Surviving Among the Entities

“Okay, sent it.”

Shin Se-hoon (40), who had sent the email, stretched. Out of habit, he took out a cigarette but sighed at the empty pack.

‘Should I quit this time?’

Since he didn’t want to waste the remaining cigarettes, he decided to finish them before quitting.
Quitting nicotine abruptly made it hard to think clearly, so he would quit after finishing this case.
It was already the end of the month, so he would quit starting the 1st of next month.
It was the 1st, but since the remaining cigarettes were a waste, he would finish them before quitting.
He had finished them, but then discovered a new case, and quitting nicotine abruptly would make it hard to think clearly, so he would quit after finishing this one.

Having started quitting smoking at the beginning of the year due to being in his 40s, Shin Se-hoon desperately searched for things to do to help with his short-lived attempts at quitting, even though half the year had already passed.

‘Let me inspect the entities.’

He inspected and maintained the four entities that had brought him to his current position as a detective.

‘Let me clean them thoroughly.’

The camera that captures the past.
A camera that can capture the past of a given location, with time adjustable to the minute and a maximum range of up to a thousand years ago.

‘You too!’

The FBI badge of absolute interrogation.
Shoving the badge at anyone compels them to be interviewed by the entity.
However, it cannot force them to speak only the truth, so the veracity must be discerned by the individual.

‘Thought you could escape? You need cleaning too! I’ll just remove the lint for now and dry clean you later!’

The killer’s suit jacket.
Upon wearing it, one’s accuracy with firearms becomes 100%, granting exceptional martial arts skills and the ability to sense danger and killing intent.

‘Let me clean you too! Wiping the glass until it’s spick and span… wait, can I wipe electronics?’

And finally, the master detective’s touchpad.
By entering a specific case and properly inputting information, helpful hints are provided with each 10% increase in the case’s progress.

Shin Se-hoon activated the touchpad.

[Information 147: The perpetrator behind everything is the Lee clan of Dangjin.]
[The Missing Four: Progress 90%]
[Hint 9: Could this case be resolved by working with Resolver Seung-hoon Lee?]

‘Does it mean this case cannot be resolved without the world’s greatest resolver?’

Or was there another reason it hadn’t come up until now?

‘There’s no major change for me. Then has there been a change in the Lee clan of Dangjin or Resolver Seung-hoon Lee? I should look into it.’

The master detective’s touchpad can input information a maximum of three times per day.
The touchpad discerns the veracity of the inputted information and its relevance to the case, and if either is incorrect, the progress does not increase.
If all three inputs fail, it stops functioning for a month, so inputs must always be made carefully. However, if the first piece of information is true, subsequent incorrect information is allowed, so Shin Se-hoon used the remaining two input opportunities as a means to discern the veracity of the information.

[Information 148: There has been a change in the Lee clan of Dangjin, and this presents an opening for Resolver Seung-hoon Lee to exploit.]
[The Missing Four: Incorrect information, no progress change.]

[Information 149: There has been a change in Resolver Seung-hoon Lee, and this change is related to the Missing Four case.]
[The Missing Four: Progress 91%]

There has been a change in Seung-hoon Lee.
Like the other missing persons, he may have become a target of the Lee clan of Dangjin as a famous figure of the current era.

‘What method do they use to target the missing persons?’

He turned on the TV for white noise. After tuning it to a news channel, he fell into contemplation.

‘Their residence contained many things with occult meanings. Then it’s highly likely they use occult methods to mark and lure in the missing persons through spatial movement rituals, since the missing persons vanished suddenly as if disappearing into thin air. Or they perform occult markings on the missing persons, and an entity tracks that to swallow them into its own space.’

Most missing persons had received special treatment from those related to the Lee clan of Dangjin.
The missing persons said they had eaten special cuisine.
I was also served special cuisine.
They can create special cuisine.

“!?”

The startled Shin Se-hoon quickly put on the killer’s suit jacket.

‘Why didn’t I realize it until now?’

He burst through the office door and dashed down the corridor.

‘It’s the food, isn’t it!? The missing persons’ last actions, and when I visited directly, I also ate cuisine heavily laden with occult significance!’

The elevator wouldn’t work. In modern occultism, the elevator is the easiest device to manipulate.
Opening the emergency exit, he hurried down the stairs, his face etched with urgency.

‘It’s the food! The occult marking is the food! Not understanding such a simple thing must have been a cognitive distortion! And the fact that this cognitive distortion is only being resolved now means……!’

