I panted and looked down.
My body, hidden under a dark, disinfectant-smelling, old hospital bed.
My hand holding the camcorder.
Another hand popped out over it and grabbed on.
“...!!”
Reflexively, I writhed to tear the hand off. But the hand clutching the camcorder yanked it viciously to drag the camcorder out from under the bed.
No!
I twisted my body to pull the camcorder free. But, strangely, as if preordained, my body was dragged out from under the bed. Outside the bedframe, the camcorder’s owner has things waiting to be done to him the first shooter is found atop the hospital bed with his lower body neatly dissected the second recording begins with the horrific scream of the one who discovers it
Thwack!
Something long plunged into the strange hand that had been tugging on my camcorder.
“...!”
A ballpoint pen.
When I lifted my head, a blood-drained Baek Saheon was twisting, having stabbed down with the pen onto the back of the hand.
“Ah.”
Blood spattered from the patient’s hand gripping the camcorder.
The instant that back of the hand twitched from muscular tension—
Baek yanked the camcorder hard.
“......!”
I kicked hard at the bed leg.
The hospital bed over our heads lurched forward. Screeech! The rolling casters creaked and then rumbled, ramming the “patient” and shoving them into the wall.
Thunk!
The hand yanking the camcorder tore free.
“Go!”
I grabbed Baek Saheon by the nape and bolted backward like mad.
The grotesque shape in a hospital gown, pinned against the desk and trembling, flashed across the camcorder screen that had somehow naturally ended up in Baek’s hands.
And the corridor we burst into was....
A dark corridor of a closed ward.
I grabbed the camcorder along with Baek’s hand and brought it forward to view the corridor through the screen.
A dark company corridor, not a hospital, came into view.
“The eleva—”
“Don’t!”
I shouted urgently.
“Use the stairs. This is a disaster where you must not take the elevator!”
Every exploration run, the corpses show up at the elevator, and the censored cuts won’t even show the details!
“~!!”
Baek seemed to swallow a curse and finally sprinted for the emergency door.
As we tore down the corridor, I heard several times the sound of something shoving a bed and sprinting after us, and the sounds of doors flying open with familiar silhouettes stepping out.
“Use the camcorder to—”
But there was no need to say it. Baek sprinted regardless of who spoke to him or who suddenly sprang out to grab him.
No attachment, no intention to help.
“Huff.”
I reached the emergency door first, dove through with Baek, and slammed it shut at once.
Thud!
I locked it.
Thump, thump—knocking on the door, voices trying to speak—and, unsettlingly, on the rusted door a pentagram looked as if it had been drawn with bloody hands, raising goosebumps.
But even with the chills running through me, I let out a breath with certainty.
A breath of relief.
“......We should be fine for a while.”
Trouble on the emergency stairwell comes in the latter half of the “convalescent hospital last-day footage.”
Before that, the security team will suppress it.
Or maybe the “real Guard Captain,” who didn’t make it back, had been mobilized for that task and was working from the Annex 1st floor right now.
Or from the Annex 10th floor, where the headcount would be higher.
“Huff.”
Only then did I release Baek. Face blanched, panting, he glanced at the camcorder in his hand.
He’d already figured it out.
“This....”
“I’d like you to return it now.”
I held out my hand.
Greed passed through Baek’s eyes.
“What does it do?”
Damn.
“...With what appears on the screen, you can tell the real from the fake inside this building.”
“Hm.”
“I need it if I’m going to explore this disaster.”
I looked him in the eye like an agent and spoke seriously.
“But if you’re not the sort to explore this disaster, you don’t need it. I’ll guide you to a safe place, citizen; hand the camcorder back to me. I have work to do.”
“......”
Baek lowered the camcorder.
But without letting go, he asked in a small voice:
“Where’s safe.”
“Upstairs.”
More precisely, there’s a safe zone on floors above the 5th.
[Hooh!]
Exploration Log #16
Activation phenomenon of Qterw-C-1004 in a ten-story commercial building.
Two civilians testified to finding, on the 10th floor, the door of Room 501 with a sketchbook page affixed reading “Playtime.”
The inside of the door is crammed with the phrase “The ghost has come, we must drive out the ghost,” likewise written in crayon.
Records on the patient that appears in that ward are below.
The important thing is this.
They found the “Room 501” door on the 10th floor.
As later logs pile up, this clue builds into this statement....
