B1 - Prison (7)

Han Gyeong-ah, a third-year officer at Seoul Police Station, was having a nightmare.
She had gone to work in good spirits beneath clear skies and was patrolling her district just like any other day…
Then she suddenly lost consciousness and woke up abducted somewhere unknown.
She hurried to report what had happened to the station, only to find that both her radio and smartphone were gone.
It seemed they’d searched her and taken only her means of communication.
And yet, her handgun had been left untouched.
If anything, that should have been confiscated before her phone or radio.
And that wasn’t the only thing that was strange.
Eight people, including her, had been abducted and brought here.
A seemingly indiscriminate terrorist incident with no clear purpose or intent, no obvious cause or motive… not even a known perpetrator.

What she had experienced here… was so unreal that no one would have believed it.
More astonishing still, it wasn’t a dream. It was reality.

Inside the silent elevator,
Han Gyeong-ah glanced at the man beside her.
Kim Yohan was staring vacantly into empty space as if reading something.
She wondered if he could see something, but there was nothing in front of him.
Had he finally started hallucinating?

‘Kim Yohan…’

He was an incomprehensible man whose thoughts she couldn’t begin to read.
What exactly was he after?
Everything about him was a mystery, especially the drastic difference between how he’d acted at first and how he acted now.

Han Gyeong-ah remembered.
She remembered exactly how vile and despicable that man was.
Someone who cared nothing for what happened to others as long as he got what he wanted, and who didn’t seem capable of guilt…
An unreasonable, selfish, shameless bastard.
He’d probably racked up plenty of minor offenses even before all this.
He was certainly the type.

But the man she’d met today was completely different.
He had been since yesterday.
The intense hostility he’d once radiated had vanished without a trace, replaced by a consistently friendly attitude.
Han Gyeong-ah remembered when she’d first come down to the basement earlier.

‘Ugh, how embarrassing…!’

Remembering how miserably she’d burst into tears made her want to die of embarrassment, but his reaction had left an even stronger impression.

He had been kind and gentle.
He had quietly waited until she calmed down.
He was nothing like the man who had once radiated murderous hostility and hatred.

It had only been a day or two.
That wasn’t enough time for someone’s heart to change so dramatically.
A person couldn’t simply become someone else overnight.
Had he truly repented and turned over a new leaf?

‘Or…’

Was he shamelessly acting behind a mask of false repentance?
Right now, everything about him was too suspicious to draw any quick conclusions.
She had dealt with many criminals during her time as a police officer.
Even when they lied, she could usually see through them quickly.

The kind of intuition built through experience.

But this time, she couldn’t tell. Every action he took felt sincere.

He was sly, smooth, and completely nonchalant. It felt less like an act and more like his genuine personality.

‘What are you really after…?’

His drastic change left her completely at a loss.
Han Gyeong-ah gathered her thoughts.
In any case, he was under her control. Whatever scheme he might be plotting, it didn’t matter.
If he showed even the slightest sign of suspicious behavior, she would deal with him immediately.

‘I’ll keep my eye on you!’

She clenched her fist, determination blazing inside her.
She would make absolutely sure Kim Yohan couldn’t try anything funny.
She would stay prepared and keep him under strict surveillance.

The back of my head was starting to burn.
Feeling an intense stare drilling into me, I glanced back and found Han Gyeong-ah glaring.

Glare-
Any harder and sparks might start flying.
I closed the lengthy message and looked around.
The elevator was still sitting motionless. She hadn’t even pressed a floor button yet, so I asked,

“You’re not pressing the button?”
“Ah…!”

Han Gyeong-ah looked flustered, as though she’d only just realized it.
Had she been so busy watching me that she’d forgotten to press it?
She was always like this if you looked closely.
She seemed meticulous and flawless about everything, yet somehow had this slightly scatterbrained side.

“I-I was just about to!”

Han Gyeong-ah fumbled with the panel while offering an awkward excuse.
Our destination was obviously Floor 1.
Her finger moved toward the button, then stopped just before pressing it as if she’d noticed something.

“What is it?”
“There’s a button I haven’t seen before…”

A button labeled ‘2F’ was glowing on the control panel.
Hadn’t she said there were only B1 and Floor 1 before?
A new route to Floor 2 had appeared in the elevator.
It almost felt like it was tempting us, fresh from our escape from B1.

“Are we going straight to Floor 2?”
“No. Investigating is important, but… meeting up with the others comes first.”

With that, Han Gyeong-ah firmly pressed the 1F button.
Just as I’d expected.
The elevator jolted.
The machinery engaged, carrying us upward.

‘Come to think of it, there was supposed to be a reward.’

I brought up the earlier message.

The reward for completing the Tutorial.
A Status Window.
Apparently I’d received it, but I had no idea how to use it.
Maybe I just had to call for it in my head.

‘Status Window.’

Just like the other messages, a Status Window appeared before my eyes.

Flash-!

I let out an impressed oh at how detailed the system was.
There had never been anything like this in 「Tower Death Game」.
Was this some kind of privilege given specifically to me?
I decided to examine each part one by one.
There was nothing more to see with my name and age…, Title? The moment I selected it, a detailed description appeared.

Hmm.
Another legacy left behind by trashy thug-extra Kim Yohan.
It wasn’t especially useful since I already knew all of that.
Looking at it felt like it would bring me bad luck, so I quickly dismissed it.
Next, I checked the Trait.

