Decoding the Ghost Stories in Fantasy

Chapter 2: Revived Like a Dog (2)

Death is fair to all.

Even the countless great figures who left behind remarkable achievements in history could not escape death as long as they were human.

Immortality does not exist in this world.

Death is a natural principle for all living beings and an absolute rule that never changes.

However, that did not apply to me.

That was why I could clean the blood-soaked isolation room H-I-01 once again.

I pulled out the corpse from the isolation room, its neck broken, and placed it on a cart.

"S-Seo-ho… Are you okay?"

From outside the isolation room, Naram noona looked at me with a worried expression.

Her face was pale as she had watched everything unfold from the moment my neck snapped until now.

"Dying while cleaning isn’t the first time for me. No big deal."

"I’m sorry. It’s because of me…"

"There’s no need to apologize. I should be the one apologizing. I’m sorry for showing you such an awful sight. But I’m more worried about you, noona. I’m afraid this might have traumatized you…"

Over the past year, I had shown Naram noona all sorts of things, but this was the first time she had seen me die.

For an ordinary person, it could be a shocking scene.

Seeing someone die wasn’t common, let alone watching someone’s neck get snapped by a Phantom Species—it must have looked like a scene from a gory horror movie.

This was the second time I had died to H-I-01.

About six months ago, when I had grown fairly accustomed to cleaning the isolation rooms, I had entered H-I-01’s isolation room while humming a tune.

Sometimes, that kind of thing happens, doesn’t it?

Like when you’re walking home after finishing work or doing something repetitive like attaching doll eyes—before you realize it, your body has already moved on its own, and the task is completed.

Psychology calls this phenomenon "automatic brain function."

My automatic brain led me to breathe as usual, and that led to my death.

The pain from that time had been so excruciating that I had developed the habit of reviewing data before cleaning.

I never expected Naram noona to be an unexpected variable…

Noona looked downcast.

She was probably blaming herself for my death.

It made me happy that she worried about me.

But unlike that bastard Eighteen, my dear, kind, and gentle Naram noona being sad was something I, Woo Seo-ho, could not allow.

Her smile was the prettiest.

"I want to see noona eating the miso soup I make every morning."

"!?!!??"

"There’s a small village on the 12th floor of the facility, surrounded by a forest and a lake. Let’s move there and get married."

"W-W-What are you even saying all of a sudden?! A-And, our facility isn’t that tall…"

Noona’s face turned red.

For reference, I wasn’t particularly good-looking.

Just an ordinary guy you could see anywhere.

Oh, but I was quite tall—15 cm taller than Eighteen, who was only 170 cm.

I wasn’t impressive in any way.

I earned about a third of what Eighteen did, and even I knew I wasn’t smart.

The only reason noona’s face turned red at my crude flirting was probably that she was just someone who embarrassed easily.

She had dropped out of middle school, taken the high school equivalency exam, attended a women’s university, earned a master’s degree, and worked in a female-dominated workplace.

She had little interaction with men, and her naturally shy and quiet personality meant she lacked much experience with them.

Of course, seeing how she coldly rejected Eighteen’s persistent advances, she did seem to have good judgment.

"Don’t mind what just happened. I was just acting stupid."

"O-Okay."

Only then did Naram noona relax her expression.

Her bright, beaming smile made her look like a small, plump animal.

I was more indifferent than most when it came to pain and death, but when I saw her smile, what happened with H-I-01 disappeared from my mind.

"Seo-ho, I bought your favorite snacks and chocolates on my way to work today. I left them in front of your room, so make sure to eat them after you’re done, okay?"

"Okay."

"Senior should be here soon. You better get inside! Senior Kwak always says something when he sees you. He’s not a bad person or anything… But he seems to have a weird grudge against you!"

'That bastard is just a piece of shit.'

I swallowed my words.

I couldn’t say something crude in front of noona, who always gave me small but meaningful gestures of kindness.

I pulled the cart and headed to the incinerator.

My steps felt light.

It wasn’t just because I had met Naram noona.

The incinerator was outside.

It was the only time I could step out into the open.

