Chapter 046
Second floor.
Go Youngeun, now used to it, asked the guide machine a question.
“Did the guests who finished viewing the exhibition and went home go down from this Level 2 to the floor below?”
Nod.
“…!”
It was over.
At this point, the answer had practically been derived already.
‘If the exit is on one of the above-ground floors, and it’s below Level 2….’
Then only Level 1 remained.
“Then now, if we just go to Level 1 and ask where the entrance is…!”
“Let’s go, quickly!”
“Yes!”
For the first time, Baek Saheon and Go Youngeun were in agreement.
‘To think the entrance really was on Level 1, just like normal modern common sense. Funny how it lined up like this.’
For some reason, it felt like we had taken a long detour, which left me faintly deflated, but the anticipation was stronger than that, and I quickened my pace too.
Now all we had to do was find the entrance and tell the supervisors waiting on the terrace.
-Oh dear, is your exhibition viewing already over? What a pity. It seems you haven’t even properly looked around five halls yet….
Heh-heh. If you keep looking around, your friend might lose his eyes, nose, and mouth.
He might faint before that, too!
‘He’s only holding on right now because three people are trailing around him with a light.’
I gave the pocket holding Brown a few reassuring pats, then moved on.
Go Youngeun’s steps, candle in hand, grew brisker.
That momentum didn’t falter even when we met a guide machine on Level 1. It seemed her desire to get out quickly had overwhelmed all her fear.
“Hello!”
Again, the machine responded politely under the candle’s influence, and after taking a deep breath, Go Youngeun made her request firmly.
“Please guide us to the entrance!”
But then.
…….
Silence.
The machine just stood there without the slightest movement.
“……?”
There was no response.
“N-no way.”
Go Youngeun looked down at the candle with a face gone pale. She seemed worried that maybe the candle wasn’t working.
The candle was still burning just fine.
After glancing down several more times to check, Go Youngeun spoke again in a trembling voice.
“Please… guide us to the entrance.”
Silence again.
“…….”
“…….”
The atmosphere froze cold.
‘Damn it.’
I opened my mouth.
“……Ms. Goral.”
“Y-yes….”
“Ask it this.”
I said the sentence I knew, and as Go Youngeun repeated it aloud, her eyes darkened lifelessly.
“The guests who finished viewing the exhibition and went home—did they go down from this above-ground Level 1…? If that’s correct, please nod.”
Nod.
“…!!”
The guide machine’s testimony conflicted.
“Why….”
Go Youngeun swallowed.
“The guide machine on Basement Level 1 definitely said the people leaving went up…!”
“That’s right.”
A chill ran down my spine.
‘What on earth is going on?’
Didn’t this make no sense at all?
In the basement it said go up, and above ground it said go down.
Even if there were two or more entrances nearby, this was impossible. The signals contradicted each other completely.
‘No wonder there were so few survivors in the Darkness Exploration Record, for an entrance that seemed so obviously like it’d be on Level 1.’
“Instead of wasting time repeating the same thing, let’s go down and ask in person, shall we? We still have candle left, so let’s not waste it.”
“……Ah.”
At Baek Saheon’s urging, we found the stairs leading underground and started walking.
The way down somehow felt long and heavy…….
And the result was—
Nod.
“Go up? Ha…….”
It gave the exact same response as when I had asked.
According to the guide machine, the guests who had finished viewing the exhibition on Basement Level 1 had definitely gone up.
“…….”
“…….”
Now even Baek Saheon had gone silent.
It was the moment when everyone’s thoughts began tangling into knots.
“Um.”
Go Youngeun lowered her head deeply.
“What if… there isn’t actually any entrance at all?”
“…!”
“It’s just a place that tricks you and torments you, and it gives you false hope just to make things hurt more… there are lots of Ghost Stories like that.”
That was true.
But not this time.
“There is definitely an exit.”
I wasn’t saying that because I had read the Darkness Exploration Record.
“Do you remember? Before we came in here, didn’t we receive a simple manual?”
Even if the information had been contaminated and turned into an exhibition invitation.
“If someone hadn’t successfully escaped through the entrance, there wouldn’t be a survival record, and we wouldn’t have been registered in the Darkness with Baekilmong Co., Ltd.”
“Ah…!”
Go Youngeun raised her head.
“That’s true. You’re right.”
Then she took a deep breath and continued, her voice much clearer now.
“Hoo! I’m sorry. At times like this, I shouldn’t get buried in my emotions for no reason. There has to be an answer.”
