OL Ch 14

Chapter 14

[Auntie, it’s Hayeong here. Please open the door. The door, please.]

“…..”

[Weren’t you looking for me?]

Baek Jinha rubbed his face, unable to believe what he was seeing through the intercom camera.

“Do you recognize her?” Mookyeong asked.

Baek Jinha nodded. “Mun Taegang’s granddaughter.”

Mun Taegang. At the familiar name, Hayun gasped sharply. He recalled Seo Iju mentioning Mun Taegang recently. His children lived abroad, and Seo Iju had mentioned that she and her husband arranged Mun Taegang’s funeral. If his children were overseas, why was his granddaughter here, especially at 4 AM during torrential rain?

However, Hayun couldn’t focus solely on Mun Taegang’s granddaughter; an irritating sound was gradually getting closer.

“Teacher…!” Hayun called out to Seo Iju. As soon as Seo Iju turned her head, Hayun opened his mouth.

“Don’t you hear that sound?”

Seo Iju tilted her head at Hayun’s question. She realized Hayun wasn’t referring to the doorbell, but she couldn’t discern what sound Hayun was talking about.

“…It sounds like something breaking through doors. Something very large is approaching.”

Upon hearing Hayun’s words, both Seo Iju and Baek Jinha exchanged glances. Seo Iju hastily tried contacting the research institute. Meanwhile, they heard knocking on the main gate. The sound wasn’t loud, resembling light taps with small hands. However, suddenly, the noise began to change.

Thud thud. The sound was smaller and duller than before but accompanied by unease. Each time the doorbell rang, Mun Hayeong’s image disappeared from the intercom screen. When she reappeared, her forehead bore deep wrinkles, yet she continued to smile.

[Auntie, p-please open the d-door. Y-You can o-open it, right?]

It seemed like she could only make that expression.

[Auntie, Auntie! Open the door! Hayeong will die! I will die!]

Mun Hayeong screamed as if her voice would tear apart while rocking her body back and forth violently. Then with a snapping sound, her head abruptly bent forward.

[Ah. Already dead.]

The screams piercing their ears ceased as Mun Hayeong started mumbling. Meanwhile, Seo Iju calmly concluded her phone conversation. She kept it on but put the mobile phone back into her pocket.

“…I roughly understand how she became so agitated.”

At that moment, a man’s hand suddenly appeared on the screen. He waved a bracelet adorned with numerous charms in front of the camera. However, this was brief, and the intercom display soon showed Mun Hayeong’s forehead again. The sound of a metal door creaking followed. This house had numerous security devices installed.

Yet, they couldn’t shake off their unease. It seemed like the door would open shortly.

Baek Jinha signaled to Mookyeong. Mookyeong nodded and promptly took Hayun by the hand.

“W-Why?”

“Come here.”

Mookyeong led them to the study adjacent to Seo Iju’s bedroom. From the drawers inside, he retrieved various items and handed them to Hayun: raincoat, gas mask, survival bag packed with essentials, calf-length socks, military boots, self-defense weapons, etc. It was unclear when these supplies were prepared within the house. In no time, Mookyeong donned his own raincoat, socks, and boots while using his superhuman abilities to help Hayun dress up quickly.

He gently tapped Hayun’s cheek as he stared at the door.

“Do you understand that helping them means leaving now?”

Hayun nodded.

Seo Iju and Baek Jinha were formidable individuals, yet their urgency to evacuate them indicated the gravity of the situation.

‘Mun Taegang’s granddaughter. And Mun Taegang.’

The name Mun Taegang kept bothering Hayun. He had heard something about him but couldn’t quite recall what it was. All he remembered was that after being kidnapped and escaping, he took his own life.

‘But when did I hear that?’

Was it during one of their meals? As Hayun tried to jog his memory, Mookyeong searched under the desk in the study. He carefully lifted the floorboard, revealing a block beneath it measuring over fifteen centimeters wide. To avoid leaving any footprints, he controlled the air currents around him. Soon, an emergency passage emerged. Mookyeong briefly stared down before extending his hand towards Hayun.

