Chapter 106

With trembling hands, I checked the note of work tips.

11. You're doing this two days in a row?

Sometimes they give you the day off after night cleaning, but consecutive night shifts? Poor bastard... Anyway, the tips continue. In the early hours of today

No. No!

'Stop reading.'

Toward the end, there had definitely been rules that seemed strangely corrupted. I couldn't say about the first sheet, but the second note onward might be a trap in itself.

I hastily folded the note back up and stuffed it into my pocket.

Then I looked up, surveying the still firmly shut doors in Containment Corridor B until my eyes settled on one.

[Containment Room B14]

"..."

What the hell was going on?

'Stay calm.'

I needed to sort this out.

I had definitely been on my first day.

Had it been around three in the morning? Just as we were finishing the cleaning, a containment room door had suddenly opened, and someone... some thing looking like Deputy Eun Haje had appeared.

And the moment Supervisor Park Minseong saw through it...

'It noticed right away and did something... horrible.'

I remembered nothing after that.

So why had an entire day vanished, making this the second day, with the story ending in "we finished cleaning safely"?

And yet the way it was all arranged made it feel as though I'd come to my senses before any of that happened...

Wait.

I checked the digital watch on my wrist.

Just before three in the morning.

...

"Supervisor. This way, right now!"

"H-huh? What?"

I called out to Supervisor Park Minseong and ran.

Then I opened the metal door at the end of the corridor, where the emergency light was still glowing a perfectly normal green, and rushed out.

"What's this all..."

THUD.

The instant he followed me out, I shut the door. His bewildered voice reached my ears.

"Roe Deer, what are you doing? We haven't even finished cleaning. Why on earth..."

[BEEEEEP!!]

[Unauthorized opening of containment room detected. Sealing corridor.]

As if on cue, red lights came on, and protective shutters descended over every door.

Including the door to the corridor we had just left.

"...!"

Supervisor Park Minseong's expression hardened.

"... Wait. Roe Deer. Did you know this was..."

"Just a moment."

I immediately took out the radio and switched it on. Then I turned up the volume and pressed the button.

Since the thing wearing Deputy Eun Haje's face had told me not to trust the radio, I had decided that, on the contrary, this side was trustworthy.

"Jay. Something has come out of a containment room."

BEEP-BEEP.

The response came back instantly.

[Are you in the corridor?]

"No. We got out of the containment corridor just before it happened. But..."

I glanced at the door leading out of the loan warehouse.

The shutter was down there, too.

"We're trapped in front of the loan warehouse reception desk. ... The protective shutter has come down over the exit here as well."

[Hmm, then... initial containment is in place, so don't be scared... Just stay there... I'm coming now.]

[But... which door opened? Number 12? Number 6?]

I exhaled.

I barely managed to answer.

"Probably... number 14."

Silence.

[... B14?]

"Yes."

Another ominous silence came over the radio.

My back grew damp.

BEEP-BEEP.

[Don't talk to anyone. Stay put. Quietly. Hide. Away from Corridor B.]

I swallowed.

"Yes."

[But the containment lockdown has... a hold time. Even if I release it right away, the system keeps it in place... Ten minutes.]

Ten minutes.

[Hold on for ten minutes until I get in. ... Don't speak. From now on.]

CLICK.

The transmission ended.

Silence settled over the dim loan warehouse, lit by red emergency lights.

"..."

When I looked to the side, Supervisor Park Minseong, who had heard the whole exchange, was cautiously moving away from the door to the Containment B corridor, his face deathly pale...

Then.

BANG!!

The door reverberated.

BANG BANG BANG!!

Something inside the containment corridor was pounding on the door. Hard enough to shake the protective shutter.

And a faint voice reached us.

"... Hey! What the hell...!"

"..."

Someone was shouting from the containment corridor we had escaped. For some reason, the voice sounded increasingly familiar. It was...

"Roe Deer, don't listen...!"

"...!"

Supervisor Park Minseong covered my ears, then hurriedly pulled me toward the loan warehouse reception desk.

Only once we were far enough from the containment corridor door did he whisper urgently to me.

"The protective shutter is down. There's no way we could hear anything from behind it all the way out here...! That isn't real. That's..."

He swallowed audibly.

"... I think something really did get out. Just like you said."

"..."

"That... person from Security said they'd be here in ten minutes, right? Until then, even if someone comes and talks to us, let's not trust them. Let's just stay put. And absolutely don't speak to anyone first..."

I nodded slowly. He sighed in relief and sank to the floor.

"But, Roe Deer... how did you know? That a containment room door would open..."

"It's complicated, but there's something I need to know first."

"What is it?"

"What exactly happened to us on the first day?"

Puzzlement spread across his face.

"Huh? On the first day?"

"Yes."

"We just did the cleaning as normal... Oh, sure, a few things from the work tips happened, but we handled them and went home, didn't we?"

The examples he went on to give were all things we had experienced. ... Before all hell broke loose in the containment room, that is.

In that case...

"Do you remember giving me the second sheet of work tips in the early morning?"

"... Roe Deer."

His expression hardened.

"There wasn't any second sheet."

"..."

"You seem a little... Could the containment room opening have affected you? Hang on, let me look at today's work tips..."

What?

I stopped him from taking the note out of my pocket.

"Wait. How did you get those work tips in the first place?"

"Huh? Someone gave them to me. Said they were work tips being passed around the security team."

"Yes. Who, exactly?"

"..."

"Can you describe the person who gave them to you?"

