13

Editor’s Survival Guide — Chapter 13

Chapter 13. Episode 3. The Hospital That Hunts Humans (4)

“It hurts like fucking hell…… I’ll kill them…….”

Orange continued rambling like a broken radio.

As a result, I suffered along with him while pushing his wheelchair.

I was currently making a circuit of the hospital with White, Orange, and Blue.

Roaming a space containing a monster was itself an immense source of stress.

Orange kept groaning on top of that, setting my nerves even further on edge.

I was tolerating it because he was a patient, but then Orange picked a fight with me out of nowhere.

“Hey, Otter. What did you do to get sent here?”

“What would you do with the answer?”

“I was just asking, but you’re a fucking prick. Everyone but you told us, you loser bastard.”

When had this guy ever met me that he now acted like my personal schoolyard bully?

Had it not occurred to him that I could tip over his wheelchair?

Too dumbfounded to bother saying much, I gave a perfunctory reply.

“What did you do, then?”

“Me? Hey, this’ll blow your mind. There was a locker where I was that exchanged objects for money.”

The instant I heard that, chills raced over my entire body.

Unaware, Orange continued swaggering.

“At first we put in things like watches. Then someone got flattened to death, so we tried putting them in, right? And it paid out a pretty good amount. Fucking crazy. So we tried putting in a corpse that hadn’t been flattened, and money just came pouring out. We copied money like fucking mad with that thing. Must’ve made about a billion won back then.”

So you were the piece of garbage Sol had mentioned.

Nauseated, I tightened my jaw.

More than anything else, I couldn’t understand how he could say this as though boasting.

This bastard had done something worthy of divine punishment. How could he be so brazen?

Apparently thinking something similar, White admonished Orange.

“Orange, we’re being punished now because we did bad things. We should show at least a little remorse.”

“Bullshit.”

Orange snorted.

He truly had no sense of shame.

White had been the first person to care for him when he was injured. Did he feel no gratitude?

That shameless bastard came after me again.

“Hey, tell us your story now.”

I had no desire to exchange another word with him.

Just then, White raised a hand.

She drew her wheelchair against the corridor wall and whispered,

“Look. The 「Moving Gun」 is passing over there.”

My heart plummeted.

As White had said, the 「Moving Gun」 was moving slowly beyond the corner of the corridor.

Only about thirty meters separated us.

I immediately grabbed Orange’s wheelchair, intending to run.

But White whispered again.

“Shall we follow it?”

“Excuse me?”

“It won’t notice us if we follow from this distance. That monster is slower than you’d think.”

I was so bewildered that formal speech slipped out.

Orange reacted hysterically in my dazed place.

“Why would we follow that thing, you idiot!? Don’t you remember everyone who fucking died when it went berserk?”

Orange was right about this.

They had said three people died when the 「Moving Gun」 rampaged immediately before.

Besides, none of you even know what makes that monster go berserk.

Then instead of letting your guard down because it was slow, shouldn’t you avoid it as much as possible?

But White moved on an entirely different plane from a coward like me.

“That’s exactly why we should follow it. If we know where the threat is, we can prepare for it.”

Damn it, she had a point too.

Even Blue, who had remained silent throughout, agreed with her.

“She’s right.”

“Isn’t she? What do you think, Otter?”

I…… don’t want to…….

As I hesitated, Orange flew into a rasping rage.

“Are you ignoring me? If your head’s empty, shut your mouth, you stupid bitch! Don’t you know what happens if I die?”

White let out a deep sigh at Orange’s abuse.

I assumed the situation would end there.

But in that instant—

Crash—!

White abruptly seized Orange by the collar and threw him down.

Then she leaped from her own wheelchair and pinned him beneath her.

“Gaaap……!”

Orange squeezed out a clumsy scream.

White had clamped a hand around his vocal cords.

Orange struggled, but could not shake off White, who was half his size.

In a strange mounted position, White was neutralizing him completely.