“Yes.”
It looked like a contradiction, but there had to be something we hadn’t thought of yet….
It was right then, as I sank into thought.
“Hey.”
Baek Saheon looked at me with an odd expression and asked,
“Your doll.”
“Brown?”
“Yeah. Brown… what’s he saying?”
-He’s waiting for my friend’s splendid answer!
Of course, he wasn’t asking because he thought Brown could really talk. He probably thought I was some lunatic who talked to dolls….
‘I get that you want to hear a fresh idea, but still.’
I deliberately stared straight at Baek Saheon before answering.
“How’s a doll supposed to talk?”
“…….”
“Think before you speak.”
Baek Saheon clenched his fist hard!
“But the idea of throwing out possibilities itself isn’t bad.”
“…!”
“Ms. Goral, have you thought of anything?”
“Ah, um…….”
“As positively as possible. Assuming there must be an exit nearby.”
“Then… a hidden space.”
Go Youngeun frowned.
“Like how there can be an attic above the top floor, maybe there’s another space somewhere between underground and above ground? Like a parking garage….”
I had never seen any record that this exhibition hall had that kind of hidden space.
Of course, it was possible. There was an obvious difference between experiencing something directly and reading it described in text.
Sometimes you know something, yet fail to match it up.
‘Just like how I didn’t realize the window was actually a door leading to the terrace.’
But… it felt like the entrance would be somewhere more obvious than that.
‘Conceptually, it’d be strange for an official entrance to be in a hidden space.’
Which meant the entrance existed perfectly normally, and we were simply failing to notice it.
Prejudice, thought patterns, cultural factors…….
“…!”
Wait.
“M-Mr. Roe Deer?”
I sprang to my feet.
Baek Saheon looked at me with startled eyes, while Go Youngeun—unable to turn around because of the candle’s effect—could only look stiffly ahead.
“Do either of you still have enough stamina left to go up and down the stairs a few more times?”
“What?”
“I-I do, but.”
“Then let’s move.”
“Pardon?”
I stood up.
“We need to go all the way up to the top floor.”
“…??”
The same stairs again.
“……We just go up, right?”
“Yes.”
I started walking.
But instead of climbing thoughtlessly until the next floor appeared, I counted.
One floor.
Two floors.
Three floors…….
Until no more stairs appeared at all.
“Huff.”
“Hhk.”
I lifted my head.
“This is… the end.”
We had come all the way to the top floor of this enormous mansion.
On the way up, we had encountered guide machines about three times, and each time the other two had asked them questions, but the result had been the same.
They were probably thinking this.
‘It says to go down, so why did we come all the way up?’
The answer to that question was in this very top floor itself.
“Ms. Goral. How many floors do you think we came up?”
“Pardon? Well……. Huh?”
“…….”
“Wait a minute. If I didn’t count wrong, then…….”
“Six floors.”
Baek Saheon said it.
“It’s Level 6, not Level 7!”
That was right.
“You said this mansion had seven floors above ground!”
-And this historic grand mansion is said to consist of seven floors above ground and 7,221 floors underground.
This time, it contradicted Brown’s explanation.
But Brown was a Good Friend, so he didn’t lie.
Which meant… if everything was true.
“…….”
I knew it.
“You deliberately lied and said Level 7….”
“Ms. Goral, do you know this?”
“Hey!”
There were many Ghost Stories like that.
Situations where a correct answer could be derived rationally for one person, while for another person the correct answer would never come out rationally at all.
Because of cultural differences, environmental differences.
Ghost Stories that reveled in the chill that came from that.
It was a different type, but it was like that old Darkness where I had found the Pierrot painting because I knew the difference between a Pierrot and a clown.
Environmental knowledge.
“The way people count building floors differs depending on the culture.”
“……Huh?”
“In the United States, and in East Asian countries including Korea, where we live, floors start from 1.”
But.
“In some other cultures, they use a different method.”
The reason the stairs going from above-ground Level 1 to Basement Level 1 had felt unusually long.
It hadn’t been my imagination.
“They start from 0.”
“…!”
A floor also called the Ground Floor.
“This mansion really does have seven floors above ground. …From Level 0 to Level 6.”
I looked down the stairs.
“All we have to do now is go to Level 1 and ask for the way to Level 0.”
And that was exactly what we did.
-Please guide us to the way to Level 0.
