The Security Rulebook.
There were countless twists and turns, but I can be certain of one thing.
This rulebook was written to save people.
Let’s look at item 4.
4. Survival rules upon encountering Wogijagi in the Basement
What’s noteworthy here is the phrase ‘survival rules.’
The YouTuber Nikon was actually able to see the 4 rules, and even after being missing for about a week, he was still alive.
His existence proved that this rulebook wasn’t simply meant to feed people to something.
And in my opinion, item 5 is the key to escape.
5.━─━─━───.
Odd numbers must become even, and even numbers must become odd.
Wogijagi-nim, Wogiwogijagijagi─.
The detailed contents of item 5 were erased, though.
At least the sentence ‘odd numbers must become even, and even numbers must become odd’ was perfectly preserved.
It’s disgustingly vague and ambiguously written, but.
Aside from this, I can’t think of any other way out of here.
Still, just in case, I checked the entrance I had come through.
“Haah, the hole I came in through is really gone.”
“Right? That’s what I said!”
Where the hole and rope should have been, a concrete ceiling was filled in as if they had never existed.
“Iryeong-ssi, check the walls for a ladder or a door leading up to the ceiling.”
“…A door?”
“The entrance you and I came through was just a hole in the floor. Originally, there’s a door for entering and leaving this basement. One I locked with a padlock.”
“…Ah! The bolt cutters!”
Bolt cutters?
When I raised an eyebrow, Iryeong-ssi noticed my expression and quickly added an explanation.
“That bastard Jang Geunbeom tried to cut the basement door’s lock with a cutter! But it wouldn’t cut, so he looked around and found the hole!”
So that’s what happened.
Either way, Iryeong-ssi now understood what ‘door’ I was talking about.
We can get out through there─.
That thought seemed to cross her mind, and a spark of life returned to her eyes.
There was one problem, though.
As we moved around searching for the door, the sound of a bell came ringing again.
Tiriring─.
That ominous energy made Iryeong-ssi’s hair stand on end.
She soon barked like a ferocious dog.
“Wh…What the hell! Get lost! I said don’t come near! Get out!”
Honestly, I’d never seen a woman curse that colorfully in my entire life.
And if it’s a pretty woman with pink hair, the sight becomes all the more bizarre.
Boribori, who had been relatively well-behaved, also snarled like an enraged beast.
“Urrrr-!”
Then, as before, the bell sound failed to approach us and faded into the distance.
“It…It’s gone! I saved you, Mister! Ever since I was little, they said I had the gift, that becoming a shaman would let me live long! That’s why I can drive away ghosts!”
Iryeong-ssi grabbed my arm and shook it back and forth.
Is that really the case?
‘I think it was Boribori who chased it away.’
Boribori had once barked furiously and driven off Ming, the evil spirit from Thailand.
And just before, she had made Wogijagi back off as well.
Wasn’t this the same?
Of course, there’s no telling how long Boribori’s threats would keep working.
So I kept moving and finally reached the destination I’d been hoping for.
“I figured it’d be around here somewhere.”
There was a ladder structure made of bent steel beams attached to the wall.
At the ceiling, a massive iron door loomed over us, grand and imposing.
“…Whoa! A door!”
Iryeong-ssi bolted ahead first.
She climbed the rusty ladder and pounded on the iron door─.
Thunk thunk thunk-.
Naturally, it didn’t open.
“Ahhh! This door! It’s so rusted it won’t open!”
Is it really just rust keeping it shut?
No, it’s probably because of the ‘Blockade’ magic I cast on the outside.
5.━─━─━───.
Odd numbers must become even, and even numbers must become odd.
Wogijagi-nim, Wogiwogijagijagi─.
Maybe it was because of this rule, item 5.
Perhaps the door only opens when this rule is fulfilled.
But I had no intention of following rule 5 as written.
That feeling of ‘malice’ emanating from this rulebook.
I believed it was coming from this very item.
Iryeong-ssi, who claimed to be a shaman with good instincts, had called this rulebook ‘unsettling’—that was probably also due to this item 5, not the other rules.
Couldn’t item 5 itself be both the exit from this basement and a trap at the same time?
I had some supporting reasoning.
The saying that even becomes odd, and odd becomes even.
That probably meant something like this.
If two came in, one must die to become odd.
If three came in, one must die to become even, then you can leave─.
In other words, a bizarre system that forces someone’s ‘sacrifice.’
For me and Iryeong-ssi, who were even, to become odd, there was only one of two ways.
So what should I do now?
Do I have to follow rule 5 and let one of us collapse?
An ordinary person would have had to.
But.
‘We’re both getting out.’
I’m a Mage.
Clank, clank clank-.
I climbed the rusty ladder.
Then I reached toward the iron door on the ceiling.
The sensation of the heavy, solid, rusted iron door pressed clearly against my palm.
On the other side of this, the ‘Blockade’ magic circle I had drawn would be holding firm.
Now for an experiment.
What would happen if I drew a new ‘Opening’ circle over the existing Blockade circle?
Scritch scratch scratch-.
I traced a magic circle with my fingertip to find out.
And then─.
Clank-. Rattle rattle-.
A sound of something releasing came from outside.
It seemed the lock I’d placed out there had come undone.
Drawing a new magic circle over the old one overwrites it, then.
In hindsight, it was perfectly clear, and even satisfying for that matter.
“Hmph!“
I pushed against the door with all my strength.
It creaked─and swung upward.
