Chapter 31

The Regressor's Guide to Conquering the Urban Legend Tower

Chapter 31

"..."

I quietly stared at the paper.

Now I finally understood why the survival rate was only 30%.

Come to think of it, I'd felt that the path here had been easier than expected...

"Tsk..."

I took a deep breath while staring into the darkness where I couldn't see even an inch ahead.

Should I jump?

Would that let me find out whether I lived or died?

"..."

No.

Now was exactly when I should make use of the notebook's real advantage.

I quickly opened it and checked what the others had written.

[27. Isn't this seriously insane? I'm jumping for now... If I want to get out of this crazy place alive, I don't really have a choice...]

[27. Even the music is getting on my nerves like crazy... I need to get out fast.]

[27. I lived!!!!!]

[27. As soon as you fall, you'll see the elevator exit. Just go out through there.]

[27. I was really lucky... Thanks for reading this far, and I hope everyone who comes after me survives too.]

[77. I'm seriously wondering if this is really right... but like 27 said, the music is way too annoying, so I think I should get out of here quickly too...]

[77. Everyone else got out this way, so I guess I should use this method too. But I still feel like there might be something else.]

[77. Fine. I'm jumping too. If there's no answer after this, assume I'm dead.]

[77. Wow, I lived.]

[77. You can't feel anything while you're falling. Maybe just a slight floating sensation?]

[98. Ah, please. I'm terrible with luck-based stuff like this.]

[98. No. I can do this. I'm chosen. I'm different. Here I go.]

"..."

There were no more entries from Number 98 after that.

They probably died.

Let's think.

Jumping itself wasn't difficult.

If I died, I could just keep trying until I succeeded.

Other people couldn't do that, but I could.

However...

"..."

I looked around.

The room was still as bleak as ever.

Was this really all there was?

Simply throwing yourself out the window, with only a 30% survival rate?

Something about that felt far too strange.

After thinking for a moment, I reached a conclusion surprisingly quickly.

"I need to search..."

From my experience, it made no sense for escape to simply come down to a flat 30% chance.

There had to be an answer.

I just hadn't found it yet.

Besides, even if I did jump, shouldn't I at least leave some information for the mascot?

Otherwise I'd have to go searching for it all over again.

And if things really went wrong...

[Remaining Regression Count: ??]

I stared at the translucent window floating in front of me, then turned toward the door.

Yeah.

Let's do this.

After letting out a long breath, I began thoroughly searching the room.

A lot of people must have passed through this place.

According to the paper, Room 203, where I was now, was one of the safe rooms.

I quickly searched everything around me.

First, I checked beneath the mattress.

"...Nothing."

Nothing there.

"Nothing here either."

Nothing on the desk or inside the drawers.

Outside the window...

Well, I could already guess what was there.

And then...

"...Found something."

While pressing around the calendar, I felt a slight bulge.

I immediately checked behind it.

Soon, a yellowed, grime-stained sheet of paper came out into my hand.

"Phew..."

I took a deep breath and unfolded it.

What had been written on it?

{Day 3}

{I finally managed to steal some paper to write on. If someone comes after me, I hope they at least get to read this.}

{Third day trapped here... The food is ridiculously scarce.}

{They only give me something to eat right when I start wondering if I'm going to starve to death. What the hell is this?}

{Still, I learned something.}

{Once every two days, they let us out of these rooms.}

{I guess you could call it break time.}

{That's when you can look for an escape route.}

{But you absolutely cannot talk to the other people. Those things aren't human.}

{They're something wearing human skin. Never, ever, ever talk to them. I completely understood that after I watched someone melt after speaking to another person earlier.}

{My goal is the escape route through the medical staff passage.}

{If I can somehow get through there, I think I'll find an exit.}

It was a diary.

I didn't know whose it was, but it probably hadn't belonged to someone with the notebook.

So it must have been written by someone who had been trapped here before.

They let everyone out once every two days.

Then the mascot would probably come out at the same time.

Until then, I should investigate other escape methods.

If none of them worked, then as a last resort, maybe I could grab the mascot's hand and jump out the window together.

For now, what I needed most was information.

I placed a hand against my temple and kept reading.

{Day 4}

{I have no strength. I don't think they're putting anything in the food, but I don't know if it's because of the air in this place or the song that keeps playing. My head hurts so badly.}

A headache?

I couldn't hear any—

"Ah."

The moment I removed my headset, classical music immediately reached my ears.

It was clearly soft classical music, but...

"...Hmm."

How should I put it?

It felt extremely unpleasant.

Irritating, maybe.

I shouldn't listen for too long.

I put the headset back on.

The classical music vanished instantly, as if it had never existed.

Without this headset, I would've been in serious trouble.

The fact that the headset filtered it out while still allowing normal surrounding sounds through meant this wasn't ordinary music.

I sighed in relief and continued reading.

{Day 5}

{I can't stay like this. If I remain here, I'll either go insane like the others or lose all my strength and die. I have to do something.}

{I'm going to escape tomorrow. Whether I die this way or that way, I don't have any other choice.}

{Day 6}

{My name is Kim XX, and my mother's phone number is as follows.}

{If you get out, please call her. If I'm still there, congratulate her for me. If I'm gone, tell her that her child at least did everything he could.}

{I'm going ahead.}

That was where the diary ended.

"..."

Good.

So on the second day, I'd be able to see the mascot.

When that happened, I could meet up with it and talk about what we were going to do next and how we should escape.

Of course, that assumed the mascot hadn't gone insane.

I had no way of knowing what had happened to the person who wrote this diary...

But the only thing I could do was copy down the phone number and keep it with me.

Maybe someday I'd get the chance to call.

