Chapter 40
Human Exhibition: The Beauty of the Perfect Human (2)
“Team Leader Jo!”
“Hanmu, calm down. As hard as it may be to believe....”
Jeong Dohan grabbed me firmly as I looked ready to charge at Team Leader Jo and punch him.
“Dohan, didn’t you just see that? Team Leader Jo threw Seo Gitae...!”
“He saved him. So calm down.”
“How could that possibly—”
“You really are a rookie.”
Leaving me with a head full of questions, Team Leader Jo lit another cigarette.
“Tch. My last one.”
“Hanmu, that’s one of our company’s rescue items.”
“We have something like that? Then do you have one too, Dohyeon—”
“We don’t.”
“One of those costs two stickers. It’s not worth the price, so hardly anyone buys one. That team leader carries one around because he values his own life more than anything.”
So had I heard that correctly?
“....”
“Are you saying we can use stickers to buy items from the company?”
“Is the rookie hard of hearing? How many times are you going to make your seniors explain things to you?”
If that bastard weren’t already half-dead, I would have....
Still, it made sense.
You had to spend two weeks nearly working yourself to death and rank first in performance just to receive a single sticker. Spending two of them to escape midway through a ghost story would certainly seem wasteful.
Team Leader Jo stared at the doorway through which he had thrown Seo Gitae and exhaled a cloud of pale smoke.
Jeong Dohan watched him before asking,
“Aren’t you leaving, Team Leader? It’ll close soon.”
“I’ve already suffered enough losses. Do you expect me to hand over everything else to you too?”
Was he greedy or not?
Had he saved Seo Gitae because the man was still his team member? Or was it so he could claim all the credit for himself?
Only one person can receive the sticker anyway, so perhaps he doesn’t care whether his teammate escapes first.
Even so, it was still a loss.
“A promise is a promise. Take it.”
Team Leader Jo pulled the bundle of papers from his jacket and threw it to us.
[Human Exhibition: On the Limitless Possibilities of the Human Body—Manual]
Beginning with , the document outlined the characteristics and threats of each artwork.
1. Regarding the Audio Guide
A device available at the ticket booth before entering the exhibition. It is the single most essential survival item in this ghost story.
Scanning the QR codes engraved on the floor provides crucial hints for surviving the artworks.
Entering an artwork’s effective range without an audio guide causes the survival rate to plummet due to a lack of information. Every team must secure at least one device before entering.
2. Regarding the Docent
A managerial anomaly dressed in a suit, whose face consists solely of a membrane.
It remains neutral by default and does not attack first. Visitors may pay with a body part requested by the docent to receive a premium guide, but those carrying an audio guide have no need to request the docent’s assistance.
[Special Note] Clearly express to the docent, “I wish to become an employee who manages the artworks,” and it will immediately issue a [STAFF] lanyard.
Anyone possessing this lanyard may use the , marked [STAFF ONLY].
For detailed usage instructions and restrictions, refer to the section below.
3. Regarding [Ten Thousand Left Hands]
An artwork consisting of countless hands suspended from the ceiling. When a visitor enters its area, a thin wire wraps around the visitor’s left wrist and attempts to sever it.
Attempting to physically resist by cutting the artwork’s wire will trigger the docent’s hostility. Never confront it directly.
However, if the visitor’s left hand is injured, the artwork will determine it has no artistic value and exclude it from its collection targets.
1. Regarding Exhibition Hall Three
Every display platform in Exhibition Hall Three is empty. Anyone who reaches this point should be able to escape through the exit.
A massive cluster assembled from individual human body parts exists at the center, but it is missing one finger. It is therefore presumed incomplete—
With every page I turned, I found myself increasingly astonished by the thoroughness of their analysis.
“This is incredibly systematic.”
Perhaps that was only natural when survival inside ghost stories depended on it.
The section was the same. It contained densely written instructions for every individual artwork.
Then came the pages for the hall we were currently in: .
I couldn’t read any further.