He swiftly reached the emergency exit on the first floor and opened the door.

“……Damn it.”

Beyond the door was the 9th floor corridor.

“It’s already too late.”

Having failed to escape, Shin Se-hoon gathered information about the space he was trapped in.

‘All floors have changed to the 9th floor.’

There were no other people.
Each duplicated floor was identical in every way, except for one thing – the entities only existed on the original 9th floor, not in the duplicates.

‘Even if changes occur, if I visit another floor and return, everything is restored.’

Using this, he wouldn’t have to worry about food supplies.
He ate the food stocked in the office as he continued gathering information.

‘The TV works, but the same channel, the same news, repeats endlessly.’

Cell phones were dead.
Not just apps, but messaging apps also didn’t function.

‘The elevator works. However, all buttons have changed to the 4th floor.’

The Missing Four.
He absolutely avoided using the elevator, the occult number signifying death.

‘But it could still be used as an escape route.’

Instead, he forcibly opened and fixed the elevator doors, then attempted to escape through the elevator shaft by opening the ceiling hatch.

‘……Let’s go back.’

Beyond the darkness of the shaft, there was something.
It was a human silhouette, but the moment he saw the creature crawling on all fours through the shaft, his instincts sounded an alarm.

‘Someday, I’ll be able to escape this place.’

The first day ended.

‘I also sent an email to Resolver Seung-hoon Lee. Even if the flow of time differs between here and the outside, if I can endure for just one more day, I should be able to get out.’

Two days passed.
Shin Se-hoon immediately sensed a change.

‘The suit isn’t working?’

Wearing the suit activates another sense that could be called instinct.
It was through this sense that he had sensed the danger from the entity in the elevator shaft, but now that sense had become inactive.

‘A change caused by this space, it seems.’

The camera also didn’t work. There was no way to test the badge, but it was likely the same.
Finally, when he activated the touchpad, garbled text crudely appeared.

[Ynmrwmacyr 149: Ylofuqhtu yaqhutroq qhacqyura faywmshr defac nneqhu 4ye qrqhr whfyaqhe nuhya.]
[4fl qqormn: Lxcffms 91%]
[Hfmcu 9: Yl!Vmsmhum! Yaqhutroq Qyywhru Hyaqywhru Nudya Huflhrl Hyl!Vul!Hyr! Vu! Lvcvyr!ye!]

The emphasized parts could indicate the touchpad was resisting this space.
Among object-type entities, there were cases where they possessed a self.

‘Let me endure a bit longer. Right, as long as I don’t do anything, no problem will arise, right? Resolver Seung-hoon Lee will come soon.’

He just had to endure until then.
Today’s food was 3-minute meatballs stored in the office refrigerator.

Ten days passed.
Shin Se-hoon arbitrarily guessed the flow of time.

“Let’s assume one day here is one minute outside. Then only 10 minutes have passed so far. If I expect it to take 24 hours for Resolver Seung-hoon Lee to arrive, I just need to endure for 1,430 more minutes.”

He began talking to himself, something he hadn’t done before.
The TV was still repeating the same channel. But for some reason, a different channel was broadcasting today.

[Our clan believes all humans are born addicted.]

It was a conversation he had previously had with the head of the Lee clan of Dangjin.

[The human soul possesses the talent to accomplish anything, but it is addicted to misfortune and cannot be born into a body that can fully unleash its talents. This misfortune is an innate poison that no one can avoid, so there seems to be no way to resolve it. However, there is a way to suppress it.]
[What is that?]
[Poisoning with poison.]
[To suppress misfortune with misfortune?]
[Slightly different. Suppressing misfortune with misfortune is inherently impossible once the misfortune has occurred. But if we think differently, misfortune is a calamity that robs humans of their talents and brings hardship to life, so suppressing it with the same calamity would work.]

At the time, he hadn’t understood.
He had found it suspicious and only made a separate note.

[Poisoning with poison, suppressing poison with poison, suppressing evil with evil – all are survival methods created by human wisdom. Remember this.]

“Could the Lee clan of Dangjin’s talents have been obtained by suppressing misfortune?”

But how?
What did the missing persons and suppressing calamity with calamity have to do with each other?

There was no answer.
The TV turned off and never turned on again.

100 days passed.
Seung-hoon had still not arrived.

“I can escape, I can escape……”

Shin Se-hoon had lost his words, but occasionally forced them out like this.
The master detective’s touchpad remained the same, and input was possible, but the content was still garbled, and further input yielded nothing.