“This disaster is based on an incident that occurred in a 5-floor hospital building, so on floors at or above the 5th, the phenomena of the 1st floor repeat.”
I looked at him.
“And distortion occurs.”
“...!”
“That distortion point is not recognized within this disaster.”
In other words, it’s truly a safe zone.
“I’ll show you.”
I started up the stairs.
Fortunately, Baek followed. Good.
“How can you be sure?”
“...Experience. I know.”
Not agent field experience—my deep reading of the Darkness Exploration Record, but still.
“And that’s why I say this.”
I flicked my eyes at the camcorder.
“While hiding, that camcorder could suddenly power on or light up and put your life in danger.”
“......”
It was sincere—and persuasion.
Baek Saheon’s the type who won’t budge for appeals to reason or good faith.
If I tried to take it by force, I was worried about this guy trolling, and more than that....
Honestly, I don’t want to walk around a hospital ghost story alone....
I’m scared....
If possible, let’s stick together as far as we can. In a situation like a live-action horror game, a troll is still better than no companion at all....
[Oh, friend....]
Khh—grrp....
“You saw it. We nearly got caught earlier because of the camcorder.”
“......”
“It’s a double-edged sword.”
Baek fell silent.
“I don’t know why this disaster occurred, but for now, go as high as possible and hide and wait. The security team will come.”
“......”
If worst comes to worst, I’ll smack him and take it—but for now, we go together.
The emergency stairs, deathly quiet and smelling of blood-tinged damp, were quite chilling. As I started up again, I deliberately shifted the topic, asking in a soothing tone:
“Come to think—why were you in the Annex?”
Pretty sure he’d said he’d be on standby at the company.
Baek flinched, then tossed it out:
“...Obviously there’s a darkness to retrieve. One managed by my section.”
“Then you came from the 1st floor?”
“Of course. How else do you think I saved you on the 2nd floor?”
I’d wondered how he was on the 2nd floor when the Field Survey Team rarely gets clearance above the 1st in the Annex.
Looks like the hospital ghost-story overlay manifested from the 1st floor up.
According to Baek, at the instant the warped closed hospital view overlaid after the blackout, the emergency door to the ground floor opened and he bolted up.
Then the 1st floor is hell right now....
Whew.
“I see. Thank you for saving me. Thanks to you, that was a big help.”
“......”
Still holding the camcorder, Baek glanced back at me and tossed:
“You know and still won’t hand over the item.”
Ha.
“Citizen.”
I spoke in a slightly tired voice.
“Do you... want me to die?”
“......!”
“Without that camcorder, completing my mission will be extremely difficult, and I’ll likely meet a bad end partway.”
“Then...!”
Baek’s face flushed red, then pale.
“You could hide too. Why are you trying to move around in this situation just to find something...!”
And he shook the camcorder.
“What are you going to do with this camcorder. Where do you plan to explore?”
“...There’s something I absolutely have to find on the Annex ground floors.”
I took a deep breath.
“I need it. There are civilians I can rescue only if I have it.”
“......”
Baek lowered his head so I couldn’t see his expression.
“So you’re doing infiltration and theft to save strangers? That’s rich.”
“If someone could live, wouldn’t you gladly steal?”
“......”
“I won’t harm the company.”
“How do you not harm the company if you’re stealing?”
Then Baek tossed it out:
“What you’re trying to steal—it’s the potion-making machine, right.”
......!
“Isn’t it? They locked down the Annex, made a scene about it going missing. ...So it is.”
Baek sounded, somehow, a little excited.
“Were you the one who stole it?”
“No.”
I shook my head.
Then, with a slight smile, I stopped.
“What I’m looking for isn’t on that floor.”
I lifted my head and checked the floor we’d reached.
[5F]
“It’s on this floor.”
Baek’s lips parted.
“...The potion machines should be on 10.”
“Normally, yes. But I have something to find on this side.”
Coming here had been the plan from the start.
The key was having grounds to roam the Annex ground floors without drawing attention.
In that sense, the situation actually turned in my favor.
With the hospital ghost story swallowing the building, I won’t stand out much whatever I do now.
Move before this ghost story is suppressed.
That was right.
Yeah, I know—but....
The problem is—
Ha.
I looked at the 5th-floor emergency door, wanting to squeeze my eyes shut.
A door so rusted it looked black.
