False Accusation (2)

Why is she here?
For a moment, I couldn’t believe my eyes. That was how unexpected her appearance was.
Han Gyeong-ah greeted me with the same chilly attitude as yesterday.

“Did you have some kind of change of heart overnight? Even your eyes look different… completely different.”

She even looked mildly surprised. It wasn’t a change of heart, though. I was literally a different person.

‘What does she want down here?’

Han Gyeong-ah was one of the leading characters of ‘Tower Death Game.’ She was in a completely different league from Third-Rate Villain Kim Yohan.

Even in Chapter 1 alone, she served as an ally from the very beginning,
building trust with the protagonist until they became close companions.

Later, she played the biggest role in bringing down their common enemy. Her contributions were enormous.
For reference, that ‘common enemy’ was Chapter 1’s main villain.

…That’s right.
The bastard whose body I’d ended up in.
Kim Yohan and Han Gyeong-ah were natural enemies.

They were practically sworn enemies.
So why had she come all the way down here anyway?
I asked in the nastiest, most spiteful tone I could manage.

“What are you doing here?”
“Well. I certainly didn’t come to let you out, so you’d better give up on that little fantasy.”

Was she psychic?
I flinched, wondering if she’d somehow read my mind.
My hopes were casually trampled like a flower beneath someone’s heel.

“Then why’d you come?”
“Honestly, I didn’t want to come either. But someone had to do it.”

Han Gyeong-ah shrugged, as though she were doing me some enormous favor.

“I came to give you some information.”
“Information?”
“A lot happened yesterday… but regardless, you were abducted just like the rest of us.”

She’d skipped over a fair bit of context, but I understood what she meant.
I recalled the basic premise of 「Tower Death Game」.
Eight people abducted for no apparent reason and brought to an unfamiliar place.

The important word here was ‘abducted.’
A time-honored cliché of the death-game genre.
Because death games themselves were inherently unrealistic.
Which meant the mastermind behind one was usually anything but ordinary.

Maybe some ultra-ultra-ultra-megacorporation with influence rivaling a nation.
Or entertainment for wealthy elites from all over the world.
Or an Ultimate Prefecture’s-Best Beautiful High School Girl…

There were all kinds. So what about 「Tower Death Game」?
The answer was, ‘No idea.’

Because development had stopped after Chapter 1, the mastermind’s identity was never revealed.
Han Gyeong-ah offered a plausible theory of her own.

“I think we’ve been caught up in a large-scale terrorist attack.”
“Terrorism?”
“It’s a long story… A lot happened after you were locked up. You’d be surprised.”

She explained what had happened after I was imprisoned underground.
In short, it went like this.

1. Everyone took the elevator up to Floor 1.
2. Unlike B1, which housed the prison, Floor 1 was a luxury hotel.
3. They searched Floor 1, but couldn’t find an exit.
4. There wasn’t even anyone there besides the abductees.

“Simply put, we’re the only people trapped here.”
“…Seriously?”
“Seriously.”

Reality really was different from a game. If this were just a game, I would’ve accepted whatever setting it threw at me.
Actually living through it was completely different.
Only someone in a novel could react with, ‘So this is the Tower!’

“This situation is far beyond anything an individual could pull off. At the very least, it has to be the work of a state… or an organization with comparable power.”

Han Gyeong-ah continued in a grave, serious tone.
It was an entirely rational conclusion by real-world standards.
I nodded along, pretending to be surprised.

“Terrorism, huh… Yeah, it’s hard to think of another explanation.”
“Exactly. That’s why it doesn’t make sense.”
“What doesn’t?”
“The kidnappers’ objective.”

Terrorism inevitably had some motive behind it.
A conflict between rival groups…
Personal grudges, religious beliefs, things like that.

“But none of those fit our situation. We don’t even know what could have led to this. It’s almost as if there’s no objective at all…”

Han Gyeong-ah pursed her lips, visibly unable to make sense of it.
That was the problem with trying to force something unreal into a realistic framework.
Of course, there was no way she could know that.

“Don’t worry. A rescue team will be here soon.”
“You can say that for sure?”
“Of course. Multiple people were abducted at the same time in the middle of Seoul. There’s no way something like that would go unnoticed!”

By now, the outside world would be in an uproar over the mass abduction…,
and the government would have declared war on the terrorists and be doing everything possible to rescue us.
That was her argument. There wasn’t really anything to fault in it.

‘…If this weren’t the world of a game.’

Games weren’t reality. They ran on completely different rules.
In other words, common sense from reality wouldn’t apply here. If anything, it would lead you further from the truth.

‘I’ve never once seen a rescue team show up in a death game…’

It would be about as rare as a zombie blockbuster without a helicopter crash.
Or the first suspect named in a famous Japanese detective manga actually turning out to be the culprit.
A rescue team was basically a mythical unicorn. Han Gyeong-ah, however, declared with complete confidence,

“I can’t give you an exact date, but a rescue team will be here within a week at the latest. I can say that with confidence as a police officer. Public safety in our country is extremely good.”

Apparently feeling some professional pride, she gave a little ahem and placed a hand against her chest.
There was that saying, wasn’t there?
That the average person appears on CCTV once every nine seconds.
Our country’s public safety ranked among the best in the world.

They’d notice a mass abduction in the middle of Seoul almost immediately.
By now, the government would’ve had more than enough time to send a rescue team.
If we simply waited, they would come save us.
We’d survive, escape safely, and return to our normal lives.

