Chapter 30. The Company (2)
The elevator doors opened almost immediately.
Maybe this really was future technology, because it took less than ten seconds to reach the 500th floor.
My group and I stepped out of the elevator and looked around.
A Company hallway stretched before us.
However, the atmosphere here was completely different from the first floor.
The first floor had looked like an ordinary corporate office, but this hallway looked abnormal at first glance.
It reminded me of the interior of a spaceship from a movie.
“There’s no one here either. I can’t sense anyone with my qi perception.”
Hwaryeon spoke.
Having reached the First-Class realm, Hwaryeon had said she could sense living creatures within a radius of one hundred meters using her qi perception.
And she was certain.
There were no people on this floor.
Normally, an important area would have someone guarding it.
Had I chosen the wrong floor?
But if that were the case, Kim Hyunwoo's reaction had been far too intense.
After thinking for a moment, I asked Hwaryeon,
“Then what about presences that aren't human? Something that isn't alive but still moves. Can you sense things like that?”
Hwaryeon closed her eyes and focused before answering.
“Yeah. I can sense those.”
She paused.
“Quite a lot of them, actually.”
“Where do you sense the most?”
Her finger pointed in one direction.
Toward the very end of the long hallway.
Her fingertip aimed beyond a space sealed by a solid-looking door.
It seemed choosing the 500th floor really had been the right decision.
I glanced at Kim Hyunwoo.
His complexion had become even paler.
Come to think of it, this guy was suspicious too.
Even if he couldn't die and couldn't feel pain, that didn't mean he was completely safe.
Kim Hyunwoo still had no solution to the mental stress caused by endlessly dying.
And there was nothing stopping us from capturing him alive and dragging him around as a hostage instead of killing him.
He should have known that too.
So why had he personally come down to greet me?
There were too many things I didn't understand.
For now, I decided to focus on the hallway in front of me.
If things went badly, I could simply regress.
I walked forward while occasionally tapping Kim Hyunwoo with the Curtain.
We soon reached the end of the hallway.
A door blocked our path.
“It’s a door. How are we supposed to open it?”
It was enormous.
I knocked on it with the back of my hand, trying to estimate its thickness, but there wasn't even the slightest vibration.
Even a bank vault probably wasn't this solid.
Just how thick was this thing?
“Should I try cutting it?”
Hwaryeon didn't seem to be seriously asking.
She swung her sword before anyone could answer.
CLAAANG!
A horrible sound, like metal scraping across a steel plate, echoed through the hallway.
Even though her strike had been fully reinforced with internal energy, it wasn't the door that broke.
It was her sword.
The recoil violently threw her arm backward.
“Ugh!”
A small groan escaped her lips as blood sprayed.
Even under that massive recoil, Hwaryeon refused to let go of her sword.
The price was her grip.
Blood poured from the torn flesh of her palm.
Lee Yeonhee immediately treated her wound.
Hwaryeon calmly drew a second sword from her waist.
“Looks like swords won't work.”
The only damage left on the wall looked like someone had scratched paper with a fingernail.
Cutting through it with a sword seemed impossible.
Arlin's lightning would probably be useless too.
There had to be some other method.
I narrowed my eyes and inspected the area around the door.
Then I noticed something.
There was a device installed beside the door.
It looked similar to a payment terminal where you inserted or scanned a card.
I understood.
I pulled Kim Hyunwoo out of the Curtain, where he had been slowly suffocating.
When I touched his neck, a necklace hidden under his suit became visible.
An employee ID card hung from it.
It proved that Kim Hyunwoo was an Assistant Manager belonging to the Company.
I cut the necklace with my sword and took the ID card.
The moment I placed it against the device, the door automatically opened.
And beyond the door were the things Hwaryeon had sensed.
“……”
“Wow.”
“They look dangerous.”
“Ah……”
Things that moved despite not being alive.
Robots.
They had bizarre gun-barrel-like weapons attached to their hands, while red telescope-like devices were mounted on their heads.
Every robot turned toward us.
Whiiiiirrrrr—
The overlapping mechanical noises blended together like an orchestra.
It looked extremely dangerous.
Did robots normally recognize people by their faces?
I held Kim Hyunwoo in front of one robot's telescope-like head.
Its head flashed.
Then a straight beam of red light shot out.
Kim Hyunwoo's head was struck before he could even react.
It turned into polygons.
The robot's head immediately moved, searching for its next target.
Crazy bastard!
“Hit them with everything you've got!”
I fired my handgun as I shouted.
The gunshot rang out like a signal flare announcing the beginning of war.
The real battle began.
Arlin, who had already finished preparing her spell, swept her hand through the air.
A wave made entirely of electricity surged forward.
Lightning woven together like a dense net swept across the room and devoured the robots.
It was a much more advanced spell than the lightning strike she had shown before.
The time we spent going through the Gallery together and helping her study had finally paid off.
“Over here, you piles of scrap metal!”
Lee Jinseong, whom I hadn't even realized was there, removed his invisibility cloak and drew the robots' attention.