If you followed the path politely led by the guide machine on Level 1, then astonishingly, on the opposite side of the main exhibition hall on Level 1, you could see a staircase unlike the ones we had used before.
A massive double spiral staircase.
And if you walked down either side of that spiral… then yes, you could go to the exhibition hall on Basement Level 1 where the brass sheen changed into a bronze one, just like before.
But you could also choose to stop in the middle and open the enormous doors there.
And I opened those great doors and stepped out.
Creeeak.
A grand and elegant space filled with silver unfolded before us.
It wasn’t an exhibition hall.
It was… the lobby.
“…!!”
Level 0, a floor that functioned as a lobby without any exhibits, so there had been no need to create a passage to it from the normal stairs used to go between exhibition halls.
At last, we had entered that floor through the most orthodox route possible.
And right there, directly in front of us, the stained-glass-style glass doors….
“…The front door.”
The outside couldn’t be seen because the light pouring in was so bright, but there was no doubt.
At last, we had found the exit.
“We lived!!”
“Haaah….”
A shout and a sigh of relief echoed through the lobby.
And then a joyful cheer.
“Mr. Roe Deer! Mr. Roe Deer, your deduction was right! Right again! Waaah!! Let’s get out right now!”
Really. I truly, sincerely wanted to cheer and scream and run out that door this instant….
“But I have to find our supervisors and leave together with them.”
“Ah, ah!! Then… you’ll need the candle, won’t you?”
Go Youngeun glanced at what little candle remained, then soon called out bravely.
“…Let’s hurry and go together, then!”
“Yes. Thank you.”
Thank you, truly, truly…….
I had already used up all my energy wandering around this place by myself just looking for my batchmates….
So Go Youngeun made the choice that suited her character.
Of course, Baek Saheon did too.
Which meant he headed straight for the door without a second’s hesitation.
“Do whatever you want. I’m leaving!”
Go ahead, then.
I looked straight at Baek Saheon.
‘I should check what kind of effect or reaction happens at the door when someone leaves.’
But Baek Saheon faltered.
“…….”
“…….”
And then he quietly edged away from the entrance.
‘…?’
Why?
“Aren’t you leaving?”
“…After I see someone else go out first.”
Well, well.
‘It would’ve been much more convenient in several ways if he’d just gone out.’
Feeling a little disappointed, I glanced at Baek Saheon, then turned away.
-Hahaha… this is quite an amusing situation, Mr. Roe Deer!
I’m not especially amused, but if someone is, I guess that’s some comfort….
-Now you must go inform your ordinary supervisors of the location of the exit, is that it?
That’s right.
‘They’re not exactly ordinary, though….’
I had no idea how many times I had already torn through this grand mansion……. My legs were about to fall off, but I needed to hurry.
-Wait a moment. Do your legs hurt, my friend?
-Oh, then I think it’s time I introduced my newest ability.
…Huh?
‘Newest ability?’
-Indeed! Thanks to the splendid bathtub and bath gifted by my dear friend, I have grown young again, and now I shall show you my power….
-Now then, please take me out of your pocket.
His tone was smug, almost boastful, yet somehow I could also feel a strange hint of gratitude in it.
Anyway, I did as he said and took the stuffed doll out of my pocket.
“Mr. Roe Deer?”
“Please wait a moment.”
-Exactly. You won’t have to wait long! A true host is always ready at any time…… like this!
Snap!
A dull finger-snapping sound rang out from the doll’s hand, though it had no fingers.
And then I…….
For some reason, it felt as though something in my chest and mouth had “opened up.”
A resonant feeling.
A strange sensation, as if some vast space had formed inside me….
[Ah.]
“…!!”
“M-my voice….”
I closed my mouth.
The vibrations coming through my vocal cords reverberated through the entire lobby.
-Not bad, all things considered.
-On my show, no guest needs to raise their voice to comfortably and accurately deliver their words to the audience and viewers.
That was……
‘A microphone?’
-Ah, what a wonderfully popular expression!
-Mr. Roe Deer, my dear friend’s words will be conveyed clearly to everyone…. So long as they are in the same studio, that is.
-If we speak in terms of this space, then yes. If they are on the same floor!
Good lord.
He really had become more capable.
-You flatter me.
I marveled.
‘But unfortunately, I don’t think this ability suits the current situation.’
-Pardon?
I’m trying to call only the supervisors in the terrace room, but if everyone on this floor hears it…….
“…….”
-Friend?
Wait.
Would that really be a bad thing?
