# Chapter 158
But of course, it wasn’t a normal situation.
“Shall we go in?”
“…Is that okay?”
Jaekyung still looked miserable, but he knew there was no other solution besides going in. Iyeon shrugged and summoned the sand again. A snow-white bridge formed from the railing where they were standing to beyond the hole, high enough not to touch the black liquid.
“But Iyeon-ssi, how are you doing this? You don’t even have paper?”
“Ah… It’s a bit complicated to explain. I’ll tell you later.”
Since the situation itself was so surreal, Jaekyung simply accepted the vague response. Iyeon’s ability wasn’t the issue right now anyway.
As they crossed over the stairs with the flowing black water and entered the hole, Iyeon suddenly stopped. When he abruptly halted and looked around after walking normally, Jaekyung, who was following behind, asked curiously:
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing…”
Iyeon glared once at the torn wall surface with a thoroughly uneasy face, then continued walking. Was it an illusion? He thought he saw something inside the cross-section of the broken wall.
When they entered the corridor, the eerie atmosphere automatically raised goosebumps. It clearly looked like an ordinary building at first glance, but there was a strangely bizarre feeling that wouldn’t go away.
“What on earth is this?”
“I mean… it looked perfectly normal when we entered from outside…”
The inside of the corridor was almost identical to what they had seen through the hole. Three doors with different office signs, men’s and women’s bathrooms, and one unidentifiable black door with nothing attached to it.
It was an excessively tidy scene for an abandoned building.
“…Isn’t this, you know?”
Jaekyung, with deeply furrowed brows, asked in a trembling voice. Though there wasn’t a single clear noun in that sentence, Iyeon also agreed.
“Right. If we assume the wall we broke was the stairwell door…”
Both of their gazes turned to the clean, pitch-black door.
“…Should we maybe go in there?”
Jaekyung muttered glumly. Iyeon shook his head with a serious expression.
“What are you saying? It obviously looks like a door to the afterlife. It absolutely looks like something we shouldn’t enter.”
“I thought so too… but there’s no other way.”
“…Should we try the windows?”
Since even Jaekyung was reluctant to approach the door that was clearly oozing ominous energy, the two slinked sideways like crabs toward the window at the very end of the corridor. The window was positioned high enough to barely reach their shoulders, but there was no problem seeing the scenery beyond.
And the two who saw the outside froze in place.
“…”
“What is that…?”
A groan-like lament leaked out amidst the silence. The outside, where a white moon hung, was literally empty.
Except for the black river filling the ground.
There was nothing familiar in sight. No streetlights, no tightly packed shops, and no people waiting for them in front of the building. Just the building they had entered, standing alone on the nonsensical black river.
“What is this? Some kind of afterlife experience?”
“Are we dying like this?”
Jaekyung staggered away from the window as if his legs had lost strength. Iyeon also stared intently at the unbelievable scenery. The shock was that great. They had simply come for a courage test, and he had no idea why this was happening.
“Ah!”
Just then, Jaekyung, who had been clinging to the wall for support, shuddered. Seeing him thrashing his limbs as if having a seizure, Iyeon approached with a startled face.
“What’s wrong? Are you okay?”
“T-this.”
Jaekyung kept rubbing his goosebump-covered forearm while looking at the wall he had just been leaning against. He had naturally assumed it was solid, neatly filled concrete.
“It’s soft…”
“Soft?”
Repeating Jaekyung’s words, Iyeon extended his arm toward the wall. When he lightly pressed with his fingers, they sank in with the force applied. As Jaekyung had said, it felt soft and pliant.
“…What is this?”
His fingers soon expanded to his palm. When he pushed firmly, the wall gave way in the shape of his palm. Iyeon quickly realized that the texture wasn’t just mushy but had some contours. With its bumpy surface, this felt just like…
“D-don’t keep pressing it. What if something suddenly pops out?”
“Jaekyung-ssi. Doesn’t this look… like an octopus tentacle?”
“What?”
“I mean, it’s quite large for an octopus. Look at this. It’s shaped similarly to suckers.”
At Iyeon’s words, Jaekyung cautiously approached. After carefully observing Iyeon’s hands pressing the wall, Jaekyung also reached out to touch it. The texture, which looked incredibly hard, still gave way softly.
“…Wait a minute.”
Jaekyung, who had been staring intently at the wall, suddenly turned his gaze away. As if searching for something, he hurriedly looked around, even moving his feet to examine the surroundings. He clearly didn’t seem normal. Had he found some clue? Iyeon stopped touching the wall with an equally serious face and watched Jaekyung’s actions. Jaekyung muttered to himself while spinning around the floor like someone deep in thought.