Using that opening, Hwaryeon rushed forward and sliced through the robots.
Their bodies had barely been scratched by bullets.
Yet in front of Hwaryeon's swordsmanship, they were cut apart like tofu.
No matter how advanced future technology was, it was still something humans could eventually achieve.
My companions, on the other hand, were made up of Mysteries and abilities that normal human technology could never reach.
Even so, perhaps because this was still the Company, we did suffer some injuries.
The rapidly fired red beams sometimes pierced through our bodies or grazed us.
But we had a healer.
Whenever Lee Yeonhee waved her hand, not only our wounds but even our exhaustion disappeared.
Her divine power had advanced another level during our journey here.
The battle ended overwhelmingly in our favor.
Honestly, it was almost ridiculous.
This was the Company that had created the zombie virus.
The Company that sold strange things like the Status Window and procedures that turned humans into living weapons.
There was no way that Company could only be this strong.
I didn't simply feel confused.
I felt suspicious.
I looked at Kim Hyunwoo, who had already revived again.
“Kim Hyunwoo. Are you hiding something from us?”
He smiled.
“Well, isn't it natural to hide things from an enemy? Haha. Of course I'm hiding something.”
Then he continued,
“But I'll tell you one thing. You should go to another floor right now.”
“Anywhere except the 500th floor.”
I stared at him.
“That's not what I'm asking. There's no way you're the only person working for the Company. So why haven't we seen anyone else?”
Kim Hyunwoo smiled again.
“If you'd gone to the 97th floor like I told you, maybe you would've met some people?”
“Why don't you go there now?”
I wrapped Kim Hyunwoo in the Curtain again and fell into thought.
I had to be missing something.
What was it?
There was one obvious possibility.
Immediately after we destroyed all the robots, another door leading into a different hallway had opened.
Beyond it, a blue light flickered.
Anyone could tell that something unusual was there.
That blue light almost seemed to be pulling us toward it.
If we went through the door and followed the light, we would probably discover something.
But wasn't the timing far too suspicious?
This wasn't some video game.
A door that only opened after defeating every enemy was far too unrealistic.
There was a ninety-nine percent chance it was a trap.
Walking straight into it would be idiotic.
Anyone else might have gone.
But I definitely wouldn't have.
At least—
Not if I didn't have the book.
I did have the book.
And because of it, I could regress endlessly.
One advantage of infinite regression was that I could throw away my life simply to satisfy my curiosity.
But there was also a downside.
Suppose I threw myself into danger to satisfy my curiosity.
And suppose I died because of it.
Then what happened to the companions I left behind?
What happened to them afterward?
That question made things complicated.
If the world continued existing after I disappeared, then they would essentially be abandoned by me.
But if the world collapsed when I died and regressed, then it wasn't much different from me killing them myself.
Infinite regression in reality wasn't purely a blessing like it might be in a game.
Haah……
Until now, I had casually thought that I could just regress whenever something went wrong.
But now that a clear possibility of death stood right in front of me, all kinds of thoughts entered my mind.
With countless emotions mixed together, I turned to look at my companions.
They knew about my book.
They also knew what it could do.
It seemed they could roughly guess what I was worried about.
Hwaryeon was the first to speak.
“Why are you worrying about something like that?”
“……”
“If I had the same ability as you, Yuhyeon, I'd challenge anyone I could find to a life-or-death duel.”
Her expression was completely serious.
“Whether I died or not, I'd keep swinging my sword like that until I became stronger.”
Hwaryeon dismissed my worries as pointless.
“The people you'd leave behind? Why should you care about something like that?”
“The most important person in my life is me.”
“If I can become stronger, I'm willing to accept losing other people.”
Lee Yeonhee cautiously disagreed.
“Um…… But isn't it possible for someone else to be more important than yourself?”
She hesitated.
“For example…… someone you love.”
Hwaryeon ignored the argument and kept looking only at me.
“Anyway, what I'm saying is that you shouldn't worry about stuff like that.”
“If you're living in a world where Mysteries exist and you've obtained a completely broken Mystery, then you should be thinking about how to use it.”
Arlin calmly joined in.
“For once, I agree with the sword freak.”
“I disagree with many of the details behind that woman's reasoning, but her conclusion is correct.”
She looked at me.
“Your concern is ultimately pointless.”
Lee Yeonhee also spoke.
“I…… agree with those two as well.”
She continued carefully,
“It's not like you're going back to one year ago, before we ever met.”
“At most, you regress by less than a day, right?”
All three of them shared the same opinion.
I shouldn't worry about them.
I should simply do whatever I wanted.
When I asked them why they thought that way, Hwaryeon and Arlin both answered that it was because I was their master.
Lee Yeonhee merely gave me a gentle smile.
In the end, they gave me courage.
Without realizing it, I had become afraid of regression.
They gave me the courage to use it without hesitation again.
I had a feeling many things would change from this point onward.
Together with them, I walked through the door.
And that day—
I died.