Honestly, it was satisfying!

But thinking this was not the time, I tried to stop White.

Blue caught me, however, and shook their head.

Meanwhile, White spoke sweetly.

“Orange, it’s true that if you die, things will go badly for all of us. But if you want to threaten people with your own life, you first need the courage to die. You’re only loud because you don’t want to die, Orange. In the end, all you can do is let us protect you, so why can’t you understand your place?”

“Ghk!”

“Orange, don’t you remember why you received that injection? You were the most useless, so we selected you by majority vote. Even with me here on an injured leg, you received every vote. Don’t you understand what that means? Even your own little group abandoned you.”

“Nn, nn!”

“Now that you’ve become useful, we’ve gone to all this trouble to look after you. How can you throw tantrums like this? If you keep it up, we might remove your remaining hands and feet too. After all, you only need to stay alive. Do you understand?”

“Hhk…….”

White’s voice was as monotonous as a lullaby.

But its content was cruel enough to make Satan applaud.

In the end, Orange went from whimpering to outright sniffling.

Leaving him there, White climbed back into her wheelchair by herself.

Then she spoke to Blue and me.

“I’m sorry, but could you sit Orange back in his chair?”

They had said the darker the armband, the more dangerous the person.

That appeared to be a lie. These people were simply all insane.

I watched White anxiously, afraid she would truly pursue the 「Moving Gun」.

But Blue checked their wristwatch and said,

“It’s been five minutes since we left. We need to return and change shifts now.”

Those were the most welcome words I had heard in some time.

Fortunately, White agreed, and we returned to the operating suite.

Black and Red happened to be coming out when we arrived, and White told them,

“The monster went toward the Children’s Hospital.”

“Did it? It doesn’t seem to be pursuing Orange in particular.”

“No. Apparently, seeing his face doesn’t mean it can sense his location.”

“Understood. We’ll keep track of the monster’s location while we move. We marked the *sotdae* in the sections we finished working on.”

With that brief exchange of information, we switched roles.

Because Orange had to keep moving, Black and Red took him with them.

They looked strangely at the dispirited Orange for a moment, then departed with his wheelchair without comment.

Afterward, White, Blue, and I began excavating beneath the 「999 Sotdae」.

Our goal was to dig through something that might have been clay or flesh and find an intact organ.

Scraping together that soft substance was quite grueling.

So I desperately thought about something else.

For example, Orange’s identity, which I had learned earlier.

The “cruel but charismatic villain” was a fantasy possible only in fiction; villains in reality were generally pathetic and incompetent.

Because truly capable people did not become villains in the first place.

I already knew that, yet the true nature of the villain from the 「Railway Station」 was still pathetic enough to leave me dumbfounded.

A deficient bastard without a trace of charisma, capable only of hollow bluster that brought disaster on his own head.

Read only on MUGEX

That was the true face of the villain who had committed those horrific atrocities.

“Otter.”

“Hhp……!”

Lost in thought, I jumped at the sudden address.

When I turned, White was watching me with her head tilted.

“Wh-what? Why?”

“I startled you earlier, didn’t I? I think being in here so long has made me a little sensitive too.”

White laughed softly as though embarrassed.

Not at all. It’s fine. Please spare me.

I fought to suppress the urge to say exactly that and asked calmly,

“How long have you been here?”

“About three hours.”

That was far longer than I had expected.

Then had she already experienced two active periods and two dormant periods of the 「Moving Gun」?

Come to think of it, there had been twelve convicts listed on the order sheet.

But only five remained now.

……As expected, the bastards at the Bureau seemed to be the most vicious thing in this place.

Hey, was this what you meant when you said the rulebook was still being produced?

But if you intended to use people this way, couldn’t you at least tell them about the 「Moving Gun」?

Why had you told them nothing?

Were you afraid that knowing too much would give them other ideas?

That they would fight over choosing a sacrifice?