“Come here.”

Hayun grasped Mookyeong’s hand and descended into the passage. The ladder crudely made by embedding steel rods into concrete walls wasn’t ideal, but it served its purpose for descending.

After confirming Hayun had reached the bottom, Mookyeong descended as well. Immediately upon landing, he replaced the flooring panel above them. The room above likely looked unchanged from before they opened the door. With the passageway sealed, darkness enveloped them completely.

“Let’s go.”

As Mookyeong spoke, Hayun turned on his flashlight. He gently swept it around to inspect the corridor. It felt unfamiliar, perhaps because no one used this passage except during emergency evacuation drills.

“If you could also climb down here, we wouldn’t need to open the door,” Hayun lamented with a hint of disappointment.

Mookyeong chuckled lightly, “Don’t leave me behind, okay?”

“You worry too much.”

However, there was a high chance that Hayun might indeed abandon Mookyeong. Feeling slightly defensive, Hayun shrugged off the thought.

At first glance, it appeared as if there was only one path ahead, but various doors leading to different directions were scattered throughout. Some resembled the hidden doors on the library floor, while others were intentionally crafted by Seo Iju herself. Unlike conventional doors connecting spaces, these doors forced open passages, creating makeshift tunnels. With repeated use, such openings gradually transformed into proper doorways that could be opened and closed. However, occasionally, even their creators couldn’t pass through them anymore.

Despite this, no matter how Hayun tried to open these doors, Mookyeong remained unable to follow him.

‘I can step on it and climb up, but I can’t pass through.’

It was frustrating how abilities between pieces didn’t always align seamlessly.

“We need to get as far away from here as possible.”

“…..?”

Hayun shared this sentiment. Due to Mun Hayeong’s presence outside their door, they couldn’t open any other doors. It felt wrong somehow. Despite their predicament, they sensed something approaching.

Amidst their hurried movements, Mookyeong suddenly spoke up:

“I can’t sense anything.”

“What do you mean?”

“The girl outside… And also the master of the hand.”

“Who, Mun Hayeong?”

Mookyeong appeared visibly anxious. The man’s hand briefly seen on screen and the bracelet he was wearing—Hayun didn’t know why it caused such unease. He swallowed hard, trying to remain calm.

‘Could that man be Kim Deukcheol?’

However, Kim Deukcheol was currently a wanted fugitive. Countless espers were relentless in their pursuit to capture him. There was no way he could have bypassed numerous checkpoints to enter Seoul unnoticed. Moreover, Seo Iju had only speculated a connection between the serial kidnapping-murders and the doorkeepers’ deaths; she hadn’t confirmed it definitively.

The timing suggested it might be the same perpetrator, but there was no definitive proof yet. If indeed the same person, why would they need to break in again?

Recently, the serial kidnapping and murder cases targeted underage espers. The age of victims had been steadily decreasing. Seo Iju and Baek Jinha were already in their forties, holding positions at a research institute focused on labyrinths. Why bother visiting them while being pursued?

On the other hand, if something here was crucial enough, even amidst pursuit, it made sense for the culprit to risk coming. But what could that possibly be?

‘Pinocchio conducted human experiments to create new espers, didn’t they…?’

Hayun’s anxious eyes darted around aimlessly. Noticing his unease, Baek Mookyeong addressed him:

“Kim Hayun, snap out of it.”

“…..”

“It’ll be alright.”

Mookyeong’s words made Hayun gasp sharply. The reassurance should have been directed at himself rather than Mookyeong.

“Yes, you’re right. It’ll be alright.”

Even if Kim Deukcheol appeared, Seo Iju and Baek Jinha were powerful espers. Unlike Hayun and Mookyeong, they had faced numerous real-life battles. Surely, they could overcome this situation safely once again.

Suddenly, an explosion echoed from above.

KABOOM!

“….!”

Hayun and Mookyeong swiftly crouched down and put on their gas masks. Shortly after, a faint evacuation alarm began to sound. This wasn’t just a warning for monster appearances; it was the signal indicating the emergence of a labyrinth.

