Substitute-Chapter 124

Who did they say they caught when I’m right here?

Jiwon couldn’t make sense of Manager Kim’s words.

He had clearly declared that they had captured four infiltrating agents. He even gave the names, ages, and affiliations.

“If you get caught while trying to run, say you’re Park Geonwoo. I’ll pretend to be you.”

For a second, what Park Geonwoo had said flashed through his head, but he shook it off hard.

There was no way Park Geonwoo knew his identity.

No way.

No way?

Fuck. I’m losing it.

His feet wouldn’t budge. He literally froze.

Move. If you don’t want to die, move!

Only after he lashed himself did he finally manage to take a single step.

This wasn’t about getting exposed anymore. It was about survival.

Because the surroundings were lit up bright as day, Jiwon could gauge his position. ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) He realized he had gotten far enough from the building but not as far as he’d hoped. He’d even been headed the wrong way. He’d almost turned back toward the building.

It was a forest that might as well have been wild. At some point his sightline got completely blocked by trees far taller than he was. Even the mountain he’d seen clearly a moment ago suddenly vanished, so he risked exposure and even tried using his flashlight, but it wasn’t enough.

He told himself it was a relief he’d realized it before it got any later and hurried to change direction. But he didn’t get far before he had to stop. He remembered why he’d chosen the wrong way in the first place.

This wasn’t a place a person could pass through.

Fuck. What now?

Using the light gushing out from the building, Jiwon tried to fix the position of the mountain he needed to cross.

An impassable path, and the big mountain he had to get over.

If he took another path instead of this one, could he really get over that mountain?

Try it first. Don’t they say all roads connect into one?

Jiwon drew a deep breath.

He forced himself not to get dazzled by the siren and the gaudy lights and stepped out again.

He tore through the brush with everything he had, forgetting he was injured. His body felt like it was on an incline rather than flat ground. It was much harder, but the sense that he was finally going the right way thrilled him. Branches as high as his head raked fresh lines into his wounds, but he didn’t care. The body that had been shivering with chills was now flushing hot with heat.

Before he knew it, he’d reached a spot the building’s lights couldn’t reach.

Just in case, Jiwon braced on a branch and climbed a tree.

The lights hadn’t gone out. He had really gotten farther away.

Relieved, he climbed back down into the forest. The difference in height was only about a meter at most, but where Jiwon stood was perfect darkness again.

He pulled out his flashlight. And his pocketknife.

He felt like this was where it really began.

If he put a foot wrong there could be a cliff waiting, so he checked left and right carefully.

If the ground underfoot looked too black, he didn’t walk that way.

His pace slowed markedly, but because he still felt the incline under him, Jiwon kept going in silence.

He realized something was wrong when he slipped trying to step over a small rock.

Did I twist my ankle?

His heart dropped.

Jiwon winced hard and rotated his ankle.

A little stiff, but it didn’t feel sprained.

He grinned as if he’d lost ten years of his life and then noticed the air around him had changed.

The flow of air felt abruptly cut off. An unknown sensation that something enormous was blocking him wrapped his whole body.

He held his breath and listened to the rain.

The rain was still lashing down like crazy, and it wasn’t just hitting this forest. He heard it striking something bigger and harder than the rock he’d slipped on a moment ago.

With a bad hunch that it might be a stone quarry, Jiwon groped for a branch. Then, lifting each foot in turn, he scraped off the grass and mud stuck to the soles of his combat boots.

He prayed he wouldn’t have to climb a rock face and set out again.

He cleared the rock he’d slipped on earlier easily this time.

But Jiwon had to stop again.

Bad hunches usually don’t miss.

He slowly lifted his head.

A colossal retaining wall he never expected to meet in a place like this blocked his way. Even for something built to prevent landslides, it was so tall and massive it took his breath away.

It seemed this was why, the moment he’d entered the forest, he’d seen neither the red-eyed CCTV nor the wire mesh that had been installed encircling left and right.

Standing before a wall no one could get over, Jiwon laughed. Laughter was all that came out.

The wall was at least over ten meters high, and more than anything the entire face of it was coated with moss a dark green close to black. On top of that it was raining, so slick as if oiled—needless to say, it was the worst possible condition, the kind even specialists would shake their heads at, even if he had climbing gear.

Whew. Jiwon planted both hands on his hips and looked up at the sky.

The rain was so thick it stung as it slapped his face.

In the end, only one escape route was left.

That very footpath where Nam Kyuwon and Choi Minjae had been hiding. The one covered with high-voltage mesh fence.

Gwak Chan hadn’t told him to wait for the power cut for nothing.

All that for nothing.

Should’ve saved my strength.

Jiwon traced back the way he needed to return.

The sigh came on its own, but it wasn’t impossible.

If only I had something to eat.

He looked up at the sky again, and this time he opened his mouth wide.

He caught the rain and drank, filling his empty stomach.

It was Attorney Oh Jaehyun who had asked about the rat.

A former prosecutor turned attorney, Oh Jaehyun had gotten close fast with a certain detective he met through the club.

The detective had a gift of gab that could make even a lawyer click his tongue, and with his pleasant looks he was likable in every way.

After joining the club, he voluntarily provided all kinds of enforcement schedules and naturally blended in among the members. It wasn’t that they never suspected the information might be a trap, but for five years not once had his information been wrong.

By the third year after he joined, the detective had earned the conclusion among the members that he was a lackey they could trust.

A lackey.

That’s right.

The detective was a lackey.

Among the Deep Room’s members, he was the one with the lowest position.

Was he an inspector? A sergeant?

Of course, if it came to age, Attorney Oh was the youngest, but there was no comparing a cop from a provincial college to a man who had graduated from one of the top universities in the country, served as a prosecutor, and built a résumé at the top law firm.

