B1 - Prison (6)

“It’s cleaner in here than I expected.”

That was my first impression.
The Power Room was unexpectedly spacious and clean.
The metal floor gleamed with a polished sheen,
while the cables and pipes lining the walls were meticulously maintained.
It felt completely different from the rest of the basement, which had clearly been neglected for years.

“I can’t believe a place like this was down here…”

Han Gyeong-ah looked around the Power Room in fascination.

“Do you think someone was maintaining this place until recently?”
“Probably. Maybe they disappeared after we were abducted.”

She froze at that.
A mass abduction carried out by a terrorist organization with state-level power.
Which would mean that same group had also been managing the Power Room.

“Let’s search it properly.”
“All right.”

We hadn’t entered this place even in Chapter 1, so I had no idea what might be inside.
The first thing I checked was the electrical box near the entrance.

An interaction message like the ones from the game appeared before my eyes.

‘So this is how it works.’

Seeing it in person felt strange.

“Do you see anything in the electrical box?”
“No, nothing.”

I dismissed the message and looked elsewhere.
A huge generator occupied the center of the Power Room.
It was connected to the cables and pipes running from the electrical box.
A low hum accompanied the sound of machinery running.
A warning was written across its surface.

【CAUTION! DO NOT TOUCH】

“Looks like this ridiculously huge hunk of metal powers B1.”

Han Gyeong-ah examined the generator closely.

“The power light is flickering.”

Was something malfunctioning?
The generator’s indicator kept blinking as if something had gone wrong.
Was that why the elevator had stopped working?

“I kind of want to open it.”
“Do you have an electrician’s license?”
“Of course not.”

Messing around with it without knowing what I was doing could make things much worse.
I didn’t feel like becoming human barbecue, so I abandoned the idea.
Was there anything else?

“They wouldn’t have just one generator sitting here by itself.”
“Right. There should be some kind of emergency power in case of an outage or accident.”

We searched every corner of the Power Room carefully.

We’d searched more than half the room
when we found a lever installed in the corner of an old wall.

“Here… there’s a lever!”

It had been left abandoned beneath a thick layer of old dust.
Rust and wear covered parts of it, showing its age.
Above it, faded letters read:

[Emergency Power Activation Device]
【Use in Case of Emergency】

…There it was. Exactly what we’d come to the Power Room looking for.

“Looks like pulling this lever activates the emergency power.”
“Then the elevator should work again, right?”

If we activated the emergency power and stabilized the generator, escaping the basement would only be a matter of time.
Then we hit a problem.

[Enter Password.]

“Damn it.”

Our luck really was rotten.
Looking closer, I saw that the lever was locked.
Just in case, I tried yanking it downward with all my strength, but

Clank-

Naturally, it didn’t budge.
We needed a password to activate the emergency power.
Han Gyeong-ah’s excitement quickly faded.

“Since it’s an emergency system, they probably locked it so just anyone couldn’t use it.”
“A password…”

The security was obnoxiously thorough.
At least it used a keypad instead of another key.
I entered a password.

【000】
Clank-

Not that one.

【123】
Clank-

Nope.
Wrong again. Still, it was too early to give up.
Just as I went for a third attempt, Han Gyeong-ah grabbed my shoulder.

“Stop messing around and look for a clue!”
“…Fine.”

Unable to withstand her glare, I reluctantly resumed the search.
We’d found the emergency power activation device. All that remained was the password.
Usually, something like that would be written down on a memo or scrap of paper.
We searched the floor and every desk, but found nothing.
Then I noticed a trash can near the entrance.

‘Or maybe it was thrown away?’

Come to think of it, we hadn’t checked the trash can.
It was a little gross, but I rummaged through it.
At the very bottom, buried beneath the trash, I found a small note.

The moment Han Gyeong-ah saw the note in my hand, she hurried over.

“Did you find a clue?”
“I found something… but the contents are kind of strange.”

I showed her the note.
Instead of a password, it contained a strange clue.

【Sun, Sand, Bird】

“Any idea what this means?”
“Hmm…”

Han Gyeong-ah thought it over for a moment, then tilted her head in confusion.
Neither of us had the slightest idea.
Since the system treated it as an Item, it clearly wasn’t meaningless scribbling…
It had to be some kind of riddle concealing the password.

“Why couldn’t they just write down the numbers? What’s the point of this?”

Complaining wouldn’t help.
This was perfectly normal for a horror game.
We put our heads together and stared at the note.

【Sun, Sand, Bird】

“Could each word represent a number?”

It was a reasonable approach, but I couldn’t match any numbers to the words.
Sun, sand, bird… none of them seemed naturally tied to a number.
Then maybe we were looking at it the wrong way.

“Maybe we need to find what all three have in common.”

I changed my approach and searched for a connection between the words.
Sun and sand suggested a beach… but what about the bird?

‘A seagull?’