Even so, wouldn’t this method make both the survival rate and efficiency far too low?

I didn’t know. A powerless little citizen like me could never understand the thought process of those devils…… or could I? Hm?

Wait. Could it be?

I drew a sharp breath at the thought that flashed through my mind.

Then I stole a glance at White’s armband and spoke with feigned indifference.

“If you’ve wandered around that long, you must know the whole layout by now.”

“More or less.”

“Then draw me a map.”

“What?”

“So I can familiarize myself with the geography too.”

At my request, White stared at me for a moment.

The eyes visible between her face covering traced gentle curves like a deer’s.

I waited for her answer, hoping that gaze would not transform.

Several seconds later,

White’s eyes narrowed into crescents.

“You’re right. It would be terrible if you got lost.”

White smiled brightly, then began drawing a cross-sectional map on the back of the order sheet she had given me.

“Here.”

White quickly finished the cross section and handed it to me.

I accepted it and bent over as though resuming work.

Then, when White had her back to me, I secretly unfolded it.

Hah. Seriously?

A sigh escaped me of its own accord.

The “Special Advice!” handwritten at the bottom of the order sheet.

And the labels on the cross-sectional map White had just drawn.

The handwriting was identical.

* * *

Ten minutes later, Black’s group returned.

Black and White shared information as they had before.

By the time we repeated the process several times, thirty minutes had passed.

Nothing particularly unusual happened in the meantime.

Except that one of Orange’s ears disappeared.

It happened while Black’s group was taking Orange around the hospital.

Apparently, the wall suddenly opened up, and one of Orange’s ears went flying.

In any case, nothing else happened.

The 「Moving Gun」 continued roaming alone.

We still had not found an intact organ.

And I was now in an unparalleled state of anxiety.

The 「Moving Gun」 was so slow that it still had not hunted anyone.

At this rate, it would soon go berserk.

How were we supposed to survive that?

Now that they were watching me less closely, should I flee?

Even if I fled, could I avoid that catastrophe by myself?

Was there any chance the rescue team might arrive a few minutes early?

Should I simply tell the others about it?

Or should I sacrifice someone?

……The mere thought made my chest feel tight.

Many people wished to see villains punished.

But if told to carry out the execution themselves, most would hesitate.

Feeling burdened by the life of another person—even a violent criminal—was normal.

I felt the same, and I wanted to avoid crossing that line if at all possible.

I never wanted to become a broken human being like Orange.

Driven into a corner, I agonized over the problem second by second.

But I was not the only person harboring a scheme.

I was on my way back to the operating suite after completing another circuit of the hospital with White, Blue, and Orange.

White and Blue, who had been beside me, stopped abruptly and murmured to each other.

“What should we do?”

“Who knows.”

But Blue had spoken politely, while White answered them informally.

I was puzzling over the change in their speech when

something leaped from between the chairs and charged at me.

As I recoiled in surprise, Blue seized it and slammed it onto the floor.

Thud—!

“Ugh, get off!”

The man whom Blue had thrown down, wrenching his arm, shouted.

It was none other than Red.

Ignoring Red’s resistance, Blue shouted at me.

“Behind you!”

At a sudden chill, I reflexively threw myself aside.

Clang—!

An iron bar slammed into the spot where I had stood a moment later.

“Hah. You actually dodged that.”

The one who had swung at me from behind was none other than Black.

The bastard was brandishing some length of plumbing pipe he had picked up somewhere.

Waving the pipe, Black spoke to Blue.

“Blue, move aside. There’s a reason for this.”

Blue ignored him and continued pinning Red down.

Black sighed, then addressed me.

“There’s something you didn’t tell us, isn’t there?”

Pushing up his glasses, Black smiled unpleasantly.

“Someone has to die before that monster stops. Isn’t that right?”

Damn it. He had figured it out.

But I had figured something out too.

So it really was you—the Archimedes of the railway station.