And letters, dark red, as if slumped and dripping—
HAPPY
D-DAY
Right here is the stronghold of the hospital ghost story....
Call it the main event site, the place where you can see every kind of horrific spectacle.
Holy hell.
I looked at the heap of broken syringes piled under the 5th-floor emergency exit door and the door smeared with sticky blood reading “HAPPY D-DAY.”
Something congealed from the injections was sloughing off. On closer look, ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) bundles of nerves and blood vessels....
I kind of... no, very much wanted to run away.
I forced myself to act like I wasn’t a coward and grabbed the emergency door handle.
It was slimy. Ugh....
“What I’m going to find and steal here is something that truly won’t harm this company even if it goes missing.”
I finished saying that to Baek.
“So hand me the camcorder and go to the 10th floor. I’ll designate a place to hide.”
“......”
“I’ll hurry and take care of business before the security team handles this disaster.”
Whew.
Time’s going to be tight.
Nervous, but I continued. Hey, this is the last offer.
“If you’re very worried, I can escort you up to 10—”
“Oh, for real!!”
“...?!”
“Ha—damn—hoo....”
Baek screwed up his face, then looked at me and said:
“We do it the other way.”
“Pardon?”
“I’ll take you to the 5th. That should do it.”
With a face like he hated it to death but would do it anyway, Baek stood by my side holding the camcorder.
“How am I supposed to hand you the camcorder completely and trust you. What if something you don’t know about happens while I’m alone!”
Who told you about the camcorder in the first place?
“And it’s not like you can take responsibility if I die.”
“......”
But I more or less got what he meant.
You can’t just swap a useful item for information that’s only words.
Whew.
Still, it was unexpected.
He’ll come along?
And to me, having one more person is a merit you can’t ignore in a hospital ghost story.
Well... worst case, I can still take it by force.
Strangely enough, this agent’s persuasion was landing with Baek within the bounds of common sense.
“In return, whatever you’re taking—I get a claim. Give me half. Got it?”
“Understood.”
Yup. Ho Yuwon will give it.
And I deliberately added, with a smile:
“Thank you, citizen. ...Thanks to you, I’m a little less scared.”
“......”
Doesn’t seem to do much. Damn.
Anyway, with the resolve to dump the entire ledger on the project lead, I opened the 5th-floor emergency door together with Baek.
Creak.
“.......”
“.......”
The closed ward was still there. Only....
Its outlines were visible.
Ha.
...From some tightly shut ward door slits, light leaked out and cast light into the dark corridor.
So the scrawled graffiti on the walls came into view.
The day we’ll be happy
Accept that our illness cannot be cured
Everyone fighting~^^
Give up and follow give up and follow give up and follow give up and follow give up and follow give up and follow let’s die give up and follow
There is something evil here
Truth love recovery only the doctor’s precise diagnosis matters
Grotesque lettering.
As it bled into view, each guess at what it said sent chills crawling up my back.
The disinfectant smell.
Weird acrid chemical smells, sweet smells, the tang of iron, a stench of rot all tangled together stabbed my nose.
Ha....
After distinguishing the “real” space inside with the camcorder, I whispered quietly:
“Over there. Our destination.”
[1184]
Baek frowned as he looked at the place with the odd electronic panel number.
“What does that mean?”
“It’s not a dangerous place.”
But to get there in the current situation....
It was a distance equal to a corridor of a dark closed ward in a ghost story.
“.......”
“Go straight and follow my lead.”
Quietly, we moved our feet and ventured into the dark corridor....
But I didn’t expect this.
Thud thud thud thud!!
“Help me!”
“...!”
“They tied me up—rescue, rescue... save....”
Thud.
The door right beside us swung open.
Clutching a security-team call button, someone burst desperately out of Room 503 and fell. Both forearms looked like they’d been taped together and then torn apart by force; the skin was flayed.
“Please!”
He raised his hands in desperate plea to point at his legs, still bound.
In one hand, clenched tight, a security call button.
And in the other hand....
Another camcorder.
“Wai—”
In that instant—
Baek darted in and grabbed the person’s hand.
...The camcorder.
“Ah.”
Then he kicked the figure back into Room 503 and slammed the door.
“Arrrrgh!”
He locked the ward door and sprinted back toward us.
“What are you doing, run!”
With the newly snatched camcorder in hand.
His eyes shone.
“I grabbed another, so get inside already!”
“......”
“Hello?!”
