Bailonz Street 13-Chapter 235.3

“That’s right, I was. It was hell. Fetching corpses and everything…”

Assistant Manager Eun Haje grumbled that she’d only done a couple of cult infiltrations back when she was a reporter.

“Isn’t this place worshipping Darknesses in an underground shelter and killing people? Happy Ending, huh? If they want happy endings, why not give them to themselves instead of foisting it on innocent people?”

Each word was painfully correct…

And this appears to be a place where they gather prospective converts. It might be hard to squeeze useful information out of them.

“No. It’s precisely at the initiation ceremony that you can dig up a lot.”

Huh?

“Usually with cults, once they drag someone in, they soon show their true colors.”

Assistant Manager Eun Haje grinned.

“And to do that, they’d have prepared things, right? There must be something somewhere in this facility. So then—”

“That’s all well and good, Ms. Falcon, but don’t forget why we came in here.”

Ho Yoowon cut in.

“Have you checked about Sekwang Special Metropolitan City?”

“No, wait, you’re just going to say that in front of him…? Well, whatever. Anyway, to dig up that information here, we first need to figure out what exactly these people are up to and use that as a base to approach it… Huu.”

She sounded like she’s completely fed up.

“Wait a second. Weren’t I sent here because you confirmed a future where I’d learn something about the city?”

……!

‘Future?’

A memory flashed into my mind. Right before I boarded the train to Tamra, Assistant Manager Eun Haje had come rushing to my room at the company housing and said something.

– On January 2nd, you’ll be marked as deceased.

– I confirmed it… in a Darkness that shows the future.

If that’s something Ho Yoowon learned during his project-related activities…

‘Then his behavior up to now makes sense.’

Ho Yoowon had already confirmed the future.

That ‘Assistant Manager Eun Haje will discover something about Sekwang Special Metropolitan City’… a future like that.

Recognition followed in a chain.

‘Wait, then did he personally get recruited on purpose to infiltrate the sect?’

If it’s the title of director, then it wouldn’t be strange if he had sensed something on the day or the day before and made some sort of arrangement.

That would explain why the Happy Ending Sect official managed to get in smoothly all the way into the company’s main branch basement without raising more alarms.

It seems he pulled some trick to quietly thin out the security staff that day to minimize any clashes.

To be able to come in without suspicion.

And of course, I ended up dragged into that scheme too, which doesn’t feel good… But more than that.

‘…Through what Darkness did he see the future?’

That accuracy.

Darkness is a paranormal phenomenon, and the stronger it is, the more dangerous and incomprehensible it tends to be.

What is Ho Yoowon using?

Question : Darkness that confirms the future

“…Was that directed at me? That’s strange. I’m certain the Q&A had stopped at my turn to ask.”

Damn.

“It seems you don’t have the right to ask until it’s my turn, Roe Deer-nim.”

I, wearing a gas mask, and Ho Yoowon, smiling, stared at each other for a moment.

Assistant Manager Eun Haje, watching this mess with a look that asked what on earth was going on, soon shrugged and spoke.

“Well then, since we’ve got more people now, it’ll be easier. If both of you would also join in the search, Roe and Director.”

“Search?”

“Yes. I was planning to gather some information on this facility itself… hm.”

Assistant Manager Eun Haje shrugged again.

“Even if this bunker itself is a Darkness, somewhere there must be an entrance, don’t you think? A way leading up to the surface.”

That… would surely be the case.

‘Most spatial-type ghost stories have an exit route into reality.’

If you came in, there must also be a way out.

Even if it’s a ghost story of the Church of the Luminous Unknown, they wouldn’t break such a basic condition.

Though this underground bunker may not be fixed in one location, at any given time it must connect somewhere.

The converts wouldn’t know, since they awaken here after losing consciousness, but those more deeply involved would.

For example, the twins.

“And maybe it’s worth noting, but those twins in school uniforms, the key figures here. I never saw them in the dining hall during lunchtime.”

Assistant Manager Eun Haje added that it seemed they were doing something ‘other than managing converts’.

At any rate, the point was that it would be good to find a clue about the entrance.

That would let us trace back toward the center.

“Usually cults put the most precious thing the farthest from the entrance, in the deepest center. Of course, so they can flee if they must.”

“Aha.”

Ho Yoowon didn’t object.

And after a moment’s thought, I answered.

Then near that area, there might also be some device to check outside.

“Oh, that could be.”

In fact, this was a certainty.

In the wiki records on the Final Ritual Chamber, there were several descriptions suggesting you could see outside from within.

“There’s no way they’d put it in the convert’s quarters. If you show the outside, it ruins the educational effect.”

A place apart from the converts’ living quarters.

On higher ground.

Where an insider could easily confirm it.

And that was…

‘Here.’

[Authority Zone]

With its anthill-like structure, the ceiling was high, so there had to be areas closer to the surface.

In the end, we decided to very carefully explore this zone, avoiding the twins.

“Good. If you two go together, then this grandma can move around more easily too.”

Assistant Manager Eun Haje swallowed the glass bead again.

And shortly after.

“Here it is.”

We found it.

The very end of the Authority Zone. An empty section.

There, if you opened the small round cover near the ceiling…

“It’s glass.”

A fixed device like a little telescope, made so you could peer outside.

“Hey Roe, want to take a look?”

Gladly, I did.

I rose lightly, shrouded in smoke, and pressed my eye to the round opening where the cover had been lifted…

A span-wide opaque glass telescope view.

……

……!!

“Roe?”

I looked again.

But the scenery didn’t change. Old houses, mountains, utility poles, dirt paths, hanok.

That was…

Jisan Village.

This Ritual Chamber of the Church of the Luminous Unknown was lodged right underneath Baek Saheon’s hometown village.

Salt Goblin

Latest posts by Salt Goblin (see all)