Fortunately, the lackey seemed to know that fact better than anyone, and bowed and scraped on his own. If he had groveled too much it would have felt icky, but the detective knew how to keep it within bounds.

Anyway, thanks to that lackey, the club that had been facing dissolution started to buzz again.

The Deep Room’s members enjoyed the racy parties the detective asked about almost every other day. A few elders unfortunately died in the saddle, but everyone laughed about it behind their backs, calling them good deaths.

In the fifth year of sharing that life, the detective leaked a secret for the first time.

“Sounds like there’s going to be a large-scale operation.”

What came out of the detective’s mouth as a lead-in was astonishing.

“The operation is nothing but for show. So don’t worry about it much. I’ll pass you the infiltrators’ info at the right time. But that’s not the problem....”

The detective stalled.

“Jaehyun, can I trust you?”

The son of a bitch actually probed him, talking about trust.

“Hey. If you can’t trust me, who can you trust? Those old men? You know I keep my mouth shut.”

Attorney Oh flattered the detective to get information.

It was probably the first time he’d ever done that too.

But the detective wasn’t easy.

Knowing the detective’s temperament better than anyone, Attorney Oh was convinced this was really a big one. Afraid the other Deep Room members would snatch the precious information, he met the detective in secret multiple times and, while meeting as many of the detective’s wants as he could, barely coaxed him.

What he finally heard was truly shocking.

“Counselor Oh, you know which Guests were picked for that project, right? One of those bastards is a traitor.”

It was information on a whole other level than enforcement schedules.

Having smarted at not being chosen as a Guest for the Paradise Project, Attorney Oh had just been handed a golden chance.

He went straight to the Chairman. And he met him.

One on one.

It was the second time Attorney Oh, a lawyer in the Chairman’s Legal Office, had had a private audience with Gwak Hoon. “Second time,” but all he’d really done was a brief greeting in the Chairman’s office when he quit the firm and joined on a senior’s introduction.

Even if he was a tiger with teeth pulled, in this world the old man was a legend, and a private audience with him was the highest of honors.

The Chairman showed keen interest in the information Attorney Oh had brought and welcomed him more than anyone.

From then on, the two of them hatched a plan. One part of that plan was the game called “Hide-and-Seek.” It was a kind of bait product to gather every last Guest in one place.

And of course, they’d catch the rats hiding among the Crew and staff.

Two birds with one stone.

“Are we continuing?”

Attorney Oh asked in surprise.

“Of course we are.”

The Chairman’s look said he’d just heard the dumbest thing.

“But, Chairman. We caught the rats....”

“That’s that. There are still six runners left.”

Sheltering under an umbrella from the downpour, Attorney Oh wanted to get back to the warm indoors.

They had sounded the siren, blasted the lights, and even released the rats’ identities, claiming the rats had been caught. They’d enjoyed the festival in their way; he’d thought they would finally head inside.

He had believed the real event would happen indoors.

Unlike Attorney Oh, who pictured revealing the betrayer in a tea-and-cakes setting to reassure all the Guests, the Chairman had had no such intention from the start.

It looked like he meant to do it outside. In this rain.

It was the kind of weather that made destroying evidence easy.

He’d never thought they would keep the betrayer alive, but he hadn’t expected they’d take care of it this immediately.

If you get on this old man’s bad side, you’re fucked—though he’d done nothing wrong, Attorney Oh’s knees went weak.

After four meetings that had made the Chairman feel like a friendly grandpa, Attorney Oh wondered if that had been a dream.

“How many are left?”

“Six remain, Chairman.”

Security Captain Choi Sucheol answered the Chairman’s question at once.

Still as many as six left.

Continuing the game in this weather and the runners still hiding—six of one, half a dozen of the other.

Stifling a sigh by sheer will, Attorney Oh tried hard not to show fear.

Then the Chairman’s gaze swung to Attorney Oh.

“Counselor Oh, time for you to show what you can do. How long are you going to stick at my side?”

The voice was full of humor, but the words had barbs.

“I’ve been itching for some exercise anyway.”

Forcing a smile, Attorney Oh answered stoutly.

He regretted, too late, that he’d stayed on purpose to look good to the Chairman.

He had never been more jealous of the three Guests who had nabbed ten runners right after the game started and disappeared with them.

He himself had originally come to fuck to his fill. Tch.

Attorney Oh slowly looked around.

Counting the Chairman and himself, five seekers remained.

And among those five, of all things, was the betrayer.

A shiver ran through him.

“Eat before you head out.”

Saying so, the Chairman bit into a chocolate bar.

As if waiting, Attorney Oh’s bodyguard held out a chocolate bar.

He wanted something like instant noodles instead of this, but hunger makes anything taste good, and even though he didn’t like chocolate, it melted on his tongue.

His gloomy mood lifted a little.

“The moment the whistle sounds, Counselor Oh, you move with your bodyguards.”

“Yes, Chairman!”

“I’ll be watching to see how good you are.”

Saying this, the Chairman clamped a hand on Attorney Oh’s shoulder.

Shorter than the Chairman, Attorney Oh shrank at the vise-grip on his shoulder.

Got myself in the wrong mess.

The thought kept flickering.

He believed he’d provided truly great information. Thanks to it he’d caught the Chairman’s eye, gotten close enough to hatch a plan with him one on one, and even been invited as a special Guest.

He naturally believed he would be treated special.

But contrary to expectations, all he’d done was tag along at the Chairman’s side playing a childish game. He’d been tramping around in the rain for three hours.

This isn’t it.... Something’s wrong.

Suddenly the lackey’s face popped into his head.

What if I’m the one who bit the bait that bastard threw?

Not the Chairman. Me.

The whistle blew.