“And then you’ll face proper judgment under the law.”
“So that’s what you’re really after.”
“Yes. Obviously.”

Han Gyeong-ah answered without the slightest hesitation.

“You’re a heinous criminal. Being abducted by a terrorist organization doesn’t suddenly give you a free pass for what you’ve done.”

The deeds of the past had come back to bite me. Not that I’d actually committed any of them.
Anything I said would only sound like a pathetic excuse. Han Gyeong-ah warned me without mercy.

“The moment we get out of here, I’m arresting you. Keep that in mind.”
“Isn’t that a little excessive for one little mistake?”
“Think carefully about what you did yesterday.”
“Hmm.”

I couldn’t bring myself to argue. I knew perfectly well what a piece of shit Kim Yohan was.
So I pitifully begged for leniency.

“Gyeong-ah, cut me some slack just this once. I’m seriously reflecting on what I did…”
“You don’t look remotely like someone who’s reflecting on anything.”

It didn’t work in the slightest.
First impressions were among the biggest factors in how people judged each other. Once someone had you pegged a certain way, changing that image wasn’t easy.

Han Gyeong-ah drew a firm line between us. Still, whether out of mercy or pity, she at least offered me the bare minimum of humane treatment.

“Here. Take this.”
“What’s that?”
“You haven’t eaten anything since yesterday, have you?”

She handed me a paper bag, so I opened it up. A single lonely piece of bread sat inside.

“You must’ve been hungry. Eat this, at least.”
“There’s food on Floor 1?”
“Yes. The hotel has a restaurant.”

Come to think of it, she’d said Floor 1 was a luxury hotel.
She’d prepared a special meal for poor little me, starving away underground.
From the way she talked, she sounded practically angelic. But a wicked intention lurked beneath it all.

‘Why is this bread so damn hard?’

The bread was so hard I couldn’t tell whether it was food or a brick.
It looked durable enough to survive being smashed with a hammer.

And she expected me to eat this?
Maybe she wanted me to savor the natural flavor of the ingredients, because there was absolutely nothing else with it.
The moment I bit into it, wouldn’t my teeth go crunch?

If there was a restaurant, there had to be plenty of food, yet this was all she’d brought.
And all she’d brought to wash it down was a single bottle of water.
I shook the bag upside down and asked,

“No strawberry jam?”
“I forgot.”

Han Gyeong-ah smiled. It was a blatantly malicious smirk.
She hated Kim Yohan so much she’d deliberately brought only this.
Was I supposed to be grateful for this or not…?

Her intentions were obvious, but my stomach growled too loudly for me to refuse.
Too hungry to resist, I took a bite of the bread.

Crunch, crack-
Maybe it was because I was starving…
I somehow managed to chew it down. But this wasn’t fit for human consumption. I thought I was going to lose all my teeth.

“Finished?”
“I’ve lost my appetite…”

Once I’d taken the edge off my hunger, I put the remaining rye bread back in the bag.
I’d save it for later, when I was hungry enough to actually be dying.
Even actual prisoners probably ate better than I did.

Anyway,
Han Gyeong-ah’s reason for coming was simple. A rescue team would arrive soon, so I should sit tight and wait.

She’d even kindly given me food so I wouldn’t starve to death. I was practically livestock being kept alive in a pen.

“Behave yourself. If you try anything funny, you know what’ll happen, right?”

Han Gyeong-ah, my trainer, pulled the handgun from her waist and showed it to me.
Was she saying she’d shoot me if I showed even the slightest sign of doing something suspicious?
It was a chilling warning for a heinous criminal.

“I can’t do anything like this anyway.”

I gestured around at the underground prison holding me captive, then showed her the cuffs around my wrists.

Clink-
I’d gotten thoroughly beaten down in Chapter 1 and been completely subdued. Even so, Han Gyeong-ah remained suspicious to the bitter end.

“You never know. Who knows what kind of scheme you might be plotting?”

What scheme?
I couldn’t even get out of this cell on my own. What exactly was I supposed to do?

“When the rescue team gets here, that’s the day you’ll finally face punishment. Remember that.”
“I can hardly wait…”

I reluctantly nodded. Not that any rescue team was coming.

‘That makes no sense.’

My definition of ‘common sense’ was a little different from Han Gyeong-ah’s.
According to my common sense, a rescue team would never come.
It would take some time before she accepted that fact.
Maybe a week or so.

A week was long in some ways and short in others. Either way, I had nothing else to do, so all I could do was wait.

“If you’re done, you can go.”

I waved her off in farewell. But she didn’t head back upstairs.
Did she still have something to say?

“You’re not leaving?”
“I just told you. How am I supposed to know what you might be secretly plotting?”

Han Gyeong-ah folded her arms and shot me a sulky glare.
It was completely indiscriminate suspicion, but her stance was firm.

Come to think of it, Han Gyeong-ah took her duty as a police officer extremely seriously.
She had an overflowing sense of justice and a strong conviction that she had to take the lead in protecting everyone.

There was no way she’d leave someone as dangerous as me unattended.
For someone like her, there was one simple way to keep everyone safe while keeping the criminal under control.

“From now until the rescue team arrives, I’m going to keep watch over you.”
“What?”

It was a merciless and cruel violation of a criminal’s human rights.