A rare moment where I could leave the suffocating, white-walled space and breathe fresh air.

Humming the melody of the song noona had sung to me, I walked down the hallway and passed by a few employees.

As always, their gazes were unkind.

‘Freak.’

Their eyes were filled with contempt.

I had endured those gazes countless times over the past year, so they barely fazed me now.

Ignoring the researchers’ sneers, I quickened my pace toward the incinerator.

"Serial number [0_4_138] Woo Seo-ho, access to the incinerator is granted. The time limit is 15 minutes. For further details, please refer to Special Rule R-12."

I adjusted the choke device hanging around my neck.

If I didn’t return to the facility within the time limit, it would unleash a high-voltage electric shock—essentially a time bomb.

I dumped the corpse and other waste into the roaring furnace and closed the lid.

"12 minutes remaining."

Wiping the sweat from my forehead, I looked up at the sky.

It was impossibly blue.

The facility had no windows, so this was a view I couldn’t see from inside.

A cool breeze blew under the vast sky.

The crisp, cold air filled my lungs.

As my mind, which had been clouded, cleared, the weight in my chest seemed to lighten, even if just a little.

"138."

People often say that indifference is the worst, but I never appreciated Eighteen’s excessive interest in me.

Eighteen threw an empty can into the incinerator and started talking to me.

Did he not see the recycling bin?

I frowned, but since I had bowed my head, he probably didn’t see my expression.

“Hello, Senior Kwak.”

“I heard you died again just now?”

There was no reason for Eighteen, a researcher, to visit the incinerator as part of his job.

As always, if he went out of his way to come here, it was just to put me down and boost his own self-esteem.

What a useless bastard.

“No matter how stupid you are, you’ve cleaned the isolation rooms more than a few times by now. At your level, you should be getting used to it. If you only had one life like the other Level 4s, you’d have been incinerated ages ago. Lucky bastard.”

Before I knew it, my expression hardened.

Normally, I could have ignored it without a second thought.

So why was my irritation boiling over this time?

Was it because my patience had finally reached its limit?

Or was it because he had just dumped his bullshit on me without warning when I was already feeling unsettled after what happened with Naram noona?

No, it was neither of those.

My patience was dozens of times stronger than an average person’s, and I had grown so accustomed to Eighteen’s shitty morning greetings that I could let them in one ear and out the other.

0_1_100 Kang Naram ▶ 「Senior Kwak keeps pressuring me to have lunch with him… I’m so fed up ㅠㅠㅠㅠ…」

The real reason probably lay in the conversation I had with Naram noona yesterday.

“…What, what the hell.”

I walked toward Eighteen with steady steps.

Eighteen was smaller than me.

When I looked down at him like this, I could clearly see his thinning crown.

It was only natural that my physique was far superior to his—after all, I wasn’t some office worker who sat around typing on a keyboard all day.

I stared down at him with a cold gaze.

“138, y-you bastard, are you defying me right now?!”

Eighteen’s face twisted in confusion.

Come to think of it, this was the first time I had ever blatantly ignored his words.

Naram noona had told me that fighting with colleagues, especially higher-ups, was never a good idea.

So the path I had to take wasn’t simple violence…

“Senior Kwak.”

I grabbed Eighteen’s shoulder as he barked at me like a chihuahua.

His body flinched.

The look of fear in his eyes as he gazed up at me was incredibly amusing.

“You have some dust on you.”

With a calm expression, I casually brushed off his shoulder.

Eighteen’s face turned bright red.

He slapped my hand away and staggered backward.

“J-Just say it next time! You bastard! This is why Level 4s with no sense are such a problem! A goddamn primitive ape with neither education nor decency!”

Spewing curses, Eighteen hastily fled.

A few researchers smoking nearby snickered under their breath, clearly enjoying the scene.

It seemed Eighteen had earned plenty of enemies aside from me.

Well, it made sense—he was someone even the kindhearted Naram noona had outright rejected.

…Wait, did I just commit insubordination?

I had tried to be as polite as possible while hiding my emotions.

Hmm. What should I do now?