The remaining pages had been torn out.
So this was why he had pretended to honor our agreement and handed it over without resistance.
“It appears the most important section is missing.”
“It became useless.”
“What do you mean?”
While we read the manual, Team Leader Jo finished his cigarette and ground the butt against the floor.
“Exactly what I said. I don’t know how this exhibition hall works either.”
“The manual says we can escape through the exit. Are you saying that information is no longer valid as well?”
“If escape were possible, do you think I’d still be sitting here?”
Team Leader Jo clicked his tongue and gave us an almost contemptuous look.
At that moment, a massive shadow fell over him and me.
“Move!”
I shouted instinctively and leapt backward, almost losing my footing.
BANG!!
A gigantic black shape crashed down between Team Leader Jo and me.
Its lightless black form was all too familiar.
Ears upon ears upon ears, gathered into a single ear.
Mouths upon mouths upon mouths, gathered into a single mouth.
Arms upon arms upon arms, gathered into a single arm.
Legs upon legs upon legs, gathered into a single leg.
A single composite entity.
A single artwork.
It opened its mouth wide.
“Hello.”
Its voice was hoarse and breathy, as if something were wrong with its vocal cords, but it had unmistakably spoken a human word.
Chills raced up my spine.
Jeong Dohan shouted,
“Scatter!”
As if that were a starting signal, my legs moved before I could think.
“What, exhibition, human!”
It produced a nonsensical jumble, as though repeating words it had gathered from the humans it had assembled piece by piece.
Watching it try to imitate human speech is horrifying!
The enormous mass of arms swept over my head with a heavy rush of air.
BOOM!
It struck a pillar instead of my skull, yet it was the hand that emerged unscathed. The entire space shook as fragments of the pillar rained down.
Forget having my limbs torn off. A direct hit from that thing will kill me!
The entire hall was silent, as though every cluster that had wandered through Exhibition Hall Three had merged into this single main artwork.
But one was more than enough.
“Haa... Haa....”
The towering wall on the far side blocked my path.
The door marked [EXIT] must have had a warped frame. No matter how hard I pulled, it wouldn’t open or even budge.
This place was one enormous cage—a prison.
Someone arrived a little later than me.
It was Team Leader Jo.
“Don’t waste your strength. It won’t open. You saw what happened to Gitae, didn’t you?”
No wonder the floor was covered in blood.
Was this where Seo Gitae had been caught by the anomaly?
Merely imagining him surrounded here with a wall blocking his escape sent a chill through me.
But the fact that Team Leader Jo had come this far suggested that some part of him had also hoped the door might have opened.
He gave an empty laugh and leaned against the wall.
“To think I’d have to see that thing again. I should’ve accepted a quiet death.”
“Again?”
“Yes. Didn’t you read the manual? It should’ve been written there.”
Come to think of it, it had.
The manual said that an incomplete cluster had been displayed at the center of Exhibition Hall Three. Since it had also stated that escape was possible, this thing clearly hadn’t always been running rampant like this.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
The artwork’s footsteps approached from the darkness in the distance.
“Let’s go to the central display platform.”
I already knew how to escape this ghost story.
How to make it disappear.
[Completion Requirement: Display an artwork in Exhibition Hall Three.]
But there weren’t any artworks in this exhibition hall....
My head rang as though I had been struck.
“...Don’t tell me that giant thing is what we’re supposed to return to the display platform.”
Team Leader Jo didn’t miss the words that had unconsciously escaped my lips.
“You’re perceptive. How did you figure it out?”
“You knew?!”
“I wasn’t certain. I merely suspected it might stop if it were returned to its original place. And—”
Before Team Leader Jo could continue, shouts and crashing noises came from the distance.
“Where the hell did this bastard come from?!”
“Hyung! This way!”
The main artwork must have changed targets midway and begun pursuing the twins.
Thanks to that, we reached our destination: the circular white central display platform illuminated by a single beam of light.
The platform that had been split in two.