I slipped the diary back behind the calendar and lay down on the mattress.

The musty smell and hard surface pressing against my back were extremely uncomfortable, but...

"...This might actually not be so bad?"

Maybe because I'd never had a chance to properly lie down while moving through floors other than Floor 0.5.

This was much more comfortable than I'd expected...!

"Yaaawn..."

I was getting sleepy immediately.

"..."

Other people probably would've spent the entire night trembling in fear, unable to sleep.

But for me...

"Ugh..."

This was the first place where I could actually lie down properly.

I wasn't planning to eat the food anyway.

I might as well sleep as much as I could.

Even though I'd already slept plenty on Floor 0.5, I eventually gave in to the overwhelming drowsiness.

I never would've had the courage to do something like this in the past.

But what was I supposed to do?

I was sleepy.

And just like that, I fell asleep almost instantly.

I really did sleep for the entire day.

I slept until the door finally opened and I was able to leave.

"Ugh..."

I knew I'd probably sleep comfortably, but I hadn't expected to sleep that deeply.

Thanks to that, though, my head felt much clearer.

"Then I guess it's time to go out."

I looked at the open door, almost as though it were inviting me to leave whenever I wanted.

Then I picked up the notebook and started walking.

[150. I didn't jump.]

[150. The door opens after one day. I'm going out to take a look.]

Let's go.

I stepped through the open door and walked down the gloomy hallway.

Before long, a wide hall opened up before me.

"..."

People were standing there.

They stared blankly into empty space.

But their mouths were moving.

It looked like they were saying something.

No.

Was it music?

Could I simply not hear it?

Let's listen for just a second.

I lifted one side of my headset slightly.

Sound immediately reached my ears.

It was music.

The same music that had been playing constantly inside the room where I'd been trapped.

Not a single person there looked sane.

If even one of them had been capable of speaking normally, I might've tried to take them with me.

I clicked my tongue in disappointment and examined the patients.

Their expressions and postures looked completely vacant.

Their behavior was irrational, as though communication was impossible.

And...

"Where did all the patient gowns go?"

Strangely enough, none of them were wearing hospital clothing.

They were all dressed in ordinary clothes or outdoor clothing.

One person wore short sleeves.

Another wore a padded winter coat.

Someone else was dressed in clothes that looked like they'd been fashionable twenty years ago.

The time periods were all over the place.

I was still thinking about that when I felt a large, soft hand land on my shoulder.

"You didn't cause any trouble, right?"

"!"

I looked at the mascot as it nodded.

Then I turned my gaze away.

"First of all, I found an escape route..."

"!!!"

"But the survival rate is apparently only 30%."

"?"

"Yeah. That's not great, is it?"

"!"

"So we're going to try escaping through the medical staff passage."

"?"

"Why?"

There might be a back entrance through that way.

No.

There was a very high chance there was.

My instincts, sharpened from finding hidden exits on every floor, were telling me so.

And even if it wasn't an exit, I still had another option.

"..."

For a moment, I thought about the reassuring weight of the handgun hidden inside my clothes.

Then I looked back at the mascot.

"Anyway, I'm planning to check it out. Can you help me?"

"...!"

The mascot didn't have a mouth, but it made a gesture that looked very much like a sigh before nodding.

"Good. Then let's go."

I strode toward the passage.

The mascot followed at my side, carefully looking around.

"By the way, how was your room?"

"?"

"Did the medical staff bother you? Or did anything come from the next room? Did you find any strange notes?"

"?"

The mascot shook its head repeatedly while walking beside me.

Maybe because it wasn't human, it seemed almost completely immune to mental corruption.

Thinking back to what had happened on Floor N, I'd been the one who went insane after looking at an exhibit the mascot considered perfectly safe.

"Protect me if anything happens."

"!"

The mascot nodded.

We waited until none of the medical staff were visible, then slipped deeper into the corridor.

None of the deranged people spoke to us or attempted to harm us.

"..."

I kept moving forward, tense, with my hand around the handgun.

From this point onward, I had no advice to rely on.

No information I could infer from what others had already experienced.

The notebook holders who'd taken the elevator had jumped out the window.

There was also no paper prepared by the organization called the Management Bureau.

From here on, I would have to confront this place directly.

With that thought in mind, I continued forward cautiously.

Had we been walking through the hallway for around ten minutes?

I lifted one side of my headset slightly.

I couldn't hear the music anymore.

Had we moved too far away?

Or...

"..."

Don't think about it.

I shook my head and continued walking.

Then—

Rustle!

Something crumpled beneath my foot.

It sounded like paper.

I looked down.

"...!"

It was the exact same kind of yellowed paper I'd found behind the calendar.

"???"

"Wait a second."

I quickly unfolded it and began reading.

{Day 6, Corridor}

{It's dark. I can't see anything. The medical staff don't even patrol here.}

{Was coming here really the right choice? Maybe I should've just stayed there and quietly accepted death.}

{I thought about turning back, but the music has already stopped.}

{Something is walking toward me.}

The handwriting had been scribbled in a hurry.

Something is walking toward him?

As I thought about those words, another realization suddenly struck me.

I quickly opened the notebook and checked the earlier pages.

[90. Ah, I dropped the board.]

[90. What the hell do I do? Something over there is pounding on the door like crazy. What do I do?]

[90. I can hear the door breaking. That isn't human. It seriously isn't human.]

[90. No pls]

A dragging sound reached my ears.

Something was being pulled along the ground.

Like someone dragging a heavy sack.

When I'd come out into the hall earlier, there hadn't been anything capable of making a sound like that.

There hadn't been anyone strong enough to break down a door either.

Then where had the thing making that sound been?

The dragging noise came closer.