"Of... course, I..."

His face turned pale.

He opened his mouth and closed it, as if trying several times to speak...

Finally, he admitted it.

"... I don't know."

"...!"

"No, I'm sure... Huh? I mean, um, was it left in the bedroom? No, a colleague from Security gave it... Did I have colleagues? Huh? Huh? Wh-what?"

Damn it.

"It's all right! You don't have to think about it. For now, let's just stay put."

"... Okay."

He quietly curled up, lowering his head.

"... Let's just think about getting out. As soon as that door opens, we leave. Without looking back."

"Yes."

I let out a long breath...

'Seriously. This is driving me insane... Whoa.'

My head was a mess.

Our accounts differed, so I had no idea where the truth ended and the lies began in my own memories.

I didn't even know what was real. I had no idea what to trust. There was nothing but terror.

'Am I... under something's spell right now?'

But I was definitely wearing the silver ring. That meant I had powerful resistance to illusions, hallucinations, and brainwashing. So...

'Let's work through this logically.'

I desperately gathered my thoughts.

1. My mind is sound.

2. Everything I'm experiencing is real.

3. This is an anomalous phenomenon unrelated to my mental state.

And the third party who could assess this phenomenon objectively was...

'Braun.'

The stuffed doll in my pocket, of course.

'Braun! Can I ask you something?'

...

Silence.

Surely not.

'... Braun!'

I rummaged through my pocket. Even when I called again, no answer came—

"Ah! Here I am, my friend!"

Whew.

Clutching the fluffy stuffed doll in my pocket, I sighed in relief.

"Oh dear, I was rather slow to respond! How embarrassing. It took me a little time to catch up."

"..."

Catch up?

'... Why did you need to catch up to me?'

"Why, Mr. Roe Deer, you skipped straight to the 30th!"

The cheerful voice began saying things I couldn't comprehend.

"Of course, I'm not blaming you. Finishing your disciplinary duty early is perfectly fine. Welcoming the New Year sooner without wasting effort on pointless work! Bringing more entertaining events forward..."

'Wait. Hold on.'

I hurriedly stopped him.

'Sorry to interrupt, Braun. But... there's something I need to check.'

"Ah, I put up with my guests' complaints. How could I not do the same for a friend? Speak freely, Mr. Roe Deer!"

Right, I get it, so...

'You're saying I skipped straight from the 29th to the 30th. How, exactly?'

"Hmm. You willingly handed that story over to someone else, didn't you?"

'...!'

Wait. Hold on.

'Someone else?'

"Indeed. Oh! They happen to be right beside you now."

"..."

"What a flawless transformation in appearance. Haha! A true master of disguise, as I said, my friend."

I barely managed to move my frozen neck and look at the one Braun had mentioned.

The one sitting right beside me.

"Um... Roe Deer? You're not saying anything. I'm a little scared. Could we talk?"

... Earlier.

When I'd run out of the containment corridor, I'd thought I had called Supervisor Park Minseong and made him follow me out.

But thinking back, I hadn't grabbed him as I ran. I hadn't even looked behind me.

Which meant...

'Something other than Supervisor Park Minseong could have heard me and followed me out... Who knows?'

Then the one pounding on the door from inside the corridor just now was...

"..."

"Roe Deer, are you okay? Say something."

And the advice security chief J3 had given me over the radio.

["Don't talk to anyone. Stay put."]

That...

Had included the person who came in to clean with me.

"Roe Deer? Roe... Caught me again."

PLOP.

Right before my eyes, Supervisor Park Minseong's face falls to the floor.

"Then listen to me tell you about the Honored Naaaame."

A mouth-hole moves in the melting body as it comes closer.

Closer to my face...

[BEEEEEP!]

The red emergency lights flash again.

And machinery begins whirring all around us.

... The sound of shutters rising.

[Lockdown is being lifted. Shutters are opening]

"Ah."

"Thank you! It's open!"

The faceless one comes closer.

It cries out in an ecstatic voice.

"Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!"

The grotesque laughter exploding right beside my eardrum rattles my brain. My senses blur. Everything grows distant.

In reality...

Blackout.

* * *

"... Haaah!"

I raised my head.

The dark loan warehouse.

An enclosed space under lockdown, red emergency lights glowing. Protective shutters firmly lowered.

Me, looking as though I'd just abandoned my cleaning tools and fled the Containment B corridor.

The scene looked like what I'd seen earlier, only with time moved a little further forward.

And in my pocket... a note of work rules.

For the third day on duty.

I immediately crumpled it up and threw it aside.

BEEP-BEEP-BEEP.

[Hello...? Are you okay?]

The radio was calling, but I ignored it.

Because this time, this time I remembered clearly.

'... It said the Honored Name.'

I pushed my hair back with a hand that trembled violently, slick with cold sweat.

'I've figured it out.'

What was happening here.

My missing story.

The one who appeared in the guise of people I knew.

The Honored Name it cried out for.

Its identity was...

* * *

Records of Dark Exploration / Factions

[Nameless Radiance Church]

: One of the three major factions appearing in <Records of Dark Exploration>.

It worships a transcendent deity called the Honored Name. Its doctrine is to become a meaningful existence in this world and survive the end times.

In this process, its adherents follow antisocial, supernatural fanaticism, rituals, and religious laws.

It is divided into six denominations, each fanatically devoted to different divine laws according to its characteristics, producing bizarre anomalous phenomena.

The truth behind it is [Spoiler].

* * *

It was the Nameless Radiance Church.