Chapter 95: The Escape

I waited anxiously for midnight.
I was worried about whether I would be able to escape successfully, and whether there would be any obstacles different from the simulation with Siyun.

Although there were no CCTVs in the hallway, there was a high probability that the research lab’s situation was being monitored through an ability user, or that small cameras were installed.
I had to move as quickly as possible before I was caught.

I retraced the map that he had put in my head and headed for the elevator to go to the first basement level.

Of the two cards I had received from him, I planned to use Jinseok’s card.
When I tagged the card on the reader next to the elevator, the sturdy elevator began to move.
I was worried about what to do if it didn’t work, but a long sigh of relief came out.

My heart also pounded along with the sound of the wire rope moving.
As soon as the elevator door opened, I immediately pressed the first basement level button.

Feeling my hands tremble with nervousness, I took a deep breath to calm down.
The breath coming out of my mouth was still unstable, but after repeating the deep breaths in and out a few times, I was able to return to my original breathing.

The elevator went up to the first basement level quickly.
Originally, it was standard to go straight up to the first floor, but since the structure was such that I would run into the manager right away if I got off on the first floor, I planned to go up to the first floor through the emergency stairs from the first basement level.

It was a time of less than a minute to reach the first basement level.
But this time felt really long to me.

The elevator door opened, and a wide space appeared.
Just as he had said, I saw a hallway entrance divided into three branches.
Among them, I walked quickly down the left hallway.
The hallway was filled with a chilly air.

According to the escape plan, I walked straight ahead, turned left, and then walked straight again.

Every time I walked, my footsteps echoed in the hallway, and the sound felt like the footsteps of someone coming to catch me, making me even more nervous.

To be honest, I had an ominous feeling that Dr. Yoon or an Association Esper might appear at any moment and catch me.

Before long, I saw an emergency staircase with a ‘No Entry’ sign.
I had to tag my ID card to open the emergency staircase door as well.
After tagging and opening the door, a dark staircase with only a green emergency light on appeared.

I closed the emergency staircase door and went up the stairs one by one.
As I got closer to escaping, my steps became hasty with anxiety and a little bit of excitement.
The more I climbed the stairs, the more I felt like I was suffocating under the pressure that I had to succeed in one go.

Even though it was a short distance of just one floor up from the first basement level, my body was tense, and my breathing was ragged.
Fortunately, there was no strange sign so far.
It was just deathly quiet, as if everyone except me was asleep.

The long-seeming staircase finally ended.
There were no more stairs to go up, and there was only a door connected to the first floor.

I stopped for a while and checked for any presence beyond the door.
An ominous and eerie thought that people might be waiting on the other side of the door continued.

Barely composing myself, I turned the doorknob and looked outside slightly.
Fortunately, there was no one.
Only then did I feel relieved and came out.
The hallway stretched out long to the left and right.
Now, if I just followed this hallway, an iron door would appear, and that door was close to the exit that led outside.

Thinking that this was the final hurdle, my legs walking down the hallway gradually quickened.
By the time I noticed, I was running.
By the time I arrived in front of the door, I could hardly breathe.

“Gasp. Gasp.”

Just in case there might be a manager outside, I pressed my ear to the door.
Except for the sound of my own heart beating and the noise of the air circulation machine, I couldn’t hear anything.

Unlike my earlier dash, I cautiously turned the doorknob and opened the door.

I could see the door I had come in through.
At that sight, I knew I had come the right way.
Now I just had to go through that door.

I felt a sense of unease at the all-too-smooth situation, but thinking that I had come out safely, I quickly approached the entrance door and held out my hand with the card.
When I tagged the card on the reader, the door opened with a heavy sound.

The gap in the door gradually widened, and unlike inside, I could feel the raw air.
Feeling the fresh air, I quickly came out of the research lab.

I took a deep breath of the natural air, not the artificially created one.
The night air was cold, but it contained a warm energy and enveloped me gently.
That small warmth felt like it was comforting me.

But I soon came to my senses and looked at the building across from me.
It wouldn’t be too late to feel the thrill of victory after I had definitely escaped.

When the secret research lab’s door closed, I was shrouded in darkness.
The moon was out, but it was hidden by the clouds, and the surroundings were dark.
In the darkness, I looked at the building across from me.
First, since I wanted to get out of this ominous place, I ran towards the building.

Every time my feet touched the sand, a rustling sound echoed around.
Relying on the faint moonlight, I arrived at the building, and the moment I opened the door, contrary to my expectation, there was only darkness.