Too vague.
Unless a game was absolute garbage, puzzles like this were usually designed to be fair.
Overcomplicating things was the worst move you could make.
I tried to think as simply as possible.
Through a stupid bit of word association.

‘Clocks?’

There were many kinds of clocks.
Wall clocks, wristwatches, desk clocks, digital clocks…

And sundials and hourglasses.

Maybe it was coincidence, but the connection fit perfectly.
If so, then the ‘bird’ at the end probably meant a cuckoo clock.

“Ugh… What could it possibly mean…?”

I glanced at Han Gyeong-ah’s wrist while she struggled with the puzzle.
A wristwatch sat over her pale skin, dotted here and there with small scratches.
Its hands were still pointing to the exact same place.

[04:44]

4:44 a.m.
If my guess was right, that had to be the password.
I tried entering it into the lock on the emergency power device. When I turned the dial to ‘444,’

【444】

Click-

The lock released. Han Gyeong-ah had been about to scold me, but instead stared in shock.

“See? If you just start entering random… It opened?!”
“Looks like the time was right after all.”

When I explained the answer, Han Gyeong-ah looked genuinely impressed.

“I never would’ve guessed the note was pointing to clocks… How did you figure that out?”
“Hmm.”

Honestly, I was even more surprised than she was. I’d basically taken a shot in the dark and somehow gotten it right.
Still, I didn’t let it show. I merely shrugged as if it were nothing.

“Got lucky.”

Anyway, we’d unlocked the emergency power activation device.
Now all we had to do was pull the lever and activate the emergency power.
I examined the mechanism.

The choice was obvious. I grabbed the lever and pulled down with all my strength.

“Urgh.”

Maybe because it had been neglected for so long, it was stiff and barely moved.
I pressed down with both hands and leaned my weight into it. The lever started to move, but jammed again halfway.
It was too much for me alone, so I asked for help.

“Gyeong-ah, give me a hand.”

My reliable ally responded with great confidence.

“You’re a man and you can’t even pull one lever?”

If that sounded like she was insulting me, that was probably my imagination.

“It’s not that I’m weak. The lever’s been sitting here for so long that the hinge rusted and the lubricant dried out, so it’s stiff…”
“Be quiet.”

Reliable Ally Gyeong-ah, magnanimous police officer that she was, graciously lent me a hand.
Though she did shake her head as if I were pathetic.

Clunk-
When we pulled together, the lever groaned and finally gave way.
Sparks crackled from the device, and the flickering light on the generator stabilized.

“Look! The power’s on!”

The emergency power activated. The generator began humming with a deep mechanical rumble.

Flick, flicker, flash-!
The dim lights flared brightly enough to dazzle us.
Emergency power flooded into the basement, supplying the electricity needed to bring the facilities fully back online.
This was more than enough to power the elevator.

“Does this mean we can finally get out?”
“Yeah. Let’s go.”

Everything was ready.
All that remained was taking the elevator upstairs.
We hurried out of the Power Room.
The elevator was on the opposite side of B1, so it was a fair walk.
As we walked the corridor, we passed the cell where I’d been imprisoned.
A cramped solitary cell barely seven square meters in size.

Looking at it now, it resembled a cage for animals at a zoo.

I’d been treated about the same way too. My keeper watched me so I wouldn’t cause trouble and even brought me food…

As well as threatened to shoot me if I acted up.
At this point, I’d been treated more like an animal than a person.
Not that it was entirely inaccurate.
I was practically an animal being raised by Han Gyeong-ah.
I was even wearing restraints.
I looked down at the cuffs binding my wrists.

‘At least it’s not a leash…’

While pointless thoughts filled my head, my keeper lightly smacked my shoulder and brought me back to reality.

“Instead of thinking useless thoughts, keep moving.”
“Yeah, yeah.”

At last, we reached the elevator.
With emergency power running, the ‘Out of Order’ notice had disappeared.
It should work normally now. Half hopeful and half anxious, Han Gyeong-ah pressed the button.

The elevator display lit up and began moving.

“It worked!”

At last, that bright, cheerful melody rang out.
The sound I’d waited endlessly to hear during more than a week in that prison.

Ding-!
The elevator’s metal doors creaked open. I slowly stepped inside.
It was smaller than the cell, yet somehow it felt infinitely more comfortable.
At last, my seemingly endless life underground had come to an end. At the same moment, a message flashed into view.

“…Hah.”

The moment I read it, a disbelieving laugh escaped me.
More than the absurd contents, one word caught my attention.

Tutorial.
I’d starved to death underground, suffered through hell, and fought tooth and nail to get here, only for all of it to amount to one pathetic word. I was speechless.

Just thinking about what awaited me from here made my future look bleak already.
Still, there was no use crying over spilled milk.
It was time to change stages and step into a new domain.
This was the signal flare announcing the return of Third-Rate Villain Kim Yohan.