Chapter 31

How a Regressor Conquers the Tower of Urban Legends

Chapter 31

"..."

I stared silently at the paper.

Now I understood why the survival rate was only thirty percent.

I'd been thinking the route here was surprisingly manageable.

"Hmm..."

I looked into the darkness outside the window and took a deep breath.

Should I jump?

Would I survive?

Would I die?

"..."

No.

This was exactly when I should make proper use of the notebook.

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

[27. This is seriously insane, right? I'm jumping anyway... If I want to survive this lunatic place somehow, I don't exactly have another choice...]

[27. And this music is driving me crazy... I need to get out quickly.]

[27. I SURVIVED!!!!!]

[27. The moment you fall, you'll see an elevator exit. Just go through it.]

[27. I was incredibly lucky... Thanks for reading this far. I sincerely hope everyone coming after me survives too.]

[77. I really don't know if this is the right thing to do... But like No. 27 said, this music is getting really irritating, so I should probably get out quickly...]

[77. Everyone else seems to have escaped this way, so I guess I have to try it too. Though I can't help wondering whether there's another method.]

[77. I'm jumping. If I don't write again, assume I'm dead.]

[77. Wow. I lived.]

[77. You don't feel anything while falling. Just a sense of floating, I guess?]

[98. Ah, please. I'm terrible with luck.]

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

"..."

There were no more entries from No. 98.

They probably died.

Let's think.

Jumping itself wasn't difficult.

If I died, I could simply repeat it until I succeeded.

Other people couldn't do that.

But I could.

Still...

"..."

I looked around the room.

It was just as bleak as before.

Was this really all there was?

Just throwing yourself out of a window and having only a thirty-percent chance of surviving?

Something about that felt completely wrong.

After thinking for a moment, I reached a conclusion faster than expected.

"I should search..."

From everything I'd experienced so far, it made no sense for escape to depend purely on a thirty-percent chance.

There had to be an answer.

I simply hadn't found it yet.

And even if I eventually decided to jump, shouldn't I at least leave a message for the mascot first?

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

And if things went badly...

[Remaining Regressions: ??]

I stared at the translucent window before turning toward the door.

Right.

Let's do this.

I let out a long breath and began thoroughly searching the room.

Many people had probably been assigned this room.

According to the guide, Room 203 was one of the safe rooms.

I quickly looked everywhere.

First, beneath the mattress.

"...Nothing."

Nothing there.

"Nothing here either."

The desk.

The drawers.

Nothing.

Outside the window...

Well, I already knew what was there.

And then...

"...Found something."

While pressing along the calendar, I felt something slightly raised behind it.

I immediately checked the back.

A yellowed, stained sheet of paper slipped into my hand.

"Phew..."

I took a deep breath and unfolded it.

What was written here?

{Day 3}

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

{Third day trapped here... The food portions are ridiculously small.}

{They barely feed me right when I start wondering whether I'm going to starve to death. What the hell is wrong with this place?}

{Still, I figured something out.}

{Once every two days, they let us outside.}

{I guess you could call it recreation time.}

{You can see an escape route there.}

{But never, ever talk to the others. Those things aren't human.}

{They're something wearing human skin. Never, never, NEVER speak to them. I saw someone talk to one of them earlier and melt away. That convinced me completely.}

{My goal is to escape through the staff passage.}

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

A diary.

I had no idea who had written it.

But they probably hadn't possessed the notebook.

Maybe they were someone who'd been trapped here before the notebook users arrived.

They let us out every two days.

Then the mascot should come out too.

I could meet up with it then and discuss what we should do next and how we were going to escape.

Assuming the mascot hadn't gone insane, of course.

I had no idea what had happened to this person...

All I could do was copy the phone number they'd written later and keep it with me.

Maybe someday, if I had the chance, I could call.

I put one hand against my temple and continued reading.

{Day 4}

{I have no strength. I don't think they're putting anything in the food, but I don't know whether it's the air here or that song that keeps playing. My head hurts like hell.}

Their head hurts?

I couldn't hear any...

"Ah."

I removed the headset.

Classical music immediately entered my ears.

It was soft, gentle music.

And yet...

"...Ugh."

How should I describe it?

It felt deeply unpleasant.

Irritating.

I shouldn't listen for long.

The moment I put the headset back on, the music vanished as though it had never existed.

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

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

I let out a relieved breath 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 escaping tomorrow. Whether I die here or die trying, I don't have another choice.}

{Day 6}

{My name is Kim XX. My mother's phone number is written below.}

{If you get out, please call her for me. If I'm there, congratulate me. If I'm not, 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, we could discuss what to do next and how to escape.

Again, assuming the mascot remained sane.

I had no idea what had happened to the diary's owner.

All I could do was copy the phone number onto another piece of paper and tuck it inside my clothes.

Maybe one day I'd have the chance to call.

I returned the diary behind the calendar and lay down on the mattress.