“Octopus, octopus tentacles with spatial movement, no, is it a mutation? Transformation? I definitely saw this somewhere. Somewhere…”
The continuous stream of words suddenly stopped at some point. Like a broken doll, Jaekyung abruptly closed his mouth and urgently lifted his head exactly three seconds later. His long hair rippled roughly, and his surprised face turned toward Iyeon.
“Iyeon-ssi, this is a Dabalsin!”
“Dabalsin?”
When Iyeon questioned the unfamiliar name, Jaekyung poured out words like a child who had just learned to speak.
“A Level 3 mutant, Dabalsin. It’s been discovered so rarely that it took me a while to recognize it. My goodness, a Dabalsin? Is this for real? In the middle of the city? This is incredible…”
As he muttered like that, Jaekyung’s eyes were sparkling. Though it wasn’t clearly visible with only moonlight, his cheeks seemed to be flushed.
“Why, what kind of creature is it?”
A Level 3 mutant is classified as high-tier. Immediately becoming serious, Iyeon urged Jaekyung, who continued his explanation.
“There’s not much known about Dabalsin… It’s a mutant that claims its own territory. Once it designates a certain range as its domain, it can control everything within that area at will. Think of it as if the space itself has become the Dabalsin. So, we’re currently inside the Dabalsin.”
“…Inside a mutant?”
Iyeon frowned at the subtle nuance. We won’t suddenly get digested or anything, right? Surely that black water isn’t stomach acid… No, I should believe it’s not.
“How do we eliminate it?”
“Eliminate? You want to eliminate it?”
Jaekyung asked as if he’d heard something absurd. That’s the kind of voice I should be using. Iyeon looked at Jaekyung, not hiding his bewilderment.
“What, should we go camping here instead?”
“No, what I mean is, Dabalsin is such a rare mutant that its research value…”
As Iyeon’s glare intensified, Jaekyung’s voice grew smaller. Soon, his mumbling voice flowed out as tiny as mouse droppings.
“…From what I remember, there’s no record of it being eliminated.”
“But it’s Level 3?”
Level 3 is the lowest grade among high-tier mutants. That doesn’t mean it’s easy to handle, but still, most should have been eliminated at least once or twice… Among the many questions filling Iyeon’s mind, one possibility suddenly flashed. Ah, could it be?
“Dabalsin is a mutant with an orb.”
It made sense that there were no elimination records for an orb mutant with a separate energy source, especially one with spatial domination abilities. Rather, it was strange that it was only Level 3. As if reading Iyeon’s mind, Jaekyung added more explanation.
“The reason Dabalsin is only Level 3 despite having an orb is that its ability is localized and it has almost no mobility. It rarely tries to leave the Red Void, and there have even been sightings where part of it almost came out but went back in again. I honestly don’t understand why it’s set up in a building in your neighborhood.”
“It’s amazing it hasn’t been discovered until now…”
Iyeon clicked his tongue and muttered. Jaekyung, with eyes still dripping with lingering attachment, continued exploring everywhere in the corridor without stopping. He tried poking the soft walls, pulling at panels and bathroom doors that felt real for a long time, until his gaze naturally turned to the black water beyond the hole in the corridor.
“But this is strange. While Dabalsin’s body includes cephalopod forms so it can handle water to some extent, I don’t recall any mention of such viscous black water…”
“Isn’t it ink?”
“Octopus ink has no viscosity.”
“…Really?”
“Yeah. Maybe squid… And I don’t understand why the outside of the building is like that either. It shouldn’t be powerful enough to handle such a wide area. …Or was it just undiscovered until now? Well, there’s not much information on this species.”
Iyeon raised his hand as if making a presentation. While Jaekyung’s point was valid, both of them knew another case where a new ability of a mutant had been discovered.
“Could it be a mutant that underwent experiments in a laboratory? Like your former workplace?”
“Nah. They might attempt to control low to mid-tier mutants, but this is Level 3. No national research institute would release a mutant into the city. Citizens would flood them with complaints if they found out.”
“That’s true…”
Without reaching a clear conclusion, the two looked around the corridor again. What appeared to be bathroom doors wouldn’t open, as if they were just decorations, and they couldn’t access the stairs or windows.
Tension seeped into Iyeon’s eyes as he reconfirmed the lack of plausible exits. He had no idea how to deal with an unknown mutant. Staring intently at the window framing the white moon like a picture, Iyeon spoke.
“Even if there’s no elimination record, there must be response records? Do you remember what they did?”
But even after waiting several seconds, no answer came. What’s going on? Did he not hear me? Iyeon belatedly shifted his gaze from the window and turned his head.
The corridor was empty.
