted mosaics, and their voices are as indistinct as an old radio recording.

Therefore, I cannot tell how much this ‘new hire Kim Heowoon’, standing before the elevator now, resembles the Jang Heowoon I once knew… but one thing I can be certain of.

‘…A strange situation.’

This is strange.

And the one who knows this better than I do is standing beside me.

One of the directors of this company.

“Hello. You must be the new hire with the Field Exploration Team.”

“Ah. Yes, sir…! My name is Kim Heowoon.”

“I see. …But how did you come in here?”

“……Pardon?”

“You’re with the Field Exploration Team, aren’t you? Then you wouldn’t have been able to enter this Security Team sector on your own… so how are you here?”

Silence.

“And how did you find this elevator? And to that this Mr. Employee would be here,”

Ho Yoowon pointed at me.

“How did you know that?”

“……”

The mouth opened.

“I imitated.”

…What?

“I imitated a Security Team member to get in, and I imitated the Research Team to learn the employee’s location.”

‘Imitated…?’

The moment a sense of foreboding rose.

A smile spread across Kim Heowoon’s indistinguishable face.

“But with this, my purpose for joining has already been fulfilled, so I don’t mind being fired over it.”

And he looked at me.

“Mr. Employee.”

The purpose of joining the company.

—It’s because there was something I had to find.

It was me.

“You don’t need to worry. Nothing troublesome has happened. I only came here to seize the opportunity to introduce myself properly… and to express my gratitude.”

Then Kim Heowoon bowed deeply before me.

“Thank you for saving us. Thanks to you, all the people at the facility survived.”

……

Wait.

“Because of you, Mr. Employee, Jang Heowoon’s wish was fulfilled.”

That means…

“Aha. How unfortunate. Looks like my guess was wrong, Roe Deer-nim.”

I realized.

The two Wish Tickets delivered to Go Yeongeun-ssi being used did not mean…

‘They weren’t used to save Jang Heowoon himself…!’

From the start, the chance that such a smart and composed person would suddenly make a sloppy wish on a Wish Ticket was low. If anything…

‘She would have felt more unsettled to keep both Wish Tickets in her possession.’

Because someone might find out and steal them.

And she may also have heard that, while the Disaster Management Bureau was doing its best to improve Jang Heowoon’s condition, there was no telling when he would recover fully.

In that case, before some mishap happened while holding onto the Wish Tickets indefinitely… it would have been far more reasonable for her to use one on Jang Heowoon’s behalf.

Recovery from contamination had precedents, like with Security Team members, so she could entrust that much to the Disaster Management Bureau.

Instead, she would have made the true wish.

Like this.

Please grant Jang Heowoon-ssi’s wish.

And Jang Heowoon’s wish was…

– I wanted to save my precious family.

……

Before my eyes, I saw the result of Jang Heowoon’s wish being granted.

A family member, bearing the name Kim Heowoon.

One of the people from a countryside religious welfare facility where the orphan Jang Heowoon had grown up. A place that had burned down in a fire.

[What an interesting situation, Friend.]

[But moreover. How exactly does this person know that it was you, Friend, who was the one who handed over the Wish Ticket?]

[And doesn’t the explanation of ‘I imitated’ strike you as rather vague?]

…That.

‘I have a… suspicion.’

The chill crawling up my spine told me. A single hypothesis that struck me like a shock in my mind.

…I’ll narrow it down through Q&A.

Question : Relationship with Jang Heowoon

“Ah. We are family who grew up in the same facility. Out of eight, seven died in the fire.”

Question : Reason for sharing the same name

“In the facility, those who lived together were given the same name. The surnames differed, but we shared the given name. Because we’re family.”

Question : Rules shared by the family

“There weren’t really rules, but… we received the same education, ate the same food, and slept in the same place in order to have a lifestyle fitting the name ‘Heowoon’. So that we could each have the same experiences, fairly.”

Question : Example of a ‘lifestyle fitting the name Heowoon’

“Ah. It wasn’t difficult. For example… going to bed late and waking up late.”

……

“Reading poetry collections more than twice a week, becoming afraid of blood, starting middle school one year early, and dropping out of high school.”

And.

“When meeting shamans or other religious figures, not introducing one’s own name.”

……

The final question.

Question : Name of the facility

“Ah, that place is…”

And I already knew the answer.

In this world, there are countless bizarre groups, but only one insane group that operates a childcare facility in this way…

“…It is a facility called Paradise of Love shelter.”

…… 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

Paradise of Love

“Do you know it?”

I know it.

A fairly well-known cult within this setting’s Korea.

I had even seen its name once before at the Disaster Management Bureau.

– Human life is filled with fear. The lover of paradise, who will protect and love you so that you no longer have to be afraid, is waiting for you. Come to the Paradise of Love.

Back when the White-Tiger Unit, at my suggestion, dealt with the ghost story of ‘Red Clothes at Exit 4’, the agents had pretended to be missionaries of this very cult while writing their recruitment lines.

But to me, there is something beyond even that.

This group was registered on the <Dark Exploration Records> wiki as having its own page.

Paradise of Love

One of the emerging religions that spread in Korea in the early 2000s within the <dark exploration="" records=""> setting.

Promoting slogans like ‘You can meet your ideal partner’ or ‘We will make you into the ideal type you imagine’, they proselytized in ways appealing to the younger generation, becoming popular on the early internet.

But in truth, it was an unethical, ritualistic cult that forcibly reshaped the lives of its followers to become suitable for a specific being called the ‘Lover of Paradise’, through bizarre ceremonies.

</dark>

And.

This process gained interest for the hypothesis that it was influenced by the Mimicry Sect of the Church of the Luminous Unknown, and eventually it was established as one of the church’s affiliated organizations.

That facility belonged to the Church of the Luminous Unknown.

Salt Goblin

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