Feeling something strange, I closed and opened the door again, but it was the same.
In an instant, my mind became confused.

‘Could Dr. Yoon have anticipated my escape and taken measures in advance? Or has the location changed?’

First, since I had come out, my phone should work.
When I took my phone out of my pocket, the communication was still connected.

I hurriedly called Jinseok.
It was midnight, but there was a high probability that he was awake.

A sense of relief came first as the ringing tone continued beyond the previously silent receiver.

But at that moment, I felt an Esper’s wavelength from behind me, and my body stiffened like a stone.
The phone in my hand was snatched away in vain.

I wanted to turn around, but I couldn’t move at all.
It was the binding ability I had experienced several times.

“Guide-nim, what are you doing here?”

Security Team Leader Kim Jooho, who had always come to catch me, was in front of me.
He asked, turning off the power of my phone.

A sense of dismay came first at the sight of the security team leader.
Still, just the fact that the communication with Jinseok had been connected made me feel that my escape had not been in vain.

“I heard you were participating in the project. How did you get out?”

The muscles around my mouth were stiff and wouldn’t move.
Kim Jooho quickly checked the ID card in my hand and took it.
He looked at the front of the card and read the name.

“Choi Jinseok…. He was your manager, wasn’t he?”

“……”

“It’s cold. Let’s go inside now.”

I wanted to tell him to release his ability, but he took me back to the secret research lab as he was.

After taking the elevator, the place I was dragged to by him was a room that was empty like a solitary confinement cell.
Literally, it was concrete without any wallpaper or flooring.
Since there wasn’t even a chair, I had to sit on the floor.

“Please stay here until Dr. Yoon arrives.”

What would he say when he saw me, who had escaped?
He probably wouldn’t let it go lightly this time.
But I also had something to say to him.

I just waited for him to appear.
After a few hours, the door opened, and he, who had been out of sight for a while, revealed himself.

“Guide-nim, how was your short outing?”

“Let me out.”

“I was wondering how you got out, and it was with Choi Jinseok’s help. To think he had even replicated a master key.”

He threw the master key, which had been snapped in half, at me.
He didn’t rebuke me for running away.
He just had an interested face.

“I have something I want to show you.”

I lowered my head and looked around without saying anything.
My body was bound again.
Before I knew it, he was behind him.

As expected, I thought Espers were annoying.
And I realized for sure that the Association was involved in this secret project.
Otherwise, there was no way the head of the Association’s security team would be here.

I followed him, still bound.

“What are you going to show me.”

Fortunately, since he had only bound my body, I was able to speak this time.

“I told you I would introduce you.”

I asked who he was going to introduce, but he just smiled.
I was so fed up with him that I wanted to spit on his smile.

The place we followed him to was the eighth basement level.
The air on the eighth basement level was heavier than on the other floors, and it was suffocating.

The eighth basement level was all large iron doors.
He stopped at one of the doors and opened it with his ID card and biometric recognition.

When the door opened, a situation room appeared.
When I went inside, there was a glass tube beyond the situation room’s glass.
There was a person inside the glass tube, and they were naked, with electrodes attached to various parts of their body.

“What is that? Who is that?”

“The person you wanted to be introduced to.”

“So who is it!”

“You said you wanted to be introduced to an S-Class guide, didn’t you?”

At his words, I looked at the person in the glass tube again.
My mouth opened in horror.
From the looks of it, it seemed he had been in that state for several years.

“How long has he been like that?”

“Well. He was here before Siyun-gun, so it must have been three years.”

I couldn’t take my eyes off the man in the glass tube.
The man’s skin was pale without a trace of blood.
No matter how much I looked at him, he didn’t look like a living person, and the more I looked, the more goosebumps I got.
It was as if he were indirectly threatening me, saying that I could also become like that at any time.

“He was in a brain-dead state after getting seriously injured while trying to leave after the project was over.”

‘Brain-dead…’

“If the Multi project proceeds well, you will be able to leave safely. If you want to leave quickly, do your best in the project.”

Hearing Dr.Yoon’s low voice, which was like a final warning, my body instinctively shrank and stiffened, not because of the binding ability.
If he wanted to, he could lock me in that glass tube right now.
When I imagined that situation, it was so terrible that no words came out.

“You must be tired today, so get some rest. From tomorrow, you will have to participate in the Multi project properly.”