The musty smell and hard surface beneath my back were incredibly uncomfortable.

Still...

"...This actually isn't too bad?"

Maybe it was because I'd never had a chance to properly lie down on any floor besides Floor 0.5.

This felt far more comfortable than expected.

"Yawn..."

I was even getting sleepy immediately.

"..."

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

But for me...

"Ugh..."

This was the first place outside Floor 0.5 where I could actually lie down.

I wasn't planning to eat the food anyway.

So I might as well sleep as much as possible.

Even though I'd already slept plenty on Floor 0.5, I eventually surrendered to the relentless wave of drowsiness.

Something like this would've been unimaginable for the old me.

But what could I do?

I was tired.

And just like that, I fell asleep as though I'd lost consciousness.

I really did sleep through almost the entire day.

I didn't wake until the door finally opened.

"Ugh..."

I'd expected to sleep comfortably.

I hadn't expected to sleep that deeply.

Still, my head felt much clearer because of it.

"All right. Let's go."

The open door looked as though it were inviting me outside.

I picked up the notebook and started walking.

[150. I didn't jump.]

[150. The door opens after one day. I'm going outside to investigate.]

Let's go.

I stepped through the doorway and followed the eerie corridor.

Before long, a large hall appeared.

"..."

People were standing there.

They stared blankly into empty space.

But their mouths were moving.

They seemed to be saying something.

No.

Was it music?

Could I simply not hear it?

Let's check just a little.

I lifted one side of the headset.

The sound immediately came through.

Music.

The same music that had been playing constantly inside my room.

None of the people here looked sane.

If there had been anyone I could communicate with, I might've tried to bring them with me.

Feeling disappointed, I examined the patients more carefully.

Blank expressions.

Unnatural postures.

Irrational behavior that made communication impossible.

And...

"Where did all the patient gowns go?"

Strangely, none of them were wearing hospital clothes.

They were dressed in ordinary clothing.

Some wore short sleeves.

Others wore padded winter jackets.

One person was even dressed in something that looked twenty years out of date.

The time periods were all over the place.

I was still thinking about that when...

Tap.

A large, soft hand landed on my shoulder.

"Didn't cause any trouble, did you?"

"!"

The mascot nodded.

I looked away from it.

"I found an escape route, but..."

"!!!"

"The survival rate is only thirty percent."

"?"

"Yeah. Sounds bad, right?"

"!"

"So we're going to escape through the staff passage instead."

"?"

"Why?"

There might be a back door there.

No.

There was a very high chance.

My instincts, sharpened by repeatedly finding back doors on previous floors, were telling me that.

Even if it wasn't an exit, we still had another option.

"..."

For a moment, I remembered the heavy pistol inside my clothes.

Then I looked away again.

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

"...!"

The mascot made a gesture like it was sighing even though it had no mouth.

Then it nodded.

"Good. Let's go."

I strode toward the passage.

The mascot followed beside me, looking around carefully.

"By the way, how was your room?"

"?"

"Did the medical staff bother you? Did something come from the neighboring room? Did you find any strange notes?"

"?"

The mascot shook its head repeatedly as we walked.

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

Thinking back to Floor N, the mascot had considered one of the exhibits safe, and I'd nearly lost my mind after looking at it.

"If anything happens, watch over me."

"!"

The mascot nodded.

We waited until the medical staff were nowhere in sight, then slipped into the inner corridor.

None of the insane people spoke to us or tried to hurt us.

"..."

I continued forward with the pistol in hand.

From this point onward, there were no records to guide me.

No clues I could infer.

The notebook users who carried the elevator notebook had all jumped out the windows.

The instructions created by the Management Bureau didn't cover this route either.

From here on, I'd have to confront the unknown directly.

Keeping that in mind, I carefully continued down the corridor.

We'd been walking for roughly ten minutes when I briefly lifted one side of the headset.

The music was gone now.

Had we gotten far enough away?

Or...

"..."

Don't think about it.

I shook my head and continued walking.

Then...

Rustle!

I stepped on something.

Paper.

I looked down.

"...!"

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

"???"

"Wait."

I quickly picked it up and unfolded it.

{Day 6 — Corridor}

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

{Was coming here really the right choice? Would it have been better to stay there and quietly accept death?}

{I keep thinking I should turn back, but I can't hear the music anymore.}

{Something is walking toward me.}

The words had been scribbled hurriedly.

Something is walking toward me?

For a moment, I froze.

Then one thought suddenly struck me.

I immediately opened the notebook and checked an earlier entry.

[90. Shit, I dropped one of the boards.]

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

[90. I can hear a door breaking. That's not a person. That's seriously not a person.]

[90. no d]

A dragging sound came from the darkness ahead.

Like someone pulling a heavy sack across the floor.

When I'd first entered the hall, there hadn't been anything that could make a sound like that.

And there hadn't been anyone capable of smashing through a door.

Then where had whatever made that sound been hiding?

The dragging noise drew closer.