Hayun gasped sharply as doors materialized around them, seemingly beckoning him to open them. He tightened his grip on Mookyeong’s hand and gave a slight nod. Most of the doors vanished, leaving only those created by Seo Iju.

Hayun and Mookyeong sprang back into action. As they sprinted with all their might, even the seemingly endless corridor was nearing its end. Upon reaching it, Mookyeong removed another cement block from the wall, this one three times thicker than the ones blocking the library entrance earlier. An ordinary person wouldn’t have been able to lift or remove such a block, but Mookyeong effortlessly cleared it aside and proceeded to input the password for the protective window. It was crucial to deactivate the password lock before entering the corridor beyond, as failing to do so would trigger infrared detectors.

“Slowly and calmly.”

His hands were slippery from nervousness, and there were no markings on the dial for entering the code. Mookyeong let out a small groan as he struggled with the lock. Eventually, he started using his superpowers to manipulate the dial.

Several minutes passed, but the siren continued unabated, punctuated by occasional explosions nearby. Sweat beaded on Mookyeong’s forehead. Finally, after hearing faint clicking sounds, the door opened.

Before sending Hayun inside, Mookyeong tossed a rock fragment into the room. Once confirmed there was no reaction, he moved Hayun forward. Mookyeong then blocked the entrance again before following Hayun. As they entered a corridor connected to the sewer system, the siren sounded even clearer.

The sound of water echoed nearby, but they also heard footsteps and heavy breathing, which shouldn’t have been audible at this distance. Hayun and Mookyeong simultaneously froze. They pressed their bodies against the wall, deliberating on what to do. Both were confident in dispatching small monsters before proceeding further, but the issue arose if these weren’t just minor threats.

Just as Mookyeong seemed about to speak, raising his head, Hayun instinctively pushed it back down—a gesture indicating he should remain silent. He knew exactly what Mookyeong was going to suggest.

‘He’ll probably tell me to leave him behind and go get help.’

While he might flee without thinking when his life hung by a thread, that moment hadn’t arrived yet—not now, not ever. Hayun tightened his grip on Mookyeong’s hand.

“But Hayun, there seems to be no other way.” With his keen senses, Mookyeong appeared to grasp what lay ahead.

“There are too many monsters. We can’t escape through the sewers.”

As if detecting their voices, the monsters started pounding on the ground. Hayun cautiously exhaled and stared at the nearby doors. The nameplates indicating where they led were changing, distorting into characters he couldn’t recognize.

‘Just like the black door I saw in my dream.’

When a labyrinth opened, it affected the surrounding area. Doors under its influence immediately altered their destination, reflected by changes in the nameplates.

“……”

Hayun swiftly inspected the doors leading to various passages. Since escaping via sewers was not possible, he had to choose between heading towards the surface, preferably close to home, or descending into a fallout shelter. In normal monster outbreaks, seeking refuge in a shelter would be ideal, but with a labyrinth opening, prioritizing distance from its influence became paramount.

Once a labyrinth opened, its influence would seal off access to the surrounding area until the gate closed. It could take one year or three years; no one knew if it might never close, leaving the region permanently inaccessible.

However, Hayun expected authorities to make every effort to shut the gate since this was Seoul. Although there were supplies stored in the bomb shelter, he wanted to avoid being isolated within the restricted zone if possible.

No one knew what kind of monsters would emerge from the labyrinth. Some might be psychic creatures, so merely avoiding physical harm wouldn’t guarantee safety.

With the exclusion of the air-raid shelter, they were left with two options: either backtrack to reunite with Seo Iju and her husband or exit through a passageway leading outside. If the man had entered the house, it would be safer to go outside; otherwise, joining up with Iju seemed prudent. Hayun searched for the door connecting to the exterior path.

As he cracked open the door slightly to assess the situation, screams and the sound of bones being gnawed reached their ears. Quickly shutting the door, Hayun turned towards Mookyeong. The two exchanged glances before focusing on the remaining choice.

To stay together, they had no other option but to retrace their steps.