This seemed to be another peculiarity the original Kim Yohan had possessed.
Judging by how he’d acted in Chapter 1, his mouth had certainly never stopped running.
Whether the Trait would apply to me as well was another question.
Maybe I’d be better off without it.
Third-Rate Villain and Silver Tongue… The combination made it painfully clear just how pathetic this guy had been.
I’d hoped it might be useful, but it only made me feel worse.
I closed the Status Window.
How was I supposed to live as someone this hopeless…?
As I let out a sigh full of self-pity, my eyes landed on Han Gyeong-ah.
Suddenly, I wondered how far this ability worked.
Could I use it on other people too?
Sneaking a glance at Han Gyeong-ah, I called for the Status Window.

‘Status Window.’

Flash-!

Oh.
Surprisingly, it worked. I could inspect other people’s Status Windows too.

‘Gyeong-ah’s the same age as me.’

That was unexpected.
Since she was a police officer, I’d assumed she was older.
So she’d started her career young and was already working hard.
Comparing myself to her made me feel strangely pathetic.
Her Trait was ‘Intuition’…

Was it some police ability?
Come to think of it, her hunches almost never missed.
Most of them turned out to be right. Enough to make me wonder if she was psychic.

‘Guess that’s what the Trait represents.’

While I was reading the Status Window, I felt a piercing gaze.
I glanced up and met Han Gyeong-ah’s eyes.

“Do you have something to say to me? You’ve been staring…”
“It’s nothing.”

I hurriedly closed the Status Window.
Apparently, she’d mistaken me staring into empty space while reading it for me sneaking looks at her.
So this could become a problem when inspecting someone else’s status.
Next time, I’d have to be sneakier.

Anyway,
That settled it. The mysterious messages and the Status Window.
I’d never seen systems like these while playing 「Tower Death Game」.
Which meant they existed separately from the original game. And then there was ‘death’, the most important part.

When I died, I returned to the past.
What kind of ability was that?
Did it activate every time I died, or were there other conditions?

I had no information whatsoever.
Either way, it was unsettling.
If I died one more time, I’d probably know for sure…
But I’d put that off for now.
I wasn’t reckless enough to kill myself just to test a theory. More importantly, there was something else I needed to deal with first.

Ding-!
Right on cue, the elevator arrived at Floor 1.

[Arrived at Floor 1 - Hotel.]

It was the moment I’d longed for, but now that it was actually here, I found myself getting nervous.
Because I was Kim Yohan.

That bastard had been such complete trash.
Instead of simple excitement, anxiety about what awaited me came first.
I had enemies everywhere.
Honestly, it wouldn’t have been strange if everyone beat the hell out of me the instant I stepped onto Floor 1.
Just imagining that bleak future made everything feel dark already.

“What? Nervous?”
“…Not at all.”
“I can tell even if you try to act tough.”

I casually ignored the snide commentary chirping away beside me.
I’d just keep my head down and stay quiet.
The last thing I wanted was to dig my own grave by doing something suspicious.
The elevator doors slowly opened.
Beyond the metal doors, the long-awaited sight of Floor 1 spread out before me.

“…Wow.”

I couldn’t help but gasp. She’d said Floor 1 was a hotel, hadn’t she?
Marble floors, luxurious art walls, crystal lighting, and even a massive chandelier.
A five-star hotel lobby straight out of a movie opened up before me.
Was this how a country mouse felt after coming to Seoul?
The place was even more extravagant than I’d imagined, leaving me speechless.

“This is Floor 1.”
“It really is a hotel…”

Memories of the past flashed through my mind.
That stinking, musty, damp, clammy detention cell on B1.
All the days I’d spent enduring it suddenly felt absurd.
I looked around the hotel lobby like some country bumpkin. At the same time, a new message appeared.

A Residential Area.
So this was some kind of base where people could live?
If safety was guaranteed, then at least I didn’t have to worry about dying here. That was a relief.

“The others should all be awake by now…”

Han Gyeong-ah checked her watch.
The time that had been stuck at ‘4:44’ before was now well past noon.
This was probably the actual time.
It should have been the middle of the day, when everyone was up and active, yet something felt strange.

“There’s no one here…?”

Han Gyeong-ah looked around the lobby uneasily. The hotel was so quiet it seemed completely deserted.
There were eight characters in 「Tower Death Game」 altogether.
Even excluding the two of us, that left six others. You’d expect to see at least one of them in the lobby.
Yet for some reason, there wasn’t a hint of anyone around.
I’d expected everyone to be shocked by the surprise appearance of uninvited guest Kim Yohan,
then tense up and confront me warily.

“Gyeong-ah, didn’t you say everyone was on Floor 1?”
“Yes. They should be…”

Han Gyeong-ah looked equally confused.
Silence filled the lobby.
The marble floor gleamed while the ornate chandelier cast a soft light.
A scene that had looked magnificent moments ago now felt ominous.
What had happened?

“How about we look around first?”

This was my first time on Floor 1, so I knew nothing about its layout or what facilities it had.
I made the suggestion partly so I could look around the hotel as well.

“If they’re not in the lobby, they might be gathered somewhere else.”
“That’s true…”

Han Gyeong-ah nodded.
And so, we slowly made our way deeper into the hotel.