“I thought something was strange. Why would a dismantling marker that hadn’t even activated be attached to a display platform?”
Earlier, I had been too focused on retrieving the whistle to give it much thought, but this broken platform clearly bore signs of attempted repairs.
The dismantling markers hadn’t even produced their patterns and had no effect.
It seemed someone had tried to take advantage of their unlimited supply and use them like tape, but unsurprisingly, they didn’t appear to have worked.
What’s that?
Something seemed to be concealed beneath the makeshift tape, so I mercilessly began peeling away the useless dismantling markers.
After removing all the messy strips, a hidden word was revealed.
[The Deceased]
“What does ‘the Deceased’ mean?”
“I think it might be the name of this artwork.”
It probably didn’t refer to an animal like a lion. Perhaps it meant something like a messenger of death? No, interpreting saja as “the deceased”—a dead person—fit better.
“Well, cleaner? Do you have an estimate?”
“It’s a mess.”
The degree of damage to the display platform itself wasn’t too severe. It had been split almost perfectly in half.
However... there was a fist-sized gap in its center. It was where a central fragment of the platform should have been, and even if the two halves were rejoined perfectly, the missing piece was too large to ignore.
“What happened to this fragment?”
“Debris that broke off when the Deceased awakened. It should be somewhere in this hall.”
“No. That’s not it.”
I searched through my bag.
I had put it in here somewhere. I had definitely pulled it out with my own hands.
Clack.
A fist-sized chunk of marble.
The stone I had extracted from the dying face in [Facing the Wall] fit perfectly into the empty space at the center of the display platform.
“Where did you get that...?”
“Exhibition Hall One.”
“What? But how did that... end up there?”
That was what I wanted to know.
How had a fragment from Exhibition Hall Three reached Exhibition Hall One?
The docent had called it “the face of Min Siyeong, age twenty-four.”
“Do you know Min Siyeong?”
Team Leader Jo had hardly shown any emotion until now, but his eyes visibly trembled.
“She’s the youngest member of my team. How do you know her? Did you see her?”
BOOM! THUD! CRASH!
The Deceased appeared to be engaged in a noisy pursuit of the twins.
There was no time.
If we took too long and something happened to them—or if the target returned here—we would be in serious trouble.
“We don’t have time. I’ll repair the display platform first.”
“How? The dismantling markers couldn’t hold it together. That thing will break it again the moment it puts one foot on it.”
“Who said I’d repair it with something that flimsy?”
Clatter.
I opened my bag of cleaning supplies.
Superglue? Cleaners didn’t carry that sort of thing.
Tape? How would that be any different from the dismantling markers? Besides, I didn’t have any.
But I did have repair silicone sealant. It came in a small tube that fit neatly in one hand.
“You... That’s....”
“Can’t you tell? It’s for repairs.”
“You’re planning to join marble with silicone? Here?”
What was he making such a fuss about?
When removing mold and stubborn grime at a work site, the silicone sealant or grout sometimes came loose. This was what we used to repair it.
And the fact that the platform was made of marble was actually good news. Silicone was commonly used on tiles and flooring, so it was perfect for the job.
“It’ll work better than most adhesives. More importantly, tell Dohan not to come this way.”
“You’re a mere cleaner, and you think you can order a team leader around?”
“Yes. Unless you’d prefer that we all die together.”
Rather than wait for an answer, I forced open the gap between the two halves of the platform that had been crudely pushed together.
Then I began carefully brushing away the fine dust and stone powder caught in the fracture.
Preparing the surface was essential before applying silicone.
“You little...!”
Team Leader Jo clearly didn’t want to accept that I was ordering him around, but he had no choice.
He had already lost one arm. If the artwork attacked him again, his chances of survival would be slim.
“If this isn’t properly fixed by the time I return, I’ll kill you. Understood?”
“Do as you like.”
Team Leader Jo glared as if he wished he could kill me with his gaze alone, then ran toward the source of the noise.
Now, then.
Time to get to work.