As the summer breeze seeped through the gap, lukewarm against my face, at that moment.
[Aaaaa-aaaaaah!!!]
A grief-stricken wail, like a beast robbed of its young, seized the back of my neck.
The voices spread ominously in multiple directions, like a choir gone wrong.
What, they’re pissed that I left without following the ‘rules’?
Serves them right!
My magic works on you freaks too!
It was as exhilarating and refreshing as washing a sweat-soaked body in cold water.
A jaunty rhythm slipped into my steps as I climbed toward the surface.
The summer dawn, just beginning to break, welcomed me.
“Waaaaah! Waaah!”
Iryeong-ssi, gripping my hand as she emerged above ground, was overjoyed to see the world.
Can someone really be that happy?
“Thank you so much! Ajeo─Yuseong-ssi! No, Yuseong oppa! Thank you so much!”
With a lunge─, Iryeong-ssi’s arms wrapped around me.
She must have run and stumbled around the basement, drenched in sweat, yet she smelled of a pleasant peach-scented fragrance.
“Oppa, thank you so much! Hic, hnngh….”
Iryeong-ssi burst into tears while holding me.
She had been holding strong all this time, and now that relief had broken her composure, everything she’d been holding back came flooding out like a gate bursting open.
“Thank you, really. Truly….”
Her words eventually dissolved into unintelligible sobs.
I peeled her off me and pulled out my phone.
Finally, I could make a call.
“Yes, is this the police station?”
I have to do what needs to be done.
No trespassing!
#
At 5:20 AM, the police arrived.
They went down into the basement.
And something bizarre happened.
“There’s nothing down here.”
There was nothing.
Those bright red doors.
The bats the size of my torso.
The unidentified monster.
There was only a cramped, half-finished underground parking lot suited for a small commercial building.
As dust scattered from the discarded materials, the police coughed and filed back out.
“Sir, you said there were more people? Are you sure?”
When the officer asked me, I looked at Iryeong-ssi.
Jang Geunbeom, Nikon, Miyeong.
Where the hell had the ones she said were with her gone?
Iryeong-ssi, equally bewildered, could only flap her mouth like a goldfish, repeating, “But, they were really there….”
‘The space changed?’
At that moment, I formed a hypothesis.
Just like the rules only I could see, maybe there was a separate space in this basement that ordinary people couldn’t reach?
If I thought of it that way, everything that had happened made sense.
Then a man in a black suit appeared at the scene.
He said something to the police, then walked over to me.
“You’re Yuseong-ssi, the security guard at the Dori Building, right? Let’s talk inside first.”
Looking to be in his early thirties, he strode into the container office.
Then he tore open a coffee stick by the water dispenser, poured it into a paper cup, and began stirring. The sequence of motions was so familiar that he seemed like someone who’d been in this place for a long time.
He handed me the coffee.
But what really shocked me came next.
“Urrrrr─!”
Boribori’s tail shot straight up at the sight of the man in the suit.
Though it seemed a bit different from her usual threat display.
Boribori was cowering in the corner of the container like a cornered rat.
‘…She’s scared?’
I’d never seen Boribori like that.
While I was reeling from the shock, the man adjusted his glasses and asked.
“Is there something over there?”
“…No, just a mosquito….”
For some reason, I lied.
Boribori, afraid of something.
Faced with such an unusual situation, I couldn’t help it….
I took a sip of coffee to hide my awkward expression.
It tasted sweet.
“Silicone, cement, industrial adhesives. Do you know what happens when you leave waste materials in an enclosed space for a long time?”
“Pardon?”
“They emit toxic gases. If inhaled, you experience hallucinations or auditory hallucinations. The toluene in industrial adhesives is the culprit.”
“Hallucinations and auditory hallucinations?”
“Yes. Kim Iryeong-ssi and security guard Ha Yuseong-ssi were suffering from auditory and visual hallucinations. They may seem like mild symptoms, but they can be fatal. So immediate treatment is necessary.”
Swoosh─. Thunk.
The man handed me a rectangular paper box.
White, about the size of a palm.
「Neuron Clear Tablet, 1 pack」
Medicine? A medicine box?
As I was puzzling over it, the man pushed his glasses up with his index finger.
It was as if his entire body was insisting I take this pill.
“Urrrrr-.”
Boribori was still cowering in the corner, terrified of this man.
“…Do I have to take it right now?”
“The sooner, the better. If the state of intoxication persists for too long, the frequency of auditory and visual hallucinations will increase. People report seeing grotesque monsters or dead people during their daily routines.”
So taking that pill would make that go away?
While I was rapidly piecing things together in my head, the man let out a sigh.
“—Yuseong-ssi, don’t you want to return to your normal life? If you take this, you won’t be targeted by monster hallucinations or lose your way at crossroads anymore.”
The man spoke in a businesslike, matter-of-fact tone.
But there was a faint hint of irritation laced within.
He clearly knew what he was talking about.
That I was the type to be targeted by unidentified monsters, or to lose my way at crossroads─.
At that moment, my heart pounded harder than ever before.
A single question swelled in my chest and burst out past my lips.
“…Are you a Mage, by any chance?”
Pfft─.
The cold eyes behind his glasses narrowed.
This impassive man had just smiled for the first time.
At that moment, an answer crystallized within me.
…I knew it, it’s this man!
The kind who creates rulebooks!
“Urrrrrr….”
Boribori was still on guard against him from the corner.
Even after he got up and disappeared completely from view.