“I need to stay sane. When captured by an entity, the most important thing is to maintain one’s sanity.”

To this end, he had recently started exercising.
After exercising diligently at the gym on the same floor and taking a shower, he felt refreshed.

“The gym’s noisy customers used to annoy me, but now it’s helpful.”

A few days later.
That day was no different from any other.

However, strange noises came from another office, so he cautiously headed in that direction.

“In handling poison, one must first experience the poison.”

The location was the tax office on the same floor.
Through the gap between the two glass doors, the interior of the office had transformed into an ancient shrine.

“You have experienced all poisons. All thanks to his blessing. However, there is still one poison you have not experienced.”
“What is that?”

An elderly priest and a young man.
Shin Se-hoon thought the young man resembled Lee Won-bok, the head of the Lee clan of Dangjin.

“It is heartpoison.”
“What is heartpoison?”
“Heartpoison is regret. A single regret holds no meaning, but if it continues endlessly, it is no different from torturing oneself. You must taste it.”

The priest speaking turned his head towards Shin Se-hoon.

“Do you not have even a shred of regret in your life?”

Black liquid dripped from the priest’s mouth, revealing blackened teeth.
Startled, Shin Se-hoon averted his gaze from the gap. When he looked back, beyond the glass door was just an ordinary office.

“Regret……”

I will never regret.
He returned to his office.

“Seun-i, did you come?”

It was no longer his office.
It was the house of the neighborhood older sister he had been close with as a child, before he had become aware of gender.

“Yeah! Sis! Can I play games?”
“Sure, have fun. I have summer homework to do, so don’t disturb me, okay?”
“Got it!”

Shin Se-hoon became an outsider, watching the scene unfold.
They didn’t perceive him. He wanted to approach but was blocked by an invisible wall.

“Yeah! I beat it!”

The young Shin Se-hoon was playing Mario on a Famicom.
The calendar showed July, a date he remembered.

“Huh? What’s this? Why is there a pipe here? It wasn’t here before?”

No.
Don’t go, you mustn’t enter that pipe.

“A secret passage!”

The game character entered the pipe.
There, a character resembling a princess appeared.

[“Hello! Brave hero! You’ve come to rescue me!”]
“Wow! It can talk!?”
[“Hero! Am I pretty?”]

The innocent child, unaware of any impropriety, honestly answered the dot-based character.

“Yeah! You’re pretty!”
[“Then between me and Sister Sun-a, who is prettier?”]
“Umm, Sister Sun-a is prettier!”
[“Is that so?”]

The princess character on the screen vanished.

“Kyaaah!”
“Sister!?”

Following the scream, the young Shin Se-hoon rushed into the room.
The adult Shin Se-hoon also tried to follow but was once again blocked by the invisible wall leading to Sun-a’s room.

“Hey.”

There, the princess held an axe.
Sun-a, already missing one leg and crying on the floor, reached out her hand.

“Seun-i said you’re prettier.”
“Seun…Seun-a!”

The princess raised the axe.

“I wonder if you’ll still be pretty without legs?”

Sun-a’s remaining leg was severed, accompanied by a scream.

“What about without an arm?”

A scream, accompanied by a spray of bloody froth.

“What about without both arms?”

Sun-a’s right arm vanished as her eyes rolled back in agony.

“Your face!”

Finally, the axe fell upon Sun-a’s face.

“I wonder if you’ll still be pretty! With such! A big! Scar!”

The sound of wood being split rang out repeatedly.
The young Shin Se-hoon wet himself and collapsed to the floor, trembling violently.

“Now.”

And then, the axe fell upon Sun-a’s neck.
The princess shoved Sun-a’s severed face towards the young Seun-i.

“Hero, tell me again. Is Sun-a prettier, or am I prettier?”

The young Seun-i passed out.
The princess cackled and flung Sun-a’s head aside before vanishing.

“……”

The adult Seun-i couldn’t take his eyes off Sun-a’s rolling head on the floor.

The first entity he had encountered.
His neighborhood older sister, killed due to his careless words.
The first murder by an entity he had witnessed.

Sun-a’s severed face came to a stop.
Her face, mangled by axe wounds.
Gradually, she opened her eyes and glared at the adult Seun-i.

[“It’s all your fault.”]

When he regained his senses, he was back in his office.
His office as the Mystery Detective, the culmination of his efforts to overcome the nightmare of his childhood.

“……”

The oppressive feeling in his chest did not go away.

He had become addicted to heartpoison.